He Saw Sichos on the Seashore

A miracle story of the Rebbe spanning three continents

- PART I -

One day, in the winter of 5735 (1975), Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner appeared in 770. He had just arrived on a visit to spend time with the Rebbe and draw renewed strength to continue his work as a shliach in distant Australia. He did this every year, as every Chassid and shliach does.

Toward the end of the visit, he had yechidus in which he asked the Rebbe for a bracha for his return trip. The Rebbe told him to go home via India, indicating that he should plan the trip so the stopover would be in India.

As a loyal Chassid, R’ Groner asked no questions. He called the travel agency and asked to redo his ticket to Australia. Immediately after doing that, he went to the office of the Vaad L’Hafotzas Sichos where the director, Rabbi Zalman Chanin, was sitting.

“R’ Zalman,” said R’ Groner to the man behind the desk, “would you have some sichos kodesh translated into English for me?” He told R’ Chanin that the Rebbe told him to make a stop in India. “I have no idea why, but if I’m going to be there, I need to do a favor for a Jew. So, if you have some copies of sichos translated into English, I can bring them there.”

R’ Zalman took a copy of “A Thought for the Week” out of a box and said, “Here, R’ Groner.” He handed him a pile. “Take a bunch with you. You can never know what shlichus the Rebbe has in mind and whom you will meet. You’ll have enough material in English to give to whomever you want.”

Before leaving, R’ Groner murmured partly to himself and partly to R’ Chanin, “Go try to know what the Rebbe is up to. What is there to do in India? I know this as someone who was already there a few times on my way to Australia, but if the Rebbe said so, I need to do it.” (If he only knew that one day there would be around 20 Chabad Houses throughout the huge continent of India!).

When he arrived in India, he asked the taxi driver to take him to the local synagogue in Bombay where he met with some Jews, members of the local community. He addressed the few Jews there and urged them to do mitzvos and learn Torah.

Before leaving, he left the copies of “A Thought for the Week” in English there.

- PART II -

A few months passed and in the mailbox of Vaad L’Hafotzas Sichos was an envelope. The letter was written by a Jewish woman from Arizona.

She asked, “Can you give me the address of a Lubavitcher Chassid who lives in India?”

R’ Chanin wondered why she was asking. He knew that in all of India there wasn’t a single Chabad shliach. Furthermore, why would a woman from Arizona need the address of a Chassid in distant India?

The sense of responsibility he felt as a Lubavitcher Chassid did not allow him to throw the letter out. He called the number included in the letter to find out why she needed the address of a Chassid in India. If she needed spiritual assistance, perhaps he could help her in another way.

The excitement in her voice was readily discernible, she was clearly happy that her letter had been received as well as with the attempt to help her.

To R’ Chanin’s question, she responded that she had a son who left home angrily. Apparently, he wanted to be independent. The arguments between him and his parents had led him to walk out. For a long time, she did not know where he was. She only knew that he went far away.

“Since he left home more than a year ago,” she said in a tremulous voice, “he did not call even once and he did not write any letters. He simply disappeared.”

Back then, there were no cell phones and all the advanced communications we have today weren’t even a dream. A person who had no access to a telephone attached to the wall by way of a cord was disconnected from the world.

“Then, out of the blue, I got a letter from him. He wrote that a few days earlier he and some friends went to the beach. After swimming, he lay on the beach to rest a bit but the sun came out and began to blind him. He reached out to find something with which to cover his head and found a pamphlet which he put over his eyes. He wanted to nap a little when the thought came to him that this brochure was written in English.

’English? How did that get here on an Indian beach?’ he wondered

“He straightened up, took the pamphlet and began flipping through. He murmured to himself in disbelief, ‘How did this booklet in English get here? Who, over here, even understands the language?’

“He began reading it and before his astonished eyes he learned what the Lubavitcher Rebbe said about a Jewish holiday called Pesach Sheini. The Rebbe, whom he did not know, explained the central idea of this holiday to be that no situation is a lost cause. In every situation and for every person on every path there is hope. Even a person whose behavior until now was not proper, can learn from the Jewish holiday of Pesach Sheini that nothing is lost and you can always make amends.

“The Rebbe’s words entered my son’s heart,” continued the mother. “They moved him tremendously. He felt something move within him. He began to suddenly feel homesick after having cut himself off for more than a year.” At this point, the woman quoted a line from his letter, “You are an American kid. Where do you think you’re going? You are a Jew. You don’t belong in India. You belong to where your parents belong.”

“I have no idea how that brochure got to India. I don’t understand how it ended up on the beach near where my son lay. Deep in my heart I feel that it is a message that made its way to him directly from heaven, in order to help him get back to himself and to his family. Indeed, it got him to write to us.

“In his letter, he included the address of the publisher of the brochure and asked me to find out how you knew to send it to him with this message. He also wrote that what the Rebbe says stuck in his head and he very much wants to speak with a Jewish rabbi in India, to consult with him about how to conduct himself until he leaves India for home.

“I hurried to do as he asked and chose to send you a letter in the attempt to connect my son with a Chabad Chassid living in India so that he might influence him to get back in shape and return home and to his people.”

The mother’s voice broke. “Please, help me save my son and get him out of there and bring him back to the family!”

As mentioned before, there were no Chabad Houses in India at the time of this story and R’ Chanin gave her the phone numbers and addresses of shluchim in neighboring countries; perhaps they could help the young man who learned there is no “lost cause.”

- PART III -

Many months passed and then the phone rang in R’ Chanin’s office with the woman from Arizona on the line. “Am I speaking with Rabbi Chanin?” she asked hesitantly.

“Yes.”

“You have no idea how much you helped me with the addresses you gave me and mainly, what your pamphlet that was brought to India accomplished. It literally saved my son and brought him back home.”

R’ Chanin realized right away what this was about and he eagerly listened to what the woman had to say. She said she had to thank him for the help he gave her. Her son had come home and had even begun taking an interest in Judaism. In the short time that passed, he changed his life from one extreme to another and he was in touch with the Rebbe’s representatives in Arizona and even frequently visited the Chabad center.

“The main thing is that I got my son back,” she said.

Since then, there has been no other connection between the family and R’ Chanin, and he doesn’t know what happened next with the young man. But what he does know is sufficient to affirm for him, as another sign of more signs than he can count, that what the Rebbe sees, an ordinary man does not see.

- PART IV -

The following year, when R’ Groner came to visit again, R’ Chanin told him the story. R’ Groner was thrilled to hear it and said, “I’m telling you again, go figure what the Rebbe is accomplishing. What did I really have to do in India? But if the Rebbe sent me there, it needed to be done, no questions asked. By following the Rebbe’s instruction, we were able to inspire a Jew in a place that was completely desolate.” ■

(Thanks to Rabbi Zalman Chanin
who told me the story)