Avaham - An Example for All

You know how when you’re thinking of buying a certain item, suddenly, you notice that item everywhere. You never noticed it before, but now that you’ve got your mind on it, it seems to be everywhere.

Well, lehavdil, that’s how it seems to be with our patriarch Avraham.

Now that we’re in the midst of rehearsals for our new show, COUNT THE STARS – The Journey of Avraham and Sara - everything I learn, every daily prayer, every spiritual experience lately seems to deal with Avraham. So, I guess it won’t be a surprise when I tell you that I was excited to learn Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers) today and find our father Avraham used as an example to explain Chapter 1 Mishnah 15.

“Shammai said: Make Torah study a regular habit, say little and do much, and receive every person cheerfully.”

The commentators on this Mishna gave Avraham as their example, they explain that when the travelers (angels) came to Avraham’s tent, he told them, “And I will bring a piece of bread…” (Bereishit 18:5), and then he proceeded to bring “butter and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and placed it before them.” (18:8)

And about the phrase…“receive every person cheerfully…” Well, no one had a kinder more welcoming demeanor than Avraham Avinu. One of the strongest reasons for his success in “creating souls” (bringing people under the wings of Hashem) was his cheerful countenance, the happy warm way he greeted each person and the loving way in which he gave over his teachings.

Let us all take yet another lesson from our father Avraham, and shavua tov to all.

Sbarro's 13 Years Later

It was August 9, 2001. We had rehearsal that night. We had rehearsal most nights of the summer of 2001. There was too much terror and fear around us. The alternative to coming to rehearsal was to sit home under the blankets and cry. So, if someone wanted to cry, she could do it on her friend’s shoulder, then say some tehillim and get up on stage.

I had founded Raise Your Spirits two months before in order to raise spirits, to win our private war against the terror around us, after my next-door-neighbor Esther Elvan was murdered along with my friend Sarah Blaustein, HY”D. But the list of murdered Jews that summer was horrifically long.

So, on August 9, everyone showed up, hugged, and told one another where they were when the Sbarro’s bomb went off. One of our narrators, Miriam, a local Bnei Akiva head was very worried and beyond upset. One of her Bnei Akiva counselors, Malki Roth, was missing. Miriam had called a meeting of her counselors and Malki didn’t show up.

At the popular eaterie, Sbarro’s on the corner of King George and Rechov Yaffo, a suicide-homicide bomber had murdered 15 people - fathers, mothers, children. It was a horrible vicious attack, and we were all still reeling from the catastrophe.

Then, as today, in this horrible incident, the Hamas terror organization was responsible for the blood-shed.

Miriam found out that Malki Roth, HY"D, was among the murder victims in Sbarro’s. We were all devastated beyond words, beyond tears, beyond heartbreak. We said tehillim. Our knees shook. We continued on. A Jew has no choice but to continue on.

That was 13 years ago. Raise Your Spirits went on stage in JOSEPH and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to bring the women of Efrat/Gush Etzion together in a positive uplifting project, to give women of Israel a reason to cry in the darkness and then sing about the eternity of Israel.

Throughout the past 13 years, we’ve performed in seven different productions for 50,000 women. The situation in the country has fluctuated, sometimes from bad to worse. Today, we are faced with Hamas again (although all sorts of terror groups have raised their heads continually).
Today as war rages in the south, as sirens blare in different parts of the country every day, we are rehearsing again, aiming to raise our spirits with a positive uplifting activity – the production of COUNT THE STARS – The Journey of Abraham and Sara.

May Hashem bless the women of Raise Your Spirits and the entire nation. One day soon, we pray the music we sing will be filled with pure joy.
(Photo from Keren Malki)

Abraham and Tisha B'Av

The very first word of the megilla, Eicha, which we read of 9 Av, recalls our patriarch Avraham (Abraham). According to the great commentator Me'am Lo'ez, citing another perspective: Eicha can be broken into two words - אי כה - Ei Cho - Where is Cho (thus)?
Hashem had promised Avraham, " כֹּה יִהְיֶה זַרְעֶךָ " Thus shall your seed be! (As many as the stars in the heavens!)
Therefore, when the prophet Jeremiah sees the downfall and destruction of the once lofty Jewish nation and the Holy Temple, he asks, "Where is that promise of Cho - thus shall your seed be?"
Hashem answers with His own question, Where is Cho?
G-d had commanded Moses, Cho, כֹּה תֹאמַר לְבֵית יַעֲקֹב , Thus you will tell the House of Jacob!
And now Hashem asks, "Where is the Nation that upholds Cho - G-d's mitzvot (commandments)?"
Friends, we have the opportunity to bring the Cho back by setting an example of blessing. When we keep Hashem's mitzvot and when we follow Avraham Avinu's teachings and ways of loving kindness, then Hashem's words to our Patriarch will be fulfilled.
Cho, thus shall your seed be - like the stars of the heavens.
May your Tisha B'Av conclude with meaning. May the joy of Tu B'Av follow with true joy and bracha (blessing) for Am Yisrael.