Impromptu Sheva Brachos in Paris

By COLlive reporter

Bochurim from the Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim in Brunoy, France, felt especially lucky to be doing Chabad outreach work on one particular Friday this summer.

“We had a smashing Mivtzoim,” is how one of them described their weekly trip to the Pletzl, the Jewish quarter in the historic district Le Marais of Paris to encourage Jews to put on Tefillin.

For starters, their stand on the street was upgraded with a new poster announcing their services. They clocked some 70 people on a single Friday.

And they had an additional advantage: a large flat-screen TV which they used to play videos of the Rebbe. It was donated to them by a French Jew who was making Aliya to Israel and decided to leave it for good use.

“He was taking a walk and stopped when he saw a video of the Rebbe playing,” one bochur told COLlive about the donor originally seeing a small screen in use. “We asked him if he wanted to put on Tefillin, he agreed and then he sponsored the large screen.”

And if that thrill wasn’t enough, the bochurim met a young Jewish couple who told them that they had just gotten married and came to the City of Lights for their honeymoon.

Learning that this couple were still in the first week after marriage, the bochurim insisted on organizing a “Sheva Brachos” meal to recite the 7 blessings which consist mainly of requests for Hashem’s blessing for the newlyweds.

The resourceful Chabad lads got wine, challah and food sponsored from nearby kosher stores and made their way to the small synagogue at 17 Rue des Rosiers, most commonly known as the shul where the Rebbe davened.

It was a memorable Sheva Brachos for an evenful Friday.