Hi everyone. So happy to be back with you all this evening. I wanted to discuss a bit of the parsha this evening even though I know Rabbi Zev and Ariela will elaborate on it further. However; Parsha Ki Tavo is very fitting for this first shabbat together. A quote from it reads,
“Then, you shall rejoice with all the good that the Lord, your God, has granted you and your household, the Levite, and the stranger who is among you.”
This parsha as well as this quote, embodies the joy of gratitude, the warmth of a home, the conquering of the past with a foreshadow of the excitement to those who we will welcome in the future. Chabad is not just a place but a home that holds all of the meaning within this parsha. It is the smell of the challah being baked that brings the warmth of a home as well as the friends you meet here who quickly become family. It holds a heavy past of students like you and me meeting our Jewish identities and learning the battles that come along with being Jewish in this world. It is the excitement of turning a stranger into someone you cannot live without. And overall it is a place of gratitude. I am so grateful and blessed to have found a home in chabad through the wisdom of Rabbi Zev, the kindness of Ariela, the laughter and love of their children and all those who embrace my neshama, my soul here. May we all be blessed to fill our lives with light, love and health and rejoice in gratitude because of it. I wish you all a wonderful year, thank you and shabbat shalom.