Tel Aviv Municipality Draws 32,000 to Shofar in the Street on Rosh Hashanah

by Yaakov Ort – chabad.org

More than 32,000 Tel Aviv-Yafo residents and tourists heard the shofar on the city’s streets this Rosh Hashanah, thanks in part to an invitation highlighted on Tel Aviv municipality’s website. Yeshivah students, rabbis and local volunteers took up their posts at 150 locations around the city throughout the two days of the holiday. Some students walked for more than 3.5 hours to traverse the 10 miles from Kfar Chabad to Tel Aviv to sound the shofar.

The public invitation came as the result of an initiative by Rabbi Yosef Gerlitzky, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Tel Aviv-Yafo. The main web page read: “Blowing the shofar in Tel Aviv-Yafo 5752: The Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality and Chabad of Tel Aviv are pleased to invite you to shofar blowing events throughout the city in honor of Rosh Hashanah 5752,” followed by a listing of times and locations around the city.

The Chabad center in Tel Aviv also printed cards that included blessings over the sounding of the shofar and verses related to Kingship, Remembrance, and Shofar.

On the eve of the holiday, an outdoor gathering was held with Tel Aviv-Yafo’s new district police commander, Ami Eshed, and senior district police officers. Rabbi Shaye Gerlitzky, co-director of Chabad at Tel Aviv University with his wife, Chaye, spoke about the holiday and thanked and blessed the officers for their work throughout the year.

This article has been posted with permission from chabad.org