Podcasts about baruch hashem

When our plans are suddenly canceled or unexpected mistakes arise, they often appear to be nothing more than unfortunate coincidences. In such moments, it's natural to feel disappointment or confusion about why things didn't go as expected. However, someone with emunah —faith in Hashem—understands that there is no such thing as a mistake. Everything unfolds precisely as it is meant to, even if the reasons are hidden from us. Most of the time, we're not privileged to see the full picture. We don't always understand why certain events deviate from our carefully laid plans. Yet sometimes, Hashem offers a glimpse behind the scenes, revealing how what seemed like a disruption was actually a necessary step in a greater design. A woman shared her experience from this past Simchat Torah . She had been eagerly preparing for a joyous Yom Tov, anticipating a full house with all her children and grandchildren. She cooked in advance, excited to host the entire family. But on Chol HaMoed , her three teenage sons expressed a strong desire to return to their out-of-town yeshivot for Simchat Torah . Though disappointed, she graciously agreed, recognizing how meaningful it would be for them. Then, on Hoshana Rabbah night, her married son informed her that he had missed his flight home from his in-laws. As a result, he, his wife, and their three children would be spending Yom Tov elsewhere. The vibrant family gathering she had envisioned quickly diminished, leaving her and her husband with unexpected quiet. On a whim, they decided to go to her husband's former yeshiva—where two of their sons would be spending the holiday. A room near the yeshiva became available that night, and they took it. They packed up the food she had lovingly prepared and made the spontaneous trip. Though out of character for them, the experience turned out to be profoundly uplifting. During the Yom Tov, two different people independently suggested a shidduch for their daughter—an alumnus of the very yeshiva they were visiting who was also there for Yom Tov . They followed up on the recommendation, and Baruch Hashem , their daughter is now engaged to that young man. A missed flight, a change of plans, and a last-minute decision to travel—all seemingly minor and natural occurrences—were, in truth, Hashem's orchestration to bring this family to the exact place where their daughter would find her zivug . In another touching story, a man shared how his 10-year-old daughter asked for a special siddur with her name engraved on it. He told her that was a gift he had planned for her bat mitzvah, over a year away. Not wanting to wait, she asked again. He gently explained that it was an expensive item and not something he could give her "just because," but he encouraged her to ask Hashem for it instead. He used the moment to teach her the power of heartfelt tefillah . Inspired, the young girl began praying earnestly each day for that personalized siddur . One day a few months later, her principal called her to her office. While she was there, the principal pulled out a beautiful sidur with her name engraved on it. She explained she bought it for her granddaughter but it was the wrong nusach. Being that the store wouldn't exchange it because the name was already engraved upon it, she was stuck with it. Then she thought of this girl in her school with the exact same name as her granddaughter and offered the sidur to her. And just like that, this 10-year-old girl received the sidur she wanted so badly. It looked like a mistake but we know there are no mistakes. Hashem wanted this girl to have that sidur and this is how He accomplished it. Her sincerity was moving—and a powerful reminder that no prayer is too small or insignificant in Hashem's eyes. Everything that happens is me'et Hashem and if we're able to internalize that, we'll have a much easier time dealing with the unexpected.

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I'm Alex Segal, and today, I am so happy to be back! Baruch Hashem, it was a beautiful Pesach holiday filled with a lot of great quality family time, cooking, decluttering, all the things we talk about on here and now it feels good to be back to the podcast!Coming off of Pesach, we just spend time looking inward, thinking about the excess chametz we want to get rid of in our own lives, the fluff that gets in the way of who we really are, what things maybe we want to free ourselves from and be free to do. This episode is all about self-awareness, going beneath the surface, getting more to the root of who you are and it's a beautiful continuation of that work we can bring into this new time period on the Jewish calendar. Dvora Henner, our guest this week, is the founder of MAXIMIZE, a home organization and life coaching business dedicated to helping women make the most of their space and time. She is passionate about self-awareness and personal growth as the foundation for stronger, healthier relationships.In the episode, we speak about:-Her journey from being a full-time stay at home mother to re-entering the out of the house work and finding what she wants to do-The importance of self-awareness, how we learn more about it throughout life as different triggers come up-How this is really the key to solving a lot of our relationship issues we may have with those close to us-What's going on inside of us when our emotions are challenged in a new way-How to use the information to have a deeper, more vulnerable conversation with a loved one-How to improve our shalom bayit-What a woman's needs are compared with a man's needs and how that plays into all of this-How we can practice more self-acceptance...and SO much more!This episode sounds simple on the surface but it is really so deep and thought-provoking and the perfect thing to listen to as we move through this next period.If you'd like to get in touch with Dvora, she can be reached at dvorahenner123@gmail.com.

We begin the Seder with the Ha Lachma Anya , which speaks about the matzah and ends with the words, "Now we are still in Galut. We hope to be in Eretz Yisrael with the Beit HaMikdash before next year's Seder." Rabbi Ronen Sharabani gave a beautiful explanation in his new Haggada Me'afar Kumi about why we begin with this. Chazal tell us that the final ge'ula will take place in the month of Nisan. So, when the month begins, all of Klal Yisrael is hoping to be in Yerushalayim with the Korban Pesach by the night of the Seder. However, if Lel HaSeder arrives and once again Mashiach has not come, it could cause a person to enter the Seder with feelings of despair, thinking: "We've made this request of L'shanah Haba'ah B'Yerushalayim every year of our entire lives—and it still hasn't happened. What's going to give us chizuk to think that things will ever change?" For this, the Rabbis tell us to begin the Seder speaking about the matza. The Seforno writes on the pasuk describing Yosef Hatzaddik being rushed out of prison that this is the way of all salvations that Hashem brings—they come in an instant. Even when it looks like there's no hope in sight, things can suddenly change. And this is what happened in Mitzrayim. The pasuk says they were rushed out of Egypt without enough time for their dough to rise. Matza is the symbol of an instant salvation. And so it says about the future geula : פתאום יבוא אל היכלו —Mashiach is going to come suddenly. When we internalize that the salvations of Hashem come in an instant, we will never despair, because we know everything can change in a moment's notice. What we see today has nothing to do with tomorrow—and the same applies to the difficulties people are currently experiencing. No matter how long it's been, no matter how dismal it seems, salvation can always come in an instant. A woman told me she got married about twenty years ago and was looking forward to a joyful home filled with children. After seven long years of waiting for their miracle, they were blessed with a precious daughter who indeed filled their hearts with the joy they had hoped for. For years after that, they tried every possible method to have another child, but it wasn't working. They delved deeply into learning and practicing emunah , and then, with the advice of their rabbi, they decided to take a pause from all their efforts and instead focus on enjoying the life they had. Especially since they were making so many efforts, they risked attributing success or failure to their own actions rather than to Hashem. They spent a year focusing more on spirituality, adopting a healthier lifestyle, eating better, exercising regularly, and appreciating everything Hashem had already given them. Then they went back to the doctor to try another treatment. Everything was looking good. They were awaiting results from a certain test, and when the results came back positive, they were thrilled. Even the doctor was elated. He told them they needed to repeat the test two more times. The second time, the numbers were even better. But on the third test, the results took a turn the other way. After eight long years of waiting for their second child, it appeared that once again they were going to be let down. That night, they called a hotline for emunah , and amazingly, there was a story shared about a childless couple who had been told by their doctor that they would never have children. The husband went for a drive afterward to clear his mind, and when he returned home, he found that his wife had set the table with their finest china. She told him, "We're going to celebrate all we have, despite the sorrowful news." The next morning, at 5 a.m., they received a phone call from the fertility clinic saying it had been a mistake—and that she actually was going to have a child after all. This woman and her husband took that story as a direct message from Hashem. They picked themselves up and enjoyed that Shabbat more than ever. They sang with their 8-year-old miracle girl. They expressed gratitude and celebrated all the blessings that Hashem had given them. That Motzaei Shabbat , they went for another test, and amazingly, everything changed for the better. Baruch Hashem , that year, they were blessed with their second miracle baby. The salvations of Hashem always come in an instant. This is the chizuk we give ourselves at the beginning of the Seder, and this is something we must always keep in mind. B'ezrat Hashem , we should see the Geula Shelema and celebrate this holiday in Yerushalayim with the Korban Pesach. But even if that doesn't happen— even then —it doesn't mean the geula can't come a second later. Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach.

Welcome to our Daily Bitachon. We're now in the Haggadah shel Pesach, in the unit of יכול מראש חודש. We are finally at the punchline that the time to say the Haggadah shel Pesach is on the night of the 15th, because it says, והגדת לבנך, Tell your son ביום On that day, but that day means the night of that day , בעבור זה , Ba'Avur Zeh / Because of this / Zeh - pointing to something- referring to the Matzah and Marror that's in front of you. So tell your son, God took us out of Mirzrayim because of the Matzah and the Marror. The obvious question, asked by Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz and others is, God didn't take us out because of Matzah and Marror…isn't it the opposite? That because we ate Matzah and Marror in Mitzrayim, we commemorate the holiday of Pesach with Matzah and Marror? Did He take us out just so we could eat Matzah and Marror? And the answer is, yes He did. The Torah came before the world, and the fact that we eat Matzah, or do the Mitzvah of Marror, has nothing to do with the fact that we got out of Mitzrayim. The proof is that Avraham Avinu ate Matzah before we got out of Mitzrayim! The Avot kept the Torah before Mitzrayim. So there's something about eating Matzah on the 15th of Nissan that does something . God could have told us, it's a Chok like Para Adumah , and we don't know why we do this. But some things God decided to make a Chok , that you don't understand, and some things He decided to make it a Edut / testimony that's testifying. But we don't eat Matzah and Marror because we got out of Mitzrayim. In fact, it's the opposite:in order for us to eat Matzah and Marror, and have a sense behind it, God took us out of Mitzrayim, and we had the story of Matzah and Marror. But the goal of Yetziat Mitzrayim was to get to Matzah and Marror. That was the goal. The Torah came before the world. Like Rav Yerucham Levovitz said in a beautiful way, human beings really could have grown from the ground, or be hatched from eggs, could have come off of trees. Why did Hashem make it that human beings have a father and a mother? Because of the Mitzvah of Kivud Av V'Em , and without a father and mother you couldn't perform the Mitzvah of Kivud Av V'Em. What came first, the chicken or the egg? What came first is the Torah. And what comes afterwards-history, is there to create the stage for the Torah to be relevant, so to say. And in order for Matzah and Marror to have a sense to it, we had to get out of Mitzrayim. So we got out of Mitzrayim to create Matzah and Marror. This is a huge paradigm shift in how we look at the world. The world and all its events are really happening for the Torah, not the opposite. A mashal that I like to use to bring this out, is to imagine a top cardiologist is dating a girl, and he notices from the way she walks and talks that she has a heart murmur or something like that. He doesn't want to scare her, but he knows that she needs to take an aspirin every single day. How is he going to get her to take an aspirin every single day? He comes up with a proposal plan. Some people arrange a plane flying by with a sign saying, " Will you marry me?" This cardiologist is a dry guy, and he comes up with the following idea. He tells her that he was always interested in visiting an aspirin factory. " Let's go to the Bayer Aspirin factory," he tells her. He prepares an aspirin that has Bayer stamped on one side,and, Will you marry me? on the other side. After the whole tour, they give out complimentary aspirins. (Of course, after such a boring trip, you need to take an aspirin). He gives his future fiancé the little packet. She opens it up and sees, Will you marry me? Beautiful. How romantic. And then he tells her, "I would like you to remember this very special, this very sentimental day. So every day, I'd like you to take an aspirin and think about how I proposed to you." She goes along with it and takes an aspirin every single day, thinking that the reason she's taking the aspirin is to remember that her husband proposed to her in the aspirin factory. They live a nice long life together. When they're 80 years old, he finally tells her , "I want to to tell you a secret. The secret is that you have a heart murmur. Baruch Hashem, everything's fine. You took an aspirin every single day. You're doing great. And you know what? I took you to the aspirin factory just to get you to take the aspirin. So you are not taking the aspirin to remember what happened at the aspirin factory." That's exactly what God did for us. He didn't tell us to eat Matzah and Marror because we got out of Mitzrayim. The opposite. He made Yetziat Mitzrayim happen, He made the history happen, in order to give us a reason to eat the Matzah and Marror. But ultimately, we eat the Matzah and Marror because that's what we're supposed to do. It's not just Matzah and Marror, it's life . Everything that happens is just happening to fulfill Hashem's will in the world. What comes first is His will, is His Gezera , like the Bet Halevi says, when it comes to ויהי מקץ שנתים ימים פרעה חולם. After two years Paroah has a dream and Yosef gets out. Yosef didn't get out because Paroah had a dream. The opposite. Because Yosef had to get out, Hashem made it that Paroah had a dream. I call it the upside down theory. What comes first and what comes second? What caused what? We think, "Oh, I have a problem, so I'll pray to get rid of the problem." No, God wants your prayers, so He gives you a problem. Quite often in life we don't see what's causing what. What's the cause and what's the effect? What comes first and what comes second? What's the chicken and what's the egg? That's the lesson of Ba'Avur Zeh.

If, lo alenu, a tragedy occurs and everyone who hears about it thinks "How could such a thing happen? The people affected are so righteous. How could they be suffering like this now? Isn't Hashem merciful? How could all of this suffering be considered mercy?" This is one of the most difficult questions in emunah to deal with. Emunah means to believe, even though we don't comprehend. We never change our emunah because of something that appears to contradict it. The Rambam wrote, in his Igeret Mussar, to his son, "כאשר תמצאו כתוב עמוק ומאמר נבוך – if you ever come upon something written that is very deep and obscure, whether it's something in the Torah, Nevi'im or Sifreh Chachamim – אשר לא תבינוהו – which is not understandable – ונראה כסותר פינות התורה – and it appears to be contradicting fundamental principles of Torah – אל תזוז מאמונתכם – do not budge from your emunah – עמדו בחזקתכם – hold on to what you have been accustomed to believe – והפחיתות ההוא חשבוהו בכם – and the fact that you don't understand what it's saying is just a result of your human deficiency – הניחוהו בקרן זוית – put it on the side for now and don't change your emunah because of a question." This is how we are supposed to think. If something happens in the world that doesn't seem to conform to what we know about Hashem. In the future, Hashem is going to give a big class on everything that ever took place in this world and, at that time, everything will make perfect sense, and we will see clearly how merciful and righteous Hashem always was. Now is when we have the opportunity to believe even if we can't see it. There is so much out there that we can't comprehend – Gan Eden, Olam Haba. When a tzaddik leaves the world, he has the most wonderful experience moving on to a much better place. We don't see what's going on on the other side. A Rabbi was once speaking to an audience about tragedy and he spoke about the real purpose of life and this world, namely to earn the merit to enjoy with Hashem for all of eternity. After the class, a young widow approached and said, "I believe everything you said, Rabbi, and I know my husband couldn't be happier now where he is in the Olam HaEmet. But what about me? How am I supposed to go on, raising little children by myself? The pain I'm going through is too great to bear. I can't imagine being able to live another day like this." The Rabbi felt this young woman's pain and tried to empathize. He then said he knows a man personally who experienced a similar tragedy and lost his young wife suddenly. He was left with little children to take care of all by himself. At that time he was saying the same words: He can't imagine to go on in the position he's in. How could he continue with the pain? How could he possibly raise those children without his wife? About a year later, this man got up to speak in front of hundreds of people at an Azkara for his wife. He said there, he wants to publically give hakarat hatov to Hashem for the help He has provided him with during that first difficult year. He said although he was not able to work that much because he was tending to his children, he had one of the best years financially that he ever had. He thought that the day to day life was going to be impossible, but he said Hashem gave him strength to persevere. Baruch Hashem his children are happy and well taken care of. And he has received an outpouring of love from so many friends and relatives. Even during the darkest times, when it is so hard to see Hashem, He is there holding a person's hand every step of the way, kavayachol saying, "I wish you could understand why this had to happen. One day you will, but for now, don't worry, I will be here for you. I will give you the strength that you never thought you could have." In this world, our emunah is tested, but if we hold on tight and trust in Hashem we will reap the greatest rewards.

We say everyday in Pesukei DeZimra , " אהללה ה' בחיי . The Ketav Sofer explains that this means we should praise Hashem simply for the gift of life itself. " אזמרה לאלוקי בעודי "—I will sing to Hashem for all the extras He gives me. When we truly recognize our blessings, we will not only praise Hashem, but we will sing to Him with joy. There are so many potential dangers in the world, and Hashem, who is the Shomer Yisrael, is constantly watching over us. We have no idea about how much Hashem protects us, but we do know that He does, and we must thank Him for that, too. A rabbi shared how his wife went for a routine checkup. Since she was over 50, the doctor recommended a colonoscopy. She delayed the appointment several times until, one day, she received a message asking if she wanted a Cologuard test kit, which allows for an at-home screening. She agreed, and days later, two kits arrived instead of one—an apparent mistake. Since they had an extra, she told her husband to take one as well. They both sent in their samples, and the doctor informed her husband that his results were positive, requiring further examination. Although he had no plans to undergo a colonoscopy, he now had no choice. During the procedure, they removed polyps and discovered additional growths requiring surgery. Everything moved quickly from that point. They were able to get appointments due to last-minute cancellations. On the day of the surgery, the doctor informed him that if the growth was too close to the rectum, they would not be able to reconnect it, and he would have to wear a bag for the rest of his life. Baruch Hashem , the surgery was a success. It took an hour and a half longer than expected, but they removed everything, and he would not need a bag. The rabbi sang the praises of Hashem. He had no idea how much danger he was in, yet Hashem sent him exactly what he needed—through the mail—to save his life. Only Hashem knows the dangers people face and He has infinite ways of protecting them. Rabbi Binyamin Pruzansky shared a powerful story that took place last year on Erev Pesach in the Geula neighborhood of Yerushalayim. Rabbi Zev, a talmid chacham , went to Shacharit after spending nearly the entire night preparing for Pesach . He was scheduled to make a siyum for the firstborns at his shul . After tefilla , everyone gathered for the siyum . He was finishing Massechet Baba Kama. He went to the sefarim shelf to pull off a Hebrew Artscroll gemara to finish the masechet with. This masechet is divided up into three volumes in the Artscroll Shas. He opened the Gemara and began reading out loud. It was then that he realized he pulled out the wrong volume. The waiting men shifted impatiently as the rabbi went back to the sefarim shelf and pulled out a different volume. When he turned to the end of that massechet, he saw again it was the wrong volume. How could I make such a fool of myself twice? He silently rebuked himself. I must be much more tired than I even realized. Finally, on the third attempt, Rabbi Zev got it right. He read the last few lines and made the siyum. As the men began eating the celebratory cake, the door of the shul suddenly burst open. A man ran inside, announcing that there had just been a terror attack. Two terrorists had driven down the street trying to ram pedestrians. When they saw no one outside, they got out of their car and began shooting. Miraculously, their gun jammed, and no one was harmed. The people in the Beit Midrash realized that had Rabbi Zev pulled out the correct Gemara on his first attempt, they would have finished earlier and been outside at the very moment of the attack. We have no idea how much Hashem protects us every single day. It is our responsibility to thank and praise Him for the life that He gives us.

During this month of Adar , we are meant to increase our happiness—a joy that stems from true emunah in Hashem. By studying the miracles of Purim and Pesach , we gain chizuk and learn to appreciate how fortunate we are to have Hashem guiding us at all times. When salvation came in both instances, it arrived כהרף עין —in the blink of an eye. ונהפוך הוא —in Purim the Jewish people went from mourning to celebration on the very same day. Yetzias Mitzrayim was done b'chipazon —they were rushed out of Mitzrayim , triumphantly marching to freedom. Both salvations were planned years in advance. In Purim , Hashem was מקדים רפואה למכה —He prepared the salvation even before the decree was issued. And in Mitzrayim , the night of Yetzias Mitzrayim is called ליל שמורים —a night Hashem had planned and anticipated for years. Whatever challenge a person finds himself in, he must recognize that salvation is already there—he is simply asking Hashem to reveal it to him. A woman shared that this past September, her husband started losing his hair due to alopecia. At first, they had no idea what was happening as patches of hair were randomly falling out. After seeing multiple doctors and doing extensive blood work, they were told that he had a severe case of alopecia—and there was little they could do to stop it. Her husband was a young man with a full head of hair—his identity, in a way. The diagnosis was devastating, and they struggled to cope. Soon after, he developed an inflammation, and the hair loss became even more extreme. There was one medicine that might have worked, but it would have compromised his immune system and made him highly susceptible to illnesses. After consulting with rabbanim, they decided it was too dangerous to take. The doctors prescribed a cream for his face, which they doubted would work, but they suggested he try growing a beard with it. "Please don't get your hopes up," they cautioned. From that day on, he and his wife grew in many areas of avodat Hashem , strengthening their commitment to Torah and mitzvot . Baruch Hashem , a few months later, he grew a full beard. Overjoyed, his wife told their rebbetzin about the miracle and asked what she could do to express her gratitude to Hashem. She suggested doing the mitzva of covering her hair. After much internal debate, she made the decision to do it. When they returned to the doctor, he was stunned. "Never in my career have I seen such improvement and recovery without any real medication," he told them. He then put her husband on a very light medication and said he expected a full regrowth within three to six months, b'ezrat Hashem . They went from hearing "there's no chance" to "we have never seen such a recovery." That is Yeshuat Hashem k'heref ayin . A rabbi shared another story: His daughter and son-in-law recently bought a home, using every last dollar they had to purchase it. It was a bargain they couldn't pass up, but it left them struggling with daily expenses. They knew they would be able to get back on their feet, but it would take at least a month until their next paychecks arrived. That Friday, their car broke down. They had no idea how they would afford the repairs. When the mechanic called, he said the car was ready and everything was fine—the total cost was just $100. As she opened the car door, she noticed an envelope on the passenger seat with the words Chag Sameach—Love, Dad written on it. She opened it and found $500 in cash. Confused, she called her father to ask about it. He replied, "There's no chag now—I didn't leave that envelope there." Then he recalled that he had given her an envelope last Pesach . She must have misplaced it in the car, where it had ended up in the glove compartment. The mechanic, while fixing the car, had emptied the glove compartment and unknowingly placed the envelope where she would find it. Hashem had set aside that money for her a year before—waiting for the moment she would need it most. When the time was right, Hashem caused the car to break down so the money would be revealed. Hashem has what we need waiting for us. We just need to pray to Him to expose it.

At the beginning of this week's parasha , Titzaveh , Bneh Yisrael were commanded to bring שמן זית זך —pure olive oil—to light the menorah . Only the very first droplets from each olive were permitted for this purpose. Chazal tell us that although only 12 hours' worth of oil was placed in the lamps, the flames miraculously burned for a full 24 hours—demonstrating Hashem's presence among the Jewish people. The menorah represented the light of Torah. The Gemara states that whoever wishes to attain wisdom in Torah should face slightly southward while reciting the Amida , because the menorah , which symbolizes Torah wisdom, stood in the southern part of the Beit HaMikdash . The power of Torah is far beyond our comprehension. The Midrash tells us that Shlomo HaMelech constructed ten menorot for the Beit HaMikdash , each with seven lamps, totaling 70 flames—corresponding to the 70 facets of Torah. Chazal further teach that as long as those flames were burning, the 70 nations of the world remained subservient to Am Yisrael . But from the day those flames were extinguished, those nations gained power over us. All of our strength comes from Torah. The Sefer Sas Be'Imratecha records a powerful story about Rabbi Moshe Chevroni, the former Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Chevron . At one point, he wasn't feeling well and went to the doctor for an evaluation. After running tests, the doctor informed him that he had been diagnosed with a serious illness and had only three months left to live. His family and talmidim were devastated. But instead of falling into despair, the Rosh Yeshivah made a firm decision—he would dedicate these final months to learning Torah without interruption , stopping only for the most basic necessities. And so he did. He immersed himself in Torah study, and Baruch Hashem , instead of living for just three more months, he lived for another 20 years. The Steipler Gaon , upon hearing this, remarked in amazement, "Hashem gave him a blow, but instead of breaking from it, he elevated himself—and the merit of his Torah added 20 years to his life." What was even more astonishing was that throughout those two decades, he never required treatments that would prevent him from learning. He continued delivering his regular shiurim and prayed with the yeshiva minyan every single day. The Chozeh of Lublin once had a long line of people waiting to see him for berachot and advice. Suddenly, in the middle of his appointments, he asked everyone to step out of the room for a few moments. Once the room was empty, he locked the door. One of his chasidim , eager to learn from the Rebbe , hid inside the room to see what he was going to do. To his astonishment, he saw the Rebbe take out a Mishnayot and begin learning a perek . Unable to contain his curiosity, the chasid revealed himself and asked, "Rebbe, why did you send everyone out just to learn a perek of Mishnayot?" The Chozeh replied, "The last few people who came to me shared their suffering and begged for salvation. I felt that in order to give them a proper beracha, I needed the strength of Torah within me—so I paused to learn first." All of our great rabbanim who had the power to give berachot drew that strength from their Torah learning and purity of character. We must treasure the Torah we have and use our time wisely to learn it in depth. It provides us with the spiritual energy we need to succeed in this world. Shabbat Shalom.

Living Emunah 2717 In the Blink of an Eye Believing in Hashem's ability to bring salvation in the blink of an eye is an invaluable avoda . It is also something that is expected of every Jew to fully internalize. This is not always easy—especially after years of hoping and waiting without seeing salvation. A year ago, I met a rabbi who told me that he was davening for his 34-year-old daughter, who was still waiting to find her zivug . Recently, I met this man again, and this time he told me, "Mazal Tov!" His daughter, now 35, had just gotten married a few weeks earlier, and they couldn't be happier with the shidduch . We must never give up hope, no matter how long it takes. At the recent A Time Shasathon , a family shared their painful yet inspiring journey through infertility. A man explained that when his daughter was 14 years old, doctors discovered that she did not have a uterus. Naturally, this meant she would face a very difficult road ahead. Wanting to protect her, the family chose not to tell her right away. However, when she was 18 and in seminary , she found out. She understood the enormous challenge she was facing, and of course, she was distraught. Then, when it came time to begin shidduchim , the question loomed: How could she possibly get married under such circumstances? It was during COVID, and she met someone over Zoom. Their conversations went well, and they continued meeting virtually several more times. After about a month, she felt it was time to tell him everything. She explained her medical condition, and the young man immediately grasped the gravity of what she was saying. But at that moment, something remarkable happened—he thought of his grandfather. His grandfather had been engaged when he was told that his kallah was ill and had only six months to live. Instead of walking away, his grandfather said, "I believe in Hashem. Only He determines a person's time in this world." He went ahead with the marriage, and in the end, his wife lived for 22 more years. They had three beautiful children and many grandchildren—including this young man. Hashem had already trained him with the emunah and perspective he would need to marry this girl. He consulted with rabbanim and expressed his desire to stand by her side through life's journey. He received their beracha , and the wedding took place. Later, the couple began exploring the possibility of a uterus transplant. After extensive research, they were approved for a program at a hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. They had to move there indefinitely and wait for a match. Every day there felt like an eternity. They were alone in a foreign place, unable to travel for Shabbat or Yom Tov , since they had to remain on-call at all times, but they knew Hashem was with them. Then, on Shabbat Parashat Lech Lecha , while her husband was in shul , the hospital left a message—their match had arrived. Early Monday morning, she underwent surgery. It was during the week of Parashat Vayera , the very parasha that contains the words: " וה' פקד את שרה " —Hashem granted Sarah a uterus at an advanced age so she could conceive. That week, this woman was also given a uterus, and b'ezrat Hashem , she would one day be able to have children. In that same parasha , we read the words: " היפלא מה' דבר ?" —Is anything beyond Hashem's power? This was the beginning of the miraculous road that Hashem paved for them. Baruch Hashem , this past year, they were blessed with their first child. Everything is possible with emunah . The Rishonim discuss why there is a mitzvah to eat on Erev Yom Kippur . Many say that it is to provide strength for the fast the next day. This raises a question: If someone is ill and unable to fast, does he still have the mitzva to eat on Erev Yom Kippur ? The Sdeh Chemed writes that he absolutely does. Why? Because Hashem can heal a person in an instant, and by the time Yom Kippur arrives, he may very well be able to fast. The Sdeh Chemed uses the phrases: " ישועת ה' כהרף עין " and " היפלא מה' דבר ?" —principles that are so fundamental they even influence halacha . It is up to us to develop our emunah to the point that no matter what we are going through, we know—Hashem can always help us in an instant.

A man recently reached out to me for chizuk after receiving the devastating news that he had been diagnosed with a serious illness. That very same day, I had heard two incredible stories about people who had faced life-threatening illnesses and experienced miraculous recoveries. I immediately recalled yet another story that a rabbi had shared years ago. This rabbi had a student who had come to him seeking chizuk for two separate challenges—one regarding his struggling business and the other concerning his child's health. That same day, the rabbi happened to hear two stories addressing those exact concerns. He shared them with his student, along with the kabbalot those individuals had taken upon themselves as a merit for their yeshuot . Inspired by these stories, the student took on the same kabbalot . Baruch Hashem , he later experienced miraculous salvation in both areas of his life. So I told the man who had reached out to me, "I would like to share with you two stories I just heard. While the circumstances may not be exactly the same, the message is the same." The first story was from a rabbi who shared that when his child was born 15 years ago, doctors told him the baby had mental retardation. They also said he would have very limited mobility and would never be able to hear properly. The condition, they explained, was a result of an illness the mother had contracted during pregnancy. For the first seven months of the baby's life, he did not move at all and was unable to hear. Desperate for yeshua , the rabbi flew to Israel to seek a beracha from Rav Chaim Kanievsky zt"l . Rav Chaim told him, "If his mother prays three times a day, Shacharit, Mincha and Arbit, the baby will be fine." With complete emunat chachamim , the rabbi immediately called his wife and relayed the message. She happily accepted the commitment upon herself. Fifteen years later, as I was speaking to this rabbi, he called over that very child and introduced him to me. Baruch Hashem , he is completely healthy, with no sign of the condition he was once diagnosed with. In fact, he had become a gifted learner, having completed Masechet Tamid over 250 times. It was nothing short of an open miracle. The second story came from another rabbi whose baby would vomit everything it ate and cry throughout the night. This went on for months, and the parents were completely beside themselves. Doctors had no solution. This rabbi also went to Rav Chaim for a beracha . Rav Chaim advised him, "Dress the child modestly, and the problem will go away." The rabbi, surprised, responded , "But she's an infant." Rav Chaim acknowledged that, according to halacha , there was no requirement for an infant to dress modestly. "However," he explained , "doing something to enhance kedushah always brings yeshuot." The rabbi listened and followed the advice. Within a week, both issues disappeared. The baby was eating properly and sleeping peacefully through the night. I then told the man I was speaking to that we may not have someone today who can tell us exactly what Hashem wants from us. But when we face challenges like these, we know that improving in an area that needs strengthening is always a powerful zechut." Hashem loves us and wants us to reach our fullest potential. Sometimes, a person needs a gentle tap on the shoulder to remind them of what truly matters in life. Be'ezrat Hashem , when we answer that call, the challenges we face often disappear. We have seen countless stories proving beyond a doubt that Hashem is in full control of our health—and that He can take away an illness in the blink of an eye. This should inspire us to pray harder, strengthen our actions, and believe that our salvation comes solely from Hashem.

Trying to get into yeshiva or seminary can be very stressful. There are many applicants and only limited spots and, unfortunately, people have to get rejected. One of the ways in which a person can give himself an edge is by working on his bitachon in Hashem. The pasuk tells us, someone who is bote'ach b'Hashem is surrounded by Hashem's kindness. It is an enormous zechut which Hashem rewards in this world as well. A man told me, six years ago his son was applying to yeshiva high school and he sent in an application to four different yeshivot . The father made sure his son reviewed his Gemara over and over so that he would be able to do well when those yeshivot would test him on it. One day, his son's 8 th grade rabbi called him and told him he is not doing enough to get his son into a good yeshiva. He told him various things that other parents were doing, including making connections or being more persistent, to give their children an edge. This man told the rabbi he was doing the normal hishtadlut and he fully believed that Hashem was in charge of which yeshiva his son would get into. He went on to speak very strong words of bitachon . The rebbe heard him and praised him for the great level that he reached. To see the extent of how powerful his words of bitachon were, the next day a principal from another yeshiva called him to tell him that he heard some of the lines of bitachon he told that other rebbe the previous day and he wanted to hear them for himself. His son began the interviews with some of the yeshivot that he applied to, but then he told his father his dream was to go to a certain yeshiva which was considered one of the top yeshivot in all of America. It was known to be extremely difficult to get into. But this father happily encouraged his son to "go for the gold" and so they applied there as well. He told his son, "Hashem is in charge and if this is a good yeshiva for you, He'll help you get into it." A couple of weeks later, his son was going on a Shabbaton and the boys were asked to prepare a devar Torah to say at the meals. The boy was learning Masechet Kiddushin and his father remembered a davar Torah that his friend told him from the Mishnat Kesef when he was 16 years old that connected what he was learning in Masechet Kiddushin to parashat Mishpatim . He told his son the devar Torah and then told him not to take anyone else's place if they wanted to speak. He should only volunteer when no one else wanted to. For the leil Shabbat meal, there were three volunteers. For the Shabbat day meal, another three and for Seudah Shlishit another three. But finally, at the Melave Malka , nobody volunteered so this boy raised his hand and offered to give the devar Torah. Since it was after Shabbat he was able to speak into a microphone. Right before he began speaking, His Rosh Yeshiva who was there received a phone call from the administrators at that top yeshiva asking for information about this boy who applied to their yeshiva. The Rosh Yeshiva told them he was about to give a devar Torah and they asked to listen in, so he put the phone by the boy and they listened to the entire devar Torah. It was extremely impressive and they decided on the spot they wanted this boy in their yeshiva. Baruch Hashem, the boy spent the next four years growing tremendously in that yeshiva. It was perfect for him in every way. The odds of him getting into that yeshiva were very slim, but with Hashem, odds don't matter. They had full bitachon in Hashem and, in that merit, Hashem helped them get in in an amazing way, timing that phone call from the administrators to the exact second this boy was speaking. The best hishtadlut we can make is always improving our bitachon in Hashem.

When we show compassion to others and go out of our way to help people, it awakens Hashem's mercy upon us. While our motivation for helping others should never be for the reward, like all mitzvot, Hashem rewards every effort we make in doing His will. Often, we don't realize how a small act of chesed can have a profound impact on someone's life. A 21-year-old woman shared her story: She struggled socially throughout high school. Being extremely shy, she had no close friends. Last year, she mustered the emotional strength and courage to attend the wedding of a classmate—someone she would occasionally speak to when that classmate wasn't with her usual group of friends. She entered the wedding hall, silently asking Hashem to help her maintain her dignity. As she walked in, she noticed a group of girls sitting near the entrance. To her surprise, one of the girls—together with her friends—called her name and greeted her warmly, as if she was their closest friend whom they had been waiting all night to see. She recalled: "I'm crying as I write this. They all smiled at me and invited me to sit in the one empty seat left at their table. We spoke as if we were old friends. It was the first time I had ever been treated this way. It was truly something special." She concluded that although she wasn't on the level to understand Hashem's hashgacha, she did notice something remarkable—the three girls who made her feel special that night all got married this same year, in that exact month, two of them in the very same wedding hall. Another young woman shared her experience: One night this past year, a younger friend gave her a ride home from a weekly class they both attended. During the drive, her friend confided that she felt bad about forgetting to pray daily and truly wanted to grow religiously. Without thinking much of it, the young woman offered, "Would you like me to send you a text message every morning to remind you to pray?" In her mind, she assumed this would last for about a week. Her friend responded, "If it wouldn't be a burden for you, I would love that." The next morning, she sent the first message: "Don't forget to pray today. Hashem loves you." Her friend replied with an enthusiastic, "Thank you!" This continued for months. Even on her off days, she set an alarm to ensure she would be up in time to send the text. No matter where her friend traveled—including different time zones like Alaska—she remained committed to sending the daily reminder. There were times when she received no response for weeks. Feeling foolish, she debated whether she should stop. But just as she had those thoughts, Hashem made it that her friend would reply with something like, "Oh, this is so helpful! Love you." At the end of the summer, she was still faithfully sending the reminders. Then, Baruch Hashem, she got engaged. She called her friend to share the news. To her amazement, her friend replied, "Wow! I can't believe it—I also just got engaged!" Then her friend said, "I was praying for you every single day to get married. I'm so happy for you!" The young woman reflected, "I thought I was doing her a favor by pushing myself to send those reminders every day. But in reality, I was simply reminding her to pray for me." Baruch Hashem, her friend got married, and now her husband reminds her to pray every day. She concluded, "I had the zechut to bring one of Hashem's children closer to Him, and in turn, Hashem blessed me with the zivug I had been waiting for." When we have compassion for others, Hashem shows extra compassion for us.

People often say, "Baruch Hashem, we're able to get by with our daily expenses, but we don't have enough to afford moving into a house." Some people have lived in small apartments with large families for years, dreaming of the day they can move into a more spacious home. Hashem has countless ways to provide a person with a home. He can lead them to find something at a very low price. He can inspire others to pitch in and help raise the necessary funds. He can bless the family with increased income to afford a home. The possibilities are endless. At the same time, it is possible that a larger home is not destined for someone. However, as we know, prayer and good deeds can change any decree. When a person is in need of a yeshua , it is always a good idea to focus on improving their prayers and committing to perform mitzvot properly. One man shared his experience when he needed 150,000 shekels to complete the down payment on a new home. The weight of it consumed his thoughts day and night. He had no natural way to obtain such a large sum and feared losing the opportunity to buy the house his family had longed for. He had already informed his current landlord they were moving out, and the family had started packing their belongings. His primary hishtadlut was heartfelt tefilla . One Friday afternoon, he called a chizuk hotline, and the rabbi on the line spoke about the immense power of keeping Shabbat properly. The rabbi explained that thinking about business or money on Shabbat is foolish. "Shabbat is the source of all monetary blessing," he said. "Someone who keeps Shabbat with the mindset that all of their affairs are complete and lets go of financial concerns, even in their thoughts, taps into the special blessings of Shabbat." Hearing these words, the man immediately resolved that, for the upcoming Shabbat, he would feel as though he was already wealthy and had all the money he needed. He committed to enjoying Shabbat without a single financial worry. After Shabbat ended, he prayed to Hashem to make this mindset a reality. Amazingly, the next day, he received 50,000 shekels from a completely unexpected source. The following Shabbat, he strengthened himself once again to banish financial concerns from his mind. He enjoyed Shabbat immensely, observing it in the best way he could. That Motzaei Shabbat, he prayed again with all his heart, and once more, Hashem sent him an incredible yeshua : that Monday, he received 75,000 shekels from another unexpected source. Throughout the week, he attempted to secure the remaining balance from other potential sources, but nothing materialized. Then came another Shabbat, and now, just two days remained before the balance was due. If he didn't have the money in time, he would lose the house. Strengthening himself like a lion, he resolved once more not to think about his financial struggles for even a moment. He focused his mind on feeling as though the money had already been provided. With that, he experienced yet another beautiful Shabbat. After Shabbat, he prayed with more intensity than ever before. Baruch Hashem , in the two days that followed, Hashem sent him the exact amount he needed—not a shekel more, not a shekel less. Hashem can provide for all our needs. Heartfelt tefilla and sincere good deeds are the greatest hishtadlut we can do.

One of the reasons we don't fully appreciate Hashem as much as we should is because, even when we receive clear blessings, we tend to attribute them to the people who gave them to us directly. We often fail to internalize that these people are merely Hashem's messengers. The Chovot HaLevavot , in Sha'ar HaBitachon , writes that Hashem has more love and mercy for us than anyone else in the world. Any compassion shown to a person ultimately stems from Hashem's compassion. When we receive something from others, it is because Hashem placed compassion into their hearts, enabling them to provide us with what He wants us to have. Of course, we must have hakarat hatov to those who help us, as Hashem deemed them worthy of fulfilling the chesed . But we cannot overlook the fact that everything we receive ultimately comes from Hashem. Likewise, when something is taken from us, it is Hashem acting through His messengers. Sometimes, we ourselves are His messengers, performing His will for others. A man, whom we will call Yosef, shared an incredible story. He lives in Har Nof and traveled abroad for a family wedding. On the return trip, his flight had a stopover in Holland. Due to a delay in the first flight, Yosef and his wife missed their connecting flight to Israel. It was already Friday, and there was no way to catch another flight in time for Shabbat. At the airport, a friendly Jew recommended they drive to the Jewish community in Antwerp, where they would surely find warm hospitality for Shabbat. When they arrived in Antwerp, however, Yosef and his wife felt hesitant about relying on others. Instead, they planned to buy some food and stay in a hotel. As they drove near the shul, they saw a man walking and asked where they could buy food. The man told them that all the Jewish stores were already closed for Shabbat but offered to guide them to the nearest grocery store. Yosef and his wife accepted his offer, and the man got into the back seat of their car. During the ride, they struck up a conversation and learned that this man was 36 years old and still unmarried. He shared that one day he had walked into a bet midrash and noticed a Gemara Masechet Sotah open to the page that states: "Forty days before a person is even conceived, Hashem determines who they will marry." Ever since, his daily prayer had been: "Ribbono shel Olam, You wrote in Your Torah that I have a zivug, and I believe with emunah shelemah that You will help me find her. Please let it happen soon." Yosef's wife listened intently and felt strongly that she wanted to help this man find his zivug . The man guided them to the shul where Shabbat guests were welcomed. Yosef and his wife went there and experienced the most heartwarming Shabbat, surrounded by people filled with ahavat Yisrael . They later said it was worth missing their connecting flight just to witness the kindness of the Antwerp community. During Shabbat, they met other guests, including a family from France whose daughter was searching for a shidduch . Yosef's wife immediately thought of the man who had helped them and suggested him as a match. Baruch Hashem , they turned out to be a perfect match, and shortly thereafter, the couple became engaged and then married. Yosef and his wife saw clearly how Hashem used them as His messengers to bring this couple together. They understood why they missed their connecting flight, why the man at the airport directed them to Antwerp, and why they met the 36-year-old near the shul. They even understood why he got into their car to show them where the grocery store was and instead brought them to the shul for guests. Everything that happens to us is guided by the ratzon Hashem . Sometimes Hashem gives to us through His messengers. Sometimes He takes through His messengers. And sometimes, He makes us His messengers.

In the biggest news of the week, Baruch Hashem, three more hostages have now been returned to Israel as the new ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas has taken effect, and as we look forward to the next "swap" which will include four more hostages to take place on Shabbos. In the US, the absolute biggest event was the inauguration of President Trump. It's looking a lot different this time around, and we cover that as well as all of the controversies that were generated by Team Trump on just day one!   Get the Colel Chabad Pushka and give tzedaka anywhere, any time! https://pushkapp.cc/kc   ** BONUS CONTENT AVAILABLE NOW BY PHONE! ** Subscribe At: 605-417-0303   Get official KC swag and show your support to the world! https://kiddushclubmerch.com   Subscribe now to keep us going and access bonus content! https://buymeacoffee.com/kiddushclub/membership   We have a call-in number where you can hear the cast! Tell your friends and family who may not have internet access! 605-417-0303 To Call In From Israel: +053-243-3287   Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kiddushclubpodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kiddushclubcast Join our WhatsApp chat: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HTWhnT1WiVFCioXjatEFi6 Send us you thoughts comments and suggestions via email: hock@kiddushclubpodcast.com

Sometimes in order for a person to receive a yeshua , he first has to go through a period of kapara and then, from that difficulty, Hashem sends the salvation. If a person knows that perhaps the difficulty he is going through is preparing him to receive a blessing, it will be easier to handle. In fact, the Gemara says in Masechet Taanit , daf 20, if someone accepts his difficulties with joy, it brings salvation to the entire world. A man told, he has a child who suffers from kidney problems. He needs constant medication and various treatments. One of the side effects of this illness is severe lack of appetite and vomiting. At one point, the child stopped eating completely, agreeing only to drink water. He then needed to be hooked up to a feeding tube, but even with that, he continued vomiting. If he would ever be tempted to taste anything, he would later vomit whatever entered his body in the previous few hours. This past year, his wife was with the child in the hospital because he got pneumonia. On the day they were being discharged, as they were walking in the hallway, the child suddenly began vomiting. Generally, when this child is vomiting, there is nothing to do. They have to just wait until he finishes and then they clean him up and change his clothing. So he vomited and vomited and his mother simply stood there, waiting for him to finish. Among the people sitting in the waiting room nearby was a woman who made it clear to everyone that she was appalled by this site. This woman saw a little child vomiting who seemed to be in pain and his mother just standing idly by, not knowing that this was standard procedure. She got up in front of everyone and yelled, "What a neglectful mother you are. Why don't you help your son?" The woman wanted to bury herself in shame, but then she remembered hearing when a person gets shamed, it's a huge kapara . The person becomes purified and has a great power of tefila . So, she utilized the opportunity and asked Hashem to bring healing to her son. That Sunday, this boy asked to eat and hours passed without him vomiting. He ate again later that day and again did not vomit. This was a major breakthrough for them. Although the child still has kidney issues, he is able to eat and keep the food down. Instead of lashing back at that woman or feeling sorry for herself, this woman chose to utilize the difficulty to bring salvation closer. Recently, another boy had been practicing for his bar mitzvah parasha for months and he got an appendicitis a few days before he was supposed to read. The appendicitis happened on a Wednesday and he was scheduled to read the Torah that Shabbat. They were also going to have a big seuda to celebrate afterward. But instead, the boy had to be in the hospital and he missed the reading and the seuda . They notified all the guests on Friday not to attend the celebration. It was a somber time. After the doctors studied the appendix, they found a cancerous tumor growing inside of it. Baruch Hashem, it did not spread and the boy is totally fine now. He needed a big yeshua that he didn't even know about. Hashem brought about a very difficult situation that perhaps was the kapara that they needed to receive this yeshua . Hashem is always helping us, whether it seems that way or not. Our best response is to always thank Hashem for what happens and continue living life happily, knowing that we are always in His hands.

Hashem speaks to us all the time. We need to be aware and keep our eyes and ears open for His messages. Sometimes a person needs a yeshuah and seeks something to improve on as a zechut . It's possible that Hashem will convey what he needs to work on in a subtle way, but he must be vigilant and on the lookout for the message. A 7th-grade rebbe shared a story about a student in his class who struggled to grasp even the basics. The more the rebbe tried to explain, the less it seemed the student understood. After Pesach last year, the class began learning a new masechet , and suddenly, the boy started understanding everything. Not only that, he retained all that he learned and quickly became one of the top students in the class. The change was astonishing, happening in such a short time. The rebbe's amazement did not go unnoticed, and the boy explained what had led to the transformation. He said, "A few weeks ago, rebbe told us about the holy tanna Matyah ben Charash, who faced a great test in guarding his eyes. He was even willing to lose his eyesight to avoid sinning. Hashem performed a miracle for him and restored his sight. "I thought to myself, I also need to safeguard my eyes. Across from the bus stop where I wait every morning is a public school, and I usually watch the students, including the girls who dress immodestly. After rebbe mentioned Matyah ben Charash, I decided to guard my eyes. Every day when they arrive, I look down and pray to Hashem to enlighten my eyes in His Torah and help me remember what I learn. Hashem answered my request. Since then, I've been able to understand and remember everything." This boy needed help with his learning, and Hashem subtly hinted to him what he needed to do to merit it—through the rebbe's words about shemirat enayim . The boy understood the message and experienced an incredible yeshuah . Sometimes Hashem gives us exactly the chizuk we need. A man shared that he became very involved in encouraging others and giving chizuk . Baruch Hashem, he was good at it and helped many people. However, recently, he began to have second thoughts. The work was consuming so much of his time, sometimes keeping him on the phone with people for over half an hour. He wondered if he should scale back and focus more on other areas of avodat Hashem , including his own learning. That very day, as he was grappling with these thoughts, he came across a piece in a book on emunah that spoke directly to his dilemma. The book quoted the Chafetz Chaim, who emphasized how much Hashem values those who bring chizuk to others. The Chafetz Chaim compared it to a father whose children are sad, saying that such a father would feel immense hakarat hatov toward anyone who brings joy to his children. The man felt reassured that he was on the right path. That night, as part of his routine, he read two halachot from the Sefer Chafetz Chaim and a paragraph of mussar from the back of the sefer . To his amazement, the very same idea he had read earlier in the book on emunah appeared in the mussar section of the Sefer Chafetz Chaim that night. It was Hashem who was showing him the same chizuk twice in one day to reinforce the message. The encouragement he needed to continue his avodat hakodesh was delivered clearly and powerfully. Hashem speaks to us all the time. If we're on the lookout, we will catch His messages.

If someone has been making hishtadlut in a certain area for a long time but hasn't seen success, there is a segula attributed to Rav Chaim Palachi that can work wonders. Whether the hishtadlut pertains to shidduchim , parnasa , health, or any other matter, strengthening one's bitachon in the following way can bring great siyata dishmaya . The practice involves saying the first paragraph of Alenu l'Shabe'ach with intense kavana . Then, go back to the words הוא אלוקינו ואין עוד אחר —"He is our G-d, and there is none other"—and deeply internalize that no one else in the world can help besides Hakadosh Baruch Hu. With this mindset, proceed to the second paragraph, על כן נקוה לך ה' אלוקינו , and focus on the specific issue causing distress. As you recite it, think: "Hashem, I am placing all my bitachon in You." A man who learned of this segula for the first time shared it with his niece in Argentina, who was struggling with shidduchim . She asked if it was enough to perform the segula once a day when reciting Alenu , as she only prayed once daily. Her uncle assured her that this was sufficient, and he committed to having her in mind as he performed the segula three times a day. Remarkably, within a month, she found her shidduch . This segula is not new; it is simply another method to instill the principle of אין עוד מלבדו . A woman once told me about her longstanding eye condition. Her eyes were persistently watery and produced mucus, and none of the medications she tried brought relief. A few years ago, she turned to the Rebbetzin whose class she attended weekly for advice. The Rebbetzin encouraged her to work on internalizing that only Hashem could help her. Then, she suggested a practical step: "Chanuka is coming up this week. Each night, stand by the candles for 15 minutes and pray to Hashem, fully believing that only He can help." The woman followed the Rebbetzin's advice and even stopped relying on the ineffective medications. Each night of Chanuka, she stood before the candles, praying with all her heart and focusing on her emunah that only Hashem could heal her. Amazingly, her condition improved with each passing day. By the end of Chanukah, her eyes were completely healed. Baruch Hashem, it has now been two years, and the issue has not returned. There is no substitute for genuine belief in Hashem's power. It cannot be faked, as Hashem perceives the true feelings within a person's heart. When one fully believes in אין עוד מלבדו , it becomes a wondrous segula that brings an outpouring of siyata dishmaya .

Rabbi Vann

Chazal tell us the Yevanim made the Jewish People write on the horn of an ox "אין לנו חלק באלוקי ישראל - We have no share in the G-d of Israel." The Sefat Emet asked, this phrase is seemingly self- contradictory. On the one hand they were told to write that they have no share, but they were also saying that Hashem is the G-d of Israel. The Sefat Emet explained, the Yevanim admitted that indeed Hashem was the G-d of Israel, but they wanted to destroy the emunah of the Jewish People that their actions matter. They wanted the Jews to think that their actions don't make any impressions in Heaven. And that's why one of the mitzvot which they tried to abolish was Rosh Chodesh, because that's a mitzvah which shows how we determine the calendar. They wanted us to think our actions are meaningless. But we know our deeds carry so much weight in Shamayim , and whatever we do is so precious to Hashem. The sefer Vaveh Amudim told a story which took place 35 years ago on one of the nights of Chanukah. In the beit midrash of the Admor , the Bet Yisrael , all of his chassidim wanted to be close to watch as the Rebbe lit the Menorah . They had a system where whoever was close up one night had to go to the back the next night in order to give everybody a chance to be close. A young man there decided to defy the rules and went up close even though he was already close on the previous night. The gabai politely told him to go back, but he defiantly refused. He told the gabai , according to the rules he also should move back, why should he get to be close every night? After the gabai repeatedly tried to get this boy to move, the boy kept becoming more and more brazen. It got to a point where the gabai took his hand and smacked the boy across the face. Everyone there watched in shock, and the boy ran out of the bet midrash humiliated. Thirty seconds later, the Beit Yisrael came in to light. After the lighting, the gabai regretted his actions and sent a messenger to go find the boy to ask his forgiveness, but the boy refused saying he would never forgive him for what he did. On Thursday of parshat Miketz , the Bet Yisrae l asked for this boy to come to his office. He was told about what happened and wanted to bring about peace. He told the boy to go read the Zohar of that day's Chok L'Yisrael, and that would help him figure out what to do. The boy went to the beit midrash and opened the Zohar . There was a story of Rabbi Abba who was sitting by the entry to the city of Lod, and he watched as a man went to lie down under a protrusion of rock which came out of a large mountain. Soon afterward, a snake was making its way toward that man to bite him when, all of a sudden, a heavy branch came off a tree and killed the snake. The man woke up and saw the snake and left the place where he had been lying down. A few seconds later that protrusion became dislodged and came crashing down right in the spot that man had just been lying in. When Rabbi Abba witnessed this man having two miracles performed for him, he went over to him to ask him about his deeds which warranted this type of special treatment. The man replied, "If anyone does something bad to me, I immediately forgive him, and if I'm not able to, I will not go to sleep that night until I forgive him. And when I forgive, I totally put out of my mind the evil that the person did to me. Furthermore, I make sure to go out of my way to do something nice for him." Rabbi Abba later said about this man that in this aspect he was even greater than Yosef HaTzaddik, because Yosef was able to forgive what his brothers did to him but, after all, they were his brothers. This man was able to forgive complete strangers. When the boy finished reading this Zohar , he understood what he needed to do. He went to the gabai's house and told him that he wholeheartedly forgives him. That same night, the boy was learning in his bed, and he brought the shamash candle close to use its light. Eventually, he dozed off but the candle fell on his bed and a fire started. Baruch Hashem , the boy woke up in time and managed to get out. His tzitzit was completely burnt, but the fire didn't touch him. That is when he realized he also had a miracle done for him to save his life because of his great deed of forgiving. Our deeds matter very much. Everything we do to serve Hashem is so precious to Him.

This week's parashah begins with the words " ויהי מקץ שנתיים ימים - and it was at the end of two years." Twoyears since what? The Midrash explains- because Yosef asked the sarhamashkim to mention his name to Pharaoh and get him out of jail, Hashemadded an extra two years to his sentence. Not only did Yosef not gain by askingfor help. He even lost. The mefarshim are bothered. What did Yosef do wrongby requesting that help? After all, aren't we supposed to make a hishtadlut to try and help ourselves? All he did was make a simple effort to try and get himself out of jail. Some explain, in the words of Rashi we can find the answer.Rashi writes " מפני שתלה בו יוסף לזכרו הוזקק להיות אסורעוד שתי שנים ". To understand these words we need to understand the answer toanother question first. Rabbi Dessler asked, when Yosef interpreted Pharaoh'sdreams, he then added his own advice on how Pharaoh should proceed. Seemingly,this was Yosef making a hishtadlut to show Pharaoh how wise he was, sohe would get appointed as an advisor. Didn't Yosef learn his lesson afterstaying in jail for two extra years? How could he make this hishtadlut right when he got out? Rabbi Dessler answered, based on the words of RabbenuBachya, who explains how bitachon works together with hishtadlut. The pasuk says in Mishleh , " בטחאל ה' בכל לבך ואל בינתך אל תשען ." We are commanded to rely on Hashem andnot our strengths. A person should not feel because he is smart he'll besuccessful. As the pasuk says, " משיב חכמים אחור,ודעתם יסכל ". Hashem can easily remove any good idea from a person'sthoughts. Hashem is in charge of success. A person should not thinkbecause he has money it is due to his skills, because Hashem is the one incharge of money. He should think I have money because Hashem gave it to me, andthe way I made it just happened to be one of the millions of ways that Hashemcould have given it to me. Although we have an obligation of hishtadlut, we'renot allowed to think that anything resulted because of the hishtadlut .That having been said, there was nothing wrong with Yosef asking the sarhamashkim to mention his name to Pharaoh. The problem was he was " תולה בטחונו בו ". He thought that would be the causeof him getting out. It made so much sense. He did this man a favor. He showedhim how talented he was. It seemed like it was sure to bring success, and Yosefbelieved that. During the next two years in jail Yosef corrected that. Herecognized causes don't matter, only Hashem does. Therefore, when he stood infront of Pharaoh and Pharaoh said, "I heard that you know how to interpretdreams," Yosef immediately corrected him saying, "I don't know how to doanything. Only Hashem does." Once that was clear there was no problem of him offeringadvice to Pharaoh. In fact, it's recommended to make a hishtadlut, aslong as a person realizes the hishtadlut will not be the cause ofsuccess. The lesson for us is obvious. The act of making an effortis necessary, but we always have to make sure to have our mindset in the rightplace. How much importance are we putting on the effort. If the effort is notthe real cause we should have just as much, if not more, focus on our prayersand especially on our bitachon in Hashem. Rabbi Mughrabi told a story that one time the Chazon Ishasked a student of his to travel to America to try and raise funds for animportant cause. The student went happily and he spent two full weeks theretrying to raise money, only to come up practically empty handed. He wasembarrassed to tell the Chazon Ish what happened. A week after he returned theChazon Ish called for him. The student came in with shame. The Chazon Ish toldhim, "Thank you so much. You helped me a lot. Baruch Hashem all the money camein. You really did me a favor." The student then asked, "Where did the moneycome from? I didn't really collect anything." The Chazon Ish said, "Ijust got a big check from a donor in France." "So what does that have to dowith me?" asked the student. The Rabbi explained, "We are commanded to make a hishtadlut to take care of our needs. Our hishtadlut doesn't tell Hashem how tohelp us. It just fulfills our responsibility. Once we did our part, Hashem willsend from where He sees fit. You spent two weeks traveling to doing your utmostto help. That was the hishtadlut . Hashem then decided to help us throughthis wealthy man in France. He gave him a large order from which he gave us the ma'aser." This is the emmet. Hishtadlut has nothing todo with results. It's a responsibility in action only, but our mindset shouldalways be only on Hashem. Shabbat Shalom

We have been taught how valuable it is to forgive or overlook when someone wrongs us, but sometimes that is extremely difficult to do, especially when our feelings have been hurt. Our Rabbis have taught us that if we aren't able to get the hurt out of our hearts, we're encouraged to tell the person who hurt us that we feel hurt, and of course we have to do that in a nice way. Just telling the person our feelings will relieve so much of the pain, and that will enable us to forgive. But sometimes that's not an option, and then we'll need to dig deep down and overcome our hurt feelings to do what Hashem wants. The rewards for that are unimaginable. Sometimes Hashem wants to give a person a present or a salvation, but in their current state it wouldn't be good for them to get. However, if they would overcome an enormous test that Hashem would give them, that would make them fit for the blessing. We should use these thoughts as a motivation to do what's right and overcome the difficult tests that are sent our way. I was recently reminded of a story we told last year about a young man who was learning in yeshiva and had just begun shidduchim. One day his father received a call from a shadchan who proposed an excellent match for him. After doing their research, they gave the go-ahead to proceed. However, a few days later the shadchan called them back saying the girl's family had declined. Although they heard great things, the girl had her heart set on marrying someone who was on a higher level in his learning. When the boy heard that, his pride became shattered. He knew he wasn't the top learner, but he did work very hard to be the best he could be. The feeling of insult was very hard for him to get over and there was really nothing he could do besides work on himself and move on. Less than a week later, he felt better and was able to do something amazing. His chavruta was an outstanding learner and he felt he was the type of boy this girl's family was looking for. So with superhuman strength, he told the shadchan to try to set up his chavruta with the girl that rejected him. Several days later, the shadchan called the boy's family back with a response they would have never imagined. When the girl heard about what he had done, she said, "A boy who was able to overcome insult and try to help me and his chavruta is somebody with incredible midot tovot. That's exactly what I'm looking for." The shidduch was made and Baruch Hashem, they got engaged. Being able to be mevater is an enormous zechut which brings about great blessings. Sometimes a person needs to be mevater kaveyachol to Hashem for the hurt feelings that he feels. People do things in the area of Torah and mitzvot and at times it seems like they lose out from it and they wonder why Hashem would do that to them. They may experience negative feelings towards Hashem or towards the good deeds that they did. Being able to overcome that and understand that a person never loses out from doing what Hashem wants will also earn a person great merits. A man told me one day he was flooded with phone calls from various people who needed his help. While speaking to one individual, he saw the phone lighting up from his investment broker, but he couldn't interrupt this individual who was pouring out his heart to him. That day he got so busy helping all those people he completely forgot to call back the broker. The next day when he went to the bank, the investment broker told him he could have earned him so much money but because he wasn't able to speak to him he missed a golden opportunity. The man immediately replied with unwavering emunah saying he was involved in doing chesed and a person never loses from doing a mitzva. He didn't feel bad at all missing any opportunity. Nine days later he earned an unexpected sum of money and told his investment broker about it. The broker said, "Wow that is definitely more than you would have earned with what I was going to do." Overlooking when we feel that we may have been wronged or treated unfairly is a very precious avodah. Sometimes Hashem gives a person the opportunity to do that just so He can give him the blessing He wants to give.

Have you ever felt irked by the overuse of religious phrases in everyday conversation? Our guest shares their journey through the Shaduchim process, revealing how hearing words like "Baruch HaShem" became a profound learning opportunity. Initially, these expressions seemed a distraction, but a new appreciation for the power of spiritual language emerged through self-reflection and studying Rashi's interpretation of Joseph's story. This episode promises to uncover how integrating spirituality into daily life can pave the way for personal growth and success.Join us as we explore the transformative potential of language with our guest, who candidly discusses the lessons learned from the traditional Jewish matchmaking journey. Discover how acknowledging the divine in everyday exchanges can enhance your personal and relational fulfillment, much like Joseph's success through his consistent invocation of God's name. Whether navigating Shaduchim or seeking to enrich your spiritual practice, this conversation offers valuable insights into how your words can reflect and shape your inner world.Support the showJoin The Motivation Congregation WhatsApp community for daily motivational Torah content!Elevate your impact by becoming a TMC Emerald Donor! Your much-needed backing is crucial for our mission of disseminating the wisdom of the Torah. Join today for just $18.00 per month. (Use your maaser money!) https://buy.stripe.com/00g8xl5IT8dFcKc5ky---------------- SUBSCRIBE to The Weekly Parsha for an insightful weekly talk on the week's Parsha. Listen on Spotify or 24six! Access all Torah talks and listen to featured episodes on our website, themotivationcongregation.org ----------------Questions or Comments? Please email me @ michaelbrooke97@gmail.com

Send us a textThe Outpost In Oklahoma: Rabbi Yehuda & Etel WegExciting news! This is Episode 50 of Lamplighters. Amazing! But we won't celebrate that milestone for too long. There are about 5,000 Chabad emissary families in more than 100 countries. So, 50 episodes down, only 4,950 to go! To keep our series going strong, please consider dedicating one! Email us at podcast@lubavitch.com to explore dedication opportunities.Did you enjoy listening to this episode? Leave us a five-star review on the podcast platform and/or email us at Podcast@Lubavitch.com - we truly value your feedback!"I don't know what Tulsa is going to look like in 10 or 20 years from now, but I will be here and I will serve the needs of the community as they change." - Rabbi Yehuda Weg“Mashiach isn't here. It's not the end of the story. We have work to do. Baruch Hashem, we're given a lot of opportunities." - Rebbetzin Etel WegProduced by: Gary Waleik & Shneur Brook for Lubavitch International/Lubavitch.com - A Project of Machne IsraelAvailable on all major podcast platforms - and online at Lubavitch.com/podcastSupport the show

Every situation we find ourselves in provides us with unique opportunities to serve Hashem. If a person goes through a period of financial struggle, that is a special opportunity to serve Hashem in a unique way. If a person experiences difficulties with shidduchim, health, or having children, each of those circumstances provides the person with unique opportunities. The key in life is to be able to do the right job in every circumstance that Hashem places us in. Some tests last for months, some for years, and some for just days. Having the proper emunah and acting accordingly will define how successful a person is in this world. One of the great tests of life is how a person acts when Hashem blesses him with wealth. The natural inclination is for the person to feel that he doesn't need Hashem because he is self-sufficient. A wealthy family may feel that they don't have to pray for shidduchim for their children. Since they have money and the ability to buy their children homes and cars and support them, they feel they can get any shidduch they want. If they have a health issue, they may not feel the need to pray as much because they have connections with the top doctors in all fields. One of the big tests of wealthy people is to feel like they have nothing and need Hashem for everything. The Arizal writes that before we say the Amida in Shacharit, we recite the words, ' עוזר דלים ,' Hashem helps the impoverished, and we should feel as if we are impoverished in every area. When a person gets to the beracha of Barech Alenu , no matter how much money he has, he should feel like he has nothing and needs Hashem for every last dollar. When he says Refa'enu , he should feel that all of his connections to doctors are meaningless. Hashem is the only One in the world with the ability to heal him. The same is true with every beracha in the Amida. The greatest genius must feel as though he has no brainpower without Hashem and must beg Hashem during Atah Chonen to grant him the ability to understand. Let us learn this lesson from the way Avraham Avinu acted in the situations that Hashem placed him in. Avraham was the wealthiest man of his generation. How did he act when he needed to buy a burial plot? Imagine today if an extremely wealthy man walked into the offices of the Chevra Kadisha to buy burial plots. He might choose the most prestigious plots, and if told they weren't available, he might say: "Tell me what it costs; I'll pay anything, and I'm not taking no for an answer."He might speak with the attitude that his money can get him whatever he wants, whenever he wants. Avraham Avinu, however, spoke to the B'nei Chet with great humility, saying: I am only a גר ותושב -foreigner and a stranger - among you. The B'nei Chet couldn't believe the way he was talking. They told him, "No, you are our master, you can have whatever you want." The Midrash says, Abraham replied, "Only HaShem is the master." Every time they tried to honor him, he minimized it. And he wasn't just speaking words, he truly believed he didn't deserve any honor. When Avraham sent Eliezer to find a shiddukh for Yitzchak, he did not rely on his wealth. He told Eliezer: " ה' אֱלֹקֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם יִשְׁלַח מַלְאָכוֹ לְפָנֶיךָ ." - Hashem, the God of the Heavens, will send His angel before you. And when Avraham experienced success, he immediately bowed to Hashem in gratitude—unlike the natural inclination of a wealthy man to think he accomplished everything. Baruch Hashem, today, many wealthy individuals emulate Avraham. Despite their wealth, they exhibit tremendous humility. They are true inspirations, overcoming the test of wealth, and they will be eternally rewarded for it. The pasuk says about Yitzchak Avinu: " וַיִּגְדַּל הָאִישׁ, וַיֵּלֶךְ הָלוֹךְ וְגָדֵל, עַד כִּי גָדַל מְאֹד ." The Tiferet Shmuel explains that the pasuk repeatedly uses the word גדול to highlight how a person who overcomes the test of wealth can become a גדול . By acting humbly and perfecting his middot despite his wealth, he achieves greatness. Every stage of life presents a different set of tests. Our success will be determined by how we deal with each circumstance as it arises.

A man we'll call Ralph shared with me that he hadn't been learning much recently. One night, he pushed himself to attend a class, even though it was very difficult for him to get there. Afterward, he was so glad he went. When he returned to his car, he discovered that it was damaged, and no one had left a note. He felt upset and frustrated. The next day, Ralph took the car to a body shop, where the repairs cost him $400. He couldn't help but think that this only happened because he had gone to the class. "If I had stayed home," he thought, "my car wouldn't have been there, and this wouldn't have happened." Anger welled up in him, and he told Hashem that this made him not want to attend classes anymore. The following day, while driving, another car hit Ralph from behind. The driver got out, visibly apologetic for not being more careful. He looked at Ralph's car and saw that it looked like it had just minor damage. He said to Ralph, "How much do you want? $200? $300? Here, take $400." Ralph inspected his car and realized there wasn't even a scratch. He thanked the man for the $400 and they parted ways. Ralph said he saw this as a clear sign that Hashem had returned the money to him, and he apologized for questioning Him the day before. Ralph realized that Hashem was showing him that he hadn't lost anything by going to the class. Baruch Hashem, Ralph is once again excited to continue attending. However, we must understand that we can never fully grasp the ways of Hashem, even in a situation like Ralph's which seems straightforward. Another possible interpretation is that because Ralph pushed himself to learn Torah that night, Hashem deemed him worthy to get a relatively small kapara in the form of a $400 repair bill—sparing him from something worse. However, after Ralph displayed anger towards Hashem and then threatened to stop learning Torah, he may have lost that zechut and so the next day he was given the money back. There are countless other possibilities that we can't even think of. What we do know is that no one ever truly loses from doing a mitzva. When it appears otherwise, it's merely a test. When Avraham passed the supreme test of Akedat Yitzhak, he received the devastating news that his wife had passed away. It could have appeared as though her death was a direct result of the mitzva he had just performed. Yet, Avraham knew that Sara was destined to live precisely as long as she did, and that any connection between her passing and the Akedah was merely a test. Similarly, Hashem gives us opportunities to strengthen our emunah because He loves us and wants to grant us more zechuyot. If a person is meant to lose money, it will happen one way or another. If Hashem makes it appear that he lost it because of a mitzva, that is an opportunity to recognize that Hashem is just testing him because He loves him, just like He did with Avraham Avinu. He should think the loss was going to happen regardless, but now by having emunah he will be able to soar to the greatest heights and reap eternal rewards. Baruch Hashem, Ralph has since been learning emunah, and he now sees Hashem's hand in every aspect of his life. He loves going to class, and he knows that he will never truly lose from it. We may not pass every test we face, but if we learn and grow from them, even our failures can become catalysts for growth and they will be added to the side of our merits. Every experience in life can be transformed into avodat Hashem. We shouldn't be overly harsh on ourselves for past mistakes. Instead, we should use feelings of regret to catapult ourselves to want to become better and better.

There are many singles who are having a very hard time in shidduchim. It is so difficult for girls to watch the days pass by with no prospects in sight. They wait week after week, month after month, and year after year, wondering if they will ever get married. The same is true of a boy who is getting on in years and can't seem to find the right one. It is also so hard for the parents and family members of these individuals to watch their loved ones hurting so much. They wish they could help them, but it's just not working out. It is important for these singles to understand that although they aren't married yet, there is still so much they could accomplish in their current situation. Our main purpose in life is to serve Hashem to the best of our ability in any situation we find ourselves in. We do not take the attitude that "If I'm not married, then nothing else matters." To the contrary, everything else matters. We must use every day of life to its fullest, and that is the determinant of our success in this world. At the same time, we also know that Hashem has already chosen a marriage partner for every single person. The difficulty is just finding them. There can be many factors determining why a person has to wait a long time to get married, but we know prayer and good deeds can always help speed up the process. An act of self-sacrifice carries a tremendous amount of weight in Shamayim. If someone has such an opportunity, he should do his best to capitalize on it. The Be'er HaParasha told a story that happened recently. Two sisters over the age of thirty were still not married. They were the only children in their family, and they were taking care of their father who was ill. Finally, it seemed like the perfect shidduch came along for the younger of the two. Everything was progressing nicely, and they were all looking forward to hearing good news. The day came when they thought the shidduch was going to be finalized. However, when the younger sister came home that day, she looked completely shattered. The older sister asked her what happened. She said the shidduch was broken off because of monetary issues. She told the other side that her father is ill and doesn't have money. She herself had a life savings of a hundred and fifty thousand shekels, but that was not nearly enough for what the other side was anticipating. Of course, we know that money comes from Hashem, and the main focus of a shidduch is the person, not their financial status. Money comes and goes. Many people have had money when they got married and subsequently lost it, and many have gotten married without money and have been blessed ever since. Be it as it may, in this particular case, the shidduch was broken off. The older sister felt so bad for her younger sister. She knew how excited she was to finally get married, and she was not going to let money get in the way. She had five hundred thousand shekels in savings and told her sister she was going to give it all to her. The younger sister refused that most generous offer, but the older sister wouldn't take no for an answer. The younger sister then went and told the other side about the money, and the shidduch was back on. The chatan was so moved by the selfless act of this older sister. He called a friend of his who lived in America to tell him about his engagement, and he also told him about the amazing act of self-sacrifice that his future sister-in-law had made. This friend was blown away. He told a friend of his who was single and about the same age as this girl, about what she did. This friend happened to be very wealthy, and he was also deeply touched by the selfless act. He felt it was worth it for him to fly to Israel to go out with her. Baruch Hashem, that shidduch progressed very quickly, and they got engaged. The wedding of that couple just took place now in the month of Cheshvan. Both of these girls seemed so distant from getting married, and then כהרף עין , both of them found their zivug. Sometimes all we need is one great zechut to be blessed with finding the right one.

It may happen that when a person sets out to do a mitzva, he runs into obstacles. He then continues trying to do the mitzva, but the obstacles get harder to overcome. He may think to himself, I don't understand, I'm trying to do something for Hashem. Why would He keep trying to stop me? Does He not want me to do the mitzva? The answer is, for sure He wants you to do the mitzva, but He wants you to get the most out of it. The harder a person tries to do a mitzva, the greater the mitzva becomes. If it gets extremely difficult to do, and the person continues to persevere, his rewards for that mitzva will be unimaginable. The Sefer Sas V'Imratecha tells the following story, which took place a number of years ago. Two great Rebbes, who were brothers, arranged a tish on Tu B'shvat, and suddenly, at around midnight, one said to the other that they hadn't done the mitzva of Birkat HaLevana yet. This was the last night to do it, and there were only a few hours left to get it done. The problem was that it was overcast with thick clouds, and there was a very slim chance that the moon would appear in the next few hours. At that time, they were in the Zichron Moshe shul in Yerushalayim. They decided to travel towards Yericho, and hopefully spot the moon there. They figured that the eastern part of Israel was hotter, and maybe had less clouds. They were approaching Yericho, and were stopped at a checkpoint. The sky there was filled with clouds as well. They asked one of the soldiers if they could put out a message asking soldiers in other locations if anyone could see the moon from where they were stationed. The soldier was dumbfounded by the request, and asked the Rebbe why he wanted to know such information. The Rebbe told him about the mitzva of Birkat HaLevana, and how there were only a few hours left to do it. The soldier put out the request, and almost every reply was negative, except for one, who said he was near Me'arat HaMachpela, and he was able to see the moon. The Rebbes became so excited, and urged their driver to go there immediately. The soldier told them by the time they got there, the moon would probably be gone, but they didn't pay any attention to him, and they hurried there at once. When they finally arrived, it was two o'clock in the morning. Baruch Hashem, the moon was still visible, and they recited Birkat HaLevana with great jubilation. Even though it was very late, and they were extremely tired, they wanted to take advantage of the fact that they just did a mitzva with great self-sacrifice. One of the Rebbe's sons was with them, who was married for twenty years without children. They decided to go to Kever Rachel to pray, and there they prayed from the depths of their hearts, and miraculously, that year, the Rebbe's son was zocheh to have his first child. The value of a mitzva done with great difficulty is enormous. If we ever set out to do a mitzva and we run into obstacles, it's a gift from Hashem to enable us to get a much bigger mitzva for the very same deed, but it requires effort and perseverance. Hashem never wants to stop us from getting a mitzva. He only wants to make it better for us.

There are people who have been hurt in the past by others and were never able to get over it. They carry the pain with them and hold a deep-rooted grudge towards the individuals that hurt them. Holding on to pain and carrying around negative energy is very detrimental. It is a very big test to be able to forgive and move on, but the person must know that by doing it, he will be the one who gains the most. We believe, be'munah shelema, that people do not have the ability to harm us. They are only messengers carrying out the will of Hashem. With that emunah, it becomes easier to forgive. Rabbi Braverman told that after a class he gave, a thirty-year-old woman came over to him and was bemoaning the fact that she hadn't even gone on one date in the past ten years. She told the rabbi the reason was because at age nineteen, half a week before her wedding, her chatan called it off. He had already called the hall to cancel a full week before that, but she didn't know about it yet. Other people knew that her wedding was canceled even before she did. It was so humiliating. She would never forgive him for it. The rabbi told her she was missing some details in this story. The woman was taken aback and asked the rabbi if he suspected her of lying about it. The rabbi said, "No, but the way you should tell the story is as follows." "Ten years ago, Hashem saved me from marrying someone who would have been terrible for me. He did a miracle and made the guy back out for no good reason, just to save me." The rabbi continued, for the past ten years, instead of thanking Hashem for saving you from a bitter marriage, you have been punishing yourself instead. The woman never considered looking at it that way. This new perspective enabled her to let go of all the anger she was holding onto. Shortly after that meeting with the rabbi, she met the person that became her husband. By holding onto grudges, we are the ones who lose the most. Rabbi Goel El-Karif told a similar story of a couple that couldn't have children for six years. When the doctor gave them the devastating news that there was no hope, that is when the rosh kollel of the boy told the couple he might know the problem that is preventing them from conceiving. He told the boy, you broke off an engagement, but you never got forgiven from the girl. The boy felt that he was justified in breaking it off and never thought that he needed to ask forgiveness for it. The rosh kollel went to speak to the family of that girl and saw how bitter she was about it. She herself had never gotten married and felt the reason was partly because she was humiliated by having her engagement called off. They then did everything in their power to get forgiven and after a lot of hard effort, the girl finally forgave him. Within that year, the girl got engaged. Her chatan was everything she could have ever wanted. She saw so clearly that Hashem gave her the salvation she had been anticipating for years. But she also saw that the couple she forgave was still not blessed with children. That is when she really worked much harder to truly forgive to the point that she herself was praying for them to have children. Baruch Hashem, a few months later, the good news came. The couple was expecting. Again, we see that the grudge this woman was holding onto was preventing her from moving forward. Hashem runs the world. Nobody could affect another individual if it's not what Hashem wants. If someone understands this, it will make it easier to forgive. And by forgiving, we are helping ourselves the most.

So many people have said they can't believe how much learning Emunah has changed their lives for the better. They feel bad that they didn't start learning about it earlier. They now live every day of life together with Hashem and there is so much more meaning behind everything they do. A young woman recently shared with me how she discovered Emunah and how her life has improved in so many ways because of it. About five months ago, she met a girl who she is now proud to call her good friend. They met at work and over many long and deep conversations, they forged a strong bond. She has an elderly grandfather who is very sick and she is watching as her beloved grandfather turned from a sweet little man who woke up at five every morning to pray and learn to a shriveled old man confined to his bed with an oxygen machine. She has been praying and crying so much. Her grandfather barely speaks but whenever she comes, he does, and the only thing he tells her about is that he wants to meet her chatan and dance at her wedding. She is currently 20 years old and has been in shiduchim for two years. She's enjoying her days as a single girl and not feeling at all pressured to get married. However, every time she steps foot through her grandfather's door, things suddenly shift and she feels desperate to get engaged. She really wants to fulfill the wishes of her grandfather to meet her chatan and come to her wedding. Every time she goes to him, he looks at her beseechingly as though begging her and blessing her all at the same time. And every time she leaves, she feels so bad, crying herself to sleep. One night, she described all of this to her new friend. She had been to her grandfather that day and he didn't look so good. He motioned to all the machinery he was hooked up to and he rasped, "You've got to hurry up." She left and cried for hours. She wanted to give her grandfather what he was asking for, but it wasn't in her control. So when she cried to her friend that night, the friend came up with a great idea. Since they both know everything is only in Hashem's control, they should work on strengthening their Emunah. They decided to start learning a book on Emunah every night. The first night, the friend read while she continued to cry. She didn't even have the book yet. The next day, she went to get the book with anticipation of the inspiration that it was going to bring. They read together two lessons each day and although they were from such different backgrounds, the timeless words connected them in a way they can't describe. They grew very quickly and she no longer felt that helplessness when she went to her grandfather. She felt much more confident and secure knowing that everything was in Hashem's hands. Her prayers took on a new dimension. She prayed with newfound energy and fervor knowing who the real Boss is. As they approached the end of the first book, they agreed to continue with the second volume. On October 30th, just a few weeks ago, they read the final chapter of the first book. The very next day, she got engaged. Baruch Hashem, her grandfather is alive and breathing, and with Hashem's help, was able to meet her chatan. The l'chaim was celebrated at her grandfather's house with just a few people. She watched as her dream came true, as her grandfather drank l'chaim and blessed them both. Emunah has changed her life in every way. She's so much happier, calmer and most importantly, more connected to Hashem. Everyone can experience these same feelings with Emunah. It is very doable and available to all.

The pasuk says in this week's parasha, Lech Lecha , ויוצא אותו החוצה . Avraham Avinu, who knew how to read the stars, told Hashem that he saw he was not going to have children. Hashem told him to go outside of his astrology, because אין מזל לישראל . It doesn't matter what the stars say, because we are above the stars, and things can always change. These words have given so much hope to people who have been told throughout the generations that in the natural way of the world they would be unable to have children, or unable to accomplish something they hoped to accomplish. Our tefillot and our emunah can transcend nature. Sometimes people get their hopes up and pray hard, but then they get let down, and they want to give up. The emunah that a person portrays after a letdown is such a great zechut. It could be that the entire letdown was created just for the person to have emunah at that time, because that emunah can be the catalyst for his ultimate yeshua. We never know which tefila or which avoda will change a mazal. Every one of them is valuable, and we should never underestimate any of them. A young man who learns in kollel told me he had been married for two years without children and things were not looking good for them. Last year before Sukkot, they felt uneasy about spending time with their families, with all of their other siblings already having children, and perhaps pitying them for not having. They had wanted to go for a long time to Eretz Yisrael, to pray by the kotel, and pray by kivrei tzaddikim and get berachot from gedolim. They decided this would be the perfect time to go. It was expensive, and they didn't have that much money, but they knew they needed a lot of רחמי שמים , and heartfelt tefilot in מקומות הקדושים was a great way of getting it. The first couple of days there, they went to the Kotel, kever Rachel, Ma'arat Hamachpela, and prayed for a long time at each place. They went to a couple of more places during chol ha-moed, and they had their main full schedule planned for after the holiday. But then came Shemini Atzeret, October 7th, and the tragic news began to spread. Their prayers changed from focusing on themselves to focusing on Klal Yisrael. Their plans were canceled. They spent the rest of the time there, indoors, including a few bomb shelters. Of course, their hearts were with all of those people who were suffering so much, but they couldn't help but also feel that their chance of having children was also getting ruined. This was their one chance in Eretz Yisrael to get the yeshua they had been desperately seeking. They decided to strengthen their emunah and accept that now Hashem wanted them to pray for others rather than themselves. They fully accepted the situation Hashem put them in and were happy with it. The very next night, at the house of the people they were staying by, their child who has Down syndrome turned to this couple and said, "You're going to have a baby." They were awestruck. Baruch Hashem, just two weeks later, they discovered that they were indeed expecting a child. There were many scares during the pregnancy, but Baruch Hashem, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Things don't always happen the way we want or plan or hope, but our job is to always embrace the will of Hashem and do the job that He wants us to do. We never know what Avodah will bring our yeshua, but we do know that no matter what, we can always be helped, and we need to hope and pray with that attitude. Shabbat Shalom.

Chazal have taught us a wondrous segula to have our tefillot accepted faster. Namely, if someone is in need of a yeshua and knows of someone else with that same need and prays for that person to be helped. With this statement, the chazal are also teaching us how important it is to pray for others. The Be'er Mayim Chayim explains, when we pray for others, we are showing that we care about the pain of the Shechina, kaviyachol. The pasuk says, when a Jew is in pain, Hashem is in pain, and Hashem's pain is equal for every single Jew that is hurting. So when we pray for others to be relieved from their suffering, we are also praying for some of the pain of the Shechina to be relieved. Rav Moshe Feinstein zt"l writes in the Igerot Moshe (YD 4:51), about how much every single person's tefila makes an impact, even if the person has done many averot. Then he writes, if someone was asked to pray for someone else, he should feel the responsibility of that request. Nobody knows whose prayers will have the most impact. By praying for someone else, the person is doing the ultimate chesed and also fulfilling the great mitzvah of ואהבת לרעך כמוך . Then he concludes by saying, since it's an absolute obligation to pray for our friends and give them berachot, even if we're not asked to pray for someone, if we know they're in need, we should pray for them anyway. The Chida writes in his Sefer Nachal Kedumim, when praying for others, we must really have pure intentions that they should be helped and not just pray as a ploy to get the help that we are looking for. If we are able to pray with pure intentions for others, then the segula works. If someone has been doing it and hasn't been answered yet, he should not cast doubt upon the segula of the chazal, but rather attribute it to his own shortcomings. The Shulchan Aruch writes that washing netilat yadayim for bread with a lot of water is a segula to become wealthy. The Mishna Berura writes there, if someone is careful to always wash with a lot of water but hasn't been blessed with wealth yet, it's because he has a deed which is blocking the parnasa from coming at the moment. Chazal's words are emmet. Sometimes Hashem shows us clearly how segulot do work. A rabbi told me he knows of a couple that was married for nearly eight years without children. They became friendly with another couple who was married for a few years without children. They accepted upon themselves to truly pray for one another to be helped. This past year, Baruch Hashem, one of those couples had a baby. And then, on the very same day, the woman from the other couple went into labor more than six weeks early and had a baby on the same calendar date. They were in awe of the hashgacha of Hashem, both for blessing them with children and also for showing them how their prayers for each other is what brought about their yeshua. Tefila is always special. When we have a true desire for other people to be helped and we pray with that kavana, it makes the tefila even more special.

We say in Ashrei that Hashem is משביע לכל חי רצון . The Seforno explains this to mean that Hashem gives everyone chesed because that is His desire. This should give us a lot of chizuk knowing that Hashem's desire is to give every one of us chesed all day long. Everyone has different needs and Hashem gives everyone what they need when it's good for them. A young man who will call Zevulun told me that there's an older man who we'll call Yosef who eats by one of his relatives every Shabbat lunch. If those relatives are ever away for Shabbat, they inform Yosef in advance so he can make other plans. A couple of weeks ago, those relatives went away and totally forgot to tell Yosef. That Shabbat morning, Zevulun was walking to shul as usual. This time, for some inexplicable reason, he decided to cross the large highway-like street much earlier than he normally does on his way to shul. A minute after that, for the first time ever on that walk, he bumped into Yosef. He asked Yosef where he was eating that day and Yosef mentioned the name of the relative that he always goes to. Zevulun then told him that they were away, but it would be his honor if he would come to him for lunch and he happily accepted. Zevulun said he saw openly how Hashem was so concerned about where Yosef would eat his Shabbat lunch that day that He orchestrated that highly unlikely meeting. A few years ago, a young orphan asked Zevulun to get him a candy/toy bag from the minyan he attends on Simchat Torah. They both pray in the same shul, but Zevulun's minyan gives out much better bags. Zevulun was unable to get him a bag that day and he felt very bad about it. He has since moved to a different shul. This year, a couple of days before Simchat Torah, he bumped into the man who was in charge of giving out the bags at that other minyan. He asked him if he could please set aside a bag for the orphan who prays in a different minyan in that shul and find him to give him one. That Simchat Torah, this man searched the building for the young orphan, but he wasn't there. As he was giving out the bags to the rest of the children there, someone came over and asked him for an extra one for someone else. That was against the rules, so he immediately said no. And then he thought about it and asked that person who the bag was for. The person mentioned the name of that young orphan. The man couldn't believe it and happily gave him a bag. Hashem made sure to give this orphan the toy and candy bag that he wanted so badly. He caused Zevulun to meet the man who gave them out. And even though the orphan wasn't even in the shul that day, He sent a messenger to get one for him. Another man told me his mother had a brain operation scheduled for 9am one day, but they had to reschedule it for 1pm. It was a two hour surgery and Baruch Hashem it was a success. While her family was in the waiting room, they saw another family saying Tehillim. Then the doctor called that family and they all huddled around to hear what he had to say. Baruch Hashem, their father was doing well after they successfully removed a tumor in a 10 hour brain surgery. The doctor said during the surgery they found a major issue. There was a very dangerous aneurysm behind the tumor. They only found it because of the tumor. The doctor operating on him was not an aneurysm specialist and wasn't able to do the surgery on it. But they needed to take care of it immediately. The doctor in the very next room who just finished operating on this other family's mother was considered a top neurologist whose expertise was in aneurysms. He went right in and saved that man's life. He was only there at that time because the surgery was postponed for that woman for over four hours. Hashem takes care of every single person's needs, billions of people, all at the same time. Whether it's finding someone a place to eat Shabbat lunch, or bringing joy to a young orphan, or saving someone's life, He is always taking care of us. This knowledge should bring us so much serenity and joy.

One of the greatest tools that we have to give us chizuk for difficult times are the real life stories that other people share. We are able to see the Yad Hashem very clearly and it helps us have hope even when things are looking very bleak. A woman sent me some details of what took place during her last pregnancy which will give us a tremendous amount of chizuk. She said when she was nine weeks pregnant she began to bleed and the doctor told her she needed to take it easy but most probably would miscarry. She quit her job and was confined to bed rest. At around sixteen weeks, the baby tested positive for down syndrome and spina bifida. The baby was also reading two weeks behind in development. The doctor said not to worry about all the problems because she was going to miscarry anyway. Confused and broken, she didn't know where to turn. She stood in the parking lot of the hospital and began strengthening her emunah that it was all in Hashem's hands and it was all for the best. She received a text from a Rebbetzin of hers asking how things were going. She then called the Rebbetzin and told her what was going on. The Rebbetzin connected her to Dr. Rebarber who confirmed her worst fears. He said the baby's spine was completely curved. The fetus was head to toe. The foot was backwards and would need surgery right after birth. It had heart issues that required them to get a fetal echo twice a week. It was so bad that the doctor told her, "I don't know what you would consider a worst case scenario, having the child or miscarrying." When Chanukkah came around she forced herself to pray by the candles for a completely healthy baby, although that did not seem at all possible. For the time being she was still seeing her doctor in New Jersey. The baby turned 20 weeks and she asked him a question. She forgot the question but will never forget his response. "I can't save your baby until 24 weeks, so do whatever you want." Those words hit her very hard. She had a moment of complete Emunah in Hashem. She said to herself about this doctor, you were never the one saving my baby. She left and never went back. She finally started praying the right way to the Doctor of all Doctors. In the meantime things were getting worse and worse, more appointments, more complications. She felt her prayers were making an impact, but each sonogram seemed to say otherwise. They were told to terminate the pregnancy once again but she encouraged her husband not to listen and to rather continue with the pregnancy and that's what they did. At 29 weeks the baby was only 22 weeks developed. It failed a breathing test. She was hospitalized because the placenta was failing. Things looked the worst they could possibly get. She knew she was in Hashem's hands and only He had the final say on what was going to happen. The NICU team told them a bunch of horrific scenarios, and at the end of their gruesome speech they said not to worry about any of this, because the baby is too small for the ventilator so it won't live anyway. They did a c-section and announced it's a girl. She was praying the entire time asking Hashem to let the baby live. Baruch Hashem the baby came out crying which meant it was breathing. Each team at the NICU slowly came up with their findings. Cardiology said, "I don't know what they were talking about with the heart issues. There are no holes. The heart is perfect." This woman kept a google docs sheet with every issue the baby was supposed to have. The ortho team came and said her foot and spine are perfect. Each team was astonished with their findings. Dr. Rebarber called to say he couldn't believe the baby was alive and healthy. The baby did need to be in the NICU for 188 days and did need to come home with a feeding tube but now she is turning three, completely healthy, Baruch Hashem, and going to school like everyone else. From every issue they were told the baby had, she had none of them. Hashem showed everyone that He is in charge and once again gave chizuk to all of us to know we can always hope to Him for the best results, no matter how bleak a situation seems to be.

One of the names that the Torah gives the holiday of Sukkot is Chag Ha'asif, the holiday of gathering. Seemingly, gathering describes the time period in which the holiday falls out in, being that this is the time of year that landowners would gather their crops from their fields. If that's the case, why would a description of the time period become so significant to become one of the names of the holiday? Obviously, there is more to it. The Be'er HaParasha quoted the Rashbam on the pasuk, למען ידעו דורותיכם כי בסוכות הושבתי , who says, by remembering how Hashem took care of all the Jewish people's needs for 40 years in the desert, they would continue thanking Him when they settled the land with beautiful homes filled with bounty. Then they would not think that it was their strength that enabled them to settle the land, and it was their craftsmanship that built their homes. This pasuk, which commands us to sit in the sukkah, is alluding to the fact that we have to remember that everything we have is only because Hashem gives it to us. This message is so important specifically at this time of year, when the landowner sees how much yield his fields produced, at a time when he is susceptible to feeling haughty over what he accomplished. The Torah reminds him that all of his blessing only comes from Hashem. This is one of the reasons why Sukkot is called the Chag HaAsif. It is not just describing the time period, but is rather helping us stay humble and appreciate Hashem during this time of gathering. It is obvious that Hashem gives us everything we have, but the Yetzer Hara makes it not so obvious. Something could be staring a person right in the face, but he doesn't realize it because he gets sidetracked. The Be'er HaParasha gave him a mashal to explain. There was a wealthy man transporting dirt over the border from a neighboring country. When the border patrol asked him about it, he said he was building a new home and needed dirt for it. They told him there was plenty of dirt in his country and didn't need dirt from a different country. He said that this dirt was much better. They didn't believe him. They thought he was smuggling valuables like gold and silver under the dirt and trying to avoid the taxes. So they ordered their inspectors to sift through all of the dirt. In the end they didn't find anything and let the truck load through. This repeated itself every single day for months. Every day he would transport dirt and every day the inspectors would search and find nothing. Finally the wealthy man said his house was completed and wasn't going to need any more dirt. The head of the border patrol asked this man what he was hiding for all these months. It couldn't be that he just needed dirt. The wealthy man told him, if you sign a letter saying I'll never have to pay tax for it, then I'll tell you. He signed the letter, and the wealthy man told him he was transporting brand new trucks every day but he sidetracked them with the dirt. So too, we work hard and we earn money and the Yeser Harah tells us it was our hard work that produced the money. But we must not get fooled. It's only Hashem. Baruch Hashem, another one of our enemies has been eliminated. It happened accidentally and reportedly accomplished by soldiers that were trainees. This is Hashem reminding us that He is in charge and when He decides an enemy will be eliminated, that's when it will happen. We pray that Hashem will decide to end the fighting with all of our enemies being eradicated and allow us to celebrate the coming of the Mashiach. Amen. Chag Sameach.

Teshuvah, tefila, and tzedaka are able to take away any harsh decrees. This time of year is the greatest for tefillah. As well, any kind of teshuvah is accepted at this time. And we have to go out of our way to give extra tzedaka. When someone is approached for money or some other type of request, the person may feel like he is being bothered again and quickly wants to dismiss the request. However, we should know when Hashem sends a person a chesed opportunity, it's for his own good. It may not seem that way because it has to be a test. In the end, the giver always gains more than the receiver. A man told, just as he started eating dinner one Thursday evening, there was a knock at the door. He figured it was a collector and kept eating. But as the knocking persisted, he fought himself and he got up to answer the knock. It was the neighbor's child. He was asking if his family could borrow fifty shekels. They often needed to borrow and he was happy to lend them. He went to the shelf on the bottom of the cabinet to get the money from a certain envelope, but the envelope wasn't there. He apologized to the boy saying he didn't have any money at the moment. Then he realized his problem was much bigger than his neighbor's. That envelope had a very large sum of money in it, as well as important documents. He searched high and low for it, and then came to the conclusion that it must have gotten thrown out. He prayed, pledged tzedaka, and then went outside to the garbage bins. He was embarrassed to go through his garbage with so many people walking by. At that moment, Hashem sent him a neighbor who was leaving the building. He told him of his problem and the neighbor said he would help and they would split the embarrassment. At the end of a long and unpleasant experience, Baruch Hashem, he found the envelope with the money and all of the documents. He especially felt a deep sense of hakarat hatov to Hashem, being that the garbage pickup came just 15 minutes later. Hashem sent him the chesed opportunity just in time. And just by getting up to answer the door, he was able to gain so much. Our attitude in giving should always be that we want to give. And if we don't have the ability to give, we should wish that we were able to give. If someone wants to give badly enough, hopefully Hashem will give him the ability to do so. A woman told me that her son was collecting for needy families in need of yeshiva tuition assistance. He asked his family members to contribute. The woman was only able to give him a small sum, but told him that she wished she could give more. That night she said to Hashem, "If You give me the money, I will give it all to help these needy families." Three days later, she saw a friend of hers at a gathering. The friend told her she had some good news. She just sold the pocket book that she had given her to sell. The woman then recalled, she gave her a pocket book to try and sell three years ago. She had assumed that she was never able to sell it and just gave it away to charity. Her friend said, I never lowered the price and just yesterday someone bought it for about a thousand dollars. The woman couldn't believe it. This was found money. She took the money and gave every single dollar to the needy families that her son was collecting for. She told Hashem, if He gives it to her, she would give it away. And she saw so clearly that Hashem was the One who gave her this money. Something that wasn't selling for three years suddenly got sold. When we give, we get. Especially at this time of year, tzedaka has an enormous power.

At this time, we are supposed to feel that our judgment is pending, and it is in our hands to get the best of everything. We need to utilize these days of Aseret Yemei Teshuva , to accept upon ourselves to become better, to make teshuva for what we have done wrong in the past, and to pray with all of our heart and soul. If there is anything we want, now is the greatest time for prayer. A person who has been waiting for so long to get married has to feel that he can get his salvation right now. A rosh yeshiva from Israel told me that in his yeshiva, they auction off the zechut of dedicating the יהא שמיה רבה of each Kaddish on the Yamim Noraim to the one who purchases it. This means that when the yeshiva boys answer אמן יהא שמיה רבה ..., praising the name of Hashem, they also have in mind a salvation for that person in need. Last year, a boy aged thirty, who had been trying very hard with Shidduchim for almost ten years, had almost decided to give up. Nothing ever went his way, and he wanted to just put it out of his mind, rather than continuing with the misery he was experiencing. Someone then told him of the miraculous salvation people have had by purchasing the zechut of the יהא שמיה רבה in that particular yeshiva in Israel. They convinced him to fly to Israel for Yom Kippur to get the zechut for himself. And that's what he did. Baruch Hashem, this year, he was zocheh to get married to a girl two years older than him. Until now, he never would have considered dating someone older than him. But in the zechut of that יהא שמיה רבה , Hashem did something to make it click in his head to try, and now he couldn't be happier. As an aside, sometimes people feel they have certain conditions they need to get married, but in reality, the zivug that Hashem has for them may not fulfill those conditions. We must be open to everything and give Hashem the "ability" to bring a person the zivug that He has had waiting for him since before they were born. I read a story in a Shalom Bayit book authored by Rabbi Nachum Diamant. A man went out with a girl and had a great time, but there was something about her looks that bothered him. She was cross-eyed. It was something that he didn't feel he could look past, but he discussed it with his rabbi first, and his rabbi encouraged him to go out a second time. The second date was even better than the first. Their personalities really clicked, but this problem was still weighing him down. He decided to continue, and then on one of the dates, he told the girl that he really wanted to marry her, but he didn't know if he could get past this issue. He mentioned there was a surgery she could do to fix it. Many girls in that situation may have gotten insulted and ended it on the spot, but Hashem guided this girl to say that she would agree to do the surgery. They got married relatively quickly before she actually got the surgery, and then she found out she was expecting, and they had to delay the surgery until after she gave birth. Finally, after she had the baby, she brought up the topic, saying she was ready for the surgery. He then said, "I think you are perfect just the way you are. Now I feel that your cross-eyes are part of your charm." When someone gets to know another person for who they are, suddenly the things they thought that would really bother them really don't. Part of getting a yeshuah in Shidduchim is being open when suggestions are made. No matter how long it has been, salvation can always come in the blink of an eye, and now is the time to pray with all of our might for yeshuot in all areas.

Every year on Rosh Hashanah, Hashem reveals His kingship when He judges each person and determines his fate for the upcoming year. The Gemara says, אמר רבי יצחק: כל שנה שרשה בתחילתה מתעשרת בסופה - Any year when a person feels humbled like a beggar at the beginning of the year, it brings about blessing for the upcoming year. We are supposed to feel as if we have nothing coming to us. Whatever Hashem has given us until now was a complete undeserved gift, and we are hoping that He is going to continue bestowing His chesed upon us. We need to feel so overcome with gratitude for everything that Hashem has given us so far. People may look around and see what others have and feel that they are treated unfairly. "Why can't they have what the other one has?" they think. This causes them to completely overlook all of the wonderful blessings that they have in their lives. I once saw a parable of a man who had acres of fruit and vegetable fields that earned him a very bountiful income. One day, someone showed him an enormous diamond and said, "This one diamond is worth more than all your fields combined." He said he's in the wrong business. He should instead look to go into diamonds. The man was convinced and he sold all his fields and took the proceeds in search of diamonds. However, he was not able to find any diamonds remotely close to the one he was shown. He became depressed over it and was bitter about his life. Meanwhile, the man who bought his fields was walking through a stream that went through one of them. He stumbled upon something, picked it up, and it appeared to be a diamond. He took it to be appraised, and indeed, it was one of the most exquisite diamonds in the entire world. The man discovered that the stream was filled with these kinds of diamonds, and he lived happily ever after. The lesson is, the first person was sitting on diamonds, but he didn't know it. He had everything he could ever want right under his nose, he just didn't realize it. The same is true with everyone. Hashem gives each person his own field of diamonds. If we ignore the evil inclination telling us to look around at everybody else, we would enjoy our diamonds so much. Part of crowning Hashem King on Rosh Hashanah is feeling happy to be part of His Kingdom, to feel happy with the way that He deals with us. We may have things that we still want, but there's a way to approach it. The Midrash Raba in parashat Vayikra gives a mashal of two sharecroppers, each of whose fields were not doing so well, and they were in desperate need of more money from their landowner to keep the fields going. The first sharecropper put on nice clothing, and he went to the landowner with a smile. He said, "Baruch Hashem, everything is great, but if I can get an extra ten dinarim , I'll be able to help your field do much better." The landowner told the sharecropper, "Here, take twenty dinarim and go and produce a bountiful crop." The second sharecropper went to his landowner with a worried look on his face, saying the field's in trouble, he wished he'd never invested in it to begin with. He needed an emergency ten dinarim or the field would become totally ruined. The landowner told him he's fired and got someone else to run the land instead. Both of these sharecroppers were in the exact same situation. Both of their fields needed a lot of help, but the wiser one spoke with hope and anticipation, while the foolish one spoke with worry and depression. We are supposed to come to Hashem happily, with appreciation for everything He has given us. He knows there's things that we still need, but if we have the right attitude, He'll give us double. The Gemara says the angels once asked Hashem why He shows favoritism to the Jewish people. After all, it says in the Torah that Hashem doesn't show favoritism. Hashem answered, "It also says in the Torah, ואכלת ושבעת וברכת - that a person only has to say birkat hamazon when he's completely full. But the Jewish people say it, even for just a k'zayit of bread, even when they're not full." Look how much Hashem appreciates when we show hakarat hatov , even if we didn't get everything we wanted. Let us appreciate Hashem and show Him how happy we are to be in His Kingdom. B'ezrat Hashem, everybody should have a כתיבה וחתימה טובה. תזכו לשנים רבות

“Today's Morocco is a prime example of what a great peaceful coexistence and international cooperation can be with an Arab country.” Eli Gabay, an Israeli-born lawyer and current president of the oldest continuously active synagogue in the United States, comes from a distinguished family of Jewish leaders who have fostered Jewish communities across Morocco, Israel, and the U.S. Now residing in Philadelphia, Eli and his mother, Rachel, share their deeply personal story of migration from Morocco to Israel, reflecting on the resilience of their family and the significance of preserving Jewish traditions. The Gabay family's commitment to justice and heritage is deeply rooted. Eli, in his legal career, worked with Israel's Ministry of Justice, where he notably helped prosecute John Ivan Demjanjuk, a Cleveland auto worker accused of being the notorious Nazi death camp guard, "Ivan the Terrible." Jessica Marglin, Professor of Religion, Law, and History at the University of Southern California, offers expert insights into the Jewish exodus from Morocco. She explores the enduring relationship between Morocco's Jewish community and the monarchy, and how this connection sets Morocco apart from its neighboring countries. —- Show notes: How much do you know about Jewish history in the Middle East? Take our quiz. Sign up to receive podcast updates. Learn more about the series. Song credits:  Pond5:  “Desert Caravans”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Tiemur Zarobov (BMI), IPI#1098108837 “Suspense Middle East” Publisher: Victor Romanov, Composer: Victor Romanov; Item ID: 196056047 ___ Episode Transcript: ELI GABAY: Standing in court and saying ‘on behalf of the State of Israel' were the proudest words of my life. It was very meaningful to serve as a prosecutor. It was very meaningful to serve in the IDF.  These were highlights in my life, because they represented my core identity: as a Jew, as a Sephardic Jew, as an Israeli Sephardic Jew. These are the tenets of my life. MANYA BRACHEAR PASHMAN: The world has overlooked an important episode in modern history: the 800,000 Jews who left or were driven from their homes in the Middle East and North Africa in the mid-20th century. Welcome to the second season of The Forgotten Exodus, brought to you by American Jewish Committee. This series explores that pivotal moment in history and the little-known Jewish heritage of Iran and Arab nations. As Jews around the world confront violent antisemitism and Israelis face daily attacks by terrorists on multiple fronts, our second season explores how Jews have lived throughout the region for generations – despite hardship, hostility, and hatred–then sought safety and new possibilities in their ancestral homeland. I'm your host, Manya Brachear Pashman. Join us as we explore untold family histories and personal stories of courage, perseverance, and resilience from this transformative and tumultuous period of history for the Jewish people and the Middle East.  The world has ignored these voices. We will not. This is The Forgotten Exodus.  Today's episode: leaving Morocco. MANYA: There are three places Eli Gabay calls home: Philadelphia, the city where he has raised his children; Morocco, the land where his parents Rachel and Amram were born and his ancestors lived for generations; and Israel, his birthplace and original ancestral homeland. Eli has been on a quest to honor all those identities since he left Israel at the age of 12. ELI: On my father's side, they were all rabbis. On my mother's side, they were all businesspeople who headed synagogues. And so, my grandfather had a synagogue, and my other grandfather had a synagogue. When they transplanted to Israel, they reopened these synagogues in the transition camp in Be'er Sheva. Both families had a synagogue of their own. MANYA: For the past five years, Eli has served as president of his synagogue--the historic Congregation Mikveh Israel, America's oldest continuous synagogue, founded in Philadelphia in 1740. Descended from a long line of rabbis going back generations, Eli is a litigation attorney, the managing partner of a law firm, a former prosecutor, and, though it might seem odd, the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Nicaragua in Philadelphia. But the professional role that has brought him the most acclaim was his time in the 1980s, working for Israel's Ministry of Justice, decades after the Holocaust, still trying to hold its perpetrators accountable. CLIP - ‘THE DEVIL NEXT DOOR' TRAILER: Charges were filed today against John Demjanjuk, the 66-year-old Ukrainian native, who's accused of being a Nazi death camp guard named Ivan the Terrible. The crimes he was accused of… MANYA: We'll tell you more about that later. But first, we take you to the Jerusalem Israeli Gift Shop in northeast Philadelphia, a little slice of Israel on the corner of Castor Avenue and Chandler Street. [shofar sounds] Every day, amid the menorahs and shofars, frames and mezuzahs, Eli's 84-year-old mother Rachel Gabay, the family matriarch and owner of thisJudaica shop, is transported back to the place where she grew up: Israel. ELI: My father was a teacher all his life, and my mother [shofar sounds] runs a Jewish Judaica store that sells shofars, you can hear in the background. RACHEL: It's my baby. The store here became my baby. CUSTOMER: You're not going to remember this, but you sold us our ketubah 24 years ago. RACHEL: Yeah. How are you, dear? ELI: Nice. CUSTOMER: We're shopping for someone else's wedding now. RACHEL: Oh, very nice… For who? CUSTOMER: A friend of ours, Moshe, who is getting married and we wanted to get him a mezuzah. MANYA: For Rachel, Israel represents the safety, security, and future her parents sought for her when in 1947 they placed her on a boat to sail away from Morocco. By then, Casablanca had become a difficult place to be Jewish. Israel offered a place to belong. And for that, she will always be grateful. RACHEL: To be a Jew, to be very good… ELI: Proud. RACHEL: Proud. I have a country, and I am somebody. ELI: My father's family comes from the High Atlas Mountains, from a small village called Aslim.The family arrived in that area sometime in 1780 or so. There were certain events that went on in Morocco that caused Jews from the periphery and from smaller cities to move to Casablanca. Both my parents were born in Morocco in Casablanca. Both families arrived in Casablanca in the early 30s, mid 30s. MANYA: Today, the port city of Casablanca is home to several synagogues and about 2,000 Jews, the largest community of Morocco. The Museum of Moroccan Judaism in suburban Casablanca, the first museum on Judaism in the Arab world, stands as a symbol of the lasting Jewish legacy in Morocco. Indeed, there's been a Jewish presence in what is considered modern-day Morocco for some 2,000 years, dating back to the early days of the establishment of Roman control.  Morocco was home to thousands of Jews, many of whom lived in special quarters called “Mellah,” or Jewish ghetto. Mellahs were common in cities across Morocco. JESSICA: Morocco was one of the few places in the Islamic world where there emerged the tradition of a distinctive Jewish quarter that had its own walls and was closed with its own gates. MANYA: Jessica Marglin is a professor of religion, law, and history at the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on the history of Jews and Muslims in North Africa and the Mediterranean. JESSICA: There's a bit of a debate. Were these quarters there to control Jews and force them to all live in one spot and was it a sort of form of basically repression? Or was it a way to protect them? The first mellah, the one in Fez is right next to the palace. And so there was a sense that the Jews would be closer to the Sultan or the Sultan's representative, and thus more easily protectable. It could be interpreted as a bad thing. And some Jews did see it as an unfair restriction. But I would say that most Jews didn't question the idea that Jews would live together. And that was sort of seen as natural and desirable. And there was a certain kind of autonomous jurisdiction to the mellah, too.  Because Jews had their own courts. They had their own butchers. They had their own ovens. Butchers and ovens would have been kosher. They could sell wine in the mellah. They could do all these things that were particular to them. And that's where all the synagogues were. And that's where the Jewish cemetery was, right? It was really like a little Jewish city, sort of within the city. MANYA: Unlike other parts of the Middle East and North Africa where pogroms and expulsions, especially after the creation of the state of Israel, caused hundreds of thousands of Jews to abruptly flee all at once – spilling out of countries they had called home for centuries – Jews chose to leave Morocco gradually over time, compared to the exodus from other Arab countries.  JESSICA: When I teach these things, I set up Morocco and Iraq as the two ends of the spectrum. Iraq being the most extreme, where Jews were really basically kicked out all at once. Essentially offered no real choice. I mean, some did stay, but it was choosing a totally reduced life.  Versus Morocco, where the Jews who left did so really, with a real choice. They could have stayed and the numbers are much more gradual than anywhere else. So there was a much larger community that remained for years and years and years, even after ‘67, into the ‘70s.  Even though they kept going down, it was really, it was not like Iraq where the population just falls off a cliff, right? It's like one year, there's 100,000, the next year, they're 5,000. In Morocco, it really went down extremely gradually. And that's in part why it's still the largest Jewish community in the Arab world by far. MANYA: Morocco's Jewish history is by no means all rosy. In all Arab countries, antisemitism came in waves and different forms. But there are several moments in history when the Moroccan monarchy could've abandoned the Jewish population but didn't. And in World War II, the Moroccan monarch took steps to safeguard the community. In recent years, there have been significant gestures such as the opening of the Jewish museum in Casablanca, a massive restoration of landmarks that honor Morocco's Jewish past, including 167 Jewish cemeteries, and the inclusion of Holocaust education in school curricula. In 2020, Morocco became one of four Arab countries to sign a normalization agreement with Israel, as part of the U.S.-backed Abraham Accords, which allowed for economic and diplomatic cooperation and direct flights between the two countries. MANYA: Oral histories suggest that Jews have lived in Morocco for some 2,000 years, roughly since the destruction of the Second Temple. But tangible evidence of a Jewish presence doesn't date as far back. JESSICA: The archaeological remains suggest that the community dates more to the Roman period. There was a continual presence from at least since the late Roman period, certainly well before the Islamic conquests. MANYA: Like other parts of the Middle East and North Africa, Jews in Morocco were heavily concentrated in particular artisanal trades. Many were cobblers, tailors, and jewelers who adorned their creations with intricate designs and embellishments. Gemstones, carved coral, geometric designs, and symbols such as the Hamsa to bless the wearer with good fortune and protect them from the evil eye. JESSICA: And there were certain areas where they kind of were overrepresented in part because of stigmas associated with certain crafts for Muslims. So gold and silver jewelry making in certain parts of Morocco, like in the city of Fez, Jews were particularly overrepresented in the trade that made these gold threads, which are called skalli in Moroccan Arabic, and which are used to embroider sort of very fancy clothing for men and for women. Skalli for instance, is a very common last name for Jews.  MANYA: Jessica notes that in the 12th and 13th Centuries, Morocco came under the rule of the Almohad caliphate, a fundamentalist regime that saw itself as a revolutionary reform movement. Under the Almohad dynasty, local Christians in North Africa from Morocco to Libya all but disappeared.  Jews on the other hand stayed. She suspects Morocco developed its own version of crypto-Jews who superficially converted to Islam or at least lived outwardly as Muslims to survive.  JESSICA: There's probably more of a sense of Jews had more experience of living as minorities. Also, where else were they going to go? It wasn't so obvious. So whatever conversions there were, some of them must have stuck. And there are still, for instance, Muslim families in Fez named Kohen . . . Cohen. MANYA: Jews chose Morocco as a place of refuge in 1391, when a series of mob attacks on Jewish communities across Spain killed hundreds and forcibly converted others to Christianity. As opposed to other places in Europe, Morocco was considered a place where Jews could be safe. More refugees arrived after the Alhambra Decree of 1492 expelled Jews from Spain who refused to convert. That is when Eli's father's side of the family landed in Fez.  ELI: Our tradition is that the family came from Spain, and we date our roots to Toledo, Spain. The expulsion of the Jews took place out of Spain in 1492 at which time the family moved from Spain to Morocco to Fez. MANYA: At that time, the first mellahs emerged, the name derived from the Arabic word for salt. Jessica says that might have referred to the brackish swamps where the mellah were built.  JESSICA: The banning of Jews from Spain in 1492 brought a lot of Jews to North Africa, especially Morocco, because Morocco was so close. And, you know, that is why Jews in northern Morocco still speak Spanish today, or a form of Judeo Spanish known as Haketia. So, there were huge numbers of Iberian Jews who ended up throughout Morocco. And then for a long time, they remained a kind of distinctive community with their own laws and their own rabbis and their own traditions. Eventually, they kind of merged with local Jews. And they used Spanish actually, for decades, until they finally sort of Arabized in most of Morocco. ELI: My father's family, as I said, comes from a small town of Aslim. The family arrived in that area sometime in 1780 or so after there was a decree against Jews in Fez to either convert to Islam or leave. And so in a real sense, they were expelled from that region of Fez. There were Jews who arrived throughout the years after different exiles from different places. But predominantly the Jews that arrived in 1492 as a result of the Spanish expulsion were known as the strangers, and they integrated themselves in time into the fabric of Moroccan Jewry.  MANYA: For Eli's family, that meant blending in with the nomadic Amazigh, or indigenous people of North Africa, commonly called Berbers. Many now avoid that term because it was used by European colonialists and resembles the word “barbarians.” But it's still often used colloquially.  ELI: Aslim is in the heart of Berber territory. My father's family did speak Berber. My grandfather spoke Berber, and they dressed as Berbers. They wore jalabia, which is the dress for men, for instance, and women wore dresses only, a head covering.  Men also wore head coverings. They looked like Berbers in some sense, but their origins were all the way back to Spain. MANYA: In most cases across Morocco, Jews were classified as dhimmis, non-Muslim residents who were given protected status. Depending on the rulers, dhimmis lived under different restrictions; most paid a special tax, others were forced to wear different clothes. But it wasn't consistent.  ELI: Rulers, at their whim, would decide if they were good to the Jews or bad to the Jews. And the moment of exchange between rulers was a very critical moment, or if that ruler was attacked. MANYA: The situation for Jews within Morocco shifted again in 1912 when Morocco became a French protectorate. Many Jews adopted French as their spoken language and took advantage of educational opportunities offered to them by Alliance Israélite Universelle. The borders also remained open for many Jews who worked as itinerant merchants to go back and forth throughout the region.  JESSICA: Probably the most famous merchants were the kind of rich, international merchants who dealt a lot with trade across the Mediterranean and in other parts of the Middle East or North Africa. But there were a lot of really small-time merchants, people whose livelihood basically depended on taking donkeys into the hinterland around the cities where Jews tended to congregate.  MANYA: Rachel's family, businesspeople, had origins in two towns – near Agadir and in Essaouira. Eli has copies of three edicts issued to his great-grandfather Nissim Lev, stating that as a merchant, he was protected by the government in his travels. But the open borders didn't contain the violence that erupted in other parts of the Middle East, including the British Mandate of Palestine.  In late August 1929, a clash about the use of space next to the Western Wall in Jerusalem led to riots and a pogrom of Jews who had lived there for thousands of years. Moroccan Jews also were attacked. Rachel's grandfather Nissim died in the violence. RACHEL: He was a peddler. He was a salesman. He used to go all week to work, and before Thursday, he used to come for Shabbat. So they caught him in the road, and they took his money and they killed him there.  ELI: So my great-grandfather– RACHEL: He was very young. ELI: She's speaking of, in 1929 there were riots in Israel, in Palestine. In 1929 my great-grandfather went to the market, and at that point … so . . . a riot had started, and as my mother had described, he was attacked. And he was knifed. And he made it not very far away, all the other Jews in the market fled. Some were killed, and he was not fortunate enough to escape. Of course, all his things were stolen, and it looked like a major robbery of the Jews in the market. It gave the opportunity to do so, but he was buried nearby there in a Jewish cemetery in the Atlas Mountains. So he was not buried closer to his own town. I went to visit that place. MANYA: In the mid-1930s, both Amram and Rachel's families moved to the mellah in Casablanca where Amram's father was a rabbi. Rachel's family ran a bathhouse. Shortly after Amram was born, his mother died, leaving his father to raise three children.  Though France still considered Morocco one of its protectorates, it left Morocco's Sultan Mohammad V as the country's figurehead. When Nazis occupied France during World War II and the Vichy regime instructed the sultan to deport Morocco's Jews to Nazi death camps, he reportedly refused, saving thousands of lives. But Amram's grandmother did not trust that Morocco would protect its Jews. Following the Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt, the Axis Powers' second attempt to invade North Africa, she returned to the Atlas Mountains with Amran and his siblings and stayed until they returned to Casablanca at the end of the war.  ELI: There was a fear that the Nazis were going to enter Morocco. My father, his grandmother, took him from Casablanca with two other children and went back to Aslim in the mountains, because she said we can better hide there. We can better hide in the Atlas Mountains. And so my father returned, basically went from Casablanca to the Atlas Mountains to hide from the coming Nazis. MANYA:  In 1947, at the age of 10, Amram went from Casablanca to an Orthodox yeshiva in England. Another destination for Jews also had emerged. Until then, no one had wanted to move to British-controlled Palestine where the political landscape and economic conditions were more unstable.  The British restricted Jewish immigration making the process difficult, even dangerous. Additionally, French Moroccan authorities worked to curb the Zionist movement that was spreading throughout Europe. But Rachel's father saw the writing on the wall and took on a new vocation. RACHEL: His name is Moshe Lev and he was working with people to send to Eretz Yisrael. MANYA: A Zionist activist, Rachel's father worked for a clandestine movement to move children and eventually their families to what soon would become Israel. He wanted his children, including his 7-year-old daughter Rachel, to be the first. RACHEL: He worked there, and he sent everybody. Now our family were big, and they sent me, and then my sister went with my father and two brothers, and then my mom left by herself They flew us to Norvege [Norway].  MANYA: After a year in Norway, Rachel was taken to Villa Gaby in Marseille, France, a villa that became an accommodation center for Jews from France who wanted to join the new State of Israel. There, as she waited for a boat to take her across the Mediterranean to Israel, she spotted her brother from afar. Nissim, named for their late grandfather, was preparing to board his own boat. She pleaded to join him. RACHEL: So we're in Villa Gaby couple months. That time, I saw my brother, I get very emotional. They said ‘No, he's older. I told them ‘I will go with him.' They said ‘No, he's older and you are young, so he will go first. You are going to stay here.' He was already Bar Mitzvah, like 13 years.  I was waiting there. Then they took to us in the boat. I remember it was like six, seven months. We were sitting there in Villa Gaby. And then from Villa Gaby, we went to Israel. The boat, but the boat was quite ahead of time. And then they spoke with us, ‘You're going to go. Somebody will come and pick you up, and you are covered. If fish or something hurts you, you don't scream, you don't say nothing. You stay covered.  So one by one, a couple men they came. They took kids and out. Our foot was wet from the ocean, and here and there they was waiting for us, people with a hot blanket. I remember that. MANYA: Rachel landed at Kibbutz Kabri, then a way station for young newcomers in northern Israel. She waited there for years without her family – until one stormy day. RACHEL: One day. That's emotional. One day we were sitting in the living room, it was raining, pouring. We couldn't go to the rooms, so we were waiting. All of a sudden, a group of three men came in, and I heard my father was talking. His voice came to me. And I said to the teacher, taking care of us. I said ‘You know what? Let me tell you one thing. I think my father is here.' She said ‘No, you just imagination. Now let's go to the rooms to sleep.'  So we went there. And all of a sudden she came to me. She said, ‘You know what? You're right. He insists to come to see you. He will not wait till morning, he said. I wanted to see my daughter now. He was screaming. They didn't want him to be upset. He said we'll bring her because he said here's her picture. Here's her and everything. So I came and oh my god was a nice emotional. And we were there sitting two or three hours. My father said, Baruch Hashem. I got the kids. Some people, they couldn't find their kids, and I find my kids, thanks God. And that's it. It was from that time he wants to take us. They said, No, you live in the Ma'abara. Not comfortable for the kids. We cannot let you take the kids. The kids will stay in their place till you establish nicely. But it was close to Pesach. He said, we promise Pesach, we bring her, for Pesach to your house. You give us the address. Where are you? And we'll bring her, and we come pick her up. JESSICA: Really as everywhere else in the Middle East and North Africa, it was the Declaration of the Independence of Israel. And the war that started in 1947, that sort of set off a wave of migration, especially between ‘48 and ‘50. Those were the kind of highest numbers per year. MANYA: Moroccan Jews also were growing frustrated with how the French government continued to treat them, even after the end of World War II. When the state of Israel declared independence, Sultan Mohammad V assured Moroccan Jews that they would continue to be protected in Morocco. But it was clear that Moroccan Jew's outward expression of support for Israel would face new cultural and political scrutiny and violence.  Choosing to emigrate not only demonstrated solidarity, it indicated an effort to join the forces fighting to defend the Jewish state. In June 1948, 43 Jews were killed by local Muslims in Oujda, a departure point for Moroccan Jews seeking to migrate to Israel. Amram arrived in Israel in the early 1950s. He returned to Morocco to convince his father, stepmother, and brother to make aliyah as well. Together, they went to France, then Israel where his father opened the same synagogue he ran in the mellah of Casablanca. Meanwhile in Morocco, the Sultan's push for Moroccan independence landed him in exile for two years. But that didn't last long. The French left shortly after he returned and Morocco gained its independence in March 1956. CLIP - CASABLANCA 1956 NEWSREEL: North Africa, pomp and pageantry in Morocco as the Sultan Mohamed Ben Youssef made a state entry into Casablanca, his first visit to the city since his restoration last autumn. Aerial pictures reveal the extent of the acclamation given to the ruler whose return has of his hope brought more stable conditions for his people. MANYA: The situation of the Jews improved. For the first time in their history, they were granted equality with Muslims. Jews were appointed high-ranking positions in the first independent government. They became advisors and judges in Morocco's courts of law.  But Jewish emigration to Israel became illegal. The immigration department of the Jewish Agency that had operated inside Morocco since 1949 closed shop and representatives tasked with education about the Zionist movement and facilitating Aliyah were pressed to leave the country. JESSICA: The independent Moroccan state didn't want Jews emigrating to Israel, partly because of anti-Israeli, pro-Palestinian sentiment, and partly because they didn't want to lose well-educated, productive members of the State, of the new nation. MANYA: Correctly anticipating that Moroccan independence was imminent and all Zionist activity would be outlawed, Israel's foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, created the Misgeret, which organized self-defense training for Jews across the Arab countries. Casablanca became its center in Morocco. Between November 1961 and the spring of 1964, the Mossad carried out Operation Yakhin, a secret mission to get nearly 100,000 Jews out of Morocco into Israel. JESSICA: There was clandestine migration during this period, and a very famous episode of a boat sinking, which killed a lot of people. And there was increasing pressure on the Moroccan state to open up emigration to Israel. Eventually, there were sort of secret accords between Israelis and the Moroccan King, which did involve a payment of money per Jew who was allowed to leave, from the Israelis to the Moroccans.  MANYA: But cooperation between Israel and Morocco reportedly did not end there. According to revelations by a former Israeli military intelligence chief in 2016, King Hassan II of Morocco provided the intelligence that helped Israel win the Six-Day War. In 1965, he shared recordings of a key meeting between Arab leaders held inside a Casablanca hotel to discuss whether they were prepared for war and unified against Israel. The recordings revealed that the group was not only divided but woefully ill-prepared. JESSICA: Only kind of after 1967, did the numbers really rise again. And 1967, again, was kind of a flashpoint. The war created a lot of anti-Zionist and often anti-Jewish sentiment across the region, including in Morocco, and there were some riots and there were, there was some violence, and there was, again, a kind of uptick in migration after that. For some people, they'll say, yes, there was antisemitism, but that wasn't what made me leave. And other people say yes, at a certain point, the antisemitism got really bad and it felt uncomfortable to be Jewish. I didn't feel safe. I didn't feel like I wanted to raise my children here.  For some people, they will say ‘No, I would have happily stayed, but my whole family had left, I didn't want to be alone.' And you know, there's definitely a sense of some Moroccan Jews who wanted to be part of the Zionist project. It wasn't that they were escaping Morocco. It was that they wanted to build a Jewish state, they wanted to be in the Holy Land. ELI: Jews in Morocco fared better than Jews in other Arab countries. There is no question about that. MANYA: Eli Gabay is grateful to the government for restoring many of the sites where his ancestors are buried or called home. The current king, Mohammed VI, grandson of Mohammed V, has played a significant role in promoting Jewish heritage in Morocco. In 2011, a year after the massive cemetery restoration, a new constitution was approved that recognized the rights of religious minorities, including the Jewish community.  It is the only constitution besides Israel's to recognize the country's Hebraic roots. In 2016, the King attended the rededication ceremony of the Ettedgui Synagogue in Casablanca.  The rededication of the synagogue followed the re-opening of the El Mellah Museum, which chronicles the history of Moroccan Jewry. Other Jewish museums and Jewish cultural centers have opened across the country, including in Essaouira, Fes, and Tangier. Not to mention–the king relies on the same senior advisor as his father did, Andre Azoulay, who is Jewish.  ELI: It is an incredible example. We love and revere the king of Morocco. We loved and revered the king before him, his father, who was a tremendous lover of the Jews. And I can tell you that in Aslim, the cemetery was encircled with a wall and well maintained at the cost, at the pay of the King of Morocco in a small, little town, and he did so across Morocco, preserved all the Jewish sites. Synagogues, cemeteries, etc.  Today's Morocco is a prime example of what a great peaceful coexistence and international cooperation can be with an Arab country. MANYA: Eli is certainly not naïve about the hatred that Jews face around the world. In 1985, the remains of Josef Mengele, known as the Nazis' Angel of Death, were exhumed from a grave outside Sao Paulo, Brazil. Eli was part of a team of experts from four countries who worked to confirm it was indeed the Nazi German doctor who conducted horrific experiments on Jews at Auschwitz. Later that decade, Eli served on the team with Israel's Ministry of Justice that prosecuted John Ivan Demjanjuk, a retired Cleveland auto worker accused of being the notorious Nazi death camp guard known as “Ivan the Terrible.” Demjanjuk was accused of being a Nazi collaborator who murdered Jews in the gas chambers at the Treblinka death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. In fact, Eli is featured prominently in a Netflix documentary series about the case called The Devil Next Door. CLIP - ‘THE DEVIL NEXT DOOR' TRAILER: …Nazi death camp guard named Ivan the Terrible. The crimes that he was accused of were horrid.  The Israeli government is seeking his extradition as a war criminal. And that's where the drama begins.  MANYA: Demjanjuk was convicted and sentenced to death, but the verdict was later overturned. U.S. prosecutors later extradited him to Germany on charges of being an accessory to the murder of about 28,000 Jews at Sobibor. He was again convicted but died before the outcome of his appeal. ELI: Going back to Israel and standing in court and saying ‘on behalf of the State of Israel' were the proudest words of my life. It was very meaningful to serve as a prosecutor. It was very meaningful to serve in the IDF. These were highlights in my life.  They represented my core identity: as a Jew, as a Sephardic Jew, as an Israeli Sephardic Jew. These are the tenets of my life. I am proud to serve today as the president of the longest running synagogue in America. MANYA: Eli has encountered hatred in America too. In May 2000 congregants arriving for Shabbat morning prayers at Philadelphia's Beit Harambam Congregation where Eli was first president were greeted by police and firefighters in front of a burned-out shell of a building. Torah scrolls and prayer books were ruined. When Rachel opened her store 36 years ago, it became the target of vandals who shattered her windows. But she doesn't like to talk about that. She has always preferred to focus on the positive. Her daughter Sima Shepard, Eli's sister, says her mother's optimism and resilience are also family traditions. SIMA SHEPARD: Yeah, my mom speaks about the fact that she left Morocco, she is in Israel, she comes to the U.S. And yet consistently, you see one thing: the gift of following tradition. And it's not just again religiously, it's in the way the house is Moroccan, the house is Israeli. Everything that we do touches on previous generations. I'm a little taken that there are people who don't know that there are Jews in Arab lands. They might not know what they did, because European Jews came to America first. They came to Israel first. However, however – we've lived among the Arab countries, proudly so, for so many years. MANYA: Moroccan Jews are just one of the many Jewish communities who, in the last century, left Arab countries to forge new lives for themselves and future generations.  Join us next week as we share another untold story of The Forgotten Exodus. Many thanks to Eli, Rachel and Sima for sharing their family's story.  Too many times during my reporting, I encountered children and grandchildren who didn't have the answers to my questions because they'd never asked. That's why one of the goals of this project is to encourage you to ask those questions. Find your stories. Atara Lakritz is our producer. T.K. Broderick is our sound engineer. Special thanks to Jon Schweitzer, Nicole Mazur, Sean Savage, and Madeleine Stern, and so many of our colleagues, too many to name really, for making this series possible.  You can subscribe to The Forgotten Exodus on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can learn more at AJC.org/theforgottenexodus.  The views and opinions of our guests don't necessarily reflect the positions of AJC.  You can reach us at theforgottenexodus@ajc.org. If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to spread the word, and hop onto Apple Podcasts or Spotify to rate us and write a review to help more listeners find us.

The goal of every parent is to train their children to want to do the will of Hashem on their own without having to be told to. One of the greatest tools we can give them for this is to teach them about who they are serving, to tell them how much Hashem loves them and is interested in helping them, to teach them how Hashem controls everything that happens in the world every second of the day, and how good it is for them to follow Torah and mitzvot. Emunah is a great tool for chinuch and can be taught at a very young age. A woman related how much her life has changed for the better since learning emunah. She used to worry about finances, but not anymore, because she knows her parnasa comes from Hashem. She used to be intimidated by her boss, but not anymore because she knows Hashem is the only One in charge. Getting her children into schools, getting job interviews are all done without worry because either way the results are up to Hashem. Whenever she feels uncertain about anything, she picks up a Tehillim and then asks Hashem for help. Her dream is that her children acquire the same type of emunah that she has and they become even better than her. Recently, she felt so good seeing how her little children were absorbing the emunah that she has been portraying. She stayed by her parents for the summer and one morning she asked her two little children if they wanted to go for a walk. Then she remembered that the double stroller was kept outside and the sprinklers go on around four times a week at night. She told her children she had to go outside to see if the stroller was dry because sometimes it gets wet from the sprinklers. So they all went out to check and it was dry. "Baruch Hashem," she said. Then her five-year-old daughter said, "Look, Hashem wanted us to be able to go for a walk so He made sure that the sprinklers didn't go on last night." The woman was so happy hearing those words from her five-year-old. She added, if the stroller would have been wet, she would have taught them Gam zu l'tova and said, "We'll find something better to do." On another occasion, her children were playing on the swing set towards the end of the summer and her five-year-old wondered out loud, "If it's still summer, how come the leaves are falling off the trees?" Her three year old answered, "Because Hashem wants the leaves to fall now. That's why they're falling." It was that simple. Even her three-year-old was picking up on emunah at such a young age. The children can absorb so much, but it's up to us to be their teachers. Children love hearing stories, and so when we hear a nice story that shows Hashem's hashgacha , we should relate it to them. I just read a story that recently took place. A young man named Chaim Dov, lo alenu, is losing sight in his eyes, and he already had a few surgeries and has a couple of more scheduled. The last surgery was beginning early in the morning, and his father woke him up late. There was no time for Chaim Dov to pray, as they had to leave for the surgery right away. Being a chassid of Karlin, Chaim Dov prayed his tefila each morning leading up to the Amidah in a very loud voice with a lot of heart. He couldn't go to the surgery without praying first. His father suggested that he pray up until the Amidah in the taxi, as they had a very long ride to the hospital. Chaim Dov agreed, but then his father said he wouldn't be able to pray loudly as usual, being that they would be in a very small taxi, and the driver would probably throw them out if they bothered him like that. Amazingly, when the driver pulled up, he motioned to them to write down where they wanted to go, as he was hard of hearing. The father said, in all of his life, he never took a taxi with a driver who was hard of hearing. This one time that his son wanted to pray loudly, Hashem sent them a special driver to enable him to do so. Hashem controls everything and always wants to help us. This is the message we must teach by example and have our children learn from.

“We can't expect people to stand up for us against antisemitism if they don't know who we are. And we can't expect them to know who we are if we're not there to tell our story.”  Adiel Cohen: Jewish activist, social media influencer, and Israel Defense Forces reservist, has a passion for storytelling – especially that of his beloved grandmother, Savta Sarah. She fled Yemen under harrowing circumstances to come to Israel in the mid-20th century. At just 12 years old, she left the only home she'd ever known, braving dangerous terrain, bandits, and gangs – to reach safety in Israel. Recorded live at AJC Global Forum 2024 in Washington, D.C., this conversation explores the vibrant life of Yemenite Jews and the scarred history of Jewish persecution in the country. In a candid conversation, Adiel reflects on his advocacy, both online and off, and emphasizes the importance of sharing diverse Jewish stories. —- Show notes: Sign up to receive podcast updates here. Learn more about the series here. Song credits:  Pond5:  “Desert Caravans”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Tiemur Zarobov (BMI), IPI#1098108837 “Meditative Middle Eastern Flute”: Publisher: N/A; Composer: DANIELYAN ASHOT MAKICHEVICH (IPI NAME #00855552512)  “Suspense Middle East” Publisher: Victor Romanov, Composer: Victor Romanov; Item ID: 196056047 ___ Episode Transcript: Adiel Cohen: Because they dare to fight back, they knew that they're no longer safe, because God forbid Jews resist to oppression and to violence. And the same night, my grandma told me that her father gave her a pair of earrings, silver earrings, and he told her, ‘Sarah, take these pair of earrings and keep them safe. That's the only thing that you can take with you to Eretz Yisrael.' Manya Brachear Pashman:   The world has overlooked an important episode in modern history: the 800,000 Jews who left or were driven from their homes in the Middle East and North Africa in the mid-20th century. Welcome to the second season of The Forgotten Exodus, brought to you by American Jewish Committee. This series explores that pivotal moment in history and the little-known Jewish heritage of Iran and Arab nations. As Jews around the world confront violent antisemitism and Israelis face daily attacks by terrorists on multiple fronts, our second season explores how Jews have lived throughout the region for generations despite hardship, hostility, and hatred, then sought safety and new possibilities in their ancestral homeland. I'm your host, Manya Brachear Pashman. Join us as we explore untold family histories and personal stories of courage, perseverance, and resilience from this transformative and tumultuous period of history for the Jewish people and the Middle East.  The world has ignored these voices. We will not.  This is The Forgotten Exodus. Today's episode: leaving Yemen. _ On the night of October 7, while Hamas terrorists were still on their murderous rampage through Israel, 26-year-old Adiel Cohen was drafted to serve in a reserve artillery corps unit and rocket division of the Israeli Defense Forces. He went directly to a base near one of Israel's borders to start working on his unit's vehicles and tools. But that is not the only battlefront on which Adiel has been serving.  Adiel is a content creator on social media, creating Instagram posts and TikTok videos to counter the antisemitism and anti-Israel messages proliferating online. One way Adiel dispels some of these misconceptions is by sharing his own family's story. Adiel's grandparents on both sides were in that group of 800,000 Jews who fled Arab lands and started life anew in Israel. In 1950, they fled Yemen, making their way to Israel to help build a Jewish state.  Today's special episode of The Forgotten Exodus presents an exclusive interview with Adiel, recorded in front of a live audience at the AJC Global Forum 2024 in Washington D.C. Adiel, you heard stories from your Savta Sarah who passed away only a few months ago. She was your paternal grandmother. Could you please share that side of your family story in Yemen? Adiel Cohen:   Of course. So first of all, I want to thank you all for coming and listening to my story. It's my first time in this type of AJC event, especially on that scale. It's very exciting to me, and it's amazing to see this beautiful display of Jewish solidarity and strength. So I'm very, very honored to be here. Thank you.  So the history of the Jewish community in Yemen dates back for as long as the Israelite Kingdom existed. It dates back all the way to King Shlomo (Solomon) and the First Temple when we had trade with the kingdom of Sh'va (Sheba), at the time that ruled Ethiopia and Yemen.  And for my family, as far as we can tell, we go back all the way to that era. I do know that I have one ancestor somewhere along the line 15 generations ago from the Jewish community of Iraq that migrated into Yemen.  But my ancestry for the most part is in Yemen, Yemenite Jewish. I did a DNA test. The results were nothing too revolutionary, aside from 1% Nigerian. But yeah, it just came out Yemenite Jewish. And they spent pretty much the entire diaspora in Yemen until 1950. Manya Brachear Pashman:   And your grandfather was a jeweler, right? A silversmith? Adiel Cohen:   He was. So fun fact: the work of silver and crafts made of silver, was a profession only done by Jews in Yemen. So you can imagine how impactful it was for the economy in Yemen. And you know, a lot of people say that Jews, like, control the economy and all these, you know, stereotypes that we know. In Yemen, we really drove a big part of the economy, because of the professions that we did that were pretty much only Jews doing them.  So he used to do silver work and jewelry. He did both the traditional Yemenite jewelry which is made of thin silver wires, creating these beautiful patterns. And not just jewelry, but also Judaica, candlesticks, and all these ritual tools like the can for the b'samim (ritual spices), for the Havdalah.  Beautiful, beautiful art, passed from his father and then his father, all the way, thousands of years as far as we can tell. And nowadays, my uncle, my father's brother, is preserving this tradition. He has a gallery in Tzfat, if you're ever planning to go there. Now, it's not really a good time, but definitely hit me up, and I'll send you his way. Very proud of that tradition. Definitely. Manya Brachear Pashman:   That's lovely. Were they city folk? Or did they live in a more agricultural area? Adiel Cohen:   They were fully city folks. They lived in Sanaa, the capital, both sides of my family. It's interesting, not a lot of people know, but there's a lot of nuance in the Yemenite Jewish community. So Yemen is a pretty big country and pretty diverse. You've got mountains and green terraces and agriculture, but you also have very, very dry desert, and you have port cities.  So every Jewish community in Yemen was very unique in its culture and its essence in their professions. And in Sanaa specifically, they were more into spirituality and humanities. They were intellectuals and thinkers, a lot of philosophy, a lot of the Jewish philosophy and poetry in Yemen came from Sanaa. And this is where both sides of my family come from. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Did they live in harmony with their neighbors in Sanaa for most of that time? Adiel Cohen:   Yeah, so the relations between Jews and Arabs in Yemen vary. It was a roller coaster for the most part of history, and it really depended on the king and the leadership at every single time. And there were times of great coexistence and flourishing and times where, you know, you could see Jewish poetry and literature and just like in Spain, like what we hear in Spain.  But there were also times of great conflict and oppression and violence. One instance that I can point out to was in the 1600s, in 1679, it was an event called the Mawza Exile. Not a lot of people know about it, which is a shame, because it is the single most traumatic event in the history of our community. It lasted one year, and during this year, the king decided that all the Jews in Yemen should be expelled to the desert.  And the desert in Yemen is very, very harsh – wild animals, climate, lack of food, soil that cannot be cultivated. And of course, this also came with burning of books and literatures and archives. Yemenite Jews, up until then, kept archives of their family trees and scriptures and poetry. We don't have a lot of it left before the 1600s, because of this event. Two-thirds of the community perished during that year, there was no one to fill the jobs that Jews used to do.  And at some point, the king allowed Jews to come back to their homes and live in their own ghettos. That was from the 1600s till 1950 with Operation Magic Carpet. But in the more modern, in the more recent history, we can point out the 40s as an uptick in violence and antisemitism against Jews in Yemen.  A lot of people think that what happened in Europe at the time did not really affect Jews in Arab countries, but it is completely the opposite. We had Nazi emissaries visiting some Arab countries and Jewish communities trying to inspect options to transfer Jews from the Middle East to concentration camps in Europe and even building and establishing concentration camps in the Middle East for Jews. The Mufti of Jerusalem at the time, Hajj Amin al-Husayni, was also very involved in trying to transfer the Jews of Yemen to concentration camps. It did not succeed. At the time, there was a pretty friendly king. But Nazi propaganda infiltrated every single society at the time in the Middle East.  The Farhud in Iraq is a great example of that, right, of Nazi involvement in the Middle East. And the same thing happened in Yemen. And I can point out to one event that was kind of like the turning point and then we can also continue to the story of my grandma's aliyah.  There was a blood libel that was spread in Sanaa. Hundreds of Arabs who used to be neighbors just turned against their Jewish neighbors, started attacking them, looting their homes, raiding the Jewish Quarter of Sanaa.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   So did the violence reach your family directly? Adiel Cohen:   My grandma's family, they used to live all in the same house. It was a big family in Yemen. It was common that the entire family, the entire clan, lives in the same house, especially if they're well off. And my family, Baruch Hashem, they were pretty well off. They were jewelers and traders, and they had a big house with the entire family. And their neighbor came, broke into their house. All the grandchildren, including my grandma, had to hide in the pantries and in the closets, and their grandfather, Saba Avraham, was there protecting the house.  Their neighbor came, assaulted their grandfather, knocked him to the ground. And my grandma, when she told me this story, she told me that they were looking, they were peeking through the cracks of the door and they saw what's going on. And when they saw the assault, they decided to storm out of the pantries and the closet with pans and pots and knives and attack the neighbor. And she tells me they chased him down the street and this is how they saved their grandfather's life.  And this is a story over Shabbat dinner. It's crazy, crazy stories that we used to listen to. Manya Brachear Pashman:   And how long after that incident did your family say, we have to leave? Adiel Cohen:   The same day, the same day. But because they dare to fight back, they knew that they're no longer safe. Because God forbid Jews resist to oppression and to violence. And the same night, my grandma told me that her father gave her a pair of earrings, silver earrings, and he told her, ‘Sarah, take these pair of earrings and keep them safe. That's the only thing that you can take with you to Eretz Yisrael.'  And the same night they were packing everything that they could but not too much because they needed to walk by foot. They packed their stuff for the way, and with dawn they set to the city of Aden. In Aden, there was the transit camp, Hashed, which all Yemenite Jews from all over Yemen fled to during this time.  And from there, Operation Magic Carpet commenced, but the journey was incredibly hard. My grandma used to tell me that the entire world was in the 20th century, and Yemen was still somewhere in the 18th century – no roads, camels, donkeys, sometimes Jeeps. And she told us one story which completely blew my mind. It was a few weeks before she passed away. About how she, at some point, they traveled night and day, continuously, and at some point, her donkey with her sister and her little brother, baby brother, broke off from the caravan.  The rest of the family, they had to stay somewhere. And they were held up, basically. But my Savta continued with their donkey, with her sister Tzivia, and their baby brother, one-year-old Ratzon. And, you know, along the way, they had to face bandits and gangs, and it was very, very tough. They had to pay ransom every few miles.  And at some point, when they broke off from the caravan, a bandit came and assaulted them. He pushed them off the cliffside and took the donkey with everything, everything they had – food, the equipment, they had nothing left. And they were left stranded on the cliffside. It was already starting to get dark. And they don't know where the rest of the family is, somewhere in the back, and they don't know if they can ever find them.  And she told me that it began to get darker and darker. And at some point, they looked up and all they saw was pitch black and just night sky full of stars. And they were praying and they were singing, just hanging on a cliffside. Imagine that at the time, she was 12. Her sister was 14. And they were both holding a little one-year-old baby.  And she said that when they stopped singing, they kind of lost hope already. Their brother started crying. And when he started crying, that's exactly when their family passed on the trail up on the mountain. And this is how they got rescued in the middle of the night, in the middle of the desert after being attacked and robbed. And they had to just continue walking all the way to Camp Hashed. They spent a few months there as well. Not easy months. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Your grandmother was one who believed in miracles, I believe. Adiel Cohen: Yeah. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Yeah, okay.  Adiel Cohen: Yeah, definitely. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Yes. Well, instead of going into the details of Operation Magic Carpet, or On Eagle's Wings was really the name of that operation, I encourage our audience to listen to the first season of The Forgotten Exodus, where we interviewed Israeli Olympian Shahar Tzubari. His family also came from Yemen and the details of Operation On Eagle's Wings, there's a lot of details about that in that episode. So I encourage you to go back and listen to that, so that we can move on to your family's arrival in Israel, which also was not easy. Adiel Cohen:   Yeah, definitely not easy. I believe you all heard of the conditions in the transit camps in Israel. My family arrived in the winter of 1950. It was considered probably the coldest winter recorded in Israel. So cold it snowed in Tel Aviv. And that was the first time my grandma ever saw snow.  They arrived at the transit camp in Ein Shemer, and they were one of the lucky families. I guess, maybe, because they were pretty well off. They didn't sleep in a tent, but they slept in a tin shack, a little tin shack. Not the best conditions, obviously. No heating, no beds, sleeping on the ground, the entire family, and, you know, passing the tough winter months. Mud, rain, everything.  And, after a few months there, they were assigned a new place in Kadima, which is a small village in the Sharon, in central Israel. Agricultural community. And my family – who are all traders, jewelers, they don't know anything about farming – they lasted there for very, very little time.  At some point, the head of the family, the grandfather said, we're out of here. And part of the family moved to Tel Aviv, to Kerem HaTeimanim, the Yemenite quarter, which is very, very dear to my heart. And the other half to Ramat Gan, my hometown, which is even more dear to me. This is where I was born and raised. My grandma met my grandfather there, and this is where they married. Manya Brachear Pashman:   How did they plant roots in Israel? I mean, they left with hardly anything, except for a pair of, your grandmother had a pair of silver earrings in her possession. How did they start with nothing and build from there? What did they build? Adiel Cohen:   There was a lot of, like, hustling and, like, trying to make things work, and moving from job to job until she got married and became, how do you call it, like? Manya Brachear Pashman:   Homemaker or housewife? Homemaker, mother. Adiel Cohen:   A housewife, yeah. She took care of the kids, and my grandfather, he did most of the work. He did, again, silversmith, some trading, a lot of hustle as well, in between. They really just kind of made it work somehow.  Also, they were organizing a lot of events in their homes, a lot of community events and parties for the community, for the neighborhood, which is also something that looking back now that, you know, I spoke to my parents about it, it makes a lot of sense. You know, I grew up on these values of how important the community is and how important it is to be involved in the community. So it came from my grandparents.  Manya Brachear Pashman:   In addition to those values, what traditions have you been able to preserve that are very meaningful to you in terms of – when I say traditions, I mean, religious rituals, recipes, attire? Adiel Cohen:   Yeah, so if you mention attire, I have a very, very special item in my closet that I got from my grandfather, from Saba Pinchas. It is his original Yom Kippur gown for men. It's a beautiful, white, long shirt, with golden embroidery, all the way from Yemen. And it still sits in my closet waiting for the right project to kind of show it off. I tried wearing it, I'm not gonna lie, tried wearing it. It looks weird – it's very, very archaic, but it's beautiful nonetheless.  And in terms of recipes, of course, my grandma used to make all the Yemenite Jewish food from Yemenite soup, to all sorts of bread which we're very famous for. People think that Yemenites only eat bread, but it's not true. But we do have a lot of types of bread.  So every Friday growing up I used to wake up and see a pile of zalabiyeh, which is kind of like a fried pita flatbread. Very amazing, like, crunchy but also soft. Every Friday morning, lahuhe, all the recipes. And if you follow my Instagram and you see sometimes when my grandma was alive, I used to post a lot of videos about her and about our traditions.  She had her own recipe for charoset for Pesach. In Yemenite Jewish dialect we call it duqeh. It's kind of like the regular charoset that you know, only with a little bit of Yemenite spice mix, so it's very sweet but also has a little, like, zing to it. Very, very good.  If we're talking about Pesach, then I also made a video about that. The Yemenite Seder is very, very unique in the sense that we don't have a plate; we don't have a Seder plate. All the simanim (signs) and all the food is on the table as decoration. So we use the lettuce and radish and all the simanim (signs) as kind of like a frame for the table, it looks like a whole garden on the table. And we just eat from what we have on the table. And, of course, the religious traditions, the way of pronouncing the Torah. I spent months before my Bar Mitzvah relearning Hebrew in the Yemenite dialect. It's like learning a whole new language, not to talk about the te'amim, the melody that you need to read it. You need to be very, very punctuate. All of it – it's a huge part of my identity. Manya Brachear Pashman:   You must have done a wonderful job because there's also a photograph of you and your Savta at your Bar Mitzvah, and she looks quite pleased. So you must have done a fine job. Adiel Cohen:   She was my best friend. Yes, we lived together in the same house. In Israel, we kind of preserved the original way of living in Yemen. So we lived in the same house with my Savta. And I was very lucky. Most of my grandparents, all of my grandparents beside her, passed away when I was very young, but I was very lucky to live with her for as long as she lived and hear all these stories, every single week.  And, you know, even after I started my activism, she was my biggest supporter. I used to come back from trips to different Jewish communities and delegations and trips to Dubai and Morocco.  And the first thing I did was knock on her door, sit with her for a good 20 minutes, and just share my experiences and she was so pleased. And if I can share one example: a year ago, I came, not a year ago, it was this summer, I came back from a trip to Dubai where I met a Yemeni guy that took me to a Yemeni shop owned by actual Yemenis from Yemen, with spices and honey from Yemen and jewelry and, really, everything from Yemen.  And they offered me, when I told them the story of my family and I showed them pictures, they offered to give my grandma a gift. They told me, pick whatever you want from the jewelry section, and it's a gift for your grandma.  And when I came back from Dubai, and I gave her that, her eyes were just lit and filled with tears, because, you know, she hasn't been to Yemen, where she was born, ever since they left. So it was really one of the most touching moments before she passed away. Oh, I'm gonna cry. Yeah, we were very, very close. And I'm very, very lucky to be her grandson. Manya Brachear Pashman:   What happened to the earrings that her grandmother gave her? Adiel Cohen:   Wow, I wish we still had them. They sold them when they got to Israel to make a living. It was very, very tough, especially in the 50s. In Hebrew we call it t'kufat ha'tzena (period of austerity). All of Israel was basically a huge refugee camp, and the government had to, you know, make sure everyone has enough food and, you know, supply and all that. So they, unfortunately, sold it. Manya Brachear Pashman:   I do love it when you share your family stories and your heritage on your social media channels and, you know, the videos of making charoset and the language, the sharing of the vocabulary words. I'm curious what kinds of reactions you get from your audience. Are they surprised to hear that you hailed from Yemen? Are they just surprised by your family's origins? Adiel Cohen:   So it's interesting to see the progression throughout the years. I started my activism and content creation in 2020. And when I just started talking about my Yemenite heritage, people were very surprised, people from our community, from Jewish communities around the world, were surprised. I heard a lot of more surprised reactions.  I think nowadays and in the past few years there's a lot more awareness to different stories and different Jewish communities, especially in the Middle East and North Africa. So I'm happy to see that. And I see a lot of interest among Jews from other parts of the world. People ask me all the time to share about my traditions, to share about, you know, how we celebrate that and how do we pronounce that and all of that.  And from the non-Jewish audience, I'll start with reactions from the Arab world. I managed to forge a lot of amazing connections and friendships with Yemenis, Yemeni Muslims, based on our shared traditions and commonalities between our cultures. Yemeni Jewish culture and Yemeni Muslim culture is a little bit different, even in terms of food, but there are some commonalities, of course.  So it's very fun and fulfilling to be able to be a bridge between these communities who are alienated from Israel, to Israel. We're sort of a bridge between our nations. For sure, there are also a lot of hateful comments that I receive from people telling me, you're not really – the Zionists kidnapped you and you shouldn't be in Palestine, you should be in Yemen, come back to Yemen where you actually belong.  They made sure that we can't come back to Yemen throughout these years, and they showed us where we really belong. So, you know, there are these comments as well. But I can definitely say that the majority of the comments and reactions are very positive, and people are thirsty for knowledge and for stories about different communities. I see it. Manya Brachear Pashman:   I mean, everyone in this audience has a family story to share, has their own heritage. And I'm curious, Adiel, how does it serve the Jewish people to share our stories and where we all come from? Why is that so important to share, especially at a time like this, when there are so many false narratives out there? Adiel Cohen:   This is my favorite question. Because telling stories is my whole shtick. This is my bottom line of every single, you know, speaking engagements with students and stuff like that. Two things that make telling stories, telling our stories very important.  First of all, is outside of the community. People don't know who Jewish people are. Non-Jews, they don't know who Jewish people are. I see it all the time, a lot of ignorance, which I don't blame them for, right? I don't know a lot about Uyghur people in China. And we can't expect people to stand up for us against antisemitism if they don't know who we are. And we can't expect them to know who we are if we're not there to tell our story.  Because unfortunately, a lot of haters love to tell our story for us. It's kind of like a tactic for them. And the way they tell their story about us is completely different, and it serves a purpose that doesn't align with our purpose. To put it in good words.  So that's one important thing, telling our stories open up who we are to other audiences. When they get to know us, they can, more chances that they will stand up for us against antisemitism. And just in general, you know, just getting to know different communities and building bridges is always good.  And the second important point of telling stories is within our community. I can for sure say that before I started my activism on social media and being more involved with other Jewish communities, I did not know much about Yiddish. I did not know much about, you know, Ashkenazi culture or other cultures, even those we have in Israel. Because, you know, in Israel, we don't really talk about it. It's all on the surface level.  You know, Yemenites eat jachnun, Iraqis eat kubbeh. But once you get to know other Jewish communities and build bridges between these communities based on our stories, your individual Jewish identity and connection to the bigger Jewish collective would be stronger.  I feel a lot more Jewish – now that I know what Ashkenazim have gone through, what Ethiopian Jews have gone through, what Indian Jews have gone through, and all throughout the world. When we build these bridges, between our communities, we bring our people and our nation to the next step in history. We've been in diaspora for 2000 years, disconnected from each other, loosely connected but generally disconnected.  And now that we have Israel and now that we have social media and that we are more connected and that we have this very strong compass that points at this one land, it's easier for us to build these bridges.  And when we build them, we turn from a nation that is dispersed and made of disconnected communities to a network of communities that make a bigger, better, stronger nation, together with our diversity, with our stories, with our different experiences. Manya Brachear Pashman:   That's beautiful. Thank you so much. Adiel Cohen:   Thank you so much. Manya Brachear Pashman:   Yemenite Jews are just one of the many Jewish communities who, in the last century, left Arab countries to forge new lives for themselves and future generations.  Join us next week as we share another untold story of The Forgotten Exodus. Many thanks to Adiel for joining us at AJC Global Forum 2024 and sharing his family's story in front of a live audience. Too many times during my reporting, I encountered children and grandchildren who didn't have the answers to my questions because they'd never asked. That's why one of the goals of this project is to encourage you to ask those questions. Find your stories. Atara Lakritz is our producer. T.K. Broderick is our sound engineer. Special thanks to Jon Schweitzer, Nicole Mazur, Sean Savage, and Madeleine Stern, and so many of our colleagues, too many to name really, for making this series possible.  You can subscribe to The Forgotten Exodus on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can learn more at AJC.org/theforgottenexodus.  The views and opinions of our guests don't necessarily reflect the positions of AJC.  You can reach us at theforgottenexodus@ajc.org. If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to spread the word, and hop onto Apple Podcasts or Spotify to rate us and write a review to help more listeners find us.

Hashem decides who marries who and exactly when the wedding should take place. When the time is right, He puts everything in order so that His will will come to fruition and the couple that's destined for each other will get married. A man told me his good friend who we'll call David was trying to get married for about ten years. During the first couple of years, he went out a few times with a girl who we'll call Sarah. He decided they weren't a match, and he moved on. A year later, he went out with a girl who we'll call Esther. They went out many times, and he decided she was the right one. However, to his dismay, she ended it, and he was left heartbroken. Many years went by after that with nothing to show for it. Then, one day the shadchan called and said that Sarah was interested in trying again since it's been so many years since they had gone out, maybe things have changed. David agreed to try it again. About an hour later, a different shadchan called and said that Esther was willing to try again and wanted to know if he was interested. This was the girl he wanted to marry who he was never able to get over. He quickly called back the first shadchan and asked if he was in contact with the other side yet. The shadchan said he didn't have a chance to call them but was planning on calling soon. David asked him to please put it on hold, and he would let him know if anything changed. He then said yes to the second shadchan and once again went out with Esther. This time, after just one date, he saw clearly that she was not for him. He then went out with Sarah and saw that she was for him, and Baruch Hashem, they got married. David said he was never able to give any other girls a fair chance because he always wanted to marry Esther. Once he saw that Esther wasn't for him, he was able to give Sarah a fair chance. When the time came for Sarah and David to get married, Hashem made sure that David's mind would be clear, so He caused Esther to want to try a second time. When it comes to anything in life, we can make all the hishtadlut we want, but ultimately only what Hashem wants is going to happen, and we see this time and time again when it comes to Shidduchim. A wealthy man who was a student of Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev asked his Rebbe to pick out a good girl for his son. The Rebbe said he knew of a modest girl with yirat shamayim and told the wealthy man to come to Berditchev for the holidays, and he would set up a meeting with him and the girl's father. In Berditchev, there was a poor man whose profession was binding books. He had in his possession one very valuable book that he was hoping to sell but never found a buyer for. He was told that this wealthy man was coming to town, and he should ask him to buy it. When the wealthy man came, the poor man was too embarrassed to ask him to buy the book, so he sent his daughter there to ask him for him. When the girl came to where the wealthy man was staying, he thought this was the girl that the Rebbe was telling him about, and in order not to embarrass her, they told her to bring a book but she was really there to see if he wanted her for his son. The wealthy man inquired about her and heard great things and then asked for her for a shidduch for his son. She was very pleased with the shidduch, and it was finalized. When Rebbe Levi Yitzchak heard what happened, he said, "Once again, we see how Hashem determines who is going to marry who and nobody can say otherwise. I had a different girl in mind for this wealthy man's son but Hashem made the shidduch with who He knew was the right one." Hashem is always the מזווג זיווגים , and when the time is right, things fall into place.

There are times when people seem to be doing everything right, but everything seems to be going wrong for them. During those times it is natural to feel discouraged and ask oneself, why should I continue on this path when it doesn't seem like Hashem is appreciating what I do anyway? Sometimes a person learns about a good practice to take on that is supposed to produce a result that he is waiting for, but then when he tries it, just the opposite happens and he's left wondering, what went wrong here? Someone once told me, whenever I thank Hashem, I feel like whatever I'm thanking Him for suddenly gets taken away. This has led this woman to be fearful to thank Hashem. She wants to be appreciative, but she is afraid of doing it because she doesn't want to lose as a result. What is the proper outlook to have in these circumstances? We must ingrain in our minds the midrash in parashat Re'eh which says, "אמר הקב"ה, אין אדם שומע לי ומפסיד – Hashem Himself tells us, nobody will ever lose by listening to Me." Which means, when it seems like things are going wrong because of our good deeds, it's just the yetzer hara trying to throw us off, or it is a test that Hashem is giving us so we can earn even more rewards for persevering. Hashem might make it appear as though we are losing as a result of the good that we are doing, but in reality we are not losing. Of course that woman should continue thanking Hashem with confidence. She'll be rewarded more for her efforts because of the test that she is being put though. And without a question, she will only gain from each time she appreciates what Hashem does for her. Chazal teach us, שלוחי מצוה אינם ניזוקין– people involved in the performance of a mitzvah will not get harmed. What happens when we see a person involved in a mitzvah and he does seem to get harmed? That is when we say, we don't understand, but for sure he was not harmed. What appears to us to be harm is in actuality a blessing for him in disguise. A man told me he got married 13 years ago and had a very lively wedding with all of his friends there. During the dancing, one of his good friends fell hard and shattered his knee. That friend was so upset about what occurred and it bothered him for years. He was involved in a mitzvah called simchat chatan , he was dancing to gladden the groom, how could he get damaged through the performance of that mitzvah? Seven years later, this man was diagnosed with cancer in the knee area. At that time, there was an experimental treatment that was only being given to select people. After running many tests on him, his doctor said to him because he was in such great shape, he qualified for the experimental treatment. Then the doctor asked him how he was in such top shape? The man replied because of what happened to his knee seven years before, he went through a lot of therapy and, seeing the benefits of all that exercise, he continued with it even after he was completely healed. Baruch Hashem, that experimental treatment turned out to be perfect for him, and he was totally cured from his sickness. What seemed to be damage at that wedding was actually paving the way for him to, b'ezrat Hashem, live a long and healthy life. We never lose by doing good. It might appear that way sometimes, but it is only a test. If we continue doing the right things despite those obstacles, we'll just be rewarded even more. And one day, we will see how everything that transpired was always the greatest benefit for us.

Sometimes a person wants something very badly and he tries every which way to get it, but nothing works out. But then afterward, he realizes there was something else he could have done that would have gotten it for him, but now it's too late. Sometimes a person needs money and a business opportunity presents itself, but he is too hesitant to enter it because of the risk involved. Afterward he sees that everybody who did get involved earned an enormous profit from it and all he can think about is, why didn't he enter? At those times, the person has an opportunity to practice his emunah, to believe that he has exactly what Hashem wants him to have. He didn't find out about that other hishtadlut because Hashem didn't want him to know about it. He didn't enter that business venture because Hashem made it appear very risky for him. Hashem knows how to give a person what he is meant to have in a simple way. He knows how to find us and give us the opportunities that we will want to take. By not regretting what could have been, we are showing our emunah in Him. Our job is to focus on doing Hashem's will, that is the greatest hishtadlut we can do and that opens up the Shamayim for beracha to come down. Rabbi Ilan Guzel told a story of a young woman who was traveling to her home in Tiberias in a shared taxi van. At one of the stops, a few boys got in and started using the most foul, disgusting language. The young lady was afraid for her neshama , listening to their vulgarity. She went over to the driver and asked him if he could tell them to stop, but he refused. She then told the driver, "If you're not going to stop them, then please let me off." The driver said he would let her off at the next stop which would be in about 10 minutes. She said she couldn't wait that long and requested to be let off immediately, The driver then pulled over and let her off right on the side of the road. A rabbi on the bus who was listening to a Torah class and didn't hear what was going on saw the driver pull over and let this girl off on the side of the road. He asked what was happening while the driver was pulling away. When he found out, he complained that it was irresponsible to let off that girl there. The driver didn't seem to care and he kept going. The rabbi was worried about the girl. When he arrived at his destination – the kever of Rabbi Meir Baal Hanes, he was surprised when he saw that girl getting out of a car with another woman. He went over to her and asked her how she managed to get a ride. She said, while she was standing on the side of the road she told Hashem she only got off because she was trying to do His will, and then she asked Him if He could send someone to pick her up. Less than 30 seconds later, a car stopped with a religious woman behind the wheel, by herself, asking if she needed a ride. On the road the woman said she was on her way to the kever of Rabbi Meir. She explained, a few years before this, her daughter was diagnosed with a terminal illness and time was of the essence. There was a trial procedure that had not been proven yet that had a 50% chance of working, but there was also a 50% chance of fatality. She went to a gadol for advice and blessing. He told her she had to go forward with the procedure, but at the same time she should do an act of mesirut nefesh as a zechut for her daughter. He suggested that she pay the full wedding expenses of a needy bride. She told the rabbi, "If Hashem heals my daughter, I'll pay for a needy bride's wedding every single year on the anniversary of the day my daughter is declared healed." The Rabbi told her to go to the kever of Rabbi Meir and pray. She went there and while she was there she found a needy bride. Baruch Hashem, her daughter was healed and she paid for the entire wedding of that bride. Every year after, she comes to the kever of Rabbi Meir to thank Hashem. While driving this young lady, she said she was on her way to the kever because today is the anniversary. She then asked the young lady if she knew of any needy brides. The young lady replied, she is a needy bride, her family has no idea how they are going to pay for her upcoming wedding which was going to take place in two months. The lady was so happy to tell her, "I'm going to pay for the whole thing." This young lady was in great need. She did the will of Hashem by protecting her ears from hearing the wrong thing and Hashem connected her with the perfect person who was able to help her. Hashem could help us with all of our needs and He could do it in the simplest way possible.

At the end of parashat Devarim, when the Jewish people were getting ready to conquer Eretz Yisrael, Moshe Rabbenu told them, לא תיראום כי כי ה' אלוקיכם הוא הנילחם לכם - Don't be afraid of the opposing nations, because Hashem your God will be the One fighting for you. Immediately after that, the pasuk says, ואתחנן אל ה' בעת ההיא לאמר - Moshe prayed 515 tefilot , begging Hashem to allow him to enter Eretz Yisrael. The Baal HaTurim writes, Moshe Rabbeinu knew the value of giving chizuk to others, and so he used that et ratzon , to pray to break the decree of not being allowed to go into Israel. It was only after he gave chizuk to the Jewish people, calming them down regarding their upcoming battle, that he then prayed for himself. This is the value of giving chizuk to others. This Sunday night is Tu B'av, a day that is synonymous with shidduchim . It is a day that our Rabbis tell us, that we are alone with Hashem, and our tefilot have so much power. What a zechut it would be for someone who is waiting for a shidduch , to first give chizuk to someone else waiting for a shidduch . The person can say, "I know what you're feeling, I also am going through this," and then share words of chizuk that have helped him or her in the past. And then, after giving the chizuk , the person can pray for others, and then pray for himself. Every effort counts. We don't know which zechut we need to bring our yeshua , but we do know that every one of them gets us closer to it. I read a story of a man who couldn't bear to see the pain of his daughter, being in shidduchim for so long, without any ray of hope. He traveled to go see one of the Gadoleh H aDor , to seek counsel and ask what he could do as a zechut for his daughter. The Gadol asked him which minyan he attended for Shacharit each day. The man replied that he prays at seven o'clock in his local shul. The Gadol then asked him what time he usually arrives to shul. The man said, "Just about seven o'clock." The Gadol told him to accept upon himself to arrive at least five minutes prior to the minyan, and be'ezrat Hashem, in that zechut , his daughter would find a shidduch . The father left the Gadol on cloud nine. He was so excited from that meeting, and he indeed began to go to shul, every day, five minutes earlier. Just two weeks later, the call came in for a shidduch , which Baruch Hashem proved to be this girl's zivug . Many people may hear this story and say, what? "I have done so many more things than that, and I still haven't gotten married." That is definitely a natural reaction. But the proper reaction would be to say, "Look at the value of one small deed. We don't know which one of them will put us over the top. I'm sure that father had already done multiple other things in the zechut that his daughter get married. That was just the icing on top." Everything we do is valuable. Moshe Rabbenu did not just pray once to enter Eretz Yisrael, and then say, "Well, if Hashem didn't answer me, that means the prayers aren't doing anything." He knew sometimes a person needs dozens of tefilot , sometimes hundreds, and sometimes thousands. Every single one of them contributes to getting what he's asking for. And anyway, the main gain in any prayer or any kabalah is not the salvation that it brings, but rather the prayer itself or the kabalah itself. We are in this world to grow spiritually, and every bit of growth that we make is what enables us to fulfill our jobs in this world. Getting the yeshua we're looking for is an added bonus. And therefore, we must never let up. If we accepted three things upon ourselves, it's time to add a fourth, and so on. B'ezrat Hashem, all of those looking for their zivug should find them b'karov . And more importantly, they should continue growing higher and higher in the service of Hashem. Shabbat Shalom.

We are now in the shavuah shechal bo Tisha B'Av and it is incumbent upon us to try to feel some of the pain of the Shechina that is still in exile after so many years. Chazal tell us Hashem was forced, kavayachol , to destroy His own home because of our sins, primarily sinat chinam . And we are still preventing Him from building it. The Chafetz Chaim writes in his sefer Shmirat Halashon in the name of Rishonim , if baseless hatred caused the destruction of the built Beit HaMikdash , surely it will not be rebuilt so long as the hatred continues. The sefer Aleh Ayin writes, when Yaakov Avinu wanted to reveal to his children the date of the Final Geula , he told them האספו, which means you must gather together and be united in order for it to take place. There are people who don't talk to each other because of monetary disputes or because one insulted the other. The Peleh Yoetz writes, whatever the reason for the hatred, it is still called baseless because Hashem is really the one who brings about everything. If we got insulted or lost money, it's because it was the will of Hashem for us. And it is Hashem's will that we don't hate anyone, even in our hearts. There are family members who don't speak to each other, lo alenu . Even children who refuse to talk to their parents, Rachmana letzlan . The Final Redemption is in our hands. No one should ever say, what is my forgiving going to help, there are still thousands of people who hate? First of all , we don't know the value of each person's deeds and secondly, we are not obligated to do the entire job ourselves, but have to do at least our part. If the only incentive in forgiving people and uprooting the hatred would be that we are doing the will of Hashem and enabling Him to bring the Geula , it would be more than enough. But there's more. Hashem loves when we make peace so much, He also gives it side rewards in this world as well. Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein told a story about a woman whose name is Rachel who had a good job working in a certain children's center. One day, her friend Rivka was pleading with her to get her a job in the same center. She acquiesced and Rivka got hired. A few months later, Rachel was doing construction on her home which was close to where she worked, and so, from time to time, she would leave work for a few minutes to make sure the construction was being done properly. On one occasion, the manager of the center came to speak to Rachel while she was on one of those quick visits. The manager asked Rivka, "Where is Rachel?" Rivka told her the truth. The manager became furious and, when Rachel came back, she fired her saying, "You can't just leave work whenever you want." When Rachel found out that Rivka told her where she was, she became livid. She yelled at her saying, "This is the thank you I get for getting you this job? Couldn't you just have said that I stepped out for a minute?" From that day on, Rachel stopped talking to Rivka. She couldn't forgive her, especially since she got fired at a time that she needed the money so much to pay for her construction. Some time later, Rachel was on a bus traveling from Bnei Brak to Elad with a friend, and Rivka was on that same bus. Rivka went over to her to say hello, but Rachel completely ignored her. Rachel's friend asked her who that person was and why she ignored her. Rachel then told her the story. The friend said, "Please, do me a favor. I have a sister who's married for sixteen years without children. I've heard so many stories about the power of blessing that a person receives when she forgives. Please forgive Rivka now and then ask Hashem to give my sister a child. Rachel said, "I'm sorry, I can't forgive her. I can't even look at her." But as the bus ride progressed, Rachel began to think about it more. She herself had a 27 year old son who was having an extremely hard time in shidduchim . She told her friend, "I'm going to go right now and forgive her and then, b'ezrat Hashem, I'll pray that your sister has a child and that my son gets married. Rachel went over to Rivka, and they made up right there on the spot. Rabbi Zilberstein paused the story and said he has heard many stories like this, but each one of them is so special because it shows how much Hashem loves when His children forgive each other and make up. Baruch Hashem, this time as well, the yeshuot were not delayed in coming, Rachel's son got engaged within the next few months, and her friend's sister made a Brit Milah for a healthy baby boy on the 3 rd day of Cheshvan, which was within a year of her forgiving, less than 2 years ago from today. Let us end the fighting. Do it because it is the will of Hashem and then, b'ezrat Hashem we'll be able to enjoy the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash . Amen .

Today, the fifth day of Av, is the Yahrzeit of Rabbenu Ha'ari, Rabbi Yishak Luria (1534-1572, Tsfat). Last night in Tsfat, thousands of people came to his grave to pray and perform Tikunim. Therefore, it is appropriate today to study a teaching of the Ari. When one learns the Torah of the Sadikim on the day they passed away, the lips of that Sadik move in his grave. It is a Zechut to activate the Sadikim from the grave to extend their influence over those who study their teachings. Until the Ari, the teachings of the Kabbala were hidden from most of the world. He was the one who revealed these secrets of the Torah. The Gaon of Vilna said that at the end of time, these secrets will be revealed on an even broader scale. Today, Baruch Hashem, there is a greater awareness of these concepts. Today, we will study one subject that even regular people like ourselves can undertake. It is not only for Kabbalists. We will uncover one of the "Kavanot"(esoteric intents) taught by the Ari. Performing a Misva with these Kavanot adds new "flavor" to the Misva and prevents it from becoming a mechanical act, performed by rote. Even if a person can only achieve one out of ten Kavanot, he should not feel that it is "all or nothing." Every additional Kavana transforms the Misva exponentially. Furthermore, doing so opens the heavenly gates to bring down a Shefa (Heavenly abundance) for our Neshama. The Kavanot unlock hidden treasures, and we are the beneficiaries. In Sha'ar HaKavanot, the Ari discusses the mystical intents of immersing in the Mikveh on Ereb Shabbat. Going to the Mikveh on Ereb Shabbat is a very important and powerful practice. It may sound like a difficult undertaking, however, it is really quite fast and simple. Anyway, we tend to waste time on Friday. We should utilize a few minutes and go to the Mikveh. When a person immerses on Ereb Shabbat, the Kedusha of Shabbat can already be seen on his forehead. While a layman can't detect it, Sadikim like the Baba Sali, could see one thousand lights radiating from him. The Ari reveals the Kavana to be used before immersing, while immersing and after immersing. While standing in the water, before immersing, one should focus on the Divine Name "EHYH," which has the numerical equivalent of 151, the same as the word "Mikveh." This has the Segula to help a person control his anger, as the Hebrew word KaAS (anger) also has the numerical equivalent of 151, the same as Mikveh and the Divine Name. There is a deep connection between this specific Divine name and the Mikveh. The word "EHYH" literally means, "I will become." The Mikveh is the gateway for a person to become a new person by purifying himself of his past transgressions and leaving his old self behind. Also, the name "EHYH" is associated with a certain spiritual realm known as "Ima" (mother). Just as the mother cleans and diapers the soiled baby, while the father generally plays with the child after he is already clean, so too the purifying power of the Mikveh draws on this spiritual force of "Ima." The next step is to spiritually prepare the waters of the Mikveh for immersion. The Ari reveals that one should have Kavana to immerse in the "NaCHaL Elyon" (the supernal river), which refers to the heavenly Mikveh capable of purging the soul of its impurities. The details of the Kavana consist of focusing on the four configurations of the divine name YHVH and the three configurations of the divine name EHYH, in addition to the name YH, which represents the "secret of Shabbat." Through a sequence of combinations and permutations, these names form the numeric equivalent of the word "NaCHaL," (river) which is 88, and the word MaYiM (water), which is 90. This Kavana actually fills the earthly Mikveh with the Heavenly water of the Nachal Elyon. After that, one should have intention that all of this is "L'ChVOD Shabbat", in honor of Shabbat. Each part of this phrase has mystical significance and is connected to the divine names associated with the Mikveh. Upon emerging from the water, the Ari teaches not to dry oneself with a towel. The Mikveh water remaining on the body is "holy water of the Shabbat." Let the body absorb them, and the holiness of the water will remain with him. The Ben Ish Hai says that if this is too difficult, because of the cold or because it is uncomfortable, one may dry his body, but leave one area undried, preferably his arms, to absorb the water. When he leaves the Mikve, he should say the Pasuk "Im Tashiv M'shabbat Raglecha, Asot Hefsecha B'Yom Kadshi etc." It is not proper to recite the Pasuk while still in the dressing room in the presence of undressed men and without a head covering. Therefore, he should wait until he actually exits the Mikveh room. The proper time for using the Mikveh on Ereb Shabbat, according to the Ari, is from the fifth hour of the day, one hour before Hasot, after reading "Shnayim Mikra V'Echad Targum" (The weekly Torah portion twice, with one reading of the translation). Of course, if a person cannot go at this time, it is better to go earlier than not to go at all. One who practices the Kavanot for immersion on Ereb Shabbat experiences a qualitatively different level of immersion than everyone else. It's a different Shabbat.

Getting frustrated or angry portrays a lack of emunah. If we really believe everything that happens is from Hashem for our best, there's never a reason to get angry. One of the ways that we can improve is by at least outwardly reacting with emunah. Whenever we feel that we're about to get upset, we should turn it around by saying thank you to Hashem instead. Getting in this habit will help us grow in emunah and also relieve a lot of tension. Saying thank you to Hashem for something that seems negative is a great avodah , which will also give a person a lot of merits. A woman, who lives in Israel, said that a couple of weeks ago she took her son to kindergarten by bus. After she paid, she put her bus card between the folds in the stroller that she was wheeling her son in, and then when she got off the bus, she wheeled him to his school. She left the stroller there and walked back to the bus stop. After she got on the bus, she realized she forgot the bus card in the stroller. She told the driver and he let her off. That day, the temperature was near 100 degrees and, naturally, she wanted to complain. She now had to walk all the way back to the school and then back to the bus again in the scorching heat. She started to recall the emunah lessons that she learns on a daily basis and immediately changed her attitude. She walked back to the kindergarten saying, "Hashem, I accept this little inconvenience with love. I accept this with love, I accept this with love." She kept repeating those words over and over until all her frustration was removed. When she got back to the kindergarten, she went over to the stroller and saw another woman there who asked her how things were. She mentioned that she came all the way back to get her bus card. The woman said, "Don't worry, I have a car, I'll take you home." Now, she would no longer have to walk back to the bus, nor walk from the bus station to the house. Five minutes later, she was by her front door and she was so happy that she accepted the minor inconvenience with love. A man said he and his wife had to leave their apartment because of a bug infestation. They even infested all of his sefarim . He gave all the sefarim in for an expensive treatment using gas to get rid of the bugs. They had to find a new apartment, and they settled in. Unfortunately, they found the same bugs in the new apartment. They suspected they didn't fully get rid of them and they brought them to the new apartment. They called an exterminator and he managed to get rid of them. But a year later, the bugs were back, very small and very annoying. This time, his wife decided to try a new strategy. Every time she cleaned the apartment, she said Mizmor l'Todah , thanking Hashem that she didn't see bugs. And if she did see a bug, she would say, " Mizmor l'Todah - Thank you Hashem, there's only one and not two." She started doing this consistently. And then someone recommended using a certain fly repellent spray. That worked. The spray got rid of all the insects. The man concluded, "Baruch Hashem, the insects are gone, but the minhag remains. We give thanks and praise every day for our clean, insect-free apartment." Getting frustrated when things aren't going the way we want is natural. It's up to us to overcome our natural instincts by instilling more emunah into ourselves until, b'ezrat Hashem, we're able to respond naturally with emunah.

In this week's parasha , Balak tried every which way to get Bilaam to curse the Jewish people. But as Bilaam repeatedly told him, “Whatever Hashem wants is going to happen and nobody could do otherwise.” People make all different kinds of efforts to accomplish many different things. We must always keep in mind that only what Hashem wants is going to happen. Fortunately for us, what Hashem wants is always the best for us. So we can always feel calm knowing that we're in His hands. We tell ourselves, again and again, that Hashem is always in charge and He's always choosing best, but somehow, when things don't go the way that we want, we still get upset and we still get nervous. If we really believed what we say, there would never be a reason to get frazzled no matter what's happening. There are people who are able to put into practice the emunah that they learn. One individual with real emunah can change an entire situation from a potential disaster to one of joy and spiritual elevation. A friend of mine, who practices emunah daily, told me he recently received a phone call at 7:30 in the morning from the hotel which was supposed to host the marriage of his son that night. The manager explained that a hot water tank had burst, and they had to evacuate the hotel. There was no way they would be able to accommodate the wedding there that night. The man immediately put into perspective that Hashem runs the world, and this was orchestrated by Him. He replied very calmly saying that it's okay and he understood. The manager was floored. He couldn't believe this man was so calm. The man told him, he knows Hashem is in charge and his child will get married in the best place for him and his kallah . This took so much stress off the manager and he told the man, “Don't worry, we're going to find you the best hall as quickly as we can.” In the meantime, this man calmly called his mechutan to tell him the news. He spoke softly, with a calmness in his voice, telling the mechutan everything was going to be perfect just as Hashem wants it. The mechutan responded in kind. He was also calm about it. An hour later, the hotel manager called back saying he found a kosher hotel in another city that would be perfect for them. The man happily accepted, and then they had to tell the ladies in the family the news. They spoke softly with complete emunah and told the ladies, as well as the bride and the groom, that it was going to be the best wedding ever, the way Hashem wants it to be. They were a little shocked at the news but they all accepted it with emunah. They sprang into action, calling everyone telling them of the change in venue. The day then went by like a chatan and kallah are supposed to spend it. Everyone was happy and excited. This man's emunah was contagious and everybody felt it and everyone was inspired by it. Baruch Hashem, they had the most beautiful wedding that night. It was a much nicer hall, and there was so much siyata d'Shamaya . When my friend called to tell me what happened, he said he was so happy that he actually practiced the emunah that he had been learning every day for the past ten years. There wasn't a moment that he got nervous. He felt the entire time that he was in Hashem's hands and it showed. Look how the emunah of one person can change an entire situation. We know Hashem is in control and we know He does everything for our best. If we can put our knowledge into practice, we will see amazing things happening. Shabbat Shalom.

The Gemara in Masechet Berachot daf 20 says the earlier generations merited to have miracles done for them because of the great self-sacrifice which they put forth in their service to Hashem. The harder it is to do something, the more valuable it becomes. It says in Tehillim perek 44 כי עליך הורגנו כל היום - which Rabbi Yehuda HaChassid interpreted David HaMelech to be saying, we do the mitzvot even though at times we may suffer humiliation as a result, which is considered as if we are sacrificing our lives. And following that statement, David HaMelech then requested קומה עזרתה לנו – please arise Hashem and help us now. Because David HaMelech knows mesirut nefesh elicits extra help from Hashem. When it's hard for a person to do any type of avodat Hashem, he should look at it as a great opportunity to soar to spiritual heights and gain so much more than he would have had it been easy for him. There are times when people are very upset about what is happening in their lives, and they don't want to pick up a siddur and pray to Hashem. They must realize, at those times, they could accomplish the most with their tefilot because it's so hard to do. When someone who wants to turn away from Hashem overcomes his feelings and gets even closer to Him, that is mesirut nefesh on the highest level and that can produce miracles. Any mitzvah which requires a great deal of strength to accomplish becomes so much more valuable. I read a story in the Machon Shaar HaBitachon that was told by Rav Tzvi and this is what he said: Exactly three years ago, our life came to a standstill. My daughter, a young mother of three, was diagnosed with cancer and we went to war battling for her life. The entire family rallied to help and we, her parents, did everything we could possibly do. At one point, my wife traveled with my daughter to the U.S. for a surgery that could potentially save her life. The morning after they set out, I was sitting in shul when I heard a simple, hardworking man tell his friend how his feelings were so hurt the previous day when an acquaintance of his shamed him terribly. He was so hurt that he announced, "I will never forgive that man. Never!" I suddenly recalled the immense power of forgiveness, how people who forgive others are called beloved to Hashem. So I went over to that man and I said, "My daughter traveled yesterday to the United States for a surgery that we are hoping will save her life. You have power in your hands now, you could save her life. Please, please forgive that man. Please do it for my daughter." The man looked at me. "I hear what you're saying," he said, "it's a very painful situation, but what could I do? My feelings were hurt so terribly. It's impossible for me to forgive him. My heart is bleeding, please understand." "You don't have to forgive him on the spot," I told him, "I understand you went through a horrible experience. I can't even begin to place myself in your shoes. But please, I beg you to at least think about it. You now have a chance to save a young Jewish woman's life. Perhaps you could rethink it and let me know." Five minutes later, the man came back and said, "Okay, I decided I'm going to forgive him. He then called two other people over as witnesses and he said, "I forgive that person with all my heart and soul. In the merit of my forgiving, may this man's daughter become completely healed." He then said out her full Hebrew name and I thanked him profusely. The operation went better than expected. Baruch Hashem, my dear daughter was completely cured and a few months ago, against all of the doctors' predictions, she gave birth to healthy twins. הודו לה' כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו. When I told that man about what had transpired, he said to me, "I invested all of my emotional stamina to forgive that person and, believe me, even though it was so hard to do, it was well worth it. Look what I got in return." When something is very hard and requires a lot of mesirut nefesh , instead of turning the other way, we should view it as our opportunity to shine and earn unimaginable rewards.