Stay With Me

   “Stay With Me [More Than] One Day”   

A team of professional photographers traveled to document the terrible massacre that took place on the October 7th in Kibbutz Be'eri. In an area where entire houses were burnt to the ground, one photographer noticed the white torn page just lying on the ground near a scarry knife. The page was from the sefer Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh, which speaks of halting life and taking stock!  (In the entire sefer the word “halt” לעצור appears only in this section!)  

x4000 copies of a special sefer in hebrew commemorating this "coincidence" are available for free distribution. 145 pages pocket size. Contact us for details: bilvavi231@gmail.com or 050-415-3996 

  The Rav's response: The events that took place on Shemini Atzeres (5784) in Eretz Yisrael were an “atzeres,” a “halt” - to routine life in the Holy Land.

 HALT WITH ME! 

♦ Close to 500,000 Jews have joined the war and aren’t at home. ♦ Close to 200,000 Jews have been uprooted from their homes in the South & North, and are living far away from their homes. ♦ Educational institutions in many places are only partially operating. ♦ Most construction projects all over the country have halted, due to lack of workers, which until now employed Arabs. ♦ Tourists from other countries aren’t flying in now since foreign airlines cancelled all flights. ♦ Major entertainment centers aren’t active now, while some of them are only partially functioning. ♦ Many stores are now only open for part of the day. ♦ Since close to 700,000 Jews aren’t at home now, this has resulted in businesses slowing down or closing since they have no manpower to function. ♦ The mere fact that there is so much uncertainty about the immediate future and beyond has resulted in significant financial losses. There are many more examples of the ripple effects that resulted from what happened – and all of it is because  Hashem is telling us: 

 “PUT A HALT ON ALL OF YOUR LIFE!” 

And it happened precisely on Shemini Atzeres, the day of which Hashem says “Stay with Me one more day.” This year, it was not only “one more day” as Hashem always asks us to stay with Him as in all previous years. Rather, this year was a plea from Hashem for us to halt all our life and re-think the entire way we have been living, to start over our lives again. We can go deep into ourselves and ask, “What am I living for? Am I clear about how to get to the purpose of my life? Am I actually going in that path?” 

Everything that happened in Be’eri can be used by us to become stronger and improve ourselves. And although these words are so clear and do not need to be emphasized at all, still, it is human nature that people want to strengthen and improve themselves even more when tragic events happen.