Mendy went on mivtzaim as always. He chose a street and began going from building to building, home to home, knocking on each door and offering t’fillin. Boruch Hashem, the response was usually positive and many people did the mitzva.
At one home, the door opened and there stood someone who looked like a Breslover Chassid. I don’t need to offer t’fillin, Mendy thought, but maybe I will suggest learning Chassidus.
“Excuse me, would you like to arrange a shiur to learn Tanya, Chassidus? It is deep and greatly relevant to daily life. It’s very important to learn Chassidus …” he trailed off. But he did not need to say any more. The man willingly agreed. “What a great idea! I would be happy to learn with you b’chavrusa.”
The man’s enthusiasm aroused Mendy’s curiosity. Was there something that lay behind what he said? Why did the man get so excited as soon as he heard the mention of Chassidus?
Perhaps the man realized that Mendy was curious or he just felt like sharing his personal story. He invited Mendy to sit down and served him a drink and then began:
I will tell you why I so admire Chabad and the Rebbe. Not long ago, I was not at all religious. I come from an irreligious home and we had just a bit of tradition. I traveled the world and did as I pleased. I went to all kinds of interesting places and met all sorts of people. I was so far from Judaism that I was about to marry a non-Jewish girl.
Nearly everything was ready for the wedding. We had a date, a hall, invitations … We were in France and we looked for an apartment to rent and finally found one. A week before the wedding we got the key. We arranged a time when we would meet and set up the apartment for our life together.
As soon as I entered the apartment, I felt something happening to me. Suddenly, I heard a voice speaking in my heart that said, “What are you doing? You’re a Jew! This girl is not Jewish. You can’t marry her!”
I had no idea what was happening to me. I tried to ignore those thoughts. After all, everything was ready for the wedding! We had planned it for so long. Should I just walk away at the last moment?
But the voice within me not only did not die down, it got stronger. “Leave this girl before it is too late! Now is the time!”
I suddenly found myself saying to her, “We can’t get married. I am Jewish and you are not.”
Her face changed colors. She did not know how to digest what I had just said. “You don’t mean that seriously, do you?” she tried to reassure herself. “You’re just joking, right?”
“No, I’m very serious. We can’t get married. It’s just not possible. A Jew cannot marry a non-Jew.”
She was stunned. “But what happened all of a sudden? You knew this all along! Maybe you don’t feel well. Take an aspirin, a drink of water …”
The more she tried to persuade me, the more firm I was in my decision. I myself could not explain what had come over me. We parted ways.
From that point on, I felt a strong bond with G-d and I soon became a baal t’shuva. I joined Breslov and slowly increased my observance of Torah and mitzvos, until I reached what I am today, thank G-d.
One day, I was on the subway and was leafing through a newspaper. I noticed an article about Chabad and the Rebbe. They told incredible stories about the Rebbe and about his once living in France. They even mentioned the apartment that he rented and I couldn’t believe it. That address was familiar to me. Very familiar. Yes, it was the same apartment we wanted to rent. That house where I underwent such a huge change. Was it a coincidence? Was this not divine providence? Perhaps this was another miracle from the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
These thoughts gave me no rest. I felt I had to find out. But who could I ask? If I asked a Chabad Chassid, of course he’d say it was thanks to the Rebbe that I did t’shuva. I wanted to ask someone neutral. I gave it a lot of thought and finally came up with an idea. I would ask R’ Mordechai Eliyahu, a G-d fearing man.
I arranged a meeting with R’ Eliyahu and told him the whole story as I told it to you now. Listen to what the rav told me. I shiver when I think about it.
He said, “The Lubavitcher Rebbe is no simple man. He is a great tzaddik. If you went to that house and had those thoughts of t’shuva, you should know that forty years ago, when the Rebbe lived in France and had to choose a home to live in, he chose this house knowing that many years later a Jew would come there who would want to marry a non-Jew. That is why the Rebbe chose that house and lived there. The walls absorbed the holiness and with the power of that holiness you had thoughts of t’shuva. The Rebbe foresaw it all. Be assured that this is what happened.”