Chief Rabbi of Tzfat, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu “Calls on Rabbis . . ."

Chief Rabbi of Tzfat, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, calls on rabbis to "adopt media tools to teach Torah to the masses.”

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, chief rabbi of Tzfat, published a new video in which he explains the importance of teaching Torah to the public, and how we can act today to facilitate this matter.

The video opens with a description of the famous debate between Rabbi Akiva and Pappus Ben Yehuda about Torah study. Rabbi Akiva answers Pappus in the metaphor of fish and water - just as fish cannot survive without water, so Israel can not exist without Torah study.

Rabbi Eliyahu stresses that the debate mentioned was about the need to teach Torah in public: "The people of Israel have no life without it." Later, he describes how Rabbi Akiva gave his life for this.

Rabbi Eliyahu calls on rabbis and educators to "make every effort so that the Torah we learn and teach will be taught to many." He describes the media reality today: "Today there are many tools, lots of methods and a lot of wisdom about how to turn every Torah learning into mass learning, with a large audience.” 

He emphasizes that it is necessary to make an effort to “teach Torah to the masses.”

The video was published as part of the "Spirit and Communication" project of the Association of Rabbis of Congregations, in which a special conference will be held for rabbinical leaders and educators, and anyone who wants his Torah to be conveyed correctly. 

The conference, to be held at the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem on the 28th of Av, will discuss the importance of disseminating Torah messages in the media and will provide practical tools for doing so..

The organizers of the conference explained, "The Spirit and Communication conference was born out of an understanding that the existing reality, in which Judaism and the rabbis are excluded from the media, must change. Gone are the days when the net and the media scene exclude rabbis and the simple, valuable statements of Judaism. We will change the reality, we will bring Judaism and the Torah to the forefront of the media stage.”