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| Rabbi Peretz Chein, executive director of the Chabad House at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. With group visitng terror victim in Israel. |
Israel is once again the hotbed of terrorist attacks, and it’s become an uneasy time for some people to visit the Holy Land. But for Rabbi Sholom Raichik, director of Chabad of Upper Montgomery County in Gaithersburg, Md., and Rabbi Peretz Chein, executive director of the Chabad House at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., now is just the right time.
Working with Chabad’s Terror Victims Project, both brought delegations from abroad to comfort victims of terror and demonstrate solidarity with the Israeli people.
Raichik’s delegation spent 36 hours in Israel. They came straight from the airport outside of Tel Aviv to Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva to visit those who had been wounded in the Oct. 18 attack at the central bus station there, in which a 19-year-old Israeli Defense Forces soldier was killed.
The group also went to the grave of Alon Govberg, who was killed last week in a bus attack in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv. Reported Raichik: “He has no family in Israel to visit his grave. We went today and had a minyan to say Tehillim andKaddish marking the end of the shiva[mourning] period.”
According to victims and their families, the visits brought hope and encouragement to their profoundly changed lives.
Also accompanied by CTVP, Chein brought his delegation from Brandeis University, with students publicizing the trip, raising money for it and bringing a banner with many names of students at Brandeis who stand in solidarity with Israel.
On their second day there, they went to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in Jerusalem to spend time in the hospital with victims of terror and their families. The recovering ranged from an elderly man who had been stabbed near his brain and an Israeli soldier who was attacked by a terrorist to a family whose son lay in a coma and an elderly woman whose husband of many decades had been shot and stabbed; he, too, was in a coma.
Each stop along their way—as they sat and listened to harrowing story after story—they made it a point to sing inspiring songs, lifting spirits as best they could.
Rabbi Chein and Rabbi Menachem Kutner, director of Chabad Terror Victims Project visit the hospitalized.
Continued Calls for Mitzvahs, Torah Study and Prayer
In addition to prayers for the wounded, there were also calls by rabbinic leaders around the world for increases in Torah study, prayer and other mitzvahs, in addition to donning tefillin. For suggestions of what Jewish people around the world can do to help their brethren in Israel, read the article 7 Things You Can Do for Israel Today here.
The tefillin campaign comes in light of instructions given by the Rebbe, RabbiMenachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, who had issued a similar call during other dangerous times in Israel. Before the outbreak of the June 1967 war, for example, the Rebbe prompted an active campaign for Jewish males over the age of 13 to perform the mitzvah of tefillin.
Wrapping tefillin is part of the Rebbe’s 10 mitzvah campaigns introduced between the years of 1967 and 1976, which formed the platform upon which the Rebbe’s far-reaching program to revitalize Jewish life and observance throughout the world was built.
The laying of tefillin instills fear in the enemy, explain the sages of the Talmud, quoting: “Then all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of the Lord is called upon you, and they will fear you.” (Deuteronomy 28:10).
The rabbis brought delegations from abroad to comfort victims of terror and demonstrate solidarity with the Israeli people.
New List of Injured is Released
As attacks continued, the Chabad Terror Victims Project (ctvp.org) released an updated list of those injured in recent terrorist attacks.
The public is asked to continue their prayers for their speedy and complete recovery. It is customary for petitions for recovery to be recited in synagogue on the Sabbath and on other days when the Torah is read in public.
Here is a list as of Friday, Oct. 23. Names will be added and deleted as they become available.
Odel bat Miryam
Natan ben Odel
Moshe ben Orli
Meir Yitzchak ben Sara
Aharon Moshe Chaim ben Chaya Chana
Dvir ben Shoshana
Avraham ben Rut
Ron Shai bat Sigalit
Adi ben Rut
Niv ben Yardena
Moshe ben Daizy
Meor Efrayim ben Furtuna Daniela
Moshe ben Edgach
Liat bat Yael
Orla bat Limor
Yosef Chaim ben Zahava
Neur Shalev ben Rut Elisheva
Yom Tov Lipa ben Roiza
Yair ben Rozia
Samuel Ono ben Antonio
Shoshana bat Lulu
Moshe ben Bracha
Maya bat Ilana
Ron ben Chana
Adiv ben Furtuna Mazal
Daniel Chaim ben Revital
Refael ben Atel
David ben Shoshana
Alon Chaim ben Rita Hacohen
Yehonatan Amiran ben Miryam
Pesach ben Rachel Miryam Haddasah
Yarden ben Orly
Mital Dikla bat Ninat
To assist wounded Israelis and the work of CTVP, which provides financial, emotional and practical support to those suffering from terror, see:http://www.ctvp.org/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/1126571/jewish/Donate.htm.
For more news, opinion, inspiration, advice and first-person articles on the October 2015 Wave of Terror in Israel, visit the special Chabad.org section here.
Showing support for security personnell.
Rabbi Sholom Raichik, director of Chabad of Upper Montgomery County in Gaithersburg, Md., with IDF soldiers.
According to victims and their families, the visits brought hope and encouragement to their profoundly changed lives.
Raichik helps a border policeman don tefillin.
The visitors spent time both in hospitals and meeting with soldiers and police officers.
BY CHABAD.ORG STAFF
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