Purim 5770 Megillah reading

The Kotzker Rebbe:"If I am I because I am I, and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you. But if I am I because you are you and you are you because I am I, then I am not I and you are not you!"

Whose the Tzaddik

There is a verse in Psalm 92, which we read every Friday night as we usher in the holy Shabbos: Tzadik kaTamar Yifrach – A Tzadik (righteous person) will flourish like a palm tree.
Rebbe Nachman asks why is it that a Tzadik is compared to a palm tree?
He answers by explaining that the Hebrew word for palm tree, Tamar, comes from a linguistic root, meaning To Exchange.
He goes on to explain that a Tzadik, essentially is not just someone who looks and acts saintly, but rather a person who has the ability to take any experience of reality, no matter how bad, and exchange it for something good. It is someone who can completely override negativity and not only transform it to good, but exchange it for good.
Consider the following; A person may get insulted by his friend. His natural reaction is to become upset. He reacts by saying something he shouldn’t. Then he feels remorse. He apologises, and everybody is now friends. – They may be friends, but they are friends who just traded terrible insults. This is an example of transforming bad into good. On the other hand, someone who exchanges bad for good, never even registered the insult in the first place.
Many can transform something bad into good. Many can learn from their mistakes. But their mistakes remain mistakes. However, very few are able to exchange bad for good. By exchanging, they take absolutely no ownership of the evil at all.

Such a person, with such a talent is deemed to be the truly righteous individual, the Tzadik, worthy of emulation.

Messages for BaalShemTov shul's fifteenth anniversary

The Shul, Rabbi and congregants are the place that has brought me back to awareness of my jewishness

Kevin Rosen

To the Baal Shem Tov Shul - to a wonderful community, a very special Rabbi and his incredible family, thank you for being there for us always. Pamela Belman

The Rifkind family wish the Baal Shem Tov Kehillah a very hearty Mazel Tov and wish for the Shul and the community to continue to grow from strength to strength offering the unique brand of Joyous Yiddishkeit that we have come to love.

Siman Tov Mazal tov Baal Shem Tov,its quite a fantastic achievement,may we go from strength to strength in Joy,caring,& giving.Lovingly always & in all ways,Lionel & Sharyn

Mazel Tov to a community that gave us so much, may you go from strength to strength. We miss you all,Henoch,Orly & Kids.

The one and only Baal Shem Tov Shul is an unique oasis in the wilderness. It is truly a privilege to belong to this wonderful family and to be part of a welcoming, embracing, heimlich and non judgemental congregation, led by an amazing Rov, his wife and family.
Thank you for a wonderful 15 years !!
Stan, Ann,Saul,Benji, Tandi Tenzer

"People are accustomed to look at the heavens and to wonder what happens there. It would be better if they would look within themselves, to see what happens there."The Kotzker Rebbe

HASCHALA CHADASHA - I get knocked down, I get up again.
Various schools of Jewish thought advise on possible ways of beating the Yetzer HaRah (evil inclination). Rebbe Nachman, however, suggests that one cannot in fact destroy it, no matter what the technique. The only way to deal with, and manage the Yetzer, in his view, is simply not to be phased by it's continuous pull. Accept it's existence as an inescapable facet of life, and every time it inevitably causes us to fall... we simply pick ourselves up and start again. It's almost like a game of wits; whoever tires first loses. One must never allow oneself to become despondent.
That's how one battles with the Yetzer. It's a war one never wins, yet never loses. (Hishtapchus HaNefesh)
I once heard an oral Breslover tradition that in the next world, one of the first questions we are going to be asked will not be: "Why did you circum to the evil inclination?", but rather: "How many times did you make a HASCHALA CHADASHA (a new start)?"

Someone once told the Kotzker Rebbe that he was struggling to find meaning in his prayers. He hoped for some sagely advice from the master. Instead the Kotzker simply said; "Don't worry about it."
The nature of prayer is such that if one prayed with meaning only once, all subsequent prayers, even the imperfect ones, are drawn to it and get get elevated through it. (Emes Ve Emunah, Hakdamah)
This is a typical response of the Kotzker: short, radical, realistic and deep.

Rosh Chodesh Adar

The Kotzker Rebbe once said: “Of course you shouldn’t sin, but I want you not to sin not just because it’s forbidden but rather because you have no time to do so”(Emes Ve’Emunah)

Rosh Chodesh Adar

Sunday morning, Rosh Chodesh Adar after Shacharis, Marbin Besimcha :)

Breslov Bikers

A sample of one of the only Jewish Biker organisations in the world. Would you believe that just an hour earlier each of these rough looking individuals had been to shul,put on tefillin and heard a shiur. This groups motto is: Breslov Bikers- We want machinery now!