Reishit Dinner 2016 - Celebrating 22 Years/Jewish Communal Service Award: Michelle & David Margules

every page of Gomorrah is built from words and every word is built from letters the 22 letters of the alphabet are the foundations on which the words of our Holy tourist and as we celebrate the completion of 22 years of our Shiva we celebrate 22 years in which the foundation has been set for thousands of talmidim 22 years of a yeshiva that has been so much more than just a even raishin has been the place where we can always come back to it is our foundation a place where we can immediately step back into an experience that changed our lives forever ray has given us the skills the relationships the knowledge and the direction to build upon that foundation whether in your shall i'm in beit shemesh for wherever we find ourselves today from the beginning to the end from olive to top 22 letters 22 years at yeshiva ray Jerusha lie you son will spend two years learning reishi eight remember the first time that I really spent any appreciable time at Ray rob j was delivering a message that was really very close to my heart about the importance to show tremendous respect for each other and to recognize that we are a single community with a lot of diversity at that time I I said wills in the right place through that experience I became very close with rob j and for the last two years I've been learning with him by phone every Friday morning it's just been a tremendous experience for me to get to know the Shiva as well as seeing what it's done for will one of the things that I think gives us the most novice from our children is to see them go further than we've gone one of the very special things for us about wheels experience in yeshiva is to see him able to learn on a level that exceeds what my husband and I have been able to achieve they really took the time to teach you not only facts but to love what you're learning and to love in the most literal way to truly dedicate yourself to something as expansive as Judaism it needs to be something that you want to do and that is the greatest thing that I learned there and when I'm in reishi I Know Who I am and I know what's important to me Michelle and I have in officers of virtually every Jewish organization in the state of Delaware and our mantra wherever we have served is Jewish education and connection Israel mortify tells us where the who's to say that you haven't been put here just for this moment and what I've learned from that is that it is our commitment to the things that are important our commitment to the Jewish people our commitment to the Land of Israel our commitment to Torah not just an intellectual commitment but an actual operational commitment something that we act on a daily basis that defines who we are