Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry
Aseemingly routine response in Igros Kodesh leads a yeshiva student to a very successful shlichus in Italy.
For yeshiva student Mendy (not his real name), this was an ordinary letter. He read the Rebbe’s answer again, received just a few minutes earlier, and he didn’t see the need to change anything. Yet, his friend sitting near him was very excited: “Mendy, you must travel to Italy!”
Mendy, a student in the Central Lubavitcher Yeshiva in 770, was far less enthusiastic than his friend. The original plan was to travel to visit his family in Eretz HaKodesh and then to participate in a family simcha about two weeks later. In the answer received in Igros Kodesh, the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach writes to a Chassid about his visit to Italy, and how he would surely print outreach material in Italian for the locals. Mendy saw this response as a general bracha before a journey and did not think for a moment to pass through Italy.
He called his travel agent and ordered a ticket; the cheapest ticket had a stopover for an hour and a half in Amsterdam. “Quite reasonable,” he thought to himself, as he bought the ticket. However, his friend sitting near him objected. “Mendy, the Rebbe is writing that you should travel to Italy. You can’t ignore that and simply go straight back to Eretz Yisroel!”
“This is an answer like any other,” Mendy insisted.
But his friend was unrelenting. “When you write a letter to the Rebbe before setting out on a journey, do you always get a reply with a bracha for a specific destination?”
On the scheduled date for Mendy’s departure he was fully packed and ready to go when he noticed that he was missing something. “Oy, where’s my passport?” The most important document for his return trip was not in its proper place and he was forced to postpone his flight.
Losing a passport in a foreign country is no simple matter. The procedure begins at the police station, where one is required to declare that the passport was lost or stolen. Upon receiving police authorization, he can then go to the Israeli consulate to request a travel document to return to Eretz Yisroel. This travel document is not a passport, and the bearer of such a document not only still needs a visa to travel anywhere else in the world, but in addition the Israel Ministry of Interior sometimes issues the travel document for a period of only seven days, solely for the purpose of returning to Eretz Yisroel. In addition, this procedure involves costly service charges.
And afterwards, upon returning to Eretz Yisroel, the whole process of getting a new passport and visa begins. That would mean another expense of several hundred dollars and the unbearable tension before the interview at the American Embassy to receive an entry permit to come to Beis Chayeinu.
TEN HOURS IN ITALY
All these thoughts were going through Mendy’s mind as he was placing the call to his friend, Chabad travel agent Shneur Smadar. With his usual vigor and energy, Shneur got to work. “Mendy,” he said, “I have a ticket for you for next week without any service charge for the postponement. But the stopover will be a bit longer – ten hours in Italy…”
Italy. Mendy froze as he realized who was really behind this whole drama, and at that moment he made his decision without a moment’s hesitation: “Go ahead.” He now had a week to get organized. He was already starting to plan his next steps as he crossed the wide boulevard between the famed dormitory at 749 Eastern Parkway and Beis Chayeinu. He would head straight to the 71st Precinct police station on Empire Boulevard to report his lost passport, and the next day, he would go to the Israeli consulate in Manhattan to sign the necessary papers for a travel document.
As he crossed the street, he started walking towards the offices of chabad.info, located a few houses away from 770. He worked there during his free time, helping to make the website a continued success. He figured he would make a quick stop there before continuing on to the police station.
As he sat down in front of the computer and casually pulled open his desk drawer to get something, he was astounded to see…the missing passport. He had no idea how or when the passport ended up in his office. Yet, he was positively stunned by the incredible Divine Providence in finding the passport just half an hour after arranging his travel plans through Italy. He now felt an absolute obligation to fulfill the second part of the assigned mission – printing Jewish educational literature in Italian. His friend who had previously been on shlichus in Italy came to assist him.
When they arrived at the airport, they discovered that Mendy wasn’t the only Lubavitcher on the flight. In the long and twisting line to the check-in counter, there stood a young bachur whose eyes lit up when he saw Mendy.
“Mendy, you speak English, don’t you?” he asked. Mendy nodded his head hesitantly, unaware that he was about to embark on one of the most amazing adventures he had ever experienced in his young life.
THE LOST COUSIN
“Before leaving for 770,” said the young Tamim (we’ll call him Zalman), “a baal t’shuva yeshiva bachur (we’ll call him Tomer) came up to me with a fascinating story and a request.
“Tomer had an aunt who had spent some time in Europe in her youth, and she became acquainted with an Italian Gentile man. A relationship developed between them, and they got married. While Tomer’s family was neither ultra-Orthodox nor outwardly religious, they were very traditional and loyal to the values of Judaism. When they heard that Tomer’s aunt was in an advanced state of pregnancy, several family members traveled to Italy to meet with her. It isn’t clear what steps they took or what they gave her to drink, but at the end of the visit, the totally mixed-up girl was placed on a flight with an airline ticket arranged in advance.
“After a few weeks in Eretz Yisroel, Tomer’s aunt gave birth to a healthy baby boy, and on the eighth day, the infant was brought into the covenant of Avraham Avinu to the great joy of the entire family. Shortly after the bris, the new mother took her newborn son and ran from the family home, heading straight for the airport. She returned to Italy with the baby and decided to raise him there. Furious with the family, she was determined to cut her child off completely from Judaism – no Jewish education, no connection to the faith of his forefathers.
“This Jewish child had now grown up to be a man, as he continued to lead his life ch”v as an Italian Gentile. In the meantime, Divine Providence had brought his cousin Tomer to the path of t’shuva, and he had become a full-fledged Chabad Chassid. But Divine Providence wanted more than that, and Tomer, studying in 770, remembered his cousin living in Italy.
“Tomer started looking for a bachur who came for Tishrei and was going back to Eretz Yisroel via Italy. The problem was that it was a bit too late, as most of the T’mimim who came for Tishrei had already returned to their yeshivos in Eretz HaKodesh. Among those still in Crown Heights, very few seemed to be going back through the boot of Europe. The only one he found was me,” said Shneur as he concluded his strange story.
“Tomer approached me and managed to get me all excited about the idea of a Jewish boy who grew up without any Jewish background. He presented me with a mezuzah which he had especially bought and asked me to give it to his cousin. He then handed me a slip of paper with a telephone number and disappeared. I was thrilled about this special mitzva in which I was privileged to take part, never considering the fact that I had no way to connect with this person who knew not a word of Hebrew. It was only here at the airport when the light suddenly flashed on for me as I saw you.”
WHY DON’T THEY EXPLAIN THINGS TO ME?
Immediately after the plane landed in Rome, they got straight to work. Calling the number they had been given before their flight, they spoke with Tomer’s cousin. He was most pleased that his cousin overseas had sent his friends to see him, and he agreed to meet with them in the city center. Accompanying him to the get-together was a non-Jewish Italian woman with whom he was living. The meeting and conversation were most pleasant. After a few minutes, while the Gentile woman went to get a cup of coffee at the vigorous encouragement of the T’mimim, they got right to the main point of discussion. “Would you like to put on t’fillin?” the bachurim asked him.
“Absolutely not!” he said angrily. “I don’t do these things of yours!” As the two stood in surprise, he proceeded to attack them. “You’re Jews! You’re always acting with coercion and violence! You snatched me in order to give me a circumcision. Every conversation I have with someone from the family can be summed up with ‘Do this and do that. Put on t’fillin, learn Torah, etc.’ Why should I do all these things? Has one of you ever tried once to explain it to me? Has anyone ever tried to give me something to read so I could understand what this religion is anyway?”
One can just imagine the shock on his face when Mendy pulled out an informational Torah brochure in Italian from his suitcase. “You know what?” he said, as he rolled up his sleeve, “Let’s give it a try.” He then graciously took the mezuzah gift sent by his cousin Tomer, promising that he would put it up by the front door of his house.
This is yet another never-ending story of a reawakened Jewish spark, a Jewish soul hidden under the depths of spiritual impurity, saved by the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach. And who knows? Perhaps this was in the merit of the self-sacrifice of his mother’s family that he should enter into the covenant of Avraham Avinu.