Sometimes, starting out in shlichus is not exactly a bed of roses. It seems like trains are roaring past you and paying you no heed, but if you continue moving, you will discover impressive progress. * Mika Bengin, who holds a position of high responsibility at Israel Railways and serves as a shlucha in Pisgot Afek in Rosh HaAyin, shares her journey from the back of the train until she reached the “engine car” – the Rebbe MH”M – who guides her every step of the way in spreading his message.
By Ofra Bedosa
BREAKING THROUGH OUR INNER WALLS
The Rebbe asks every Jew to be a shliach, to be a lamplighter, a light around which people gather. That we do all that we can to make an impact and not to rest, until the entire world is illuminated. But in order to succeed in making an impact on our surroundings, something internal and deep needs to happen within us. We must experience things and connect to others from a different place within ourselves. When the Rebbe asks that we conquer the street with holiness, it’s not merely through slogans and billboards. Sometimes it’s a word, a smile, or a minor conversation that can make the difference.
On the one hand, it is so accessible to each of us. On the other hand, sometimes, it seems so far and daunting. However, when we succeed in breaking down the walls within us, we will be able to reach everyone in an approachable and friendly way. We can turn the world over from the inside.
This is something I encounter a lot in my world of shlichus, as I work to build my inner strength and bring it to the outside to whomever I meet.
I looked for someone who would be able to move us all forward another step toward this place within ourselves, someone who is successful in connecting in both a confident, yet gentle way.
I knew Mika Bengin as a single girl. She came to shiurim at the Chabad House where I’m a shlucha, at HaDor HaShvii in Hertzliya. I’ve been following her work at Israeli Railways for years, so I knew that she’s a good person to talk to about this. Each one of us, in her place of shlichus, can learn so much from her.
FATHER KNOWS BEST
Mika’s kiruv process is a story of an entire family. When she was 12, her father became a baal teshuva. Their home was always traditional, so the connection to Hashem was strong and natural. Nevertheless, the father’s becoming a baal teshuva was a shock for the family.
“The difficulty was in the totality of the process. Suddenly, it was for real and all the way. My father was a successful businessman, with a family that lacked for nothing. But inside, he felt that something wasn’t complete. For a year and a half he kept Shabbos alone, with mesirus nefesh. His name is Avrohom and he had the mesirus nefesh of Avrohom Avinu, to go with G-d till the end, despite the surroundings being different and in opposition. He was on one side, and the rest of us were on the other side.”
GRADUAL SHIFT
Slowly, Yoni, her younger brother became influenced by him. They started learning Tanya together with the mashpia Rabbi Dovid Mifi in Barakat. When her brother was released from the army, he went to learn in the yeshiva in Tzfas. The change in him was enormous. Whenever he returned from yeshiva they could see the process he was going through. Suddenly, from his room, they heard Chassidic niggunim instead of trance music. He would sit and learn and pray.
“His change affected my neshama,” said Mika. “It made me very curious and I asked him to learn with me. We started with Likkutei Sichos and that opened my heart. It was time for me to enlist in the army and I knew I had to decide, to choose a path.
“I enlisted like everyone else, but inside I already knew that the change was a matter of time.” Her turning point came at the wedding of a religious friend who went to school with her. All of their friends attended and went to ask the kalla for a bracha. “When I went over to her, she asked me, ‘What blessing do you want?’ I asked her to bless me to have a Jewish home based on the foundation of Torah and mitzvos. That dream was already what I had in my mind, but it had still not reached the practical level.”
After the wedding was over, Mika’s friends decided to go out for some entertainment. Mika told them she couldn’t go. That was a Thursday. That Shabbos was when she began observing Shabbos on a regular basis. From that point on, her commitment only grew. She started saying blessings over food and praying, taking on more and more mitzva observances.
THE SEVENTH GENERATION
After the army, Mika decided she had to get stronger spiritually. The path, though, was unclear. But just then, Tzvika Halperin, a yeshiva friend, came to visit her brother. She sat and talked with his wife Mor who suggested that she come to a shiur in Hertzliya Pituach. Mor told her about various shiurim suitable for her. After a few months, Mor called to tell her that a new Chabad House opened in Hertzliya called HaDor HaShvii and offered to give Mika’s cell phone number to the shlucha there.
“I remember that day as though it was yesterday,” says Mika. “I was cleaning the house when the phone rang. I answered the phone and heard a pleasant laughing voice on the line. It was Dorit Fliaskos, my shlucha. We hit it off from the first conversation. She invited me to the shiur of Rabbi Liraz Benisti. On the day of the shiur I opened my closet and looked for my longest tunic. I went to Rabbi Liraz’s Tanya class. I was fascinated by everything that was said. I did not understand it all exactly, but my neshama got it.
“It was obvious to me that this is what I wanted. In HaDor HaShvii I felt that I had found what I was looking for; it fit me like a glove because although I wanted to become stronger in my commitment, it was hard for me to leave home and I wanted to continue working. My connection with Dorit deepened and she is my mashpia to this very day.”
After a period of learning and growth, Mika felt that although HaDor HaShvii had given her so much, she wanted to go learn properly in a seminary, to disconnect from mundane life and prepare for marriage. She knew about Ohr Chaya from seminars that she went to on Shavuos. Although she had started law school, she left it to immerse herself in Torah and Chassidus in Yerushalayim. Not long after, she got married.
LIGHT AT THE END OF A DARK TUNNEL
“We married and lived in Rechovot,” she said, explaining how she got to her personal shlichus. “My husband learned in kollel and I started working for Israel Railways as a temp. When they discovered at work that I was expecting a baby, they started a process that would have led to my being fired. I wrote to the Rebbe who promised, ‘The hand of the Chassidim will come out on top,’ and ‘It is accepted that no effort will be spent without having an effect.’”
Her brother, who had become a lawyer, wrote a tough letter to the supervisor about the law regarding women employees. He also told her exactly how to conduct herself under the circumstances. She continued going to work as usual, despite the atmosphere being very unpleasant.
“The day I took Mendy, my oldest, home from the hospital, we got the ruling from the official overseeing the firing of women that Israeli Railways had to employ me. I saw how the Rebbe’s blessing was fulfilled and how my oldest child opened the channel of mazal and bracha for me. It was really a complete turnaround.” Mika went on maternity leave knowing that afterward she could return to her job.
“After three months, I went back to work. Miraculously, they signed a contract with me that after three years I would get permanent status.” Another small but significant miracle that happened was that the human resources director who had waged the war against her was replaced by a much more humane individual. When Mika went back to work she met with her to see where she would be placed.
“She presented me with the fact that I couldn’t work in the same place and she would have to move me to a different department. I answered her very serenely and confidently and she was taken by that. In the end, she decided to transfer me to her department.”
In her sixth month of pregnancy, Mika had to go on bed rest but her status at work was protected.
SHLICHUS ON THE RAILWAY
“We moved from Rechovot to Kiryat Ono,” said Mika, sharing the journey that changed her from one who receives to one who is mashpia and a shlucha. “This move took me out of the community wrapping that I was in and enabled me to switch to a shlichus consciousness.
“My husband started working with Rabbi Persico and this had an effect on the family. My position in the department had become quite secure. I knew a lot of people. My office turned into a pilgrimage spot. Employees would come and ask the Rebbe questions through the Igros Kodesh, ask advice, ask for a bracha. My very appearance and the knowledge that I was a religious woman made people think of me as someone they could talk to in time of need. I saw big miracles occur. A woman who was experiencing a high-risk pregnancy and was nervous about not being able to complete the pregnancy came to write to the Rebbe with her friend who knew me. The Rebbe blessed her with an easy birth, and it was. That is just one story out of many. People realized there was something here that works.”
ADDRESSING THE SOUL DIRECTLY
Mika brought the light of Chassidus, the voice of the Rebbe, with her to work: in the department, with her colleagues, at meetings etc. Through the personal connection made through sharing the same work space, her colleagues felt comfortable asking her about her way of dress, her wig, and her way of life. Sharing with them made them feel close and broke stigmas. They saw that she had to deal with many things familiar to them and that her way of life was much more similar to theirs than they thought, that her wig and way of dress were external things. There was also opposition along the way, but Mika knew how to handle that too. To her, this is part of shlichus:
“Of course, there is opposition, but I stick to my policy, and especially to keeping things pleasant. I often quote to them from chapter two of Tanya, about a Jew being literally a part of G-d above. I saw over the years that this line touches the deepest part of the soul. When I went to bosses who were overtly anti-religious, I acted as if the negative attitudes did not exist. I continued to relate in a friendly manner and it worked. People softened and began talking differently. I think that despite everything there is a sort of respect for a woman who keeps Torah and mitzvos.”
A SHLIACH MAKING A SHLIACH
“Over the years, I advanced to a more important position in a new department that was launched by the railway. I was an inseparable part of its founding and had strong ties with the staff. There was a single woman, 31, to whom G-d gave everything, brains, looks… She was top stuff. And yet, she hadn’t gotten married. Our relationship grew stronger and, in a natural way, began to influence her in Chassidic matters. She would ask, and I would answer.
“At a certain point I told her that I really wanted to see her married; that it couldn’t be that such a special person was still single. She asked me what to do to make it happen. I suggested that we learn together, that this would make a channel for the blessing.
“We began learning Tanya together and I saw how it was changing her. She also wrote to the Rebbe for a bracha for a shidduch. The Rebbe guided and encouraged her.”
After months of becoming stronger in Torah and mitzvos in which the friend mainly made an internal change, she met someone and married him. And the one who married them was Mika’s husband!
“I see that what she received over the years from our friendship is still such a big part of her life. She knows what a Rebbe is, what Chassidus is, and feels how much positivity that adds to her life. More than that, she conveys this to people that she loves and knows. Another shlucha …”
WHAT, NO TANYA TODAY?
Mika explains how she manages to convey Chassidic messages at work. “When there are staff meetings, I bring materials that introduce an element of holiness. Pe’ilei Chabad has cards that are so good, that have all sorts of Chassidic messages. It’s amazing how people start to talk Chassidus. Amongst the girls on our staff there is an expression we use every time someone behaves in a way that the animal soul overpowers her, ‘What, no Tanya today?’”
In her department everyone already knows the difference between the various kashrus certifications. Also, throughout the year, Mika is careful to do those mivtzaim for which the Rebbe expressed such appreciation. For Pesach she gives out shmura matza, and on holidays she gives nice gifts with Moshiach cards, so they see who is behind this amazing shlichus operation – the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach.
THE ONLY BLOCKAGE IS INSIDE YOU
What do you do when there is a blockage in a shlichus at work? Mika says:
“I saw that when things come from a wholesome place and when I believed fully in what I was doing and saying, it naturally carried forth. It has become clear to me that this is the way to reach every Jew. I see that there is nothing to fear. People are thirsty for spirituality and holiness and want to listen. Obviously, each is able to receive on her level, but they all want to be exposed to Chassidus and you can see how it revives people. The world is ready, and we see it.
“Talking to people who aren’t religious about Geula can feel though the discussion is disconnected from their reality, but when I am standing with a woman in my department, I try to talk to her innermost soul. If you speak that way, then all the walls disappear, and things are accepted. You need to live it and then it penetrates. And when there is still a blockage, it’s only coming from us and not from the outside. It’s a sort of a Chassidic yetzer hara that scares us about ‘what they will say about me.’ I saw that when I added more and more light, it led to a greater impact.”
Today, in addition to shlichus at work, the Bengin family also serves as shluchim in Pisgot Afek, a new neighborhood in Rosh HaAyin where they do very successful outreach work around the year, but that’s for another article.
Mika stepped out of her comfort zone and is making an impact in her place of work. We also have the ability to do so; we just need to want it and do it.