By COLlive reporter
For the seventh time, Manhattan Beer Distributors, the largest single-market beer distributor in the country providing beer to hundreds of kosher stores and restaurants in the metropolitan area, has sold its Chometz ahead of Pesach.
Manhattan Beer sold its chometz for the first time in 2018 after Rabbi Don Yoel Levy OBM, the late head of OK Kosher and Rov of Bais Eliezer Yitzchok in Crown Heights, urged Jewish consumers to avoid purchasing brands they distributed for a period after Pesach.
Hearing the speech compelled R’ Nosson Sternberg, a Lubavitcher businessman from Crown Heights, and Rabbi Kalman Weinfeld, executive member of the Vaad of OK Kosher and current Rov of Beis Eliezer Yitzchok in Crown Heights, to take action. After much effort, they succeeded in convincing Mr. Simon Bergson, the CEO of the company, to sell the Chometz according to Halacha.
After that first sale, each year ahead of Pesach, the company’s Chometz is sold, facilitated by Rabbi Kalman Weinfeld, his assistant Rabbi Yaakov Teichman, and R’ Nosson Sternberg. This year the sale is even more significant, following Bergson’s expansion to companies in other states including Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Today, the delegation met with Mr. Simon Bergson and his son, Alex Bergson, and officiated the sale of the chometz.
Bergson father and son have recorded a message about their eating Shmura Matzah for the entire Pesach, and said they will be donning Tefillin, which they do daily, in the merit of the safety of the IDF and the people of Israel.
Simon Bergson is active in supporting Holocaust memorials and is passionate about the continuation of the Jewish people and Jewish families. He serves as the chairman of The Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation and in the leadership of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan.
After officiating the sale of Chometz, Rabbi Weinfeld, who is the official Rabbi of the Manhattan Beer Company, recited the prayer of Kel Malei Rachamim in memory of the murder in Auschwitz.
VIDEO: Credit: Nosson Sternberg
Rabbi Weinfeld is an example of how to do Mesirus nefesh in this generation!
His uncompromising insistence and resourcefulness saved hundreds of thousands of Jews from chometz.
Exceptional Mitzvah!!!! Brings joy to all of us and kovod to Lubavitch!!!!!