Rabbi Abrams Blog

  As you know, today, a terrible tragedy occurred in Chabad of Poway just before yizkor, and a beautiful sister of ours, Lori Kaye, lost her life, just for being Jewish.  We wish a speedy recovery to Rabbi Goldstein, who lost fingers, Almog Peretz who was shot in the leg while shoving children out of the exit doors, and a child, Noya Dahan, who was hit by debris. Within a few hours, police were already at our door, stationed, and then patrolling for the rest of the day.  Law enforcement and city council have reached out with love and support, and we feel it.  We are blessed to live in the wonderful United States of America and double down on our commitment to strengthen the Jewish community with life and vitality here.  We will not let the haters win. While the recent spike in antisemitism is alarming and needs to be addressed in a major way, both locally and nationally, the call of the hour is to remind ourselves that we don't give in to ter...

  A great member of our community taught me an amazing lesson this week.  We were talking about growing Chabad of Temecula and how we can get more people involved, especially with the classes (mine and Natanya's) that are really worthy of attracting the masses.  I was talking to him about being a leader and "if you know an aleph (first letter of Hebrew alphabet) teach an aleph."   His response was showing me  this 3 minute YouTube video , which I highly recommend you watch.   The whole point is that leadership is overrated, and the world needs better followers. I'll have to do more thinking on this, because it's clear that we can all be leaders, and, "if you know an aleph, teach an aleph."  At the same time, I think this video might be driving home the lesson from Pirkei Avos, chapter 4, mishna 15  " Rabbi Matya the son of Charash would say: Be first to greet every man. Be a tail to lions, rather than a head to foxes."