By COLlive Staff
Rabbi Chay Amar, Shliach in Golden Beach, Florida gave a shiur Tuesday night in Yeshiva Torah Ohr which was followed by a chasidishe farbrengen.
Rabbi Amar related how fortunate the bochurim are to have the opportunity to learn day and night with no worries and should maximize the opportunity.
He explained that the Zohar states that a Baal Teshuva can attain much higher levels of love of G-d than Yidden who have been accustomed to Yiddishkeit their whole lives.
Rabbi Amar related a personal story which stressed the importance of keeping seder. In Tevet 5752, while a bochur in Yeshiva Gedola of Manchester, he wrote a letter to the Rebbe and received an answer back in under two weeks. At that time, the Rebbe would get anywhere from eight to ten thousand pieces of mail each week, and most people weren’t fortunate enough to receive a written response. It was only on very crucial and important matters, that if people were lucky, they would get a response. So what did young Chay write in? He wrote about his hachlata to be ready to learn at seder every day at exactly 7:30 am after finishing all of his personal needs; ie saying shema, coffee, mezonos and to learn the first 10 minutes of all of the four sedorim without speaking about anything else. To that the Rebbe responded, “brocha v’hatzlacha, azkir al hatzion” (blessing and success, I will mention you (in prayer) at my father-in-law’s gravesite).
The evening ended with a farbrengen, lasting into the night.