Tamuz 5770 Address from Chief Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki
Dear friends!
In this address I would like to dwell again on a very important issue for all of us – the issue of our unity. Today like during all our history we’ve got numerous enemies, and our unity is our biggest strength. We should stick together anywhere anytime.
Recently we read in Torah about the high priest Aaron, a brother of Moshe-rabeinu. Rashi says that when Aaron-a-kohen has left this world “the whole house of Israel”- men, women and children alike were crying. No wonder as in spite of his highest position of the top priest of Jewish nation Aaron never neglected an opportunity to make peace between a husband and wife in a humble Jewish family. In Hebrew it’s called “Shalom bait” – “peace at home”. Naturally such peacemaking was followed by new kids. And Rashi says that among the children who cried for Aaron there were many his “spiritual” kids. When Aaron saw two neighbours quarrelling he immediately started thinking about helping them and always tried to sort out the problem irrelevant of its difficulty. I believe we could use such zaddik now to teach us again how to become closer to each other.
Some time ago anti-Semitic moods became supported with rejection of Israeli government steps on the world level. He inherited the word “hypocrite” from ancient Greeks. So heads of those countries who have rather dubious historical past now openly show their hypocrisy while criticizing Israel. This small country which has to defend itself and its rights given from Above has become a victim of biased attitude from hostile surrounding.
Recently I learned an amazing fact- it so happens that boycott of Israeli goods in England was initiated by a Jew – Avraam Bereishit, professor of London university. So it turns out that we, Jews, being in an endless internal fission encourage aggression aimed at us thus harming ourselves irreparably. So absurdly we encourage activation of our adversaries against us. Just like during the times of wandering in the desert we can’t stop discord among ourselves. And discord is like an epidemic or fire: once started it’s impossible to stop. So, I say it again, for better unity we really need a figure like our Aaron-a-kohen.
As for the Israel issue- here everyone of us can do something since we, Jews, are a big power. Our power is in our brain, intellect, command of oral and written speech. And also in our prosperity – Jews always knew how to honestly make money and how to honestly spend them. So if a well-off Jew will prefer a vacation in Israel to vacation in Turkey- he will demonstrate his patriotism and solidarity with our brothers in Israel and at the same time will bring money there.
Mass media and the Internet pour on us negative information connected with Middle East events. Data obtained from papers or TV are only discussed in a small circle of people but on having read a news on the Internet we can put there our comment for thousand of people to read. And if every Jew on one or several Internet sites will openly support the Country given to us by Torah and honestly gives his/her ideas about the events they may be our adversaries will see something clearly.
It’s not necessary to have arms- even sitting at home, say, in Dnepropetrovsk, on Karl Marx avenue and caring for your people we can influence the events and change the situation for the better.
Chief Rabbi of Dnepropetrovsk and region Shmuel Kaminezki.
Sivan 5770 Rabbi's Address
Dear friends!
The school year is coming to its end, the summer is approaching, and we anticipate the joy of summer vacation. This year just like every year our boys and girls will go to wonderful summer camps in picturesque Crimean locations. Jewish kids will have a great opportunity to relax, breeze fresh air, restore their energy and get healthier. As everyone knows- in sound body dwells sound spirit.
Thanks to our friends from Boston in June a school camp will open its doors for our children who will play and enjoy a rich cultural program and improve their skills in English.
I wish to express deep gratitude to director of Joint in South-Eastern Ukraine Amir Ben Zwi for the outstanding Mishpacha family camp operating for several years under the auspices of the community center.
I would very much like Jewish parents who have more time with their children in summer to think again about their national identity. One has to pay more attention to studying Torah and its commandments. The fact is that kids see Jewishness through their parents’ attitude to it. How can a kid distinguish good from evil if his/her parents don’t care for Jewish festivals? Or their coming makes them bored or even terrified?
I am deeply disappointed when a Jew who’s reached unbelievable success in business, science, politics remains absolutely ignorant of his own Torah. Can any Jew be really educated if he doesn’t know the basics of this world, if he has no idea whatsoever about the initial laws it’s been built upon?
When a Jew subconsciously or –even worse- consciously rejects Torah it looks not just weird- it looks unnatural: aren’t people afraid to cut themselves from the real “energy source”? And still some of us irresponsibly neglect the biggest privilege to be born Jewish – this gift given to us by the Almighty.
During one of my Shabbat speeches I gave an example. I have a friend who writes manuals for video- and audio equipment and home appliances. The manuals usually give contacts for feedback. Once the manufacturers got a highly irregular message from a buyer. In her letter the woman indignantly asked why can someone order her how to use correctly the item she’s bought and which is now hers. Just like some Jew is sometimes unable to realize why the Creator has given to him “a manual” for his own life.
And we do need “the manual” because G-d created us for the life worthy of His high intentions. And Jews, the G-d’s chosen people, don’t dare disappoint their Creator. Every one of us should do his/her best to fully implement the plan of the Almighty in our times, before the arrival of the righteous Moshiach!
I wish to all of you a happy summer!
Chief Rabbi of Dnepropetrovsk and the region Shmuel Kaminezki
The latter part of this past Hebrew month, Kislev, is a time of redemption and renewal for the Jewish people. Actually, the month begins with a day of celebration as the very first day of Kislev is the date when our beloved Lubavitcher Rebbe returned to his normal activities after a serious illness thirty-two years ago. Then, the tenth of Kislev marks the release of the second Rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi Dov Ber, known as the Mitteler Rebbe, from Czarist imprisonment, and this day is also one of celebration and happiness.
But it is the last part of Kislev, the festivities of which we enjoyed so recently, that is most famously associated with redemption. On 19 Kislev, the first Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, our revered Alter (Elder) Rebbe, was liberated from imprisonment on trumped-up charges of contact with the enemies of the Czarist regime. The evil machinations of his accusers and captors were soon thwarted as he left prison and began intensified efforts to spread the wellsprings of serving G-d with happiness and through unmitigated love of one’s fellow Jew almost from the moment he emerged from the doors of the notorious Petropavlovskaya prison in S Petersburg.
Here in Dnepropetrovsk, we continued to spread the teachings and the ways of the Alter Rebbe when we hosted two gala 19 Kislev celebrations. The first was for the women of our community, and it featured a very special woman who herself understands redemption on a very personal level. Mrs Esther Segal, a native of the Former Soviet Union, was told by many specialists that she would never experience the joys of being a Jewish mother. Yet, after living for several years in Israel, she defied the odds and gave birth to healthy quintuplets, to five strong, vibrant Jewish children who will continue her eternal Jewish heritage. Mrs Segal, today a Chassidic activist who is a popular television personality among Russian speaking Israelis, spoke to a spellbound audience of seven hundred women of our community about the Chassidic teachings that inspired her never to give up hope and about the Jewish lifestyle that she leads as both a loving Jewish mother and a successful professional.
The next day, the celebration for the men featured a multimedia presentation along with the debut of a new choir featuring young boys from our community. We honored community leaders who merited to help publish new works of Chassidic thought translated into Russian, thereby spreading the Chassidic wellsprings of Torah and happiness to even more Jews in Dnepropetrovsk and beyond.
Yet, this was but a glimpse of what was to come. The Lubavitcher Rebbe has always asked that Chanukah be celebrated in the open, so that Jews and non-Jews alike could share in the light and miracles of our holiday which commemorates the restoration of proper Jewish leadership to the Land of Israel after Greek intruders were routed by the brave Macabees centuries ago.
Our community began sharing this light even before Chanukah, when we began distributing 550,000 candles, 10, 000 menorahs, and even 130,000 traditional jelly doughnuts to thousands of members of the Jewish community here. And our forty Chanukah events, including plays, concerts, brissim, and weddings along with menorah lightings in local shopping centers, culminated with the light of a parade of menorahs atop cars, literally lighting the entire city with the joy of Chanukah despite the extreme cold. Just as nothing could extinguish the flame of the Jews of the time of the first Chanukah, so, too, did we spread warmth and light on a freezing night here in Dnepropetrovsk. The one and a half million people, Jew and non-Jew alike, who reside here in our city truly felt the light of Chanukah and the promise of a better world which it symbolizes, whether they came into contact with our light directly at our huge outdoor celebration and parade, or just passed a lit menorah in their favorite shopping center.
But in Dnepropetrovsk, the Jewish community does not stop at being a beacon of literal light, once a year for a week. We are always finding ways to spread the light that Hashem has blessed us to spread by helping others, no matter their beliefs or origin. Lately, that has meant that I have been asked to look into new ways of assisting people with pressing medical needs. To that end, I have been greatly blessed with the expert advice of our friends and partners in Boston, the Combined Jewish Philanthropies and Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston, and their affiliated medical advisors who will be arriving here in a month’s time to explore opportunities for new joint efforts to preserve and improve the health of residents of our city. We also look forward to the Chavaya camp, in which children from Boston and our Israeli sister city of Haifa join our children in enjoying our shared heritage and culture as they learn from each other what it means to develop as a Jew and as a citizen of our shared world.
The light and freedom of Chanukah, coming so soon after the liberation of 19 Kislev, are not just annual occurrences here in Dnepropetrovsk. They are our foundation as they inspire us throughout the year to use our blessings of freedom to shine greater and greater light throughout our city, to all its residents, and indeed across the world.
I wish that all of us experience only the happiness that comes with spreading the light of true Jewish freedom. And in the merit of all the light that we are privileged to spread, may we indeed immediately rejoice with the true happiness and infinite freedom of the arrival of Moshiach!
Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki