A viral video of Sefer Torahs being rescued during Hurricane Ida left all who saw it shaken…but was a personal shock to the 3 individuals who spearheaded the writing of one of them. The creators of the Unity Torah vow they are not deterred and will continue to unite Klal Yisroel.
As Hurricane Ida hit the New York tri-state area on Wednesday night, videos and photos began circulating on social media of the mayhem and destruction caused by the unprecedented massive flooding in the area.
One particularly riveting video showed an intense scene of Hatzalah volunteers standing in the drenching rain and in waist-high water, desperately rescuing Torah Scrolls from a basement synagogue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
While the sorrowful video of holy Torahs soaked and damaged caused pain to all who viewed it, it had extra significance for 3 individuals from Crown Heights.
Zalmy Cohen, a businessman from Crown Heights, watched the video on his cell phone, shared on a WhatsApp group of Hatzalah members.
Suddenly, as he watched the video again, something struck him like a lightning bolt.
“All of a sudden, when the person turned around, I could see the Torah’s Mantel-coat, and I realized – this is the Unity Sefer Torah,” Cohen tsaid.
The Unity Sefer Torah is the second Torah spearheaded by Cohen and two friends, Shloimy Greenwald and Beryl Junik. During the pandemic, the group had led the writing of two Torahs in the merit of the Jewish people worldwide, the first traveling to various Shuls in the New York area, and the second, written in the merit of Hatzalah members, was gifted to Hatzalah. The historic Torahs each united hundreds of thousands of Jewish people from across the globe who participated in the writing, and were completed in grand Siyum events which were streamed live around the world.
Devastated, Cohen immediately called his friend who had shared the video, and asked him to check if this was indeed the Unity Torah which had been gifted to Hatzalah, and was housed in a Shul in Williamsburg where many Hatzalah volunteers davened.
While his friend insisted it probably wasn’t, he nevertheless called the person in the video.
And so it was confirmed, the Unity Sefer Torah, completed last year in the merit of the Hatzalah organization, was one of four Torahs damaged in the storm.
“Hearing this, my heart dropped,” Cohen said. “This Torah was a project built on Achdus, on unity, how could this happen? It’s enough to make a person broken and sad,” he said.
“But the Rebbe always taught us not to get stuck in the darkness, but rather to rise to the challenge and bring more light,” he said.
The next morning, the Torah was brought to Crown Heights Sofer Rabbi Moshe Klein, who examined the Torah to see if there is any way to salvage or restore it.
Sadly, the Torah “may be damaged beyond repair,” Rabbi Klein said. While it is still being dried to ascertain whether or not it can be at least partially repaired, Rabbi Klein does not have much hope. “We will know more tomorrow,” he said. “As of now, it looks terrible.”
While the news is disheartening, the three creators of the first and second Unity Torahs are not deterred in their mission to bring unity, light, and goodness into this world.
“We will write another Torah,” Rabbi Shloimy Greenwald said. “Tonight is my birthday, and one of my hachlatos that I am pledging is that we will begin writing another Unity Torah, and will hold a Siyum during the next year,” he says resolutely.
“This happening before Rosh Hashana shows me that Hashem wants us to unite Klal Yisroel even more,” he said. “As the Rebbe once wrote to someone in Jerusalem whose Shul’s Torah had been destroyed, the Rebbe instructed him to begin writing a new Torah immediately, on the day of the Levaya of the first one.
“As we stand in the days before Rosh Hashana, one of the holiest days of the year, it’s the best opportunity to unite even more and to bring more goodness and kindness into the world. We will not be fazed by any challenges and obstacles in our way – we will unite as a family and bring as much achdus to Klal Yisroel that we can,” Greenwald said.
This article originally appeared on collive.com
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One Response
This Torah that was destroyed was a Bal Shem Tov Miracle Torah to stop COVID-19, a project of members of Chabad-Lubavitch from Crown Heights, who collected much money, from far and wide, for it, from people desperate to do what they could do against the plague, selling them the idea that this was a way to stop it.
If you look at the photo showing the cover of it, accompanying the writing above, you in fact see the words ספר תורה המופתי, meaning the Miracle Torah.
The fact is that the “Miracle Torah” did not accomplish what it was sold as, so now they are trying to cover up that fiasco and scam and just call it Unity Torah, not mentioning the miracle aspect, which drew so many frantic people in to it.