SPECIAL FORCES WARRIOR IN THE REBBE’S ARMY

R’ Halperin speaks for the first time: About the secret to the success of his magnificent community, their annual group trip to the Rebbe, the way to be mekarev every Jew and convey the Besuras HaGeula without cutting corners. * His life’s story and his hiskashrus to the Rebbe, his classified service in Sayeret Matkal, his running nationwide campaigns on missions for the Rebbe. * He shares: Aside from Beis Moshiach which I look at every week, no other newspaper or magazine enters my house. * R’ Yisroel Halperin, shliach and rav of the Chabad community in Hertzliya, in a candid interview. Part 1 of 2.

Photos by Ezriel Moshe

Hertzliya is synonymous with high-tech, with the big companies that planted their headquarters there, with a city on a high socio-economic level, with the beach, and more. Not many are familiar with the spiritual aspect of Hertzliya, with the large, yellow Moshiach flag waving above it.

The Chabad community in Hertzliya is hardly ever in the headlines, and for good reason. The shliach and rav of the community, R’ Yisroel Halperin, is discreet about his work. Quietly, under the radar, a large community, numbering about a hundred families, has flourished, in addition to the same number who originated in Hertzliya and moved elsewhere (many did so because of the high cost of living in Hertzliya). In the outer spheres of their circle of influence thousands of other residents benefit as well. We are talking about a solid, active, dynamic community that is constantly growing, and that is no exaggeration.

This is one of the reasons that R’ Halperin was never willing to be interviewed, not even for Beis Moshiach. Whenever we asked him, over the years, the answer was always a polite no. It’s not that R’ Halperin has no opinions; he sure does, and he says them loudly and firmly.

Although Hertzliya is one of the most advanced Israeli cities, the rav of the community uses a simple cell phone with no sophisticated features. He doesn’t even want to be seen holding a Smartphone. His phone even looks old. And he doesn’t have a computer at home. If you need to reach him, you can call or send a fax. There are computers only in the office which, of course, are properly filtered. They are for the hafatza work done by a staff of dedicated shluchim. This is a principle of his.

“True, if I had a computer and the Internet I could look up responsa on Otzar HaChochma and on websites, and it would help me find T’shuvos for halachic questions, but I prefer to read fewer responsa on the screen and like opening up s’farim.”

R’ Halperin is adamantly opposed to modern technology. He used to have a simple video machine in his house, solely for the purpose of watching videos of the Rebbe. Then one day, he heard a woman from a family who became interested in Judaism, say, “Even the rabbi has video.” R’ Halperin immediately said, “That was true up until a minute ago,” and he threw the video machine into the nearest garbage can.

And yet, the Chabad House in Hertzliya does use modern means to reach out to people. They send out text messages with thoughts from the D’var Malchus that reach tens of thousands of people each week. Facebook is also a great tool for hafatza which you can see when you look at just the last week of this past year on the Chabad House Facebook page. Fourteen posts were put up, each of which reached between two thousand to ten thousand people. The Chabad House also has its own comprehensive website and advertises heavily in local newspapers. What is interesting about all this is that most members of the community do not look at these local papers, and when there are Chabad ads in the media, they print them and stick them up on the bulletin board.

The notices and texts that R’ Halperin sends out reach all the Who’s Who in Hertzliya, city leaders, heads of various communities, police commanders, etc. Recently, at a toast ceremony in honor of the new year, the district commander began the ceremony with the contents of the text R’ Halperin had sent him. By the way, they always say “Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach.”

R’ Halperin is aware of all the technological advances, but he himself uses only what is necessary, even less than that. But for the purpose of spreading the wellsprings and the Besuras Ha’Geula, all the most advanced options are used.

Nearly every member of the community has some job involving hafatza in the city. Here too, they are aided by all of the most advanced electronic media tools. For example, before Shabbos, everyone knows how many people put on t’fillin that day with the help of Anash and how many sets of Neshek were distributed by the women in Hertzliya. There are also updates and many helpful tips.

So too with Mivtza Mezuza which is done on a big scale during Elul. Numerous members of the community take part in this campaign. The Chabad House received hundreds of requests for mezuza checking and they are all taken care of within a day or two, all by Anash who do volunteer work after a day’s work.

Another example is the Birthday Campaign. The Chabad House was one of the pioneers in this campaign when it sent out birthday wishes to residents. (“The Rebbe checked the wording of the letter and told us to add two phrases to the message.”) Today, they are in touch with over 30,000 people! Every month, thousands of letters are sent to those with birthdays with the precise date of their birth. Each of them is urged to celebrate the day in a Jewish-Chassidic way.

There are seven Chabad shuls, Chabad Houses across the city, a yeshivas Tomchei T’mimim, preschools, a chesed center, a soup kitchen which helps tens of thousands of people and brings them Judaism, Chassidus and the Besuras Ha’Geula.

We recently spoke to R’ Halperin about his magnificent k’hilla and we asked him:

How were you able to build such a beautiful community? How do you reach people and bring them the Besuras HaGeula without cutting corners? How did you manage to get a majority of the city council, which is mostly far left, to select you to receive the Yakir Ha’ir (Distinguished Citizen) Award for 5770? And how were you chosen by the newspaper, Kol Hertzliya, as man of the year for 2014?

DON’T MOCK
A JEW’S FAITH

R’ Yisroel Halperin was born on the first day of Pesach 5716 in Netanya to a very traditional home.

“My father instilled faith and Judaism in me ever since I can remember. We kept basic mitzvos and because of family tradition, I put on t’fillin starting from age 12 and a half. My father a”h always reminded us that we are descendants of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, a fact which is a great privilege as well as a great responsibility.”

Netanya in those days was bereft of religious Judaism. In R’ Halperin’s childhood, the Chassidic Tsanz community in Netanya began to develop. “It was on the outskirts of the city but we suddenly began seeing ‘blacks.’

“One time, I was with a group of kids that was laughing at a Chassidic man who was passing by. My father was just coming home from work then and he saw what was going on. With a grave look, he called me into the house. I realized this was serious. He said to me, ‘I just saw a very serious matter. You mocked a Chassid. You should know, he is a Jew and that is how a Jew looks. Even if we look different, if you mock a Jew’s faith, nothing will remain of you…’”

R’ Halperin came to Chabad during high school and he was the religious kid of his class.

How did you come to Chabad?

It was the beginning of 5734. Back then, Chabad was the only entity involved in kiruv. My friend, R’ Roni Greenberg, who is also a Chabadnik now, was passing by the Central Bus Station. The former singer, Dadi Ben Ami, who had become a Lubavitcher, was standing there with a group of bachurim. He offered him t’fillin. Roni recognized him as the famous singer but was not interested in t’fillin. He was only willing to give him his address.

After a while, a postcard came from Dadi in which he invited him for Shabbos in Kfar Chabad. He said that Roni could bring a friend. Roni invited me to join him. I thought it would be interesting. So we went to Kfar Chabad by motorcycle. That was the night before 11 Nissan and R’ Yeshavam Segal hosted us. Till today, he is my mashpia.

While it took Roni longer, things moved quickly for me. R’ Segal, with endless patience, listened to everything we had to say. He sat with us until the morning. He was able to create this enormous change in me with his ability to listen, and thanks to the tremendous spiritual depth he had to give. He demonstrated to me that Chassidus is the ultimate truth, the truth of Judaism. So to me, Judaism and Chabad came together. Since that Shabbos, we have a tight connection.

The young Yisroel Halperin went to Bialik Elementary School and then on to Tchernichovsky High School.

“I was chairman of the student body and I met with people, with writers, officers, and various leaders. I even invited some of them to speak to the students. It was a huge school.

“Also, as a school project, two students were picked from every grade and sent once a week to university to take supplementary courses in different fields. This is how I got to meet, see, and listen to people of all types. Then I met R’ Segal, a person head and shoulders above the rest (which is how I see him till this day). I saw the huge gap between him and all those important people I had met and spoken with. When I realized that he was merely a Chassid of the Rebbe, I felt that this was an entirely different world.

“At this point, I realized I needed to leverage my social standing for the purpose of spreading the wellsprings. We started a Tanya class for the students with R’ Sholom Feldman and R’ Segal. The shiur was given in an apartment full of students. At the end of the year, nearly all the guys, about forty or fifty, went to a ‘week of yeshiva’ in Kfar Chabad. It made a big impression on all of them. I myself became Lubavitch and started dividing my time between school and yeshiva.”

A CHASSID IN SAYERET

Back then, it wasn’t as easy to defer serving in the army as it is today, and R’ Halperin had a hard time deferring his service. He decided that since he reached this stage, he would do his army service all the way. He started in the air force where he successfully passed the pilot’s course and even flew a two-engine plane but he had to drop out because of his insistence on not shaving. From there, he went to “the unit.” When he says “the unit,” he means the Sayeret Matkal – Special Forces unit, which at the time (and probably now too) was a small combat unit and considered the elite unit in the IDF, a veritable legend.

He continued his military service afterward in the Reserves in a comparable unit, and served for decades until he turned 51. He used this service to spread the wellsprings and the Besuras HaGeula.

“After they gave back northern Sinai to Egypt, we were called up to serve in Sinai. The commanders said that it was feared that the Egyptians were breaking the ceasefire and were bringing in Russian anti-aircraft guns, with advanced sighting and downing capabilities that could reach as far as the air force base in Tel Nof. The assignment was to enter and find out whether the rumor was true. Of course, this was top secret information.

“They took us to the place from where we would enter. At the time, I was carrying with me a summary of the sicha that the Rebbe said a few weeks earlier in which he said that the Egyptians brought in advanced weaponry in order to harm the security of Jews living in Eretz Yisroel. The Rebbe got into the details of it and even said, ‘Every child knows this,’ and they are withholding this information from the public.

“The sicha was presented to the soldiers, the kibbutznikim in the unit. They in turn said to the commander, ‘You are just placing us in danger for no reason. Everyone knows this already.’ But the chief intelligence officer of the southern command himself told us that the army did not know for sure what the Egyptians were up to and so this mission was absolutely essential.

“‘But the Lubavitcher Rebbe said so,’ said the soldiers.

“The officer asked to see the sicha and was amazed, but he insisted: In the army, they don’t know about this. By the end of the discussion there were those who expressed doubts about what the Rebbe said. Upon my suggestion, we made a bet. If, when we entered Egypt, we saw that the Rebbe was right, they would put on t’fillin. They agreed.

“We entered Egypt and were there for 24 hours. We checked things out and found that the Rebbe was right. The guys were incredulous. The Lubavitcher Rebbe was right! There, in Egypt, I said to them, now you put on t’fillin.

“‘Are you crazy? Here?!’

“When we returned to Eretz Yisroel the soldiers complained: ‘Where is the military campaign officer? We will show him what is what…’

“When they met with him, he said, the Rebbe’s sources of information are inconceivable!”

R’ Halperin continues:

“I wasn’t part of the Entebbe campaign. The team I served with remained here, but I was one of the last people to talk to Yoni Netanyahu before he boarded the plane for Uganda. I really wanted to give him a pair of t’fillin but it was too late. After we heard of his death, it bothered me, so last year, during the Tzuk Eitan campaign, when we visited the Prime Minister to convince him to do as the Rebbe said and fight all the way, I took the opportunity to give him a pair of t’fillin. I told him why I was giving it to him along with some other memories I had about the pintele Yid of his brother. I told him that I now see him as the proper address. Netanyahu’s eyes welled up. He took the t’fillin, caressed them emotionally, and said he did not know whether he would put them on every day but he promised to use them.

“Before that, we had also been to see the Defense Minister, Bogey Yaalon. I told him about a certain mission I had been part of, where I had put t’fillin on with the chief intelligence officer. Bogey said emotionally, ‘If so, then take over the command and I’ll also put on t’fillin,’ and that’s what he did.”

RABBANUS AS SHLICHUS

After learning in Tomchei T’mimim in Kfar Chabad, R’ Halperin finally received the long-awaited bracha for a trip to the Rebbe. That was his life’s dream. In Elul 5738 he went to the Rebbe for the first time and stayed there until the end of Tishrei 5739. Since then, nearly every year he goes to the Rebbe for Tishrei in addition to other visits during the year.

After marrying his wife Esther, they lived in Kfar Chabad and he learned in the kollel headed by R’ Avrohom Hersh HaKohen a”h (who also personally gave him smicha). This was in accordance with the Rebbe’s instructions that he go on shlichus “in a way of rabbanus.” Then he continued learning dayanus in a kollel in Ramle. During this period, he was tested to receive smicha from several great rabbis in Eretz Yisroel. He learned in kollel for about eight years and throughout this period he received various job offers but the Rebbe told him to keep on learning.

The shlichus in Hertzliya began eight years after he was married, at the end of 5744, with the Rebbe’s green light for him to go on shlichus. Since then, he has been preparing his place to greet Moshiach. He ended up in Hertzliya when he was asked to give a shiur there.

In Elul 5744, he was officially installed as rav of the central shul in the Neve Amal neighborhood, the largest neighborhood in Hertzliya.

R’ Halperin divides his shlichus between the city rabbinate and running the mosdos and activities in the city. Each of these jobs is a full-time position, replete with many roles and challenges. R’ Halperin, back when he was in Sayeret Matkal, already got used to taking on heavy loads. On Shabbos and Yom Tov he focuses on his job as rav of the shul.

Although the shul where he serves is not a Chabad shul, the congregants love the Rebbe and Chabad. After the passing of the Rebbetzin, the members dedicated a Torah in her honor in k’sav Admur HaZakein. It was the first Torah written in her memory.

“I went to the Rebbe with the first invitation for a siyum and received a bottle of mashke. The gabbaim greatly respect this Torah and make sure the crown is not taken off even when it’s in the Aron Kodesh. They use it only a few times a year, for special readings, because they value it so highly.”

The interview with R’ Halperin took place before he traveled to the Rebbe for Sukkos, as he does every year. As rav of a non-Chabad k’hilla, it wasn’t easy getting away for Yom Tov.

“The first year, I realized I would not be able to go to the Rebbe for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but by 13 Tishrei I was not able to bear the thought that I would not spend any of Tishrei with the Rebbe. After arranging it with my congregants, I went.

“Hashem helped me and for a number of years I was able to bring a very wealthy man to the Rebbe, who donated nice sums of money to Machane Yisroel. We went two years in a row to the Rebbe for a special private audience for wealthy men and the shluchim that brought them, which took place during Aseres Yemei T’shuva. The congregants understood the importance of this and accepted my going.

“Over the years, some of them became close with Chabad and some of them even went to the Rebbe themselves. The head gabbai of the shul has even been to the Rebbe for the entire Tishrei!”

To be continued…