I would like to share with you the details of a valuable chessed endeavor in which I am involved.About a year ago, I was contacted regarding a number of local men who desperately needed tefillin. With Siyata Dishmaya, I was able to procure tefillin for them, and thus the “Tefillin Shadchan” was born. After word of the program got out, I was surprised to be inundated with requests. One request we received was from a local Ben Torah. His son’s tefillin had been stolen, and he could not afford to replace them. Another request involved someone who discovered, to his dismay, that his tefillin that he donned every day were not kosher. Yet another was a middle-aged man who simply wanted to begin putting on tefillin for the first time in his adult life and needed help purchasing them.
The stories are different, yet each time I receive a call, there is a man above bar mitzvah age pining to be able to fulfill his mitzvah and
bind himself with his Creator.
Tefillin is called an “ois” a symbol of our relationship with Hashem. It is a mitzvah that begins the day of a boy’s bar mitzvah and continues day after day, for as long as he lives. And for those, who were not fortunate to begin at thirteen, and are on the journey from nonobservance to Torah, donning Tefillin is one of the most powerful undertakings that bring him closer to Hashem.
The Tefillin Shadchan program began shortly before my dear father, Rav Yitzchok Wenger’s zt”l petirah. In its early stages, he strongly
encouraged me to put as much effort into this priceless endeavor as I could. I therefore felt this would be befitting way to perpetuate his
memory.
My father’s first yahrtzeit is approaching. In his honor, I would like to continue the Tefillin Shadchan program and to try to fulfill each
request for a much-needed pair. On my list are many men who are eagerly awaiting a pair of tefillin. However, the cost of a pair, approximately $1,500.
If you are able to sponsor a pair, or help with a partial donation it would mean a lot to me and my family. You can also help by donating
a pair of Tefillin that you inherited from a deceased father, grandfather or other relative, and may it be a zchus for them.
The tefillin will be used every day for the performance of this great mitzvah, and each time they are donned it will surely be an everlasting
merit for the donors.
I am enclosing two articles that ran in the Hamodia and Lakewood Shopper about this program.
May this incredible chesed be a source of bracha and nachas for you and your family.
With much thanks,
Yaakov Wenger
Chaplainwenger@gmail.com
732.901.1228
