9 Interesting Tefillin Scenes From This Week

By COLlive reporter

1. From Germany to Queens

Rabbi Mordechai Mendelson, Director of Chabad in Karlsruhe, Germany, was seen with his son Chaim Shlomo Zalman at the Rebbe’s Ohel. It was the first time the boy started to put on Tefillin and his father wanted it to take place in a sacred location.

2. A Suprise For China

Another Hanochas Tefillin taking place at the Rebbe’s Ohel this week was the son of Rabbi Shimon Freundlich, Director of Chabad Lubavitch of Beijing in China. Unexpected guests joining the celebration were a few Satmar Chassidim from Williamsburg who have befriended the Freundlich family during their travels to the Far East for business.

3. A Surprise in China

Levi Greenberg, the son of Rabbi Avraham and Nechamie Greenberg, Directors of Chabad of Pudong in Shanghai, China, celebrated his Bar Mitzvah this week. Surprising him at the celebration was Levi Yitzchok Wolff, his cousin and a classmate of his in the Nigri Shluchim Online School. Wolff flew from Hannover, Germany, where his parents are Shluchim.

4. Driving force

Investor Eliezer Scheiner and Rabbi Dov Pinson led a group from the Ohr Chaim community in Monsey to the holy gravesites in Russia. In their stop in the town of Lubavitch, they discovered that one of their drivers was Jewish and that he’s never put on Tefillin. Channeling the Chabad spirit, Scheiner was quick to wrap him with Tefillin and celebrate a Bar Mitzvah.

5. A Meeting of 2 Shmuels

Rabbi Shmuel Bistritzky, Chabad Shliach in Savyon in Israel, was visited Budapest this week and on his way to the airport has learned that the taxi driver was Jewish. His name is Sammy and he shared that his parents were survivors of the Holocaust. The name they gave him was… Shmuel. Naturally, the meeting between the two ended with putting on Tefillin and reciting “Shemah.”

6. Airport encounter

The globe-trotting Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Vice Chairman of Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch, was flying out of Israel with his brother Rabbi Mendel Kotlarsky and Rabbi Shneur Najar. They made sure to stop by Chabad’s legendary Tefillin booth at the Ben Gurion Aiport and hear from Rabbi Nachman Maidanchik about the booth’s operations.

7. Please welcome our 10th…

Rabbi Levi Matusov, an activist in the European Union institutions, had a stopover in Frankfurt, Germany this week. He called the local Chabad Shliach Rabbi Mendel Gurevitch to say “hi.” Rabbi Gurevitch was ecstatic. “Can you come now to the Chabad house? We have a 13-year-old who needs an aliya to the Torah and we are missing one person to complete the minyan.” Rabbi Matusof was able to pull it off and make it back in town for his connecting flight.

8. The Gentleman is Wearing Tefillin

Ivan Lewis, Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom, was photographed wearing Tefillin at the main shul of Lubavitch Headquarters – 770 Eastern Parkway. Lewis is attending “Shabbos in the Heights” weekend. “Great to be in New York for a long weekend with #Chabad Lubavitch Manchester friends,” he tweeted.

9. Tefillin at the Louvre in Paris

Shliach to Yeshiva Brunoy Yehoshua Michoel Resin and Shmuel Block, who go on Mivtzoim every Friday around Paris, found a Jew for the first time at the entrance to the Louvre Museum. After offering him to put on Tefillin, his brothers came over asking to do so as well.