Baruch and Levi Yitzchak enter the Covenant of Abraham
Even in the most difficult times, the Jewish people have always found reason to celebrate.
In Berlin, there is a large contingent of refugees from Odessa, the staff and 120 children of the Mishpacha orphanage, along with an additional 140 women and children (men between the ages of 18-60 are not being allowed out of Ukraine).
Today, they clapped and sang mazel tov as two boys, both 6 years old, entered the Covenant of Abraham, and took the Hebrew names of Baruch and Levi Yitzchak.
Chaya Wolff, Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to Odessa since 1992 and leader of the group, said she “almost fainted” when Lara, the mother of one of the boys, approached her about the possibility of arranging a circumcision.
“I hadn’t recovered from the long trip here,” said Wolff, whose husband, Rabbi Avraham Woff, returned to Odessa after accompanying the group to Berlin. “We hadn’t finished arranging documents. I hadn’t organized a menu for all our meals. I didn’t even catch my breath yet.”
Not only was Lara ready to circumcise her own son, but she told Woff that another woman in the group was ready to do the same for her son.
Chabad Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, rabbi of Berlin’s Jewish community arranged for an expert mohel (“circumcisor”) to come to the hotel where the group is being put up, and a joyous celebration was put together.
In the three decades that the Wolffs have been leading the Odessa Jewish community, they have overseen hundreds of circumcisions, as the ritual—a fundamental of Judaism—was nearly impossible under the Communists.
And today, one war and 1,700 kilometers later, that same work continues.
As Woff says, quoting the adage: “War is war, and lunch is on schedule!”
The Ukraine Jewish Relief Fund has been established to help provide assistance to the Jewish communities in Ukraine impacted by the war.
Click here for a prayer you can say and a list of good deeds you can do in the merit of the protection of all those in harm’s way.
