We are extremely grateful to Hashem for the success of this project. Together we have created a virtual community of thousands of Jews worldwide sharing our thoughts, ideas and chizuk.

We would like to move to the next stage and create more offline activies to meet, share and strengthen one another. Frequent commentor Chana recently suggested a Shabbaton on Shabbos Nachamu, August 5th, which sounds like a great idea. We would probably hold it in Kew Gardens Hills, since we know a lot of people here who could provide sleeping accomodations. The event is open to BTs, FFBs and OnTheWays, but the program will be primarly geared toward BT issues.

We would have communal meals and hopefully a rocking Melave Malka if we can get some of the musicians in the group here. We figure the cost for the meals would be between $75 – $90 per person and about $50 – $70 for children under 16.

Updated:
We would have Friday meals at the host houses, with a communal Shabbos lunch and we’re working on low cost ideas for Shalosh Seudos and possibly a Melave Malka. We’re trying to get the cost for the meals to between $20 – $30 per person and about $16 – $24 for children under 16.

Please leave a comment or send us an email at beyondbt@gmail.com, if you would be interested and let us know how many people would be in your party.

Yasher Koach to David & Sandy Linn on their being honored at the Jewish Heritage Center Dinner tonight. I’ll let you know how the speech went later, I’m sure it will be great.

Update: Back from the dinner. It was an amazing event. David spoke beautifully, but was too modest to plug Beyond BT. Rabbi Dovid Schwartz said a lot of very nice things about the Beyond BT community in the journal.

Yasher Koach to the entire JHC organization for all the wonderful things they do for the BT community.

A few people have said that the BeyondBT Shabbaton is too soon after Pesach – and they’re right.

So we’re going to move the date a little bit further out. We’ll post an update when we pick a date.

We are in the Purim/Pesach period, which is a time of great joy in which we remember the redemptions in the past and look towards our future redemption.

Here is a little post-Purim/pre-Pesach Torah. Our Rav bakes and sells Matzohs for the Shul and for Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim. This year, his son sent out the order forms in the mail and via email as out Shul uses technology to as great an extent as possible (We have a blog caykgh.blogspot.com and a weekly email).
Read more Simcha in the Days of Redemption ›

We are in the very early planning stages of the first Beyond BT Shabbaton. Our goal is to have as many people as possible participate and to keep the cost as low as possible.

The preliminary date is the Shabbos of Achrei Mos-Kedoshim which is May 5-6. The venue will be Kew Gardens Hills. We will put people up at families in the neighborhood. If we have the Friday night meals at the host families it will be hard to have speakers on Friday night since candle lighting is 7:38, so it might make sense to have a communal meal on Friday with some speakers and maybe eat Shabbos lunch at the hosts’ houses.

On Shabbos we will try to find a place to have our own minyan. The davening will be followed by a kiddush and a Shiur. Shabbos lunch, possibly at the host houses followed by shiurim on Shabbos afternoon. Mincha to be followed by Shalosh Seudos and a speaker. We will try to have babysitters during the shiurim.

We are looking for sponsors to help defray the costs, so please don’t be shy if you can afford to sponsor.

So what do you think? Any ideas for speaking topics? Will you come? And if not, why not? What is an acceptable amount to charge for adults, teens and children?

Last night I saw the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation’s video on the Attitude of Gratitude. Rabbi Rietti, one of the speakers was amazing as usual, and he made the point that Hashem gives us so much and wants nothing in exchange, except a thank you which we express in a brocha. In fact, he doesn’t even want the thank you, except for our benefit.

With thank yous on our mind, it is a great opportunity to thank our two rabbinic advisors Rabbi Herschel Welcher and Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz. Because today both of them are being honored today at dinners of wonderful Torah learning institutions. Rabbi and Rebbetzin Yakov and Udi Horowitz are being honored at Yeshiva Darchei Noam in Monsey, the school that he founded. While Rabbi and Rebbetzin Herschel and Miriam Welcher are being honored by Shevach High School a girls high school in Kew Gardens Hills.
Read more In Appreciation of Rabbi Horowitz and Rabbi Welcher ›

When giving my Partners in Torah chavrusa an overview of Judaism, I explained that the role of the Jews is G-d awareness specialists. Our mission is to become more G-d aware through the performance of the mitzvos and to help the rest of the world increase their awareness through their mitzvos.

Before the destruction of the Second Temple, G-d’s presence was more palpable. But since the end of prophecy, G-d’s presence is no longer felt in the same way. One of the reasons the Men of the Great Assembly formulated the Brochos around that time, was to help us increase our G-d awareness as we live or daily lives.
Read more Attitude of Gratitude ›

As this blog has grown in leaps and bounds over the past three months, I think it’s a good time to step back and get some focus.

A lot of what I have to say here arises, to a great extent, out of the numerous private e-mails we have received and, to a lesser extent, from some of the comments here on the blog.

Administering a blog of this sort is a lot more difficult than it may seem. Mark bears the brunt of that load and for that we are all (especially me) thankful. Administering this blog is kind of like juggling. On a tightrope. In the rain. On one foot. With a piano on your back. Without a net. And that’s on a good day!
Read more Observations on Administering Beyond Teshuva ›

As many of us shook off a record breaking snowstorm, there was warmth, inspiration and spirited debate here at Beyond Teshuva.

On the heels of David Shub’s inspiring “A Baal Teshuva’s Father’s Perspectives”, we heard from Mr. Shub’s daughter, Yael with “A Baal Teshuva’s Father’s Daughter’s Perspectives”.

Rabbi Lam “Tree”ted us to some Tu B’Shevat insights which are worthwhile to listen to even after Tu B’Shvat. It was another week of wonderful posts.

David Linn guest posted at Lazer Beams with Tucking in the Moshiach.

One thing that comes out from the entries and the comments is that it’s not so much where you came from, nor where you are currently holding. What matters the most is where you are going. When we are headed in the same direction, without putting limits on our potential closeness to Hashem, then we become “One Nation with One Heart”.

Thanks for reading, thanks for commenting, thanks for participating, thanks for growing with us.

The JIB Awards are over and we want to thank Aussie Dave at Israelly Cool and the Jerusalem Post for organizing and hosting them. We didn’t finish in the top 3 in any categories, but the awards certainly accomplished their stated purpose of bringing new readers to the participating blogs.

We would like to congratulate all the winners, with a special shout out to Rabbi Lazer Brody at Lazer Beams, Rabbi Gil Student at Hirhurim and Rabbi Yaakov Menken and his contributors (including a bunch of Baalei Teshuva) at Cross Currents.

Coming off the heels of his strong showing, we have the privilege of having a guest contribution from Rabbi Menken today.

The Melave Malke was great. We had about 45 people and everybody enjoyed the good food, good friends and good time. The regular and guest contributors in attendance included Ayreh Leib Ecker, David Kirschner, David Linn, Rabbi Dovid Schwartz, Kressel Housman, Mark Frankel, Michael Salzbank, Steve Brizel and of course Rabbi Label Lam. We were glad to welcome many new and old friends and faces to our growing Beyond Teshuva community.

Rabbi Lam was fantastic and he shared his story with us and had the room rolling on the floor laughing for much of his presentation. In the last third of the lecture he left us with a number of practical tools and techniques to continue on our path of Teshuva.

Here is Part 1 – Life Story, Part 2 – Life Story and Part 3 – Tools for Continuing Growth of Rabbi Lam’s speech. Enjoy!

Rabbi Label Lam will be speaking on “Increasing Altitude: Continuing on the Growth Path” at the Kew Gardens Hills Melave Malka this Motza’ei Shabbos, Parshas Bo, February 4th at 9:00 PM at Congregation Ahavas Yisroel – 147-02 73rd Ave. Admission is $10 per person and we’ll be serving Cholov Yisroel Milchik (ziti, lasagna, eggplant, salad, etc…).

The initial response is very nice and if you don’t have plans already, please join us. There is 1 car coming from Monsey and 1 from Passaic. If you need a lift, send us an email at beyondbt@gmail.com.

I want to thank Phyllis Hochberg and the Jewish Press for running a free paragraph in their Queens and Long Island Community News for the event.

In the chapter on Inspiration and Disappointment in Living Inspired, Rabbi Dr. Akiva Tatz discusses the natural pathway of all life experiences as one that begins with inspiration and often fades to disappointment. He applies this pattern to the Baal Teshuva with the exciting and inspired initial phase followed by the “hard work required for growth” phase. He explains that a person who understands this pattern and realizes that the first phase was artificial while the second phase yields real development, can begin to enjoy the phase of work.

Rabbi Label Lam will be speaking on “Increasing Altitude: Continuing on the Growth Path” at the Kew Gardens Hills Melave Malka this Motza’ei Shabbos, Parshas Bo, February 4th at 9:00 PM at Congregation Ahavas Yisroel – 147-02 73rd Ave. Admission is $10 per person and we’ll be serving Cholov Yisroel Milchik (ziti, lasagna, eggplant, salad, etc…).

Updated: The initial response is very nice and if you don’t have plans already, please join us (an RSVP would be helpful). There are at least 2 cars coming from Monsey and 1 from Passaic. If you need a lift, send us an email. If anybody else is coming from outside KGH, please let us know at beyondbt@gmail.com.

Please give us your input on How You Would Spend the Money for longer term Baalei Teshuva support efforts. Your voice can make a real difference.

Please give us your input on How You Would Spend the Money for longer term Baalei Teshuva support efforts. Your voice can make a real difference.

If you don’t have much time, please vote for us in Best Group Blog and Best New Blog. We are also nominated for Best Jewish Religion Blog and Best Designed Blog. You can vote every three days.

Since Chava posted about Cultivating a Love of Eretz Yisrael, here is a great shiur by Rabbi Herschel Welcher covering the four major opinions on The Mitzvah to Live in Eretz Yisrael (left-click to play right click and Save Target as to load it to your PC)

For more listening pleasure, Classic Sinai has 24 great Torah mp3s that you can download or listen to on your PC including Rabbi Noach Weinberg on “Happiness” and “Pleasure: The Ultimate Energizer” Rebbetzin Heller on “Our Bodies Our Souls” and other greats by Rabbi Yom Tov Glaser, Rabbi Lawrence Keleman and many others.

Some people are ‘starters’. They love to create and develop new products and ideas. Others are ‘finishers’. They are systems people. They may not be that creative, but they can take ideas and turn them into reality.

A ‘starter’ will invent and patent a why-didn’t-I-think-of-that idea (a Shabbos lamp, for example). But without a ‘finisher’, that creative idea may never take off. The ‘starter’ will lose interest when the bulbs get hot too quickly or if production gets bogged down. And, in all likelihood, he or she will be spending many of his or her waking hours thinking about the next invention.

I think that just about sums up the dilemma that many ba’alei teshuvah face. The vast majority of outreach efforts are focused on starting and very few resources are focused on the finish. And if Shabbos lamps have a hard time making it without finishers, imagine how parents with teenagers and tuition bills are coping.
Read more How Would You Spend The Money? ›

It seems clear that G-d created Google and the Web to connect people and to spread Torah.

We were very fortunate this week to make some new friends at the Passaic Melave Malke, including Akiva who blogs at Mystical Paths. Akiva took photos and video’d (with his Canon camera) the first half hour of Rabbi Lazer Brody’s shiur and it’s a real treat to watch Rabbi Brody in action. Thanks to Akiva for joining the Beyond Teshuva team, the Passaic Torah Institute (PTI) for hosting the event and to Google the rest of the Web infrastructure for helping us to connect and spread Torah.

Video: Rabbi Brody, first 20 minutes.
Video: Rabbi Brody, next 12 minutes.

Photos: Rabbi Brody in Passaic, Photo Set here, Slide Show here.

Audio: Rabbi Brody, full 2 hours, MP3 format,
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Rabbi Brody Speaking in New Jersey (click the play button to watch)

Rabbi Yitzchak Kirzner zt”l told a story about a man who said that he is ahead of 90% of the world in his Yiddishkeit and when the rest of the world catches up, then he’ll work on growing more. But most committed Jews do not hold by that logic, we want to be a better Jew today than we were yesterday.

Continuing growth is not simple. We have to work on reducing the negative while at the same time always looking to build our positive thoughts, speech and actions. And in every age, it makes sense to use the tools at our disposal, like Beyond Teshuva, to help us grow.

Another great tool is an inspirational Melave Malka. A group of growth oriented Jews getting together to share an evening of food, friends and words of Torah. That’s why we’re extremely excited to be having our first:

Kew Gardens Hills Melave Malka
on Motza’ei Shabbos, Parshas Bo, February 4th at 9:00 PM
at Congregation Ahavas Yisroel – 147-02 73rd Ave.

Admission is $10 per person and we’ll be serving Milchik (ziti, lasagna, eggplant, etc…) so don’t nosh on any cold cuts for Shalosh Seudos.

Rabbi Label Lam is our special guest speaker and the topic is “Increasing Altitude: Continuing on the Growth Path”.

It should be a fantastic evening and, of course, it’s open to Jews of all stripes.

So please reserve the date and RSVP preferably at beyondbt@gmail.com or at (917) 992-xxxx or right here in the comments, so that we can prepare properly.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Thanks to your efforts, we have made it to the finals in four categories in the Jewish/Israelly Blog Awards. So if you can take 15 seconds to vote (the rules allow voting every 3 days), we can get out the word and broaden our community.

Best Jewish Religion Blog
Best New Blog
Best Designed Blog  
Best Group Blog

On a different note, one of our readers is interested in doing some research regarding the history of the (recent) BT movement. If anybody nows of any books on this matter, or can point to anyone in particular who knows about this issue, please let us know at beyondbt@gmail.com

About 40 people were in attendance at the Melave Malka in Passaic last night, despite the fact that it is a vacation week for the schools and there was another Melave Malka in the community. We want to thank the Passaic Torah Institute for their hospitality. We want to thank Rabbi Brody for taking the time to speak and insipire us and his cousin Rich Lenner for helping out.

Here are some photos of Rabbi Brody taken by Akiva at Mystical Paths.

Here are the mp3’s from Rabbi Brody’s drasha last night. I broke it up into 6 parts of about 19 minutes each. Rabbi Brody started the evening with a niggun which runs from 1 minute 45 seconds to 3 minutes and 20 seconds in part 1.

Here is part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6. Enjoy!