What is success? A Manatee house of worship to explore it

Mendy and Chanie Bukiet of Chabad of Bradenton & Lakewood Ranch have made thousands of decisions and taken thousands of steps as partners in marriage and life to get to where they are now.

Manatee County residents may recall that Rabbi Bukiet and Chanie came to Manatee 13 years ago and bought a home in East Manatee with the idea of starting a Jewish congregation in the county. That was a decision and a step. Then they started having Jewish services at their home, another step. Then, when neighbors complained about too many cars in their driveway, they began renting space here and there in Lakewood Ranch and diligently put up their Chabad of Bradenton & Lakewood Ranch sign wherever they went.

All that moving around went on for nearly a decade until the Bukiets discovered a private home on five acres on Lorraine Road in East Manatee about four years ago and, with the help of generous donations, were able to turn it into a permanent Chabad Center.

Now, there are Chabad services at 5712 Lorraine Road at 7 p.m. every Friday and at 9:30 a..m. every Saturday, a class by the rabbi at 9 a.m. every Saturday, a class on the Jewish holy book, The Talmad, at 7:30 p.m. every Monday and big turnouts for the high holidays.

So, Rabbi Bukiet wondered out loud last week, are he and Chanie now a success and previous to Lorriane Road they were not?

Does the fact that for about 10 years they had no permanent home for their congregation mean that they were not successful during those earlier steps?

No, the couple say.

Rabbi Bukiet believes that a man or woman is successful at each step, no matter how tiny they are, if all the steps are part of an overall plan.

“When we are working toward a goal, every breakthrough and every step in the right direction becomes another layer of success,” Rabbi Bukiet said. “Therefore, success is not limited to one number or one promotion. Once we grasp this, we realize that every single step is a successful step.”

Every Wednesday for the next six weeks, beginning Nov. 16, Rabbi Bukiet will deconstruct “success” in a course called, “How Success Thinks: Jewish Secrets for Leading a Productive Life.”

The 90-minute course begins at 7:30 p.m. costs $75 and includes a book, but Rabbi Bukiet said that anyone who can’t afford that and has a passion to take the course will be accommodated.

“We don’t turn anyone away from learning, ever,” the rabbi said last week at the Chabad Center.

“The course is designed to help people get more of what they want in life and less of what they don’t,” said Rabbi Zalman Abraham of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute in Brooklyn, which provides Bukiet courses like “Success” that he presents three times a year.

More than 25 people have signed up already for “Success,” but there are seats left, the rabbi said.

“Success actually starts with finding our mission and what our goals are,” Bukiet said. “Once we are able to find that, everything than begins automatically working towards that goal.”

But, how does a person find his or her mission? This is where the rabbi believes he has a gift. He reveals that he has a passion for unconditionally loving and helping people who can’t seem to locate their north star.

It was to fulfill that gift that started him on his own first successful steps toward success.

This story was originally published November 11, 2016 at 4:31 PM with the headline "What is success? A Manatee house of worship to explore it."