Parshas
Metzorah
Vov
Nissan
Volume
1
Issue 28
The Connections people
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Yaldei Hashluchim: Connections Va’ad
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THE SHLUCHIM OFFICE
Parshas MetzorahIt's not fair! I was just playing with my friend, and now he is not being nice. He even said not nice things about me. That upsets me. It's just not fair...
You are right. Speaking not nicely about another Jew is not only mean, it is the opposite of how a Yid is supposed to act. It makes people angry at each other. It causes fights, and makes us not get along and work together like we should. This is the opposite of what Hashem likes and wants. Hashem does not like to be around such talk.
When the Yidden were in the midbar, they all lived together in a holy machane - camp. Hashem protected them. They all got along and worked together (usually). That was the only way that they could survive so many years in the midbar.
What would happen if someone started saying not nice things about another Jew? What would have happened if people got angry at each other and started fighting? The whole atmosphere of kedusha would be lost. And Hashem wouldn't want to stick around people who were acting like that.
That is why someone who got Tzoraas had to leave the machane. A metzora (someone with Tzoraas) spoke lashon hara. Lashon hara, saying not nice things about another person, is the opposite of what Hashem wants. So the metzora cannot stay in Hashem's machane.
That sounds a little scary. Does he have to stay alone forever? Can he ever rejoin the camp?
Of course he can come back eventually!
A Jew always remains a Jew. And a Jew can always do teshuva. The metzora will eventually do teshuva and be able to rejoin the rest of the Yidden.
That is why he has to go to the Kohen to get healed. The Kohen is there to teach him how to do teshuva.
And don't you worry. Even if you get in a fight, you can always do teshuva, too. All Jews, and especially all Chasidim, and especially all (junior) shluchim, will always be one big happy family. We just have to do our best to keep it that way.
My head runs backwards and is before time.
What am I?____ ____ ____ _____
Please send your answers to connections@shluchim.org
Last weeks’ brain buster:
I’m mentioned in Parshas Tazria. Without my head I have the same meaning as my head and tail.
Answer: Kohen (in Hebrew letters)Congratulations to Mendel Chein, age 8 from Cheadle, England for solving the brain buster.
Hi, Juniors! Dr. Getz here, writing to you from my green-roofed office nestled among the cornfields of Iowa. (That’s Iowa, not Idaho. There they grow potatoes, here they grow corn.) You all know that I’m an eye doctor and I specialize in seeing, looking, and noticing. But I also have another full-time profession. Can you guess what it is? Nope. It’s not a mailman. It’s not a cleaning lady, either. I’m in the building business. I’ve been working on one building for a long time, in fact for almost 2,000 years! Don’t worry, I don’t do it all by myself, thousands of people have been helping me.
One person who spent his whole life helping to build this building was the Rebbe. Not only did he add many, many bricks to it, but he also hired an army of builders to help him. Do you know who those builders are? You guessed it. They’re the Shluchim, Shluchos, and the Juniors- you guys. The Rebbe believed in kid-power. He knew that if something was really important, he could count on his army of kids, and especially kid-shluchim, to get the job done.
If you peek ahead at the Dates, you’ll see a very special day coming up. It’s Yud-Aleph Nissan, the Rebbe’s birthday. On my birthday, which was last Monday, I got piles and piles of presents. I got applesauce and tennis shoes and herbal tea, and a set of Midrash Raba. Now, I’m wondering what kind of present I could give to the Rebbe for his birthday.
All week last week, all I could think about was a present for the Rebbe. I wanted it to be something really special; better than applesauce and tennis shoes. When I slept, I dreamed of presents. When I read, I saw presents dancing across the page. For supper, Mrs. Getzel made spaghetti and presents (which tasted a lot like meatballs!). It got so bad, that when I examined my patients, they all had presents popping out of their eyeballs! Finally, I came up with an idea. A brilliant innovation. But before I tell you what it is, you need to promise that you’ll help me with it. Promise?
I decided that I, Dr. Getz, and all of you, the Rebbe’s army of kid-shluchim, will finish the building that the Rebbe worked so hard to build. The building (the Beis Hamikdash, of course) already has layers and layers of bricks soaring into the sky. Yidden throughout the ages put those bricks there. But I thought that on the tip, top of the Bais Hamikdash, the last row of bricks, something would be different. That last row would be made of . . . piles of presents - put there by you, kid-shluchim, in honor of the Rebbe’s birthday! There would be hundreds, maybe thousands, of different shaped and colored boxes. There would be giant boxes wrapped in shiny paper, medium size boxes tied with big satin bows and small silver boxes tied with curly ribbon. Inside the boxes would be the biggest treasures of all. What do you think it is?
Ahavas Yisroel. The Rebbe loves every Jew and therefore, the Rebbe loves it when we go out of our way to do something for someone else. Let’s bring the Rebbe presents of Ahavas Yisroel. Here’s how: On Wednesday, Yud Alef Nissan, take a moment to do a deed of Ahavas Yisroel, and say, “This moment is a birthday present for the Rebbe.” If you could do more than one, go ahead. But do at least one and send me a report about it.
When we give the Rebbe all those hundreds of beautiful Ahavas Yisroel moments, we will make the Rebbe very proud of us, his army of junior Shluchim. And even better, we might even finish the top row of the Beis Hamikdosh!
Dr. Getz
One day, Rebbetzin Chana (the Rebbe’s mother) heard that the Russians were coming and took her children to a safe place where other women and children were hiding.
The frightened girls and boys were crying loudly. If they weren’t quiet, the Russians would find the hiding place! The mothers didn’t know what to do.
One little boy, less than five years old, walked over and smiled at the other children. He spoke softly, gave them some candy, and they all stopped crying. That child was the Rebbe.
The Rebbe’s family once spent a summer in Balaclava, by the shore of the Black Sea in Crimea.
One day, as they were walking near the water, they heard someone shout: “A child is drowning!” A young boy had gone out alone in a small boat, and the boat had tipped over in the deep part of the ocean.
Another boy jumped into the water, swam out to the boat and rescued the child.
Hurrying to the scene, the Rebbe’s mother discovered that the ‘hero’ was none other than her nine year old son Menachem Mendel - the Rebbe.
(Tzivos Hashem)
In honor of Yud-Alef Nissan we will be having a farbrengen rally via phone conference. There will be 2 rallies.
Tuesday Yud Nissan - 8:00pm EST
(949) 373-0345 *Code:770770
(413) 200-7060 *Code:613613
2. Wednesday Yud-Alef Nissan - 1:30pm EST
(949) 373-0345 *Code:770770
(413) 200-7060 *Code:613613
This will IY”H be a very exciting program, so make sure you are there!
P.S. Don’t forget to ask your parents before using the phone.
Barranquilla, Colombia
My family is on Shlichus in a small city in Colombia, South America, called Barranquilla. The language spoken here is Spanish. It very hot here all of the time and officially there are only two seasons, summer and spring. During the spring time though it is hotter that most places. We use the air-conditioning all year round.
Our Chabad House was built two years ago and is nice and big. It has three floors. On the first floor we have offices, a classroom, a library, two kitchens, and a big hall. The second floor has a game room, guest room and classroom. The third floor is not ready yet. It will be an old age home. My parents do a lot of programs here. My mother teaches Talmud Torah and women’s classes and my father does ‘Lunch and Learn’ where he teaches Torah while the men have lunch. We also do programs like Shabbatons, and activities for all the Yomim Tovim. My favorite programs are the ones we do for Chanukah, Sukkos and Purim because there are a lot of great raffles and activities that everyone enjoys. I also enjoy the camp we have for two weeks every summer. Lots of kids from our community come to our camp.
I go to a school that is not frum. It is called the “Colegio Hebreo Union”. My mother takes me out of some classes to teach me Chumash, Yahadus and Parsha and another Shlucha teaches me too. The school uniform in our school is a white shirt and navy shorts. When my older sister started school she was the only one in the whole school wearing a skirt. Now there are another few girls besides me who do too.
Even though I am different from other kids in many ways, and cannot always do what they do or eat the food that they can, I know that I am an example of what a Jewish girl should be. The Rebbe gave our family a Brocha to go on shlichus, and by living here in Barranquilla I am doing what the Rebbe wants from me , making me proud to be on shlichus 24/7.
1. HaChodesh HaRishon - the first of months
The Torah calls Nissan the first month. It is the first in the counting of the months since we went out of Mitzrayim.
2. Chodesh HaAviv - the month of "aviv"
Aviv means spring. During Nissan, everything begins to grow. Nissan is the time for plants and trees to start new life, just like Bnei Yisroel were given a new chance at life during Nissan.
Aviv can be separated into two parts. "Av" means father, or head. The remaining "yud" and "beis" equal the number twelve. Nissan is the head of the other twelve months.
3. Nissan
The names of Nissan, Iyar, etc. were not used until after Bnei Yisroel were exiled to Bavel after the destruction of the first Beis Hamikdash. These names were later adapted to commemorate Bnei Yisroel’s exodus from Bavel and return to Eretz Yisroel.
Nissan sounds like nitzan, which means a bud. Nissan is a spring month. In the spring, buds begin to appear on the trees.
The Rebbe was born in Nikolayev, Ukraine, on Yud-Alef Nissan 5662 (1902), to Reb Levi Yitzchok and Rebbetzin Chana Shneersohn. The Rebbe is the great-great-great grandson of the Tzemach Tzedek, the third Rebbe. Even when he was a small child, everyone realized that the Rebbe was special. At a very young age, he understood a few languages fluently, knew a tremendous amount of Torah and had knowledge of lots of other things. When he was nine years old, his teachers told his father, Reb Levik, that they had taught him everything they knew! Reb Levik, who was a famous Talmid Chacham, took his son out of school, and taught Torah to the Rebbe himself.
In 1927, after the Frierdiker Rebbe was released from prison, the Russian government allowed him to leave the country together with his family. When the Frierdiker Rebbe gave them a list with the names of all his family members, the official noticed the Rebbe’s name on the list. “He’s not part of your family!” they said, and started to cross off the name from the list.
“He is engaged to my daughter,” the Frierdiker Rebbe replied.
“So, you can’t find another son-in-law outside Russia?” the official asked.
“Such a son-in-law is impossible to find anywhere else!” was the Frierdiker Rebbe’s proud response.
So the Rebbe left Russia and settled in Riga, Latvia together with his future father-in-law, the Frierdiker Rebbe. In 1928 the Rebbe married Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, the second daughter of the Frierdiker Rebbe.
Immediately after the wedding, the young couple went to live in Berlin, Germany, where the Rebbe, listening to the Frierdiker Rebbe’s advice, studied in the University of Berlin. With the rise of the Nazi Party in 1933, the Rebbe and Rebbetzin moved to Paris, France, where the Rebbe continued to study engineering in Sorbonne University.
Although the Rebbe studied secular subjects, the Rebbe spent most of his time and energy always studying Torah. In fact, even while the Rebbe was sitting through classes, he would always have a sefer open in front of him!
One of the Rebbe’s classmates told this story:
“One day, our professor was explaining a very difficult concept which all of us had a hard time understanding. The professor noticed that in the back of the classroom the Rebbe was deeply engrossed in a small book he was reading. The professor went over to the Rebbe and saw that the Rebbe’s attention was focused on studying Torah. “Mr. Schneersohn,” the professor said, “Would you mind repeating to the class what we talked about in today’s session?” To everyone’s astonishment, the Rebbe repeated the entire class word-by-word!
In 1940, Hitler invaded France. Miraculously, the Rebbe and Rebbetzin were able to escape to Portugal, where they boarded a boat – one of the last to cross the Atlantic Ocean (before travel was impossible) – which took them to New York.
As soon as the Rebbe arrived in America, the Frierdiker Rebbe (who had arrived in New York a year earlier) appointed the Rebbe to be the chairman of the three central organizations of Lubavitch. They are: Kehos (Lubavitch’s Publication House), Merkos Le’Inyonei Chinuch (Lubavitch’s Education Department) and Machane Yisroel (Lubavitch’s Outreach Program).
On the Yud Shevat 5710 (1950) the Frierdiker Rebbe passed away.
The Chassidim realized that the Rebbe was the only one who possessed the qualities to take over the leadership of the Lubavitch movement. However, when they asked the Rebbe to accept the Nesius, the Rebbe firmly refused. The Chassidim continued to beg the Rebbe to accept the position of Rebbe.
Exactly one year after his father-in-law passed away, on Yud Shevat 5711 (1951), the Rebbe agreed to the Chassidim’s pleading and requests, and officially accepted the Nesius.
LAST WEEKS WINNERS
Level 1: Mendy Bechor, age 7, Randolph, NJ
Shoshana Moskovitz, age 8, Kharkov, Ukraine
Level 2: Chava Kahn, age 9, Paris, France
Elchonon Botnick, age 11, Ottawa, Canada
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