The Chabad family was saddened to hear about the passing of the shliach, R’ Shaul Yosef Benchimol a”h of France. He ran the HaAderes V’Ha’Emuna Institute, the spiritual factory that produced hundreds of baalei t’shuva and Chassidishe families which was founded by direct instruction of the Rebbe. * The story of a shliach and a shlichus that merited the privilege of having the king himself guide it every step of the way.
The shliach, R’ Shaul Yosef Benchimol a”h, passed away at the young age of 65. Hundreds of Chassidishe men, educators and shluchim throughout France, owe him a debt of gratitude for showing them the beautiful world of Judaism and Chassidus.
His life story is most unusual. Despite coming from a family of mekubalim in Morocco, he left tradition behind and entered the Parisian film and theater industry. When he felt he had reached the pinnacle of this golden world, he met the legendary filmmaker Henri Carmen and began to work with him. One day, they began to work together on Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Since they had heard that Shakespeare had put mystical motifs with Jewish sources into his plays, they thought it would be a good idea to gain some knowledge in this area. In their search for a suitable place to study Judaism, they found a class on kabbala which was actually a class on Chassidus, given by R’ Pinchas Pashtar, a shliach in Paris. The rest is history.
One class followed another and within a short time, Benchimol shocked the French film industry when he announced that he was leaving it all and returning to his roots. Oddly enough, it was Henri Carmen who showed the most understanding for this major change in his life. His first visit to the Rebbe cemented his resolve.
Just one year later, the Rebbe assigned him the job of opening an institution to spread Judaism.
“I was stunned,” he recalled years later in an interview he gave Beis Moshiach. “I did not know how to learn Tanya that well at the time and certainly not other sifrei Chassidus, but that is what the Rebbe said.” This special interaction with the Rebbe was just one in a chain of unusual kiruvim from the Rebbe.
LIVING MOSHIACH
When Benchimol joined the social scene of the theater, whose members are not known as being particularly religious, and he himself had stopped living a religious life, he was still particular about kashrus.
“My mother got that into our veins,” he said. “At home we always lived Moshiach. My maternal grandmother who died on Pesach Sheini at a very old age was known in Morocco as someone who had ruach ha’kodesh. She told my mother that she would merit to see Moshiach. My mother spoke to me about Moshiach when I was as young as four. There’s no question that my grandmother’s bracha was fulfilled when my mother had yechidus with the Rebbe. It’s interesting that my uncle, the mekubal R’ Chazan Aziza, once told me that Moshiach would come from the United States.”
It was before Pesach when R’ Benchimol first attended R’ Pashtar’s shiurim and he was talking about Pesach from the perspective of Chassidus and p’nimius ha’Torah. “I listened closely for I found that what he taught fit perfectly with the central motifs of the play. I was astounded.”
With one shiur after another, Benchimol felt that what he was learning invigorated him spiritually. “Suddenly, the world of acting no longer interested me and I wanted to learn more and more and get close to G-d. I remember the day I decided to become a baal t’shuva. I was with a friend who had become religious and we both decided to establish that day as a holiday for us, the day we discovered our inner essence. I began to feel that I had been in the dark until then, in an empty world which did not really satisfy me.”
He went to the Rebbe for the first time on 20 Av 5732/1972. At the time he did not know it was a special date.
“I walked into 770 in the middle of the Rebbe’s farbrengen. I met many wonderful people who invited me to their homes and provided me with full room and board. I was amazed by the tremendous Ahavas Yisroel I experienced for the first time in my life.
“A few days after I arrived, I had yechidus. It was an awe-inspiring event. In my nervousness, I was barely able to utter a word. I gave the Rebbe a paper with questions and requests and stood there. I barely understood anything in that yechidus. The Rebbe spoke in Hebrew, French and a little Yiddish. The highlight of the yechidus was this – I suddenly remembered a very important question that I had not written down. As I stood there thinking, the Rebbe took a letter I had written out of a pile of letters on his desk. I could see that it was a letter I had written when I was still in Paris about that very problem and I had not yet received a reply. And here the Rebbe was taking out that letter and answering it!
“I was flabbergasted by the ruach ha’kodesh. My feet trembled and my teeth chattered. Maybe it was because of that that I could not concentrate on the rest of the yechidus. When I left the room, my host, R’ Mochkin, asked me what the Rebbe said and I said I did not remember much. I only remembered that the Rebbe spoke to me in three languages and if I was not mistaken, I heard the word ‘dayan.’ R’ Mochkin decided from this that I had to continue my learning and he took me to R’ Yisroel Jacobson who ran Tomchei T’mimim. R’ Jacobson sent me to learn in Hadar Ha’Torah by R’ Goldberg. I told R’ Mochkin that I was an only son and could not stay too long since my mother would worry and because I took care of all her needs, but he promised me that he would have my mother cared for and would send her money while I threw myself into my learning.”
THE REBBE SAID TO SING “HAADERES V’HA’EMUNA”
“About two years after I married, in Tammuz 5736, I went to the Rebbe with my wife, my oldest son, my mother, and a mekurav that I had already at that time. I had a number of questions that I wanted to ask the Rebbe regarding my personal life. One day, the Rebbe sent out three answers to three different letters through the secretariat. One of the questions I had asked was, what was the proper way to be mekarev Jews in France. The Rebbe said that indeed, there was a special way and everybody merits to discover it, and added that I needed to get involved in kiruv. I was taken aback by this answer – I should get involved in this?! Why me? I was a young baal t’shuva myself!
“The Rebbe had other plans. In those days there was someone who ran the European office and was the Rebbe’s representative; this was R’ Binyamin Gorodetzky. In a two hour yechidus, the Rebbe told him that I should start a third mosad in Paris. When R’ Gorodetzky left the yechidus he said he had something important to tell me. In our meeting there was another member of the European office present, R’ Refael Wilschansky, who spoke fluent French and he was our translator.
“Another thing from that visit – the Rebbe decided to pay half the travel expenses of whoever came with me to 770 and he asked that when I arrived in Paris that I go to the office and get the payment! The following Shabbos which was 12 Tammuz, the Rebbe told R’ Leibel Groner during the farbrengen to call me up to the farbrengen platform. The Rebbe opened a bottle and poured some mashke for me to say l’chaim. Then the Rebbe arranged for another bottle and said it was for my friends in Paris.
“I had a feeling at that moment that I cannot describe. The next day there was another farbrengen and after the special niggun for Russian Jews, I heard the Rebbe suddenly say, ‘There is a group here from France and they will probably sing HaAderes V’Ha’Emuna.’ The Rebbe looked at me and waited and R’ Groner motioned to me to begin. I was beside myself; me, sing?! I wanted R’ Bitton who had joined me to sing but he was shy and left me on my own while the entire 770 waited for me.
“I finally began to sing and afterward I myself was amazed by how well it turned out. My wife said that the Rebbe fixed my voice for the occasion. Those were unforgettable moments. The Rebbe beamed and encouraged me by waving his arms. This is why I decided to call my organization HaAderes V’Ha’Emuna.”
AMAZING KIRUVIM
FROM THE REBBE
Immediately upon his return to Paris, R’ Benchimol began the new mosad which the Rebbe asked him to start. They began with minyanim, shiurim, mivtzaim, and programs for mekuravim.
Over the years, R’ Benchimol merited unusual kiruvim from the Rebbe. For example, before Tishrei 5740, he received a phone call from R’ Binyamin Gorodetzky who told him he had just returned from the Rebbe and in yechidus the Rebbe asked him to tell R’ Benchimol that he wanted to see him and all the members of his k’hilla in 770 for Tishrei.
“I was shocked. I did not know whether the mekuravim would be willing to go since they were not all Chabad Chassidim. I knew that people could lose their jobs for a trip like this and in those days it wasn’t easy finding a job without having to work on Shabbos. And this meant missing over a month of work!
“At first I tried to be defensive, but R’ Gorodetzky kept saying he was conveying the Rebbe’s request and there was nothing to discuss. The Rebbe would not be satisfied with our coming just for Sukkos or Simchas Torah but wanted everyone, without exception, in 770 from 18 Elul until after Shabbos B’Reishis!
“When I asked the members of the k’hilla, I was surprised to hear them unanimously say: If the Rebbe wants it, we’re going!
“We arrived on Chai Elul, a group of forty families. The next day, as I walked to 770, I met R’ Groner who asked whether we were set up all right. I told him we were and the next day he came over to me again and asked the same question. I told him we were and described our arrangements and said there were no complaints. This went on every day for two weeks. One morning I asked him, ‘R’ Leibel, why are you asking me the same question every day? I told you already yesterday?’ He gave me a look and said, ‘The Rebbe asks me every morning how you are and in order to answer him I need to ask you.’
“All that month, the members of the group and I merited an astonishing, out of the ordinary, relationship with the Rebbe, kiruvim that until today when I recall them make me tremble with emotion. Before Sukkos, R’ Gorodetzky called me to the secretariat where R’ Shmuel Asimov already was, in order to give us the four minim designated for France. I received the esrog, R’ Asimov the lulav, and the Rebbe told us to share the hadasim.
“Our emotions at the time are indescribable. On Simchas Torah at the fifth hakafa, R’ Groner motioned that the Rebbe was looking for me. In order to reach the Rebbe another mekurav and I had to walk over people’s shoulders since it was so crowded. The Rebbe said to give us two sifrei Torah for the hakafa. We were not capable of containing these kiruvim from the Rebbe.
“A few days before we returned to France, I had yechidus. The Rebbe asked whether the secretaries gave us answers to all the letters from the group. When I said no, he said to ask the secretaries because he had answered them all.
“In that yechidus, there was something else that was very special that I take with me until the true and complete Geula. The Rebbe told me that he would be giving a Siddur and Tanya with his signature to all the members of the mosad who came with me.
“In the meantime, we submitted a letter to the Rebbe that we were leaving for the airport in the afternoon after Mincha for our flight back to France. Before davening, R’ Groner told us that the Rebbe announced that he would be escorting us. Those were majestic moments that are engraved in me: the group filled two buses, we danced and sang, and the Rebbe left his room and followed us with his eyes and clapped. One of the group told me later that the Rebbe did not return to his room until we had vanished from the horizon.”
THE KEY REMAINED IN THE REBBE’S ROOM
R’ Benchimol told about another kiruv:
“In Tishrei of 5741 I had yechidus in order to give the Rebbe the beautiful golden key of our mosad. The Rebbe picked it up and asked where it was from and I told him, Paris. The Rebbe asked where in Paris and I told him, the 18th arondissement. The Rebbe lifted the box, picked up a pencil and wrote the number 18 on the box and then put the box on the desk.
“Two months later on Chanuka 5741, I was at the Rebbe again and had yechidus. Afterward, my wife commented that that the box with the key we had given the Rebbe back in Tishrei was still on his desk in the same place.
“That really warmed my heart. Who knows how many other keys the Rebbe was given from all over the world and yet our key remained on his desk for so long. On the way out, I asked R’ Groner about it and he said that he cleared off the Rebbe’s desk only those things which the Rebbe told him to remove, and the Rebbe had still not told him to remove the keys. When I went back to Paris and told them this, people couldn’t believe it.
“Seven months later in the summer, a friend of mine, R’ Yosef Dery, had yechidus and he was choked up with emotion when he saw that the keys were still on the desk in the same spot.”
SHLICHUS PERMEATED WITH MOSHIACH
R’ Benchimol was a shliach who lived with inyanei Moshiach and Geula. We asked him what he thought should be done to promote the topic of Moshiach, and he readily answered, “We need to add to and learn inyanei Moshiach and Geula as they appear in the Rebbe’s sichos, especially the D’var Malchus. We can see clearly that the Rebbe did not speak about the past but about the present and future. It is amazing to see each time anew how the sichos are more relevant than ever, even when they were said fifteen and more years ago.”
R’ Benchimol shared an interesting story with us that happened with one of his mekuravim:
“This happened to the musician who was with me when the Rebbe asked me to sing HaAderes V’Ha’Emuna, R’ Yitzchok Bitton. He is a very talented musician and composer and he wrote a song about Geula. When he finished it, he asked me whether he should show it to the Rebbe and I said yes.
“The next time he had yechidus he showed it to the Rebbe. The Rebbe looked at it and asked whether it was possible to add another line, ‘yehi ratzon she’yihiye b’karov mamash.’ He was thrilled. There could be no more astounding approbation than this for the song. The Rebbe not only approved the song but added words. If you listen to the song, you will notice that the line the Rebbe added is repeated a number of times.”