Hi, my name is Sara*. I’m 20 years old and I live in Neve Yaakov, Yerushalayim. I recently have taken the enormous step to become one of you – part of the Jewish people. It’s the best and most important thing I have ever done. It’s definitely scary, leaving my family and my entire past behind and starting afresh all alone.
I won’t be alone for long though – I’m engaged to a wonderful man who learns in yeshiva. He is not a convert like me, he was born a Jew and has become more religious. We were set up in a shidduch by both of our rabbis. The wedding is very soon, just over 3 months away, and I’m not sure how we are going to manage.
Both me and my fiance are doing this alone, with no family support. I hope that you, my new family of Am Yisroel, can help me. We need money for *very basic* wedding expenses, appliances, some clothing and rent for the first few months.
If you are able to help us at all, I will be eternally grateful. I really don’t know how we will build a true Jewish home without your help.
Thank you from the depths of my heart,
Sara*
HAMLATZAH FROM RABBI AHARON RABINOWITZ SHLITA (Original below)
Elul 5783
Dear Brothers
I am turning to you with a request and am begging for help for a young giyores who b’shaah tovah has just gotten engaged to a yeshiva bochur, himself a baal teshuvah.
It says in the Midrash: “Rabi Shimon ben Lakish said, ‘The convert is more precious to G-d than those who stood before Har Sinai.’”
The kallah is standing before all the expenses of the wedding, which are numerous and large, and she does not have a penny to her name. This is a most mehudar mitzvah of hachnosas kallah, to enable this couple to start off in life.
This is an important and rare mitzvah, a double mitzvah: apart from the mitzvah of hachnosas kallah there is the rare merit [of loving the convert]. As it is written in the Rambam, “Know that the obligation is great to love the convert, just as we were commanded to love His name.” It is a mitzvah that obliges us wherever we may be at all times, and it is appropriate to prefer a convert over a Yisrael.
Whoever understands and takes part Hashem should pay his complete reward.
With blessing,
Rabbi Aharon Rabinowitz shlita
Beis Ohel Avraham, Yerushalayim
