HAMAOR Rosh Hashanah 5779 / September 2018 HAMAOR 5 זכרתי לך חסד נעורייך
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ROSH HASHANAH 5779 SEPTEMBER 2018 Gateshead’s Master of Technology A Prole of Mr Dovid Gurwicz osh Hashanah Through the Age Signicant Roshei Hashanah from the 10th to the 17th centuries זכרתי לך חסד נעורייך Shofar Rabbi Gershon Miller speaks out on helping today’s youth build strong Mesiras Nefesh and Mesoroh relationships with Hashem SWEEPING AWAY STIGMA Parenting a child with serious mental health challenges זכרתי לך חסד נעורייך 4 Helping today’s youth to build strong relationships with Hashem 9 Shofar Mesiras Nefesh and Mesoroh 20 Rosh Hashanah: A New Day Thoughts for Yom Tov from Rabbi Yaacov Haber shlita he theme of resilience is one that is repeated throughout this 23 Rosh Hashanah edition of Hamaor. In Rabbi Gershon Miller’s Rosh Hashanah Through the Ages Significant Roshei Hashanah from the 10th to the thoughtful op-ed, he speaks of the terrible consequences of a 17th centuries Tlack of resilience in today’s young people. Indeed, as you will read 30 in my own article, ‘Sweeping Away Stigma’, this absence is having a Yom Kippur: The Chinuch of Kedushoh devastating effect on the mental health of many adolescents in our and Perishus Achieving Taharoh on the Day of Atonement kehillos today. 32 Gateshead’s Master of Technology Resilience, which is defined as the capacity to recover quickly A Profile of Mr Dovid Gurwicz from difficulties, is a trait that has stood our people in good stead 40 throughout history, however. In one of the vignettes in Rabbi Aubrey Mishpot V’tzedek Supporting you Practical Financial Shailos Hersh’s article on Roshei Hashanah of the past, we learn of the humble 47 origins of the world’s largest Jewish population, in New York – a prime The Other Side of the Coin A look behind the scenes at MaaserText’s inner example of Jewish resilience if ever there was one. Similarly, Rabbi workings Ch aim Burman, in his piece on the different halochos and minhogim of 52 the shofar, describes an inspirational tale of resilience from the camps. Succos: Unflappable Halachic discussion surrounding canvas succos when you are I recently read an article by Rabbi Berel Wein, where he explains 60 Sweeping Away Stigma that the shevorim sound of the shofar represents times of trouble, Parenting a child with a serious mental health tragedy and difficulties for klal Yisroel. The teruoh, on the other hand, challenge is a call to action, and of the drip, drip of progress. At more than one 66 Plastic Free point during the shofar blowing on Rosh Hashanah, the ba’al tokeoh Can a heimish family survive? blows both sounds consecutively, from which we can learn that after 72 Pop of Inspiration 'un'expecting trouble and struggle, comes positive action – and the development Rebbetzin Chaitchi Knopfler provides bursts of of resilience. inspiration for the Yomim Noroim 75 May 5779 bring all of klal Yisroel to a point of resilience, where we Synapse can withstand the difficulties and challenges that the coming months Fiction from Leah Gebber might bring us, and reap the benefits of a year filled with brochos and 82 Feast or Famine refuos, on both a personal and communal level. Recipes for the Yom Tov season 88 Kesivoh v’chasimoh tovoh Rising to the Challenge An interview with Mrs Shani Kruskal Judy Silkoff 92 Editor Apples! 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This is loving kindness of youth)? In fact, he they do have, then there’s nothing that’s one of the prime challenges of chinuch says, they will be what is known as an going to encourage them – they simply in this dor. arvuvyoh, a mixture. The challenge of this won’t have the strength and ability to generation will be to sort out this middoh turn away from what the world around In a remarkable piece in the Tzidkas of na’arus, to pull away from the middoh them is offering them and what is really Hatzaddik, wrien over a century ago, going wrong and channel it to ensure it considered to be the norm in the society Rav Zodok Hacohen z”tl, brings an goes right. around them nowadays. extraordinary description of the precise challenge this dor is facing. He talks It’s a remarkable revelation because it SO MUCH MORE THAN A about the characteristic of na’arus, of seems to be completely correct for our LIST OF DO’S AND DON’TS youthfulness, and explains that as with times. On the one hand, as we have seen, every middoh, it has two sides. On the we have the dropping of standards across We can see this quite clearly from matan זכרתי negative side, there is the fallout when society, accepted norms changing and Torah, which is described as ‘yom chasnoso, the passion, enthusiasm and energy of morality being challenged. Everything yom simchas libo’ – the day of Hakodosh youth is directed to the tzad ho’ra, to evil. seems to be unravelling so fast, with Boruch Hu’s ‘wedding’ to klal Yisroel. The This was demonstrated in the time of the an unprecedented display of chato’os giving of the Torah was an event that, first mabul (the flood), as it says in Bereishis ne’urim. And yet, certainly among shomrei and foremost, cemented the relationship 8.21, ‘ki yetzer lev ho’odom ra mineurov’ Torah umitzvos, there’s a tremendous between Hashem and Yisroel. Indeed, in the intentions of man’s heart are evil from amount of chesed ne’urim. There’s the parshas Yisro, Rashi says that Hashem) לך חסד his youth). The misplacement of youthful teshuvoh movement, the passion to return came towards klal Yisroel in the same energy led to a complete breakdown to Yiddishkeit within klal Yisroel; there way that a chosson goes out to greet his of society, of morality and truth, to the are probably more Jews learning Torah bride. When klal Yisroel were mekabel the point that the world could no longer exist. today than at any time since bayis sheni! Torah, we entered into a relationship with Conversely, expounds Rav Zodok, you We have such beautiful institutions, it’s Hakodosh Boruch Hu – and the Torah, have the positive side of na’arus, the tzad become completely accepted that boys go the 613 mitzvos, are our blueprint for hatov, where energy and youthfulness are directed to Divine truth, to Torah, and to נעורייך doing that which is good and right. He quotes the Zohar Hakodosh, explaining If our children come to view the Torah Helping today’s youth to build strong that this can be seen in the generation of the midbor, who received the Torah at Har as simply a list of do’s and don’ts, then Sinai, about whom Hashem says ‘zocharti loch chesed neurayich’, ‘I remembered they are missing the crucial point relationships with Hashem you for the kindness of your youth’. The Zohar explains that the neshomos of these two generations (the flood and the midbor) were one and the same – the to learn in yeshiva and girls go to seminary. maintaining that relationship – much like earlier generation had the potential to Beautiful homes are being built. This is a kesuboh. The mitzvos are the obligations accept the yoke of Torah upon themselves, not just for external show – it’s very real that bind us to Hashem and feed our love but instead they used the middoh to and there is a tangible passion. for Him – they are also the commitments destroy the world.