My Beloved LA Is Burning! Please Pray With Me

By Mordechai LightstoneJanuary 8, 2025 2:30 PM

Like many of you, I’ve been watching the fires that seem to be consuming Los Angeles from multiple directions - the Pacific Palisades in the west and Pasadena in the east – with unfolding horror. As a born Angelino, with friends and family still in LA, seeing the sites and neighborhoods of my youth burn, and hearing first-hand the overwhelming, ever-present effects the fires are having on everyone feels disheartening. What can I do, far away, in frigid Brooklyn, to help?

But just as a fire does not start in isolation - its power to consume and destroy requires the complex interplay of water, wind, and draught that extend far beyond the borders of the conflagration itself– our actions can help as well.

Reach out to people in the area to check in and see how they're doing. Consider contributing to the relief work, such as that of Chabad of the Pacific Palisades and Chabad of Pasadena. Say a prayer for everyone in the path of destruction and the brave first responders fighting to extinguish the fires.

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These moments of destruction also give us a chance to reflect. The Baal Shem Tov once said, “Everything one sees or hears is to be taken as a lesson in how to better serve the Creator.” I was struck by the words of my colleague, Rabbi Tzvi Freeman, reflecting on the fires.

There are times in life when you are rudely reminded
that as secure as you may have felt
you are but another small creature amidst great forces much larger than any of us
that could sweep you away in a moment
and send all the material things you have acquired in life up in smoke.
And then you realize
that all you really have
is the kindness you have shown to others
the love you have received and the love you have given
the light and wisdom you have shared
and the acts of the spirit, of beauty, and of wonder that you have brought to the world.
As for the rest, it is all ashes.
In truth, it was all ashes from the beginning.

About Chabad.org

The Chabad.org Tanya Project Makes Waves

December 20, 2024 11:13 AM

We began rolling out weekly installments of the all-new Chabad.org Tanya just three months ago. Now, in honor of 19 Kislev, we are releasing it in an all-new online format on the Torah Texts platform, along with drop-down explanations and guides, making it even more accessible.

Teachers and lay people alike have been raving about the Chabad.org Tanya Project:

“I have been exposed to Tanya since 2002 and never have all these points been explained so clearly....loving it and more importantly the footnotes and background stories that the Tanya is referencing.”

“Thank you very much for providing this free resource on the study of the Tanya. The translation and explanatory notes are cogent, concise, and thought-provoking.”

“Wow….what a chapter (installment 8)!! Very deep. I’m really trying to keep up. I enjoy trying to understand every chapter so far. Thank you.”

“Who could truly live without Tanya?”

“FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The Chabad.org Tanya Project is written by Rabbis Tzvi Freeman and Levi Dubov, in collaboration with leading scholars, reviewers, and designers, each of whom contributes to the accuracy, beauty, and accessibility of this work.

Each chapter is preceded by an introduction and a glossary of terms. The online design allows you to show or hide the additional material—a guide, explanations of key concepts, stories, as well as charts and illustrations that help illuminate key concepts.

Click here to view the first two chapters of the Chabad.org Tanya in Torah Texts.
Click here to sign up to receive weekly installments of this work in book format.

About Chabad.org

Four Clips That Brought Tears to Our Eyes

Four highlights from the gala banquet of the 41st International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries

By Menachem PosnerDecember 2, 2024 5:11 PM

Some 6,500 Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries and lay leaders congregated in Edison, N.J., for the annual Kinus Hashluchim.

Shmulie Grossbaum / Chabad.org

Going into this year's International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries, everyone knew it was going to be an emotion-laden weekend. War has been raging in and around the Holy Land for more than 400 days, many hostages are not home, and antisemitism has reared its ugly head from Amsterdam to Montreal.

Then, just days before the conference was set to open, we received the devastating news that Chabad emissary Rabbi Zvi Kogan of the UAE had been abducted in Dubai and brutally murdered by terrorists.

This was also the first conference since the untimely passing of Rabbi Moshe Kotkarsky, the vice chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, a powerful and unmissable presence at the yearly gathering. Going into the conference, it was clear that Rabbi Kotlarsky’s larger-than-life personality was going to be sorely missed.

As you can imagine, the conference was emotional, and there were plenty of tears. But the tears mingled with laughter, and there were so many high moments as well, when the incredible spiritual strength of Chabad—inspired and guided by the Rebbe—came to the fore. Here are five such moments:

Comforting the Family of Rabbi Zvi Kogan

At no point could anyone present forget the gaping hole that had been torn in the fabric of Jewish life in the UAE, where Rabbi Kogan and his fellow Chabad emissaries have built a robust Jewish infrastructure. We are all one giant family, who feel each other’s pain and celebrate each other’s joys. In that spirit, the entire conference—6,500 strong—stood together and shared words of comfort via lifestream with the Kogan family who are sitting shiva in Israel.

The Beautiful Silent World of a Deaf Chabad Rabbi

In a world where communication takes place orally, Deaf people have often been left on the margins, where they have built a rich world of their own. Rabbi Yehoshua Soudakoff, who is Deaf, has brought a host of programming, learning, and mitzvah observance to that world—his world—with the organization he founded in Israel, Chabad for the Deaf Community. Much of this presentation is visual with no audio words, exactly as one would expect, and it is so uplifting and raw all at once:

We Can All Save Lives

Dr. Brian Levin shared the profound influence that Chabad.org and his Chabad rabbi had on his life, leading him to begin down a path reconnecting him with his own Jewish self. Before long, he was wearing a kippah in his Baltimore-area office and helping Jewish patients do mitzvahs of their own. Then, his presentation took an unexpected turn, when he shared how he empowered his own brother to save a life in a most unexpected way:

Honoring Rabbi Kotlarsky

For nearly four decades, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky was personally invested in every element of the conference. From planning the program to making time to greet thousands of emissaries and supporters in person, to chairing the event with his trademark ebullience, it was hard to separate the man from the event. This was the first year that he was not present, but his presence was felt throughout.

What did you find most inspirational? Please share with us in the comments section below.

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