Gabe, a young man from Brooklyn, who attended the BJX college Kiruv program, started his journey without any knowledge of his heritage. Like so mnay others, he attended James Madison Public High School and Baruch College. He could have ended up another statistic, lost to assimilation. Yet, when we met Gabe we realized that he had a soul on fire. He had a tremendous thirst and passion to learn and grow.

The Navi promises that despite all the travails and exile, Hashem’s children will return. There will be young men and women who will swim upstream and go against the tide of rampant secularism. They will bravely and courageously embrace Yiddishkeit and set an example for the world at large. 

This week another miracle occurred at BJX as we celebrated the wedding of a beautiful couple, Gabe and Celia. They have kindled each other’s Neshamos and have nurtured each other’s growth. They have committed themselves to a home of Torah and Mitzvos. They are an unstoppable force and b’Ezras Hashem will build a Bayis Neeman B’Yisrael.  

In this week’s Parsha, G-d states to Moshe: “I appeared to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov in the name of Shakai; with the name of Havaya I did not appear to them.” 

These different names of Hashem seem confusing. What exactly does this mean? What is the message Hashem was communicating? 

The Gemara in Tractate Chagiga says that the name Shakai denotes confinement and limitation. In a Kabbalastic and meta-cosmological sense this means that Hashem ordained constraints on the expansion of the physical universe. 

When Hashem says that he appeared to the Avos, the patriarchs, with the name Shakai as opposed to Havaya, perhaps this means that Hashem appeared to the Avos in a confined sense (Shakai denoting confinement) because they did not see the entire fulfillment of the prophecies. They merely saw the predictions but did not live to see the outcomes. However, to Moshe, Hashem appears totally transcendental as the name Havaya stands for past, present, and future. This name indicates that Moshe will see the predictions and prophecies, all of Jewish destiny, converge in time. He will see the enslavement of the Jews but also witness the redemption. 

The promise of redemption to Moshe is similar to the spectacular and unprecedented times we are living in. Although we have experienced a bitter and horrible exile, we are witnessing the unfolding of miraculous events transpiring before our eyes. A glimpse at stunning current events such as the collapse of Maduro’s brutal regime, the imminent downfall of Iran, are a prelude to the ultimate redemption. In the merit of countless fellow Jews from Flatbush who are returning to HKB”H – may we see it soon!