Young Kabbalist Finds a Home

By COLlive reporter

Over 500 people attended a grand opening celebration on Sunday, June 10, for the Iyyun Chabad Center for Jewish Spirituality in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, which will be the home base of its scholarly director, Rabbi DovBer Pinson.

The diverse crowd – ranging from hipsters to Satmars from Williamsburg, from unaffiliated to Orthodox – came from around the tri-state area, with others traveling in from Westchester, Long Island, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

Many of them regularly travel to attend Pinson’s weekly class which will soon be broadcast live on the web, adding to the broad reach of his books, lectures and essays on Kabballah and chassidus.

The elegant cocktail evening, which included a Chinese Auction fundraiser, celebrated the recent purchase of a 10,000 square-foot building at 650 Sackett Street, purchased with major contributions from philanthropists Morris Wolfson, Gennadiy Bogolyubov and Susan and Steven Polis-Schutz.

To celebrate the new beginning, a Sefer Torah was started, with the sofer – scribe writing the first words in the Sefer Torah, dedicated to Rochel Pinson OBM, mother of Rabbi Pinson, who tragically passed away earlier this year.

With the opening of the building, IYYUN will start its full time kollel/yeshiva for adults interested in deep, immersive learning of Yiddishkeit, both Niglah and Kabbalah, said the co-director Shlucha Rochie Pinson.

“In addition, regular classes, special classes for women and Shabbos and yom tov programming will continue to grow and expand as the community does,” she said.

The building’s renovation and expansion are still underway, with offices for Iyyun’s own publishing house and staff in the works.

Rabbi Pinson, Rav of the Carroll Gardens community, is widely known for authoring close to 20 books on Kabbalah and yiddishkeit. He travels nationwide lecturing and teaching and some of his classes will have real time translation in languages such as Hebrew, Russian and Spanish, enabling everyone who wishes to learn to join in.

His website – www.IYYUN.com – serves as a repository of thousands of hours of classes, audio and video – and is visited by over 500 people each day. The recent redesign of the site has improved its usability and increased the many hours of audio and video available.

“Even while celebrating this milestone, we have so much more in the works,” Rochie Pinson told COLlive.com. “With Hashem’s help, IYYUN will continue to grow and expand, bringing light to the world, from its little corner in Brooklyn, and beyond.”

Iyyun’s grand raffle continues through this week!
View prizes and purchase tickets here
Drawing to be held Sunday evening, June 17th – and announced online on Monday morning, June 18th. Winners will be contacted as well.