Unlike the army of shluchim who regularly get feedback from the people in their community and have nachas from the results of their outreach work, the shluchim who operate in Chabad Houses for tourists deal with a population that comes and goes. They don’t know the outcome of their work. * But occasionally, they get warm regards…
By Mendy Dickstein
At the Chabad House in KasolRabbi Betzalel Kupchik and his wife founded the Chabad House in Poona, and they run it till this day. It was the first Chabad House to break ground in India under the most difficult conditions. R’ Kupchik went to Poona in the mid-90’s with young children, and more children were born while on shlichus.
One year ago, Erev Rosh Hashana 5778, a ping announced a new email. It was news that was completely unexpected.
More than ten years ago, a young, confused woman went to Poona to “find herself.” She sought spirituality but looked in the wrong places. Now, the email said:
“I’m Inbal, whom you hosted ten years ago for a Shabbos followed by a few days. It’s not likely that you remember me since I was with you only briefly and it was a long time ago. I’m sure hundreds, if not thousands, of guests have passed through since then. But you should know that the few days that I spent with you changed my life completely.”
She went on to say:
“Although I was born to a religious family, I always felt, for some reason, that G-d does not like me, which is why I searched for alternatives. I went to Poona to try out the famous ashram there.
“When I arrived in Poona, I joined a group of Israeli guys who had also arrived there. We stayed at a cheap, plain guest house meant for tourists like us. After visiting the place, I felt it wasn’t for me. I left and started aimlessly walking about without any idea of what I wanted. My soul was empty and was looking for meaning. Then suddenly, like a powerful lantern, I saw the Chabad House sign.
“At the Chabad House, I realized that it was Friday and it felt natural to be there. I asked Rabbanit Kupchik for permission to stay with you so I wouldn’t have to return to the guest house to people who swept me along with them in going to places that were not good.
“I stayed with you, and that Shabbos, along with deep conversations into the night with the Rabbanit, made an impression on me. It was a turning point in my life.
“A few days later I continued to Hampi and there too I continued to become stronger in learning and doing mitzvos. When I returned to Eretz Yisroel I decided to take G-d and faith seriously. Thank G-d, more than ten years after that inspiring Shabbos, I am married to a Breslover Chassid and we have three adorable children.”
When R’ Kupchik wrote her back and asked what made her think of them now and what was so special about that Shabbos that it changed her life completely, she wrote:
“It is Elul now. These days of reckoning brought to mind the old Inbal who was lost and confused, who yearned for spirituality but did not believe it was possible. My encounter with you may not have been long and I don’t know whether you even remember me, but you gave me so much strength and faith, and mainly you helped me remember what my neshama always knew and sought.”
She concluded:
“I just want to add that even before I spoke with Rochele who let me stay with you for Shabbos, just your being there, even before meeting you, was already a salvation to some degree, a reminder of the place that the neshama truly yearns for. I remember well the moment I saw the Bet Chabad sign; it was like a sigh of relief.”
She ended her email by saying she felt she ought to express her deep thanks, and in gratitude to the Chabad House that illuminated her life, she committed to a monthly donation toward their work so they can continue to be a lighthouse of Jewish fire that consumes all the thorns around it.
R’ Kupchik concludes, “No question, that was one of the most moving and surprising regards we got in twenty years of shlichus. It’s the story of a neshama that came close to G-d in Poona without anyone having any specific knowledge about her. Who knows how many other souls like these are out there and we will yet receive warm regards from others?
***
The work of the shluchim is difficult and piecemeal. Our Sages say, “All beginnings are hard.” For many shluchim, they are always starting and it’s always hard!
In the first stage, which may last even a few years, there is acclimating to a new place, the loneliness, feeling estranged, and not knowing the language and mentality of the locals. On top of all that, there is starting an organization that will run programs. And it’s all on your own.
Over the years, the shluchim get used to things; they establish a community that turns into family and the operations are somewhat easier. It is altogether different with Chabad Houses for tourists. These are scattered primarily in East Asia and South America in those locales that young Israelis like to visit, usually after their army service.
This is not about establishing a community and not about set activities, since the people are always changing. They come for a day; sometimes for a few weeks, not more. They go to the Chabad House to feel at home, to speak Hebrew in a foreign land, to make connections with other Israelis, and to be in a place where the atmosphere is fun.
Along with the fun and comfortable feeling, Chabad Houses provide t’fillos, tefillin, kosher food, Shabbos meals, etc. But even those who come to participate in the spiritual things the Chabad House has to offer, stay only briefly and then head out. It almost never happens that shluchim who work in these Chabad Houses find out whatever happened with so-and-so who seemed interested in Judaism. They depart, never to be heard from again.
Still, every shliach knows that nothing goes lost. Everything has meaning and every seed will sprout, whether sooner or later.
The Rebbe expressed this idea in one of the sichos about Mivtza Tefillin. He presented one of the complaints against the campaign, i.e., what is the point in someone who is irreligious putting on tefillin one time and then going back to his usual way of life?
The Rebbe responded to this by saying that aside from the fact that a Jew like this just did a mitzva and provided nachas in Heaven, a little light dispels a lot of darkness. Even if you don’t see the results immediately after a mitzva is done, they will ultimately occur.
This is what guides the shluchim in Chabad Houses for tourists. Their guests come and go; they stay a day or a week, maybe even a few weeks. And yet, no mitzva is without returns. Every action has an effect.
This is why shluchim in these places are so excited when they get regards. They are thrilled to get positive feedback from young people who got started on their path to Judaism with them, disappeared, but were propelled to advance in Torah and mitzvos. Some of them even change their lives completely. These regards infuse the shluchim with the strength to continue their work.
WHAT BLINTZES CAN ACCOMPLISH
Rabbi Dudu Lieder, director of the Chabad House for tourists in Melbourne, relates:
“Two years ago, I was at the Shabbos She’kula Moshiach event in Teveria. During the farbrengen, a bearded fellow wearing a sirtuk came over and warmly greeted me. He asked me whether I knew who he was, and when I said I didn’t, he reminded me.
“When he was at our Chabad House, he looked altogether different. At that time, we had a kind of Vaad l’Havoas HaGeula (committee for bringing the redemption) that was run like any other committee with a chairman, members, etc. This guy joined the farbrengens occasionally, out of curiosity, and he attended the programs that the vaad arranged.
“One Shabbos, in the excitement of the farbrengen arranged by the vaad, everyone went dancing out in the street and this guy came along too. It was decided that we would ask G-d to bring the Geula. We all placed our hands on one another, made a big circle, and cried out to Hashem to bring the Geula already. This guy who, until then, had been observing us, sometimes looking amused, suddenly felt an inner jolt that changed him completely.
“When he returned to Eretz Yisroel, he went to a yeshiva for baalei teshuva. And then, there he was in Teveria, greeting me and looking nothing like I remembered him.”
R’ Lieder has another story about regards that came years later. This also happened while R’ Lieder was visiting in Eretz Yisroel:
“One day, I walked into a Judaica store in Ramat Aviv. The saleswoman asked me whether I’m from the Chabad House in Melbourne. It turned out that 14 years earlier, she had been in Melbourne, but was completely uninterested in the Chabad House.
“Rabbi Yair Calev came to us to give a series of lectures and shiurim in Tanya. He does this with musical accompaniment of niggunei neshama. We hung up a sign in the area that announced these special classes, and she came and loved the Chassidic concepts.
“When she returned to Eretz Yisroel, she went to a seminary to study Judaism and Chassidus. Then she became part of the Chabad community in Ramat Aviv.”
R’ Lieder has yet another story of regards that he heard about in an amazing way. It was Erev Shavuos a few years ago. R’ Lieder’s mother-in-law was in a car and heard a religious woman on Kol Chai radio tell about how she became religious.
The woman said her first encounter with Judaism happened at the Chabad House in Melbourne on Shavuos, upon being invited to a dairy meal. She said that the blintzes that Mrs. Lieder made were delicious. Her conversation with Mrs. Lieder went from recipes for blintzes to the meaning of Shavuos and Chassidic explanations of the holiday and Kabbalas HaTorah every year anew.
This had long term effects, as the woman ended her story by saying that today she is married and has children and lives a life of Torah and mitzvos.
JUST ONE SHABBOS
Japan is far away, both physically and spiritually. It is not easy to maintain a regular Jewish community. The following story is straight from the Chabad House in Tokyo, which is run by Rabbi Binyamin Edery.
It happened around 17 years ago, in the early years of his shlichus. He met an Israeli who had come to Japan to gain proficiency in karate. He ended up living there and married a local Japanese woman that he met at the institute where he studied.
R’ Edery set up a learning partnership with him to learn basic concepts in Judaism (Tanach and Midrashim). Unfortunately, although the man regularly learned with him, and even occasionally donated money to the Chabad House, he was unwilling to listen to anything about his leaving his gentile wife.
He had an additional struggle with Shabbos observance. Every Shabbos he stayed at the Chabad House and attended the meals and t’fillos, but a short while before Shabbos was over he would drive to work and then home.
One Shabbos, one of the mekuravim begged him repeatedly from the beginning of the Friday night meal to at least stay until Shabbos was over, just that Shabbos.
The man finally agreed. When he returned home late at night, his wife screamed and cursed about how could he leave her alone while he spent time with his Jewish friends and she couldn’t stand it anymore, etc. He wasn’t used to this kind of treatment and he fled. He went back to the Chabad House that Motzaei Shabbos and told R’ Edery what happened.
R’ Edery decided to strike while the iron was hot and began telling him that this marriage was not for him. The fact was, the moment he decided to increase the light of holiness by keeping Shabbos properly, the “other side” raised its head. Although R’ Edery spoke from the heart, his words did not directly enter the man’s heart. He and his wife reconciled and he returned home.
Sometime later, the hero of our story flew to Eretz Yisroel on an urgent matter. Before the flight, he spoke with R’ Edery about his fears, mainly the ramifications on his shalom bayis. R’ Edery, of course, encouraged him to go to Eretz Yisroel and tried to assuage his fears.
Their learning together, the strained relationship with his wife, and the daily phone conversations with the rabbi, all had an effect. The man decided not to return to Japan and eventually went to a yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel.
After years of learning in yeshiva, he went on k’vutza and then studied for smicha. Today he is a Chassid living in Eretz Yisroel. Now and then he sends regards to R’ Edery in the context of his own outreach activities and his good influence on the environment in which he lives.
SPIRITUAL JOURNEY THAT BEGAN IN A HAMMOCK
The next story brings us back to India, this time to Kasol in the north. Rabbi Yoel Caplin, the shliach, relates:
In 5766, I was still a bachur and I went on shlichus to Kasol with my friend, R’ Avi Dagan, to help out the local shliach, Rabbi Danny Winderbaum. We arrived Erev Pesach and were immediately busy preparing for Yom Tov and the many people who would be coming.
After Pesach, we began a series of Torah lectures. Dozens of people attended the Tanya classes on Shaar Ha’Yichud V’Ha’Emuna. These shiurim became famous throughout northern India and many tourists who were seeking spirituality made it their business to attend the shiur.
Assaf, a dynamic young fellow who lived for quite some time in Kasol, really connected with the visitors and those running the Chabad House. He became a regular at the farbrengens and meals, but he wasn’t so spiritual. He spent his free time out of the Chabad House at nature festivals that took place in Kasol, ingesting various dangerous and addictive substances.
One day, he came from one of these parties straight to the Chabad House and lay down in a hammock in the yard. He listened to the shiur and within a short time he began participating, asking questions and trying to answer other people’s questions. He demonstrated a deep grasp of the material. R’ Danny suggested he join them by sitting at the table with the text in front of him, but Assaf, who was high at the time, declined.
This first shiur led to many other shiurim and within a short time, Assaf became an inseparable part of the Chabad House, even on the giving end. He ran the kosher restaurant, and with the guidance of the rabbi and the shluchim, he learned the basic laws of kashrus, like how to clean and check vegetables for worms, check rice, etc. Not long after, he returned to Eretz Yisroel, but the Jewish spark that had been ignited in Kasol did not extinguish. He went with friends to Kiryat Malachi for Shabbasos.
One Shabbos, he committed to attending the Chabad yeshiva in Ramat Aviv where he learned for a while, and then he married. He started spreading Chassidus and the Besuras HaGeula in Tzfas and Rosh Pina. He founded the Merkaz Ohr Ein Sof in Tirat HaCarmel. Today, it has become a source of light for the entire area.
Now and then, he sends warm regards to Kasol.
WHAT HIDES BEHIND THE BEARD?
Now we go to Manila, capital of the Philippines. When I spoke with the shliach, Rabbi Yossi Levy, and asked him whether he has gotten regards from a mekurav who started out with him, I heard him smile over the phone. He told me to look at the picture he shared with me as we spoke.
In the picture you see a man with a big black yarmulke and a long white beard. He looks like a Lubavitcher going back many generations.
The story behind the picture is about an irreligious Jew by the name of Avrohom who went to the Philippines for work. He went to the Chabad House where he began attending shiurim and became familiar with Judaism and mitzvos. Then he stopped coming and disappeared. R’ Levy figured he was taking a break from the new world he had discovered and hoped he would eventually return.
After a few months in which he didn’t see him, R’ Levy decided to visit the man’s office and surprise him. When he arrived, there was a new clerk there whom he did not recognize, with a beard. R’ Levy said he wanted to meet with Avrohom and the man said Avrohom had not yet arrived and suggested that R’ Levy wait. After a few minutes, the man burst out laughing and said he was Avrohom!
The shiurim hadn’t made him want to take a break. On the contrary, they strengthened his resolve to live as a Jew, i.e., with Torah and mitzvos, which was followed by his growing a beard, all without the shliach having any idea what transpired because of his classes.
Today, Avrohom lives on Long Island as a Chassid and mekushar to the Rebbe.
Another story that R’ Yossi Levy told me was about Peleg Cohen. Peleg has a blog, Lonely Peleg, that is known to tourists, especially Israelis, in which he tells about his travels. Peleg goes to many countries and does educational projects wherever he goes. He uses his popularity and his videos to raise money for these educational projects with children.
Wherever he goes, he contacts the local Chabad and donates to every Chabad House he visits.
When he went to the Philippines, he noted that this was the hundredth country he was touring. “We developed a strong connection with him, which translated also into the donations that he brought in for the Chabad House in the course of his projects,” says R’ Levy. “I didn’t know to what extent he felt involved, until one day when we did a charidy.com fundraiser.
“In honor of the charidy drive, Peleg posted a special video to his blog in which he told about the Chabad House in Manila and asked people to participate and donate. Then he revealed that thanks to what he learned at our Chabad House, he began putting tefillin on every day and eating only kosher food, despite his irreligious background.
“This story about his scrupulous observance of mitzvos surprised us too, but more than that, it surprised the 100,000 viewers who saw his video and who knows what they committed to under his influence.”
R’ Levy ends with this story:
“It was on the day of my father’s yahrtzait when I went to daven at Rabbi Mendy Sharf’s Chabad House in Yerushalayim. I met someone there whom I didn’t know, but who approached me warmly and announced to all that Rabbi Yossi from the Philippines had arrived. When he realized that I didn’t know who he was, he said his name. However, I still could not make the connection between the name and the person in front of me.
“It was Assaf Amgar who had stayed at our Chabad House for Sukkos a few years ago. I remember that it was with great difficulty that we finally got him to say the bracha on the lulav and esrog. But once he agreed, his neshama lit up. One mitzva leads to another, and along with the strong bond that developed between us, he slowly progressed in his commitment to Torah and mitzvos and then returned to Eretz Yisroel.
“It was in shul that day that I discovered that he had continued to advance, had learned in yeshiva and had prepared properly for his wedding. Today, he is a Lubavitcher in every way who is a big help to the Chabad House in Manila.
Meeting him again was a sort of warm regards.”
And to conclude, here is a story that I heard from Rabbi Yosef Ashkenazi, rav of a shul in Rishon L’Tziyon:
Rabbi Shmuel Lew is a veteran shliach in London. He was once asked to officiate at the marriage of students of his in Miami. The wedding took place at an events garden near the ocean. Hundreds of people were there and the event was about to begin. R’ Lew was getting ready for the chuppa when he realized that he was missing a witness for the chuppa. He planned on being one of the witnesses but needed another person too. According to halacha, only a religiously observant Jew can be a witness and R’ Lew did not see anyone that fit the bill. He was stuck, as hundreds of people were waiting and things had to be on time.
Under these circumstances, he took the microphone, stated the problem and asked whether anyone in the crowd was willing to commit to observing Torah and mitzvos. One person came over and asked what that entailed. R’ Lew explained some of the basics, like belief in G-d and observing Shabbos. The person said he agreed and the chuppa commenced.
R’ Lew returned to London. Years later, on one of his trips, an unfamiliar person approached him, shook his hand and said, “Rabbi Lew, you saved my life!”
R’ Lew could not think of anyone’s life he had saved. The man explained.
“Your idea saved my family’s life. Since that chuppa, we began having a family Shabbos table. As the sun sets, phones are shut off and the family sits down together. We review the children’s notes from school and each one tells about the challenges they experienced throughout the week. This interaction between the family members has turned all of us into a single cohesive unit.”
That was also very warm regards!
PERSONAL REGARDS
At the end of 5764 and in the first months of 5765, I ran the Chabad House in Chang Mai in northern Thailand, together with my friend, Menachem Peleg, under the director of Chabad Houses for tourists in Thailand, Rabbi Nechemia Wilhelm. The work was mainly with tourists, in addition to serving a small community of a few Israeli families who lived there and worked in running diamond jewelry manufacturing businesses.
One of the tourists who showed up one day was Erez, from a traditional family, who was traveling after his army service like lots of others his age. He boarded a plane and landed in Thailand without any plans. After a while, he pushed northward to our area and came to the Chabad House.
He was inspired and began putting tefillin on every day and attended shiurim. He even helped check rice in the kitchen. The big trek for which he had come to the country was postponed time and again, and a few months later we parted ways after he had become a full time regular in the Chabad House.
About two years ago, when I was in Yerushalayim, a Chassidic young man with a hat and jacket and beard said hello to me. I answered politely and was going to continue walking when he asked me whether I recognized him. When I said no, I found out, to my astonishment, that this was Erez!
After he returned to Eretz Yisroel, he went to a yeshiva for baalei teshuva and today he is a Chassid and mekushar to the Rebbe.