Warmed by the Fire of the Aish Kodesh

So many sparks of wisdom and information I hadn't heard anywhere else. Inspiring and easy to read in short bursts.

"WARMED BY THE FIRE OF THE AISH KODESH- Torah from the Hilulas of Reb Kalonymus Kalman Shapira of Piaseczna" by Rav Moshe Weinberger and adapted by Binyomin Wolf is more than just a sefer. Having been listening to Rav Weinberger's shiurim for over 17 years, I'm biased, but I think this allows me a more personal perspective of this work.

Rav Weinberger is the founding Mara D'Asra of Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, NY and has been mashpia at Yeshiva University since 2013. He is known for using an array of Torah sources in his shiurim to create a mosaic of passionate Yiddishkeit. Having listened to his shiurim for over 17 years (even some of those that appear in the sefer) this sefer coveys that passion. These drashos have been painstakingly transcribed by Binyomin Wolf, a student and congregant of Rav Weinberger's, who has been transcribing his Rebbe's Shabbos morning drashos for the past 4 years. This collection of 13 derashos , starting from 2000, were given by Rav Weinberger at his shul's annual hilulas for the Rebbe, taking place Motzei Shabbosim parshas Noach. The Rebbe's yahrtzeit is 4 Cheshvan 5704/November 2, 1943.

As a young adult Rav Weinberger was given a copy of the Piaseczna Rebbe's collection of drashos during World War II (from 1939-1942), sefer AISH KODESH. He was immediately moved by the teaching of the Rebbe (who is also referred to as the Aish Kodesh) and saw the content of the drashos contained message for Jews today. "Every teaching of the Aish Kodesh [as the Rebbe is also know as] in any of his seforim shows a person how to reveal his soul. He teaches a Jew how to use all of his ups and downs and even his most subtle feelings to reveal his inner self." (page 70)

The Rebbe was the light that kept shining in Warsaw during the war. He could have left and saved himself, but he know his place was with his people. That alone gave hundreds of Jews the strength to keep going. He did more than that by continuing to give drashos and teach Torah in the most difficult of times.

The teaching of the Aish Kodesh of Piaseczna are teachings of a Jew who was given a choice and could have left the Trawniki work camp [where and the remaining Jews of Warsaw were sent in 1943, it is also where the Rebbe took is last breath]. Yet he remained with those tormented Jews. In Warsaw and in that camp, he taught the Torah containted in the sefer Aish Kodesh. So even if we do not understand everything in the sefer, once our hearts are opened, we can hear the sweetness of the niggun of this Jew, who was killed sanctifying G-d's name because of his love for the Jewish people. (page 47)

The Rebbe's Torah transcends time and addresses issues of abandonment, fear, hopelessness, creativity, chinuch, and, above all, simcha. In Rav Weinberger's drashos he not only give us biographical information about the Rebbe, but gives over sprinklings of teachings from both sefer Aish Kodesh and other writings of the Piaseczna. We don't only learn Torah from the Rebbe but get a picture of what was happening in Warsaw.

He lived through the deaths of his wife and son, along with everyone else in his family. But despite all of that, he strengthened the Jews living in that place in a way that defies all logic. No one would think to find a tzaddik strengthening this brothers and sisters in the Gehinnom that was Nazi-occupied Poland. (page 51)

Looking at this sefer as a whole, it's not just biographical, historical, and a vehicle to introduce the Rebbe's teachings to others. In this published drashos Rav Weinberger characteristically teaches lessons from other tzaddikim, as well, and includes powerfully moving stories that ignite the neshama. He makes Yiddishkeit personal, drawing lessons from events like 9/11 and the war in Gaza. That's what's so amazing about the Aish Kodesh. Learning his seforim you see how relevant his teaching are. It's the same with Rav Weinberger. I've listened to shiurim recorded in 1999 and the messages are still applicable today in 2015. I think the greatness of this publication is that it opens up a thirst that we don't even know we have. We learn about and from the Piseczna Rebbe and the sefer leaves you wanting more. Wanting to learn his seforim, wanting to overcome the darkness in your life, wanting to come closer to Hashem. That's why this is a more than just a sefer. Rav Weinberger's own words seem like a fitting way to finish this.

The Rebbe wrote in a postscript to Aish Kodesh that there has never been such suffering in all of Jewish history as the torment endured by our people in the Holocaust. The Rebbe left us with a number of his writings from those years of fire. By studying his work, we learn in to hear the Rebbe's whisper as he was crushed under the weight of his own suffering and the suffering of the entire Jewish nation. He whispered words of faith, trust, and light to us and to the survivors of that nightmarish period in our history. Those who merit to study the Rebbe's teaching are filled with the holiness of the Rebbe's light. When we learn the Rebbe's Torah, we are encouraged and strengthened so that we do not give up hope of salvation and light even in our darkest times. (page59)