Reprinted from The Yeshiva World News
On Rosh Chodesh Adar,
Wednesday morning, February 18, residents of Panama City Beach, Florida
gathered to celebrate the opening of a dream. Their very own mikvah. Previously
the closest mikvah was in Tallahassee, Fl, a long and difficult drive. Not
everyone could take the six hours that it took to make the round trip. But now,
with a mikvah of their own, fifteen families committed to embark on lives of
taharah.
Rabbi Binyamin Terenyo of
Dallas, Texas, is the person who brought the mostly Israeli residents of PCB
closer to Yidishkeit. Rabbi Terenyo spoke to the crowd. Eight years ago
someone told me of this community with a hundred Jewish people and no one to read
the Megilla for them on Purim. So I drove down and was amazed at the warmth and
sincerity of these people. Now, we have a shul, a minyan, and finally a mikvah.
If you would have told me back then that there would be a mikvah in PCB I would
have said that it was more likely that hair would grow on my palms. But it
happened Baruch Hashem.
Baruch Cywiak of Mikvah USA
encouraged the residents to take advantage of their new mikvah. He told them
that the Mikvah USA donors recognized how critical kedushas Yisroel is. These
donors dont know you, they never even heard of PCB before we asked them to
help. Why did they help? Because they know that Klal Yisroel is an am kadosh.
When people in Panama City Beach are vested in Kedusha then all of Klal
Yisroel, wherever we are in the entire world, do better said Rabbi Cywiak.
Rabbi Shai Tenenboim of
Chabad of Destin, Florida, served as the MC at the event. Who
would have thought that we
would ever see a mikvah in Panama City Beach said Rabbi Tenenboim. Mikvah USA
is a wonderful organization that makes mikvaos all over the country, what a
wonderful zchus, mitzvah, and achievement it is for them and their donors.
There is more. In a stunning
postscript, a donor had given money to Mikvah USA in order to help build the
PCB mikvah. The donation was given in January of 2014, as a zchus for the
donors daughter to merit having children. Rabbi Cywiak thanked the donor after
the chanukas habayis and was told that the woman in whose zchus the donation
was given had a baby girl that very day!!! Coincidence? We know better. Hashem
runs the world and loves us. Mikvah is tremendously important for Klal Yisroel.
We see it clearly. What a wonderful zchus, mitzvah, and achievement for those
who help.