Weekly Chasidic Story #602 (s5769-37 / 17 Sivan 5769)

From Hamas, to India, to Safed and Torah

Yocheved suffered a total of seven bullet wounds during her years as an army spy.

(Connection: Weekly Torah Reading - Shelach: the spies.)

 

From Hamas, to India, to Safed and Torah

Yocheved (whose real name is known here in Tsfat but has been changed for security reasons) gets ready for her special mission. Information had to be collected through careful observation, and it is a challenge to find out what the university students who are working for Hamas are up to without arousing suspicion. She covers her hair in the style of a Muslim woman. She reminds herself not to ask too many questions this time, or there might be serious trouble.

Yocheved, now a married observant woman with children, reflects on the special mission she was given in the army; she risked her life every day to spy on student terrorist groups. "They gave us a four month course in Arabic which I didn't really need; my mother is Moroccan, and we spoke Arabic at home anyway. Sometimes I was found out, but it wasn't my accent that gave me away; it was all the questions I was asking."

She is pleased that her underground efforts bore fruit. She notes that as a result of the information she provided, they managed to catch many potential terrorists, students who would almost certain be a major source of trouble today.

These discoveries were not painless. Yocheved received a total of seven bullet wounds during her years as an army spy. Fortunately, none of these injuries caused permanent damage, plus they showed her that G-d was protecting her during her missions.

Yocheved was able to recognize G-d's influence in her life because of her traditional background. "My mother lit Shabbat candles. Also, I knew about the Rebbe of Lubavitch and could recite the 12 special verses by heart, as he requested of all Jewish children. It was because of these things that I was able to return to Judaism."

After the army, like many other Israelis, Yocheved went to India. She studied Eastern religions and meditation and even opened a restaurant with a friend. "I was doing all kind of things that interested me, but I couldn't find a point to my life. When I came across Chabad in India, I started getting that 'point'."

Yocheved's return to Judaism began with her interest in the Tanya, and she attended Tanya classes given by Chasidim in India regularly. "I assumed I knew all about Judaism already, but Tanya was an eye-opener. I kept going to the Tanya classes and that's what really brought me back to Jewish observance."

After returning to Israel, Yocheved attended Machon Alte, a Chabad seminary in Tsfat (Safed). Subsequently she married and has established a chasidic home. She clearly recognizes how her travels and experiences, as well as her connection to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, led her back to Torah.

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Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from an article by Miriam Metzinger in "Living Jewish," the weekly publication of Chabad of the Cardo

Connection: weekly Torah reading - the spies.

Biographic Note:
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe (11 Nissan 1902 - 3 Tammuz 1994), became the seventh Rebbe of the Chabad dynasty after his father-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, passed away in Brooklyn on 10 Shvat 1950. He is widely acknowledged as the greatest Jewish leader of the second half of the 20th century. Although a dominant scholar in both the revealed and hidden aspects of Torah and fluent in many languages and scientific subjects, the Rebbe is best known for his extraordinary love and concern for every Jew on the planet. His emissaries around the globe dedicated to strengthening Judaism number in the thousands. Hundreds of volumes of his teachings have been printed, as well as dozens of English renditions.

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Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.

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