LOVE

Dear Family,

I hope that everyone is well.

Wishing Yechezkiel ben Ester a refuah shleimah.

Mazal Tov to Nechama Levy for her Batmitzvah birthday this week! We heard also that you are going to New York next week as part of your celebration and then the big party close to Shavuos. It should all be with much joy Nechama, and you should have an amazing year, achieving in your studies, sports, Yiddishkeit, and all the things that you are working at, bringing much nachas to your parents and Hashem!

Mazal Tov to Pesach on his birthday next week. Wishing you hatzlachah rabbah for a beautiful year in both gashmius and ruchnius Pesach!

Mazal Tov to Pesach Dovid Levy on his birthday next week. Wishing you a beautiful, first year of marriage Dov. I hope all is going well. Hatzlacha rabbah in both gashmius and ruchnius!

Mazal Tov to Pesach Yeshaya Vogel on his birthday next week. Continue to be the amazing boy that you are Yeshaya, and wishing you much success with your school work and all the sports that you do!.

Mazal Tov to Shneur Zalman Davidoff Jnr on his birthday next week. Wishing you a successful year Shneur Zalman with your learning and your sports, and to give your parents much nachas.

Mazal Tov to Aaron Davidoff on his birthday next week. I hope all is going well with you Aaron and wishing you a great year!

In this week's Sedra Acharei Mos / Kedoshim, we come across many Mitzvot, one of which is Ahavas Yisrael - Loving our Fellow Jew

We have also been learning in Tanya this week, about the various levels of Loving Hashem, this being another Mitzvah and connected to Loving a Fellow Jew.

And I would like to share a few short points that came my way:

• Just as we love ourself, even although we are aware of our faults, so should we love another person with their faults (the Baal Shem Tov)
• One who has a faithful friend is not alone. This is so, even if thousands of miles separate them. Love knows no barriers, and in love there is no distance. (The Rebbe)
• One of the levels of our Love to Hashem is compared to the love of a son to his father - "...who strives for the sake of his father and mother, whom he loves more than his own body, soul and spirit .(sacrificing his life in order to redeem them from captivity). And this love is concealed within every soul of Israel as an inheritance from our ancestors. To access this love is not beyond our reach. When we accustom ourselves to this continually, habit will become nature. This means being occupied with Torah and Mitzvot with the intention of causing gratification to Hashem like a son serving his father to cause him gratification (Tanya Chap 44)

Gut Shabbos to all.