chabad WoMen’s book cLub Launched

from Shavuot Spring Edition 5783 | 2023

froM Midnight to daWn

continued from page 1

JuLy 10, 2023 11:30 aM

The Blessing of a Broken Heart: A journey of healing from horrific grief. Koby Mandell was just thirteen on May 8, 2001, when he and his friend cut school to go hiking. Their bodies were found the next day. The boys had been brutally stoned to death in a cave in the heart of the Judean desert. Koby ʼ s mom, Sherri Mandell, shares her emotional story of hope and faith.

JuLy 31, 2023 11:30 aM

Roommates: My Grandfather ʼ s Story From the author of The Oranging of America comes this inspiring true story about an American family. Rocky takes over a family, at the age of 103, and shows them how to survive.

august 21, 2023 11:30 aM

Let Michal Oshman take you on a journey of self discovery to identify what makes you you, what you were born to do and how to do it. As a mentor for leaders in top global companies, Michal created a unique personal growth methodology based on the life changing principles of Jewish wisdom. It is easy to think that the daily challenges we experience in the 21st century are new and unlike any that people faced in the past. Michal draws on her own heritage and a wide range of Chassidut (Jewish teachings) to offer practical advice for common concerns, such as a broken heart, parenting, overcoming setbacks, and getting the most out of your career. By challenging you to explore what matters, Michal offers solutions to your everyday struggles. She will empower you as well as teach you how to adopt her self development tools to discover who you really are and what you were born to do with your life. With its uplifting belief that you already have all the ingredients within you to lead a joyous life, Michal ʼ s unique mix of corporate culture experience and Jewish wisdom will help you reconnect with yourself.This unique book will help you to find your courage, and move forward freely, with no fear at all! What leaders are saying about What Would You Do If You Weren ʼ t Afraid? Yossi Klein Halevi Senior Fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute and author of the New York Times bestseller, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor Reading this beautiful book is like sitting with a wise friend who is helping you make sense of your life. In drawing on the insights of Jewish tradition, Michal Oshman shows us how to nurture our souls, the “flame within a shell,” and turn pain into growth. Read this book gratefully, and then give it to someone you love. Mark

Gerson

Co Founder and Chairman, United Hatzalah and author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller, The Telling This is a magnificent book combining the best of rigorous self reflection, professional and personal counsel and Jewish wisdom. Michal Oshman shows, in this beautifully construed, wisely informed and always engrossing work, how Jewish wisdom can serve its intended purpose practical guidance en route to making one ʼ s life happier, more fulfilling and better.

June July

This is the story of a very special Torah scroll, purchased shortly after the Second World War by Rabbi Pinchas Sudak, when he and his family were fleeing from Stalin ist Russia.

Escaping from Russia under the Communists was very dangerous. The first stage of the journey was to get out of Russia into Poland. But that was only the beginning. They still had to make their way from Poland to Prague in Czecho slovakia.

The Sudaks were together with a group of forty six other Lubavitch Chassidim who were also hoping to escape. Anxiously they waited for their chance to get out.

While they were still in Cracow, in Poland, Rabbi Pinchas met a Jew who had a Torah scroll for sale. This seemed to him extraordinary, like it was arranged specifically by G‑d. Immediately he decided to purchase the Torah with money he had managed to smuggle out of Russia.

“Such a large a group of Jews can not travel without a Sefer Torah in their midst,” he said. So he bought the Torah, and quickly had a wooden box made to protect it.

they set out. No one was allowed to take more than their most basic needs. Everything else had to be abandoned. In the blackness of the night the journey began. Rabbi Pinchas and his wife and three chil dren all held onto a rough rope to keep them together. Silently they trudged through the dense forest, Rabbi Pinchas clutching his be loved Sefer Torah, his wife, Batya, carrying their youngest child. The way was difficult. As the hours passed, Rabbi Pinchasʼ wife grew more and more weary. Finally she could no longer carry the child. She motioned to her husband to take the baby.

Rabbi Pinchas understood at once that if he would take the baby, he would have to leave the Torah be hind.

With tears in his eyes, he said, “For give me, my dear Torah. But it is ei ther you or my child. I must leave you now, so that my children and childrenʼs children will be able to have you in their lives.” tually they reached freedom and settled in the Land of Israel.

Weeping, he embraced the pre cious scroll one last time, and gen tly laid it in its box, and placed it under a tree. Then he picked up his child in his arms and journeyed forward.

Time passed. Rabbi Pinchasʼ chil dren grew up and married, and established homes in communities where they became Rabbis and teachers, sharing with others the faith in Torah and Judaism they had received from their parents.

Fifty years passed. Rabbi Pinchasʼ daughter, Rebbetzin Batsheva Schochet, herself already a grand mother, happened to be visiting friends in California.

While there she called on a friend of the family, Mrs. Faigy Estulin. They spoke of the past, and Faigy described how their family had also escaped from Russia, after the war.

“Itʼs an extraordinary story,” she said. “As my parents were making their way through the woods, my older sister, who was then only five years old, wandered off. The forest was pitch black. No one could see a thing. No one had any idea where she had gone. Everyone was in a panic.

“Frantically they searched for the child, crawling on their hands and knees, groping amongst the bushes and branches on the ground.

“Then suddenly my fatherʼs hand touched something hard and

by chana Weisberg

smooth, not a branch or a root of a tree. It was a wooden box. He opened the lid, and to his aston ishment, he found a Sefer Torah inside. And there sitting right next to the box, was his little daughter, my sister!

“He couldnʼt believe it. He kissed the Torah. And he kissed his little girl. And he kissed the Torah again, and he kissed his daughter again and again, over and over.

“Then he took the Torah from its box, and wrapped it around his body, tying it round his waist with his gartel, a belt he used when praying. Thatʼs how he took the Torah with him, through the rest of their journey.

“In the end, they made it to free dom. They brought the Sefer Torah with them to America, and to this day it is used in a shul in New York.

“My father has been blessed with good health and a good long life. No one in our family has any doubt that this blessing is because he saved the Sefer Torah,” she con cluded.

Hearing these words, the face of Rabbi Pinchasʼ daughter, Batsheva Schochet, turned white. Tears began streaming from her eyes.

The story of Rabbi Pinchasʼ Sefer Torah had come full circle.

Street, -06702

Visiting Nurse & Hospice of Litchfield County

Make power outages a thing of the past with a home standby generator.

Trusted Protection During Unpredictable Weather

The frequency in severe weather has led to an increase in power outages. More than ever, you need to be prepared. Think about it, without power, you will have no lights, heating or cooling, or refrigeration. You can’t even charge your cell phone. But when you have a Generac home standby generator, you will have power when you need it the most.