Thursday, May 5, 2016

The Shabbat Primer by Nechoma Greisman ... Mitzva of Hachnasat Orchim ( Hospitality)


I was given a sneak preview of the new format (template) of Shabbat.com for notebook and laptop computers that is in the final stages of development . It looks wonderful with a number of new features and when it is released in a few weeks time Shabbat.com will be well on its was to capture a Lion of Judea from Facebook. Shabbat,com has three modules. The first is a Shbbat and Chaggim Hosting Module , matching Wonderful Hosts with Guest who want to have a Kosher Shabbat Experience.  The second is a Status update much like Facebook and after the revision in the final stages of development  Shabbat.com come will look similar to Facebook's Timeline  certainly in terms of functionality. The third is the Dating Module . Unlike other Jewish Dating Sites , Shabbat.com  Dating site is completely free with no premium charges . Inane and Silly questionnaires  have been largely dispensed with and it is anything but anonymous. You sell yourself and wants by what you write about yourself and what you are looking for. Try it . Shidduch yourselves and your single friends  and hey .... I am available, willing and wanting  . My name is Stephen Darori  I have profiles also on Linkedin, Twitter , and Facebook .

What Rabbi Benzion Klatzko has created and maintains largely out of his own pocket should be shared and promoted especially on Facebook.... the people index  of the world with 1.66 billion individual . Seriously do so in your own Timeline ( Status Up Date) and on some of your preferred Pages and Groups.The URL of Shabbat.com   http://www.shabbat.com/

The conceptual founder of Shabbat.com, Rabbi Klatzko brings over two decades of visionary leadership, staunch support of Israel, and Jewish activism to the project.

In what at the time was perceived as a bold move, 1999 saw the Klatzko family move to California so that he could accept the position of Campus Rabbi at UCLA. As a hands-on ambassador for the Jewish faith, he reconnected thousands of young Jewish men and women to their heritage. He also made an impressive splash in the broader Jewish community, earning the moniker “The Hollywood Rabbi.” Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars and producers, 
including cast and staff from Friends, Malcolm in the Middle, Third Rock From the Sun, and Directors and Vice Presidents of Sony, Disney, and Warner Brothers, became regulars at his popular monthly class on Jewish thought.

Rabbi Klatzko’s activities touched-off a revolution that profoundly changed the landscape of North American Jewry. He currently serves as a National Director of College Outreach, overseeing Jewish education throughout North America. He also serves as an lecturer at Yeshiva University and at over 70 different North American colleges and universities each year.

A person of indefatigable energy, Rabbi Klatzko is also a successful author, cantor, music producer, and Mohel. A noted Judaica art collector, Rabbi Klatzko is the founder of Simcha Art Gallery in New York. His eclectic accomplishments have earned him the admiration of the United States Congress, where he was honored during a live session of House of Representatives as a “distinguished gentleman making a difference to his community.”

Rabbi Klatzko was named one of the 28 Most Inspiring Rabbis in America by the Jewish Forward Newspaper in 2014.

Rabbi Klatzko and his wife Shani and their 11 children currently live in Monsey, New York, where hosting 80 or more people for Shabbos in the norm. He has been at the frontier of improving Jewish communal life in the United States for over two decades.

The Shabbat Primer by Nechoma Greisman Published by Machon Chaya Mushka (Chabad) 



The mitzva of hachnasat orchim (hospitality) is as old as the first Jew,Avraham Avinu. Among all the great personalities of the Torah he stands out, not only as a man of faith, but also as a man of chesed (lovingkindness). According to the Torah commentaries, he would sit at the doorway of his tent ready to welcome any passers-by. While doing his utmost to provide every physical comfort, he would also uplift his guests spiritually through his radiant kindness. Indeed, we are taught that Abraham and Sarah separately converted hundreds of men and women to following G‑d by their example and by their teaching. Perhaps it is because these two very effective methods for deepening love of Judaism and other Jews are present so naturally in hachnasat orchim that it is such a central mitzva in Judaism.
Jews have always needed the hospitality of other Jews for religious survival and even, during dark centuries of persecution, for physical survival. But there is a devotion to the mitzva of hospitality in traditional Jewish life which far exceeds the demands of necessity. Tales about impoverished sages and plain people who go to almost superhuman lengths to welcome strangers forShabbat abound in the classic sources. Real-life accounts of Jews in Nazi Germany and in the Soviet Union who took great personal risks hosting aSeder meal are just as common in our own era. Jews have always known that "if I am for myself alone, what am I?"1
Most Jews in most times, however, have not had to regard the mitzva as such a critical proposition. The main and sufficient reason for inviting guests is simply that it increases Shabbat joy, for host and guest alike. A table with just the family around it feels quite adequately full every other day of the week, but on Shabbat it can feel somehow empty, lacking. We miss the new voices singing and laughing with us.
A guest also enables a host to be more conscious of the beauty and educational value of Shabbat. If the guest is less observant than the host, there may be lots of teaching to do, which usually ends up benefiting the host as well. Teaching in this way helps him learn, reformulate, and re-learn. As the saying goes, "More than the host does for the poor man [meaning poor in money, knowledge, spirit, or anything else] the poor man does for the host."2
For the host's children, the experience of having frequent Shabbat guests is invaluable. It teaches in the most powerful way, by vivid examples and without preaching, that they have something special in Shabbat, something that other people want to learn about and share with them. Some of Nechoma's earliest Shabbat memories are of her mother explaining to guests about hand washing, of guests asking questions, and, through their answers to the guests, of her parents teaching her along with them. Seeing kiddush, for example, through their guests' eyes made her appreciate its beauty even more.
Children absorb much more than the explicit content of their parents' teachings. They absorb implicit context as well. Nechoma also feels that she learned from her parents a total hosting style, of teaching guests naturally, of being oneself with guests, of welcoming them with joy, and of regarding them as an integral part of her life so integral, in fact, that one of her first purchases after marriage was a sofa-bed for company.
At a time when most Jewish children are brought up with one other child at most in a large, comfortable home with "no room for guests," this traditional Jewish way of hospitality is rarely experienced and badly needed. It develops the child's openness and an interest in others, in short, how to be a Jewish social being.



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