When shliach Rabbi Levi Cohen and his family arrived in Kostenay last year to serve as the local Rabbi and shliach, he and his wife threw themselves into the job. Rabbi and Mrs. Cohen had been working in Jewish education in the Israeli city of Emanuel, but they agreed to the request of the shluchim in Kazakhstan to help build the growing Jewish community of Kostenay. A beautiful shul was built in the city, and the Cohens completed a very successful year in Kostenay. Now that this year is over, the family paid one last visit to the tomb of the Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Schneerson, in Almaty before returning to Israel.
Several das ago, however, Rabbi Cohen received a surprise telephone call from a young man, aged 22, from Kostenay. He told Rabbi Cohen that he had decided to undergo circumcision, and he wanted to do this before the Cohens returned to Israel. He then jumped on a train and traveled all the way to Almaty, even though this involved various complications and delays. After a three-day journey, the young man arrived in Almaty, where he celebrated his bris milah on the day before the anniversary of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok’s passing. At a moving ceremony, attended by local Jews and shluchim, the young man entered the covenant of the Jewish nation and took on the name Levi Yitzchok.
The mohel was Rabbi Elchonon Cohen, shliach in Almaty. He later said, “Rabbi Levi Cohen and his wife did amazing work on shlichus, saving the Jewish community in Kostenay. Now, as we say goodbye to them, I was thinking about how I could thank them for something which is beyond words. During the bris milah, I suddenly understood the significance of the expression, ‘the reward for a mitzvah is – a mitzvah.’ For the various mitzvos that he did while on shlichus, Levi received the greatest reward ever – the addition of a very precious and special mitzvah. He merited that his student, from his city, decided to undergo bris milah, and it was very important to him to do this in the presence of his Rabbi.”
These shluchim have done extremely well, and they certainly did not make their efforts to help other Jews in vain.
