By the Grace of G-d
Dear Friend,
I had a very inspiring ‘joining of the dots’ happen to me over the past few weeks. I would like to share it with you. Pretend you are watching footage from my ‘bodycam’.
Earlier this week the following story was told in the Talmud I was teaching (tractate Berachot 5):
The Gemara relates another story regarding acknowledgement of the justice of divine punishment:
Four hundred barrels of Rav Huna’s wine fermented and turned into vinegar, causing him great financial loss. Rav Yehuda, the brother of Rav Sala the Pious, along with the Sages, and some say Rav Adda bar Ahava, along with the Sages, entered to visit him, and said: The Master should examine his actions, as perhaps he committed a transgression for which he is being punished.
Rav Huna said to them: Am I suspect in your eyes? Have I committed a transgression on account of which you advise me to examine my behavior?
They said to him: Is the Holy One, Blessed be He, suspect that He exacts punishment without justice? Your loss was certainly just, and you must examine your conduct to find out why. The Sages were aware of a flaw in Rav Huna’s conduct, to which they alluded (Tosafot).
Rav Huna said to them: If someone has heard something improper that I have done, let him say so. They said to him: We have heard that the Master does not give a share of his grapevines to his tenant farmers. A tenant farmer is entitled to a portion of the crop grown on his landlord’s property, as well as a share of the vines planted during a given year.
Rav Huna said to them: Does this tenant farmer leave me anything from the produce that he grows on my property? He steals it all. Consequently, in denying him his share of the grapevines I am simply recouping that which was stolen from me by this tenant farmer.
They said to him: That is the meaning of the folk saying: One who steals from a thief has a taste of theft. Despite the fact that the property was stolen to begin with, one nevertheless engages in theft. Although he did not violate a prohibition per se, it is still a form of theft, and one who is held to a higher standard than others will be punished for it.
He said to them: I accept upon myself to give my tenant farmer his portion in the future.
Thereupon, as a result of Rav Huna’s repentance, God restored his loss. Some say his vinegar turned back into wine, and some say that the price of vinegar rose and it was sold at the price of wine.
(copied from Torah Texts by Chabad.org)
As I was reading Rav Huna’s heartfelt question ‘have I done anything wrong to deserve this great loss’? someone else’s voice popped up in my mind.
A few weeks ago, when I was in NY, a businessman friend asked me to come over to his home for a chat. Sipping wine in his backyard he opened his heart to me that times were tough for him financially. Particularly he was bothered by a seventy-thousand-dollar payment that was being withheld for a construction job he had completed for a building contractor.
‘What am I doing wrong’? was his anguished cry. ‘Tell me Rabbi Kantor, what more can I be doing in my service of Hashem, in my study, in my observance, in my Tzedaka giving’?
I felt sorry for him. I believed him that he is trying to serve Hashem to the best of his ability. Of course, it would be misplaced of me to try and answer his question. Hashem has His reasons, and we don’t always have to understand them. I blessed him. ‘May Hashem shower you with an abundance of parnassah (‘wherewithal’).
As the conversation unfolded, there was something that my friend mentioned that I considered very significant. He mentioned that his kitchen was inadequate for the large amount of hosting that he and his wife do on the Shabbat and Chagim. He told me that his wife was a bit fed up and wanted to do a major overhaul but as he had just explained, he couldn’t see how to do it.
My mind started racing.
I pointed out to my friend the statement in the Talmud
A person must always be careful about sustaining the honor of his wife, as blessing is found in a person’s house only because of his wife, …. And that is what Rava said to the residents of Meḥoza, where he lived: Honor your wives, so that you will become rich.
And I shared that I had read many letters written by the Rebbe where he had urged that the house and its furnishings be according to the taste of the wife.
Could it be that this is where you could get better? To really make every effort to get your wife a more functional kitchen with which she could be happy.
My friend agreed in concept, that when times would improve he would make his wife’s kitchen a top priority.
This was two weeks ago. This week when I read this story of Rav Huna in the Talmud, this story jumped back into my mind. I was happy to teach the happy ending in Rav Huna’s case. The moment that he had identified where he could better his behavior towards his farmer, Hashem turned around his financial loss and he recouped his money.
Now that my friend had firmly decided to get his wife a kitchen that she would be happy with, shouldn’t my friends story also have a happy ending, I thought to myself.
In the middle of the night (in Bangkok local time) I got a text from my friend. It was a picture of a check for more than thirty-four thousand dollars.
In the morning, he explained to me what happened. His wife had called and asked him to accompany her to shop for something that needed to be upgraded in the kitchen (even before the major renovation). It was a busy day, the workers needed to be supervised, but as he is self-employed, he was able to make the noble and holy decision that his wife’s request should come first. He dropped everything he was involved with and took her shopping. As he dropped his wife off back home after their shopping trip, he got an email with a picture of the check that was waiting to be picked up.
When he went to pick it up, someone he didn’t know walked into the room. The unknown man praised him for his craftsmanship. It was the owner of that very company. And the conversation continued right then and there for additional even more significant work in the future.
I was so inspired to hear this story play out in 2024. Just as it had been recorded in the Talmud almost two thousand years ago.
It speaks to one of the basic premises and truisms of our Torah.
Hashem is true. His Torah is true.
Following the path of Hashem is the source of all blessing.
If you do what Hashem wants, you are connected to the greatest faucet of blessing, not just in terms of spirituality, but right here down on earth.
It is this reality that is at the heart of the Mitzvah campaigns that the Rebbe promoted.
Tefillin, Shabbat candles, Mezuzah, Mikvah - Family Purity are some of the ten.
In particular these mitzvahs engender peace, security, health, and protection for our soldiers and for our people. In Israel and wherever Jewish people live.
How can a kosher mezuzah bring security and safety to the home?
What is the connection between us laying Tefillin and the soldier’s safety in their holy work in protection of Israel?
How does eating kosher food promote material health?
How does keeping the laws of Family Purity bring blessings for physically, emotionally and spiritually healthy children?
At the core of our Torah is the belief that Hashem created the world and its entirety.
The blueprints of the world are the Torah.
When a Jew fulfils his mitzvahs he or she is connecting to Hashem in the deepest and most consummate way.
This connection to Hashem automatically provides the greatest opening of the faucets of blessing even here down on earth.
It is simple. We all believe in Hashem. He created the world. It makes sense to follow the ‘instructions’ of the ‘manufactuer’.
But I will admit, it is not always easy to keep that mindset.
It is not intended to be effortless.
Hashem designed us with an ‘animal soul’ that tends to be skeptical.
Hashem embeds into the natural cycle of the world things that obscure His presence.
And to make thing more confusing, sometimes good people suffer. This creates questions and doubts in the minds of those who witness it.
It is for this reason that Hashem also positions great spiritual leaders into every generation so that we have human beings who by their personal example are living and breathing this absolute connection to G-d in the real world.
Hashem sent Moshe to take the Jews out of Egypt, to teach them the Torah and to shepherd them through the desert on their way to Israel.
In every generation Hashem implanted a continuation of Moshe to shepherd the Jews of that day and age.
The Rebbe’s teachings – (the Hebrew acronym רב"י stands for ראש בני ישראל ‘head of the generation’ - are so relevant and pertinent for our modern age.
Find out for yourself.
Explore more of what the Rebbe taught in honor of the thirtieth year of his passing which is going to be on Tuesday Tammuz 3, July 9.
Thirty years is a long time. I miss the Rebbe’s physical presence dearly.
Counterintuitively, the more time that passes, the more that the Rebbe’s teachings and directions for living contemporary life, become prevalent and recognized.
Just look at the growth of the number of Rebbe’s emissaries since his physical passing. At the time of the Rebbe’s passing my wife and I who arrived in Bangkok in 1993, were the second Chabad couple in Asia having arrived several years after the first shluchim to Asia, Rabbi & Mrs. Avtzon in Hong Kong.
Today, baruch Hashem, there are nearly fifty shluchim couples that serve the Jewish communities of Asia.
The message of the Rebbe is clear. Each of us, you and I, have a mission from Hashem to bring Mashiach. And we have all been provided with the toolbox needed. Torah and Mitzvahs.
Let us ‘wake up and smell the coffee’, that the only and singular way that ensures the eternity and success of the Jewish people nationally, and for each and every Jew individually, is the way that Hashem has instructed us at Sinai.
Learning Torah and performing Mitzvahs.
This is a blessed life spiritually.
This is a blessed life materially and emotionally.
May we merit to have MASHIACH come NOW.
Shabbat Shalom
Chodesh Tov (tonight thru Sunday is Rosh Chodesh Tammuz)
Rabbi Yosef Kantor
PS. Thirty years after the Rebbe's passing, his presence is felt stronger than ever. His teachings continue to inspire and guide us, and his insights remain as fresh and relevant as if they were given today. Each of us is a beneficiary of the Rebbe's inspiration in one way or another, and our lives are affected by his visionary leadership.
Click here to explore more about the Rebbe's life and how one can send a letter to his Ohel - resting place and commit to fulfilling more Torah and Mitzvot and making the world more ready for the imminent arrival of Moshiach, AMEN.
And if you are in Bangkok, join us this Motzei Shabbat — Saturday night as we remember the Rebbe and commit to carrrying his message further.