Shalloooommmm sweeeetest friends!!!!!!
A huuuuge mazel tov to R' Motti and Esti Yagelnik on the birth of Ayala!!! May she be the source of a huuuge amount of nachas to all of klal yisrael!!!
A special mazel tov to the new grandparents R' Yisrael [Eric?] and Ahava Ehrman and the new GREAT grandparents R' Asher Zelig [Fred?] and Suzan Ehrman and to all of the other excited relatives!!! KEYN YIRBU!!!
A huuuuge mazel tooov to R' Naftali and Tova Herskovic on the birth of their daughter!!! May she be a light unto the whole world and give her parents and grandparents much much nachas!!!! KEYN YIRBU!!!
TWO FIRST BORN GIRLS!!! WOW-EEEEE!!!! There are two boys in diapers whose kallah was just born. And they don't even know it.....
This Torah is dedicated to two of my brothers - R' Avraham Yitzchak and R' Yosef Ezra Jaspan. May they and their WHOLE FAMILIES grow in all ways with simcha, good health and prosperity. May their love for Torah increase together with their bank accounts, their families, the amount of Torah they know and the goodness that they spread to the whole WIDE world!!!
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Shabbos is the yahrtzeit of HaGaon Rav Yaakov Moshe Charlap!!! I am giving a kiddush in shul this Shabbos in his memory and all are invited!!! Be there or be .... elsewhere!!!
So much to say - so little time...
So a short vort of his [with some of my own embellishments]. In this weeks parsha it says "ויפגע במקום" [Yaakov] "came to this place" whereupon he had this prophetic dream of angels and ladders [funny because as a child I would often play chutes and ladders. But this was a dream of a completely different type....]. You can read about it in this AWESOME book called the "Torah".
But we are Jews and accept nothing at face value but rather always ask. So we ask - Of course he had a dream in a certain place?! Where else would he dream - in no place [remember what I just wrote - "be there or be elsewhere". Those are the only two options]? Like - everyone is always SOMEWHERE?? [Reminds me of the Holocaust survivor who was asked where he wanted to emigrate to after the war. He said "Australia". He was asked "Isn't that far?" He replied "Far from where?"]
So by golly - why does the pasuk emphasize the PLACE??
The answer is HUUUGE. EVERYBODY needs to find their PLACE in this world. Once you put yourself in the right place - then you can reach your full potential. For some the place is in Yerushalayim. For others - Raanana [the only American city that is bordered by Israel on all four sides]. For yet others - maybe Ellenville in Upstate New York. Who knows? Only Hashem. But once one finds his place - then he can truly excel. When one is in the wrong place then he is often blocked from reaching his [or her] potential.
ויפגע במקום!
Only after going to the correct place [in this case it was Har Hamoriah - "Temple Mount"] was Yaakov able to have this prophetic dream.
Rashi says that ויפגע also mean tefilla. This teaches us how critical it is to daven in the right places. The right shul with the right type of people [i.e. those who take tefilla seriously, where they have elaborate kiddushes, Artscroll siddurim with the tefillah for Medinat Yisrael etc. etc.].
The gematria of סולם - ladder, is ממון - money [136]. The angels went up and down. money can bring one up or down.... [It is also מאפיה - The Mafia can also bring one up or down:-)].
So I bless us all that we should always be in the right place at the right time, we should have all of our prayers answered and be endowed with great material wealth, thereby elevating us and all of the world.
A sweeeet shabbos BELOVED FRIENDS!!!!
Love,
Me
