“We are the Rebbe’s Reservists. There are the bachurim, the shluchim and the rabbanim who comprise the army regulars. We married men, Anash, are the reservist soldiers. We work at various jobs, earn our living from this and that, but every person needs to find time when he is ‘in the reserves’ and devotes this time to mivtzaim.”
Name: Aryeh Leib Schneersohn
Age:
35
Location:
Kfar Chabad
Occupation:
Runs Schneersohn’s fish store in Kfar Chabad
R’ Aryeh Schneersohn of Kfar Chabad runs the famous Schneersohn fish store. If your flight for Tishrei leaves on Sunday between 2:00 and 6:00, you are likely to meet R’ Aryeh putting t’fillin on someone or explaining to a tourist where he can have a Shabbos meal in Verona or how to find the Chabad house in Sri Lanka.
Schneersohn was born and raised in Kfar Chabad. He learned in Tzfas and then in 770 where he also helped out at the Chabad house in Queens run by R’ Shraga Zalmanov.
R’ Aryeh begins the week with four hours of mivtzaim as a volunteer at Ben Gurion airport’s Chabad house which is run by R’ Nachman Maidanchek.
“I purposely picked the beginning of the week. It is the most convenient time for me as far as work goes and this has enabled me to keep it up for years. Most importantly, it lights up the entire week for me. Four hours on Sunday give me an injection of chayus and energy for an entire week.”
R’ Aryeh volunteers for four hours but they are four intensive hours in which he doesn’t rest for a moment.
“There is something special about the t’fillin stand at the airport. I don’t know whether it’s the mood people are in before they fly, before going abroad, or something else, but their willingness to put on t’fillin and their interest is many times higher than at any other t’fillin stand in Eretz Yisroel.
“I used to do mivtzaim in Ohr Yehuda. If I had 20 people putting on t’fillin within four hours, I was happy. Today, I have 150 people put on t’fillin in that amount of time.”
He has a message:
“The most important thing is to pick a day and time that you can stick with. Sometimes people make good hachlatos that are at the expense of something else or require sacrifice on the part of the family, and then they can’t stick with it for the long run. I know that the end of the week is very busy for me which is why I chose Sunday. The store is closed and I spend the morning on dealing with the banks and money matters, then in the afternoon I go on mivtzaim. That is how I was able to maintain my commitment over the years and never missed a day, boruch Hashem.