8 Students From Chazaq Kollel Ordained As Rabbis At Siyum HaShas Event

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Chazaq has built a reputation as an organization that inspires tens of thousands of people throughout the calendar year via their lectures and programs at various Jewish communities in the Tri-State area.

Their primary focus remains on the Jewish Public school students by offering scores of life changing monthly programs for boys and girls of all ages.

Though if you are building so many people from the so called bottom, where will the future Rabbinic leaders come from to lead and guide the masses? Indeed, the crown jewel of Chazaq’s many programs is their Beth Midrash “Nosson Meir” and Kollel “Zichron Moshe V’Leah” that takes place at Congregation Od Yosef Chai in Kew Gardens Hills.

Dozens of young men, many of whom work and even run professional businesses, come to learn for several hours every morning. The inspiration to the learning is without a doubt the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Aharon Walkin, who devotes his time and energy to each student as if they were his own child. But a general in an army without dedicated soldiers cannot do much. The soldiers of Chazaq are the young Talmudic students who study at the Kollel and dedicate their life to learning and disseminating Torah.

This past Sunday morning, eight of these students received their Rabbinical Ordination at a touching ceremony that included a Siyum Hashas (completing the entire Babylonian Talmud) at Congregation Nachlas Yitzchok.

“The young rabbis at our Kollel are not just dedicated Torah scholars” says Chazaq Director Rabbi Ilan Meirov. “But they are truly well mannered individuals that genuinely care about the community. They are the current and future leaders of the community”.

Indeed, all 8 recipients of the Rabbinical Ordination serve the community faithfully and with great integrity. Rabbi Nissan Shalomayev serves as Rabbi in the Bukharian Jewish congregation of Hillcrest. Both Rabbi Michael Khaimov and Rabbi Yitzchak Aminov serve are Rabbis at the Bukharian Jewish Community Center of Jamaica Estates. Rabbi Tomer Zino is a part of the Young Israel Tifferet Shalom Minyan in Forest Hills. Rabbi David Kulmus lectures at numerous community centers. Rabbi Azarya Pinchasov is involved in numerous community projects. Rabbi Avichai Benshushan and Rabbi Binyamin Khaimov are musmachim of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim and spread Torah in their own unique ways as well.

The featured speaker of the event was Rav Noach Isaac Oelboum. He began by sharing his recent experience of completing Shas in Lublin, by the very same place where the founder of the Daf Yomi movement, Rav Meir Shapiro, had completed the Daf Yomi cycle on two occasions. After reciting the Hadran, everyone in the audience burst into joyous celebration, dancing together for nearly a half hour.

Rav BenZion Kook, a student of the late Posek Hador, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, was scheduled to join this momentous gathering but needed to cancel due to the sudden passing of his father in law in Israel.

Rav Yitzchak Yisraeli, the Chief Rabbi of the Bukharian community in the USA and Canada, was also unable to attend due to personal reasons, though he expressed his great joy in knowing that the future of the Queens community in general and the Bukharian community in particular is very promising thanks to the growth of these young scholars who devote their time to learning and teaching Torah throughout the community.

As the event came to a close, the participants requested to have one last dance to celebrate the great accomplishments of those who completed Shas and those who received their Rabbinic Ordination. And as the music and dancing came to a halt, the new cycle of Daf Yomi officially began and the young Rabbis are preparing for even greater achievements, personal and communal, in the near future.