Thursday, Hei Elul, grades 5 and 6 of United Lubavitch Yeshiva Ocean Parkway had the tremendous opportunity to visit Rabbi Yitzi Hurwitz during his visit to New York. The boys said the 12 Pesukim, sang a niggun and wished him brachos for a speedy and complete recovery.
As Chazal tell us, the giver of an act of chesed gains more than the recipient. While the primary purpose of the visit was to visit Rabbi Yitzi and lift his spirits, it is safe to say that the boys’ spirits were even more uplifted.
Every teacher wants his students to live with feelings of emunah, simcha, perseverance, growth-mindset, and strives to be mechanech his students to grow, spiritually and emotionally.
How does a teacher impart these messages? What is the most efficient curriculum to teach these concepts?
Rabbi Friedman and Rabbi Wagner, the rabbeim of grades 5 and 6, felt that the answer is to experience it in real life. And there is no better living example for all these messages (and more) than Rabbi Yitzi.
Before going, the boys heard Rabbi Yitzi’s story and anecdotes of what happens in his house in California where people come to uplift and leave uplifted. The boys wrote down lessons that they learnt from Rabbi Yitzi and took hachlotos in zchus of his refuah shleima.
These lessons and hachlotos were collected and given to Rabbi Yitzi, as yet another artifact of testimony to the inspiration and real-life teaching that he instills.
The boys left in a serious, yet positive mood, encouraged and motivated to learn from Rabbi Yitzi to never give up. In Rabbi Yitzi’s own words to the boys during the visit, “You can all be amazing!”
Lizchus Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok ben Bracha, for a refuah shleima!
