Stories Of Greatness

The Gemara relates that Yaakov Avinu crossed the river to retrieve pachim k’tanim, the small jugs that had been left behind. From here we learn: “Tzadikim, chavivim aleihem mamonam yoser m’gufam l’fi she’ein poshtin y’deihem b’gezel, For the righteous, their money is more precious than their bodies since they never stretch out their hands in theft.” The Arizal explains the Gemara in a different manner. A tzadik recognizes that nothing that comes his way is coincidental. Each and every item found in his possession is there for a specific purpose and must never be squandered. Yaakov Avinu understood that if in addition to his riches Hashem also made him the owner of these small jugs, he must use them for avodas Hashem too. It is for this reason that the Gemara connects this concept to the idea of refraining from theft. Just as all that was given to me was predestined, so too, anything that was given to my friend is exactly where it ought to be.

 During the most recent Presidential election campaign in the United States, then-candidate Donald Trump delivered a speech in which he recalled how his father, Fred Trump, built a synagogue in New York. He remembered the location well, and he recalled the work that his father had sent him to do in the residential buildings around the Jewish neighborhood near the shul. Rabbi Shmuel Wagner shlita, mashgiach ruchani of Yeshivas Ohr Yerushalayim in Moshav Beit Meir, shares the incredible story of how Fred Trump built a shul for the congregation headed by his father, Rabbi Yisroel Wagner zt”l, and went on to make annual donations to the k’hilah and for many Jewish families in financial distress.

There’s no panic quite like discovering that your suitcase has disappeared from beneath the bus you had just traveled on, right before a two-day Yom Tov to another city. It wreaks havoc on one’s psyche and causes extreme panic. That’s what happened to Shlomo and Meira Weber just a few hours before the onset of Rosh HaShanah in Ramat Beit Shemesh.

As a function of his position, serving as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1993-2003, R’ Yisrael Meir Lau shlita met with dozens of world leaders – including several American presidents, the Queen of England, King Hussein, two popes and even Fidel Castro of Cuba – and always articulated the importance of Torah, Judaism, and the Land of Israel. He is considered one of the world’s most influential and inspiring religious leaders.

Rosh Chodesh Kislev is the yahrtzeit of Chabad shluchim Rabbi Gabi and Rivky Holtzberg, Hy”d, who were murdered during the November 26, 2008, terror attacks at Nariman House in Mumbai, India. Everyone has heard amazing stories of the Holtzbergs’ complete and utter self-sacrifice, day in and day out, until their tragic murders. But even after their passing, their legend – and their blessing – lives on with the following story, told by their brother-in-law, Mordechai Kaler.

On May 3, 1982, Prime Minister Menachem Begin hobbled into a crowded Knesset chamber, tense with expectancy. He was in pain, recovering from a severe hip injury, and it was with heavy, purposeful steps that he arrived to deliver his El Al speech. He began quietly, factually, declaring that the government had finally decided to halt all El Al flights on Shabbos and festivals – a revelation that sent leftist eyes glaring and hatred flashing in the public gallery where the El Al union men sat.