Fridays for Families this week, we look forward to celebrating Shabbos with family and community with spirit, unity, delicious Shabbos dinner and L'chaim!
This Sunday, February 9, Jteens travel to NYC to visit and pray at the Rebbe's Ohel, then tour Crown Heights, the center of the Chabad movement. We look forward to an inspiring, educational and fun-filled day!
Monday, February 10: Tu B'shvat Women's Night Out
Join for a women’s evening, celebrating the New Year for Trees.
Discuss the mystical meanings of this holiday, while enjoying a delightful buffet of exotic fruits and wines.
Shabbos Times Friday, February 7 Candle Lighting 5:03pm
Evening Service Mincha 5:00pm
Saturday, February 8
Morning Service 9:30am
Kiddush Brunch 12:00pm
Evening Service Mincha 5:00pm
Shabbos Ends 6:04pm
Sunday, February 9 11:30am- 4:00pm Join an exclusive Jteen trip to visit the Rebbe's Ohel (resting place) in Queens, then head to Crown Heights for a tour of 770 Lubavitch World Headquarters, kosher lunch, ice cream shop, Judaic tour and shopping on Kingston Avenue!
Join for a women’s evening, celebrating the New Year for Trees.
Discuss the mystical meanings of this holiday, while enjoying a delightful buffet of exotic fruits and wines.
Jteens at Bris Avrohom of Fair Lawn invite children ages 6-11 to participate in an exciting bi-weekly workshop.
Drop off your kids and they will have a chance to choose from many activities and classes. Tutoring will be conducted by teens with passions in the given subjects. Free Admission!
Teen Talks and Lounge
Wednesday evenings 7:30pm-8:30pm
A warm environment for our community of teens.
.Hang out, and get connected with other Jewish teens in the area for casual, social meet and discussions.
MVP Mitzvah Volunteer Program
Thursday evenings, 4pm- 5pm
Geared for boys and girls ages 11-13, MVP is for volunteering and Mitzvah madness!
MVP's meet at the Maple Glen Center in Fair Lawn, for a Pre-Shabbat program with the senior residents.
Moms and Tots Shabbat
Saturday mornings 11am-12pm
Discover, learn and explore with Shabbat songs, drama and kiddie play area. Bond with your little one, while connecting with other Moms in the area!
A Bissele Humor
Professor Hadari was teaching advanced map reading in his earth sciences class at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After explaining about latitude, longitude, degrees and minutes Professor Hadari asked, "Suppose I asked you to meet me for lunch at 23 degrees, 4 minutes north latitude and 45 degrees, 15 minutes east longitude...?"
After a moment of silence, a student named Itzik volunteered, "I guess you'd be eating alone."
Weekly E-Torah
Is it possible to be spiritual and selfish at the same time? Let us have a look at the words of the Torah that shed important light on this question.
Vayasa Moshe et ha-am—“Moses made the people journey from the sea.” The great miracle had happened. The sea had split and the Egyptian army was no more. The word vayasa—“he made [them] journey”—implies that Moses had to force his people to move on. But why was this necessary? Why wouldn’t they move on their own?
According to Rashi, the enemy was so confident of victory against the Israelites that they bedecked their horses and chariots with gold, silver and precious jewels. These treasures were now being washed up on the seashore, and the Jews were collecting the riches. So they were in no mood to move on. But Moses said they had a date with G‑d at Mount Sinai. As the nation’s leader, hehad to compel them to carry on their journey.
The Zohar gives a more spiritual explanation. We are taught that the divine revelation at the splitting of the sea was quite an extraordinary experience. In the words of our sages, “What a simple maidservant saw at the sea, even the great prophets were not privileged to see.” According to this mystical view, it was not the material wealth they were obsessed with, but rather the incredible spiritual delights they were experiencing.
Either way, it was up to Moses to move them along to their appointment with destiny. And the question is this: If it was gold and silver that was delaying their journey to Sinai, we can well understand the need for Moses to hurry them on. But if it was the spiritual experience of inspired revelation, why move on? Why not stay there as long as possible? Surely, the more G‑dly revelation the better!
The answer is that G‑d was calling. Sinai was beckoning. The entire purpose of the Exodus and all the miracles in Egypt and at the sea was nothing more than to receive the Torah at Sinai. That was the revelation that would give the Jewish people its unique way of life and its very raison d’être. Sinai represents our mission, our mandate. Sinai made us G‑d’s messengers on earth. However we may understand the concept of a chosen people, it was the Sinaitic experience that made us that. Any detours or distractions from the journey to Sinai are therefore out of the question—no matter how lofty or spiritual they might be.
It comes as no great shock to learn that gold and silver are not as important as Sinai. But that spirituality, too, must take second place to Sinai—this is indeed big news. And what exactly is Sinai? Torah. And what is Torah? The will of G‑d. In other words, the bottom line is: what does G‑d want? How does He want us to act, to live our lives? So, the big news story here is that even the most amazing spiritual experience, the most extraordinary revelation, is not as important as doingwhat G‑d wants us to do.
It is a very important message that emerges from this one word, vayasa. It’s not what we want that counts, but what G‑d wants. If we want money and diamonds, and He wants to give us His Torah, then we leave the loot and we go to Sinai. And even if it is a spiritual experience we seek, and G‑d says “Go to Sinai,” we still go to Sinai and we leave the spiritual inspiration for another time.
Sometimes we can get so caught up in our own spirituality that we become quite selfish. Spiritually selfish, of course, but selfish nonetheless. At the end of the day, it’s not whether we are into materialism or monotheism, money or metaphysics. The ultimate question—and, in fact, the only question—is: what does G‑d want of me at this moment in time? Where should I be and what should I be doing right now?
So, if you find yourself in a quandary or on the horns of a difficult dilemma, ask yourself this very question: What would G‑d want? Yes, sometimes it might be helping a horse out of a ditch. But if that is the call of the hour, then so be it. It might not be very spiritual, but it is the right thing to do.
And if it’s the right thing to do, that makes it very G‑dly.
-adapted from www.chabad.org
