T H E J E W I S H H O M E n S E P T E M B E R 2 3 , 2014
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The Sulitza Tehillim Kollel By Tamar Sullivan Perhaps you didn’t know that every day a group of chashuve Yidden gather daily at the Kotel on your behalf and daven for your health, your success, your parnassa, and your children. In the late 1960s, the previous Sulit-
zer Rebbe felt that our local community was in trouble – people were moving out and the neighborhood was not prospering. He wasn’t sure how to rebuild it, what to do, or where to go. In 1968, the Rebbe visited Eretz Yisroel, and after davening at the Kotel, he stood there, reciting heartfelt words of Tehillim, beseeching Hashem for the success of the small, dying community that was then on the border of Far Rockaway and Lawrence. The Rebbe was reminded of the posuk we recite daily, “U’n’shalmah parim sfaseinu (The prayers of our lips
take the place of korbanos).” Just as we once had shlichim from every town travel to Yerushalayim to offer korbanos on our behalf at the Beis Hamikdash, the Rebbe believed it seemed fitting for our community to partner with a group of
shlichim in Yerushalayim to offer tefillos on our community’s behalf at the Kotel. The Rebbe turned to his rebbetzin and committed to reciting Tehillim for the community each day until their departure and to ensuring that the recitation continues daily even after they leave Eretz Yisroel. Thanks to their determination, the Sulitza Tehillim Kollel, Kehilas Yakob, was born. Since its creation and perhaps due to the Kollel’s sincere tefillos, the small, faltering, threatened town of Far Rockaway has exploded into neighboring communities, burgeon-
ing schools, countless shuls, and as far as one can tell, the growth of the Five Towns is nowhere near its end. While we live our daily lives here in the Five Towns, learning Torah and driving carpool, the members of the Tehillim Kollel join together daily in an excavated underground shul where the stones of the Kotel are unblemished and where a small sign by the Aron Kodesh reads, “Mul Kodesh HaKadoshim.” In the holiest accessible spot on Earth, they sit and recite the entire Sefer Tehillim every day, literally davening for you and me and our next door neighbors. We have shlichim in Yerushalayim offering korbanos for us! And we certainly cannot know which brachos and yeshuos we receive moment to moment because of this incredible zechus. It is appropriate that our mispallelim in Yerushalayim recite Sefer Tehillim in particular because what connects all of us to the Borei Olam and to one another is our Jewish neshama, which finds no greater expression in Olam Hazeh than in the poignant words of Dovid HaMelech, Klal Yisroel’s very first king, who was able to articulate every hope, dream, fear, and emotion inherent in the Jewish soul. All of our deepest sentiments – from grief to joy to uncertainty to delight – can find expression through the Psalms that have remained pillars on which we have leaned for generations. During trying times, we have seen our great-grand-
parents, our grandparents, and our parents turn heavenward with their tattered tear-stained Tehillims, begging for rachamei shamayim in the countless forms He bestows it. It is therefore no surprise that the previous Sulitzer Rebbe turned to his Tehillim and that the Kollel engages the one language that unites us in order to daven so genuinely for us. We know that the power of one “amen” or one tefillah can move mountains. Do we dare desert the spiritual strength of a Tehillim Kollel, organized just for us, for our very own well being, at a time when tefillah can change our communal and personal din for the better? All community members, the beneficiaries of the tefillos being recited by our shlichim at the Kotel – perhaps even the very moment you are reading this – are encouraged to support the continuation of the Sulitza Tehillim Kollel, under the leadership of the Sulitzer Rebbe, Reb Yankel Rubin, shlit”a. Supporters of the Tehillim Kollel readily send to the mispallelim the names of their family members and friends who are anxiously awaiting their particular yeshuos – from health to parnassa and everything in between. What better time is there for you to send them the names of your loved ones and to join those who make this unique kollel possible day after day? Men are invited to a parlor meeting for the kollel at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Motti Klein, 2 Boxwood Lane in Lawrence, on Tuesday, September 30, at 8:30 pm. We look forward to greeting you in support of this matchless mainstay of our community. In the zechus of your support and the tefillos of the kollel, may each and every one of us merit a k’siva v’chasima tova this year and every year.