Not Your Kiruv Project

Log in / Sign Up

List of Forums + New Post Recipe Box Usergroups Following My Posts Bookmarks

Private Messages Advanced Search Rules New User Guide FAQ Advertise Contact Us

Forum -> The Social Scene

Previous 1 2 3

View latest: 24h 48h 72h

amother

Fuchsia

Sun, Jun 06 2021, 4:01 am

amother [ Hotpink ] wrote:

Thank you for being understanding! I've been on the giving end, and felt bad when I realized that I may have hurt people's feelings by assuming that they don't light Shabbos candles.

If it makes you feel any better, when the candle lighting campaign first began, one of the young Chabad bochurim was on the street stopping every woman he saw and asking if she was Jewish and if she lit Shabbos candles.

Turned out that one of the women he stopped was the Lubavitcher Rebbetzin herself! Apparently she gave him a bit of a hard time, asking why one should light Shabbos candles. (Most people never saw the Rebbetzin, so they wouldn't have recognized her.)

1. why would she want to give him „a bit of a hard time“, that‘s not possible
2. how is it difficult for a bochur to explain why one lights shabat candles, a small child can explain that

amother

Hotpink

Sun, Jun 06 2021, 4:35 am

amother [ Fuchsia ] wrote:

1. why would she want to give him „a bit of a hard time“, that‘s not possible
2. how is it difficult for a bochur to explain why one lights shabat candles, a small child can explain that

I think she was enjoying how he was explaining it, having nachas from his earnestness and how he was keeping her husband's directive of mivtzoyim.

Explaining that something is a mitzvah is easier than explaining why a person should start keeping a particular mitzvah!

amother

Peachpuff

Sun, Jun 06 2021, 12:55 pm

Ok Imas - I don't want to start a spin-off, but in the same vein, maybe you can help me look at something else differently. I have found that my extended family whatsapp group has turned into a contest who can post the most inspirational story and then people responding how inspired they were, how much crying they did, etc. I have become so cynical about it that I'm starting to doubt the veracity of some of these stories as they are all written in the same style and whereas I also used to find theses stories inspiring, I find myself rolling my eyes at this point. It would be much more inspiring if it was once in a while. And I feel like when people respond, it just encourages it more. Please help me to look at this differently!

Elfrida

Sun, Jun 06 2021, 1:49 pm

These inspirational stories to me are take it or leave it. If they inspire you, that's great. If not, then leave them to others and find your inspiration elsewhere. I make a practice of taking that kind of story with a pinch of salt, unless I actually know the people involved. No one sets out to lie, but they might exaggerate a bit to make the message clearer, and someone else might embroider it a bit more, or change the context, and after a few retellings, the original participants wouldn't recognize it.

I'm on a neighbourhood WhatsApp group where someone regularly posts inspirational stories. They inspire her, and probably some other people, so that's great. I don't appreciate them, so I ignore them. It doesn't hurt me.

Page 3 of 3

Previous 1 2 3