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Learning is a Lifelong Endeavor and its Mission is Never Complete
Parents have let out a collective sigh of relief. The new academic year has started and, thank God, the kids are back in school. It is amazing that, at the end of the school year, parents are so grateful to have a reprieve from supervising homework, making lunches and driving carpools. By the end of the summer, however, they are all too happy to resume those duties and have their kids back in a structured, productive and learning environment.
While we mostly think about the end of summer as a time that kids go back to school, Judaism teaches that it is specifically this period of the year that all of us, adults, kids, men and women are encouraged to return to learning, studying and personal growth. Learning is a lifelong endeavor and its mission is never complete.
Over the past few weeks, I attended two siyumim, the celebrations over completion of a major body of learning, that deeply inspired me. During the nine days, our member, Jeff Silkin made a siyum on an entire mesechta (tractate) of gemara. Remarkably, when Jeff and his family first moved to the circle he would classify himself as a beginner with little background or learning skills. Yet, by committing to study one night a week with his chavrusa (R. Mayer Englander), something he considers totally ordinary, he was able to achieve an extraordinary feat.
Last Shabbos at Seudah Shlishiet, another of our members, Dan Waldman, made a siyum on Shas Mishnayos, having completed every single mishna in the six orders. He told the story of how, as a survivor, he tried to learn about his murdered ancestors so he could visit their graves. When he recognized that, tragically, he could not locate much information, he decided he would study the entire mishna and dedicate it to them. Through this process of study that took several years, he became their monument. Ask Dan how he completed this rigorous project and his answer is simple – one mishna at a time.
Like our many children and like Jeff and Dan, this Elul, let’s all go back to school. Challenge yourself to complete an area of study, to read a challenging book, to attend an inspiring lecture or to engage a regular study partner. Participate in the Beis Midrash program nightly or Shabbos afternoon in the Senders Library. If you need a chavrusa, feel free to contact me any time.
May we all use Labor Day to return to school for a labor of love – Torah study, and may we attend each other’s siyumim and celebrations for many years to come.
This is going to be the best year ever.
Maybe it’s a coincidence, but I hope it is much more than that. I sat down to write my weekly “From the Rabbis Desk,” but procrastinated for a moment to see what Rabbi Broide wrote about in his outreach column. Low and behold the same thing is on both of our minds and likely on the minds of all of the members of the BRS professional team. Despite the growing challenges in the world around us with rockets falling in Israel and the stock market falling in America and many other difficulties, we feel from the bottom of our hearts that this is going to be the best year ever.
The famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed many beautiful buildings, homes and other magnificent structures. Toward the end of his career, a reporter asked him, “Of your many beautiful designs, which one is your favorite?” Without missing a beat, Frank Lloyd Wright answered, “My next one.” If we focus too much on the challenges, the obstacles and the problems, we will become paralyzed, apathetic and stagnant. The challenge in life is to be firmly rooted in realism, but inspired by a healthy dose of optimism. Like Frank Lloyd Wright, one must always believe that the best is yet to come in our marriages, parenting, spiritual ambitions, professional aspirations, health consciousness, and more.
The BRS team has been hard at work this summer planning an amazing year ahead. Our brand new, state of the art website will be fully functional within a few weeks allowing you access to everything you want to know about BRS in addition to a member section to pay your bills, sponsor a siddur, make a donation, etc. As Rabbi Broide writes, we are working hard to expand our outreach efforts to bring the beauty of our Torah to thousands around us, and to bring the beauty that those thousands have to offer, to our community. Our Welcome Committee, Chessed Committee, and Hospitality Committees have come up with innovative new ideas to encourage participation in their critical work.
We eagerly look forward to welcoming fantastic scholars in residence this year including Nobel Prize winner Professor Yisroel Auman, Award winning actress Mayim Bialik, Rabbi Daniel Gordis, Charlie Harary and many others. This Elul we will be launching our ‘Giving is Getting’ initiative including service learning trips throughout the year and disaster relief work if God forbid necessary. Under the leadership of the dynamic Rabbi Uri and Aliza Pilochowski, our youth and teen departments have incredible new programs planned.
With all of the challenges, rest assured that there is a lot to look forward to at BRS in this coming year. With your help, partnership and support, I am fully confident that together the BRS community will have its’ best year ever!
Shabbat Shalom
BRS is not just a Shul, it is a community
As we often say, BRS is not just a Shul, it is a community. Our goal is to cultivate a culture in which people don’t feel I am a member of BRS, but rather, I am a member of the BRS community. What is the difference between being a Shul and being a community?
A shul is a place to attend classes, davening, events, programs and activities. A community is so much more. It is a family that celebrates with you, mourns with you, provides support, love, and a sense of mission. BRS’s mission is to invite Jews of all backgrounds, levels of knowledge, observance and diversity to participate in our modern orthodox, Zionist community committed to the study and observance of Torah, to outreach and to contributing to the world around us.
We feel deeply honored and proud that our community is not limited to Montoya Circle. Firstly, there are individuals and families that identify with our mission and our sense of community and therefore attend BRS despite the distance from their home. But secondly, our community transcends Montoya Circle because of our wonderful satellite, BRS West.
Since its inception, BRS West has provided its members a ‘small community’ feel, while at the same time being part of a larger mission, vision and affiliation. BRS West members are full partners in the BRS family, participating in our programming, leadership and activities. We are profoundly proud and feel indebted to the BRS West families who through their commitment to BRS’s sense of community and mission have expanded our border and our reach westward. We are also grateful to Hillel Day School and their leadership who have been gracious hosts and generous sources of support in hosting BRS West on their campus.
This Sunday, under the outstanding leadership of Rabbi Mordechai and Hadassah Smolarcik, BRS West together with BRS will be celebrating a major milestone, the dedication of the BRS West Beit Midrash in the new middle school building at Hillel Day School. Shacharit will take place in the old Beit Midrash at 8:00 am after which the Sifrei Torah will be accompanied into the new Beit Midrash. A light brunch will follow.
Please join me in attending this momentous occasion and showing our full support to the BRS West branch of our family. May we celebrate many more milestones together, in partnership, for years to come.
Shabbat Sholom
There is the loss of our innocence, replaced by feelings of fear and dread?
Two recent horrific tragedies, the murders of Leiby Kletzky and Rabbi Elazar Abuchatzeira, continue to devastate the Jewish community. Many of us are filled with questions, not only about how this could happen to the victims, but about the identity of the perpetrators themselves. It is hard to remember a time in which a so called orthodox Jew murdered a fellow Jew in cold blood, let alone two such incidents in such a short span.
There are multiple layers to these tragedies and their impact on our people. Of course there is the loss of precious life, the potential that can now never be realized, and the impact of these individuals that will no longer be felt. There is the tragedy of the murderers and how they have forfeited their Godly spirit by having engaged in acts that are the epitome of evil.
But it occurs to me there is yet another tragedy and loss – there is the loss of our innocence, replaced by feelings of fear and dread. Leiby’s murder has inspired parents of young children around the globe to wonder should we let our children walk around alone? Beginning at what age? For what distance? At what time of day? Rabbi Abuchatzeira’s murder has already motivated Rabbis to ask questions such as “can I meet with people one on one anymore? Am I safe even around congregants and students whom I thought I knew well?”
Some may argue that asking all of these questions is a good thing and will yield greater safety in the long run. Others believe that harping on these questions will produce a culture of neuroticism, paranoia and unnecessary worry and fear. After all, these were isolated incidents carried out by deranged, psychotic individuals and in no way reflect a real danger. I personally don’t know which attitude is correct, but I do know that prior to a few weeks ago we were not struggling with these questions and that too is a great tragedy in my opinion.
As we rapidly approach Tisha B’av and please God conclude this inauspicious period of mourning and heartache, let us look forward to the time that the Navi (Prophet) predicts in which men and women will sit in the streets of Jerusalem and watch as children play freely in perfect safety with unbridled joy and happiness.
Shabbat Sholom
Wouldn’t it be great, if we could realize our mutual commitments to one another by bringing our entire BRS family on aliyah.
As my family’s summer vacation winds down there are two transitions we must face, one much more difficult than the other. Firstly, we are heading back to real life including work, obligations, responsibilities, etc. This adjustment pales in comparison to the second change, namely leaving Eretz Yisroel, our people’s beloved and precious homeland, the holiest place on earth.
Each visit to Israel increases my love and connection to this remarkable country, land and people. When in Israel, it is impossible not to feel that Jewish destiny is unfolding here and that those in the diaspora, while great sources of support, are essentially spectators.
To be a serious Jew one must be serious about a commitment to Israel. The Torah and our tradition are replete with statements that place Israel and Yerushalayim as central in our lives. When I return, I look forward through sermons and classes to articulating some of the many reasons that Israel is such a blessing and gift in our lives, but for now, allow me to share just one.
I was walking today in the vicinity of the tragic funeral of R. Elazar Avuchatzera who was brutally murdered just last night. The streets were congested, the traffic was heavy and the police where doing their best to keep things under control. One driver was particularly frustrated that the officer had closed off a certain street and he left his car, walked up to the policeman and was not shy in voicing his objection.
Observing this aggressive exchange, my first thought was that in America, a civilian would never speak so freely to a member of law enforcement. And then I realized that while his tone was inexcusable and wrong, there was something paradoxically beautiful about it. You see, in America, a policeman is a total stranger, unfamiliar, distant and imposing. In Israel, absolutely everyone, policeman or civilian, is a member of the family, a brother or a sister with whom there is an implicit comfort level. Essentially, this driver was saying, ‘achi,’ my brother, why are you stopping traffic here, it’s inconvenient to me.
Ten years ago, my sister and her family made aliyah to Modiin. Just this week, my brother and his family arrived on a nefesh b’nefesh flight to their new home in Alon Shvut. That leaves me as the only child in my family not living in Israel, a feeling that is awkward, upsetting and in some ways lonely. I am deeply grateful to the BRS community for the commitment you have shown me for the next ten years, and rest assured you have my family’s commitment back for that long and beyond. But wouldn’t it be great, if we could realize our mutual commitments to one another by bringing our entire BRS family on aliyah.
My friends, as I often say, while there are many legitimate reasons not to move to Israel right now, there are no legitimate reasons not to struggle with how and when we can make aliyah a reality. May our collective migration to Israel be hastened and expedited by the arrival of Moshiach, speedily in our days.
What do you do?
September 9, 2011 by urjnetworkadmin • Rabbi
How often is our first question to someone we meet, what do you do? How often do we ask about someone else, what does he or she do? How often do we define our own self-worth by our profession or if we aren’t working by what takes up the bulk of our time? For too many of us our identity is entirely wrapped up and monopolized by our profession. We mistake ‘earning a living’ for actually living. If we are not working, we still often mistakenly identify with the details that take up the greatest quantity of our time, not quality of our time.
We need to challenge ourselves to create a meaningful list of goals outside of how we earn a living. Will our list include making a million dollars, or making a difference? Will it include finishing a stamp collection or finishing shas? Will it include spending money on a nicer car and nicer home or spending time with our spouses and children?
The Netziv, Rav Naftoli Tzvi Yehuda Berlin, was once visited by a student he had not seen in a long time. He greeted him with the popular Yiddish idiom, vus machstu, which is used in the vernacular as how are you, but literally translates as what do you do? The student answered, I am well Rebbe, Baruch Hashem I am healthy and earn an excellent living. They sat and made small talk and after a little while the Netziv again asked so “vus machs tu?” Again, the talmid answered, thank God I am well and grateful I am very successful financially. They spent the next hour in discussion and again the Netziv, a third time asked nu, vus machs tu? The student finally turned to his Rebbe and said forgive me Rebbe, but this is the third time you asked me the same question and I have already told you all is well, I am healthy and parnossa is great. The Netziv turned to him and said, maybe you didn’t understand the question. You answered that you have good health and an excellent livelihood. That’s what Hashem does for you; I asked vus machstu, and what do you do?
As we rapidly approach Rosh Hashana, let’s be ready to answer the question – what do you do?