Tefilin Stolen from Chabad Booth Found in Trash

Last week Moti Edri was engaged in ‘Mivtzoim’, getting people in the Azrieli Mall in Tel Aviv to put on tefilin. His mehudar tefilin disappeared at some point, and they were found the following day in a trash can.

Moti is a son of Chabad Askan Levi Edri and he was working in the mall to persuade men to put on tefilin. Seeing a Chabadnik putting tefilin on passersby is not a strange occurrence in Israel or in many other countries for that matter.

At some point Moti was engaged in a discussion with a woman who wanted to learn more about Shabbos candles. His was distanced from the tefilin stand during the conversation. When he returned the tefilin were gone. Moti turned to mall security officials who explained there are no surveillance cameras where he was standing so despite their willingness to assist there was nothing they can do.

Moti returned home and explained what had occurred to his father, who began inquiring into purchasing him a new pair as the young shluchim often use their own tefilin which was the case here. The tefilin were later discovered in a trash can and this was made known to a woman who knows Moti and his family and what had occurred. She informed him and the tefilin were B”H recovered.