From The Desk of Rabbi Yehuda - Chabad Lubavitch of Westport

Selfless

Friday, January 26, 2024 - 10:00 AM

He saved lives & ultimately gave his life.

Earlier this week we awoke to horrendous news of 20 plus soldiers having died overnight in Gaza, defending our people, our land — essentially, our very existence.

One of the fallen heroes was Adam Bismut, an engineer who amongst other achievements had invented a camera that helps lifeguards save lives.

Once, while walking at the Dead Sea he heard the screams of someone drowning unnoticed by the lifeguard. He realized, the lifeguard’s eyes are limited in what they can detect and how vast an area they can scan. He set out to change this by inventing a camera using AI that could scan and detect people in distress alerting the lifeguard and ultimately saving the person drowning.

Saving lives was a motivator to him. Transforming the world to be less harsh. To be nurturing & life preserving. The Jewish ethos. But more than the Jewish ethos — it’s the actual cosmic intention of the creation of the world.

Human beings as the bridge between making this world a place of Divine light — a good place. Or G-d forbid, the opposite. It’s a choice. It’s a mission. It’s called purpose.

Nothing is too small neither too large. We each have our own unique ability to effect our environment and make it better, warmer and illuminating.

Adam was motivated to do good. He saved lives. He saves lives. He will continue to save lives and sadly but incredibly he dedicated his very life to preserve the life of Am Yisrael.

The ways of G-d are not for mortals to understand — we simply don’t have the capacity to comprehend the infinite. We do however have the ability to reach for the infinite, each of us in our own domain reaching higher and higher.

The lives of those who have fallen must continue to inspire us to reach to greater heights. To fuel us in our quest of making this world a better place, a G-dly and goodly place!!

With best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom

Garden or Jungle?

Friday, January 19, 2024 - 10:00 AM

It’s been over 100 days since the unthinkable and inconceivable yet it is precisely because it was so beyond expectation that it was able to transpire.

Life can be counter-intuitive to say the least. Paradoxical describes the world better. The world, beautiful and brutal at the same time.

So is the world a garden or a jungle?

In 1951, the Lubavitcher “Rebbe” accepted the leadership role of the Chabad Lubavitch movement with an address that specifically referred to the world as a garden. Not but a few years after the Holocaust — the worst tragedy that befell our people — he pointedly spoke about the world as a garden with the responsibility for each of us to tend to it accordingly.

Perhaps that too, then, was counterintuitive yet it’s not difficult to see the results of that talk. Moreover, the crux of his address was that specifically in this world, despite the vestiges of evil and the capacity for destruction one could effectuate the greatest impact — the cosmic intention of why this world was created.

Here again, it’s not difficult to see the beauty that has emerged post October 7th. The unity of the Jewish people in Israel and beyond. The outpouring of love and care from one Jew to another; the resourcefulness and the support converging from all corners of the world upon one small sliver of land that was Divinely gifted to One nation as an everlasting inheritance, our beloved land Israel.

Garden or Jungle? It’s not an analysis that can be determined over coffee or even in a synagogue. It’s a reality that can only be established on the ground. For to make it a garden requires each of us to become gardeners. We become tenders of the world by living a life of ethics, morals, mitzvah and Torah.

Yes, the world doesn’t quite see it. That’s part of the paradox but the reality doesn’t change. Each of us, with a Divine code that has been handed down from Moses at Sinai, lovingly preserved for thousands of years, has what it takes to forge forward and to ensure that the Garden of G-d looks as well tended as possible— may that inspire the next stage of life — the arrival of Moshiach speedily in our days!

With best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom,

Six Words!

Friday, January 12, 2024 - 10:00 AM

For six hours he was trapped in a small bathroom inside Kibbutz Be’eri.

Sounds of intense explosions, mayhem and destruction all around. The only weapon he had for the entire six hours was “six words” that he kept or repeating.

Six words!!

Shema Yisrael Adnai Elokeinu Adnai Echad.

He isn’t religious and his experience was harrowing, yet he had an inner strength and what he terms “a weapon”. A source of protection if you will.

We all possess this weapon that protects and safeguards. Sometime we bury this weapon deep in our hearts, sometimes we express it verbally in formal prayer and sometimes we find our own mode of expression. We display it and hang it on our doors in the form of the Mezuza and we teach it thoroughly to our children. We rise with these words and retire at night with these words.

These six words, Shema Yisrael —Hear o Israel the L-rd is Our G-d the L-rd is One— has sustained us for millennia. It is definitely a weapon and it’s not a secret weapon at that. It’s there for us to draw upon every day and whether we consciously know it or not, it comes with us wherever we go, accessible as long as the heart beats!

Six words!

With best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom,

Sing Your Melody!!

Friday, January 5, 2024 - 10:00 AM

Today's piece requires the sense of hearing. It’s the only way to experience the full intensity and beauty of what moved me greatly.

To be honest, I don’t know all that much about Yehuda Becher obm. I know he was 23 when he was murdered at the Nova music festival. I know there’s a clip of him singing to cheer up his friend a week before the fateful day and I now know of the last conversation he had with his father.

https://youtu.be/2t8wtRFeWr0?si=AjRTNOpo9EBFOEA1

“G-d, the soul that you gave me, is pure. You created it, you fashioned it you breathed it into me and you safeguard it within me and eventually you will take it from me — to restore it to me in the time to come. As long as the soul is within me I gratefully thank You. My G-d and the G-d of my forefathers Master of all works L-rd of all souls “.

The above is a prayer from the morning prayers. I say it every day — yet rarely with the heart and passion with which he’s singing it.

The last time his father spoke with him was on the Festival of Sukkoth. He was telling his son a story from the great mystic, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev who describes the journey of the soul as it descends from the celestial heights to this physical world. An angel accompanies the soul and primes the soul of what to expect from life including some of the challenges it will encounter.

The physical world with all its challenges is quite a shock for the soul so the angel teaches the soul its own unique melody to accompany it and which serves —at difficult times—to remind it of its purpose, instill faith and hope—to weather the challenges.

Did Yehuda have an intuition of his impending passing? Most likely he was just living life to its fullest and expressing his gratitude for all the blessings of life as it’s gifted to us by the L-rd of all souls!

What a powerful demonstration for each of us to appreciate what we have, express gratitude to the gifter of life, listen closely to our distinct melody — and to refocus our attention to the soul and transcendence — our true purpose in this world!

May the soul of Yehuda ascend on high, replete with its own melody, sung together with the angles at the footstool of the Master of All!!