Rabbi Shaanan Gelman

Finding Lavan in All the Wrong Places Vayishlach – 5780 Rabbi Shaanan Gelman (With Rabbi Ariel Rackovsky) This has been a difficult week for klal Yisrael. Three more Jews have been added to the ever-growing list of martyrs, this time in a kosher supermarket in Jersey City.   When we heard about the murders of Leah Mindel Ferencz, the owner, as well as Moshe Deutsch, Chava Gold, along with Miguel Douglas Rodriguez, and Officer Joseph Seales, many of us hoped that it was a random attack, one not targeting Jews specifically.  We hoped, in vain, that this was somehow different than the Hyper Kasher supermarket in Paris or the Tree of Life Synagogue.  We hoped but we were wrong.   Where do we go from here? What is the response of the Jew who discovers that he is constantly under attack? We have one such example at the very beginning of the week’s Parsha. In preparation for his fateful reunion with his twin brother Esav, Yaakov sends messengers...

Change Your Life in 10 Minutes   Chayei Sarah 5780  Rabbi Shaanan Gelman with Rabbi Ariel Rackovsky Several years ago, I visited the site of the Wannsee Conference, the infamous event in which, over the span of two hours, the elite of the Nazi Party formulated the plan for the extermination of 6,000,000 of our brethren.   After touring the room in which the worst atrocity in history was born, I stepped outside, overwhelmed by the gravity of what I had just ingested - and our group realized that it was nearly time to daven mincha.   In a few more minutes the sun would set and we would lose the opportunity.   We had the numbers to form a quorum, that was not our problem, the only question which plagued us was whether it was appropriate to pray at the location of such pure evil?   We further realized that in order to face east, we would have to stand facing the cursed structure while reciting the amida .   After a few moments of uncomfortable deb...

Parshat Bereishit – 5780  Rabbi Shaanan Gelman Cleaning Up Well One of the most incredible individuals I have known, was Rabanit Avigail Rock z”tl.      I first met Avigail over 13 years ago when she and her husband, Rabbi Yehuda Rock joined the Boca Raton community Kollel.   Rabbi Rock, an outstanding and erudite Talmid chacham served as Rosh Kollel, and Avigail was the founding director of the women’s division of the Kollel. Her shiurim and lectures were widely attended, and she remained a frequent guest lecturer there and around the country long after they returned to their lives in the Gush.     You might remember her from several years ago, when she served as a Scholar in Residence at our shul.   She became a role model to Tziporah and me during the short window in which we overlapped at the Kollel.   Every interaction with her was a teaching opportunity, one which proved transformative and memorable for us.   I distinctly...