Is Tel Aviv a holy city or not? A poll recently taken among residents claimed that it was not a holy city, but for Rabbi Eli Naiditch, the new Chabad representative living there, this was an unthinkable idea. He set out to prove that Tel Aviv is indeed a holy city and decided to do it in style, breaking a Guinness world record at the same time.
His idea was simple. Record a group of Chabad representatives wrapping tefillin with as many men as possible in one day, send the clips to Guiness and at the same time prove emphatically that Tel Aviv is indeed a holy city.
Naiditch set up booths at four strategic locations in the city, manned them with his cohorts and worked solidly from 9:00 .a.m. until 7:00 .a.m. to entice people to perform this special mitzvah.
The results were spectacular: 262 people from all shades of Tel Aviv life donned tefillin during that day, four of them for the first time in their lives.In one place a grandfather and father said the priestly blessing to their children while wearing tefillin.
Naiditch will not know whether he has broken a world record for some months to come but he is convinced of one thing: "This is the greatest proof that Tel Aviv is absolutely a holy city, filled with holy people."