(VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)

US Ambassador Mr. David Friedman receives unconventional gift at the Hamodia Administrators’ Forum: Sefer Mishnah Brurah Chelek Gimmel. Friedman was deeply moved when Dirshu Nasi Rabbi Dovid Hofstedter, who presented him with the gift, expressed his heartfelt berachah that “The merit of the Chafetz Chaim should escort you with success throughout your mission.”

US Ambassador to Israel Mr. David Friedman, who attended the Hamodia Administrators’ Forum, was surprised and moved to receive the special gift of a Dirshu Edition Mishnah Brurah Chelek Gimmel which was presented to him by Rabbi Dovid Hofstedter, Nasi of Dirshu, the world’s largest organization promoting limud Torah. Today marks the commencement of Chelek Gimmel of Mishnah Brurah within the framework of the global learning project of Daf Yomi B’Halachah which spans 26 countries around the world. Rabbi Hofstedter expressed his heartfelt blessing to Ambassador Friedman that “The merit of the Chafetz Chaim, who was revered in his generation as a tzaddik and kadosh, should escort you with success throughout your mission.”

Yesterday, US Ambassador Friedman, who was invited to speak at the Hamodia Administrators’ Forum, met with Dirshu Nasi Rabbi Dovid Hofstedter. The Ambassador spoke passionately about the commitment to unite all sectors in the nation as the only means of achieving success, after which Rabbi Hofstedter presented him with the gift of the third volume of Mishnah Brurah. Rabbi Hofstedter explained that “Tomorrow (today), hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world will begin learning this sefer in the framework of Daf Yomi B’Halachah.”

The Ambassador was deeply impressed to hear about the scope of Dirshu’s Daf Yomi B’Halachah program. He expressed his belief that consistent, shared learning can be the key to bringing unity to Klal Yisrael. He also added that the charedi sector, which is trained from infancy to learn and delve into divrei Torah, appreciates the significance of unity and is thus capable of bridging among divided groups, and that, indeed, the merit of shared limud Torah will unite the nation upon its levels and sectors.

Dirshu Nasi Rabbi Dovid Hofstedter, who addressed the Forum after the Ambassador, related that when the Chafetz Chaim first arrived in White Russia, the Russian peasant farmers asked him to trod through their fields and thus bring blessing and bounty to their crops. “What the boorish peasant farmers understand,” he expressed, “we know, as well. And this is why we present you with this sefer of the Chafez Chaim, in whose merit you shall enjoy blessing and success in your crucial role.”

The Nasi further expounded upon the importance of this momentous day upon which tens of thousands around the world commence Hilchos Shabbos in Mishnah Brurah. He expressed the profound emotions that this event stirs in him personally as the son of Holocaust survivors who arrived on the shores of America and Canada 70 years ago as penniless refugees. “The Shabbos that they so lovingly and stringently observed and guarded is what safeguarded them throughout the generations.

“Each and every one of us must enhance our shemiras SHabbos,” expressed Rabbi Hofstedter fervently. “Only with constant learning and reviewing the intricate halachos of Shabbos will we merit truly keeping Shabbos with all its laws and stringencies and avoid, chas v’shalom, desecrating any of the countless hilchos Shabbos.”

(YWN Headquarters – NYC)