B"H
I hope this email finds you in good spirits, and if not - may it lead you to them!
The other night I was watching the 2008 Chabad banquet for all of the Chabad Emissaries. They come from all over the world yearly, to gather together and inspire each other for another year of spreading goodness and Judaism to their respective communities. The Keynote speaker was Rabbi Moshe Bryski, Chabad Rabbi to the Conejo Valley in LA. He ended off with an unbelievable story that brought me to tears. I thought you might like it...
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Several years ago, Rabbi Bryski brought in a few young Rabbinic interns to help him out for the holiday of Rosh Hashanah. Arriving home from Shul, they saw a moving truck pull up next door to their rented apartment. Noticing that the name of the company was "Nice Jewish Boys Moving," they decided to invite the movers inside for Shabbat lunch. They were enjoying a spirited meal with these Israeli movers when they noticed the owner of the home arriving. The movers hurried back to work and one young Rabbi asked the new neighbors if they might like to join them for Shabbat. Sure enough, the father and his daughter of 8, were happy to enjoy a Shabbat lunch after a long day of moving. Rabbi Bryski joined them for Havdalah and the father told him how before moving, he prayed to G-d to send him a sign that this was indeed the right place to bring up his daughter. "I never realized G-d would send the sign within minutes of our move," he told Rabbi Bryski.
Over the next few months, the man began to attend classes at Chabad and signed up for the JLI course, entitled "Faith and Suffering." He cried through the first few classes and eventually told Rabbi Bryski a painful piece of his story. Two years before moving to Agoura, he had lost two of his three children in a tragic car crash. His marriage fell apart and he considered suicide. He decided to take his surviving child out for the evening and then return home and end his life. She wanted to go to the movies and they chose a movie theater near their home in Simi Valley. When the movie was over, they left the theater and were shocked to find a Chassidic festival going on outside. It was the fourth night of Chanukah and some Rabbis had set up music and a huge Menorah. He and his daughter were schlepped into the dancing and enjoyed hot latkes. He told Rabbi Bryski that "With each dance, he heard the Menorah speaking to him, telling him that there will yet be joy, that light always triumphs over darkness." He returned home inspired and decided right then to move to a new community and begin again.
Rabbi Bryski told the story with tears in his eyes. He said that after the man told him this story, he was reminded about that night in Simi Valley. "You see," he said, "we were the ones at the mall that night.
The Rebbe had encouraged us to expand our Chanukah activities that year and we were looking for a new mall in which to set up a Menorah. I did not know anything about Simi Valley but I found it on a map and called information to ask for the number of the mall. When the operator asked which mall I wanted, I was silent, not knowing how to respond. She gave me the first mall listed, which was Mountaingate Mall. When I called the mall to arrange the event, the woman asked me if I was sure I wanted that mall. When we arrived, I understood why she had asked. The mall was deserted; every store had closed except the movie theater. Since we had already brought everything, we stayed, and set ourselves up outside the theater. Only a handful of people joined us that night and we considered the event a total failure. Little did any of us know that an entire life hung in the balance that night."
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It's great to live to inspire & help the entire world. But the individual is what truly matters. Each and every person is a world. As the Talmud states: "To save one life is as if you have saved the world." We have absolutely no idea what an impact we can make an another's life; just by lending an ear and an encouraging gesture, a smile. To leave our own little bubbles, our own comfort zones, to help another. May we try our best to never overlook the individual, and through this the entire world will be saved and transformed into the ultimate perfection, as a dwelling for G-d and for all humanity to live together in total good forever.
Shabbat Shalom!!
-Daniel
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