Shul Bulletin

• Shabbos Candle Lighting: 7:51 pm
• By Kabolos Shabbos we say 'besimcha' instead of 'berina'.
• Last Time To Read Shema: 9:19 am
• Shacharis: 10:00 - Since we expect more people this week and the minyonim are not staggered, we request everyone wear a mask.
• Mincha: 7:50 pm. Followed - Pirkei Avos Chapter 5
• Shabbos Ends: 8:54 pm

MOTZEI SHABBOS:

• 10:00pm Melava Malka online with Rabbi Raichik on Zoom - Meeting ID: 435 263 4589 Password: 770. Click here to Join.  

Sunday 13 Tammuz:

• 10:30 am - Gathering for women in the Bukiet backyard. Ladies should pm at 323- 803-5901 if they want to join.
• After arrive - Farbrengen for men in shul with Rabbi Moshe Kesselman in honor of 12-13 Tammuz.

Thursday, Tammuz 17/July 9
Fast of Sheva Asar B’Tammuz

• Fast Begins: 4:13 am
• Minchah: 2:00 & 7:40 pm
• Siyum HaRambam - between Mincha & Maariv 
• Marive: 8:35 pm 
• Fast Ends: 8:36 pm

• Dr. & Mrs. Zeev Rav-Noy in honor of the anniversary of Dr. Rav-Noy’s miracle in Gaza - 10 Tammuz 5765. May Hashem continue to shower them and the entire community with kol tuv sela.
• Rabbi & Mrs. Eli Baitelman in honor of the birth of their daughter Chana Etke. May they have much nachas from her and may she grow up to Torah, to Chupa and to Maasim Tovim. 
• Mr. & Mrs. Aryeh Kaufman in honor of the chag hageula. May Hashem continue to shower them and the entire community with kol tuv sela.
• Mr. & Mrs. Yermi Kurkus in honor of their anniversary. May they have many more happy years together. 
• Mr. David Milner in honor of the chag hageula. May Hashem continue to shower him and the entire community with kol tuv sela. 
• Rabbi & Rebbitzen Shimon Raichik in honor of the chag hageula. May Hashem continue to shower them and the entire community with kol tuv sela. 
• Reb Zalman Rosenbloom or the yahrtzeit of his father Reb Chaim ben Reb Avraham ob"m. May the neshomo have an aliya.
• Rabbi & Mrs. Sruli Schochet in honor of the chag hageula. May Hashem continue to shower them and the entire community with kol tuv sela.
• Mr. & Mrs. Meilech Weiss in honor of the chag hageula. May Hashem continue to shower them and the entire community with kol tuv sela. 

• Rabbi & Mrs. Simcha Frankel on the birth of their granddaughter.

Upcoming Birthdays

• Rabbi Nachman Kreiman - 13 Tammuz
• Sholom Dovber Raeburn - 13 Tammuz
• Rabbi Moshe Raichik - 14 Tammuz
• Yosef Yitzchak Plotke - 14 Tammuz
• Mr. David Milner - 15 Tammuz
• Zev Yisroel Cherman - 16 Tammuz
• Shmuel Dovid Raichik - 17 Tammuz
• Rabbi Yrachmiel Wolowik - 18 Tammuz

Upcoming Anniversaries

• Rabbi & Mrs. Gershon Schusterman - 12 Tammuz
• Rabbi & Mrs. Asher Habibian - 13 Tammuz
• Mr. & Mrs. Yermi Kurkus - 14 Tammuz

Upcoming Yahrtzeits

• Reb Chaim ben Reb Avraham - (Reb Zalman Rosenbloom's father) - 10 Tammuz
• Reb Leima ben Reb Avrohom Yaakov Halevi (Mrs. Chani Rotenberg’s brother) - 14 Tammuz
• Reb Yaakov Naftoli ben Reb Shlomo Zalmen (Rabbi Danny Rotenberg’s father) - 14 Tammuz
• Reb Noson Kalmen ben Reb Tzvi Meir (Mrs. Etty Bastomski’s father) - 15 Tammuz
• Reb Yitzchok ben Reb Moshe (Mrs. Chana Ganzburg’s father) - 16 Tammuz
• Zlota Zelda bas Reb Yaakov (Mrs. Shoshana Plotkin’s mother) - 18 Tammuz
• Esther Fruma bas Reb Sholom (Rabbi Nachman Kreiman’s mother) - 18 Tammuz
• Reb Tzemach ben Reb Yitzchok (Mrs. Fayge Estulin’s father) - 18 Tammuz

Yud Beis Tammuz: A Time to Connect 
and to Break Through the Boundaries of Nature! 
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik

While preparing for Yud Beis-Yud Gimmel Tammuz I came across a manuscript of a drasha given by ‘The Rav’, HaRav Dov Ber Soloveitchik about the nature of Chabad-Lubavitch. He delivered the drasha at the celebration of the Lubavitcher Yeshiva while standing in the presence of the Previous Rebbe. From the viewpoint of the Rav, not himself a Lubavitcher Chosid, it illuminates what we have and what we can accomplish as Chassidim of the Rebbe. It is therefore a good idea to provide a few excerpts in the following paragraphs as we approach Yud Beis and Yud Gimmel Tammuz, which offer a taste of the message he conveyed.

As a child I grew up in a small town in Russia where there lived both Chassidei Chabad and Misnagdim. My Melamed was specifically a Lubavitcher Chosid! During class it was not uncommon to have debates about who was greater, the “Gaon” (the Vilna Gaon) or the Alter Rebbe. As I traveled here today by train, in my thoughts I concluded that the best possible comparison there is, to the exclusion of any other that best describes the Lubavitcher Rebbe is; the Lubavitcher Rebbe is non other than the Rabi Chanina ben Dosa of our generation. Rabi Chanina ben Dosa took control over and governed the laws of nature!

The Gemara in Taanis (25a) tells how on a Friday night Rabi Chanina ben Dosa saw that his daughter was sad. She explained that she accidently poured vinegar into the lamp and lit the Shabbos candles. He consoled her saying she had nothing to be concerned about because; “The One Who commanded oil to ignite can command vinegar to ignite as well”. And so it was! So too it was when the Rebbe sent out His directives from Lubavitch to the Chassidim of the small town of my youth, even vinegar ignited; Lubavitch took control over nature!

The Gemara tells another story about a certain woman named Aiku, a neighbor of Rabi Chanina ben Dosa. She was building a house but the beams did not reach from wall to wall. She came before R. Chanina and asked him; “I built my house but my beams don’t reach (from wall to wall)”. He asked her for her name and then said; “Aiku (translation: “oh how, or may”) your beams reach (from wall to wall)”.  The wall elongated the necessary length. The Chassidim of my town, man and woman would go to Lubavitch to visit the Rebbe. They left burdened with their many troubles. They would meet with the Rebbe and cry out that their homes were collapsing under the pain and suffering of their burden, which they did not have the wherewithal to bear. The Rebbe gave them His advice and His bracha. That man or woman returned home happy full of optimism and hope because the beams upon which their homes rested were now elongated and able to support their home.

Images of that cruel era in Tsarist Russia pass through my memory. On one side stood the evil decrees waged against the Jews by the government. On the other side were the pressures being mounted by the Enlightenment movement that tried with it’s well known cadre of inciters to use force and cunning in an attempt to assert it’s ideology into the minds and hearts of the Jewish community. With all of this tightening like a noose from all sides the Litvishe Yeshiva was threatened and then closed. Lubavitch however stood up with mesirus nefesh, opposed the onslaught and went ahead to trample the snake. Again this is reflected in the activities of Rabi Chanina ben Dosa. The Gemara in Brachos (33a) tells a story that occurred in a certain place where there was an arod (a wild donkey) that would harm people. They came and told Rabi Chanina ben Dosa. He said to them; “Show me its burrow”. He placed his heel over the mouth of the burrow. When the arod exited, he bit him and then died. He placed it on his shoulder and bought it to the Beis Medresh etc. At that time they said; “Woe to the man who meets an arod, but woe to the arod who is met by Rabi Chanina ben Dosa”. Also Lubavitch; it has trampled the wild donkeys and the snakes of inciters; those that seek to destroy Judaism.

In the Sichos we find that the Rebbe compares the Previous Rebbe to Rabi Chanina ben Dosa (24th Teves 5723-1963). We learn from this that the Rebbe gives us the strength to light up the neshamos of Klal Yisroel. Every Jew has pure olive and a wick. Some will say that you are mistaken. They will say that some are so far away that they no longer have any oil, and that what he has left in him is spoiled (hichmitz) turned to vinegar. Don’t be afraid; it will burn, even better, as the Gemara ended with the story of the Shabbos candles, that it burned the entire Shabbos until the end. So too our job is to light up neshamos until Moshiach and not be afraid.

Also we can learn that our homes are not falling apart. If we feel that the beams are weak, that it is difficult to uphold the warmth of Judaism in our turbulent times. Once we connect to the Rebbe, the Rabi Chanina ben Dosa of our generation then the beams become elongated, meaning that the connection and warmth of His Torah and His guidance gives us the strength and inspiration to fill our homes with the warmth and light of Judaism and Chassidus.

Even when Judaism is being attacked from all sides, from within and without, as we see happening with the Enlightenment movement of our times (the wild donkey which bites), with regard to marriage, education, decency, not to mention foreign affairs. Nevertheless we go forward uninterrupted, staying connected to the Rebbe and focused on guidance of the Rebbe in all aspects, including the 12th Ani Maamain, the belief in the coming of Moshiach and living with it. This gives us the ability to burn the vestiges, the walls of galus and bring the revelation of Moshiach Now. 

A Good Shabbos

This Shabbos is CHAG HAGEULA - 12 Tammuz

ALL minyanim will take place at 10 am (in their respective locations)

Followed by a BIG farbrengen 

If you would like the zechus to help sponsor this special kiddush/farbrengen please let us know ASAP

• Click here for this week's Lmaan Yishmeu publication.
• Click here for this week’s JEM "Here’s My Story". 
• Click here for a list of our ongoing shiurim. 
• Click here to pay up all your building fund, kibud or yiskor pledges and outstanding membership. Thank you to all of our supporters!!

• Shabbos Candle Lighting: 7:51 pm
• Last Time To Read Shema: 9:17am
• Shacharis: 9:00am & 11:00am in the tent, 10:00am in the shul.
• Mincha: 7:50 pm. Followed - Pirkei Avos Chapter 4
• Shabbos Ends: 8:54pm

MOTZEI SHABBOS:

• 9:45pm Melava Malka & and hemshech to Thursday night farbrengen online with Rabbi Raichik on Zoom - Meeting ID: 435 263 4589 Password: 770. Click here to Join.  

• Rabbi & Mrs. Meir Schmukler on the engagement of their son Memem to Shaina Liberow. Mazal tov to the grandparents Rabbi & Mrs. Zalmen Schmukler.

Upcoming Birthdays

• Mr. Rami Tamir - 5 Tammuz
• Rabbi Dovid Thaler - 7 Tammuz
• Rabbi Eliyahu Newman - 8 Tammuz
• Dovber Cherman - 10 Tammuz
• Yosef Chaim Kaufman - 11 Tammuz

Upcoming Anniversaries

• Rabbi & Mrs. Shmuel Fogelman - 5 Tammuz
• Rabbi & Mrs. Yehudah Lerman - 6 Tammuz
• Mr. & Mrs. Eliezer Yaakov Kahan - 10 Tammuz

Upcoming Yahrtzeits

• Masi Mindel bas Reb Levi Yitzchok Halevi (Mrs. Debbie Fine’s mother) - 5 Tammuz
• Reb Itzchav Tzvi ben Reb Chaim Simcha (Mrs. Chaya Kornreich’s father) - 6 Tammuz
• Chava Rivkah bas Reb Avraham (Mr. Isser Goldstein’s mother) - 7 Tammuz
• Raizel bas Reb Yakov Hakohen (Rabbi Zalman Raksin’s grandmother) - 8 Tammuz
• Esther bas Reb Mordechai (Mrs. Kelly Benarroch’s mother) - 8 Tammuz
• Reb Yitzchok ben Reb Mordechai Tzvi (Rabbi Zalman Raksin’s grandfather) - 8 Tammuz
• Reb Moshe ben Reb Sholom (Mr. David Peretz’s father) - 8 Tammuz
• Baila bas Reb Yitzchok (Rabbi Zalman Raksin’s mother) - 9 Tammuz
• Rachel bas Reb Aharon (Ms. Ofra Shipman’s mother) - 10 Tammuz

Gimmel Tammuz: A time to reflect on our Hiskashrus to our Rebbe
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik

The Shliach of S. Cruz, Rabbi Shlomo Chein tells over a story showing the power of Hiskashrus of a Chossid to a Rebbe.

The story starts in the year 1946- 1947 the year after the end of the Second World War in Russia.

In 1939 Eastern Poland was annexed by the Soviet Union, and soon afterward Moscow began a program of mass deportations. Hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens were forced to leave their homes and were transported to Siberia, Kazakhstan, and other parts of the Soviet Union. There were several waves of deportations during which whole families were sent to different parts of the Soviet Union. After the war those holding Polish passports were given permission to leave Russia to return to their native homes. Many Russian Chabad Chassidim made false Polish passports in order to escape Communist Russia. 

The story began with this Russian Chabad Chosid together with his immediate and extended family sitting on the train station platform in the city of Lvov with their false Polish passports waiting to embark on their journey out of the country. Suddenly an army jeep pulled into the station. The Chosid told his family to say Tehillim because they were coming for him. When the soldiers approached they asked to speak with him. The entire family got up and started to walk together. The soldier said; “No no, just him. We just need to speak with him for a minute, he’ll be right back; you stay here.” That minute didn’t end for six months, when the Chosid’s wife finally discovered the location where he was being held. The rest of the family left on the train that night and only the wife and daughter stayed behind in Russia. When he was released from prison, from then on he lived as a fugitive, a Lubavitcher who did the Rebbe’s work hiding in Samarkand in an effort to evade the authorities. Once you are arrested, even after your released they can and often did come to get you. In the meanwhile his son Mordecai had reached New York, and in 1958 was studying in the yeshiva in 770.

At that time legal emigration was in most cases only possible in order to reunite families, especially the elderly. Since this Chosid’s wife had elderly parents in Israel with no one to care for them there was a possibility if they applied for a visa the Soviets would allow the three of them to emigrate, for humanitarian considerations to Israel. The problem with this idea was that it required filling out extensive forms and providing many pictures and details of all of their activities within the last 20 years. For a wanted man living like a fugitive this would be considered tantamount to committing suicide. Then the KGB, having whatever evidence they needed including addresses and details had the discretion to come at anytime and arrest him, a practice that was commonplace. If on the other hand he would lie or forge anything and was caught the punishment was harsh labor camps in Siberia. On the other hand if he didn’t try then he would never be able to leave the Soviet Union. They were in a real quandary, a ‘Catch-22’, about what to do.

Mordecai went into yechidus with the Rebbe and explained the situation. He said that if father will go to the police with all the forms, pictures and details surely the police would investigate. Aside from the police, copies of the package will also be sent to city and state government offices as well as Moscow for investigation and approval. When they see his record they will arrest him but if he doesn’t apply he cannot leave. After he completed his description of their situation the Rebbe waved his hand as if waving it off and said: “Ay, zeh veit nisht chapen- they will overlook it, they won’t catch him.” He asked a second time and got the same response. Mordecai sent a coded message with the Rebbe’s answer to his father Russia.

When his father received the message he spoke with his fellow Chassidim about his next step. His friends were skeptical; they’ll arrest you up they said. But the Rebbe gave his bracha and said they won’t, he insisted. They gave a number of replies. One said that the Rebbe left in 1928 and things are different now, the KGB is much more aggressive. Another said the Rebbe is young. Another said only meant it spiritually. Another said that perhaps he got the message wrong.

In the end he decided that he would listen to the Rebbe and his wife went to the police station and filled out the forms. They waited for an entire year. It was an agonizing year. Having provided their address, they felt as if they could hear a knock on the door at any moment and he would be arrested. Finally they received a message to report to their local KGB station. Once again he went to his fellow Chassidim to talk it through. Again they were pessimistic. They were saying not to go, that certainly he would be arrested. “By going there you are walking straight into the lion’s den, sparing them the trouble of even having to pick you up.” they said.

Nevertheless, being a Chosid he decided to listen to and follow the Rebbe’s guidance. His wife went to the police station and when she arrived the woman clerk began asking questions in a daunting way. She would slowly ask one question after another, staring at her intently, with many pauses in between all intended to intimidate and weaken the resolve of the applicant, a common tactic of the KGB. Finally she interrupted the clerk’s questioning and asked with impatience in her voice; “Why are you asking all these questions, we answered all of them in the forms and you’ve had them for over a year?” The clerk apologized explaining that actually they lost their copy of the package and hadn’t even seen anything. Meanwhile we have received visas for the three of you from Moscow. I’m trying to get at least some understanding of the facts. Soon thereafter she handed her the visas.

After making their arrangements they arrived at the airport to leave. The officer who stamps visas looked at the visas and then at them and said; “ A whole family given visas to leave? We never do that. I’m going to check to see if these are real, I’m going to make sure”. With that he took their visas and left them standing there without their prized tickets to freedom. It was a distressing nervous hour that passed before the officer returned. Finally he did return and said; “Sometimes they are not good, but these are good, I checked with Moscow, you are free to go.”

Finally they boarded the flight. An hour into the flight the pilot made an announcement that there were people on the plane that had illegally boarded and that the plane was turning back and returning to Russia. When they landed the police boarded the plane. The Chosid was sitting with his head in his hands not knowing what would happen next. The police approached his row, and then passed by it going to the back of the plane and removed some other passengers. The police deplaned, the pilot apologized for the inconvenience and they took off again. They arrived in Vienna and from there they went to Eretz Yisroel. The Chosid in the story was my grandfather R. Berke Chein. My father, R. Mordecai Chein, the son who went into the Rebbe, told this story to me many times.

Standing in the week of Gimmel Tammuz we can learn an important lesson from this story. R. Berke Chein was a Chosid of the Previous Rebbe. He never met the Rebbe personally. He didn’t even have a picture, not to mention any Sichos Kodesh or any Mamarim. It was 1958 and he was completely cut off, he had no active physical contact with the new Rebbe. Never the less, he had a simple and profound emunah in the Rebbe and in his guidance. The Rebbe said to apply to the KGB and it wouldn’t be a problem. Even though that under normal circumstances if a fugitive provides the KGB with his name and correct address along with pictures and explanations of his activities over the last two decades he will bring great harm to himself; nevertheless he proceeded with the full belief in the Rebbe’s words beyond even the protests of his fellow Chassidim. He left to Soviet Union, escaping the KGB and arriving in Eretz Yisroel. He settled in Kfar Chabad and merited to be by the Rebbe in New York.

This story is relevant to all of us. The Rebbe said that this is the last generation of Golus. Many may ask, how is it possible? There is an ‘Iron Curtain’ of Golus surrounding us with all it’s naysayers and opinion makers who describe the impossibilities of us getting out of the predicament of Golus. Best to make peace with Galus and not ‘apply’ to leave. Some will say you never even saw the Rebbe, how can you rely on his word? The voices of caution say things like, the Rebbe was speaking on a spiritual level, or that message was meant for another time. Today we are still able to have a strong hiskashrus so many year after Gimmel Tamuz. Remember the Rebbe told us its up to us to end this Golus and demand from Hashem WE NEED MOSHIACH NOW!!!

A Good Shabbos

 Farbrengen for men
TONIGHT after maariv, in shul tent.
(do not enter from Oakwood)
Speaker: Rabbi Mendel Schapiro.

The new issue of the "Chabad Chodesh"
is now available online by clicking here

• Click here for this week's KYY newsletter. 
• Click here for this week's Lmaan Yishmeu publication.
• Click here for this week’s JEM "Here’s My Story". 
• Click here for a list of our ongoing shiurim. 
• Click here to pay up all your building fund, kibud or yiskor pledges and outstanding membership. Thank you to all of our supporters!!
• SUNDAY:  Masbia Program. The shul kitchen will be open from 7am till 12pm. All foods are fine, including Milchig, Fleishig, Pareve, fruits, vegetables, frozen, canned and packed foods. All except foods cooked at home. Please note: If you can send proteins such as- chicken, meat, fish, and cheeses, it would be tremendously beneficial to these families.