School Trip Gives Students Tour of 770 Expansion Site
Students from a Crown Heights school got a firsthand look at the expansion of 770, nearly 40 years after the Rebbe laid the cornerstone for the project.
by COLlive Reporter · COLliveAt the construction site of the 770 expansion, the students of Oholei Yosef Yitzchok Lubavitch of Crown Heights watched the workers in action and even caught a brief glimpse inside.
As they took in the activity, their teachers took them back thirty-eight years, to 17 Elul 5748, to the groundbreaking ceremony at which the Rebbe laid the even hapinah, the cornerstone for the expansion of 770.
The students learned why that moment was so significant. A cornerstone is laid when the building it is meant for is still largely a matter of vision. At that ceremony, the Rebbe gave his directive to expand 770 a tangible beginning. Now, standing at the site themselves, the students could see what that first stone had been laid for and how much work it would take to complete the entire project.
The children were thrilled to hear that the crews have been working day and night to move the expansion forward. After so many years and so many obstacles along the way, the speed with which the work is now advancing made the visit especially moving. For the teachers, it was an opportunity to share with their students a sense of chasdei Hashem as they saw the Rebbe’s hora’ah carried into action in such a remarkable way.
There was a particular lesson in chinuch in bringing the children to the site. The students had learned from their teachers about the day the Rebbe laid the even hapinah. Now, nearly forty years after the groundbreaking, they stood at the site and saw with their own eyes the expansion the Rebbe had envisioned beginning to take shape. The original plan calls for additional buildings and further construction, and the work they witnessed marks a historic beginning.
Standing there, the students felt part of a much larger story in Lubavitch history. The next time they hear about the Rebbe laying the cornerstone, they will have a memory of their own to share with future generations.
May what the talmidim and talmidos saw at 770, Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel, bring a new chayus to their learning and davening. And may these same children soon merit to see, with their own eyes, the building of the Beis HaMikdash HaShlishi, with the Geulah ha’amitis vehashleimah, teikef umiyad mamash.
To learn more about OYYL and its programs, visit www.OYYL.org
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