The Vizhnitz-Monsey Rebbe is preparing to travel to Israel this week at the head of hundreds of yeshiva students and Hasidim for a spiritual journey culminating in a "Unity Shabbat" at the holy site of Meron in northern Israel.
Two chartered aircraft will land in Israel at the end of this week, carrying the Rebbe, hundreds of outstanding students, and large groups of Hasidim who have joined the trip. This marks the most significant and largest-scale journey since the Rebbe assumed leadership of the community, and represents the first time such a trip has been organized on this massive scale. Previous trips were limited to small groups of major donors.
The initiative for this journey began last year, following a special promise the Rebbe made to his yeshiva students: any student who dedicated himself to his studies and successfully passed examinations on dozens of pages of Talmud as part of the "Torati" study program would earn the privilege of joining the holy journey. To enable the trip during the month of Elul, a critical period in the Jewish calendar leading up to the High Holidays, without disrupting study schedules, the Rebbe ordered the summer study session to begin earlier, with students returning to their studies immediately after Passover.
