This Is Really Good

In honor of Pesach, here is a recent inspirational email from Rabbi Ron Yitzchak Eisenman (Rabbi of Congregation Ahavas Israel, Passaic, NJ).

My Chassidishe Friend.

I have a real funny Chassidishe friend. He always tells me interesting Vortlach (the plural of Vort) which although not always grammatically accurate, are always inspirational and often entertaining.

One of the best ones he told me, which now I have co-opted and added to my own repertoire of wisdom is the following: When some is in need, getting married, sick, or just down, I offer them the Brocha of ‘Gefen’. Gefen? Wait, doesn’t gefen mean grape-vines? What type of Brocha is that to offer a person a grape-vine?

My Chassidishe friend explained that what you are really wishing them is:

• Gezunt – health
• Parnossah – a livelihood
• Nachas – joy and satisfaction

Meaning the three first letters of the word Gefen - should be broken into three separate words; the Gimmel is for Gezunt, the Peh is for Parnossah and the Nun is for Nachas. Therefore I love giving people the Brocha of Gefen! It’s an all inclusive Brocha!

Yesterday, my friend called me and I asked him for a remez - a hint - for the word Chometz. Meaning, we are commanded this Wednesday to destroy all of the Chometz in our possession, and we all know that the physical Chometz must represent some greater sublime spiritual message. So, therefore, I asked my Chassidishe friend for a remez - a hint for the word Chometz!

This is what he answered me - (indeed, lately; this is answer I have been getting more and more from people). “Rabbi Eisenman, when you first used to ask me about Chassidishe Vortlach- that was years ago before you had your own kehilla. Now, you yourself are a big Rebbe, go figure it out on your own! Hashem will guide you to find the remez for Chometz.

Armed with my friend’s brocha and my new crowned title of Rebbe, I allowed my mind to plummet to the depths of the human condition. My mind raced as it re-enacted hours and hours of pre-Pesach counseling sessions. My head throbbed as I attempted to visualize what Brocha I would want someone to wish me and which aspects of the human condition would I like to be eradicated together with the burning of the Chometz?

Therefore what follows is my brocha to me and to all.

I give a brocha that all of us this year (and of course myself as well), that we should truly be able to rid ourselves prior to Pesach of all of our Chometz. The physical Chometz and the spiritual Chometz as well: What is the spiritual Chometz that I am referring to? Chometz is spelled - ches, mem, and tzadik.

Ches - stands for Chutzpah. May I be privileged this year to remove and to burn from within me all of the Chutzpah which I can sometimes display towards others. Chutzpah in all of its forms is insidious and damaging, it destroys families and marriages. All of us should do our best to rid ourselves of this venomous character trait of being Chutzpadik. Do not think this malady is limited to the children of the community; not true, all of us must work and work hard to eliminate this trait from ourselves!

Mem - Stands for Machlokes. How we go into Pesach when in certain families the fire of Machlokes is raging? How can we stand and burn the Chometz when inside we are enraged with the fire of anger and machlokes against our spouse or our neighbor? This year before Pesach we must destroy the poison of Machlokes from among us.

Tzadik - Stands for Tzidkos. (Self) righteousness. We have to rid ourselves of our feeling of self-righteousness. We are constantly declaring ourselves to be righteous and correct. How often when we are involved in our family issues do we become obstinate and self-righteousness, refusing to apologize and forgive and forget in order to make peace. We use our feigned status of tzidkos – feigned piety- to allow situations of Machlokes to continue and fester. We must rid ourselves this Pesach of the false tzidkos - false piety - which interferes with our serving Hashem. We should attempt to be forgiving and not standing on our ‘principles’.

Last night I called back my Chassidishe friend and I informed him of the real remez which is found in the word “Chometz” – the remez of Chutzpah, Machlokes, Tzidkos. I then said, “Nu, so what do you think?”

He paused and then said, “Not bad for a Litvishe Rebbe, not bad at all.”

Rav Ron Yitzchok Eisenman has lead Congregation Ahavas Israel since 1997.
Visit their website: www.ahavasisrael.org

Ouch: Learning from the Amish

Another series of layoffs, this time close to home... my old firm, which has been cutting people since last summer {raises hand}, laid off 45 more people yesterday, despite it being the crunch time of busy season, including a really close friend, another friend and neighbor, and a lot of other Jews, especially Orthodox Jews (15 in total, which is really amazing when you think about it - and right before Pesach, which is smart on the company's part). They haven't even let anyone in tax go yet - this is just from their audit section. Two weeks from now will probably see a lot more cuts. When I told DGEsq the news, including who was let go, he screamed "NO!" - one of his friends and neighbors, with 3 kids, who'd just bought a house, was one of the casualties.

Certainly, the disappearance of large numbers of hedge funds played a role, but mostly, this was simply a measure of how poorly the firm itself was doing. Last busy season, I was arguing to my bosses why the way they were doing things (incredibly inefficient use of resources and people, poor attention to spreading good ideas to the firm as a whole, etc.) was bringing down the firm when it had an opportunity to challenge even the Big Four in some regards.

But in terms of the Jewish community, this is going to be very messy. Perhaps more than any other segment of American society, the Jewish community is very tightly connected with the financial services industry. A somewhat connected figure in the Jewish community related to me at a sheva brachos tonight that as much as 25% of the Jewish community in Passaic is unemployed right now. Even if he means 1 in 4 households, and even if the number is inflated... that's an incredibly large number. Queens is not faring much better at the moment. Those who still have jobs are watching people around them get sent home every couple of months. The rest are looking in vain.

As a community, we need to take a lot of steps back so we can start looking at the big picture. Even in the boom years, we were a community skating on the edge, relying on the boom to keep us ahead. Now that that bubble has burst, we need to reshape how we function as individuals, as families, and as a community when it comes to our finances.

I was CCed on an e-mail exchange earlier today, and one of the people commented only somewhat jokingly that it is difficult to change attitudes, as

They'll say that we survived for centuries in Europe under dire poverty, why can't we cut back on our luxuries today and live without a car, constant electricity, new clothes, etc.

I noted in response that housing in Europe was a lot cheaper than housing in Cleveland, let alone Brooklyn. They also caught their own fish, raised their own livestock, and skinned their own furs. I then noted that I saw a piece about Chassidim leading Amish around Crown Heights this week. While people like to criticize the Amish as living somewhat of a backwards life, they seem to be eons ahead of the Jewish community when it comes to communal economics. As a community, they keep costs low, they provide and create almost everything they consume, and they export at large profit (hand-crafted furniture) while importing almost nothing into the community. Meanwhile, the frum community imports far more than it exports, spends more than it produces, and as a community, drives prices up for one another, whether it be housing, tuition, food, or anything else.

Perhaps instead of hosting the Amish and teaching them about Jewish life in the city, we should visit them and learn about Amish life in the country.