Win $500 in a creative writing contest for women and families about visualizing the Geulah to make it a reality.
By Mrs. Gitty Stolik
Creative Contest for Women
“Mommy, tell Shimmy to get out of my seat.”
“Chava, stop chewing so loud! Mommy, Chava is
annoying me…”
“Ow, Yossi’s kicking me.”
How about a change of scenery at your next meal? Invite your family (assuming you can be heard over
the noise) to “Imagine… if we were already in Geula, what would this supper be like?”
Have a recorder or pen ready, so you can submit your genius kids’ ideas to Imagine it Now!, a creative
writing and art contest for women and families. Details below.
Escapist thinking? On the contrary, it’s exactly what the Rebbe has been telling us – visualizing Geula is
a key to bringing Geula! Choose an aspect of your current life, or any irksome real-life situation and visualize it through a Geula-scope. The personality clashes, people’s shtik, cramped living conditions (to name a few).
Think… Home time, work time, off time, school time, shul time, the social scene. Visualize it with vivid details and with all the positive emotions that go along with it – acceptance, pleasure, harmony, joy, serenity, love, and vibrancy. Enter the world in which you want to end up and write about it or create a visualization of how it looks.
Watch your mood go up… This Geula-joy will literally invite the Geula into the world – that’s a Rebbe-
backed guarantee! A family visualization session can be wonderful bonding time, but take a few moments to think about it before you invite them to share (especially if you have children of mixed ages).
Slurpee or Wedding?
How do we visualize Geula? For kids, it’s the candies growing on trees. The Rebbe has educated us to
reach for Moshiach from a more sophisticated place 2 (even young children are capable of yearning for G-dliness, as modelled by the Rebbe Rashab). Geula is much more than the fulfillment of an egocentric wish list.
Here’s food for thought:
A family was traveling to a relative’s wedding. The mother was taking the five older children and leaving
three younger ones behind. “Won’t they be upset?” I asked. But this smart mother had it figured out, “I told them when we come back we’ll go on a special trip just for them, we’ll buy slurpees, and they were
jumping for joy.” Their excited responses validated her decision to leave them home. If a slurpee trumps
a wedding, you can handle a missed wedding.
Is Geula one big slurpee splurge or is it about the wedding between the Aibeshter and yidden? And
imagine it now – how will that closeness feel? (See what happened? Due to my involvement with this contest, I started to see everything through a Geula-scope. That’s exactly what the Rebbe tells us. No need ‘to go’ to Geula. We bring Geula in to us.)
Kids are often chock full of insistent wishes and demands. Many unfulfillable, beyond the scope of the
parents to change at the moment. Challenge them – which Geula track are they ready to travel on?
Imagine it now! Will kids be cranky at weddings in the times of Moshiach? Will there still be back-seat
fighting on the commute? And if not – why not? These are intriguing thoughts to contemplate during
your family visualization. Bonus: We will have our slurpees and our weddings too.
ENTRY GUIDELINES:
You can dedicate your work to one particular hostage. But also have in mind the release of every Jew
held hostage in galus. We ALL want OUT!
1) In writing, 100-500 words
2) Art and visual media (can be computer-based, not AI)
Your piece may be selected to be published in an anthology! Plus, two selected submissions will
receive:
$500 and $358 (the gematria of Moshiach)
You can enter as an individual or as a family collaborative.
Entries should be emailed to [email protected] by 11:59 PM of Sunday Lag Baomer ET. Include
your name, city and a descriptor label.
Seeing is believing! Remember a mother and daughter from Chicago who were abducted October 7th ?
The mother, Yehudit Raanan, was a faithful attendee of the Chabad women’s learning group. The group
made an ‘advance’ celebration in a spirit of simcha, at which they vividly visualized their release.
Five days later mother and daughter were released!
That’s exactly what the Rebbe has been telling us: Visualizing Geula is a key to bringing Geula! Try it
and see!
IMAGINE IT NOW…
♦ “Open Your Eyes and see. The table is set and the feast is ready” (P’ Vayeira).
♦ Anti-Semitism has become an obsolete word. Pro-Semitism reigns supreme. Wherever we go, people
salute and cheer us on. Universities are safe but we have no need for them. Instead, professors and
students alike are flocking to us to teach them. Hostages and wars are relics of the past, and we’re ALL
home-free!
—
1) When we bring the imminence of Geula to mind… we make the Geula come alive… this brings us Geula-joy and this will immediately bring Moshiach … “TRY IT AND YOU’LL SEE” (Elul 5748). A bold guarantee! “Imagine aspects of life now as they would be in the days of Moshiach…this will bring [to] the days of Moshiach, l’havi l’yimos Hamoshiach.” (P’ Shmos 5752 footnote 46)
2) We want Hashem Himself, we want shleimus of Torah and mitzvos.
Your article, presenting the contest, to write a composition about the era of Geulah is exciting. However, it seems to me that there is sooo much information already written here, that it leaves very little information, yet to be part of a new composition. It does make the contest, more challenging. Iyh we should not have to VISUALIZE the Geulah because we will be WITNESSING the REAL THING momentarily . In the meantime Hatzlocho Rabba to all participants.
I started doing this my kids and it’s been opening up so much!
So excited to take part of bringing geula besimcha
Thanks for sharing! Keep up the momentum and spread it