Rabbi Abrams Blog

  We came to Temecula thinking we're here to serve the community, and then we realized that we need to build the Jewish community.  We sought out a piece of land to build a shul, which is now turning into a campus (check out updates on Facebook  here ).  Now we're working on something bigger than our campus, and even more important:  building a  Jewish neighborhood .  We were hoping to get some financial incentive from the developers to find homebuyers for them, but they don't need our help running their business.  We still decided that even without financial incentive, the opportunity to build a Jewish neighborhood is too important to forego. Please click  here  to read a chapter of Rambam (Maimonides) on the topic of neighbors (it's not that long and well worth the read).  Living in close proximity to other Jews is an amazing thing, something which I never even dreamed of a couple years ago.  This is not about Chabad, it's ab...

Yom Kippur is known as the "Day of Unconditional Acceptance," when G-d forgives & accepts us, but what do that actually mean?  Aren't there limits to how much we (or G-d) can accept?  Everything has limits, including acceptance! Every once in a while, we read stories about someone who was in the dumps, and was uplifted by a teacher, friend, boss or "angel".  Many times, these are people who have failed, ended up in prison, or made other serious mistakes in life.  They recall being ignored because of their past failures, until some special person saw in them what no one else saw.  "It was that  belief in me  and  unconditional acceptance  that gave me the strength to achieve" is what they'll recall.   Indeed, the nonbelievers had good reason to not believe and reject.  This person was a failure!  Judging by their actions, this person was "undeserving" of attention, a second chance, or a helping hand....

  It's very easy to judge the parents of a child who drowned, and assume that they were negligent or taking safety lightly.  It's not true.  Drowning is the #1 cause of death for children under four, and the #2 cause for children under 14.  Levi drowned 5' away from me.  I wasn't on my phone.  I was merely talking to another adult, while facing the pool.  We were at a friend's pool with six children there together.  I was in the pool most of the time, and got out for 5 minutes, standing at the gate supervising, while talking to the host (who also had a child in the pool).  Levi left the pool area, and came back a few minutes later riding a trike.  While I was thinking to myself that it wasn't a good idea, for some reason I decided not to make an issue out of it.  A couple minutes later, Moussia was about to jump in, and screamed, "Tatty!  Levi's at the bottom of the pool!"  Why didn't I see him fall?  W...

  Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm an expressive person.  I honestly communicate what's on my mind & heart, and I'm willing to be vulnerable.  It's my greatest asset, but it's also my greatest liability.  It's an asset because I'm relatable and human.  I don't feel the need to be perfect in everyone's eyes and I'm willing to share a struggle, which people appreciate.  At the same time, being expressive has its risks.  When you're on the ball and in touch, expressiveness is refreshing and real.  However, expressiveness without sensitivity is dangerous & causes hurt.  The key to life is sensitivity. Sensitivity is the key to marriage, raising children, developing a relationship with G-d, and even pool safety as I will write about later.  And I struggle with sensitivity.  In the past five years at Chabad of Temecula, we've done a lot of good.  I try to do the right thing and don't eat myself up over the s...

  Our family just experienced a miracle of a lifetime.  G-d transformed a brush with death into a day of celebration and thanksgiving.  It took me a few days to put my thoughts together into a coherent letter.  I even contemplated not saying anything, because it's so easy for people to judge etc.  In the end; however, we decided to share this story because (1) It may save another life someday and (2) It would be selfish to keep a miracle of this magnitude to ourselves.  To make the story short, this past Thursday I pulled our three year old Levi (who just had an upshernish) from the bottom of a pool.  He was likely there for minutes.  He had the appearance of a limp, dead body, and had no vitals (no pulse, heartbeat, or breath).  While I have no CPR training and have never seen it done before, I placed his lifeless body on the pavement and started alternating between breathing into his mouth and compressing his stomach and chest....

During the 1960's and especially after the Six Day War in 1967, the Rebbe saw a huge opportunity in the rebellion and awakening of that time, and later lamented that it wasn't adequately seized to teach Jews about their heritage and incorporate Torah and mitzvos into their lives. I believe we are on the brink of possibly an even greater opportunity than the 60's and it’s on us to be prepared for it. Here’s why: A few months ago, I wrote about a fascinating book called " The Power of Habit , " which in my opinion is a must read.  In it, the author explains why people are more likely to change the brand of orange juice they drink after big life changes like moving, marriage, baby, divorce etc. than any other time. The reason is because people are creatures of habit and once a habit is created, it's impossible to undo (he explains the biology of it in the book, and how you can change the routine of a habit, but not undo the habit itself).  On the oth...

Many people have asked me questions about the Rebbe, and what a Rebbe is, and I don't always have great answers.  Recently I read a story to my children from a book Sippurim Noraim, that I think explains it better than anything I've ever come across. It actually has to do with the namesake's namesake of our new son, Shalom Dovber.  It takes us back a couple hundred years to the city of Carlsbad (Germany), where the famous scholar, the Pnei Yehoshua lived.  He had a yeshiva, and was the prominent Rov of the city.  Every once in a while, he would be visited by a younger Rabbi, Rabbi Dovber, who would visit Carlsbad to soak his feet in the hot springs to help his foot problems.  Rabbi Dovber was a rising star in his Torah knowledge, and was well versed in the Talmud as well as Kabbalah.  That being said, he was strongly against the Baal Shem Tov and his ways (the Baal Shem Tov was the founder of the Chassidic movement, which is the precursor...