Shalom's 18th Yartzeit

My brother Shalom's 18th yartzeit is coming up. It's hard to wrap my head around this big number. A number that means life, when he is not alive with us. Sure, I believe he's living the most precious and beloved existence and his life is more real than the life we live in this world of falsehood. But my life feels so real to me. And I want to do something special to carry on his name and his life in a way that gives life to others. 

I'm knee deep in reading an incredible and inspiring book, 90 Seconds, about Eli Beer, the man who started United Hatzalah. This book speaks to me on so many levels. He was a teen who couldn't sit in class, got kicked out of school so many times and ended up leaving school for good, starting his own business ventures and initiatives just to keep busy. He volunteered for Magen David Adom which lead him to starting an organization whose goal is to reach each call for help within 90 seconds, by having volunteers in every part of Eretz Yisroel. It's a long story and worth the read and I want to do something to contribute towards his life saving efforts.

Here's my idea. I am looking for 18 people to commit to donating $18 (or more) to United Hatzalah, in memory of my brother Shalom whose 18th yartzeit is this Friday. To honor his life, and the 18 years since he was last present on this earth, let's help the organization that gives life and extends the lives of so many! And if you'd like to level up your donation, you can donate any amount not just once, but every month for the next 12 months.

I'm going to be the first!

Can you join me?

Click on this link to fill out a form if you're in: https://bit.ly/GiveLifeForShalom

L'ilui nishmas Shalom ben Chaim Nosson whose yartzeit is this Friday, August 4th, י"ז אב.

Parshas Emor

There is a special mitzvah for a farmer to leave the corner of his field for the poor man when he is harvesting his crop. He demonstrates his awareness of Who blessed him with this good and shares it with those who are less fortunate than he is.

When we are blessed with plenty, we should remember those who aren't as fortunate as we are and share it with them. And while we think of giving in terms of money, there are so many ways to give. We can give our time or our knowledge, a listening ear or a compliment, encouragement or good advice. Some forms of giving don't have a price tag but they're worth more than all the money in the world!

May we always be on the giving end by sharing whatever good we have with others - from money to talents and everything in between!

Parshas Vayakheil

The men and women gave so much to the mishkan that Moshe Rabbeinu had to tell them to stop. They understood the value of their contributions and that everything they gave would be used for a building so special and so holy.

When we give tzeddakah, we need to realize how valuable our donations are. We have the ability to help people we know and to help complete strangers by giving generously to organizations who help our fellow Jews. If Hashem blessed us with extra money, we should feel lucky to be in the position to give to others. And if we don't have extra, we should realize that giving things that don't have monetary value is just as important.

May we be able to use the money and qualities Hashem blessed us with to help other people with positivity!

Purim Poem-A Mashal

Here is the Purim Poem I wrote to go along with my mishloach manos this year.

It's finally here-this exciting day,
Purim with all its simcha has come our way
How can we make the most of this time?
It can be explained with a mashal in this little rhyme.

There once was a man who saved the king,
And as a reward he was allowed to take anything,
By spending a day in the king's house full of treasures,
The riches he'd amass would sustain him forever.
But to distract him from filling his sacks with gold,
The king found out what the man loved most and was promptly told,
Music was his passion, so it was played throughout the day,
And it worked, the man spent his time listening to the musicians play,
Instead of collecting diamonds, rubies and precious stones,
And he left the king's palace with nary a piece of value to call his own.

The nimshal is clear: whenever we can achieve something great,
The satan works hard to distract us, he doesn't wait.
So on purim he keeps us focused on costumes and themes,
To make sure we forget the miraculous story and the lesson that it brings:
That in the zechus of the tefillos and the teshuva that we did,
Hashem spared us from destruction, each and every yid,
And the Jews of Shushan merited an incredible salvation,
And Purim became a day of joy and celebration.

Let's not fall for the Satan's trap and focus instead on what we can attain,
"כל הפושט יד נותנים לו," we have so much we can gain!
Just like we give tzeddakah without checking if the "pauper" is real or a fake,
Hashem doesn't check if we deserve good, it's in our hands to take,
Advantage of the opportunity to ask without holding back,
We are in the King's ultimate treasure house for a day-let's fill up our sack!
Because on Purim we have the power to achieve our own salvation,
For ourselves, our families and the entire Jewish Nation.

May we be able to utilitze this day that is saturated with power,
With tefillos from our hearts so brachos onto us Hashem will shower!
And let's remember to daven and bag for this galus to end,
When Moshiach ben David, Hashem will finally send!

Purim-Pierce the Heavens!!

Purim is a huge day of tefillah. It says about Purim kol haposhet yad nosnim lo, whoever extends their hand is given to. This phrase is used to express how careful we should be when someone asks us for tzeddakah on Purim day but it is also reminding us all how powerful this day is for our tefillos to be answered.

If you ask, Hashem will hear. And if you think He didn't answer you last year, don't be mistaken. Your tefillos are going somewhere.

I heard a mashal that compares it to a freezer. Sometimes, the time is not right for that specific tefillah to be answered. So Hashem saves the tefillah - he puts it in the freezer and then when the time IS right (and only Hashem knows when that is), He will take it out and "defrost" it for you and your yeshuah will come!!

I have a request to make from all the readers of this blog. My sister, Chaya Sara, coauthor of this blog is b"h 30 years old. It's a bracha that she is alive, happy and accomplishing so much with her life. B"h she helps many teens at risk, she speaks to parents and teens alike, helping them along this bumpy road we all called life. She inspires everyone wherever she goes. She speaks for school functions at Shabbatons, Chagigas and other gatherings.

She is still waiting to get married. My heart goes out for her and wishes so strongly for her to find her other half.

Do you want to be part of this mitzvah? I want to organize something on Purim day - so that we can utilize the power of this day to pierce the heavens and beg Hashem for her to experience her own personal miracle of Purim.

I want to try to have the entire tehillim completed on the day of Purim by all the readers of this blog - as a zechus for her. There are a lot of followers and people who read this in google reader so I'm hoping that I can organize it between all the readers of this blog.

Do you want to join? Leave a comment or send me an email at inspirationalinformation1 [at] gmail [dot] com letting me know how many perakim you are able to say (and if you have a preference of a specific few perakim) and I will let you know which ones to say.

If you want to have her in mind in your daily tefillos, her name is Chaya Sara bas Charna Raizel.

Thank you!

Tzeddakah on Purim

Purim is the most hectic of days for every Jew - how much more so for the great Rosh Yeshivah, and leader of his generation, R' Chaim Volozhiner. R' Chaim was besieged all day long by lines of paupers who stretched out their hands for Mattanos L'evyonim. Every poor person received his gift with gratitude and promptly left the Rabbi's home to run elsewhere for more gifts. But there was one pauper who lingered around the house and then approached R' Chaim again to ask for another gift.

Often, people become annoyed by this kind of behavior, especially on Purim when they may feel beleaguered by the onslaught of a seemingly endless flow of solicitors. Not so R' Chaim Volozhiner. He graciously gave the pauper a second monetary gift and even spent a moment talking to him. The world famous Rov and Rosh Yeshiva asked the poor man if perchance he had a gut vort, a nice Torah idea about Purim to share with him.

The pauper responded, "The Midrash says that Mordechai knew that the heavenly tribunal agreed with Haman's decree to harm the Jews because they had to be punished for their sins. However, the tribunal has two different ways of sealing its decrees. If the decree is sealed with a seal of blood, it is permanent and can't be rescinded. If, on the other hand, it is sealed with clay, then there was still a last chance for the Jews to repent and thereby shatter the clay seal. Mordechai was deeply concerned lest the decree was sealed in blood. When he met Eliyahu Hanavi who informed him that the decree was only sealed with clay, Mordechai was overjoyed because there was still hope for the salvation of the Jews.

'I would like to know, honored Rabbi, whether there is some remez - a hint of this concept on the text of the Megillah itself'."

Before R. Chaim could reply, the pauper continued and demonstrated a textual source for the derivation of this idea from the Megillas Esther (3:9), where it says "Yikasev Li'Abdam" - it shall be written down to destroy them. The Hebrew word "Li'Abdam", may be broken into two words to read "Lo B'dam" - not with blood. Simply inserting a space in this word describing Haman's decree reveals this key fact about the hidden Divine decree.

The next time R' Chaim visited his Rebbe, the Vilna Gaon, he repeated this vort to him. The Vilna Gaon's response was, "The very same Eliyahu Hanavi who brought this good news to Mordechai in Shushan many centuries ago, revealed this Scriptural proof to you on Purim."

This incident teaches us how important it is to be patient with the poor. If R' Chaim had been impatient with the pauper when he approached him a second time, and had rejected his request, then R' Chaim would have forfeited his opportunity to have 'gilui Eliyahu' - a revelation of Eliyahu Hanavi. Beware! You never know who is knocking at the door.

(from Tuvcha Yabiyu Vol II, p. 278, Tzedakah Treasury p. 256)

Making a Deal With G-d?

The following question was submitted anonymously using the form on the right.

Are you allowed to make deals with G-d?

I'm not that close enough to Him to be able to tell you what is and what is not allowed. This is not something I've seen written in a halacha sefer - "One may/may not make deals with Hashem for things s/he specifically wants." I will just suggest to you that there is a certain way to live life in which you will come out feeling happy and not upset when things do not work out the way you would like them to.

Why would a person want to make a deal with G-d? Partly because they want to feel like they are in control. Hashem, I'll do this and then you'll do that, deal? [Shake hands] But it doesn't work that way. Hashem is not your friend who you can just make deals with and then hope He will pull through at the end, as long as you kept your side of the deal. Hashem is the One and Only G-d who created the world and all that is in it - so it's only normal that there are going to be things that happen that you may not understand. It's something that as difficult as it is to accept, makes so much sense. How could a human being who is so limited understand the ways of Hashem?!

Did you read this post that I recently re-posted on the blog? It explains this concept really well - how Hashem is so beyond us that it is just impossible for us to understand His ways.

Making deals with Hashem will only lead to disappointment. The reason for this is that sometimes you will see Him "pulling through" and doing His side of the deal and other times you will see that He wont. If you tell Hashem, "I'm going to give x amount of money to tzeddakah and you make sure that I will have xyz happen to me." Hashem may have a reason why it is not good for xyz to happen to you. So if you give the tzeddakah (or make any other change in your life) and then you don't see the yeshuah you wanted, you will be frustrated and upset. And what about the times it does "work"? It's possible that the thing you wanted was good for you at that specific time and Hashem gave it to you - and you would have gotten to that point whether or not you would have made that deal with Him.

What's important to focus on is being a good Jew. Improving your middos. Watching the way you speak. Fixing up your tefillah. Being happy for other people when good things happen to them. Bringing Hashem into your life. Focusing on the good things you have. Strengthening your emunah and trust in Hashem that all He does is for the best.

There's no guarantee that the specific things you want to happen will happen to you but one thing is for sure. If you are constantly trying, striving to be better, you will be a happier person - regardless of whether you get those things you so desperately wanted - because you will know that Hashem loves you and only has good things in mind for you, even if you don't understand it at the moment.

My bracha to you is that you should be able to strengthen yourself to follow Hashem no matter what circumstances you find yourself in and your life should be filled with so much good that you will be too busy thanking Hashem for all you have to focus on making deals with Him!! He should send so much goodness your way that you will be overwhelmed with gratitude for all the blessings you have!

Please can the one who asked this question let me know that you read this answer, if it helped and if you still have questions about what I wrote. Thanks!

Give a Bracha

Here is a story with a great lesson to learn from this week's parsha - when Yitzchok asked his son Yaakov to bring him something to eat before giving him a bracha.

HaRav Yaakov Neiman, Z’tl (Rosh Yeshiva in Petach Tikvah), was once raising funds in America. He did not know any English, and after having knocked several times on a well-to-do individual’s door without response, he was approached by the person’s neighbor who knew a little bit of Yiddish. HaRav Neiman explained to him as best he could that he had been attempting to contact the person on whose door he had knocked to raise much-needed funds for his Yeshiva. The neighbor welcomed him into his home as a guest, and invited him to stay until he could actually make contact. That evening, he finally contacted by phone the well-to-do individual he had been seeking, and made an appointment with him. HaRav Neiman, when taking leave of his short-term host, asked him “What can I do for you?” The host responded that he would really like to have a child. HaRav Neiman gave him a bracha that within the year, he would have one - and, in fact, he was blessed with a son within the year.

HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, Shlita, upon hearing the story commented that HaRav Neiman’s bracha was fulfilled not only because it was the bracha of a Talmid Chochom, but also because it was a bracha that flowed from a sincere feeling of HaKaras HaTov, sincere gratitude, for what this caring person had done for him. It is for this reason, HaRav Kanievsky continues, that Yitzchak Avinu had requested his son to bring him good food prior to giving him a blessing, so that the blessing would be all the more powerful.

We are all faced with situations every day - in the home, at work, in the store, and even in Shul - where we are either the giver, or the recipient of good bestowed upon us by another. While it may be bolder for someone who has done a favor or helped someone out to ask his recipient for a heartfelt bracha, it most certainly would be in order for the recipient to initiate the blessing, and give a bracha to the giver for something that he knows is needed.

We all know that negative words have reverberating affects in celestial spheres (See Introduction to Sefer Chofetz Chaim). Since Hashem’s “Middah Tova” (attribute of reward) is much greater than His Midas Puraniyos (attribute of punishment), we can very readily assume that a bracha of one person to another in this world has even more powerful effects in the Heavens than the words of lashon hara or negative speech.

Undoubtedly, the brachos and the compliments one person gives to another pleases HaKadosh Baruch Hu greatly. Making the effort to unite, to make another feel good, simply to wish another to be successful and well, is a simple, but essential, step in the bringing of the geulah, our final redemption. It is important to note, however, that Shlomo HaMelech, the wisest of all men, takes us a step further, as he teaches, “Simcha L’Ish B’Maaneh Feev…-A man has joy with the response of his mouth” (Mishlei 15:23). When one speaks in a loving and appreciative tone, blessing others in a way that he himself would like to be blessed, it is the speaker himself, who will feel the joy and contentment in his very own words…it is the giver who feels a sense of accomplishment and of G-dliness, as he emulates Hashem’s ways!

(Taken from yesterday's Hakhel post.)

Giving Tzeddaka - A Video

Here is a great video with a powerful message on giving tzeddaka.



So keep this in mind next time you do this special mitzvah and may you always be on the giving end!