Eve of Kinus Hashluchim Banquet Shluchim Run Marathon

NEW YORK CITY [CHI] — It may have been the cool gusts of wind, or the fact that he was running a marathon, which caused his tzitzis to be swept into the air as his feet pounded down Bedford Avenue that day. The knowledge that his entire community was supporting him kept the Shliach running. This day, which he had previously looked forward to every year, took on a new meaning.

The 2010 ING New York City Marathon took place during one of the busiest weekends for Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries and on the morning of one of their most anticipated annual events of the year: the Kinus HaShluchim Banquet. “It was definitely challenging to juggle the Kinus HaShluchim and the marathon – two events that I wouldn’t miss for anything,” says Rabbi Zev Wineberg, co-director of Chabad of Long Island City.

Every year the banquet hosts thousands of rabbis and lay leaders, features politicians and philanthropists, and serves to empower its participants to continue bringing Jews throughout the world closer to Judaism.

Emissaries attend the Kinus each year to strengthen the dedication they have to their respective communities. Wineberg says he felt that, by running the marathon, he was achieving a similar goal. He ran the marathon “to inspire people in my community to take on commitments to do more mitzvos.” After completing all 26.2 miles of the race, he changed out of his running gear, put on his traditional white-shirt-black-pants-and-hat ensemble, and headed over to the banquet, “the highlight event” of the Kinus.

In addition to Wineberg, deserving of honorable mention are runners 59-087 and 26-339, known by a slew of distant, admiring community members and local, Brooklyn fans as Rabbi Adam Haston, co-director of Chabad of Orange and Woodbridge, CT; and Rabbi Yossi Harlig, co-director of Chabad Center of Kendall/Pinecrest in Miami, FL. Aside from being devoted marathon trainees and fundraisers for non-profits such as Brooklyn-based Bikur Cholim, each is the rabbi of a community full of supporters.

For four years prior to the race that took place on November 7th, Wineberg and his wife Rivka, along with community volunteers, distributed Kosher drinks and snacks to runners as they sprinted past the Long Island City Chabad House. This year, though, he decided he was going to join those who raced past his Chabad House.

It began a few months back. Wineberg shared motivational words with his community, saying, “Through my effort in running the Marathon I hope to show you that you can accomplish anything you want to achieve.” One by one, community members took upon themselves good deeds such as donning tefillin or becoming shomer shabbisle – a term they coined, which means to be shomer shabbos to the extent of one’s current ability.

One man pledged to be home before candle-lighting time every Friday in order to light Shabbos candles with his wife and children.

For Wineberg, those good deeds served as “tremendous inspiration every time I thought of quitting.”

The rabbi calls it a circle effect. He quotes a Hebrew proverb, “The idea of schar mitzvah, mitzvah, and mitzvah goreres mitzvah” – the reward of one good deed is another good deed, and every good deed causes another to be performed.

For Haston, the Kinus and his marathon run bridge the past with the future of Judaism and Jews. By raising money through his marathon run for The Blue Card, a fund for Holocaust survivors, he says he feels that the two worlds are fused together.

Taking a personal lesson from his recent experiences, Haston says, “You may think many things are ridiculous, but you should realize that anything is possible. Just break it down into smaller steps and go for it.”

Thousands upon thousands of people lined the route to cheer on runners as they sped, jogged, and shuffled through the five boroughs of New York City. Haston recalls running past a rambunctious group of volunteers from Bikur Cholim, and says, “That was cool.”

Leave Your Comfort Zone in Your Rearview Mirror

“I always talk to people about going out of their comfort zone,” shares Harlig. “As a Shliach I try to inspire people.” One day, community member Brian Lebensburger challenged the rabbi to do something out of his comfort zone. He suggested that the two of them train and run the marathon together. The rabbi “inspired me every step of the way,” Lebensburger writes in an article to be published in the Pinecrest Tribune. Harlig had “suffered a tremendous injury early in our training, but he kept on, refusing to give up.”

“He inspired the community as well. People literally have changed their lives for the better after hearing his story,” Lebensburger asseses.

The Floridian duo’s trainer, Josh Liebman, is a professional marathon pacer. The three men arrived early in the morning at the run’s starting point. Harlig brought along his tallis and tefillin in order to pray the morning services. It was at that moment that, as thousands of marathoners readied themselves for the great task ahead, Liebman went out of his own comfort zone. The pacer will forever remember November 7, 2010, as the day of his Bar Mitzvah. As the sun came up over the Verazano Bridge, 37-year-old Mayer Moshe Ben Velvel donned tefillin for the very first time.

“It was worth all of the training to do that,” muses Harlig.