Team Benny Siyum HaTorah

(The Brecher Family were long time residents of Passaic)

Dear Family and Friends –

So, here we are. Tomorrow begins the next challenge that Team Benny must overcome. While Faigie and I both wish we were able to pinch hit for Benny for the actual treatments, that part belongs to him. Our part – well that’s to do what we can to ensure that the Great Healer knows just how important Benny is to all of us.

People throughout the world have asked us countless times in the past 6 months for us to call on them when we need help. We promised we would when we knew what we needed. Well, here goes.

Tomorrow, Benny will be admitted to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles for what is known as a “stem cell transplant”. It is actually a very high dosage of chemotherapy designed to completely wipe out any remnants of the disease left over from his already extensive treatments. Unfortunately, the body can not automatically recover and begin to produce the white blood cells that fight off disease naturally. Therefore, Benny is given some of his own stem cells to help regenerate his system. This is the most intense treatment of all the treatments he is expected to have.

Benny will be counting on all of us to pull together and back up his doctors and nurses with our “medicine”.

Many of our friends in Passaic/Clifton will recall an effort we undertook years ago to complete “Kol HaTorah” as a community. As a community, we completed Tanach, Mishna and Shas Bavli (Talmud) in one year. Hundreds participated in the learning and the subsequent Siyum (completion) celebration. It created a city-wide sense of Achdus and coincided with a significant reduction in local and worldwide challenges facing the Jewish people (which was what we focused on). While we obviously can’t comprehend Hashem’s calculations and have no true concept of the impact of our actions, we can’t help but feel that we played a small part on the world stage.

It is time again to do something extraordinary. We have come to know some incredible young children fighting cancer since Benny’s battle began. We would like the worldwide Team Benny community to come together on his behalf, and on behalf of these other amazing children, to complete this monumental undertaking between now and the end of June of 2013. This, please G-D, will coincide with the completion of Benny’s expected treatment plan and our expectation of a great Se’udas Hodaah (Thanksgiving Party) and Siyum celebration.

We are asking all of those who can, sometime in the next two weeks, to commit to some section of learning from the attached spreadsheet. The gemara (Talmud) is split into Artscroll volumes – the rest of the sections are self-explanatory. (Benny’s Siyum Signup https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnlkeS54H8I3dEVXQWRrWTBjTi 1wX19NUnhLU0cxU0E> – when signing up, please include your name, phone number and email address so we can follow up. If you see a section that you would like to learn is taken, please write your name down anyway and learn in their zechus.)

I hope to send out a list of names on approximately a monthly basis to have in mind while learning.

We pray that the zechus (merit) of the additional Torah learning act as a powerful drug to end the suffering of Benny and all other children afflicted with these terrible illnesses.

In the merit of all you have done, and continue to do, for us, may Hashem grant you and your families nothing but good health, blessing and yiddishe nachas.

Sincerely,

Ari, Faigie, Benny and the Brecher klan

Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.