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Weekly Chasidic Story #1335 (5783-42) 21 Tammuz 5783 (July 10, 2023)
Connection: The second half of this week's Torah reading, Maasai, reports the 42 places the Jews stopped during their 40 years in the desert. The Baal Shem Tov famously said that for individuals, these stages correspond to the 42 stages of their life.
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Stages of PrintingIt was 1999 and internet commerce was in its infancy. Six years earlier, I [Tzvi Jacobs] had received a blessing from the Lubavitcher Rebbe to publish a collection of my stories, which I titled "From the Heavens to the Heart". I decided it was worth it for me to try to find a printer for my book on-line. I filled out a form and listed the specifications. During the next four weeks, I received quotes from six printing houses in the United States and one in Canada. The best price came from Canada. I called the Canadian print house. The cover thickness, the paper, the binding, everything sounded top quality - and the American dollar could buy more in Canada. Canada was the place to print. "What do I do next?" "There's also shipping," the man said with a flat voice. "That's another $1400." "$1400! You're kidding, aren't you?" I asked. "We're in Winnipeg. It's 1260 miles from here to your door in Morristown, New Jersey." I waited but no other bids came in from Canada. Maybe there was a printer in Canada a bit closer, like around Montreal, I wondered. I knew one person in Montreal, Rabbi Ronnie Fine, the Rebbe's emissary in Queen Mary, Montreal. "Do you know anyone who owns a printing house?" I asked. "Sorry, I can't help you there," Rabbi Fine said. "Actually, there's a printing agent. He handles some of our printing jobs. His name is also Jacobs, Lorne Jacobs. Maybe you're related." "I doubt it. Our name was originally Karesh. Is Lorne Jacobs involved in your Chabad House?" "No. He politely keeps saying that he's not interested. But he makes sure the jobs are high quality and he gets us good prices. I'll give you his number." Even though it was a Sunday morning, I left a brief message on Mr. Jacobs answering machine. That afternoon I received a call from a man with a distinctive Canadian English accent. "I understand that you want to print a 200-page hardcover book with library binding and a four-color book jacket, and-" I was confused. I hadn't left those details on his answering machine this morning. "I haven't checked today's messages yet," said Mr. Jacobs. Now I was really confused. "So how do you know all those details?" I asked. "I picked up this information from the internet a few weeks ago and then misplaced it. A few minutes ago I opened a folder and there it was. Hold on, I'll play the message for you. "This is too uncanny!" he marveled. "And we share the same last name too. Quite a coincidence." "Right. But know that nothing happens by accident, it's all orchestrated to the most minute detail by The One Above! In fact, that's the theme of every story in my book." I emailed the file of the book to Lorne. He called back two days later. "You know, it's your fault that I overslept this morning and missed an appointment," Lorne said with the voice of a teacher scolding a student. (He later informed me that he was a retired college chemistry teacher.) "Because of me?" "Yes, I started reading your stories last night and soon Rhona, my wife, heard me laughing and crying. So she read the next story out loud and I read out the one after. We couldn't go to sleep until we finished the book. I've read a lot of books - you're an excellent story teller." "Thank you, but believe me, you should see my first drafts. My wife tears them up. Speaking of which, she wants to know when can we go to print?" "Hold on. I see that you have never printed a book. Do you have an ISBN number? Plus, you need a barcode. And what's going to go on the inside flaps of your back jacket? And on the book cover itself...." Lorne and I spoke almost every evening. He re-read the stories, which led to him starting to ask many of the fundamental questions: about Divine Providence; do you really believe that G-d wrote the Bible; that the world was created in six days? Don't you believe in evolution? If G-d is in charge why the Holocaust? Are Jews really better than Gentiles?... The questions didn't end. "If you're going to put so much effort and money into this book," Lorne said, "it has to look first class. I know you have no money to hire a professional typesetter. Let me see what I can do." Day after day, story after story, Lorne tweaked nearly every line of the book. It became a labor of love and a journey to discover his own Jewish roots. Adding one mitzvah (commandment) at a time, Lorne and Rhona made their kitchen kosher, lit Shabbat candles and said the Kiddush prayer over a glass of wine, and studied Torah and Chasidic teachings, until they blossomed into fully-observant Jews. Lorne oversaw every step of the publishing and printing of the hardcover edition of "From the Heavens to the Heart." He found even a better price than the Winnipeg printer and shipping was two-thirds less. And when the inside flaps of the full color book jacket didn't fold exactly right, Lorne made sure all 3000 copies were reprinted. "A book with the Rebbe's blessing must be perfect," Lorne said. After publication (finally!), if you were to visit Chabad Queen Mary in Montreal on Shabbat, you would have a heard a voice that resonates with authority: "Please turn to page 200 and rise for Aleinu (the concluding prayer)." That man with the smile - that's Shimon-Leib (Lorne) Jacobs, Rabbi Fine's right hand man. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Biographical note: Connection: The second half of this week's Torah reading, Maasai, reports the 42 places the Jews stopped during their 40 years in the desert. The Baal Shem Tov famously said that for individuals, these stages correspond to the 42 stages of their life.
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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.