Just got back from our fifth Bethesda Jewish Congregation Cuba mission. The best yet.
I'm calling this one the T'filin tour.
I'll explain.
I wanted to get a special gift for my friend Jose Barlia in Sancti Spiritus. Last March he was diagnosed with cancer. He was very sick, lost a tremendous amount of weight and we were very concerned for his survival. I prayed, meditated, and visualized his recovery daily. The reports I was receiving back here in the states, while optimistic left me uncertain as to his condition. I went to the Jewish bookstore in Wheaton one day to buy gifts for some of my friends and "family" in Cuba. While there I (as always) had a long conversation with the resident sofer Menachem Youlus. Menachem is renowned around the world for his work combing Europe for Torot, T'filin, and other damaged documents that have survived the Shoah and restoring them. I told him about Jose and after a few moments of thought he said; "why not give him a set of T'filin."
I responded; "I don't know. He doesn't know Hebrew (almost nobody in the provinces does) he probably doesn't have a daily practice etc.
Menachem insists saying: "so teach him. All he has to say is..."
I finished his sentence; "the T'filin brachot and the sh'ma and it is counted to his merit. I still don't know if he'd use them."
Menachem responds (literally); "I'll make you an offer you can't refuse. Five sets - $95 each."
"I can't use 5 sets" I respond.
He insists; "just look at them."
He takes me over to a table with a bunch of old T'filin, rummages around and finds a worn set in a small bag. He tells me;
"I restored these t'filin. I got them from a Russian who told me that they were taken from a German soldier at the end of the war who got them from a Jew who died on the death march when the Nazi's evacuated Treblinka.
I stood there stunned. Then thought for a second and said give me another set for my friend Jose. These T'filin I will give to David Tacher in Santa Clara. They have a Holocaust Memorial at the Santa Clara Jewish cemetery. so that's the appropriate place for them.
So I got another set for Jose from the destroyed town of Kamenetz Podolsk in the Ukraine. BTW I saw him and he looks great. Gained back enough weight so that he looks healthy but trim, stopped smoking, lost the bags under his eyes, shaved off his moustache, and looks ten years younger.

I took the t'filin home until I departed for Cuba. When I went to daven the next morning, I felt their pull and decided to daven in them to see what I could feel.
I flowed into the davenen and lost myself in the energy of the God field. Then something remarkable happened. Usually when I daven by myself, I skip from the Birchot Hashachar to Baruch Shemar. But on this day I kept going. I mindlessly flipped the pages and recited the p'sukim from tractate Yoma on the fire offerings, Ana B'koach, Kaddish D'rabanan, and landed at Psalm 30. I NEVER recite Psalm 30. These words literally flowed through me and made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
"You have raised me from my fall into the pit...What gain is there in my death... will the dust acknowledge you? Will it declare your truth? Hear me Adoshem and show me favor, Adoshem, be my help. Turn my mourning into dancing...so that my soul will make music to you and not be stopped."

OMG!!

That Psalm was lying in these t'filin waiting to be sung again. Can you imagine the devekus that must have existed in this poor brother who probably took these t'filin, at who knows what risk, from the piles of belongings confiscated from the Jews as they arrived in the camp. How early he must has arisen every day so as to use them before roll call. They were so precious that he carried them until his last breath. Now they live again in Cuba.
When I gave them to David Tacher at the Jewish cemetery in Santa Clara, he visibly trembled as he took them from my hands. Later, when we went to the house that is about to be remodeled as a synagogue for Santa Clara (the first to open in Cuba since the revolution I helped him put them on, say the brachot, and then from a Spanish Tanach, we read together Psalm 30.

But that's not the best T'filin story of the trip.

When I told our group that I was giving out T'filin, one of our members, Stan Sherman, 82 years old and going strong, stated that he had brought a set of T'filin with him and would like to give them away. He asked me who he should give them to. I thought about it for a few days and decided that the best person to give them to would be 19 year old David Rodriquez in Cienfuegos. He is a wonderful young artist, just came back from a Birthright trip to Israel, and is a very dedicated young Jew.

When we arrived in Cienfuegos we went to the home of Rebeca Langus, the leader of the Cienfuegos Jewish community and David's mother. Stan got up and with tears in his eyes said to David;"these t'filin were given to me 69 years ago by my grandfather when I became Bar Mitzvah. I now have two daughters, no sons. My daughters both married Christians and are raising their children as Christians. I have no one to give these t'filin to. I would like you to have them and I hope that you will pass them on to your children.
David stood up, visibly moved and said; "Thank you. I will be your grandson."

There wasn't a dry eye in the place.
WOW!
This stuff happens to us in Cuba all the time.
This trip we had the entire community in Santa Clara/Sancti Spiritus stand for Parsha Yitro. They had never stood at Sinai for the reading of the Ten Commandments before. It was only the second time a Torah had been read in Sancti Spiritus since the revolution. The first time was last year on our visit.
We also did a Tu B'shevat seder in Camaguey. For the 65 Jews in that town it was the first time they had celebrated Tu B'shevat. I created for them a Tu B'shevat seder in Spanish - English - Hebrew with Spanish transliteration. One of the community leaders asked me if this is something Jews do every year. When I said yes she responded that from now on they will do it too. We also enjoyed a wedding and fiesta in Camaguey. One of our BJC members was born in Camaguey and he and his wife wanted to renew their vows on their eighteenth anniversary in his hometown.

Wel be back next year.