B"H
I wish you a very amazing Yom Kippur
(Sun. Night - Mon. night).
May you and your family have a sweet year, with all blessings materially and spiritually.
May the best of last year, be the worst of this year!
Mendel Futerfas, fondly known by all as "Reb Mendel", was a special Chassid who inspired all who met him. He suffered much hardship in his life on account of his self-sacrifice to teach children Torah in Communist Russia where it was forbidden. He was finally caught at one point, and was sentenced to 15 years of labor in Siberia. He later moved to Israel and taught students there. He passed away in 1995.
A Teacher here in my yeshiva, Rabbi Kaplan, was a student of his many years ago.
He related to us the following story he heard directly from Reb Mendel:
"One night, I was resting in a room shared with many other Russian prisoners. They were playing cards and having a very good time.
All of a sudden we heard footsteps, and in stormed one of the officers.
"Where are the cards!?!" Yelled the officer, "I know you're playing cards and I'm going to catch you." Glancing around the room, the officer gave a final glare at all those around him, and left.
No sooner had he left, than the cards were right back on the table and the playing ensued.
After a few minutes, the door again slammed open.
"I know they're here!"
This time the Officer had brought a fellow officer with him, and they began frisking every prisoner, turning over tables and chairs, searching high and low for the illegal deck of cards. After 15 minutes of searching, the officers left angry & exasperated.
After they had left, the cards were placed back on the table and playing resumed. "I couldn't take it anymore," related Reb Mendel. "I had to know how these prisoners hid the cards with such amazing efficiency! So I asked them, "How do you do it?"
"We can't tell you," one of them answered. "You'll rat on us."
"Come on," Reb mendel argued, "I'm a prisoner just like you. Why would I care to do that?"
"Fine," one of them answered. "I'll tell you.
We prisoners are thieves by trade. We're quick with our hands. Whenever the officer enters, one of us takes the deck and secretly places it in his pocket. It's the only place he never thinks to check."
Reb Mendel sat back to think. In every circumstance and event Reb Mendel found himself in, he always liked to find a lesson to be learned in life and in the service of G-d. What lesson could be gleaned from this situation? At a Chassidic Gathering years later, Reb Mendel explained what he had learned:
"Oftentimes we're so busy checking other people's pockets, that we forget to check our own pockets, where the issue really lies."
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As Yom Kippur nears, it's a propitious time to reflect on how we may have wronged others in our lives, and ask for their forgiveness.
But in our hearts, many of us truly believe that we are not the ones to be blamed.
But we have to check our "pockets."
In marital relationships, a spouse has one of 2 options. To always blame the other for issues of contention that arise, or to have the sense of mind to check one's own pockets to see if he or she has an area which they could fix. This applies to all relationships. We all (including myself) mistakenly spend too much time trying to fix those around us, when we should rather be spending the time working on ourselves. For ultimately, at the end of the day, we only have ourselves to fix. Its much easier to find the faults in others around us. To look within, with honesty, and find areas that need fixing, is truly wise, and truly holy.
With this attitude in mind, our forgiveness of others at this time of year, and our requests for forgiveness, should meet with increased success, and continue throughout the year!
--
To end off with one point about the auspicious day of Yom Kippur itself. Many of us spend the day in Synagogue, fasting, waiting for the day to end, counting the seconds on the clock and fantasizing as to which flavor of Jamba Juice we're going to get when it finishes
(Mango anyone? 
)
It's very important though, on such a special day, to try and choose a moment or two, to truly meditate on our lives and our connection to G-d and our Judaism.
I heard a nice idea last night. The final prayer of the day of Yom Kippur is called Ne'ilah. This time is usually described as the last chance of the year, as the heavenly "gates" are closing, to send our last pleas and requests to G-d for our coming year.
Chassidic teachings take this a bit deeper.
On Yom Kippur, our souls are awakened to a deeper connection with G-d. As Ne'ilah approaches, and the gates are closing, we are left alone with G-d - behind the gates, inside. It's taught that each of the 5 prayers of the day correspond to one of the *5 levels in of our soul. This is a time to really connect and revel in our close and unbreakable bond with our Maker. Let's take advantage of this day, and springboard into the year with its inspiration!
-Daniel
Jerusalem, Israel
May you be Sealed for a good & sweet year!
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*Classical kabbala identifies four levels of the soul - called 1)Nefesh, 2)Ruach, 3)Neshama , and 4)Neshama l'neshama. Nefesh is the animating principle of the physical body and the senses; ruach is the force vitalizing the emotions; neshama is the vitality of intellect; and neshama l'neshama is the essence of life of the human soul. The Arizal refers to this fourth level of soul as Chaya, signifying its function as the essence of life. However, all these four aspects of the soul he regarded as mere extensions of the essence of the soul, which he called Yechida.
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