Jewish Thailand, 18 Phra Athit Road, Chana Songkhram, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok (2026)

14/08/2026

Happy Rosh Chodesh Elul – first day – head of the month of Elul.

What a special day it is.

A day of renewed closeness to Hashem, a ‘launch’ of the next forty days of heightened sensitivity in prayer, Torah and good deeds to evoke G-d’s bestowal of ‘compassion and forgiveness’ culminating in Yom Kippur.

Personally, I feel uplifted today as I look forward to the inner strength that this month and period provides.

Over the past few weeks there have been a flurry of articles and posts on social media portraying Israeli’s and Jews in a negative light. Our Chabad House in Phuket has received multiple visits by politicians and police brass. Ridiculous, fabricated statements have been attributed to ‘unidentified persons’ during those visits. The articles full of antisemitic tropes, spread like wildfire and evoke vilely hateful antisemitic comments.

As a Thai citizen I pray for the welfare of the Royal Thai Kingdom.

The Torah teaches (Jeremiah 29, 7) And seek the peace of the city where I have exiled you and pray for it to the Lord, for in its peace you shall have peace.

And precisely for that reason, I get aggravated when misguided malcontent people don’t see the disservice they are doing to their own country by maligning the Jewish people who live here.

Hashem promised Avraham (Genesis 12, 3) I will bless those who bless you…

One doesn’t have to be a professor in history to see that wherever the Jewish people have migrated, in whatever location the Jewish people have been welcomed, blessing and success have followed.

The sensible people in the world remember and acknowledge the lifesaving and critical contributions of Jewish sages, doctors and scientists for the benefit of society throughout history.

As the rabbi of the Jewish Community of Thailand for more than three decades I know that the average Thai person is tolerant, welcoming and very pleased to have Jewish people living and touring here.

It is a vocal miniscule minority who have taken the ugly ogres of xenophobia and sprayed them into the otherwise welcoming and amazing stratosphere of Thailand.

I pray that those winds pass and the familiar friendliness that Thailand is famous for prevails for the benefit of the country and its citizens.

Possibly I should not be looking at these negative articles whatsoever.

The Torah portions states quite unequivocally that we don’t need to be worried about the future, just try to do the next thing right now:

Rather than trying to obsessively divine the future, be wholehearted with God, your God: trust Him and accept His providence. You will therefore not fret about the future and thus not feel any need to foretell it. If you behave in this manner, God will keep you in His land…

But…. I did read some articles as I feel the need to stay somewhat informed to make appropriate leadership decisions.

Perhaps I read more than needed…. because earlier this week it got to me. I found myself pulled down into a mood that was not energetic or optimistic. And although I know that G-d’s presence requires positive and joyous energy, my heart was not feeling it.

In seeking to be released from my moody musings, I shared the challenge of the negative media with some friends.

I got three responses. Each helpful in their own way.

One friend sagely commented ‘this too will pass’. גם זה יעבור

Indeed, in Thailand as in the world in general, we see that the news moves on to the next item eventually. Hopefully we are starting to see the move in the right direction.

Another friend said with conviction (quoting the Torah verse about the enslavement in Egypt and the resulting proliferation of the Jewish people "But the more [the Egyptians] oppressed him [the Israelites], the more [they] increased and spread"

וכאשר יענו אותו כן ירבה וכן יפרוץ

You will see, this will lead to blessing of further expansion.

Indeed, we are currently involved in some exciting programs of expanded Jewish activity both for the local community as well as the traveling community. They are still in the development stages and not yet time to disclose publicly – the blessings are best developed in discreetness and modesty.

Another close friend said, ‘this too is for the good’. גם זו לטובה

The exposure and publicity about the Jewish presence in Thailand will be a conduit to having more Jewish engagement with Jews who may not have been aware of the prayer and mitzvah opportunities here.

True. Discreet is good sometimes. Publicity is critical when it comes to getting the word out.

I would like to find a way to harness this publicity to urge Jews to be more Jewishly active by doing mitzvahs and studying Torah.

And to invite local Jewish residents to come and join us for the High Holidays and Sukkot/Simchat Torah.

For Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur we have a wonderful Synagogue service and joyous communal festival meals at the Rembrandt Hotel on Soi 18. The atmosphere is inspiring and the food is delicious.

Email us for more information ([email protected]).

Sukkot and Simchat Torah is at our La Maison location. The joy and jubilance at those celebrations and legendary.

Please come and bring a friend or two with you.

This message of hope and optimism – that everything is for the good - is so appropriate to the time of the year we are in.

As we emerge from Tisha B’av, the days of the destruction of the Bet Hamikdash, we begin to focus on the rebuilding and rebirth.

We also totally reframe the destruction of the second temple as being a demolition to make way for the new building, the third and eternal Bet Hamikdash.

The joy that follows the sorrow is very powerful.

When I meditated and focused on this, it helped me reframe and regain my positive upbeat spirits!

Then, this morning I read an essay of the Rebbe about the next level positive energy that the month of Elul brings.

You see, the month of Menachem Av, is a month that contains mournful and sorrowful days. True, we emerge from those days to the high and powerful joyous day of 15th of Av, but it is still against a backdrop of prior suffering. There is a contrast that on one hand enhances the joy, but on the other hand still contains a starting point of pain.

The month of Elul is a month that is all about accessibility to G-d.

The ability to ‘meet the King’ without the usual requirements of intense preparation.

Hashem’s countenance shines during this month with an approachability and affability that is compared to a king going out into the field to allow his subjects easy access to establish a relationship with him.

Usually, one would need to enter the palace with intense preparation and multiple stages of scrutiny and worthiness.

During this month Hashem shines His presence in a way that all we need to do is want to receive him and we are allowed in.

This then allows us to build up our connection to Him and be worthy of entering His ‘Palace’ which allegorically refers to the Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur Days of Awe.

The sheer beauty and intensity of having this kind of revealed relationship with G-d leaves no room for any kind of pessimism or negative energy.

This buoys me and elevates me – and I hope by sharing it, you too are similarly inspired - to even greater levels of anticipation and excitement for the G-dly mission that we are to engage in. This mission requires our maximum efforts to add in light of Torah and Mitzvahs and drive away the darkness.

It’s a form of battle. To repel the forces of darkness and usher in the light. To bring Mashiach through acts of goodness and kindness.

The only way to success in battle is by marching forward with confidence, trust and faith in the Almighty.

This week’s Torah portion Shoftim sums it up.

Today you are approaching the battle against your enemies... You must not be afraid! You must not be alarmed! And you must not be terrified of them!

For you have the protection of God, your God; He is the one who accompanies you, to fight for you against your enemies, and to save you from them.’

To put it simply:

Have no fear.
Almighty G-d is with you.

My dear friend, let us strengthen Jewish togetherness.

We have enough detractors and enemies from the outside. We need to tighten our connection with each other from the inside.

Unity is the vessel for all the G-dly blessings that we pray for.

Helping others through giving Tzedakah is especially potent in ushering in the Geulah redemption from this exile. Go to jewishthailand.com/tzedakah to get a headstart on your New Year's Tzedakah.

It is a Jewish custom to begin to wish all one’s acquaintances blessings of Shana Tova that they be inscribed and sealed in the book of life and living.

Let me begin right here and now.

On behalf of my wife Nechama and myself

Shana Tova Umetukah – May you have a GOOD and SWEET Year.

Chodesh Tov,

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Yosef Kantor

07/08/2026

Our Parsha is called ‘Re’eh’ which means ‘see’.
The Parsha begins ‘See, I am placing before you blessing…’. The ‘I’ in the verse is Hashem.
Do you feel blessed?
You may be surprised to hear this. Not everyone feels that they are blessed.
The words of the Torah ‘SEE I place before you blessing’ are an invitation and a ‘coaching’ instruction to open your eyes and make an effort to truly ‘see’ and appreciate the blessings that G-d has given you in your personal life.
So often, all it takes for us to feel happier and more contentment is to open our eyes and ‘see’ and appreciate the blessings of G-d.
In our family, my wife Nechama has started a tradition of going around the table during family meals and asking every participant to give thanks to Hashem for something specific.
I urge you to try it. What you will notice immediately is that it does not always come automatically. Some people struggle with trying to articulate what they thank Hashem for. Verbally articulating personal thanks to Hashem for something specific is a great way to upgrade your feelings of blessedness and gratitude to the Almighty.
When you know that you will be called upon to describe your appreciation to Hashem, you start paying more attention and ‘seeing’ the blessings.
Perhaps the meditation below can help.
A statistic I once read has stayed in my consciousness as it sounded quite frightening.
A survey taken in the USA showed that 59% of Americans are one paycheck away from being homeless.
Having a home is one of the primal needs of a person. Being displaced from one’s home and ‘out in the street’ is a real fear for those who cannot pay their rent.
I know this because people contact me for help from our community Tzedakah fund when they need urgent help. I sense fear in their voice when they describe their fear of being evicted by a landlord who has lost his patience with their inability to pay their rent on time. Being able to have a consistent roof over one’s head is uppermost in the list of human needs.
Come to think of it there is something much scarier which we don’t often think about which we don’t need a survey for. We all know it from observing life around us.
Health and life itself.
We have all heard of cases when someone who was young and healthy suddenly was not.
100% of humans are just one microbial infection, one blood clot, or one malignant cell away from dying. All it takes is for one thing to go wrong and G-d forbid….
That is a pretty scary thought that we don’t often like to think about.
So let us NOT think about it. Or rather let us now dwell on it.
To constantly focus on the things that do not go right is to ignore the myriad things that do go right.
Yes, it’s scary to contemplate homelessness and it’s tragic to those who suffer from it. We need to remain sensitive and compassionate and help those who need it. However, let us think about the fact that you and I are NOT homeless. How thankful we must be that we DO have a home. We ought to give thanks for the blessings that we have.
It’s the same thing with life and health.
The fact is that if you are reading this, you are alive.
This means that your body, with all of its myriad components, is working.
Let us praise Hashem for our physical health. For every breath. For the blood that flows through our veins unimpeded. For the trillions of healthy cells that do their job devotedly.
Let us praise the Master of the Universe for the symmetry in creation.
For all the blessings.
There is no reason to have ‘bad news’ dominate our psyche.
Good news abounds. It just doesn’t make good headlines like crises do.
So next time you are asked, ‘what would you like to thank Hashem for’, think of the trillions of things that are going right in your very own body.
Breath by breath.
Heartbeat by heartbeat.
Our internal digestive system is a huge miracle. There are 100 trillion microbial cells in our gut. Every time we go go the bathroom, we have to be thankful that they are all speaking to each other and cooperating.
The intricate design and cooperation required for opening our eyes in the morning is beyond miraculous.
Think of all the blessings that surround us all that we take for granted.
Make a good resolution to open your eyes and SEE the good that abounds from G-d.
I guarantee you that if you make an effort to notice and ‘count’ your blessings you will feel buoyant, uplifted and full of thanks to Hashem for His blessing.
This Shabbat is also called ‘Shabbat Mevarchim’ - ‘A Shabbat in which we bless’.
What do we bless?
The upcoming month. On Thursday and Friday will be Rosh Chodesh. The ‘head of the month’.
On the Shabbat before the Rosh Chodesh first day of the new month, we proclaim what day the new month will begin and pray and bless the month to be a month of ‘life and peace, jubilation and joy, salvation and comfort, AMEN’.
Shabbat Mevarchim comes before every month. Yet, when it comes to this month, there is a special ‘vibe’ and ‘energy’ that fills the air.
The month of Elul will begin.
This means we are one month away from Rosh Hashana.
Preparations for the new year begin during this upcoming month.
Elul is a month of accounting for the past year.
It’s a month of preparation for the coming year.
Preparing for the future responsibly requires honest appraisal of what transpired in the past.
In every successful business, the owner looks for ‘best practices’ and tries to strengthen them. As well as looking for things that have failed and discontinuing them.
One of the things that can be transformative in our lives and is a ‘best practice’, is being more mindful of the blessings in our lives.
The Alter Rebbe in describing the Divine energies that are beamed down to our world in preparation of Rosh Hashana, starting from Rosh Chodesh Elul, describes an analogy involving a king.
Before a king enters his city, its inhabitants go out to greet him and receive him in the field. At that time, anyone who so desires is granted permission [and can] approach him and greet him. He receives them all pleasantly, and shows a smiling countenance to all . . .
During the month of Elul, G-d is analogous to the king in the field. Hashem gives us the gift of being ‘approachable’ before the awesome High Holidays.
The Kabbalists taught that the month of Elul is a month of intense spiritual opportunity where G-d is radiantly accessible to each and every one of us. Just the way we are. Each of us can and should approach Him and put in our ‘pre-Rosh-Hashana’ requests for a Good and Sweet Year!
And may G-d bless you to have many more good things to SEE and to give gratitude for.

Shabbat Shalom
Chodesh Tov
Shana Tova
Rabbi Yosef Kantor

31/07/2026

This is a note that came into my inbox.

We are a shomer shabbat couple now living in Jerusalem. We arrive in Bangkok …. we would like to organize Shabbat meals for Shabbat. My wife has some food issues (Gluten free/eats fish but no meat or chicken) and avoids nightshade vegetables (potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, aubergine, eggplant).

It reminded me of just how complex it is to be responsible for providing people’s nutrition needs.

Pause and think for a moment about the awesome kindness and largesse of Almighty G-d.

In Tehillim 136:25 King David sums it up when he offers the following praise to Hashem:

Each and every day: He gives food to all flesh. God sustains all the creatures of the world, for His kindness is forever.

You think it’s hard to feed your family because one family member likes this and the other likes something totally different.

Think for a moment about the awesomeness of Hashem.

Hashem provides sustenance to ALL FLESH.

To humans with their eating requirements.

To the birds, the fish, the beasts and even to the bacteria.

This is one of the reasons that chapter 136 of Tehillim is called the ‘Hallel Hagadol’ the ‘Great Praise’.

It is so easy to lose perspective and not open our eyes to see the unearned kindness that the Creator of all flesh bestows unto us.

Let us ask ourselves to take the following test.

The Parsha this week gives two scenarios about what happens when we eat and get full.

You will eat, be satiated, and bless God, your God, for the good land He has given you. (Devarim 8:10)

lest you eat and be sated and … your heart grow haughty and you forget God. (Devarim 8:12-14)

If you are up to it, make an honest appraisal.

What happens to you when you are ‘satiated’ riding a wave of success?

Do you feel more grateful, humble and mindful of the needs of others?

Do you do what G-d wants you to do with success. Which is clearly to find ways of sharing your blessings with those who are less fortunate.

Or G-d forbid, does your hubris swell and you become more intolerant of others.

Does your swelling bank account now entice you to buying fleets of cars and other redundant excesses.

Built into a Jew’s life is a reminder about Hashem’s grace and kindness.

Every day we need to eat. After eating Hashem has instructed in the Torah that we thank Him.

The Birkat Hamazon – Grace after meals is one of the greatest prayers we say, albeit sometimes without enough kavana and meaning.

One of the very inspiring things about Jewish overnight and day camps is that they often sing the Birkat Hamazon in a melody that sticks in the mind of the child till they grow up.

I have met with people in their seventies who have forgotten almost all the prayers that they were raised with, but the Grace after meals is still fresh in their mind in the original Hebrew.

Because of camp.

One should never underestimate the power of inspiring moment during ‘unofficial’ learning experiences. Like fun camps. The kids are having fun, living more Jewish and doing mitzvahs and learning Torah in an enjoyable way. Without the rigidity and ‘triggers’ of ‘school’.

The Rebbe encouraged the opening of camps for children as a way of inculcating Yiddishkeit in a most effective and joyous way.

The first Chabad camp started seventy years ago and was named Gan Yisrael. Today Gan Yisrael camps span the globe.

I attended Camp Gan Yisrael as a child in Australia.

We have several branches of Gan Yisrael camps here in Thailand during the summer which injects identity, knowledge and mitzvahs into the minds and hearts of the Jewish children in Thailand.

In the summers of 1990 and 1991 I had the great merit to be a head-counsellor in the flagship Gan Yisrael in upstate NY. The highlight of the camp was returning to Brooklyn with the entire camp and praying Mincha with the Rebbe. This was followed by the Rebbe giving an inspiring talk of about an hour and then handing us - the head counsellors – packets of dimes (10 cent coins) to distribute three to each child who attended the camp. One for Tzedakah, the other for themselves and the third was left up to the child to choose whether it would go to tzedakah or spent on themselves.

When I think back to that incredible experience and meditate on it I realize just how much emphasis the Rebbe put on Chinuch – EDUCATION.

And I recognize that however much Jewish educational opportunities there are, it’s not enough.

We need more and more Torah education for our children, and for ourselves, so that Judaism can thrive and grow.

Back to the beauty and importance of thanking Hashem after meals.

Here is the first paragraph of the Birchat Hamazon.

Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, King of the universe, Who, in His goodness, provides sustenance for the entire world with grace, with kindness, and with mercy. He gives food to all flesh, for His kindness is everlasting. Through His great goodness to us continuously we do not lack [food], and may we never lack food, for the sake of His great Name. For He, benevolent G-d, provides nourishment and sustenance for all, does good to all, and prepares food for all His creatures whom He has created, as it is said: You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. Blessed are You, L-rd, Who provides food for all.

A relatively short blessing. But so chockablock full of inspiration.

Did you know that the author of this first paragraph of thanksgiving after food is Moshe Rabeinu?

What you may find even more breathtaking is that the food they were thanking G-d for, was the Heavenly Manna!!!!

It reminds us that while we may receive our bread in a more earthly way, through working and ‘hustling’, in reality it is really a gift from Hashem.

Let us become more grateful for the good that Hashem rains down upon us.

Especially, let us be more mindful of the greatest thing we can do in life.

Helping others!

Our Sages have told us we ought to cleave to Hashem by following in His ways, which is achieved by doing acts of benevolent kindness to others. Just as He does.

Appreciate your blessings more.

Give more to others.

May Hashem bless you with health, joy and nachas. As the Torah says, ‘if you bring joy to ‘mine’ (the unfortunates of society), I will bring joy to ‘yours’ (your loved ones).

As we are less than six weeks from Rosh Hashana let me get a headstart on that too.

SHANA TOVA,

Shabbat Shalom,

29/07/2026

BEST type of person

24/07/2026

Rabbi Sholom Glitzenshtayn of Chabad of Phuket presented a check to the Patong Hospital on behalf of the Jews who live in Thailand.

This will enable to hospital to buy lifesaving equipment for their ICU.

24/07/2026

A Holocaust survivor once shared something startling. She said that the hardest part of her experience was not the hellish years that she suffered in the concentration camps.

Rather, it was the period after her liberation.

When she realized even after the monstrosities they had endured, nothing had changed in the way Jews were treated in the world.

She explained: throughout the days, months and years of her suffering she and the kindred souls around her felt that they were living through the final spasms of the bitter exile that had begun after the destruction of the Bet Hamikdash.

Redemption by Mashiach is equated with birth. Birth is painful. They were hoping that the Holocaust which came after nearly two thousand years of wandering, suffering, inquisitions, crusades and pogroms was the climax that would herald in the existential change. They imagined that the abject suffering of the Holocaust, were the ‘birth pangs’ of Mashiach.

This was the way many Jews were framing this hideous inhumane period of epically painful suffering.

The way they understood it, after the war the Jewish people will enter a period of peace, acceptance and tolerance.

Hashem would bring Mashiach and banish the darkness.

In its place, would come light, freedom, peace and mutual tolerance among nations.

Alas.

The long awaited Mashiach didn’t come.

Nor did the world give the survivors even the briefest of respite.

The Jews who survived couldn’t even stay in the lands of their birth as the post holocaust period brought pogroms in Poland and rabid Jew hating in large parts of Eastern Europe.

And it wasn’t easy for those who moved to other countries. They suffered the indignities of immigration with all the hardships associated with it.

This realization, that after all their suffering, no major seismic shift took place, caused painful disillusionment.

Now as we emerge from Tisha B ’av I feel her words very strongly.

Alas.

While I have broken my fast and begin to ease out of the mourning restrictions in remembrance of the Bet Hamkidash’s destruction, I open the news and see that Mashiach has not come.

I am tempted to be disheartened.

But I know that it would be dead wrong to act like that.

Tisha B’av is not meant to pull us into depression.

On the contrary, after remembering the Bet Hamkidash so acutely, I ought to be charged with an intensity and energy to double and triple my efforts to bring Mashiach.

The only reason that Tisha B’av is still ‘celebrated’ nearly two thousand years later, is because we still believe and await the replacement and rebuilding of the Bet Hamikdash.

It is an annual reminder in the most powerful way that our hope is alive and strong.

If it was just about memories and being nostalgic about the past, Tisha Ba’v observance would have lasted a few decades and then petered out.

Tisha B’av has not petered out. Not at all.

In our times as in the hundreds of years before us, Tisha B’av is a real day of mourning. Eating eggs with ashes as an introductory meal to set the tone for the day. No eating and drinking for twenty-four hours. No bathing. Sitting on the floor. Eicha and Lamentations are read. Real tears are shed. We don’t distract ourselves even by learning regular Torah, we learn only the ‘sad’ parts, and we focus on the G-dly gifts that we lost.

Reading Eicha this year in Koh Phangan

And we remind ourselves in the most acute way possible about the incredible glorious, redeemed days of Mashiach that we look forward to.

This week’s Shabbos is called Shabbat Nachamu. The Shabbat of comfort.

It is important to understand what that doesn’t mean.

It doesn’t mean that now we can wipe away our tears and forget about the Bet Hamikdash.

Wipe away our tears to celebrate Shabbat, and to move forward with joy in serving G-d, but NOT to G-d forbid lessen our focus on the coming redemption.

We are comforted by the fact that we are even closer today to Mashiach’s coming than we were yesterday. We remind ourselves of G-d’s promise to comfort us. We project and visualize the positive outcome of this collective journey of Jewish history.

As I read the Kinnot (lamentations/dirges) this year I saw the following overall pattern.

We start by really taking to heart that today many years ago we lost our Bet Hamikdash. Over the years on this day we have continually suffered horrible and terrible tragedies.

Let’s cry.

Some of the kinnot pick up on the theme of why have we suffered? ‘It’s not fair’.

There is a comeback to that in some of the prayers.

‘Let’s face it. We have sinned’.

Yet another dirge asks the theological question.

We know that even before the world was created Hashem had this all planned out…

‘If G-d knew that we would sin even more after creation why are we held responsible?’

To which we respond. ‘Let’s face it. We sinned not because of anything preordained; we felt and had real choice and may have temporarily enjoyed the sin while we engaged in it’.

‘Ok’. We agree. ‘We haven’t been perfect’.

‘But, G-d, you said you would forgive us if we sin’. The Torah has a very big forgiveness clause.

‘Please forgive us’. ‘It’s too long already’. ‘We have ‘served our time’.

Another thing we bring up in the kinot.

The terrible PR our suffering is making for you, G-d.

Our oppressors are evil. Yet our enemies are smirking, laughing and being allowed to taunt us and get away with it. They think that they have vanquished You.

‘Almighty G-d, it’s not befitting YOUR honor’.

‘If not for us, then for YOU’.

And the prayers continue with another angle.

While we may not be perfect, let us point out the exemplary behavior of so many of Your people as they suffered and gave their lives to sanctify Your name without a word of complaint. Truly saintly behavior by myriads of your people who chose adherence to G-d over physical life. As impossible as it was to stay committed to G-d, most of our people made that choice, resulting in martyrdom for too many.

This reality, that Jews sometimes meander, but when faced with absolute anti-G-d and anti-semitism they fight back like lions, was reminded to me today.

A Jewish woman of S. African origin who lived in the islands of Thailand passed away earlier this week. She was not very involved in Jewish activity or identity. That changed on October 7th when the enemies attacked us and much of the world chose to name us as the aggressors. She began to use her Jewish name, and fought valiantly online with tens of thousands of followers, to stick up for her people and her G-d.

Today we brought her to a proper Jewish burial in our Jewish cemetery at Chachoengsao.

This is the kind of people G-d has. For decades she didn’t look like Judaism was the center of her life, but when challenged, she rose to the task and sanctified G-d’s name.

In the kinnot we highlight this. We may not be perfect at times, but deep down we committed to G-d more than to our own lives.

Isn’t it time to redeem us Almighty G-d?

We also mention in the Tisha B’av kinnot that as luring and inviting as the ‘big’ and ‘successful’ cities of the major world metropolises seem, we the Jewish people yearns for one country and one country alone.

The Jewish people have only every yearned, pined and hoped for ERETZ YISRAEL.

Our eternal homeland.

We certainly would never willingly give it up.

Within Israel it is YERUSHALAYIM that is the eternal capital of our people.

Within Yerushalayim, what we really yearn for is the rebuilding of the BET HAMIKDASH.

We introduce another angle in our Tisha B’av prayers. We call on our forefathers to defend us.

Our fathers symbolically stick up for us before G-d and say ‘it’s not fair’.

We, Avraham, Yitschak and Yaakov all sacrificed for You Almighty G-d. In our merit, please save our children.

To which Hashem replies.

Have no worries.

שובו תמימים למנוחתכם,

מלא אמלא כל משאלותיכם

, שלחתי בבלה למענכם

, הנני משובב גלות בניכם

‘Return to your rest, wholesome/pure ones (referring to our forefathers).

I will surely fulfil all your requests regarding redeeming your descendants.

I, Hashem, have exiled myself to Babylon with them,

So that I will return with your children from their exile’

This year when I read these words they filled me with deep emotion.

The prayer is reassuring us that Hashem is with us.

With each and every one of us. And with the collective of the Jewish people.

He is suffering alongside us.

עמו אנכי בצרה

And He (so to speak) waits to leave his self-imposed exile with us.

It is infinitely reassuring to know that G-d is here with us.

And simultaneously it places great responsibility on us.

We cannot and dare not emerge from this awareness with apathy.

It would be a mistake to say that now Tisha B’av is over and we can forget about the remembrance of the Bet Hamikdash and just relax and get on with summer vacation.

On the contrary. We are now fully turbo-charged with the awareness of how much we care for the Bet Hamkidash.

We have spent a full day thinking about how deeply we feel the absence of Hashem's revealed goodness and kindness in our world.

Every time we see a person suffer. Someone who gets ill. A person who loses a loved one too young. Or any other injustice, like the wicked people rejoicing while bad things seem to be happening to good people.

All the above seeming injustice is a symptom of Hashem’s light and glory being obscured by the exile that He has placed us and Himself in.

Hashem will end this state in the ‘blink of an eye’ by revealing His presence.

We need it to end. We need to act with urgency to get it to end. If not for our sake, then for Hashem’s sake we must end this galut exile.

Post Tisha Ba’v means even more awareness and heightened action and energy to bring Mashiach.

When the Rebbe visited the summer camp that he founded in New York in the 1950’s he was interested in seeing every single part of the campgrounds. Including the room into which they had shoved everything that they didn’t have a place for…

The Rebbe said he wanted to see ‘that’ room too. When they opened it, it was in total disarray. The guide offered a quick half-joking defense that its ‘zecher lechurban’ a remembrance to the destruction of the Temple. (Similar to breaking a glass under the chupa, there is a custom of leaving something unfinished in the home to remember that G-d’s House lays in ruins).

The Rebbe gently corrected him ‘zecher l’mikdash’ a remembrance to the Bet Hamikdash.

Tisha B’av more than anything else, reminds us that we have a glorious destiny.

We shouldn’t emerge from Tisha B’av crying. We should emerge mindful and resolute.

That there is a destination.

That the world is not ownerless and prone to being a perpetual jungle where the strongest beast wins G-d forbid.

The world is a Garden of Hashem.

Right now, it’s quite concealed.

Our hard work can change that!

Our unabated efforts, and concerted actions will hasten the day we all await.

WE WANT MASHIACH NOW

Let us add in acts of goodness and kindness,

Torah and Mitzvahs,

May we merit to open our eyes and in a split second see that he has come.

So that we can finally proclaim:

MASHIACH IS HERE.

AMEN

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Yosef Kantor

Jewish Thailand

14/08/2026

07/08/2026

31/07/2026

29/07/2026

24/07/2026

24/07/2026

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