(Sample video of new DVD at end of this article)

One of the most important and frequent thoughts of a parent is “How can I imbue more Torah values into my children? What more can I do to arouse an unbounded love for Torah and Mitzvos within them?”. Kosher DVDs can provide a special opportunity to teach a rich Torah lesson in a manner that children will be spellbound – but where can you find such DVDs?

“Years ago, I would go to the Judaica Store and search for a DVD that was both entertaining as well as Torah appropriate for my children. I’d leave disappointed wondering why there were almost no DVDs available with entertaining and meaningful content.” says Mrs Erlenwein, Co-Founder and VP of Business Development for Torah Luminations. Torah Luminations provides the *only* high-quality, 3D animation DVDs for frum boys and girls ages 4-12 with hoskomos from Rabbonim and mechanchim.

“It’s been quite a journey with a tremendous amount of Hashgocha Protis. My husband went through Yeshivah and Kollel without any technical training. After we were married, he wanted to work with technology and was able to teach himself with computer books at night while being a melamed during the day. B’syata D’shmaya, he was able to get a job with Microsoft Corporation as a Software Test Engineer and later transitioned into programming. Eventually, he settled into consulting enterprise businesses on implementing emerging technologies for Microsoft. With my husband’s eleven years of professional experience working with advanced technologies at Microsoft Corporation, we decided to take that expertise and to create a service for the Frum community.”

Mrs. Erlenwein’s husband, Co-Founder, and Animator for Torah Luminations, Avrahom-Moishe shared “We wanted to produce something more advanced than puppet videos, more than just regular, 2D cartoons or videos with actors. We wanted to create something that is rare to see, vibrantly colorful and highly professional using 3D animation software. “Sipurei Tzaddikim” were a favorite of our children while they were growing up. As parents, we also cherished the timeless Torah values of simcha, bitachon, emunas Tzaddikim, yiras shomayim, ahavas yisroel and the toiling in limud haTorah that these stories had to offer. We wanted these values to be imbued by the children watching our videos. Our focus is to enchant children with a truly magical experience while watching videos based on classic Jewish stories and Torah values from the Midrash, history or “mesorah”. We design our videos to be cute, humorous, and yet profoundly educational. Our videos frequently quote Tanach, Mishnayos, and Gemara.”

With this kavanah and B’syata D’shmaya, Torah Luminations was founded.

Avrahom-Moishe Erlenwein, Co-Founder & Animator for Torah Luminations

Besides the technical challenge of making a high-quality DVD in 3D animation, something that is usually produced by a team of skilled professionals and requiring a very large budget ($100K – $1M per video), there was something else of even greater concern:

“Another animation studio had released a children’s DVD that had created a lot of controversy in the Frum world. We wanted to learn from that. We wanted everyone to feel comfortable and completely happy in allowing their children to watch our DVDs.”

Torah Luminations wanted to reach Jews across all the Frum communities in Lakewood, Flatbush, Boro Park, Crown Heights and even parts of Williamsburg.

“We took our DVDs to a couple of different Rabbonim and received their approval to put their name on our DVDs including HaRav Moshe Mordechai Lowy, the Agudah Rav of Toronto. He said he would be happy to personally review all of our content and endorse our work. This past summer, HaRav Lowy also provided us with a letter that not only states his hoskomo but also encourages parents as well as grandparents to purchase our videos for their children or ayniklach.”

Hoskomo Letter from HaRav Moshe Mordechai Lowy (click to see enlarged)

In addition to Rabbinical approval, Torah Luminations has a Vaad Hachinuch that reviews their DVDs from a chinuch, tznius and heimshish perspective.

Over two and half years, Torah Luminations has B’syata D’shmaya, produced ten, 3D animation videos including:

·        “The Guest Gets the Best” (teaches the love of Hachnoses Orchim and emunas Tzaddikim).

·        “The Butcher Who Saved Pesach” (teaches about the emunah of a simple Jew on lil’ Shemurim that saves a village.)

·        “The Tzaddik’s Mission” (teaches non-judgment of supposedly “simple” Jews)

·        “The Hero” (a story of a boy who prevents a tragedy from happening to the Jewish community)

·        “The Zechus of a Mitzva” (teaches about choosing to do mitzvos b’hiddur)

·        “The Modern Day Bar Kamtza” (teaches Ahavas Yisroel and the kedusha of Tehillim)

·        “The King’s Wise Son” (based on a Midrash, teaches about not wasting time, the “garden” we make for Hashem through our learning Torah and the “gems” that are created for Hashem by performing mitzvahs)

For this Chanukah, Torah Luminations has just released a new DVD. Part of the excitement surrounding this new DVD is that it was also reviewed and approved by Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Klein, the Director of Torah UMesorah Publications. This new DVD has two stories on one DVD:

“The Guest Gets the Best” and “The Zechus of a Mitzvah”. These two combined stories are approximately 50 minutes long with an additional 10 minutes of samples from other Torah Lumination videos.

In story #1 “The Guest Gets the Best”, we join Yisroel and his love for the mitzvah of hachnosas orchim! Yisroel and his family live by the saying “The guest gets the best!” At the annual fair, Yisroel buys four pieces of advice from a hidden tzaddik to help him with this mitzvah. Little does he know what adventures await him as he applies the advice that tests his emunas tzaddikim and his love for hachnosas orchim!

 a scene from “The Guest Gets the Best”

For story #2, “The Zechus of a Mitzvah”, we see that Moshe’s father asks him to fulfill a mitzvah b’hiddur and with mesirus nefesh. Moshe chooses the mitzvah of negel vasser. Little does Moshe know the tests for his chosen mitzvah that await him as he travels the desert in a caravan and encounters captives that need to be rescued! By the end of his adventures, Moshe learns how the zechus of a mitzvah saves him time and time again!

 a scene from “The Zechus of a Mitzvah”

Torah Luminations plans to BZ”H, release a new DVD three times a year for Chanukah, Chol HaMoed Pesach, and Chol HaMoed Sukkos as part of an annual DVD subscription.

Mrs. Erlenwein shared “People are constantly coming up to us from all different Jewish communities and groups. One woman told me she was from Boro Park and said ‘Thank you for providing your DVDs! It keeps our children busy with good things!’. Recently, a parent sent us a video clip from a hand-held camera showing little children being taught in Yiddish about the Parsha HaShuvah. During the questions by the melamed, a young boy raised his hand and quoted the pasuk from Bereshis of HaKodesh Baruch Hu creating Adam HaRishon. When the melamed asked how the talmid knew the pasuk baal peh, the yingel beamed a beautiful smile and said from one of our videos! B”H, we regularly receive hakoros hatov from Frum families across Lakewood, Flatbush, Crown Heights and even families in Williamsburg.

To order the new DVD, please call toll free 1-833-867-2458, visit LivingWithTzaddikim.com or email Torah Luminations

Watch the Trailer for the new DVD below: