FOOT SOLDIERS
Rabbi Shimshon Tal, shliach in Hod HaSharon, is on the go all day; not only on Shabbos, but nearly every day, walking from mivtza to mivtza. R’ Tal firmly maintains that when you are on foot, you meet more people and each encounter develops into an important conversation, whether it’s a question in halacha or about day camp or a shiur, a donation or a mitzva, a wedding or a bar mitzva.
R’ Tal does not have a car. And so early each morning, he walks to the mikva and then continues to the Chabad House. He then returns, crossing the length and breadth of the city in order to reach the Chabad preschools, to visit a school, do mivtza t’fillin, preside at a memorial gathering, give a shiur, lead a Chanukas HaBayis, and lead Mincha and Maariv.
His brother R’ Menachem Tal, shliach in Ein Ayala and the yishuvim on the Carmel coast, often walks too. In the early years of his shlichus, it wasn’t easy for him to arrange minyanim for Shabbos at the shul that he reestablished. Before every t’filla on Shabbos, he would go from door to door to every house on the moshav and personally invite people to join the minyan.
Later on, he was able to convince the residents that just as they take turns to guard the moshav, they should also take turns attending the minyan. Each one signed up for an hour and a half twice a month, and since then there have been minyanim without his having to walk all over the moshav every Shabbos.
FOR THE ECO-TOURISTS
R’ Tal divides his time among dozens of mekuravim in all the surrounding yishuvim. Just recently, two of his mekuravim told him that they themselves were trying to open a Chabad House near their home. The two are Had Shmueli and Dovid Ada who live in Kfar HaAmanim in Ein Hod. After they learned from personal experience what an impact a Chabad House has, they decided to do something similar to attract additional people.
The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) planned a series of hiking tours throughout the country, which they called Shvil Yisroel. Surprisingly, the path goes right through Kfar HaAmanim, in R’ Tal’s territory. One of his old-time students is Had Shmueli who lives there, and the path goes right by his house. Had quickly realized the potential of his strategically placed home and he set up a big tent in his yard for the hikers.
Every hiker who passes by is invited to enter the guest tent. There is room to spread out a sleeping bag and there are chairs and tables. The hikers call Had “the Angel of Shvil Yisroel.” His phone number is posted on the Internet and hikers are always calling to say they are coming. Sometimes, they go into his house, start talking, join Kiddush or a shiur. It’s just like Avrohom Avinu’s tent!
When Had was observing yahrtzait for his father, a few people were sitting in his living room at ten at night. They were learning Torah and waiting for a minyan so they could say Kaddish. The phone rang and seven hikers said they were on their way. The minyan problem was solved.
The next day, Had found the group of eco-tourists standing in the tent, wearing talleisim and t’fillin, and davening Shacharis.
Had’s friend Dovid is also a mekurav of R’ Tal. He wanted to upgrade the tent, and so before Sukkos he built a spacious sukka for eating and sleeping next to the tent. To Had and Dovid’s delight, many hikers showed up throughout Chol HaMoed and every night they held a joyous Simchas Beis HaShoeiva. One evening, R’ Menachem Tal participated. He had come to see nachas from his students’ students, and he farbrenged with them till late at night.
AN ANGEL IN WHITE AND AN ANGEL IN BLACK
One shliach who goes long distances every Shabbos for shlichus purposes is R’ Naftali Mintzberg of Kfar Neter. R’ Mintzberg lives in Netanya, and every Shabbos he walks, usually with his children, about an hour each way to the shul in Kfar Neter. He does this Friday night and Shabbos morning and afternoon. In Kfar Neter live some people who don’t exactly love R’ Mintzberg’s religious activity. This is why R’ Mintzberg suffers verbal abuse as he walks along, which actually shows how much these people are aware of his presence and activities.
Two of the regular offenders are an older couple who ride their bikes every Shabbos morning near the yishuv. When the rabbi and his children show up, they meet this couple who ridicules them. “You’re not sick of coming here? It’s not hot for you with the tallis and those black clothing?”
One Yom Kippur, something interesting happened. R’ Mintzberg went to Kfar Neter and davened as the chazan for most of the t’fillos of the day. The shul was packed. Among the people was also the older couple. During the break between t’fillos, the woman went over to the head of the yishuv’s governing committee and gaily said, “Congratulations on finally getting rid of those Chabadnikim. We can arrange a fine t’filla without them.”
The head of the committee reacted in surprise and said he was sorry to mar her joy, but the chazan and the one who had organized all the t’fillos was R’ Naftali the Chabadnik. Now it was the woman’s turn to be surprised. She realized that although she was used to seeing him every Shabbos in a black sirtuk, this time, for Yom Kippur, he was wearing a white kittel. She had to admit that the rabbi provided a wonderful atmosphere for the entire yishuv.
WALKING FOR TORAH
One of the early stories from shlichus in Kfar Neter is about a problem that arose and was solved through the long Shabbos walk from Netanya to the Kfar.
When R’ Mintzberg first started his shlichus, he asked the older worshipers in the Kfar to show him the shul’s Torah scroll. They told him proudly that they had already found some mistakes in it which they had fixed themselves with the help of a marker and pen. When R’ Mintzberg took a look, he saw that it was very old and could not be fixed. He somehow managed to borrow a Torah to use for the next two years.
When two years had passed, the owner of the Torah called him and asked for it back. Mrs. Mintzberg had just given birth, which made it difficult for her husband to leave the house for long periods of time, and he was wondering whether he should continue those long walks. Furthermore, he did not see how he would obtain another Torah.
Shabbos morning he set out, perhaps for the last time. Upon entering the yishuv, he noticed someone walking in the same direction. As they walked, they got to talking. The person said, “Are you the rabbi who walks here every Shabbos from Netanya?” R’ Mintzberg, not knowing why he did so, told the man that this might be his last time because he had to return the Torah scroll they had been using.
Two days went by and the man he had met called R’ Mintzberg and said, “Although I am not religious, maybe I can help you with the Torah. I recently made a new friend from Kfar Sitriya near Rechovos (they became acquainted over the Internet when in search of a family to adopt the family dog). I told him about Kfar Neter and he told me about Kfar Sitriya. At some point, I found myself telling him about the rabbi who won’t be coming anymore because there is no Torah. The man told me that they have five Sifrei Torah in their shul and they don’t use them all, and maybe they could lend one.”
R’ Mintzberg immediately called the shliach in Sitriya, R’ Yosef Yitzchok Kaplan, and after a brief explanation, R’ Kaplan lent him a Torah for 18 years.
Thanks to a long walk.
AN HOUR AND A QUARTER’S WALK FROM TZFAS TO AMUKA
Another shliach who walks a lot is R’ Meir Wilschansky. He lives in Tzfas but has adopted moshav Amuka, near the gravesite of Rabbi Yonasan ben Uziel, an hour and a half walk from the Chabad neighborhood in Tzfas. Whenever he plans on going to Amuka for Shabbos or Yom Tov, he prepares a loaf of bread for an eiruv techumin since the distance is further than the t’chum Shabbos.
The first time the residents of Amuka saw the rabbi appear Shabbos morning in their shul, they rubbed their eyes in astonishment. With time, his appearance became routine, and word got around that whoever wanted to arrange a bar mitzva, an oifruf or the like, could ask the rabbi who would happily lead the davening, the Kiddush, and the seuda.
One family in Amuka wasn’t enamored of the rabbi and his religious activities. Even when he made a house call to them, they responded coolly. This went on for several years. One day, the family was getting ready for the bar mitzva of one of the boys and the parents didn’t knew whom to speak to. Where to buy t’fillin? Who would teach the boy how to go up to the Torah? How does one arrange the Shabbos proceedings?
When discussing this with a neighbor, they heard that the Lubavitcher rabbi who comes from Tzfas for house calls knows how to arrange a bar mitzva and even did so for some boys in the yishuv. The father of the family found it a bit hard to believe that a rabbi from Tzfas walked to Amuka, but after hearing this from some eyewitnesses, he called R’ Wilschansky and asked for his help.
Of course, R’ Wilschansky guided them throughout, from buying t’fillin to … even the Divrei Torah that would be said at the Kiddush on Shabbos in shul.
There’s the method of going from bottom to top, elevation, and there is going from top to bottom, descending and influencing the world, even the lowest places (see the maamer “Lech Lecha 5745”).
As we do every year, four of us left Beit Shaan on Motzaei Simchas Torah in order to do hakafos shniyos at Shatta prison. As one can find everywhere else, among the inmates too there are better people and not quite so wonderful people.
What we did went as follows: we Chassidim went from wing to wing, with R’ Dovid Teichtel leading the group (for many years he served as a prison chaplain, and now too he volunteers at prisons on Yomim Tovim, for lectures and mivtzaim). We walked in, began singing Simchas Torah songs, the inmates left their cells, gathered around us and then we went to the shul or took a Torah out to the yard and danced together.
In one of the wings there was a prisoner from Beit Shaan. The moment we walked in, he recognized one of the Chassidim, a friend from Beit Shaan. He ran to him and hugged and kissed him and then dashed to his room where he prepared coffee with milk and brought it to his friend. The Chassid, for understandable reasons, did not want to drink the coffee and excused himself by saying he was fleishig. The inmate wanted to run off and make a black coffee but the Chassid told him that it wasn’t time for coffee but for hakafos (play on words intended).
The inmate suddenly remembered that he had yahrtzait that very day for his father and he still hadn’t said Kaddish. He ran to his room and brought two precious items – a package of wafers and a bag of Bamba. Then he went to the shul where about thirty inmates were already dancing with the Torah. He filled a plate with wafers and a plate with Bamba and asked everyone to say brachos for the elevation of his father’s soul.
Each inmate recited a loud bracha, R’ Teichtel said some Divrei Torah, a religious prisoner said “R’ Chananya ben Akashya Omer” and Kaddish Yasom was said.
On Shabbos B’Reishis I reviewed a sicha of the Rebbe in the Chabad House about the first thing Hashem made – light – and the message that each of us needs to illuminate the world. I told them that even in Shatta prison there are people who increase light, like the inmate who is sentenced to many years but came up with a way of increasing the light. He ran to make two types of coffee and donated his few treats so that they would say brachos and Kaddish for his father.