Rabbi's Blog - Chabad of Central Switzerland

Brooklyn needs Luzern

Friday, July 29, 2011 - 2:04 AM

Have you ever been asked to complete a Minyan? If you live in a small community such as ours, this can happen often, since there aren’t always enough participants for a minyan or sometimes exactly ten. There are some places, where this almost never happens, where there are always enough people. Interestinly, I was recently called to be the tenth guy for a minyan, not in a small community, but in one of the largest Jewish communities in the world.

At my last visit in the big city of New York, I landed on a Monday evening and spend the night in my brothers apartment. The next morning I got up early in order to have a joint study session with an old friend of mine from Yeshiva days before the morning prayers. As I was leaving … Read More »

The Face of America

Friday, July 22, 2011 - 6:03 AM

If you are not an American Citizen, you surely experienced the long wait on line to the passport control at the American immigration in New York, or any other big American city. I did many times, and every time it is a strange feeling. The meeting with the official immigration officer is a standard procedure. The officer is usually extremely unfriendly, and manages to give you the feeling that you are trying to hide something from them. Once I was even taken to a strange side room, just because the machine which takes the finger prints was not working, even though my fingers were working perfectly…

I always wanted to suggest them to take off the stickers which are on every corner: “We are the face of America…”, I … Read More »

I Miss Her

Friday, July 15, 2011 - 9:07 AM

Last week my grandmother, my father’s mother, passed away at the age of 98. She was a very interesting and special person, obviously to me as her grandson, but for many of her acquaintances as well. However, I will not write a eulogy here, I just wanted to share with you some thoughts I had during the Shivah.

I once had a conversation with an older man, whose mother had passed away and he told me: “She died at an old age and she was healthy, so we decided there is no need to mourn and therefore we are not sitting Shivah”.

I thought about his words, and though I did not accept it, since as a religious Jew I believe in following the halacha, which requires us to sit and mourn the person for seven days, regardless of the ag… Read More »