Tuesday evening, 10 Sivan, hundreds of Telz Stone residents
turned out to celebrate the chanukas habayis and
hachnosas sefer Torah of Beis Medrash Ohel Avraham
Nachalas Tzvi in the Givah neighborhood.
The evening began with the procession of the Sefer Torah
donated by the Bergman family to the new beis medrash.
As the men held the chuppah and danced, and the
women and children of the community lined the main street,
the sefer Torah was held by many rabbonim chashuvim
and community notables.
Fifteen years after the founding of the neighborhood, the new
beis medrash serves as the neighborhood's first proper
structure for community Torah learning and tefilloh.
During the seudas mitzvah that followed
celebrating the chanukas habayis, HaRav Shlomo Brevda
began his keynote address by congratulating the community on
its accomplishment and saying that he was certain that the
Ribono Shel Olam had much satisfaction from it. Rav
Brevda went on to emphasize the importance of a shul and
beis medrash in a community as a place of refuge from
the distractions and indulgences of everyday living. He
concluded by blessing the community that Hashem should
continue to find favor in their deeds and grant them ongoing
success.
HaRav Mordechai Goldstein, the former rav of the beis
medrash, recalled the difficult physical conditions of
its first near-decade, when it was housed in primitive and
inferior trailers. Rav Goldstein recalled the stories of his
father, HaRav Tuvia Goldstein zt"l, of the
difficulties that he endured during WWII observing mitzvos in
Siberia. He said that his father zt"l said that those
mitzvos performed with extraordinary mesiras nefesh
were the most precious. Rav Goldstein told the community
that he is convinced that the mesiras nefesh with
which they davened and learned during those years was
the cause for their ultimate success in building the
beautiful edifice which is the neighborhood's new spiritual
home. Rav Goldstein blessed the community that the beauty of
the new beis medrash should add to the quality of
everyone's learning and davening.
Rav Mordechai Kuber, the current rav, discussed the devotion
of Reb Avraham Gutterman z"l of Copenhagen, in whose
name the new beis medrash was dedicated by his wife
and family. Reb Avraham was a legend of steadfast
determination to maintain religious observance against an
opposing tide in Scandinavia. He single-handedly established
many shuls in Denmark, and literally pulled people out of
beds and backyards in order to maintain minyanim. Rav
Kuber said that his mesiras nefesh, as emulated by his
family, was the source of merit with which the new beis
medrash was successfully completed.
The assembled also merited hearing words of chizuk and
divrei Torah from Rabbi Chaim Michael Gutterman, the
son of Reb Avraham z"l and director of the Shuvu
educational network, who spoke on behalf of the family.
The participants were very pleased to receive a special
guest, Knesset Minister Rabbi Meshulam Nahari, who reminisced
about the deeds of Reb Avraham z"l and shared
divrei Torah about chinuch habonim. Rav Nahari
is a long- time family friend, who took off time from his
busy schedule to share in the simcha together with the
Gutterman family and with the community. Before leaving, he
voiced his admiration of the kehilla and of the new
beis medrash, and expressed his desire to be involved
with the kehilla in the future.
All left uplifted, thanking Hashem for the success that He
had granted, and inspired to use the new beis medrash
for strengthening their davening and limud
haTorah.
