by Susie Garber

On Monday evening, January 11, Rabbi Shmuel Reichman, author, educator, speaker, coach, and founder and CEO of Self-Mastery Academy, shared a fascinating and deep shiur on the concept of numbers in connection with Judaism. He illuminated how there is a deep connection between numbers and Torah in a way that changed this writer’s view of math and numbers in general. Math was never my strong interest, but this new way of looking at numbers gave me a better appreciation and awe of the depth and intricacy of Torah and its connection to math.

On Tuesday evening, January 5, PUAH live-streamed an extraordinary webinar that felt like a clear message straight from Hashem. Some of us are nervous and unsure about the vaccine for COVID-19. Various reports have frightened us. This evidence-based amazing webinar, with two medical expert speakers, removed the doubts and brought clarity and direction.

On Tuesday evening, January 12, the Navigating the Medical System Lecture Series, hosted by Congregation Etz Chaim of Kew Gardens Hills, featured an informative medical lecture on lower back pain with Dr. John Park, Chief neurosurgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Queens. Christina Yoon, Community Outreach Representative for the hospital, welcomed the audience on Zoom. Then, Dr. Mel Breite, Founder and Director of the Navigating the Medical System Lecture Series, introduced Dr. Park.

Coach Menachem’s 33 virtual shiur of Let’s Get Real featured Rabbi Benzion Twerski, rav of Congregation Beth Yehuda and founding member of the Milwaukee Kollel, on Sunday evening, December 27. First, Coach Menachem shared that “we need to change our mindset and do things mindfully. That can be a challenge.” Next, he introduced Rabbi Twerski who responded to the question of what are we aiming for in life? He imparted that according to Sefer Toldos Yaakov Yosef, a disciple of the Baal Shem Tov, the goal of Torah and mitzvos is d’veikus in Hashem – connecting to our Creator. Underlying everything we do there has to be a connection to Hashem.” The S’fas Emes taught that “knowing that we have the privilege to connect to an Infinite Creator should lead a person to incredible joy.” It is worth it for a person to come to this world and suffer all the tzaros in order to perform just one mitzvah.

This past week, over 215 local rebbeim, morim, and moros, along with over 45 almanos, benefited from a special new chesed. Robby Neuman, founder of Chickens for Shabbos, saw a need in our community and partnered with Chazaq to fill this need. Special thanks to Congregation Ner Mordechai in Kew Gardens for their hosting these events.

Rabbi Avraham Nissanian, well-known speaker, shared a life-changing shiur on behalf of Eshel Avraham on Monday evening, December 28, on the subject of “Breaking Bad Habits.” “It is so hard to break a bad habit that we think there is no way to do it. Habits become so rooted that we don’t think about the needs of others.” He taught that “G-d created human beings with the ability to change their nature.”