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Main Menu Sub Menu Our NameThe name Aish Tamid has since taken on a special meaning by all of the students in Los Angeles since the origin of the name has a meaningful story... Fifteen (15) years earlier, Avi Leibovic asked Harav Mordechai Friedlander, shlitta, a well recognized and accepted halachic authority in Israel, the following question: “Rebbe...I have worked so hard over the last few months to get closer to G-d and change my life.....I want to continue growing in my Jewish studies...But my year in Israel is over and I have to return back to Los Angeles...back to my old friends and back to my old neighborhood and influences...I am so scared that without some help or inspiration I will return once again to my wild high school ways...Do you have any advice? Do you have a magical answer for my dilemma? Please help me...” Without hesitating a moment, Rabbi Friedlander, who is known in Israel and globally as simply “The Posek”, gave the following advice:
Harav Mordechai Friedlander, shlitta. “Our sages teach us that if you say the following biblical verse over and over again until you feel a burning in your heart then you will always be able to draw strength and inspiration....the verse states: “AISH TAMID TOKAD AL HA’MIZBEACH, V’LO TICHBEH” Levitikus, 6:6 Rabbi Freidlander’s message was crystal clear. Within each and every one of us is a fire that burns in our hearts and souls. This fire is the love for life and the love for G-d and His Torah. Some days a person wakes up in the morning and the fire is burning strong and the person cannot wait to jump at the first opportunity to do a good deed or a mitzva and get close to G-d. Other mornings, unfortunately, a person will occasionally wake up and find that the fire is burning very very low. These are the days when we aren’t running to grow in our spirituality. But one thing is clear. No matter how low we think that the fire inside of us is burning, no matter how long it has been burning on a very low flame...the fire is perpetual and eternal and “It shall not be extinguished”. Just like a pilot light in a stove is never extinguished, even if the burner is burning on low or has been turned off for some time, so too the fire or pilot light inside each and every one of us, that burns with a yearning for life and a yearning to connect to G-d and His Torah, will always burn inside of us. Rabbi Friedlander’s meaningful message was that a person’s job everyday of his life is to remember that “A perpetual fire shall burn on the altar; It shall not be extinguished.” That the fire and love for G-d that is kindled inside each and every one of us is always burning. It is a perpetual fire and it shall never be extinguished. This biblical verse and it’s inspiring message has been the catalyst for Aish Tamid of Los Angeles. Each of the students who have come to participate in this program have been taught this life-saving and life-changing message of how to keep the love for life, the love for G-d and a love for Torah burning inside of them. It’s message and impact will remain ignited inside of them for the rest of their lives. Main Menu Sub Menu |
