לנגדי תמיד
Logged In
Don’t Kill Your Aravos
First tie all five together
Take them in your right hand to a patch of actual earth
Not tiled like in shul or a patio
Untie the aravos
Ask Hashem to consider your actions
As if you have all the kavanos of the neviim behind this minhag
Strike the earth exactly five times
Slowly
Each strike corresponds to one letter of מ–נ–צ–פ–ך
Focus on the mem during strike one, next the nun etc.
These are subduing each one of the five primary prosecuting midos
Each upswing is important too
Try to focus on the five words
לב–טהור–ברא–לי–אלהים
One per upswing
If you break the top off your arava during this process
Like the macho guys in shul do
Your arava is posul
You’re avoda is lost
You’ll need to get a new set
And start again
Humbly
A guteh kvittel
What Does Simcha Look Like?
A common question inspired
By an inadequate translation of a famous mishna
One needs to see קרי or נדה or זיבה
To become טמא?
Obviously
Ridiculous
The only simcha
You can be רואה
Is שמחת בית השואבה
Now is the time to understand
What רואה means
And why we have no record
Of post Beis Hamikdash gedolei Yisroel
Celebrating שמחת בית השואבה
The way they celebrated שמחת תורה
Chatzos Kollels have become popular in recent years. Only the Zohar emphasizes the importance of this practice. It’s repeated there dozens of times.
With the haskama of Rav Moshe Shapiro zt”l I encourage people to learn this way themselves whenever possible.
When we can’t, next best is to sponsor someone who can. The ideal subject of learning after chatzos is Kabbala.
$1500 will sponsor a talmid chochom learning kabbala in Yeshivas Rashbi for a month.
Twenty years ago a colleague in the Mir discovered a number of talmidei chachomim struggling financially who refused to receive tzedaka. He outsmarted them.
They were invited to join a Shabbos kollel paying them nicely for learning they were doing anyway wherever they want. Donors don’t know the recipients, and the recipients don’t even know they’re receiving tzedaka. This is the Stealth Kollel.
Stealthily supporting thirty world class talmidei chachomim learning in Yerushalayim. The most ideal form of tzedaka, as stipulated in Bava Basra 9a.
There are no expenses and no advertising. 100% tzedaka.
Sponsoring one avrech for a month is $1000. But donations of any size are warmly welcomed.