Rabbi Fishel's Blog

I feel so happy and grateful to have been able to celebrate with our dear Ruth Anderson, on her 104th birthday!

According to Ruth, "smiling makes you live longer". Thank you for sharing your smile with us and reminding us what's truly important.

Even in the most difficult of times, we can always rely on Ruth to bring a genuine smile and motivated attitude.

All it takes is for her to step into a room, and her zest for life fills it to the brim until no one can help but be lifted up by her energy. Ruth may be the oldest in our community by age, but when it comes to joyful spirit, I count her amongst the youngest.

When people ask Ruth how she’s made it to her age, still so active and full of positivity, she smiles big and says,

“Every night I send an email to God, to thank Him for a good day, and ask him for another good day, and it happens!”

A steadfast Partner and supporter of Chabad of Naples, Ruth lives with the truth that it is that which we give that we truly own forever.

We are so blessed to have such a remarkable woman among us.

On her 104th birthday, let’s all take a moment to thank God for a good day, ask him for another, and smile as we watch it happen.

Join Ettie Zaklos and me in sending Ruth love and blessings from the entire Chabad of Naples family.

Mazel Tov Ruth! Looking forward to 120! 

Dear Friends,

In this week’s Torah portion, Pinchas, we read about Shabbat and the Jewish holidays, and the offerings associated with each of them.

It’s fascinating that Judaism has so many days associated with rest and “holding back” from creativity and “work”. These holy days aren’t just about leaving the mundane, but about entering a state of “service”, bringing “offerings” to G-d, which is really just a form of spiritual fulfillment for each of us. It's an opportune time for us to tap into our depth and spend time focusing on that which really matters.

In his book “The gift of rest”, Joe Lieberman writes that “G-d gave us the Sabbath as a gift, and He meant for us to enjoy it. We begin the holy day with darkness so that we can more fully appreciate the light of the Sabbath day when it dawns.”

We all need downtime, but not downtime to do nothing and tune-out, but rather downtime to tune-in to our souls, our emotions, our psyche and to why we are blessed to live on G-d’s green earth.

We all need breathers and sooner is always better than later.

Taking care of ourselves, ensures we can take care of others!

Shabbat Shalom with Love & Light,

Rabbi Fishel & Ettie Zaklos 

Dear Friends,

We’re facing that time of the year again: summer and everything that comes with it. One of the gifts of summer is time. In recent years the expression “killing time” became popular. People kill time by doing meaningless, distracting things that make the time pass, thereby treating time as if it were something in endless supply. It most definitely is not. 

 Jewish wisdom put it this way and even made it into a song: 

 “Man worries about the loss of money and not about the loss of time. And yet, money is immaterial, whereas lost time is lost for good.”

Time is precious, and the big question is, what do we choose to do with this time? Binge watch Netflix shows? Stress about politics? Play games on our phones? Kvetch at the beach?

There are much better options: Read interesting books while sipping your milkshake. Learn about one’s heritage. Meditate on the meaning of life. Smile at the beach.

Some options are better than others, but there is one that I believe should be at the top of our priority list all year long; especially when there is more time available. What is the magical time filler?

Before I share it with you, let us explore a fascinating part of our history, specifically the history of monotheism and Judaism. 

The first fellow who discovered G-d was Abraham. And yet, he didn’t do it alone. He did it with his wife, Sarah, and their son, as a family, making his journey towards faith a familial experience. Their son, Isaac, his wife, Rebecca, and their children continued and consolidated this movement as a family. Jacob, Rachel and Leah, and their many children all formed the nation of Israel. (Jacob was also called Israel.)

When the Jews left Egypt hundreds of years later, they did it as family units. They camped in the desert with their families, their “mishpacha.” 

The list goes on and on, proving a basic tenet of our heritage: Family is the crucible within which we form the golden links in the beautiful chains of destiny. Family is everything. It was never about an ascetic running off to the mountains and meditating endlessly without the responsibilities and stresses of family life. We do it as a family. It’s a team sport. 

In the Shema prayer that we recite twice each day, we are told to “Veshinantam L’banecha”––that we are responsible for transmitting our faith and traditions to our children. “L’dor Vador”––we pass along the wisdom of the beautiful tapestry of our history, destiny, and mystery from generation to generation. At the Seder table and the Friday night dinner, we are building the generation of tomorrow who will continue our mandate of bringing heaven down to earth.

This brings us to how we choose to spend our extra time: We need to prioritize family time with activities such as playing together, chatting, discussing and debating peacefully, making meals and eating together, going to the beach, traveling, playing board games. 

Loving families build healthy communities just as we at Naples Chabad refer to ourselves as the Naples Chabad family. Healthy communities build a healthy nation.

Our beloved country needs urgent healing. There is far too much pain, violence, anger, radicalism, physical and mental illness, materialism, and spiritual void.

Recent events bring home the necessity for spiritual health in our nation. We ought to see each other as family. Politics is not the most important thing. Love is.

Healthy families with strong values are the solution to our societal ills. They are our best hope.

I WISH you and your loved ones a happy summer of healthy bonding. Let us heal our world one family at a time.

May G-d bless you and America.

Rabbi Fishel & Ettie Zaklos 

Dear Friends,

This Shabbat is the 17^th day of Tammuz.

It begins a three-week period when we remember the destruction of both Temples and Jerusalem 2000 years ago.

The destruction of the temples ushered in a dark period of exile. The Jews had lost their anchor, the epicenter of Jewish activity and the ‘headquarters’ of Divine revelation and consciousness.

So how did we survive all these years? What is the secret to our eternal survival without the glory of the Temples?

History is very clear:  We built centers of Jewish learning and prayer, committing ourselves even more to Jewish education.

Throughout the last 2000 years through all the ups and downs, across countries, different cultures and customs, one thing remained a constant - our dedication to Jewish learning and knowledge. This makes it a great time of year to resolve to grow your knowledge of Judaism, through the many mediums available to us at your finger tips. You can also join us at the ultimate Jewish gathering. To register or to learn more click here: https://jretreat.com

With love and blessings,

Rabbi Fishel Zaklos