Benoliel Brothers - Establishing Mikdash Melech

Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Could you take us through those years how you ended up forming Mikdasha? Who are some of the other rabbis that you crossed paths with in those early years? Everybody likes to hear the names of those great men that started out with you back then and then we all want to know how Mikdash became what what it became. Okay. uh chronologically uh I I I started off in the community with the uh with the rabbin it becoming uh the rabbi of uh of u Ben Ysef which at that time in 1968 was called Magen David of Ocean Parkway. That was the original name. And then Eddie Sid Shalom renamed the shul that he built Ben Ysef mainly in in memory of his father Ysef Sohan. Right. Um it wasn't until 72 which was like about four years later that um I started to uh realize my long-standing dream of having a safari yesa and uh started with a handful of boys uh together with my brother-in-law Rabbi David Lopeian Schlita and later on another brother brother-in-law Allah shalom. And um so we started off actually uh in Ben for a short time and then we were able to buy the the building on Ocean Parkway which at that time was a a nursing home that was not functioning at that time. And talk about real estate, right? People can't re can't believe that in in those years 197072 that you could buy a building like that for 1125 and we still needed to take a mortgage because it was a lot of money then 112,000 was it's all it's all relevant right yeah but we think fondly of many of the founders and uh I always remember uh Joe RBB shalom he was one of the the signers on the mortgage and uh Isaac Misra shalom and and others really that gave us that uh uh that push and there's a a nice uh picture of uh myself and Rabbi Lope sitting with right I still had a red beard at that time but that was uh a a meeting in the home of Isaac Mah shalom that where we got the blessings of the uh of to start off. So we started off with what we would call the shaim the the 10 original and some of them of course are very famous our community such as Rabbi David Ozeri and Rabbi David Cohen, Rabbi Schlomma Wadish and others that were that uh we never had another group like that. the 10 pioneers that uh we we started off in 1972 and u for a while we were in what they call the the the uh the Gibble of Rabbi TS Shalom on Ocean Parkway and then finally in our own home in uh at um 1326 Ocean Parkway and um uh of course a number of years later the idea developed of having a branch in Yaleim. Wow. Because we saw that uh a lot of our young men were going uh with the intent of having a year or two in your and uh in there's Israel and in many cases after a couple of months they would come back because they just didn't they didn't find the right environment that that was uh uh welcoming to them as far as their uh as far as their their customs and and comfort zone in uh in in in in the otic experience. So, uh we thought that it was a a very important resource to try to to to uh to have these boys and really let give them the opportunity of of a um of a yeshiva experience experience. Yeah. Uh with all of the uh the background, the sphartic uh uh menu and sphartic tilot and so forth and here we are. So Rabbi, it it it it's similar to it is today. They finish high school and then you wanted them to go for a year, possibly two years toesh to Jerusalem to learn, right? It was the same as it is today. Post high school. Yeah. Post high school. Rabbi, how how how common was that or uncommon for parents way back then to say, "I'm going to trust you. I'm going to send my son after high school versus all the other things that they would have wanted for their boys. Not all that common. Not all that common. And that's why we we started off with very small numbers. You know, we started off with small numbers, but as time went on, it became more accepted. And uh in fact in the early years we would have on average a third of our um enrollment um ben Ashkanaz because the there there weren't too many American ashkanazi shivot in in in Israel. Right. Uh now we hardly have any because the Ashkanazim have their own. We understand they don't need us. We surely understand that. We understand it. But we still stand for who we are and what we are asphod. And I must say, yeah, I must say to you, Rabbi, that we are all the whole community. So proud of you that you were a pioneer in starting in Brooklyn, not being afraid. It wasn't common in those years. And then to open up Mikdesh Melik in Jerusalem and have boys experience what has turned out to be the great what I'm hearing now being close to you and your son, Rabbi Abraham, the greatest year of my life. It changed my life. I don't know what I would have been without it. I don't know who I would have been. I don't know what would have come of me. And I hear dozens and dozens of remarks like that from these young men that have come back, changed their lives, given back to the community. And it's just it's it's all but Hashem to your credit for giving you that insight, the fortitude uh to trust. Correction correction only only. Okay. Holy.