Queens Jewish Link
Connecting the Queens Jewish Community 
A couple of weeks ago, shortly before our son Shalom left to return to learn in Yerushalayim, he and I learned an essay from Alei Shur (Vol. 2, p. 415) together.
In that essay, Rav Wolbe discusses the punctilious individual judgment of Rosh HaShanah, when the fate of every being in creation for the coming year is decided.
I don’t remember the last time I was able to relate to a powerful story I heard, in a manner I never could have imagined.
I was asked to share divrei Torah in my neighborhood shul before hakafos on Simchas Torah evening.
On the late afternoon of Erev Rosh HaShanah, I was in my kitchen busily taking care of last-minute things before Yom Tov. It was then that I glanced out the kitchen window and saw something that filled me with anxiety. I saw on the patio of the neighbor who lives behind us that the walls of his sukkah were completely assembled.
Like everyone else, after the unspeakable atrocities that occurred in Eretz Yisrael on Simchas Torah, I was and am looking for all the chizuk I can get. I have listened to quite a few lectures from various rabbanim, to hear their reflections and thoughts.
A few weeks ago, our family joined our yeshivah, Heichal HaTorah, for a “yeshivah Shabbos” on the grounds of Camp Nageela in Fallsburg, New York. After a beautiful Shabbos, we headed to the nearby pizza shop for a m’laveh malkah before heading home.
When I think about my Bubby, Rebbetzin Fruma Kohn a”h, my mental image is of her reciting T’hilim. Until her last years, she would read the entire T’hilim every week. No doubt, I and my family have benefited tremendously from those repeated recitations.
