Parshas Lech Lecha - 5764
Og informed Avraham of the whereabouts of his nephew Lot so
that Avraham could rescue Lot. In the zchus (heavenly merit) of
this kind act, Og was rewarded by HaShem (G-d) with a long life.
A zchus is a powerful thing and can manifest itself in
unexpected ways, as the following true story illustrates:
Rabbi Stuart Weiss, director of the Jewish Outreach
Center of Ra'anana, and his family, recently sat shiva for
their son St.-Sgt. Ari Weiss, 21, who was killed during fierce gunbattles
in Shechem Monday, September 30, 2002 and buried the following
day.
Some soldiers in Ari's unit were visiting at the time
the shiva and one of them mentioned that Ari had had a very
close call about a year ago in a different battle. It seems he
was fired upon by an Arab terrorist but the bullet miraculously
hit the magazine (bullet supply chamber) of his M16 rifle and
bounced off. Suddenly someone produced the magazine with a
small piece of bent metal in the absolute uppermost corner.
They started passing around the magazine for visitors to
examine, and somehow it passed into Stuart's hands. As he
looked at it, he turned white and he shed some extra tears.
Then he told those of us sitting nearby the following amazing
story:
"At the time of my wedding I lived in the United States.
Shortly afterwards, I started teaching at a community
Hebrew school. Once a year they would invite us to conduct a
Shabbaton for the school children at a camp in Oconomowoc
Wisconsin. I made it clear that I could not participate if
nonkosher food was being served. They made the camp strictly
Kosher because of us. It was a huge undertaking but it was a
labor of love. In the end, we showed them what a real Shabbos is
like - and it made a profound impact.
I just noticed that on the bottom of the magazine, it
says it was manufactured in Oconomowoc WI."
"Surely, " Rabbi Weiss concluded, "This is Hashem's way
of telling us that because of that zchus, that meritorious act,
He gave us an extra year of life for Ari."
D'Var Torah - Parshas Lech Lecha
By Rabbi Baruch Lederman
Avraham was alone in the world. He believed in Hashem while everyone else
worshiped idols. The mighty of the time were against him, and even his own
father was against. Through his immense faith and tenacity he carried on
and adhered to, upheld and publicized the belief in Hashem (G-d). With
dedication and love he planted the seeds of Judaism. As a result we now have a
flourishing Torah nation. One fiery individual can have a massive effect as the
following true story illustrates:
A young soldier, an American named Motti was stationed in Gaza near
a small town called Netzarim. This latest Intifada started on Rosh Hashanah so
by Yom Kippur the fighting was quite fierce in Gaza and the way to Netzarim was
particularly dangerous. He convinced his commanding officer to let him borrow a
tank so he could get to Netzarim to borrow a Torah scroll from the community
synagogue to take back to the base. And the Jews of Netzarim donated enough
Tziziot [garment with fringes] for the whole platoon.
Still, Motti didn't know what kind of Yom Kippur Tefilla [service]
he could conduct. Besides himself there was only one other Orthodox soldier on
the base. Most of the other soldiers have, believe it or not, never attended a
Yom Kippur service in their lives. Rabbi Kook advised him to just conduct the
service and instruct them to say "Amen" to each blessing and it would be as if
they were praying themselves.
The soldier Motti described the service after Yom Kippur as the
most incredible davening of his life. "All the soldiers put on the Tziziot
provided by the Jewish community of Netzarim. They listened attentively as I led
the davening and answered "Amen" to my blessing. I read from the Torah and my
friend and I took turns being called up to the Torah. Soon other soldiers
requested to be called to the Torah and I showed them which blessing to make. We
ended calling up no less than 20 soldiers to the Torah that day."
This true story submitted by Louise Miller, was told by Rabbi Simcha Kook.
HAVE A GREAT STORY? Please send it to us. Contact us to
dedicate a Dvar Torah in memory/honor of a loved one/event.
"Abram took... ... the souls they made in Charan" (Gen.12:5). Abram took the people whom he had influenced when he went on
his journey. It is noteworthy that the people are refered to as souls. We see what the Torah views as important. Not a person's
body, wealth or power; but, his soul.
A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 300, he asked, Who would like this $20
bill? Hands started going up. He said, I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this. He proceeded to crumple the
dollar bill up. He then asked, Who still wants it? Still the hands were up in the air. Well, he replied, What if I do this? And he
dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. Now who still
wants it? Still the hands went into the air. My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the
money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped,
crumpled, and ground into the dirt. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you
will never lose your value: dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless. The worth of our lives comes not in
what we do or who we know, but by WHO WE ARE. You are special - Don't ever forget it.
DVAR TORAH: Lech Lecha
The whole of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) was in an uproar! A well-known man, a
member of the Belzer Chasidic sect, and his wife had just given birth to
their first child - a boy - after being childless for twenty-eight years!
The sholom zachor (party in honor of baby boy held the Friday night before
the bris) that Friday night was the event of the year. Well over a thousand
people came by to wish Mazel
Tov to the proud and exhausted father. The food supply ran out in short
order as did the drinks, but no one seemed to mind. At the height of the
celebration, the crowd quieted down as the father indicated that he would
like to say a few words.
He began in a loud voice, "Thank you all for coming and sharing in the
simcha (joyous celebration) Although I have no more food to offer, let me at
least tell over a story which I'm sure you'll appreciate."
The ecstatic new father composed himself and continued. "When I was a bochur
(unmarried student) learning in the Belzer Yeshiva , there was a cleaning
lady who would come by every day to tidy up and scrub the Beis< i> Medrash
and adjoining rooms. She was a fixture in the yeshiva and devoted her life
to maintaining the yeshiva building. She was, however, not a wealthy person
by any stretch and as her own family grew, she was at a loss of options as
far as taking care of her children. She decided to bring her kids with her
to work, and as she cleaned and mopped in one area of the building, the
young children would run amuck, screaming, crying and generally causing
quite a commotion, in the rest of the yeshiva. At first, we put up with it;
we even thought it was cute for a time. But after a while, the kids really
began to 'shter' (disrupt) us in our learning and davening Try as we might
to control them, they wouldn't listen and continued on in their childish
games and noise. A number of younger bochurim (students) asked me, as one of
the oldest in the chaburah (group), to ask her not to bring her children
anymore to the yeshiva
"I agreed to talk to her and I brazenly walked up to her and told her that
her kids were disturbing e veryone in yeshiva and she should find some sort
of alternative method of child-care for them. I'll never forget how she
looked at me with tired eyes and said, 'Bochur , you should never have tzaar
gidul bonim (the pain and anguish that one goes through when raising
children.) The crowd gasped.
"As many of you know," continued the father, "my wife and I have been to
countless doctors who've recommended every sort of treatment. We moved
abroad for awhile to be near an 'expert' which proved to be fruitless. One
last, extreme treatment was offered and after trying that, it too, turned
out to be just a fantasy; we felt doomed to a life without the pleasure of
raising a yiddishe family.
"After that last attempt, as we walked back into the apartment that we lived
in for the past twenty-eight years, our entire sad situation hit us full
force, like a ton of bricks. Together, we broke down crying and asked for
forgiveness. I spent hours on the phone until I came up with an address,
which I ran over to immediately. She did not recognize me obviously, but
when I told her over the story, a spark flickered in her eyes. I tearfully
apologized for my harsh words and she graciously forgave me with her whole
heart."
Beaming from ear to ear, the father announced, " Rabbosai, that took place
exactly nine months ago!" (The foregoing true story was submitted by Zev
Bienenstock)
Dedicated by the Gombos family in memory of William & Ida Laufer and Bela
Gombos. |