Rabbi's Blog

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Dear OZ family,

The newsprint and media are so filled with negativity, I wanted to share with you a short beautiful story about New York.

Recently, my daughter filled out her monthly rent check and put it in her pocket to hand deliver it to the rental agency. When she got there, the envelope was gone. A frantic check of her bag and pockets did not find the envelope. She immediately stopped the check, and contemplated closing the account. After a few days of nervous tension, she was surprised by the anonymous delivery of the envelope to her own mailbox. The finder made the effort to hand deliver the envelope to the return address, and my daughter will never know who returned the lost item. The Torah doesn’t know from “Finders keepers losers weepers”. The Torah tells us that the finder has a great opportunity for a Mitzva.

With all the issues New York City faces in returning to its former self,  I’d like to look at everyone in the street, and think that every one of them may be the person who hand delivered the envelope. New York will be revived when its people are revived, and each and every one of us can do our part in spreading good will and good cheer all around.   Have a great day!

Be safe.  Be healthy.  Be excellent

Rabbi Allen Schwartz  

Rabbi's Blog: April 20 - Consolation During Sefirah

Dear OZ family,

Originally, the Sefirat Ha’Omer was a joyous time for our people. The barley and wheat harvests were completed during this time and the 49 day count had two festivals as bookends. The Talmud relates how this time became a mourning period because of the deaths of Rabbi Akiva’s students. I am including last year’s message of April 11^th, as a defense of the reputation of Rabbi Akiva’s students, and this year, I would like to explain why the mourning during this time has become more and more stringent, especially in the Ashkenazic community. I will not burden the reader with sources here, but the original prohibitions were limited to marriage and then quickly extended to include shaving and haircuts. Music and public events were soon banned, and then, with electricity and transistors, even recorded music was prohibited by many poskim.

The reason for this was the proliferation of shocking tragedies at this time of year in the Medieval Ashkenazic world. Numerous communities were wiped out by marauding Crusaders who chose not to wait until their arrival to the Holy Land to expel the non-believer. I write this today, because this very day, the 8^th of Iyar, in 1096, the killing began in Speyer, and the events are memorialized in a Tisha B’av lamentation called “Mi Yitein Roshi Mayim”. Ashkenazic communities began to mourn this period and attached more stringent practices to the mourning for Rabbi Akiva’s students.

Ohab Zedek’s full name begins, “First Hungarian Congregation”, and we are especially sensitive to many Hungarian Jews who observe the Yahrzeit of relatives who were murdered at Auschwitz towards the end of the Omer. This is a mournful period, and yet, please remember yesterday’s message for all the promise that is inherent in the month of Iyar, which is an acronym for “Ani Hashem Rofecha”, I am God your healer (Shemos 15:26). May we be healed of all the tragedies of the Sefirat Ha’Omer and may we continue to see God’s graces in reverting this month to the celebrations of old.

Be safe.  Be healthy.  Be strong.  Be excellent.

Rabbi Allen Schwartz

Rabbi Allen Schwartz

Congregation Ohab Zedek

118 West 95^th Street | New York, NY  10025-6604

Phone 212.749-5150, ext 200 | Fax 212.663-3635

E-mail ras@ozny.org

Website:  www.ozny.org