Teves 5782
December 2021
Dear Friends,
I hope this note finds you and your families well.
The Gemora, Taanis, page 23a, relates an enigmatic story about Choni Ha-Maagel (Choni the circle-maker), which I would like to share. I am paraphrasing Sefaria’s translation:
One day, Choni was walking along the road when he saw a man planting a carob tree. Choni said to him: “After how many years will this tree bear fruit?” The man replied: “Seventy years.” Choni said to him: “Is it obvious that you will live seventy years, so that you can expect to benefit from this tree?” The man replied that he had found a world full of carob trees. “Just as my ancestors planted for me, I too am planting for my descendants.”
Sleep overcame Choni and …he slept for seventy years. When he awoke, he saw a certain man gathering carob pods from that tree. Ḥoni said to him: “Are you the one who planted this tree?” The man said to him: “I am his grandson.”
The Gemora continues that Choni went home and then to the beis midrash and announced that he was Choni Ha-Maagel, but he was not believed in either place.
There are at least two important lessons in this passage.
The first is that, just as we have received many things from the past, even from many people we have not known personally, we are obligated to prepare the world for the coming generations, even if we will never meet them.
The second is that we need to take advantage of the time that we have now to accomplish as much as we can, whether it is in learning, or building a family, or a community, or helping to develop and support Israel. Just as Choni’s return from the past was not successful, we cannot expect that there will be a better time than right now to make things happen.
These insights from the Gemora help inform what we do at the Old Broadway Synagogue. We are very active for a small community! In addition to the excellent derashos that Rafi gives every Shabbos, our Women’s Rosh Chodesh group, under the leadership of Rhonda Taylor and Laura Radensky, is going strong. We are fortunate to have a wonderful children's group under the leadership of the teen members of the group, who have been davening and learning, and putting on plays based on the weekly Torah reading. Rabbi Heller continues to give wonderful shiurim every other week. Lastly, we had a lovely Chanukah party with arts and crafts live music provided by Lawrence Goldman, Natanel Laevsky, and Eliano Braz.
I am also pleased to say that we have been building up our library of sifrei kodesh at the shul. Thanks to a number of contributions, both monetary and in-kind, we now have a beautiful new set of the Artscroll Mikra’os Gedolos, individual volumes and sets of the Gemora, sets of Mishnayos, and sets of the major meforshim. I would like to add that these books are heavily used and we anticipate the library growing even further.
Continuing our efforts to preserve our historic 98 year-old building for future generations, we have been moving forward on our floor reinforcement project. As noted previously, the first floor in the lobby has been sinking, and the construction that we are about to begin will stabilize and level the floor and keep it sound for the foreseeable future. We have hired a contractor, and have begun to clear out the space in the basement in preparation for the work. We are still raising money and we hope to raise another $40,000 to help cover the cost. With your help, we know that we can reach this goal and complete the work. Please keep us in mind as you make your year-end contributions.
In all, we are doing what we can to preserve Yiddishkeit for future generations, with urgency because as it is written in Psalm 119, “Es la’asos le-Hashem,” “Now is the time to act for Hashem!”
Speaking personally, it is a tremendous zechus for me to be part of the holy community that makes up the Old Broadway Synagogue. Thanks to your support, it has continued to be a place of learning, of Torah, of chesed, as inspired by Rabbi Kret and Mrs. Kret, may their memories be for a blessing. With Hashem’s help, and with your help, may we continue to be a beacon of Yiddishkeit and Torah.
Paul Radensky
President
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