Rabbi's Blog - Chabad Lubavitch of Idaho

Growing Taller

Friday, September 27, 2024 - 12:20 PM

On July 27, Hezbollah terrorists massacred fellow Arabs with an attack on Majdal Shams, a Druze village in Northen Israel. 12 youth were killed and scores injured. Israel promised a strong response to protect all its citizens.

Israel has been engaged in a tit-for-tat with Hezbollah for the last year. However, recently, it appears that Israel has seized the initiative to restore peace to the region – with the only language that terrorists seem to understand. Hopefully, this will allow all the displaced residents of Northern Israel to return home.

It seems that Israel has suddenly realized that its survival depends on its own strength and pride.

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This reminded me of the opening words of this week’s Torah portions, Nitza… Read More »

Turn the Lights On

Friday, September 20, 2024 - 8:03 AM

Turn the Lights On!

This week, in a remarkable development, thousands of terrorists’ pagers and radios exploded in Lebanon and Syria. The ingenuity of the undertaking and the immense planning involved is staggering.

Think of it this way: For months and possibly years, these devices were considered critical and “productive” to the sinister efforts of these villains. But, lurking beneath the surface – possibly in plain sight if disassembled – was dangerous explosive material.

Sometimes we need to look beneath the surface, or simply turn the lights on.

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This Shabbat marks the eighteenth of Elul, the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov (founder of the Chassidic movement) and the birthday of the Alter Rebbe (R… Read More »

The Accidental Hero

Friday, September 13, 2024 - 7:02 AM

Umberto Eco once wrote, “The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.”

We’ve all heard stories of people that accidentally saved the day. Whether it’s Curious George getting up to mischief or someone trying to steal a car and seeing a baby in the heat – they were just in the right place at the right time. They did not intend to be heroes. Yet Divine Providence brought them to such acclaim.

Are such people deserving of credit? What if they put forth no effort whatsoever? What if they were trying to do something else and inadvertently did something heroic? What if they intended harm, but instead the act was one of unexpected valor?

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This week&rsquo… Read More »

A Trail of Evidence

Friday, September 6, 2024 - 9:03 PM

Mrs. Eva Schloss, stepsister of Anne Frank and a survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, was once asked what is her response is to those that deny that the Holocaust ever happened.

Her response was curt and to the point: “The Nazis took many photos.”

The Nazi regime was very organized and also quite obsessed with documentation. They went to great lengths to record the atrocities they carried out, whether for their own pleasure or paranoia.

I found this response outstanding. She did not say, ‘Well, I was there so it must have happened.’ This, of course is true as well. But there is an even better source of testament to the genocide.

The Nazis provided the evidence for their own incrimination.

In a tragic reru… Read More »