"Shabbat Shalom from Bangkok"

By the Grace of G-d

Dear Friend,

My younger brother Baruch is the rabbi of Chabad at Temple University in Philadelphia. Baruch was walking in the streets near Temple University on Sukkot holding his lulav upright in his hand. An older black gentleman out walking on the street took a look at the lulav and told him "I think you’re supposed to give her roses".

I thought that was hysterically funny. And then I thought to myself that this comment, made in passing by an older person to my obviously youngish brother about how to build goodwill with his wife, was spot-on and contained a deep lesson.

‘I think you’re supposed to give her roses’. 

Well, that’s only if she likes roses of course. 

If she likes daffodils, tulips or lilacs then that is what you should get her. 

Let’s say she asked you very specifically to get her a lulav (branch from the date palm), hadasim (myrtle boughs), aravot (willow branches) and an etrog (citron), then that is exactly what you should get her. Anything else just won’t do the trick.

The reason my brother was not walking down the street with roses is because G-d didn’t instruct us to take roses on Sukkot. Rather, G-d asked us to take the four species mentioned above on the holiday of Sukkot, join them together and wave them. 

Because HE asked us to bring these exact four species, when we take them, we generate a ‘nachat’-pleasure for Almighty G-d. 

On the day before Sukkot, I was in the Sukkah binding the lulav together with the other species in preparation for performing the mitzva the next day. One of our longtime local staff saw me and asked ‘isn’t it time that you had one of your younger Yeshiva bachur assistants do this for you’?

I want to go back to those roses again. At what stage in a person’s career will he delegate bringing roses to his wife to his personal assistant? 

The answer to that (if he wants to stay married…) is never! The whole purpose of bringing roses is for the husband to personally show his affection and love to his wife by showing her that he cares. Having a personal assistant deliver those roses would be achieving the exact opposite effect. It would show that bringing a gift to his wife is another chore to him just like scheduling a business meeting. 

Clearly, when it comes to doing a mitzvah, you must do it yourself. That is the whole point of the mitzvah, to connect you with G-d.

What about just choosing and buying the gift that you will then bring personally to your loved one? Can you delegate that? (In today’s online world it’s a bit more complicated). Probably it wouldn’t be tragic if you had someone else source and buy the gift. 

However, it is unquestionably more ‘relationship-building’ when a spouse personally picks out and buys a gift than when they just ask an assistant to choose something nice and get it to their spouse. 

The Torah teaches us that when we do a mitzvah, even the preparations for a mitzvah, we should be personally involved. Yes, we can delegate a lot of things, but there are some things that we should be doing ourselves to show our love to G-d and the Mitzvahs He has asked us to fulfil.

The Talmud gives many examples of esteemed rabbis who personally did chores in preparation for the Shabbos.

Rava would personally prepare the fish for Shabbat. Rav Chisda chopped vegetables. Rabbah and Rav Yosef chopped wood. Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak would be seen running about on Friday, carrying bundles on his shoulders. Many of these were wealthy men who had numerous servants to do their work; yet they insisted on personally toiling in honor of the Shabbat. (Talmud, Shabbat 119a; Shulchan Aruch, Laws of Shabbat)

This is why I was sitting in the Sukkah on Sunday afternoon binding my four species personally. Of course I delegate many other chores to others. So that I will have more time. More time for this most important relationship in my life – my relationship with G-d.

There is nothing more joyous, inspiring and relationship-enhancing when you do a mitzvah than DIY (doing it yourself), even the preparations for the mitzvah. 

Just like with those roses, more than the joy of the actual roses, is the warm loving feeling of your significant other thinking and exerting himself for you. The more effort you had to expend, the more you will feel the love and the more your spouse will appreciate that gift. 

With mitzvahs its no different. The more you exert yourself for a mitzvah, the more you will feel G-d in your life. Paying money for a mitzvah is important as it makes it feel more precious and special. And G-d promises that ‘the reward is according to the effort’. G-d knows us from the inside, He creates us and any effort expended on doing a mitzvah is known and appreciated by Him.

There are still three days left to make a blessing on eating in the Sukkah, and two days left to make a blessing on the Lulav and Etrog (on Shabbat they are not taken).

If you haven’t don’t it yet, (or even if you have, it’s a new mitzvah each time you do it), make an effort to get to your nearest sukkah and find a four species near you!  (click here for a Global Chabad directory).

With blessings for a Shabbat Shalom an a Chag Sameach

Rabbi Yosef Kantor

PS if you are in Bangkok, I will be available pretty much all-day Sunday please G-d to make a brocho with you on the Lulav and Etrog and to make a brocho on the Sukkah. No need for appointment, just drop by the Shul on Soi Sai Nam Thip 2 and call me 081 837 7618 if you don’t see me in the sukkah. 

By the Grace of G-d

Dear Friend,

A tragedy occurred in Halle, Germany.

A miracle occurred in Halle, Germany. 

Tragically, two people were killed in proximity to the Synagogue in Halle, Germany on Yom Kippur this year.

Miraculously, the more than eighty people inside the Synagogue were saved. By a locked door. 

I say miraculously, echoing the words of some of the people who were there during the terrifying ordeal and were saved. They, knowing the particulars of the door and its strength, testified that this was a miracle from G-d. That the door stayed locked and did not open. Even when fired upon and notwithstanding the piece of equipment the assailant used to try to pry it open.

I don’t want to think more deeply into what could have happened. It’s too frightening. 

But I do want to shout out praises to Almighty G-d for the ‘wondrous’ rescue of my brothers and sisters in Halle, Germany.

And offer sincere condolences to the families of the victims, the man and woman who lost their lives tragically in the attack. Gunned down mercilessly by a hate filled anti-Semite.

Friends, sadly the scourge of antisemitism has not dwindled. As advanced as we may have become, the hatred against us has not abated over the past years. 

Yet, in an inexplicable way, Jewish pride and heightened Mitzvah observance is on the rise. The events that our enemies anticipate will weaken us, have the reverse affect. They awaken within us our indomitable Jewish essence. The result is a steadfast resolve that we will not yield!!!

AM YISRAEL CHAI!

We need to express our resolute stubbornness and determination by doing acts of Jewishness. 

Start of your day with a prayer.

Put on tefillin when you have a chance.  

Light Shabbat candles before the onset of Shabbat.

Give tzedakah.

Keep a bit more kosher than you have until now.

Make sure to have a kosher mezuzah on your door.

Jewish family purity is the key to a blessed and sanctified family life.

Educate yourself and your loved ones by studying Torah.

Get some ‘Torah’ books for your physical bookshelf. 

Be more loving to your fellow.

These are example of ‘DOING Jewishness’. The light that we add to the world through these deeds will combat the darkness that our enemies are so intent on producing. 

Sukkot is coming up. Siting in the Sukkah, outside, without protection from the elements, reminds us that G-d is our true canopy of protection and peace.

May G-d bless us all with a Chag Sameach a happy and safe Sukkot holiday.

Shabbat Shalom

Chag Sameach

Rabbi Yosef Kantor

By the Grace of G-d

Dear Friend,

What does one do to prepare for the holiest day of the year?

So, first of all, let’s be practical. We have a close to twenty-six hour fast beginning this evening so we need to eat and fortify ourselves. It’s actually a mitzvah to eat today.

Holiness can be tricky. 

Let me explain what I mean.

I was invited to visit a dear Jewish friend, who has a huge heart and a great spirit, but not so learned about Torah and Judaism. He wanted me to join a lunch he was hosting for religious leaders. There were at least five religions represented. And me. Not wanting to be alone, I took along my colleague Rabbi Wilhelm. While the others were eating, Rabbi Wilhelm and I sipped our mineral water as the food was not kosher. 

The topic at the table moved to holy people who were to be admired. A tale was told about an ascetic mystic who lived on the peaks of a cliff. For decades he sat and meditated. He was kept alive via some kind fisherman who would put two fish into a basket that would be lowered down from the cliff every day. 

The clergy around the table all nodded and agreed that indeed the meditating mystic was a saintly person. A man of great holiness. Admirably pure and pious.

I found myself blurting out ‘what did the world or any fellow humans gain from his asceticism’? ‘Wouldn’t it have been better if he would have helped others rather than live in solitude for his entire life on an isolated peak?’

Ten eyes looked at me in astonishment. I realized I had said something ‘politically incorrect’ for that setting. 

This morning as I prepared to pray, the story jumped into my mind. 

We are about to enter the holiest day of our year. 

Every Jew feels Yom Kippur in some way or another. There is a G-dly presence that is in proximity to our souls. It is sensed. We don’t always know what we are feeling. Some think it’s only because of their childhood. Others recognize that there is something real, albeit ethereal, in the ‘air’ that makes them feel different than just any other day of they year. 

Across the spectrum, on Yom Kippur Jews look to return to who they truly are. Nary a Jew doesn’t mark Yom Kippur by some form of observance. By fasting, by refraining from forbidden activities or by pledging to be better in the coming year.

That special inexplicable and indefinable feeling is no really ‘earned’ by us. It comes automatically from above. G-d beams it down to our souls so to speak. As long as you don’t consciously fight and block it, you will access it. Yom Kippur will work its holy ‘spell’ on you if you but so allow it to.

But what can one do from below to prepare for that? What can one do that is objectively holy? What would be the best way to prepare for the holiness of the day of Yom Kippur?

G-d granted me the great gift of spending several Yom Kippurs in the presence of a holy person. The Lubavitcher Rebbe embodied everything the Torah says in describing our great saintly Jewish leaders of yesteryears. To me, the Rebbe was the ultimate of what it meant to be a holy man. My mind goes back to reminisce about my Brooklyn Yom Kippur experiences in the presence of the Rebbe. How did the Rebbe prepare for the holy day of Yom Kippur?

If you have a few minutes, click on the below link and you too will see what the Rebbe did all day before Yom Kippur.

The Rebbe stood on his feet for hours upon hours and distributed ‘Lekach’ honey cake. 

Here is the background. There is a minhag custom on the day before Yom Kippur to ‘ask for lekach’. Just in case it had been decreed that one would need to be a recipient of a handout from a human during the upcoming year. By being a recipient of a sweet piece of cake from a fellow human, one would have ‘fulfilled the decree’ of receiving a ‘handout’ and from now on they could be recipients directly of G-d’s beneficence. 

The Rebbe spent hours upon hours receiving anyone who wanted to come and receive a piece of honey cake directly from his holy hand. He would utter thousands of times, annunciating to each individual that passed, the blessing for a ‘shana tova umesuka’ ‘a good and sweet year’. As the Rebbe uttered those words and handed them the piece of sweet honey cake he gazed upon them with kind fatherly eyes. An unforgettable experience.

But what about preparing for Yom Kippur? The holiest day. Wouldn’t the Rebbe’s time be better spent by praying and learning in private meditation?

Obviously not. This, the bestowing of kindness and grace unto others, is obviously the way one should prepare for the holiest day of the year. 

For holiness is not defined by what makes you feel more exclusive or pious. 

Holiness is defined by what brings you closer to G-d.

In a way that is almost counterintuitive, getting closer to G-d can only be gauged by how loving you are to others.

Its confusing. 

Spatial disorientation in the context of a pilot flying a plane means that the pilot no longer knows what is up and what is down. This can obviously pose a grave danger G-d forbid. That is why it is critical to have instruments that remind the pilot where is up and where is down.

In a similar vein, if one finds themselves feeling holy yet those around him are feeling hurt or ignored, they are likely in the state of spiritual disorientation.

The ‘litmus test’ of whether you are acting holy is how loving others perceive you to be. 

Click below inspiring for an inspiring story of how holy Tzadikim expressed their holiness by caring for others.

Chopping wood on Yom Kippur?

So, as you go about your preparations for Yom Kippur the holiest day of the year, make sure to keep your bearing about what true holiness is. 

Look out for those around you and make sure that they are cared for and loved. 

Start with yourself. If G-d gave you back your soul this morning its is because he NEEDS you. and if you are needed by G-d you must be lovable. And you must try to live up to what He expects of you 

Move on to your family and loved ones. Widen the circle if you are able, to include those more distant from you. 

Prepare for Yom Kippur by helping others!!!!

Say a nice word. Give a smile. Send a message via social media to someone you haven’t reached out to in a while. Do some random acts of kindness and goodness. Give tzedakah to those in need.

You will be holier, feel holier and merit G-d’s blessings for a good and sweet year!!!!

Chatima Umgar Chatima Tova

Shana Tova

Rabbi Yosef Kantor

PS if you are joining us at the Rembrandt Hotel for services, I will be happy to give you a piece of sweet cake at the pre-fast meal starting at 4:30 PM

PPS Tzedaka for the needy in Israel for the needy closer to home in Thailand