About 2,500 people showed up Tuesday evening at Beit El, in the Binyamin region north of Jerusalem, to watch a performance by hassidic music great Avraham Fried.
"Allow me to open this evening with a special blessing,” Fried opened. “After 30 years in which I have been wandering the globe, I can say 'shehecheyanu vekiyemanu vehigianu leBeit El.'”
The “shehecheyanu” blessing is uttered when one arrives at a particularly meaningful location, event or station in life.
"In this place,” he continued, “one cannot but think of the holy forefathers. This whole matter of dreams coming true, began here.” He was referring, of course, to Jacob's dream of a ladder to the heavens, as described in the Torah.
The Chairman of Mifal Hapayis state lotteries, Major General (res.) Uzi Dayan, also participated in the evening. He said that he had visited the Golan region in the morning and that it was a miracle that Israel did not transfer the Golan into Syrian hands. He made clear that Israel must preserve “its one and only eastern border” – the Jordan Valley.
Other participants included Dep. Minister Eli Ben-Dahan, MKs Nissan Slomiansky and Yoni Chetboun (Jewish Home) and local government heads from Judea and Samaria.