Kiev, Ukraine — As a preparation for the holiday of Shovous, the director of Programs and Publishing House for Tzivos Hashem of the C.I.S. Shmuli Brown organised a very unique program for children of Ukraine.
Tzivos Hashem workers travelled to many cities in Ukraine and showed hundreds of children a Sefer Torah, told them the story of Matan Torah and the importance of the Torah to the Jewish nation.
More pictures in the Extended Article!
A professor once lamented to the Lubavitcher Rebbe about the depravity of human nature. “While most people,” argued the academic, “seem very nice and charming on the outside, beneath the surface we all tend to share the same ugly essence. We are all selfish, arrogant, and egotistical. Why should the intrinsic character of man be so abhorrent?”
The Rebbe responded with a parable: “When one strolls in the street one sees lovely houses, green lawns, flowery trees, paved roads and shiny cars. But when one takes a hoe and digs beneath the surface he exposes nothing but dirt and more dirt, all the surface beauty is gone.”
Alternate side parking regulations will be suspended on Wednesday and Thursday, May 23-24 for holiday observance. All other regulations, including parking meters, remain in effect.
Click here for the 2007 Alternate Side Parking Regulations Suspension Calendar.
Los Angeles, CA — Excitement filled the air, as children and their parents filled the room. The occasion was the seventh annual Mishnayos Baal Peh awards ceremony at Cheder Menachem of Los Angeles.
More pictures in the Extended Article!
Crown Heights, Brooklyn –- The neighborhood nosh and ice cream store, Nosh World Was shut down late last week by New York City’s Health Department. Last week Thursday, May 17th, a two hour long inspection left the store closed and the owner, Moshe Machputz an extensive list of items he needs to fix and correct.
More pictures in the Extended Article.
The following is a first-time-release picture of the Rebbe from Motzoei Shavuos 5737 (1977). Special thanks to Rabbi Pinny Lew and Rabbi Ari Kirschenbaum – Shliach of the Rebbe to Prospect Heights Brooklyn.
Readers are welcome to identify those in the picture by using the Comment System!
One of the customs of Shavuot is to adorn the home with flowers and greens, our Sages relate that although Mount Sinai was situated in a desert, when the Torah was given the mountain bloomed and sprouted flowers and since it is the Harvest Festival.
In the picture, a flower merchant is preparing hundreds of bouquets of flowers in order to meet todays demand.
More pictures in the Extended Article!
The Rebbe says:
1. The Midrash (a great collection of Homilies) tells us: “The night before Hashem came down to give the Torah the Jewish people went to sleep because the sleep of Yom Tov is sweet and the night is short, and (to top it all off) they didn’t even get bitten by any mosquitoes. But when Hashem came down (the next morning) to give the Torah all the Jewish people were sleeping and Hashem had to wake them up. As the Torah says “(Hashem says) Why do I come and no one calls out for me? No one even answers My calls!” (see Isaiah, Chapter 50, Verse 2).
And this is why we stay up all night on the night before the giving of the Torah (the first night of the festival of Shavous).
Redondo Beach, CA — Redondo Beach’s Jewish Community Center Chabad members added letters to finish the scrolls, two years in the making. On Sunday, the rabbi led them on a procession to celebrate the unveiling of the scrolls.
Edo Cohen looked on as a scribe scratched out his Hebrew letter on the thin parchment of the new Torah scrolls.
If Shavuot Had a Mascot…
Santa Fe, NM — Members of the Chabad Jewish Center of Santa Fe celebrated what they believe to be a first for the City of Holy Faith on Sunday. They danced and marched from a hotel ballroom on Sandoval Street to the gazebo on the Plaza downtown to dedicate the first Torah commissioned by a Santa Fe congregation.
Plainview, NY — There was a great ceremony in Plainview, Long Island, today. Congregants of the Plainview Synagogue and the community witnessed in awe the writing of the final letters of the Torah written in honor of their Rabbi, Rabbi Gutman Baras, of blessed memory.
More pictures in the Extended Article!
A special Shavuot feature just added to the Chabad.org Tzivos Hashem Jewish Kids Zone is “Live The Challenge: Take it to the Top”.
Kids can complete their special Shavuot mission that includes fulfilling some or all of the special Shavuot observances and have a chance at winning fantastic prizes!
Rabbi and Mrs. Yitzchok Naparstek of Crown Heights have recently moved on Shlichus to Fort Lauderdale, FL where Rabbi Naparstek is serving as Director of Adult Education and Mrs. Naparstek as Director of the Youth Department and Women’s Programs.
The Naparsteks were appointed by Rabbi Moshe Meir Lipszyc of Chabad Lubavitch of Fort Lauderdale, in connection with the Shluchei Torah Project headed by Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky with the support of the Rohr Family Foundation.
HATZLOCHA RABBA!
The new Shluchim can be reached via email at rabbiyfl@gmail.com
Bozeman, MT — Shavuot, the holiday that celebrates G-d’s gift of the Torah to the Jewish people at Sinai, should be a pivotal, standing-room-only holiday. Yet when the two-day holiday begins this Tuesday at sundown, only a smattering of Jews will take part in the festivities.
Crown Heights, Brooklyn — Today, Sunday at 10:30 AM, the Hachnosas Sefer Torah in memory of Hatomim Chaim Dovid Shlomo Reiber AH, started the parents home on Empire Blvd, where the final letters were completed.
More pictures in the Extended Article.
