Bensalem Dinner 2026 Video

If you can get someone to think about Hashem [music] for one second, that itself is worth everything. If there wouldn't be a kollel or a shul, there'd be something else. But over here, in Bensalem, Bucks County, there's nothing else. [music] We are the Jewish lifeline of this area. It's worth the entire everything that we put together here for Hunter and Rachel. >> [music] >> In 1996, I was learning in Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, and I was offered an opportunity [music] to come to Bensalem and to try to create a shul and a community. We purchased a shell, which is currently our shul, and a piece of grass to build a mikvah. That mikvah used close to 8,000 times. The shul progressed to become a minyan three times a day, full-time average director, and a kollel of young life of families who live here in Bensalem. Bucks County contains over 50,000 Jews. Every one of them a special person. Baruch Hashem, we've had the opportunity to touch many of them, but there's so many more for us to try to reach. Today, we're going to focus on the journey of two of them, Hunter and Rachel Most, very, very special people who we had the great success, great merit to be involved with. I grew up in a place called Holland, Pennsylvania, about 15 [music] minutes away from Bensalem. I knew that I was Jewish, my family was Jewish, had a bar mitzvah in a uh non-kosher Italian restaurant. A few years ago, I was in a friend of mine's house, Yossi Erman, and he told me, "Myishe, there's a guy who went on a Mitzvah [music] Mission from Bucks County, and he's back in Bucks County. His name is Hunter Most. Yossi Bresler gave me the phone number, here it is." We made up to meet, and at that time, our average director was Rabbi Myishe Salinger. They started going out to coffee, and Hunter started coming to learn. So, really, the impact for me at Bensalem was it [music] was a place to make sure that I could keep growing and not sliding back. I knew that I was interested [music] in Judaism and, you know, what a religious life had to offer. You know, really, it [music] just started with learning and keeping that touch point. Rubber really hit the road when I thought that it would be a good idea for me to to move into town and get a little closer. We found out that there was someone living right behind us, back-to-back in the apartments. Being so close to them, we very quickly invited them over for a Shabbos meal, and got to know them. Hunter recently met Rachel, and I actually approached him. I asked him, you know, would [music] Rachel be interested in learning with a chavruta? And actually, he got back to me that she was interested, and she started learning with my wife on a weekly basis. Fast forward, at one point, he and Rachel were living in Bensalem already in a rented apartment. Hunter was coming three times a week to learn. They were scheduled to get married in about a [music] year. And at one point, we tried to sit down with people on the run at various times and talk about kabbalahs, and I asked them if they would get married in a Jewish wedding. With the rabbi's help and encouragement, we had a full-scale from wedding [music] here in the shul. I was really given carte blanche to make that whatever we needed [music] to do in order to get the support from my family. You go, you ready? Hunter, you ready? Mhm. Okay, you're going to pick up my yarmulke, and you're obligating yourself now to support Rachel and to treat it all the laws of a Jewish husband to a JEWISH WIFE. WOO! >> [cheering and screaming] >> I WAS ABLE TO BE AN AID BY THE CHUPPAH, and dance with him and celebrate with them in their beautiful, beautiful kallah. >> [music] >> One of the most beautiful events we've ever had in this shul was their wedding. Not only did the kollel enjoy it, not only did all the people in the community enjoy it, but their family, friends from Penn State, had an amazing time. One of the women who came told my wife she'd never had such a beautiful experience at a wedding as this one, even with the mechitza. She said, "If anything, the mechitza made it nicer." After my baby was [music] born, I called the rabbi and said, "Okay, now what do I need to know about a shalom zachar and a bris?" When Hunter had a baby, well, the whole community celebrated with him, and I was able to be the kohen who sold him back his kid after 30 days. Hunter's mother, who had been coming here often, took a sudden medical turn to the worse and passed away. Hunter called me when she was very, very seriously ill. Told me that in her will, it said she should be cremated. [music] She didn't know any better. I went to the hospital, we tried we spoke with some of the brothers, but it was clearly an uphill battle [music] to get things changed. >> We were able to coordinate a proper Jewish burial for her, went through the shiva process, and got to have a a lot of community [music] support during that time as well. I feel like he's made choices that most people in his life stage wouldn't choose. Like like that was the choice he made, and he wants [music] to be able to live close to a shul, and he's willing to forego, in some way, other things that, you know, people in his social circles would be doing. I wanted to wish Hunter and Rachel continued success in all their endeavors, and I'm looking forward to sharing more simchas together, Bezrat Hashem. You know, it's amazing how things come together, but Hunter's power of studying Torah, and then his doing what he did to bury his mother properly, and now making a siyum, that'll be a merit for her soul. It just seems to come together in such a beautiful way tonight. I wish them mazel tov, and I wish them from the bottom of my heart to continue their journey and see nachas from their son and from many, many more children, Bezrat Hashem.