----- Forwarded Message -----From: "'Chicago Aneinu' via chicago-aneinu" <chicago-aneinu@googlegroups.com>To: "Chicago Aneinu" <myysbyy@aol.com>Sent: Tue, Jan 10, 2023 at 9:42 PMSubject: [chicago-aneinu] Our Achdus Event!!! What a Night!!!--ANEINU ACHDUS EVENTWith shevach and hodaah to HKB"H, I thank all of those who attended our Zisa Zimmerman Aneinu Achdus Event on Motzei Shabbos! B"H we had approximately 350 beautiful, happy women in attendance. From post high school to great grandmothers, and everyone in between, it was absolutely heartwarming to see every part of our beautiful Chicago Jewish community represented. Here is just a sample of some of the comments we have been receiving:
"What a beautiful and wonderful event. Amazing to meet new Jewish women. So powerful."
"Thank you! Was wonderful to have a chance to laugh and be inspired with other women in our community."
"Amazing event. Such achdus from all backgrounds! Wow! Thanks!"
"I had a great time personally, and the joy and inspiration were bringing us all together in the way you had hoped for. It was great!!!"
"Thank you! Last night was so special!! It was amazing to see the broad spectrum of women who came together for ahavas chinum. What a beautiful idea!!! …The divrei Torah were inspirational, the food delicious, the decor so nice, the activities fun, and the tehillim and singing so beautiful. Every aspect was so special!!(So many times I felt like I was back at camp!!!, feeling that special achdus…)"
"I am still flying high!"
"Was so nice! Hope you do it again!"
"Amazing. Absolutely amazing. It was beautiful!!! Electricity in the air."
"The event was so comforting. It was comforting to be in the same room with so many women, just for the sake of togetherness."
"I know I already said thank you tonight, but what a beautiful and meaningful event it was! I'm so impressed with every aspect."
"[This event] goes in the books for one of the most special events I have participated in over the past decade or so."
As women began to trickle in at 7:00 PM, you could feel the excitement in the air! We heard happy, animated voices, and saw shining, smiling faces filling the room, and by 7:30 PM we knew something magical was happening! A line of women leading to the sushi table snaked through the room. (Note to self, bigger tables for food next time!) Many women washed for Melave Malka, (we did bring bentchers but forgot to put them on the tables!), and enjoyed the sushi, salads and pastries.
Our first speaker was co-coordinator Shira Winner, who set the tone and goal for the evening with her inspiring comments.
"…Please, open up your hearts to each other. Take a glance around the room at the beautiful array of Hashem's children, your sisters, and see that beautiful neshama, soul, that dances brightly in each one of us. … We truly are a nation and community like no other. Let's channel that energy tonight and create an atmosphere of love, acceptance and warmth as we show Hashem just how incredible we really are and how grateful we are to be His daughters…"
Next, our guest speaker, Mrs. Rivkie Schecter spoke to our hearts with a combination of humor and seriousness, continuing on the theme of the night: puzzles. She emphasized how puzzles are so much easier to connect when the pieces have different colors. She relayed that she once bought a puzzle of a picture of men saying Kiddush Levana. When she opened the box she realized that almost all of the pieces were black. The sky was black, the scenery was black, and the men's clothing was black… She realized it would be almost impossible to put those pieces together. Hence, each person in Klal Yisroel is a piece of a puzzle, and we have to appreciate and respect that everyone is different and unique, and exactly what Hashem wants to complete His beautiful and colorful puzzle.
It was co-coordinator Rivki Pisem who introduced the brilliant, delightful, funny, and entertaining Mrs. Debbie Cardash and Mrs. Dina Romanoff, the facilitators of our interactive activities. The fun then began!
We started off with everyone filling out their name tags. Then, everyone was asked to line up in groups around the perimeter of the room. To know which group we belonged to, we had to answer the question, "When do you start preparing for a trip? Three months before, a few weeks before, the night before?" The fun continued as people joined new groups of people, and the sound of people talking, and laughing, as they made new connections was truly a joyful experience! The feeling of achdus was palpable as the women then filled out post-it notes with descriptions of what a community with unity means to them. These notes were then added to a wall mural and used to fill in the last 5 letters of the word community – unity.
There were a couple of other activities which did not quite go as planned due to the incredible turnout that exceeded our expectations, but the women kept laughing and smiling and were not phased in the least. We are so grateful for everyone's understanding and patience.
Then people were asked to fill out the davening cards with names and requests for something to daven for. These were collected and put into a jar for each person to pick one out and take home on their way out. That way we could each daven for someone else after the event was over.
I then had the honor of introducing Mrs. Kochava Yitzhak who deeply moved and inspired us with her stirring message.
Mrs. Yitzhak relayed an amazing story that she had heard from Rabbi Daniel Travis, about a Yerushalmi Rebbetzin who had hung out her laundry on a clothesline. A neighbor, who was jealous of the Rebbetzin because she always seemed to have everything under control, cut the clothesline, and all of the laundry fell into the mud. The Rebbetzin quietly took all of the muddy laundry and rewashed it and rehung it. She didn't mention a word to anyone, including her husband. Later the neighbor came to her begging for forgiveness because her child had become deathly ill. The Rebbetzin wholeheartedly forgave her. About a year later, this righteous woman gave birth to a special son — Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zt"l.
Mrs. Yitzhak explained that the Rebbetzin didn't become upset with her neighbor because she understood that the incident was from Hashem, and the neighbor was just the tool that Hashem used to cause the problem:
"…The GRA explains that the deeper root of Sinat Chinam is a lack of emunah that Hashem is orchestrating all of our events.The Chafetz Chaim says that some bad gezeiros will only come down if there is a kitrug, prosecution in shamayim. But if we do not open our mouths to speak lashon hara, then the mekatregim in shamayim cannot say prosecution against us, and gezeiros can be prevented from coming down…"
Mrs. Yitzhak then read an anonymously written, powerful letter to Hashem (approved by community poskim) that captured our hearts, and expressed so much of what we were feeling at that moment. The letter conveyed our profound gratitude to Hashem for the many wonderful shuls, schools, and chesed organizations in our city, and voiced our desire to crown Hashem as our King by enhancing our connection with one another. It requested Hashem's guidance and protection through these last difficult days of golus, and asked for Hashem's blessing that we should be able to carry forward the warmth and closeness we felt in the room and channel it properly into the Tehillim we were about to recite and into our daily interactions with each other after we would leave the event.Mrs. Yitzhak then led us as we recited Tehillim together. What a special feeling to hear hundreds of voices in unison, speaking our hearts to our Creator!
To end the event on a very high note, Mrs. Ilana Dress led us with her beautiful voice and guitar in the singing of Acheinu, and then Ani Maamin. Wow… I had chills up my spine and tears in my eyes! It was a truly glorious experience, one that will stay with me for a very long time.
As a special gift to all of our attendees, we gave out a beautiful tefilla for Ahavas Yisroel, in Hebrew and English, in an acrylic frame. Our hope is that the tefilla will find a place next to women's Shabbos candles, and will be recited daily, or on Shabbos after bentching licht, and will create a special zchus for our community. We have a few extra tefillos left over, in case someone forgot to take one, or would just like to have one.
I would like to thank our anonymous sponsor who believed in us, and our mission, and very generously made this evening possible. We could not have done this without you.
Thank you to our incredible and inspiring speakers, Mrs. Rivkie Schecter and Mrs. Kochava Yitzchak. There is no way I can capture the magnificence, beauty, and deep inspiration of your words in just a few sentences. You truly had everyone in the room captivated and mesmerized. I am sure that everyone's appreciation for the uniqueness and value of every Jew will be on a much deeper level then when they first came to the event.
Thank you to Mrs. Debbie Cardash and Mrs. Dina Romanoff who added so much humor, fun, and excitement to the evening, and made it possible to create so many new connections.
Thank you to Mrs. Esti Newmark for making sure that the food and other details were beautifully presented, and for easing the load for all of the coordinators.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to Rivki Pisem and Shira Winner for suggesting that we make this an achdus event, and for your hours and hours of hard work on this project. I wasn't sure we could pull it off in the amount of time that we had, but with so much siyata d'shmaya, it really did happen! It was such a pleasure working with you both and I look forward to many more wonderful events in the future.
Thank you to Mrs. Menucha Robeson for changing our vision of what this event would look like, and for your very invaluable advice along the way. It was quite a journey.
Last but not least, thank you to the hundreds of women that came out on a dark and cold night because you wanted to create Achdus and Ahavas Yisroel. I am sure that you made quite a commotion in shamayim, and have brought us ever that much closer to that shining moment when we will all experience the revelation of Hashem's glory with the coming of Mashiach and the geulah shlema.
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Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Fw: [aneinu] Our Achdus Event!!! What a Night!!!
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