Shaarei Tzedek – Orthodox Judaism in Downtown Toronto

Gabriel Holtzberg, 30, the Chabad Outreach rabbi in Mumbai, India, and his wife Rivka, 28  – together with another 10-15 Israelis – are currently held hostage by terrorists in Mumbai. They’re situation is gravely dangerous.

Please join us in praying for their safety. Their names are Gavriel Noach ben Freida Bluma and Rivkah bat Yehudit.

May Hashem deliver them to freedom together with all their brethren in captivity around the world, amen.

UPDATE:  It has been confirmed that the Rabbi and his wife were killed during the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Jewish communities around the world reacted with shock to the loss of the couple, who were killed Thursday at their Chabad House during an apparent standoff between Indian military forces and terrorists.

Their toddler son, Moshe, managed to escape with his nanny some hours before Indian commandos stormed their building, known as the Nariman House, in the popular touristy neighborhood of Colaba.

Prayers in Poland

In the fall of 1942, a young hidden Jew receives a private small miracle.

By: Yitta Halberstam and Judith Leventhal

David Seitelbach’s bright blue eyes and light blond hair became his passport to survival during the war. At the tender age of 13, he was forced to leave his hometown of Galicia in the south of Poland, near the Russian-Ukraine border. His town had been turned into ghetto by the Germans. His father, mother, sister, and uncles were bound for the concentration camps where, unbeknownst to David, they would all be exterminated.

David, however, roamed free. His “Aryan” coloring allowed him to blend into the Polish landscape. The young boy wandered aimlessly throughout the war, working as a farmer’s helper whenever and wherever he could, all the while feverishly trying to hide his Jewishness. Any slight hint of exposure meant certain death.

During one “Thanksgiving” dinner at a Polish farm where he had secured temporary employment, David was invited to join the family and partake in the meal. While everyone else enjoyed the ham set in the center of the table, garnished with herbs, David ate only vegetables, remembering his family’s clear admonishment against eating ham — the quintessential un-kosher food. Not wanting to rouse any suspicions, he simply said that he wasn’t too hungry when he was asked if he’d like some more food.

[From the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe]

The Torah portion of Lech Lecha relates that Avraham built three altars to G-d.1 Rashi , basing his commentary on the Midrash2 , explains that Avraham built the first altar “upon hearing G-d’s promise that he would have children, and that they would inherit the land of Israel.”3

Rashi goes on to state that he erected the second altar — in the vicinity of Ai — because “he saw in his prophecy that his progeny would stumble there through the sin of Achan. He therefore prayed for them there.”4

However, no explanation is given by Rashi as to the reason for Avraham’s third altar, since Avraham built it out of his simple love of G-d upon his arrival in the city of Chevron.

Our Sages inform us5 that “G-d gave Avraham a sign that all that transpired with him will transpire with his children as well.” This is so because the actions of the Patriarchs serve as an antecedent and a catalyst for the subsequent actions of their descendants.

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Parshat Lech Lecha 5769

© Rabbi David Lapin, 2008 (http://iawaken.org)

Yesterday does not predict tomorrow

Timeless values rather than transient, political events are the subjects of these essays. But this week’s events in the United States are not transient and they are far more than political. They call for comment.

The US elections are the third event in eight years that permanently changed the course of global history. But there is something even more startling about those events than the changes they ushered in. In all three cases we saw the failure of yesterday to predict tomorrow.

The three events were 1) September 11th; 2) the current financial crisis; and 3) the Obama landslide victory.[1] In each case the instruments traditionally relied upon to predict future trends proved incapable of doing so. In each case the world, including its experts, was taken by surprise and shocked out of complacency.

The United States had a sophisticated intelligence system that was caught unaware in 2001. The world of finance was driven by complex models designed by brilliant minds using cutting edge technology, but it could not foresee the collapse of US credit markets. Even Alan Greenspan told Congress last month that he was in a state of “shocked disbelief.” Barack Obama’s victory was not a surprise (although not very long ago many considered it impossible and even in September McCain’s lead was considered within the margins of polling error), but its landslide dimensions were. None of the polls predicted anything like it.

Yesterday is over

The reason that none of these events were predicted is because the future is no longer a continuation of the past. No longer can one use yesterday’s tools, data and trends to predict tomorrow. Yesterday is over. One needs a deep understanding of today to predict tomorrow. As it Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers) says: “A wise man is one who is roeh et hanolad – who can visualize that which has just been conceived.” Many of the factors that drove the course of history for decades and maybe centuries drive it no more. New factors have been born that drive it now. Mr. Obama seems to see those factors and uses them.

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