Weekly Story: Who Can Do the Rebbe’s Shlichus?

Rabbi Sholom DovBer Avtzon

This week’s post is L’zecher nishmas, my father and teacher, HaRav Meir Avtzon, whose Yahrzeit is this Shabbos, erev Rosh Chodesh Kislev. At the end of the article, I will clarify how this is somewhat related to him.

Being that this week is the Kinus (convention) of the Shiluchim, I felt its appropriate to discuss the concept of Shlichus, as to how it can apply to every member of Anash [Lubavitch]. Your comments and feedback are always appreciated it and welcomed. 

Some months ago, I heard the following anecdote. The person related that he has a friend on Shlichus in Eretz Yisroel and stated that his friend is having phenomenal success. He realized this, because almost on a monthly basis his friend is expanding by bringing in a new shliach into his community. 

So, he decided to ask him, what is the key to his success? How is he able to keep on bringing down shiluchim? Where does he have the funding for all these new organizations that they’re making? 

The Shliach smiled and said, you don’t understand my approach. There are many wonderful families that for whatever reason did not go on shlichus. But that does not mean that they did not want to go on shlichus or whether they are extremely capable of doing shlichus. 

So, I approached one family at a time, and I said to them, your place of work is 15 to 30 minutes from my city, basically the same distance you are traveling anyway from your present residence. So instead of living in a Chabad community, I am asking you to move to my community. 

Obviously, you are going to ask me, why do you want me to move there and what am I going to accomplish there, I am still going to go to work in my regular job. But you should know that for the purpose I want you to accomplish, that is the perfect situation.

Seeing their quizzical faces, I explain, all I want you to do is move into a large apartment building. Then on your front door put up a sign that states; Welcome, Bais Chabad. And in the evenings or on Shabbos and Yom Tov or on days that people aren’t at work, they will ask you questions as if you are a actually a regular Shliach. 

Some may ask you to obtain or check their mezuzos, other may ask you if you know of any classes around, or asking more directly, do you give any classes, so you can begin giving  a class in your building. Someone else may ask , do you know of a good kindergarten for the children. On Shabbos you can make a mesibas Shabbos, relating storing and some thoughts on the weekly portion. There is so much that a “regular person could accomplish!

So, while you’re still working and your regular job, but your life is dedicated to the Rebbe’s mission of bringing every Jew one at a time closer to Hashem. 

After I saw the tremendous success of the first family, I contacted another family and slowly I brought in many families, and they are all happy with this arrangement.

In essence, he was bringing out a very vital concept and thought, there is no reason for anyone to think that they cannot be part of the Rebbe’s army. The fact that you may be a businessman or a professional, as a doctor or lawyer etc. does not take away from your ability to succeed tremendously.        

We know that the Rebbe instructed Reb Reuvan Dunin to remain a tractor driver, while doing his shlichus. The Rebbe explained that certain individuals are much more open to listen to a tractor driver then to a Rabbi. So you as a tractor driver (and us as businessmen or professionals) would be able to reach them, while no one else would be successful.

This is connected to this week’s parsha of Toldos.  On the words, “These are the descendants of Yitzchok,” Rashi explains, Yaakov and Esau that are mentioned in the Parsha. Towards the end of the Parsha, we see that Yitzchok had a special love for Esau. The commentaries try to explain why did Yitzchok love Esau, didn’t he realize who Esau really was? 

Some note that Esau asked him questions that demonstrated tremendous piety, such as how does one give type on salt? So in essence Esau tricked or fooled him. Chassidus explains that Yitzchock realized that Esau was working and hunting in the fields, yet he saw the potential of him elevating the fields to a level that his brother Yakov could not accomplish, as he wasn’t involved in the fields.

Not that Yitzchock wished that Yaakov also a person of the field, but once Esau was in the field, Yitzchock believed, let it be utilized for the good it potentially has, and that is he could accomplish more than Yaakov could, in regards to the fields, by elevating those elements that he is dealing with, which his brother is not dealing with.

I would explain this concept with a story I heard from Rabbi Yisroel Gordon a”h. One time when the Rebbe Maharash was traveling in the winter, he asked the wagon driver to please stop and check to see if the water over the lake or river froze enough that’s the wagon could be driven over the ice. [This would save them much time].

After checking it out, the wagon driver replied, Rebbe, I could travel across it, but the Rebbe cannot! The Rebbe Maharash was unsure as to what the wagon driver meant and he asked him, why is that so? 

The wagon driver smilingly replied, I am a baal teshuva, while the Rebbe is a tzaddik; Our sages teach us that where a Baal Teshuva stands, the Tzaddik cannot stand.

 Here too, everyone desires that their children be shiluchim, but nevertheless it is possible for someone who is seemingly on the outside that they can accomplish something that those on the inside cannot, as they have no connection to that Jew. 

So while we all applaud those that took the leap and uprooted themselves to go to their place of Shlichus, especially those who live in small cities where they do not have fundamentals of a Jewish community that many of us take for granted, that doesn’t mean those of us who did not go, cannot be part of this fabulous fraternity. 

I have heard from numerous elderly people, who reside in Crown Heights that they asked the Rebbe to send them on Shlichus. The Rebbe’s response to them was, your shlichus is to remain in Crown Heights. 

Each one of them found whatever source of livelihood that they chose, and they did not officially open any new Chabad Center or Community Center a school or shul Etc. But they all proudly said we played a pivotal role in the Rebbe’s successful mission of  conquering the world for Hashem.

 When our friends who went and Shlichus needed a place for themselves or one of their acquaintances to have a place to sleep and eat for Shabbos, our home was always open for them. When Tzach made the pegisha’s – Encounter with Chabad for College students, we opened our house to host the students. Because of that interaction, they connected themselves to the Shliach in their community or college campus.

It was that experience in numerous homes of Crown Heights that was the clinching point of hundreds and thousands of people to become inspired to connect themselves to Torah and mitzvos, with some of them even became full-fledged Lubavitchers, with their children now being prominent Shluchim. 

So, each one of us can seize this opportunity and for a few hours a week we can be a Shliach, dedicated with our heart and soul to fulfill everything the Rebbe is requesting and demanding from us. 

No, we are not on call 24/7, no we don’t have many of the challenges that Shluchim have, but that doesn’t mean, we shouldn’t do what we can participate in the shlichus. Just think of how much each young bochur accomplished on his erev shabbos tefillin route!

It is not a question of who is accomplishing more because only Hashem knows that. Meaning, I once heard from a Shliach who lives in a small town. He said that initially he felt he was a failure. The Shiluchim around him were able to have a few hundred people at their Chanukah program celebrations. Yet all he managed together was 25 or perhaps even 40. At one Kinus he went over to an elder shliach, one whom he greatly admired and poured out his heart. That Shliach’s response shocked him, he said,  your success is much greater than mine. 

Seeing the astonishment or bewilderment written all over the younger shliach’s face. he said to him I am in the city with close to 6000 Jewish families and numerous of them have some affiliation with Jewish organizations, yet when I am lucky I get 300 people to come to my Channukah celebration. So please tell me what percentage of the Jews in my community have I inspired? 

Is it safe to say that on average each family has at least one child? So then you would have 18,000 Jews minimum. 10% of that would be that I inspired 1,800 Jews to attend. 360 people are only a paltry 2%! But now look at you, you have around 250 families, who basically have no affiliation with anything Jewish. 

So there are around 750 Jews in your community. 10% of that would be to have 75 Jews attending, having 25 Jews means you had 3.33% of the Jewish community participating in your function. If you have 40 you are closer to 4%, in other words, percentage wise, you connected to more Jews in your non-affiliated community then I did in my affiliated community. So each one of us have a different barometer in dealing with our shlichus.

So now my dear friends who should be envious of who, which shliach is being more successful? This is the everlasting question of quantity versus quality and similar ways of expressing it. 

The question is not who we are or what we are doing, rather it is; what can we, no matter who we are do to facilitate and bring to fruition the Rebbe’s desire and Mission of bringing the world to the  level that it recognizes that everything is G-dliness and that would usher in the area of a complete Redemption with Moshiach leading us out of this exile. May it be speedily in our days. And we can proudly feel that our actions helped usher the Jewish nation into this new era.

My parents moved to Detroit at the end of 1953, and my father was the mashgiach in a kosher meat packing company, to make sure that all the meat was salted and deveined properly.

To some it may have seemed that he was a Lubavitcher who found a source of income in Detroit. But the Rebbe looked at it differently, he wanted him to influence the community by being part of it. During the next thirty-two years that my parents lived there, until they moved to New York, so that my mother can obtain the treatment she needed, the Rebbe sent all letters/telegrams to the Lubavitch community of Detroit/Oak Park, as well as the matza before Pesach to him, to share with the Lubavitch community of Michigan, at large

A Taste of Chassidus 

Va’Yomer Lo Yonoson 5734 

Being that tomorrow is Rosh Chodesh, the head of the new month, the haftorah that we say is Machor (tomorrow is, Rosh) Chodesh. We find twice in this haftarah that there is a reference to the number three. Yonoson told Dovid that by the third day I will know my Father’s thoughts, (although he actually found them out on the second day). The following day when he met with Dovid, he said that he will shoot three arrows, and that way Dovid will be informed what king Saul’s intentions are. 

So we have to understand what is the significance of the number three? 

As is often discussed in Chassidus, we are living in Olam hatikun, while  the world above us is Olam HaTohu. The difference between them is, in Olam HaTohu, the receptacles are too small and subsequently are unable to receive and contain the light that is shining in it. While in Olam Hatikun, being that the light is smaller, the receptacle is able to receive the light of G-dliness that is shining in it. 

To explain this in practical terms; a young child whose mind is not yet completely developed, is unable to accept a different opinion. The child for example does not comprehend the concept of sharing, the item is mine and is not theirs. So why should I allow someone else to play with my toy?!!

While an adult could accept another opinion, and therefore even if the judge concludes that the person warrants a punishment, the judge might temper it with compassion. In other words there is the ability to merge conflicting feelings together. 

This is why olam Hatohu is symbolized by two dots side by side. The dot on the right represents the sphere of kindness, while the dot on the left represents the sphere of strictness and judgment. However, in Olam Hatikun there are three dots. The third dot represents the Sphere of tiferes – Beauty which has the ability to combine and make peace between the first two spheres. 

These three dots form the vowel of a segel, two dots side by side and the third dot under them in the middle. Now, the purpose of the third dot is to elevate the higher two dots and although it is below them demonstrating the attribute of humility, nevertheless, that is the way that it could elevate the two dots of kindness and strictness that are above it. 

This is compared to a lever with which you want to uplift a heavy stone for example, and the only way to accomplish that is by placing the lever under the entire stone. 

Yishmael, who was Avrohom’s son, represented kindness the way it falls into evil, while Esau represents strictness as it nose dives into evil. Yaakov who is the third dot, his mission is to elevate both of them. 

This explains why Avrohom was instructed to settle in Eretz Yisroel, and his son Yitzchok was instructed not to leave it, while Yaakov was sent to Choron, the Epicenter of evil. Because Yaakov represents the sphere of beauty which has the ability to make peace between two opposing thoughts or attributes, he was able to elevate the kindness which was represented by Yishmael and the strictness which was represented by Esau.

This also explains why Hashem commanded us that we should be to Him an Am segulah (a chosen nation). Segulah has the three letters of Segel, that is because our mission is not only to elevate the physical aspects (i.e. animals, vegetation and inanimate items) that are in the world, but also the nations of the world which sometimes are categorized as the descendants of either Yishmael or Esau.

[so Dovid who was going to be the next King of the Jewish nation, was being informed of what his mission also entails.]

Rabbi Avtzon is a veteran mechanech and the author of numerous books on the Rebbeim and their chassidim. He is available to farbreng in your community and can be contacted at avtzonbooks@gmail.com