Living Torah Archives

Rabbi Sholom Ber Schapiro is a veteran educator living in Brooklyn, New York. In the early 1980s he was a teacher in the Yeshiva of Brooklyn when he was approached by a student’s parent who had an offer for a business opportunity. After receiving the consent of his boss, he asked the Rebbe for a blessing which he received with a condition. A story about making sure every Jewish child has a letter in a Torah scroll.

Rabbi Shmuel Greisman relates that after initiating the campaign for the children’s Torah scroll, the Rebbe urged all Jews to participate in signing up as many children as possible. Speaking about the campaign on numerous occasions, the Rebbe and stressed that a display of unity would help avert a threat over the Jewish people. (1981)

At the Exodus from Egypt the Jews experienced true unity. The experience at Sinai caused them to become one. In order to order bring this into practical reality today, in a way that even a child can appreciate, it needs to involve something tangible.

Rabbi Shmuel Greisman recalls some of the special instructions he received from the Rebbe as he began to direct the new campaign for Jewish children to own a letter in a Torah scroll. (1981)

In 1980 the Rebbe initiated a campaign for every Jewish child to own a letter in a Torah scroll.

We have just completed writing the first Sefer Torah for Jewish Unity, and are about to commence writing the second one. When we join the last letter of this scroll, Lamed, to the first letter of the next scroll, Bet, it creates the Hebrew word "Lev - heart." Torah is the heart of our people, and it unites us all.