Two Chabad bochurim walked through the Jewish quarter of Paris, known as Pletzl, urging Jewish people to put on tefillin. This had a powerful effect on one of those people, according to the man’s wife. Full story, video
By COLlive Reporter
Chabad bochurim Yisroel Andrusier And Zalmy GuraryStudents of the Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch in the French village of Brunoy recently conducted Mivtzoim in the Paris district of Les Marais and experienced a special encounter.
Andrusier, from Pembroke Pines, Florida, and Gurary, from Montreal, Canada, walked the streets trying to find Jewish men who could put tefillin on them in the district, which is home to the Pletzl Jewish neighborhood.
As they made their rounds, they met a man named Raphael Benguigui and his wife LorenaResident of Paris and Lisbon, Portugal. The bochurim asked Raphael if he would put on tefillin and he agreed.
Raphael, who has no hands, was helped by wrapping them around his thin arm and around his head. To recite the Shema, he placed his arm in front of his eyes and then said the Shema fluently.
His wife later said that Raphael regularly prayed with tefillin in his youth, but stopped doing so when he was diagnosed with leukemia and later suffered septic shock.
“My husband needed this,” she exclaimed, explaining that “after what we call ‘life’s accident,’ he stopped doing it every day. He needed to deal with his anger. Raphael said he’s going to do it every day starting today.”
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