ChabadNewOrleans Blog - Chabad-Lubavitch of Louisiana

Crying, Dancing, and an EV Charger

Friday, November 29, 2024 - 2:12 PM

This annual Kinus Hashluchim (Chabad Shluchim Conference) is taking place this weekend in New York. Thousands of Rabbis (the Shluchos have their conference in February) gather from around the world for a weekend of connection and recharging. One encourages another, friends reconnect, ideas are shared, inspiration is available in large doses, and all in a very uplifted environment. The pivotal moment is when all the Shluchim visit the Rebbe’s Ohel to “report for duty” and ask for the Rebbe’s prayers and blessings for their success and the wellbeing of the Jewish world. The Kinus ends on a climactic note with the Sunday afternoon banquet that highlights and celebrates the state of Chabad and the Jewish world. This is a very inspiring and joyous event. This year over 6,500 participants are expected to be in attendance.

This year there will also have a bittersweet feel to it. We are still in the week of Shiva for Rabbi Zvi Kogan, the UAE Chabad Rabbi who was murdered by terrorists last weekend. Of course, shiva is technically reserved for biological immediate family. However, each of the 6,000 Chabad Shluchim around the world views Zvi as a brother. Many, if not most, did not know him personally. Many, like me, were not even aware of his existence. We knew that there are Chabad Shluchim in the UAE, but we did not know them personally. Hearing about the heart wrenching way that he met his end, shook each of us personally to the core. His spirit looms large at this year’s Kinus and he and his work will be featured throughout the weekend.

Also, the recent passing of longtime Kinus chairman, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, earlier this year, looms large, and his legacy will also be prominently featured throughout the weekend.

Yesterday I was driving around NOLA doing my weekly Eruv check and found myself on a tiny side street near Broad and Earhart (close to Restaurant Depot). To my surprise, on my left I saw an EV charging station. We are all like EVs in the sense that we need to charge our batteries to be effective people. If you would like to charge your Jewish batteries, I highly recommend tuning in to the Kinus broadcast on Sunday at noon. The link is: www.chabadneworleans.com/kinus.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Mendel Rivkin

The Secret of Jewish Influencers

Friday, November 22, 2024 - 7:39 AM

These days being a social media influencer is all the rage. But the notion of an influencer is certainly older than social media. Parents are influencers. Teachers are influencers. Leaders in any field are influencers. Friends can be influencers. You get the idea.

Next weekend, a gathering of the largest group of Jewish influencers is taking place in New York, the annual Shluchim Conference (Chabad Rabbis). What is the secret of the success that Chabad Shluchim have in being Jewish influencers?

This week I read a pair of letters that the Rebbe wrote to Jewish educators in 1944 in which he articulates a perspective on Jewish education/influencing that is very instructive (pun intended).

He cites a passage in the Talmud that identifies three cases from which the Torah derives the obligation of adults to influence children with respect to Jewish observance. The first is the prohibition against the consumption of insects. The second is the prohibition against the consumption of blood. The third are the laws of ritual impurity.

Conceptually, age need not only be measured by one’s passport or birth certificate, but also by extent of awareness. Education is not just for children, but rather for anyone that has room to grow in awareness that leads to practice.

Hashem specifically chooses these three cases to teach us the obligation of influencing the “youth,” because in each case there is an argument against the success of that effort.

An influencer looks at a person or society that has become so corrupted that matters which are obliviously grotesque have become acceptable (similar to the consumption of insects), might conclude that it is a lost cause. Yet the Torah instructs us to get involved and influence.

Regarding the consumption of blood, the Torah says, “strengthen yourself against the consumption of blood.” Rashi tells us that this is because the people were steeped in blood consumption. When a negative practice becomes pervasive, it loses the perception of it being negative. An influencer might conclude that trying to impact in an area of life that has become so pervasively distant from observance is a lost cause. Yet the Torah instructs us to get involved and influence.

The laws of ritual impurity are entirely suprarational. A leap of faith is required to adapt them into one’s life. An influencer might say “why would I bother trying to influence people about the suprarational when they identify as agnostic?” Yet the Torah instructs us to get involved and influence.

How indeed can the Torah expect an influencer to be successful despite the strong arguments to the contrary? Here the Rebbe quotes a passage from the Rambam, one of his favorite quotes. “Every Jew wants to be part of the Jewish people, and he wants to perform all the mitzvot and eschew all the transgressions; it is only his evil inclination that presses him.”

You have to know who you are dealing with. Deep down even the self-proclaimed agnostic has a soul that wishes nothing more than a relationship with Hashem based on Torah and Mitzvot. Once you are aware of that, you simply must learn how to awaken that Neshama and get past the mirage that obstructs it.

Happy influencing!
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Mendel Rivkin

A College Student Rally We Can All Support

Friday, November 15, 2024 - 12:09 AM

One of the more frustrating elements of this past year following the October 7 attacks and subsequent war is the campus protest movement and the impotent response to those protests on the part of most university administrations. Countless words have been written lamenting the antisemitic sentiments on many college campuses. Much has been opined on how challenging it has been for Jewish students at those universities. Many have felt threatened, or at the very least, marginalized, by the anti-Israel protests and the blatant antisemitism that emerged from them.

The need for engaging Jewish students on college campuses has come into stark focus. Students on their own have sought to become more engaged as the look for a space where they can comfortably connect with their Jewish identities. They want to associate with fellow Jewish students, find support during this time of challenge, and experience Jewish life as it is available during their college years. Among the organizations dedicated to Jewish college students, Chabad is currently serving Jewish students at 950 college campuses, including locally at Tulane University. The uptick of students looking for Jewish engagement over the past year is very much in evidence at the Tulane Chabad.

One of the highlights on the Chabad on Campus calendar is Pegisha weekend. For decades Chabad on Campus has invited students to spend a Shabbat in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York for a Shabbaton, called the Pegisha. Students from campuses all around the world come together to celebrate their Jewishness.

This weekend over 2,000 students will participate in this year’s Pegisha, including a nice Tulane Chabad delegation. This is a college student gathering that we can all get behind. You can rest assured that students will return from the Pegisha with a reinvigorated pride in their Jewish identities, and the resolve to share that pride with their fellow Jewish students. This, my friends, is Am Yisrael Chai in real time!

On a different note, this week we launched our new JLI adult education course, Nurturing Relationships. While Lesson One is in the books, it is not too late to jump on board and join the course.

While preparing for this course I realized that it has something to offer everyone. It really does not matter if you have little to no background in Torah learning. It really does not matter if you have been studying Torah your entire life. The Torah and Chassidus based tools for enhancing relationships that this course offers are extremely valuable and informative for anyone on the Jewish knowledge continuum. This can help you in any relationship you might have in your life, marital, familial, friendship, professional, workplace, neighbor, and anything in between. I hope that you will take advantage of these gems that are being offered.

Reach out for more information or sign up for the course at www.chabadneworleans.com/jli. I look forward to sharing this journey with you.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Mendel Rivkin

Zoom In - Zoom Out

Friday, November 8, 2024 - 9:35 AM

There are times when we look at an image and it conveys a particular message. Then we zoom out and see it in a broader context and it tells an expanded story.

When we read narratives in the Torah this same phenomenon applies. We can examine it at a “zoomed in” level, and it leaves us with a wonderful message or lesson. Then we take a deeper dive which gives us a “zoomed out” and broader perspective, and suddenly, we are exposed to an idea that is more profound and far-reaching.

An example from this week’s Parsha. The Torah relates that Avraham’s nephew Lot moved to Sodom. After his move, Sodom and its four neighboring cities were invaded by the armies of the “Four Kings.” Lot is taken captive, and Avraham takes up arms to rescue him. In the process, Avraham vanquishes the armies of the Four Kings, frees Lot along with the Kings and citizens of Sodom and its environs.

On the surface this is a simple story. Your relative is under duress, you do what you can to help him. Lot is captured by the Four Kings; Avraham battles them and rescues him. The story is significant because Avraham had a small band of warriors that helped him conquer the mighty armies or Four Kings, who had previously managed to conquer the five armies of Sodom and the neighboring cities. It was by Divine Intervention that Avraham was successful. End of story.

When we zoom out and peel away the surface layer, we begin to see a fascinating narrative unfold. Psalms (89:20) states, “I have found David My servant and anointed him with My holy oil.” Where did G-d find him? Who knew that David was lost?

The Midrash explains that G-d “found” David in Sodom. How is that even possible; David was born a millennium after Sodom became the Dead Sea? David is descended of Ruth, the righteous convert who began life as a Moabite princess. The Moabite nation is descended from Lot (as we will see in next week’s Parsha). So the special soul of King David, the ancestor of Mashiach, was lost in Sodom, completely out of its element.

One of the four kings, Amrafel of Shinar, is identified by our sages as Nimrod, the nemesis of Avraham, who was the main instigator behind the Tower of Babel. Nimrod senses that the unique soul of Mashiach, who will make the name of G-d known to all mankind, was “wandering” in Sodom. To prevent this soul from achieving its purpose, he attacks Sodom and captures Lot with the intention of not allowing him to sire Moab, the ancestor of Ruth, the grandmother of David, who was the forerunner of Mashiach.

Avraham senses the great threat to G-d’s very purpose of creation (the future redemption through the coming of Mashaich), and he jumps in to ensure that the process will play out as intended.

Seeing it from this vantage point, the narrative becomes pivotal to the development of world history. It also teaches on a micro level, that we cannot truly appreciate the far-reaching impact of a simple act of kindness to another.

This is just an example. Every word in the Torah tells a multi-layered story. Go and learn.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Mendel Rivkin