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Rabbi Chaim Coffman
Rabbi Coffman has helped people from all across the spectrum to prepare themselves properly for Orthodox Conversion to Judaism. His students admire his vast knowledge and appreciate his warm, personal attention and endearing sense of humor.
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Followers

Welcome to Rabbi Chaim Coffman's Blog!

I would like to thank you for visiting my blog, Beyond Orthodox Conversion to Judaism.

The conversion process can be a lengthy and daunting one to say the least and I want you to know that I am here to help you through it.

I have been teaching newcomers to Judaism for over a decade and over the last few years I have seen that conversion candidates really lack the support and knowledge they need to navigate the conversion process and successfully integrate into the Orthodox Jewish community.

I created my mentorship program in order to help make this whole experience as smooth and as painless as possible! (Can't do much about the growing pains, though ;)

Feel free to get to know me a little through the posts on my blog and visit the mentorship and syllabus page if you are interested in possible joining us.

I sincerely wish you all the best in your search for truth and spiritual growth.

Looking forward to meeting you,
Chaim Coffman

My Rebbe, Rav Moshe Sternbuch

In case you were wondering why I have all of these articles written by Rav Moshe Sternbuch, he is my Rebbe, and one of the gedolei hador (greatest Rabbis of our generation).

Rav Sternbuch fully endorses me and supports my mentorship program.

He is the address for all of my halachic or hashkafic (practical and philosophical) questions that I or my students may have.

The articles are based on his weekly talks on the Torah portion that the Rav gives in Jerusalem in his kollel. As a member of the kollel I get first dibbs on the photocopies and I type them up for my blog so you can all benefit from the Rav's erudition and insight.
Thursday, November 28, 2013

Ethics of Our Fathers: Chapter 2 Mishna 4 An Upside Down World

"He used to say, 'Do G-d's will as you would do your own will, so that He may do your will  as if it were His; sacrifice your will for the sake of His will, so that He may undo the will of others before yours"

Rabbenu Yona explains that just like one has the desire to do his own will so too one should want to do the will of G-d.  Not only that, but one should strive to make his will and the will of his Creator to be the same. This sounds like a great idea, but how do we accomplish this?

The more we learn and incorporate the Torah's values into our own lives, we begin to change. This means that when we envelop the values of the Torah, they change us into spiritual people. This in turn leads us to want to continue to act in such a way which will bring us to a higher awareness of what G-d wants from us.

The Mishna continues by explaining G-d gives us everything that we need. By doing the will of G-d ie by keeping His Torah and commandments, He in turn gives us what we need.. This may seem difficult as most people do not have easy lives and have trials and tribulations to contend with.

At the end of the day though, we have a roof over our heads and food to eat. This is what the Mishna means. Although we may think we need more or deserve more, nonetheless, G-d gives us what He feels we need and can handle, not the other way around.

The last part of the Mishna teaches us that when we do G-d's will, he keeps our enemies at bay so that they cannot hurt us. This is also difficult to understand because we don't always witness this first hand or second hand or even know about the great things that G-d does for us.

We will find out later (in the true world, ie the next world) all the things that we went through and why. Not only that but G-d will reveal what He did to take care of us and thwart the plan of our enemies. We can only understand this as a true soul without a body because in this physical world our minds are clouded and we don't see reality as we should.

At that time when our soul is not part of our bodies things are seen with greater clarity. In essence we live in an upside down but G-d runs the show and will show us why He did things the way He did.

The thing we have to do is continue to grow and sanctify His name in this world through the mitzvos that we do which should change how we look and interact with others.

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