Wasilla Public Library, Mat-Su Jewish Center host nationally-known author

The Wasilla Public Library and Mat-Su Jewish Center Chabad hosted author Rabbi Levi Shmotkin on his international book signing tour during the evening of May 6.

Rabbi Shmotkin’s book, "Letters for Life", reflects on the wisdom of renowned Jewish sage the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, through a compilation of letters he shared with thousands of people throughout his life. Rabbi Shmotkin spoke to a large crowd, sharing his reflections on the letters he had read and the lessons that he interpreted from the Rebbe and implemented into his own life.

The Rebbe had the ability to pull wisdom from over 3000 years of Jewish history and teachings to help people from all over the world solve conflicts in their contemporary, everyday lives. Thousands of people over the years shared correspondences, both in person and through letters, with the Rebbe seeking his advice and wisdom.

Prior to the main speaker, Mat-Su Jewish Center Chabad Director Rabbi Mendy Greenberg, MY House Founder and Executive Director Michelle Overstreet, REACH 907 Founder and Executive Director Rachel Olson, and President of the Mat-Su Borough School District Kathy McCollum, reflected on the book.

A wonderful dinner was provided for guests, including pita bread, falafel and chicken shawarma. Friends chatted and visited with one another before and after the event while children played games and enjoyed a ventriloquism show and face painting in the library’s lobby.

On each chair was a small plastic coin jar in the shape of an ark for each guest to take home. The ark stands for “Acts of Random Kindness,” and is designed so that people can practice acts of kindness by donating small amounts of charity every day. These aspects were a part of the Rebbe's desire to increase acts of goodness and kindness.

The question that Rabbi Shmotkin addresses in his book is why do people, in a day and time when opportunities to connect with others and access to information seem nearly infinite, still feel so isolated and alone?

“You live in one of the most prosperous times in history,” Rabbi Shmotkin said to the audience. “We have the ability to work, we have the ability to grow, thank God we live in a free country. We know more than we ever did, we have more research than ever before. And yet, despite all of that, it seems that more and more of us are sensing something inside us hurting. A sense of pain, a sense of isolation, a sense of fear. A sense of loneliness.”

Rabbi Shmotkin spoke of his own darkness and isolation he felt as he became a young adult. He spoke about how for a period of his life he felt lost and disconnected to others. It was then that he decided he needed to find a higher wisdom to find joy and a new purpose in life. It was then he began consuming the Rebbe’s counseling through his letters of correspondence.

“I’m reading the letters and the lines start coming off the page,” Rabbi Shmoktin said. “And instead of feeling like they were talking to someone else, I felt like they were talking to me. They mirrored the experiences I was having, the fears I was having, the angst that I was having, the isolation. And they’re coming off and they’re touching me.”

As he read into the letters more, Rabbi Shmotkin began to notice the themes and recurring ideas that the Rebbe’s counseling referred to when advising others. Rabbi Shmotkin began implementing these teachings and themes into his own life and slowly started to feel a new sense of joy and peace.

“Slowly I started feeling this magnetic energy, this higher hand that was lifting me up from this dark place that I was in and slowly opening a window to a sunshine from another place,” Rabbi Shmotkin said. “A sense of joy came back to me, a sense of peace came back to me, and I think most importantly… a sense of gratitude.”

Through his book, Rabbi Shmotkin shares these letters with others, in hopes that they too can find an inner peace and a higher calling to do the work they were placed on this Earth to do. He shared practical lessons that those struggling today can implement into their own lives to enrich themselves and others based on the Rebbe’s teachings.

The evening ended with a short question and answer period with the audience and a book signing, where guests could speak individually with Rabbi Shmotkin. Community organizations that made the event possible included the Mat-Su Health Foundation, The Children’s Place, MY House, the Mat-Su Jewish Center Chabad, Make A Scene Media, Mat-Su Valley Big Cabbage Radio, Friends of Wasilla Public Library, REACH 907 and thrive Mat-Su.