Rabbi's Unusual Lechayim with Lev Tahor: A Toast to the State of Israel

Rabbi Eliahu Birnbaum, a well-known Dati Leumi Rav in Israel, drank a Lechayim to the state of Israel together with Lev Tahor members this past April. Rabbi Birnbaum is the founding director of Ohr Torah Stone’s Emissary Training Programs and he travels around the world mentoring rabbis and teachers in the outreach and education organizations Ohr Torah Stone (OTS) dispatches to Jewish communities around the globe. He also researches Jewish kehillot around the world. In a video of the unusual scene, Rabbi Birnbaum is heard speaking and lamenting the fact that he’s not in Eretz Yisrael for Yom Ha’atzamut (Independence Day) and the Mesiras Nefesh he took for him to be with Lev Tahor instead. He also mentions that “tonight is Yom Hazikaron for fallen IDF soldiers. I was in the Lebanon War.” “I told Rav Uriel Goldman that it’s -Mesirus Nefesh for me to be here today,” he said. “You’re not with me on this but today is Yom Ha’Atzmaut in Eretz Yisrael. And in our view, it’s also a conflict – but it’s also a miracle from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. So I’m going to make a Lechayim both in honor of the kehilla…and in honor of Yom Ha’Atzmaut. Lechayim.” “Lechayim,” the Lev Tahor members replied, and one of them added: “I understand the mesirus Nefesh. Definitely.” Join our channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQjnflCN_nFYVfb8Y3VV7TQ?sub_confirmation=1