Growing up in Tel Aviv I have had little positive experience with “the” haredi community and the animosity I felt directed at my secular lifestyle and upbringing was all too palpable. However, once we moved to a sleepy town in the SF Bay Area with seemingly tiny Jewish community, that my biases were quickly dismantled. We’ve since had the privilege of growing our community, helping create and participate in a Chabad house, a Hebrew school, and dozens of holidays and relationships that made this town home. It’s become a refuge from some of the less welcoming communities of the Bay Area and we are so lucky to be a part of it.
Your d'rash this week is especially meaningful to me. As mother of twin sons with extraordinary challenges who are also both extraordinary, I grew up in a wonderfully intellectual but assimilating family. The fragmentation of family and community has been palpable for us for many reasons and I have long sensed how gutted American culture is from the most basic, most illuminating values that Chabad passionately seeks to activate every moment. What a beautiful tribute to the murdered shaliach. Thank you for illuminating all of this for me.
A beautiful interpretation and drash. This was my bar mitzvah portion and each year, over the past 48 years, I look to take something new from it. Thank you for being my teacher and friend to loosely quote Pirke Avot. Happy Thanksgiving and an early Shabbat shalom
"But who knows how many Jews have been lost because no one showed them this kind of love? And who knows how many have returned, carried by the love the Rebbe preached?"
This is something I think about a lot nowadays. How many Jews have drifted away entirely, no longer calling themselves Jews even, because they did not feel the unconditional love Judaism is supposed to have? Or those who simply in circumstances where Jewish sources, the Jewish community, were not available to them? It's one of the reasons I love Chabad (though I wouldn't call myself Chabad)
Without my Chabad rabbi, I doubt I would be as religious or involved with the larger Jewish community as I am becoming now.
Growing up in Tel Aviv I have had little positive experience with “the” haredi community and the animosity I felt directed at my secular lifestyle and upbringing was all too palpable. However, once we moved to a sleepy town in the SF Bay Area with seemingly tiny Jewish community, that my biases were quickly dismantled. We’ve since had the privilege of growing our community, helping create and participate in a Chabad house, a Hebrew school, and dozens of holidays and relationships that made this town home. It’s become a refuge from some of the less welcoming communities of the Bay Area and we are so lucky to be a part of it.
This is beautiful - hope to visit the community one day! Shabbat Shalom!
Your d'rash this week is especially meaningful to me. As mother of twin sons with extraordinary challenges who are also both extraordinary, I grew up in a wonderfully intellectual but assimilating family. The fragmentation of family and community has been palpable for us for many reasons and I have long sensed how gutted American culture is from the most basic, most illuminating values that Chabad passionately seeks to activate every moment. What a beautiful tribute to the murdered shaliach. Thank you for illuminating all of this for me.
Learning this parasha as the parent of twins with their own strenghts and challenges must really give a powerful perspective! Shabbat Shalom -
A beautiful interpretation and drash. This was my bar mitzvah portion and each year, over the past 48 years, I look to take something new from it. Thank you for being my teacher and friend to loosely quote Pirke Avot. Happy Thanksgiving and an early Shabbat shalom
Thanks, Todd - happy birthday?
"But who knows how many Jews have been lost because no one showed them this kind of love? And who knows how many have returned, carried by the love the Rebbe preached?"
This is something I think about a lot nowadays. How many Jews have drifted away entirely, no longer calling themselves Jews even, because they did not feel the unconditional love Judaism is supposed to have? Or those who simply in circumstances where Jewish sources, the Jewish community, were not available to them? It's one of the reasons I love Chabad (though I wouldn't call myself Chabad)
Without my Chabad rabbi, I doubt I would be as religious or involved with the larger Jewish community as I am becoming now.
Love Chabad's unconditional love