"A yesod in Yiddishkeit: that even if you fall, you can rise up just as quickly”

"The niggunim of Ger are special, because they fall suddenly and then rise just as quickly — different than our niggunim — but they teach a yesod in Yiddishkeit: that even if you fall, you can rise up just as quickly.”

—Rebbe Yisrael Hager of Vizhnitz at the Purim tish, after requesting a Gerrer niggun in honor of the yahrtzeit of the Pnei Menachem

"At one time in our history, the miracle in the Beis Hamikdash was that even as we were ‘omdim tzefufim,’ standing together crowded, we were ‘mishtachavim revachim,’ there was space enough to bow. Today, we would consider it a neis if we could just be ‘omdim tzefufim’ again.”

—Rav Yehoshua Fink, Purim Rav in Belz, at the Belzer Purim tish

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 852)