Simchas Torah Shlichus from Crown Heights

The Arba Minim represent Jews with different characteristics all coming together. On Simchas Torah we put down the Arba Minim, signifying that our differences have now become nullified, and we dance together as one. But once inside 770, the people dancing together are people who are similar. How is the unity that transcends the Arba Minim applied to Jews who are not in 770?

TAHALUCHA! Tahalucha is Ahavas Yisroel. Tahalucha is Achdus. Tahalucha is Shlichus on Yom Tov. And most of the guys walking for hours hardly realize it. They go on Tahalucha because the Rebbe said to go. They make no Cheshboynos. And yet they are walking for hours to reach their destination, and then walking back. And they are doing it for Jews they have never met.

Walking along the Williamsburg Bridge at 6 pm on Shemini Atzeres afternoon. Black hats as far as the eye can see in front and black hats as far as the eye can see behind. The same scene was happening Yama V’Kaidma Tzofana V’Negba… Yama V’Kaidma Tzofan V’Negba. U’Faratzta – spreading out from the center of the universe – on Simchas Torah.

One of my guests came back and reported that he had gone to Flatbush but was not given proper instructions to get to a Shul. So he sought out a Shul he knew about. When he and his group walked in, the Rabbi was OVERJOYED! He said that Chabad used to come but had stopped coming for a reason unknown to him. (For all I know it was the Rabbi who forgot to make a call, but even if that was the case, he was not aware of it.) He was just thrilled to have the Chassidim and throughout the Hakafos he only sang Chabad Niggunim.

Another guest said he went to a Shul with elderly S’fardim. Their Sifrei Torah were encased in ornate covers which were very heavy. The congregants were no longer strong enough to walk around the Bima carrying the scrolls. The Tahalucha group were given the honor of carrying the Sifrei Torah the entire Hakafos. Without these Chassidim, there would have been no Hakafos!

Groups that leave 770 are made up of informal smaller groups and individuals who begin walking in the same general direction. When a group branches off to go to a specific Shul, very often the participants do not know more than one or two others in the group. By the time they leave, they are a team. A spirit of Achdus comes from a worthwhile job well done and the Kedusha of the Mitzvah of the hour.

Another guest told me that his group politely agreed not to sing Yechi during Hakafot, but immediately upon leaving the Shul to return to 770, they began a resounding chorus of Yechi. Spontaneous combustion generating heat and light on the streets of the Lower East Side of Manhattan!

Considering the short time span and the brevity of verbal communication, an amazing Achdus develops, connecting the Chassidim with the Rabbis and congregations they visit. Not all Rabbis are as welcoming as the one who missed the Chassidim who used to come. Some are tense at first – they are unaccustomed to the bright light – but from all the stories I have heard, even the most frigid Rabbi becomes malleable after a few Hakafot and the congregants find themselves drawn to the Koach and energy of the Simcha generated by Chassidim who are carrying out the Rebbe’s Peula.

Chassidim on Tahalucha touch the lives of the young, very young, old and very old. I have never heard of groups walking from Queens to Brooklyn or from Flatbush to Crown Heights. Only the Rebbe’s concern for every Jew stimulates thousands of Chassidim to walk such distances… and our guys do it singing!

One congregant on the Lower East Side was impressed that the group walked the way from Crown Heights. He was even more amazed to hear that this was only the warm-up – the real dancing begins after they walk back and join together with the others who walked for hours, returning to home base, after embracing thousands of Jews with the loving arms of the Rebbe.

We can’t take pictures of Tahalucha with cameras, but we can do it with words. It is time to start an album of Tahalucha stories.

Share your Mivtzoim and Tahalucha stories with the world. Email them to news@crownheights.info!