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Picture of the Day: Tefilin for First Time at 81

Photo: Anach Infos.

An elderly Holocaust survivor in a small French town was inspired to put on Tefilin for the first time in his life. Having arrived at the age of Bar-Mitzvah in 1942 – during the height of the Holocaust – he had never before had the opportunity.

A few days before the start of the yearly summer retreat, arranged by Beth Loubavitch under the directorship of Rabbi Shmuel Azimov, in a small town in the French alps, several bochurim went to the town to help organize the event.

They went to a mini shopping center to sell kosher food there. The store manager was Jewish, so the bochurim offered him to put on tefilin, and that’s what he did – for the first time in his life.

Shortly after putting on the Tefillin, the director went to visit his father and told him his meeting with the bochurim. The father was very moved and began to shed tears, the words of his son reminded him of the harsh memories of his past he had tried to conceal for so long.

Indeed, he was a child of Holocaust who managed to escape Nazi extermination by fleeing to the mountains, like many other Jews at that time. There, he married a young Jewish woman and led a quiet life away from religious practice.

But now, hearing his son talking about the tefilin, he realized that it was time to reconcile with his Jewish identity, and accepted to put on tefilin with the Bochurim for the first time in his life.

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6 Comments

  • menachem

    if he is putting it on for the first time way not put in on the right way!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • MENACHEM - TO COMFORT?

    MUST YOU ALWAYS FIND SOMETHING NEGATIVE?????? EVEN IN SOMETHING POSITIVE??????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Another Menachem

    According to the article the point here was that he accepted to put on Tefillin (even though he didn’t put them the way we are supposed to in order to fulfill the Mitzvah). By his acceptance of putting on Tefillin, he shows how he is accepting upon himself (beyond all his suffering) the Ol Malchut Shamayim, which is the Ikar of all the Mizvot (see the begining of the Hasagot HaRamban al Sefer HaMitzvot LeRambam).
    But of course it doesn’t excuse the lack of knowledge of this Bochur.

  • Milhouse

    #4, if it’s not in the right place then what is positive about it? On the other hand, the camera can lie; what we’re seeing may be an artifact of the camera angle, and it was really in the right position. Or maybe the photo was taken immediately, and then they noticed the position and fixed it. They were there and we’re not, and surely they know hilchos tfilin too. So let’s not jump to conclusions.