Soooooo this really isn’t Wrapunzel related, but because of my previous video, lots of Wrapunzel ladies have been writing asking how was my Shabbat Tisha B’Av birthday, so I made a video talking a little bit about what happened, and about giving berachot. For those that don’t know, berachot = blessings, and often people may ask themselves, “Who am I to be giving blessings?” Here’s my answer and lots more.
The Wrapunzel Blog 
Cake for Andrea’s birthday EVERY YEAR!
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Dear Andrea,thank you for this beautiful video!
I want to bless you and all the women who
watch Wrapunzel,with the blessing of Rebbetzin Kanievsky,of blessed memory,which she gave to the women who came to her.
It’s called “HAGEFEN”:
-Hatzlacha
-Gesundheit
-Parnassa
-Nachas
Much love and greetings from Holland,
Immy
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AMEN and gam lach!!!
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Dear Andrea:
I have posted links on my Twitter account in response to your video about your friend Kayla:)
My account is letter_cheer@ Letter_Cheer.
Thank you for everything!
Michele
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letter_cheer@LetterCheer
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Incredibly inspiring video! I watched your pre 9 b’Av video where you mentioned thst you don’t like to feel sad on this day.
During the fast I watched Rabbi Wallensteins shiur and I thought of you. He explained thst even on this day we need to feel a little happy because due to not having the best hamikdash, we have hashem’s schinah in our homes instead of having to GO to him, he is WITH us. And, until the beit hamikdash is rebuilt, we women can have the holy duties of the Cohen hagadol land light the menorah each Shabbat! So, may you continue to inspire us until your 120th birthday in health and joy! And, may we all eat cake and dance with our tambourine on your birthday next year.
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So true!!!
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Hello Andrea!
This is a wonderful video. I watched it last night and I’m still a bit speechless, how to explain my thoughts. This part about not feeling worthy, not being able to really, REALLY believe that redemption is possible… you said you were ashamed to admit it, but I thank you that you did. One can only understand – and maybe, hopefully overcome – those feelings if one dares to look at them and admit they exist.
I come from a different religious background, but I struggle with this same thing a lot. There are times when the awareness of how LOST we all are (not in the sense of “damned”, but in the sense of “a long way from home”) becomes just overwhelming. And then I think: I want home, I want it now… (and not just me, of course – redemption is not redemption if it doesn’t encompass every living thing in the world).
But then there are moments when I suddenly realise: It could happen NOW. Just think of it – what if it would happen NOW? And I realise how incredibly scared I am. I’m so scared, I’m not sure anymore I really want it to happen.
And part of it is feeling unworthy, but the other, and maybe the larger part is fear of the unknown. I’m a human being. There’s no way I could ever imagine the Infinite, the Eternal. There’s no way I could imagine what redemption is like. I feel that it’s needed, from knowing its opposite, but still – it’s the Ununderstandable, the necessarily Unknown. Where IT begins, all my understanding, all my thinking, all my imagining must stop. But if all these must stop, I feel like I would just fall apart, just dissolve, fall into an abyss of sheer nothing. And it scares me, it scares me so much I want to run away from it, from the one thing I need more than anything else, back into exile, back into the same state of existence that made me desperately wish for redemption in the first place.
Having faith, trusting the Unknown can be a very difficult thing. I think there’s nothing one can do to achieve it. I don’t mean that one should despair and give up and that one’s lost. No. What I mean is that one can’t just decide to have faith. One can’t produce it, build it, construct it. If one tries, if one wants to be sure to get rid of all fears and doubts, the result is only illusion. Faith can only grow by itself. And all one can do is let it grow, watch out for it with patience and encouragement. It’s like a plant. (I have quite a few plants, so this is the first comparison that comes to my mind. Tending one’s faith really feels like tending plants for me. No one can make a plant grow. All one can do is give it the light and earth and water it needs – and then trust it that it knows what it does.)
I love your idea with the tambourine and the clothes you set aside. For a moment, I thought: it’s great, why not do it myself. But I probably won’t (yet). Because I would just fake it. I’m not there yet. I’m not at 99% faith and 1% percent doubt but… I don’t know how many per cent. It’s a lot of doubt and fear. But sometimes, I even feel like that’s okay. The seed isn’t bad because it’s not a tree yet. It will find its way. And maybe this little bit of trust – this little thought of “it will find its way…” – is just the beginning of faith.
Well, a lot of sentences ago I said I feel speechless and now I talked that much. It happens all the time, when I start, I can’t stop. However, these are the thoughts your video made me think, as far as I can find words for them.
I watched a few other videos of you before (the more philosophical ones, I mean, beside the tutorials) but didn’t comment before, because in the beginning it always feels so difficult to find the right words, especially in a foreign language. But I want to thank you for them, because they are an inspiration.
With kind regards,
Sandra
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Sandra thank you THANK YOU for writing!!!
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