Thursday, January 28, 2016

Thank You - I Am Sorry - Out Of The Closet - Alive And Well

To answer all of the emails at once [I usually answer everyone individually but for various reasons I chose not to this time]:

1] Thank you for your support and  kind words. May you be blessed. Bi-ahava rabba - Me

2] I am sorry this fund raising campaign for the sefer gets on your nerves. I will hopefully pay for all future publications out of my own pocket - provided that Hashem puts the money there in the first place. I will also [bl"n] support all of the poor of Klal Yisrael and ideally end world hunger. I have big plans... But right now I am just a simple avreich trying to make ends meet while financing the marrying off of a child, making a bar mitzvah and supporting 7 people. 

I have zero to complain about. Hashem has given me a more blessed existence than anyone on the planet [including Lou Gerhig...]. I bless everyone that they should enjoy life and being Jewish at least as much as I do. I have been blessed in a myraid of ways and הודו לה' כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו. But in order to spread Torah [and do most chesed] one needs to have kemach and the only way to get it is to ask. It is not chas vi-shalom about "me". If people choose not to respond [or to respond] that is their choice. It is a free country. Hashem sees into our hearts and will decide if we are properly carrying out His will. I can judge nobody. 

I must go public and "come out of the closet" [so to speak] with the following declaration: There is nothing more loathsome to me than to talk about money. It is nauseating. I don't like talking about it or dealing with it. I didn't go into business for a reason. But the reality of the world is that if one wants a family, if one wants to spread Torah, if one wants to stay alive - he needs to deal with money. I don't want to be a woman. My she-lo asani ishah in the morning is heartfelt. Women have a great purpose in the world and are a true reflection of Hashem's will [שעשני כרצונו-  G-d's will] but I rather enjoy being a guy. But the thought of getting a Kesubah on which it says that I will be supported forever is quite an appealing thought. Women - if they so choose - can just spend their lives serving Hashem in bliss, raising children, saying tehillin, doing chesed etc. without having to run after the dollar [דולר בגימטריא עמלק].
   
If you want to daven for me [אלחנן בן הענא מרים] then you can daven that I be spared the fate of having to be involved in the pursuit of money which runs completely contrary to my nature. You can also daven for all of the cholim, lonely people, sad people etc. etc. who really need tefillos. 

As a nice aside - an avreich heard about the sefer [mikva talk....] and with no fanfare handed me 200 shekel this morning for publication. מי כעמך ישראל. 

3] There was an attack in Givat Zeev but fortunately, with one exception, myself and the thousands of other residents were spared. ה' ישמור צאתנו ובואנו מעתה ועד עולם.  Thank you for your concern.