Inspiring a Nation with stories

Rabbi Lipszyc's Story of the week #57. Decidated in Honor of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Mikvah Miracles (told by Leah) One day I got a call from a young woman, we’ll call her Sara, who was married to a man very much her senior.  She had just given birth to a son, and they had decided to start keeping the laws of Family Purity.  Sara told me that the night she called was the night she could go to the mikvah, and could I please take her the first time?  I asked if she knew the laws involved, and had made the required internal inspections to ascertain that she was able to immerse in the mikvah, and she replied that she did not.  I suggested that we meet that afternoon to start learning the laws, she could check herself that evening, and I would gladly take her the following week.  She told me to come to their restaurant, and we could learn there, as it was quiet in the afternoon. Not an hour passed, when I got another call. Let’s call...

56. Another couple of our acquaintance, with whom we became very close friends over the years, were a young guy and gal who we originally connected with in Michigan State University in East Lansing Michigan. Eventually they married and moved to Florida. For more than 45 years, Scott and Sandy Colish have kept connected with us and our bond keeps getting stronger. He lately sent me this story, as he remembers it: On New Years’ Eve, Dec. 31, 2003, at about 11pm, we were on South Beach, when Sandy asked me, “Hey, have you spoken with the Rabbi lately?” Replying that I hadn’t, she suggested that I give him a call. “Dude, what’s up?” “I need $1,700…a loan will do, but I need to pay for a ticket to observe my mother’s Yahrzeit in Israel.” Not a completely atypical greeting, but I told him I would need to discuss that with Sandy. She said that would be OK as a loan, so I transferred the money over the phone via VISA. His reply, “OK…got it…click.” A few weeks late...

Rabbi Lipszyc's Story of the Week #52.  Dedicated In memory of Aharon Tzvi ben Avigdor Although I used to enjoy driving, and did quite a lot in my time, my driving habits weren’t necessarily the best. Through the years, I got into numerous accidents and only because of G-d’s kindness, am I around to talk about it. The first accident was while I was a teenager and still a new driver. My brother Heshy would let me use his car from time to time. The evening before Yom Kippur he allowed me to use his car to run an errand. In the wee hours of the morning, around 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. on the day before Yom Kippur it is customary to “shlug kaporas,” the tradition is for a female to take a chicken and a male to take a rooster and say a prayer while encircling it around the head, (three sets of three circles around the head,) and then giving it to the shochet (kosher slaughterer) to ritually kill the chicken in the prescribed manner while looking on and thinking that “I deserve the death...