World’s Largest Mosaic Mitzvah Menorah in Chicago

What do you get when you mix 9 students, 5 cans of paint, hundreds of tiles and over one thousand Mitzvos? A beautiful Mosaic Mitzvah menorah.

Continuing the yearly Menorah building tradition in the fourth grade class at Cheder Lubavitch of Chicago, Rabbi Avraham Varnai and his students created a one of a kind Menorah. This year the students went to family, neighbors and friends, asking them to pledge a Mitzvah.

For every Mitzvah that was pledged, a tile was decorated and added to the Mosaic Menorah.

When the project first started, the goal was to amass a few hundred pledged Mitzvahs to create the Menorah. However, there was an outpouring response from the community and over 1000 Mitzvahs were pledged!

Thanks to the help of Mrs. C.S. Gurewicz, the students designed a large board that was 6 ft. tall and 8 ft. wide and painted it using the “tall painting method”. The students cemented the mitzvah tiles on the board in the shape of a Menorah. The Mosaic was propped up and a ledge was build in the back to hold the candles.

In honor of the fourth night of Chanukah, over 350 people gathered in the school for the grand Menorah lighting. Many of those in attendance had either pledged a tile or decorated one.

Rabbi Yitzchok Wolf, the dean of Cheder Lubavitch, addressed the crowd and explained that every mitzvah that we do, adds another brick to the third Bais Hamikdash, similar to the mitzvah tiles on the menorah.

The fourth grade students officiated at the menorah lighting ceremony by reciting the Brochos and lighting the candles. Rabbi Varnai made the official announcement; 1109 Mitzvos were pledged!

Cheder Lubavitch of Chicago is very proud of the students who worked so hard on this project.

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