Just before attending a news conference with the international press on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first had some important to business to take care of: writing a letter in a new Torah scroll started by Agudat Chasidei Chabad of Israel in the merit of soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces.
As he prepared to make his first public appearance since the beginning of the 72-hour cease-fire that ended Friday morning, the prime minister took part in what he called an especially moving ceremony, and said of the upcoming press conference: “There, I will do again what the Rebbe (Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory) told me to do decades ago—to light a small candle in the great darkness of lies that surround us.”
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Aharonov, director of the Chabad Youth Organization in Israel, invited the prime minister to hold the quill pen and write a letter in the first verse of the Torah. He stated that in Jewish tradition, the letters of the Torah have special protective merit.
Using a quill pen, he inscribed a letter on the parchment scroll. Letters in the Torah scroll with be dedicated to each and every soldier in the IDF—those currently in service and reservists.
“We all value our soldiers, our heroes who are fighting in this just fight to protect our citizens,” said Netanyahu.
Aharonov said “we are assured that every soldier for whom a letter has been written in this special Torah will feel a measure of security. In our tradition, the letters of the Torah are especially potent with regards to safety and security, and we felt it incumbent upon us to deploy this spiritual means of security for our troops.”
Netanyahu also revealed that on Shabbat during the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza, that “the only time that I have a few minutes with my family, we read the weekly Torah portion at the end of our Shabbat meal together, and this gives us a lot of strength.”
Also accompanying the prime minister were Rabbi Yitzchok Yehuda Yaroslavsky, secretary of the Association of Chabad Rabbis in Israel; Rabbi Yisrael Halperin, shaliach to Herzliya; mayor of Kfar Chabad Rabbi Benyamin Lifshitz; and Rabbi Uriel Lemberg, general-secretary of Agudat Chasidei Chabad.
Halperin told how he served under the prime minister’s older brother, Yonatan Netanyahu, who died leading the Operation Entebbe hostage-rescue mission in 1976. Halperin said how when he served, he had prepared to give Yoni tefillin, but he did not get the chance. “Now, I want to finally close the circle and give [you] the tefillin that I wanted to give Yoni.”
The premier received the tefillin with tears in his eyes.
Aharonov emphasized the importance of encouraging Jewish men everywhere to don tefillin, pointing to the “Tefillin Campaign” launched by the Rebbe before the Six-Day War in 1967, noting that: “The nations of the world will see that the name of G d is called upon you, and they will fear you.” (Deuteronomy 28:10)
(Source: Chabad.org)
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13 Responses
They probably told him to be “meharher b’tshuva” before the act…
He may have passuled the Sefer.
Hopefully it was scratched out thereafter.
can someone please explain to me how such a S”T is kosher, if a mechalel shabbos person is participating in the writing ?
The answer is obvious.
Regarding the question of how one who may not be fully shomer Shabbos can write a letter in a sefer Torah – in short there are some poskim who allow it if the sofer stands behind him and instructs him to write l’Sheim Shamayim. In fact Minchas Elazar (vol 2, siman 24) discusses that if such people would be excluded from writing it would create hostility.
For more info see “The Rebbe’s Mivtzyoim” and the chapter “Mivtza Os BeSefer Torah” which discusses how the Rebbe strongly encourages this for the safety of the soldiers.
1 – 4: So soon after Tish’a B’Av. You should be ashamed.
You would be surprise how many letters in the sifrei Torah in YOUR shul were “written” by non-observant Jews.
Ask your Rav how this is halachically possible. Then ask your Rav how to do teshuva for lashon harah.
Elul is almost upon us. Stop being judgmental about Yenem’s frumkeit.
everyone knows that bibi is a fan of lubavitch
How could they let such a person write a letter in a Sefer Torah …………… It could be pasul
Kvetcher:
Lol;)
But dont start THAT discussion here, its been spoken about plenty in the coffee room….
So, in other words, according to the first 3 Gedolim who posted here, the five Chabad rabbonim mentioned here are all am ha’aratzim and don’t know a halacha. Is this correct?
From ‘Yalkut Yosef’:
במקומות רבים נוהגים שכאשר מכניסים ספר תורה חדש, מניחים בסוף התורה כמה אותיות מופסקות כדי לכבד תלמידי חכמים ואנשים נכבדים למלאת את האותיות בדיו, ויש להזהיר לומר קודם שיכתבו “לשם קדושת ספר תורה”. ואין לנשים ולקטנים לכתוב אותיות אלה. אך נער בן י”ג שנה ויום אחד מותר לו לכתוב אותיות אלה, ואם מכרו את השלמת האותיות, וקנו זאת אנשים שאינם מהוגנים, כגון מחללי שבת בפרהסיא וכדו’, והם משלימים את צורת האות, נמצא שעל ידי אותו אדם הספר תורה נעשה כשר לקריאה. והרי ישראל מחלל שבת פסול לכתוב ספר תורה. ולכן יש לנהוג שהסופר יכתוב את האותיות שלימות, ורק באמצע כל אות ישאיר חלל ריק, ואחר כך בעת חגיגת הכנסת הספר תורה ימלאו את האות בדיו, ונמצא שגם בלא כתיבה זו הספר תורה כשר, שאם יש אות באופן כזה שאינה מלאה בחללה, כיון שיש כאן צורת אות, הספר תורה כשר. ונמצא שהחילוני שממלא את האות אינו גורם להכשר הספר תורה. ויש חולקים ומצריכים שהסופר יעביר קולמוס לשמה על אותן אותיות. ויש אומרים שאין העברת קולמוס מועילה בזה. [ילקוט יוסף על הלכות ציצית ותפילין, הוצאת תשס”ו, עמוד תקנב].