The first Monday night of August was definitely one for the books. If you were able to hear the blasting Hebrew music and smell the succulent, mouth-watering aroma of Chinese food in Long Branch, it was coming from the 1st Annual Jesse Dweck Learning Center Summer Party, held at Yaakov Shwekey’s house.
It was definitely a night to remember, as we had the pleasure of dancing to music from world-renowned Yaakov Shwekey, as well as hearing Divre Torah and words of mussar from our community rabbis: Rabbi Shlomo Diamond, Rabbi Eli Mansour and Rabbi Meyer Yedid.
A few rabbis who give classes to young adult men as part of The Jesse Dweck Learning Center in Lawrence Avenue Shul decided the event should be both a benefit and a source of inspiration to the youth of our community, especially in these rough times. They worked very hard making numerous phone calls and planning the event. Members of the class started to spread the word around to all their friends throughout the community.
The event kicked off with a dinner, courtesy of Manalapan Chinese, which then led to singing and dancing. Yaakov sang songs such as Shema Yisroel, Im Eshkachech and Rachem. In between each one of the songs, one of our rabbis spoke emotionally and passionately to the packed crowd of young and older men. Their words of wisdom were so inspiring and powerful that you were able to notice them penetrating the hearts of all who were present. You couldn’t help but witness people’s spirits being uplifted, swaying back and forth and shedding a tear or two.
The rabbis stressed three important points in their speeches: First, we need to continue and strengthen our Torah study, because the Torah serves as our safeguard and it brings us good fortune. We need to continue to be stronger in this area and uplift those around us.
Secondly, we have to be proactive in making Kiddush Hashem and avoid opportunities that are going to create a Chillul Hashem. Rabbi Diamond related powerful and miraculous stories about those who were active in this area and how it turned out to benefit those individuals and the Jewish people as a whole.
Lastly, we must strengthen our emunah in Hashem. It is indeed evident that we are in troubling times, and these times can alter our faith, G-d forbid. We need to know that everything is coming from Hashem and that it is for the good, even though things may seem to be at their worst, He controls all that happens and He can change the outcome of a situation.
The event had a great turnout. Some people had mentioned that they couldn’t help but stop in and participate as they heard the tunes of Yaakov Shwekey down the block.
Rabbi Diamond said that it was an unbelievable sight to see all these young men united together to sing, dance and chant praises to Hashem on a weeknight in the summer. While there are so many other things to do at night in the summer, this is what they were doing!
Hashem definitely saw the simcha that night and was dancing along with us. He saw how much His Jewish nation loves him. Hopefully with this, He will decide that His nation is ready to greet the Mashiach.
A very special thanks to the host and hostess, Yaakov Shwekey and his wife Jenine. Special thanks to all the rabbis who came to lift our spirits, Rabbi Shlomo Diamond, Rabbi Eli Mansour, Rabbi Meyer Yedid and Rabbi Yosef Semah. A special thanks to the Jesse Dweck Learning Center as well as Joey Dayan for organizing the event. If you weren’t at this event, it is now available on www.LearnTorah.com, thanks to Rico who works so hard to get all of these shiurim onto the website for our Torah listening and viewing needs.
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Ikey Kassin is a member of The Jesse Dweck Torah Learning Center. He is 24 years old and an active community member.
