One JewishMOM’s Testimonial: Rabbi Nivin’s Personal Development Chabura Made My Dream Come True

One JewishMOM’s Testimonial: Rabbi Nivin’s Personal Development Chabura Made My Dream Come True

In 10 days, my teacher, life coach Rabbi Aryeh Nivin will be starting a new Personal Development Chabura. I highly recommend this life-altering Chabura to every JewishMOM reading this. For me, the Chabura has improved my life DRAMATICALLY in so many ways. The first 3 classes will be a no-obligation free trial, and every JewishMOM.com reader who signs up for the free trial will automatically enter the raffle to win a free 12-week course registration (worth $150). This means that you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain by trying this out.

I cannot tell you how many Emails I’ve received over the years from JewishMOMs thanking me for telling them about this phenomenal course. Who knows, maybe in a few months you’ll be sending me an Email like that too;)

Read one mother’s story about how Rabbi Nivin’s Chabura enabled her dream to come true…

My dream Shabbos.

Light candles. Relax on the sofa reading an inspirational Torah book. Gaze at the Shabbos lights reflecting on my week and thanking Hashem for all of the blessings it contained. And then davening Kabbalas Shabbos prayers with kavana in the glowing tranquility of my living room.

However, my actual Shabbos is very different from my dream Shabbos.

My younger children are usually clamoring at me, insisting that I read them books or play with them. If I am not completely available, they tend to begin fighting to get my attention. For that reason, I have relinquished my Friday night reflections and prayers; instead reading “Arthur” and “Encyclopedia Brown” or playing chess or “house” while my husband is at shul. Additionally, once it became clear that the shul playroom did not work well for my high energy son, I gave up going to shul on Shabbos mornings as well.

Intellectually, I know I am blessed to have children, and I realize that I am doing what God truly wants from me. More than He wants me to pray or feel inspired, His desire is that I give my children the attention and warmth that they need. So that is what I have been doing, week in and week out, for over a year.

However, when Rosh Hashana was coming, I thought I might need a change. In the past I had switched off with my neighbor, taking turns watching each other’s children so that we would both get a chance to daven in shul, however her sister and family would be visiting this year, so that arrangement would not work this year. I tried asking around to find babysitters or to partner with other mothers, but I could find nothing that would be appropriate for my children.

I realized that while it had been all right for me to stretch myself during the year, I would be very frustrated over the Yamim Noraim (High Holidays) not to be in shul at all. So I decided to apply a module called “Chutzpadik Masterminding” that I had learned in Rabbi Aryeh Nivin’s Personal Development Chabura.

Rabbi Nivin taught us that it is not a Torah value to be a long-suffering martyr. And I felt it was not authentic for me personally to stay home the whole Rosh Hashana.

It became clear to me that while it seemed that it was Hashem’s will that I spend at least some time in shul, and although I couldn’t figure out how to do it, I believed that Hashem could make it happen…somehow. As Rabbi Nivin had taught us, I worked on raising my “ratzon” (desire) to find a solution to my problem as well as raising my trust in Hashem that He could bring me a solution that I couldn’t think of.

By erev Yom Tov, I had pretty much called every single babysitter I could think of. But I still was open to Hashem sending me a solution. I went to the Kosher Market and when I saw a friend, the idea popped into my head to ask her about her 10-year old twin boys. I thought they might be old enough to babysit together, but not quite old enough to be able to sit in shul for most of the day. So I asked her if she thought they were interested in babysitting.

Amazingly the twins were thrilled to have the opportunity to babysit and their mother even thanked me! Since this was their first foray into babysitting, their rate was especially reasonable. Not only did I get to daven in shul, which was very inspirational for me, but my children had a blast! These boys were fun, caring, and very responsible. My children were so happy playing with them that they asked for them to come again and again. And so they did.

I was blown away by the power of “Chutzpadik Masterminding”. I had gotten so much more than I could have even believed was possible! The twins were available for me throughout the entire Yom Tov season, whenever I wanted to go daven at shul. As my seven year old son said: “It was a win-win situation.” Even now, many months later, when I feel the need to get some time off on Shabbos to go to shul, the twins are often available to help.

I am truly grateful to Rabbi Nivin for teaching me these concepts and helping me, in general, to live a life I love!

Click here to learn more about the 3-week free Chabura trial starting in 10 days…

3 comments

  1. Hi! I am a reader of JewishMom – you convinved me to sign up for the free trial. Please enter me into the raffle. Thanks for the encouragement!

  2. I’m pleased it worked for her, but I would feel very nervous leaving my kids with 2 10year old boys, particularly as she describes one as “high energy”!

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