LIGHT IN SOUTH TEL AVIV

Rabbi Shmuel Machputz, his wife Noa, and their children are the shluchim in south Tel Aviv’s Neve Ofer neighborhood. The local residents, many of whom have known their fair share of distress and poverty, enjoy the Chabad outreach activities, done with great love and a full heart. Anyone acquainted with Rabbi Machputz is familiar with his ever-present smile and cheerful demeanor. A fascinating account of this most successful shlichus.

Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry

Neve Ofer is a neighborhood in south Tel Aviv, adjacent to the city of Cholon. Established back in the sixties, it was originally given the name Tel Kabir, but in 5737 its name was changed to Neve Ofer. The central nucleus of neighborhood residents are the senior citizens living off of their National Insurance Institute pensions, together with immigrants from the former Soviet Union - mainly Bukharians. In recent years, many young couples joined the community.

Situated in the local commercial center alongside a bank, post office, health clinics, events hall, and grocery stores, there is also a Chabad House - now commemorating six years since its inception. The Rebbe’s shluchim - Rabbi Shmuel Machputz, his wife Noa, and their children - quickly became well recognized figures throughout the neighborhood.

The challenge in operating within this community is far greater than in any other neighborhood in the region. The success in meeting this challenge has been in no small measure due to the pleasant personality and dignified manner of the shluchim, who managed to break through and develop a warm relationship with all sectors of the local population. “The diversity here is a microcosm of the amazing diversity characterizing the Jewish People living in Eretz Yisroel as a whole,” said Rabbi Machputz with a smile. For those who know him, that smile never leaves his lips.

In this community, immigrants from Morocco live side by side with immigrants from Bukharia, young and old, religious Zionists and ultra-Orthodox, people detached from all observance of Torah and mitzvos, and others who fulfill only scant traditions retained from their parents’ homes. Many outreach organizations operate in the neighborhood, including those representing Sephardic Jewry and Breslover Chassidism. Yet, they all happily host farbrengens in their synagogues and bat- tei midrash, providing financial and any other form of assistance for the neighborhood’s vibrant Chabad activities.

“The fact that immigrants from both Bukharia and Morocco are familiar with Lubavitch from their home countries, some of whom even had a connection with the Rebbe, has created an atmosphere of tremendous love towards Chabad,” Rabbi Mach- putz noted.

The activities in the community operate at two levels: First, a “one-on-one” style, making house calls, arranging Torah study by chavrusa, visits to the nearby Abu Kabir prison four times a week, hostels, geriatric centers, and welcoming people who want to write to the Rebbe. Secondly, on a far wider scale, there are farbrengens, Torah classes, mitzvah campaign activities (t’fillin, mezuzah, Chanukah, Purim, Pesach), and summer camps. Everything is run by Rabbi Machputz, who most gratefully receives help from numerous T’mimim from the Chabad yeshivos in Ohr Yehuda, Rishon L’Tziyon, and even as far as Tzfas.

MAKING THE MOVE

How did Rabbi Machputz, born and raised in the heart of the Torah and Chassidic city of B’nei Brak, come to the southern Tel Aviv neighborhood of Neve Ofer?

The answer lies with his wife, Mrs. Noa Machputz (nee Tanji), raised in this neighborhood and whose parents live there to this day. “During the first year after our wedding, we established our residence in B’nei Brak’s Pardes Katz neighborhood while I worked in the local branch of Ye- shivas Tomchei T’mimim,” Rabbi Machputz recalled. “It was clear to us that we wanted to live our first year together near a Chabad community.”

By the same token, it was also clear to the young couple that their purpose in life was to prepare another place somewhere in the world to greet Moshiach Tzidkeinu. Mrs. Machputz was employed then as a teacher in a government-sponsored religious school in the HaTikva neighborhood, and the traveling between home and work was rather difficult, especially after the birth of their first child.

“My wife suggested that we live in the neighborhood. This way, we could get help from her parents while also working as the local shluchim. We wrote about this to the Rebbe via Igros Kodesh and we received an answer about today’s youth and how the best way to work with them is to provide the unvarnished truth. Once we realized that the Rebbe had given us a positive answer, we left B’nei Brak and made our way to Neve Ofer. We started our local neighborhood activities primarily on evenings and holidays, as our mornings and afternoons were devoted to my wife’s work as a schoolteacher and mine as a mashgiach at the Chabad yeshiva in Kfar Saba.”

With the passage of time, as the activities grew with greater intensity, they made the decision to invest all their efforts into their shlichus. Anyone acquainted with Rabbi Machputz knows that he’s not the type to sit on his laurels. Before finishing one activity, he’s already planning out the next one. He operated the neighborhood t’fillin stands, and he went out on house visits to put up mezuzos during the evenings. Within a short period of time, all local residents had come to know him and became aware of his outreach work.

“Among the first activities we made in the neighborhood were farbrengens on auspicious Chassidic dates and Shabbos groups with children from the public kindergartens. At one of the local Bukharian synagogues, the gab- baim offered us the use of their building for our youth activities.

“Each Shabbos, we would organize a short class there on the weekly Torah portion, recite T’hillim and other Torah passages. The number of children participating grew each week and the shul’s gabbaim were most pleased by the activities on the premises. During this time, we still had no regular location, and our own shul operated only on Shabbasos. Since the Bukhar- ian shul had a large empty room, I suggested to the gabbaim that they clear the room of all unnecessary items and we would turn it into a Chabad House branch. They gave their enthusiastic consent, and we were on our way.

“One of the gabbaim, who felt a deep affection for Chabad, had his own amazing story. Once during a business trip to New York, he decided that he wanted to meet the Rebbe. He took a cab to Crown Heights, and as he was coming down Eastern Parkway, the Jewish driver suddenly pointed to the Lubavitcher Rebbe walking down the street by himself. He immediately told the driver to stop, and he got out of the cab and ran towards the Rebbe. He said that he shook the Rebbe’s hand and the Rebbe gave him a penetrating look and a broad smile that he has never forgotten. As the Rebbe continued on his way to 770, several bachurim and avreichim came up to him and asked who he was and what the Rebbe had said to him.

“For me,” Rabbi Machputz concluded, “this was a most fascinating lesson. Quite often, we think that we’re revealing the Rebbe to Jews somewhere in the world. In fact, our sole job is to know that we only have to harvest the crops that the Rebbe has already planted and cultivated long ago.”

HOLY PROPHETIC ANSWERS

Rabbi Machputz maintains good relations with all sectors of the neighborhood’s divergent population, and he has a number of interesting stories as evidence.

The neighborhood has a Judaica store run by a baal t’shuva whose journey back to Jewish tradition began in Sephardic and Breslover circles. One day, he had an idea about starting a synagogue for young people. This young man was educated in the Chabad school in Yafo, and he has tremendous gratitude for Chabad and love for the Rebbe. When he saw that there were delays and obstacles in obtaining the necessary building permits, he asked if he could write to the Rebbe in request of a bracha.

“I made it clear to him that writing to the Rebbe required earnestness and solemnity - making a good spiritual resolution, giving tz’daka, washing one’s hands, etc. In fact, he was merely expressing a desire, but he didn’t actually seem keen on following through with writing to the Rebbe. This continued for some time, and whenever he told me about the numerous difficulties he had encountered in founding the synagogue, he added how much he still wanted to write to the Rebbe. However, he wasn’t exactly in a rush to do it.

“One day, by Divine Providence, I met him in the elevator at the local commercial center. Things by this time had reached the limit of human endurance, and he finally agreed to write to the Rebbe and ask for a bracha that all the obstacles be removed. He received an amazing answer (Vol. 5, pg. 269), addressed to Chabad askanim in Tel Aviv:

In response to their letters from the 13th and the 28th of Shvat, in which they notify that they have already purchased and set up the shed, and they request an opinion on what name to call this educational institution.

In my opinion, this pertains in part to the learning program. For if students are also accepted there from groups not so close to Chabad, it will be impossible to be stringent that the program be in accordance with Yeshi- vas Tomchei T’mimim. Thus, it would be appropriate that you go in to Reshet Oholei Yosef Yitzchak Lubavitch, and if they can arrange a program that it will be like Yeshivas Tomchei T’mimim, then it can be called by the name Achei T’mimim or Tomchei T’mimim. Furthermore, this depends upon whether there will also be classes for older children. It would seem that the first argument of going to Reshet Oholei Yosef Yitzchak Lubavitch is more suitable - then they could also accept as students those who initially wouldn’t agree to the Chabad learning program in full. In this manner, they will slowly continue in the spirit of Lubavitch. In any case, the learning should be arranged in such a manner that with the conclusion of studies at the institution in Rishon L’Tziyon, they can enter one of our yeshivos in Eretz HaKodesh — in Lod or in Yerushalayim, may they be rebuilt and re-established.

May it be G-d’s Will that the Sh’china will dwell within the work of their hands, and their work should be successful to produce pious, Chassidic, and learned students.

“We read the letter, and we realized that we couldn’t have hoped for a more precise reply. He had already lost hope due to the bureaucratic red tape that was holding up the municipal building permits and keeping the synagogue project in limbo, and here the Rebbe is giving a bracha for receiving the shed. Miraculously, just a few days later, all the permits arrived and the synagogue opened its doors.

“The Rebbe had written about a yeshiva, and in fact, a yeshiva had recently opened nearby - a branch of the B’nei Brak Kisse Rachamim yeshiva, headed by Rabbi Adir Amrusi. Rabbi Am- rusi is a true friend of Chabad and has great affection for the Rebbe. I often hear him declare his tremendous appreciation of the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach and the amazing way of receiving his bracha today by writing a letter via Igros Kodesh,” said Rabbi Machputz.

This synagogue hosts numerous farbrengens as do other shuls in the neighborhood. “When I moved into the community, people still didn’t know us well enough. As a result, I placed a great emphasis upon farbrengens and other activities that would reach the hearts of as many people as possible - as a means of becoming better known among neighborhood residents. This is how we operated: We would join an existing Torah class, bring the refreshments, start farbrenging before the arrival of the class’ teacher. We would then continue the farbrengen after he left.

“We made our first Gim- mel Tammuz farbrengen at one of the local shuls. Rabbi Chaim Rabi of Cholon, a prominent and highly respected rabbinical figure, had been invited that day to give a lecture. For our part, we had brought the mashpia, Rabbi Avraham Kali. Rabbi Rabi walked in as Rabbi Kali was speaking, and he was simply captivated. He immediately decided to cancel the class, asked for a L’Chaim, and sat down to farbreng with everyone else.

“During the farbrengen, we held a raffle for a dollar from the Rebbe. The lucky winner announced that he is giving the dollar as a segula for his grandson, who was already three years old, yet he hadn’t begun to speak. A few weeks later I met this man again, and he looked positively overjoyed. He told me that his son and daughter-in-law had placed the dollar under the child’s pillow - and incredibly, the child started talking! At first, he spoke only a word at a time, but his vocabulary grew with time - to the amazement of his doctors and the medical staff.”

A PRECISE REPLY

Neve Ofer is host to a wide range of activities geared for local youth. Many of them have decided to return to their roots and become stronger in their observance of Torah and mitzvos as a result of the work by the neighborhood shluchim, especially the activities on Friday night, such as opening a Shabbos table in the middle of the neighborhood. “Each Erev Shabbos, we open a table in the heart of the local commercial center, make Kiddu- sh for the young people gathering there, and speak to them about Yiddishkait.

“One Shabbos, I decided to take a volume of Igros Kodesh with me and tell them how it’s possible to write to the Rebbe and receive his bracha. I wasn’t planning that someone would ask for a bracha on that occasion. Generally speaking, I don’t like when people casually open up ‘Igros Kodesh; I believe in preparing for this in an appropriate manner. However, when I finished talking about Igros, two young men with whom I was already acquainted came up to me. They had been raised in ultra-Orthodox homes but had eventually abandoned the Torah lifestyle. One of them convinced me that he had an urgent question to ask the Rebbe. At first, I tried to dissuade him, asking him to come to the Chabad House on Sunday. However, he was determined and I eventually agreed.

“When I looked at the answer he received in Igros, I noticed that it was written entirely in Yiddish. The Rebbe was writing to a young Jewish man who wanted to marry a Gentile, stating that by doing so he was helping to carry out the plans of Hitler, may his name be erased.

“It was a very harsh letter and I wondered whether I should read it to him. I eventually decided that everything comes from G-d and I would translate the text, word for word. As I translated the letter, I noticed that the young man’s face went totally pale. Afterwards, he told me that he was in contact with a young woman whom he suspected might be a Gentile. At this point, he called over his friend and asked him if this woman was actually Jewish. His friend looked at him in astonishment: ‘She already told you that she believes in [J]….’ The young man decided then and there to break off all connection with her.”

Any discussion of the local activities with young people must include the summer camp run by the shluchim each year. “During the first year of our shlichus, we decided to make a Chabad summer camp. In order to draw more children, we scheduled the camp during days and hours when there were no other camp programs. This helped to achieve far greater success.”

THE EARL OF NEVE OFER

In Rabbi Machputz’s carry-case, you’ll always find, in addition to the standard pair of t’fillin and informational brochures, a volume of Igros Kodesh. The amazing stories in the community making the rounds from requesting the Rebbe’s bracha number in the hundreds.

“One of the neighbors in our building worked in one of the local kindergartens. After the birth of her son, she was dismissed from her job and spent the next ten months unsuccessfully looking for another source of employment. My wife suggested that she write to the Rebbe and ask for his bracha, and the woman gladly agreed. The answer appeared in Vol. 3, pg. 81. The message was quite clear:

As per his telephone conversation, enclosed herein is a check in the amount of five thousand dollars ($5,000) as an act of kindness. At the end of your conversation last night, my holy and revered teacher and father-in-law, the Rebbe [Rayatz] shlita wished him “that he should be a Graf’, acronym for Gut, Reich, Frum [ = good, rich, pious] (Graf is a title of honor, meaning Earl in English). Since I am not certain whether he understood the aforementioned words, I am copying them here and he will surely try to be a vessel for a bracha.

“I explained to her that she mustn’t think about the difficulties and the poverty, and everything begins and ends in thoughts and actions. She was very encouraged by the clear answer.

“Just a few days later, she told my wife that she had already found a new job. After another few days, she came to see my wife again — in a state of tremendous excitement and emotion. ‘I want to be sure: Didn’t the Rebbe write five thousand? Just today, I received five thousand shekels from the Income Tax Authority due to a mistake in their collection department…’”

Naturally, the Chabad House has a full set of Igros Kodesh, and Rabbi Machputz shared the story of Divine Providence that brought him this set.

“There’s another Chabad chassid in our neighborhood, Gavriel Alentanov. Each year, on the night of Hoshana Rabba, he customarily goes around to the neighborhood synagogues and tells stories about the Rebbe, Me- lech HaMoshiach and other great chassidic figures. He received an offer from Mr. Leviev of B’nei Brak to move there and serve as the rav of the city’s Bukharian shul. However, he wrote to the Rebbe and received an answer to remain in the neighborhood. He brings many Jews closer to their roots through his unique ability for telling stories.

“One Hoshana Rabba night I was accompanying him when a Jew approached me in one of the local shuls. He asked if it was true that one could write a letter to the Rebbe and place it in a volume of Igros Kodesh. When I told him that this was correct, he said that he was planning on buying the whole set for his synagogue, giving people the opportunity to use it whenever they wished. Since I was in the middle of saying T’hillim, I couldn’t speak with him at length. However, I wanted to explain to him that if he’s planning to buy a set of Igros, it would be preferable to donate it to the Chabad House, thereby ensuring its access to as many people as possible.

“After the holiday, I received a phone call from this Jew. He informed me that he had decided to buy the set of Igros Kodesh and donate it to the Chabad House, where people can use it in the proper manner…”

FROM THE SHELTER TO THE COMMERCIAL CENTER

After several years of continual activities, Rabbi Machputz decided to expand his outreach programs. “I was looking for a central location to achieve this purpose. I wanted to rent a place in the neighborhood shopping center, where numerous people visit regularly all hours of the day. I started inquiring about vacant storefronts available for rent, but I simply didn’t have the courage to close a deal on a rental contract.

“Last year, I went with my family to the Shabbos Achdus to get a spiritual boost. During the farbrengens, several people told amazing stories of things that occurred during their outreach activities. They strengthened me very much, as my main concern had been over the need for far greater involvement in fundrais- ing to cover our rental expenses. I had decided to rent a storefront in the commercial center, and with G-d’s help, I would succeed in acquiring the necessary resources.

“One day, I approached the manager in charge of numerous stores at the commercial center. I suggested that since there are vacant storefronts, and he is currently paying municipal taxes on them, he could permit us to enter these storefronts without paying rent while we would pay the municipal taxes.

“I didn’t know how he would react. We’re talking about a shrewd businessman. I worked in a manner of Lchat’chilla Arib- ber and I was surprised to receive his consent. He later told me that he owns a factory producing alcoholic beverages and he wanted to bring his merchandise into the ultra-Orthodox market. I suggested that he obtain a kashrus certificate from the chief rabbi of B’nei Brak, Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Leib Landa. He followed this advice, and this past Tishrei, many Chabad Houses, Chabad institutions, and yeshivos drank ‘L’Chaim’ from beverages produced by his factory.

“Just prior to the recent Knesset election campaign, one of the political parties asked if it could rent the site we were occupying. As a result, we had to vacate the premises, but the owner with whom we had already established friendly contact gave us another place. While this new setting was somewhat smaller, it was located at the entrance to the commercial center. As a result, anyone coming to the center had to pass by our storefront, and the number of Chabad House visitors increased enormously.”

In the meantime, the Rebbe had not only made certain to arrange a new location for the Chabad House, there would also be a car for the shliach to use for his activities. “One of my sons learns at the Chabad kindergarten in Bat Yam, and I would travel by bus to bring him there and back. This took up valuable time from my shlichus work. I had thought about getting a driver’s license for a long time, but it was constantly postponed for one reason or another.

“Within the commercial center, there is an office belonging to a prominent attorney. His son- in-law had previously worked with him and had recently moved out of the neighborhood, leaving his car with the office. The attorney invited me to speak with him, and he told me that after seeing my very difficult work, he wanted to give me the car. I listened to his words in disbelief. I quickly got my driver’s license, and the Chabad House now has a car as well…

“This attorney has become quite friendly with us and supports our activities. He eventually gave us permission to use his son-in-law’s office for making copies and other office needs.”

Anyone familiar with you knows that you are a shliach who lives with Moshiach. It cries out from all the activities you do with your community. In your opinion, what is the best way to achieve this on a level of “lights of Tohu in vessels of Tikkun?”

“From my personal experience, I have seen that there are people who really want to know and others who aren’t interested in hearing anything on the subject. We go with our message of truth, but this doesn’t contradict the fact that we have to explain and clarify the issue. However, if we see that we are facing someone who wants to taunt us and not listen, it would be preferable to focus on the ‘do good’ aspect and not get into any arguments whatsoever.

“In our community, people accept the whole subject quite well — not just the non-observant, but also those who received their education in yeshiva programs. There are also regular lecturers in the community who were educated according to a different Torah approach, yet they periodically write to the Rebbe via Igros Kodesh. They even recommend the idea to those close to them.”

THE FUTURE LIES BEFORE US

Rabbi Machputz’s mind is filled with a variety of program ideas he wants to implement. He is already beginning to see the first buds of a Chabad community in the neighborhood, in no small measure due to the prayer services held at the Chabad House on Shabbos and Yom Tov. Numerous friends and supporters have already adopted the path of Chassidus. He also wants to extend the level of material assistance to elderly and needy people living in the neighborhood. “We don’t forget those of limited means in our community, and we make certain to tend to their physical needs prior to each holiday to the best of our ability. This comes in the form of food packages and purchase vouchers, but often it isn’t enough. My heart breaks each time I am compelled to turn people away. G-d willing, we will also increase, develop, and intensify our activities in this area - and more.” He is quite optimistic.