Photos: Mendy Heichmand

Every year, thousands of people from all over the world join together in Chevron for Shabbos parshas Chayei Sarah to spend quality time with their “Zeidies and Bubbies” eternally resting in Mearas Hamachpeilah. The Shabbos, on which we read of Avraham’s full-price purchase of the Mearas Hamachpeilah, is an opportunity for prayer, for celebration, and for expressing solidarity with the 90 families who are living in the middle of this ancient, holy town.

An estimated 40,000 Jews of all ages and every type joined the crowd this year (every year it grows by the thousands; last year there were an estimated 35,000), and the logistics of organizing such a massive event are mind-boggling — almost like Uman on Rosh Hashanah. Accommodations, Shabbos meals, minyanim, security, parking, even portable bathroom facilities (there were two hundred) need to be arranged, and the key to the smooth organization, says Rabbi Dan Rosenstein, executive director of the Hebron Fund, is that “we’re a bit Yekkish about it. We stick to a strict schedule.” But he admits that that’s only half the story. It’s really about siyata d’Shmaya, and in the zechus of the Avos and Imahos smiling down at this massive display of achdus and connection among their children.

Toys “R” Us

The children of Chevron, says Alan Hirsch of Brooklyn, are also part of the story. And while their parents look forward to hosting the huge crowds, the kids eagerly await Shabbos parshas Chayei Sara for their own reasons. For over two decades, he and a group of American friends distribute toys to the community’s children on Friday morning.

“We started this 22 years ago,” says Hirsch, who is planning to soon make aliyah. That was the first time that Hirsch had spent Shabbos in Chevron and he was struck by the courage of the community’s children. “When I came back to Brooklyn, I decided I had to do something for the kids.”

So the next year he packed up two suitcases with yoyos, the toy du jour at the time.

“That Shabbos,” says Hirsch, “we saw kids playing with yoyos everywhere we went.”

Hirsch is amazed at the resilience and street smarts of Chevron’s children. “They are fearless,” he says. “Eight-year-old kids will show me around, leading me down the back alleys of the Arab neighborhoods. I’ve learned a lot from those kids about courage and determination.”

The toy drive has grown from year to year. This year, over 250 toys were packed into 15 suitcases and distributed in four different locations, including the local Talmud Torah and two ganim. As the toys are distributed, music is played, there’s a parshah quiz, “and then we sing and dance together,” says Alan. “You can’t imagine how beautiful it is.”

While the other American donors prefer to remain anonymous, Hirsch himself happens to own a toy store. He says he’s “always saving the good stuff” for the Chevron kids.

After all these years, Hirsch is experiencing the special nachas of distributing toys to a second generation. “Last year there were 12 kids whose parents also received toys when they were little. This year there are probably more.”

And the kids remember him forever as well. “I was once traveling in the Shomron,” he says, “and I passed a group of IDF soldiers. One of them broke into a huge smile and called out, ‘Mister Alan! Atah zocher oti? Do you remember me? When I was a kid you brought me a toy every year on parshat Chayei Sarah!’” (Excerpted from Mishpacha, Issue 734)