"Shabbat Shalom from Bangkok"

Don’t you?

It pains me to see people living without a sense of purpose.

It’s excruciating to read about wars and violence.

I find strength in words of the saintly Rebbe that Mashiach is coming and that we are NOT headed to a repeat of what we went through eighty some years ago. But, to be honest, the resurgence of antisemitism in its ugliest form is alarming.

I would like to see a world of connection to our deepest G-dly core.

A world in which we interact mutually beneficially with each other.

Peace and blessings for Am Yisrael, and for all my fellow citizens of the world.

I am sure you too want to live in this futuristic world so exquisitely remade.

So, let’s do something about it.

The Rebbe presented a plan for changing the world in a drastic way, through doable and achievable steps that are within our reach.

He shared his vision 74 years ago on the tenth of (Yud) Shevat which is tomorrow’s Hebrew date. On that day the Rebbe formally accepted the responsibility of leadership of the Lubavitch Chassidim. 

His message was to his followers but not just. His sphere of responsibility expanded to being a spiritual shepherd to the entire Jewish community. Ultimately the Rebbe furthered his reach and began to teach divine universal morality to the world at large.

When you want to change the world, said the Rebbe in his inaugural address, you have to first look at the world and its inhabitants the way G-d looks at it.

G-d calls this world his ‘garden’. A place in which He wishes to have pleasure as one does in a beautiful garden. 

The Rebbe time and time again taught us to see and to believe in the world as being inherently good.

And it is us who is going to provide that pleasure to our Father in Heaven.

Man is created in the Divine image. 

Within the Jew there is a uniquely Jewish - G-dly - soul.

Within every human there is a quintessential spark of divinity.

Too many people see themselves as meaningless redundancies in a world that is just an afterthought of a blip in the Milky Way.

If every human would but recognize that G-d put him or her down on this world for His (G-d’s) glory, they would live happier, more meaningful and more spiritually and physically healthy lives.

YOU MATTER. 

Your feelings matter. Your temperament matters. Your thoughts matter. Your words matter. Your actions matter the most.

How do we go about sharing and promoting this powerful and positive reframing of how we view life and the world at large?

First of all, by recognizing that the solution is not going to come from the outside. Don’t focus on changing the world around you. Don’t rely on any expert, therapist or scientist to come and change your reality for you. 

Rather it is up to YOU and YOU and YOU and each and every one of us.

I can only change myself. 

You can only change yourself. 

Sounds like its not even worth trying. Big deal if I change myself. It won’t make a difference in the bigger picture. I am just one of many billions. And the world is not even big enough to be called miniscule in the context of the vastness of space.

But here is the most existential truth. Simple as it is glaringly true.

If I change. 

If you change. 

The sphere of our influence will be changed. 

The wider circles surrounding those who are in our circles will be impacted. The impact will soon be a worldwide revolution.

THE WORLD WILL CHANGE. 

If the Covid virus could spread and impact the world so rapidly, how much more so an enlightenment in you and I can change our respective worlds. 

A young man, whom I met less than two years when he agreed to come and lay Tefillin for the soldiers at his mother’s request, send me a picture this week that had me jumping for joy. He was involved in a Hollywood production and discovered that the producer is Jewish. My friend, who himself only recently began to lay tefillin daily, wrapped the producer in Tefillin and sent me a picture. 

A kid who used to come to our summer day camp is now one of the strong Jewish advocates in his college campus in upstate NY. His staunchly Jewish identity was crafted through the Jewish experiences he had in Thailand.

Sometimes without even knowing it you are creating ripple effects. 

In the 1950’s the two Yeshiva bachurim were dejected. They had spent their summer vacation trying to drum up support in a rural American city where Judaism was not very active. In their own estimation they didn’t have much success. Except that the Rebbe (reading their thoughts) told a story during a public address upon their return. 

"A rabbi wrote to me. From a rural American town where he was losing his enthusiasm for his mission of spiritually guiding his community. Two yeshiva boys came to town. They exuded such fiery commitment and excitement about their Judaism that I was inspired and reignited by their example. ‘Little do those ‘roving rabbis’ know how much of an effect their trip had," concluded the Rebbe. 

Just a few years ago there were two backpackers from Israel trekking through Thailand. A few years later they are shepherding their own communities as rabbis in Israel. The picture below says it all.


Then and now: Backpacking through Thailand and at the international conference of Chabad emissaries, leaders of their own community.

Below: With Rav Nechemya Wilhelm of Chabad Bangkok at the conference.

Another personal example that jumps to mind is the meeting I had with Ernest Hilton when he was 89. He was a Holocaust survivor who was living temporarily in Thailand for the final years of his life. On June 13, 2022 (not very long before he passed), I had the blessing to facilitate Ernest’s inaugural Tefillin laying. (click here for ‘first time at 89 story’).


Mr. Ernest Hilton laying tefillin with my son, shortly before his passing.

Ernest knew what Tefillin was when I asked him if he wanted to lay them.

He shared with me that the fact that he was knowledgeable about what Tefillin are, is because he had seen Jewish men wrapping Tefillin in airports and airplanes. 

Being familiar with it from a distance had helped facilitate doing the mitzvah himself when the time came.

The people praying in the airplane airport may have felt a little out of place. Yet, they kept to their ideals of praying daily with tefillin. Little did they know that Ernest was watching and absorbing.

Let us broaden the discussion to politeness. Dispositions. Attitudes. Beliefs. Moral codes.

When we act respectfully to our parents, our children will learn by example how to act towards us. 

The story goes of a man who told his son to get an old coat from the attic for his aging father to use during the cold winter. The son returned with the coat shorn into two. When asked why he had cut the coat into two, the son told his father ‘I cut the coat in half to give grandpa one half and kept the other half so that when you get old, I can give you the other half’.

When we act morally and honestly, not just when we are on show, but when we are with our own nearest and dearest, our families will imitate this moral behavior.

Our children do not as we SAY, but as we DO.

When we talk about our belief in G-d – Shema Yisrael Ado-nai Elo-heinu, Ado-nai Echad – our kids will be inculcated with belief in the Almighty.

When one believes in G-d who has an Eye that Sees, and an Ear that Listens, the natural logical conclusion is to ask in accordance with G-d’s system of morality. Do not steal. Even when you will not be caught.

If as a community we act nicely, caring for each other beyond societal norms and expectations, we will elevate the norms of civil interaction for the broader society.

Being a gratitude filled person in your personal life, will create an atmosphere of congeniality around you. Looking for faults in others will create a judgmental vibe. Likely those influenced by you will judge you in turn.

This realization, that the ability to change the world for the better or the opposite is totally in our hands, is one of the cornerstones of the Rebbe’s oft repeated meditations from Maimonides:

 “See yourself as though the entire world is held in balance, any one deed you do could tip the scales for you and the entire world to the good.”

Don’t give up and say ‘the world is doomed to be a jungle’ G-d forbid. G-d intended it to be a garden.

And he chose you to be the gardener.

He empowered you to do something to make this world better, more uplifted and ultimately the most blissfully peaceful place one could imagine.

This is transformative and inspiring. You and I, He and She have the ability to change the world.

To bring Mashiach.

By adding in acts of goodness and kindness – doing mitzvahs. 

Nu, what are we waiting for?

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Yosef Kantor

PS I am blessed by the Almighty to enter a new year of my life this Shabbat. The 10th of Shevat in the Hebrew Calendar is my birthday. I would be honored, gratified and deeply grateful if you would consider doing a mitzvah as a gift.