Many Israeli soldiers in the recent war were inspired to put on t’fillin every day. The problem is that many of them cannot buy their own t’fillin. * The one who came to their aid is the shliach in Chevron, R’ Yossi Nachshon who found himself running an organization T’fillin L’Chayal. * Every day he sees miracles in his fundraising efforts and he has moving stories that testify to the extent of the awakening of the hearts of the Jewish people.
“I dream about t’fillin at night. I dream about being able to reach every soldier who wants to start putting on t’fillin. It makes no difference where he is, on an isolated outpost, a secret base somewhere, or in Tel Aviv.” That is how R’ Yossi Nachshon sums it up, but it is with this sentiment that we will begin.
Along with the usual activities of a Chabad house which he runs in the Ramat Mamrei neighborhood, and intensive mivtzaim with residents and soldiers throughout the neighborhood and in nearby yishuvim, R’ Nachshon came up with another project. He gives this project a lot of his time, sweat, and sometimes tears. T’fillin L’Chayal is the name of the project in which pairs of t’fillin are given to Israeli soldiers and various members of security forces who commit to putting them on daily.
Nearly every month R’ Nachshon visits bases and outposts where he insists on giving each soldier his t’fillin personally. If you know R’ Nachshon, you know that he isn’t the type to wear his heart on his sleeve, but even he could not restrain his emotions two weeks ago when he arrived at a gathering of Golani fighters in order to give t’fillin to one of the soldiers, a baal t’shuva.
“One day, I got a voicemail from a soldier who fought in Gaza who wanted new t’fillin. His t’fillin had gotten wet during the fighting and were ruined and he had been using someone else’s t’fillin. He and his commander made great efforts to obtain replacement t’fillin for him but were unsuccessful. Then they called me. This soldier’s story moved me. One of our regular donors donated a pair of t’fillin and I went to personally deliver them to that soldier.
“When the soldier heard that his t’fillin were on their way to him, he was thrilled. We arranged a place and time and I went to one of the staging areas that was located on the Gaza border. At one of the junctions I was escorted by a military jeep, which brought me to the place. What a sight! Smoke billowed from every corner, the noise of mortars was deafening, and a military half-track came toward us from which a few dusty soldiers emerged singing “Si’u Sh’arim Rosheichem.” The soldier received the t’fillin from me and burst into tears. Within moments we were dancing in a circle. There wasn’t a dry eye there.”
This scene is one of many that have taken place in recent weeks. In the last seven years, since the organization was founded, it is estimated that R’ Nachshon has distributed close to 1500 pairs of t’fillin. Each soldier who receives a pair is listed in a special registry including his rank and the name of the unit he serves in.
The donations are collected from wealthy Jews in France and the United States and plenty is also raised from regular people who see it as their privilege to take part in this operation. In recent weeks, due to the war, the activities of the organization have expanded significantly and hundreds of pairs of t’fillin were given to soldiers who promised to use them every day.
How and when did this idea come to you?
“It began seven years ago by divine providence. One of the main elements in our outreach work is shiurim in Chassidus in yishuvim near Chevron and in Chevron itself. Every week I would go to one of the yishuvim in the area where I had a chavrusa with one of the members, who worked for the Mossad. One day, he called me and said, ‘I’m in jail.’ I was shocked. Why was he in jail? Then he explained to me that he was in the process of getting divorced for many years and since he refused to give a get, he was put in jail.
“‘You’ve got to help me,’ he said. I responded that if his connections didn’t help him, then certainly my connections wouldn’t help, but he wanted a different kind of help. He said he was in a cell with a young man who was becoming interested in Judaism and he decided he wants to commit to putting on t’fillin every day. But he wasn’t able to buy a pair himself. He asked me whether I know of any organization or person who would buy t’fillin for this guy.
“I promised to look into it and I called a friend of ours in France, R’ Eliyahu Zikri of Lyon, and asked whether he could help. Zikri was so happy to help that he said he would provide not just one pair of t’fillin, but five. Then I had to figure out how to get t’fillin into the prison. After some investigating I went to the offices of Yad L’Asir which brings Jewish material into prisons and arranges shiurim. The person on the line heard that we have five pairs of t’fillin and said he had seven facilities in the center of the country and if we wanted to bring in t’fillin we had to get another two pairs so each facility would have one.
“I was taken aback by his reaction. I am used to people saying thank you when given something. I called back R’ Zikri who got R’ Shmuel Gurewitz, the shliach in Lyon, involved and he decided to finance the other two pairs of t’fillin. R’ Gurewitz arrived in Eretz Yisroel with a retinue of donors to distribute the t’fillin. One of the prison wardens showed us around to all the various prison facilities. We met the people and emotions ran high.
“Word had gotten out and a few months later we got more requests, mainly from the army. As soon as we successfully obtained another donation of t’fillin and gave them to soldiers, our name was passed around and we began receiving many calls from other army units and the police. It seems our info was posted on military and police forums and any request for t’fillin is forwarded to us.”
How do soldiers make the connection with your organization?
“A soldier tells his unit rabbi that he wants t’fillin. It doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process. The commander sees that the soldier is sincerely moving closer to Jewish practice and he conveys the request to us. We get many requests from shluchim and Chabad houses from around the country too. Just two days ago I got a request from one of the shluchim in Dimona, R’ Uri Shachar, and we got beautiful t’fillin for a soldier who got involved through their activities.
“The organization kind of just happened, without being planned. We did not start out with a plan and goals about how to get t’fillin and how to reach people. The reality is what dictated the rate at which things happened because when a soldier asks for t’fillin, you cannot refuse him. Since the project got off the ground there is not a month that goes by without requests. After we make inquiries about the level of seriousness, we try to respond.”
THE HEART OF
ISRAEL IS AWAKE
T’fillin L’Chayal has many more people working for it than just R’ Yossi Nachshon. In recent weeks alone, a number of activists have joined, many of them not even Lubavitchers, but they see the great importance of this project. One of the main players is R’ Yitzchok C, a Litvishe fellow from B’nei Brak who wishes to remain anonymous.
“I prefer that all my work be solely for the sake of heaven and that is why I don’t want my involvement to be known.”
How did you get connected with R’ Yossi Nachshon?
“In the middle of the recent war, I gave a ride to an important lecturer from a famous Litvishe kiruv organization. On the way, she told me that one of her mekuravos called her, a university student, and she said that she heard an incredible story from her cousin, a famous producer from Tel Aviv. Her cousin had arranged a group of Tel Avivian performers, actors and singers, who went to boost morale among the Golani soldiers and the engineering corps at the staging areas near the border.
“At the end of the show, as a gesture of good will to the soldiers, one of the performers asked the soldiers, ‘Next time we come, what would you like us to bring you?’ He expected them to ask for other forms of entertainment or for famous actors. He wasn’t anticipating the answer he got. ‘We soldiers who were in battle and committed to put on t’fillin every day, want fifty pairs of t’fillin!’ He was left open-mouthed.”
That producer, whose name we know, is a member of the leftist elite in Eretz Yisroel with radically Left views. She told her cousin who was taking an interest in Judaism and said she was still in shock. These were not religious soldiers, which is why she didn’t dream this is what they would be asking for. Still, their request was on her mind and she asked her cousin to find someone who could help fulfill the soldiers’ request.
The student did not know who could help and she asked the kiruv lecturer. The lecturer also did not know how to help and she told her driver, Yitzchok C. Yitzchok was touched by the story. He had learned in Litvishe yeshivos and had only a passing acquaintance with Chabad. He says he never heard of Mivtza T’fillin and he did not think he had to worry about Jews who were distant from his world, but this request touched him.
He wondered what to do. Here there were fifty men who wanted to put on t’fillin every day; they had to be helped. It was clear to him that putting on t’fillin daily would lead, at least for some of the soldiers, toward getting even more involved in Jewish practice since we know “one mitzva brings another mitzva.”
“I asked the lecturer for the number of the student and she connected me to the cousin, the producer. It was important to me to hear the story firsthand. Later on, I called a good friend, someone who runs a medical chesed organization in Yerushalayim who has connections with some people in the army. He made inquiries for me about those units. I wanted to make sure that the soldiers who would receive the t’fillin would use them and not stick them away in the closet. After several hours of inquiries, he got back to me and said he heard about a tremendous spiritual awakening among the soldiers who were fighting and he decided that he also wanted to help.”
Yitzchok got fully involved in the project. It was the day before Tisha B’Av. He decided to start with something small. He put an announcement on a social network which said:
“Shalom Am Yisroel! I received a request from the rabbi of a unit whose soldiers fought in Gaza and stared death in the face. These guys are secular who never put on t’fillin and they want to commit to putting on t’fillin! I got t’fillin at cost price, at no profit, for 900 shekels. I’m talking about 50 pairs of t’fillin. The first pair is on me. Whoever wants to join, and thus have a share in all the merits for all time, and commit to undertake even in installments the cost of a pair of t’fillin or part of one, should call this number … Please forward this to all groups or individuals and share this message.”
Within ten minutes he had four pairs of t’fillin donated. “An hour after posting that, my cellphone was in constant use with endless call waiting signals. One call came in after another and I did not even have to wait for the phone to ring. When I went to shul in the morning, I went up to the bima and told everyone the story. Some goodhearted people donated another four pairs of t’fillin. Five hours later we already had 19 pairs of t’fillin. At this point, contact was made with R’ Yossi Nachshon, an incredible person, a shliach of the Rebbe who works with great mesirus nefesh.
“Through him, I got another 25 pairs of t’fillin and when the fast was over, I already had 44 pairs of t’fillin. It was amazing to see how the Jewish people mobilized en masse. Irreligious female students donated their pocket money. People who do not have money to pay for bread and milk at the grocery store, jumped at the chance to participate. Poor and rich alike donated t’fillin.
“People were shocked by the low price that I had gotten for the t’fillin, but that is thanks to a good friend who sells t’fillin and gave me t’fillin that costs double in the stores. As soon as the fast was over, this friend rounded up the employees at the t’fillin factory and urged them to go to work to make the t’fillin we had ordered. When we had the amount of money we needed, we did not have to wait even one extra day.
“We arranged the distribution of the t’fillin with R’ Nachshon who knows the protocol and has connections with commanders. That Leftist producer who emphasized to us that she is not a believer, came once again to the staging area of the Golani soldiers and the engineering corps, this time not to bring them joy with performances and singing, but to personally join R’ Nachshon in the distribution of t’fillin to the soldiers. R’ Nachshon introduced her to his wife who invited her on a visit to the Meoras HaMachpeila. The producer came and was excited about it and has since arranged an organized tour of a group of famous personalities.
“People contacted me and till today continue to contact me to be part of this big mitzva and they come from all segments of the population, religious and irreligious. A student called me and said she could only donate 200 shekels. I told her, ‘If it’s not a bother, publicize it, however you can.’ Thanks to her publicity with her friends at the university, we got approximately another ten pairs of t’fillin!
“A woman called me who was interested in donating 300 shekels in installments. I suggested that she spread out the installments through direct deposit or checks but she refused. ‘I want to travel each time and bring you the payment myself,’ she said. It was moving to see how Am Yisroel in all its shades has taken such a great interest in this.”
THE REBBE SENDS HELP FOR MIVTZA TEFILLIN
In the last two months, as he got involved, Yitzchok has experienced some remarkable stories. He chose three special ones to share with us.
“A young woman from the Nachlaot neighborhood in Yerushalayim called me. She identified herself as belonging to the religious-Zionist movement while also being very interested in Chabad. She said she wrote to the Rebbe about something that was on her mind and put her letter into a volume of Igros Kodesh. The answer she opened to was about the importance of the mitzva of t’fillin. The next day she wrote another letter and put it into the Igros Kodesh and again opened to a letter about the importance of t’fillin. She found it surprising since she’s a woman and what does she have to do with t’fillin?
“The following day she was walking on King George on her way to shul when she saw one of the hilltop kids wearing t’fillin. A few hours later, the rav in his speech at shul spoke about the importance of t’fillin. She realized that she was being sent a message. When she opened her cell phone on Motzaei Shabbos, she saw our text message about the t’fillin for the soldiers. She immediately called to donate a pair. She said that she felt that the Rebbe was telling her that the vessel that would help her to receive the blessing she wanted was buying t’fillin for a soldier.”
Another story with a clear answer in the Igros Kodesh goes like this:
“One day, a Lubavitcher woman from the north called me and said she wanted to donate a pair of t’fillin. She said that she sent her two children to Chabad’s summer camp and was nervous because of the war. She asked the Rebbe for a bracha through the Igros Kodesh and opened volume 16 to letter #5832 which says: … t’fillin is a matter of subordinating the heart and mind …
“A few minutes after opening to this answer, while she was still trying to figure out what connection t’fillin had to her, she got our message on her phone and she understood the connection. She called me and said she wanted to make a deposit for one pair of t’fillin. A few days later she called to ask if the money had gone in. I checked and said it had not. It turned out that she had mistakenly deposited it into another account. ‘Ask the bank to withdraw the amount that was mistakenly deposited into that man’s account and then transfer it to us,’ I advised her, but she refused. ‘I will deposit it again now and only after that will I take care of the mistaken deposit,’ she said, surprising me.
“A few days ago, I called her to ask whether I could publicize her story and I heard the amazing sequel to her story. She was very emotional when she told me the following details. She said that right after she deposited the money, she received a phone call from the coordinator of the camp where her children were. One of her children had nearly drowned in the pool and had swallowed a lot of water. He was in the ICU and they were afraid that his brain had been adversely affected by the lack of oxygen.
“They went through several hours of terror but miraculously, the boy regained consciousness and was fine. She told me that she realized what the Rebbe’s bracha about t’fillin was about, for t’fillin subordinate the mind (brain); the Rebbe had preceded the blow with the cure.”
A third story which is both amazing and moving is as follows:
“A religious young woman from Ramot in Yerushalayim called me and said she wanted to hear about our project. I offered to send her pictures but she said she worked for a long time in a telemarketing company and she did not believe photos and approbations. I told her that every cent went toward buying t’fillin and neither I nor R’ Nachshon took a cent for ourselves. She was excited to hear this and donated a pair of t’fillin. When I expressed surprise over a young woman donating a pair of t’fillin she told me an astonishing story.
“She has a relative who became a vegetarian as a result of which he stopped putting on t’fillin, since t’fillin are made from the skin of an animal that was put through torture (as if) in the slaughtering process. She was greatly bothered by the spiritual deterioration of this relative and made a deal with him. She would become a vegetarian even though she didn’t believe in it, and he would continue to put on t’fillin every day. She said that after a short while she began feeling weak due to her new diet and eating on Shabbos and at family gatherings was very problematic. But she decided to be moser nefesh just so that her relative would continue putting on t’fillin.
“When she saw our advertising, she was happy to enable another Jew to put on t’fillin.”
You yourself were able, in the last few weeks, to get dozens of pairs of t’fillin and you are just one person. How do you manage to raise so much money?
“Siyata d’Shmaya, there is no other explanation. Just recently, we got a request for ten pairs of t’fillin from the naval unit Shayetet 3 for the members of their unit. With great effort I got four pairs. I called a friend, the director of a certain organization in B’nei Brak whom I knew had a connection with wealthy people. I asked for his help, but he begged off. That day, I was at my father-in-law’s house where he was sitting Shiva. I told the people gathered there that I had to raise money for t’fillin. ‘Where are you going to get it from at this time?’ they challenged me. But I was sure I would be successful. How? I still did not know.
“I went to a few wealthy people in B’nei Brak but did not get much, just a few dozen shekels. I looked heavenward and asked for siyata d’Shmaya. I went back to my father-in-law’s house and began to cry. Think about it, there are ten soldiers who put their lives in danger for us and want to put on t’fillin and we can’t provide them with what they want.
“Suddenly I got a message from the rabbi I had spoken to in the morning and he said that his wealthy supporter from the US was coming to celebrate his son’s bar mitzva in Eretz Yisroel. He was willing to donate thirty pairs of t’fillin.
“‘When is he coming?’ I asked.
“‘In another two weeks,’ he said.
“I thanked him profusely but explained that I needed another six pairs by the morning. ‘I cannot give t’fillin to just four out of the ten and tell the other six to wait. He promised to get back to me. A few minutes went by and he called me back. Another wealthy backer of his had made a donation of six pairs of t’fillin. I was ecstatic. This is the way it goes nearly every time; when there is a need, Hashem makes sure it comes.”
T’FILLIN ARE
A SERIOUS MATTER
We went back to R’ Nachshon and asked him:
How do you know that those soldiers will put on t’fillin every day and it wasn’t just a momentary feeling of inspiration?
“I meet a lot of soldiers, some of them after they’ve been released, who come to Chevron for Reserves. They tell me about the t’fillin that they take everywhere.
“We do all we can to verify through the commanders and chaplains that they are serious, but we don’t rely on that completely. This is why it is important to us to go personally to each soldier who gets t’fillin. This month we gave out eight pairs of t’fillin to members of the Yehuda regional brigade at a cost of 5000 shekels each. Soldiers understand that it is expensive and valuable and that we give it only to someone who really wants it.”
Why t’fillin and not some other mitzva?
“We work with soldiers who endanger their lives every day, every hour. We bring them cake and nosh, but there are other organizations that do that too. We are shluchim of the Rebbe who stressed the verse about t’fillin on the head, ‘and they will fear you.’ We feel that we are providing spiritual armor to the soldiers.
“I am always feeling that we are not doing enough. Nearly every day we get requests from soldiers from various units and we don’t always succeed in reaching them all. We try to find solutions, but they are never complete. My dream is that a rich person reading this article will realize the enormous value of this project and will make an ongoing donation of at least 100 t’fillin a month; that would be fantastic.”
How does all this connect to the Rebbe’s prophecy of hinei, hinei Moshiach ba?
“There is a tremendous feeling of inspiration amongst the soldiers. Previously, actors, singers and military choirs would visit the soldiers. Today, the ones who go are activists like us who give out tzitzis and t’fillin to the soldiers and it’s not happening in a vacuum; the soldiers themselves are asking their commanders for this.
“The half-tracks and tanks in the last operation turned into shtiblach and many irreligious soldiers completed minyanim and davened for the first time in their lives.
“A few days ago, we went to a parachutist base to give t’fillin to some soldiers. There were dozens of minyanim for davening! The rabbi at the base told us that a high percentage of the soldiers, about 80%, from elite combat units are comprised of religious soldiers or those who have gotten stronger in their Judaism. In recent years, we have visited the most secret units in the army. You see soldiers who talk about emuna with Jewish pride. That is Geula!”
WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR?
In recent months, R’ Nachshon has found himself collaborating with those whom he may not have collaborated with in normal times; it’s all for the lofty goal of purchasing t’fillin for soldiers.
A few weeks ago, a Litvishe rosh yeshiva in B’nei Brak joined him. One of the rosh yeshiva’s supporters donated pairs of t’fillin and “schlepped” him along to the distribution at an army base. According to R’ Nachshon, if those close to this rabbi from an extreme group knew where he was, they would definitely have attacked him, and it was for this very reason that he was moved to see how emotional the rosh yeshiva was by the sight of soldiers who were excited about their t’fillin.
The rosh yeshiva spoke to the soldiers about the importance of putting on t’fillin and about G-d’s joy in that IDF soldiers are committing to putting on t’fillin. In a personal conversation, he told one soldier emotionally, “I envy you that you are doing this of your own free choice. For me it was a given that I would put on t’fillin when I became bar mitzva, while with you it’s of your own free will.”
R’ Nachshon also related this interesting episode:
During a ceremony in which we gave out t’fillin at the Yehuda regional brigade base, the base chaplain, R’ Lior Binyamin, said, “You want to know how I became a baal t’shuva? When I was a boy I saw a group of kids on the street with a religious young man shouting at them, ‘Who are we?’
“And they shouted, ‘Tzivos Hashem!’
“‘And what is our job?’
“‘To fight!’
“‘With whom?’
“‘The yetzer ha’ra!’
“‘And what will we hasten?’
“‘The Geula!’
“I was excited. There is a war here; it sounded interesting. I joined them and asked questions and in the end, I did a complete return. Do you know who that bachur was who said p’sukim with the children? Today he is R’ Noam Dekel, the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s shliach to Yokneam.”
Concluded, R’ Nachshon: You can never know what anything, as small as it might be, might lead to. That was powerful. My heart fills with a powerful love for the Rebbe. What power the Rebbe has! As much as I think about it, I don’t understand it. Ashreinu!