LONG READS Issue 956 · April 3, 2023

Sweetness and Light    

Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein is driven by a mission to show that there’s no sweetness like Torah when it’s practical and clear

Sweetness and Light    
Photos: Mattis Goldberg, Anachnu V'tzetzaeinu, Ariel Ochana

Instead of the soccer game that would normally have taken up the grassy expanse, the scene was something from a different world.

In the middle of this secular neighborhood — home to African migrants, Chinese workers, and poor Israelis — a chareidi election rally was in progress, graced by none other than Rav Chaim Kanievsky.

It was a bizarre sight. Hundreds of traditional locals watched in bemusement as shtreimel-clad chassidim belted out Sephardic classics like “Adon Haselichot.” They listened patiently to classic chareidi stump speeches and sundry exhortations to vote for a party who pretty much no one in their neighborhood identified with.

But with all the goodwill in the world from the audience, the strange admixture of Bnei Brak and Tel Aviv just wasn’t working. The evening threatened to be a failure, until the last speaker took the microphone.

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