Dear Friends,
Shabbos ends, and with a cup of wine to keep some Shabbos energy in flow, a fragrance soul booster for some aromatic healing, and a candle to help navigate the dark spaces of life, we settle into a new week. The beautiful Havdallah ceremony helps to ease the transition from the sanctity and serenity of Shabbos, offering a soft landing into the new week.
But when a week starts off with a crash landing of shocking and unexpected news, you really gotta tap into the Havdallah energy moving forward.
The first message to light up my phone on Saturday night was of the sudden passing of my dear friend Michael Ackerman A’H on Shabbos morning. Ahuva and I rushed over to his home, where his wife Susan was trying to deal with the reality of her sudden loss. Per Jewish law, burial should take place at the earliest possible time after death, to allow the soul to begin the next phase of its journey. Delaying the funeral is sort of like keeping the soul delayed in the airport terminal or on the tarmac when all it wants to do is fly home.
Arrangements were made for a 3:00 PM Sunday funeral, giving enough time for his daughter Brooke and son in law Roi to fly in Sunday morning from NY. Michael’s son, Danny hopped on a plane in Israel late Sat night and was due to arrive early Sunday morning. Credit and Yasher Koach to Neshama funeral home and the South Florida Jewish Cemetery in W Boynton, for working so quickly, ensuring that the funeral could take place in a timely manner.
This week's Torah portion of Bo records the Exodus from Egypt, and how it happened in great haste. Why the rush?? We had been there for 210 years. Couldn’t the exodus have happened in a calmer, more “chill” (as my kids would put it) manner?
In his memoir of his horrific abuse of the legal system, Sholom Rubashkin describes the moment he was called to the wardens office on the last day of Chanukah in 2017.
President Trump had just pardoned him and commuted his draconian 27 year sentence. After twelve years in prison he was a free man. He rushed to his cell, packed up his stuff and went to wait for his wife to pick him up.
When the moment of freedom comes, you're out of there - in a rush, no time to waste. Once the soul has left the body, it’s in a rush to get home, and we should not interfere with that, but help facilitate it.
Highly sensitive souls live life in a rush, with a sense of urgency. They are the ones who get things done, without procrastination. Perhaps it’s driven by a sub-conscience sense that life has a limited shelf life, so if you can make it happen, make it happen today. For others the sense of urgency is born of idealism and responsibility. The world is a mess and I gotta do something about it !
Such was Michael. A tireless activist, who wore his Jewish heart and love for Israel on his sleeve. A sleeve that he rolled up and channeled into action. His latest cause was the Florida Stands with Israel license plate project. Relentlessly, he stood for hours at community events all over South Florida encouraging people to sign up. Motivated, driven, passionate, methodical, organized, urgent, because defending Israel and Israel pride was a matter of urgency.
Michael did not live in a space of complacency. The status quo was never good enough. And at the core of it all, is the fact that we - like the Jews in Egypt - are still in exile. And one minute in exile is a minute too long. Because for someone, somewhere, it’s a minute of pain, of suffering, of hatred, of hunger, of jealousy, of war.
For Michael that was unacceptable.
Michael’s legacy lulls us out of our own comfort zones and challenges us to do our part to bring the world into redemption, with urgency, alacrity and haste!
Y’hay Zichro Baruch. May his memory be for a blessing. And a calling.
Good Shabbos and Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Ruvi New
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