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For Your InspirationRabbi Mordechai Becher Discusses Reaching Out To the Non-Observant
Rabbi Mordechai Becher, senior lecturer for Gateways and author of Shaar Press's Gateway to Judaism: The What, How and Why of Jewish Life, spoke at Congregation Nachlas Yitzchok (Rav Oelbaum's shul) in Kew Garden Hills, Queens, on Motzoei Shabbos, February 23...
Rabbi Mordechai Becher, senior lecturer for Gateways and author of Shaar Press's Gateway to Judaism: The What, How and Why of Jewish Life, spoke at Congregation Nachlas Yitzchok (Rav Oelbaum's shul) in Kew Garden Hills, Queens, on Motzoei Shabbos, February 23, about the obligation of all frum Jews to become more involved in the kiruv effort to bring non-religious Jews back to Torah. The lecture was sponsored by Project Inspire and was dedicated to the refuah sheleimah of Aish HaTorah's founder and dean, Rabbi Noah Weinberg (Rav Yisroel Noach ben Hinda).
Rabbi Becher began his talk by referring to the Sifre's comment on the passuk (Devarim 32:4) that says, "Kel emunah v'ein avel." Kel emunah means that Hashem is a G-d of faith. The Sifre explains that Hashem believed in His world, and then He created it.
Without belief in something, Rabbi Becher noted, we are not going to create or invest in something. Every morning we say Modeh Ani, thanking Hashem or returning our souls to us, and we say "rabbah emunasecha." This is usually translated as "Your faithfulness is great," but according to the Sifre, it might be translated as "Your faith in us is great."
The knowledge that Hashem has faith in us should infuse us with the capacity to have faith in ourselves. Harav Eliyahu Dessler, zt"l, points out that many of the greatest aveiros in the Jewish people's history were the result of incomplete belief in ourselves. The sin of the Meraglim, for example, came about because the spies did not believe that the Jewish people had the merit to conquer and enjoy the Promised Land.
Rabbi Becher said that Rav Yosef Ber Soloveitchik asked why believing in the chosenness of the Jewish People is not among the Rambam's 13 Principles of Faith. His answer is that this belief is embedded in the 12th principle - to believe in Moshiach. A belief in the coming of Moshiach means that we believe all Jews will do teshuvah at the end of time, so that a belief in Moshiach also means a belief in Klal Yisrael. Rabbi Becher stated that Hashem believes in us, which makes us worthy of tremendous siyatta diShamaya.
Rabbi Becher recalled that when he was on the faculty of Ohr Somayach Yeshivah in Yerushalayim, he once traveled to South Africa to lecture. During his stay when he went on a picnic outing with a Johannesburg Rav, they encountered three backpackers. The rabbi waved to them and invited them over.
One of the backpackers said, "Kosher food! Haven't had that since my bar mitzvah." Rabbi Becher referred to this as bageling - an attempt by a Jewish person who does not have a very Jewish appearance to identify himself to one who does, and to form a connection with him.
Rabbi Becher's South African host invited the three backpackers to join their barbecue. One of the young men mentioned that his sole connection to Judaism was an "Ask the Rabbi" electronic site to which he had been emailing questions for the past two years. It turned out that Rabbi Becher was the rabbi who had been answering his questions! The South African rabbi gave the young man his card and invited him to his synagogue in Johannesburg, the Sunnyroad Shul.
Two years later, Rabbi Becher was back in South Africa for another lecture series. While in shul, he was approached by a man with a beard and a yarmulke who asked, "Do you remember me?" It was that same backpacker.
Rabbi Becher explained that there is more to this story than the obvious hashgachah pratis that brought the two backpackers together with the rabbis. There is also the element of free will, which the South African rabbi used when he invited the young man to his shul.
Rabbi Becher continued that our obligation not to stand by when a fellow Jew is in trouble extends to spiritual trouble. The Torah demands that we step in when spiritual dangers confront our brothers.
One need not be a kiruv professional to help non-religious Jews discover their precious Torah heritage. One of the problems of reaching out is non-frum Jews' stereotypical image of the Orthodox. "When we are friendly, when we smile, when we are open, when we explain something, "Rabbi Becher said, "there is nothing better to eliminate [these] negative stereotypes."
He called on all those in the audience to sign up for a series of three workshops specifically designed to help members of the frum community reach out more effectively to their non-frum relatives, neighbors and colleagues at work. Project Inspire will conduct this three-part kiruv seminar in Queens at the Young Israel of Kew Garden Hills on Tuesday evenings - March 12, 19 and 26.
For information on the seminar or to inquire about similar Project Inspire training programs in your community, please call (646) 291-6191 or email info@projectinspire.com.
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