Hope everybody had a wonderful week. It's been busy here at Aish. We went with a few guys to see Matisyahu in Thousand Oaks which was awesome and inspirational. He even wrote a song for us called Aish Tamid! It felt like a Melava Malka in the Old City. Matisyahu has a way of taking a large group in a large setting and making it personal and getting the crowd into it.I have a boy who just came back from the Israli army to visit his mom in the hospital. He told me he doesn't recognize her. He hasn't seen her in three months. He was asking me to bring him Tefilin. Please have her in your tefilos: Dana Sorah Sterna Bas Ninet. We should never have to come home to such news.
Some of our students are signing up to take their high school exams. They are excited but also nervous. Part of what we do – besides preparing them to take the exam – is also to teach them that if they don't pass it is not the end of the world. And they can take it again. Many of our youth today are never taught how to deal with failure and disappointments. I had a boy come in last week and say to me “they are going to fire me at my job and my life is over.” He went to his therapist who told him to stop blowing things out of proportion and it’s up in your head. I disagreed with her and said that even if they may fire you, your life will not be over and you will find another job. Teaching people how to deal with setbacks and disappointments is one of the most important things to teach young people. We live in an environment where everything is sugar coated. We are not helping them by not giving them coping mechanisms to deal with the challenges in life.
You should have a restful and meaningful Shabbos.
Rabbi Hershoff
No comments:
Post a Comment