- Home
- Jobs
- UOS
- Community
- Leisure
- Media
- Jewish Orgs
- Marketplace
- Business Services
- Educational Services
- Financial Services
- Fresh Food
- Food Markets
- Food Suppliers
- Health Services
- Household - Exterior
- Household - Interior
- Leisure Services
- Motoring Services
- Pet Services
- Professional Services
- Property Services
- Religious Services
- Retail Services
- Security Services
- Simcha Services
- Travel Services
- Kosher
- Property
- Events
- About Us
- Contact Us
Register Today!
Register now with MyShtetl.co.za to gain access to extra content, comment on articles, enter competitions, subscribe to our weekly newsletter and much more. Click here to register
Strange!! Chabad will
Strange!!
Chabad will celebrate Mothers day but not (Israel) Independance day.
Choni what do you have
Choni what do you have against Chabad. On numourous occasions you have attacked them! Why do you single out chabad? what about Ohr Samech, Aish Hatora etc. As you dont recognise 14 may 1948 as the creation of the state how are you any different from them? All 3 groups have members and yeshivas in Israel. They send thousands of young Jews to Israel EVERY year at a subsidized rate!!
Some years ago, when I was
Some years ago, when I was head of CSO in one of our large "Jewish" suburbs and our largest Jewish school, I was on duty at a function one night when I passed one of our stationary positions and noticed something curious: all three of us standing there at that point, adult men with beautiful Jewish children - all three of us were converts.
There were all these people inside, most of them not only unaware of what we were doing or the importance or level of sacrifice which that involved, most of them unwilling to do what we were doing, and outside in the chilly night air stood a strapping Scotsman, a tall Afrikaner, and a chubby little Englishman - but each of us for his own reasons, now a proud Orthodox Jew, very involved in our community.
Surprised? - Come on , I didn't call myself "Lion613" for nothing!
But what was strange about our position? - I'll tell you:
We (new Jews) were doing something for those people inside, which they were not wild about doing for themselves. Moreover, the Scotsman now lives in Modi'in, has established himself well, and his wife writes glowing articles about how happy she is there. He has been my best friend for many years.
Both my kids studied in Jerusalem - my son did his two years at yeshiva at different institutions there, my daughter at Midreshet HaRova. She teases me with this: "You want to see your grandchilren? - You can see them in Beit Shemesh!"
The tall Afrikaner is not married. He converted just - stam - because he felt that he had to.
I read Chabadgirl's articles regularly. I think many converts want to tell their story. In every case, it involves a journey of some kind, and in virtually every case I think the road which a convert travels is a little longer and rougher than that of a Ba'al Teshuva.
Although I am not a member of Sea Point's Chabad shul, I'll tell you this (and this is to Choni and to all the - many - Jews who I know who have so many negative things to say about Chabad):
Chabad is not an "easy" option, it's just a very warm community. I learn with an incredible Chabad Rabbi here, Rabbi Oshy Deren, in addition to my other classes with my own Rabbi and the chevruta sessions with our local Modern Orthodox yeshiva bachurim at another shul. One day, if I feel more comfortable with the thought, I'll explain what Rabbi Mendel Popack (founder of Chabad in Cape Town) did for my wife and self when we were young - meanwhile all I can say is that he is one of the most amazing people I have ever known. Even though I am not a member of that shul I get the warmest welcome when I pitch up there.
The relationship between Chabad and Israel are generally not well understood. Choni, your attitude is very "last year", but it is very common. It is not a happy sight, to someone who came in from the cold, to see members of the nation which one so admired and which one is now so proud to be a part of, going for each other like this. It is distasteful, unseemly. It is not healthy debate. Anyone can throw a handful of mud.
Lion613
Chabad Rocks It depends on
Chabad Rocks
It depends on the Ba'al Teshuva! If you've never encountered Judaism, despite being of the correct lineage, you suffer mostly in silence schlepping to as many shiurim as you can find mostly without direction and hoping to find someone who will help.
You do find people wonderfully helpful people like Rabbi Hendler, Rabbi Wineberg and Rabbi Rabin along the way (and there are many more just like them I'm sure)... but you're certainly not on a programme of any kind giving you direction. You also get frowned at a lot because you do stuff you shouldn't, not knowing any better, because Jewish people just assume you should know better because you're Jewish; like what they know was passed down through osmosis in their mother's wombs instead of taught to them at home and day school.
You also can't even just throw away your existing life and land yourself in a yeshiva for a while because you need to support a family.
While I agree conversion must be extremely hard and an amazing commitment and achievement, it can only be harder than a baal teshuva that knows the ways and has just been naughty, strayed and returned. I don't want to duke it out about which is harder and has more merit, because that's not the point. To try an immerse myself in a culture, a way of thinking and a set of practices and beliefs I was not familiar with at all has been a nightmare. A fun nightmare in a way, but a nightmare all the same.
Where is the part-time immersion programme for us tinuk shenishba Jews that found our way home, but need to keep our day jobs? I'll tell you where it is, it's the wonderful Rebbetzen at my shul that now and then tells me things she notices I'm not getting right, or my Rabbi who patiently answers my questions, or the Rabbi who gives the shiurim he's done a million times before to a bunch of Jews just starting out and my wonderful Hebrew teacher that has taught me so much more than Hebrew every time we chat. If you're me a small Chabad shul in the Jewish Wild West was my only hope. The individual attention, the relationship I've been privileged to establish with my Rabbi and Rebbetzen and my fellow Jew's there who are also learning has given me an opportunity to learn I'm not sure I would have found so simply going to a bigger place. Chabad is my part-time immersion programme!
I think Chabad rocks, and I think my kids need to get more involved not less.
And yip Lion613, I agree Rabbi Derren is awesome too. I go to his shul when I visit my family in Cape Town. They live right nearby.
Everything you say is true.
Everything you say is true. They will bring you in, teach you, love you, encourage you and even take you shopping for your first sheitl.
But ask your Rabbi and Rebbetzin if they would ever let your kids marry theirs!
Do I want my children to be
Do I want my children to be Lubavitch one day? You bet I do!
Rhetoric disquised as a question I expect?
I think to answer this question would be to make a bold assumption about two people I hold in high esteem who inspire me beyond this kind of petty statement. If it were ever a matter that warranted discussion, I'd have the discussion, but I'm not going to ask them as a theoretical exercise just to stir up an emotive debate!
I will ask you how your assertion is different for Lubavitch people than any other parent? All parents look at their children's prospective partners and decide whether they're worthy or not. It's a form of judgement that stems from wanting the best for their children and it is entirely normal, even if it misguided at times!
When I see a Chabad Rabbi doing a standard Orthodox service with an Artscroll Siddur at Sandton Shul which is slightly different than the Chabad way with the dancing and singing with the Chabad Tehillat Hashem I see a group of different Jewish people coming together and davening and putting their silly differences aside. Hashem rules in any UOS affiliated synagogue and we all ensure that certain things we need to do are done.
Humans are built to discriminate because it's how we survived many thousands of years ago, when not being able to distinguish poisonous plants, dangerous tribes and carnivorous animals from safer foods and situations was a requirement for survival. We naturally seek differences and should those differences not be too great we'll accept people.
Our job right now is to stop looking for differences and try to realize that although there are many affiliations and Orthodox movements (whatever you call them) that if they're good enough to be affiliated with the UOS they're good enough for all of us Jews. I don't think we get to decide who is better than who, because a lot smarter people have made those choices and I respect them. I like a quiet, more serious tone in shul and often wish people would give me that space, but it doesn't stop me finding the nearest Orthodox shul when I travel and just going to daven there.
I don't represent Chabad in any shape or form, other than being a member of one of their shuls and enjoying their philosophy and approach, but I will say this. I'm willing to bet that my Rabbi and Rebbetzen would dearly love their children to continue in the Lubavitch way, but if they saw Hashem put two Jews together they'd probably accept his will and know that the upbringing they gave their children, their trust in their own child and their trust in Hashem so long as the requirements of Torah and halacha are met would lead them to support their children regardless. It's the same selflessness that has them posted to some of the remote and difficult places in the world just to help Jews keep more mitzvot! It's not them that seperate themselves from the world. It appears they're some of the few who actually embrace the world and all Jews without judgement and with a great deal of respect regardless of observance. Maybe we all need a mirror to hurl our accusations at instead of targeting good people with untested assertions.
Torah Academy and Chabad
Torah Academy and Chabad Rock!
Choni, I'm bored with your constant rants about Chabad. So much so I'm intending on changing my username on this site, because I don't like being targeted by you just because I think the work they do is amazing.
A friend of mine was in Eretz Israel last month and I asked her to please take some pictures I could make use of on my shul's website.
One was of the buildings facing the Kotel.
The one you might find interesting is the one that had the following sign beautifully carved in metal and placed on the building.
בית תבשיל אשל ירושלים כולל חבייד
And in English underneath it said:
COLEL CHABAD
FREE KITCHEN FOR THE NEEDY
As for the Lag B'Omer parade and festival at Torah Academy. It was magnificent
After looking at the school that day I dream of sending my children to such an incredible place. My daughter loved it too! One day Please G-d I'll be able to.
To be surrounded by so many devout and wonderful Jewish people was a wonderful privilege and experience I'll never, ever forget. The Lubavitch feel like my people... even though I'll always feel like an outsider (and that's my own issue to deal with). In spirit I definitely am and I hope my future generations grow up in that world!
I will not be at the Mother's Day event, but I wish I was able make it there too.
Regards
Chabadgirl, OrthodoxGirl, SaraChana or whatever comes next.
I am not affiliated with
I am not affiliated with Chabad, they do wonderful work for a lot of people, Chabad isn't Neturei Karta wrt Israel, most Jews in SA are very pro-Israel and pro-Zionist.
Not everybody likes Chabad, but hey who else is successful with kiruv?
Yes they are Black Hatters, but I like Chabad, because they are people oriented. They care, they teach and they are involved, not many Jews are involved with community stuff these days, most like to be critical and watch from the side lines.
Being in Galut has got its own challenges and who will be the light to the nations in Africa if us Jews weren't here? Chabad, Litvish, Ortodox, Mizrachi, Sephardi, Reform, Israeli, Secular and/or just Jewish? We all have a place in the world.