By Avrohom
A hachnosas sefer Torah is always a reason for celebration, and in Crown Heights, they happen more often than not.
Usually done to memorialize a loved one, the immediate family gathers on the special day, some come in from afar, and they are joined by friends and neighbors.
The writing of a Torah is indeed a Mitzvah. The Rambam writes (in hilchos Talmud Torah) that each and every Jew should write himself a Torah (“ve’ata’ kisvu lachem” in Devorim).
But I recently came across an illuminating letter from the Rebbe, written on Rosh Chodesh Shvat 5735 to a woman named Neima Chakian.
She wanted to do something in merit and in memory of someone dear to her and had 2 options: A Torah or an aron kodesh for a shul.
The Rebbe told her there is a third option “before the previous two options: ‘Adopting’ a yungerman who learns Torah and donating his expenses to learn in a Yeshiva.”
“I wrote a yungerman in the singular,” the Rebbe notes, “but of course it can be more than one, according to your abilities.”
I’ve made a calculation, that in Crown Heights alone, about $1.5 million has been spent in the last year alone on purchasing new sifrei Torah, many of which lay untouched unless they’re donated to a Chabad House of a family member.
If you have signed up your child for the Children’s Sefer Torah, and if your parents have done so when you were a child, then I would assume that you have fulfilled the Mitzvah by now.
So why not take the money and invest in education?
In United Lubavitch Yeshiva of Ocean Parkway there is the “Reb Shmuel Schrage middos program” named after the school’s assistant principal and which encourages good behavior among students.
The asking price of $40,000 that a family (and many times, community members) pays for a new Torah, can be put to use for many years to have children *learning* Torah.
There are better ways to spend the money. Let’s raise teachers’ salaries, give out scholarships, fund the training programs for staff and after-school activities for children.
Imagine how wonderful it will be for a family to gather together in a school or a Beis Medrash to inaugurate an educational or learning program? It can even be done on the day of the yartzeit or the special date.
Let me be clear: I am not writing this in connection to any current or recent hachnosas sefer Torah. It is beautiful that families and the community comes together around something as holy as the Torah.
But Torah is meant to be learned. The only time we leave it closed and dance with it is on Simchas Torah. Our shuls are filled with Torahs. It is high-time that we make sure we spend resources so that everyone can know what’s written in them.
Yes, you are right.
But what to do with all the sifrei torah that sit and gather dust for most of the year?
I know personally at least 6 shluchim in USA and beyond that desperately need a sefer torah! What they would give to have one! If only someone could connect the two sides, it would make for a beautiful arrangement.
…has $40,000 sitting in the bank, he can do whatever he wants with it, whether writing a sefer Torah for himself or a deceased relative, giving $5,000 to eash of 8 teachers, buying a car, or going on a world tour to see all the beauty Hashem has created in the world. But if Berel Schmerel doesn’t have $40,000, and has to raise that money by sending out brochures of smiling faces of those who are now in Olam HaBah, asking everyone to buy a letter or word or a silver crown,,,, Then if I gave $18 to every Berel… Read more »
Rather donate to teachers. We’ll get the teachers to wear plaques on their back with your name. That way, you’ll get get the kovod you’re looking for.
BS”D
Soon looking to donate a sefer Torah. Need a list of communities in Israel needing one. Thanks.
Whoa…. talking about negativity
Ok i think all logic went out the window with all the negative comments you people just do not want to listen to or read what the author has to say. Thats the problem with crown heights you people are all small, close minded kvitchers im glad i moved out
Good idea to invest the money in education, but if youre complaining that there are too many hachnasos sefer torah in crown height, i could list you a whole bunch of chabad houses around the world that could really use a sefer torah and cant really afford it. that would be a gr8 use of the money and a gr8 contribution to the community.
ot is not a community school. it’s not even a tomchei tmimim. it’s a private school.
agreed.
Idea!! A millionare should take upon himself to pay every teacher teaching in Chabad schools. As a teacher, I know the feeling all too well.
Right now all the Rebbes and even principals in Oholei Torah have not been paid for three payroll periods. Many have large families, are the only source of income and are struggling to simply provide food for their families. They require the urgent assistance of all of us!
From kitzur shulchan oruch: The mitzvah is to write, but if you are not able to write yourself you appoint a shliach and commission a sofer to write on your behalf, like hiring a mohel as a shliach to circumcise your son. PS Number 62 is the only one that had the decency to mention sofrim. The fact is that the author is playing with people’s parnassa. There are thousands of sofrim (mostly in in Eretz Hakodesh but also some here in CH) that do not have enough to make ends meet. These are eherliche people looking to make an… Read more »
if the mitzvah is to
sponsor: you fulfilled it already!
write: you are not the sofer!
to have it written for you: your’e DEAD!!!
so whats all this chatter about DEORAYSAH??
…to have written this! I would expect it to be written by someone from a perspective that gives no kovod to Torah or mitzvos. We remember how much the Rebbe encouraged this mitzvoh, and it wasn’t just for one Sefe Torah either. Many of there siferi torah are the result of many small donations given by those who value and want to have a chance to fulfill the mitzvah. And to have the chutzpah to fault people who want to honor a loved one!!! We can suggest and persuade chevra to donate to this or that mitzvah, and hopefully those… Read more »
I agree
The Kollel here in CH which is perhaps the only direct Mosed of the Rebbe hardly has money to pay for a janitor, toilet paper or for someone to clean the Seforem, let alone to support its members.
Perhaps it is time that we begin supporting them.
I don’t think sofrim will be happy with this article lol. But on a serious note, I think the reason people rather donate a Sefer Torah then use the money for education, is, when you donate a Sefer Torah you have a lot more clarity on whats happening, like where it’s going what it’s used for and it’s more of a symble. Donating money on the other hand, you’re not really sure how, where, it was used, and it’s not a symble to remember.
Take a lesson from other community’s…
a biblical obligation incumbent upon every jewish person
You write:39
TO NUMBER 30
Are you for real? Rabbi Zirkind wrote three in one year….
(5/30/2013 9:46:07 AM)
Did the Rebbe pay privately or did he purchase on behalf of a Mossad?
If we wish to adopt the Rebbe’s suggestion – then let us stick to it, WITHOUT improvising or adding our own “improvements”. The Rebbe suggests “adopting” an “AVRECH” (a young MARRIED man learning in kollel). The Rebbe could have suggested sponsoring a school program but DID NOT. Following the Rebbe’s advice, the money should be spent sponsoring a kollel yungerman!
there are so many shluchim going out who can use these sefer torahs for there communities the people who sponser these torahs for there love ones should lend them to shluchim who are responsible and that’s a great aleah for the neshuma that the torah donated in there honor be used on a constant basis. the shuluchim have there own personal site and if you offer it there you will be flooded with requests a torah should be used not sit lonely in the ark
How about donating to shluchim in need. There are plenty…
A shliach latched onto his biggest baal habos in the following way. He met thgis multi millionaire banker and the fellow asked for two Eastern european sifrei Torah for his Judaica collection. So the shliach came the next day with a set of twin russian boys who just immigrated from russia and was enrolled in his school. Duly impressed the baal habos wrote his first major check and was a baal habos ever since.
I want to make a point here that the Crown Heights Kollel is falling apart, both literally and figuratively.
Based on the current track it is on, there is simply no way that Yugerleit will be able to continue learning in Kollel.
Kollel plays an instrumental role in Shalom Bayis and early foundations of marriage. If it goes down C”V, so will marriage.
That said, consider making a donation to the Kollel.
There are many on this forum criticizing the author by screaming that writing a Torah is “d’oraisah”, etc. We all know that. The author addressed this point by saying that once you’ve purchased a letter in a torah you’ve fulfilled that mitzvah. In general, I’m uncomfortable with telling people where to spend their tzedoka. If you want to buy a torah with your money you are well within your right to do so even if I personally think you could’ve done better with you money. What has always bothered me is not the rich guy who wants to have a… Read more »
Oholei torah teachers are owed over 5 weeks pay
It’s the community school.
The chain to the next generation and they can’t even get the minimal underwaged pay
Please help
If they did it I have to do it….
Same applies to mishnayos, every tom Dick and Harry feels his Bubby is entitled to have the whole shas learned in her memory!
donate the money to a tfilin bank….it will be really helpfull.
Why can’t you comprehend that this one Rebbe’s letter is one particular instance to one particular person, it is not necessarily a blanket rule or the Rebbe’s “clear view”on the matter.
The Rebbe encouraged many people to commission sifrei torah including people whom I know personally and I have seen letters from the Rebbe giving brochos for this.
Your example of 4 Minim, is not oisgehalten . 1) There is a Mitzvas- Asseih to write a ST , there is no Mitzvas- assei to ‘buy’ 4 minim. A) JUST ‘writing’ a ST is the Guf hamitzvah, when one writes a ST he is mekayem the Mitzvah of “veatoh KISVU lochem” even if he never read or learned in it, Mashe”k the 4 Minim You must take & shake [(Brochoh &)Naanuim], u could buy the biggest Hodor so long as u didn’t take & shake it, u did not mekayem the Mitzvah, ( its not like there is 2… Read more »
There are many explanations given as limmud zechus for how one fulfills the mitzvah of kesivas sefer torah (most of the population cannot practically fulfill this mitzvah due to the big expense). What you bring is the Rebbe’s shittah. Others include buying a letter in a sefer torah and buying sifrei kodesh. The Rebbe was living in reality. But obviously if one is in a position to commission or write their own sefer Torah that is the true mitzvah. Also, if I could please make another point, with great respect. Perhaps COLLIVE and other Chabad news websites should not be… Read more »
The kollel couples in the main kollel in ch have not been paid already for a few months from before Pesach , whoever wants to be mechazek the learning of Torah should take of the kollel guys in ch or at least give them there three hundred dollars there not getting , the kollel has been forgotten right now people our coming but what going to be of the future of the rebbes kollel
Thank you so much for bringing this letter from the Rebbe to our attention.
It shows us the Rebbes view very clearly.
Before commenting read the letter well.
This is different then an oped, where a person shares a personal opinion on something. Rather, here the writer is simply bringing a letter of the Rebbe that address this idea to our attention that very clear on the matter.
It seems to be the Rebbes clear view on the matter, not the writer’s personal opinion!
Everyone keeps saying that it’s a mitzvas asei to write a sefer torah and that it’s very important, etc, etc. are you saying that education isn’t? If we keep spending all our money on sifrei torah, eventually, no one will be educated enough to use them for their intended purpose. Children in this community will grow up without a real yiddishe education and maybe fry out, then who’s gonna use these sifrei torah? it seems like there needs to be a good balance, just saying.
I searched but didn’t find: building a mikva takes priority over a shul! With only ONE women’s mikva in crown heights, sorely lacking capacity, where is the money? Does anyone
THINK of memorializing a nifter by donating a room in honor?
Torah says this is the priority, not our decision.
many shuls out there and some in crown heights as well have just over a minyan, let them join a bigger one instead of looking for someone to donate a sefer torah to their shul
It’s a very reasonable sentiment. We in Crown Heights are ALWAYS giving to others – other chabad houses, other mosdos, other Tzedakas (all of them Chabad) Plus we see all these big “Dinners”, hosted in CH/NYC, with all these millionaires giving money to outside causes. Yet when it comes to OUR shechunah, the Rebbe’s shechuneh, where we do not have parnassa, have troubles with our schools etc,cannot find affordable housing (especially now), we are IGNORED! We may be in the Capital of Chabad, which should be treated as a royal palace, yet everything here is in disrepair and we are… Read more »
individuals in a capitalist society (bh we live in one) are allowed to do whatever they would like with their money. if they want to spend it on steak dinners or a sefer torah or on throwing them out of the empire state building, it is THEIR money, not YOURS to tell them what to do.
Are you for real? Rabbi Zirkind wrote three in one year….
I read your comment and what you write is exactly the opposite of what it says in the gemora – that one who is zohir in the mitzvah of writing a sefer torah “muvtach lo shelo yifsok torah mizaro” (he is promised that his decendants shall remain true to Torah). Source: ‘shalmi , Chagiggah , Daf 292. Besides, on a practical level, lets face it – one of the main things that attract one to buying a sefer torah is that he sees his money (20 or 30 thousand dollars) going to a particular object that is used for kodesh,… Read more »
You are missing a main point and that is the Rebbe’s opinion. If we accept the Rebbe’s opinion without justifying our own wishes it is clear from the Rebbe that in his opinion to donate money for someone to learn Torah is greater and takes precedence over writing a Sefer Torah. Regarding the mitzva of writing a Sefer Torah the Rebbe himself discussed this at great length and explained that we are fulfilling this mitzva when we get our first aliya to bar mitzva. Put your brains aside for one moment, think with kabolas ol what the Rebbe is clearly… Read more »
The Rebbe is talking about Kollel. it seems to me that the love, honor, and respect for torah learning has really gone down a lot in crown heights. I say this because the Yungerleit learning in Kollel haven’t got paid in months, if people would really respect torah, then maybe we could at least get the bathrooms in Kollel cleaned everyday, and maybe if people cared a little more then maybe Kollel Yungerliet would get a check once a month of even a single digit on it. the fact that the Kollels in the Velt are much more well funded… Read more »
Where is there a list of shuls that do NOT have a Torah? Someone said Merkos would know but that does not cover the local Besht shul as someone posted BTW, What’s the deal with 770 ON Simchas Torah where almost all of the Torahs are locked up or in the “gabboim”‘s private liitle shuls or given to their friends who extort money for their “cause”? Or on Sukkos when there are hundreds davening in the sukkah, yet we have to wait 20 minutes for a single Torah when inside there is an Aron Kodesh filled with them? Remember this… Read more »
Finally, someone talking sense, our biggest crisis is Chinuch, how many people are R”L not having large families because they cant afford the tuition? I am not judging them, but think about the Rebbe’s passionate plea for large Mishpochos and how much Agmas Nefesh this crisis causes the Rebbe.
Supporting children to get a Chasidishe Chinuch is the most important thing possible, remmember, Boneinu Areivim Baadeinu!
cHAZAK vE’EMATZ!
Its a great honor to commission and write up a Sefer Torah. If you want to save money, go easy on the banquet following.
Crown Heights Kolel has been long broke and has no funds to support their chsanim and kalos. They need your help more than another sefer torah.
There are pros and cons to this piece. Like every op-ed it is just that, someones opinion.
For everyone shouting about mitzvas asei diryasa, here are another few that can be done at a fraction of the cost: shilucheih hakan, maakeh bihidur, peter chamor. Go and do those and ker a velt heint.
Support your educational mosdos, they are our future.
Do we know if the Rebbe ever wrote or commissioned a Torah? And although the Rebbe received a very modest salary, for a “mitzvas asei deoiraisoh” he would have found the money.
There is a very strange phenomenon in Crown Heights: Everyone feel it’s acceptable for them to dictate how everyone else should be spending their own money…
What’s if you have no money, and your Shul desparately needs a sefer Torah, and you have a loved one that deserves great honors? Can’t someone who has the money approach the person’s family who doesn’t have any money, and donate in memory of that loved one’s shul?
Your comments are idiotic, to put it mildly. The author is asking innocently, that with so many struggling Mosdos, and so many parents who can’t pay tuition, shouldn’t people focus on supporting those who LEARN Torah before focusing on the actual Sefer Torah? Your statement of “people can do what they want with their money” sounds like a defensive statement, most likely because a relative of yours had a Torah written. You are not making a rational argument at all. The Kollel in “your” neighbourhood is on track to losing most, if not all future Yungerleit. If you are able… Read more »
(with which i happen to agree). Why are people attacking him/her? the opinion would have validity even if it were not supported by a clear letter from the Rebbe. And obviously, if the Torah is going to a Chabad House or a shul which NEEDS it, the writer and I an any sane person would have zero problem with it. And yes, a person with money gets to decide how to spend his money, and nobody is taking away that right. The writer is simply offering an idea. take it or leave it; don’t have a cow.
And here’s why: The author (and many of the commenters) think that writing a sefer torah is like tzedokah and therefore the money should be given to more worthy needs. But it is a Mitzvas Asei Deoraisah for an individual to write or have a sefer Torah written for him/herself. Even if the Sefer Torah is kept at his home or never used, the actual writing of it is the mitzvah. Just like keeping Shabbos and buying daled minim and eating matzah is a mitzvah. Just as we don’t tell people not to buy daled minim (and better give that… Read more »
I attended a siyum sefer Torah just last week which was in memory of a woman whose son has a chabad house with no Torah. this will therefore be their first and only Torah in the Chabad house.
Number 15’14’12 seriously all you people critical of what she wrote, did you people even read the article? She says clearly that she loves that people write sifrei torah. And she also quoted a letter from the rebbe to back her opinion which was that people ought to support torah learners as much if not more than dedicating sefer torahs. Why dont you actually listen before jumping on someone and attacking them? Did you people even get past the title?
Shame on the author for trying to discourage people from keeping a mizvas asei same like tefillin or any other.
The Rebbes letter is to a private person perhaps that person needed a different mitvah for dome reason. The rebbe encouraged plenty of people to write sifrei torah including members of my own family
The gemorah says that a new sefer torah brings great bracha and zechus to a community and ensures we remain free of sin. We need more sifrei torah now more than ever!
Donate the Sefer Torah to Merkos.
Merkos can then lend it to a newly opened Chabad House. The Shaliach can then raise money to buy it after a period of time at a discount, maybe. The Chabad House can keep the difference. The money that the Chabad house pays to Merkos can then be used in a manner decided by the family. This way everyone is happy.
Sofer, family, the Shaliach (Avrech) and if the family chooses its Shul or a mosad hachinuch.
This is the dumbest article I probably ever came upon.
Besides that it’s a biblical obligation for every Jew to have one written,and it’s a major Zchus for the Neshoma of the departed to have one written in their Memory, the Rebbe started the letter in Torah campaign and encouraged all the Moissdos to constantly write them.
I will end of saying that many new Shuls still don’t have a Sefer torah, the Shul I Daven at ( The Besht center ) is currently borrowing, so if anyone has ideas please contact me.
HOW ABOUT SUPPORTING KOLLEL COUPLES?
now that would go a long way, helping a young couple build their marriage on the foundation of Torah….:)
you’re 10000% right. Thank you for sharing this letter.
When you have the money you get to decide. Why is it that so many people have opinions about so many things about which they don’t have control or authority? Where are the articles written by people who speak of their own shortcomings and personal responses and actions to it? Or better, don’t even write. Just look in the mirror and better yourself.
common sense! thank you/
I guess you do not know what it means to lose a loved one. Many times the loved one expressed interesed or even began writing a sefer torah for one of his loved ones. Should you nullify his will. I think you should write letters to people who spend absorbatant amounts on over the top weddings, cars, luxurious vacations costing 10-30k etc. Most of the used sifrei torah in our shuls are border line posul. they are geshmeart that is a shaila lchatchila. The Rebbe addressed someone that asked him directly, adn was not set on this idea, no one… Read more »
It is a Mitzvas Asei to write a sefer Torah, which today translates itself into a person commissioning a sofer to write it for them. (The idea of buying a letter or sifrei kodesh is only a limmud zchus for the masses since its not an easily affordable mitzvah). There is still a wordwide shortage of Sifrei Torah, while the Jewish population has B’H grown since the Holocaust there are still far less kosher sifrei Torah in the world then there were before the war. And there is still a big demand for new sifrei Torah, especially in Chabad, where… Read more »
Send the Torah to a shliach that doesn’t have one or that only has one and could use a second for yomim tovim
When a person is donating a sefer torah for a loved one, he is doing it out of love. When a person who is a ‘richie’ has alot of money and donates a sefer torah, that is his way to express his avodas HaShem. From what I read, I gather that you are a little tight on money. Maybe your way to express your avodas hashem is by encouraging your husband’s learning. You needn’t complain that so much money is being spent on sifrei torah. If HaShem had wanted to, He could’ve sent you the money for a thousand sifrei… Read more »
so give to yeka.
its a camp for kids that dont have normal homes, coming from poverty, abusive parents, no education, no judiasm… And ther only hope is the camp. this is what they look foward to the whole year. So dont hesitate to give money. Even if you cant afford to give a lot, at least give something this is a realy important cause.
instead of giving a torah give the money to people learning the torah ch kolel has not gotten paid in months!!
Excellent idea. If the Torah is being written for a shul that doesn’t have, then fine – every shul needs a sefer torah. But do you really need six sifrei torah in the aron kodesh, when there are children who are home or roaming the streets because their parents can’t afford tuition? Imagine, if you donate $40,000, that will enable a teen to stay in yeshiva for 4 – 5 years, and he stays frum instead of getting wasted on drugs, and then he marries and builds a bayis ne’eman b’yisroel, and raises his many children to be Torah true… Read more »
there are more important places to go.
and the most important is CAMP YEKA so dont hesitate to give money to the place that really needs it
ten point to #5 for mentioning camp yaeka
a torah is in honor or memory of someone. and a torah is everlasting!!!
This author hit the nail on the head – couldn’t agree more! Thank you col for posting this well articulated and very important letter
with the author. Another example would be the Jewish children in Ukraine/Russia who don’t even know what a Torah is, and the only way to teach that to them is through summer camp – see http://www.campyeka.org for more explanation
You give the money, you get to decide where it goes 🙂
We need tuition scholarships and our teachers need to be paid on time! Not another sefer torah!
I have heard this from Rabonim too.
Back in the day, they needed Sifray Torah, now that we have enough, it is more of an honor for the Neshama if they have yiden/kids learning in their honor – $40,000 can go a loooonnnggg way. more then a torah sitting there not being touched. (or if it is being touched, then the other one isn’t).
Of course if the shul doesn’t have one, then the above would not apply
It is a great idea!
it could help the funding that school desperately need, but don’t get.