Fellow brothers, bonding over the greatest jackpot of all

Despite the alliteration, Las Vegas and Lakewood are two cities that couldn’t be more dissimilar. The impressive batei medrash of Lakewood’s Beth Medrash Govoha are filled to capacity with hundreds of young (and not-so-young) men immersed in the sea of Torah, the sweet song of our nation echoing off the walls. In contrast to America’s “Ir HaTorah,” Las Vegas too is remarkable, if for dubious reasons: Garish structures light up the infamous “strip” in the Nevadan desert, beckoning one and all to come participate in life’s hedonistic pursuits.

Notwithstanding both the geographical and spiritual distances between the two locales, Rabbi Moshe Orlowek of Olami-affiliate Zehut Yehudit and director of Israeli outreach at Young Israel–Aish Las Vegas, contacted Lakewood’s Rabbi Moshe Katz of Torah Links (Lakewood’s outreach organization, which is also an Olami affiliate), and asked him to arrange a group of Lakewood yungeleit who are fluent enough in Ivrit to learn with a group of young Israelis whom he had become acquainted with in Vegas and whom he planned on bringing to Lakewood.

Ever ready to help spread Torah to his fellow coreligionists, Rabbi Katz arranged for a group of avreichim to spend the last hour of seder learning with Rabbi Orlowek’s Israeli chevreh. And while some may have been skeptical about how a group of carefree, pleasure-seeking Israelis would take to sitting and learning Gemara for an hour, Rabbi Katz was confident. After the hour was up, the Israelis asked the yungeleit if they could continue learning with them “for just a few more minutes.” When “a few more minutes” passed a few more times and the clock was ticking for the yungeleit, a photographer asked them to quickly pose outside the beis medrash and captured the real winning scene: fellow brothers, bonding over the greatest jackpot of all.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 885)