Stories @ CSI

It’s a Wrap! Details from the 2022 World Wide Wrap

After a pandemic-related hiatus, Congregation Shearith Israel participated in the annual World Wide Wrap. The spirited Sunday morning minyan included many of the regular attendees and an enthusiastic group of Machaneh Shai sixth graders! Organized internationally by the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs’ and the Women’s League of Conservative Judaism, the WWW joins shuls across the country and elsewhere in the world in celebrating the mitzvah of tefillin.

This year’s Wrap shacharit service was led by teenagers Asher Frank, Amalia Kaiman and Ellie Kaiman. We met in Zimmerman Hall to allow for social distancing.  Experienced tefillin wrappers helped those new to the mitzvah lean how to don tefillin, and Rabbi Kaiman spoke about the meaning of tefillin – how they draw our attention to the work of our hands, the thoughts of our minds, and the intentions in our hearts each day as we speak to our G-d. After the service, there was a delicious make-your-own burrito breakfast enjoyed in the sunlight in the shul courtyard.

There’s so much momentum around the ritual of tefillin in our community. Learn more of the history behind tefillin in a recent Religious Life Committee blog or get involved in the new B’nei Mitzvah Tefillin Challenge. Shearith Israel will give a pair of tefillin (paid for from the Kornblum Minyan Fund) to new CSI b’nei mitzvah who attend a class in the mitzvah of tefillin taught by Rabbi Kaiman, and who pledge to attend and lay tefillin at at least ten weekday and/or Sunday morning minyanim at Shearith in the year following. The deadline to sign up is this Thursday, 17 February.

Learn more about this annual global event with the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs’ video.