Redemption on Wheels: "The Highest Souls are in Tel Aviv"

There aren't many people who pass through central Tel Aviv and don't know "The Rollerdos," R' Shai Shorouk. He skates through the city's streets, offering free inspiration—funny, joyful, and uplifting—to anyone who stops to listen for a moment.

Each month, Shai and friends from "New House for Study" embark on various activities according to the Jewish calendar. On Purim, there are marvelous costumes; on Chanukah, enormous menorahs in Dizengoff Square and Ben Gurion Boulevard, not far from the sea; and throughout the year, lessons, distribution of materials, and of course Shabbatot. Now, as Elul is at its peak, the King is in the field, and Shai, dressed in a robe and crown, takes to the streets equipped with a shofar and roller skates, standing firm in any weather.

Dressed as a rooster (photo: Shimon Aziza)

He stands outside the study center at the corner of Ben Yehuda and Arlozorov with a large shofar, and then a beautiful, strong blast is heard. People stop, and someone asks to hear it one more time. "The Alter Rebbe says that now, in Elul, the King is in the field and we are shown a smiling face," Shai explains. "This is the illumination of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. We just need to approach Him." "How to awaken?" a woman in the crowd asks. "Make a strong coffee and talk to Him," he replies. "It's okay, it's always connected, it's Wi-Fi."

R' Shai, originally from Tel Aviv, was once an actor and a physical education teacher, a graduate of Wingate. Despite his broad activities on the Tel Aviv streets, Shai prioritizes Torah study. For fourteen years, he has studied at the Chabad study hall on Ben Yehuda, with Rabbi David Yitzchak Aziza. From morning until 5 PM, he is in the study hall, and then he goes out to the streets to spread the teachings—only to return to studies in the evening. Here, in the city center, Shai and his wife are raising their four children.

Awakening at Rabbi Shimon

"The Creator revealed Himself to me when I was an actor," he recalls. "I was cast in a role according to a legend related to Rabbi Shimon, and we filmed a scene in his cave in Peki'in. There was a very strong awakening there. That was the beginning. But what is repentance, that I learned with Chabad. That is what Chabad did for me.

What change do you feel in the street atmosphere during your years here?

"I see the changes my rabbi is going through. At first, he operated amidst great difficulties, defamations, or flyers that he would hang and they would immediately be torn down. Today, we see admiration and affection. I go out with the shofar, within minutes people, traffic jams, cars, ask me straight away, what does this mean? And why Elul? We see real signs of redemption here, on the street. An awakening."

And precisely here, he says, there is a chance for repentance. "A person who wants to succeed in any field, creative or economic, will come to Tel Aviv. If they want to break through, they will come to Tel Aviv. But a person who serves Hashem and wants to reach redemption, Mashiach, the Temple—also, precisely from here they can break through."

And where do you get the ideas and ability to always innovate?

"Judaism is not 'religious', not the observance of commandments by rote. Judaism needs to be something that's always at work. This is the privilege of those who repent. The moment a person takes all their past—past from the root of transgression—and pulls it into holiness, then the deliberate sins become merits. All his energies are now concentrated on this.

"The Rebbe's followers strive to be not 'religious', but active. Renewal. Using all technologies, media, satellites, cars, tanks... look, now they demolished the Ma'ariv Bridge, activists immediately came and set up a tefillin booth in the middle of the explosion. You see pictures of the explosion, and next to it people laying tefillin. That's the idea: to take reality and sweep it towards redemption, to do a mitzvah.

"And the moment you perform a mitzvah, give charity, say a verse, that's Wi-Fi connection, straight up. You don't need anything more. And from there the forces come for the next moment, because it's alive, it's live. It's not religious, it's not history. What is the giving of the Torah? The giver of the Torah, now, today."

(photo: Shimon Aziza)

Now, in the month of Elul, do you have encouragement for the readers? What do you say to Jews who want to try to return but don't know how?

"A person who thinks about repentance and talks about repentance, Hashem will already find him the way. Repentance is not an act of one day. It's daily work.

"Chassidus teaches us that the question we need to ask is not where the Creator is and if He is here, but—am I here? Am I present? The Alter Rebbe calls it 'Ayeka'. When the Creator asks Adam 'Ayeka?' why does He ask this? Does He not know where he is? Rather, He asks: 'Are you with me? Where are you now, at this moment?'

"And that gives the strength when you know you're with Him, and He's not in the heavens, He's with you. He says, take a step, I'm with you, there's backing. But you need to take action."

Rain, sun, what gives you strength?

"Torah study, Torah lessons with Rabbi Aziza. The Rabbi takes very lofty concepts and makes them simple, so that the thing is verified in reality."

What is the most important thing you have learned from these life experiences here, from the connection with people on the street?

"That the highest souls are in Tel Aviv."