ShabbatUK Parshas Noach

ShabbasUK Parshas Noach

In memory of Rabbi Noach Weinberg OB"M,

Founding father of the Aish Torah Renaissance Movement

Just one Shabbos and we'll all be free

Here I am, sitting with you and I wonder...

You are a sister, a brother – my kin

My ancestors are yours

It's the same family that we're in

And you, sitting opposite me wonder...

We are worlds apart  - there's a vast separation

So close at heart

Yet, we still make for an odd combination

This Shabbos we sit inches away and contemplate

Our thoughts merging, orbiting, soaring ... swelling

My life and yours fuse as one

Your story becomes mine for telling

It's a story to behold – long and magical

Of a People with a past so tear-filled and victorious

A story of G-D's love and compassion to His children

Throughout a history so glorious

It is a story in which G-D gave us a precious gift,

The Shabbos – to rejuvenate, to inspire, to uplift

A time to wipe the tears, soldier on and freshen up

Be renewed with vigour, reach out for the top

It's a tale where G-D gives us his word, a decree:

Guard the Shabbos and the Shabbos will guard thee

But Shabbos became a minor role in the lives of many

As farther away the generations from Sinai went

With it went our connection with our Creator – a spiritual descent

But now is our chance

Now is the time to convey

The message that WE CAN GET THE SHABBOS TO STAY

JUST ONE SHABBOS is all we need to be set free,

Let's do it all together – we all have one destiny

And as we celebrate with Jews all over the land,

DIVIDED WE FALL UNITED WE STAND!

Gut Shabbos

M. Scharf, Beis Yaakov North London

The author, a young Yiddishe child contemplates the separation between fellow Yidden – how we all come from Sinai but some have lost our heritage – and wills those unfortunate enough not to have experienced a Shabbos to stand together and partake of the holy day this week and always henceforth.

ShabbatUK

Get Ready for ShabbatUK on 24/25 October

ShabbatUK is just around the corner, (or just the other side of Sukkos, to be precise).

Two question you need to answer:

1) If you haven’t started planning how you will be part of this gigantic step forward for Yiddishkeit (Lit. Judaism), what are you waiting for?  Enrol into one of the many learning sessions that are springing up in your area - geared to coincide with this communal event.  For more information contact your Start Your Day the Torah Way in your area (if you can't find the details, contact me by eMail or on my mobile number as shown below).

2) Give 'em a taster: invite your as-yet-non-Frum neighbours, work colleagues or distant family members into your Sukkah on Chol HaMo'ed (the in-between days between the first and the final days of the Yomtef). The benefits of doing so is twofold:

a) They will not travel on Shabbos or Yom Tov and
b) You will be able to give them a non-restricted experience of how it feels to be with Frummers, without too many strings attached...

3) One of the many ways to begin the ShabbatUK experience is to book a place at the Great Challah Bake on Thursday 23 October.

4) If any of the above doesn't seem to work for you, just add something to your own Shabbos experience, be it either during Davening (prayers), Leyning (Reading of the Bible) the Se'udos (meals) like a Devar Torah (learning) or Zemiros (songs) or enliven someone else's Shabbos by paying a short visit.

For more information click here.

Wishing you a very good Sukkos

Menasche Scharf

07974 160 252

Hashgochoh Protis IV - השגחה פרטית

Freshly happened Hashgocho Protis

I usually buy my weekly bus pass to reach my workplace.  As I would be travelling only half of this week (until Erev Sukkot) I decided to travel by bus rather than by Tube, which would save me around fifteen pounds.

To reach my destination I need to take a couple of buses and as I was waiting for the second bus – a forlorn spot in Tottenham where Jewish drivers hardly ever come through – I toyed with the idea of how foolish it is for me to expect a lift to work.  For a Heimishe driver to drive by he would need to make a whole detour and it didn’t make any sense why one would come this way.

Finally I saw the bus in the distance and as it came nearer there was an outline of this familiar silver-grey Previa chugging along in front of the bus.  I didn’t give it much thought but as it drove past me the car suddenly slowed down and the driver beckoned me to jump in.  This was my first free ride all the way to the office this year 5775, hopefully one of many more to come…

As I was making myself comfortable I saw the driver fumbling with his mobile ‘phone (“don’t do that whilst driving!” I was thinking to myself), which he used to answer an urgent call from a frantic client.  It turns out that he went to an office where he was meant to meet the client early in the morning, however the man wasn’t there and after waiting for the better part of an hour he proceeded to his next stop.

The route to his next stop took him past this obscure spot where I was standing.  He readily agreed that the ultimate reason for him being there was to be Zoiche to give a lift a to a fellow Jew, which he did with Simcha – מי כעמך ישרא-ל!

I waited less than ten minutes for a ride – he waited half an hour to give me one…