Usher Parnes is the moderator of Let’s Get Real with Coach Menachem, an online shiur with Menachem Bernfeld based in Lakewood, New Jersey
I moderate a weekly Zoom shiur that covers all topics related to Yidden and self-help.
Every Sunday night at 10, we host a prominent speaker, rabbi, influencer, or therapist. The guests discuss “their” topic — whatever that is, it’s something people appreciate, something they want to understand or gain perspective. Topics range from different areas in Yiddishkeit to life in general — things like “Elevating Our Marriages to a Higher Level” with Rabbi Sholom Kamenetsky; “How to Set Boundaries in a World with No Boundaries” with Rabbi Yosef Elefant, a maggid shiur in the Mir in Israel; “We’re Doing It All But We’re Missing the Point” with Rabbi Benzion Twerski; and anxiety, depression, personality disorders, and more.
Menachem is my neighbor and best friend. At the onset of Covid, when we were all quarantining, I was talking with the men in our Presidential Estates neighborhood about how much we missed the social interaction we used to get in shul. We were Zooming daf yomi at night, 20 to 25 of us, and then we asked Menachem, who’s a life coach, to give a short presentation on Zoom about things we could do or think about in these uncertain times — we all really enjoyed it. One night, we decided to invite our friend Mordechai Weinberger, a social worker, to join us. We asked The Lakewood Scoop to spread the word; that night, 400 people logged on to watch. That’s when we realized the world needs this.
Next, we asked social worker Rabbi Shlomie Schwartzberg to join us — this was at the end of April last year — and he spoke about “Going Back to Normal When Things Are Not Normal.” He was followed by social worker Rabbi Yaakov Salomon, who spoke about “Deeper Meaning in These Unprecedented Times,” a powerful shiur that included his reflections on his personal near-death Covid experience.
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