Rabbi Peretz Chen | This is how we'll strengthen the Shabbos table during wartime

00:00 Hello to you. The most family-centered moments are, of course, around our Shabbos table. We sit around the table with delicious food, a special atmosphere we don’t have during the week, sometimes with guests. Those moments around the Shabbos table are the strength of our family. They give the whole family strength for the rest of the week, and for the rest of our lives. But during this war, the table can turn into a security cabinet meeting—the full cabinet, the smaller cabinet. The entire conversation can revolve around the latest news, the videos we’ve seen of the latest strikes, and what’s happening with deals that may or may not go through. Everything can revolve around that. And it’s very, very natural, because it’s so interesting. It’s gripping. It occupies all of us—not a hundred percent of the day, but a hundred and fifty percent. Our minds are very, very, very focused on it. But we can do something else, too. During this time, our Shabbos table can become a source of uplifting moments, moments of strength and inner fortitude, moments when the children receive truly meaningful messages that, with Hashem’s help, they’ll carry with them through this period, through the rest of the week, and, with Hashem’s help, throughout their lives. Everything can be seen in two ways. With Hashem’s help, this will eventually end. May it end well and as it should, without a single soldier—man or woman—being hurt, without a single Jewish man or woman being hurt. With Hashem’s help, may there be only miracles and success for the Jewish people. But eventually it will end. And what experiences will stay with the children afterward? As I’m giving this class, I’m remembering the Gulf War, when I was a child too. The Gulf War caused a great deal of anxiety for the people living in Israel. People were frightened; they sealed their rooms. Every home had a sealed room and masks

02:13 against the poisonous gases people feared would come to us from Iraq. And I remember, as a little boy, the experiences that stayed with me from then. In our home, when we went into the protected room, we’d sit there and bring out food. Those were moments my family approached in a very pleasant, lighthearted, calm way, and to this day I actually have nice memories of that war. There was no school then, either, so as a child that was an experience too, of course. But I remember good experiences. In other homes, I imagine, there was a lot of anxiety and hysteria, and those are the experiences that stayed with the children. We want our children to have powerful, uplifting experiences—experiences that will also give them strength going forward. Take the word “Gaza.” Gaza is a word with very, very negative associations, especially now. But the same Hebrew letters can also stand for b’ezras Hashem, “with Hashem’s help.” They’re the same letters. You can emphasize Gaza—the war, the pain, the difficult things happening there. Or you can take those same letters as the initials of b’ezras Hashem, something positive. You can take anything in one direction or the other. Our goal at the Shabbos table with our children is to emphasize the beauty and the reasons to smile that exist now. That takes preparation on our part: looking for special stories, uplifting stories, amazing stories happening precisely now, and making something wonderful out of them at the Shabbos table. Something that makes them say, “Wow!” “Listen to what happened—you won’t believe it!” For example, last week a reservist stationed in Ashkelon, who is serving in the area now, did something remarkable. For many years he’s been involved in printing the Tanya, the holy book that is the Written Torah of Chassidus. Soon, on 19 Kislev, we’ll celebrate

04:27 the Festival of Liberation of the author of the Tanya, the Alter Rebbe. The Rebbe instructed us to make an effort to print the Tanya in as many places around the world as possible. To date, it has been printed in more than eight thousand places around the world. In the number of places where it has been printed, it comes second only to the Tanach, and it has been printed in all sorts of places. The Rebbe also instructed that in times of war, when soldiers reach certain areas, the Tanya should be printed there too and distributed to the soldiers stationed there. The Tanya was printed in Tyre and Sidon in Lebanon; it was printed in the Beirut area and near the Suez Canal—in various places that soldiers reached during the Yom Kippur War and the First Lebanon War. People made sure to print the Tanya there as well. The Rebbe said that printing the Tanya—the Written Torah of Chassidus, the central book of Chassidus—draws the Geulah into the world. It refines and purifies the place where it is printed. The Rebbe considered this supremely important. So this reservist, who lives in the north and is now serving in the south, and who has been involved in printing the Tanya for years, decided to print it in Gaza. Last week, even though his friends told him, “What? How are you going to do that? It makes no sense”—because it meant bringing a large printer and other equipment there, and the logistics were far from simple—he insisted. Last week a video was shared of him printing the Tanya on the Gaza seashore. Just last week. It’s amazing: a Jew asks himself, “How can I bring light and strength into this period, when so many unpleasant things are happening? I’ll

06:36 take such a holy book and print it in such a lowly place, bringing there, too, the holiness and purity that this holy book draws into every place where it’s printed.” This is certainly a story you can tell at the Shabbos table. You can talk about the Tanya and its printing; you can do some homework and tell the children about places around the world where it has been printed. Madagascar, Honolulu—these are names that appear in the list at the end of every Tanya of places where it has been printed. The places I just mentioned are listed there. You can tell them about it, really bring the subject to life, and show them: “Look at the beautiful things happening now.” There’s another story that recently took a further turn—last week—about a woman from Ashkelon. Quite early in the war, she called one of the Chabad Houses in the city, one of the shluchim in Ashkelon, and began crying on the phone. “I want to light Shabbos candles. I’ve never done it before. I don’t know how. Please come, bring me candles, and explain how to do it.” She was actually crying on the phone because she wanted to light Shabbos candles. The recording was shared and moved many people across the country. I’m sure it also prompted many people to light Shabbos candles. Last week I met a Jewish man, a medical rescue volunteer from the United States who had come to volunteer in Israel. He said to me, “Please pass on a message to that woman in Ashkelon about how many women in the United States she has influenced.” So I told him, “Instead of my passing on the message, let your wife tell her. That will make her feel much better.” He said, “Okay,”

08:41 So his wife sent that woman a recording in English, saying, “You don’t understand what you’ve done. You simply don’t understand what you’ve done. You have no idea how many women around the world you’ve positively influenced to light Shabbos candles.” Then he sent me the recording of his wife telling that woman in Ashkelon how powerful her tears were, how much she wanted to light Shabbos candles. So, through someone who knows the woman in Ashkelon, I made sure the recording reached her. She sent recordings back to the woman in New York, saying, “I have goosebumps all over. What? Really? No, I didn’t mean to. I did something so small. I never thought it would reach places like that.” It’s such a moving story about one small act by a woman whose heart ached because she wanted Shabbos candles. It mattered so much to her. And it spread throughout the Jewish world, made an impact, and strengthened so many Jewish women. It’s a story you can tell at the Shabbos table and make a big deal of! Take from it the tremendous power of one small, positive act that can have an effect across the whole world. This is exactly such a case. So as parents, before Shabbos, let’s think of one or two powerful, compelling stories unfolding right now and tell them at the Shabbos table. Let’s make a big deal of them and bring lots and lots of smiles into this time. Someone told me yesterday—or the day before—that they’d started a WhatsApp group where they share only positive updates and good news about what’s happening now. Only positive things, only happy things. Because people are finding it hard to cope with all the painful news that keeps coming in. It’s a very, very beautiful thing, because

10:38 we can’t change reality. The question is what we take with us going forward. And if we focus on the positive things that are there—of course, we mustn’t ignore what’s happening. We truly need to say Tehillim for the situation and feel the pain of our fellow Jews, which is the pain of all of us. But at the same time, the messages we need to emphasize to find joy, confidence and optimism—and, above all, the messages we need to pass on to our children—are those powerful, positive ones. Because with anything that happens, you can see it as “in Gaza,” or you can see it as “with Hashem’s help.” The same letters, but an entirely different meaning. This week will be 10 Kislev. 10 Kislev is the celebration of the release of the second Chabad Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, son of the author of Tanya. Before that, on 9 Kislev, is both the anniversary of his passing and his birthday. This is the Mitteler Rebbe’s week. They said of the Mitteler Rebbe that if, G-d forbid, you cut his finger, blood wouldn’t flow from it; Chassidus would flow. He was immersed in the world of Chassidus, the world of Torah, the world of the Torah’s hidden dimension. He was a Jew who saw Hakadosh Boruch Hu in everything he looked at. For example, say we get up in the morning, go outside and see the sun. How beautiful! The sun is shining. Or we go out at night and see the moon. Very nice. So when a person sees the sun and moon, what do they see? The sun, the moon? Fine, there’s nothing special about the sun and moon. We’re used to them. But someone who learns a little Chassidus suddenly discovers that the sun and moon aren’t just ordinary things. For example, Hashem guides the world in two ways: through miracles and through nature. There is the natural order, which continues all the time. Everything looks ordinary, the same day after day. Sometimes miracles happen. The Jewish people are a people accustomed to miracles. Chanukah, Purim, miracles during the Gulf War—and with Hashem’s help, we’ll see great miracles in the Swords of Iron War. What’s the difference between the sun and the moon? The sun rises every morning and sets every evening, day after day, all the time. It doesn’t change. The moon, by contrast, disappears at the end of every month and returns at the beginning of the next. With the moon, you see renewal; with the sun, you don’t. Chassidus explains that the sun represents the natural way Hashem guides the world. The moon, which renews itself, points to the new things that happen in the world, to the miracles in the world. A Jew who has learned a little Chassidus—for example, about this idea—suddenly doesn’t just see the moon when he looks up at it at night. “Oh, right, the moon! The moon is connected to miracles. It points to miracles. It renews itself. It points to the miracles Hakadosh Boruch Hu performs in the world.” It’s no coincidence that the Jewish people are compared to the moon, because we are a people of miracles. And that’s how a Jew sees the sun: “Oh, the sun points to the natural way Hashem runs the world, as though everything were ordinary and natural.” In truth, it’s all Him, but He presents it in a natural way. It’s the same sun and the same moon. But I can simply see the sun and moon, or I can see something powerful in them, something beyond: messages that are much bigger, much stronger, much more empowering, much more Jewish. And that, then, is our task. Our task is to take what’s happening and look for the beauty, the strength, the good, the powerful things—the incredibly powerful things happening right now—and bring them to our Shabbos table. Let’s do our homework beforehand and look for things if we don’t have any, even though social media and the news are full of amazing things happening.

12:45 If we don’t find them easily, we’ll look. We’ll search, find things, bring them to our Shabbos table and make a big deal of them. We’ll tell them as powerfully as we can. This will fill our children with the strength of Yiddishkeit, of giving, of goodness, of devotion—things that will stay with them now and, with Hashem’s help, give them strength and fortitude throughout their lives. These will be the memories they keep from this time. May it be Hashem’s will that, with Hashem’s help, we won’t need to search for stories of miracles, extraordinary stories, amazing stories, because those will be the only things actually happening on the ground. Only good things, only miracles. With Hashem’s help, may all the hostages return, easily and without any difficulty. May no soldier be harmed—not a hair on the head of any male or female soldier. May no Jew be harmed. With Hashem’s help, may we see a great victory for the Jewish people. May we already merit the coming of Moshiach and the complete Geulah, and then we’ll also merit the resurrection of the dead, and everyone will be with us. Share this class with others. I think this message is very, very important for every Jewish home. Share it with a friend; it will bring them, too, I’m sure, goodness, joy and positivity in their home. So may we hear good news, and with Hashem’s help, we will win. All the best.

14:49 We didn’t find them easily. So we’ll look, we’ll search, we’ll find stories, and we’ll bring them to our Shabbos table. We’ll make a big deal of them and tell them as powerfully as we can. That will strengthen in our children a sense of Yiddishkeit, of giving, of goodness, and of dedication—things that will stay with them now and, with Hashem’s help, give them strength and resilience throughout their lives. Those are the memories they’ll keep from this time. And may it be Hashem’s will that, with Hashem’s help, we won’t have to search for stories of miracles, extraordinary stories, amazing stories—because those will be the only things happening on the ground. Only good things, only miracles. With Hashem’s help, may all the hostages come home easily, without any difficulty. With Hashem’s help, may no soldier be harmed—not a hair on the head of any soldier, male or female. May no Jew be harmed. With Hashem’s help, may we see a great victory for the Jewish people. May we already merit the coming of Moshiach and the complete Geulah, and then we’ll also merit the resurrection of the dead, and everyone will be with us. Share this class with others. I think this message is very, very important for every Jewish home. Share it with a friend—it will bring them, too, I’m sure, goodness, joy, and positivity in their home. So may we hear good news, and with Hashem’s help, we will win. All the best.