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To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
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Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: [email protected]
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: [email protected]
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
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Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: [email protected]
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
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3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: [email protected]
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: [email protected]
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: [email protected]
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: [email protected]
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: [email protected]
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
I love you. I am sorry. Please forgive me. I thank you.
“Ho’o pono pono. Ho’o pono pono.”
This is a Hawai’ian tradition of asking forgiveness from loved ones.
Last night, as I was teaching a group of rabbis Chassidut on the parashah, we were looking at Yaakov’s blessing to Yehuda.
יהוּדָה אַתָּה יוֹדוּךָ אַחֶיךָ
Yehuda, you, (Atta אתה) your brothers will express gratitude. (Genesis 49:8)
Rebbi Levi Yitzhack of Berditchev (1740-1809) wants to hold on to – to pick up – on this word אתה Atta you.
I hope that it is echoing in your mind when we say ‘ברוך אתה ה Baruch Atta Ha’Shem Blessed are you God.
How can we say that to God? How can we say “Blessed are you”? How can we turn to God in the second tense – you?
Rabbi Levi Yitzhack of Berditchev says this is the way that God shows God’s love to us. God loves us so much that he allows us to say אתה ‘Atta.’ God loves us so much that Reb Levi Yitzhack even says that we are like God’s siblings. And only Rav Levi Yitzhack can say this (from his book Kiddushat Levi on this week’s Torah portion: Vayechi):
וגם ראה עוד אהבתו שקראנו אחים כנאמר, “לְמַעַן, אַחַי וְרֵעָי” תהילים 122:8
“Also another way of understanding God’s love to us – God calls us God’s sibling as in the pasuk (sentence) in Tehillim (Psalms 122:8) “for the sake of my brothers and friends.”
We are God’s אחים אחיות achim and achayot (brothers and sisters) and that is why when I hear this “ho’o pono pono,” I want to say that I hear God saying ברוך אתה Baruch Atta, ברוכה את Barucha At, when I say to God ברוך אתה Baruch Atta.
In these times where so many things are pulling us into so many different directions: How do we feel right now? How do we experience the reality that we are in? How do we align ourselves to some kind of internal peace?
I want to suggest: “I love you. I am sorry. Please forgive me. I thank you.”
I bless us to be able to say to God, “I love you. I am sorry. Please forgive me. I thank you.”
And for God to say it to us.
Shabbat Shalom
Reb Mimi serves as the Mashpiah Ruchanit (spiritual mentor) of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary. She teaches Talmud and Hassidic Thought in the rabbinical program as well as in the Schechter Institute. She guides and walks with the rabbinical students on their personal-spiritual journeys. Previously, she served as the Mashpiah Ruchanit of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles for 16 years. Prior to this Reb Mimi was one of the founding administration and faculty members of the “Yakar” Beit Midrash and community.
