Global Yarchei Kallah Concludes With Siyum Harambam

By COLlive reporter
Photos: Itsik Roytman

The Global Yarchei Kallah, the scholarly summit for Chabad’s rabbonim, Roshei Yeshiva and Mashpiim, concluded on Motzoei Shabbos with a call to further the daily learning of Rambam.

Rabbi Avraham Shemtov, Chairman of Agudas Chassidei Chabad International and the Yarchei Kallah, said it was time to spread the study of Rambam’s Mishneh Torah to wider crowds and with renewed vigor.

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Kalmenson, Rosh of Yeshivas Beis Dovid Shlomo in New Haven, was honored with concluding the learning cycle, with Rabbi Shemtov beginning the new one.

The Siyum Harambam was held during the annual Melave Malka of the Yarchei Kallah hosted by Camp Gan Israel in Parksville, NY, directed by Rabbi Yossi Futerfas and catered by Rabbi Shlomo Futerfas.

Chairing the evening, the brought together chassidim and bochurim, was Rabbi Zalman Wilschansky, Rosh Yeshivas Tomchei Tmimim in Morristown, NJ. Opening it with chassidus was Rabbi Yoel Kahn, the Rebbe’s head choizer and the preeminent scholar of Chabad Chassidus.

The Melave Malka concluded days of intense learning that were dedicated to the father of the Rebbe, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Schneerson OBM, Chief Rabbi of Yekaterinoslav (currently Dnipro) and a known Gaon and Mekubal who was exiled for sustaining Judaism in the Soviet Union.

In 1974, Rabbi Shemtov established the Yarchei Kallah as a worthy endeavor to honor the Rebbe’s father with the learning of Torah. The Rebbe held the gathering in high regard, taking a personal interest in all of its details and calling it “my thing.”

The Yarchei Kallah this year was generously sponsored by philanthropist Ronald O. Perelman in memory of his parents Gershon Reuven ben Moshe and Rochel bas Avrohom.

Yarchei Kallah is coordinated by Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin, a Chabad Shliach and Associate Rabbi of Young Israel of Tucson, AZ, with the assistance of Shneur Shemtov, Benzion Pearson, Matisyahu Edrey, Mendy Saidov, and the dedicated staff of the camp.