THE LOST BROTHER

By Nechama Bar

There was tremendous excitement in the Grabovsky home in the Ukraine. Suitcases were piled in the living room and the driver outside was beeping, waiting for Vladimir to come out. The parents tearfully said goodbye and wished him luck in Eretz Yisroel.

For years, the Grabovskys had spoken about Eretz Yisroel and dreamed about it, but that was different than taking action. To leave the Ukraine and everything familiar to them, to leave their home and jobs, was no simple thing. But Vladimir, the oldest son, yearned to go to Eretz Yisroel and he could wait no longer.

“Vladimir, wait and we will go with you, with the entire family,” Igor, his younger brother, tried to convince him. But Vladimir was impatient, and didn’t want to wait for the rest of the family.

The plane’s wheels touched down in the holy land and Vladimir was thrilled. His heart beat fast; finally, his dream was coming true! Eretz Yisroel!

He got off the plane, collected his luggage, but nobody was waiting for him at the airport. He soon came to realize that life there was going to be hard. His dream was shattered and he was so disappointed.

At first he lived in Ramle in a small apartment he was allocated by the government. He looked for a job in the field he had studied but did not find one. Having no choice, he agreed to do any sort of work as long as he could make some money and support himself. He ended up finding a job as a gardener, hoeing, watering, pruning, and weeding. He sweated mightily with his efforts.

“Me? Vladimir the smart and talented fellow who did well in school and earned a certificate, am working at hard physical labor?” he thought disappointedly.

Every week he called his family and spoke to them. “Vladimir, come home. That work is not for you. It’s such a shame …” His family tried to convince him but Vladimir insisted on staying in Eretz Yisroel.

Vladimir started calling home less often. The last time they spoke, he told his parents that he had been fired.

“Now you have to come back. There is nothing for you to do there. Come home!” said Igor again and again.

Vladimir decided he would not call them anymore. For a long time he did not call and his family worried. What was happening with him? Did anything bad happen to him?

They contacted a relative who lived in Eretz Yisroel and asked her to look for Vladimir. But she wasn’t able to locate him.

Days, weeks, and months went by and they were getting very worried. One day, Igor announced to his parents, “I’m going to Eretz Yisroel to look for Vladimir. I feel guilty for trying to pressure him to come home. Maybe it was because of me that he stopped calling home and disappeared.”

A few days later, Igor was in Eretz Yisroel. He traveled all over the country looking for his brother. But it was like Vladimir had vanished, swallowed up by the earth.

In the meantime, Igor went to live in Tel Aviv and began working. In the mornings he would work and the rest of the day he spent searching for Vladimir. He managed to discover that Vladimir had lived in an apartment in Ramle. When he went there, the neighbors told him that Vladimir had left a few months before.

“Poor fellow, he did not fit in. He looked alone and sad,” they told Igor.

“I will go to the people who hired him and find out if they know where he went,” thought Igor.

“Yes, we remember him,” they said. “At first he was a diligent worker but then it bothered him that he had to do this kind of work that had nothing to do with the profession he studied and he began slacking off. In the end, we had to fire him.”

Igor got on the radio and asked the public to help him. He put ads in the paper and made all sorts of inquiries but could not find his brother.

He was about to give up. He couldn’t continue searching but felt he couldn’t stop either.

“Maybe he went to the United States to seek his fortune there,” he wondered. He bought a ticket and flew to the US. He spent a month in Los Angeles looking and when he didn’t find him there, he went to look in other places. Despair gradually overtook him and he felt he would never find his lost brother.

One Friday, when he was going to be returning to Eretz Yisroel in three days without his brother, he felt so sad. Then, out of the blue, at a hotel in New York where he was staying, he met a nice Jewish man. Igor shared his sorrow with the man who asked him, “Have you been to the Lubavitcher Rebbe?”

Igor looked at the Chassid skeptically and made a dismissive motion. No, he didn’t believe in things like that. But the Chassid said, “What do you have to lose? You’ve tried so many things; make this one more effort. You’re here anyway.”

Igor was convinced. On Sunday he stood on a long line and waited to see the Rebbe. The moment arrived and the Rebbe looked at him lovingly and gave him a dollar for tz’daka.

“It’s already been more than a year that I am looking for my brother. I am afraid he is no longer alive,” he said to the Rebbe.

The Rebbe smiled, gave him a dollar, and said, “Give this dollar to tz’daka and you will find your brother.”

Before he could think, Igor was outside 770. He was grasping the dollar and was elated by the encounter but also confused.

“What connection is there between this dollar and my brother Vladimir?” He did not hold out high hopes and put the dollar in his wallet.

Igor returned to Eretz Yisroel. He went to Yerushalayim to take care of some important matters and when he left the Central Bus Station, he saw some beggars sitting and collecting money. He recalled what the Rebbe told him and thought, “Now I will give the dollar.” He took the dollar from the Rebbe out and handed it to one of the beggars. Their eyes met and … that face was familiar!

“Vladimir! Is that you?”

Vladimir nodded. Yes, it was him.

A year of searching had ended by following the Rebbe’s simple instruction. “Give the dollar to tz’daka and you will find your brother.”