Rabbi's Blog - Chabad of Central Switzerland

The date I will remember forever

Friday, January 21, 2011 - 8:08 AM

I don't know if the date, January 15, 1991 means anything to you. I, however, remember this date very well.

A short while after my 11th birthday, my whole family made our way to the community center near our home. We didn't go there to watch a magic show, a concert or the like. We went there to get masks. Though, Purim was still a bit far from us, the masks we got were not Purim masks, but masks which would protect us from the gas, which the crazy man from Bagdad might send straight to us at Vered Street 6, our home in Kiryat Motzkin.

I don’t remember another time period in my childhood, where I was constantly listening to the radio, as during that time. I learned many new Israeli songs at the same time.

From that time of constantl… Read More »

A Lesson I Learned

Thursday, January 13, 2011 - 6:03 PM

Dear Friends,

A while ago I visited one of the Jewish Institutions in Switzerland for the first time. At the entrance I had a surprising incident. It seems like the security guard found me suspicious and asked me many questions through the intercom. When he asked where I was from, I answered, from Luzern. Then came the million dollar question “Who is the Rabbi in Luzern?” I liked the look on his face when I answered him, I was the Chabad Rabbi myself…

I remembered this incident this week, when something a bit unpleasant happened to me.

Usually when a new family moves to our area, or if a local family moves out of town, I always offer and ask them if they need Mezuzot for their new place. 90% of the time, people happily… Read More »

Did you ever say Lechaim using a spoon?

Friday, January 7, 2011 - 12:22 AM

Did you ever say Lechaim using a spoon? I did.

This week I visited a neighborhood in the outskirts of Luzern, which reminded me of an interesting story that happened to me about 8 years ago, in the first year, after we moved to Luzern.

One Thursday morning, I get a phone call from an elderly lady, who spoke in English with a heavy German accent. She introduced herself and asked if I would kindly come over to her home, since she would like to talk to a Rabbi, and it is hard for her to leave her house.

We made up that I would come to visit her the next morning.

On Friday morning I show up at her door together with a guest of mine, who was visiting Luzern at the time, a young Yeshiva student, who had been my student a couple of years earli… Read More »