Hundreds of Jews, including some students of the local Chabad Yeshivah, were among the thousands of victims to perish in a devastating earthquake that struck Agadir, Morocco on the 2nd of Adar in 1960.
R Yomtov Algazi was the chief rabbi of Jerusalem from 1773 until his death. During a journey to Europe to raise money for the Jewish community in Israel, he discovered a manuscript of a work of Nachmanides: a compilation of the laws of the firstborn and the separation of challah, styled after R. Yitzchak Alfasi’s codex of Jewish law. R. Yomtov undertook to publish the manuscript, accompanied by a lengthy commentary he authored, which brought him worldwide fame as a brilliant Torah scholar.
There are many kinds of barriers:
Barriers between people.
Barriers that prevent you from doing good things.
Barriers of your own mind and your own hesitations.
Barriers from within and barriers from without.
There are barriers that exist simply because you are a limited being.
Joy breaks down all barriers.