Photos: Yechezkel Itkin
At an event held by Lev Chabad, the department of Tzach in Israel that operates in hospitals, the next stage of the project to establish Chabad booths at the hospitals was launched.
Participating in the event were the shluchim to the hospitals, local head shluchim, and the administration of Tzach in Israel.
The ten new Chabad booths will double the current number of booths in the project and significantly upgrade the activities of the shluchim to the hospitals. This upgrade has been made possible by the generous donation of R. Shmuel Aizenberg and his family, in the memory of his parents, Baruch and Bracha Rachel Aizenberg of blessed memory.
The project, which has been operating as a pilot in a number of hospitals, consists of portable Chabad booths that offer visitors to the hospitals food for the heart and soul—drinks and light refreshments, as well as tefillin, Shabbos candles, and reading material. The booths donated by the Aizenberg family will upgrade the project by providing professional, attractive, and purpose-built booths.
The event was chaired by Rabbi Levi Mendelson, the director of Lev Chabad, who highlighted the booths’ function as portable Chabad Houses, and mentioned the Rebbe’s directive that Chabad Houses provide food, drink, and lodgings, where possible.
The head of Tzach in Israel, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Aharonov was then invited to open the event by reading a piece from a letter of the Rebbe to the participants in an opening ceremony for a Chabad House in which the Rebbe showers everyone involved with the project with blessings.
Rabbi Yochanan Gurary, the Rabbi of the city of Holon, spoke warmly regarding the great merit of providing material assistance to those in need and related anecdotes from his personal experience illustrating how material assistance has spiritual effects as well.
A particularly moving speech was given by R. Shmuel Aizenberg, who told of his parents’ devotion to the Rebbe’s mivtzoim. “As children we knew that irrespective of our Shabbos plans, on Friday my father would go out for mivtza Tefillin,” he related. His mother, Bracha Rachel, was very dvoted to the mivtza of Shabbos candles, and merited to distribute candles with literal self-sacrifice even on the last Friday of her life.
Rabbi Naftali Lipsker, administrator of Chabad Centers for Tzach, termed the booths “mitzvah tanks,” and Rabbi Yechiel Gluckowsky of Rechovot also spoke words of inspiration.
During the event, Rabbi Mendelson presented the shluchim’s new goal—to draft hundreds of volunteers from a wide spectrum of backgrounds to assist in the operation of the booths. Rabbi Mendelson also thanked Rabbi Shmuel Rozenshein and the administration of Keren Meromim on behalf of the shluchim for their assistance with this project.
Special thanks was also given to hospital shluchim Rabbi Mendi Beckerman and Mendi Lipkin for their work on the planning and design of the booths.
At the conclusion of the event the shluchim to the hospitals, local head shluchim, Tzach administration, and the donors gathered for a group picture.
