You don't have to be on *Regional Board to be a leader. In all likelihood, you already are one... you just might not know it yet! Take 6 minutes and be inspired by someone who changed another's life through a story he doesn't even remember happening, and pay it forward! Give another person the gift of knowing how they've changed your life. Candygrams, ncsy tzadikim on fbook, or old fashioned phone call... there are ways to show gratitude and at the same time help enlighten others to their impact as leaders!
*That being said... RB might just want you anyway :)
Life is a funny thing. You never know when you're going to have a profound effect on someone, whether from a conversation or just being yourself in their proximity. This is something to always keep in mind - because you never know what affect it is going to have on people, one should always do their best to make a positive impression and impact. When speaking, choose words carefully and make sure to get your point across. Speak thoughtfully. Live thoughtfully.
Today's Hebrew date -- the 7th of Adar -- is Moshe's birthday and yahrtzeit (death date). Moshe, arguably the greatest leader of all time, lived 120 years and is the paradigm for the traditional Jewish birthday wish to live 'till 120! ("ad meah v'esrim!"). The Torah itself states that not only did Moshe live a long life, but his "eyes didn't dim, and his vigor did not diminish" (Devarim 34:7) and in Breishit 6:3 G-d Himself says that man won't be immortal, but that his years will be 120 -- the sign of a full, complete life.
Interestingly, people have always had an obsession with youth. From claiming to be 21 years old forever, to plastic surgeries, to anti-aging creams, to the legendary search for the fountain of youth, people have a fascination with the mystery of how to break nature's prescribed path of growing old.
But its rare to really appreciate the beauty that growing old entails.
In fact, the phrase itself speaks worlds: to grow old.
To live a static life is not much of a life. But to GROW old? Now that's pretty awesome.
A few weeks ago on Shabbos, I had the privelege of witnessing and being inspired by a man who knows the meaning of "growing old." Rabbi Sidney Keiman, the rabbi emeritus of Congregation Adereth El in Manhattan, turned 100 years old on January 27, 2013. The Shabbos before his birthday (parshat Beshalach) was understandably an incredible one for the entire community. Rabbi Kleiman was called to the Torah for the aliyah that included Az Yashir -- the song of gratitude that the Jews sang when passing through the red sea on their way out of Egypt. Two congregants lifted R' Kleiman from his wheelchair and supported him on either side as he stood with an unnatural strength before the Torah for the entire aliyah. In respectful awe, the entire congregation stood right along with him.
I wish I could take a peek through the window of what Rabbi Kleiman has seen over the past century, but suffice it to say I doubt he could have ever predicted the iPhone 5. When he first arrived in his shul, there were still individuals there who were alive during the Civil War! He was there during the Great Depression when congregants would donate coal and clothing instead of money. Can you imagine someone who was not just alive during the Holocaust, but was a full fledged rabbi of an American shul in 1939, leading a congregation through those years of tragedy? And then to witness the complete turn around with the celebration that followed the establishment of the state of Israel!
100 years down the line, though wheelchair bound, R' Kleiman is still the first one in shul every single day. In fact, that's how he spent his 100th birthday -- going to shul like he does every other day. Perhaps the most beautiful part of his birthday shabbos was seeing R' Kleiman, still fully with it, give a brachah in a strong powerful voice to the crowd of children presenting him with his birthday card.
"I'm not that big a man. My name is Kleiman, which means 'small man,' kleiner mann. I'm just happy to do what I do, and if people want to follow my example, so much better."
When we think about growing old, we tend to wonder: What's the secret? I want to share with you a short clip from the Ellen Degeneres show, featuring a 105 year old woman Edythe Kirchmaier. When asked the secret to living a long life, her focus was on positivity. In her words, "If something happens, I can't do anything about it. So I don't let it bother me."
Happy Adar!!
So I actually am a huge Queen Esther fan. I mean besides for the fact that she kept strong to Jewish halacha and values while she was Queen, she also kept her nationality a secret for 5 years, put up with Achashveroshes shananagans, and saved the entire Jewish people from destruction! How cool is she??
Purim is a very fascinating holiday. On the outside it may seem like it's just a day of fun but in truth it's said to be the holiest day of the year. The Vilna Gaon explains that the full name of Yom Kippur is Yom Hakipurim, meaning "teh day like Purim." If Yom Kippur is like Purim, it means that Purim is even greater than Yom Kippur! Brings Purim to a whole new light, doesn't it?
There are so many life changing lessons we can learn from Purim and this one is about none other than Queen Esther :).
You all know the famous saying: "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade."
I know that this quote is very cliche and overused, but it's actually so true! Life isn't easy. We all have challenges that we go through. Like lemons, these challenges can make our lives really sour. But I don't want to have a sour life!How can I make my life sweet?? Here's the (not so) secret answer: Make lemonade! Pour in tons of water and sugar (and red food coloring if you're going for pink lemonade). The secret is that you can't get rid of the lemons, but you can sweeten it. Matthew Jeffers is a Beth Tfiloh graduate in Baltimore. Matthew teaches us that the only disability in life is a bad attitude. Basically meaning, pass the sugar :)
"When I was a little boy, my mother used to embroider a great
deal. I would sit at her knee and look up from the floor and ask what she was
doing. She informed me that she was embroidering. From the underside, as I
watched her work within the boundaries of the little round hoop that she held
in her hand, I complained to her that it sure looked messy from where I sat.
She would smile at me, look down and gently say, “My son you go about playing
for a while and, when I am finished, I will put you on my knee and let you see
it from my side.”
I would wonder why she was using some dark threads along
with the bright ones and why they seemed so jumbled from my view. A few minutes
would pass and then I would hear mother’s voice say, “Son come and sit on my
knee.” This I would do, only to be surprised and thrilled to see a beautiful
flower or sunset. I could not believe it, because from underneath it looked so
messy.
Then mother would say to me, “My son, from underneath it did
look messy ad jumbled, but you did not realize that there was a pre-dawn plan
on the top. It was a design. I was only following it. Now look at it from my
side and you will see what I was doing.”
Many times through the years I have looked up to Hashem and
said, “Father, what are You doing?” He answers, “I am embroidering your life.”
I say, “But it looks like a mess to me. It seems so jumbled. The threads seem
so dark. Why can’t they all be bright?”
Hashem then tells me, “My child, you continue to live your life
of fulfilling My mitzvot, and one day I will bring you to Heaven and put you on
My knee and you will see the beautiful picture of your life from My side.”"
I've found that when in the work place, if you great someone with courtesy and with a smile, they are much more likely to respond in kind and be willing to help you than if you just say it straight out. This may be something for each of us to work on - smiling in the presence of others and having polite conversations. You never know when something might come through for you in a very positive way!
This weekend I went with my school on our annual winter shabbaton. On Shabbat morning, when our Rabbi came to wake us up, he told us that an incident had happened involving vandalism and we had to discuss it immediately with everyone before davening. At that point I thought the usual, that some student had broken something in the hotel. But when I arrived at davening with my roommates we were not allowed into the usual davening room. The whole school met in the next room over and our Rabbi began to tell us what happened. He said that in middle of the night, someone came and vandalized our things. He wrote anti-semitic things on our Siddurim, and he broke some of our band's equipment. But worst of all, he wrote and spat on our Sefer Torah, our most prized possession, putting it in a condition that we can no longer use it. Soon, Homeland Security and the FBI arrived. We were not allowed into the room where this took place since it became a crime scene. This meant that davening would evoke an extreme challenge for us. We had to share the extra Siddurim that we had, four people per a book. We also had to cut our davening extremely short since it was Rosh Chodesh and we didn't have a Sefer Torah to read from.
Why should this happen to us? We've been gone from our home in Memphis for only one day. Why now? What did we do wrong? We're just a small school of only 48 innocent Jewish boys. Does being Jewish make us guilty? We didn't choose to be Jewish, we were born into it and raised by it. I don't understand. But I do know that this has been happening to us for thousands of years. It happened just a couple of weeks ago when rockets were fired into Israel. Anti-semitism is everywhere. They do this because of our religion. They do this because we are Jewish. But we can't allow things like this get to us. Sure, it's scary and makes me angry, but if we let it affect us in negative ways we are basically giving people like this the win.
As shabbos was "ebbing" away we sang "Acheinu." I started listening to the words. "Acheinu kol beit yisrael, han'nutunim b'tzara uvashivyah." It says, "Our brothers, the whole house of Israel, who are in distress and captivity." I realized that it's in times like these when we need each other the most in order to comfort one another. It made me think back to the times on NCSY when you never feel alone. There's always someone you can talk to for comfort.
Thankfully, no one was hurt by this incident, and they do have a suspect as to who it was that committed this hate crime. But we are not letting this stop us. We are moving on with our shabbaton. Don't let anything ever stop you because your Jewish.
Hashem created me and put me into a life. That life was carefully planned to allow me to reach my potential. All the props on the stage of my life have been set. I didn't choose my level of intelligence. I wasn't asked to pick the family I would be born into, nor the generation in which I would live. These were all hand-picked by my Creator to give me the perfect challenge to allow me to reach the greatness that I am able to achieve. (Rabbi Ben Zion Shafier-The Shmuz) Post by, Shelley Israel
AAAHHH!!! Conclave's over?! Now what?! How about this? Do something small... for just 30 days. You'll be surprised to see it's all you need to go great places. Here's a 3-minute video of a guy who knows how it's done. "The next 30 days are going to pass whether you like it or not, so why not think about something you have always wanted to try and give it a shot for the next 30 days?” (Matt Cutts)
Recently, I was browsing the Facebook page of "PostSecret" of a specific college. PostSecret is an online community in which anyone can anonymously submit secrets which will then be displayed to the public. I came across this post and it really made me think. I am culturally Jewish, but not religious at all. I grew up in an area with many “Jews,” but very few that actually practiced Judaism—or at least to a serious extent. Before coming to [college], I have to admit that I had some preconceived prejudices—not about different religions or minorities—but about religious Jews. For whatever reason, I thought they might be weird, and that believing in God or seriously adhering to a religion in this day and age was stupid—and that people who did so might be boring or not fun. However, since I got here, I have met many religious/orthodox Jews, and they are some of the coolest people I have ever met. Contrary to what I had thought, many of them are very similar to me and have become close friends. While being religious might not be right for me, I have gained a totally newfound respect for those who are. We never know what impact we can have on people by simply being ourselves.
It is safe to assume that over the past week we have all in some way by the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. I know I have been thinking about it a lot. We have heard about both the evil and the heros in the story....
This video is a very powerful one... and something to think about.
The Chafetz Chaim tells over his eye witness account of what happened when the leaders of Brisk came
to Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik to ask him to be the Rabbi of their community. Rav Soloveitchik refused, saying that he had his share of being a rabbi of a community and now he wanted to
spend his days learning. The leaders of Brisk offered him many things in order
to persuade him to come, but Rav Soloveitchik was adamant in his refusal.
Disheartened, the men turned to leave. Just at that moment one of the men
thought he would give it one more try and said, “Rebbe I’ll tell you the truth,
there are 25,000 Jews waiting for you that are desperately in need
of your leadership.”
The Rav started to shake and said, “Bring me my
stick and my hat, I’m moving to Brisk.”
Rav Soloveitchik immediately accepted the position when he heard that so many Jews were in need of his leadership. The Chafetz Chaim then asks: Could you imagine if mashiach
would hear that the entire Jewish nation couldn't live without him? If we truly cried out for mashiach and wanted him badly enough, could you imagine how fast he would come??
Chanukah may be officially over, but do we really say goodbye?
Sometimes when look at the world we see it as such a dark place. Then we think that how can little me make such a difference in a world that's so big and so confusing??
Shlomo Hamelech wrote in Mishlei that a mitzva is compared to a candle. Every time we do a mitzva it is as if we are lighting a candle. And what happens when you light a candle in the dark? The room will become a little brighter. Every candle that you continue to light will light up the room even more until it becomes fully illuminated.
It is now more than ever that we should never give up, because every mitzva we do not only brings us spiritual fulfillment, but will also light up the whole world!
Chanukah is about bringing light into the darkness.
This idea of bringing light has always fascinated me. Partially because I happen to love fire, particularly how one spark of light can make an entire room brighter. Taking that physical phenomenon into an intellectual concept, though, we can infer that even one ounce of "goodness" will light up a room, a school, an entire world. I guess it's no coincidence that NCSY's logo is a flame. It's such a beautiful symbol of passion, intensity, and illumination. Story time: I am a freshman at WashU, a secular university in St. Louis (Washington University in St. Louis is its full name, but it's a bit long to use all the time). In my dorm, I am the only Jewish girl who considers herself "religious." In the beginning, it was daunting; in the beginning, sometimes it's hard to be different, to stick to what you believe. As time went on though, I became more comfortable with my floormates, and they with me. We started to have open and stimulating conversations about religion; they were absolutely fascinated with ideas about keeping kosher, keeping shabbos, and being shomer nigea. After plenty of conversations, and also just hanging out, a few of my new friends even said to me, "Sarah, you're the first Jew that we can really ask questions to!" I was speechless. Although I often see myself as small, as one of billions of people, for my floormates, I have become the one Jew they feel comfortable asking questions to. It's a pretty unbelievable honor, in my opinion. Sometimes, we are presented with daunting yet awesome opportunities of bringing light into the darkness. Every night, we add a candle, we add more light; with more time, we can spread more light, we can bring more light into the darkness.
We all have expectations for our lives -- of the life paths and opportunities that should come our way, and where they should lead. But what happens when those expectations come crashing down? Janine Shepherd, an aspiring olympic medalist, tells her moving story of what it means to not let your life circumstances take control of you, but for you take the reigns and take control of your life.
"It wasn't until I let go of the life I thought I should have, that I was able to embrace life that was waiting for me."
Janine's inspiring and empowering story proves that though our bodies are limited, our spirit is unstoppable.
