By Yedida Wolfe
“We are packed too tight to breathe, but nobody minds. The only thing that matters—which is of the greatest urgency—is to be able to see the Rebbe during tekios, blowing the shofar, those holy tekios!”
In the upcoming Tishrei issue of N’shei Chabad Newsletter (www.nsheichabadnewsletter.com), Mrs. Leah Namdar, now a Shlucha in Gothenburg, Sweden, remembers her first Tishrei in 770 in 1982 when she was 13 years old.
There’s an inyan, says Mrs. Namdar, to look at the face of the baal tokeia after tekios. “It was said in 770 that if you see the Rebbe’s face after tekios, mochlin al kol avonosov—all your sins are forgiven…One thing is sure—after seeing the Rebbe’s face, who would want to sin again?”
And yet, despite our good intentions, perfection remains out of reach for most of us humans. Menucha Cooper shares her perspective on this topic in a powerful article about her special-needs son, Mendy.
Her son’s diagnosis has made her think about “how often we use the word perfect to describe something or someone. It just rolls off our tongues.” But her son’s condition has shifted her perspective. Cooper writes, “Let’s drop our campaign to achieve perfection, and strive instead for improvement and for excellence in what’s important. Let’s hold our heads high and be proud of who we are while striving, and not let words like perfection affect us.”
Rishe Deitsch, senior editor of the N’shei Chabad Newsletter, told COLlive that she was deeply affected by Menucha Cooper’s story. “Listening to her talk about perfection, I realized how right she is, and how often we use that word, not to our own advantage. The perfect sheitel. The perfect house. The perfect match. The perfect couch, job, mother-in-law, son, daughter, fit! It’s not attainable and we just drive ourselves crazy if we believe that we need it to be perfect or we can’t be happy.”
When well-meaning friends and relatives ask Menucha Cooper to describe the symptoms of her son’s condition, she is reluctant to answer, because who says her son will have those symptoms? “When a doctor tells us that 90 percent of children with Angelman Syndrome will have epilepsy, we remind him that 10 percent won’t.”
The Rebbe once wrote to a person facing a painful prognosis, “With regard to a particular situation—it is impossible to know clearly and with certainty [about the eventual outcome]. Clearly, the pronouncement of the doctor that the situation is hopeless is out of place. At the very most he can say—and indeed this is all that a human being is capable of saying—that he does not take responsibility for the future, but he can say no more than that.” (Igros Kodesh, Vol. XX, p. 183)
Menucha Cooper has found strength in the Tzemach Tzedek’s famous words “Tracht gut vet zein gut.” For Cooper this phrase has come to signify that “our thoughts have enormous impact in creating, changing, and shaping our reality,” as Chassidus teaches.
In response to the Tracht gut vet zein gut supplement in the Pesach issue of the N’shei Chabad Newsletter, one reader, R.L., shares how she overcame her fears, both big and small. “Finally, I took control. I stopped going on Facebook and all news sites other than COLlive.com, and I started taking flower essences from Mrs. Tamar Adelstein of Crown Heights. But most crucially, I reviewed the idea of bitachon, over and over again.”
She concludes, “The most important thing for me to study on this topic was the Rebbe’s sichah about Tracht gut vet zein gut.” Reading the book Subbota, which recounts the story of Reb Lazer Nanes in Soviet Russia, also helped to build her bitachon.
And yet we still have to manage the here and now. Elchanan Geisinsky advises baby boomers how to maximize their “well-deserved Social Security retirement benefits.” He writes, “For married couples, the decision can be very complicated because of the myriad choices available. This is important because the right choice now can result in many additional tens of thousands of dollars over the lifetime of a couple. By coordinating worker, spousal, and survivor benefits, the total collected will be maximized.” By defining the government terms and costs and benefits of the various options, Elchanan Geisinsky ensures baby boomers will reap their reward after “decades of toil, tears, and sweat.”
Click here to download “Tracht Gut Vet Zein Gut” supplement
Visit our website www.nsheichabadnewsletter.com to subscribe today, in time to receive your Tishrei issue in the mail. The Tishrei issue will also be available for purchase in Crown Heights stores right before Rosh Hashanah, or for download in the Apple App Store or at Amazon.com. Watch COLlive for more highlights of the Tishrei issue, coming soon.
Especially regarding the second one you mention.
They promote certain ideas that don’t fit with a Torah perspective (such as their feminism thread/topic, in their ‘coffee room’, where anyone who says anything against feminism is automatically blocked, so that only liberal anti Torah, posters are allowed to keep posting, there.), so staying away from there, is not a bad idea as far as hashgacha and chinuch, are concerned.
every time we get a sneak preview i get excited to read it and now too.. this will make my yom tov to read these articles cant wait 🙂
Excited for my new n’shei. Nothing like some brand new quality reading material to put a smile on my face!
you guys are so pretty! On the front cover of Nshei!!! Doing Beth Rivkah proud!! You guys are awesome :))
On the COVER . Right where they should be.
Sounds amazing!!!
What a great topic.
How liberating it would be if we lowered our standards and accepted that the very definition of life is that things/people ARE imperfect! Looking forward to reading Cooper’s article.
I have stopped a while ago accessing other news sites and collive is the only website that I allow myself to read.I am surprised that there are other people out there who have decided the same.Well done collive for the good work.
Check out Na’ama Uzan, an amazing frum Toronto 5 year old, and her lemonade stands. She is determined to raise money to find a cure for Angelman Syndrome which her brother Nadav has. She has raised over $65,000 for this research and they are very close to a cure. Please support the lemon challenge! As a result of Na’ama’s fundraising, they’ve been able to start some clinical drug trials.
Check out AS Lemonade Initiative on Facebook or FAST (Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics)
Kol hakavod Menucha and Reuvi
I go to some other “chabad” websites and i’m shocked at the non tznius pictures…
Kol hakavod COL for the series of rabbi seligson and in general being more careful with pictures and content
COL, you have come such a long way. You stand at the helm of reports that steer clear of Loshon Horah and hatred. You make us proud with reports of Shluchim around the world, and you bring us reports from crown Heights and inside the Rebbe’s Shul. Thank you for being there for us. We look forward to all the rest of the changes you have in mind.
I’m blocking VIN and YWN right now from being accessed from my computer and from now on I will only ever get my news here.
I recently made a decision not to rush all other sites and just stick to col.
I feel so much happier, what hashgacha pratis that this is what you printed your article about.