Lazer Beams

The Emuna Army

There's a lot that the media doesn't tell you. Emuna is spreading like wildfire in the IDF. The combat units are full of religious soldiers who believe in our Torah and in our Holy Land. The number of religious junior officers is two and a half times greater than the percentage of the religious population. Soldiers in combat units are coming close to Hashem big time. This is all despite the fact that the top brass doesn't make life easy for religious soldiers.

Here's a 3-minute clip of our recent visit with an IDF infantry unit on the Gaza border. Have a great Shabbat Emor and G-d bless.

They're Ready

Today was another gift from Hashem and a very moving day - I had the privilege of visiting and spending time with one of the IDF's best units on the Gaza border. We spoke about celebrating Rosh Hashana while being on maximum alert. We also had a lengthy question-and-answer session that was really inspiring. For example:

Sergeant R: Rabbi, the guys expect me to be the Chazan on Rosh Hashana. Halacha says that the chazan must be a tzaddik. How can I be Chazan when I'm far from being a tzaddik?

LB: The fact that you think you're unworthy, R, shows that you really are humble and very worthy. Besides, you put your life on the line 24/7 down here for the Jewish people; what other Chazan in the world can say that?

Corporal T: Rabbi, will Hashem really hear our prayers? We have to rush through them because down here, we must be prepared to be mounted and combat ready in a few short minutes. Also, we have to pray in shifts to switch off our buddies in their duty stations; it's not like praying at home...

LB: T, there's no angel in the sky who'd dare interfere with an infantryman's prayers ascending from the Gaza border. You guys are pure dedication. If I weren't going to Uman, I'd be proud and privileged to pray with you right here.

***

After my visit, I met with the platoon and company commanders who told me that this particular platoon's morale, performance and unity are the best in their brigade. That's what emuna does for soldiers. By the way, this particular platoon has 15 Baalei Teshuvas now - no wonder their motivation and morale are so high, they fully believe in what they're doing.

These guys are ready. We need to spread more emuna among the IDF's fighting men, and that's exactly what we're trying to do.

Here are a few wonderful shots from David Bader's superb camera:

1. LB checking out combat readiness

2. Questions and answers

3. Choose your weapon

4. A blessing for Rosh Hashana

We all owe the courageous young man of the IDF a ton of gratitude - the least we can do is to pray for their safety and well-being. May Hashem protect them always, amen.

The Emuna Platoon

"Sometimes Hashem gives you a day that feels like the most special day of your life. That’s just the way I felt when  I had the rare privilege of accompanying Rabbi Lazer Brody on a visit to the Gaza border near the Erez Crossing, where a platoon of the famed Golani Brigade's finest infantrymen are on 24-hour combat alert.  The Gaza border is certainly no walk in a tulip garden; a mere few hundred meters from where we were lie Hamas terrorists waiting to seize the very moment when Israel drops her guard. Fortunately, Hashem - the Guardian of Israel - shall not slumber. Largely by the fact that you can find now a copy of Rabbi Shalom Arush’s Garden of Emuna in virtually every tank and ATC (armored troop carrier, affectionately nicknamed “Zelda” in the IDF) on the Gaza border, Israeli soldiers are learning more and more to depend on 'The Guardian'...”

Continue reading about the "Emuna Platoon" in this week's exciting issue of Breslev Israel web magazine. Also, be sure to see the inspiring 3-minute film clip of the Emuna Platoon, featuring David Bader's exquisite photos, a Breslev Israel-Lazer Beams exclusive.

Also this week:

Rabbi Shalom Arush - A Time for Love

Rabbi Lazer Brody - Cash Only

Rabbi Baruch Gartner - Service With a Smile

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach - Moving to Israel

Zev Ballen - Dual Process Thinking

Rivka Levy - Killer Tomatoes

Racheli Reckles - Killing Us Softly

Dovber HaLevy - Beneath the Narrow Bridge

Chaya Ovadia - Mouse in the House

Yocheved Golani - Triumph Over Tumor

Have a wonderful week!

Emuna Down the Hatch

We need Moshiach super fast.

While Hamas is busy renewing missile attacks on the south of Israel today, the IDF top brass reacts by removing Hashem's name from the army Yizkor prayer. 

If the IDF top brass is kicking Hashem out of the front door, then Emuna Outreach will not let up in continuing to bring Hashem through the back door; better yet, we're trying our best to bring emuna right down the hatch of every tank and ATC on the Gaza border.

Above - Emuna books that have been stashed in the hold of an IDF armored troop carrier; emuna right down the hatch!

Earlier this week, I spent the day with a platoon of Golani soldiers on the Gaza border. Next week, G-d willing, we'll be featuring a full-length article with film clip on Breslev Israel Magazine, but in the meanwhile, here are a few glimpses:

Above - Gaza border patrol

Above - An Emuna briefing with Rabbi Lazer

Rabbi Lazer and Golani on the Gaza Border

Photography by David Bader and courtesy of Emuna Outreach

Have a great Shabbat! Don't forget to spread Ahavat Yisrael - say "Shabbat Shalom" to others with a big smile on your face.

TTTT at Mule Creek Prison

Emuna Outreach is proud to be sponsoring the distribution of hundreds of copies of The Trail to Tranquility to inmates in the California State Prison system. Thanks to our friends at the Aleph Institute and Emuna Outeach activists David and Racheli Reckles, The Trail to Tranquility is already all widely distributed among inmates in the Florida and New York State prisons. Here's one of the many letters we received from inmates, this one from Mule Creek Prison in California:

Shalom, Emuna Outreach!

I read the Trail to Tranquility by Lazer Brody and am amazed at how universally that could be applied here in this prison. It would aid my Lifer’s Group in forming a Anger management Peer Education Group. What a precious gift it would be to prepare these men for the Parole Board and for life once released.

As you probably have heard, California has the most deplorable conditions of confinement in the country.  It is also true that California has done away with all educational and vocational training and made all rehabilitation inmate initiated and paid for. There is no rehabilitation left in this massive prison system. So we have formed our own self-help groups, with administrative permission of course. Even the religious services have been drastically cut.

I am the secretary of the C Facility Lifer’s Support Group. Part of what I do is send away for support materials for the group. I am looking for reentry programs in California, both faith based and secular. We have zero Jewish Reentry programs that I have found. but I did read The Trail of Tranquility with an eye of how perfect it would be for use as a Anger Management Program here. What I need to know is: Is it feasible to use Lazer Brody’s book as a basis for a program here? Could you arrange to donate copies for us? It would be helping so many, including the society these men will be paroling to.

Help us today, for a brighter tomorrow for us all.

May you be Blessed each day, 
Respectfully yours, 

T.H., Mule Creek State Prison

Thanks to your contributions to Emuna Outreach, the books are already on their way to California!

Emuna Reaches Out to the Sick

Rabbi Brody,

Thanks to you and your helpers, sick people in the hospital are being encouraged by your videos!

I am a nurse in Kansas City and through God's grace and your videos I was able to help some very sick people relax. The "Prayer for fortitude" video lifted the spirits of 3 of my patients.

One of my patient's was a young girl who ingested a large amount of an over the counter pain medicine, she nearly died.  She did not know how to cope well with the stresses of her life.  I noticed several Christian religious books in her room so I encouraged her to watch the 3 minute meditative cure video on her IPAD to help her relax. She watched it 3 times in a row. I  showed her 2 other videos and then told her she was on her own because she could find your videos herself. I pray that she learns to take her worries to God.

Praise God! Videos made in Israel that encourage people to turn to Him and live by emuna are helping the sick in Kansas. Ki mtzion tetze torah!

I hope this encourages you and your team.

Sincerely, Eric Conyers

It certainly does, Eric - thanks so very much! Blessings always, LB

Kosher Bobcats

Thank G-d, Emuna Outreach is penetrating American college campuses. At the University of Arizona, one of the dorms blasts Emuna from the Emuna Project - Avraham Abutbul CD as a wake-up call in the morning. At the University of Alabama, don't be surprised if you find a copy of The Garden of Emuna in the cafeteria, because several dozen copies are floating around campus.

The newest banner on Emuna Outreach's campus map proudly pictures a bobcat - that's right, all you good folks from Cleveland, Cincinnatti, Toledo, and Akron - we're talking about Ohio University. Here's what OU (no pun intended) student Alex L writes:

Dear Rabbi Lazer,

Let me first say that for over a year now I've been hooked on the passion that subsides on your website. With your influence and words of wisdom, I've began to re-adjust to my goals and priorities that are essential to developing my faith and devotion to G-d. So here's the big campus news: In about a month, two girls and 3 guys, including myself, are starting the first Jewish co-op kosher house in Ohio University history. You'll now be able to attend Ohio U and eat kosher. I'm more than excited to be a part of this wonderful opportunity. By virtue of your help, I've given myself the chance to use G-d's help to improve my life, including faith, self-esteem, and the avoiding of unnecessary additions (depression, negativity, drugs, etc.). So, in conclusion, I know that a simple "thanks" could never be enough, but even that for a Rabbi like you, its more than sufficient. So without
further due, from the bottom of my heart, Thank you, with utmost sincerity, Alex L.

That's what Emuna Outreach is all about. No banner headlines, no testimonial dinners, just another college student eating kosher, an American soldier in Afghanistan listening to an emuna CD, a single mother in Georgia scrapping the notion of suicide because she's discovered emuna, or a couple in LA ripping up the divorce file that they opened six months ago. Thank you, Hashem - it's all for You.