Even with ongoing missile fire from Gaza, new reports of casualties from the front and overnight rioting in and near Jerusalem, a general feeling of calm, resolve and pre-Shabbat joy permeated the nation’s capital.

The Machane Yehuda shuk (open-air market) in western Jersalem was as bustling as ever on Friday afternoon, with tens of thousands of tourists and locals shopping, eating and mingling in a happy crush throughout the day.

The Chabad-Lubavitch tefillin stand in the center of the market—open rain or shine, all year long—was unusually busy throughout the day, with rabbis and more than a dozen yeshivah students helping hundreds of men and teenage boys to don tefillin, some for the first time. A new effort in the past few weeks also encourages many to sign up and dedicate a special mitzvah on behalf of soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces.

Working busily in the sweltering summer heat, Rabbi Tzvi Ruderman, director of Chabad of Machane Yehuda-Davidka, said everyone “shared a special feeling that the mitzvahs they are doing today are making a big difference for the soldiers, for the country, for everyone.”

Tefillin are especially important,” said Ruderman, noting the “Tefillin Campaign” launched by the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—before the Six-Day War in 1967. Ruderman quoted the verse often cited by the Rebbe: “The nations of the world will see that the name of G‑d is called upon you, and they will fear you.” (Deuteronomy 28:10)

A new group of students joined the rabbi this week. “Many are students at the Chabad yeshivah in Kiryat Gat who had to evacuate the area due to the missiles, and are temporarily living and learning in Jerusalem,” he explained.

The mitzvah of tefillin is especially important right now, says the rabbi.
The mitzvah of tefillin is especially important right now, says the rabbi.

G‑d Watching Over Us’

Throughout the city, Chabad emissaries and volunteers were out in force from the early morning to the late afternoon, with rabbis and students helping others with tefillin, encouraging everyone they met to feel safe, trust in G‑d, attend Shabbat services and do more mitzvot with joy.

The atmosphere was decidedly more tense in the Old City, following rioting there and in nearby areas the night before. But on Friday, the streets in the Jewish Quarter were busy and calm, with police out in large force as tens of thousands of visitors and Jerusalem residents prepared to attend services that night at the Western Wall.

Many Chabad women volunteers were out on the streets of the city as well, distributing Shabbat candles and brochures, and encouraging Jewish women to have their daughters join in the Shabbat candle-lighting as well.

Miriam Steinhart of Grand Rapids, Mich., visiting Israel for the first time, received Shabbat candles outside the Great Synagogue in central Jerusalem. After speaking with a Chabad volunteer on King George Street, she walked away smiling, clutching her candles.

“I’m not very religious, but I’m definitely going to light candles tonight,” she said. “That nice woman told me that G‑d is watching over us, protecting us. I can really feel it.”

A young man jots down the mitzvah he plans to do for soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces.
A young man jots down the mitzvah he plans to do for soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces.