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Newsletter 5/12/2011 Behar

Dear Friend,

In this newsletter you will find a new article entitled,Convenient, Easily Accessible, and It’s Free!

We are delighted that Hamodia, in their weekend edition, printed an article we published a few weeks ago. Check outthe PDF.

It is with sadness that we received the news of the passing of a very dear friend, Dr. Yakov Hanoka o.b.m. Read about Dr. Hanoka in http://www.vosizneias.com/83527/2011/05/12/brookline-ma-chasidic-scientist-solar-energy-pioneer-passes-away.

Those of us who had the privilege of knowing this great man personally, know that Dr. Hanoka never showed any signs of his scientific achievements or talked about the more then 50 patents he held relating to solar energy.

He also never bragged about the special attention he received from the Rebbe. In particular, in the early years, he helped pioneer some of the outreach work of the Rebbe and Lubavitch. He was especially involved with bringing Torah and Yiddishkeit to academia, to college students and their professors.

We and the kids also knew him as “Mr. Fooling You,” for Dr. Hanoka loved kids and loved to entertain them.
Sometimes he would come to Chabad of Sharon and give talks to prove the Troah view on the age of the world, and other times he would come to do magic shows for the children. What an incrediable personality to be able to combine both dimensions and do it so well.

But more then anything else, Dr. Hanoka was a loyal friend and had a beautiful character. We will all miss him a lot.

At the Shiva in Brooklyn I met all the children and it brought back fond memories that span more than 30 years—so many beautiful experiences our families shared.

He leaves behind wonderful children: Gitty, Miriam, Chanie, Chaim, and Yitzchak. They all serve as Shluchim/Shluchos, Rabbis, and are outstanding members in their respective communities, contributing to yiddishkeit and making this world a better place for us all.

May his memory be for a blessing.I want to thank all of our readers for the wonderful feedback on my previous article. You can find some of your comments below.

Best wishes to our readers for an enjoyable and inspirational Shabbat!

Rabbi Chaim Wolosow

Chabad of Sharon

Convenient, Easily Accessible, and It’s Free!

Check it out! Kol Chaim Torah Recordings
www.torahrecordings.com

As one who has taught many Bar Mitzvah boys and thank G-d made several Bar Mitzvahs for our own children—and b’ezras Hashem, another Bar Mitzvah is on the way in a few months—I know firsthand of the anxiety a Bar Mitzvah boy and his family go through in preparing for the big day. No, I am not talking now about preparing for the physical aspects of the bar mitzvah, such as the invitations, kiddush, party, etc. I am talking about the young man studying and preparing his leining (reading the Torah portion from the Torah scroll), Haftorah, and d'var Torah.

Usually this will be the very first time (and sometimes the last time) that this young man will be performing in public. The pressure is on to do a great job and to bring nachas to the family. Many times the Rabbi, chazan, and other professional Bar Mitzvah tutors are hired to assist the youngster to do his best. They painstakingly work with the student and usually achieve good results.

In the quest of Kol Chaim Torah Recordings to assist with this task, we have created a new website called “Kol Chaim Torah Recordings" www.torahrecordings.com. We put online recordings of many parshiyos, together with crisp, clear texts and a Tikun Lakorim all on the same page. (IYH we will have all the parshiyos available in about 9 months.) This should make it easy for a Bar Mitzvah boy to conveniently access and prepare his leining. The nice thing about this is that it is free and it is available wherever and whenever you are.

In order to get the font to display properly for the Torah Cantilation ("Trup") on the screen, we used the SBL Hebrew font. You may need to install the font on your computer in order to view the text. (Some people get nervous when they hear the word “install," but this is simple! Just follow the directions and it takes just about two minutes to install it.(Directions to install are here.) Sample for Parshas ShemosSample of Megilas Esther

Please take a moment and also check out a page of the Daf Yomi, Tractate Sotah, Chumash with Rashi. There are also hundreds of hours of recording that do not yet have their associated texts. Check them out.

It will take some time to fully build up this website but we are working feverishly to try and put online as many texts and recordings as we can.