The newly released book “Exhilarating Torah Insights on Recreation and Vacation” is now available (as a paperback, hardcover and digitized version) for purchase and delivery on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/
This insightful and thought-provoking book delves into these questions and many more, offering profound insights. With over 50 meticulously crafted essays, it masterfully conveys the Torah’s perspective on recreation and vacation. As an indispensable guide, this work will enable readers to attain a deeper understanding of these important topics.
It makes a great gift for parents, siblings, friends, relatives, neighbors, business associates, acquaintances and learning partners. Purchase it at https://amzn.to/3eyh5xP.
Some of the questions discussed in this book are the following.
What role does recreation play in our service of Hashem?
What does the Torah teach us about music?
What lessons can we glean from specific types of recreation, such as sports?
Is there a mitzvah to take a vacation?
What does the Torah say about comedy and humor?
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לעילוי נשמת שמואל אביגדור בן יצחק מאיר
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Rabbi Alt merited to learn under the tutelage of R’ Mordechai Friedlander ztz”l for close to five years. He received Semicha from R’ Zalman Nechemia Goldberg ztz”l. Rabbi Alt has written on numerous topics for various websites and publications and is the author of the books, Fascinating Insights and Incredible Insights. His writings inspire people across the spectrum of Jewish observance to live with the vibrancy and beauty of Torah. He lives with his wife and family in a suburb of Yerushalayim where he studies, writes, and teaches. The author is passionate about teaching Jews of all levels of observance.
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Concerning the Holocaust, R' Yehoshua Moshe Aronson wrote, “After the dreadful Holocaust that wiped out the best of our sons and daughters, our intense hope was the arrival of Moshiach. We couldn’t believe that any less was possible.”[1]
Elsewhere, R' Aronson wrote,[2] “There was no doubt in my mind that the war would result in all evil being extinguished like smoke, and the spirit of impurity passing from the earth. I would stand in anticipation, like that chazzan standing during Rosh Hashana tefillos crying out: ‘Rule!’ I knew that those who remained would be like a new creation of Hashem (a new creature with lofty, elevated understanding), and the earth would be filled with Hashem’s knowledge as water covers the sea.[3] Therefore I didn’t daven for the birth pangs to stop, but for the birth to come… Because I knew: troubles, suffering and pains are an essential stage in birth, and the birth is the redemption of the Jewish people.”
In his first Friday night speech after liberation from the Holocaust, the Klausenberger Rebbe said, “Was this what we had hoped for? American soldiers? We had hoped for shivtei kah! (i.e., shevatim, tribes)”[4]
[1] Alei Meroros, 304.
[2] Alei Meroros, 264.
[3] See Bamidbar 16:30 and Yeshaya 11:9.
[4] Hidden Thunder, Volume 2, p. 529. R' Chaim Alter Rothe wrote, “In order to illustrate for the reader the state we were in and the enormity of the ordeal, I will share here one small detail that indicates something about the whole: The entire time I was in the extermination camps, I recited Shema Yisrael every day. Moreover, I continued even after the liberation—and trying to remain unswerving in faith in Hashem after the liberation was even more difficult than during the Holocaust itself. The reader will no doubt be surprised by this, but in the camps, we always held on to the great hope that the redemption would come the next day. We believed that the revelation and the redemption would be sudden; we would see with our own eyes why we had suffered and would understand the reckoning and the purpose of the suffering. But the hardest thing was when liberation day came. They called it ‘liberation’ but I’m not sure what kind of liberation it was. On the contrary, we then discovered the destruction around us, and together with that we saw that nothing had changed; the world was continuing as usual, Hashem remained hidden like before, and we found no signs of change in the world. In light of this, many Jews who had stood strong and passed difficult tests sadly lost their faith and lacked the strength to continue. I don’t know what the reader of these lines will think fifty years from now when he sees someone praising his own ability to say Shema Yisrael. Will he be able to understand how dire things had become? The magnitude of the ordeal was beyond comprehension. Many distanced themselves then, and later, when they had calmed down a little from the dreadful blow, they returned to their faith. And reader, please don’t be surprised at those who did not return, because Hashem’s concealment after the ‘liberation’ was awful. I mention here a few examples of the survivors’ lowly condition: the Jews who emerged from the extermination camps were weltering in barracks while the German murderers lived in orderly houses; murders and pogroms took place in many places; Jewish refugees wandered from country to country, forced to sneak across borders since no country would take them in; and so on.” (Kol Hakasuv L'hachaim, 92)
