In Honor of Rabbi Wein zt"l

DISCOVER THE TRUE MEANING OF HAPPINESS

Seventy-five years ago, a new rebbe arrived at a Yeshiva in Chicago

He was a Lithuanian Talmid Chacham of real stature, but the circumstances of life had left him teaching the entry-level class. He taught in accented English with plenty of Yiddish, and he had a habit that drove his students a little crazy — he would interrupt the shiur to ask questions that had nothing to do with the sugya.

One of those students was a boy named Berel Wein

Just before Tishrei one year, the Rebbe asked the class which day on the Jewish calendar is the happiest. The boys answered what any of us would answer: Purim. Simchas Torah.

He shook his head

“The happiest day on the Jewish calendar," he told them, "is Yom Kippur”

Then he explained why — and the answer stayed with Rabbi Wein for the next seventy-five years. Joy, he said, depends on things outside of us: food, music, company, gifts. It comes and it goes. Happiness is something inside a person, and it needs none of those things. Yom Kippur is the one day when every external prop is stripped away and a Jew stands alone with his conscience — and discovers he can be forgiven, and can resolve to be better. That is where real happiness begins

Rabbi Wein zt"l wrote that story down in the opening pages of his sefer on Ne'ilah. It is one of dozens of moments like it in the two volumes he left us on the tefillos of the Yamim Noraim — and we are happy to share that both are now available on Amazon

MAJESTY, MEMORY & RESONANCE: Insights on Musaf for Rosh Hashanah

Rabbi Wein called the Musaf shofar service the most majestic and emotional prayer service of the entire year — a 1,900-year-old composition from the Academy of Rav whose words, he wrote, seem beyond the reach of mere mortals. In this volume he walks through it verse by verse: Malchuyos, Zichronos, Shofros, and the Aleinu that opens them. Not a translation — an explanation of why these particular pesukim were chosen, where they come from, and what they are asking of us.

“I am trying to write a simple book about a deep and fathomless subject," he wrote in the preface. He succeeded.

Majesty, Memory & Resonance is now available on rabbiwein.com and Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9659010397

IN THE SHADOW OF THY HAND: Insights on Ne'ilah for Yom Kippur

Rabbi Wein once ran through an airport for the last flight of the night — no reservation, on standby, praying the gate would still be open when he got there. Halfway down the gangway it struck him: this is Ne'ilah. All of us hoping to get in before the doors close.

This volume follows the Ne'ilah service from beginning to end — the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, Viduy, the plea for forgiveness, the closing brachos — through ten chapters of the insight, memory, and storytelling that made Rabbi Wein's voice unmistakable

In the Shadow of Thy Hand is now available on rabbiwein.com and Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9657818273

Elul is here. In a few weeks we will all be standing with our machzorim open, saying words we have said every year of our lives.

These two seforim were written so that this year, we might actually hear them.

Both are available now on Amazon.

Kesiva v'chasima tova,

The Destiny Foundation