Yom Kippur 5780

Rabbi YY Jacobson

• September 23, 2019
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• 23 Elul 5779
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  Yom Kippur Insights

  14 Inspirational Tidbits for Davening

  Rabbi YY Jacobson

  • September 23, 2019

  Index

  1. The Most Successful Fundraising Event in American Jewish History

  2. How Could G-d Allow Suffering? Eli Wiesel’s Yom Kippur Dilemma

  3. Churchill’s Definition of Success

  4. The Spy Eli Cohen’s Marriage

  5. How Did the Dead Sea Become Dead?

  6. The Rock, Pebbles, Sand and Water

  7. A Tale of Two Investments

  8. The Nazi Is Smoking; the Jew Keeps Shabbos

  9. Bill Gates & the Shabbos

  10. One Kind Deed Changes History

  11. Why Do We Confess Sins with Song?

  12. The Soul of a Miser

  13. The Deaf Frog

  14. An assortment of hilarious jokes

   

   

  1. The Most Successful Fundraising Event in American Jewish History

  I have a confession to make: I do not like fasting. Certainly not for 24 hours. Certainly not when I need to give sermons and lead a congregation.

  Why do we fast on Yom Kippur? Why can’t we just talk about all the good stuff we discuss on YK, over a nicely set table with a delicious meal? Why can’t we talk of forgiveness, introspection, renewal, with a full stomach?

  I discovered the answer recently when I saw a strange picture—taken in Chicago, in 1921.

  The Chicago Event

  Do you know what was the most successful fundraising event in the history of the American Jewish community, and arguably the greatest Fundraising Campaign ever in Jewish History?

  Here, look at this picture. (In the PDF version of the insights, we inserted the photo at the end of this insight, so you can print it out and show to your audience).[1]

  What’s going on in this photo? A bunch of Jews sitting around candle lit tables, doing what?

  Well, Gil Weissblei, a Jewish archivist, came across this photo in in the collections of the US National Library, but could not figure out what it was. The only information was the name of the photographer and the city, “Kaufman & Fabry Co., Chicago,” visible in the photograph’s lower right corner, and underneath it, a six digit number separated by a hyphen: 21-6591, which means 1921 (the other four digits are the running number of the negatives for that year.

  The puzzle was solved after Gil came across a book “The Jews of Chicago: From Shtetl to Suburb.” He read a story there, and immediately knew this was the picture of that story. Jacob Loeb, one of the Chicago community’s Jewish leaders, was perturbed by the horrific state of Jews in Eastern Europe following World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Persecution, pogroms and wars were the fate of our brothers and sisters there. Jacob dreamt of holding an extraordinary fund-raiser that would collect millions of dollars, in 1921, for the Jews in Eastern Europe.

  How do you do it? How do you inspire the crowd to give?

  He understood what was needed were not words or slogans, but a physical experience.

  So Jacob Loeb organized a gala dinner to which the crème de la crème of Illinois Jewish society, including Chicago’s greatest industrialists and businessmen, were invited. On the evening of December 7, 1921, eight hundred men dressed in their Sunday best, gathered at the luxurious Drake Hotel in Chicago for what they were certain would be an exclusive social event at the center of which would be a lavish and grand banquet. They all came hungry, as Jews come to gala dinners on Sunday evenings…

  The guests were in for a surprise.

  As the last of them entered the hotel ballroom, the doors were locked. Jacob Loeb stepped up to the podium and began speaking: “For so many to dine in this place would mean an expenditure of thirty-five hundred dollars (that’s 1921; today it would be $50,000), which would be unwarrantable extravagance and in the face of starving Europe, a wasteful crime. Thirty-five hundred dollars will help to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and heal the sick. What right have we to spend on ourselves funds which we want to collect for them? So that this money might be saved for them, you are brought here to this foodless banquet.”

  The astonished guests suddenly noticed that the tables, with the exception of the long slender candles, were indeed bare. Not a single fruit, vegetable, dip, or piece of bread was available. The poor Jews were left starving at a dinner. Without even a glass of water.

  Their bewilderment was captured by the flash of Kaufman and Fabry’s camera, and recorded in the photograph commemorating this unique event, which you see here.

  The result? Checkbooks were opened for the Relief of Jewish War Sufferers Fund like never before. The money was flowing. That night the wealthy businessman Julius Rosenwald exceeded all others with a donation of one million dollars (this is 1921; today it would be like 15-million-dollar contribution, donated by one person at a dinner! Not too bad…). This was an unprecedented sum, even for a philanthropist like Rosenwald, who later went on to establish the renowned Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. (Word of the huge donation reached US President Woodrow Wilson. The president immediately sent a telegram to Rosenwald thanking him for his generosity and for serving the American values of democracy and humanism.)

  The fact remains: The success of the fundraising at the foodless banquet at the Drake Hotel in Chicago, was never duplicated.

  Why? Because the dinner was not about words, slogans, speeches and videos. It was about experience. They all came in hungry, and they remained hungry for the night! Their stomachs spoke, more than mouths can. It allowed them to experience, if only a sliver, of the suffering of their brethren who were starving back in Europe. It made the experience real, tangible, concrete. They did not speak of starvation; they experienced it with their body.

  It explains to me why we fast on Yom Kippur. There is something about experiencing my mortality, my physicality, my agony when I don’t take a bite for few hours, that can help me really internalize the message of Yom Kippur—the message of how small I am, and how great I can become.

  

   

   

  2. How Could G-d Allow Suffering? Eli Wiesel’s Yom Kippur Dilemma

  In our liturgy, there are two expressions concerning G-d, “Av Harhachaman,” the compassionate father (which we say every morning before the Shema), and “Av Harachamim,” the father of compassion (which we recite after Yizkor, and on Shabbos before Musaf).

  When we speak of those who passed on, and of all our holy brothers and sisters who died because they were Jewish, following Yizkor, we begin the prayer with the term “Av Harachamim, Shochen Meromim, Hu Yifkod…” Not with Av Harachaman, but with Av Harachamim. Why?

  All of us are bothered by the immortal question: How can we call G-d compassionate when He allows so much suffering in His world? Where is He when the good suffer? Where was He by the six million?

  Seventy-five years ago, as Yom Kippur approached, the Jewish inmates of Auschwitz-Birkenau debated whether or not to fast. They were, after all, starving — each of them hovering close to death.

  Among the inmates was a teenager called Elie Wiesel, just three days shy of his 16th birthday. He would later write of the debate he witnessed that day in Auschwitz.

  “The question was hotly debated… in this place, we were always fasting — it was Yom Kippur all year round. But there were those who said we should fast anyway, precisely because it was so dangerous to do so. They said that we needed to show G-d that even here, locked up in hell, we were capable of singing His praises.”

  What I find most striking about this passage by Wiesel is the purity of faith that it communicates — starving men debating about fasting on Yom Kippur as if their life or death depended on the outcome of the discussion, while in real life they were dying from starvation in the pit of Hell.

  Wiesel tells us that he did not fast that Yom Kippur. His father, Elisha Wiesel, who still lingered to life, forbade him from doing so.

  But there was another reason, as he later recalled. He ate on that Yom Kippur as “a symbol of rebellion, of protest against G-d.” For the young teenager, eating that Yom Kippur was not an act of denial, rather it was an act of faith.

  The only thing we can say about this is that G-d is “the father of compassion.”

  The distinction between Av Harachaman and Av Harachamim is profound.[2] The compassionate father defines G-d as a compassionate being, as we would expect from a loving and merciful father. The father of compassion denotes that G-d is the author and creator of the very attribute of compassion, which means that He transcends any definition of compassion we can relate to and we can grasp, as He created it. His compassion is not similar to ours: It is infinite, and beyond any human description and understanding.

  Since He is the one who created the very qualities of compassion and mercy, everything we know of compassion will never allow us to truly grasp Divine compassion which transcends our minds and hearts infinitely. G-d sometimes manifests Himself not as “the compassionate father,” but as “the father of compassion,” the One who created compassion in the first place and is therefore not defined by our perimeters of this quality. The desk I build does not grasp me, and the brain G-d designed does not understand Him.

  Does this explain anything? Not really. It just tells me, that I have to be able to find some solace in not having an explanation. I can find comfort in saying that I do not know; in realizing that I can’t wrap my brain around many of the mysteries of life. It is where faith come in.

   

   

  3. Churchill’s Definition of Success

  Winston Churchill once said:

  “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

  “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

  This captures much of the energy of Yom Kippur. We are human. We fail. We make mistakes. Sometimes, big ones. The key is never to resign. But rather, to rise up again, and continue living and loving fully.

  Rabbi Jonathan Sacks tells the story of Professor Reuven Feuerstein who died aged 92 in April 2014 and was one of the great child psychologists of the world, a man who transformed lives and led severely brain-damaged children to achievements no one else thought possible.

  Feuerstein had been working with a group of Native American Indians and they wanted to show their gratitude. So they invited him and his wife to their reservation. They were brought into the Indian chief’s wigwam where the leaders of the tribe were sitting in a circle in full headdress.

  As the traditional welcome ceremony began, the professor, an orthodox Jew from Jerusalem, was overwhelmed by the incongruity. He turned to his wife and said to her in Yiddish, “What would my mother say if she could see me now?!” To his amazement, the Indian chief turned to him and replied in Yiddish: “And what would she say if she knew I understood what you just said!”

  The Yiddish-speaking Indian chief told Feuerstein his story. He had grown up in Europe as a religious Jew, but having survived the horrors of the Holocaust, he decided that he wanted to spend the rest of his life as far away as he could from Western civilization, so he joined the Indians and became their doctor. Feuerstein was the first Jew he had met in his self-imposed exile.

  There are certain people around whom strange things happen and Reuven Feuerstein was one. Born in Romania, he studied psychology in Bucharest, but was forced to flee by the Nazi invasion. He settled in Israel after the war and began by treating traumatized child survivors of the holocaust. Returning to Europe he completed his education at Geneva and the Sorbonne. Later he returned to Israel where he established the Institute for the Enhancement of Learning Potential.

  He dedicated his life to children with disadvantages, some physical – autistic, brain-damaged and Down Syndrome children – and others cultural or social. His methods have been adopted in more than 80 countries. He was a genius, a magician, a small, slight man with twinkling eyes. Children opened up to him like flowers in the sun.

  What was his magic? First, the basis of his work was love. He loved the children and they loved him. Second, he had transformative faith. Under him children developed skills no one thought they could because he believed they could. He had more faith in them than anyone else.

  Third, he refused to write anyone off. He insisted that children with disabilities should be included in society like every other child. They too were in the image of G-d. They too had a right to respect. They too could lead a full and meaningful life.

  I learned from Professor Feuerstein that faith really does change lives. The one thing that can rescue us from despair and failure to fulfil our potential is the knowledge that someone believes in us more than we believe in ourselves.

  That is what G-d does. He believes in us more than we believe in ourselves. However many times we fail, He forgives us. However many times we fall, He lifts us. And He never gives up. As we say in Le-David Hashem ori ve-yishi: “My father and mother might abandon me, but God will gather me in.” (Psalm 27: 10).

  At the heart of Judaism is one utterly transformative belief: our faith in G-d’s faith in us. That, as Reuven Feuerstein, showed can lead us to a greatness we never knew we had.

  4. The Spy Eli Cohen’s Marriage

  There is a lot of hype surrounding the new series hat depicts the life story of the greatest Israeli spy, Eli Cohen.

  What this single man did for Israel is remarkable. Countless Jewish lives were saved because of this man, who served as a spy in Syria from 1961 till 1965, when he was caught and hung in the public square in Damascus.

  One potentially overlooked aspect of the life of a spy is the effect it has on the marriage of the couple. Eli and his wife, Nadia, were married and very much in love. However, when Eli became a spy, neither was present in the other’s life. It was top secret, and even his wife did not know where he is and what he is doing.

  Yet, while Eli was not physically present, it is obvious that they were both constantly thinking of each other. They ate the same foods, they dreamt about each other, but were not able to spend time with each other. They are each unaware of how much they are connected, although the bond is very real. As far as Nadia is concerned, her husband is not present at all. Her friends tell her that he just doesn’t care, not even coming home to see their newborn child. Little did anybody know how connected they were.

  And till today, Eli’s widow is begging for Syria to return his body. After all these years she does not cease her plies, still unsuccessful.

  One of the most moving sculptures in Israel is in the Golan, in the place where Eli once lived and spied, liberated by Israel in 1967. It is a sculpture of his wife and his babies with stretched out hands, saying: Eli, Mechakim Lecha. Eli, we await you.

  I sometimes feel that this reflects our “marriage” with G-d. We have a very strong bond with G-d, for sure. Our visits with Him might be sporadic, or at times very regular. There are times when we mimic His ways, even if we don’t really know it. As the Midrashic saying goes, “A Jew is full of Mitzvot like a pomegranate is full of seeds.” There are times we may feel He is not here for us (G-d forbid). But really the bond is very profound.

  And even after 2000 years in exile, we await Him, and we await redemption.

  However, the question that we could be asking ourselves is what kind of marriage do we want to have with G-d? Is there a reason for us to live the life of a spy who has no choice but to live such a challenging lifestyle? If we were living in Syria today, we too – perhaps – would have to hide our relationship with G-d. But we live in a free country, in a land that not only permits us to live as Jews but allows us the freedom to practice our religion in public. There is no reason for us to “hide” our feelings for G-d. It is more than OK for us to demonstrate our love in our marriage with G-d openly, and not be ashamed to express it in public.

  Our children should not be asking us: What does it mean to be a Jew? They should experience the glory and splendor of Jewish life daily.

   

  5. How Did the Dead Sea Become Dead?

  מכלכל חיים בחסד... ותשובה ותפלה וצדקה...

  הלא פרוס לרעב לחמך (מפטיר יום הכפורים).

  An old Jewish grandfather was taking care of his two young grandchildren. One of the children asked him how old his grandfather and grandmother were. The grandfather looked at his grandson and sighed: "We're so old that when we were your age, the Dead Sea was only sick."

  There is a fascinating feature of the geography of the land of Israel. It contains two seas: The Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee, known as the Kineret, is a beautiful lake, full of life, with many plants and at least 30 types of marine life. It is resplendent with rich, colorful fish. The Dead Sea, as its name implies, is not. The water so salty that it is impossible for anything to live or grow in the Dead Sea. It is 35% salt – almost 10 times normal ocean water. Because of all that saltiness there are no fish, No vegetation, and no sea animals. Nothing lives in the Dead sea. Hence the name: Dead Sea.

  Yet here is the enigma: They are fed by the same river, the Jordan. So why are they so different?

  The difference is that the Sea of Galilee receives water and gives water. The Jordan River flows from the north into the Sea of Galilee and then flows out. The water simply passes through and continues out the other end – and that keeps the Sea healthy and vibrant, teeming with marine life.

  The Dead Sea receives but does not give. Since it lowest point on planet Earth (396 meters below sea level), water flows into the Dead Sea, but no water ever flows out. It has no outlet from where to let out the water. It is estimated that over 7 million tons of water evaporate from the Dead Sea every day. Leaving it too salty and too full of minerals to allow for any marine life. This inability to "give" is why it's called the Dead Sea.

  To receive but not to give is, in Jewish geography as well as Jewish psychology, simply not life.

   

   

  6. The Rock, Pebbles, Sand and Water

  למנות ימינו כן הודע ונביב לבב חכמה... (שחרית, יום הכיפורים)

  A philosophy professor once stood up before his class with a large empty mayonnaise jar. He filled the jar to the top with large rocks and asked his students if the jar was full.

  The students said that yes, the jar was indeed full.

  Are you sure?

  Yes, they said.

  He then added small pebbles to the jar, and gave the jar a bit of a shake so the pebbles could disperse themselves among the larger rocks. Then he asked again, “Is the jar full now?”

  The students said that now at last the jar was full.

  Sure?

  Yes, for sure.

  The professor then poured sand into the jar to fill up any remaining empty space. The students, blushing, then agreed that now the jar was completely full.

  The professor took out a pitcher of water, and proceeded to fill the jar with water…

  Now, they all agreed, the jar was full.

  What’s the lesson? He asked them. They answered: There is always more space, to put in something else, even if you think it is full…

  (It’s like at a Jewish meal. You say you are full, and you are; but there is always room for desert… or for another piece of kugel.)

  The teacher went on to explain a deeper lesson: In life, put in first the big stuff, so that you have place afterward for the small stuff.

  The jar represents everything that is in one's life. The rocks are equivalent to the most important projects and things you have going on, such as your spiritual core, spending time with your spouse, children and family, maintaining proper health. This means that if the pebbles and the sand were lost, the jar would still be full, and your life would still have meaning.

  The pebbles represent the things in your life that matter, but are transient (such as your job, house, hobbies). Then, there is the sand and the water, representing the remaining filler things in your life, and material possessions.

  If you start with putting pebbles, water and sand into the jar, you will not have room for rocks. If you spend all your time on the small and insignificant things, you will run out of room for the things that are important and vital.

  First and foremost, pay attention to the "rocks," because they are critical to your long-term well-being. Pay close attention to your health. Spend time with your family. Develop a strong relationship with G-d. Invest in your children. Strengthen your soul and contribute to your community. Then you will have space for the small stuff.

  I recommended to one of our members recently that he should join a gym as I see he’s becoming little overweight and it was worrying me.

  You know what he says to me: Rabbi, what do I need to join a gym….these days many people get their exercise by:
  jumping to conclusions,
  dodging responsibilities,
  bending the rules,
  running down everything,
  circulating rumors,
  passing the buck,
  stirring up trouble,
  digging up dirt,
  slinging mud,
  throwing their weight around,
  beating the system,
  and pushing their luck….
  You tell me…..Who needs to exercise!!!

   

   

  7. A Tale of Two Investments

  אדם יסודו מעפר וסופו לעפר... כאבק פורח וכחלום יעוף. ואתה הוא מלך א-ל חי וקיים...

  I want to share with you a story about two investments, which were made some 120 years ago, which I still think about today.

  When Theodore Herzl, the funder of the Zionist Movement, died in 1904, the Zionist movement invested 3 million dollars in 4% thirty-year bonds of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Remember: This is 3 million in 1904, which would be today around 65 million!

  The bonds were supposed to support Herzl’s family for life, and much would remain for the Zionist Movement. Ten years later, with the outbreak of World War I and the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the bonds were worthless. What originally appeared to be an unbelievable gift became a futile curse.

  But let me tell you about another investment.

  At the same time, in the early 1900’s, a Russian Jew named Wissotzky owned the tea concession for the Czar’s military operation. The Czar at the time was Nicholas the second, from the Romonov dynasty, one of the richest families on the planet. Since the Czar’s army numbered in the millions and tea drinking was a daily Russian custom, Wissotzky became very wealthy.

  One day, Wissotzky was approached by the World Zionist Organization to invest his tea business in the Land of Israel, then called Palestine. Wissotzky laughed at the idea. The Turks, who ruled the Land of Israel at the time, were difficult to deal with. They were still in the Dark Ages, and hindered visionary business ventures. Plus the Land of Israel couldn’t produce its own tea and tea leaves from India were too costly to import.

  But the Jewish activists assured him that they would solve all of his problems. They would deal with the Turks and convince them to allow for a successful business venture. They were so persuasive that he sent them enough money to start a small tea business.

  In 1917 the Czar was dethroned. He and his entire family were murdered by the Bolsheviks—as Russia was plunged into Civil War, resulting in the complete victory of the Red Communists, under Lenin, Trotzky, and Stalin.

  The Communists seized Wissotzky’s tea business. Overnight, he owned nothing. The only asset he owned was a small company in the Land of Israel. He fled there and rebuilt his business. Today, his Israeli company still sells tea under the Wissotzky label. It is one of the most famous an successful tea producing companies to this very day.

  What appeared to be a foolhardy endeavor, became a blessing and cornerstone of rebuilding for Wissotky.

  The lesson: You have to know where to invest your energy, resources, time, and imagination. What seems so promising today, may turn out to be futile tomorrow.

  Invest in eternity. Invest in Yiddishkeit. Invest in the Jewish education of your children and grandchildren. Invest in your spiritual growth. Invest in your marital happiness. Invest in building a Jewish home. Invest in charity and building Judaism. Invest in that which will never falter nor perish. Forever.

   

   

  8. The Nazi Is Smoking; the Jew Keeps Shabbos

  נשמה שנתת בי טהורה היא... עד יום מותו תחכה לו...

  A story:

  Shortly after the war, the Bobover Rebbe, Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam, who lost his family in the holocaust, settled in the West Side of Manhattan and began to rebuild the Chassidic dynasty of Bobov, almost completely destroyed with the extermination of the Jews of Galicia. In those early days he did not even have a minyan.

  One Friday night he went out to search for a tenth. He met a Jew and asked him if he can come in to join the prayer. The Jew, a secular Jew, himself a survivor of the fires of Hitler, agreed. He said he could even be the cantor. And so this Jew came regularly to serve as cantor in the minyan of the Chassidim of Bobov.

  After a few months, the shul grew, there was no need to search for a minyan any longer, and this Jew, Yankel, stopped coming.

  One Shabbos morning, the Bobever Rebbe asks his son, Reb Naftali, where is Yankel, this Jew who used to come? His son said, he does not know.

  “Go out to the street and see maybe he is around and invite him to shul to be our cantor.”

  Reb Naftali left the shul together with a friend to search for Yankel. Sure enough, nearby in a park, Yankel is sitting on a bench, reading the paper, and smoking a cigarette.

  They return to shul. The Bobver Rebbe asks them if they found him? “Yes, we did.” “Nu, did you invite him to be our cantor?!”

  “Rebbe,” they said, “he is smoking publically on Shabbos. He is violating the holy day of Shabbos. We just ignored him and moved on.”

  “No, no, he is not violating the Shabbos,” the Bobever Rebbe says.

  “We saw him”!

  “No, no. He is not smoking on Shabbos.”

  “We saw with our own eyes.”

  “No! No! He is not smoking on the Shabbos. It is the Nazi who is smoking on Shabbos!”

  “The Nazi is desecrating Shabbos, not the Jew! Go invite the holy Jew to shul.”

  What he meant, of course, was that as a result of his terrible experiencing during the war, he felt he could not keep Shabbos any more. The Jew in him was keeping Shabbos! It was the Nazi who was guilty for the desecration of Shabbos.

  30 years later, a Jew comes in to the Bobever Rebbe with a kippah on his head, inviting him to his son’s wedding. He introduces himself as Yankel who used to be the cantor in shul back in the 40’s in the West Side…

  The Bobever Rebbe, now an old man, embraced him and kissed him. He then turned to his son Reb Naftali and said: You see, I was right when I told you, that is was the Nazi violating the Shabbos, not the Jew!

  Recognizing Your Goodness

  The sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe once said: “Just as one must recognize shortcomings, so, too, one must recognize his own good qualities.”[3]

  "כשם שצריכים לידע את החסרונות, כמו כן צריכים לידע מעלות עצמו".

  His son in law, the Rebbe, always attentive to even to a nuance in his Rebbe’s words, once asked this question: Note that the emphasis of "his own" is used only when addressing the good qualities. When mentioning the shortcomings, however, only the word "shortcomings" is stated, not “his shortcomings.” Why?

  The reason is, said the Rebbe,[4] because in essence, mistakes and shortcomings are foreign to and don't belong to a Jew. They are not “his.” They do not belong to his essence. To the contrary, all of our sins and mistakes come from us not being aware of our essence!

  The only reason a Jew comes in contact with sin is that he has been charged with a mission to elevate this world; thus, inevitably he comes in contact with and is influenced by the darkness in the world. However, as many mistakes he or she makes, these aberrations are truly not his, but merely an extraneous matter that lingers on due to outside influences and environment. We must always be aware of our quintessential essence, which is as perfect and beautiful as can be.

   

   

  9. Bill Gates & the Shabbos

  שבת שבתון יהיה לכם...

  Kivi Bernard, a jeweler living in Atlanta, is an international motivational speaker. The author of the internationally acclaimed business book: “Leopardology - The Hunt For Profit In Tough Global Economy,” he is a frequent popular speaker for large corporate events. He is also an observant and Chassidic Jew.

  Some time ago Microsoft invited him to present a keynote address at their senior conference. This was a conference for senior executives from all over the world, and a major part of it focused on Bernard’s theories presented in his Leaopardology.

  Kivi looked at the date, and said he was sorry, but he would not be able to attend. You see the date they set for him was on the Shabbat, and the presentation would require the usage of electronic devices, power points, videos, mics, recordings, etc. all thing which he could not do on the Shabbat.

  A very senior Microsoft executive decided to resolve the issue quite simply by offering Bernhard almost double his speaking fee. He explained that the meeting had been set some year and half in advance and it could not be changed at this point.

  Kivi refused. He said he was sorry, he would not speak on the Shabbat.

  Microsoft was convinced that it was an issue of money, so they phoned back and offered him even more money. At some point they were ready to pay him an astronomical fee which would be a half a year salary for some of us. Tempting it was, but Kivi knew that was his test. This is where his Jewishness was being tested. This is where his integrity as a G-d fearing Jew was being challenged. This is where he stood at the end of a chain of 4000 years of ancestors who celebrated Shabbat, and he would have to make his own decision now.

  And he did.

  He explained to Mircosoft, that it did not have to do with money. He was not declining because he wanted more money; he was declining because G-d told the Jewish people to observe Shabbat, as one day which is beyond money, beyond career, beyond finances, beyond promotions. It was a day of intimacy with G-d, and with your loved ones.

  They phoned him back and said, that if that was the case, they would reschedule the entire conference to Sunday. He said that would work and the original price would work too.

  Indeed, the Sunday conference opened with a keynote address by Kivi Bernard.

  A few weeks later he gets a call. It was the same senior Microsoft executive who tried to negotiate with him. He told Kivi that subsequent to the conference he had an occasion to join Bill Gates on his private jet where this particular event came up for discussion. The Microsoft executive mentioned the unusual experience of having to reschedule the entire conference for Microsoft in order to accommodate "a Jew's observance of the Sabbath."

  Bill Gates remarked: I am a person who can buy anything I want. From any skyscraper to any company under the sun. There is nothing I can’t purchase for money. I can buy people. I can buy patents. I can buy talent. I can buy genius. But there are some things that money cannot buy. One of them is the Sabbath!... It is not up for sale.

  Kivi shared the story and said that it was Bill Gates who allowed this Chassidic Jew to grasp the value and preciousness of what he has done. Gates made him realize how meaningful his sacrifice really was. Bill Gates made him realize how rich he really was, when he owned something that money could not buy.

   

   

  10. One Kind Deed Changes History

  לתקן עולם במלכות שד"י...

  A story:

  Some time ago, the federal judge of Michigan who happened to hear a speech by Rabbi Berel Wein (at a Beis Yehuda dinner in Detroit) invited the rabbi to his home to continue the conversation. He also invited the publisher and owner of the Detroit Free News, the largest daily newspaper in Michigan, an Irish man. (Since then it went over to the hands of USA Today.)

  In middle of the conversation the Irish publisher asked the Rabbi if he was orthodox. When he said yes, the Irish man said: Let me tell about one and only one experience I had with an orthodox rabbi.

  Rabbi Wien became uncomfortable. He feared that he would be told one of those shameful stories you read about from time to time.

  And the Irish newspaper publisher begins to relate this story.

  There was a woman I knew. She was an Irish immigrant to the US, somewhere around 1947. She was poor, impoverished, and a widow. She had a little son. She moved to Detroit and was hired as a maid and house-keeper in the home of a rabbi in the city. They treated her with great respect, and so did she treat them with great reverence. As the family left on a family trip for a week, they offered her to stay in the home by herself with her little son. Off they went on the family trip, to return a week later, December 25th, 1947.

  That night, December 25, the rabbi returns to his home with his family in the car. He drives by his home. He sees trees, santas, lights, decorating his entire home. He realizes he must be on the wrong black, as this can’t be his house. What a coincidence! A house that looks just like his from the outside! He drives on. His wife says to him: you passed our home. He says: no, this can’t be our home. I must be on the wrong black. We got mixed up. And so he drives round and round searching for his home, to no avail.

  He finally goes back and he sees he is on the right black! The mystery intensifies. He goes back to the “Christian” home, gets out of the car, gives a closer look, and sure enough it’s his home!

  He is dumbfounded. How in the world did his home get so decorated for December 25th? 

  As he enters his home, his Irish maid, greets him and his wife. And she says: Yesterday, a day before you were supposed to return, I realized how horrified you might be when you return on December 25th to a non-decorated home! Your family would be devastated to realize that you are the only home without any trees, or lights, or santa, nada!

  So I will tell you what I did. I had only ten dollars left. My last money. I went out and bought whatever I can with $10 and spent the entire day decorating the home for the December 25th holiday. I am so sorry I could not do a better job, but this was all the money I got!

  The rabbi called her in to a private room and said to her:

  “My dear precious house keeper. I will never be able to thank you for the love, kindness, sensitivity, and affection you have displayed to my family. But please you have to understand: We Jews do not do these things. And I am the rabbi here! My community will think I lost it! They will think I was baptized or I went insane. Please we need to take it all down right away.

  “But, as a gesture, for your love to me and my family I want to give you something.” The rabbi, who was pretty poor himself, took out $100, which at the time was like $5000, and gave it to the poor maid. He said: “there is no way I can thank you for your kindness, but this is a small token of appreciation.”

  The Irish publisher said to Rabbi Wein: I know this story, because that woman was my mother. She was a fresh poor immigrant and she never ever forgot the kindness, the sensitivity, the moral depth and majestic behavior the rabbi displayed to her, even when she really “messed up” that night and turned his home into a Christian santa home.

  He continues to share: I want you to know, that for decades, once a year, our two families would have dinner Friday night to commemorate this special friendship. Till today, 70 years later, once a year, me and my kids visit the grandchildren of this Rabbi for a Sabbath dinner! We are still connected to that special family.

  “And I want you to know one more thing: Since the day I own this newspaper the Detroit Free News I never ever allowed Israel to be demonized on the pages of my newspaper! I always made sure to display Israel in the light it deserves! I do not mind differences of opinion, but no demonization of Israel. Because I know firsthand what Jews are all about, and I know that Israel is the land of the Jews. My mother and I experienced it as poor impoverished immigrants.”

  Friends, think about this. You ask yourself how you can influence the world? Here one poor Rabbi in 1947 treated a woman who made a mistake with dignity. And SEVENTY YEARS LATER millions of people are spared the venomous rhetoric spewed in so many newspapers against the only Jewish homeland.  Millions of people, in the state with the largest Muslim population in the US, have learnt about the true story of Israel.

  And all why? Because instead of screaming at his maid, or getting upset at her, he embraced her with love and kindness and showed her appreciation. He mended her error with sensitivity and politeness and showed his appreciation. Look at the results!

  It always baffled me. Newspapers in America and Europe often display Israel with horrible venom. Every mistake Israel makes is highlighted for weeks, while heinous crimes in so many other countries are ignored. It is often sickening. Michigan has so many Muslims, how is that its largest newspaper was so kindly disposed to Israel? I could never understand that.

  At last, I learnt, it was because the kindness of a Rabbi in 1947, a man who followed the path Abraham taught to his children: “to perform righteousness and justice.”

  11. Why Do We Confess with Song?

  Jokes:

  The Old Man

  An elderly man bursts into a priest's study and says, "I've got to tell you this. I'm 90 years old and for the seventy years I've been married. I never cheated on my wife. My wife died. And guess what? All these young beautiful women are approaching me. And I am enjoying this tremendously. They are beautiful. It is something special. I look at them, I talk to them, I hang out with them, and more and more.

  "How long has it been since your last Confession?" asks the priest.

  "I've never been to Confession. I'm Jewish"

  "Then why are you telling me this?"

  "I'm telling everyone!" says the old man.

  Do I Have to Tell Him?

  This reminds me of the anecdote:

  Not so very long ago, an old German man was feeling guilty about something he had done, so he decided to go to Confession.

  He said, "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. I feel terrible because during World War II, I hid a Jew in my attic."

  The priest said, "But that's not a sin! I wouldn't feel bad about that if I were you."

  "But I made him agree to pay me 50 Marks for every week he stayed."

  The priest said, "Well, I admit that certainly wasn't the most noble thing to do, charging the man to save his life, but you did save his life, after all, and that is a good thing. Don't worry about it too much; G-d forgives."

  The man said, "Oh thank you, Father, that eases my mind. I have only one more question to ask you: Do I have to tell him the war is over?"

  A story:

  The Baal Shem Tov once visited a town in which the people complained that their chazzan, cantor, behaved strangely. It seems that on Yom Kippur, he would chant the Al Cheit, Confession of sins, in a merry melody, rather than in a more appropriately somber tune. When questioned by the Baal Shem Tov, the cantor explained:

  "Rebbe, a king has many servants who serve him. Some of them prepare the royal meals, others serve the food, while others place the royal crown on the king’s head, and yet others are in charge of running the affairs of the country, etc. Each of them rejoices in his work and the privilege he has to serve and to be so close to the king.

  “Now the palace also has a janitor, charged with the duty of removing the rubbish and filth from the palace. The janitor looks and deals with filth all day. He approaches it, gathers it, and removed it. Do you think that he should be depressed because he is looking at dirt all day? No! He is happy, because he is also serving the king. He is removing the dirt from the king’s palace, ensuring that the palace is beautiful! It is not the dirt he is focused on; it is on the King’s palace and its beauty that he is occupied with.

  “When a Jew sins, he amasses some dirt on his soul. When he is confessing his sins, it is not the sins, the guilt, the darkness and the negativity, that he is focused on; it is the holiness and beauty of his soul that he is focused on. He is removing the layers of dirt that are eclipsing the soul; he is allowing his inner light to shine in its full glory. Is that not a reason to sing and rejoice?"

  The Baal Shem Tov was deeply moved by this response, for this capture one of his essential ideas. While other approached in Jewish ethics and spirituality focused often on the negativity of sin and its dire consequences in this world and even more in the next world, Chassidism focuses primarily on the infinite holiness of every soul and heart. “Just as when you look at the earth you can never estimate how many treasures are hidden beneath its crust, so when you look at a Jew you can never estimate how many treasures lie beneath his or her crust,” the Baal Shem Tov once said.

  When you encounter a Jew—and that includes yourself—who may have many blemishes, sins and mistakes, don’t tell him how bad he is; tell him how good he is and how good he can be; how much G-d loves him and needs him, and then he automatically he will want to remove the clouds blacking his inner sunlight.

  It is indeed interesting, that till today in most Jewish communities the confession is done with a melody: “Ashamanu, Bagadnu…” “Veal kulam Eloka Selechos…”

  Eating Yet Again?

  Rabbi Moshe Kubrin said: Why is there a mitzvah to eat and have a special feast on the day before Yom Kippur?

  Because repentance is the most joyous mitzvah. And we always celebrate joyous mitzvos with a feast. But we can’t feast on Yom Kippur, so we feast the day earlier celebrating with great joy the awesome and happy mitzvah of Teshuvah—our ability to renew our lives and cleanse our souls completely.

  12. The Soul of a Miser

  לבוחן לבבות ביום דין...

  A story:

  Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, (1745-1812, founder of Chabad Chassidism), was raising money to ransom Jewish prisoners.

  He went first to a city that was famous for its miser. It seems that this stingy man, despite his considerable wealth, was loath to share his blessings, no matter how worthy or urgent the cause. Rabbis and beggars alike avoided his home. Anyone who did unwittingly end up on his doorstep was offered a single rusty copper coin, which even the most desperate pauper would promptly refuse.

  When Rabbi Schneur Zalman arrived in the town, the elders of the community graciously received him. But when he announced that he wanted to visit the house of the miser and wanted two rabbis to accompany him, he was met with serious resistance. The Rebbe was adamant, however, and they finally acquiesced and gave him the escort he requested.

  The next afternoon the three of them were standing in front of the miser's mansion. Before knocking on the door, the Rebbe turned to his companions and requested that they not utter a word, no matter what they hear or see. Several moments later they were sitting in the luxurious front room. The Alter Rebbe related the entire sad story about a family in jail. After listening to all of it, the owner left the room. He then returned from his safe with a small velvet money pouch.

  "Yes," said the rich man. "A touching story indeed! Widows and orphans in captivity. Ah, the suffering of the Jewish people! When will it all end? Here Rabbi, take my humble donation." He gave the Rebbe the "famous" rusty copper coin.

  To the miser's surprise, the Rebbe seemed pleased by the gift. He was actually smiling at him warmly as he put the coin into his pocket and said, "Thank you, may G-d bless and protect you always." The Rebbe then proceeded to write him a receipt, adding all sorts of blessings in a most beautiful script.

  "Thank you again, my friend," said the Rebbe as he stood and warmly shook the man's hand looking him deeply in the eyes with admiration. "And now," he added, turning to his two companions, "we must be on our way. We have a lot of collecting to do tonight."

  As the three rabbis walked to the door, the Rebbe turned and bade his host yet another warm farewell.

  "You should have thrown it back in his face," hissed one of the rabbis after they heard the door close behind them.

  "Don't turn around and don't say a word," whispered the Rebbe as they walked down the path to the front gate.

  Suddenly they heard the door opening behind them and the miser calling: "Rabbis, rabbis, please come back for a minute. Hello, hello, please, I must speak to you, please… please come back in."

  In a few minutes they were again sitting in the warm, plush drawing room, but this time the rich man was pacing back and forth restlessly. He stopped for an instant and turned to the Rebbe. "Exactly how much money do you need to ransom these prisoners?"

  "About five thousand rubles," the Rebbe replied.

  "Well here is one thousand… I have decided to give one thousand rubles, you may count it if you want," said the miser as he took a tightly bound stack of bills from his jacket pocket and laid it on the table. The other rabbis were astounded. They stared at the money and were even afraid to look up at the miser, lest he change his mind.

  But the Rebbe again shook the man’s hand, warmly thanking him, and wrote him a beautiful receipt replete with blessings and praises, exactly like the first time.

  "That was a miracle!" whispered one of the rabbis to the Rebbe as they left the house and were again walking toward the gate. Once more the Rebbe signaled him to be still. Suddenly the door of the house again opened behind them. "Rabbis, please I have changed my mind, please come in once more. I want to speak with you," the man called out.

  They entered the house for a third time as the miser turned to them and said, "I have decided to give the entire sum needed for the ransom. Here it is, please count it to see that I have not made a mistake."

  "What is the meaning of this?" Wondered the Rebbe's astonished companions after they had left the rich man's home for the third time that evening. "How did you get that notorious miser to give 5000 rubles?"

  "That man is no miser," said Rabbi Schneur Zalman. “But how could he desire to give, if he never in his life experienced the joy of giving? Everyone to whom he gave that rusty penny of his threw it back in his face! We first had to help him feel the joy and inner satisfaction of giving. And then he could not stop…”

  When you make someone feel like a failure by throwing the penny back in his face, he will become an even greater failure. When you show a person their success story, they will achieve yet greater success in the area. Show your child how much he must fix and how badly he failed, and he will tell himself it is pointless, because he is a failure. Show your child how successful he truly is in one or more areas, and he will build on that to become yet more successful.

  13. The Deaf Frog

  הס קטיגור...

  There once was a bunch of tiny frogs. who arranged a running competition. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants...

  The race began. No one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower.

  You heard statements such as: "Oh, WAY too difficult!! They will NEVER make it to the top."

  or: "Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!"

  The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one. Except for those who in a fresh tempo were climbing higher and higher.

  The crowd continued to yell: "It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!"

  More tiny frogs got tired and gave up. But ONE continued higher and higher and higher. This one wouldn't give up!

  At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who after a big effort was the only one who reached the top.

  All of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it?

  A contestant asked the tiny frog how the one who succeeded had found the strength to reach the goal?

  It turned out that the winner was DEAF!

  This one wouldn't give up!

  Never listen to other people's tendencies to be negative or pessimistic. Sure, listen to people and their views, but you always need to know what messages to internalize, and what messages to remain deaf to. If not, some comments can take your most wonderful dreams and wishes away from you.

  And always think of the power words have. Your words can make people believe they can scale great heights, or conversely. Choose your words wisely.

   

   

  14. Jokes:

  The Drunk

  You’ve heard the story about the Californian policeman who pulled a car over and told the driver that because he had been wearing his seatbelt, he had just won $5,000 dollars in the statewide safety competition.

  "What are you going to do with the money?" asked the policeman.

  "Well, I guess I'm going to get a driver's license," he answered.

  "Oh, don't listen to him," yelled the woman in the passenger seat.

  "He speaks nonsense when he's drunk."

  This woke up the guy in the back seat, who took one look at the police officers and moaned, "I knew we wouldn't get far in a stolen car."

  At that moment, there was a knock from the trunk and a voice said, in Spanish, "Por Vavor…. excuse me, but have we crossed the border yet to Mexico?"

  Speeding

  An Israeli cop is patrolling the highways, when he pulls over a young driver speeding way beyond the speed limit.

  The cop proudly walks up to the driver’s window: “I’ve been waiting for you all day!”

  To which the kids replies: “I tried to get here as fast as I could…”

  When the cop finally finished laughing, he sent him off without a fine.

  My dear friends, I have been waiting for all of you all year! So glad you made it here tonight.

  The Old Geezer

  An old geezer, who had been a retired farmer for a long time became very bored and decided to open a medical clinic.

  He put a sign up outside that said: "Get your treatment for $500. If not cured, you get back $1,000."

  Doctor "Young," who was positive that this old geezer didn't know beans about medicine, thought this would be a great opportunity to get $1,000.

  He went to Dr. Geezer's clinic and this is what happened.

  Dr. Young: "Dr. Geezer, I have lost all taste in my mouth. Can you please help me?

  Dr. Geezer: "Nurse, please bring medicine from box 22 and put 3 drops in Dr. Young's mouth."

  Dr. Young: "Aaagh! This is Gasoline!"

  Dr. Geezer: "Congratulations! You've got your taste back. That will be $500."

  Dr. Young gets annoyed and goes back after a couple of days figuring to recover his money.

  Dr Young: "I have lost my memory, I cannot remember anything."

  Dr. Geezer: "Nurse, please bring medicine from box 22 and put 3 drops in the patient's mouth."

  Doctor Young: "Oh no you don't, that's Gasoline!"

  Dr. Geezer: "Congratulations! You've got your memory back. That will be $500."

  Dr. Young (after having lost $1000) leaves angrily and comes back after several more days.

  Dr. Young: "My eyesight has become weak I can hardly see!"

  Dr. Geezer: "Well, I don't have any medicine for that so. Here's your $1000 back."

  Dr. Young: "But this is only $500..."

  Dr. Geezer: "Congratulations! You got your vision back! That will be $500."

  Moral of story: Just because you're "Young" doesn't mean that you can outsmart an old "Geezer."

  We sometimes view ourselves as too old, jaded, cynical, too many mistakes—we are beyond starting anew. But YK says, no! You are never an old geezer. You can start over anew. Start with one new thing in your Yiddishkeit, and allow yourself to experience newness.

  The Special Milk

  The old scholarly rabbi, a man of great wisdom and erudition, was dying. His son's gathered around his bed, trying to make his last journey comfortable.

  They gave him some warm milk to drink but he refused.

  One of his son's took the glass back to the kitchen. He had come from Colorado, where marijuana is legal.

  He opened a vial of cannabis oil, and mixed a generous amount into the warm milk.

  Back at the rabbis bed he held the cup to his father's lips.

  The rabbi drank a little, then a little more, and before they knew it he finished the whole glass.

  "Father" said the eldest son, "please share some wisdom with us before you go. Give us some perspective and advice.”

  The rabbi raised himself up in bed. A sage look came over his face, And then he said, "DO NOT SELL THAT COW."

  A Moral Lesson

  The teacher gave her fifth grade class an assignment: Get their parents to tell them a story with a moral at the end of it. The next day the kids came back and one by one began to tell their stories.

  Kathy said, "My father's a farmer and we have a lot of egg laying hens. One time we were taking our eggs to market in a basket on the front seat of the pickup when we hit a bump in the road and all the eggs went flying and broke and made a mess." "And what's the moral of the story?" asked the teacher. "Don't put all your eggs in one basket!" "Very good," said the teacher.

  Next little Lucy raised and hand and said, "Our family are farmers too. But we raise chickens for the meat market. We had a dozen eggs one time, but when they hatched we only got ten live chicks and the moral to this story is, don't count your chickens until they're hatched." "That was a fine story, Lucy."

  Nicholas, do you have a story to share?" "Yes, ma'am, my daddy told me this story about my Aunt Barbara.

  Aunt Barbara was a flight engineer in Desert Storm and her plane got hit. She had to bail out over enemy territory and all she had was a bottle of whiskey, a machine gun and a machete. She drank the whiskey on the way down so it wouldn't break, and then she landed right in the middle of 100 enemy troops. She killed seventy of them with the machine gun until she ran out of bullets, then she killed twenty more with the machete till the blade broke and then she killed the last ten with her bare hands."

  "Good heavens," said the horrified teacher, "what kind of moral did your daddy tell you from that horrible story?"

  "Stay the hell away from Aunt Barbara when she's been drinking.”

  The Exchange

  (Use with discretion).

  New Chabad Rabbi comes to town and starts knocking on doors to try and meet the local Jews. Mr. Cohen was not answering the door, so the rabbi leaves a note: “please read Isaiah 66:4.” (The verse reads: “I have called but there was no answer”).—The Rabbi.

  Next morning the rabbi gets a note under his door “please read: Genesis 3:20.” (It is the verse quoting Adam speaking to G-d after eating from the Forbidden Fruit: “I heard your voice and was afraid because I was naked.”)—Mr. Cohen

   

  ---

  [1] https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/the-greatest-fundraising-campaign-in-jewish-history/

  [2] Likkutei Torah Rosh Hashanah Maamar Shir Hamaalos Mimaamakim

  [3] Sefer HaSichos 5710, p. 386.

  [4] See Toras Menachem 5742, vol. 1, p. 53

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