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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 11th , 2025, 17 Elul 5786***
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There was a well to do Jewish man who due to emotional concerns became a patient in a psychiatric section of a medical center. Before the ills of Covid 19, there was a period of time when even middle income and high income families were going through difficult financial times. Unfortunately, there were several who ended their lives when their sources of income fell apart. They were no longer the breadwinners of the family and the lifestyles of the family could no longer be sustained with a tremendously reduced income and for some, loss of a job. I interviewed many family members searching for the cause of the decline of their relatives who committed suicide. Unfortunately, there was a lack of appropriate follow up of patients with their family doctors. They might have been given various medications that had side effects or would take several weeks until those medications could take effect. Unfortunately, many of these patients were not seen by a mental health professional. I am proud of all the accomplishments the coalition had and my relationship with Martha Pollack LCSW who was my co-chair. We presented at various events about mental health and what to observe and to report serious behaviors. This became a New York City wide understanding and developing  awareness of  mental health issues. We were requested to give presentations to various agencies, organization, adult programs and clergy of various faiths about depression and suicide. We also gave sessions to house keepers, maintenance workers, security guards and other frontline workers who might notice a change in behavior.
 
There was a certain elderly woman walking back and forth in the main lobby and taking the elevator up and down. None of the security guards noticed what was happening as being odd and did not report this person’ s behavior to their superiors. Unfortunately, this person never came back down. She jumped. I was notified by the NYPD to come to where this person was found. I met with the family together with social workers to give spiritual and emotional support as well as assisting with funeral and burial information. The family shared important background information with us which gave a fuller picture of this person and what led to her suicide. Matha Pollack and I were requested by the management to educate all of the front line workers including maintenance and security guards. Members of our coalition were medical doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and other professionals. Part of my chaplaincy was working with mental health issues. I did a lot of research and met with many professionals dealing with suicides. Due to the work I was doing, I was invited together with my coalition to join other mental health organizations and to give my own critique and presentation as well.

Why bring this up at this present time? Unfortunately, there are many who are having difficult times financially. Boruch H, now there are organizations today helping those in need including those who live in more affluent neighborhoods. With the holidays upon us it is incumbent upon us to recognize families who are in need of spiritual and emotional support. It is extremely meaningful to share and convey happiness and most of all hope with all the support we offer others especially those who live alone. H loves us dearly and wants only the best for us. Through our tefilos and gemilus chasadim we bring not only comfort to others but help to instill meaning of life with hope for the future. Kindness is very important, saying the right words is also essential.
 
Elul is a wonderful time for chesed. Chesed brings us more understanding and care for others including ourselves.        
 

From: Yamim Noraim with the Maggid.
By Rabbi Paysach J. Krohn. Artscroll Series. Mesorah Publications, Ltd.

 “From Good to Great” Page 27 “ We can all be good and we can even be great. Rav Tzaddok HaKohen of Lublin (1823-1900) writes that just as one must believe in H, he must believe in himself. (Tzidkas HaTzaddik, note 154). We underestimate our qualities and potential. We realize that we are not perfect, as Shlomo HaMelech said, Ki eina dam asher lo yecheta, For there is no man who never sins (I Melachim 8:46).

As we enter the fourth hallowed days from Rosh Chodesh Elul to Yom Kippur, we should not let our missteps bring us down. We should not let our errors depress us so that we think we cannot change our errors depress us so that we think we cannot change our ways.  Rav Yerucham Levovitz (1873-1976), the Mashgiach of the Mirrer Yeshiva, would often say “As important as it is for one to know his faults so he knows what he must amend, it is even more important for one to know his virtues to know what he can accomplish.”
 
(ibid page page 119) “Deeds of Beauty” “Tiku vachodesh shofar bakese liyom chakeinu. Ki chok leYisrael hu mishpat leilo leilokei Yaakov.”
Blow the shofar at the moon’s renewal, at the time appointed for our festive day. Because it is a decree for Yisrael, a judgment [day] for the G of Yaakov (Tifillas Maariv).”
The Midrash Shocher Tov (Tehiilim 81:5) homiletically notes that Rosh Hashanah, a new chodesh, month, is a time for Chadash, renewal, and shofar (related to the word shipur, beauty), beautification and improvement of one’s deeds. As we renew our commitment to enhance our actions from this Rosh Hashanah onward, the following anecdotes of a special person could be our guidepost.
Mr. Izzy Herzog of Melbourne, Australia, was an extraordinary individual, known for his exceptional philanthropy for all Torah institutions in Australia and for his remarkable capacity of oheiv shalom verodeif shalom, loving peace and pursuing peace, resolving conflicts and bringing people together again, be they husband and wife, business associates, or organizations, religious or secular.
I knew Izzy zt”l and his wife Mary (Miriam) yb”l, as they hosted my wife and me the first time we visited Melbourne, in 2009. When I was recently asked to deliver a video lecture for his eleventh yahrzeit, I spoke to numerous people in Melbourne to learn about his kindness and sensitivity.
The following acts of benevolence are worthy of emulation.
When Izzy and his wife took their own children shopping for clothes for Yom Tov, they would take along some of the poor neighborhood children and but them clothing as well. When a young married man with children lost his father, to whom he was very close, Izzy told him during the shivah, “Most people think that being sensitive to a yasom applies only to children. It is not so, an adult who loses a parent is the same yasom. Don’t worry, I will be your father from now on; you can call me at any time!”
The following gesture seems so simple but is so magnanimous. Where Izzy davened every morning, there was a ten-year old boy whose parents were impoverished. They could not give him spending money such as the other boys in his class were given. Thus, Izzy made an arrangement with boy: Every morning Izzy would put a dollar or two under his own tallis bag. The boy would come in, unobtrusively walk past the table, reach under Izzy’s tallis bag, and take the spending money. Izzy was always in shul before the boy walked by. Why did Izzy do it this way? Because were he to take the money from his pocket
and hand it to the boy, onlooker, onlookers would know that the generous Izzy was giving charity to an unfortunate poor child- and the boy would be embarrassed. What sensitive regard for a young boy’s dignity! Chodesh and shofar- now is the time.” 
(ibid pages 129-131)
“Apples, Seeds, and a Sweet New Year”  “ May it be Your will, H our G and the G of our forefathers, that You renew for us a good and a sweet year. (Prayer on apple and honey).
One of the most symbolic and most widely known rituals of the year is dipping a piece of apple into honey at the seudah on the first night of Rosh Hashanah to symbolize our wishes for a sweet new year. (Some also do so on the second night). Though we eat other symbolic foods- such as the head of a fish or sheep, pomegranates, dates, carrots, etc.-as hopeful harbingers for the good to come, the apple and honey are usually eaten first and are observed even by less observant families. 
What is the significance of the apple? The honey? The combination?
The selection of the apple is based upon the verse in which Yitzchak says regarding Yaakov, See, the fragrance of my son is like the fragrance of a field that H has blessed….(Bereishis 27:27, see Rashi). Chazal identify the fragrance as that of an apple orchard (Taanis 29b). The Vilna Gaon writes that Yizchak blessed Yaakov on Rosh Hashanah( Orach Chaim 583:1;see Biur HaGra.
The Benei Yissacher notes that devash, honey has the same gematria (306) as av harachamim, Father of Mercy, and this evokes H’s compassion and mercy.
On a trip to Manchester, England, in the winter of 1995, I met an extraordinary teacher, lecturer, and writer, Rebbetzin Chavi Wagschal. She was suffering from multiple sclerosis, which curtailed her mobility, yet she regularly gave shiurim and had just completed the manuscript for a book about her travails. She asked if I would write a letter of approbation; I told her I would have to read the manuscript first.
The book, Facing Adversity with Faith, was heartbreaking. Page after page described her steady deterioration as well as her courageous resilience to fight her challenges. She cited the great Torah legends who visited her: Rav Yehuda Zev Segal (1910-1993), who lived in Manchester, and Rav Shlomo Brevda (1931-1931-2013), who would call on her when he visited from Israel.
To me, though, one sentence in the book superseded everything else. She quoted the phrase, “Any fool can count the seeds in one apple, but only the Highest Power (H) can count all the apples in one seed!”
Unquestionably, those words are among the most inspiring I have ever heard.    
As we hold the piece of apple in our hands, let us thing about this concept of potential that lies hidden in the acts we do and the words we say. A “seed” we plant could be a word of encouragement that sparks a despairing person to become uplifted and move on to accomplish great things, A”planted seed” could be a small loan that allows someone to regain his financial footing. A “planted seed” could be the listening ear that validates someone’s pain and gives that person the strength to move on. We must never underestimate the value of one kind word, one kind deed, one small seed.
Hence, the sweet new year that we hope for when we dip the apple in honey should not merely be directed toward our own lives, but to the sweet life we can provide for others as well.”
 
May we be zoche to be inspiring for all of Klal Yisrael.
Sincerely, Rabbi Yehuda Blank