A New World

G-d caught almost everybody off guard. A tiny microorganism, the size of 125 nanometers, turned the world upside down. We are all quarantined in our homes.

This Shabbos will be the first-time millions of us will not attend synagogue services and pray with our communities.

Here are two stories which inspire me today.

The Dirty Pail

The two saintly brothers, Reb Zusha and Reb Elimelech, who lived in 18th century Poland, wandered for years disguised as beggars, seeking to refine their characters and encourage their deprived brethren.

In one city, the two brothers, who later became mentors to many thousands of Jews, earned the wrath of a "real" beggar who informed the local police and had them cast into prison for the night. As they awoke in their prison cell, Reb Zusha noticed his brother weeping silently.

"Why do you cry?" asked Reb Zusha.

Reb Elimelech pointed to the pail situated in the corner of the room that inmates used for a toilet. "Jewish law forbids one to pray in a room inundated with such a repulsive odor," he told his brother. "This will be the first day in my life in which I will not have the opportunity to pray."

"And why are you upset about this?" asked Reb Zusha.

"What do you mean?" responded his brother. "How can I begin my day without connecting to G-d?"

"But you are connecting to G-d," insisted Reb Zusha. "The same G-d who commanded you to pray each morning, also commanded you to abstain from prayer under such circumstances, and with such an odor. In a location such as this, you connect to G-d by the absence of prayer.

“Your absence of prayer today is the will of G-d. today you connect to G-d through not praying…”

His brother's viewpoint elated Reb Elimelech's heart. The awareness that the waste-filled pail in the corner of the room allowed him the opportunity to enjoy an intimate—though different—type of relationship with G-d inspired him so deeply that he began to dance. The two brothers were now holding hands and dancing in celebration of their newly discovered relationship with their Father in heaven.

The non-Jewish inmates imprisoned in the same cell were so moved by the sight, that they soon joined the dance. It did not take long before the entire room was swept away by an electrifying energy of joy, as dozens of prisoners were dancing and jumping around ecstatically.

When the prison warden heard the commotion coming from the cell, he burst open the gate, only to be stunned by the inmates enjoying such a liberating dance. In his fury, the warden pulled aside one of the inmates, demanding from him an explanation for what was going on.

The frightened prisoner related that the outburst was not his fault, nor was it the fault of the other inmates. It was rather the two Jews dancing in the center of the circle who triggered the trouble.

"And what inspired the two Jews to go into such a dance?" thundered the warden.

The prisoner pointed to the pail in the corner of the room. "It is the pail, they claim, that brought about the joy in their heart."

“How can this smelly pail make them happy?”

“Well… they explained, that the pail allowed them to experience a new type of relationship with G-d. There was the pre-pail relationship… and the post-pail relationship… Somehow the pail transformed their spiritual perception.”

"If that's the case, I will teach them a lesson," shouted the angry warden. He took the pail and threw it out of the cell.

Reb Zusha turned to his brother and said: "And now, my brother, you can begin your prayers!"

This is the essence of Judaism. We are always in a relationship. G-d is with me at every moment. Sometimes He wants me to pray in shul; sometimes He wants me to pray at my home, with my heart, with my inner self, with my family.

And if this where I am meant to be, I will be here with my heart, soul, and al my vigor and joy.

Even when I am in a psychological dungeon, and there is a bucket of dirt around me, I am in a meaningful relationship with my soul and G-d. Each moment has an opportunity for growth, for discovery, for integrity.

Sometimes we build the relationship through prayer, sometimes through the absence of prayer. Sometimes we create the relationship by going outward and mingling; and sometimes, by being quarantined and going inward, spending time with ourselves and our closest kin. Sometimes we fulfill our mission by having lots of money and giving lots of charity; and sometimes by having less and giving according to our capabilities.

But the relationship is always intact.

In Siberia

Reb Mendel Futerfas was a Chabad Chassid, who spent 14 years in Soviet prisons and labor camps, due to his involvement in spreading Judaism in Stalin’s Soviet Union.

One night, in a barrack in ice-cold Siberia, the prisoners began talking about their lives BCE—Before the Communist Era, before Stalin turned daily life into a hellish nightmare in the Soviet Communist experiment, where bullets became substitutes for bread, and the gulag a replacement for having a job. Before he was arrested and exiled, one of the inmates was an actor, the other one—a writer, this one was a government official, the other one—a doctor, a clergy man, a novelist, a journalist, a successful business man, etc. Stalin sent to the Gulag the finest of Russian intelligentsia and kultur. If you thought for yourself, you were a threat to the Communist Party and could be either shot or exiled. Between 30 and 50 million people perished during Stalin’s 30 years of reign (from 1924 till 1953).

As the men were sitting in the barrack, recalling their wonderful, even glorious pasts, they broke down sobbing. “Once upon a time, we had everything; today we have nothing. Once upon a time, we had a sense of self, identity, worth; today everything has been taken from us.”

Only one man in the barrack was not crying. This was the Chabad Chassid, Reb Mendel. He was listening intently to the tales of woe delivered by the inmates but was not weeping with them.

“I guess you were a loser then, so you lost nothing now!” exclaimed one inmate. “If you got nothing, you got nothing to lose…”

“Actually,” Reb Mendel said, “I had a very successful business, which I lost. I also was married with children and I miss my family so deeply.”

“So why don’t you weep with us? Don’t you feel that your very sense of self-worth has been snatched from you be these animals?”

“I do feel tremendous sadness and pain,” responded the Chassid. “I miss my wife, I miss my children, I miss my freedom. I miss having a home and a bed to sleep in, and some extra bread in my pantry. I am concerned for my future. But I must tell you that my primary occupation I did not lose, not even here in Siberia.

“You see, before I was arrested and exiled, I ran a large business, I earned lots of money, but that did not constitute the essence of my identity, it did not define the mission of my life, it did not capture the ultimate meaning of my existence. My primary occupation was that I was a servant of G-d. I awoke each morning remembering that my life was given to me as a gift in order to serve G-d one more day.

“And this primary occupation of mine they could not take away from me in Siberia. Here too I serve G-d each and every day. The only difference is in the software, not in the hardware. Previously I served G-d as a successful businessman; today I serve G-d here as a Siberian prisoner!”

Reb Mendel articulated the secret of the Jew and the secret of inner dignity. He defined himself not by what he had, but by what he was. He was a Jew. He was a servant of G-d; he was an agent of the Divine on earth. In a way, even in Siberia he was a free man. Even in Siberia, he was still one, wholesome, confident, anchored, and centered.

Sometimes G-d wants me to serve Him in the midst of people; sometimes He wants me to serve Him as a quarantined soul.

The Jewish people always understood that you need to have an epicenter, an inner unshakable core that cannot go down with the fluctuations and vicissitudes of life. That core is made up not by our external realities and circumstances, but of our moral integrity, our connectedness to G-d; it is comprised of our love, loyalty, faith, and the intimacy we share with our soul and our Creator.

Going Back to the Core

A Perspective on the Coronavirus Quarantine

Sometimes, G-d Wants You Quarantined

This women&#39;s class was presented on Tuesday Parshas Nitzavim, 24 Elul, 5779, September 24, 2019 at the Ohr Chaim Shul, Monsey, NY

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Women's Rosh Hashanah Class

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The Emunah Series with Rabbi YY Jacobson has resumed, and continues every Thursday evening (save holidays), at 20 Forshay Road, Monsey, NY, followed by Q and A. For Men, Women and Teenagers (separate seating). You can send questions in advance by email to rabbiyy@theyeshiva.net or submit written questions before or during the presentation. Anonymity of the questioners will be respected. Hot food will be served. No admission fee.

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<div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">The Shabbos Davening: Why Don&rsquo;t We Ask for Our Needs? Why do we change the text of prayer on Shabbos? Two&nbsp;types of prayers, representing two types of connections to Hashem.</div>

The Shabbos Davening:  Why Don’t We Ask for Our Needs?

The Structure of Davening #3

Maamar Vayigash 5725 - Class 2.&nbsp;In the first class, we talked about a number of advantages of prayer over Torah study. In this class those ideas are pushed even further.
The great advantage of prayer is that it has a physical effect on the world, changing things materially. When we joined the two advantages of prayer and Torah, and this is achieved through the recitation of the opening verse, אדנ"י שפתי תפתח, prayer has both advantages.&nbsp;Number one, it's makes a physical change in the world; number two -- that you can actually see that it is G-dliness. The discourse continues and ads yet another level. When prayer has the advantage of Torah, that you can see the G-dliness, then prayer is not only equal, but superior to Torah. The reason for this seems to be that since the G-dliness is being seen in the physical thing which is lower than spiritual existances, it has an additional advantage. All of this is connected to the great debate about Yosef and Yehuda and which of the two are superior. Our discourse begins where most discourses end. Here the two are equal just as prayer and Torah are equal. Our maamar finishes by saying that there is the ultimate advantage &nbsp;in Yehuda, just as prayer, as seen in this discourse, is advantageous to Torah.

When Davening Assumes the Depth of Torah

Maamar Vayigash 5725 #2: Yehuda and Yosef -- Davening and Learning

Maamar Vayigash 5725 - Class 1. This discourse is unique in the aspect that it emphasizes the advantage of prayer over all else including Torah. When one davens, first of all they are the one doing the work, second of all they are sacrificing themselves to God. As a consequence the effect they have is to lose themselves in godliness, and to raise godliness to the level of the essence of God.&nbsp;This is in contrast to Torah where the learner is simply bringing down the light of God. So God is giving him the light, and this life is being brought into his personality and ego and does not involve sacrifice of his form.
Now because prayer involved this enormous sacrifice and unity with God, the consequence is that is brings godliness down in the kind of way that actually physically changes the world. This phenomena that through a religious practice does a physical change in the world is unique to prayer.
The issue is however that &nbsp; though &nbsp;prayer has an effect on changing the world you see the effect in the world but you don't see that that effective godly.
He says that's when we say אדני שפתי תפתך... תהלתך which is interpreted by the ת"י as an allusion to תורה he learns from this that when we pray with the assistance of God Almighty as the he is the one doing the praying. Then not only does the pair of change the physical world but it's revealed in the world that the prayer is godly.
One of the ancillary ideas this class includes is the concept that there's no such thing as a prayer that goes on answered it is only that sometimes we have to wait for its effect to be revealed.

The Awesome Experience of Davening

Maamar Vayigash 5725 #1: No Prayer Goes Unanswered

The Underlying Structure of Davening #2:&nbsp;When Were the 3 Daily Prayers Established? And Why?

When Were the 3 Daily Prayers Established? And  Why?

The Structure of Davening #2

Is davening a Biblical or Rabbinic commandment?

Is Prayer a Biblical or Rabbinic Commandment?

The Structure of Davening #1

This is the final class in the series on Basi Legani 5735. It explores how the essence of Judaism--connecting all fragments of our lives with the core and truth of all reality--evolved over three generations, and how it evolves in the daily life of the Jew, as he or she travels from the world of prayer to the world of study and then the world of business.

Three Generations, Three Paradigms 

Basi L'Gani 5735 - Shiur 4 (Final)

A full in depth look at the experience and mandate of prayer. How do we reconcile the tension between the essence of prayer -- to experience full intimacy with the Divine, and the format of prayer focusing on individual transient needs? 

Pray for Hashem

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