"Shabbat Shalom from Bangkok"

Imagine this conversation.

Kid says to mum with whining voice.

‘Ma, you hate me, you never buy me anything’!

Mom replies

‘What do you mean dearie, I just got you a brand-new holiday outfit, designer brand’.

Whining child replies.

‘Yes, but that was yesterday’

Then sobs 

‘What have you done for me today. You don’t love me’.

Talk about ungratefulness at its best.

It’s the ‘what have you done for me lately’ way of life. When people overlook a lifetime of things they should be grateful for, and instead focus on the day, hour or even minutes that they are not in the receiving mode.

This weeks Parsha spells it out so clearly.

Every year, the Jewish farmer in Israel had the mitzvah to bring his firstly grown fruits of the season to the Bet Hamkidash. 

The farmer makes a declaration of gratitude to Hashem for the fact that he has brought us to the land of Israel, and that the land has given forth fruit.

This teaches us the fundamental importance of giving thanks to Hashem. Gratitude for the good things that Hashem has given us.

In the language of the declaration of thanks there are several paragraphs that seem a bit out of place.

At the beginning of the declaration of thanks the farmer thanks G-d for saving our ancestor Yaakov from the evil intention of his uncle Lavan who wanted to kill him before he even had children. 

The farmer then continues to recount the path of Jewish history as it goes through the enslavement in Egypt. After several hundred years of the Egyptian exile G-d took us out and brought us to this promised land which is ‘flowing with milk and honey’.

‘I have come here today with my first fruits to thank G-d’ concludes the farmer in his declaration of thanks.

Why isn’t it enough to just say thank you for the fruits of this year, why the whole long historical narrative?

The Rebbe would receive letters from Jews all over the world on a huge variety of topics. A recurring topic was people who would write to complain about their difficult situation and how Hashem doesn’t seem to be ‘shining His countenance’ on them as is indicated by the troubles they face. They would ask the Rebbe to pray for them and bless them.

Sometimes the Rebbe would answer the person whose life seemed so difficult now when they wrote the letter, to think back five or ten years. The Rebbe would suggest to them to try to remember what the things on their minds were years ago. 

What things caused you anxiety because they looked so overwhelming. What did your prayer ‘wish list’ look like back then?

My dear friend. Please take a moment and actually try this. Think back to ten years ago. What were the major things you were hoping for? 

Then think back five years. What were your biggest challenges?

Maybe even write them down so you see them in front of your eyes.

Now think about your situation today.

Have many of those items been resolved?

In many instances the blessings of G-d have resolved the issues of then. 

This is what the Torah seems to be teaching us in the farmers ‘declaration of thanks’.

View life from a broadened perspective of your own life history. Broaden your scope even further and view your life from the perspective of the national history of the Jewish people.

Where were we as a people fifty years ago. One hundred years ago. 

Back in Egypt.

We will discover that we have so much to be thankful for.

Jewish life has never been so accessible. Freedom of religion is a assumption we take for granted. Synagogues, yeshivas, Jewish center, kosher food, all of the staples of Jewish life are proliferating and thriving. Israel is a thriving bustling and successful country.

Yes, we do have major challenges as well. This year in particular we have discovered that Israel faces huge challenges. Diaspora Jews have been rudely awakened to the resurfacing menace of anti-Semitism.

On the one hand let us be mindful of all the challenges. We that we take action on all of these items to do whatever we can for the peaceful thriving of our people in Israel and in the world over. 

And let us do this from a perspective of thankfulness to Hashem for His kindnesses. Not from whining and whinging about the problems we face. 

Nechama and I had a very special ‘long-term-nachas’ opportunity this week.

Ilana from Australia and Yossi from Israel were a couple that came to join us for Yom Kippur 1993 at the Bet Elisheva synagogue. They were backpacking through Thailand and had responded to our Yom Kippur invite that we had placed on the advertisement board in the Kaosarn Rd Israeli hangouts. For Nechama and I, it was our very first High Holidays here in Thailand. Just six months after we took up the position of the rabbi and rebbetzin of Thailand’s Jewish community.

Yossi and Ilana had an inspiring Yom Kippur went on to move to Australia, establish a warm observantly Jewish home and have four children. Our friendship – long distance at it was – blossomed. Ten years ago they joined us at our eldest daughter Mushka’s wedding to Gabi Kaltmann at the Shangri-La hotel on the bank of the Chao Praya River. This week we had the pleasure of joining them at their daughter’s wedding in Melbourne, Australia.

It was so much nachas for us to see this beautiful family celebrating their first wedding. And so fundamentally connected to the theme of this week’s parsha about gratitude.

In addition to the gratitude for the current and constant things that G-d blesses us with. From opening our eyes in the morning, to every single breath that we take.

We must also incorporate long term gratitude for the things that take decades to develop and evolve.

Please take a few moments to read Rabbi Josh Gordon's article An Attitude of Gratitude. He did a superb job in developing this theme.

Your life will be so much more pleasant from the perspective of being appreciative and gratitude filled to G-d who is the source of all.

To those fellow people who are the providers of kindness to us, we ought to be eternally grateful as well.

To our parents who gave birth to us and raised us till were indeptnted.

As well as all the people in our life, past and present who look out for us, care about us, treat us nicely and provide benevolence.

Thank you my dear friend, for your friendship.

Real relationships take time. Even in this technological age.

Our relationship with Hashem must be nurtured and grow every day.

Especially now as we stand 12 days before Rosh Hashana. Chasidic tradition teaches that each of the 12 days of the year should be used to introspect and make amends for the previous twelve months. And to make good plans for the coming twelve months. One day corresponds to one month.

May you and your loved ones be blessed with a good, sweet new year.

May our nation of Am Yisrael be blessed with secure peace.

Mashiach NOW, Amen.

Rabbi Yosef Kantor

Spirited dancing at the wedding in Melbourne

By the Grace of G-d

Dear Friend,

Reframing ancient miracles into a contemporarily relatable context can be cute.

Like imagining a modern-day version of the Chanuka miracle in the context of battery life of your cellphone. One bar left and it lasts for eight days. 

I had a reverse kind of battery miracle this week.

On Monday I was having a zoom meeting with an elderly couple who are homebound because of health-related issues.

They told me that they may ‘disappear’ from the screen in middle, but I should not think that they had disconnected. Simply their ‘ancient’ MacBook was having battery problems. 

It didn’t fully register with me. The difficulty of the challenge that this must be creating for them. Replacing the battery would not be a simple task for them in their situation. Truth be told, I heard what they said but I didn’t really give the matter much immediate thought. I didn’t try to help them with the immediacy that would be warranted.

An hour later I powered up my laptop computer to get to some important computer work. The computer console told me ‘57% (plugged in, charging)’. Yet in front of my eyes the percentages went down. Within a half hour it was down to 7% battery and the computer suggested that I save my documents and power down. Mind you, the console still falsely claimed that I was charging. The charger worked fine on my phone. I restarted the computer in case it was an app that was shlepping an irresponsible amount of battery. Nothing helped. The battery was the obvious culprit.

I was incredulous. Hashem had made a miracle for me. 

My computer is an IBM. The other computer is a Mac. 

Yet somehow my computers battery went on the blink in a rapid way right after I learned of the other persons battery issues.

Clearly, I was being given the opportunity for empathy. To feel what this other person was going through. 

I got the point and immediately called David who handles our computer systems. ‘I have two problems’ I told him. ‘Firstly my friend has a MacBook with a failing battery. Secondly, my computer also has a failing battery’. He told me to leave them in the office, sent a messenger, picked up both and sent them to his computer repairs shop.

By the end of the day, we both had our computers back with replaced batteries. I don’t know if the batteries will ‘live happily ever after’ but for now they are delivering the power as they should be.

The next morning, I read the third portion of the Parsha for the third day of the week. (The weekly parsha is divided to seven parts. One portion per day. On Shabbat all seven parts of the Parsha are read in the Synagogue).

Here is the Mitzvah that l learned on Tuesday morning:

When you build a new house, you must make a parapet for your roof, in order that you not cause blood to be shed in your house by not preventing one who falls from falling off the roof. True, if someone falls to his death, it indicates retroactively that he was destined to be punished for some crime he had committed. Nonetheless, you should try to avoid such an occurrence on your property, for the fact that such a tragedy occurs specifically on your property rather than elsewhere indicates that you, too, are in some way culpable for some wrongdoing. (Kehot Chumash with interpolated translation incorporating Rashi’s commentary).

Simply put. Hashem runs his world and orchestrates good things to happen through certain people and negative things to happen through others.

It is a huge blessing when something nice goes ‘through you’. 

Say for example Hashem gave you the opportunity to make a phone call for someone to help them make a sale or get a job. The fact that that favor and ‘nice thing’ is happening via you, is a blessing. You have been designated by Hashem to be his ‘arm’ of benevolence.

Conversely, when negative things happen through an individual it may be an indication that there is something not perfect in the ‘delivery person’.  

This ought to inspire introspection and self-awareness to see if there is something that needs to be changed in our life. 

I read this verse and it became so clear. I don’t know why, and perhaps it is undeserved, but Hashem chose to have these people helped through me.

Computer access for homebound people makes a world of difference. Literally. We all experienced it during Covid. When you cannot go out, the portal of the internet, zoom and other media becomes your vicarious expedition to the outside world.

I was at risk of not registering the importance and urgency of their need.

Hashem gave me the gift of feeling their challenge in my very own life. After being shown the need so clearly, anyone in my shoes would have done exactly what I did. Replace the battery. 

I thank Hashem for giving me this incredible opportunity. For not letting me overlook this important mission.

I am thinking out loud now. 

Perhaps Hashem blessed me with this gift because of you. 

Yes, you my reader.

You deserve to hear messages of clear Divine Providence like this one. 

This is why Hashem provides me with stories like these to share with others. 

This is what I am thinking….

In that case, I owe you a big debt of gratitude.

Thank you for reading my weekly article. For contributing to the collective meritoriousness which (in my humble opinion) is the reason I am blessed to have these stories in the first place.

I am happy to share another story I was blessed to hear this week in first person.

At the Gem show this week we provided kosher food. I met with the local members of our community who exhibit their jewelry as well as with the many visitors from the international community who come to the show. One of the merchants told me a story that inspired me incredibly.

‘Rabbi, I have to share this miracle.

For the last while, business was going very very slow. I kept waiting for a breakthrough. It wasn’t coming. 

A few weeks ago, I realized that I had become a drop less attentive to the mitzvah of tefillin, and while 99% percent of the time I put them on daily, there were some instances where I procrastinated and didn’t get to it in time before sunset.

The very next morning after my realization that I had begun slipping in my observance, I got up and said to myself, I am going to rededicate myself to my commitment to Hashem today. I put on tefillin. And while most of the doors in my home had a mezuzah, I was missing some. Finally got to dealing with the few doors that still needed mezuzahs. 

I got to work a bit later than usual. 

A client came in a few hours later. 

I made a sale that was huge. Literally ‘like from the movies’.

Way beyond what I could have imagined.

It saved my business that was floundering.

My wife came in while I was negotiating the sale, and she saw the huge scope of the business we were transacting. She looked at me and said ‘mezuzahs?’

I just smiled and said, ‘you can decide for yourself’.

When I looked at the merchant telling me the story and saw the inspired look in his eyes.

He told me that in his eyes this was literally and miracle a ‘NESS’. 

I reminded him that the word miracle – ‘ness’ is part of the word ‘parnassah’ livelihood.

נס = פר נסה 

The truly balanced way of doing business is when you realize that there is an obvious symbiosis between G-d’s blessings and your efforts.

Hashem tells us in the Torah

‘Hashem will bless you in all that you do’.

We need to do, and we need Hashem's blessing.

Hashem's blessings is what brings the success, and we need to do human activities as well.

Like a body and a soul. Inseparable.

Doing what G-d wants invites the blessing into the actions that humans take.

May Hashem bless all of us.

Return our hostages, protect our soldiers, heal our wounded and bring secure peace to Israel, the region and to our fellow Jews and citizens in the entire world. 

We want Mashiach NOW. Shana Tova.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Yosef Kantor

PS. here in Bangkok we are well into the preparations for the High Holidays at Rembrandt Hotel. See information below.

Looking forward to praying, celebrating and receiving the Shana Tova blessings with you.