Rabbis-in-Training in C. America

Chabad.org

As the summer draws to a close, a veritable army of rabbinical students are once again concluding their tours of communities large and small around the globe, leaving trails of life-changing moments of Jewish inspiration and renewal in their collective wake.

This year, Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch, sent close to 400 such students – appropriately known as the “Roving Rabbis” – to remote locations not served by full-time rabbis.

Toive Weitman and Simcha Begun travelled through Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras for more than four weeks this summer. Both grew up in Brazil as the children of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries and are fluent in both Portuguese and Spanish.

In El Salvador, they met with the Israeli ambassador, and in Honduras, they spent time in the cities of S. Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa, neither of which have an official rabbi.

“We sold more than 30 mezuzahs,” they said, referring to the biblically-mandated parchment that is placed on the doorways of Jewish-owned homes and businesses. “People need them and are looking for them.”

(The Roving Rabbis always come with a large stash of Jewish ritual items like candlesticks, mezuzahs and the black prayer boxes known as tefillin, as well as educational books.)

After a short speech to a group of Jews in Tegucigalpa, locals asked Weitman and Begun to come back the next night and speak for more than an hour on a range of topics. They even requested them to return for High Holiday services next month. Weitman said he’ll likely head back for Yom Kippur.

“They really enjoyed every minute,” they said.

The pair’s other events included an emotional private meeting in Honduras with Gilberto Goldstein, president of the Honduras Sugar Producers Association and one of the country’s wealthiest citizens.

“It’s a very big pleasure to receive” emissaries of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, Goldstein told the young men. “Yesterday, the president of Honduras was in my house, but it’s so much more important to receive you.”

Moises Stayerman of S. Pedro Sula, who regularly drives such rabbinical students from their airport to the hotel, said that he looks forward to the visit every year.

“They remind me that I have to do good deeds to have a good life,” said Stayerman. “They approach my spiritual side to have a good life. I’m really looking forward to [having them back].”

The two will return during the Month of Tishrei to organize Yom Kippur prayer services.