Seven Months Later, The Rebbe Remembered Him

The following story was shared at a Shabbos table by the grandson of Dr. Philip Felig, referred to in the story as Saba. The story had been told by Dr. Felig’s son.

The story is that in December 1979, during Chanukah, Saba had to fly to Europe. He was at JFK airport, when he bumped into an old friend who also had a flight that evening. As they were speaking, Saba said that he wanted to go over to the El Al counter, since he knew that there would be a Chabad shaliach there who would let him light Chanukah candles. His friend said that he hadn’t lit Chanukah candles in many years, and would love to join him. So the two of them walked over to the El Al counter, and they both lit Chanukiyot. Saba was so impressed that he sent a letter to the Rebbe, telling him that due to the good work of his shaliach, not only did he get to light candles, but so did his friend. He received a nice letter from the Rebbe in reply.

Seven months later, in July 1980, Saba and I were in New York, and we received a call from the Chabad rabbi of New Haven, Moshe Yitzchak Hecht, who was the principal of my elementary school. Rabbi Hecht said that there was going to be a gathering (fabrengen, they call it) that night in Brooklyn where the Rebbe would speak, and he invited us to come as his guests. Saba and I went, together with Saba’s older brother Norman. The three of us sat together with Rabbi Hecht on the stage behind the Rebbe as he spoke. During one of his breaks, Rabbi Hecht took us up to meet the Rebbe and introduced each of us – he pointed to my Uncle Norman and said “This is Judge Felig”, then to Saba and said “This is Dr. Felig”, and then introduced me. The Rebbe listened and then stopped for a minute and pointed to Saba and said in Yiddish “Der mit di Chanukah licht” – “the one with the Chanukah candles”.

We were blown away, of course, that a person who received hundreds of letters every week could remember that Saba had sent him a letter seven months earlier about lighting Chanukah candles, with no warning that we would be there. He was definitely a special person.