Op-Ed: Achdus? Can It Really Happen?

I received a call from a neighboring Shliach the other day. It was about a student of his, originally from Atlanta. This student comes from a minimal Jewish background. Besides for the Pesach Seder and the High Holidays (“sometimes,” as the mother shared with me), there is no Yiddishkeit to talk of.

“We don’t do Friday night dinners,” confessed the mother. “We have too much going on. Julie (names have been changed) goes to dance, the boy plays sports, and we are not really motivated for Shabbos.”

Their oldest daughter, at college, away from home for the first time, has fallen in with a group of students from a different religion. She is now “discovering G-d,” and feeling really good about it. The G-d she should be looking for is, of course, a G-d she knows very little about. She has now finally found something to confide in.

The only problem? She hasn’t found G-d at her Pesach Seder, or at her local Temple at a High Holiday service. She thinks she found him at a church. She was introduced to this god by her friends at college.

The Shliach, who knows this student well, put this case into my hands last week, since this student is now back home for the summer. Understandably, I have not been able to sleep well since hearing about this story. I made contact with this student and her family. I know that, for the next few weeks, I will be busy with this issue. Due to this urgent case of Hatzolas Nefoshos, Hatzolos Neshomos, and Pidyon Shvuyim, I am going to have to drop whatever it may be from my schedule. This matter is crucial. We have been made responsible for these matters, even if it means that we must drop everything else.

To anyone reading this, Shliach, Anash, N’shei Ubnos Chabad or Bochur, he or she would surely look at the above case and compare it with many cases that Shluchim deal with all the time. This story is no different than thousands of others with which Shluchim have been involved for decades.

I share this story because it hit me in a different way: I have been part of the group of Shluchim and Anash who are trying to cement a stronger Achdus between Chassidim. We have been meeting for almost six months to figure out a way to create a united front in Lubavitch, a powerful voice, to ourselves, to our children, to our Mechunochim and to the rest of the world.

There are many skeptics among those who have heard about this campaign. Some are wondering who is behind this, and if it is so and so then there we have no chance. Some are wondering where this is leading. Others are thinking that it’s a lost cause. Others are talking about the leadership in Lubavitch.

You know what? We are not sure that our efforts will work, either. But it has not stopped us from going forward, dropping many other things on our hands. We have spent time and money to do what we can, because we know we cannot give up. We feel that it is time something big, something major, is launched. And we have not stopped trying. We truly want to promote a campaign that has long been necessary and needed, and which would bring us MUCH needed Brochoh instead of what has been the opposite, especially lately, and MUCH Hatzlochoh in our lives.

You may say we are being naive. You may call us dreamers. But it’s like that student who has fallen into that group and is calling for help. Will I be successful? I cannot be sure, but it won’t stop me from doing whatever I can to save this person’s soul, and hopefully the rest of her family as well.

We must not stop this drive to protect the sanctity and strength of Chassidim across the world. Please let us all march together Mitoch Achdus Hachassidim.

Isn’t it amazing that on Shabbos Vayakhel Nun Beis, the Rebbe’s last Farbrengen – which the Rebbe certainly knew about very well – was all about Achdus. The Rebbe left us with this call until the next stage. Let’s all join this serious effort with all seriousness and sincerity.

What can we do? Well, for one, if you missed the Shiurim with Rabbi Manis Friedman and with Rabbi Yossi Jacobson, please go back and take the time to watch them. They both bring out important and beautiful points. And please stay tuned to next week’s presentations, as well as other initiatives and programs that will be unveiled over the next few weeks.

And it starts with us. If each person reading these words would resolve to work with him or herself, i.e., with what is in our control, we would all be well on our way. Let us look at the other person as a family member. And if that person is doing something different, or opposed, to the way you think it should be done, have Rachmonus, say some Tehillim, but don’t look at him or her with spite and contempt, and certainly don’t run around talking.

Remember, we have been promised that the Achdus of Chassidim will get us through the last moments of Golus. We are almost there. True, we have so much to overcome. Yet, we must start somewhere. We must do whatever we can to save the Matzav, save lives, and save the souls. The time is now.