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Why is this happening to me?

Friday, March 18, 2016 - 9:58 AM

We throw our arms up in abandonment and wonder, "Why is this happening to me?" We're angry, we're vulnerable, we're in pain, and we just ask, "Why, G-d? Why me?"

Unfortunately, challenge and crisis is nothing new to our People. As Fiddler's Tevye so eloquently stated in his soliloquy: "We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can't You choose someone else?"

Millennia of suffering and persecution have also taught us a thing or two about the reason for this suffering when we analyze the recurring theme of the cause of our challenges.

Having just brought the mighty Egyptian empire to her knees in ten devastating plagues, the Jews were attacked by Amalek, our nemesis that threatens to destroy our nation. As we read the episode in the Torah this week, the place of the war is identified as Refiddim. Whenever a place is mentioned in Torah, it's not for historical purposes but for contextual insight. The word "Refiddim" means "spiritual weakness." As a result of their neglecting to fulfill their spiritual obligations, their enemy attacked, thus forcing them to turn their attention to G-d for salvation.

The same pattern repeats itself when we celebrate the holiday of Purim next week. The Talmud tells us that the reason we faced the threat of national annihilation (G-d forbid) at the hands of the Persians 2,200 years ago was because the Jews believed that they needed only to have political connections in order to ensure their survival and forgot the need to have divine protection as well.

It was only when the Jews fasted in repentance and reclaimed their connection with G-d that the nemesis disappeared. Once the cause is no more, the effect simply dissipates.

Each of us is an only child of G-d. Our father in heaven loves us like you love your children, and He yearns for a meaningful relationship with us, If, after years of trying to get our attention through bounty and success nothing helps, He sometimes is left with no choice but to get our attention in other ways. If our financial success only caused us to pat ourselves on the back and congratulate our own brilliance, G-d feels neglected and ignored.

Perhaps we have a connection with G-d, but the relationship is stale and dated. Like a loving parent, G-d might desire to deepen that relationship.

Think of your relationship with your kids today. Is it how you'd like it to be? If you had a choice, would you do anything to make them need to remember you?

Let's be smart about this. Instead of kvetching about the problems and protesting the ethics of this, let's simply learn the lesson that G-d has been trying to teach us for around 3000 years: "I love you and I really want to have a deeper relationship with you." (And yes, the Holocaust is a completely unique tragedy that has nothing to do with this pattern.)

Could we too, in our personal lives, draw a precedent from our nation’s history and solve our own problems and crises by addressing the root of the problem and mending our relationship with the Almighty? Let me know.

Secret to good results in your life

Friday, March 11, 2016 - 11:48 AM

Who doesn't yearn for good experiences and happy endings?

Imagine that there was something you could do to actually influence what happens to you?

A basic principle of our faith is that G-d allows us to call the shots in our relationship with him. How we initiate the relationship is how He reciprocates: If we are magnanimous to others, G-d gives us the benefit of the doubt. When we are tightfisted and exacting from others, G-d is strict with us too.

When we are sad or melancholy, we are inexpressive. Our true emotions are buried beneath our facade and covered as if by a shell. G-d's blessings to us therefore are concealed and not readily apparent.

But an amazing thing happens when we are joyous: Joy allows a person to overcome his inhibitions and step out of his comfort zone. The Kaballah actually tells us that you can get to know a person's essence when they are joyous, because then they don't shield their feelings, but express themselves unrestrained.

When we are joyful, G-d reflects joy back to us too. And like our joy, G-d's joy expresses itself in the clarity of His blessings, where there is absolutely no need to uncover, interpret or decode the blessing. Like joy, which is uninhibited and boisterous, the goodness we are sent from G-d is obvious and explicit!

So whether you're holding your breath for the IRS to stop badgering you, or for Mr. Perfect to ask you out on a date, the Torah reveals to us that being joyful is the key catalyst to experiencing the blessings we so desperately seek!

Today is the first day of the month of Adar II, a month in which we are instructed to increase in happiness and joy. Curiously, it is also considered the most fortuitous month in which to schedule critical events such as surgeries, closings and court cases. Is there a connection? You connect the dots!

Wishing you the open mindedness to be able to be joyous despite all that surrounds you.

Can you do what our teens did last week for 24 hours?

Friday, March 4, 2016 - 11:40 AM

Would you survive 24 hours without being allowed to use your cellphone? Would you believe me if I told you that seven teenagers did this for the first time in their lives last Shabbos? The hardest to reach demographic of the Jewish community, the high schoolers, proved that their Jewish pride and identity is stronger than ever!

You should be proud of Palm Beach Gardens' delegation of teens to last week's international Jewish Teen Shabbaton in NYC, where 2000 teens convened from 110 cities across six continents. Between the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum and ice skating in New York's beautiful Bryant Park, I asked them if they were willing to take the pledge to try to keep Shabbos last week, and they all unanimously accepted the challenge!

They quickly realized that Shabbos is not just about what we're not allowed to do, but amazingly, about entering into a totally new dimension. Just like one cannot play computer games or eat a burger while swimming, so too we cannot embrace the beauty and majesty of Shabbos while engaged in mundane, weekday activities.

Perhaps it was the moving melodies of united song with thousands of Jewish teens at the Friday night Shabbos dinner table. Perhaps it was the "Stump the Rabbi" session that I moderated for 300 eager and inquisitive teens with great questions! Or maybe it was the impromptu debates we had on anything from Jewish women's sheitels to G-d and the Holocaust. For one it was the sanctity of entering the holy office of the saintly Rebbe. For another it was the experience of the end of Shabbos in the Rebbe's shul. Whatever the source of the inspiration, my heart broke when one of our teens toasted a l'chaim, thanking me for "having reignited within her everything she loved about her Judaism and thought she had lost."

As hundreds of excited Jewish teens rode the subway to Times Square last Saturday night they broke into spontaneous song and dance on the train. Most onlookers were cheering us on, but when they were confronted by a Jew who claimed to feel uncomfortable by the public display of Judaism, our young adults stood up for themselves and for their identity in a way that made me beam with nachas!

Who would have thought that so many young Jews would be right at home in the heart of Times Square with our pictures emblazoned upon 100 foot tall Jumbotron screens! As we danced at a Jewish rock concert, the power of Jewish unity was palpable and unstoppable in this Shabbat of a lifetime! (Can you find us in the giant selfie Picture below?)

At the Gala Banquet, when we prepared to leave to the Rebbe's Ohel (holy resting place) and make our way back home, a special tribute was made to Ezra Schwartz, a Bostonian teen who was murdered this year in Israel for being a Jew. Ezra's best friend came on stage to standing ovation and read a deeply touching letter he wrote to his best friend after he was killed. I cried when it dawned upon me that our teens weren't dying for their Jewish identities, they are living out their Jewish identities!

The Talmud points out that Children and Builders share the same exact spelling. Our Children are the Builders of our Future. As 2000 Teens return to their respective cities bursting with Jewish Pride, the impact upon the rest of the city is immeasurable! Our focus on the Teens will build a stronger and better Jewish Future for our community. Let's be inspired by their example!

Rebbe Times Square.jpg

Can you find us in this Times Square Selfie below?