א' חשון, תשע”ו // פרשת נח October 14, 2015 // Parashas Noach VOL. XVIII NO. 880 72 YEARS LATER, All Types of Jews Still Bask in the Light of the AISH KODESH OF PIASECZNA, HY"D 18 27 THEY SAVED A LIFE, MOTZA: AT THE EDGE THEY SAVED A WORLD OF YERUSHALAYIM Rebbetzin Nechama Margolin’s Story Keeping the Dream Alive Ruth Lichtenstein PUBLISHER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Rachel Roth Managing Editor Sarah Birnhack Executive Editor Rachel Hubner Fiction Editor CONTENTS TORAH CONTRIBUTORS Dayan Chaim Kohn Rabbi Ozer Alport Rabbi Shlomo Aschkenasy Rabbi Avrohom C. Carmell Rabbi Shimon Finkelman Rabbi Yosef Gesser 14 Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginzberg Rabbi Zecharya Greenwald ILLUMINATED BY THE Rabbi Avraham Y. Heschel Rabbi Dovid Kaplan Rabbi Shmuel Y. Klein Rabbi Paysach Krohn Rabbi Fishel Schachter Rabbi Benzion Shafier Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro AISH KODESH Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, MD Rabbi Reuven Wolf DESIGN OF PIASECZNA Israel Bitton Creative Director Heshy Ehrenreich He lived through the darkest time in CONTRIBUTORS Jewish history... and he grappled with that Yosef Caldwell | Alan Freishtat darkness. His Torah teachings... are the Gur Aryeh Herzig | Shmuel Landesman Dr. David J. Lieberman | Dr. David H. outcry of someone who ... loves Him and is torn Rosmarin | Mordechai Schmutter apart by that concealment but never, ever lets go. Rabbi Nachman Seltzer Yitzchok Shteierman “I think that speaks to our generation... people Blimie Basch | Suri Cohen Charlotte Friedland | Judy Fulda live with such anxiety, despair, depression and Rebbetzin T. Heller | Pearl Herzog hester panim. The Rebbe’s sefarim are a Rebbetzin Chanah Heschel | Esther Horowitz | Rebbetzin Faigie Horowitz Shulchan Aruch... for how a believing Jew Rochel Isaacson | Devora Klein is to survive ...” Rhona Lewis | Rochel Licht | Yael Mermelstein | Batya Ruddell Esther Shdeour | Tzipora Shub BY BINYOMIN WOLF Evelyne Singer | Dina Spira COORDINATORS Esther Henny Ehrlich | Simi Lemmer ADVERTISING 5 Letters 38 Psychology: Judy Fulda, M.S. Yonoson Moller Business Manager Duvid Frankel Advertising Manager 6 Torah 40 Gallery Avi Wagschal Executive Sales Freidy Schondorf Office Sales 8 Halachah 43 Think Twice Temmy Ziemba Lakewood Sales From the BHI Hotline 44 Health Published by Hamodia Newspaper: 10 Chinuch 207 Foster Avenue, Brooklyn N.Y. 11230 46 Graphology (718) 853-9094 FAX: (718) 853-9103 12 Profile E-MAIL: [email protected] 48 Cookery: Wholesome and Healthful! PHOTOS: Getty Images / AP Images / Inner Dimensions iStock / Shutter Stock / 123RF / 17 Yehuda Boltshauser / Flash90 52 Chat With the Pros 18 To Save a Life, To Save a World Articles in the magazine are for infor- mational purposes only. In matters of 53 Serialized Novel: halachah, kashrus or medicine, each read- 23 Shemittah Champions er’s Rav and/or doctor should be consulted. What About Me? Chapter 26 Books given as sources are not endorsed by Hamodia. Photographs submitted by in- dividuals are assumed to be their property, 26 A World That Was and are therefore not otherwise credited. 56 Serialized Novel: Please note: In some stories, images are for illustrative purposes only. 27 Motza: At the Edge of Yerushalayim Forever Forward, Chapter 55 Since publishing any true story requires presenting the facts as they happened, they are not to be taken as condoning any 32 Musings 58 Short Story actions or words that are conveyed, and no halachos should be derived from them without consulting one’s posek. 34 Snapshot 64 Humor All rights reserved. © Reproduction by any means without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. 36 On the Job 66 Postscript 4 October 14, 2015 ILLUMINATED BY THE AISH KODESH OF PIASECZNA Why thousands around the world are learning the teachings of Harav Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, Hy”d BY BINYOMIN WOLF The Aish Kodesh of Piaseczna Harav Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, Hy”d do thousands of Jews around Maggid and Reb Kalonymus Kalman HaLevi Epstein of Cracow, the world today gravitate the Maor Vashemesh, zecher tzaddikim livrachah. But the WHY toward the teachings of Harav Rebbe’s righteousness, brilliance, Torah and unmatched yichus Kalonymus Kalman Shapira of Piaseczna, Poland, Hy”d, who are not the primary reasons for his relevance to this generation. was killed al kiddush Hashem a few months after the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, 72 years ago this week? The Crisis of the Generation Why do 1,000 Jews of all types from around the tristate area One major factor is the Rebbe’s response to the conditions gather in Woodmere, New York, every year to hold a hilula on of his times. Jewish communities all over Europe experienced Motzei Shabbos Parashas Noach to celebrate this tzaddik’s life cataclysmic upheaval during and after World War I. Too many and teachings? What is it about his message that strikes such a households consisted of religious grandfathers with beards chord with our generation? and yarmulkes, grandmothers with tichlech, and children The Piaseczner Rebbe became known as the Aish Kodesh or grandchildren who were completely nonobservant. The after his manuscript that was written in the Warsaw ghetto was traditional means of transmitting the mesorah to the next thus named at publication. He is remembered as one of the generation no longer spoke to the younger generation. Young most prominent chassidic Rebbes in Poland before World War people were leaving the world of Torah in droves. Although II because of his other-worldly righteousness and well-known today’s “off-the-derech” phenomenon does not compare to the brilliance in Torah and Halachah. He was also the son of the social and religious dislocation experienced at that time, our Rebbe Reb Elimelech of Grodzhisk, zy”a, and a descendant of generation also struggles mightily with large numbers of young some of the most revered tzaddikim of Polish Chassidus: Reb people leaving observance and many more (including adults) Elimelech of Lizhensk, the Chozeh of Lublin, the Kozhnitzer whose Yiddishkeit seems empty of any substance or meaning. 14 October 14, 2015 What was the Aish Kodesh’s response? Because of his great back of Hachsharas Ha’avreichim), to understand a basic law of love for Hashem and the Jewish people, he could not watch the spiritual and emotional psychology: older generation do things as they had always been done while Man’s soul craves stimulation. Not only joy alone — it the next generation slipped into oblivion. Not long after World simply loves stimulation. It even desires to feel sadness and War I, in 1923, he founded a chassidic yeshivah in Warsaw, which tears…. This is a law [built into “nature”] and need of the soul he named Daas Moshe after his illustrious grandfather, the Rebbe like its other requirements and needs. Therefore only one who Reb Yerachmiel Moshe of Kozhnitz, zy”a. Directing all aspects satisfies this quota [of stimulation] with [Divine] service and of the yeshivah, the Rebbe instituted the approach to chinuch, emotional Torah and prayer will [successfully] guard his soul. and the emphasis on chinuch for which But the soul of one whose holy service he became known. He later outlined is without emotion will either fulfill its Harav Moshe his teachings on chinuch in the sefer Weinberger, Rav need with other, cheap stimulation or Chovas Hatalmidim, published in of Congregation will succumb to some sort of emotional 1932, which caused a revolution in Aish Kodesh in illness because it lacks one of its basic Woodmere. chinuch soon after its release because needs. of the gaping vacuum it filled. We cannot ignore our human The Rebbe demonstrated that needs. Just as one cannot live in a chinuch does not and cannot mean healthy way without food or water, the merely transmitting Torah knowledge soul will not remain healthy without and halachic practice to one’s children stimulation and excitement. We must or students. It means initiating them therefore actively work to satisfy our into a lifelong dedication and profound soul’s desire for stimulation through loving connection with the Master of Torah, tefillah and mitzvos. If we think the World. we can forgo our, or our children’s, Yiddishe excitement, the negative Involving the Emotions in consequences are inevitable. Even Mitzvos and Tefillah in frum communities, our general One major proponent of the Aish failure to transmit the excitement Kodesh’s teachings today is Rabbi of Yiddishkeit manifests itself in the Doniel Katz, director of The Elevation proliferation of seemingly infinite Project. He holds shiurim and seminars forms of “cheap stimulation” that need in large frum communities around the world, each attended by not be named, as everyone is painfully aware of them. Using hundreds of people, to inspire Jews to deepen their emotional teachings from Chazal and Chassidus, including many from the connection to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. One way he does this is Aish Kodesh, Rabbi Katz shows the participants at his seminars by teaching a practical method to prepare for tefillah using the how to incorporate excitement, stimulation and emotion into Piaseczner’s practice of hashkatah, their Torah, tefillah and mitzvos. quieting the mind, explained in the sefer Derech Hamelech. The Rebbe demonstrated Connecting to Hashem One participant from a frum Amidst External and Internal community shared with Rabbi Katz that chinuch does not Darkness that learning hashkatah “was unlike and cannot mean merely Harav Moshe Weinberger, Rav anything I’ve ever experienced…. I was of Congregation Aish Kodesh in blown away by my own ability to calm transmitting Torah Woodmere, New York, and mashpia my mind and watch my thoughts.... knowledge and halachic at Yeshiva University, is a child of It’s such a chiddush to me that yiras Holocaust survivors. In 5752/1992, he Hashem is the conscious choice to practice to one’s chose to name his newly established keep your daas in charge….