Monday Motivation with Rabbi Garfinkel
Jul 13, 2026 · 21 min · 8 segments
Life doesn't always go as we expect. Turning Plan B into Plan A is the great challenge of life...but that which makes it meaningful! Enjoy! Lots of love, Rabbi Garfinkel of Olami 613 Chicago
Again, not because of me, but because of the amazing things that Olami 613 is doing, and We had one of the most spectacular evenings I remember in recent history of our Jewish outreach work at Ulami 613 this past Wednesday.
We did our ongoing program called Living Their Light, which we mentioned last week, and it highlighted an amazing young woman who is sadly murdered and taken from us too soon on October 7th.
Her name was Neve Raviv.
She was involved with Olami's young professional outreach program in Israel.
and sadly was taken from us.
She excelled in the character trait of what we call of persistence, consistency, hard work ethic.
And so we took sources, Torah sources on that topic, how important it is to work hard and not to give up.
And it actually is gonna have a connection with the main theme tonight as well on our podcast.
We had several, over three dozen people there, young professionals, mentors from the community here in West Rogers Park and beyond coming together.
There are so many things that are right about this program.
It shows the love of one Jew for the other.
It shows that the power of Torah learning is a healing balm and also that one's legacy continues on even after we leave this world physically but if we make a positive impact spiritually then we are truly alive in many many ways we were and have been and continue to be in touch with tammy raviv who is neve's mother and she i'll just share with you what she said to us after The program, we sent her a bunch of videos and even testimonials from our young professionals, what it meant to them to learn in honor of Neve, but also the messages and how everyone said, boy, I needed to hear that message.
And so Tammy wrote back to Rabbi Marcus and me, wow.
This is overwhelming.
I'm so touched with many O's.
What a zachut.
Zachut is a merit.
What a merit.
Thank you for sharing.
I'm so glad that it was an inspiring evening with good learning.
And that is a mom who has suffered the most difficult, unspeakable tragedy of losing a child in a very, very difficult and violent way.
And yet she has been able to persevere and to use her persistence and has really been an inspiration to us as well.
So that was going on in Olami 613 this week.
And thank you for listening to that because it really is so consistent with why we do this podcast is because we're trying to get the messages out, the Torah messages, the positive Torah messages be it via the podcast, be it via our young professionals in downtown, in our center, in the shtetl, wherever it may be.
So thank you for listening and being part of this effort.
Again, not because of me, but because of the amazing things that Olami 613 is doing, and We had one of the most spectacular evenings I remember in recent history of our Jewish outreach work at Ulami 613 this past Wednesday.
We did our ongoing program called Living Their Light, which we mentioned last week, and it highlighted an amazing young woman who is sadly murdered and taken from us too soon on October 7th.
Her name was Neve Raviv.
She was involved with Olami's young professional outreach program in Israel.
and sadly was taken from us.
She excelled in the character trait of what we call of persistence, consistency, hard work ethic.
And so we took sources, Torah sources on that topic, how important it is to work hard and not to give up.
And it actually is gonna have a connection with the main theme tonight as well on our podcast.
We had several, over three dozen people there, young professionals, mentors from the community here in West Rogers Park and beyond coming together.
There are so many things that are right about this program.
It shows the love of one Jew for the other.
It shows that the power of Torah learning is a healing balm and also that one's legacy continues on even after we leave this world physically but if we make a positive impact spiritually then we are truly alive in many many ways we were and have been and continue to be in touch with tammy raviv who is neve's mother and she i'll just share with you what she said to us after The program, we sent her a bunch of videos and even testimonials from our young professionals, what it meant to them to learn in honor of Neve, but also the messages and how everyone said, boy, I needed to hear that message.
And so Tammy wrote back to Rabbi Marcus and me, wow.
This is overwhelming.
I'm so touched with many O's.
What a zachut.
Zachut is a merit.
What a merit.
Thank you for sharing.
I'm so glad that it was an inspiring evening with good learning.
And that is a mom who has suffered the most difficult, unspeakable tragedy of losing a child in a very, very difficult and violent way.
And yet she has been able to persevere and to use her persistence and has really been an inspiration to us as well.
So that was going on in Olami 613 this week.
And thank you for listening to that because it really is so consistent with why we do this podcast is because we're trying to get the messages out, the Torah messages, the positive Torah messages be it via the podcast, be it via our young professionals in downtown, in our center, in the shtetl, wherever it may be.
So thank you for listening and being part of this effort.
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