I chose to fly to New York specifically during the week of Hanukkah. You know, family matters and such. New York, apart from being a family, is also "the Rebbe's home" - and more on that later.
In our holy land, everything is noise and commotion. Elections. New lists. Old investigations. He retired and she doesn't vote and isn't elected. In Shlomi Emunim, they are hesitating between primaries and working ultra-Orthodox parties and are warning that if women are elected, there will be a disaster here.
In short, it's messy and messy.
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From afar it sounds so different. The stressful sound of the country sounds different from a distance. Well. We no longer live in the era of the past. Nowadays, you can overcome a distance of thousands of miles through emails, and the longing for the country forces me to look for a Wi-Fi point and connect to my email in order to read everything they wrote in the last 24 hours.
And how many people write. In large quantities. You could think. As if they had concentrated all the news, in a small country the size of a pinhead.
It's a waste of money.
I personally don't have much to say anymore. I said what I had to say, and in a loud and clear voice. The boys (and girls) will play in front of us. They will continue to fight until the end of the newscasts.
I have a rabbi, he is my mentor, and instead of being busy criticizing others, I am busy with positive things.
Yes. I will ask my mishfa. Yes. I will ask my rabbi. Whatever they tell me to do – I will do. Me and my whole family. That’s how we were raised. This is the right way when there is a question. From a distance it seems so simple and clear. There is nothing to argue about at all. Left, right, men, women, exclusion, exaltation. I choose to follow the path of the Torah.
I read the headlines about the poverty report. I read the accusations from the left and the apologies from the right and I couldn't understand. If there really are so many poor people here, then maybe it's worth giving up the elections and directing the money to the unfortunate families who fell below the poverty line. In any case, what was is what will be. So to waste 432 million shekels that could have done good for a great many poor people, of whom, unfortunately, it turns out that a large number of them work hard all month and don't manage to make it through the week.
I'm here in New York and I'd rather take you with me. To disconnect you for a moment from the media hustle and bustle in stressed, sweaty Israel.
Every morning I went to the Rebbe's beit midrash in Brooklyn, which everyone already knows is called 770. I stayed in the synagogue from morning prayer until after evening prayer and the lighting of the menorah.
You stay a little longer.
I couldn't believe my eyes.
Throughout the day, the women's shelter was filled with hundreds! Women, girls, children and adults and strollers, lots of strollers with smiling babies. All of them praying. Saying Amen, may the heavens be exalted, and studying. Yes, studying.
Classes are held around the clock. At any given moment, groups of women are sitting and listening eagerly to the words of the Torah of the mishfa.
Every day I learned something new about Hallel. About giving thanks to God, blessed be He. About the miracles that God has done and continues to do with us every day. About the differences between salvations, miracles and wonders, and every morning I just wanted to go back there. To the help of women, to the study of Torah, to the voice of prayer, to the pure and innocent faith, to the crying of babies and the laughter of children.
As a media person, I tried to step outside the experience and look from the outside at the hundreds of women, different, believers, connected to the Torah, and I couldn't help but be amazed by the fact that they prefer to dedicate their free days to something spiritual.
I couldn't help but envy their desire to stay in a place of holiness and Torah. If I had to choose, I know what I'm choosing. I choose to add the light of Torah to my home. I certainly didn't add the controversy, slander, and gossip that fill the media in Israel.
I'm still there. Chanukah is over and I'm already going back. But I'm still here. Trying to drag out the last day of Chanukah a little longer, about which the Holy Ari said that he treasures all the light of the days of Chanukah.
When I return, I will devote myself to distributing my new book – 'A Tale of Love' – which I wrote out of great love for all those Jewish women who choose anew at every moment a pure and holy family life as befits Jews.
That's my choice!
• Part of the column is based on the talks of the Lubavitcher Rebbe | The writer is the owner of "My Choice", an event host, lecturer, and radio broadcaster. | For comments: [email protected]
