Tel Aviv, the most amazing shabbos!

So we are in TelAviv wondering what to do for Shabbos. We came up with the idea of having a Shabbos dinner at our hotel. We spoke to a few of the people that were with us at Sar-El and they seemed interested. I spoke to the Manager and he gave permission. You need to understand that I have a problem. I feel compelled to invite people for shabbos. It even went as far as inviting some people in the halllway of the hotel. I also went to daven Maariv at the local Chabad. (It was crowded there with many young people. Not used to seeing Rabbi Eli with a machine gun.) At the service I met an IDF soldier who said he did not have a place for shabbos. (I made copies of shalom alechem in hebrew and visited another chabad to get extra benchers.)Surpassing we had 13 people, including the IDF soldier and the people from the hallway. We had people from around the world and from every religious level, including 2 that were not Jewish. One person particularly identified as Jewish, but has done few mitzvahs. We also shared Torah learnings from this week’s Parsha.

I can’t even put into words this experience,. We had great conversations. I challenged all to pick one ting that they wanted to thank Hashem for from this week. Everyone shared their love of Israel and each had a unique story. One person even stated that the dinner has motivated him to do tefillin for the first time later this week before the next Shabbos.

The IDF soldier had one of the more moving speeches. He talked about how excited he was as a new soldier. He states all soldiers go through difficult times. He termed it as having Shaichor, which means black in Hebrew. He said our stories of volunteering had removed his Shaichor. He expressed sincere thanks for our support and volunteering.

Our after services Shabbos walk was throughout Tel Aviv and a visit to Hostage square…..due to shabbos no pictures.Leggi altro