{"id":263469,"date":"2007-12-25T19:42:25","date_gmt":"2007-12-25T19:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/%d7%9c%d7%9c%d7%90-%d7%a7%d7%98%d7%92%d7%95%d7%a8%d7%99%d7%94\/for-the-sake-of-peace\/"},"modified":"2024-06-27T14:58:27","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T11:58:27","slug":"for-the-sake-of-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/263469\/","title":{"rendered":"For the Sake of Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Seminary is a time for learning. Many of the lessons, however, cannot be gained from a book. All names have been changed for the sake of privacy.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Jerusalem<\/u>, 1975<\/u><\/strong> The girls in the third floor apartment were constantly bickering. They couldn\u2019t agree on anything \u2013 no matter how petty. They argued over whose turn it was to take out the trash, who was supposed to sweep the common room floor, who had left the light on in the kitchen the night before, and even if Rabbi Newert\u2019s class was better than that of the famous Rebbetzin Fried.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Some of the girls were from wealthy homes and had never washed a dish in their lives. In the palatial manors where they had grown up, the maid picked up their dirty laundry before they even had a chance to throw it in the hamper. Other girls had cleaned houses to pay for their ticket to Israel. Some of the girls were discovering that Jews don\u2019t eat shrimp, while others only drank chalav Yisrael<\/i>.  All the girls, however, had a desire to learn about their heritage and to grow spiritually. And all were willing to live in very cramped quarters to spend that year in a Baal Teshuva seminary.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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But despite the girls\u2019 burning desire to build a strong relationship with the Almighty, they were unable (or perhaps, to be more accurate, unwilling) to forge bridges of harmony between themselves. As much as they tried, they couldn\u2019t get along.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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One of the girls, Ruchie Gross grew up in Upstate New York.  A friend had dragged her to an NCSY Shabbaton. The experience moved her to tears. She felt as if an entirely new world had opened up to her and she was determined to learn as much as she could about that world.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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But now that Ruchie was learning about that world, she felt as if her high hopes had gone sour. She and her friends had come to Seminary to grow, to become better, more Torahdik<\/i> individuals. Instead, the bickering never seemed to stop. How could they grow in \u201cbein adam l\u2019makom<\/i>\u201d in their relationship with the Almighty, if they were incapable of forging a relationship \u201cbein adam l\u2019chaveiro<\/i>\u201d with their fellow-Jew?<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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On the first night of Chanukah, the girls in the apartment got together in the common room to light the menorahs. Each girl placed her menorah on the big formica-covered table, filled little glass cups with shemen zayit zach<\/i>, pure olive oil, recited the brachot<\/i> and lit the menorah. Together, the girls sang the traditional Chanukah songs. <\/b><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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There was a rare sense of achdut<\/i>, brotherhood. A few of the girls surreptitiously wiped away a tear. They missed their families. All the girls dreamed of the day they would be privileged to watch their husband light the menorah in their own home.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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But the close, mellow feeling did not last long. One of the girls switched on the lights, glanced at the huge kitchen clock hanging on the wall opposite the table and bellowed, \u201cChanukah party\u2019s in another fifteen minutes! Let\u2019s get the place organized so we can get outta here. Don\u2019t forget, we have to set up for the whole Sem.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cI straightened up yesterday, now it\u2019s your turn,\u201d said one girl.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cBut I have to go the bakery to pick up the donuts,\u201d her friend retorted.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cYeah. Always another excuse. Rabbi Dessler says that if we never give, we\u2019ll never love.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cLook who\u2019s talking\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The conversation was turning ugly. \u201cGirls, let\u2019s just go already,\u201d Ruchie had to yell to be heard.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The evening was a disaster. Ruchie didn\u2019t even hear the Rav\u2019s speech, or Rebbetzin Fried\u2019s talk on finding that pristine drop pure olive oil hidden deep within our souls. \u201cHow can I ever find anything within myself if all we ever do is argue?\u201d<\/i> she wondered. \u201cIf this is what keeping mitzvot does to a person, it\u2019s not for me.<\/i>\u201d Ruchie was ready to give up and return home to college, a profession, and her parents\u2019 reform temple. \u201cBut I\u2019ll never marry a goy<\/em> (non-Jew),\u201d she promised herself.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Several hours later, the tired group of Seminary girls walked through the darkened streets of Jerusalem before climbing the narrow staircase to their apartment on the fourth floor. Although the school was only a five minute walk from their apartment, they were already arguing.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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They smelled the smoke the moment they opened the front door. The girls rushed into the common room. Their menorahs had caught fire. The fire, thank God, was self-contained. Only a few things were destroyed \u2013 some clothing, a few notebooks, a few books.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The girls stood around the table staring at the mess. No one lifted a finger to begin cleaning it up. \u201cIf you would just learn how to take care of your things and not leave them everywhere,\u201d one of the girls indignantly began.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cI was planning to put everything away, but you rushed me out the door,\u201d retorted another.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The argument grew louder. Rochie looked around the room at her friends. Individually, she loved each of them\u2013 each was a jewel in her own right. They had all grown in so many ways over the last few months. Now she could read Hebrew fluently; her davening had improved; she was even able to bentch without singing the words at the top of her lungs and tapping on the table in the middle! But she couldn\u2019t stand this constant bickering. Her mind was made up. She would return to the United States the day after Chanukah was over.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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That\u2019s when she noticed the charred remains of a book that had fallen onto a chair. It was completely ruined \u2013 except for one page.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Rochie carefully brushed away the ashes and examined the page. The other girls observed her curiously.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Rochie smiled. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to believe this,\u201d she said. The page was part of a book on the 613 mitzvot. The entire book had been consumed by the fire, except for the page explaining the mitzvah \u201cV\u2019ahavta l\u2019reiacha Kamocha<\/i>,\u201d living peacefully with one\u2019s neighbor.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The girls were stunned. They understood that this page had been saved for a reason.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The girls cleaned up the mess \u2013 together \u2013 and then spent the rest of the night ironing out their differences. For the first time, many of them realized that there is more to being religious than eating kosher and keeping Shabbat. It was a new beginning, and a lesson they would hold dear for the rest of their lives.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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      <\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
***<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n
More of Debbie Shapiro’s stories can be found in her book Bridging the Golden Gate<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seminary is a time for learning. Many of the lessons, however, cannot be gained from a book. All names have been changed for the sake of privacy.     Jerusalem, 1975 The girls in the third floor apartment were constantly bickering. They couldn\u2019t agree on anything \u2013 no matter how petty. They argued over whose … Continue reading “For the Sake of Peace”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62109,"featured_media":1416128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[15184],"tags":[84742,52547],"author_post":[14331],"new_serie":[],"class_list":["post-263469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-growth","tag-baseless-love","tag-man-and-fellow-man","author_post-debbie-shapiro"],"acf":{"intro_text":"

But despite the girls\u2019 burning desire to build a strong relationship with the Almighty, they were unable (or perhaps, to be more accurate, unwilling)...<\/p>\n","breslev_id":"1858","post_views_count":"88","updatetime":"01\/01\/0001","special_content_in_the_post":"none","meta_title":"For the Sake of Peace","meta_description":"But despite the girls\u2019 burning desire to build a strong relationship with the Almighty, they were unable (or perhaps, to be more accurate, unwilling)...","paragraph_first":"","paragraph_second":"","youtube":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1416128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263469"},{"taxonomy":"author_post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/author_post?post=263469"},{"taxonomy":"new_serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/new_serie?post=263469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}