Rabbi YY Jacobson
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Dedicated to our young struggling boys and girls
A lecture by Rabbi YY Jacobson presented at an Amudim Awareness Event in Forest Hill, Queens, NY, on March 4, 2017. This event was held in response to many recent cases of overdose and suicide in the Jewish community. This is a sharp speech about confronting the crisis of youths losing their lives to addiction and despair, and the layers of deceptions and lies that allow the crisis to fester.
Rabbi YY Jacobson
Dedicated to our young struggling boys and girls
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shaya -3 years ago
I recently watched a speech you gave in Amudim, about loving your child as he is, you said a poignant story about the soldier that returned from veitnam , without a leg and arm etc.
It reminded me of an amazing idea I once heard from Rabbi Avrum M . Malach.
We see by Hagar and her son Ishmael, when they were chased out of Abraham house upon Sarah's request, we see Hagar had no water to drink and almost given up, until an angel appeared before her And comforted her. We see among the things the angel to her, was her sons destiny, וידו בכל ויד כל בו. והוא יהיה פרא אדם וכו'Looking into these verses it is amazing how the angel tells her about how son will grow up to be a wild animal hated by all, is that a blessing?
That's what the angel blessed her with?
The answer is : yes
Sometimes the greatest blessing is when you have zero expectations from a child, then you are satisfied with every little accomplishment. You really appreciate whatever the child does.
Hager got the greatest blessing from the angel,, from now on she can cherish her child , as is,, without any expectations.
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Tzvi -4 years ago
Very true
Kol machlokes sehe lesham shamayim sofah lhiskayem -i heard a vort :any mahlokes that u say it is "lesham shamayim!" Then it dosent end...
Thank you
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Josh -5 years ago
Rabbi Jacobson. I recently came across your video on YouTube on toxic religiosity, when you were giving a lecture and some Bucharian event in Queens. I have to say that your message really hit home with me. I myself grew up in the Chareidi community in the five towns. I recently been ostracized by the entire community for nonconforming. There’s a lot more to my story. In fact one of the reasons I’m sending you this message, is because I’m a single dad, and my nine-year-old daughter, who I’m very close with, suggested it. And yes, I’ve been listening to her since the day she was born. And she knows it, and appreciates it.
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Sara Tal -2 years ago
You have to tell me more about this! I'm in shock, because the community is supposed to be friendly and diverse. I happen to have a friend from my yeshiva in monsey and some relatives who live there. You might like monsey, they are supposed to be more laid back. Maybe you will like Lakewood. I happen to live there. They are also more conformitive, but very different from the 5 towns
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Sara Tal -2 years ago
There are also a lot of young families in far Rockaway as well. When you have families in the same age group living together, it can cause some conformity too.
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noach -7 years ago
This is a poem by Noah Lubin. (http://hevria.com/noahlubin...
Do you know the convert down the block
the one who traded heaven with Jesus
for Hell
with you and me in Brooklyn?
I saw him in the Mikva yesterday
renewing his promise.
I waded nearby like a still rubber duck.
We were both naked.
Looking down into the water,
I remembered that my covenant was made when I was a child,
unconscious,
half drunk.
His was cut while he was grown
and hairy, like Esau
wide awake.
I wondered,
was he only chasing after the blessing
that Jacob stole?
I mean, what was it he wanted
down here,
with you and me, in Brooklyn?
Do you know the convert down the block,
the one who traded easy nights with girls
for study books in our grandfather’s synagogue?
I saw him outside the bakery last week
buying two Sabbath challahs
like the two pieces of “maan”
collected in the desert on our way out of Egypt.
One was for himself, the other for God.
(Who else to share with when you eat alone?)
I stood there holding whiskey,
all for me
none for God.
We both stared off into the cloudy sky,
our beards dangling.
His, the hanging grapevines of Eden,
mine like the hanging gardens of Babylon
or perhaps wool
taken from a sheep,
like that taken for Jacob’s arm
when he tricked his father.
I stood there thinking,
empty like a broken Sukkah booth.
I couldn’t help but ponder, what was it he wanted
down here with you and me in Brooklyn?
When I see him, this convert,
he reminds me of all my boyish fantasies,
the ones I never gave up:
my jealousy
the shopping malls I could have roamed
on the Sabbath,
the fictional “shiksas” I never had,
all the things I would trade my birthright for,
like Esau,
at some darker hour.
I was even curious of the “non judgmental” loving heaven with Jesus
that I could have earned through only one mitzva
instead of 613.
When I see this convert,
he reminds me of everything I never became,
an Adam from the earth’s dust,
an Abraham from an idolatrous homeland,
an Isaac who conceded as a grown man
to God’s command,
wide awake.
In the mikvah, he reminds me
that I keep float as a rubber duck
with a long yellow beard
quacking empty blessings like a NY taxi horn.
But, what I’m reminded of most from this orphan, this widow, this stranger,
is that blessing ,
down here with you and me in Brooklyn,
never comes easy,
And every Rosh Hashana I pray that God takes me out of Ur Kasdim.
Every Pesach I pray
that I’m taken from my own Egypt
and I pray that he rebuilds me like Adam from the earth
a new creation.
But this year specifically,
I pray that God,
in his infinite and shapeless mercy,
makes me a convert, a stranger
so that I,
with a broken heart
like Esau,
can chase after my father’s blessing
wide awake.
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GG -7 years ago
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Yael bat Sarah Imanu -7 years ago
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MM -7 years ago
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M hason -6 years ago
Wow.
This is such a powerful and beautiful poem. thank you SO MUCH for posting it.
Blown away.
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Mordechai Adler -7 years ago
הראש ישיבה שלי בבית מדרש לתורה במונסי, ר' שמואל אביגדור פייבלזון שליט"א, שה' ישלח לו רפו"ש במהרה, תמיד נהג לומר שלכל יצר הרע יש גבול, מי שיש לו יצר לדבר לשון הרע - לא יגנוב, לגנוב - לא ירצח, לרצוח - לא יעבוד ע"ז ואפילו מי שיש לו יצר הרע לעבוד ע"ז, לא ידבר לשון הרע. היוצא מן הכלל הוא ה"יצר הרע לשם שמים". לשם שמים אפשר לדבר לשון הרע, לגנוב, לרצוח, לנאוף ואפילו לעבוד עבודה זרה.
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