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From The Mail Box

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 5:45:00 PM

From our mailbox:

Dear Rabbi Marcus,

Upon reflection, we would like to donate this check in addition to the one we already sent to you for being so kind and caring to us during my husbands recent hospital stay.

We send our very best and warmest wishes to you and your family, and Rabbi Kantor and his family.

Sincerely yours,

Dear CJC,

We want to convey our gratitude for the gracious good wishes and the delicious meals that you provided.

We pray that G-d will give you blessings in abundance, shared with all your loved ones.

With love,

HSR

Dear Rabbi Marcus,

Thank you for your kindness and compassion. You made me feel as though someone really cared. I truly appreciate your help in a difficult time and how you reached out to me. All the calls. You are superb.

The enclosed two resumes are for your review. Please keep me in mind, as perhaps you hear of something that might fit my experience. I’m trying to give back, therefore, something in non-profit work would be awesome. I am in desperate need of a job A.S.A.P., therefore, even a general office, management, etc. Please keep me in mind. Again, thank you very much.

Sincerely,

From The Mail Box

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 5:36:00 PM

Lifting Spirits in South OC; The Circle in Action

From the mailbox:

Almost 3 years ago I faced a spiritual crisis in my life. I was in great emotional pain and all the years of personal therapy were not helping me to find a solution of how I could heal this situation. During this time I was at a Bar Mitzvah and the Rabbi spoke of the importance of forgiveness. After the ceremony I walked up and to my surprise I asked the Rabbi if I could speak with him. (At that time Judaism was not the first place I sought spiritual enlightenment.)

I told him my story and my struggle with forgiving those that had hurt me so deeply and yet told by one of the commandments that I was to honor them. He told me that the Rabbi’s had spent many years asking this same question and came to the belief that you forgive 3 times. These words were the beginning of my rebirth of my Judaic soul. I spent over a year meeting with this Rabbi on a monthly basis and looking deeper at my relationship with G-d and His place in my life.

A year ago I met Rabbi Marcus. My father who is in a retirement home kept telling me about this Rabbi who came to visit him at the home. Thinking he was delusional I did not pursue it. He kept telling me the Rabbi wanted to talk with me and gave me his phone number.

Reluctantly I called Rabbi Marcus. Why reluctantly? He was a Chabad Rabbi and I had been “taught and told” these people were radicals. Rabbi and I spoke and we agreed to meet. Feeling this would be best for my relationship with my dad I agreed to meet with him. Little did I know this would be the beginning of an amazing journey that would take me to a spiritual place I only dreamed I could get to.

At the first meeting I told Rabbi my truth about my relationship with my family and what I had been taught by my other Rabbi. Surprisingly he understood what I was saying and agreed with what I had been doing and encouraged me to continue to what was working for me and added that my only job as a son was to be a dutiful child. This was the relief I had been looking for.

Wanting to give something back I offered to provide services for free to any member who needed it. Rabbi invited me to study the Torah with him in order to understand the Chabad. I agreed to do this. Thus began a weekly study where it has become more of a deep personal relationship between 2 men of different lifestyles and lives intersecting and learning more about us while bringing me closer to my Judaic soul.

Today the reason G-d brought Rabbi Marcus into my life became clearer then it ever has. Due to an increased workload I have been unable to meet regularly with Rabbi as I had. In the midst of a painful experience I contacted Rabbi to share with him what was going on. He told me my emotional child was hurt and not to take what had occurred personally. Within moments I remembered what I had learned mere weeks ago about what Moses had stated when he came down from the mountain. “Thou shall not worship any other G-d but one.”

In this one moment a light came over me. I said to Rabbi, “I need to remember, that by giving others power I am forsaking the one and only G-d I pray to.” He laughed and said, “You are half way there.” I thanked him for once again being there when I needed spiritual solace and a reminder that in the end it always comes down to my letting go and letting G-d.

Everyday I sit and listen as people share their pain and joy with me. Everyday I use what I have been taught to help people find their own spiritual healing even if they are not aware of it. I am blessed that I chose to stop listening to the tapes that have been running all my life and started listening the one true voice G-d.

Keep it simple

Keep it spiritual

The Circle at Work

Tue, 1 Jun 2010 3:38:00 PM

To whom it may concern at The Chabad Circle:

The Mission Viejo Chabad Center has been an enormous blessing to all who attend their events. We began about 10 years ago with my daughter at that time participating in the Bat-Mitzvah teen program that was just starting. From that loving space, until now, my family and I have always felt a warm welcoming feeling anytime we have attended any event or service. Rabbi Marcus and his entire family are kind, loving and have a commitment to our continuous thirst for Torah.

We look forward to many years of building this loving space for prayer and spiritual growth.

Thank You!!

Many blessings,

Iris Rosenfeld- Ameen and family

Community Outreach

Mon, 10 May 2010 4:45:00 PM

Thank you so much CJC for arranging for on going visits to one of our patients GL. We greatly appreciate your willingness to provide support to our families.

DB of Haven Hospice

Thank You

Fri, 7 May 2010 5:07:00 PM

This is the first moment I have had, since I returned from FL, to sit down and thank both of you. I want to express my deepest gratitude for your continuing kindness. You are shining exampes of all that is beautiful and wondeful in the world. Your decency and care for those around you shines like a beacon for all to see and feel. I am eternally grateful to G-d that I have been given the oportunity to know you and your organization and I hope to be able to help in my own small way, carry the message to those around me.

Thank you again, and may G-d bless you and your family always