It's Official: We've (b)reached the Berlin Wall

Rabbi Roberts with the members of KAJ and the Travelling Chassidim

For Shabbos Parshas Vayero 5783 - תשפ"ג, the Travelling Chassidim branched out to Europe, travelling to Berlin in Germany to spend Shabbos upon the invitation of Jewish Project Berlin (JPB).

A group of five Chassidim and two Chassidos from London and Westcliff joined up to spend Shabbos together with the Kahal Adass Jisroel (KAJ) - a Kolel community in Berlin, as part of the Shabbos Project.

This was a marathon weekend, which the Berlin Jewish community will not forget so fast, as there was hardly time to sleep: On Friday morning the Chassidim visited the Lauder Beth-Zion Jewish Primary and Senior Schools. 

The children were enthralled by the men who were dressed their Shabbos garb - both for the lively singing and animated storytelling.

The uplifting Carlebach Kabolas Shabbos was led by Yossi Deutsch - on the day of Berlin-born Reb Shlome'le Carlebach's Yahrzeit Z"L - with singing and lively dancing. 

 After the Friday evening meal, the Oneg cum Kumzits took place at the home of the community Rabbi, Rav Dovid Roberts שליט"א, who treated the local and foreign guests to wholesome home-made Shabbos delicacies. 

 The singing from the Chassidim alongside the Yekkes could be heard far and wide, late into the night, attracting Jews from all walks of life: community members crowded the dining room alongside university students, Israeli expats and even Berlin’s own local Chassidim! 

Shabbos morning started with the Rov's Shiur on the weekly Parsha, and the davening was led by the Chassidishe guests: Shacharis was replete with traditional as well as contemporary songs and the Musaf prayer started with the rendition of the acapella Lechol Koholo Kadisho Hodeyn - לכל קהלא קדישא הדין, culminating in a crescendo finale, followed by more dancing.

When the Tzibbur finally made it to the gala kiddush, some hundred people stayed for a full song-led Shabbos luncheon that satiated the earthly body and Divre Torah that inspired the heavenly soul. 

Shabbos was ushered out with a stirring musical Havdalah, followed with lively dancing in the shul courtyard and a lavish Melaveh Malka. 

Children took turns wearing the Chassidim's streimels and took a keen interest into the cost of this exotic headgear! 

Sunday morning was a very busy time indeed: the Travelling Chassidim visited the KAJ Cheder, where they interacted with the young pre-schoolers, imparting songs - tailored to their age group - and a story, which was retold in the German language, with the class teacher helping out when the teller mistakenly switched to Yiddish...

Once the Travelling Chassidim finished their shpiel, the Travelling Chassidot then took over and treated the kids to their repertoire of Jewish nursery songs. 

The Travelling Chassidim then continued with their Tour de Berlin. 

The next stop was the Bar Mitzva boys' Sunday class, which is also part of KAJ Cheder. Pupils come from Berlin as well as from outlying places like Leipzig, Hanover etc.. 

The Bochurim enjoyed an interactive and informative presentation 

"Jewish Prayer: Its Origins and Transformation - a Historic Overview". 

This Shiur was dedicated to the late Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks ZT"L, Chief Rabbi of the UK and Commonwealth, whose Yahrzeit was thus commemorated.

The Travelling Chassidim were duly impressed with the students, who punctuated the Shiur with their questions and insightful comments, demonstrating broad knowledge of the subject matter.

The community was clearly overjoyed with the visit, as the Travelling Chassidim were followed around wherever they went - both by the organisers who looked after all their needs and members of the community who wanted to spend more time in their company.

The Sunday Cheder Senior Class, with their Rebbe and the Travelling Chassidim

Rabbi Akiva Adlerstein at Beit Midrash of Berlin expressed it best:

“It's not what the Traveling Chassidim brought to Berlin, it's what they brought out - that inner flame of excitement and enthusiasm for the Jewish beliefs and practices which are part of our daily lives! We spent a weekend together, and the entire community was on a high, from old to young. The Tefilla was beautiful, the Shabbos meals uplifting, the dancing was energizing. The interaction of a group of streimel-wearing Chassidim from the UK with our eclectic community? Magical. It's a Shabbos we won't forget, and hope to repeat very soon! Thank you for the beautiful Shabbos!”.

As with the many other communities who have invited the TCUKE for a Shabbos, the KAJ found their Shabbos to be an extremely inspiring and enjoyable experience. 

The Travelling Chassidim were also busy on the home front: Friday evening, Travelling Chassidim visited the Shul on Walford Road, Stoke Newington and enthralled the assembly with a stirring Kabolas Shabbos.

The Finsbury Park United Synagogue wasn’t spared either, with half a dozen Yungeleit descending on their Shul on Shabbos morning, where the community was treated to a beautiful rendition of Shacharis by Chazan Moshe Mordechai Meislik and his choir - all members of the Travelling Chassidim, with Rabbi Eli Shtern, one of the TCUKE crew volunteering to read the Sedrah. 

Miss Charing, the synagogue’s Chair penned the following thank you letter:

“Dear Travelling Chassidim, Massive thank you to the incredible Travelling Chassidim that heightened everyone's spirit on Shabbat Vayeira at our Synagogue. 

Amazing energy and inspiration - exactly what our community needed!

We thank your team for such an uplifting service and for reigniting our Shabbat spirit with your melodies and infectious enthusiasm!

We hope to welcome you again (soon!),

Kind regards, Maytal Charing (Chair) and Julian Charing (Warden)”. 

Here is the feedback we received from Rabbi Citron of the Walford Road Sha'arei Mazal Tov Shul:

“Dear Reb Menashe,

EVERY time the Travelling Chassidim come to our Shul, they bring a positive energy with them and a pleasant musical davening.

The Chassidim who came the Shabbos before last (the week of Shabbos Project), lead the davening in their unique style - while preserving the custom of our Shul.

They were pleasant in their interactions with the community, it was a real pleasure to have them with us.

Have a good Shabbos, Avraham Citron, Walford Road Synagogue”

For more information about the Travelling Chassidim in the UK and Europe, click on the TCUKE logo below.

Chol HaMo’ed Succos in the Sukkah at Westcliff Hebrew Congregation 5783

Chol HaMo’ed Succos in the Sukkah at Westcliff Hebrew Congregation 5783 Gut Yontef everyone Thank you Rabbi Hyams for introducing us and to Mr Pepper who invited us. As he’s not feeling well, please pass on my best wishes for a speedy recovery and Refuah Shelema to him in my name. You all remember the late Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks OB”M, so perhaps you would agree that he used to open his speech with “My friends!”. So, My Friends, Gut Yontef and thank you for having us here, my dear friend Daniel Admon on the keyboard, my wife Kreindy – our musical director and my young Kalisch family and kids – our dear grandchildren. At one of the Kashrut events, Rabbi Sacks was guest speaker and he told us about a visit that he made to Johannesburg in South Africa. He was in the courtyard of a synagogue and saw a huge muscular giant of a man building a large wooden frame. When he asked the builder what he was building the local smiled, revealing two rows of perfect snow-white teeth shining in the blistering sun. He said: “this is no shed – this is going to be the Succah”. When Rabbi Sacks asked him what this is needed for he replied: “this Succah will be used for eight days – unlike this large building – pointing towards the huge Shul building – is only used three days a year”… We are all aware what happened across in Europe some 75 years ago, within living memory. Yesterday I had the privilege to meet the minister of transport Eric Pickles, who was our guest in Stamford Hill. Whilst waiting for him to arrive – you see, being that he was minister of transport, he was delayed by nearly an hour due to traffic – I heard the following story from Reb Leibel Stemoel, a holocaust survivor. They were all copped up in the Ghetto of Bochniyah, a town in Galicia, Poland. The invading forces ruled with an iron fist and didn’t allow any religious activity whatsoever. So in Purim of 1941, they prepared an enclosed space of 7X7 to serve as a Sukkah, in some corner of a side street. You see, these Jewish survivors of daily Ausziedlungen, Razzias, Shooting and other life-threatening calamities that were thrown at them were still full of hope for a brighter future – even during such constant depth of depravity, killings and persecution. So they planned eight months ahead, so that the wicked rules won’t notice that they built it. Come Sukkos, they hastily threw a few branches over the couple of thin beams that were laid over the space and one by one passed under the Schach, munching a Kezayis, to fulfil the Mitzvah of eating in the Sukkah. This brings me to the age-old song: A Sukkaleh a Klyne . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaJGrfJFgXY