Wednesday, 13 January 2016

Teaching Children Emunahs Hashem


Thought of the day......

How does a young child 
learn Emunah in Hashem ?

WHEN CHILDREN OBSERVE ADULTS 
MAKING A BRACHA WITH CONCENTRATION, 
AS THOUGH THEY ARE SPEAKING 
TO AN INVISIBLE ENTITY, 
THEY LEARN THAT HASHEM 
IS REAL AND REACHABLE 
EVEN IF WE CAN'T SEE HIM.
 

Farbrengen: Where is David from Georgia?

Changing The World



Tuesday, 12 January 2016

Hipster or Hasidic?

Dating. By Rabbi Manis Friedman

How to Date the Jewish Way: Don’t Marry a Man or a Woman. Marry a Husband or a Wife.

Are you looking for a man to marry?

I advise you not to.

You see, men don’t really make good husbands.

Men have opinions. And any man you marry will have his own set of wants and needs. He’ll have own plans. His own schtick. But you yourself already have your own opinions. Your own wants and needs. Your own schtick.

See the problem?

In other words, you’re asking for trouble. For a marriage to work, you need to find a husband. Not a man. And you need to be a wife. Not a woman. There is a profound difference.

Today, we’re inundated with unhealthy messages about relationships from the outside world. So much so that even the most pious of Jews can fall prey to foreign points of view. As a result, most of us wish to meet a man or a woman whom we like and then make this person our spouse. However, this is the product of assimilated thinking. It’s not Jewish.

The reason it doesn’t work is because you can’t take a “man” and turn him into a husband. Neither can you transform a “woman” into wife.

A marriage can only work when each partner is fully committed to the other. A man or a woman makes his or her own needs primary. ‘What’s in it for me?’ Therefore, since no two people can agree on everything, men and women clash. And when they don’t feel they are getting what each of them wanted, they separate.

But a husband or a wife makes the needs of his or her spouse primary. The focus is not on meeting selfish wants and needs. Rather, the goal of a husband and wife is to strengthen their bond through selfless acts of giving and devoted service to one another.

In the old days, people valued the duties and responsibilities that come with marriage. It was understood that a good marriage requires sacrifice. Today, this idea is far less intuitive for most people.

It’s time we regain our focus. You 

Monday, 11 January 2016

Rebbe Singing Ani Mamin

http://youtu.be/GWRErwRLvqU

Birthright Speech Awesome!

https://www.facebook.com/1663967367/videos/10207054773962131/

Warm story......You Never Know

I'm sure you get those emails as well. Usually it's from some non-jewish religion student, asking if they can interview you for their course about Judaism's view about G-d-knows-what. In our busy schedules we often brush them off or ignore the emails all together.


Early on in our Shlichus, my wife and I decided that no matter how busy life gets we would take the time for those one-off encounters, random emails and facebook messages.


About 3 years ago, I got a call from a 7th grader. He explained that his teacher asked him to interview a religious leader about the traditions of marriage in their religion. Even though he was not Jewish he had chosen to explore Judaism's view on marriage and asked if he can come interview me.


We scheduled an appointment and a few days later he came to my office together with his nanny, who had driven him to see me. For an hour or so, he drilled me with the questions he had been given by his teacher, and some of his own as well. Quite a serious kid, so much so that this encounter stands out in my mind. The nanny said but 2 words - she just sat in the back of the room, minding her own business. They bid farewell and I thought nothing of this encounter.


Today, a frum-looking woman walked into the Chabad house during davening. She sat quietly in the last row. During kiddush she told some of the women that three years ago, she was a nanny for about 3 months. One day, she had brought a 12 year old boy to ask me questions for a school project. She sat quietly, listening to our conversation about Jewish marriage. At the time, she was living with a non-jew and as a result of that random encounter she left him and began her path back to Judaism.



Never forget the power of a random encounter, email or call. There is someone on the other end reaching out to you in their time of need, sometimes its Hashem reaching out to them and you are just the shliach!


A gut voch!
Yisroel barnath
That's who it happened to

Toby Lieder

Thursday, 7 January 2016

I Want A Boy Who Is Learning!


I want a boy who is LEARNING....

Learning from his mistakes....
Learning from the mistakes of others....
Learning how to give without expecting anything in return....
Learning how to forgive others for their shortcomings....
Learning how to find true אמת in a world brimming with שקר....
Learning how to take no for an answer....
Learning how to accept the will of השם when life gets stormy....
Learning how to utilize the tools השם gave him to become a better עבד השם ....
Learning how to find good in the frustrating nuances that happen throughout his day....
Learning how to grow and become A BETTER HIM.

I want a boy who is WORKING....
Working towards a greater goal....
Working on his מדות a little bit more each day....
Working on strengthening his relationships with his rebbeim....
Working on improving his relationships with his family and friends....
Working on deepening his connection to הקב"ה daily....
Working on giving life all he's got....
Working on thanking השם for all the little things in life....
Working on finding השגחת השם in everything that happens to him throughout his day....
Working to overcome his natural negative tendencies....
Working on bringing משיח a little bit closer every day....
Working on growing and becoming A BETTER HIM.
THIS is the person I want to marry.

Just learning? Only working?! Forget that idea! I want BOTH.

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