By the Grace of G-d
Dear Friend,
I am feeling so blessed Baruch Hashem.
The great honor and pleasure of officiating at a Jewish marriage in Bangkok is uplifting and exquisite.
Especially uplifting is the fact that this wedding defied all odds.
The Kalla/bride comes from family of concentration camp Holocaust survivors.
The chances of a Jew emerging from Auschwitz were almost nil.
That survivors were able to marry and rebuild their families is heroic.
To remain committed to Judaism even after going through the hell of the camps is something that defies rationale.
The Chatan/groom is from a several-generations-in-America Jewish family.
Maintaining one’s Jewish identity within the ‘melting pot’ of the United States is no simple feat.
That a Jewish boy from the Washington area comes to work in Bangkok and meets a Jewish girl who was raised in Bangkok, at the Synagogue in Bangkok, is a story that one could make a movie out of.
I can go on with more and more details of how this marriage was a near impossibility. The greater the improbability, the more one sees how Divinely orchestrated this match was.
And it also shows how sometimes it takes many years to see the threads of a story unfolding and becoming woven into a beautiful tapestry.
The bride’s father, David Engel came to Shul in Thailand a few weeks after his father passed away on the 29th of April 1993. My wife and I took up our post in Bangkok less than a week later, on May 5th 1993. When David got back from the burial and shiva he came to the shul in Bangkok to say Kadish for his father. It was then that we met for the first time. We have been connected ever since. Who would have imagined that thirty years later I would have the honor and pleasure of officiating at his daughters Chupa.
On the topic of how some things take time.
I met a visitor to our shul this week whom I vaguely remember from my NY Yeshiva days. He was studying from a volume of the Talmud. I asked about his Torah study schedule, and he shared the following story which I found so inspiring that I feel compelled to share it.
‘My young married son asked me ‘Dad, what did you get me for my birthday’. I couldn’t believe what I heard. looked back at my son who was turning twenty-eight and asked him ‘what have you ever gotten me for my birthday?’
As I said those words, I thought to myself, ‘what have I given my own father for his birthday over the years’? I decided to start a daily study session in Talmud with an aim to complete the first tractate in conjunction with my father’s birthday.
When I completed the tractate of Brachot in the Synagogue on the day of my father’s birthday, my elderly father had tears of emotion and joy in his eyes.
‘You need to understand’, my friend explained to me, ‘I was a challenging student. My parents had to find a new Yeshiva for me every year as I didn’t last more then a year in any school. I was not a learner at all. For my father to see that I had now studied an entire tractate of Talmud in his honor was something that he would never even have dreamed of thirty – forty years ago’.
I was overjoyed that I had granted my father this ‘nachas’ and along the way I discovered that I loved learning the Talmud so now I am continuing and learning the second tractate of Shabbat’.
In the incredible way that Hashem runs his world. I am so blessed to see His guiding hand and benefit from the messages and guidance that these encounters teach.
Today I was blessed to hear an incredible story from our very own daughter Chana who with her husband Mendel are directing a camp for Jewish boys in North Carolina. Ckidsganisrael.com. It’s too good a story to hold back and not share.
In Chana’s words:
It was a long day… but I really wanted to get some powder to treat our baby’s rash. I started driving and I’m thinking to myself: “this doesn’t make sense! Drive for 25 min at supper time with two kids under three! And just thinking about shopping makes me dizzy… back to Walmart for the second time this week:)
I was close to another grocery store but decided to continue to Walmart since I knew they for sure had the powder I was looking for.
The comedy show begins at the Duncan Hines cake-mix aisle. Tzvi Abba has an exciting decision to make! What cake should we make for his upcoming third birthday… He chose strawberry cake, vanilla cake and brownie bars. While we’re debating his choices in Hebrew someone asks me” are you Israeli?” And I respond ‘no, but I’m Jewish’
I asked her: “are you Israeli?” (Just out of politeness since it was pretty obvious that she was). Turns out, she is a counsellor, the only Jew, in a girls camp 30 min away from Walmart. She had come with two fellow staff members to stock up!!!!
My newfound friend shared how incredible our ‘chance encounter’ is.
She is a counsellor in a camp where every few weeks there are 200 new girls. She felt like she is the only Jew in the whole area. When she didn’t go to church on Sunday, everyone asked her why. She said that she is Jewish, and they had no clue what Jewish is.
When she heard that I grew up in Thailand and that my parents run Chabad of Thailand, she said that her friends just enjoyed the Chabad Houses in Thailand during their trek through the Far East.
What a Hashgacha Pratis (Divine Providence)!!!
The whole day I’m thinking about the Walmart trip. It didn’t work out in the morning, we got delayed and I almost didn’t come and then when I finally got to Walmart I realized that it’s all from Above designed by the Almighty so that we should meet this Jewish girl who feels so alone!!!
I tell her that I wish I had Shabbat candles and she says she would love to get!!! I say “I have in my car” hoping that I still do;) She comes and helps me at the store checkout, we walk to the car together and BH!!! We found a pack of Shabbat candles in my car.
The chances of us meeting would seem impossible for a human being to plan but not For Hashem our creator….
Thank you Hashem,
And thank you Rebbe for teaching us that wherever we go, we have to be a guiding light and share mitzvahs and inspiration. Because of your guidance I had Shabbat candles with me, waiting for a beautiful Jewish girl who was waiting to meet me in North Carolina of all places.
On a side note, I forgot to get the powder;) Also Hashgacha pratis
May Moshiach come speedily.
Chana
My response to the last line about forgetting to buy the powder is ‘may Hashem the Healer of all flesh heal the rash supernaturally’. After all, doesn’t it make sense to say that the true and deeper reason that the powder was needed was to coordinate the visit between two Jewish young ladies in most unlikely of locations for a Jewish rendezvous, Hendersonville, North Carolina? Following that reasoning, once the meeting had taken place, there should be no more need for the powder. May G-d heal it naturally, Amen.
Here is what for me is the cherry on the top of the cake.
The daily Rambam study on the day of Adam (Rafael Shraga) and Gena’s (Leah) wedding was… the laws of marriage. Think about this. In the spring of 1984 the Rebbe instituted a daily study of the Rambam. The annual cycle takes slightly less than a year. This means that every year, different laws are studied on different dates.
If you click on the study for last Monday the day of the wedding, this is one of the laws you read.
The marriage blessings must be recited in the groom's home before the marriage takes place. There are six blessings; they are … If wine is available, a cup of wine should be brought, and the blessing over wine recited first. Afterwards, all the above blessings should be recited over the cup of wine; thus, one recites seven blessings.
To think that a study cycle that started in 1984 matches up so perfectly with a marriage that takes place in 2023 just makes me feel so safely ensconced in G-d’s loving embrace and bodes so well for this wonderful young couple who have just wedded, that the Divine blessings will rain down upon them with abundance please G-d.
May G-d bless all of us with the gift of having happy occasions to celebrate and the time and energy and presence of mind to enjoy, cherish and rejoice in them.
Until we merit the everlasting joyous epoch of Mashiach’s arrival, AMEN.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Yosef Kantor