Let There Be Light

Before there was a teshuvah movement or a Shas party, Rav Reuven Elbaz was a pioneer of the revolution, proven by the thousands of graduates – some second and third generation – of his Ohr Hachaim institutions. But the beis medrash is never as bright as at midnight  during Elul, when a thirsting nation of all colors and stripes comes together to bask in the glow of forgiveness

Midnight was well past, a hush had descended over much of Yerushalayim, but in the fortress-like building on Rechov Yoel, it was high noon.

Thousands streamed into the floodlit, concrete expanse of Yeshivat Ohr Hachaim where a meeting of worlds was underway.

As if the traders of the Mahaneh Yehudah shuk had decamped en masse, hundreds of jeans-clad men with white kippot perched on shaven heads stood alongside yeshivah bochurim and businessmen from Panama and Paris.

Even the head of IDF military intelligence was said to be there, soaking up the elevation of Selichot at one of Israel’s most famous destinations.