As I mentioned in a few prior posts, for as long Mrs KB and I have been married, I have been a chassid of Rabbi Zev Cohen of Congregation Adas Yeshurun in Chicago. He has such a powerful and positive way of speaking which I find inspiring and I try to make his replay of his derashas for Shabbos Shuva (given on Hoshana Rabbah night) and Shabbos HaGadol (given on the motzei Shabbos of Chol HaMoed) every year.
Over the last few months Rabbi Cohen has been giving a divrei chizuk shiur on Wednesday nights in connection with the public health crisis. This week he entitled his shiur as "Double Divrei Chizuk" as the United States has been coming to grips with the aftermath of the senseless murder of George Floyd and the unrest which has left sections of major urban areas in shambles. This shiur is available on line at www.adasyeshurun.com. Same rules as usual apply, although I have not attempted to summarize the entire shiur, I have tried to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Cohen.
Rabbi Cohen began the shmooze by saying that he does not have permission to opine why things are happening, but we can at least discuss what it is happening. He first noted that on Sunday evening, three days after returning to shul for the first time, they had news of the civil unrest and they had to cancel davening in shul because of the events occurring in Chicago (and the rest of the country).
Rabbi Cohen began by noting that although it was not premeditated, one person has spread the virus around the world and it has shut down the economy and impacted millions of people.
Rabbi Cohen then noted that one person did make the conscious decision to murder George Floyd and that this horrific act has impacted the entire country. He said that it was unbelievable that one person took an act and it has shut down major cities all over the country. This person took such a horrible act and it had an impact on the most powerful country in the world. From the President to mayors, everyone stopped what they were doing. Billions of dollars of damage occurred, all because of the actions of one person.
Rabbi Cohen also mentioned how Rabbi Ari Schonefeld started a program - Night Seder America and 1,500 people call in. This is an Eight Grade Rebbi from Passaic, NJ and he has inspired all these people to call in - the act of one person.
Rabbi Cohen also told the story of Tema Cohen who lived in the Batei Ungaren section of Mea Shearim. A group of three female university students wanted to meet a real Yerushalmi woman and they called Rabbi Gellis and asked if he could arrange it. He then called Tema Cohen and she invited them to come to the house on a Thursday. The women came and baked Challah with Mrs Cohen. They sat and talked about general things while the Challah baked and then she gave each of them Challah to take home.
Two years later, Rabbi Gellis got a call from one of the women who said that she was marrying a man from the Kibbutz Yesud Ha'Mallah. She wanted him to know that she was inspired by Mrs Cohen and that she would be making Challah for Shabbos.
After they got married the woman would make Challah for them to eat on Friday Night. Then they would watch TV and the next morning (Shabbos day) they would drive to the Kinneret. This went on for a short time with little modification, until the woman decided that she would make enough Challah on Thursday for them to be able to eat some for lunch on Shabbos as well.
A few months later the husband said to her - you make this wonderful Challah for Shabbos, but I don't do anything. I want to do something. So he asked his friends and they said that he should make Kiddush. So he did. But they still watched TV on Friday Night and they still drove to the Kinneret Shabbos day. But shortly thereafter he said while eating Challah on Shabbos morning, I think that since we eat Challah on Shabbos day, I should make Kiddush on Shabbos day as well. So he began to make the Friday Night Kiddush on Shabbos day as well.
A few months after that, the husband said to his wife - we dont need to watch TV on Friday Night, they only show reruns on Fridays. So what should we do? We can eat gari'nim and just talk after dinner. Shortly thereafter they jointly decided that they would no longer drive to the Kinneret on Shabbos day and that instead they would just walk around their Moshav on Shabbos day.
A short time later the woman called Rabbi Gellis on the phone and told him the story of her married life so far and then asked him a favor. She told him that there is an old building on the Moshav which its said that it was a shul which had been set up by the students of the Maggid of Mezrich, who himself was a Talmid of the Ba'al Shem Tov. She said that Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur were coming and she wanted to know if a minyan could come for the High Holidays.
Rabbi Gellis said to himself, how can I possibly get a minyan to come to a non-frum kibbutz for the Yamim Noraim? He remembered that there was a town about 15 minutes away called Chatzor HaGlilit where an enclave of Gerrer Chassidim lived and he called the son of the Gerrer Rebbi to ask if some Chassidim could come and make a minyan. Soon thereafter he got a call from the Gerrer Rebbi who said that this year, instead of the Gerrer Chassidim visiting the Rebbi for the Yomim Noraim, they would come to Yesud HaMa'alah. And so a week before Rosh Hashana, they came to the Moshav and renovated the old shul and put in electricity and air conditoning and brought in machzorim. And even though that year Rosh Hashana was a three day Yom Tov, everyone in the Kibbutz came for at least some part of the davening.
The Moshav fell in love with the Chassidim and they came back for Yom Kippur and then again on Sukkos they came back and made a Simchas Beis HaShoeva. And the people of the Kibbutz were so inspired by the ten Gerrer Chassidim, that this agricultural kibbutz decided that they were going to keep Shmitta. The following year after Shmitta, the kibbutz had a bountiful harvest.
Not far away there was another Kibbutz called Sdei Eliezer. They saw the harvest that Yisud HaMa'alah had the year after Shmitta and were astounded by how much more produce was grown. So they decided that they would keep Shmitta as well.
They later called Rabbi Gellis and they asked him to come and make Birchas Ha'Ilanos and he came with the husband of Mrs Tema Cohen. They showed him a 70 year old apple tree which had not borne fruit recently, but was budding. He made the bracha on the tree, and that year the tree had a tremendous output of apples.
All of this came from Mrs Tema Cohen who was brought three girls with whom she baked Challah. There was no attempt at Kiruv and they did not discuss Judaism. She just showed them love and how a Jewish woman makes Shabbos.
R' Cohen noted that we can live in a world where very quickly we can see the results of one person's bad act. When it comes to mitzvos and good deeds, it may take years to see results, but we can IYH see great blossoming results.
R' Cohen then referred to a sefer that he is learning with his congregation called Nefesh HaChaim, written by a student of the GRA. He writes a few times in the sefer that a Jew in his or her home that does a mitzva that no one knows about, or even does a mitzva with no physical activity (like refraining from saying lashon hara) - R' Chaim Volozhin says that this person has just fueled the building of worlds.
R' Cohen said that many people have called him and asked what does Corona mean? Why is it happening? He had no answers for them. But he does say that we can learn something from the spread of Corona and the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd.
He noted that when he sees his grandchildren and they want to give him a hug, he needs to step back. He also mentioned that when he returned to shul and the chazzan was bringing the Sefer Torah back to the Aron Kodesh, he had to step back. Why should a Jew step back from the Sefer Torah? Why should a grandfather step back from his grandchildren?
R' Cohen opined that maybe we see from these events that we possess great potential. We can accomplish wonderful things. We may not see the results from our actions, but we can be assured that our good deeds can have positive results. One person accidentally changed the whole world. One person intentionally did a despicable act and changed the country.
R' Cohen closed by saying that we don't need grandiose plans and we don't need to see grandiose results. We just need to do and do l'shem shamayim. The person does not need to know and the newspapers don't need to know. But we can do things that can change the world. One smile to people we love, one good word, making a bracha out loud, judging people for the good. All things that we can do. The lesson to us is that if this is the way that it can work on the bad side, one good deed can impact how much more on the good side.
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