Thursday, July 28, 2016

Parshas Pinchos 5776


“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Pinchos   
Pirkei Avos perek 1
23 Tamuz 5776/ July 29, 2016

It was an experience I hope no one ever has. It was a Motzei Shabbos at the end of October in 2004. We were living in the Blueberry Hill Apartments complex with our almost three year old son Shalom, and Chani was in her ninth month, expecting our second child. At 3 a.m. we were awakened to the piercing screams of a young girl: “Fire! Fire! Please! There’s a fire!”
Chani immediately raced to the other room and grabbed Shalom from his bed. I looked out the window and saw that the building opposite ours was on fire. We rushed outside together with neighbors from all of the apartments in the nearby buildings. It was a frightening scene as we watched flames shoot up from the top of the building. The fire department arrived within minutes and began their heroic efforts to battle the blaze.
At one point a fireman emerged from a window holding a limp older woman over his shoulder. Tragically, she was the only fatality. She did not die from the flames but from smoke inhalation while she was sleeping. It was a painful reminder of the truism that smoke kills before fire.
I often recount that tragic night to my students and campers to drive home to the idea that the atmosphere around us has the most profound effect on our spiritual and mental health. When we are surrounded by a positive and nourishing environment we are more inclined to be productive and caring. But when we are surrounded by negativity, pessimism, and insensitivity, it inevitably affects us negatively as well.  
When I first began working in education, a friend and veteran educator shared with me that one of the keys to motivation is in creating a healthy motivating educational environment where students feel excited to accomplish and to take part.
I was once discussing with a friend the merits of a certain yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel. My friend told me that the yeshiva’s rabbeim and hanhala did not pressure its students to learn per se, but rather, the pressure was “in the walls”. There was a tremendous drive to grow spiritually in that yeshiva, and that impelled the students to want to invest and grow in their Torah learning. The faculty did not need to apply added pressure, because it was ‘in the air’.
This idea comes to life every summer for me with the tremendous success of Camp Dora Golding’s learning program ka”h. Aside from the daily learning groups, it is astounding that a half hour before mincha every Erev Shabbos there are almost three hundred campers ready for Shabbos and learning in camp’s shul. Then on Shabbos itself, there are even more campers who learn voluntarily for three hours on Shabbos afternoon. It’s not just the expensive and great prizes that are raffled off, and it’s not just the massive BBQ for all who learn a certain amount. It’s more about the positive hype and excitement generated by Rabbi Sauber and the learning rabbeim.
We are now in the period of mourning for the destruction of the Bais Hamikdash. The gemara in Yoma relates that the second Bais Hamikdash was destroyed because of baseless enmity between fellow Jews. Not every Jew may have been guilty, but that sense of disunity and distrust was in the air and created a spiritual toxicity. When we observe Torah and mitzvos, demonstrate sensitivity for each other, and perform acts of chesed, it’s not merely individual acts of greatness. It creates a healthy spiritual environment, one fitting for the rebuilding of the Bais Hasmikdash. 

 Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos,

      R’ Dani and Chani Staum

Thursday, July 21, 2016

PARSHAS BALAK 5776

“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Balak  
Pirkei Avos perek 6
16 Tamuz 5776/ July 22, 2016

A number of years ago I had a wound on my upper right arm, and when it healed there grew a large bump in its place. My dermatologist sent me to a plastic surgeon to have it removed so that nothing should come of it. After the surgery there remained a noticeable scar from the stitches.
Every summer when I go swimming, a few campers ask me about the scar on my upper arm.  I always reply curtly: “Vietnam”. Inevitably the camper’s eyes open wide, before they ask me a follow up question. Years ago they would ask if I was even old enough to have been a soldier during Vietnam. I would laugh and reply that indeed America was out of Vietnam a few years before I was born. As time went by, I guess I started to look older, and instead of asking if I was around during Vietnam, they asked if I really was ever a soldier in the Armed Forces. This year when I told a camper that the scar was from Vietnam, he looked at me quizzically and asked “What’s Vietnam?”
My Rebbe, Rabbi Berel Wein, has dedicated tremendous time and effort to present Jewish History from a Torah vantage point. He often espouses that in order to properly understand life and how Hashem speaks to us through world events, we need to have a framework to understand where we are coming from. The myriad lessons of history must be analyzed, studied, and gleaned from our long, glorious, and yet very painful history. 
Rabbi Wein notes that although there were numerous radical and incredible events that transpired during the twentieth century, there were two events which overshadowed all else. Those events had an unimaginable and incalculable effect on the Jewish People. They are the Holocaust and the formation of the State of Israel. Because of the enormity of the impact of those two events, they cannot be downplayed or ignored. We cannot pretend that they didn’t just happen. Nor can we try to deal with the challenges of the present if we do not have a framework to understand those past watershed events from a Torah perspective.  
In recent years, Torah Umesorah, the umbrella organization dedicated to enhancing education of all Torah institutions in America, has invested great effort to present Orthodox Jewry with resources which present and teach the Torah’s viewpoint about the horrific events of the Holocaust. There is a plethora of books, videos, and presentations available about this most difficult and painful time in our history.
Regarding the second watermark event however - the formation and growth of the state of Israel - there is still a dearth about proper perspective and understanding in many of our yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs.
The purpose of this article is not at all to present any opinion about how it should be taught and with what perpsective. That will very much depend on one’s personal hashkafos. However, it is critical that the issues be addressed and put into a framework so they can be understood. Hashem orchestrated an uncanny and unimaginable chain of events beginning with the formation of the state, the victories in all of the Arab-Israeli wars, the recapturing of Yerushalayim in 1967, the Entebbe raid, the miracles during Saddam Hussein’s firing 39 scud missiles during the early 90s, etc. etc., up to and including the daily miraculous survival of Eretz Yisroel among hostile pugnacious neighbors.
The Jewish people bear many scars. We have survived despite them all and will continue to do so. But we must understand each and every scar, because each has a story to tell - a story which is an intricate and vital component of our identity and destiny.
When we no longer know what those scars represent because we no longer even know what Vietnam is, then we have cut ourselves off from understanding what G-d expects of us and what our responsibilities are as a people.  

 Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos,

      R’ Dani and Chani Staum

Thursday, July 14, 2016

PARSHAS CHUKAS 5776

“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Chukas  
Pirkei Avos perek 5
9 Tamuz 5776/ July 15 2016

Last week, Rabbis Noach Sauber and Hersh Kasirer, the learning directors at Camp Dora Golding, launched what they called the “Say Thank You” program. Rabbi Sauber introduced the program by reiterating to the campers about the great importance of reciting berachos as a way of thanking Hashem for all the gifts we take for granted every day. Then he explained that for the next week, each afternoon during 'Rest Period', when campers frequent and patronize camp's canteen, he and/or another rebbe would be stationed on the canteen porch with a marker in hand. Every time a camper would recite a beracha out loud a box would be filled in on a large poster especially made for this program. The goal was to have 2500 berachos recited carefully by the end of the week.
What made the program even more meaningful was that it was dedicated in loving memory of Rabbi Kasirer's father, Rav Moshe ben Tzvi Halevi, who was niftar less than a month ago.
The “Say Thank You” program began on Sunday and was an immediate success. There was an immediate heightened awareness regarding saying berachos generally all around camp, even not during Rest Period.
On Tuesday morning, Rabbi Sauber was going for an early morning walk when he noticed a lone white swan swimming serenely in camp's lake.
It was bizarre because in his over two decades coming to camp, Rabbi Sauber (as well as myself) never remember ever seeing a swan in the lake. The swan remained there throughout the day, swimming peacefully on the lake, even as campers boated alongside it. It became an instant camp celebrity, and was even named Poochy (I didn't chose the name; I'm just the reporter).
Then suddenly, as soon as mincha ended, many of us saw the swan take off and fly over the shul and out of camp. It has not been seen since. (There are signs posted in camp promising a reward for anyone who returns Poochy to the lake).
So what's the big deal you ask? We were very intrigued by the sudden mysterious appearance of the pristine white swan for almost an entire day. As per Rabbi Sauber's suggestion, I looked up in Perek Shirah what shirah the swan sings to Hashem. It turns out the swan is not directly mentioned. But there is the “avaz shebabayis” which is translated as a duck, which the swan is closely related. (In the Artscroll edition of Perek Shirah the picture of the avaz shebabayis is of a swan). What is the shirah of that species?
Remarkably, it’s shirah is “Hodu laHashem kiru b’shemo - praise Hashem, call out in His Name”. I don't know if there is any other animal's shirah that seems more directly connected to the recitation of berachos.
By Thursday afternoon (a day earlier than expected) camp reached the 2500 berachos mark. The entire camp enjoyed a special dessert on Shabbos in celebration.
It seems somewhat eerie that a swan settled on the lake in the center of camp for an entire day, right in the middle of the berachos contest.
But  if you're not easily moved by such occurrences and aren't impressed with Poochy's berachos connection, still this article can serve as a chizuk and reminder for all of us to try to recite berachos with a little more fervor and feeling.
It's been said so often that the key to happiness is not having more but appreciating more. So whether you hear the swan sing “Hodu laHashem” or not, we must make sure that we fulfill that song to the best of our ability!
 Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos,

      R’ Dani and Chani Staum

Thursday, July 7, 2016

PARSHAS KORACH 5776

“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Korach
Pirkei Avos perek 4
2 Tamuz 5776/ July 8, 2016

Years ago, there was a time when my older brother was into learning and performing magic tricks. During that time, on one occasion my parents took our family to a magic store. The owner showed us all sorts of interesting tricks and gadgets. At one point he turned to my father and said “Would you like to see my pride and joy?” Not wanting to be rude my father replied affirmatively. The owner than produced a picture of two bottles - the cleansing agents Pride and Joy.
In days of old people used to keep pictures in their wallets of those nearest and dearest to them. Then along came cell phones and rendered those wallet pictures basically obsolete. I still have the same wallet that I have been using since we got married and the same pictures of our children from years ago.
Perhaps it may be somewhat of a heretical question, but supposing G-d had a wallet, whose picture would be in it? Who could be deemed the "Pride and Joy" of the Master of the world, as it were?
We state the answer every morning at the beginning of Pesukei D'zimrah when we declare "al Yisroel ga'avaso - for Yisroel His pride". Every one of us, simply by virtue of the fact that we are card-carrying members of Klal Yisroel are Hashem's ultimate pride. That undoubtedly carries with it a tremendous burden and sense of responsibility, for we must live up to that encomium. At the same time however, it is a source of great encouragement and chizuk. When we daven we are not merely davening to the Supreme Power and Creator of the world. We are also davening to our divine Father who loves us and takes great pride in our service to Him.
The ba'alei mussar note that when one davens, he should do so with the feeling that he is presenting his requests and needs before the only being who truly possesses the ability to fulfill his petitions.
Thus if our prayers are not fulfilled we need to remind ourselves that it is not because our prayers have not been heard. After all, what loving parent does not listen to the pleas of his child? Rather it's because our loving father knows what is really best, even when it does not seem that way to us.
As the month of Tamuz begins and the weeks of mourning approach, it behooves us to bear in mind this idea. We are His joy and pride, and to view all that has occurred and does occur to us is in that context. After all, we are His pride and joy!

 Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos,

      R’ Dani and Chani Staum