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Rabbi Yehuda {Leonard} Blank MS, BCC
Vice President of Professional Development and External Affairs
Chair of the Chaplaincy Commission
Rabbinical Alliance of America/Igud HaRabbonim
917-446-2126 rablenblank@gmail.com
= = September 12, 2024, Elul 9, 5784 = =
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Bechira. H Gives Us The Choice.
Emunah and Betachon
From Sholom Rubashkin
Aleph Beis Gimmel
Aleph= Emunah, Beis=Betachon , Gimmel=Geulah
Remembering 9/11
Click on the bottom of this article for:
“Chizuk from the IDF Spokesperson Unit:
The Greatest Thing You Can Do
for Am Yisroel”
Click on the bottom for the link to the Aleph, Beis and Gimmel website.
Due to requests, I have included a repeat of the Chofetz Chaim
Heritage Foundation: The Hertz Family Edition
“Seek Peace, Live the Blessing. Daily lessons on how to
live in peace with family, friends and yourself.”
Click on the link at the end of this article.
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H knows the future, yet He gives us the opportunity of free choice. For those going through a challenging or difficult time, a person might say, “ what’s the use, or it is not up to me to decide what happens in my life.” Things can’t get any worse so I might as well give up. Sometimes a person needs encouragement, chizuk, a time to reflect and a time to see there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We all need each other for support and to help lift up not just our countenance but our spirits as well. Knowing H, our G, is here for us, we will continue to not only survive but flourish as well. We must diminish the words of nay sayers and look to our Gedolim, our Sages, our Holy Torah, and to each other to realize our Nation will not only survive but grow with happiness in our lives. We cannot and we must not permit happiness to slip away when things don’t seem to be going our way. We have to find solutions, we have to find ways to internalize goodness and kindness in ourselves. Since my wife a”h died more than four years ago, I have often been asked how I manage to keep a happy disposition, a positive demeanor, and how I carry on with life My relationship with the Ribono shel Olam is of utmost importance. My meaningful way of Jewish life and being an Orthodox Jew is very special to me. I enjoy caring for my fellow Jews and human beings of all backgrounds. I am grateful and appreciate all of my relatives, friends, mentors, colleagues and those who I hold so dear to me. I choose not to be depressed or feel sadness in my life. I made my choices and prayed to G to help others find goodness and kindness in their lives. I chose to find new avenues to enhance all that I had been doing. I was fortunate to have access to supportive grief and bereavement programs. It is important not to be stuck in the past but rather to reflect on the positive memories and build for the present and the future. My choices have since been filled with that positivity. I know it is not an easy task but H is there for each of us and wants us to be successful in our lives, never forgetting who we are and our purpose in life. My motto which I continue to share with others is that we should be thankful for whatever we can do and not what we are unable to. Not only should we help others to have hope but to realize our own strengths to ultimately find and make the right choices in life. Rabbis, rebbetzins and chaplains can not only be a source of encouragement and inspiration can also be a resource and to find appropriate supportive help a person might need. We can help find those choices and most of all emunah and betachon so vital in our lives for the present and the future. H gives us the choices to make for ourselves, we just have to reach out a grab them.
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Aleph – Beis- Gimmel
By Rabbi Sholom Rubashkin. An all encompassing website about emuna and betachon. Rabbi Rubashkin went through tremendous trials and tribulations and could have lost all hope. But, he did not. He made all the right choices. Throughout his immense challenges, Klal Yisrael did not lose hope and also made the right choices through tefilos and support. There were also askonim who chose to help in many ways. The link to the Aleph-Beis-Gimmel goes through the various steps one can take to increase Emuna, Betachon and ultimately Geula. There are several books about Rabbi Rubashkim that are truly worth reading.
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From: RE’ EH: FREEDOM OF CHOICE
By Rav Hershel Schacter is the Rosh Kollel and Rosh Yeshiva of REITS, Yeshiva University. He is also the Posek for the OU’s Kashruth division. This article was printed in the Torahweb.org and the Jewish Vues August 28, 2024, September 28, 2024, Page 35. “The opening section of Parshas Re’eh formulates the principle of bechira chofshis (freedom of will). Although the Rambam has not listed this among what he considered the thirteen principles of faith (ikarei ha’emunah), he clearly considers it an ikar (Rambam Hilchos Teshuva 5:3). Perhaps he has subsumed it under the eleventh principle-reward and punishment- because if man had no freedom of will, he certainly would not be held accountable for anything he did (ibid 5:4). The navi Yirmiyahu (9:22) tells us that no one should be proud of his intelligence, his strength, or his wealth, since these are all determined before a baby is born (Talmud Nidda 16b), and don’t necessarily indicate greatness of the individual. However, yiras shomayim is up to the individual and is not predetermined. Judaism absolutely rejects the position of some psychologists that all decisions that anyone will make throughout their lives are predetermined, as if all our decisions and reactions conform to a computer program encoded withing our minds. We were told by Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself that we were all created with the power of bechira-free will. This is the meaning of tzelem Elokim. Just as He created the world yesh me’ayin, so too he gave us the ability to make decisions yesh me’ayin. There are various considerations we keep in mind when making our decisions, all based on our psychological predisposition. But the final decision still remains up to us; our minds are not programmed in advance to make any specific decisions. All of our decisions are included within the statement of the rabbis (Berachos 33b) that all aspects of the human composition are predetermined (eye color, height, looks, etc.) except for yiras Shomayim. We are constantly bombarded by psychologists’ theories that contradict this ikar of emunah, and we must realize that these theories are against a principle of our faith and are wrong.
It is interesting to note that when the Rambam formulated this most significant principle in Hilchos Teshuva (at the beginning of chapter 5) instead of referring to freedom of will as bechira chofsish, as it is commonly referred to, he calls it “reshus”. In one of his drashas for aseres yemei teshuva, Rav Soloveitchik suggested that perhaps the Rambam meant to bring out the following idea: in modern Hebrew we refer to the elections as “bechirot”. At election time, we are presented with a fixed set of candidates (or parties) and we choose from among them, Man, however, not only has “bechira chofsish” to choose from among the various options which are presented to him, but he even has “reshus”, i.e. the ability to choose a path in life which was never even presented to him as an option. Therefore, even people brought up in a totally non-observant family and in an anti-Torah society also have the ability to choose-similar to yesh me’ayin-to be observant.
The Rambam writes (ibid.) that bechira chofshis is what distinguishes man from the rest of creation. Some people have the attitude that exercising their bechira to its maximum is the greatest demonstration of the uniqueness of man, so therefore the decision to sin and act against the Divine will constitutes the highest form against form of humanity. We sometimes enter an office and ask a secretary to take care of something for us. In order to show us “who is the boss”, the secretary will often give us a hard time. Similarly, people who serve in a supervisory capacity will sometimes refuse to grant requests to show us “who is boss”. In both situations, control can equally be demonstrated in a positive and helpful way, i.e. by showing that it is within one’s power to address the requester’s needs, instead of a negative way. Unfortunately, many people have the flawed attitude that the stronger way to demonstrate one’s power is by being negative.
The Talmud (Kiddushin 31a) tells us that one who does a mitzva he is obligated to perform receives more reward than one who volunteers to do a mitzva which is not required of him. Tosafos explains this based on a simple psychological principle, as follows: everyone likes to demonstrate his independence. As such, when one senses an obligation to do a mitzvah, a natural reaction is to refuse to comply to demonstrate his freedom and independence. Therefore, it’s more difficult (psychologically) for the one who is obligated to fulfill the mitzvah than it is for one who is not obligated, and the reward for mitzvos is given in accordance to how difficult it was to fulfill the mitzvos (Avos, end of chapter 5).
However, there is a positive way for an individual to demonstrate his freedom and independence with respect to mitzvos. Let him not simply follow the commands of H, rather let him do “his own thing” by volunteering something which is above and beyond the call of duty-lifnim mishuras hadin. From the body of the mitzvos which H has commanded us (i.e, from the letter of the law) we can deduce what is the spirit of the law. Having once understood the spirit of the law, we can then choose to voluntarily implement that spirit in a way that was never even presented to us in the letter of the law; we can thus demonstrate our uniqueness and our tzelem Elokim in this most positive, meaningful, and sensible way.”
There is so much going on around us that could feel almost devastating and unearthing. Compounded by the local, national and world-wide issues that concern those who are Jewish. There are also personal concerns that occur as well. It often is difficult to stay focused and continue with Torah studies at all levels, as well as the important time for tefillah. Being able to daven and learn with all of one’s heart and soul can be difficult when there might be personal challenges. We can say our bakashos at any time requesting our desires and aspirations to H Yisbarach. As rabbis, rebbetzins and chaplains, being compassionate, empathetic, understanding and sincere can go a long way helping others in helping themselves. Rabbis, rebbetzins and chaplains have amazing opportunities to help bring refuos, comforting reassurance and a ray of hope for those in their time of need.
I often receive requests to recite their names when I pray for them and I say my daily Tehilim.
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Remembering 9/11
I was called to active duty as a police chaplain. I was at Ground Zero before the Twin Towers imploded. I was filmed by NY 1 escorting an elderly woman to safety before being engulfed by the tremendous cloud of dust. I visited police, first responders and many civilians offering pastoral care and counseling. I visited the site next to the Medical Examiners building as police personnel were carefully going through the thousands of particles for body parts and other items. I visited one of the Armory sites where thousands came to give all types of identification in case a person or body parts were recovered. At this site, I met two chaveirim who were there giving information about Shimmy Biegeleisen. He was last heard from when he spoke to his wife and chaveirm trapped on the floors above where the plane crashed into the Twin Tower. The phone eventually went dead. He was a Belzer chosid, I visited Ground Zero often to give support to all of those working there including police and fire department personnel. Yes, I remember the fire and the smoke still burning at Ground Zero for quite some time. What I did was nothing compared to all the first responders, many who gave their lives trying to save others and to all the Hatzolah members who responded. BH all survived, though some were injured.
There are videos on Yeshiva World about Hatzolah, Shimmy Biegeleisen, Avremel (Abe) Zelmanowitz and Edmund Glazer. On Matzav, there are videos about Hatzolah and Profiles in Heroism, a film by Aryeh Gelbar. All were shown Wednesday 9/11/2024.
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I have chosen to include a video from October 2023 about betachon to have during these difficult times of ours.
May we be zoche to merit the coming of Mashiach speedily in our day.
Sincerely, Rabbi Yehuda Blank
Click here for the link to the Aleph, Beis and Gimmel website
by Rabbi Sholom Rubashkin
Click here for the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation flyer and booklet.
K’siva V’chasima Tova