A beautiful video tribute on youtube for the slain Chabad couple of Mumbai, showing how they lived in India and their work before their passing. We can learn a lot from their selflessness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
*[A short word on the Torah portion of the week in connection to the video]:
In this week's Torah portion, Yakov our forefather leaves his home & its holy surroundings, where he had lived all his life. He flees his evil brother Eisav, travelling to the equally evil Lavan, his uncle. "Yakov was a man of the tent...
a blemishless person." At home he had learned Torah all day long, living a completely holy life w/ his father Issac and mother Rivkah.
Yakov lives under Lavan for 20 yrs., working as a shepherd. He marries Leah and Rachel, and has 12 children, all righteous; the '12 tribes of Israel.' Yakov worked and worked. He worked honestly, yes, but he never had the chance to ever relax and learn G-d's word, to devote his energy solely to his Creator. YET where does the Torah say Yakov succeeded in his life? Where he fulfilled his life's mission? Under Lavan, away from his home and holy surroundings. On his way to Lavan, Yakov only had a vision of G-d inba dream. On his way back to his parents in Israel, G-d Appears to Yakov while he's awake. He reached a higher level through living with Lavan and dealing honestly in business with him, refining the world and raising good Jewish children, than through sitting in solitude in pure holiness. Specifically through his descent into the world; there did Yakov fulfill G-d's Will and intention for him in this world. There he raised such a special family. There he stayed true to his belief and morals amidst wordly matters. As the father of the Jewish children,
Yakov teaches us how we must live: In the world, but above it. Never wavering from his goals, focused on living an honest, true life as a chosen one of G-d.
This is how Gaby and Rivka Holtzberg lived. In a land of idol worship (India) and no kosher food or family/friends, far from their holy land (both born in Israel), they stayed dedicated to G-d and fellow Jews. Never complaining, always smiling (see video), these 2 special Jews lived life the way Yakov our father taught us, and empowered us.
Let's live in the world, yet uplift it-thorough 1 more kind deed, 1 more smile.
Let's do it for Rivkah and Gaby.
-Daniel
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