CROWN HEIGHTS (SNS)

 Hundreds of additional guests came to spend Shemini Atzeres & Simchas Torah in Crown Heights.

On Friday night there were 4 Sholom Zochors k"ah.

Shemini Atzeres
In the Rebbe's room Hakofos started right after Maariv. The Rebbe's & Moshiach's Sefer Torah were present @ Hakofos in the Rebbe's room. Israel Zev "Shmidy" Goldshmid continued his Chazaka of bringing the Sifrei Torahs from downstairs to upstairs & then returned them later so that they could be used @ the main Hakofos downstairs. Hakofos in the Rebbes room ended @ lerech 8:55pm.

Downstairs Hakofos started @ 9:00 pm and went on till about midnight.

Tahalucha
Thousands of men, bochurim and children went to 300+ Shuls on Tahalucha. Starting from the early afternoon groups some accompanied by police escorts left 770. The groups went to all parts of the city including Queens, Flatbush, Brighton Beach, Howard Beach, Sea Gate, Manhattan, Canarsie, Boro Park, Park Slope and more.

Simchas Torah
At around 7:30, while thousands were on Tahalucha there were special Hakofos organized by Tzivos Hashem, held downstairs in 770 for all the children and women. It was a packed house. Everyone present also had a chance to kiss the Rebbe's and Moshiach's Sefer Torah.

Downstairs in 770, Hakofos started @ lerech 10:30pm but as usual it took a while for the Shul to fill up as everyone was making their way back from Tahalucha. The "official" hakofos, ended around 2:o0am but the singing, dancing and Lechaim went on for hours.

Hakofos in the Rebbe room were held immediately after Maariv and ended @ lerech 8:50pm.

Chazzonim over Yom Tov S =Shachris, M = Mussaf, CT = Choson Torah CB = Choson Breishis

770 Downstairs
Shemini Atzeres
S – Sholem Ber Sanowicz
M – Mendel Reizes
There were 5 Chasanim

Simchas Torah
S – Yitzi Hecht
M – Luzer Kenig started and was relieved by Yankel Spritzer after they realized that customarily Chazzonim from Israel don't Daven @ the Umud in 770 on Simchas Torah
CT – A bunch of people
CB - The Rebbe & the Friediker Rebbe & Baal Koreh made the Brochos

Rebbe's Room
Shemini Atzeres
S – Lipa Kosofsky
M – Yisroel Gordon
There were 2 Chasanim

Simchas Torah
S - Sholom Duchman
M - Moshe Kotlarsky
CT - Rabbis' / Mazkirim - B. Klein, C.Y. Krinsky, L. Groner
CB - The Rebbe & the Friediker Rebbe & Baal Koreh made the Brochos

Food & Drink
As usual special thanks goes to Nochum Markowitz who made all the arrangements for the "Kiddushim" on Shemini Atzeres & Simchas Torah both night and day. Sposnors included the Raitport family, Raskins Fish and the Jacobson brothers.

Farbrengen

Towards the end of Yom Tov thousands packed the downstairs of 770 for a Farbrengen. Everyone sang the Niggunim of all the Rebbeim. There was also a Maamer Chazzered by Rabbi Levi Garelik.

@ The Ohel
A crowd of close to 250 spent Shemini Atzeres, Simchas Torah @ the Ohel. The guests visited 35 Shuls in Long Island & Queens on Tahalucha.

Copyright 5767 Shmais

Sukkot festival is a family affair

Worshipers joined Rabbi Avrohom Brashevitzky and his family at the Chabad Jewish Center of Doral last week to celebrate the first day of the weeklong festival of Sukkot.

Brashevitzky hopes that celebrating Sukkot, the festival of booths, will help build solidarity among Doral's growing Jewish community.

Brashevitzky, 35, his wife, Zeldie, and their five children aged 6 months to 9 years, started the festivities with 35 guests on the Friday evening that started the festival.

Since their arrival in Doral a year ago, the Brashevitzky family has welcomed anywhere from seven to 15 worshipers for weekly Chabad services held at their home, 5353 NW 109th Ct. in Doral.

''Some people come regularly, some people don't,'' Brashevitzky said. ``However, we have a policy here. Once you come through the door once, you're part of the family.''

The festival brought Doral residents and Chabad members Matthew Schulman and Joseph Murray together to lend Brashevitzky a helping hand in building the Sukkah. Built in Brashevitzky's backyard before sundown on Friday, the Sukkah was constructed of four trellis walls and a palm frond roof.

''In the Sukkah, you are exposed to the elements. You can see the stars through the branches,'' Brashevitzky said.

Sukkot celebrates the miracle of the clouds of glory that protected the Jewish people during their exodus through the desert. The temporary nature of the booth represents both the comforts and the perils of this journey.

Jewish tradition says that during the seven days and nights of the festival, all meals must be eaten in the Sukkah.

For observant Jews on the go, Brashevitzky's wife Zeldie said there are practical alternatives to building your own sukkah. She suggested a portable ''pop-up sukkah.'' Similar to a popup tent, this portable sukkah allows Jews to adhere to custom and still travel.

''This is a family thing, but if you're going to keep the tradition all the way you really cannot eat without having a Sukkah,'' said Brashevitzky.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., where the Chabad movement is headquartered, Brashevitzky said he remembers younger years when he celebrated Sukkot in the snow.

As an adult, Brashevitzky served as a pulpit Rabbi for three years in the synagogue at the Casablanca Hotel in Miami Beach. Brashevitzky left Miami Beach after he realized there was a need to strengthen the Jewish faith in Doral. One year ago, he established the Chabad Jewish Center in Doral and has been reaching out to Jews in the area ever since.

The Chabad movement focuses on community. According to Brashevitzky, ``teaching the Jewish people that it's not about counting the amount of observance a person does or [does] not do; it's about cherishing, valuing and celebrating every mitzvah, every good deed that a person does.''

According to Joseph Murray, who assisted Brashevitzky in building his Sukkah, ''Chabad is a worldwide outreach organization which seeks to bring together any Jew at any level.'' Before becoming Orthodox, Murray practiced Reform and Conservative Judaism. Murray said that finding Rabbi Brashevitzky and the Chabad movement was the answer to his prayers.

Murray recalls celebrating Sukkot in booths decorated with fruit and vegetables.

In the Chabad custom, no harvest fruits or vegetables adorn the Sukkah. ''We do not put up any decorations; it's not forbidden but our tradition is not to put up any decorations,'' said Brashevitzky.

''If we decorate our Sukkah, it suggests that it is not beautiful. The real decorations, the true beauty of the Sukkah, are the people in it,'' said Malkie Brashevitzky, age 9.

However, there was one small exception to custom. A crayon-and-popsicle-stick creation by the Brashevitzky children greeted guests at the entrance of the Sukkah. It read, ``Welcome to our Sukkah.''

Volunteer helps form Jewish Cub packs, Scout troops

When longtime Boys Scouts of America member John R. Halpern moved into his home as a fulltime Palm Beach County resident in 2004, he noticed there were no Jewish organizations sponsoring Cub Scout packs or Boy Scout troops.

In the last year, due largely to his efforts, the seven-county Boy Scouts of America Gulf Stream Council has chartered two packs and one troop in the Palm Beach County district, that extends from Boca Raton to Sebastian, and west to the Belle Glade area.

Boca Raton Synagogue has chartered a Cub Scout pack of 20 boys. Eight boys have joined a Boy Scout troop chartered by B'nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton, and 10 boys have joined a Cub Scout pack chartered by Chabad-House Lubavitch of Palm Beach in North Palm Beach, he said.

"I'm doing my best to put together as many Jewish troops as I possibly can," said Halpern, 76, now chairman of the council's Jewish Committee on Scouting, and assistant council commissioner for Jewish Outreach.

Halpern, a former Boca Raton snowbird who now lives full time in Valencia Shores, west of Lake Worth, visits synagogues and temples, selecting the ones that have Hebrew schools.

For more information on joining or chartering a Jewish Cub Scout pack or Boy Scout troop in Palm Beach County, contact Halpern at 561-965-3731.

Orthodox rite ruffles neighbors’ feathers

It was not the first time neighbors had their feathers ruffled by a local rabbi who used live chickens in an ancient Jewish atonement ritual.
    But this time, neighbors said, it went too far.
    "It happened about five years ago," said Larry Loew, who lives next to the Lubavitcher Shul at 239 Chestnut Hill Ave. "They hosed all the blood into our yard. The yard smelled like a slaughter house for a month and a half."
    Loew said he remembered the chickens being used for kaparot (see sidebar, page 9) 14 or 15 years ago. This year, Loew said he didn't know the chickens were being used until Sept. 30 when his wife, Gail Goldstein, was taking their dog for a walk.
    "The dog was pulling me in that direction," she said. "It stunk so badly my eyes watered."
    Goldstein said she was "horrified" at the conditions the chickens were being kept in - short cages that the birds could not stand up in and many without food or water. The next day, the slaughter began.
    "They had a handy man, who is not Jewish, feeding the chickens into a defeathering machine alive," said Loew. "At that point, I had to leave for the day."
    The couple called Inspectional Services to complain about what they said were unsanitary conditions. After the chickens were slaughtered, they said, the birds were put in a barrel of rainwater and sold for $20 apiece. Despite ISD writing the shul a nuisance notice, Loew and Goldstein said it isn't enough.
    "It's totally frustrating that no one is helping stop this," said Goldstein.
    Rabbi Pinchus Krinsky, who runs the Lubavitcher Shul, could not be reached for comment. The TAB first tried to speak with the rabbi on Oct. 3. On that day, the rabbi asked that he be called back in a week. The TAB again called the rabbi on Oct. 10, but the woman who answered the phone said the rabbi was too busy to talk.
    Loew and Goldstein, self-described animal lovers, said the treatment of the birds was only part of their problem with the ceremony.
    "It's not a common and usual practice done in any temple, and it still has to meet health requirement codes," said Loew. "But if it was done by the health codes and humanely, we could understand."
    Kaparot facts
    According to an article on Chabad.org, a division of the Chabad-Lubavitch Media Center, using chickens to atone for sins at Yom Kippur is a traditional Jewish practice.
    Kaparot is an ancient and mystical custom connected to the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. It can be performed anytime between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, but most often it is performed just after dawn on the day before Yom Kippur.
    The original form of the kaparot ceremony involves taking a chicken (a white rooster for a male, hen for a female) and waving it over one's head while reciting this prayer: "This is my replacement, this is my exchange, this is my atonement; this fowl shall go to its death, and I shall go to a long, good and peaceful life." Then the chicken is slaughtered and it (or its cash value) is given to the poor.
    While kaparot is still practiced by Orthodox Jews, most Jews today perform kaparot by waving money wrapped in a white cloth napkin over their head, reciting the prayer, and then giving the money to charity following the ceremony.

New U.N. head may make

NEW YORK, Oct. 13 (JTA) — Jewish officials are greeting the selection of Ban Ki-moon as the next U.N. secretary-general with cautious optimism, hopeful that the South Korean foreign minister will use the office to push for fairer treatment of Israel and more equitable application of international human rights standards.

The Security Council endorsed Ban, 62, by acclamation Monday, choosing him from a field of seven candidates. The General Assembly confirmed him Friday afternoon.

"If the selection process is any indicator, then the journey of his tenure might be smoother than what we've seen until now," said Rabbi Levi Shemtov, director of American Friends of Lubavitch and Chabad's chief envoy in Washington, who met with Ban and other U.N. candidates. "There's something smooth, quiet, yet effective about him, and as we get to know him better, I hope it's going to bring us closer to a better and more peaceful world."

Ban will replace Kofi Annan of Ghana, who has a mixed record on issues of Jewish concern. U.N. observers say it's difficult to predict whether Ban will fare any better, particularly given his reputation as a moderate who prizes consensus-building.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based U.N. Watch, says powerful groups like the Non-Aligned Movement — an alliance of developing countries that includes the 56-member Muslim bloc — could obstruct any significant changes Ban seeks to implement.

"It would be naive to expect radical change," Neuer said. "The most important decisions are made by members states which are organized into certain powerful alliances."

If the Non-Aligned Movement "wants to play the spoiler role, the secretary-general is limited in what he can accomplish," he said.

Neuer's skepticism echoes criticism aimed at Ban ahead of his selection. Some said he was too weak for the U.N.'s top job, chosen more for his inoffensiveness than his potential to reform an organization still tarnished by the oil-for-food scandal and allegations of sexual misconduct by U.N. peacekeepers.

As Ban emerged as front-runner, U.N. staff reportedly worried that the career diplomat lacked the mettle to take the organization out from under the cloud of controversy that has marred Annan's second term. Annan will step down as secretary-general Dec. 31.

Ban earned a B.A. in international relations from Seoul National University in 1970, and holds a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Often described as soft-spoken and lacking charisma, Ban rose steadily through the ranks of South Korea's Foreign Ministry, becoming foreign minister in January 2004. His previous postings include New Delhi, Washington, Vienna and New York, and in 2005 he became the first South Korean foreign minister to visit Israel.

"He seems to be a good man and has all the necessary qualifications to be a good secretary-general," said Aaron Jacob, associate director of international affairs for the American Jewish Committee, who met with Ban in late September.

At the meeting, Ban was noncommittal in response to AJCommittee concerns about Iran, human rights and reports that U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon are narrowly interpreting their mandate. Given the Security Council's imminent vote on his nomination, however, that reticence was to be expected, Jacob said.

"He said that he understood our concerns, but understandably did not go into details," Jacob said.

Ban has said he would make reforming the United Nations — a cause close to the hearts of Jewish organizations who say the world body treats Israel unfairly — a top priority. He also has pledged to try to broker a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The U.N. Charter "was crafted to give the member states ample flexibility in adapting the U.N. machinery to respond to novel threats in a changing world," Ban told world leaders in September at the opening of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. "But our tools need sharpening."

Unlike Neuer, who would like the new secretary-general to take a bold stance on key issues, many of those who have met Ban believe a more subdued approach — unlike the very public pronouncements that have been a hallmark of Annan's tenure — may be more effective in achieving long-term change.

"Although he doesn't come across as a high-profile champion of causes, he does have a human-rights background and has been able to advance some of those issues behind the scenes," said Shai Franklin, director of international organizations for the World Jewish Congress. "It would be a mistake to dismiss his low-key public style as a lack of interest or resolve on human rights or other issues that we as Jews take very seriously."

"I think he's going to surprise the skeptics," agreed Michael Landau, who heads the Coalition of Orthodox Jewish Organizations of the West Side, a Manhattan-based umbrella group representing 27 groups, and who attended the AJCommittee meeting with Ban. We see Kofi Annan "as being more vocal a leader than Ban Ki-moon, who will speak less and do a lot."