A Tribute To Tzofim-Israeli Scouts

Less than twelve hours,
that's how long I have known you all.
Yet you impacted me in ways,
I had not expected.

I watched as you painted and laughed,
We chatted while munching on pizza.
We conversed deeply before you were dropped off,
I joined you in song and dance.

You guys brought a new life,
to the meaning of Israeli Culture for me.
You reminded me of the beauty in the land,
Erasing much of the evil within.

You glowed in pride for our land,
Your energy brightened my week.
Thank you for a last-minute stop,
A stop that helped a random Jew be happy.

Just Breathe

I empty my chest; I have had all that I can take,

I whisper my goodbye with the last in my lungs.

I stand so still; not even a flinch,

I force myself to remain calm.

All I need is to just stay still; to keep my mouth shut tight,

All I need is for it to be over already.

All I need is to slip away; force my body to sleep,

All I need is to let my soul be released.

There is nothing left; I convince myself,

There is no way to change now.

There is nobody to cry for; I am so alone,

There is no reason to stay.

My chest starts burning; eyes water too,

My lungs are screaming in despair.

My heart tries to pump; its oxygen is low,

My brain begins to shut down.

Suddenly I feel the sunrise; hear the birds on my window,

Suddenly I hear the phone; people at the door.

Suddenly I smell the fresh air; find a dollar on the ground,

Suddenly I realize I have much to be thankful for.

I take a deep breath; my brain rushes to life,

I take a look at this new world I’ve found.

I take a glimpse at my mom; her arms outstretched to me,

I take a step with the new me.

Life is what I make it to be; I must see the good,

Life is what I do with the cards that I’ve been dealt.

Life is what I hold dear; what I used to take for granted,

Life is what I accomplish with one breath at a time.

Sunrise Over Oak Park, MI (Wednesday, June 17, 2015)

Today's cloudy sunrise teaches us that NOTHING is unworthy of G-d's Love

Oakland University Application Essay

            “Unless you turn the handle, the door will forever remain a wall.” ~Dovid N. Roetter       

For as long as I can recall, I have been drawn to the power of words; both the written and spoken. They can make you cry, laugh, sigh, smile, love, and hate simply based on how the writer/speaker sends it across and how the other end perceives it.

            The foundation of my love for words is due to the fact that they have the ability to create a bond between oneself and another without the necessity of physically knowing one another. Pen Pals, for example, have been creating friendships for decades with the two people never once meeting; yet, they can become the closest of friends simply through the usage of words.

            Both writing and speaking has helped me forge connections with people I would otherwise never considered conversing with. It has helped me become active within my community and my college, which in turn has made me who I am today.

            Being shy about my first semester in a college classroom back in 2013, I was hesitant to become involved with any student clubs on campus. However, I decided to reach out to the Jewish Student Organization of Oakland Community College, a branch of Hillel of Metro Detroit, and that ‘Hello’ drew me down a path that has forever changed my life.

            I found myself being reeled into Student Life on campus, and ended up becoming the new President of the club this past August. Since then, I have made connections with people that I never thought I would meet. For example, OCC had asked me to represent them in the beginning of May 2015 as their school mascot during Detroit’s College Signing Day; thus I was able to meet First Lady Michelle Obama.

            Communicating with others has helped give me the strength to arrange large events at OCC. For example, I arranged an Anti-Bullying Dance Day in November 2014 where thirty students and faculty members joined together on the dance floor to turn the beat around on bullying. I also put together a Multi-Faith Panel in February 2015 where we had representatives of six popular faiths [Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Atheism, Buddhism, and Hinduism] discussing their choice of faith and how we, as a college and a community, can help create a more loving world. Student Life has helped further a passion within myself that I have not been able to quench: a desire to be even more open and ‘people-friendly’. A desire to reach out and make my own connections.

            Speaking, I realized, has a source of magic behind it. As Professor Albus Dumbledore once said, “Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it” (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows). I recall back to June 2010, as I stood in front of the podium delivering my high school Valedictorian speech. I remember speaking about the many ups and downs one goes through while in their journey of education. I was able to witness people in the audiences’ eyes glaze over as my discussion brought them back in time to when they attended school. I discovered then how the energy, tone, and stressing of the right wording can twist a sentence into countless meanings.

            Writing helps me express my thoughts and share them with the world. Whether it may be a poem regarding thoughts about my first day in college, published on the OCC Spirit Blog, or sharing the moment of when I visited my brother’s grave for the first time, published in the N’shei Chabad Worldwide Newsletter. Writing is an outlet of my thoughts, emotions, and various lessons that I have learned and someone, at any time across the globe, can read it and connect with me. Chances are that I won’t even be aware of it; yet, the connection will still be established.

            Each and every person we meet or connect with in our lifetime is valuable. As The Doctor once said: “In 900 years of time and space I’ve never met someone who wasn’t important” (Doctor Who, Season Six). Every single person in this world leaves a legacy behind; however, it is their choice if it will be a legacy worthy of remembrance.

Permit me to share the following poem I had written back in January, entitled “Empty Chairs”:

Gathered together they wait patiently, not a soul lingers nearby.

They wait without moving an inch, unknowing who will be their future.

Seventeen of them are around, waiting for the room to fill up.

Slowly one by one receives a soul, it sits empty no more.

It has a gift of life, for just an hour or three.

It hears the crying and the laughter of whomever sits upon thee.

It learns a story of someone so special, it is now content.

It becomes a reflection of the person, it is their spot in the room.

Suddenly, without warning, the human rises tall and proud.

Swiftly walks away and out the door, never to be seen again.

It waits so anxiously, for another to fill the void.

Will another come, who may ever know?

We are all in this world, for but a fleeting moment.

Our stories are told loudly, and we laugh all together.

Yet a time does come when we get up, we leave the room without a warning.

Just one question does remain, that we must ask ourselves:

Will I remain an empty chair, for I am leaving a legacy?

Or will I remain an empty chair, for I am no one worth remembering?

            Why is a legacy so important? Why should we care what people think of us once we are dead? The answer is simple. It is not about what people think about what you did with your life; rather it is about what we have passed on to the next generation. As I would sometimes tell people, “You can only inspire within others what others have previously inspired within you”. Each connection that we make on this earth leaves an impact on the other person; positive or negative. Words are the numerous roads we take to the person next door. It is up to us to be careful to only write or speak positive things about our fellows as the next generation is constantly looking out to see who to copy and admire. We need to bear in mind that a single word can kill a friendship or spark true love.

            This is why I have always been engrossed with words; I, as the speaker or writer, have the power to turn some random combinations of letters into a work of beauty or destruction. I can take peoples’ emotions and reshape them to my desires; bringing them to tears or make them clutch their ribs in laughter. I can touch the essence of their very being.

            However, this can only be done once the connection has already been made. Until I utter one specific word, my magic can achieve no results. Unless I make the first move, the rest of the world will be like frozen statues to me, unable to connect and communicate with. I must reach out and create my own legacy. I must do all that I can do to use language to help the world; to bring love and harmony to those around me and across the globe. No one will make the connections for me; I must be the first one to extend my hand and say “Hello”.

Initiation

"Unless you turn the handle, the door will forever remain a wall." ~Dovid Nissan Roetter

A Year for Pesha Leah

            When I was just fifteen years young, my world was shattered by the weight of a truck. I had lost my beloved sister, Pesha Leah who was only twenty-three at the time, in a road accident as she was returning home from dancing at her friend’s wedding. I was broken inside, yet tried to not let it show.

            The pain and darkness consumed me. I don’t know why I kept it to myself; maybe I was scared, alone, helpless, or just stupid. I started turning down all of my hobbies. I rarely cracked open a book; didn’t pick up a pen to write often. When I did, it was all about death and evil and endless pain.

            I soon found myself not being observant in majority of Judaism’s ways. Some out in the open, but most I kept hidden to myself; not wanting to have to explain a feeling to those too coarse to want to even attempt to understand what I was going through.

            One thing I stopped doing almost immediately was Shabbos. It just seemed like too pure of a day for a world that can harvest such destruction. So I obliterated it from my week. I would put on a great performance for those nearby; but once they left it would be computer on and headphones in. When I was in Yeshiva, it was not easy to break Shabbos; thus I felt compelled to do so even more. I relished the feeling of shoving the middle finger in G-d’s face. Yet, it was a secret I was prepared to take to the grave.

            Then, my life turned around, again, one year ago. After months of trying to convince me, Hillel of Metro Detroit had gotten me onboard a Birthright trip to Israel with forty other Jewish college students – most of whom were not orthodox. These students did something I was scared to let others before them do: accept me for who I currently was.

            Within the first seventy-two hours, they had me opening up my soul to them, and they opened up in return. We shared a connection that was held up by Band-Aids; therefore it was stronger even than chains. They helped me shed my actor’s masks and shined the spotlight on my true self.

            Towards the end of the week, we had reached a level of family and soon it was time for Shabbos in Jerusalem. Watching many of them take on one way or another to honor the Shabbos Queen in a way they would not do back in America made me take on one last complete Shabbos, the way I grew up observing it.

I did it for my sister Pesha, who worked so diligently in her life and in her death to teach me to be true to what I feel. I did it for Pesha who gave me memories of gleaming Shabbos candlesticks, and a pearly white table surrounded by friends, relatives, and random guests.

            I took in that Shabbos in Jerusalem and I inhaled it together with my new family. And I am proud to announce that this Shabbos will mark one complete year without me exhaling.

            I could only have done this with the support of a group of people who probably do not even realize how much they effected my life with their remarks, compassion, showering of comfort, advice when needed, and most of all their energy that I fed off of while in Israel with them.

            Thank you Bus 1147 for helping me give a year to my dear sister Pesha Leah, and more importantly for helping me give a year to my true self.

            May the Shabbos Queen accompany the soul of Pesha Leah bas Chaim Leibel to G-d’s Heavenly Throne.

I Am OCC

[Published by the Oakland Community College Blog, May 5, 2015: https://oaklandcc.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/i-am-occ/]

            On Friday, May 01, 2015, I was OCC. Not just as a student, but as a student leader. As a representation of everything my school stands for. I was Rudy the Raider.

            Not too long after I joined Oakland Community College, I became involved with Hillel of Metro Detroit. During the past few years, I have become more and more involved with Student Life on OCC campuses and within a year I found myself becoming the new president of the Jewish Student Organization on campus (a branch of HMD).

            Although I had my hands filled with classes, I did my best to bring a new vibe to the organization and to Student Life in general. I found myself planning events like the Anti-Bullying Dance Day in November, and a Multi-Faith Panel in February. I gathered contacts with various professors, faculty members, students, and people from the community. I was working towards creating a legacy to leave behind when I must say goodbye to OCC’s doors this coming December.

            I had never expected it all to pay off so soon. Thursday afternoon, I was walking past Dean Hawkins’ office and he stopped me to chat for a bit. As he used to be the Student Life Coordinator at the Orchard Ridge campus, he knew me by now and I had kept up the relationship even after he switched positions.

            After asking how my classes went, he asked if I would like to the school a favor and be the mascot the following morning at a pep rally for high school students deciding on their colleges; a Detroit Signing Day. He informed me that the event will be honored with a guest appearance by First Lady Michelle Obama. Naturally, I accepted this immense honor and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It was the most memorable day of my college experience to date.

            Student Life on campus is a thriving program, full of huge opportunities. Whether it be student clubs where you meet your new best friend, or a chance to star in your school’s new commercial, or bringing a difference to the students you pass in the hallway. It helps you learn how to become a leader in a world filled with followers. It provides ways to help you relax from classroom pressures, and shows you that you do not always have to come to school just to listen to lectures.

            The more involved you become, the more chances you will receive to give back to your school; to show your love and support of a college that goes out of its way to make you feel special on a daily basis. On Friday I was OCC; tomorrow it could be you.