Weekly Emails "Shabbat Shalom from Bangkok"

By the Grace of G-d

Dear Friend,

It has been a different and unusual year for every single person on planet earth.

Whether you are young, old, a student, a retiree, a business owner or a salaried worker, your life was disrupted and altered in one way or another.

Even if you were not directly affected, those around you were. This had an impact on you as well.

I think I speak in the name of everyone, when I say that this year had its challenging moments. And I extend my empathy to those who are still enduring the painful limitations of this virus that is still running amok in many places in the world.

On this auspicious day, the last day of this year and mere hours away from the New Year, I would like to focus on what inspired me about this year. From the ‘1,000 feet’ ‘helicopter’ perspective, it was a very uplifting year.

One of the side effects of the long-winded lock downs in cities across the world was the fact that nature reclaimed areas where human life had previously encroached. Monkeys overran certain parts of Lopburi in Thailand. Pumas were seen in the streets of Santiago, Chile. Kangaroos were hopping around Adelaide in S. Australia. 

From coral reefs rejuvenating, to pollution levels dropping, this year has brought with it some remarkable side effects. 

I would like to make what some may consider an audaciously bold observation. 

This year, humanity reclaimed their commitment to Divine values.

What do I mean?

Think of the following question. 

If you could only save one of them, would you save your favorite pet or a random stranger?

Google that question and you will be quite shocked at the varied responses.

I tried it in real life. I asked some teens. Thank G-d most of them got it right and chose to save the human stranger. But some did ask me how old the stranger was. How dear the pet was. As if those details could change the decision regarding who to save. Our modern world with all of its advances also has some blind spots. Particularly in the field of moral soundness. 

When Covid19 hit our world, almost every news article had the disclaimer that the virus was most dangerous to the elderly or those who had other compromising medical conditions. For most others it was touted as being an illness that their body would overcome without undue danger.

The world went into lockdown.

To save the vulnerable. 

Strangers.

Elderly strangers.

Strangers with weaker health. Maybe without all that many years of life ahead of them.

Yet the world instinctively shut down to save those strangers. 

At the cost of giving up convenience and comfort. In many cases at the cost of enduring suffering and considerable financial loss. Some would even face ruin.

The world would not take such measures to save the extinction of pink elephants for example. To raise money for elephant conservatories, yes. But society at large would not cancel weddings, funerals, prayer services, college graduations to save animals. Nor plunge governments trillions of dollars into increased debt. Nor keep kids away from school. And the list of measures the world at large took just goes on and on.

NO!

For animal life, even for our closest pets. We would not willingly enforce and endure distancing and quarantining with all of its difficulty and negativity to the individual and to society at large.

For human lives though. Even for saving the lives of total strangers. 

YES. 

The world stopped. Shut down. Quarantined. For saving human life we are enduring the greatest disruption the world has known in recent history.

WHY?

Because G-d said so.

On Rosh Hashana five thousand seven hundred and eighty years ago, G-d created Adam as the first human in the Divine image.

A while later, to Noah, G-d gave a clear instruction to be handed down to all of his descendants, (every human being is a descendant of Noah). Human life is sacred. Thou shalt not kill is a Divine unchangeable and immutable moral value. 

Murder, taking someone else’s life is forbidden. So is taking one’s own life. Or standing by passively when someone’s life is being endangered. 

Two stories come to mind where I have witnessed the instinctive decision being made and accepted by society at large to preserve life. It is quite likely that you too have had similar such experiences. 

I was at least twice on an airplane that did an emergency landing to save a stranger’s life. All three hundred people accepted that disruption nobly. They understood that their plans could be redrawn, but the life that needed to be saved could not be brought back if it was lost. My subsequent inconvenience because of missed connections paled in comparison to my deep-seated sense of fulfillment of having participated in a ‘human-life-is-sacred’ affirming event. 

While I was once in a major traffic jam on the way from Philadelphia, the newscaster reported a bridge closure as the reason for the delay. Someone was threatening to jump off the bridge. Police activity caused a massive delay. Nobody questioned the moral soundness of causing the delay merely to save a stranger’s life.

I am sure you too have had similar experiences where you have put everything on hold because a life was at stake, even someone you didn’t know.

But these experiences are all individual and highly localized ones. They were also very brief.

This year, second part of 5780 and first part of 2020 has delivered a message to the world of unprecedented proportion. 

This year we lived through an all-encompassing, totally disruptive event, that thunders forth a declaration and statement made by the entire living human race as one collective.

This year will be remembered in the annals of history as the years that the world SHUT DOWN. 

I believe that this year must also be remembered as the year of our reclaiming our commitment to G-d based morality.

THE YEAR WHEN HUMANITY MADE ITS COMMITMENT TO G-D’s COMMANDMENT TO PROTECT LIFE. HUMAN LIFE. THAT EVEN A STRANGER’S LIFE IS SACRED.

In the earliest stages there was a virtually conflict free consensus. 

Instinctively everyone knew it was right and no one complained.

(The subsequent and currently ongoing discord about how much to open or close is not in conflict with this observation. It too is in the context of discussion how to save lives. The arguments are because the experts are divided as to what preserves life more effectively, when taking long term effects into account as well).

All of this leads us back to the fact that this year there is a heightened universal awareness of G-d.

The fact that a microbe smaller than we can see (six hundred times smaller than the diameter of a hair), can wreak such havoc on our world, reminds us that we are vulnerable. We are not the all-powerful invincible men we thought we were. 

For me, even more awesome than the errant virus microbes’ destructive capabilities, is the fact that a hundred trillion microbes regularly coexist in our bodies and act in the coordinated fashion that allows us to live and function. How do they all get along? The cohesiveness and coordination of all aspects of creation point to G-d the Creator of life in all forms.

This is the year where humanity reflects and sees without any doubt that it is not we, who created ourselves, rather Almighty G-d Who is the Creator of the universe and all therein.

My dear friend, don’t let the preachers of ‘gloom and doom’ put you into a tailspin of despondency and depression. 

This is an inspirational year. This is a year where all the inhabitants of the world are aware that G-d is at the helm of our vehicle. 

He and only He is steering.

This year is not one we will forget.

Let us remember it for the awareness of G-d that it brought to the forefront of the collective human consciousness.

Let us remember it for the reminder of our belief in the G-d given Divine moral code.

This Rosh Hashana, the day of creation of Man, we the Jewish people may not all be in Synagogues as we usually are. Lockdowns and restrictions on crowds will keep us away from some of the usual nonessential traditions.

(the hearing of the Shofar being blown in person is the main Mitzvah of Rosh Hashana, it can and will be done this year in numerous venues around the world, here in Bangkok we have a ‘Shofar in the Park’)

But we will be expressing in the most effective and impressive way possible that we believe in G-d and His commandments.

(Click here to the Rosh Hashana prayers (page 17) and you will  see that the central prayer for Rosh Hashana is ‘may everything that has been made, know that You have made it… and may everyone who has the breath of life in his nostrils declare that the Lord, G-d of Israel is King and His kingship has dominion over all’. In light of this, this Rosh Hashana may be one of the most intense ones of recent times).

Let’s be uplifted and inspired to get closer to G-d. 

G-d loves us unconditionally. We are SURE He will give us a good and sweet year. That is why we celebrate with sweet things.

Let us recommit ourselves to fulfilling G-d’s objectives for us. To study more Torah and do more Mitzvahs. To be more forgiving and benevolent. 

As Jews we also have been tasked with sharing the Divine rules of universal morality with the world at large.

If this message resonates with you, share this universal and fundamental message with others.

The message of 5780/2020 in my humble opinion is 

Believe in G-d and in His moral directive to preserve and cherish human life. 

May we merit to complete the Divine mission and usher in the coming of Mashiach.

Shana Tova

Rabbi Yosef Kantor

By the Grace of G-d

Dear Friend,

A close friend in Europe sent me a scan of a blood test report he just took.

Negative.

Yep, it was a Coronavirus test. He wasn’t feeling well and went to get tested. He reported back that he has good news. His blood test came back with a coronavirus negative diagnosis.

Negative in this case is positive. So said my friend. Sounds plausible. Finding out that one doesn’t have ‘THE’ virus is good news.

The logical continuation of that should be that testing positive would be negative. 

Is it?

A relative in Denver told me a totally different story. He was diagnosed as positive for Coronavirus a few weeks ago. 

He said that in a strange way he felt very relieved to get a positive diagnosis.

The mental stress was over. Unknowingly to him there was a subconscious anxiety that he had endured for many months regarding the possibility of being infected.

The uncertainty and accompanying stress were relieved with the positive diagnosis.

In this case the negative of being physically ill was experienced by him as being a positive. For it made him stronger in terms of his mental health. 

This is all quite confusing.

Reminds me of the luckless guy who went to the bank to get a loan for a million dollars. The bank manager said ‘we don’t know you, how could we possibly issue you such a loan?’ He exclaimed exasperatedly to the bank manager ‘I don’t understand, the other bank I asked said ‘you? a loan? we know you too well, how could we possibly give you such a loan?’ To get a loan do you have to know me or not know me?’

Is NOT having Coronavirus positive? Or is HAVING (survivable) Coronavirus positive?

The lockdowns and restrictions on travel have a similar double sidedness to them. 

One friend who is retired and travels extensively to visit friends and relatives, complained bitterly about being unable to get away from their home. This friend has a beautiful home in a prime location but is feeling ‘caged-in’ and sorely missing the social benefits that traveling affords them. 

On the other hand, a relative who travels incessantly for her work, and seems to enjoy it, commented to me this it is a wonderful ‘vacation’ to be at home for the last six months. 

As it is the month of Elul, and Rosh Hashana the head of the new year is almost upon us, I am reflecting on the year gone by. Particularly during the last twelve days of the year and now during the last week of the year it is an appropriate time to reflect on how your year went. 

What kind of a year was it?

Spiritually. And materially.

Think back. Since last Rosh Hashana (September 2019). How has your year been? 

It is quite in-vogue right now to be sighing and ‘kvetching’. 

And there is much to complain about.

The world is collectively challenged in a way it has not been challenged ever before. 

(If you suffered personally during these last few months, please know that I am not intending these words to minimize your ordeal or pain. I am intending these words to those who have the luxury of looking at the events of the past half a year from the perspective of being inconvenienced or disrupted rather than pain or danger. 

It is to those of us who have nothing of major importance to complain about, but are swept up in the ‘mood’ of our times of ‘gloom’ and are fixated on the updated count of death and sickness that the media never lets us take a break from, that I write these following words).

Take an honest look at the year that is now coming to a finale.

I think we can all agree on the word ‘extraordinary’ to sum up the year.

It was not ordinary. This year was different beyond recognition than any other year. For everyone and in every place.

However, there have been many silver linings during this cloudy year. Many people have rediscovered their families. It has been a time for many to discover themselves on a deeper level. The acts of benevolent kindness by first responders, by neighbors, by family and friends are inspiring beyond words. 

HUMANITY HAS REDISCOVERED G-D and G-D BASED MORALITY!!!

(I plan please G-d to do a thirty minute online sermon this week on Thursday night 7:30 PM Thailand time, and share what I think is the biggest most wondrous ‘reclamation’ of this year click here to get zoom details).

To sum it up. there have been very very difficult things that have transpired this year.

We would never ask for them.

There have been very very inspiring and uplifting things that have happened as a result. 

We wouldn’t want to lose those gifts either.

The previous Rebbe of Lubavitch was asked after his release from his harrowing ordeal in Soviet prison (where he almost lost his life) how he felt about his experiences. The Rebbe summed it up like this:

‘If someone were to try to ‘sell me’ one moment of suffering like that for a billion dollars I would not agree. Yet if someone tried to buy one moment of my previous suffering from me, I would not sell it either’.

I think this is the answer to the ‘positive/negative’ conundrum regarding catching the virus or not catching it. 

My friend was delighted not to get it. My relative, who did get it, would not have prayed to get it, but once he got it, and passed it, he is very happy that it is over and he can now be a lot more relaxed and a lot less anxious.

What should we be praying for this year?

While we try not to complain about what has already happened to us, for once G-d has brought something upon us, we need to accept it as being for our best and recognize that it is from Him. 

Before it happens however, we ought to be praying and beseeching G-d for REVEALED and VISIBLE good. Good that we DO perceive as being good without needing to resort to intellectual gymnastics. And even if there is some spiritual ‘dirt’ that needs to be wiped off, we beseech G-d to wipe it off with His divine mercies  in a very soft way, rather than with any harshness. 

Last year was wondrous. Extraordinary. It came from G-d so it must be good. But in so many ways it was not the kind of good that we could comprehend from our mortal perspective. 

This year we want it to be wondrous again. 

With one additional but pivotal detail. 

We beseech G-d to make it the kind of good that we can see and perceive with our physical eyes. Things of a happy healthy and prosperous nature.

In the Hebrew I will say it like this:

5780 in the Hebrew is:

תהא שנת פלאות

May it be a year of wonders. That was last year.

5781, this upcoming (next Friday night) year in Hebrew is:

תהא שנת פלאות אראנו

May it be a year of ‘wonders I show you’. i.e. may G-d shower upon us VISIBLE wonders. Visible and comprehensible to all of us. Even from our physical vantage point.

The most awaited for wonder and miracle is the imminent arrival of Mashiach. May he come speedily in our days, AMEN!!!

Shana Tova Umetukah!!!!

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Yosef Kantor