Era of Hidden Faces
After the tragic Erev Shavuos scaffold collapse in Stolin that left three dead and dozens injured, there was a message on social media I found particularly poignant: “Lag B’omer wasn’t Lag B’omer, and Shavuos wasn’t Shavuos, halevai that Tishah B’Av won’t be Tishah B’Av.”
Well, here we are, and Tishah B’Av is Tishah B’Av.
To say we are living in a time of great hester Panim would be a gross understatement. I have long struggled to understand what “hester Panim” truly is. On some level I understand what galus is and even what churban is. Rav Avrohom Schorr said in a passionate address a few years ago that when we hear statistics from Chai Lifeline, “es darf unchapen a tziter,” it must cause us to shudder. “There is no such thing as we can’t feel churban, this is churban! These bitter, bitter tzaros, this is galus!”
Sing, dance, and reconnect along with the Thank You Hashem nation
Photos: Naftoli Goldgrab
Its a frigid winter night, but inside this comfortable Lawrence home there’s a warmth generated by something other than the heating system. It’s a spark that emanates from a group of friends huddled around, kumzitz-style, jamming and brainstorming their newest ways to spread a message of ahavas Yisrael, spiritual connection, and, above all, THANK YOU, HASHEM!
Yep, these are the guys Aryeh Blumstein, his brother Elimelech, singer Joey Newcomb, and Yakov Josephy, with the help of a cadre of friends and supporters who launched that quintessentially grassroots, infectiously exuberant movement to promote gratitude, positive thinking, and chassidic ideas throughout the Jewish community. You’ve surely seen their swag: the stickers, bracelets, hoodies, and keychains sporting the logo of a little crown and the words “Thank You Hashem!” Their online posts compel thousands. Every song the
Rav Moshe Weinberger still holds tight to his father’s tefillin and simple faith
Photos: Naftoli Goldgrab, Family archives
One Shabbos about a year ago, I joined Seudah Shlishis at Yeshiva Ateres Shimon in Far Rockaway, an extraordinary place bursting with young men who maybe didn’t have an easy time of it, who’d fallen or been nudged out of the system. The yeshivah has welcomed them, reassured them, restored them, and there, in a darkened room, the Rosh Yeshivah, Rav Mordechai Yehuda Groner, was speaking to the boys lining both sides of a long table.
He was talking about the eternity of the neshamah, of its essential purity, and he suddenly cried out, “You guys saw the tefillin. You saw them. You know that those are your tefillin too.”