The Lost Children

As we speak, there are 5 million lost children in Israel, yet, somehow, it really doesn't matter …

Somehow, because they happen to be the children of Hashem, many people find themselves feeling that it's “no big deal." After all, Hashem can do anything — and He knows what He's doing — so if that is the way things are, then this is the way it's probably supposed to be, right? So, even though it's a "big thing" to do something about it, it's not really  such a “who-knows-what big a deal … "

Well, think again.

If your child must, חס וחלילה, go through a painful medical procedure, doesn't your heart get torn to pieces even though it's done "for the good of the child"?

So yes, the world is run the way Hashem wants it and for reasons we cannot understand or even imagine. And yes, we must go through a terrible golus before the final Geula — but that doesn't take away His horrible pain over the fate of His lost children. Our Sages say that just like Hashem is ein sof, and doesn't end, so His צער and sorrow over his lost children is excruciating and without an end, too!

On the other hand, can you imagine the simchah He feels if we manage to bring these lost children back to their Father?

Okay, but realistically, what can be done??

For those interested in finding their Father, there are now many wonderful kiruv organizations out there. The problem, of course, is reaching the millions who don’t yet know enough to even be interested? How do you get to them?

The answer is simple.

The easiest way is to reach them is at the place where they spend most of their extra hours — the TV set. We can bring them to Torah and kiruv shurim when they are sitting right there in the comfort of their homes.

This is exactly what Rav Zamir Cohen and Rav Isaac Fried did, on behest of gedolei Yisroel.

It started four years ago...

Rav Cohen and Rav Fried were offered an opportunity to broadcast Torah shurim on TV — and they jumped in, doing the job for all of us, they established Hidabroot.

Today, Hidabroot is a full fledged cable channel broadcasting Judaism 24-hours a day 6 days a week.

And the impact has been simply unbelievable:

150,000 Israelis, many who have never heard a word of Torah in their lives, watch the channel every day …
28,000 surfers visit the Hidabroot website every single day...
6,000 people call up the toll-free telephone number with questions every month ....
As of 2009, this resulted in 16,600 children placed in Torah institutions!

How do they do it?!

Baruch Hashem, they once got the support for the $3 million budget from a handful of גבירים who understood how important this and what a powerful tool this is. These gvirim were supporting it with individual sums of $400,000, a million dollars, etc. — but those days are gone.

Today, after the recession, these people can’t give anymore (maybe to give other people the zchus to have apart in this incredible mitzvah).
The burden of carrying the 24-hour channel fell on the hands of these askanim, our messengers, who have already reached the point of exhaustion.

But we can’t close the lights on the biggest kiruv rechokim effort of our generation. We must go on.

They are going on, carrying the load with tremendous mesirus nefesh, borrowing money to make ends meet. The situation is very hard. Everything has been put on hold, including workers who are waiting for their salaries.

This project belongs to the entire Klal Yisrael and every one of us must take a part in this and help it continue. Every dollar — $100, $50, $36, or even $18 — makes a huge difference for the organization, which still owes a few months of salaries to 120 workers. These workers are TV professionals — baalei tshuvah — who were getting in the secular world ten times the amount they’re getting now from Hidabroot, but are working with mesirus nefesh to bring Hashem’s words to every Jew.

There is so much that can be done:

Your donation of $10,000 will pay for the editing of all the shows for a full week — that’s 46 programs with 20 hours of work on each program!
$5,000 will finance the filming those 46 programs for a full week.
$500 would pay for editing and filming of one show.
$3,600 will pay for the six Rabbis and six Rebbetzins who are answering the over 1,500 phonecalls that come in each weak.

The Jerusalem Apartment

To give people a “push” to donate, one of our main supporters, who is building a apartment complex in Jerusalem, donated a beautiful 2 bedroom apartment, fully furnished, for us to raffle off to our supporters!
When you donate as little as $100 to Hidabroot you’ll be entered automatically into the raffle, and the more you donate the more chances you have (see price list).

So hurry! Thousands of Jewish souls — Hashem’s lost children — are waiting for you …and a luxury apartment is waiting for you, too.
But the biggest winners may very well be … your children.
HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky, shlita, put it plainly: “Whoever helps Hidabroot bring the children of Israel closer to their Father in Heaven will be saved from tzaar gidol bonim!”