Thursday 2 Kislev – Tefillos for Vizhnitzer Rebbe – Flatbush Collapse – Worldwide Rescue Unit & More

Thousands of Vizhnitzer Chassidim are preparing to gather on Thursday evening for tefillos at Meron and Me’aras Hamachpelah, beseeching Hashem for the refuah sheleimah of the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, shlita. The gatherings were announced on Wednesday amid deep concern over the Rebbe’s very weak condition.

At the kever of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron, Chassidim are to recite the entire Sefer Tehillim, together with the pesukim of Tehillim 119 corresponding to the Rebbe’s name. The tefillos are planned for leil shishi of Parshas Toldos, whose opening account describes Yitzchak Avinu’s tefillah and Hashem’s response.

At the same time, hundreds of bochurim from Vizhnitzer yeshivos in Eretz Yisrael are to assemble at Me’aras Hamachpelah in Chevron. The Rebbe’s sons are expected to lead the gathering there. As Chassidim around the world join in tefillah, the two gatherings will unite the yeshivah bochurim and the wider kehillah in their heartfelt plea for the Rebbe’s complete recovery.

Jewish communities and travellers facing emergencies far from home are to receive additional support through a new international unit bringing together Chabad and ZAKA Search & Rescue. The initiative was announced during the International Kinus Hashluchim in New York.

The partnership combines Chabad’s worldwide network of shluchim with ZAKA’s experience in disaster response, missing-person searches and chesed shel emes. Shluchim will receive professional training, operational resources and access to specialist assistance, strengthening their ability to respond when a local emergency or a traveller’s disappearance requires urgent action.

Training will cover emergency first response, search and rescue, disaster victim recovery and kavod hameis, alongside professional and halachic guidance. The unit will operate under the spiritual guidance of Rabbi Yoram Ulman of Sydney, with operations commanded by Yossi Landau of ZAKA’s International Unit. For shluchim who are often the first address for a Jew in distress, the arrangement provides a direct link to an established emergency response network.

A rare first edition of the Noam Elimelech has sold at a Genazym auction for a reported $2.36 million, following competitive bidding for the treasured Chassidic sefer. Printed in Lemberg in 1788, the work by the Rebbe Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk, zy”a, holds a special place in homes and batei medrash throughout the Jewish world.

The complete copy attracted interest from several collectors, with bidding reaching a hammer price of $2 million. The published total of $2.36 million is higher than the nearly $1.3 million achieved by another first-edition copy sold through Genazym in 2022.

The auction house attributed rising prices for rare sefarim and manuscripts to growing demand from collectors, alongside the finite number of surviving early editions and original manuscripts. The latest sale draws attention once again to the enduring attachment to the Noam Elimelech, first published shortly after its author’s petirah, and to the value placed on preserving the earliest printed copies of this much-loved sefer.

Preparations are under way in Antwerp for a family chasunah in the court of the Pshevorsker Rebbe, shlita, with the enlarged beis medrash set to host the Rebbe’s participation in the simchah for the first time. The wedding is planned for Wednesday of the week of Parshas Vayishlach.

The chosson is a grandson of the Rebbe and a son of Harav Elazar Friedman, shlita, a Satmar moreh hora’ah in Antwerp. The kallah is a daughter of Harav Yisrael Deutsch, shlita. The arrangements have been made to ease the Rebbe’s attendance, as his home is adjacent to the beis medrash on Mercatorstraat.

The kabbolas panim and chuppah will follow the established arrangements, while the main seudah and dancing will take place at the Beis Rochel hall. For the Rebbe’s participation, the families and guests will gather in the beis medrash, where tiered standing places are to be installed. The Rebbe is expected to wash for the seudah there and take part in the dancing and mitzvah tantz.

After several years of construction, Beis Medrash Ohr Chaim in Monsey, widely known as Scheiner’s shul, is preparing to move into a large new building across the road from its existing premises. The opening for the wider public is planned for immediately after Chanukah.

Founded and led by Reb Eliezer Scheiner, the shul on Forshay Road has developed into a busy minyan centre, serving thousands of mispallelim with minyanim throughout the day and night. Until now, its activities have been accommodated in an older building and adjoining temporary tents.

The newly completed premises include large halls for tefillah, smaller shtieblach and facilities intended to provide more comfortable accommodation for the many people who daven there. The move will bring the shul’s round-the-clock activity into the purpose-built building opposite its present home. A chanukas habayis is planned together with a large hachnasas sefer Torah, marking the opening of the new beis medrash and a significant expansion for this well-used Monsey minyan centre.

American prosecutors have charged three men over an alleged Iran-backed campaign targeting Jewish communities in Britain, elsewhere in Europe and the United States. An eight-count indictment unsealed on Tuesday also concerns a suspected plot against RAF Fairford, the Gloucestershire base used by American forces.

The defendants are Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, Mohsen Mohajeri and Mohammad Ali al-Hassani. Prosecutors allege that the network was involved in attacks and attempted attacks, including arson attacks on London Jewish premises and the near-fatal stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green in April.

Al-Saadi is already held in a New York jail. Prosecutors say he attempted to pass coded messages through third parties to coordinate further activity. The other two men are not in US custody. The charges are allegations and have not been proved at trial. The indictment places the London incidents within what prosecutors describe as a broader campaign linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and the Iraqi militia Kata’ib Hizballah.

Rescue crews searched through the rubble of a three-storey building in Flatbush on Wednesday afternoon after it collapsed beside a construction site, leaving people trapped. At least one death and ten injuries were reported, with four of the injured in critical condition, according to information attributed to the FDNY.

The emergency response began shortly after 4pm near Bedford and Flatbush avenues. Firefighters pulled victims from the debris and continued searching for others who were reported missing. Aerial footage showed a large section of the building torn away, exposing the rooms inside, as emergency personnel worked around the collapsed structure.

The building stood beside a site where an earlier structure had been demolished. A rescue operation and an investigation were continuing, and the cause had not been established. City emergency officials advised people to avoid the area because of road closures and traffic delays. Casualty reports were still developing as crews remained at the scene into the evening.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday that Israel intends gradually to move away from American military financial assistance towards a relationship based on partnership. The announcement framed the proposed change as a reflection of Israel’s economic strength and its close strategic ties with Washington.

The office pointed to Netanyahu’s commitment in 1996 to phase out American economic aid, then worth $1.2 billion, and said a similar approach could now be taken towards military assistance. Netanyahu had spoken publicly in May about his aim of gradually reducing American financial aid to zero.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that the proposal had come from the Israeli side. The existing military assistance arrangement, worth approximately $3.8 billion annually, runs through 2028. Wednesday’s statement described a gradual transition involving Netanyahu and President Donald Trump; it did not announce an immediate end to funding. Israeli officials presented the initiative as greater financial self-reliance alongside continued security cooperation between the two countries.

Neria Leiter, son of Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, has been transferred from Shaare Zedek Medical Centre to rehabilitation after being critically wounded in a September terror attack. The hospital announced the move on Wednesday, marking a new stage in his treatment after weeks of intensive care.

Leiter remains unconscious, but is breathing independently and moving his arms and legs. His treatment included emergency brain surgery, further neurosurgical procedures and orthopaedic operations. He has been transferred for specialist neurological and traumatic brain injury rehabilitation and continues to face a long recovery.

He was injured on 23 September when a Palestinian attacker drove at a security patrol at the checkpoint near Maccabim on Route 443. His older brother, Major Moshe Yedidya Leiter, Hy”d, was killed in Gaza in November 2023. The family thanked Shaare Zedek’s medical teams for their devoted care and asked for privacy and continued tefillos for Neria Dov ben Rachel. May Hashem grant him a refuah sheleimah.