Rabbi Ofer and Yael Kripor are part of a dedicated team of Shluchim serving the Israeli – post-army -crowd of backpackers and other tourists.
Their Chabad House is located in the rugged mountains of Cusco, Peru. It provides its visitors a welcoming Jewish experience with convenient services and kosher food.
On Shabbat they have about 250 Israeli guests serving them Challah that’s baked in the Chabad House’s stone oven, and chicken slughtered by Ofer, who is a Shochet.
On ‘Erev Rosh Chodesh Kislev’ Rabbi Ofer and Yael entered their son into the covenant of Avraham.
“This is the first time a bris is being performed in Cusco,” said Rabbi Schneur Zalman Blumenfeld, Head Shliach of Peru, living in Lima.
Blumenfeld was honored with blessing the child and naming him Sholom DovBer.
Rabbi Levi Heber, a Mohel from New York, was flown in to perform the Bris. He was given specific instructions on how to handle the lack of oxygen due to the high altitude of 11,000 ft above sea level.
Eduardo Elsztain, philanthropist and Chabad supporter from Argentina, flew in to be Sandak. He told the participants that he too, at the age of 23, was in Cusco as a backpacker and hiker. The participants put on Teffilin and prayed, some for the first time. Eduardo Elsztain was honored with making a blessing on the Torah that he had previously donated.
After the Bris, Rabbi Ofer told the Israeli participants that they typically go to remote locations in pursuit of the limits of nature. However, the Bris represents a level that surpasses the limits of nature and that the Israeli backpackers should draw on that strength to bring G-dliness wherever they go.
mazal tov to the shluchim. shetizku lgadloi ltorah lchupah ulmaasim toivim, mtoich harchova and all the Rebbe’s brochos
a fellow shliach