SHLICHUS – A WAY OF LIFE

The four of them are representative of the Chabad community in Eretz Yisroel.  One is a veteran director of a Chabad house, another is a senior employee in the weapons manufacture industry, a third is the owner of a printing house, and the fourth is the principal of an elementary school and the director of a Chabad house. * Discussions with hard-working Chassidim for whom mivtzaim is part of the air they breathe and a shliach who dreams of a Chabad house on every street corner.  They are Chassidim who don’t seek a title or official appointment in order to carry out the Rebbe’s horaos.

I know R’ Yisroel G. about as long as I know myself.  He is the senior supervisor of a team of engineers in one of the key weapons plants in the center of the country and an old friend of the family from France.  G. is a mainstay of the Chabad community in the Gilo neighborhood in Yerushalayim and is the gabbai of the Chabad shul there.

Recently, my family and I spent Shabbos in Yerushalayim with my parents.  After davening he came over to me.  “Can I invite you to farbreng at our plant in honor of 24 Teves?” he asked.  He explained that he arranges a farbrengen on every special date in the calendar for the employees of the plant during the lunch break and he brings someone to farbreng.

I agreed.  After much back and forth and endless pleading and warnings to come on time and how important being on time was, and after a series of security checks and interrogations I arrived (late of course), though not before they had taken away my mobile data device and covered my camera phone with special stickers.

This was not the first time that I was invited to speak in a workplace, but this time I was surprised.  Instead of a minyan of men waiting impatiently around an elliptical table in a conference room, I found a fully appointed shul that was packed with employees.  They all sat with their eyes glued to Yisroel (after all, I was late) who stood behind the bima and spoke excitedly about the Alter Rebbe.

After a short farbrengen, in the time remaining to me until the end of the farbrengen, Yisroel announced that whoever wanted to write a p’n to the Rebbe could do so at this auspicious time.  He took out white papers and the guys stood in line to write a request of the Rebbe for a bracha.

When I left, I noticed the colorful flyer on the door of the shul which said “Beis Chabad … (the name of the company)” on top.  Yisroel’s Chabad house is so active that it would put to shame a more conventional type of Chabad house.

“We have mivtza t’fillin every day, a weekly Tanya class, and big farbrengens with guest speakers on Chassidic holidays.  Like every Chabad house, we work to bring the messages of a holiday and its mitzvos to the thousands of employees of the company.  Whether it’s lighting the menorah on Chanuka, matza for Pesach, and even a special event for 15 Shevat, we organize it here,” says Yisroel.

Yisroel G. is not the only one.  It’s a growing phenomenon of Chabad Chassidim who consider themselves shluchim at their place of work.  You see it generally after the Chassidishe holidays in the Chabad media – news items about employees who farbrenged at Kodak, Bezeq, Alta, Machon Lev, etc. The common denominator between all those who initiate and organize these fabulous activities is that these are Chassidim who internalized the idea of “know Him in all your ways.”  They have realized that the role of a Chassid as a lamplighter is to illuminate himself and his surroundings with the shlichus of the Rebbe MH”M.

NO WORK BEFORE DONNING TEFILLIN

A few kilometers away from the defense plant and Yisroel’s Chabad house, a salesman for paper goods enters a large printing factory.  Without asking a lot of questions, he rolls up his sleeve and offers his arm to one of the employees who puts t’fillin on him. 

“Every customer or supplier who walks in here, is asked to put on t’fillin,” says R’ Yaakov Kenig of Kfar Chabad, one of the leading Chabad industrialists and manager of the factory.  “Today they all know already that if they skip the t’fillin, they will have a hard time doing business with us,” he says with a smile.

R’ Kenig’s printing factory is Lubavitch owned and the style of operation is somewhat different than the weapons plant but the goal is the same: in all your ways – shliach.

“We have a pair of t’fillin here.  All the employees, without exception, do not begin working until they put on t’fillin.  We also arrange farbrengens on all the Chassidic holidays with guest speakers and sometimes the employees are asked to prepare something to say and the management and employees farbreng together.”

EMPLOYEES CHANGED THEIR LIVES

Shlichus in the workplace is different and unique, usually in a good way.  “Often, when we do mivtzaim at work, we are able to reach places or people that we would never have reached otherwise,” says Yisroel.  He thinks that the professional respect and interaction among work colleagues which is created after years of working together, sometimes literally shoulder to shoulder, breaks barriers and creates an openness and readiness to listen to someone with whom, on the outside, he would never cooperate.

“One of the vice-chairmen told me that he never considered putting on t’fillin at the t’fillin stand near the mall.  But when I ask him, he can’t refuse.”

It’s twenty years already that Yisroel has been leaving his house every morning for the defense plant.  But he did not always see himself as a shliach.  The defining moment, according to him, was nearly a decade ago when he took his son for hanachas t’fillin in 770. 

“We stood there, it was a very special moment, and I felt that it was an auspicious time, a moment when you can ask for anything.  I closed my eyes and clenched my fists and asked the Rebbe for one thing – I want to be a shliach.

“When we left, I felt like an altogether different person.  When I returned to the plant after that trip, I no longer felt like an engineer doing mivtzaim now and then, but like a shliach who uses his advanced education to spread the wellsprings.

“When it’s a workplace, the main outreach is done during breaks.  I do wide-ranging mivtza t’fillin that includes all the levels of employees starting with the cleaning crew and ending with the top executives of the company.  I measure out the Yiddishkait to each one in the proper dosage.  Over time and the years, the impact of mivtzaim during lunch has a progressively deeper effect and there are employees who have changed their lives because of these encounters.

“Two years ago, the employees decided to make a menorah according to the Rambam’s design out of jet engine parts.  Every night we lit the menorah together with the employees and the managers.  After Chanuka, the vice-chairman said to set up the menorah at the entrance to the plant.”

A NEW ERA AND A NEW PROJECT

“In all your ways” – being a shliach doesn’t only have to be at one’s place of employment; it can mean helping the shluchim.  One of the Chabad houses where most of the work is based on the full cooperation of the Chabad community is the U’faratzta-Beis Chabad of the Kibbutzim organization, which is run by R’ Yaakov Tzvi Ben-Ari.

“The Rebbe did not build Lubavitch communities so that in Lubavitch there should be flourishing communities that in the best case donate money to the local shliach,” says R’ Sholom Dovber Chaviv, director of U’faratzta.  “Chabad communities around Eretz Yisroel are meant to serve as home base for outreach in the area.  A sort of command center in the south, center and north or more correctly put, the ‘manpower arm’ of the shluchim.”

U’faratzta-Beis Chabad of the Kibbutzim is one of the oldest Chabad houses in the country and its reach extends to an extremely wide range of activities.  Under its jurisdiction are hundreds of kibbutzim around the country.  For many of those living on kibbutzim, U’faratzta is their only contact for Jewish matters.

On holidays, the organizational headquarters at the Chaviv family in Tzfas is reminiscent of a military command center.  Every few minutes another group goes out equipped with a full kit ready to tackle their assignment.  This will usually be house calls with addresses provided but sometimes it is a big party or event at a kibbutz.

The “manpower arm” of the shluchim in the Tzfas and outlying areas is the “Matteh HaMivtzaim of the Vaad HaAvreichim” of the Chabad community in Tzfas.  The vaad has a list of people who are interested in going out and pairs them up with shluchim in the north.

“Our job is to harness the horses to the wagon,” says R’ Menachem Kretz one of the coordinators of the vaad.  He explains how it works.  “Before every holiday, we run a campaign in the community encouraging people to go on mivtzaim.  We make sure the mashpiim speak about this at farbrengens, we put out flyers, and then we ask each person when he is interested in going out and whether he has preferred locations, special interests or skills.  Then we map out all the applications and divide the teams according to the shluchim’s requests.”

A TEACHER WHO DOES MIVTZAIM WILL BE A BETTER TEACHER!

There are people who, along with their jobs, do shlichus full-time.  R’ Barak Kochavi, principal of a Chabad school in Lud, is a shliach in yishuv Chashmonaim.

Chinuch demands all of one’s attention and so does shlichus.  How can you do both?

“Chinuch is a full-time job which demands my complete attention and so does shlichus, but I love each of these positions.  Each of them gives me much joy and satisfaction.  When I come home and have to throw myself full force into my second role, it is amazingly energizing,” says R’ Kochavi.

“In general, combining mivtzaim and chinuch is a good thing, and each one enhances the other.  A mechanech who is involved in mivtzaim will definitely be a better mechanech and a better shliach.  It’s also good for the students to see you as a role model.

“The combination of running a school and full-fledged shlichus is very demanding and may not be for everyone.  Nevertheless, the two roles have many things in common; the ability to focus on the neshama, to see a person beyond the layers he is wrapped in, to focus on him and to enable him to blossom.  It is the greatest possible pleasure.

“I personally combine the two because of answers I received from the Rebbe, both to work in chinuch and shlichus.  Since our yishuv is religious, the kind of activities are somewhat different and provides the necessary room to maneuver in order to succeed both in working with Jewish children in the school and on shlichus in Chashmonaim.

“Another thing, without which I could not manage to wear two hats, is delegation of authority.  If you insist on maintaining control over everything, it will be hard to do other things.  The ability to decentralize and delegate both at the school and on shlichus is one of the keys to success.”

SIXTEEN CHABAD HOUSES IN ONE CITY!

Speaking of delegating to others, one of the cities where Chabad is growing at an astonishing rate is Rishon L’Tziyon.  In recent decades, the city that has been developing very quickly in every respect including upward, is also developing from a Chabad perspective.  Sixteen Chabad houses, three of them on one street! A community and mosdos.

The one responsible for the shlichus explosion in the city is veteran shliach, R’ Yitzchok Gruzman.

Sixteen Chabad houses in one city, most of them opened in the past decade.  Was this your plan or did it just work out this way? 

“Of course it was planned.  I think everyone needs to recognize his limitations.  We were told by the Rebbe to take responsibility for every Jew in our city.  In Rishon L’Tziyon there are over 350,000 people.  Can one person, even the most talented, reach that number of people?

“We have that many Chabad houses, and yet I can tell you that we are still not reaching every person in this city.  If you calculate what percentage of the people Chabad is reaching, we have a ways to go.” 

Can having so many Chabad houses in one place be the cause of friction?

“G-d forbid.  On the contrary, the cooperation and mutual farginin among the shluchim is amazing.  It is simply siyata d’Shmaya.  I remember that when we wanted to open a second Chabad house on Rechov Rothschild, some tried to stop us with the excuse that it was a surefire recipe for friction.  Today there are three Chabad houses on Rothschild and each one does its thing.  If there aren’t any special events, I get to see the other shluchim twice a year at the Kinus HaShluchim in 770 and at the Kinus of directors of Chabad houses in Eretz Yisroel.

“I think all shluchim should do the same.  Bring more and more shluchim to your area and there is always enough work for all to do.  Beyond that, I’ve asked Lubavitcher couples to move here, even not as official shluchim.  Just to live here with a shlichus mindset.  The shlichus will happen naturally, on Shabbos in shul, on line in the supermarket, at the playground.  Continue doing what you’ve been doing, just live here and you will make an impact.”

Others do it with a nucleus of b’nei Torah.  Is this a model we should adopt?

“Certainly! Why not? It will bring enormous chizuk to every Chabad house and to every shliach, wherever he is.”

With certain things, do you insist on Chabad in Rishon presenting a united front such as in dealings with the municipality?

“No way. Way back when, the city asked that the shluchim not come separately; rather, the central Chabad house should centralize all requests.  I told them, nothing doing.  Every shliach is a separate corporate entity with a separate budget and separate activities, so why should they present their requests jointly? The results have shown us that when each one applies separately, they have achieved far more than if they had filed their applications jointly.”

What criteria are there to decide whether to bring in another shliach?

“In principle, just as there is a grocery store on every corner that sells bread and milk, there is no reason for there not to be a Chabad house too.  Actually though, it depends.  It is usually divided by neighborhood but it can also be according to function.  I believe that each person needs to fit his role in shlichus.  If I see a young man suited for rabbanus, I will try to find him a position as rav in a shul.  If someone is suited to working with kids, I will match him up with that job. 

“When I came to Rishon L’Tziyon, I worked a lot with young people.  The years passed and the young people grew up and I discovered that I no longer spoke the language of the young people.  That’s why I decided to bring another shliach to work with young people.  But boruch Hashem, he also matured and we brought another new shliach for the young people and I will be bringing another shliach to replace the third one.  The previous shluchim have plenty of work to do with the families of mekuravim who were once the young people.

“The truth is that I believe that the Rebbe MH”M is going to come any minute now and this belief makes me very nervous about that moment when we will be asked, ‘Did you do all that you could do?’”