Hello Rav Amichai,

“I learn in a yeshiva in Bnei Brak. Can you please get me a pair of tefillin?” I was very surprised that a yeshiva boy from Bnei Brak was requesting my assistance, and I asked for details to better understand the situation. He was happy to oblige and related the following story:

“My name is Omer and I am from Kiryat Ono. I grew up in a completely irreligious, Ashkenazi home. When I was a child, my father would sometimes take me to a Sephardi synagogue. The chazan and worshipers sang special melodies with traditional Sephardic songs that penetrated my heart.

I grew up and majored in music in my secular high school in Kiryat Ono. We had rehearsals in a hall that was on the ground floor of a building. On the top floor of that same building was a Kollel for men that learned all day, a branch of Yeshivas Ohr Hachayim under the leadership of Rav Reuven Elbaz, shlita. I remembered those special melodies from the synagogue my father took me to as a child, and I wanted to learn them. I asked my music teacher who could teach me this music and he sent me to the top floor of the building – “Up there is a Kollel of young men – ask them!” I followed his advice, went upstairs, and found a young man who could teach me this special music. He didn’t talk to me about faith or about serving Go; he didn’t talk to me about Torah and mitzvot; he simply taught me these melodies. 

One day when we were sitting together, I said to him, “Look, for a long time now you have been teaching me these melodies. Really, thank you very much! Can you tell me what all of the books you have here are? What do you guys do here all day long with these piles of books?”

“What do you mean?” he responded. “We study Torah; we study Talmud…” answered the young man. I asked him if he could find someone to teach me Talmud and he found a young man that started teaching me. And that is how I, a young, secular sixteen-year-old, started studying Talmud. All of a sudden, many existential questions came to mind: What is the purpose of life? Why was I born? What does it mean to be a Jew?” This young man slowly brought me back to Judaism so that when I began twelfth grade, I began observing mitzvot and putting on the tefillin that I had received for my bar mitzvah gift. 

As the end of twelfth grade approached, I began thinking about where I would continue the following year, and I enrolled in a secular pre-army academy – Antroposopit near Gan Veradim in the upper Galilee, whose students were secular Israelis and Arabs. Every morning, I awoke to the sound of the muezzin, and I arose with these Arab students: they bowed on their carpets screaming Allah Ackbar and I put on tefillin and prayed. I learned that the Arabs respected me a lot for putting on tefillin and praying, in contrast to the rest of the Jewish students who did not. This empowered me to continue investigating the meaning of mitzvot. My internal process of returning to an observant lifestyle continued to intensify, until one day I suddenly suffered from excruciating stomach pains that didn’t subside even after I was taken to the emergency room.

I was forced to leave the pre-military academy and return home to do a series of medical tests and treatments, and my army service was postponed by a year. I asked myself: “What am I going to do with myself now?” I understood that God was the One changing my plans and I told myself, if I am already home, I may as well continue my search to explore the depths of Judaism.

I went back to the Kollel which I already knew, and asked to study regularly with a partner which they arranged for me. Thank God, after a while I decided to keep shabbat and eventually I went to study at Yeshivat Netivot Shalom – a school for individuals new to Torah observance in Bnei Brak, until drafting into the IDF. Thankfully, in another few months I will be drafting into Chetz – the religious unit for paratroopers. 

I checked my tefillin and discovered that they were a very poor quality and barely kosher. They recommended that I get a new set of quality tefillin, especially as I am now a religious young man. I have no money and my parents will not agree to buy me pair of tefillin. One of my friends from yeshiva gave me your number and said you might be able to help. 

A few days later I surprised Omer at his yeshiva in Bnei Brak. I happily presented him with a pair of mehudar tefillin. He was shocked that I just showed up and surprised him with tefillin. He was overcome with emotion and grateful beyond words.