Posted by Rabbi Avraham Wolff

Posted by Rabbi Avraham Wolff

It's been almost a year since the night of Rosh ha-Shono, when after the prayer Maariv we walked home, looking forward to a celebratory meal. As in every Jewish home, on the eve of the new year on a festive table we waited pomegranate wine for kiddush, the head of the fish meal and words of Torah, and the table to us were to join the guests who came to share with us the joy of entering the new Jewish year. On the way from the synagogue to the festive table, we chatted with the guests, as well as the road was neblizkaya, it was able to talk and all together, face to face.

One of the guests, taking advantage of a moment when we were alone, he asked me: "Tell me, Rabbi, how important it is to keep the Sabbath? How important is considered to this commandment in Judaism? " I knew that this person is trying hard to follow the Torah way in recent years: it puts on tefillin, gives Maaser (tithe) of all he earned money, not eat meat trefnyh animals (he still does not comply with the strict dietary laws, but the meat of forbidden animals will not eat ). I knew he was trying very hard to be a good Jew, but did not think he was ready to assume the commandment Sabbath in its entirety: do not talk on the phone, watch TV, do not drive a car, and so on. Until the day he came into the synagogue on the Sabbath by car (but left the car a few blocks from the synagogue). I, of course, as he could have used to give me the opportunity to explain how important it is to keep the Sabbath. And then (I remember it as it is now - we walked along the streets of Little Arnaut between Osipova and cable), he told me: "Rabbi, today is a special day! In human life, this may be a turning point, a chance, which is not often given to us. I feel that he has come: this year I will abide by all the laws of the Sabbath! " A few weeks after our conversation a Jew, that I tell, I was in New York at the Lubavitcher Rebbe and there finally undertook to observe the Sabbath. Since then he has performed the commandment of the Sabbath, kosher and many other commandments.

Since the day was, as I said, the whole year. Each time at the end of the Sabbath we try to find an opportunity to talk with each other. I am talking about how last Saturday in our synagogue. It is very important to know how many people came to the synagogue, as the prayers were held, one to whom went to visit. It is noticeable that he really misses the days when he could come to the synagogue on Saturdays. Today, he lives far away - at a distance of three hours of walking, and therefore prays on Saturday at home. He always tells me how he spends the Sabbath that had learned that day. And almost every week, he repeats the same thing: "I had a perfect Shabbat! A choice that I made back in the "moment of truth" has changed my life! And not only mine, but the lives of my family! I'm sure it says about us: "The Sabbath protects the Jewish people more than the Jewish people guards Saturday."

... The chance of a good time, "the moment of truth" plays in human life a great role. On many businessmen say they have succeeded in business not because they are smart and know their business, but because it just happened to be at the right time in the right place. Conversely, smart and talented people often do not achieve great success because they were born at the wrong time or have lived in the wrong place, and luck has bypassed them by. Sometimes a person gets his one chance in life, and if he missed an opportunity to use it, the "bird of luck" never come back to him.

An instructive example of this is found in Jewish history. When Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans, the city's defenders were divided into two groups. One group - bironim - stood on to defend the town to the last and do not give up, the second group, the more moderate, argued that it is necessary to make peace with the Romans. At the head of the second group was Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, who was then head of Sanѓedrina.

When the situation became intolerable, Rabbi Yochanan asked his nephew to come secretly Aba Sikri bin Batiaha, who was head of bironim, and asked him, "How long will you destroy the city? We must go out and make peace with the Romans! " And I told him, Aba Sikri: "The situation now is that if I tell you about it to his friends, they just kill me!" Then Rabbi Yochanan said: "Recommend, how can I get out of town, and maybe I can save Jerusalem!" (Bironim constantly guarded gates of the city and did not allow anyone to leave it). Aba Sikri suggested, "Declare that you're sick ... and let them be told that you die in a few days, and you must make your body for burial. Thus you will be able to get out of the city and meet the Romans "(in those days it was the custom by which the dead could not be buried in Jerusalem, by virtue of ritual holiness of the place, so the cemetery is located outside the city walls).

So Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai did: first announced that he was ill a few days later reported that he had died, and a stretcher with his body will make only two of his disciples - Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yeѓoshua dedicated to the mystery. This was done to ensure that outsiders do not come close to the body and do not have guessed that in fact the Rabbi Yochanan alive. When the funeral procession came close to the gate of Jerusalem, bironim like spears pierce the body of Rabbi Yochanan, to see if he is really dead. But Aba Sikri said to them, "Pierce the corpse of a Jewish head ?! Romans say that we have fallen so low that they themselves are killing their teachers! " And they gave up their intentions.

So Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai escaped from Jerusalem. He appeared before Vespasian with the words: "Peace be with you, the Emperor!" Vespasian, who was at that time only Roman general who directed the siege of Jerusalem, he said: "You should die for what he called me the emperor, and I'm not the emperor! And if you think I'm the emperor, that deserve to die for what did not come to me before! .. "At this time, a messenger arrived from Rome and said Vespasian, the Roman emperor died and his successor, Vespasian declared. Seeing that Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai as a holy man, that is able to predict the future, Vespasian said to him, "Ask for whatever you want and I'll give you!"

It was the chance that Rabbi Yochanan waited so long! What did he ask ?! Here you are, if you were in his shoes, what would you ask for? And because he had to give an answer in seconds! He could not tell the Emperor: "Wait a little, I will consult with the Jewish sages!" Rabbi Yochanan saved rabbis and Torah. He asked Vespasian, to anyone who wants to be saved, was allowed to leave Jerusalem and live in Yavne. The emperor agreed, and since then Yavneh became the new center of Jewish wisdom, and thus preserved the Torah to the people of Israel ...

However, not all the sages approve of Rabbi Yochanan. Rabbi Akiva says that he had to beg for the salvation of Jerusalem, that the Jews were once forgiven. On the other hand, the Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai felt that if he asks not to destroy Jerusalem, he can not get anything - neither Yavne, or Jerusalem. In the opinion of Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Yochanan was in an exceptional chance to save the city, but he missed it.

The Talmud tells us that before the death of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai began to cry. Asked his disciples: "The Light of Israel! Why are you crying? " And he said to them: "Before me are two paths: one leads to heaven, and the second - in hell. How can I not cry if I do not know where I shall get ?! " Some explain that it all my life wondered about whether it was right his decision in the extraordinary moment. Even before his death, he doubted it because crying!

... Many Jews from all corners of the earth came to the Lubavitcher Rebbe during his leadership of the Chabad movement, in order to receive his blessing of health, family well-being, livelihood and, of course, the birth of children. I recently read about a woman who was at the Rebbe to ask for blessings for the birth of a child. This woman, who had no children of their own, a lot of time and effort to raising children in Israel. Rebbe very favorably praised her work. After talking about what she was doing, the Rebbe asked her if she knows how to cook jam from esroga. He gave her esrog over which he pronounced the blessing on the feast Sukkos, and said: "cook it and eat it, since it is known that the jam esroga, blessed in Sukkos - is a tool to help the birth of children ... But there, behind the door, - said the Rebbe, - no one should know this! "

Once a woman came from the Rebbe, she was approached by another woman and asked what the Rebbe told her. Agitated all that had happened to her, she took was hidden esrog and showed it. At the same moment she remembered the warning Rebbe, but it was too late. In her memoirs she writes: "I felt that I had lost everything, my world is falling apart. I am very sad because of the gab! " This woman never had children ...

We are now on the eve of the new year. Maybe some of you will see this article for a few hours before Rosh ha-Shono. We are with you - at the right time in the right place. This is the moment of truth for our relationship with God. Let's all do not miss this precious opportunity, the 10 days from Rosh ha-Shono before Yom Kippur, these special moments, which says: "Seek Gd when He may be found, call upon Him while He is near."

On this day we must come to the synagogue to take part in all the prayers, to use the opportunity that gives us Gd, pray and ask for ourselves and for our families a good and sweet, happy new year, prosperity and success in all things. And make the right decision and to add respect for himself another Jewish custom, execution another Commandment. Take any small duty, the one you know you can accomplish. Those of us who are more confident in himself, let him take on more: the Sabbath, kashrut, or anything else. Promise, friends, do not miss the good fortune that falls to us in the service of the Most High: to give Him what He wants us to get away from it all is what we want from him. And that in the end we want? All in all it was good, that was a good year - and so we made the most of his chance!