I'm a millionaire in nachat!

Dear Friend,

The veteran spiritual leader, Rabbi David Hollander, OBM once told me the story of a fellow who somehow managed to get himself locked in inside a big department store after they closed up for the day. To compound the problem, it was over a holiday weekend. When all his attempts to get out proved futile, he decided to give vent to his frustrations by taking revenge on the store management. He spent the time of his incarceration swapping price tags on the merchandise. The result? A mink coat was now priced at $29.99, a necktie at $999.00. Furniture was going for the price of peanuts, the latest hi-fi for a song, and a set of underwear was absolutely unaffordable! Imagine the chaos when the store reopened.

The question is, are our own price tags correctly marked? Do we value the things in our own lives correctly? Are our priorities in order? Or do we too put the cattle and the sheep -- the car and the office -- ahead of our children?

How many workaholic husbands have told their wives, "Honey, I'm doing it all for you and the kids." But the businesses we are busy building for them actually take us away from them in the most important and formative years of their lives. Rightly has it been said, "the best thing you can spend on your kids is not money but time."

I've seen many people become "successes" over the years. They achieve professional success, career success, business success, growing their fame and fortunes. Too many in the process have become family failures. At the end of the day, our deepest satisfaction in life comes not from our professional achievements but from our family -- the growth, stability and togetherness that we have nurtured over the years -- what our Jewish parents and grandparents simply called nachas.

To paraphrase the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, "Jewish wealth is not measured in property portfolios or stocks and bonds; true Jewish wealth is being blessed with children who walk in the ways of G-d." For that, we need to be there for them and with them.

A congregant of mine once walked up to me and proclaimed, "Rabbi, I am a millionaire!" I knew the man to be of modest financial means but he immediately explained, "I'm a millionaire in nachat!"

Amen. I wish it upon all of us.

In this week's Parshah the Jewish People are preparing for the conquest of Canaan and the allotment of the Promised Land amongst the twelve tribes of Israel, when the tribes of Reuben and Gad make a special request of Moses.

They had abundant herds of livestock and the land east of the Jordan River was especially suitable for grazing. They asked Moses if they could receive this land rather than land west of the Jordan. In making this request they expressed themselves thus: "Pens for the flock we shall build here for our livestock, and cities for our small children."

Immediately, Moses chastises them and corrects their mistake. "Build for yourselves cities for your small children and pens for your flock." Moses turns around their sequence, putting the children ahead of the animals.

Rashi observes that these tribes were more concerned about their money, i.e. livestock, than they were about their sons and daughters. Moses needed to give them a lesson in values and priorities. Put family first. Possessions come later.

Shabbat Shalom and Chodesh Tov,

Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky

Tambacounda, Senegal - Lost brothers? Some 4,000 residents of a remote village called Bani Israel [Tambacounda] in Senegal are claiming they are of Jewish descent, according to an article published by the official Senegalese news  agency, APS.

Click HERE to read the full article

Samaria, Israel - A terrorist disguised as a yeshiva student attacked a female driver and attempted to hijack her car with a baby inside.

The incident occurred near the northern entrance to Maaleh Levonah, just before Eli in southern Samaria, shortly after noon today.

Approaching the intersection, the young mother-driver noticed what she thought was a yeshiva student waiting for a ride, Wearing a yarmulke and backpack, he looked no different than dozens of others whose primary mode of transportation around Judea and Samaria is “tremping” (hitch-hiking).

Click HERE to read the full article

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Rescue at Entebbe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 11, 1976

"From time to time, G-d grants us the opportunity to observe how the soul of the world rules over the veil of physical reality..."

An address by the RebbeWatch (9:35)

 

 

 

 

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