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Challenges

Jan 30 2019

Through Which Lens Do You See The World?

Challenges, Change, identity, Lifestyle, Rebuilding
by Chabad Intown

Remember this picture? Do you see the beautiful woman or the old lady? Through which lens do you see the world?   Here is Torah version of this (perhaps).   When you you think of Mt. Sinai, do you think of the Ten Commandments or do you think of the Revelation of G-d, thunder, lightning and booming Divine voice?   Is your experience of the Torah, a stringent set of rules that must be obeyed, or are you engaged in a loving relationship with G-d and the Torah is the framework for that relationship?   We may perceive...

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Jan 15 2019

Authentic Service

Challenges, Lifestyle
by Chabad Intown

Do you help the needy when they ask for help so that you'll sleep better or because you really care?   Do you defend the defenseless out of guilt because you really are a kind person?   Don't feel bad, you are not alone. All of us struggle with authenticity. That's because G-d created us with two sides; a right and a left. Traditionally the right is associated with Chesed - kindness, and the left with Gevurah - discipline. You could say that these two are attraction and rejection or love and respect.   Each of...

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Jan 09 2019

The Belt, The Shoe and The Stick

Challenges, Change, Freedom, Lifestyle
by Chabad Intown

They looked for it in the 60's, the 70's and in our own way we are looking for it in the 2010's. It is liberation!   We are looking to be freed from all external constraints. In essence our soul is calling out to us to be freed so we can connect with our truest purpose.   This expedition into freedom and liberation is not reserved for the Passover Seder. In fact, it is every day that one must see oneself as if they are going out of Egypt each and every day.   We look...

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Jan 03 2019

Leadership on the Slope

Challenges, Freedom, Inspiration, leader, Lifestyle, Moses
by Chabad Intown

We all get there, stuck in the rut or slipping down the slope, or whichever other cliche you want to use, it's all the same; we've gotten stuck!   The Talmud states that one who is tied up and can't untie himself. So how does someone who has entered into the stuck zone get unstuck.   When G-d appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush in last week's Torah portion, Moses asks G-d, how will the Jewish People believe in me? G-d answers that Moses is to tell them the code words; "Pukod Pukoditi...

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Dec 27 2018

A Sheep Among The Wolves

Challenges, Change, identity, Lifestyle
by Chabad Intown

The Jewish People have always been a sheep among the wolves. That's part of the Divine masterplan. Why that is, is truly part of the mystery of Creation and a challenge of faith. Nonetheless, that is the way it is and as much as we've tried to run from it by attempting to integrate, history has shown that we remain separate.   In fact, when we embrace our separateness we end up a lot happier because we have a sense of self of who we are and those around us have a...

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Dec 14 2018

Empathy Sympathy

Challenges, Change, leader, Moses
by Chabad Intown

Sympathy is feeling pity and sorry for someone else.   Empathy is being able to share and understand someone else's feeling.   A leader must empathize with the people he or she leads, but at the same time they must be a leader, meaning a separate entity. To be both is quite the challenge.   Moses was destined to be the leader of the Jewish People. He needed to relate to them, understand their pain, feel their hardship, in a word, to empathize with them.   But he also needed to be separate from them, to help them...

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Nov 22 2018

Moshe Kraus Eulogy

Challenges, Moses, Rebuilding, Recovery
by Chabad Intown

We are gathered here to bid farewell to a special soul – Moshe, Jeff ben Avrohom. I will refer to both Jeff and Moshe in my remarks for the comfort of those that knew him as Jeff as we did initially and then as Moshe once he wanted us to call him by that name.   When our great ancestor Aaron heard of the passing of his sons Nadav and Avihu, the Torah tells us, “Vayidom Aaron”: Aaron was silent.   I’m sure he cried. I’m sure he was in pain. I’m sure he...

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Nov 22 2018

We’re Here For You!

Challenges, Lifestyle, Rebuilding, Recovery
by Chabad Intown

This past week we lost another beautiful soul to the addiction epidemic. Another pointless loss. Another possibly avoidable loss.   What struck me was how many of us didn't know that our friend Jeff/Moshe was in recovery for over two years - the same two years he had been coming to Chabad Intown. Yet at the same time, he had a world of people who had influenced him and whom he had influenced that we didn't know existed.   We've speculated about his reasons for not sharing his other world with us at Chabad...

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Nov 14 2018

Saying Goodbye/Hello to Holy Spaces

Challenges, Inspiration
by Chabad Intown

Holiness is eternal. That is because holiness is an extension of Hashem who is eternal.   What of the physical spaces that become home to Hashem and holiness?   This Shabbos we bid farewell to the Chabad Intown building that has served this community for the past 18 years. The building has been sold and it's time to move out. We are moving upwards to larger and more impactful spaces on the BeltLine.   What of the holiness of the space?   The Talmud talks about the terms under which one is allowed to sell an object of...

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Oct 24 2018

The Language of Torah

Challenges, Change, Rebbe, Vayeira
by Chabad Intown

G-d approaches Abraham after his bris and presents the pending destruction of Sodom and Gemorah to him. "And the Lord said, "Shall I conceal from Abraham what I am doing?" After all, I am going to make him into a great nation and this land I will give to his inheritors. How can I destroy it without letting him know.   (Indeed, a fascinating defense motion is put into place by Abraham who argues for salvation for the people of Sodom and Gemorah with the hope that there are some righteous people...

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