A Torah of Life - Study It, Teach It, Observe It!

In today's "Random Torah" we take a look at a teaching in Pirkei Avot - Ethics of our Fathers. The theme - Torah. The content - its study and its practice. What it's really all about.

Tzav! Encouragement - GO!

Imagine the scene: The Creator of the world has just taken the Israelites out of Egypt. Miracles all around! After a tragic event - namely the building and worshiping of the Golden Calf, the same Creator instructs Moshe to build a Mishkan - a Tabernacle where He will rest His Shechina (Divine indwelling presence.) He has forgiven everyone and is now about to do the very opposite of what would be expected! Not only does He not hide Himself - He shares with the Israelites the secrets on what to do so that His revelation will be realised!

Everyone donates. Everyone is a part of it. The nation seems united again in serving G-d. Now it's time to get to work inside this place of holiness. Who wouldn't want to be a part of this holy task?! There seems to be such a "high" for everyone - and yet at the start of service G-d commands Moshe to instruct Aharon with what he is to do. The Torah uses the word "Tzav" - "command." Rashi points out that this word is one that indicates enthusiasm, quickness, liveliness as if it to say - "make the other enthusiastic about what he is about to do. Command with liveliness and make the other excited by what he is doing too!" Rashi says, it (the word Tzav) is "immediate" and "for the generations (to come.)"

Yes, at such a "high" point, encouragement and liveliness are still needed. Even when it seems like everything is in place and that the other will surely be able to get on with the activity - even then, guidance is still necessary. Sharing enthusiasm and getting the other to be enthusiastic - is still needed. It's needed immediately - and it's also needed forever. When it's given immediately, it will also carry through for life and for all generations to come!

We live in a generation of selfishness. It's one that says I am for myself and you are for yourself. The child of today so often grows up with the parent simply hoping that things will work out for them. Let them choose their path in life and they are certain to succeed! Let them do it all on their own. 

But even an Aharon requires encouragement. And even a Moshe needs to be reminded to share the command with alacrity and excitement! Even he needs direction - even at that moment when thing seem to be on the "highest of high!" Even here, a Moshe must be instructed to deliver the message of inspiration to the other - to assist him to be successful in what he is about to do!

This is our lesson in life today. We need to focus and realise that everyone needs encouragement! Indeed, when one gives the other encouragement - helping them to grow in life - or even more so actively directs them on to a path that will be most suitable for the person - that person will succeed.

Success comes to those who are constantly inspired - and become active because of this inspiration, this desire to move quickly and do things with speed! While some are strong enough to do it on their own - our Parsha Tzav tells us that not everyone can - and there's no embarrassment if one can't do it on one's own! 

Our Parsha focuses on what we must do for the other - to give them whatever they need to get on and succeed in what they can do best. Encouragement - inspiration. Be inspired yourself. Be inspired to share the inspiration. Pass it along to the other - so that they too will succeed! Do it immediately. Do it always - for every person in every situation. Do it now - because by doing so, it will last - for the other person's entire life! Tzav!

Life is Like a Cup of Coffee (Video)

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. 

Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. 

In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. 

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. 

They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. 

Savor the coffee, not the cups! 

The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. 

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

~ Author unknown

The Interview With God (Poem and Video)

I dreamed I had an interview with God.

“So you would like to interview me?” God asked.
“If you have the time” I said.
God smiled. “My time is eternity.”
“What questions do you have in mind for me?”

“What surprises you most about humankind?”
God answered...

“That they get bored with childhood,
they rush to grow up, and then
long to be children again.”

“That they lose their health to make money...
and then lose their money to restore their health.”

“That by thinking anxiously about the future,
they forget the present,
such that they live in neither
the present nor the future.”

"That they live as if they will never die,
and die as though they had never lived.”

God’s hand took mine
and we were silent for a while.

And then I asked...
“As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons
you want your children to learn?”

“To learn they cannot make anyone
love them. All they can do
is let themselves be loved.”

“To learn that it is not good
to compare themselves to others.”

“To learn to forgive
by practicing forgiveness.”

“To learn that it only takes a few seconds
to open profound wounds in those they love,
and it can take many years to heal them.”

“To learn that a rich person
is not one who has the most,
but is one who needs the least.”

“To learn that there are people
who love them dearly,
but simply have not yet learned
how to express or show their feelings.”

“To learn that two people can
look at the same thing
and see it differently.”

“To learn that it is not enough that they
forgive one another, but they must also forgive themselves.”

"Thank you for your time," I said humbly.

"Is there anything else
you would like your children to know?"
God smiled and said,
“Just know that I am here... always.”

Author Unknown

Don't Quit (Poem and Video)

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow--
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When he might have captured the victor's cup,
And he learned too late when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

- Author unknown

The Baba's Promise

This article originally appeared

 Mishpacha

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It’s not every day that a dentist from Boro Park becomes a close follower and confidant of a member of the distinguished Abuchatzeira dynasty, but that is what happened to Dr. Gedaliah Mordechai Stern. In a riveting conversation, Dr. Stern shares some of his memorable encounters with the mystic known to the world as “Baba Elazar”

By  Meir Wolfson

He was an All-American Boy, or at least the Jewish version thereof. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Gedaliah Mordechai Stern fulfilled the dream of the average Jewish mother of his time by becoming, “Mein zin, der dokter — my son, the doctor,” a dental surgeon specializing in dental implants.

Fast-forward 30 years. The boy who grew up on sewer-to-sewer stickball, a diehard fan of the local professional sports teams, has grown into a world expert in dental implants. He is listed in The Legends of Implant Dentistry and, more importantly, merits through his practice to develop close relationships with many leading gedolim of our day. 

The sea change, says Dr. Stern, can be traced back into the inner chamber of one of the most mysterious gedolim of our time, who considered Dr. Gedaliah Mordechai Stern one of his closest confidants: Rav Elazar Abuchatzeira ztz”l of Beer Sheva, whose recent tragic passing shocked the world.

Only One Recommendation

Middle age has nothing on Dr. Stern, who agreed to share the story of his life and his relationship with Rav Elazar Abuchatzeira after receiving a special dispensation from gedolim. Graced with a warm disposition and easy manner, he relates that he enjoys what he does so much that he jumps out of bed at around four each morning, thinking, “I get to spend another day helping people after being kovei’a itim laTorah!”

And that’s not because he gets to put his feet up. Weekdays are spent running from room to room to treat his many grateful patients. But when we are sitting in his beautiful office (“a gadol agreed with me that zeh Keili ve’anveihu applies to medicine and to the mitzvah of yishuv Eretz Yisrael, as it does to other mitzvos”), the first thing Dr. Stern jumps to point out is that his success is not his.

“The Hashgachah started from the very first minute of my life,” he says resolutely. “I was born in Maimonides Hospital. I know because each time we walked past it, my mother would point to an upper floor of what was then known as the Goldberg Building and say, ‘That’s where you were born.’

“When I finished dental school at NYU, I wasn’t at the top of my class. I couldn’t invest the time it would have taken to finish at the top because I wanted to be able to learn part of the day, and I had gotten married and already had two children — the only student out of a class of 120 to have any children. 

“I wanted to get a residency in the department of surgery at Maimonides Hospital, but there were 1,400 applicants for three spots. I was the first of many to interview, and the secular Jew who was the head of the department said, ‘Sorry, we don’t take shomer Shabbos Jews.’ This was in Maimonides Hospital in 1980!

“Suddenly, an Italian doctor, Andy Ketainya, said, ‘Get off the guy’s back. He said he’ll work it out with the other residents.’ Which was true; I took the Motzaei Shabbos and Sunday night shifts and the secular holidays, and they took Friday night and the Jewish holidays. I never had to go in on Shabbos.”

But the department head had another objection. Applicants needed two recommendations and Dr. Stern had only one. Dr. Stern asked him to at least take a look at the one recommendation that he did have. The department head acquiesced, reading aloud, “I endorse this young man for whatever endeavor he undertakes in life.”

“When he finished, I said, ‘This is an endeavor.’

“‘That’s true,’ he conceded, ‘but this is only one recommendation.’

“‘Could you please read to the committee who signed the letter?’ 

“He looked down at the paper. It was his own signature! Several years earlier, there had been a strike at Maimonides, and they had no staff. I volunteered for a few days, and he was so grateful that he wrote me this letter. ‘I was born in this hospital,’ I said when he looked up, ‘and I want to train here.’ I was accepted on the spot.”

Although the siyata d’Shmaya was obvious to Dr. Stern, the next morning a top professor at NYU summoned Dr. Stern to his office, and asked, “Which senator do you know?” When Dr. Stern replied that he didn’t know any of them, the professor couldn’t believe that someone without earthly protektzia got one of the prized positions. 

Boro Park to Beer Sheva

Dr. Stern could easily have breezed through life as a successful dentist in the States, but already from his formative years he felt a strong urge to be in Eretz Yisrael. He therefore got a part-time job delivering groceries and saved his money. 

“When I had $200 I bought a charter ticket. As I walked the streets, it hit me that my grandfather had gone up in smoke in Auschwitz and here I was in Yerushalayim, something that my grandparents only dreamed of. I knew that one day I would move to Eretz Yisrael.”

Before that happened, Dr. Stern was earning an extremely respectable income as a New York dental surgeon. One day Rabbi Avrohom Wolf, his elementary school principal at Toras Emes Kaminetz, came into the emergency room. He told Dr. Stern that he had a nephew, Dr. Dahvid Wolf, who had a practice in Beer Sheva and needed another dentist.

Logically, it was a ludicrous move. The offer in Beer Sheva was for approximately one-tenth of what Dr. Stern was then earning. His father tried to persuade him not to go, but Dr. Stern knew that if he didn’t move to Eretz Yisrael then, he might never do so.

The Stern family made aliyah in 1982, right before Chanukah. During their first two years in Eretz Yisrael, Dr. Stern earned an extremely modest income. Then one day a man walked into his office and said that Rav Elazar Abuchatzeira had sent him. Dr. Stern had never heard of Rav Elazar before, but he welcomed the man into his office. This man had gone to the hospital the day before because his throat had swollen to a concerning size, but had been sent home because they couldn’t find a significant problem. Dr. Stern took one look at him and realized that he had a condition that turned out to be Ludwig’s angina, a disease so rare that Dr. Stern has seen only one case in over 30 years of practice. He sent the man back to the hospital, which literally saved the man’s life.

“How did the rabbi know to send him to me?” he wondered.

After that first introduction to Rav Elazar, Dr. Stern continued to receive patients every so often who said they were sent by the Rav. After noticing that each case Rav Elazar sent him left him with a specific insight, Dr. Stern decided it was time to go meet this unusual rav.

“Here was a man completely cut off from the world around him,” Dr. Stern explains, “yet he knew more about medicine, business, and every other topic we discussed than anyone else I knew.”

That meeting was the first of what would eventually become a regular session. Being a temimusdig American with a scientific mind, Dr. Stern would at first ask questions that no one else would dare ask, and Rav Elazar humored him. One day, for instance, Rav Elazar mentioned that Rav Moshe Feinstein’s family had called to say, “Baruch Hashem, today Reb Moshe has pneumonia.”

“Baruch Hashem?” Dr. Stern asked in surprise. 

Rav Elazar explained that the family would call each day, and compared to what Reb Moshe was suffering from in his final weeks, “only” pneumonia was good news. “Only the Kol Yachol, yachol — only the Omnipotent can [help],” said Rav Elazar sadly.

“So why don’t you make a miracle?” asked Dr. Stern — a question he now considers both naive and somewhat presumptuous, but one that was indicative of their relationship at that point. 

“Miracles are not our way,” replied Rav Elazar. “It wasn’t the way of my father and grandfather [Rav Meir Abuchatzeira and the Baba Sali]. The Gemara says that if a miracle is performed for someone, he loses some merits in Heaven. It’s not always in a person’s greatest interest to have a miracle performed for him.”

When Dr. Stern pressed him further on the subject of miracles, Rav Elazar told him a story of when it might be justified. Rav Elazar would spend time in Switzerland in the home of Nissim Gaon each year. He couldn’t vacation in Eretz Yisrael, because people would follow him wherever he went. In Switzerland he was able to rest, relax, and, most importantly, to learn. 

But getting to Switzerland was no simple feat, since Rav Elazar was extremely conscientious about shmiras einayim. El Al respected his sensitivity and allowed him to be driven directly to the airplane after everyone else had boarded, and to be seated in the first seat behind the cockpit. On one flight, a woman approached Rav Elazar’s gabbai, Avraham, and asked to speak to the rabbi. The gabbai politely explained that the Rav doesn’t meet with women. He asked how she knew Rav Elazar was on the flight, and she explained that she was an off-duty stewardess and she had seen his name on the passenger list. While they were talking, the Rav, who wore a hood over his head to shield his eyes, realized what was going on, and said that she could speak to him through Avraham. 

The woman explained that she had been diagnosed with a growth, and she was on her way to Switzerland to remove it, even though the doctors held out little hope for her. Rav Elazar instructed Avraham to ask whether she believed in G-d. 

“Not really,” she replied. 

“Then why are you coming to me?” asked Rav Elazar. 

She explained that her illness had led to introspection, and she was rethinking her beliefs. Rav Elazar asked whether she was willing to accept the basic mitzvos — Shabbos, kashrus, and taharas hamishpachah — if she would recover. When she said that she would, he instructed her to go ahead with her plans in Switzerland.

Rav Elazar ended the story there, but Dr. Stern pressed him for the details of the outcome. “She actually called the Rabbanit last night,” said Rav Elazar. “She wanted to know how to keep those mitzvos.”

In the words of the Rav, when this woman reached Switzerland, she checked into the hospital for surgery. After rolling her into the operating room, they decided to do one more scan. To everyone’s shock, the scan was absolutely clean. There was no sign of a growth whatsoever. The doctors sent her home.

“To be mekarev levavos,” Rav Elazar explained with a sigh, “we sometimes need to see nissim. But in general, it’s not our approach.” 

“Dibbuk Shmibbuk”

Rav Elazar didn’t only balk when it came to the subject of nissim. Though most news stories of his tragic petirah referred to him as either a Baba or a mekubal, as a close confidant, Dr. Stern deems those descriptions off the mark. 

“Not only did he oppose the use of practical Kabbalah, he would object if I would use even the most basic Kabbalah terms in regard to something I learned. If someone would mention the sefiros, he would say that we have no knowledge of what these things mean. It was rare to hear him quote a Kabbalah sefer. He was more likely to quote from Chofetz Chaim, Michtav MeEliyahu — regular seforim that everyone can learn.”

Dr. Stern illustrates Rav Elazar’s disillusionment with “kabbalists” with a story. “Many years ago, I got a phone call from a man whose name I can’t divulge. He asked me whether I could take him to Rav Elazar. The Rav didn’t like it when people ‘piggybacked’ on my visits, but in this case I felt that I should say yes. Years earlier, when I was in eighth grade, I took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty with a friend. I was sitting on the outside deck, and a big wave came up and washed over me. It was the end of December and it was freezing cold. This man was there with a friend, and the two took off some of their outer clothing and gave it to me so I could warm up. 

“Every one of my mentors — be it my rosh yeshivah in Emek Halachah, Rav Tuvya Goldstein ztz”l, my mashgiach in Kamenitz, Rav Simcha Zissel Levovitz ztz”l, or Rav Elazar himself — would stress the importance of hakaras hatov [gratitude]. Though 40 years had passed, I still appreciated warming up on the ferry with this man’s outerwear, so I told him that I would take him with me to Rav Elazar.

“He came with his son. It seems that he had moved into a small out-of-town community, and when he had gone house hunting there was one house that was particularly affordable because there were rumors that it was haunted. As a Jew, he knew that there is no such thing, so he bought the house.

“From the day he moved into the house, however, his son began to emit strange noises from his throat. Nothing they could do prevented this uncontrollable voice from coming out of him. They came to Eretz Yisrael and went from one mekubal to the next. They poured lead. The kid had kameiyos dangling from his neck in every direction. But the voice continued to ‘speak.’ People insisted that the boy had a dibbuk that needed to be exorcised, and this man wanted Rav Elazar to remove the spirit.

“They came with me to Beer Sheva, and I went into the Rav’s room to explain the situation. Suddenly the Rav heard the voice from the courtyard and asked what it was. ‘That’s the boy with the dibbuk,’ I said. The Rav instructed us to bring the boy into the room. He took one look at the boy and all the kameiyos and said, ‘Dibbuk, shmibbuk.’ 

“‘Take off all the kameiyos,’ he instructed. ‘Your son needs a psychologist.’ The man went back to America, and the boy was diagnosed with a rare neurological vocal disorder in which the vocal cords were stimulated, perhaps through subconscious suggestion because of what people said about the house. They called the Rav back to find out whether he should be placed on medication. The Rav answered that it wasn’t really necessary, but if it made them more comfortable, they could. Today this boy is the proud father of a happy Yiddishe family.”

Going to the Masters

Looking back on their three-decade relationship, Dr. Stern realizes that from the day he met Rav Elazar, the Rav was slowly moving him in a better direction. 

Several years after making aliyah, and while still earning a modest salary, Dr. Stern asked one of his associates whether he was going to the dental convention in New York — a convention that now takes place at the Javits Center and draws some 60,000 dentists and their staff. His associate said that it would be unrealistic to go from Israel, but that if Dr. Stern wanted to go, he could.

Strolling through the convention center, Dr. Stern heard a voice call out, “Yingerman mit der kappel, kim du aher — Young man with the yarmulke, come here.” 

An elderly man named Jack Wimmer was standing in a booth “decorated” with all kinds of instruments for doing dental implants. Although the field of dental implants was not new at the time, it had fallen into disuse when the world of dentistry turned to dentures and bridges for tooth replacements. 

“I had asked my teacher in NYU whether there was any other way to go about giving people teeth,” recalls Dr. Stern, “and he insisted that there wasn’t. Well, there was this one method of implants that had been in use for a while, but it was just a relic of the past.

“Yet here was Jack Wimmer, a Yid who had made it out of the Krakow ghetto and established a dental laboratory in America in which he had some 75 dental technicians doing implants during the 1950s, offering to teach me his skills.”

It didn’t make much sense to go into a field that was dying, but Dr. Stern went to discuss it with gedolim. “Rav Elazar in particular encouraged me to go into the field, telling me that in ten years I would need a building just to handle all the dental implant patients.”

Dr. Stern grows very serious. “People make a mistake when it comes to emunas chachamim. If you know the gadol is a brilliant person, able to see ten chess moves ahead like Sharansky, and he tells you to do something and you listen because you think it makes sense, that’s not emunas chachamim. Emunas chachamim is when a gadol instructs you to do something that seems absurd, and you do it anyway.

“In my life,” he stresses, “I have seen over and over that when you listen to the gedolim, everything falls into place in a way that you cannot imagine.”

During the few years that followed that fateful meeting with Jack Wimmer, Rav Elazar continued to instruct Dr. Stern to go to various “masters” — the people who were most proficient in dental implants, insisting that he study the “outdated methods,” because they would one day return. Though the cost seemed wholly unjustified at the time, the tzaddik’s prescience eventually came to light.

“Today, implants are one of the most popular ways to replace teeth. We have gotten to a point where I can now do in the comfort of my office in ten minutes what I needed ten hours to do in the surgical theater in Maimonides, but no one could have foreseen that 30 years ago, when Rav Elazar insisted that I go into this field. I listened, and I now have the implant empire he foresaw.”

The Malachim Were Pushing

Rav Elazar didn’t suffice with general advice; he took an interest in the specific skills Dr. Stern was acquiring. Once, he asked Dr. Stern whether he had any case studies with him. Dr. Stern showed him an X-ray of a woman who would be visiting his office the next day. Rav Elazar studied it and then said, “Try to get three implants in there.”

Dr. Stern didn’t know what to make of it, because according to the X-ray there shouldn’t have been a problem getting implants into her mouth. But when he, along with his three associates, examined the woman the next day, they found that the X-ray was an illusion: there was no room for even a single implant. Remembering Rav Elazar’s words, Dr. Stern reminded his associates that they had recently learned a new method developed by Dr. Gerald Niznick, an expert from Encino, California. “Let’s try to do at least one implant using his method,” Dr. Stern insisted.

The other dentists weren’t sure, but they tried and succeeded in getting the first implant in place. When they took a new X-ray, they found that they had room for another — and then another.

“Many years later I was at a conference with one of those other doctors, and he asked me why I had insisted on trying to do the three implants. ‘I can’t go into details,’ I replied, ‘but one thing I can tell you is that the malachim were pushing so hard I could barely move my hand during the surgery.’”

All a Front

As Rav Elazar guided Dr. Stern into becoming one of the top dentists in his field, he also encouraged him to develop relationships with other gedolim who would come for implants — some of whom were referred by Rav Elazar. What is it like to have to do work on a gadol, especially for someone whose respect for gedolim is palpable?

“Certainly, it can be very frightening to do dental work on a gadol. I once treated a rebbe whose 90-year-old chassidim would nearly pass out when he walked by them on the street. And here I had to fix his teeth. You have to be able to put aside the fear somehow and do the work. And knowing that I have the opportunity to provide a gadol with teeth that will enable him to learn better, to daven better, and to live with more menuchas hanefesh in general is an unbelievable feeling.”

As the hour grows late on this Friday afternoon, a question continues to gnaw: Why would a tzaddik be so interested and involved in the life of a young dentist?

The answer, Dr. Stern says, is a message that he has learned not only from Rav Elazar himself, but from many of the gedolim he has treated over the years.

“Everything is a front,” he declares with an emphatic clap on the table. “Dentistry — and everything else we do — is a front. Rav Elazar would say that we’re in one business: avodas Hashem. Through my work, I am able to help 20 kollel families earn their way in Eretz Yisrael by paying the wives a fair wage so their husbands can learn. [An office worker later confirms that if not for Dr. Stern, she and her husband would have been forced to move back to the States years ago.] 

“Furthermore, we are all able to do kiruv levavos through our work, whatever it is that we do — whether with staff, patients, suppliers, or even tax authorities. There are people I get to meet here whom I would never get a chance to influence in any other arena. I have people coming not only from leftist kibbutzim, but from all over the world. One woman who spent much time with us came as a skinhead from Tel Aviv some 25 years ago. She went on to marry a man who used to be one of the most successful accountants in Tel Aviv. From knowing nothing about Yiddishkeit, he eventually became a great masmid at Novardok yeshivah. Ten years later, he decided to look into Chassidus. She quips that her husband did teshuvah twice: the day he became frum and the day he discovered Chassidus. I could never have communicated with this woman in any other setting.”

The words mas hachnassah have the power to strike fear in the hearts of grown men in Israel. Indeed, the Israel Taxation Authority has been known to make the IRS seem downright friendly. Yet Rav Elazar’s teaching about dentistry being a front for kiruv levavos applied there as well. Less than a week after he opened his first office, Dr. Stern was alone there late one afternoon and two people from mas hachnassah walked in and asked to see his books.

“When I opened the office,” says Dr. Stern, “I put in a seforim shrank with a set of Chumashim and some other seforim. I pulled out a Chumash and said, ‘Here are my books.’

“‘Don’t be a wise guy,’ they said. 

“‘Even if you held a gun to my head, I wouldn’t know where to start,’ I replied. ‘If you want to speak to the people who know about the accounting, you can come back tomorrow morning.’

“‘But since you’re here,’ I continued quickly, pulling out a Chumash before they could run off, ‘the parshah we will read this week is Vayeitzei. We read that Yaakov saw angels going up and down a sulam [ladder]. The Baal HaTurim says that sulam has the same gematria [numerical value] as both mammon [money] and oni [poverty], because one’s finances can easily go up or down. But the Baal HaTurim also points out that sulam contains the same letters as l’mas [for taxes]. You know why? Because you guys are here as messengers of Hashem. If you came to take some of my money, it means that I didn’t give enough of it to tzedakah, and I have to thank you for delivering this wake-up call.’

“They just sat there staring at me. They never heard such a response in their lives. This is what it’s all about, though. Talk to people — no matter who they are — with darchei no’am [in a pleasant manner], and you have a chance to influence them for the better.”

Dr. Stern’s second experience with mas hachnassah, which came 15 years later, shortly after he opened his second office, would have frozen most people in their tracks. This time mas hachnassah came in the guise of a tall brute of a man, who walked in with his face steeled in a stoic expression. Again came the command to be shown the books.

“I don’t know anything about the accounting,” replied Dr. Stern. “All I know is that this is a beit charoshet [factory] for chesed. You want to be a partner, welcome. If you don’t want to take part in it, at least don’t get in the way.’

“Glaring, the man barked, ‘How much do you charge for an implant?’

“‘Well,’ I said, ‘Mrs. Klein ate potato peels in Auschwitz. How much would you charge her for an implant?’

“‘Every doctor has a price list. How much do you take for a post?’

“‘Mrs. Weiss lost her husband and her son in separate terrorist attacks 30 days apart,’ I said evenly. ‘How much would you charge her?’

“He was growing increasingly agitated. ‘How much do you take for a crown on an implant?’ he pressed.

“‘Come with me to Mattersdorf,’ I offered. ‘We’ll visit the home of the woman with 17 children who needed a crown. You tell me how much to charge her. If I can help it, no one leaves this office without dental care.’

“The man was literally shaking with anger, and he got up and said, ‘I have to leave. I can’t listen to this anymore.’”

The man eventually returned, but Dr. Stern had time to prep his anxiety-filled staff before the next visit, advising them to treat the man like any other Yid who walked through the office’s doors. That’s what they did, and there were no problems. 

“When I was in Beer Sheva later that week, I bumped into the second-in-command at mas hachnassah. ‘What in the world did you say to that guy?’ he blurted out as soon as he heard my name. ‘No one ever got so much as a smile out of that investigator. He came back that day devastated. You blew him out of the water!’”

“Go to All Three” As Dr. Stern built up his practice, eventually opening a luxurious office on Jerusalem’s Ussishkin St. while maintaining an office in Beer Sheva and traveling several times a year to New York to treat patients there, Rav Elazar continued to guide his every step, pushing him to actualize his potential. There were times when Rav Elazar would instruct Dr. Stern to do things that seemed either entirely impossible or foolhardy.

“Years ago, he was sending me to masters in the field who would say, ‘I want a thousand dollars per day of training. Don’t come if you don’t have it.’ I would ask Rav Elazar how I could go without the money. ‘Just go,’ he would answer. Then the person would hear that I was from Israel or something else like that and he would refuse to take money from me.

“Once, I asked him whether to attend a conference in Los Angeles, Boston, or Florida, and he told me to go to all three. I explained that no one goes to three conferences in a week — maybe one or two a year — and it would be impossible to get to all three without traveling on Shabbos, since they overlapped.

“Often, when I would say something like that, he would reply, ‘You say it’s impossible, I say it is possible. One of us is wrong.’ Invariably, he would be right.

“In the case of those conferences, I decided to skip Boston, spend Shabbos with my parents in New York, and then go to Florida for the next conference. Shortly after I arrived in New York, the organizers of the Boston conference called me to say they had to move their conference to New York. They asked, ‘Will you still be able to come as our guest?’ I ended up making it to all three.

“Sometimes I would pinch myself,” concludes Dr. Stern. “These stories are hard to believe when you hear them. Imagine living through them!”  —

Dr. Stern would love to hear more stories regarding Rav Elazar Abuchatzeira ztz”l. He can be reached at gmsdental@gmail.com

Lessons in Life: Alice Sommer-Herz - at Nearly 108 Years

These three video clips are a must watch for anyone wanting to learn something about life's real lessons. Watch them all!

Yahrtzeit 18 Tishrei - Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (and a Story!)

RABBI NACHMAN OF BRESLOV - 18 TISHREI
Under the Table - and How to Get Up

THE TURKEY-PRINCE BY RABBI NACHMAN OF BRESLOV

The 18th Tishrei – the fourth day of the festival of Sukkot, is the anniversary of the passing of the Tzaddik – Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810.) Great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov (his mother Feiga was the daughter of Idel, the daughter of Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760)) – he was a Tzaddik in his own right. He is one of the better known great Rebbi's today with a following of tens of thousands of Chassisim and more! Many people, though not dressed in the "Chassidic garb" spend hundreds of hours each year involved in learning Rabbi Nachman's magnum opus "Likutei Moharan" (the collected teachings of Rabbi Nachman), as well as his teachings written over by his pupil Rabbi Nosson of Nemirov as collected in his Likutei Halachot – a commentary of 3600 pages on the main code of Jewish Law – the Shulchan Aruch written by Rabbi Yosef Karo (1488-1575.)

Rabbi Nachman was just 38 and a half years old when he left this world, though to begin to speak of his accomplishments during this brief period of time would be impossible for even the greatest of the Breslov leaders of our times. They themselves would be the first to admit this! To some, Rabbi Nachman was the Kabbalist par excellence, while to others he was the master story teller! His stories are so well known, so popular and meaningful that they can be found within ordinary secular libraries. Their messages hit home – they move the heart, and they speak of the mysteries of the world! As for Rabbi Nachman's teachings, he covers everything from the importance of learning Jewish law – Halacha – as it is taught traditionally without any "Chassidic twists," to the importance of secluded meditation – daily – between just the person and G-d – Hisbodedus, to the importance of growth through the entire Torah – literally everything! He was a true master and a Rebbi. There are hundreds of sites on the Internet teaching his teachings, often quoting the same exact quotes again and again – because of their great importance in daily life. "Never give up" – Rabbi Nachman taught, and "There is no such thing as despair!".He taught – "If you believe that you can damage, believe that you can fix."

Practically almost all of Rabbi Nachman's teachings have been translated into an abundance of languages, including English, with the help of such rabbis as Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan and Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum. Likutei Halachot has not yet been translated in its entirety however.

In honour of Rabbi Nachman's yahrtzeit, one of his stories follows. For a full commentary on this wonderful story, get a hold of the book "Under the Table" written by Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum, or see the author's own site (and be in touch with him directly) at www.azamra.org. The book – based on this story, explores and teaches the importance of facing reality, of meditation, of correct eating habits, of observation of Mitzvot and much more. Written in beautifully flowing English, it will keep you glued from started to finish – so much that you'll want to read it again and again, and so you should.

THE TURKEY PRINCE

A royal prince once became mad and thought that he was a turkey. He felt compelled to sit naked under the table, pecking at bones and pieces of bread like a turkey. The royal physicians all gave up hope of ever curing him of his madness, and the king suffered tremendous grief.

A sage then came and said, "I will undertake to cure him." The sage undressed and sat naked under the table next to the prince, picking crumbs and bones. "Who are you?" asked the prince. "What are you doing here?"

"And you?" replied the sage. "What are you doing here?"

"I am a turkey," said the prince.

"I am also a turkey," answered the sage.

They sat together like this for some time, until they became good friends. One day, the sage signalled the king's servants to throw him shirts. He said to the prince, "What makes you think that a turkey can't wear a shirt? You can wear a shirt and still be a turkey." With that, that two of them put on shirts.

After a while, he signaled them again, and they threw him a pair of pants. Just as before, he said, "What makes you think that you can't be turkey if you wear pants?"

The sage continued in this manner until they were both completely dressed. Then he signalled again, and they were given regular food from the table. Again the sage said, "What makes you think that you will stop being a turkey if you eat good food? You can eat whatever you want and still be a turkey!" They both ate the food.

Finally, the sage said, "What makes you think a turkey must sit under the table? Even a turkey can sit at the table."

The sage continued in this manner until the prince was completely cured.

(Story taken from "Rabbi Nachman's Stories" translated by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. A must for every Jewish home and mind!)

Never Good Enough for Anyone Else? Just be the Great You!

NEVER GOOD ENOUGH FOR ANYONE ELSE?
JUST BE THE GREAT YOU!

How many times in life have you dreamed your dreams? How many times have you wanted to be something you felt you should be? How many times do you know other people who tell you – you can't! People who will tell you that you don't have what it takes. You don't have the ability to succeed. You don't have the means. Physically you can't do it. You have to be like everyone else. Get a job, get a steady income. Better yet, go to university, become a "standard" doctor, lawyer or accountant, then get married, have three kids, and get the standard job that everyone does, work like everyone does and get by in life.

If only things were so easy! But what about those of us who want to make a success of our lives? Those of us who don't want to be doctors or lawyers. Those of us who want to simply be ourselves?! Is it okay to fail? Is it possible to still succeed in the paths we want to go on if we pull ourselves up again? Or is there a point we must simply give in to the norms of society – as in the rules above?!

When an ill person is diagnosed by a doctor with a terrible disease – G-d forbid, does he accept it and wait for his life to end (in exact accordance with the doctors predictions?!) Perhaps – or usually – he goes for a second opinion. Perhaps another doctor knows better! Yet when we're insulted for the lives we have chosen for ourselves, do we walk on and visit another "doctor" for a second opinion? Or do we accept the insult, look at ourselves without hope and think that maybe the insulter is right after all?! What about if you are the insulter himself?! Have you ever stopped to consider that things are not as you say they are for the other? Are there not other variables at work all the time that can make things change at any point in time for a person – especially one who chooses a good path in life?!

Isn't the world filled with infinite possibilities? Is there really a guarantee for anything?! Even the shops today will give no more than a one year guarantee on the latest technological device designed to last a life time! If one does become a doctor – and the best brain surgeon in the world – is this a guarantee for success. Nothing could ever go wrong for such an individual, unable to ever fall short of success! Never could an operation accidentally go wrong and the doctor find himself in a huge lawsuit… Never could an operation go wrong causing a patient to die. It's never happened?!

Yet what of the simple person… One day he wins the lottery. Or perhaps he meets a great Hollywood actor who likes him so much that he invites him to the latest auditions in the next blockbuster movie. Suddenly Mr. Nobody becomes Mr Popular and Mr Next Millionaire! Things change fast and we need to be in control of understanding that things are not just one way.

There is no guarantee for anything. And there is no stopping anybody from accomplishing any goal they are ready to achieve… even if they fail one million times. They can get up again and go on to making a success. Does it matter that success has not happened within the year? There is still another year ahead where success can happen. Perhaps, in fact, the year gone by has not been a failure, but has rather been the foundation for the success in store in the next year. In nay case, even if nothing happens the next year… still there is another year ahead for greater achievements. It can still happen – and it will! And for those who feel they have it all, there is no guarantee that they will even live the year to enjoy it.

When it comes to ourselves we need to see the good we have and what we can accomplish. We need to feel positive that we can achieve the goals we'd like to. We need to feel strong that we can do it ourselves without having to feel insulted by those that undermine our abilities to make a success of who we are – because we are unique. That's what makes each of us great. Thank G-d we're all so unique. It's through this that we are able to make an individual contribution to the world, something that others will gain benefit from. Through this we also become the best we can at who we really are. We're all unique – and there are no guarantees for success in any one particular way of life over another. Our job is to move forwards in a direction we see as being best suited for the talents we have. Our job is not to become the next human robot who ends up like the rest of the world, stuck in a rut of life filled with sadness at what life has given us. Our job is to become ourselves, and to become the great people we are.

As for those who feel they have already achieved success and are in a stronger position to insult others not yet on their level of life… Perhaps it is time to consider if indeed their lives are truly a success. Do they really know all the answers?! Have they truly seen everything there is to the world? Do they really know how everything should turn out – and what will make another person successful and happy in life? Perhaps it is time to change the tune. Perhaps it is time to encourage the other so that the other will actually make a success of life – doing the things he/she wishes to do.

Of course, who am I to think such thoughts?! Can I really convince others of such ideas? Maybe not…

But here is someone in the video below who perhaps understands these concepts better than all of us. He's just a person like everyone else. He came from a family that already had all the answers. His mother – a nurse, had delivered hundreds of babies, so she well knew about delivering babies. The doctors were also experts in their fields knowing this baby would be just fine! In fact everyone involved in the birth of the baby who would grow into the man in this video were the most expert of all authorities in how everything should be done… and yet, with all of that, they were blinded to a far more powerful force that humbled every one of them in making them realise, they knew absolutely nothing. Isn't it strange how those who know everything there is to know in life – often know absolutely nothing?!

Of course, as Nick himself says, had the doctors – in all their mighty wisdom – actually known what would be, they would definitely have aborted this child. Wouldn't you have?! If so, the powerful message that this man has to offer the world would have never have come about. For one, I would not have been affected as much as I was, and for another, I wonder if you would ever have become affected as much as you may find yourself after watching this 20 minute video.

We don't know anything about life at all – no matter how much we think we know about it. Those who say they do may simply have a large ego that can be humbled in the most powerful way in just one second! It's time to look at ourselves at what we can do right in the world, to be successful to ourselves and to others. It's also time we stop telling others how to live their lives, but instead encourage, support and help as much as possible to make everyone become as successful as they truly are able to become. The video below is for those who feel the need to grow… to develop themselves and to become better human beings. I hope this is you…

Considering Abortion? You Might Save More than One Life...

CONSIDERING ABORTION?
YOU MIGHT SAVE MORE THAN ONE LIFE…

Many young (and older) women consider the option of abortion a question of personal taste, personal feelings, a personal choice. Organisations supporting abortion may claim such facts such as the body of a woman belonging to her, and that she has the free choice to do with it as she wishes. (A similar idea is expressed by those that plaster their bodies with tattoos.)

The Torah – of course – tells us in no uncertain terms that the body that we own is a gift to us given by G-d Almighty Himself. We are to treat it with the respect it deserves. It is the vehicle which allows our souls to express themselves in this world. To perform acts of goodness and kindness to ourselves, to G-d – and to others. Whether it comes to tattoos, striking oneself, harming oneself, eating unhealthy (to degrees that literally affect the possibility of life/death situations) – or whether it comes to abortion, the Torah is clear – the body belongs to G-d.

Naturally, when it comes to the question of abortion, it is not only the body of the woman herself at stake – but another body too, a body that at this point in time has no free choice as to its own wishes. In addition, contrary to the tattoo or causing harm to one's own body – aborting a baby while in the womb is not just a situation of harm caused to another body – but rather it concerns the soul inside that body too. A life…

Many rabbis are asked the question from women falling pregnant "accidentally" if they can go through with abortion. They're not ready for having children – they might say. Or they might possibly comment that they didn't really want to fall pregnant. There may be a variety of excuses to terminate the life of another. (Is it any different to the "living" world where others use the same excuses to kill off those that are irritating *their* way of life?!)

It is a most sensitive situation that must be dealt with, with honesty, kindness, concern and deliberation. It is quite often that the woman (mother-to-be – no less!) is simply too immature to appreciate what is actually about to happen and how her life will change – for the rest of her life – as she brings into this world a child who will develop into an adult, give something to society, and ultimately be a blessing for the mother at some point in her life (and perhaps if she does not see the blessing in life, she may well come to see it at that point in time when she has already left this world.)

Perhaps the only way to ever convince a mother of her current wish to terminate the pregnancy, is to let her give birth, live out her life to see what the soul inside that body was all about and then imagine herself back in time wondering if she would make the same decision were she back at that point in time again today.

But it goes much further, because – to express it simply – the saving of the life of this child may well in the long run save the lives of others too. Perhaps just one, perhaps many….

If you or a friend finds yourself (themselves) in such a sensitive test in life, please do read the story below (it is true!) It is hoped that the power of these words should convince any woman that the decision to abort may cause her to lose more than one life – and the decision to save – may well end up the reason for the life – of her very best friend…

A link is included at the bottom of the post for those wishing to be in touch with a wonderful organisation in Israel known as "Efrat" – an organisation that saves the lives of Jewish children in Israel.

The story is adapted by Rabbi Yerachmiel Tilles of ascentofsafed.com.

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A Life for a Life

Yoni, an Israeli Defense Force soldier stationed in Hebron, was shot by an Arab terrorist. It happened very early in the morning, and no one else was awake to hear it. Yoni passed out and was bleeding steadily, his life heading toward a silent end.

But another soldier stationed nearby heard the shot and went to investigate. He found a fellow Israeli soldier bleeding to death. He tried the best he could to stop the bleeding and called for help. Waiting for help to arrive, he kept applying pressure to the wound--literally holding Yoni's life in his hands.

Yoni was taken to a hospital in Be’er Sheva where he underwent surgery. Yoni's parents were notified and they rushed to the hospital. Imagine the fear of the parents who were only told "your son has been injured and is in the hospital." When they arrived the doctor told them that Yoni was shot but will be alright. However, had it not been for the immediate actions of the other soldier, their son Yoni would have bled to death.

It was a miracle that the other soldier heard what no one else heard, and managed to locate Yoni as quickly as he did. The parents wanted to thank that soldier, but he had just left the hospital after hearing that the soldier he helped would survive.

While recuperating at home, Yoni and his parents called the army to find out the name of the other soldier so they could thank him personally. Unfortunately, that soldier's name was not recorded and although they tried to ask around they simply couldn’t track down who that other soldier was.

Yoni's mother knew that the important thing of course is that Yoni is well, yet she could not help feeling that as long as she couldn’t meet and thank the solider who bravely saved her son’s life--the entire frightening episode would not be fully over. Not being able to thank the soldier continued to give her an empty feeling…but then she had an idea.

The couple owned a grocery store in Kiryat Malachi (a town near Ashdod), so they decided to put up a sign in the store, describing what happened, figuring that Israel is a small country and eventually they might found out who the mystery soldier was.

Months passed with no response. Finally, one morning about a year later, a woman customer noticed the sign hanging by the door of the store. She recalled how happy her son Yair was when he came home one Friday night and told them how he heard a shot and was able to save another soldier’s life in Hebron. She went back and told the owner of the store. The story matched. The two women now decided to try to reach their sons on cell phones and see if they could meet at the store. Fortunately it turned out that both the young men and even the fathers were able to all meet that afternoon at the store.

The families soon gathered for an emotional "rendezvous". The soldiers recounted army experiences and finally after all this time Yoni’s mother could stand up and thank Yair for saving her son’s life or as she put it, “You saved my world”. She looked forward to feeling “completion” after all this time by thanking the soldier, but little did she know that the story was hardly complete.

After the tearful thank you, Yair’s mother quietly pulled her aside and asked to speak with her outside. The two women went out alone. And she asked Yoni’s mother: “Look at me-- don’t you remember me?”

“No, I’m sorry did we meet before?”

"Yes,” Yair’s mother replied. “You see there is a particular reason I came into your store today. I used to live here, and this time although I was just passing by, I wanted to give you my business, even though I was only buying a few things.”

“What are you talking about?” Yoni’s mother asked.

The other woman answered, “Twenty years ago I used to live around here and came all the time to buy milk and bread. One day you noticed that I looked really down and you were very nice and asked me why I seemed so down and I confided in you. I told you that I was going through a very difficult time and on top of that I was pregnant and planning on having an abortion. As soon as I said “abortion” you called your husband over and the two of you seemed to forget about your own store and business, and just sat down and patiently listened to me. I still remember clearly what you said.

“You told me that it is true that I was going through a hard time but sometimes the good things in life come through difficulty, and the best things come through the biggest difficulties. You spoke of the joy of being a mother and that the most beautiful word to hear in the Hebrew language is “Ima” (mother) when spoken by one’s child. You both spoke and spoke until I was convinced that I actually should have this baby--so you see G-d paid you back!”

”What do you mean? asked Yoni’s mother”. The answer astounded and thrilled her.

“I had a boy twenty years ago that you saved by telling me to think twice before doing the abortion.” With happy tears she declared, "My beloved Yair wouldn’t have been alive if not for you. He was the one you were looking for. He was the one who grew up to save your son Yoni’s life!"

Note: This incredible story is true. The actual names are on file.

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Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from friendsofefrat.org, the website of a wonderful organization, EFRAT, that dedicatedly (and non-violently!) works to prevent abortions by Jewish mothers in Israel, through counseling and financial incentives.

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For those of you who may consider abortion an option - still...
Listen to the words of a 12 year old: