A ruthless fire spread through the town and destroyed the home of Reb DovBer, the Maggid of Mezritch. A child of eight years old, Reb DovBer tried to console his distraught mother.

“Why are you crying so much?” asked the child, “Should one cry because a house burned down?”

“No, my son,” she replied, “I am not weeping for the loss of the house, but for the document containing our family tree that was in the house. That document traced our family back to Reb Yochanan HaSandler, a direct descendent of King David and a disciple of Rabbi Akiva.”

“Don’t worry, mother,” the child answered, “I will start a new family tree.”

—From Sipurei Chassidim, Parshas Vaeira

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

 “Inside each school are books, desks, blackboards, computers and the world’s future.”
—Posted in Cheder Menachem’s teachers’ lounge