A T-Shirt with an Eternal Message

Whether you’re on a plane to Israel, in Brooklyn, or spending time in Central Park in New York City, you can’t miss Rabbi Chayim Boruch Alevsky — he’s the one in the “Did you wrap the straps today?” T-shirt. A fun play on words, no doubt, the shirt inspires questions, the occasional thumbs-up, laughs, and, most importantly, the mitzvah of tefillin.

After chaperoning a 30-day intense guided Achoteinu trip for Chabad girls to Israel in 2010, Rabbi Alevsky, the youth director at Chabad of the West Side with his wife Sarah, came up with the idea for the shirt. However, it wasn’t until a few days before an impending trip to Israel this year that the shirt actually came to be. Two days before their flight, Sarah Alevsky, a graphic designer, put the shirt together in about an hour, and after a quick turnaround, the package arrived just in time for their trip.

“It was a last minute mitzvah gig,” Rabbi Alevsky said.

Sporting the shirt daily, many assume that he only had one printed, but he actually has 17 of them. Rabbi Alevsky said that wearing the shirt has been a wonderful success.

“I believe it’s a happy reminder [for others],” he said. “Also, it helps me keep focused on the responsibility as a Chossid.”

On his way to Israel this year on Achoteinu, Rabbi Alevsky walked up and down the aisles on the plane with tefillin in hand so people could see the front, and then the back of the shirt, which joked, “Hey man! You know I’m going to ask you!” On the way to Israel, 14 took to his shirt, and on the way back, 25 were inspired by the witty garment.

“People in line at the store or anywhere run up from behind to see the front,” he said. “I’m a walking advertisement for the mitzvah. I wonder if we should all be walking mitzvah advertisements.”

At a Tzfat pizza shop, Rabbi Alevsky encountered a group of teens who greeted him with “I love your shirt!” So he put on tefillin with the teenagers and then with the owner of the shop. At Yad Vashem, a woman from Pittsburgh spotted Rabbi Alevsky’s tefillin shirt and Friendship Circle hat. She told him that her son had his bar mitzvah at the Kotel, but without tefillin, so Rabbi Alevsky helped him “wrap the straps” then and there.

But the experience can be long lasting, turning an on-the-spot mitzvah into something more.

On Monday, in Central Park, an elderly Holocaust survivor stopped the rabbi. The man said he was returning to Judaism on his own and that he wanted to learn to pray, so he bought his own tefillin but didn’t know how to wear them or read Hebrew, let alone make the proper blessing.

“So we first put on the tefillin,” Rabbi Alevsky said, “and I gave him the transliterated brachot and a recording of the davening, and I arranged to meet with him regularly to study. He’s coming over for this week’s Friday night Shabbos meal.”

For now, Rabbi Alevsky is the sole owner of this creative T-shirt, but he hopes more can be made in the future, especially for other holidays like Sukkot (“Have you shaken your Lulav today?”). He said he is busy brainstorming ideas with his friends and his wife and children.

“There are lots of shirts with messages out there. I love the idea that mine has an eternal one.”