Perhaps the greatest privilege of working at Mishpacha is the opportunity to speak with the leaders of our community

Perhaps the greatest privilege of working at Mishpacha is the opportunity to speak with the leaders and elder statesmen of our community and relay their insights to the broader readership. Over the years, we’ve been fortunate to serve as a most elevated medium for these invaluable conversations, and the words of wisdom still endure

Imagine you’re suddenly hit with the truth, in one instant, like a big boom. Then you spring it on your children without any preparation: “Do this! Don’t do that!” Boom!

That’s what happened when I became religious — my son was ten, my daughter, eight. They weren’t babies anymore and here I was springing this on them. It was hard for them.

Then suddenly I caught on: “Excuse me, Uri, didn’t Hashem wait for you until you turned forty? Hashem even gave Rabi Akiva until the age of forty. It must have been that, in Heaven, they knew you weren’t ripe for change. So what do you expect of your kids?”

That’s why I tell parents to learn to wait. Don’t worry where your child is holding. Sometimes the right thing to do is nothing. Just give him lots of love.

—Rabbi Uri Zohar ztz”l, Issue 8

The secular press has one intention in mind, and that’s how to get the most people to buy their publication and how to entertain them in the worst possible way. The purpose of chareidi journalism is what can be done and what has to be done to improve communal life.

—Rav Mendel Weinbach ztz”l, Issue 54

I spent the war years with my parents and siblings, where we hid in one room for three years straight. We had a Gemara Kesubos and a Mishnah Berurah, cheilek gimmel. We were forbidden to go near the windows. We had contact with no one. The brutal European winters penetrated our bones. A minyan didn’t even come into question. We had nothing to do but sit and learn the seforim that we had.

After liberation, I arrived at the port near Marseilles, France. It was Shabbos when they announced to our group of refugees that there was a ship leaving for Eretz Yisrael. They told us it was our only opportunity to reach Eretz Yisrael. I had no idea of what was happening in the world, and there were grounds to suspect that it was an issue of pikuach nefesh, so I allowed myself to go. On the way to Eretz Yisrael, I took upon myself a vow that if Hashem would give me the merit to reach Eretz Yisrael, I would write a sefer that would glorify the honor of Shabbos.

That promise resulted in my sefer Shemiras Shabbos k’Hilchasa.

—Rav Yehoshua Neuwirth ztz”l, Issue 47

We must erect walls around our children. We live in a wanton generation, with a tremendous lack of tzniyus and an abundance of apostasy and heresy and if we do not protect our homes, we could chalilah lose our children. But if the area inside those walls is not filled with stimulation and happiness and joy, no wall in the world can guarantee that the youngster will thrive.

—Rav Asher Weiss, Issue 114

When I leave my house every day, on one side of the door is the mezuzah; on the other side is the photograph of me as a small child, leaving Buchenwald. Each time I see it, it silently tells me, “Yisrael, your task is to justify the fact that you were saved. You must carry out your parents’ mission; you must keep the chain unbroken. This is from whence you came.” And across from the photo, the mezuzah reminds me before Whom I’m destined to give an accounting.

—Rav Yisrael Meir Lau, Issue 118

This is not the largest Torah community in the country, but it’s one of the nicest, because they are all growing, perpetually growing. I am awed by the commitment and dedication of our people here…. My father ztz”l had this incredible ayin tovah, an ability to find the good points in all people. I have it much easier; I am surrounded by people who are constantly growing. Of course I love them.

—Rav Michel Twerski of Milwaukee, Issue 196