Dear Friend,
With songs of praise and thanksgiving to the Almighty we were blessed to celebrate the shiduch-engagement of our daughter Chana to Mendel Lerman of Atlanta, Georgia on Monday of this week. Rabbi and Mrs. Lerman together with Nechama and I, accompanied Chana and Mendel to the Rebbe’s resting place. There we prayed and asked for blessings for the young couple to establish an everlasting Jewish home on the foundations of Torah and Mitzvahs as illuminated by the teachings of Chassidim. Upon exiting that holy space, the engagement was formally announced, and a celebration took place.
During morning services in a Crown Heights, Brooklyn shul, a friend saw me and said, ‘I have a nice story to share with you from Thailand’.
New York is geographically distant from Bangkok. VERY distant. Sometimes though, you must travel far to learn more about your own backyard. It seems like I had had to get to New York to hear this particular story about Thailand.
Here is the story my friend shared with me.
O.G. is a consultant who is originally from Israel but now lives in the West Coast of the USA. She had been hired to evaluate various aspects of the Chabad school that my friend works for. During his meeting with the consultant, my friend asked her if she had encountered Chabad in the past. Initially she said that she had not had any interaction with Chabad. Then she recalled that yes, she did have an experience.
Her son went for a backpacking trip to Thailand. One day she got a call that put her into a state of major anxiety. Her son hadn’t been feeling well and gone to a hospital in Ko Samui for treatment and had been admitted to hospital. The nurse had told her son that he has 44 degrees fever. While she hoped that the numbers must be a mistake, she went into a panic. Her son is halfway across the world and she has no way of helping him. The language barrier and the physical distance made her feel helpless.
A friend said, ‘why don’t you call Chabad’?
O.G. called Chabad of Ko Samui and within an hour a rabbi was at her sons’ bedside. The rabbi spoke to the doctors and reassured the mother that everything was fine. The fever was not 44 and the situation was under control. The mother didn’t have to go fly out to her son, neither did the son have to cut his trip short.
I got O.G’s number and called her to say hello. I introduced myself as the first shliach that the Rebbe had sent to Thailand and tasked with expanding the presence to the other cities and islands. O.G. thanked me profusely on the phone for having a Chabad House in Ko Samui and for having a rabbinic team that responded to her, a totally unknown Jew from the other side of the world, with love, care and compassion.
As O.G. was telling the story she burst into tears of emotion just recalling the relief she had felt when a Chabad rabbi called her from her sons’ room. She said that while she knew that the rabbi wasn’t a doctor and he couldn’t do anything in terms of medical treatment, but his presence was so helpful and reassuring.
The thanks does not at all belong to me I told O.G.
It is the Lubavitcher Rebbe who deserves the gratitude. For it is his teaching and personal example that inspires the legions of young men and women to take up postings around the world, in large communities and in environs that have small amounts of Jews. The Rebbe’s shluchim emissaries take up residence in first world countries and in third world countries. The Rebbe’s lived a life that exemplified his unshakeable love of G-d, His Torah and His people! By his sterling example the Rebbe portrayed and projected an unqualified and unmitigated love of fellow. It is this spirit of commitment and inclusiveness that continues to motivate the Jews of our generation and cajoles them and inspires them to raise their own personal bar of commitment, each according to their level.
It would thus be appropriate, I told O.G. to visit the resting place of this great Jewish leader whose inspiration you benefited from so personally.
O.G. agreed with me that this was something she would very much like to do and will make sure to schedule a visit to the Ohel.
My dear friend. If you are receiving this email you too are benefiting from this said inspiration of the towering leader of our generation. For there is no conceivable way that Thailand would have been on Nechama and I’s radar if not for the demanding and empowering words of the Rebbe reverberating in our consciousness ‘go out and become shluchim to spread the teaching and love of G-d, His Torah and Mitzvahs’.
It was solely this motivation that led us on the path to Thailand some twenty-six years ago. And this too is what motivates the thousands of others who serve Am Yisrael with dedication and love around the globe through thick and thin.
Counterintuitively, the Rebbe’s influence gets stronger and more impactful after his physical passing.
The Zohar has taught the kabalistic axiom that the truly righteous and saintly Tzadikim bear more influence in this physical world after their physical passing than during their lifetime.
When it comes to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, we can see this Kabbalistic teaching borne out in numbers as well. Year by year the numbers of emissaries of the Tzadik swell. Even though one may have expected his influence to ebb due to the course of time, the reverse is true. He becomes more alive and more active as time goes on through the ever-growing activities inspired by his teachings.
Moreover, the Rebbe’s message of loving acceptance of fellow Jews, regardless of level of observance, while once a point of contention, it has gradually become the Jewish people’s collective norm.
What does this mean for me and you?
The Rebbe didn’t seek followers. It is leaders that he wanted you and I to become. (click here for illuminating article by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks) Each of us needs to develop and nurture the unique gifts we have been given and contribute our individual part in the mission of making this world a more divine place.
Click here for a wealth of knowledge and inspiration on this topic.
There are some milestone anniversaries that demand more attention than others.
Twenty-five years is one of those landmark geographic markers that begs and mandates introspective thought that should lead to energetic and even massive growth.
This year we mark twenty-five years since the physical passing of the Rebbe. We ought to utilize the spiritual opportunities available to us for growth both in our personal service to G-d and in our communal activities.
Please mark the date of the Rebbe’s yartzeit in your calendars. It is a perfect time to carve away space to ‘hear’ the Rebbe’s message to our generation and to apply it to your own life. The collective mindfulness of Jews across the globe will create a ripple effect of good deeds, bettering this word and bringing Mashiach NOW.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Yosef Kantor
PS if you are in Bangkok, please join us for a tribute to the Lubavitcher Rebbe on MONDAY JULY 1st at the Rembrandt hotel.
The program will include two components.
- A lecture/study class – in Hebrew and a separate one in English – exploring the Rebbe’s Torah teachings as they apply to contemporary life.
- A dinner, at which time the renowned designer Eliav Nachlieli will present the artistic renderings of the new Beth Elisheva campus.