THE MIVTZAIM FLOP THAT SAVED A JEWISH SOUL

The T’mimim had prepared many parties for Purim night, but despite the meticulous preparations and arrangements, the forces of spiritual evil were determined to leave them empty-handed. Two rabbinical students, invited to a party with sixty guests, arrived only after most of the disappointed participants had already left. What eventually happened? An amazing story of success on Mivtza Purim.

Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry

Quite often we make a tremendous effort, invest all our time and energy, yet things don’t always work out as planned. And we are occasionally fortunate enough to later see how ‘the steps of man are directed by G-d,’ and this lost opportunity that made us downcast was nothing more than ‘the finger of G-d’ and an amazing case of Divine Providence created for our benefit.”

In these words, Rabbi Meir Traiger, mashgiach and mashpia at Yeshivas Chassidei Chabad-Lubavitch, began his story. It took place on Purim 5761, when he was a rabbinical student on ‘k’vutza’. Fourteen years have passed since then, yet Rabbi Traiger tells the story every year at the Purim farbrengen, in accordance with the words of the Megilla - “And these days shall be remembered and celebrated.”

“Just two months after we started our ‘k’vutza’ year, one of my fellow T’mimim, Shneur Akiva, introduced me to the wide-ranging activities for Hebrew speakers throughout New York City by the Chabad Israeli Center in Crown Heights, administered by Rabbi Gavriel Avichezer.”

“Shneur was Rabbi Avichezer’s right-hand man in running the numerous Torah classes the center gave over the telephone. Each day many T’mimim come into the center and present Torah classes via telephone for Israelis who have requested this service.”

SIXTY PURIM PARTIES

“That year we decided to go l’chat’chilla aribber. We enlisted all the T’mimim who had given over Torah classes, and prepared special holiday sets with all the accessories - menorahs and candles, informational brochures explaining the meaning of the holiday, and of course, jelly donuts and mashke. The objective was to make as many house visits as possible during the Chanukah holiday. The T’mimim got to work and we made sixty Chanukah parties for our Israeli contacts.

“Two and a half months later, when Purim came, we were determined to meet with equal success. The idea behind this huge production was clear: When you come to someone in his own home and meet with him there, the friendship becomes more personal and it has a much greater influence. We again built a ‘house parties’ model: The host of the party would cover the expenses, and we pledged to send two T’mimim with food and refreshments according to the amount of money the host invested in the event.

“Unfortunately, we forgot to take one simple fact into account: On Chanukah, there were sixty parties spread over a period of eight days. Since there were about eight parties held each day at various hours, we could arrange each event in the best possible manner. However, since Purim is only a one-day holiday, we would have to make sixty parties on the same night. As a result, we had to get about a hundred T’mimim who would agree to go out to various neighborhoods in New York City, coordinate their activities with orders of cooked food or various delicacies, a kosher Megilla, a bottle of mashke, and organized transportation to take the bachurim to their appointed destination. This was a complex series of preparations that had to be managed with the utmost precision.

“We reached agreements with various stores and caterers, transportation companies, and we naturally coordinated the necessary arrangements between the yeshiva bachurim and the Israelis who would be hosting the events. Two days before Purim, we finished making all the orders and set the dates and times for each event with its respective host; we were certain that we had the situation under control.

“But when the day of Purim arrived, the problems began to pop up. The caterers in charge of preparing the food failed to meet the schedule we had set for them. There were bachurim who arrived late at the office, resulting in a considerable delay in reaching the home of their hosts. The center was swamped with calls from every direction, and there were moments when we began to ‘lose our heads’ - confusion regarding who goes where and with what supplies. In fact, while most of the events began on time and quite successfully, a few of them met with serious logistical difficulties. This was a source of much discouragement for me. I felt that the whole project we had worked so hard to develop was a flop.

“A myriad of thoughts were running through my mind - ‘the honor of Lubavitch,’ ‘the honor of the Rebbe,’ etc. I was certain that these people would not agree to cooperate with our programs next year. The feeling of disappointment and failure ran very deep, and it was very hard to see the glass half full. These are the Rebbe’s mitzvah campaigns, and on the most basic and personal level, there were people who were counting on you. You promised something, yet you didn’t deliver…”

A SEEMINGLY WASTED OPPORTUNITY

“In one of these places, two T’mimim, students on ‘k’vutza’ in 770, organized a party at the home of a supporter whom they knew through their weekly ‘mivtzaim’ activities. They had come to us and asked for our help. Naturally, we agreed and they gave us the money they had received from this individual, relying upon us to make certain that everything would be done appropriately. But when Purim came around everything seemed to go wrong. The bachurim waited and waited for the fleishig meal they had ordered, but it never arrived. In the end, they went to their destination equipped with a modicum of light refreshments. They had arranged for a minivan to transport them and their supplies to the event, but it too was delayed unexpectedly. They ended up taking another vehicle, which brought them to the party nearly two hours late. The host personally called every few minutes, telling us that he had invited no less than sixty friends and acquaintances to celebrate the holiday with him - and now he felt totally humiliated.

“When the T’mimim finally arrived, there were only about twenty people left. While they had expected a sumptuous meal, they were forced to settle for candies and sweet drinks. It felt as if everything was working against us to undermine this event.

“As they came into the house following their long delay, they apologized to the host and the remaining guests. The host accepted their apology, but his wife did not. She proceeded to unleash an attack of unrestrained fury and anger upon the bachurim. The host tried to calm her down, but she continued to hurl curses and verbal abuse. At a certain point, the bachurim felt extremely uncomfortable about remaining any longer than necessary. After reading the Megilla and saying a few words of Torah, they headed straight back to Crown Heights.

“The bachurim told me about the unpleasant experience they had endured. This merely intensified the sense of failure and disappointment. ‘What a terrible chillul Hashem I caused,’ I thought to myself. For several days after Purim I walked around with this feeling of despair. There were some bachurim that I was too embarrassed to look at.

“On Friday afternoon, about an hour before Shabbos, one of these two bachurim who had been the target of that wave of maltreatment on Purim ran up to me. ‘Meir,’ he said, ‘you’ve got to hear the rest of the story.’

“Apparently, this bachur and his mivtzaim partner had gone out on mivtzaim as they did every Friday. They had prepared a lengthy apology to their Purim host over what had transpired on Purim day. Their hope was that the incident wouldn’t harm the good relationship they had managed to develop with him until then. When they came to his store they noticed that the man had a rather sullen expression on his face. This was already an indication of something peculiar, as this Jew usually greeted us with a friendly smile. He agreed to put on t’fillin as he did every week and the bachurim prepared to give their apology as soon as he finished.

“However, as the man started to remove the t’fillin, he told the young chassidim that a minute after they had left his house, he broke up with his wife for good. ‘After I heard how she spoke to you, I decided that I could no longer live with such a woman,’ he said. The bachurim had not been prepared for this. In their worst nightmares, they never would have believed that a failed Purim event would lead to the breakup of a Jewish family. They prepared to defend his wife, who apparently had not been in a particularly good mood that day.

“Yet, as he continued to speak, he said something that shocked them. ‘I reached the conclusion,’ he added, ‘that this shiksa actually hates Jews and is a real anti-Semite.’

“They were shocked. He proceeded to tell them that there had been other instances where they had arranged events that didn’t work out as planned. Yet, in those cases, the people had been Gentiles, and she showed far greater understanding and forgiveness with them…

“The two T’mimim stood there speechless. Instead of apologizing, they embraced him warmly and gave him support in the step he had taken.”

* * *

Rabbi Traiger concluded his story with much emotion. Despite the fact that he has told this story on numerous occasions, it still affects him deeply. “I was able to relax for the first time in days as a huge weight had been lifted from my chest.

“Every time I tell this story to the yeshiva bachurim I emphasize that it is most important to focus on what you’re doing, for the outcome, all you can do is hope for the best. In my case, I was privileged that G-d, in His Divine Kindness, showed me the end of the story. While we aren’t always fortunate to see the results, we must believe that this world is conducted by the amazing force of Divine Providence.”