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We Each Have a Purpose:

A Parents' Story

by Rabbi Yehuda and Laurie Minchenberg

children with special needs to care for. It’s a big job to do…go out
and do it! I know you are going to be great. I am with you every step
of the way. Talk to Me constantly throughout the day and you will
hear and see Me in everything that happens. These children of yours
are making the world a better place. And you are doing your part by
caring and nurturing for them. These neshamos require extreme
sensitivity and that is why I picked you to do it.”
Given such an important task, how else can we feel but extremely
loved by Hashem? It is not an easy job. There are many moments that
are less than glamorous. There are times when the frustration is
beyond what we think we can handle. And yet, there is that constant
knowledge forever present in the room reminding us that we did not
volunteer for this job; we were chosen by the Creator of the world to
fulfill it in the best possible way.

Just as important, we accept that we cannot do it alone, and we have
learned over time to recognize when Hashem is sending us help. One
Rabbi Yehuda Minchenberg and his son such moment in our lives was when we found SINAI Schools, almost
15 years ago. The educators and therapists at SINAI have been major
We are blessed to have a beautiful family, with six wonderful children. Malachim in allowing three of our children to develop in ways we
Four of them have special needs. know would not have been possible had we been left to figure things

A story we heard long ago about the Netziv, Rav Naftali Zvi Yehuda out ourselves. Each of our children has very different needs; SINAI has
Berlin, has framed our perspective and given us the ability to feel nurtured each of them based on their particular strengths and
truly blessed. At a siyum upon completing his famous sefer, The challenges, and has guided us as parents, holding our hands along
Ha’amek Sheila, the Netziv told his talmidim that as a young boy he the way. For that, and so much more, we are forever grateful.
had been less focused, until one day he overheard his father telling Although we don’t always know if we are doing our job correctly, we
someone that he was upset about his son’s inattentiveness. Realizing do know that every morning we are on a mission from Hashem, and
the pain he was causing his father was the push he needed to turn it is our responsibility to try to fulfill it. Through laughter and
things around, to become a serious student. “Imagine,” he said to the perseverance, we find meaning in seemingly trivial moments in order
assembled, “if I had not heard about my father’s distress. I would have to give us chizuk to keep pushing forward. And through our belief
grown up, living as a good Jew, and would have died without ever that Hashem has chosen us to be the parents of our special children,
having written seforim. In heaven, I would have been asked where we do feel blessed every single day.
The Ha’amek Sheila was and I would have thought they were
mistaking me for someone else. We each have a purpose in life.
Boruch Hashem, I was fortunate enough to overhear a conversation
which helped put me on the right path.”
It certainly would be easy to spend our lives feeling sorry for ourselves.
“How can this be? Life was not supposed to turn out this way. Why
were we chosen to have this “pekel”?
However, taking our cue from the Netziv, things look very different if
a person is confident in what he is supposed to be doing on a daily
basis.

Every day, people all over the world get up each morning and look at
themselves in the mirror. The fortunate ones see the purpose in their
lives, and are content with what they see. Those who are less
fortunate look and wonder, “What am I doing? Is this really how I The Minchenberg Family
want to spend my life? What is it I am supposed to be doing on this
earth?” Rabbi Yehuda and Laurie Minchenberg live in Passaic, NJ with their six children. Rabbi
Minchenberg is a rebbe at Yeshivat Noam in Paramus, and Laurie is an instructional
I feel that we are in the first camp. We wake up every morning, look in aide at YBH in Passaic. You can learn more about their family’s journey by watching
the mirror, and know exactly what we are supposed to be doing that SINAI’s acclaimed documentaries, Heroes (www.sinaischools.org/Heroes) and Heroes
day. We feel Hashem saying to us each and every day, “I gave you four Today (www.sinaischools.org/HeroesToday).