Shalom all,
I must say, it is easy getting used to life here in New York. We have Kosher pizza shops around every corner. Grocery stores, where we need not check the labels for Kosher symbols. All we need to make sure of is if they are milk or meat products... What a breeze.However, we dearly miss home.In fact, I would go so far to say that Friday nights here in Brooklyn are nothing to compare with the thrilling excitement of Lecha Dodi back in Cabo together with our Jewish community.
The new Rabbi coming to town for the next month, Rabbi Levi Margolin, was supposed to arrive to Cabo on Monday. But thanks to Hurricane Rick, his ticket was pushed off to Friday (today). With G-d's help, He will be arriving today and is excited to spend Shabbat with the wonderful community that he's heard so much about. - Did I also mention that he is stocked with hummus? Ah, so Hurricane Rick... What a thriller that was. I was nervous. Especially since our Sukkah material is still sitting leisurely in the back garden. I was afraid that the whole Sukkah would be blown away. But thank G-d the storm never showed up.
But I thought "what better a week for there to be a hurricane scare than the week of the Noah story?"G-d did promise Noah that a storm of global destruction would never again plague the earth, so I'm guessing that that was one of the deciding factors in the weather change for Cabo.The lesson of Noah however should most definitely not miss us.While physical hurricanes and storms may narrowly miss flooding our lives and inconveniencing our schedules, we need to be wary to the threat of spiritual hurricanes.
We are all climbing a ladder of Spiritual perfection, working on this world and making it a perfect place for G-d to dwell inside. However there are moments when we are faced with spiritual hurricanes and floods. There are times when everything around us seems to be in danger of utter destruction. We may be faced with emotional turmoil. We may have physical urges and priorities which are violently blowing against the 'real' responsibilities and priorities that we need to fulfill. Yet, the lesson of Noah strengthens us and helps us conquer the floods and hurricanes along our spiritual road.'We need to build an ark' ... G-d tells us that the way to overpower and charge forward in life is by building an ark; making a spiritual haven, where we are protected by the outside forces, deeming us safe to go about with our mission in life and not be bothered or stopped on our journey.
How do we build our spiritual ark? Simple. Go to another Torah class. Come to Shul and make sure that we make our prayers and service as meaningful as possible. Do more good deeds. Smile more. These serve as building blocks, protecting us from the impending 'spiritual' disasters that may loom above us. Are you hurricane proof?
Shabbat Shalom and once again, Baruj Haba to Rabbi Levi Margolin. Hope all goes easy and well.
Benny
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