• Email: chabadln@sbcglobal.net
• Phone: 949-831-8475
• www.ChabadLagunaNiguel.com
A word from the Rabbi
Dear friend,
I hope you had a meaningful & enjoyable Chanukah.
It is with great excitement and eager anticipation that I inform you of our first gala dinner & concert, celebrating Chabad’s 5th anniversary in Laguna Niguel. The event will be held at the Laguna Hills Community Center on Sunday, February 13th 2011 at 4:30pm.
Your participation is of great importance to us, so please mark your calendar and help support this milestone fundraiser. All the information will be posted on our website shortly, and you will be receiving the formal invitation within the next few weeks.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Mendy Paltiel
Daily Thought
Deliberate Light
The sun rises anew every morning, and every moment we rely upon it to keep shining. So too, the Creator renews His creation into being and life with a continual flow of energy.
There is a distinction, however: The sun supports life spontaneously. It is not concerned, nor interested — nor even aware of the blade of grass that grows from its warmth and light. It is only being itself — a giant atom crusher in the sky — and we benefit here on earth.
Creation, on the other hand, is intentional. Every step along the way is a deliberate act, every detail is with intimate concern, every event is judged, decided and accounted for. He vitalizes each thing not only with His light — but, like an artist, with His entire Being
And yet, He remains unchanged — like the sun above, and infinitely more so. Immanent, yet transcendent. For He knows no bounds.
Be as the Infinite Light:
Be within, stay beyond.
The Parshah In A Nutshell
Parshat Vayigash
Judah approaches Joseph to plead for the release of Benjamin, offering himself as a slave to the Egyptian ruler in Benjamin’s stead. Upon witnessing his brothers’ loyalty to one another, Joseph reveals his identity to them. “I am Joseph,” he declares. “Is my father still alive?”
The brothers are overcome by shame and remorse, but Joseph comforts them. “It was not you who sent me here,” he says to them, “but G-d. It has all been ordained from Above to save us, and the entire region, from famine.”
The brothers rush back to Canaan with the news. Jacob comes to Egypt with his sons and their families — seventy souls in all — and is reunited with his beloved son after 22 years. On his way to Egypt he receives the Divine promise: ” Fear not to go down to Egypt; for I will there make of you a great nation. I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again.”
Joseph gathers the wealth of Egypt by selling food and seed during the famine. Pharaoh gives Jacob’s family the fertile county of Goshen to settle, and the children of Israel prosper in their Egyptian exile.
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