Winner of Yad L’Achim Raffle Brings Sefer Torah to New Breslov Beis Medrash
December 30, 2020
The writing of the last letters and the hachnasas Sefer Torah
Hundreds of residents of Yerushalayim and Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel participated in the moving Hachnasas Sefer Torah ceremony of the Cohen family, of the capital’s Beis Yisrael neighborhood.
A mehudar sefer Torah was presented to the family after they won the annual raffle that Yad L’Achim holds every erev Shavuos, the holiday of the giving of the Torah, to advance its sacred work of Pidyon Shvuyim.
The Cohens had dreamed of donating a sefer Torah in memory of the head of the family, Harav Reuven Cohen, z”l, who was niftar some 10 years ago, but the cost was prohibitive. “We always wanted to do this, but never imagined that we’d be able to,” one relative said.
But then came the phone call last last Erev Shavuos from Yad L’Achim, and Mrs. Cohen understood that her dream was about to come true.
The final letters of the mehudar sefer Torah were written in the family home, where children and grandchildren of Harav Cohen, z”l, gathered for a modest ceremony together with Hagaon Harav Shmuel Moshe Kremer, Hagaon Harav Shimon Yisrael Shapiro and Hagaon Harav Ephraim Nachman Enshin, among the elders of Breslov chassidus.
From there, the Torah was brought to the home of the elder of the Breslov rabbanim, Hagaon Harav Yaakov Meir Shechter, who despite having been confined to a “capsule” received the family, wrote the final letter in the Torah, and expressed his admiration for the sefer’s beautiful script. Afterwards, he welcomed a representative of Yad L’Achim and heard about the organization’s extensive work in redeeming captives and the sefer Torah raffle, and offered his blessings.
After a short procession in the streets of Beis Yisrael, family and friends boarded a chartered bus which took them to the new Beis Medrash of Breslov chassidus that was inaugurated just a few months ago in Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel.
Mispallelim at the new Beis Medrash had been unable to acquire a sefer Torah of their own, and were forced to borrow one from one of the older shuls in the city. “A hachnasas sefer Torah for the Beis Medrash was the fulfillment of a dream for us as well,” said one of those who daven there. “That’s why it is so difficult to describe the level of joy we felt in our powerful dancing and singing.”
After hours of dancing by neighborhood residents and mispallelim, led by Hagaon Harav Tzvi Libermensh, the Rav of the Beis Medrash of Breslov chassidus in Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel, the Torah was brought into the heichal with great fervor.
Family members, speaking in the name of Mrs. Sarah Leah Cohen, the widow, thanked the dedicated activists who organized the hachnassas sefer Torah from beginning to end, Harav Chaim Eisenberg, Harav Moshe Cohen and Harav Chaim Kahn.
Mrs. Cohen recalled with great emotion that even in the difficult economic times she had known in recent years she never thought of canceling the standing order to Yad L’Achim for Pidyon Shvuyim. “I cut back on other expenses but never put a halt to the contribution to Yad L’Achim,” she said. “Every time I read about Yad L’Achim’s efforts at saving lost souls, I was filled with joy knowing that I had a portion in this. I believe that it is in the merit of this that Hashem Yisborach made it possible for me to be able to bring a mehudar sefer Torah in memory of my husband’s soul, a gift from Yad L’Achim.”
The Cohen family made a point of mentioning how careful Yad L’Achim had been in honoring its commitment, presenting them with a mehudar sefer Torah, an ornate Keser Torah and an all-expenses-paid hachansas Sefer Torah.
