THE FINAL STRETCH AND A STORY
Dear Family,
I hope that everyone is well.
We wish a Refuah shleimah for Mommy's sister Dina, who is having a hospital procedure.
MAZAL TOV TO MENDEL AND FREIDA ON THE BIRTH OF A BEAUTIFUL BABY BOY BH! The bris should be beshaah tova umatzlachas, and you should have much nachas from him and all of your children BEH, in good health and happiness!
Mazal Tov to Nechama Dina Davidoff (Nini) whose birthday is tonight. This is your first birthday celebration in our Family! Wishing you a wonderful year, Nechama Dina, with much brachah and achievement, and with much happiness together with Zalmy!
Mazal Tov to Devorah Leah whose birthday follows at the end of the week. Wishing you a wonderful year Devorah Leah with much continued nachas from all of your Family.
Mazal Tov to Dovi Levy on attaining Smicha in Rabbinical Studies! What wonderful news Dovi. Wishing you to go michayil el chayil in both your material and spiritual pursuits! Mazal Tov!
What came up a few times this week is that we are in THE FINAL STRETCH TO MASHIACH, as follows:
Toras Menachem 1985
Why do the our Sages tell us of all the anticipated difficulties as we get closer to Mashiach?
The Rebbe explains that obviously this is not to dishearten us, but rather to urge us to counter the difficulties by INCREASING OUR GOOD DEEDS.
And of course it is clearly visible to all of us the myriads of difficulties and dangers that Klal Yisrael are facing all over the world and particularly in EY today! We pray for the safety of our soldiers, the hostages, Am Yisrael, and Klal Yisrael.
Sedra Matos / Massai (V 33:38, 39)
These verses mention the passing of Aharon HaKohen.
And this portion is always read around Rosh Chodesh Av, which is the start of the 9 Days of Mourning for the destruction of both the Temples of Yerushalayim, and it records the exact date of the passing of Aharon.
I believe that this is the only place in the whole of Torah where an exact date is given for an event.
Aharon was famous for "Loving PEACE, pursuing PEACE, LOVING people, and drawing them close to Torah.
It has been pointed out that the reason that this portion always comes out very close to the 9 Days, is because these qualities of Aharon are needed as an antidote to the cause of the destruction of the Temple, which came about through unnecessary hatred of our fellow Jews, and in-fighting.
A story from this week
I had the opportunity this week to do the rare Mitzva of Shluach Hakan - sending the mother bird away from her nest.
A patient from our surgery who is expert in these Laws, noticed a pigeon nesting in one of the trees in our car park and offered to do the Mitzva with me.
We met at the surgery just before sunset on Tuesday with a tall ladder, chased away the mother, removed the 2 beautiful eggs, and then returned the eggs to the nest.
The next day when I went to work I saw that the pigeon was happily sitting back on its nest BH.
I took a photo of this and am attaching it. You will need a sharp vision to spot the bird and its nest.
What is the connection of the story to our theme? It says in the Zohar that the Mitzvah of Shluach Hakan is one of the Mitzvos which WILL HELP TO BRING MOSHIACH
May this be very soon, before Tisha BeAv this year, with much effort from ourselves, and with the help of Hashem!
Gut Shabbos to all