Susie Garber

On May 2, Chazaq hosted an uplifting shiur on Shavuos, with many inspiring speakers. Rabbi Chanan Gordon, well-known speaker and author, began by sharing that on February 18 of this year an historical event took place. We saw a mobile drone descend and land on Mars. NASA opened up the naming of the mission to 28,000 school children, and the winning name was Perseverance. He noted, “Now is the time that we ascend the ladder to the single greatest event in history – the greatest gift the Jewish people ever have received and ever will receive, Matan Torah.” Hashem gave us instructions for living.

On Sunday evening, April 11, Rabbi Yaniv Meirov, Operations Manager of Chazaq, interviewed Dr. Moshe Katz, author of Nine Out of Ten, Holocaust survivor, and well-known speaker about the Holocaust. Dr. Katz was a co-founder of most of the Torah institutions in Far Rockaway, including Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv, TAG, Yeshiva of South Shore, and Agudath Israel of Long Island. His book Nine Out of Ten is about the history of the Hungarian Jews’ will to survive the war.

On Sunday evening, April 25, Chazaq and UJA Federation hosted a virtual lecture on vaccines with Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt, Chairman of the Department of Infectious Disease and Hospital Epidemiologist at Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital.

On Monday night, April 12, Emet Outreach hosted a live and virtual shiur with Mr. Harry Rothberg, well-known speaker, at Beth Gavriel. He shared that he works as a lawyer and he recalled a time when he was asked by a judge to appear on a certain date in May and it was Shavuos. He told the judge that he couldn’t come because it was a Jewish holiday. The judge protested and said, “I know there’s Passover and Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, but I never knew there was another holiday.” He proceeded to explain to the judge by pointing out the statue of Moses holding the tablets that was in front of the courthouse. He explained that we have a holiday celebrating when G-d gave us the Torah. It was significant to Mr. Rothberg that in all the years this judge was on the bench, he had never had a Jewish lawyer tell him that he couldn’t appear because of Shavuos.

On Tuesday evening, April 27, Tuesday Timely Torah Talks, hosted by Chazaq, featured Rabbi Menachem Nissel, well-known author of Rigshei Lev, who shared powerful insights about prayer. Rabbi Yaniv Meirov, Operations Manager of Chazaq, interviewed Rabbi Nissel.

On Monday evening, April 5, the Eshel Avraham Organization presented a virtual shiur with Rabbi Avraham Nissanian, well-known inspirational speaker, on Pirkei Avos. Rabbi Nissanian focused on the first mishnah, which states that Moshe received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Yehoshua, Yehoshua to the Elders, the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets to the Men of the Great Assembly. He taught that the Pirkei Avos are the sayings of our great chachamim in the generation before the destruction of the Second Beis HaMikdash, and it begins with telling us how we received the Torah.