It was about seventeen years ago on Purim.
I came to our backpacker Chabad House location in Bangkok’s Kaosarn Rd, and the festivities were in full swing.
One young man caught my attention as he clearly exuded a special charisma and added much life to the celebration. I couldn’t figure out who he was. On the one hand he looked like a yeshiva bachur that had come to help us in our work, beard, black hat and all. But, on the other hand he seemed a little different.
Rabbi Nechemya Wilhelm told me, ‘He is not one of our yeshiva boys, he is a backpacker by the name of Liraz’. When I asked R’ Wilhelm ‘so how does he have such a full beard’ he explained to me that it was a ‘hippy’ beard and then proceeded to tell me the following background story about Liraz.
Liraz was a graduate of an elite Israeli army unity. As part of his post IDF journey he decided to cycle with his bicycle from China back to Israel.
There was an ironclad rule that he set for himself before setting out on his journey. He was determined not to have any religious Jewish experiences along the way, intending to come back to Israel the same way he had set out.
‘NO CHABAD HOUSE VISITS’ he firmly resolved. For any reason.
When he got to Thailand, after crossing many borders along the way from China, there were so many stamps in his passport that he needed to make a new Israeli passport. At the embassy he needed to pay for his new passport but only had US dollars. The embassy of Israel takes Israeli shekels or Thai baht not US currency. An Israeli backpacker overheard the conversation with the consular officer and stepped up to offer Liraz a loan of THB which Liraz could pay her back later. ‘Where will I meet you’ asked Liraz. She responded that he could meet her in the Chabad House down at Banglamphu.
Liraz responded forcefully, ‘no I don’t go into Chabad Houses as I don’t want any religious coercion’. To which the backpacker smiled and told him ‘I also thought that I would have no interest in going into a Chabad House, but its not what you think. There is no coercion, and you can just go in and enjoy the free tea/coffee/cookies without any need to join prayers or anything like that’.
Liraz’s ears perked up at the coffee and he asked ‘real black coffee’? ‘kaffe shachor’ Israeli style? For free? With no strings attached?
‘Yes’, she confirmed.
Liraz accepted the loan and indeed went to the Chabad House to pay her back. He enjoyed the coffee and started hanging out at the Chabad House. He politely declined the Tefillin invitations and felt very comfortable in the ‘pinat metaylim’ traveler lounge.
Around that time R’ Wilhelm was leading a three-day seminar in the hills of Nakon Nayok and invited Liraz to attend. When Liraz was assured that he didn’t have to commit to attending all the classes but was welcome to join and take a ‘taste’. Liraz figured he had nothing to lose by being open-minded in hearing the interesting topics that were being advertised (he had done plenty of searching and studying other doctrines during his travels but never immersed in his own tradition) and he attended.
After enjoying the lectures, R’ Wilhelm offered to put on tefillin but Liraz politely resisted.
A little while later Liraz was missing his cycling lifestyle and rode his bicycle to Chiang Mai. Somewhere along the way he had the following epiphany. ‘Intellectually I have been convinced that Judaism and Torah is all true. The only reason I do not observe it is that I grew up ignorant of the beauty and richness of my own heritage. Deep in my heart I know that when I go back to Israel, I will be pursuing opportunities to study more Torah perhaps even attend a yeshiva. If that is the case and I think that this path is the true path, why am I being untruthful to myself by pushing off my observance for a later time’?
Liraz went to the Chabad House and asked to be taught how to put on Tefilin.
He never stopped.
Liraz presented R’ Nechemya with a sum of money that he had been saving for a new bicycle and asked him to please buy him the best pair of tefillin possible.
Liraz was in Bangkok for Purim and asked the yeshiva boys to borrow their black hat. With his beard already grown, he put on a dark jacket and black hat and had a perfect Purim costume.
This is when I saw him.
After Purim he told Rabbi Wilhelm ‘this is not a Purim masquerade, I am starting to dress this way and going to yeshiva in Israel’.
Liraz went back to Israel. He studied assiduously and met with much success. He became an ordained rabbi and inspired his people wherever he went with his sincerity, depth, and contagious energy.
Liraz married Anat, a wonderful girl, who was equally motivated in practicing Torah and Mitzvot and together they chose a path in life of becoming Shluchim – Chabad emissaries and bringing their fellow brothers and sisters in Israel closer to their own Jewish soul. They opened their Chabad House for students in Yerushalayim and became wildly popular and successful as both of them are charismatic, genuine and exceptionally kind and hospitable people.
Liraz, being a major in the IDF was called up for reserve duty after October 7th and he eagerly showed up and served with devotion.
He spent hundreds of days during the last two years serving in the reserves.
A day before Yom Kippur (the day he was schedule to finish this stint of reserve duty) Liraz was near an army post at the Syrian border when he stepped on a concealed Syrian mine and triggered it.
He was rushed to hospital for treatment where doctors battled to save his life and continue to work to save his legs.
On Tuesday, his family shared encouraging news: Rabbi Zeira regained consciousness and reached full awareness. Despite weakness and pain from severe injuries to both legs, he has begun communicating with those around him.
(His name for prayers R’ Liraz Tzvi haLevi ben Sarah Yehudit. Friends in Israel are running a tzedakah campaign to help him, his wife and their five children in the long road ahead of them).
This is the story I chose to tell before Neilah.
It speaks volumes about who we are.
And it gives a very clear takeaway about how we should live our lives.
The parable is told by the Magid of Dubno:
A man was once walking in the woods when he noticed that many trees had targets drawn on them, each with an arrow planted firmly in its center. Impressed by the marksmanship of whoever had shot these arrows, he was delighted to meet a fellow with a quiver of arrows over his shoulder. “Tell me,” he inquired, “how did you manage to shoot so many perfect bull’s-eyes? What’s your secret?”
“It’s very simple,” the marksman replied with a shrug. “First I shoot the arrow, then I draw the target.”
We each have a system of priorities in our lives.
A ‘bullseye’ around which we build and make all the other decisions of our life.
Have you ever tried asking yourself what is your deepest motivation in life?
A young man once confessed to me that his most inner desire is making money. He makes all decisions based on that.
Except that I don’t believe him. He thinks that this is the case. I know that it’s not true.
I trust what the Torah says about our deepest self. I am talking way down deep in the subconscious.
The Torah teaches that for a Jew, the deepest most essential part of his soul desires closeness to G-d.
This is the ultimate center of a Jew’s universe.
The Alter Rebbe put it this way: A Jew cannot and does not want to sever and cut his connection to G-d.
This is why (almost always), a Jew will choose G-d even over life.
We all have heard stories of Jewish sacrifice. When the crusades came and offered ‘the cross’ to be saved from the ‘sword’ i.e. if the Jews would embrace idolatrous practice, they could save their lives, the Jews chose to stay faithful to G-d.
Daniel Pearl died with the words “My name is Daniel Pearl. My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish, and I am a Jew.”
Thousands of Jewish men and women are at this moment standing in defense of Am Yisrael in the holy land of Israel. In dangerous situations. Literally placing their bodies between the murderously intentioned enemies and the innocent Jewish people living in Israel.
Self-sacrifice of the highest degree.
On Yom Kippur we tap into the deepest space of our soul.
The fifth prayer of Yom Kippur represents the fifth depth of the soul. It is called Neilah because it is then that we are ‘locked in’ to one space with G-d with no one and nothing that can distract.
In this space and at that depth of identity we all stand ready to give everything up for G-d and His people our fellow Jews. Only in the outer parts of our identity can there exist even a remote possibility for estrangement from G-d and separation from fellow Jews.
My dear fellow Jew, today, on Yom Kippur, recognize your deepest Jewish identity and embrace it.
Make your life decisions based on the reality of your deepest identity.
You are a Jew. A body containing a ‘chelek elokah’ a piece of G-d here on earth.
Eat. Like a Jew. Do business. Like a Jew. Get married. Like a Jew. Circumcise your boy. Like a Jew. Give tzedakah. Like a Jew. Leave instructions for burial. Like a Jew.
And, (I am embarrassed to even need to write this but I will, for those few individuals who are led astray by the media) at the very least don’t lap up the scandalous poison of our enemies with their well-oiled PR machine. Recognize blood libels for what they are. Libelous scandalous fabrications.
Throughout history we have suffered from blood libels. In the olden days they were dressed in the heinous lie that Jews use Christian blood in their Passover matzah. These days they are more sophisticated using untruthful reports and out of context pictures to paint the Jewish people as barbaric people committing inhumane atrocities.
When you create your narrative about what is going on in Israel, ask yourself, did you see this with your own eyes or are you relying on a media report?
If you did not see it with your own eyes, how about looking at your fellow Jewish brother and sister with at least as much fairness as you would want to be looked at yourself. They deserved that at least you give them a balanced approach. They are risking their lives by standing at the borders of Israel preventing a recurrence of the holocaust-like scenes of October 7th.
They do not deserve to be falsely maligned. The self-hating bias that has crept in to some Jewish circles is simply perverse.
A few generations back they come from the same ancestors that you do. With a few twists in history, you would be in their shoes and they in yours. Trust that they are peace loving, just like you.
You may have the luxury of sitting in an armchair somewhere in the world and passing judgment. They are standing in the heat and in the cold, day and night, spending days, weeks and months away from their loved ones so that we have a safe place to live as Jews.
Don’t join the herd mentality. Whatever you believe about our heroic soldiers is the way deep down you believe about yourself. And the way our enemies see you.
Our enemies see us as one entity.
And in the deepest, most truthful way, we are indeed one.
You and I and every single Jew are part of one large body.
Let us emerge from Yom Kippur with a resolve to think about our true selves. What are we ready to sacrifice for. What are we not ready to sell for money.
At least once a day – preferably in the morning as we give thanks to Hashem for giving back our soul – we should do one activity at least that will give our Jewish soul sustenance.
My friends, we are a nation of sacrifice.
We mourn the tragic loss of two Jews who were murdered in Manchester for the being Jews and going to Shul on Yom Kippur.
Just after Yom Kippur we received this tragic headline:
TERROR ATTACK IN MANCHESTER, UK.
Two People Murdered and Three Injured After Terror Attack Outside Synagogue On Yom Kippur.
We don’t choose martyrdom. We want to live. But we are partners with G-d and our commitment to him is consummate and unshakeable.
R’ Tzvi Freeman penned it succinctly
He (G-d) needs a partner. He looks down upon His world and says, "If I am to be there for you, are you there for me?"
And we answer, "Since our father Abraham, we have given our lives for You. In each generation, they attempt to convert us, by the sword and by the kiss, and we walk through fire for you. They slaughter us for no other reason than that we belong to You, and we continue with You nonetheless. We could have changed our faith, joined those more powerful and happier than ourselves, and You gave us every excuse to do so. Yet, for almost four thousand years, we have stood firm, and even now, when nothing seems to make sense, when the righteous are struck down and the ploys of the most decrepit human creatures succeed, we still hold on to You and only increase in our efforts. You have a partner. You have an open door with us."
Let us pray that we can show our commitment to our deepest selves, our G-dly souls, in a way that requires only positive sacrifice.
The best-case scenario is to sacrifice our wants, our indulgences and our shyness before cynics on behalf of G-d.
By choosing to LIVE like Hashem wants.
Prayer, tefillin Shabbat candles, tzedakah, Jewish books, learning Torah, sending children to Jewish education, kosher food, family marriage purity and so on.
I got to see Jewish continuity in full bloom yesterday.
At the break-fast after Yom Kippur I was overjoyed and uplifted to meet a large number of young teens, who fasted the entire day of Yom Kippur. These are boys and girls who do not identity as ‘religious/dati’. Their families did not push them or give them ‘guilt trips’ to cause them to fast, actually some of whom are not even obligated as they are just shy of their bar/bat mitzvah. They were motivated from the positive Jewish experiences they have been blessed to have, and out of love and a sense of belonging to Am Yisrael, felt the need to join the ranks of our people and connect to G-d in the here and now.
In today’s day and age where social media seems to be the focal point of every young (and old) person, with educators bemoaning that self-restraint seems to be a vestige of the past, these young Jews kept the fast of Yom Kippur.
They demonstrated that their connection to G-d is important to them. They sacrificed their comfort for the sake of something higher.
To me this is the greatest declaration of AM YISRAEL CHAI.
When Jews, young, old, of all different types, in every corner of the globe, observe the 25 hour fast of Yom Kippur they are declaring that their first allegiance is to the Almighty, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.
It is He who has chosen to call us his children and task us with bringing light and inspiration to the world by the Torah and Mitzvahs he has instructed us.
Yes, there is antisemitism. There are some who are jealous of us – there always have been – but that is no match for the greatest gift in the world that we have been given.
No Jew would give it up being a Jew for anything in the world.
Hashem is proud of us his Jewish People.
Liraz and all the other heroic soldiers who have served our people put their lives on the line literally.
Jews around the world, living in highly anti-Semitic environments stand proudly in their Judaism notwithstanding the fear and danger they live in.
May all of us merit to commit to LIVE more G-dly and put forth more effort in building and maintaining our relationship with G-d.
At the end of Yom Kippur, I was surrounded by the tens of children who were at shul. Together we stood in front of the holy Torahs at the open holy ark for the recitation of Shma Yisrael.
This was the highlight of my Yom Kippur.
Judaism is alive! The children are following the path of Hashem. They will teach their children.
We ended on a super high note, thunderous Shma Yisrael… victory march… shofar blast and the eternal wish of every Jew
NEXT YEAR IN YERUSHALAYIM
לשנה הבאה בירושלים
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Yosef Kantor