THE CHASSID, THE LECTURER, AND THE KING

In the morning, the Chassid with the white beard prepares young students for their degrees as one of the outstanding lecturers on history and geography in an exclusive college in Paris. In the afternoon, he mans a t’fillin stand in the Jewish quarter and calls out to passersby. In the evening, he is a popular speaker on Judaism and Chassidus for university students and at Chabad houses. * Meet Rabbi Yisroel Goldberg, father of 16, from Brunoy, the man behind the picture with the king of Morocco which captivated the worldwide media this past Erev Pesach. * In a conversation with Beis Moshiach, he talks nostalgically about the early days, how the king reacted when he heard the famous Lubavitch call and also, what caused the picture to go viral. 

By Zalman Tzorfati    

The picture of the king of Morocco and the Chassid this past Erev Pesach was a media hit. The picture was shown by major news outlets around the world, and especially in Arab countries. In Eretz Yisroel, the picture was publicized and prominent space was given to articles reporting on the chance encounter.

“It was a series of divinely orchestrated events,” says Rabbi Yisroel Goldberg, the Chassid in the picture. “Presumably, the king of Morocco’s trip to Paris was secret, and in Morocco there were rumors, in line with the highly developed imaginations in the region, regarding the fate of the vanished king. They said he died, that he was critically ill, that he got divorced and left the kingdom, and suddenly, he appeared in a photo in the Jewish quarter in Paris. That’s what turned the picture from an interesting curiosity into an unprecedented uproar in the Arab media, especially in Morocco. Of course, we believe that it happened so we could convey the Rebbe’s message to the world.”

LANDMARK ON THE LEGENDARY STREET

It’s been 40 years already that Rabbi Yisroel Goldberg has been standing at a t’fillin stand in the old Jewish quarter in Paris known as the Pletzl. R’ Yisroel, father of sixteen and a resident of Brunoy, is a respected and renowned lecturer in an exclusive non-Jewish college in Paris. He does mivtzaim in his free time in the afternoon and on Sundays.

Over the years, he has seen the street go through many transformations. The entire area has changed and only R’ Yisroel’s t’fillin stand has remained a constant, standing through the decades, growing, updating and expanding from time to time. He and his t’fillin stand have become landmark symbols of the legendary street.

The story of the Jewish quarter is the story of the development of Jewish life in Paris. Before the war, there was a large and active Jewish community. All along the two main streets, rue Pavee and rue des Rosiers, you could find numerous Jewish businesses, kosher food stores and restaurants, Judaica stores, and of course shuls and yeshivas. Among them was the famous shul at 17 rue des Rosiers, which the Rebbe would frequent during the years that he lived in Paris. The Pletzl, or as it is known by its proper French name, Marais, was the center of Jewish life in Paris until a few decades ago.

IT STARTED ON A WINDOWSILL

When R’ Yisroel started his work at the stand, he was a young student who had recently been drawn to Jewish observance. “R’ Shmuel Azimov would constantly goad us to go on mivtzaim,” recalls R’ Yisroel fondly and with nostalgia. “We were a large group of students and other young Jews who had come close to Torah and mitzvos, and every Sunday, which was an off day, we had a special minyan in ‘17’ (as the shul where the Rebbe davened was referred to). One Sunday, after the davening, we all left the shul. Each person went off to wherever he was going, while I put my t’fillin bag on the windowsill of the ground floor facing the street, and I started offering passersby to put on t’fillin.

“This place was ‘the’ Jewish section of Paris; it was one of two centers in the large city where you could get kosher food and Jewish articles. There was Montmartre and the Pletzl. Whoever was looking for kosher food, a Jewish restaurant, religious articles, Jewish books, or anything Jewish, came to one of these two main areas, with the Pletzl being the larger and more famous of the two.

“On Sundays, the street would be bustling with Jews. People looked at me quizzically, standing there with a pair of t’fillin, offering passersby the opportunity to put them on. It was a huge novelty; they were unfamiliar with such a thing.”

However, R’ Yisroel was stubborn. For weeks, he stood there alone, until his friends slowly began to join him. Over time, they started taking shifts to man the stand.

“From one day a week it became three, and now I am here just about every day,” he says. “Over the years, the students of the yeshiva in Brunoy began to participate, as well as young married men from Anash, and local shluchim appointed to the area by Beth Loubavitch. At this time, there are days when we operate three or four stands along the length of the street, and they are all active in reaching out to Jews and gentiles.”

AS THE GENTILES POURED IN, THE ACTIVITIES SHIFTED

When R’ Yisroel talks about activities with non-Jews, it is connected with the transformation the street has undergone in recent years. With the development of the Jewish community in Paris, the Jewish centers moved to other neighborhoods and suburbs. Groceries and kosher food chain stores opened in many of the residential neighborhoods and suburbs of the city, and kosher restaurants sprouted on every corner, which resulted in the Jewish quarter in the center of the city losing its luster.

For a long time, it was an abandoned, relatively desolate area. Many Jewish businesses closed or moved to new Jewish areas and only a few Jewish tourists visited. However, R’ Yisroel stuck to his post as though anticipating that better days were yet to come. And he was right. 

Nearly twenty years ago, the Paris municipality renovated the quarter and labeled it as “the old Jewish quarter of Paris.” The main street was turned into a pedestrian walkway and art galleries, both Jewish and not, opened and began attracting tourists from all over the world.

Today, the old Jewish quarter is one of the most visited by tourists in the City of Lights. There are top brand stores and international fashion designer outlets the length of the street, alongside Jewish Judaica businesses and kosher restaurants that serve Jewish tourists as well as the masses of other tourists who want a taste of Jewish tradition.

“Although today, unlike in the past, maybe two percent of visitors are Jewish, the area still has a distinctive Jewish feel,” says R’ Yisroel. “We feel at home here. Aside from all the shuls and the big yeshiva here on rue Pavee, it’s the only place in Paris where I can stand and shout in the street, ‘Jews, come and put on t’fillin and support Eretz Yisroel.’ People love it. They feel that this is part of the culture and Jewish folklore.”

The new look of the street and the numerous non-Jews that frequent it all week, prodded R’ Goldberg to put thought into reinventing the activities of his stand. Besides putting t’fillin on people and giving out Chabad’s weekly parsha sheet, he started disseminating the Seven Noahide Laws.

50 NON-JEWISH TOURISTS FOR EVERY 1 JEWISH TOURIST

“Today, the situation is such that for every one Jew there are (l’havdil) fifty non-Jews. However, since so many people visit here, there are numerous Jews too.

“Still, think about it – until we encounter one Jew, we have seen 50 non-Jews. Rather than say ‘Have a nice day,’ after they’ve answered negatively to the question, ‘Are you Jewish?’ I started talking to them about the Seven Noahide Laws. I tell them about the Rebbe and about the Rebbe’s request for a Moment of Silence every day, to devote a moment at the beginning of the day to think about G-d who created the world and about how to be a better person and make the world a better place.

“I also talk to them about a tz’daka box. Not many know this, but the Rebbe spoke about this too. The Rebbe said that everyone, including non-Jews, need to have a tz’daka box in their home, where they put a coin in order to do goodness and kindness in the world.”

THE PROCLAMATION OF “LONG LIVE THE KING”

I urged R’ Yisroel to tell me the story about the famous picture from Erev Pesach. He doesn’t see it as anything more than an interesting curiosity or, more correctly, a golden opportunity to publicize the Seven Noahide Laws on a worldwide scale.

“That day, a young Chabadnik was manning the stand with me. I did not recognize the king; he looked like anyone else. He walked around with bodyguards, but to me, he could have been an actor, a businessman, or a Saudi prince. But the man with me recognized him as the king and he told me that the king was going into an optician’s store. By the way, the store, owned by a Jew, is in the same building as the 17 shul.

“He urged me to go over to the king and say something. But when I saw the ring of bodyguards around him, I figured I wouldn’t be able to. Then the king left the store and began heading toward the t’fillin stand. When he wasn’t far off, I spontaneously shouted the words that perhaps are most associated with Chabad, ‘Vive le roi - Yechi HaMelech!’ Of course, I meant the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach, but he thought I meant him and he stopped to see who had shouted ‘long live the king’ to him in Paris. When he saw me he was very moved and he came over to shake my hand in thanks.

“I asked him whether he knew the universal principles of humanity. I explained that these principles preceded the various religions, and universal morality is based on them. He asked what they are and I enumerated the Seven Noahide Laws. I told him that these principles are called the Seven Noahide Laws in Judaism, and they were conveyed to us through Musa (Moshe Rabbeinu) who was the greatest prophet.

“He asked what we were doing there and I explained we represented the Lubavitcher Rebbe, in order to publicize the Seven Noahide Laws to passersby and to offer t’fillin to Jews and get them acquainted with their mitzvos and their religion.

“He was happy to hear that we are connected to Chabad and the Rebbe; it was apparent that this was familiar to him. After all, the Jewish community and most of the Jewish institutions in his country are associated with Chabad. Furthermore, his father, the previous king of Morocco, was in touch with the Rebbe and corresponded with him. He sent a letter of blessing to the Rebbe and the Rebbe responded with a letter full of warm blessings and good wishes.

“I spoke with the king about the Rebbe’s request that every home have a ‘solidarity box’ that we call a pushka, in which we place a token amount every day to represent that our hearts are with the needy even though we are physically distant from them. In conclusion, I told him that the Rebbe asked that all public schools in the United States start the day with a Moment of Silence in which children think about the existence of a Creator and about how to be better people.

“The conversation with the king took several minutes, at the end of which I said I had no doubt that G-d’s blessing was with him since he is a good king who cares about the welfare of his country and the Jews. He blessed us and we parted with a warm handshake after we took a picture that immortalized the unplanned encounter. Many people standing around had phones with which they took pictures and that is how the picture become famous.”

ARABS FROM MOROCCO SHARED THE PICTURE

As mentioned, R’ Goldberg didn’t consider the encounter with the king to be anything more than an interesting curiosity. That night, he gave his weekly shiur that is broadcast live on social media. After he concluded the shiur, he shared the picture with some explanatory words and from there it went completely out of control.

“Every week, my shiur is posted on social media and I include a nice saying or some lines having to do with the topic of the class. That night, I thought it would be nice to post the picture with the king and I added several lines of explanation, as I usually do. A short time later, I saw the number of likes rising quickly and reaching the thousands. The picture was being shared again and again with most of the sharing being done by Arabs in Morocco.”

SHARING THE MESSAGE OF THE REBBE WITH THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

“Within a few hours, I began receiving requests from the international media, mainly from Morocco, France and Eretz Yisroel. The Rebbe says to use technology for holiness and I decided to use this platform to spread the message of the Seven Noahide Laws.

“In every interview I gave with the non-Jewish media, I told them at length about my conversation with the king and repeated the three main messages: the Seven Noahide Laws, the Moment of Silence, and a pushka. The message was given a prominent platform and was spread in all of the major media outlets.

“To the Jewish media in Eretz Yisroel and the world, I spoke about the Rebbe, about the t’fillin stand that has been there for forty years, and about the Rebbe’s prophecy that ‘hinei, hinei Moshiach ba.’”

LECTURES IN COLLEGE THAT BEGIN WITH A MOMENT OF SILENCE

I also spoke with R’ Goldberg about his job as a senior lecturer in a college in Paris. Just the thought of a bearded Jew walking into the college and giving classes on history and geography to non-Jewish young people, made me curious. But, despite the detailed interview that R’ Yisroel gave me when we spoke about his t’fillin stand, when I asked him about his work at the college he became diffident and somewhat reticent.

I asked whether he ever talks to his students about the topics he raises again and again at his t’fillin stand. “Of course,” he said, unhesitatingly. “I am their teacher and these topics come up and I talk about them.”

I asked him to confirm the rumor that his lessons begin with a Moment of Silence. He admitted to the truth of the rumor. How do you do that, I wondered aloud.

“Every year, at the beginning of the first semester, I explain the importance of a Moment of Silence and then suggest that we do an anonymous poll in which the students vote for starting each class with a Moment of Silence. Thank G-d, it’s decades already that I start each class with a Moment of Silence.”

The topic of the Seven Noahide Laws has become more complicated in recent years, admits R’ Yisroel. “As a result of the rise of Islam in France, the French have become very suspicious of any show of religious symbols in government institutions. As a result, it has become much harder to speak openly and publicly about keeping the Seven Noahide Laws. However, I try to use every opportunity to communicate to my students the idea of observing the Seven Mitzvos.