Dear Friends:
Suzie is a parrot.
She lives in the Cleveland home of Dr. and Mrs. Bill Wieder, lovely people with whom we had the honor to stay on our recent trip through Ohio and Michigan. It was cold! The night I spoke there was a serious ice storm. But inside Cleveland’s bastions of Torah the atmosphere was warm, with the fire of Torah burning bright!
Suzie is a Professor of Proper Behavior!
Let’s say you “lose yourself” and say something you will later regret.
Too late!
Suzie has a lifespan of about sixty years, and she does not forget. Your words will come back to haunt you.
That’s not all! When you finish eating, Suzie says, “Baruch….” You can’t forget to make a blessing with her around.
Suzie says “Good Morning” (at the right time!) and “hello” when you enter her neighborhood, lessons in proper behavior from which all of us can benefit!
She conducts herself with “simcha” and is generally “sameach b’chelko… happy with her lot in life” (although she has been known to ask for a “new toy”).
Everything we say is recorded in Heaven, and Suzie reminds us that it will all be played back! Are we up to that test? This is training for the Day of Judgment. If we want to avoid embarrassment on that awesome day it is well to spend some time in Suzie’s company. G-d made a world that reminds us constantly of His Presence.
“Even in your thoughts do not curse a king, and in your bedchamber do not curse the rich, for a bird of the skies may carry the sound and some winged creature may betray the matter.” (Ecclesiastes 10:20)
Or, as King David says, “The Heavens declare the glory of G-d!” (Psalm 19:2)
This “reality check” occurred in Cleveland, where my wife and I had the honor to be hosted recently by the Jewish Learning Connection for a series of programs. We are grateful to Rabbi Dovid Merkin and Torah Umesorah for arranging this trip. I was privileged to address the girls of Yavne School, one of the institutions founded by the legendary Rabbi Nachum Zev Dessler ZT”L. This was followed by a beautiful Shabbaton, at which we spoke for the members of the JLC Shul, and a community program Sunday night.
The Jewish Learning Connection was founded and is directed by Rabbi Ephraim Nisenbaum, assisted by Rabbi Moshe Stoll. Rabbi Yehuda Goldstein has recently joined the staff after serving for several years on the staff of DATA of Dallas. Mrs. Sara Brejt is in charge of the Women’s Division.
The JLC is an extremely impressive institution. There is tremendous dignity here, the grandeur of Torah, combined with modesty and humility, all suffused with a warmth that radiates from the faces of these wonderful rabbis. Rabbi Nisenbaum’s face breaks into a smile as soon as he sees you! This smile has drawn countless Jews home to the wellsprings of Torah. As baalei teshuva, we understand how essential that welcoming smile is. We were genuinely impressed with the devotion of these rabbis, who have trained themselves to reach out with both intelligence and love.
We met returning Jews of all descriptions, from singles to grandparents. We met a trauma surgeon who – between catastrophic emergencies – hardly takes his eye off the Gemora or detaches the earphones through which he listens to countless Torah lectures. (Amazingly, his first Shabbos was in our home 23 years ago! We had not seen him for over two decades until we met again in Cleveland!)
We met a holy, bearded convert who has traveled through agonizing personal sufferings, a reform conversion, a conservative conversion, and finally a conversion according to Jewish Law. He now radiates joy in his Torah home with a wonderful new family.
We met an agent of the Transportation Security Agency, one of those blue-shirted fellows you meet at the airport. He fought for years to get Shabbos off, and we sat across from him and his teenage sons at Rabbi Goldstein’s holy Shabbos table. This is real security!
We met a brilliant professional couple who had been introduced to each other by the JLC and who are so happy in their Torah lifestyle. We met many people whose lives are changing in a profound and beautiful way.
We spent Friday night at the table of Rabbi Yehuda Goldstein and his Rebbetzin. It is no easy thing to unite a table full of Jews from diverse backgrounds and bring the aura of Shabbos to them, but Reb Yehuda is a master. He understands the art of making all his guests feel part of his family, seamlessly incorporating words of Torah, exciting personal anecdotes with emotional zemiros (Shabbos songs) and his Rebbetzin’s delicious cooking! Their children, understandably, did not want to leave the Shabbos table; one fell asleep with her feet on the floor and her head on the chair!
Cleveland is full of deep Torah beauty, with many holy institutions. I was amazed to witness a weekday mincha which must have well exceeded a hundred men, and this was only one shul!
The Children of Israel are coming back to our Father in Heaven! Never has there been a baal teshuva movement on the scale of what we are seeing on a worldwide basis now. We were privileged to see these holy Jews in Greater Cleveland, and B”H in a future column I hope to tell you about the incredible college kiruv we witnessed in Columbus, Cincinnati and Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“Behold, days are coming – the word of the L’rd Hashem/Elokim – when I will send hunger into the land; not a hunger for bread nor a thirst for water, but to hear the words of Hashem!” (Amos 8:11)
Roy S. Neuberger
© Copyright 2011 by Roy S. Neuberger
