Posted to Chabad News on

Chabad Orphan Lights Hanukkah Candle

Ynet

The father of Rivkah Holtzberg, who was killed along with her husband Gavriel during the terror attack on the Chabad house in Mumbai, India last month, held a menorah-lighting ceremony at his Afula home Sunday evening.

Moshe Holtzberg, the murdered couple’s 2-year-old son, lit the first Hanukkah candle.

More pictures in the Extended Article!

Rabbi Shimon Holzberg spoke to Ynet about the emotional event: “We conducted the ceremony along with friends and members of my congregation, and Moishe lit the first candle, an honor that was usually reserved for his father.

”We recited the prayer ‘He who performed miracles for our ancestors in those days at this time’, which has a special meaning now in light of our own Hanukkah miracle – that Moishe is here with us today,“ he said.

Rabbi Holzberg said Moshe played with a dreidel while those on hand ate Sufganiot (Hannukah doughnuts); a Chabad flag retrieved from the house in Mumbai hung in the background.

”When we were in India we managed to recover four Torahs from the Chabad house,“ he added. ”Three were kept in a safe at the Israeli consulate, and we brought the fourth back home with us and it served us tonight. We also brought Gavriel’s silver menorah and Rivkah’s Shabbat candlesticks.”

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21 Comments

  • anon

    Yes, a lichtig.

    A picture is worth a thousand words. Moshele is lighting up the world. May G-d bless him with peace and happiness.
    And may G-d give comfort to the other orphans, and to all of Klal Yisroel. May we know of no more sorrow, and see the coming of moshiach speedily bimhaira biyamainu.

  • Let him be a child

    How can we keep a video copy of this? I will cherish it- the most precious lighting I have seen yet. I just want him to be happy and have the most normal childhood IYH’ even though his life is already different.

  • UNCEL SAM

    RIVKA’S FATHER?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
    chas V’shalom!!!!!!!
    he was not in the mumbia attacks??
    why does it say her father in the first line under the first picture??

  • father ?!

    “’The father’ of Rivkah Holtzberg, who was killed along with her husband Gavriel during the terror attack…” Doesn’t that sound a bit strange?! Where does the father come in??
    Please rephrase.

  • G.S.

    Uncel (!) Sam: it’s not saying that Rivkah’s father was killed, but that she was, and that her father is the one who held a menorah-lighting ceremony.

  • To grammar police, from spelling police

    B“H
    Dear ”UNCEL SAM“:
    For someone who spells so poorly (it’s ”UNCLE,“ not ”UNCEL“!), you are being rather mean to the writer of the article.
    OK, so the grammar is not so great (”The father of Rivkah Holtzberg, who was killed along with her husband Gavriel during the terror attack on the Chabad house in Mumbai, India last month, held a menorah-lighting ceremony at his Afula home Sunday evening.“) We all know what this sentence means to say, that ”The father . . . held a menorah-lighting ceremony.”
    So please get off of your high horse, and enjoy Chanukah with the rest of us, OK??
    A freilachen Chanukah!

  • Gifts

    If you want to send him gifts just call up the Holtzbergs in Crown heights I am sure they will bealbe to direct u.

  • MJ

    I’m reminded of a quote from the book of Classroom Boners: “The horse threw the jockey, who lost three teeth and had to be destroyed.” At first glance it appears that the jockey needed to be destroyed (due to a missing comma after “teeth”), when it was really the horse which was destroyed!

  • oy how much longer

    i love you he is the cutest kid on earth may hashem always watch over him oy its making me cry