Rabbi Abrams Blog

At first glance it seems like we’re in uncharted territory.  Domestically Israel is amazingly united at levels never seen before.  But outside of Israel the issue of Israel has unfortunately become subject to political teams and identities.  And we’re seeing the unmasking of overt antisemitism that has not been seen since the Holocaust.  Even people 80 years old have never seen this before.   What should we do?  What is my place?  How can I help? Every year, we read in the Hagaddah, “In every generation, they [the enemies of Israel] stand up to annihilate us, and G-d saves us from their hands.” Two immediate lessons from this passage are: Antisemitism is not new (every generation…) It will all end ok (G-d saves us from their hands…) Additionally, the Rebbe gave guidance both during the Holocaust and also spoke at great length about Israel. We cannot control what other people think about us.  Appeasing, explaining or hiding our Judaism will not cha...

  I’ll be totally open with you.  It’s been a struggle to stay focused, productive and do what I know needs to be done more than ever.  Israel needs our spiritual ammunition, and Temecula needs our outreach, but paralysis is plaguing me. Every year we read in the Passover Hagaddah, “In every generation, [our enemies] stand up to annihilate us, and G-d saves us from their hands.” What’s happened this past week has been scary.  If it’s not enough that we’re mourning our butchered brothers and sisters, worried about our hostages, thinking about my sister Rivkah, this week added insult to injury. The bias in the news has been scary.  The overwhelming public support AGAINST the Jewish people has been harrowing. “But G-d saves us from their hands”.  And this will happen again, just like it has for the past 4,000 years. History has proven that despite the sinister efforts of mighty nations, they are gone and we stand strong.  The Torah is a “tree of life” to ...

What's happening: What has happened is terrible and heartbreaking.  Israel just experienced its 9/11.  The scale of this terrorist attack in Israel is unprecedented.  Just before the holiday, I received a poster from a charity in Israel with names and faces of all  1,707 terror victims from the past 23 years .  Now,  in one day, over 700 of our brothers and sisters have been savagely murdered  and added to this list of Jewish terror victims in Israel, Hy"d.   In addition to the 700 murdered, there are over 100 hostages (men, women, children, elderly).  The situation is chaotic and everyone wants to know what they can do. What we can do: Every person has their place.  The soldiers need to fight, the strategists need to strategize and the diplomats need to diplomatize.  What about me and you? The easiest thing we can do is send money.  We can  support organizations  that buy blankets for terror victims, and that's ...

I had the pleasure of officiating the wedding of Sivan and Ram Malka.  They moved to Temecula during Covid and recently decided it was time to tie the knot and build a Jewish home. Mazal Tov Sivan & Ram! A Jewish wedding of locals is a big milestone for our community.   We had the honor of hosting a Sheva Brachos (post wedding celebration) for them. Sheva Brachos are actually the same blessings that are made under the Chuppah. For the week after the wedding, every time the bride and groom have a meal with a minyan, they can receive these blessings. It’s a beautiful way to start off their life together, being blessed by their family, friends and community.   There’s one rule though, that I didn’t really understand until last year. In order to recite all these blessings you need to have someone in attendance who was not at the wedding.  This is a way to increase the joy, by including more people. It always puzzled me.  Why is it so important to have a friend ...

This building project is reminding me of two kinds of reward. It is a principle of faith that we believe in “reward and punishment” (Ie, G-d will reward us for keeping the Torah, and punish us for transgressing). Why is the belief in reward so central to Judaism?  Aren’t we supposed to do what’s right because it’s right, not because of some stick and carrot game?  Is G-d like a manipulative parent, trying to bribe us into doing his bidding? One answer is that there are two kinds of reward: (1) Arbitrary reward-  I’ll pay you to work and you can do whatever you want with the money or I’ll buy you a bicycle if you clean your room or get a good report card-  The money or bicycle has no intrinsic connection to the work being done.  (2) Build a home with your hands- The reward is the direct result of your handiwork. Clean your room and you’ll have a clean room.  The reward is a direct result of the work. When G-d rewards us for keeping Torah, it’s not a bribe. ...

We are so proud of Shalom Ber.  He’s only three years old, but he is a very deep child.  It’s not surprising because he’s named after the fifth Chabad Rebbe (1860-1920).  I feel a special connection to him, because I’ve spent thousands of hours studying his teachings. Shalom Ber was a little bit late to start talking.  But we weren’t concerned for even a moment. We could tell that he was busy listening .  While we were doing construction on the temporary shul on the side of our house, he would come every morning, and watch them intently all day until the workers left.   Whenever I ask the boys, “who wants to practice reading with me?”  he’s the first one to grab his book and run to me.  This morning, after I vacuumed the mess from last night, he took all the parts out for cleaning. It’s the perfect time to increase his education and training as a Jew.   Upshernish is Yiddish for haircut, which at first seems kind of anticlimactic. Why make a...

  People say that the Rebbe can work miracles.  Is that true?  What did the Rebbe himself say about this? In the fall of 1959, a group of college students with the “Hillel” campus organization came for a group meeting with the Rebbe.  At a certain point, the floor was opened up for questions, and one student asked this very question: “Rebbe, people say that you can work miracles.  Is this true?” The Rebbe responded by asked the students what the word miracle means.  And he continue to explain:  The world has “nature” and “miracles”.  Nature is the way things happen naturally.  The world has “rules” and some of them are not so kind.  The strong survive and the weak perish.  Nature dictates that there are winners and losers, “live-ers” and “die-ers”. But a basic tenet of Judaism is that this physical world is the last of a series of many spiritual worlds.  And it’s like a puppet with strings attached from on top.  “Playing w...