On the days of Chol HaMoed of the holiday of Sukkot, the students of the leading Jewish educational institutions of Dnipro – Machon Chaya Mushka and “Tomchei Tmimim Yeshiva Ktana Ukraine” – devoted their vacation to an important shlichus: they visited Jews who, due to health conditions or other reasons, could not come to the synagogue, helped them fulfill the mitzvah of blessing the four species, and shared with them the joy of the holiday. For the boys and girls, these mivtzoim became an opportunity to fulfill the Rebbe’s call – to reach as many Jews as possible and enable them to fulfill the mitzvah, and also to feel for themselves that the joy of gladdening another is twice as great as rejoicing alone.
The older students of Machon Chaya Mushka, divided into groups of three or four, visited fifteen addresses. Together with those they visited, the girls assembled the esrog and lulav, helped them correctly recite the blessing over the four species – “arba’at ha-minim” – and properly fulfill the mitzvah. The Machon students also brought sets with treats, conversed, listened, and rejoiced in honor of the holiday. Some groups visited one address, others several, but behind each visit stood an encounter with a person for whom it was important not only to help fulfill the mitzvah but also to receive attention. The people were deeply moved, and so were the girls themselves: the holiday of joy became shared thanks to their readiness to spend their vacation on “mivtza lulav.”
The students of “Tomchei Tmimim Yeshiva Ktana Ukraine” also visited elderly single men, helping them fulfill the mitzvah of the four species. Among the active participants in these mivtzoim were Mendel Stambler, Yaakov Mashiach, Daniel Etinburg, Levi Weber, Levi Elias, and Berke Neumann. They traveled to the addresses together, changing the composition of the groups so that each visit would be special, striving to help as many Jews of Dnipro as possible share the joy of Sukkot.
One of the most active participants in this mivtzoim campaign, Mendel Stambler, shared his impressions: “I believe that this gladdens the people we visited, and that this is a special experience that, it seems to me, everyone can have. And, of course, the Rebbe surely receives much nachas from this. And because the Almighty will see how His children fulfill the Torah and mitzvos in this way, He will bring the Geulah soon, in our days. Amen.”
A special conclusion to these mivtzoim was the assistance in preparing for Shabbos and the holidays of Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. On Friday, in addition to visiting elderly men, the yeshiva students set out to four women who are under the special social care of the Jewish Community of Dnipro, to help them prepare for the approaching holy days, and brought them as a gift kosher juice, festive treats, and sweets, so that the holiday would illuminate their homes with spiritual light and bring blessing.
“The boys and girls participated very actively in the mivtzoim, and it was important to see with what joy they helped other Jews fulfill the mitzvah and shared the holiday with them,” noted Ilana Esther Shpolyanska-Khanelis, an activist of the Jewish Community of Dnipro who coordinated the fulfillment of the mivtzoim on Sukkot. “Coming with the lulav and esrog, our students brought the elderly the joy of Sukkot and themselves rejoiced in the opportunity to do good. It should be noted that for the yeshiva students, these mivtzoim were their personal initiative and their own independent decision, as young emissaries of the Rebbe. In these encounters, the connection between generations and care for the Jews of the entire city on the part of the united and cohesive Jewish Community of Dnipro under the leadership of Chief Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki are manifested.”
