Weekly Chasidic Story #718 (s5771-52 / 29 Menachem-Av 5771)

“It Happened in-Tzfat”: From the Ascent Archives

ASCENT generally does not accept already observant singles for Shabbos, for various reasons, and yet….

Connection: Seasonal – ASCENT’s 28th Birthday on Rosh Chodesh Elul 5770 / Sept. 1, 2011

FROM THE ASCENT ARCHIVES

David came to Ascent for a few Shabbats and got excited about being more Jewish. He continued studying near his home in Tel Aviv. Two months ago, he brought his girl friend to Ascent and proposed to her on the premises! The wedding was on Purim Katan (17/2/71).

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Esther came to Ascent twice and started dragging her husband Chaim along too. They are both in their 50’s. Now he drags her here. They are quickly growing in their Judaism. They come for all of the holidays and never come without some of their friends.

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Malka came to Ascent to understand why her children had become observant while traveling in India. The result was that she herself became observant! Now she has a kosher kitchen and welcomes her children and other people into the Jewish environment of her home. She does not have much time to visit Ascent anymore.

* * *

A youngish Russian immigrant couple, Polina and Chaim, whose parents study at Ascent, made a bris mila [circumcision] for their first child, a new born son. When Rabbi Dovid Notik, director of Ascent’s New Immigrant Study Center arrived, the mother rushed over to him. This is all in your merit, she said. We unsuccessfully tried to have children for years not knowing anything about Judaism. When you starting teaching our parents about mikveh, we started to practice it also; and this is the result. Thank you Ascent.

* * *

While all of the soldiers are happy to make Kiddush at the Shabbat meals, many of them refrain from participating in the hand-washing that follows. This is partly because they do not understand why we do it, and partly to show that they are not observant or interested in being observant. Nevertheless, the warm family environment is often successful at drawing in even the most distant. For one lieutenant, the meal brought back memories of his observant grandparents and the atmosphere they created. His last statement was that when he married, he hoped to create the same atmosphere in his home.

* * *

MC was far from Judaism. He spent his first month in Israel at Ascent and then moved to Jerusalem. Shortly after that he telephoned, proud to tell us that he had purchased a kosher electric razor, washes negel vasser next to his bed every morning, and has started wearing tzitzit. He decided to wear his tzitzit inside his trousers in case he ever has to go to a not-kosher restaurant, in order not to mislead people.

* * *

Ascent generally does not accept already observant singles for Shabbos. We can fill up with not-yet observant participants and we also do not want to risk exposing young people from religious families to our more relaxed environment. Three seminary girls who arrived at our door after candle lighting did not leave us a choice. When they came to the home of Rabbi Leiter, they somehow also had a young man in tow, the ‘boyfriend’ of one of the girls. When the 3 girls did not stop asking questions the entire evening, we saw G-d’s hand at work. Shabbat day, the young lady with the ‘boyfriend’ told him to get up off the couch and go pray Mincha with everyone else.

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From a response to www.kabbalaonline.org: “The more I read about Kabbalah, the more secure I feel and the more I feel close to what is important and understand what is not. I am committed to studying more everyday. I wish there was someone close to talk to and ask questions of. So the daily mail from Kabbalaonline.org has become more than important to me! Thank you for the sharing of your wisdom with me. Best regards from Thorill.”

* * *

Rabbi Big Mo Siev was praying at a shul in Jerusalem when a man approached him and said, “Twelve years ago you taught me my first words about Torah and you also gave me my first pair of tzitzit. Today I am a religious Jew, married with children and I live here in Jerusalem. Thank you for everything.

* * *

Colonel JZ, a man in his 40’s, came to the home of one of Ascent’s host families. He had never made Kiddush before, but since all of his junior officers were making Kiddush, he agreed to make it too, so long as we would provide him an explanation. Just that short experience helped JZ decide that he would make Kiddush every Shabbat for his family. So far he has been doing it for a year!

* * *

Ascent just received an invitation from a young couple who met at Ascent, decided to become observant through Ascent, and now want to invite all of the staff to their wedding.

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Joy’el started coming to Ascent a few years ago, slowly becoming more involved in Judaism. She was very excited about her new life, but was disturbed because certain personal problems would not go away. As one of her steps forward she accepted a spiritual advisor to help with some of these problems. One piece of advice she received was to check the whole process of her divorce many years before. When she did she discovered that there was a mistake in her get and she was never actually divorced. She fixed it and right away things began to improve.

* * *

Each Birthright groups is escorted by a group of young soldiers, often officers. One particular Birthright group came for the famous Ascent “multi-purpose shtender (prayer stand)” presentation. These were kids who knew nothing at all about Judaism. The presenter had trouble even beginning to explain what a shtender was. All of a sudden, their four escorts arrived and started shouting how they had been to Ascent a few months before and had a great time. That was all the ice-breaking the presenter needed.

* * *

And for the grand finale:
Residing in Tzfat are over 30 families of Ascent alumni observing Judaism, most of them with growing families.

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Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.

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