Rabbi Sholom Lipskar Of Blessed Memory ‎והחי יתן אל לבו By. Rabbi Yitzchok Minkowicz

[Music] Dear family, friends, community members, and the Jewish community at large, this past Shabbat, we lost a dear friend, a rabbi, a mentor, someone has changed the face of Judaism around the world. Rabbi Shalom Lipker in Bal Harbor, Florida. It's been several days of mourning and we know it says in the Talma, the Rambam says that there's three days for crying and afterwards seven days for eulogizing. Now obviously we know in the world of Kabad there's no string as a eulogy but the Reb taught us something very very powerful and important after the Rebbitson passed away and he said the giving based on what it says in Cohellet that it's better to go to a house of mourning than the house of rejoicing because over there the the living can learn a lesson how to live and have a how to live a better life. So I'd like to share with you a little bit my experience with Rabbi Lipkar a family uh a family member a friend a mentor. So when I was in yeshiva we always enamored by Rabbi Lipkar. He was the teacher par excalance. He was able to bring deep ideas of cabala mysticism the reba's teaching into beautiful practical lessons and engage great audiences. In those days he would have his famous Tuesday night class. It's before the internet with YouTube and you have to get the the cassettes from his classes listen to it where he really uh presented the Reb's teaching in a beautiful manner and at that time in yeshiva I was learning in 770 I was approached by Rabbi Lipkar and he said he wants to open up the yeshiva and he's looking for someone to lead the yeshiva and I said great I would love to run a yeshiva but there was one catch the yeshiva was in prison he had a dream he wanted to open up a yeshiva in prison he was going to start a pilot project it was going to be in the summer and I said, "Sure, I'll go for it." And we went, myself and another colleague, we went down to Miami for the summer. He put us up in a hotel. He gave us food, a car, and every single day we went to run a yeshiva in Miami in prison. It was a powerful experience going every every single day going behind bars. We went voluntarily into prison, but we taught people, brilliant, smart people, Mishna, Talmud, Kumish, Jewish philosophy. It was uh it involved courses and it was a very very powerful experience and it taught me Ripkar there's no limits you think of the yeshiva for rabbitical students but guess what someone that's in prison can also go to yeshiva because of that opportunity so in Shabbat we would spend Shabbat with him and his rebbitson in his beautiful home his warm home and uh it was really really an experience we forbraained a lot together and uh later on actually when I went in here in Fort Meyers years. I brought him out to be my first guest speaker at my first dinner in someone's house. People loved him. He was amazing. When we built our building, we went to speak to him, to consult with him. And his advice was whatever you're planning on building, dig it twice, build it twice as big because you got to think big. He had this tremendous way of thinking. But I want to share with you a very, very powerful fabbran that we had with him. And this is before he actually built the famous Shoul Harbor. This is when he saw the shul in the basement of the hotel. And it was Shabas afternoon. We were forian there and we were intrigued by how uh where he present ideas in in Judaism. But he was a big dreamer. And at that time he was telling us about the dream about this big synagogue he's going to build on Collins Avenue in Bell Harbor and places for youth and adults and places to eat and places to celebrate. And look, it all came true. He built this phenomenal synagogue with uh there's places to Harding Avenue. It's all thanks to him. All different restaurants and all different grocery stores and it became a haven of Judaism. But one thing happened in that forbidden lips could turn to us and he said as follows. You're rabbitical students. You're students of the Reb. You're representing the Reb. So if you're representing the Reba every single day when you meet somebody you need to have a fresh Torah to share with the people you meet. And it took us in a very very deep profound way. And ever since then, every single day we would learn maybe a talk from the Reb from aidic discourse any other idea that someone you meet someone you can share something inspiring and this way you become someone that grows in the Reb's teachings and whoever you meet you inspire them to grow. Thanks to that I can I expanded it. We teach actually a lot of classes on YouTube the para classes Tanya classes and the Reb's mysticism. And what's really really interesting is and a bit emotional. The last time I read Reb Lipkar in person was just around uh a year and a half ago approximately. We were both went to uh to Tallahassee Tallahassee to the uh Governor DeSantis's mansion for the Kaneka event. I flew in from Fort Myers. He flew from Miami. We both came by private plane into the private airport. We we both landed more or less the same time together. We went to the event and then when we were leaving, we're saying goodbye to each other and turns to me and tells me, "I love the fact that you're continuing to teach Torah. I watch and I see your classes and I'm so proud of you." Wow. I was so touched of a brain we had maybe 35 38 years ago where he inspired me to teach and he still recognized and he followed the fact that I was listening to him. I was inspired by him to teach. So, as the Reb says, there's so much you can learn from every lipker. the way he did things over the top. He was a dreamer. He did things no one else would have thought of doing. Today Alf is huge. they what how much they do in the prison system what Bal Harour community but I think we can learn from every lifker whether it's learning the thoughts from the reband teaching it to someone else doing something big building something big doing something that you weren't ready to do going over the top breaking certain boundaries that will be a real and the spirit of lipskar will continue to live on with us expanding our learning Torah teaching Torah inspiring someone else to another mitzvah, put on fill in or whatever it may be to bring to bring joy. Rabbi Lipkar, we miss you and we can't wait to be reunited. Like it says, we're going to all be reunited. As we all know, tremendous passion for inspiring people to be motivated and excited about the coming of Msiah. And let's hope Mashiach comes very, very soon. We'll all be reunited together with Rabbi Lipsker and with the Reb, with the coming of Messiah. [Music]