Street Fun Was a School Project

Photos: Levik Hertzel

During the first week of school, students at Lamplighters Yeshivah got a real lesson on time.

A long black rope stretched across the full length of an Eastern Parkway block. A group of children stood at one end of the rope gathered around their Rebbe. Each child held something in his hands- a Menorah, Torah, Mishnah, Shulchan Aruch and the like. In a gentle, captivating voice, the teacher told the story of the world, beginning with Creation, running all through ancient times, the medieval era, all the way through up to the modern era. The Rebbe explained what happened at every key juncture of history and laid down a picture on the timeline to signify that era, “During the Babylonian times, the miracle of Purim occurred…”. Then, a student carefully placed the Megillah on the timeline in that spot. The children could see- and feel- how far along on the timeline of our history the miracle of Purim happened in relation to other key events they already experienced on the timeline, including Matan Torah, the life of Avraham Avinu and Creation.

The Rebbes and students continued on this path of living Jewish history until they reached our days- the Baal Shem Tov, the Rebbeim, the Holocaust, Jews returning to the Land of Israel, our Rebbe coming to America- and stood at the very end of the length of the rope, now red, at the end of the era of exile. “Children, look back at all the black rope behind you. That is all the time, all the generations of Jewish History upon which we stand… Here we are, at the very end of 6,000 years, entering the times of Moshiach.”

The students of Lamplighters Yeshivah listened entranced, as the comprehension of the magnitude of time, of the generations which built up over time to ready the world for Moshiach, bring them to the point where they stand at the last little bit of rope – their place in the world – beckoning a new, G-dly era.