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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, May 21, 2015

Parshas Bamidbar: We are all Important!

"Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Yisrael, after their families, by the houses of their fathers, by the number of names, every male by their polls" (Numbers 1:2)

The word used here "to take the sum" is a language of honor and exaltedness. Rav Moshe Sternbuch shlit"a in Ta'am V'Da'as explains that the Jewish people are the chosen nation among the nations and G-d and as such, G-d deals with them differently than the other nations.

When the Jewish people do what G-d wants them to do then the chesed that He does with them is unbelievable. If we don't do what He wants, then we can be severely punished as we have seen throughout the millennia. This is what the verse here refers to that the Divine providence for His holy nation is radically different than the other nations.

We have seen this throughout Jewish history just how far this goes that a nation without their own homeland for thousands of years, dispersed amongst the nations have someone still survived; a historical enigma!! Not only that, but the holy land has been fought over for thousands of years by crusaders and the like but miraculously the famed outer wall of the Temple is still intact!

The Midrash shows us how important the Jewish nation is to G-d because G-d counts them 4 times as we see in the book of Numbers! He also count each camp as well. We can compare this to a person who counts money; regardless of how much they have, they carefully count it to see how much they have, all the more so, G-d showing his love for the Jewish people by counting them one by one!

Each person has their own potential and significance; each one with their own special purpose and uniqueness. We all have the ability to reach high spiritual levels as well as G-d forbid, falling all the way to the mud, nothing in between.

Either we are going up or down spiritually; if we are stagnant that is akin to death! We are constantly moving in this world and the more spiritual things we do, the more our body and soul are illuminated; the more physical and negative things we do, the more our soul and body are debased!

This teaches us an important lesson. We have to realize our importance in the world and how our actions matter. We see by the story of the book of Ruth that Ruth clings to Naomi and from here comes king David while Orpah goes her own way and from her comes Goliath. It is no coincidence that the one who clings to Naomi is the one that defeats Goaliath another way to show that what we do, has ramifications for future generations!

Let us all realize the importance of what we do and what we hope to accomplish while making our Creator happy and pleasing Him.

Shabbat Shalom


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