Nearly 2000 youngsters from almost twenty countries spanning
five continents are participating in stage one of the
worldwide examinations on the sefer, Halichos Tefillah
Uveis Haknesses. The exams, organized by the Cultural
Fund of Degel Yerushalayim, were conducted in the United
States, England, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Australia,
Canada, Austria, Russia, South Africa and Mexico. These
children from abroad join tens of thousands of Israeli
children from hundreds of Torah institutions located in one
hundreds cites, settlements and towns throughout Eretz
Yisroel who have also been tested.
So far more than 25,000 copies of the sefer in eight
editions have been distributed -- and the demand is not yet
sated. There is truly a thirst to learn the word of
Hashem!
In clear, easy to understand and absorb lessons, the
sefer covers the entire range of the laws of
tefillah. The first stage of the test included
material from the beginning of the book, to Shaar Krias
Shema on page 265.
The second stage of the test, to be held at the end of Adar
II, will include fifty questions from Shaar Krias
Shema until the end of the sefer. Stage three will
be held on the same day on all the material printed with
vowels in the book and will include 20 multiple choice
questions.
The winners will arrive in Eretz Yisroel to
participate in the international test to be held before an
audience of tens of thousands headed by gedolei haTorah
vehaChassidus and halachic authorities of our times. As
in previous tests on the topics of shevi'is, middos
and derech eretz, they will be held in the Yad Eliyahu
stadium that can accommodate over 10,000.
The tests are prepared by Rabbi Yitzchok Brettler of Monsey
in the United States. Rabbi Brettler is very active in
inculcating halocho study in the United States.
Despite heavy snow in Monsey on the day of the test, hundreds
of students arrived in honor of the event. The came from the
following talmudei Torah: Beis Dovid, Belz, Degel
HaTorah and Spring Valley.
Boro Park students taking the test were from the talmudei
Torah of Imrei Chaim (Vishnitz), Belz, Yagdil Torah
(Gur), Tiferes Mordechai Shlomo (Boyan), and Torah
Temimah.
Examinations were also held in Lakewood as well as in the Or
Torah Talmud Torah of Cleveland and the Shearis Yisroel
yeshiva in Chicago.
In Antwerp it was a festive day when three hundred children
participated in the test. They came from the Bobov, Belz,
Vishnitz and Yesodei HaTorah talmudei Torah. The
examination was led by Rabbi Yitzchok Isaac Ovitz, the
dedicated mechanech and coordinator of Degel
Yerushalayim.
In England, more than a thousand children from Degel
Yerushalayim of London, Manchester, and Gateshead were
tested. The hundreds of children tested in London came from
the following talmudei Torah: Imrei Chaim (Vishnitz),
Bobov, Belz, Menorah and Pardess. In Manchester they came
from: Ohel Moshe Yitzchok, Or Torah, Chinuch Ne'orim, Kesser
Torah, Mesivta, Eitz Chaim and Tashbar. In Gateshead they
came from the mechina of the yeshiva ketana.
Moderating the entire event was Rabbi Avrohom Rosenberg from
London, who was very active in recruiting hundreds of British
students for the test.
Other countries and cities where the tests took place,
alongside the names of the coordinators: Melbourne,
Australia: R' Yosef Frommer; Mexico: Rabbi Yisrael Ades, for
the students of the Kesser Torah Talmud Torah and the Atteres
Yosef Mesivta; Odessa: Rabbi Dovid Kolidetski, supervisor of
the Or Somayach institutions; South Africa: Rabbi Avrohom
Herman in the Sha'arei Torah Talmud Torah; Amsterdam: Rabbi
Meir Gottleib, headed by coordinator and talmud Torah
principal, Rabbi Ebenson; Hungary: Rabbi Yehuda Barzel;
Toronto: In Bobov by Rabbi Dovid Kessler and by Rabbi
Greenfield in Yesodei HaTorah; Zurich: with the assistance of
Rabbi Yeshaya Kraus, who recruited the cheder and
yeshiva ketana boys for the test; Marseilles by Rabbi
Ephraim Klapfisch; Carteille and Armentierre (near Paris):
under the supervision of Rabbi Avrohom Schwartz.
All fifty questions in the test were translated into English
and Russian. A number of written practice exams were held as
preparation for the Degel Yerushalayim test. Hundreds of
copies of the book Mishnas Hatefillo by HaRav Menashe
Weissfish, which contains more than 700 questions and
answers, were sent abroad.
