{"id":8979,"date":"2018-02-16T11:53:34","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T16:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jewishbreakingnews.com\/jbn\/?p=8979"},"modified":"2024-03-13T05:36:07","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T09:36:07","slug":"thousands-tefillin-wearers-give-unique-birthday-gift-rabbi-als","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewishbreakingnews.com\/thousands-tefillin-wearers-give-unique-birthday-gift-rabbi-als\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of Tefillin Wearers to Give Unique Birthday Gift to Rabbi With ALS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rabbi Yitzi Hurwitz is about to turn 46. As a little boy in Brooklyn, N.Y., he loved dancing, singing and making people laugh. As a\u00a0Chabad-Lubavitch<\/span>\u00a0emissary to Temecula, Calif., he used those gifts to teach and inspire others, as he and his wife,\u00a0Dina<\/span>, built a vibrant and loving community.<\/p>\n

According to Dina Hurwitz, one of the most beloved aspects of her husband’s work was putting on\u00a0tefillin<\/span><\/i>\u00a0with men in his community and encouraging them to purchase their own sets so they could do so themselves regularly.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loves his\u00a0tefillin<\/i>, and it was his passion to put them on with other people,\u201d she tells\u00a0Chabad<\/span>.org. \u201cWhen he turned 40, I bought him a new pouch for his\u00a0tefillin<\/i>. It is a\u00a0mitzvah<\/span>\u00a0I know he loves, and if I could make it more beautiful for him, that would be the perfect gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

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So much changed five years ago, when the rabbi was diagnosed with ALS (known as Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease), which has gradually robbed him of the ability to walk, speak or even move. (Photo: Monika Lightstone)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So much began to change so quickly five years ago, when the rabbi was diagnosed with ALS (known as Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease), which has gradually robbed him of the ability to walk, speak or even move.<\/p>\n

In the years since his diagnosis, the father of seven has become a bastion of inspiration to millions worldwide, through his uplifting, transformative (and always optimistic)\u00a0writings on Chabad.org<\/a>, his\u00a0musical compositions<\/a>, and through the bright smiles he still shares with his many visitors and students in his apartment in Los Angeles, where he now lives.<\/p>\n

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One of the most beloved aspects of Hurwitz’s work before developing ALS was putting on tefillin with men in his community and encouraging them to purchase their own sets so they could do so themselves regularly. (File photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Friday is his 46th birthday, and a group of students in the nearby Chabad-Lubavitch\u00a0yeshivah<\/span>,<\/i>\u00a0Ohr<\/span>\u00a0Elchanan Chabad\u2014whose lives are profoundly touched by their daily praying, singing and learning interactions with Rabbi Yitzi, as he is universally known\u2014thought long and hard about what they could do for their beloved mentor and friend\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n

They knew that for Rabbi Yitzi, a man of\u00a0action<\/a>, it had to be something tangible, something that would have a lasting impact on people\u2019s lives. They had also just completed learning about\u00a0the special meaning of a Jewish birthday<\/a>\u00a0and the responsibility to celebrate it in a spiritual fashion, as explained by the\u00a0Rebbe<\/span>\u2014Rabbi\u00a0Menachem M. Schneerson<\/span>, of righteous memory\u2014almost exactly 30 years ago.<\/p>\n

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Rabbi Yitzi Hurwitz at the Kotel in Jerusalem in 2013, soon after he was diagnosed with ALS. (File photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The students finally came up with an idea last week: An international day of laying\u00a0tefillin<\/i><\/a>\u2014wherein Jewish men of all walks of life would\u00a0don the head and heart\u00a0tefillin<\/i><\/a>, say a prayer for themselves and a prayer for Rabbi Yitzi, and synchronize their heads and hearts in fulfillment of the biblical command for Jewish men\u2014would be the absolutely most joyous thing for Rabbi Yitzi, especially if it helped some people go out of their comfort zones.<\/p>\n

Something similar had been done five years before, but on a smaller scale.<\/p>\n

Just months after the rabbi\u2019s diagnosis, as the Hurwitzes were preparing to celebrate\u00a0the bar mitzvah of their son Eli Chaim<\/a>, 12 men in their community purchased\u00a0tefillin<\/i>and made a commitment to their beloved rabbi that they would put them on every day, giving the family something the rabbi described at the time as \u201cthe ultimate\u00a0bar mitzvah<\/span>\u00a0gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Students join Rabbi Yitzi at his home for morning services. \u201cNow that he cannot actually go out and put on tefillin with others as he loved to do, we must be there for him to actually go out and put on tefillin with others as he loved to do . . . Let’s do it for him!\u201d (Photo: Monika Lightstone)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, five years later, using every means at their disposal\u2014social media, email, telephone and old-fashioned word of mouth\u2014the\u00a0yeshivah<\/i>\u00a0students are pushing the idea to their peers and contacts all over the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cRabbi Yitzi inspires so many with joy, faith and optimism, teaching everyone how to get in touch with their souls, how to be happy with what we have, how\u00a0G\u2011d<\/span>\u00a0gives us the ability to overcome extraordinary odds, and so much more,\u201d the Los Angeles students wrote to their friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that he cannot actually go out and put on\u00a0tefillin<\/i>\u00a0with others as he loved to do, we must be there for him to actually go out and put on\u00a0tefillin<\/i>\u00a0with others as he loved to do . . . Let\u2019s do it for him!\u201d<\/p>\n

And the idea has grown in momentum.<\/p>\n

Yeshivah students, rabbis and lay people will approach many thousands of Jewish men who do not put on\u00a0tefillin<\/i>\u00a0daily, all over the globe, and offer them the opportunity to participate in the\u00a0tefillin<\/i><\/a>campaign<\/a>\u00a0launched by the Rebbe more than 50 years ago to foster deeper connection to G\u2011d.<\/p>\n

In a cumulative demonstration of global prayer and interconnectivity, each participant will strap on their respective head and arm\u00a0tefillin<\/i>\u00a0boxes, recite the prayers, and meditate about their relationship with G\u2011d\u2014and then upload their pictures to social media proclaiming\u00a0#TefillinForYitzi<\/b>.<\/p>\n