More than 150 women from the Highland Park/Edison communities gathered at Congregation Ohr Torah in Edison last weekend for a dessert reception in support of the Lefkovits Family Park Mikvah located in Highland Park.
After two years featuring concerts for women and girls, this event, “An Evening of CommUNITY,” provided an opportunity for all Jewish women to come together to learn, connect, and elevate their purpose while enjoying a delicious dessert buffet.
“We need a community mikvah, supported by young and ‘older’ women,” said Debbie Schneider of Edison. Shaindee Goldstein, also of Edison, added, “It is an amazing event where you get to meet people from across the entire community.” Rivka Sonts of Highland Park was delighted to see the Jewish unity of the women of Highland Park and Edison supporting the mikvah, “a pillar of Jewish life, and to hear an absolutely incredible speaker share words of chizuk.”
Guest speaker Jackie Bitton’s relevant and timely topic, “Staying Sane in an Insane World, With a Purim Simcha Twist” presented key points for dealing with difficulties and living b’simcha while reducing levels of stress. Bitton, of Brooklyn, has been a long-time teacher in both the Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities and is presently the dean of students in YDE Girls Yeshiva, provides weekly shiurim/podcasts, and has spoken in many communities nationally and internationally and at many programs and shabbatons.
The program began with a group recitation of Tehillim led by Sharon Golubchuk, who noted that “Tehillim repels calamities,” especially when said by such a heartfelt group.
Following an introduction, Bitton dove right in. “Welcome to the world of crazy! Welcome to the world where we feel stressed, are underpaid, underappreciated and overworked.” She then provided four main ideas to help navigate such a world using true stories, parables, Torah teachings and other tools to captivate the audience and provide solid actions that can be taken to help us each day.
- Live With Hashem—Noting how safe a child feels in the arms of their parents and how they know their needs will be taken care of, we too need to feel as though we are being taken care of by Hashem. “It’s all good as long as we know Hashem is with us.” We may question some of what is happening, but we need to internalize that Hashem is with us always and everything is done for our benefit.
- Pockets of the Heart—A concept where we set aside those difficult emotions that may tend to overwhelm us. There is a time and a place for those emotions, but they may need to be set aside for later so we can do the day-to-day actions that are necessary for work and family life. Sometimes we need to be strong for others and cannot fall apart. Pockets of the Heart allow us to deal with the heavy emotions when they will not conflict with other activities. It isn’t a contradiction to handle multiple conflicting emotions at the same time. We can be happy on Purim even while experiencing suffering for the hostages or in personal situations.
- Bring Light to Others—To bring light, we first must understand darkness. The darkness of Egypt was so thick that people were paralyzed in place. Light is brought by helping others. Prayer, repentance, charitable acts redeem all of us and bring light. If we help someone else, the actions will always come back to help us later. “Everyone can be a flashlight to bring light to someone else,” Bitton said. “We just need to remember to ‘turn ourselves on.’”
- Live in Simcha—There is a large difference between thriving and merely surviving. Happy people are more naturally resilient and have more joy. Our thoughts have the power to guide our happiness. The Hebrew words b’simcha and machshava contain the same letters. Your thoughts control your happiness; you can choose your direction. “You can’t control everything, but you can control your attitude.” Focus on what you have, not what you are lacking and you will feel blessed.
Concluding with the importance of creating and keeping a gratitude journal, Bitton noted that Hashem sees we are working on bettering ourselves which will help bring along the Geulah. She added that the mikvah is the salvation of a Jewish marriage, and that she was honored to speak for such a worthy cause.
Event organizer Marla Rottenstreich of Edison was delighted to see the large turnout that filled the room and exceeded expectations, requiring additional seating to be added multiple times. “With the time change on the clocks and so many other community events the same weekend, we were not sure how it would turn out.”
The spa-like, luxurious Lefkovits Family Park Mikvah has grown and expanded since 1969 when the small but growing community of Highland Park/Edison felt a local mikvah was essential to serve the community and facilitate its growth. Under the supervision of the Vaad Harabonim of Raritan Valley, the mikvah offers appointments during regularly scheduled hours of operation, but is flexible and can accommodate other hours and special needs. For more information, donations, and volunteer opportunities, visit https://parkmikvah.org/
