Received via the Shabatton host – the Los Angeles Link Kollel:
(Photo shows guest speaker Rabbi Chaim Kramer at left together with Rabbi Eli Stern LINK’s director of Outreach. Photo credit:Yosef Ober}
Over 200 Attend Shabbaton with Rabbi Chaim Kramer at LINK LA
The LINK Kollel in Los Angeles capped off a hectic two weeks of programming with a very successful Shabbaton and musical Melave Malka with Rabbi Chaim Kramer, Director of the Breslov Research Center in Jerusalem, during Shabbos Parshas Balak. Over two hundred people attended at least one part of the many presentations and/or the festive Melave Malka.
Rabbi Kramer, a native of Brooklyn, learned at the Mirer Yeshivah in both Brooklyn and Yerushalayim before founding the Research Institute in Israel in 1979. Since then, he has become the foremost expositor of the teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov in the English language. The Institute has published over one hundred-fifty works, many of which he personally authored. His folksy, disarming style replete with deadpan humor, belied the depth and profundity of his many presentations.
At the Seudah Friday night, he spoke about the famous teaching of Rebbe Nachman that this world is “a narrow bridge.” He applied it to how one should incorporate simcha in one’s life as a Jew while avoiding the many pitfalls of succumbing to temptations and false theologies.
During the luncheon on Shabbos, he gave a very penetrating talk on twelve parts of the body that have the most profound effect on our physical and spiritual health. He masterfully sketched the mystical correspondence (based on the Zohar) between these body parts and their role in affecting our Neshama. With this, he demonstrated how our physical bodies can become subordinated to our spiritual yearnings.
In a talk before Mincha, he utilized several of the famous parables of Rebbe Nachman to help unlock the secret of the power of Shabbos. Finally, at Shalosh Seudos, he related the well-known parable of Rebbe Nachman called “the Lost Princess.” He related the brilliant explication of Rebbe Nosson of Breslov that sees all of world history – beginning with the Creation through the Revelation of Sinai culminating with the rebuilding of the Bais HaMikdosh with the advent of Moshiach – all hidden in this parable.
Despite the lateness of the hour (beginning at 11 PM Motzai Shabbos), close to 100 people attended the musical Melave Malka. The local Breslov Band warmed up the crowd with beautiful niggunim, setting the stage for Rabbi Kramer’s final presentation. He related about a dozen amazing stories of Jews that he met in his many travels around the world (disseminating the teachings of Breslov) who had returned (or even converted) to Torah Judaism as a result of reading the works of Rebbe Nachman in English. The band then played several rousing final songs to round out the inspirational Shabbaton, ending at nearly 1 AM with the crowd still in rapt attention.
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