One morning of Chol Hamoed Pesach, a minivan drives up to a house and parks. Five men and three women get out of the car. One knocks on the door. An elderly man peers cautiously out the window, and a look of wide-eyed amazement spreads across his face. His children are here – together! His children, who have been embroiled for years in a fierce dispute. They’re here, standing together, right at the door.
This is the sight the father has longed to see. He runs to open the door, weeping from joy. His children crowd around him, hugging him and weeping on his shoulder. Gradually, the crying changes to smiles and laughter.
“Come in! Come in, my dear children!” he says as the little group makes its way into the comfortable old house.
“We’re back, Tatte,” says the eldest son. “And we’re together. We’ve all made up. We’ve all forgiven each other. We just want to be a family again. We just want to be here with you.”
Like this father, Hashem has endured years of distance from His children as they bicker and feud, cutting themselves off from each other, and in the process, from Him. Like this father, He awaits the day when His children will stand at the brink of the Geulah, at the door of the rebuilt Beis HaMikdash, together as a family.
But the only way for us to get Hashem to fling open that door is to embrace each other as our Father’s children, each worthy of love, respect and compassion. Only a family can live together in one home.
This Tisha B’Av, this quintessential theme of Ahavas Yisrael will come to the forefront at the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation’s annual World-Wide Event, “Opening the Door: How Ahavas Yisrael Opens the Door to the Geulah.” The day’s program will sharply focus on the urgent need to live up to our role as our Father’s children, to follow the simple directive of Hillel, who stated, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.”
Two riveting programs will bring world renowned speakers to hundreds of venues across the globe.
Both programs will bring attendees the heartfelt words of HaRav Shmuel Kamenetsky, the Philadelphia Rosh Yeshiva and Rabbinic Advisor of the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation, as well as the legendary Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman, founder and dean of Migdal Ohr, an epicenter of Ahavas Yisrael located in Northern Israel.
Program A presents Rabbi Pesach Krohn, whose Maggid series sets the standard for storytelling that highlights the beauty of Klal Yisrael and the depth of the Jewish soul. His popular lectures, focusing on ethics and spiritual growth, attract large audiences world-wide.
Rabbi Yissocher Frand, long-time maggid shiur at Yeshivas Ner Israel in Baltimore. His powerful speaking style goes straight to the heart, awakening the audience to new levels of self-awareness and commitment to change.
Program B presents Rabbi Y.Y. Jacobson, one of America’s greatest communicators of Torah and Jewish mysticism to audiences of all backgrounds. He delivers his passionate, fascinating lectures across the globe and serves as a teacher and mentor to thousands.
Rabbi Warren Goldstein, The Chief Rabbi of the Union of Orthodox Synagogues in South Africa and the Chief Rabbi of South Africa. His groundbreaking Kiruv work has brought a love of Torah and a positive Jewish identity to thousands of Jews in South Africa and beyond.
This year, as the Jewish people make the sad journey into Tisha B’av once more as a scattered and divided nation, the front door of our “home,” the Beis Hamikdash appears just over the horizon. Our Father waits for us inside, eager to shower us with His love, eager to open wide the door and cry out, “Come in, my dear children!”
This Tisha B’Av, in gatherings across the globe, every Jew can find the inspiration to turn this beautiful vision of the future into a reality.
World-Wide Event: 21st Year of Transforming Tisha B’Av
Not so long ago, Tisha B’Av was a day on which many people had difficulty finding the right focus. Arising in the middle of vacation plans and summer camp, the day’s key concepts of golus and Geulah seemed almost incongruous.
That all changed in 1995 when the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation’s first World-Wide Tisha B’Av Event presented a moving presentation that spurred hundreds of participants to feel the impact of the sinas chinam that keeps us in golus.
Today, the World-Wide Event reaches 50,000 people in 770 locations in 16 countries throughout the world. Bungalow colonies, summer camps, shuls and community centers host full audiences of Jews eager to be inspired, eager to connect to the themes of the day and learn ways to move the world closer to Geulah.
The presentation has had immediate impact as well, leading feuding families to heal their rifts, estranged friends to re-connect and communities torn by machlokes to seek sholom. Says one long-time CCHF supporter, “No one had to give meaning to Tisha B’Av. It has a meaning that’s very clear. But the Tisha B’Av Event, for me, is the way to connect to that meaning in a deep and yet practical way.”
{Matzav.com}
where, when and how can you view on line the worldwide Tishha bAv speakers