Dear friends,

You can smell the cheese and tomato sauce as far as your booth. You have a window view and even so, you feel like you are in the kitchen. The waiter brings the first course (along with the diet cola that is an atonement for present and future sins). 
The conversation flows, and before you know it, it’s time for the second course, the chef’s specialty. Each forkful is a piece of art, to be savored before you move on. All too soon you are contemplating desert. At this point the real question is are you 
too full to enjoy it. As you contemplate the solution to this difficult problem you wake up.
 
It was just a dream.
 
In your haze state of consciousness, it still feels real. Even so, there is one thing that is crystal clear. Eating dinner isn’t at all the same as dreaming about eating dinner.
 
When you sleep, your mind is no longer blocked by its unceasing activity. Your soul has risen to share its past day with its Creator. Dreams sometimes invade and conquer your mind. They take you a bit beyond where you are right now. 
 
They can give you a window into your inner world (oy vay), they can take you back to what you have experienced. As Ramchal tells you (Derech Hashem), they can at times provide you with a window to what is happening Above, or (often times) into fantasy 
and nonsense. When you have a dream, there is one critical question to ask yourself. “What can I learn from this dream? Why did Hashem open the window? If you can’t find an answer to the question, don’t necessarily share it. It’s yours, and its message belongs to you. Seek out a positive interpretation, because the message it provides can take you either way. The one thing that all of these variations have in common, is that they aren’t part of your present reality. 
 
A dream is not a place that you want to live; at most it’s a place to visit. 
 
Real life can be stressful. There’s nothing perfect about this world, nor is there meant to be objective and enduring perfection here. In your stay on the planet, you are like an artist facing an easel and looking at your paints. You are not like an artist who can step back and see the finished piece of art. Imperfection touches everything-your body, your emotional life (friendships, marriage, your relationship with yourself), intellectual pursuit (only if its real) thrives on imperfection - the as yet unsolved puzzle, whether it is a difficult torah concept, or a deep philosophical issue such as suffering, or trying to unlock nature's secrets and finding out that she holds on to them tenaciously. Unlike physical and emotional imperfection, intellectual challenge can take you to places of breathtaking beauty, but only on one condition. 
 
You have to be humble enough to say (to yourself or to others) that there is still more to learn. Spiritual imperfection is the stuff that guilt and self-hatred can be made of, or, alternatively growth, aspiration and tshuvah. 

People deal with life’s stresses in all sorts of ways. Do you know someone who is addicted to opioids, drinking-maybe not? Do you know someone with eating issues and/or media addicting? Maybe yes. Maybe it’s the person you see when you look in the mirror. 

What all of these solutions to the problem of stress have in common is that they suggest that on some level you prefer the perfection of dreams to the imperfection of reality.

My dear friend, Sarah Berkovitz shared an insight she had about The first dream recorded in the Torah. 

It was Yaakov’s dream. He was literally escaping from an unbearable reality. His brother Eisov was plotting to murder him, and he had no choice but to leave everything familiar (imagine leaving the inspiration of being with Yitzchak and Rivka on a daily basis) and on the way to his uncle Lavan’s home (a nightmare in itself), he had a dream. He saw the spiritual forces of Eretz Yisrael ascending, and the angels of the world outside the spiritual hothouse of Eretz Yisrael coming down. 

The dream has many interpretations given by Chazal, but regardless of which one you look at, they have one thing in common. 

The angels walked step by step. 
The bottom of the ladder is here, 
in the world of imperfection. 
The top is in the (as yet) invisible world 
of unity and perfection. 


The only way you can get up the ladder 
is by taking one step at a time.
The way down can be painful. 
The angels of challenge, despair, 
Exile descends with awesome consistency. 
Meiron
Covid
Karlin
War
And all of the familiar stresses and challenges. 
You can meet them one at a time

There is a guidebook with instructions 
that takes you to the top of the ladder
They move you to the perfect place of unity

They are part of this world’s reality
And more

Assur mans forbidden,
but it also means tied down. 
Whatever the Torah deems as assur 
is the source of imperfection, 
and its purpose 
is for you to look it in the eye, 
and say NO.

There are things that are muttar, which means permitted
It also means untied, free
For you to use as your springboard to eternity.
Enjoy your life here in Imperfection Land
When Moshiach comes, we will say;
 
A song of ascents
When Hashem takes Tzion out of captivity, we were like people
In a dream.
 
Let our captivity, Hashem
Be like dried out streams in the Negev
Those who plant with tears
Shall reap
With joy

Love,
Tziporah

Dear Friends,

Please see the attached flyer announcing the AHAVAS YISRAEL RESPONSE - our response to the Meron tragedy.  

The AHAVAS YISRAEL RESPONSE is a 45 day initiative to activate your community and communities around the world to start and join Ahavas Yisrael discussion groups for women.  Each week, a pre-prepared lesson will be emailed to group leaders to read with their group.  It will include an Ahavas Yisrael topic, a relevant story, a few discussion questions and a  bite-sized "stretch of the week" in Ahavas Yisrael.  

Women are encouraged to host groups on Shabbos, but any day of the week can work.  You can even start a group via zoom!

This initiative is associated with the original Ahavas Yisrael Project, founded by Rebetzin Tziporah Harris in 2008.  

Ladies, we need you to answer the call!  Forty five (מ"ה) kedoshim were taken from this world on Lag Baomer.  We have to respond!  WHAT can we do? What can YOU do? 

Start a group.  Join a group.  It's that simple!  Sign up, invite your friends and neighbors and receive weekly emails to be read aloud in your group.  Then, experience firsthand the power of connecting and growing with a chaburah!

Join by Thursday, May 20th ( 9th of Sivan) so you can be connected with all the other groups during this 45 day initiative. 

One group member said the following, after just 2 lessons:
"At the beginning, when one of my neighbors launched the idea of starting a group in our neighborhood,  I was skeptical. I didn't think change could really happen within a group and especially, with such a diverse group of women. But I still signed up, as I wanted a shiur or something... to fill my Shabbos afternoons.  

From week one, I saw the power of a chaburah, of group work and the effect of small things that can change your whole mindset.  Because your focus is on the practical task all week, your mindset is different and positive, and you start to change and improve in Ahavas Yisrael.

I truly recommend this project as an opportunity for growth in a practical and exciting way!  It goes without saying how much I gain from meeting women I wouldn't have met before and I enjoy connecting with them in a more meaningful way." - a Ramat Beit Shemesh Resident

(See the attached short video from Rebetzin Heller-Gottlieb about this initiative.)

Our goal is to have Ahavas Yisrael groups on every street, in every neighborhood!  Please forward this message to neighbors, friends, family.. every woman you know! :)  Sharing this message is just one more effort you can make towards increasing Ahavas Yisrael!

This initiative is dedicated:  לעילוי נשמת קדושי מירון ז"ל; לרפואת יוסף עזריאל בן חיה מיכל; לרפואת אלעזר בן ראומה
(You can host a group in your home in the merit of someone that you know that needs a yeshuah!)


If you can't host a group in your own home, then please encourage one of your neighbors to host.  And share, share, share this message with other women!

Tizku l'Mitzvos!  And in the merit of our efforts,  may we all merit the coming of Moshiach speedily in our days!

With love ,
THE AHAVAS YISRAEL RESPONSE
ayr45days.com
[email protected]

It’s human to cry and sob when you hear of what happened to all of us, here in EY.

Please wake up! Let each person leave his evil path.

Perhaps if we do tshuvah, Hashem will relent and move beyond His wrath, and we will not perish.
Dread and terror replaced the joy and celebration, leaving us with remorse and fear. How can you look past what has happened? Hashem has made each of our hearts tremble when you think about the overwhelming horror. Hashem turned the holy celebration of the great lofty tannah, Rashbi, into the valley of death flowing with rivers of blood.

Unless you are cruel, and have no heart, you have a real obligation to think deeply, and really contemplate, why our lives have been forced to change, and why the entire country has been stricken. Rashbi’s merit is great enough to save everyone from severe decrees. What we see is that the severity of the decree was greater even than anything that his great merit could have averted. Hashem chose to turn around our simchah to tears, dancing to mourning, joy to heartbreak and fear.

The reason that the plague that had stricken Rabi Akiva’s students who were held accountable for not having treated each other with sufficient respect stopped on Lag B’Omer is because they changed. The envy and hatred stopped, as explained in the sefer Yismach Yisrael.

But now they are back.

The victims of the tragedy are not the guilty parties. They no doubt are with Rashbi. You have to be honest. Their deaths were not caused by stone throwing, or iron. It wasn’t caused by bombs or accidents. It happened by people stepping on each other and crushing each other. It is a reflection of what happens on a daily basis- people eat each other alive. Each person thinks about what he needs, what will benefit him. He is willing to cause untold pain and aggravation to his neighbor in order to gain some advantage (sometimes a really petty one). He is only aware of his own feelings, and blocks out what his choices do to others. Apologizing is seen as weakness, and forgoing an advantage is seen as a flaw.

We are experts in making excuses. He knows all of the “reasons why” it is “assur” to give in. After all, right is right, and wrong is wrong, and he is right. In fact, he will even think that he is walking the extra mile to be decent. If someone has the nerve to correct him, he is ready to get back at him, and his anger is only a step away from murder- more actual murders would take place if we didn’t have a basic fear of being apprehended and having to pay the price. You may think that I am exaggerating. We should all be ashamed of the sad reality, which is that I am not. 
 
Rabi Shimon’s merit could have protected us, but when we create a society in which people push each other down and crush them, even this merit is not enough.

If someone has a path in Yiddishkeit that is different than yours, you may have come to a point where you even think that it is a mitzvah to hassle him day in and day out. 

You may think that I am using this kind of language to justify my opposition or to ‘get back’ at this one or that one. This is not at all true. My only hope is that if even one person in the entire world does tshuvah, and begins to respect his neighbor, and endear him by looking at him more positively, and improve his ways, that is enough to change the fate of the entire world.

May it be Hashem’s will that His mercy, which is the source of all mercy, be awakened, and that all severe decrees upon us, and upon all of Israel be changed. May Hashem send comfort to His people, and to the families who have had their lives broken by the tragedy and loss that they have experienced. 
May Hashem comfort Tzion by ending the galus in our days, amen. 
​
I am speaking with great and deep sorrow, the way I would if I were a bereaved father, with a broken heart and spirit,
 
Yitzchak Meir, ben Yisachar Dov of Savaran. 
 
*Note: THIS IS A FREE TRANSLATION (meaning changed in regard to language to some degree).