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
Please
click here to
make an online contribution to the Old Broadway Synagogue.
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