Category: English

Thoughts about the Generous Donations from Believers

The Sabra Fund has been in operation for over 20 years now, in full partnership with believers in the Creator from around the world. They live in every possible corner: Indonesia and Papua in the East; Australia and New Zealand in the South; the European countries in the North; and Canada, the USA and Brazil in the West.

I am often asked by Israelis: What is the motive of all these different believers for sending donations and other kinds of participation in this holy work? And I of course explain: the Lord of all the earth directs His people to open their hands and hearts to the people of Israel, following the different ways for expressing generosity that the Creator has given us in the Scriptures.

When we the staff at Sabra hear new requests and pleas from the needy, the impoverished schools and boarding schools, and the Holocaust survivors, I and my colleagues often hesitate. Isn’t it “chutzpa” to again send out a letter asking for yet additional donations for these needs? The answers generally come during our visits to these places that we are helping.

One of those pivotal examples came up on December 28, just a few days ago. The Sabra staff were invited to visit a school in Afula that we have been helping in various ways. That same day, there was also a visit from city officials, accompanied by an inspector from the Education Ministry, to check on the quality of education in the kindergarten and first grade classes.

In this particular school, Sabra has been helping with renovations, new furniture, and reorganization of the learning environment. It has been a multifaceted effort, which includes shared areas for the children in these two grades, such as a hall for games, creative arts and group activities. Its purpose is to give both the kindergarteners and the first-graders a gradual transition to more serious school-level studies.

The inspector and city officials were dumfounded when they saw this innovation. Their eyes showed their excitement at the array of activities, spread out and nicely organized in a newly renovated space… including a sign displaying a Bible verse (in Hebrew and English) that instructs us to give to others.

One incident that touched my heart was watching these small children learning how to pray. They recited the prayers with such innocence and faith. At the end, they prayed a blessing on “the good people from the faraway lands” who were so helpful to their school. You can imagine how those pure blessings from young voices went straight to my heart.

On the way back to the office, I said to myself: This is the answer to my hesitation! Is it not a godly privilege to take part in this kind of effort?

Especially now, as we come to the beginning of 2022, I pray that the Creator and Lord of all the earth will give us another year of blessing, with the privilege of giving a helping hand to His people in Israel.

I close with the heartfelt prayer that the Creator will give each of you, dear participants, robust health, prosperity, and more of the wonderful Light of His Spirit to guide and encourage you and all those around you.

Be blessed from the Most High God,

Mordechai ben Yakov

07-12-21 Afula-Israel

My dear beloved brothers and sisters

I would like to share and update you as our partners in prayers and offerings, about the work Sabra is doing among the needy in Israel.

Helping the schools, boarding schools, holocaust survivors and other issues, such as people in need.

Boarding school near Gaza.

Praise God that we manage good to help the boarding school, and we can bring a light to the lives of the girls, whom experienced terrible things in their life. For their recovery, they needed special rooms for therapy. Sabra was able to help to renovate these classes. We are very aware; we can do this because of your prayers and offering. (Soon we will give you more details)

School in Afula Ellit

In this school we were able to help renovate the school library, and develop the new kindergarten, (we have informed about this project in our previous prayer letter.) It was really touching to see the little children playing in the new renovated classes playground. Also, we were able to help buying new furniture. The principal was very grateful and happy. He is very aware to the fact that you make it  all possible!

School  in Afula Givat HaMore

In this school, we were able to help  to renovate and develop class rooms for the children of the first class. (Soon we will send you a detailed report about it)

Hanukkah “the feast of light”

 Sabra was able to help celebrate this festival of lights much more than the years before.

Hanukkah in the boarding school Afula Ellit.

We felt so blessed when we saw the happy faces of the children, while we visit the different groups, living in their unit with their teachers and their mentors. We visited the groups together with the principal and the main Rabbi of Afula. We brought them Sufganiyot (jelly doughnut) for each of them and a little gift. It was a real feast. The Rabbi said to me; “I was so happy to have the opportunity to bring the children closer to the Creator”. It was touching to see, how excited they were to light the candles. They were singing: each of us a little light and together, all of us a solid strong light”. I have a great hope that you continue to pray for these wonderful children. And God give answers to your request and questions!

To bring light and love from you to the holocaust survivors.

My dear beloved brothers and sisters, we must not forget that the holocaust occurred 76 year ago. If a person is between 80 and 90, you can imagine what each they had in that time.

The time that is stolen from them and the traumas they experienced and still felt till today. We are happy to be able to comfort them a little and too warm their heart and their feet!!! We celebrated Hanukkah in a nursing home in the North of the country and , we brought Sufganiyot (jelly doughnut) and a package with warm socks, a nice card with blessings. And some of them asked me from who they received it? And I answered them: From good wonderful believers, who love the God of Israel”.

Holocaust survivors in Jerusalem.

Also in Jerusalem, we visit a nursing home. We went to visit holocaust survivors in their homes. It was so touching to see the smiles on their faces when we gave them the gift: warm socks, a little menorah, candles in different colors, a nice card with blessings and your love for them. Some of them received it with tears in their eyes, some with happiness, one of them said: how great is the Lord!

“I feel so strong, we are partners in this holy work in our prayers and deeds.”

Celebrating Hanukkah with holocaust survivors in Sabra house.

 On the 29^th of November and the second day of lighting the candles in this 8 days feast of light and wonders, we had a joyful Hanukkah celebration with the holocaust survivors in Afula.  Early in the morning the team was already busy with all the preparation to give the guests a wonderful time, and to forget a little of their problems and sadness. The tables were festively covered, and the team was excited to receive these wonderful guests. We were happy to welcome a very special man who was playing the violin and pan flute. We felt so privileged that he gave his time and talent to give a little light to the holocaust survivors. From the beginning there was a very warm and special atmosphere. You could feel the holiness in the air. Everyone felt it. For example: the widow of our beloved holocaust survivor Salomon, who passed away 6 weeks ago. She didn’t want to come. She was very sad but did not smile. Yet, during the celebration she asked me if she may say something. She told us with tears in her eyes, how her heart was lifted up by the touching music and warm atmosphere.  Also our Faina, 2 weeks ago she was in the hospital, because she had fallen on the street and her head was badly hurt. Her condition is deteriorating. Also she told us she was so happy with the evening. The director of the Aliyah and absorption department participates with us in this celebration. She blessed the people.  

It was a very intensive week, but I am so thankful we could bring a little light in the heart and lives of the children on the boarding school, the schools, holocaust survivors, the needy families. More and more we receive request for help from different parts of the country. Please don’t stop to pray for us. 

May our great God bless you and your family abundantly. Thank you so much for your love for Israel and for being a partner in this holy work that is given for Sabra to do.

In the Name of the Lord we will do and succeed together!

Your brother in faith.

Mordechai ben Yakov

Gates of Heaven Open to Me!

We have already ascended the Mountain of Hashem, we have come to His holy place, and we have received upon ourselves a blessing from the God of our Salvation. Now we find ourselves standing before His Gates! What more can we ask, but to be allowed in?

It turns out that these Gates are not made of metal, the work of men’s hands. They are images of the Gates of Heaven above, the Gates of Righteousness: “Open the gates of righteousness to me; I will enter through them, I will give thanks to the LORD.” (Ps. 118:19) These are gates that I am supposed to enter – but the King of all the earth, the Creator, is also said to go through them.

For Him, they are the “Everlasting Doors”: “Lift up your heads, you gates, and be lifted up, you ancient [or, everlasting] doors, that the King of glory may come in!” (Ps. 24:7, 9) It’s true that these Gates and Doors are great and mighty; yet when the King of Glory approaches, they open even wider and higher, in His honor.

When the King reaches the Gates with His armies, everything opens. The question is asked and answered twice (Ps. 24:8-10): “Who is the King of glory?” The first answer: “The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.” And immediately the call goes out again to the Gates to “lift up” even higher.

The second time, the query is more specific – as though those who are asking have just gotten their first glimpse of the Majestic One: “Who is this King of glory?” The second answer: “The LORD of armies, He is the King of glory.” He alone, and no one else.

But really, what is the difference between the two answers? Why is it asked twice and answered twice? What can we learn here?

The title “LORD of armies” (or “LORD of Hosts” in some English versions) does not appear in the Torah. Its first mention is during the time of the Judges (1 Sam. 1:3), and the first person to call Him by this name was Hannah, the mother of Samuel (verse 11). Some other time we will explore why she used that title. But in the expression, we see a plural. The LORD has more than one army.

In fact, He has untold numbers of armies at His command. “The earth is the LORD’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who live in it.” (Ps. 24:1) All living things are His servants – plants, animals, and especially people. But that’s not all. Every Shabbat evening, the Jewish people raise the wine to recite the Kiddush, which begins with Scripture: “And so the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their heavenly host.” That last word in Genesis 2:1 is the Hebrew word for “army”, so the “host” in “the heavens” could be both physical and spiritual – from the sun, moon and stars to exalted angelic beings. All of them carry out His will.

Thus, the Holy One has at His disposal multiple armies both on earth and in Heaven. But among them is one special group of armed forces that is close to His heart: “When Pharaoh does not listen to you, I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My armies, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments.” (Exod. 7:4)

And that’s what happened (Exod. 12:41): “And at the end of 430 years, on this very day, all the multitudes [literally, the armies] of the LORD departed from the land of Egypt.” It’s true that Hashem was not explicitly called “LORD of armies” at that time. But it’s clear that He Himself led these armies out, and that they were the people of Israel.

David, the future king, understood this when he declared to the Philistine Goliath, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a saber, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” (1 Sam. 17:45)

Every army of the LORD has the joint task of maintaining security. There are also special units with specific tasks. When the King of Glory, the Almighty Creator, passes through the Heavenly Gates, He does not do it alone. He comes with an Honor Guard of elite units – all those who believe in Him and who have given their lives to “sanctify His Name.” This is the traditional Jewish expression for those who were killed for their faith.

At some point, we all must come in through those Gates of Righteousness. And we are faced with a dilemma. We must want to be righteous in order to be righteous. We must long for the Righteous One in order to be like Him. Yet only those who are righteous would want this!

In seeking to enter these “Gates” (Ps. 118:19-20), we are appealing to others to open them for us (the call to “open” is plural in Hebrew). Whether angels or men, the Gatekeepers may be the ones who answer in the following verse:

“Open the Gates of righteousness to me; I will enter through them; I will give thanks to the LORD. This is the Gate of the LORD; the righteous will enter through it.”

Interestingly, the “Gates” suddenly become just one Gate, or else we are told about another Gate that leads to the Gates of Righteousness. And there is a “key” or a condition to entering. We are to thank the King for a specific benefit: “I will give thanks to You, for You have answered me, and You have become my salvation.” (v. 21)

Notice that we are not coming to the Gate and asking Him to save us; we are coming with gladness that the Holy One has already done it! We have asked the Creator to “become my salvation,” and we know that He has answered us.

These righteous who “will enter” can be Jewish or non-Jewish, as Isaiah prophesied (Isa. 26:2): “Open the gates, that the righteous nation [literally, goy or Gentile] may enter, the one that keeps faithfulness.” If you are staying faithful to the God of Israel, no one can turn you away from His Gates. It is written (Ps. 33:1): “Sing for joy in the LORD, you righteous ones!” These “righteous ones” are not identified as “Jewish” or “Christian” – they are all simply “upright”.

Let’s approach the King’s Heavenly Gates with joy and hope, with singing and thankfulness. May He be blessed forever.

May you be blessed likewise.

Dear friends,
Like every year we make poor school children happy with beautiful new school bags, including all the necessary equipment and books.
Especially this year parents are having a harder time. Many of them lost their source of livelihood.
A poor child going to school and seeing their friends with new bags, that are tidy and having all the equipment and books they need; can you imagine how he will feel?!

You have the ability to do a mitzvah: to make this child happy.

We are committed to starting as early as June with ordering bags, stationary and books, bag preparations, and to deliver them to the students.
Dear friends, everyone whose heart motivates him will give a hand.

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so.
Proverbs 3:27

Thanks and many blessings.
Your brother,
Mordechai ben Yakov
Director Sabra Foundation

Shalom and blessings dear beloved friends.
As usual on Yom HaShoah (Remembrance Day of the Holocaust) we invite the Holocaust survivors. We want to be together with them while they remember this very sad and painful part in their lives.
Normally we have guests in Sabra from all over the world. This year they were not possible to come, because of the Covid-19, but the Holocaust survivors where so happy and touched to see the people who they know so well to be with them by Zoom. That they found the time to be with them and comfort them even when it was on a screen.
It is beautiful day, today and we decide to have the Memorial outside in the garden. The team had been busy the whole day, preparing food and to make the tables look nice.
At this touching meeting we invited local guests, the Head of the Aliyah Department Ina and her secretary. She was excited and emotional and she was full of thanks to Sabra that we organize these special days and give the opportunity to the people to tell their stories and comfort them.
We recite some prayers and ask Holocaust survivors to light a candle, six candles one by one. This is a special, touching moment and you can see on their faces what is going on in their mind. They cannot hold their emotions, they are crying.. After that we give them space to tell their stories, what they crossed in their lives.
Comfort, comfort My people Isaiah 40:1

We do this already 16 years and every year we hear something new. Horrible stories about what they crossed. To see a lady, already far in her eighties, lighting a candle for the memory of some members of her family and after so many years she is lighting a candle she is telling with tears in her eyes what she and her family crossed in the time of the Holocaust.
This year people also begin to tell what happened to them after the war. After being so happy that they were liberated and returning home from the camps or the hiding places, again they had to face horrible experiences. The Anti-Semitism rose up in their cities.
A man told us his story; in those times he was a little boy. He returned to his city and went to his home, where already another family had taken possession of it. They didn’t even allow him to come in, but was sent away with mean and nasty words and a terrible beating…

to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

Sabra’s work in Jerusalem
In Jerusalem we continue to be active in visiting and helping Holocaust survivors and girls and young ladies who lost their way in life. We gave them the opportunity to celebrate Passover and the Seder night.
We gave poor families vouchers, to buy themselves what they need to celebrate Pesach. And you could see their face lighting up when we gave them the vouchers.
Our volunteer in Jerusalem (Hannah) has touching stories about her work. It is wonderful to hear. The Holocaust survivors whom she visits are asking her when she is planning to come back.
It is not easy though to start the work in Jerusalem. There are so many needy people, but if they don’t know you they are very suspicious. We need a lot of prayers for the work in Jerusalem, because we feel that our Creator really wants Sabra to be active in the Holy City Jerusalem.
Sabra Foundation

Love and blessings,
His servant Mordechai ben Yakov

Shalom and blessings my beloved friends,

On Thursday the 10th of June Sabra was invited to join the celebration of the Bar (Bat) Mitzvah of 19 boys and girls from the boarding school we are helping. We went there with a part of the team.

According to the Jewish Roots, when a boy turns 13 years old and a girl turns 12 years old, they receive the responsibility regarding faith and following God. They still need guidance and learning, and their elders need to teach them, but it has a deep meaning for a boy or girl to become Bar (Bat) Mitzvah.

Sabra had the immense privilege to give a hand and to make it possible for these children to arrange a happy celebration that marks this important step in their young lives. We also gave 19 gifts to each of them.

Psalm 100:4

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise.

The principal of the boarding school thanked Sabra in front of all the guests for helping them so much. Among the guests were the mayor and the vice mayor of Afula, including Rabbis and students of Yeshivas.

A special guest among them was the main inspector of the Ministry of Education of the religious boarding schools in Israel. During this event we started a conversation, and the inspector asked me to visit another boarding school, only for girls, in the south of the country. Not far from Sderot and Netivot.

Coming Tuesday with God’s help, I will be in that place to meet the staff, the principal and the inspector. Can I please ask you to pray for this visit?

It was really touching to celebrate together this important moment in the lives of these children. While celebrating with them, we could feel that all our friends who are praying and supporting were there together with us.

Thank you so much!

Your brother in faith,

Mordechai ben Yakov

Director Sabra Foundation