SUNADAY
WEDNESDAY
Elul 13, 5779
September 13, 2019
Dear Shul Member
Greetings and Blessings:
Tishrei is nearly here, and the Shul needs your help. Boruch Hashem, our shul continues to grow in membership and services to the community, and is approaching completion of a massive remodeling project of the entire facility. The cost of running the Shul is enormous and has grown exponentially over the past few years. Funds collected for membership and Yom Tov seats provide the majority of the money required to operate the shul. Shul Membership dues and Yom Tov seats are therefore the most important contributions that you can make to keep the shul running.
Our shul has four minyonim on Shabbos, including Kol Yaakov Yehuda during the school year. We have a full range of Shabbos programs for the kids. We also have five official weekday shacharis minyonim with more in the later morning. Hundreds of men use our shul on a daily basis for mincha and maariv. Men and women from throughout Southern California participate in our shul sponsored shiurim and farbrengens. Congregation Levi Yitzchok is a destination shul for out of towners visiting the area and for anyone that wants to experience our special environment.
Keeping the mortgage current, utilities paid and managing the other expenses that go into operating our shul is critical. Our expenses for security guards and other security related items have leaped over the past year as well. The Shul needs your participation and contributions to survive. The cost of membership is being held at last year’s rate, and the Yom Tov seat fee schedule remains unchanged.
We encourage you to submit your payments to the shul online by credit card or e-check at www.chabadofla.com/donate. When paying online, you can easily set up a recurring monthly payment. We thank the many members that have committed to paying $100 per month or more, and hope that you consider a monthly contribution that exceeds the minimum membership. Of course, full membership payment in advance is also welcome. If you are paying by check, please make sure that it is clearly identified as membership. Checks can be given to Levi Raichik, Leib Lerner, or David Kaufman. Checks can also be left in the metal pushkas just inside the shul entrances in both the main shul and the kolel.
A limited number of lockers are available to members. The annual fee for lockers is $180 and lockers that are not paid for will be released to members that have signed up on the waiting list on a first-come/first-served basis.
Wishing you a kesiva v’chasima tovah,
Members of the Volunteer Shul Operating Committee
Rabbi & Mrs. Dovid Blasberg
Invite the community to a sholom Zochor
9 pm at 424 N Martel
5:45 at the home of Mrs. Etty Bastomski
418 N Fuller
Speaker: Shaye Berkowitz
Upcoming Birthdays
Upcoming Anniversaries
Upcoming Yahrtzeits
Hashem, please be to us as a good Brother who will Never let us Wander in the Dark
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
During the month of Elul we have the custom of blowing the shofar each weekday to arouse us from our slumber and to do teshuva, to return to Hashem.
When we approach the month of Elul and begin the process of teshuva we ask Hashem for four things. We ask Hashem to awaken us to do teshuva. Elul is a time when the King is in the field and Hashem is available to all to become aroused and to do teshuva. Then we ask that when we do teshuva Hashem should forgive us. We also ask that our forgiveness should come without pain or suffering. Finally, we ask Hashem to give us all we need both physically and spiritually.
In the prayer of Krias Shema before retiring at night as well as after each tefilla on Yom Kippur we ask that Hashem’s forgiveness should be without pain or suffering. At first glance it seems self understood that forgiveness should be without pain. Hashem is all kind and all-merciful. Why would it be painful unless we specifically asked it not to be?
In an edited maamar (Achrei-Kodoshim 13th of Iyar 5721-1961) the Rebbe analyzes a verse in Shir HaShirim (8:1) “מִ֤י יִתֶּנְךָ֙ כְּאָ֣ח לִ֔י If only (Hashem) could be as with a brother”. Why is this verse bringing an example of a brother when we seek comfort from Hashem? Rashi explains as follows. “That you would come to comfort me in the manner that Yosef did to his brothers,Alternatively, if only my desire that my relationship with Hashem, i.e., to be near Him and to pursue His holiness were out of love, as one’s relationship is with his brother who did evil to him, and it is stated concerning him, “and he comforted them.”
When we account for the past year and seek forgiveness for whatever we have done wrong, we ask Hashem to comfort us like Yosef comforted his brothers. We ask with a caveat however, that it should be without pain or suffering.
We see this in the maamar that the Rebbe asks that Yosef, only in the beginning of the story, brought some pain upon his brothers. How can we ask that Hashem to treat us similar to Yosef? The Rebbe explains that Yosef initially brought pain upon them in order to make them aware of their mistake to arouse them to do teshuva. It worked! Yosef also saw the terrible harm that could befall them later as a consequence of their sin and went about bringing a small amount of suffering to wash away their sin. From the point of their teshuva onward, the suffering immediately ended and Yosef comforted them and took care of them in a time of hunger and famine for the rest of their lives.
Similar to the brother’s of Yosef whenever we sin it makes a blemish on our neshama which needs to be cleansed. Therefore we daven, especially in the month of Elul asking to be awakened to do teshuva like Yosef aroused his brothers to awaken them to confess. When we do confess and do teshuva we ask Hashem to forgive us like Yosef forgave his brothers. And, just as Yosef comforted and took care of his brothers from then on, so too we daven that Hashem should take care of us both physically and spiritually.
But we are asking for even more. Yosef had no choice. The only way Yosef could get his brothers to do teshuva and to wipe away their sin was with a little bit of suffering. Since however Hashem is infinite and Hashem able to do anything, we pray that he should awaken us to do teshuva, forgive us when we do teshuva, and then to take care of us physically and spiritually, all without any pain. The Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek said that since Hashem able to do anything, Hashem can forgive us without pain.
Therefore in the month of Elul we spend time to account for our lives, learn chassidus and daven for an arousal for teshuva etc. And then Hashem forgives us and brings all the brachos for our physical and spiritual needs for the entire year, most specifically the biggest necessity of all the immediate revelation of Moshiach now.
A Good Shabbos
It is with great sadness that we inform the community of the passing of
R' Benzion (Chuck) Novack
Benzion ben Dovid ob"m
Integral part of LA community for over 40 years, recently living in the Chabad Summerlin community of Las Vegas
The Levaya will be TODAY (Sunday), 6:30 pm
at Mount Olive Cemetery in Commerce
7231 Slauson Ave, Commerce, CA 90040
The Novack family will be sitting Shiva at 546 N. Detroit St.
Maariv tonight at 9:30 pm
Shacharis minyanim at 8:00, 9:00 and 10:00 am tomorrow
Mincha at 1:30 pm.
Immediately following mincha
the family will be leaving back to Las Vegas and finishing Shiva there.
SAVE THE DATE
6:00 at the home of Mrs. Yehudit Schneerson
364 N Fuller
Speaker: Rabbi Levi Kramer
Upcoming Birthdays
Upcoming Anniversaries
Upcoming Yahrtzeits
