08/02/2026
Last night, as Rabbi Zalman Levitin was leaving the Chabad House after Shabbos, he met a Russian couple originally from Moldova who now live in the US. During their conversation, the couple shared that they had lived in Israel for about a decade.
Rabbi Levitin invited the husband to join the Chabad House Palm Beach Tefillin Club the following morning, and he gladly accepted.
As the man recited the brachah and wrapped tefillin, he began to cry. Throughout the Shema, he struggled to get the words out as tears streamed down his face.
Afterward, Rabbi Levitin gently asked him what had happened.
The man explained that he had not put on tefillin since the Second Intifada. At that time, he was a bus driver in Tel Aviv and, on more than one occasion, witnessed buses that had been blown up by terrorists. He said the screams of the victims have never left his mind. Ever since then, he had been unable to bring himself to put on tefillin.
What inspired him to take that step this morning remains known only to him. But after all these years, he wrapped tefillin once again. Sometimes, a single mitzvah has the power to begin healing wounds that have been carried for decades.
