Levy Family Makes the Desert Bloom


ORACLE, AZ [CHI] — Oracle’s first-ever Tanya published in tribute to philanthropic family’s support of Shluchim youth camp in Grand Canyon State

A desert is just about the last place you’d find a wellspring. But conversely, when you do, such an oasis is all the more valuable because of its dry, hostile surroundings.

And Camp Gan Israel Tzeirei Hashluchim, the pioneering Shluchim children’s camp run for the past 13 years by The Shluchim Office in Oracle, Arizona, opened just such a wellspring during its just-concluded boys’ session—a wellspring of the spiritual sort.

The popularization of Chassidic philosophy—commonly referred to as “spreading the wellsprings” in Chabad-Lubavitch parlance—is an entrenched theme in Chabad thinking, and adherents have symbolically “spread the wellsprings” by printing copies of the Tanya in far-flung locations throughout the world.

Which now includes the tiny rural Arizona town of Oracle.

“We were looking for something to do on Hei Teves, something inspiring for the kids,” says CGI head counselor Yitzi Steiner. “And we thought that printing Tanyas was a great idea.”

The idea, which actually was conceived during preparations for last year’s camp but was stymied by logistical difficulties, was finally executed during this year’s session, which ran from Monday, December 10 through Thursday, December 20, 2007.

With the vaunted day of Hei Teves falling during the boys camping session, Steiner and fellow head counselor Yudi Shmotkin researched and assembled a wealth of materials on the printing of Tanyas, mainly the Rebbe’s Sichos, while still in New York planning this year’s successful session.

They also brought authentic metal printing plates from New York upon traveling to Arizona—and once there, located and rented a reprographic machine, a large-scale printing device, for the actual printing.

The actual event, hyped by preparatory study of the concept by the campers during their daily morning “learning classes,” was held on the camp’s fourth day in session, Thursday, December 13.

Campers gathered around the clunky reprographic machine to witness uncut pages of broadsheet roll off the press, each double-sided sheet bearing eight back-to-back pages of the Tanya. The event reached a climax as the boys, impressed by staff on the significance of the “hist-Oracle” event, joined hands in spirited singing and dancing.

The 4,000 large sheets printed by the machine will form 100 completed pocket-sized Tanyas when cut, assembled and bound in New York. The Tanyas are expected to be completed in 2-3 weeks, according to Steiner—at which point one copy will be sent to each camper and staff member as a special memento.

“This is the only time they have to spend two weeks together and fill up with Ruchniyus and Hishkashrus,” says Shluchim Office director Rabbi Gedalya Shemtov of the camp’s purpose, explaining that it is scheduled for when most campers are off from school. “Rabbi Levy has supported the camp for many years, and we felt it was only fitting to dedicate the Tanya printing in his honor and in his brother’s memory.” says Rabbi Gedalya Shemtov, The Shluchim Office’s director.

Sponsored by a generous grant by Rabbi Don Yoel Levy and family in memory of Rabbi Eliezer Yitzchok “Lazer” Levy, CGI Tzeirei Hashluchim has inspired thousands of young shluchim since its 1995 inception.

Joining them in helping young Shluchim are the Weiss, Bistritzky, Drizin, Lehrer, Shochat, Rosenfeld, and Rubashkin families.

Thanks to the Levys—and major co-sponsors Sholom and Julie Laytin of Tucson, AZ and Aaron and Judith Weingarten of East Hills, NY—the Arizona desert has bloomed in more ways than one.

And with the recent Tanya printing, that desert can now draw nourishment from a spiritual wellspring.