How the "Olomeinu" magazine was saved

Motek

Sun, Feb 17 2008, 7:39 pm

This is taken from the book "Memorable Encounters," by Dr. J. Kaminetzky:

A financial crisis once threatened Olomeinu (popular children's publication). Rabbi Berel Levy, a Lubavitcher Chasid, who was the Director of Development at Torah Umesorah, told the Lubavitcher Rebbe about this impending crisis. The Rebbe responded by extending Torah Umesorah a loan of $1000. it was in the very early days, when such a sum was significant. This was an especially generous gesture, considering that the Lubavitch movement then had its own children's publication, Talks and Tales!"

Tefila

Sun, Feb 17 2008, 8:16 pm

Yes I heard about that awhile ago too. Did you know too The Frediker Rebbe sent R Aron Kotler a donation which was acknowleged when the yeshiva was in dire straits..............

Squash

Sun, Feb 17 2008, 8:23 pm

Oh my, motek! you bring back such fond memories. I haven't thought about talks and tales in ages. My parents have the books that have a few volumes in each. I used to enjoy them immensely.

stem

Sun, Feb 17 2008, 9:44 pm

That's very nice, but why not include all your stories into one thread called "Stories about how the Lub. Rebbe helped others". JMO

Motek

Sun, Feb 17 2008, 10:19 pm

If you contribute several and other posters do as well, they can be combined into one thread.

Yael

Mon, Feb 18 2008, 11:01 pm

Stories are always appreciated. If we find that there are so many that they clutter up the forum, we can either create a subforum just for stories about any Rebbe, or put them all in one thread. for now we only have a few, so its still ok.

ChossidMom

Tue, Feb 19 2008, 8:24 am

I used to Love Olomeinu as a little girl in the U.S.
Is it still around?

Health is a Virture

Tue, Feb 19 2008, 8:37 am

ChossidMom wrote:

I used to Love Olomeinu as a little girl in the U.S.
Is it still around?

yes

freidasima

Tue, Feb 19 2008, 10:20 am

Wow this brings back memories. I would real Olomeinu as well...a really long time ago...used to enjoy it so much...

amother

Tue, Feb 19 2008, 11:00 am

For residents of Boro Park:

The Jewish Youth Library on 46th St. has bound volumes of decades of Olomeinu!

gonewiththewind

Sat, Feb 23 2008, 8:51 pm

From the teaching of the Rebbe:
The three loves -- love of G-d, love of Torah and love of one's fellow -- are one. One cannot differentiate between them, for they are of a single essence... And since they are of a single essence, each one embodies all three.

The Rebbe went on to explain that the fact that "each one embodies all three" has a twofold implication. It means that unless all three loves are present, neither of them is complete. But it also means that where any one of the three exist, it will eventually bring about all three.

********************************************************
From the teachings of the Rebbe
Do not take revenge, or harbor hatred toward your people, and love your fellow as yourself; I am G-d.

As the commentaries explain, there are two possible reactions a person can have toward a fellow who has wronged him, or whom he sees behaving in a morally deficient manner: 1) he can despise him in his heart, regarding him as a "sinner," and perhaps even persecute him for his "sins"; 2) he can rebuke him in the effort to convince him of the folly of his ways and seek to influence him to change them. The path of love, says the Torah, is not to to "hate your brother in your heart" .
****************************************************
From the Rebbe's speech of the lesson of rabbi Akiva's students:
You must be very careful not only not to insult another child, another Jew, another person, but to act with respect, and to honor them. It becomes clearer how this can be asked of everyone even a child. Since he too studied Torah, they are all students of Rabbi Akiva.
**********************************************

A very small sampling of comments from followers of the Rebbe:
I have not inlcluded names.

you mean you didn't just post a nice story for the sake of sharing a nice story?
there was another reason behind it?

(seems like you have agendas - everywhere tho)

Somehow this is not surprising.

actually amother I am surprised!

I actually really thought there was an element of good intention in posting the story, would you believe?
I underestimated the situation I see!

I liked the story a lot as well. But, I've been following other threads and have been seeing the build up of ridiculousness. Silly me, I thought it was over.

Hmmm. There are women on this forum whose lives are guided by Daas Torah but don't know the source for it?!
Do you appreciate the humor in what you wrote?
This "Daas Torah" that you believe in has been adopted from the Chasidim, so how do we differ exactly?
******************************************************
Although I could improve in this area as well, I feel it necessary to post this. When I posted a story, I later erased it as the my reason and what I hoped to accomplish by posting it was deleted. Some unappreciated comments followed, but when someone (not me) posted that maybe those comments were out of bounds, her comments were deleted and the thread locked. It was amusing as the lock created the visual of an attempt to put a person up for ridicule in the stocks and lock it. the 21st entury version of a colonial practice. Yes, I can learn from the Rebbe as well. I am human and my buildup of anger to a certain poster clouded my judgement and I erred. Nevertheless, it does seem to pale in comparison. For some reason until that lock I really did not care, but that lock motivated me to write this. Though I know it will just get deleted and perhaps get me kicked off. Just remember we are all human beings.

gonewiththewind

Sat, Feb 23 2008, 9:11 pm

Proof I am human. My family and I.

Last edited by gonewiththewind on Sat, Feb 23 2008, 11:36 pm; edited 1 time in total

Atali

Sat, Feb 23 2008, 9:21 pm

First of all, very nice picture.

Secondly, I have been following all of the threads in question, and something just seems strange to me. I couldn't figure out why you posted the story in the first place (after some of the comments you have made about Lubavitch in other threads on other places in the forum), although it was a very nice story and I would appreciate it if you reposted it.

I also don't understand why you deleted it, when all of the comments seemed to be positive.

I, for one, would be happy to hear stories of other tzaddikim, if someone would like to post them.

gonewiththewind

Sat, Feb 23 2008, 9:28 pm

OK, I put it back. For you, Atali, anything! Smile

My point of posting it was that we should post stories about other groups leaders for the sake of ahavs yisroel.

Rabbi Zalman Serebryanski, a senior chassid from Russia and dean of the Lubavitch Rabbinical College in Melbourne, Australia, once brought a girl to Rabbi Chaim Gutnick. "Please, help this girl convert," he asked.

Rabbi Gutnick listened to the girl's story. She lived in Balaclava, and from her youth had felt a strong attraction to Judaism. Whenever she heard stories of the Holocaust, she was deeply touched. She had been reading and studying about Judaism for a long time, and now wanted to convert.

Rabbi Gutnick was moved by her sincerity. Nevertheless, he did not want to perform the conversion. The girl was still living at home with her non-Jewish parents. Would she be able to practice Judaism in her parents' home? Would her interest continue as she matured into adulthood? Since he could not answer these questions, he decided to let time take its course. If the girl was still interested when she was older, she could convert then.

Rabbi Gutnick's refusal plunged the girl into deep depression, to the extent that she had to be confined to a hospital. The elder Reb Zalman, stirred by the depth of her feelings, continued to visit her from time to time.

After several weeks, he called Rabbi Gutnick, telling him of the girl's condition and asking him whether perhaps he would change his mind because of the strength of her feelings.

Rabbi Gutnick answered that the reasons which had dissuaded him from performing the conversion were still valid. Nevertheless, he promised to write to the Lubavitcher Rebbe describing the situation. If the Rebbe advised him to facilitate her conversion, he would happily comply.

Reb Zalman told the girl that the Rebbe was being consulted, and her condition improved immediately.

Rabbi Gutnick did not receive an immediate reply to his letter. But at a later date, at the end of a reply to another issue, the Rebbe added: "What's happening with the Jewish girl from Balaclava?"

Rabbi Gutnick was surprised. The girl and Reb Zalman had both made it clear that her family was Anglican!

He and Reb Zalman went to confront the girl's mother. At first, she continued to insist that she was Anglican, but as the sincerity of the two rabbis impressed her, she broke down and told her story. She had been raised in an Orthodox Jewish home in England. As a young girl, she had rebelled against her parents and abandoned Jewish life entirely, marrying a gentile and moving to Australia. She had not given Judaism a thought since. She loved her daughter, however, and would not oppose her if she wished to live a Jewish life.

Once the girl's Jewishness was established, Rabbis Serebryanski and Gutnick helped her feel at home in Melbourne's Lubavitch community. She continued to make progress in her Jewish commitment, and today is a teacher in a Lubavitch school.

But Rabbi Gutnick still had a question: How did the Rebbe know she was Jewish? At his next yechidut (audience with the Rebbe) he mustered the chutzpah to ask.

The Rebbe replied that, at Reb Zalman's urging, the girl had also written him a letter. "Such a letter," the Rebbe declared, "could only have been written by a Jewish girl."

Atali

Sat, Feb 23 2008, 9:29 pm

Thanks

Lechatchila Ariber

Sat, Feb 23 2008, 9:44 pm

miriam you are acting as if you have taken personal offense and as if we have done some horrid crime against you.

Do you not recognize that your behavior was extremely offensive to the lubavithchers here?

Do you not even realize how it came across?

in case you didn't, I'll spell it out.

It was OK for me to mention the Klauzenberg Rebbe, It was OK for Motek to mention..was it belze or someone else?

It was ok all the different stories from different Rabbeim and Rabbis I've read over my time on imamother, but when motek posts a story about our Rebbe you lash into a campaign against us posting stories of our own Rebbe?
to me and others it stunk of pure sina, plain and simple.

you quote about rebuking, well that was exactly what I did.
I did nothing to offend you personally, but you on the other hand tried to disparage the lubavitchers on this site as lubavitchers.
I made no attack on your background or person, you on the other hand decided to paint motek as someone with an agenda to one up chabad. whereas other posters, including non-lubavitchers took her story in a more positive light and said "thank you" and were appreciative.

should we thank you for ruining her stories?
your deletion of the story you posted was a dirty thing to do and you know it.

your posting your family picture and your plea to us to remember everyone is human is one sided.
you aren't the only one with pictures and a family and who is human.
Lubavtichers are human too.

I don't understand why you have a problem with the lock, since your thread was no longer relevant with its opening post now gone.
you quote where I wrote I was surprised.
Do you not understand what that means?
It means I expected more and better of you
Rather then stand up and apologize for your rudeness to motek and your rudeness towards Chabad, you instead twist things around to say that we were ridiculing YOU?
and how about your ridicule of Chabad in your brash responses and your agenda like thread.
And yes it was an agenda, you proved that yourself by deleting the post.
You didn't just post that story as a nice story for if you had there would have been no reason to delete!
Everything you accuse us of in your post, you have done yourself. Now I think its time to take onus for your actions rather then try and pass them off to someone else!

Lechatchila Ariber

Sat, Feb 23 2008, 9:46 pm

Quote:

My point of posting it was that we should post stories about other groups leaders for the sake of ahavs yisroel.

which has been done, although you have not noticed.
and again, I will repeat, it is NOT heifech from ahavas yisroel to post a story of one's own Rebbe!

gonewiththewind

Sat, Feb 23 2008, 9:48 pm

Oh well, you can't win 'em all. Esti, I believe you mean well despite it all.
Please don't fight or I will get into trouble.

Lechatchila Ariber

Sat, Feb 23 2008, 9:52 pm

who is fighting? I responded to your post.

I and others are still waiting for an apology from you towards Motek and chabad for your outrageous display of sina towards us.

(Have you even read my post above the shorter one or did you not notice it due to the shorter post I posted straight after?)

gryp

Sat, Feb 23 2008, 10:33 pm

I believe Miriamf has a valid viewpoint. She has never ever on the forum displayed anti-Lubavitch opinions or feelings, and I think that should be taken into consideration and she should be heard out.

I wanted to post before but every time I finally was ready to post, the thread was locked on me.

Ahavas Yisroel doesn't start with the other person initiating the Ahava, it starts with us, ourselves, me.

I was quite disappointed and surprised by most of the comments directed at Miriam. I don't think she deserves that.