Episode Details

 EDITORS
NOTES One of the most significant contributors in assisting me
in learning how to deliver a speech or lecture was Rabbi Paysach Krohn, the
well-known fifth generation Mohel and modern-day Maggid and author. Rabbi Krohn
impressed upon me the importance of story telling in sharing ideas and getting
them to stick. Often someone who hears a story will give over the story with
its message and that’s the first step in lilmod ulelamed, in our requirement to
learn and teach. Stories with their emotional hook touch our hearts and our
souls and encourage us to ponder their life lessons. My father z’l, would tell
over his grandmother’s memories of sitting in the great synagogue in Baghdad
for hours at a time on Shabbat day hearing Rav Yosef Haim, the Ben Ish Chai
deliver his derasha which often ran three hours and by weaving in anecdotes and
stories he held onto the attention of a crowd of countless men, women and
children.  

Whenever I hear a good story, I take the time to write
it down and file it away for use later on. And often the act of writing it out
helps me to remember it. 

Each winter Shabbat, during lunch and before we pray
mincha gedolah, I have the opportunity to give an hour-long class. I typically
print out notes on Friday afternoon and prepare the class in my mind on Friday
night. This past Friday night I had prepared a class on Har Sinai and the
contrast with Har Sabor and Har Carmel based on the teachings of the Shvilei
Pinchas and on notes from Rabbi Yosef Farhi. But as we read the Torah that
morning, I looked at the crowd which included a group of ninth graders on a
Shabbaton that weekend and reconsidered. I instead recalled a five minute talk
given the day before by my friend Rabbi Ariel Mizrahi on jealousy, pulled some
volumes of the Talmud, the Ben Ish Chai and Ohr HaChaim on the Perasha and with
Hashem’s help wove it into an hour long class with the help of stories and B’H,
the kahal was very involved and pleased. The secret was in the stories.  

This morning I