PARSHAS M IKEITZ VOLUM E 1 CHOF ZAYIN KISLEV 5765 ISSUE 10 ‘“–◊‰œ ‘Œ◊‘ ’–¤‘“ œ÷–¤“ ⁄÷◊‘‘„fl À Wishes you and your family ! P A R S H A S M IK E IT Z The Blum family was driving home late one night from an out-of-town wedding. A fter three hours of traveling the car started to make strange noises. M rs. Blum looked at her husband worriedly. "W hat is that?" she asked in a hushed tone, not want- ing to wake up the children who were asleep in the back seat. "I'm not sure," he answered. "Last week when I had the car checked, Jimmy said everything looked fine. I'll take it in again tomorrow and check it out." "W e are only an hour away from home," M rs. Blum whispered. "I hope we make it." M r. Blum did not have a chance to answer. Suddenly the noises became louder, and then the car stalled. "O h no!" blurted M rs. Blum exclaimed out loud. "Stuck on the highway in the middle of the night with a car full of kids..." "W hat happened?" "W hy did we stop?" O ne by one the children awoke, rubbing their eyes and looking around in the dark, confused. M r. Blum went out to check the engine and M rs. Blum explained to the children what had happened. "W hat are we go- ing to do?" "C an we go to a motel?" The children were talking nervously as their father called from under the hood, "W here is the cell phone?" "W hom are you going to call at this late hour?" M rs. Blum asked. "I'll call Jimmy. W e have no choice," M r. Blum answered. "I can't figure out what's wrong. H e knows our car best. Besides, he gave me his word that everything was fine. I hope he won't be too upset. It's dangerous to leave the car here. W e are stalled on a curve, and if they don't see us, people driving behind us may not be able to stop in time." M r. Blum used the loud speaker on his phone so that his hands would be free to work on the car. Soon everyone could hear Jimmy giving step-by-step instructions. A t last, it seemed that the problem was solved. "N ow, be very careful," Jimmy was saying. "Y ou told me you are stalled on the curve of a hill. The problem with your car may cause it to roll downhill as soon as you let the brake go. Let me review what I said once more." Jimmy went over his instructions. "N ow, M r. Blum, you've got it. D o step one, then two and three. R eady?" But instead of a reply, all Jimmy heard on the phone were some words in a language he couldn't understand. W e know what M r. Blum was saying. H e was following Y aakov A vinu's example in a time of trouble. In this week's par- shah, we read about the famine that caused Y aakov to send his sons down with Binyamin to M itzrayim against Y aakov's wishes. This was a difficult time, as Y aakov said, "I lost Y osef, and Shimon was taken captive, and I am afraid of losing Binyamin." There were steps to be taken to try to avoid the danger that might await them while they would be seeking food in M itzrayim. Y aakov's instructions to his sons included bringing gifts and taking extra money. Finally he said, "A ll that is left to do now is to daven to H aShem and ask for H is help." A Jew must always do what has to be done to solve a problem. A ction should be taken. Through these actions H aShem will send us H is help. But our tefillos are most important. It is our tefillos that bring H aShem to respond to our difficulty and to send H is help. From úP lease tell me what the R ebbe Saidù (A dapted from Likkutei Sichos, V ol. X X V , p. 227) #1 is 10 times 4, #ås 2 and 3 are 10 times more, add 4 to #6 and you will find #4, divide #4 by 2 to get #5 Who am I? ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ 6 5 4 3 2 1 (hint: Iåm connected to Chanukah) Please send your answers to connections@ shluchim.org “Connections” Newsletter is a weekly publication produced by The answer to last week’s brain buster is Shemesh Chinuch Yaldei Hashluchim [email protected] Congratulations to Rgdhm``mcRg`x`Khadqnv+A`qq`mpthkk`+Bnknlah`for solving the brain buster. A project of CHINUCH YALDEI HASHLUCHIM a division of the Shluchim Office 816 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11213 ~ (718) 221-0500 x105 ~ [email protected] B”H Dear kids, R o s h C h o d e s h T e v e s is o n Monday, December 13. Firstly, I want to give a big yasher koach to all of you who joined in the Yud Tes Kislev farbrengen/ phone rally. It was great hearing your voices saying the pesukim and I remembered to say Ya‘aleh V‘Yavoh in S hemoneh E srei and in bentc hing singing ...fi ¤”⁄Á” “—‚ from all around the world! I am so excited about Chanukah. I can’t wait to go out I remembered to say H allel af ter into the streets and light up the darkness. Remember the S hemoneh E srei. magical flashlights that Yankel and I had on our flight to New York? W ell, each one of you has your own flashlight, I remembered to da ven M u saf . too! All Chassidim are lamplighters and our mission is to light up the world by teaching people about torah and I remembered to say B orc hi N af shi on mitzvos. p ag e 7 9 af ter the S hir S hel Yom. M rs. Getzel just sent me to the supermarket to buy potatoes, olive oil, and Chanukah candles. There I was, I didn‘t sew or do any lau ndry. walking around the store with my full shopping carts and everyone was staring at me. People came over to me and asked if I was stocking up for a hunger! “No, no”, I told them, laughing, “the potatoes are for M rs. Getzel’s famous Chanukah latkes, you have to come to our Chanukah party to taste them.” Luckily, I had brought along some bro- chures which Yankel and M irel gave out to each person Levi Greenberg, age 9 who stopped us. You know something, one of the best places to do mivtzoim is the supermarket! A little girl Anchorage, Alaska came over to us and asked if we were expecting a black- My father once got a call from a Jew named Jef- out. Now this question really shocked us. “W hat?” frey w ho said to my father: öRabbi please help me! I'm a Yankel, M irel and I blurted out at once. “W ell, why would baseball Red Sox fan and for 70 years they didnùt w in the you need so many candles,” the puzzled girl asked. “To light the menorah, of course”, M irel said. W e invited the W orld Series. Rabbi please pray that they should w in!õ My girl and her mother to our Chanukah party, too. father offered Jeffrey that he w ould w rite to the Rebbe if You’re not going to believe what happened next. The he w ould agreed to do some mitzvot. Jeffrey agreed. store manager saw so many people coming over to us that Although my father thought it w as very strange to he asked us to make an announcement over the loud w rite to the Rebbe about such a gashmiyus thing like speaker. W e were overjoyed. W e marched to the front of baseball, he decided to w rite in anyw ay. My father w rote the store and invited everyone to come to our Chanukah party! to the Rebbe that there is a Jew w ho is a Red Sox fan The amazing thing about Chanukah is that we can go and the Red Sox did not w in for 70 years and in his eyes it out into the streets and literally light up the darkness with is very important. He added that maybe if the Red Sox w in our menorah lightings and Chanukah parties. I hope you it w ill affect his yiddishkeit. all have a great Chanukah. Please write to me and tell Sure enough the Red Sox w on the games and me about the wonderful programs you did to “light up the night” of golus and bring M oshiach Now! even played in the W orld Series. Today, Jeffrey is doing a Dr. Getzel lot of mitzvot including saying Shema and lighting Shabbat candles w ith his daughter. D r . G etz el«s m ailbox Sara Rivka Schtroks, age 9 Dr. Getzel receives many letters in his Surrey, British Columbia mailbox at [email protected] It w as so amazing to join all of you for the Yud Tes here is one of them: Kislev farbrengen on the phone. I felt privileged to say a Dear Dr. Getzel, possuk from my corner of the w orld and have it reach W e made jelly doughnuts.