BS"D
Baruch Hashem returned yesterday from a fabulous 3 week visit to Eretz Yisroel. Almost missed my plane, going, but they let me on, Baruch Hashem. Must have been my precious cargo--a suitcase and carry on entirely packed with Kavanah Kards--around 16,000 of them!
Besides the great time I spent visiting with my wonderful son, incredible daughter-in-law and my fabulous grandson, Kavanah Kards were the other focus of my visit.
The first Kavanah Kard highlight was meeting with the godol Rav Gamliel Rabinowitz. We took snacks, tehillim and things to read, prepared to wait for hours. Amazingly, there was no one else there when we arrived, and the Rav himself welcomed us in! We presented the Hebrew and Yiddish cards to him, and he took the time to carefully read both sides of the cards. Rav Gamliel said the cards are "very nice" (meaning they are beautiful to look at), gave a bracha for hatzlacha and said they "should be spread all over the world." What a great experience.
The scond Kavanah Kard highlight of my trip was a talk on Kavanah Kards sponsored by the Nshei of Betar, thanks to Leah, the Betar Ambassador. The head of the N'shei, Chaya Hinda Allen, took great interest and spent the time to make sure everything happened right, even though she was away on vacation!
It was wonderful to be able to speak directly to people about how Kavanah Kards "happened" and why they are such a powerful force for change. The women and young women who attended were very enthusiastic, taking many hundreds of cards to use and share. The head of a seminary took for her seminary girls and the head of a high school left with a box FULL of them!
Another really memorable part of that evening was the greeting I got from one of the first women to come, who looked at me and said, "I remember you--you brought cards to the Kosel." That was one 30 second meeting almost a YEAR before, when she was manning the booth at the entrance to the Kosel women's area! Amazing!
The other thing of note during my visit was meeting Rabbi Doniel Garfinkle, a young man who had contacted me several months before about cards he was giving out to help people do certain mitzvohs better. What I didn't know at the time was that he was working on a sefer about the vitally important inyan of stating or at least thinking before doing a mitzvah that you are doing it because Hashem commanded it. If we don't do that we only get schar b'd'eved, if at all!
He came to meet me and brought a copy of the just-released sefer. I took him right over to meet my son and show it to him. It turned out that my son knew him and that his father had given that son and my older son Bar Mitzvah lessons! What a SMALL world!
This sefer is SO important that I brought my empty Kavanah Kard suitcase back to NY FILLED with them. It should be learned and taught to everyone--especially to children, so they establish the right approach to get complete schar when they do mitzvohs.
This is so vital that I am BE"H working with Rabbi Garfinkle to create a new Kavanah Kard with the wording so everyone will have it easily available!
For more information on the sefer and how to get it, go to LINKS.
Baruch Hashem returned yesterday from a fabulous 3 week visit to Eretz Yisroel. Almost missed my plane, going, but they let me on, Baruch Hashem. Must have been my precious cargo--a suitcase and carry on entirely packed with Kavanah Kards--around 16,000 of them!
Besides the great time I spent visiting with my wonderful son, incredible daughter-in-law and my fabulous grandson, Kavanah Kards were the other focus of my visit.
The first Kavanah Kard highlight was meeting with the godol Rav Gamliel Rabinowitz. We took snacks, tehillim and things to read, prepared to wait for hours. Amazingly, there was no one else there when we arrived, and the Rav himself welcomed us in! We presented the Hebrew and Yiddish cards to him, and he took the time to carefully read both sides of the cards. Rav Gamliel said the cards are "very nice" (meaning they are beautiful to look at), gave a bracha for hatzlacha and said they "should be spread all over the world." What a great experience.
The scond Kavanah Kard highlight of my trip was a talk on Kavanah Kards sponsored by the Nshei of Betar, thanks to Leah, the Betar Ambassador. The head of the N'shei, Chaya Hinda Allen, took great interest and spent the time to make sure everything happened right, even though she was away on vacation!
It was wonderful to be able to speak directly to people about how Kavanah Kards "happened" and why they are such a powerful force for change. The women and young women who attended were very enthusiastic, taking many hundreds of cards to use and share. The head of a seminary took for her seminary girls and the head of a high school left with a box FULL of them!
Another really memorable part of that evening was the greeting I got from one of the first women to come, who looked at me and said, "I remember you--you brought cards to the Kosel." That was one 30 second meeting almost a YEAR before, when she was manning the booth at the entrance to the Kosel women's area! Amazing!
The other thing of note during my visit was meeting Rabbi Doniel Garfinkle, a young man who had contacted me several months before about cards he was giving out to help people do certain mitzvohs better. What I didn't know at the time was that he was working on a sefer about the vitally important inyan of stating or at least thinking before doing a mitzvah that you are doing it because Hashem commanded it. If we don't do that we only get schar b'd'eved, if at all!
He came to meet me and brought a copy of the just-released sefer. I took him right over to meet my son and show it to him. It turned out that my son knew him and that his father had given that son and my older son Bar Mitzvah lessons! What a SMALL world!
This sefer is SO important that I brought my empty Kavanah Kard suitcase back to NY FILLED with them. It should be learned and taught to everyone--especially to children, so they establish the right approach to get complete schar when they do mitzvohs.
This is so vital that I am BE"H working with Rabbi Garfinkle to create a new Kavanah Kard with the wording so everyone will have it easily available!
For more information on the sefer and how to get it, go to LINKS.
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