The main shul in the Marina Roscha neighborhood of Moscow has seen many emotional times when Tefillin was put on for the very first time there.
On Wednesday morning, the emotions were visible as well when 4 students from the Mesivta of Moscow put on Tefillin one after each other for the very first time.
Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar was on hand to help each one of them, after first speaking about the greatness of this mitzva and this moment.
The students are Dovid Levinson from St. Petersburg, Eliyahu Simagin from Sochi, Mordechai Strukov from Cheliabinsk, and Chaim Rodin
They may have been there without their families, but their excitement and and joy were profound as they were surrounded by the loving staff of the Mesivta, who have become their closest family.
They are students in the youngest class of the Mesivta, where close to 200 boys study and absorb the lively Chassidic atmosphere of the Marina Roscha community. In two months, these boys will celebrate their Bar Mitzvahs.
Many of them are graduates of the Ohr Avner Chabad schools throughout Russia, and have then chosen to come learn in Moscow in the beautiful institutions under Rabbi Lazar.
Many of the Mesivta’s graduates go on to learn in Yeshivas Tomchei Tmimim of Moscow, where only Jewish studies are taught, or to the Jewish University, which combines both Jewish and secular studies with a warm, Jewish atmosphere.
