In a heart-warming display of unity, a delegation of North American rabbis of the Young Israel movement and Gerrer Hassidic rabbis in Israel gathered together this week for a charity mission. The pinnacle of the trip was the joyous presentation yesterday of six Torah scrolls to the IDF for use in remote outposts.
Organized by Rabbi Pesach Lerner, Executive Vice President of the National Council of Young Israel (NCYI), more than a dozen rabbis from all over the U.S. - Rabbi Shlomo Crandall of Indianapolis, Rabbi Reuven Fink of New Rochelle, NY, Rabbi Yaakov Vasser of New Brunswick, NJ, Rabbi Reuven Spalter of Oak Park, Michigan, and others - arrived in Israel for a whirlwind trip to visit an array of institutions providing important services to the wide public. These included the Ezra LaMarpeh medical referral organization of the Belzer Hassidim, the site of a new Gerrer-sponsored hospital to be built in Ashdod, the Meir Panim soup kitchen enterprise in Kiryat Arba and elsewhere, the Machpelah Cave, Hatzalah emergency medical services, and more.
The highlight of the Young Israel rabbis' trip was bringing six Torah Scrolls from the U.S. for use in the Israel Defense Forces, joyfully celebrated yesterday at the Beit El army base. Participants noted the palpable joy and emotion on the part of participating young Israeli soldiers, American rabbis and Belzer and Gerrer Hassidim.
With the delivery of the six Torah scrolls, Rabbi Lerner says that the total number of such Torahs brought from the U.S. to Israel is exactly 100. Speaking at the ceremony yesterday, NCYI President Shlomo Mostofsky said, "When [IDF Binyamin Region] Rabbi Yedidya Atlas asked Rabbi Pesach Lerner two years ago to help get Torah scrolls to many IDF outposts, we all thought this was an impossible task. After all, we knew how long it takes to write just one Torah scroll... Yet today, we have brought in our 100th Torah. Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman [a European Torah giant who was killed in the Holocaust - ed.] once said that the United States would be the 'last stop' for Torah before its final return to the Land of Israel. We see this happening here: Many of these Torah scrolls came from Europe, where they were written several decades ago, to the United States - and now they have been brought here to Israel, where they will be waiting for the rest of the Jews to return. Hopefully, we will return and use them not in the army, where they are now, but in an Israel that is at peace."
Among the participants were Chief Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger, IDF Chief Rabbi Col. Yisrael Weiss, Rabbi Zalman Melamed, Beit El Mayor Moshe Rosenbaum, and IDF Binyamin Region Commander Col. Mickey Edelstein. Col. Edelstein, presenting Rabbis Lerner and Mostofsky with a copy of the Keter Tzovah Bible, said, "We will continue to fulfill the mitzvah [commandment] of protecting the People of Israel."
Rabbi Amar spoke of the importance of Torah study for the preservation of the People of Israel, and blessed the army officers that they would continue to see blessing in their crucial work. Rabbi Metzger said that just like on the holiday of Simchat Torah, "we encircle the stand on which the Torah is read as a show of respect for those who study it, today too, we 'encircled' this important army base with the Torah scrolls as a sign of appreciation for the vital work that you do in protecting Jerusalem and the residents of this area."
Rabbi Metzger also noted that next week, he will be going with Rabbi Lerner to visit Jonathan Pollard in the latter's American prison cell. Earlier this month, Rabbis Lerner and Atlas accompanied IDF Chief Rabbi Weiss on a similar visit, and Rabbi Lerner said that the "immediate chemistry" between Rabbi Weiss and Pollard was "truly apparent and notable."
Organized by Rabbi Pesach Lerner, Executive Vice President of the National Council of Young Israel (NCYI), more than a dozen rabbis from all over the U.S. - Rabbi Shlomo Crandall of Indianapolis, Rabbi Reuven Fink of New Rochelle, NY, Rabbi Yaakov Vasser of New Brunswick, NJ, Rabbi Reuven Spalter of Oak Park, Michigan, and others - arrived in Israel for a whirlwind trip to visit an array of institutions providing important services to the wide public. These included the Ezra LaMarpeh medical referral organization of the Belzer Hassidim, the site of a new Gerrer-sponsored hospital to be built in Ashdod, the Meir Panim soup kitchen enterprise in Kiryat Arba and elsewhere, the Machpelah Cave, Hatzalah emergency medical services, and more.
The highlight of the Young Israel rabbis' trip was bringing six Torah Scrolls from the U.S. for use in the Israel Defense Forces, joyfully celebrated yesterday at the Beit El army base. Participants noted the palpable joy and emotion on the part of participating young Israeli soldiers, American rabbis and Belzer and Gerrer Hassidim.
With the delivery of the six Torah scrolls, Rabbi Lerner says that the total number of such Torahs brought from the U.S. to Israel is exactly 100. Speaking at the ceremony yesterday, NCYI President Shlomo Mostofsky said, "When [IDF Binyamin Region] Rabbi Yedidya Atlas asked Rabbi Pesach Lerner two years ago to help get Torah scrolls to many IDF outposts, we all thought this was an impossible task. After all, we knew how long it takes to write just one Torah scroll... Yet today, we have brought in our 100th Torah. Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman [a European Torah giant who was killed in the Holocaust - ed.] once said that the United States would be the 'last stop' for Torah before its final return to the Land of Israel. We see this happening here: Many of these Torah scrolls came from Europe, where they were written several decades ago, to the United States - and now they have been brought here to Israel, where they will be waiting for the rest of the Jews to return. Hopefully, we will return and use them not in the army, where they are now, but in an Israel that is at peace."
Among the participants were Chief Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger, IDF Chief Rabbi Col. Yisrael Weiss, Rabbi Zalman Melamed, Beit El Mayor Moshe Rosenbaum, and IDF Binyamin Region Commander Col. Mickey Edelstein. Col. Edelstein, presenting Rabbis Lerner and Mostofsky with a copy of the Keter Tzovah Bible, said, "We will continue to fulfill the mitzvah [commandment] of protecting the People of Israel."
Rabbi Amar spoke of the importance of Torah study for the preservation of the People of Israel, and blessed the army officers that they would continue to see blessing in their crucial work. Rabbi Metzger said that just like on the holiday of Simchat Torah, "we encircle the stand on which the Torah is read as a show of respect for those who study it, today too, we 'encircled' this important army base with the Torah scrolls as a sign of appreciation for the vital work that you do in protecting Jerusalem and the residents of this area."
Rabbi Metzger also noted that next week, he will be going with Rabbi Lerner to visit Jonathan Pollard in the latter's American prison cell. Earlier this month, Rabbis Lerner and Atlas accompanied IDF Chief Rabbi Weiss on a similar visit, and Rabbi Lerner said that the "immediate chemistry" between Rabbi Weiss and Pollard was "truly apparent and notable."