#488 (s5767-27) 9 Nissan 5767

A Subway Switch

Said Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach: "The Lubavitcher Rebbe gave me a new soul."

A Subway Switch

[From a talk by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach at Lincoln Square Synagogue, New York, in Tishrei 5755 (Autumn 1994).]

There is no Jew, who, when he met the Lubavitcher Rebbe for the first time, thinks, "I'm a stranger to him." There was no distance between the Rebbe and every Jew in the world. Anyone who came in contact with the Rebbe knew that the Rebbe knew him and cared for him.

The Rebbe's strength was that every Jew in the world absolutely knew that the Rebbe loved and cared about him or her -- day and night. Many leaders talk about outreach, in-reach, wide-reach. The Rebbe believed in "in-reach"-- reaching deep down into the depths of the soul. (By the way, the term, "outreach" always rubbed me in the wrong way. Are you "outside" that I have to go "out" to get you? And it bothered the Rebbe too, for the same reasons.)

I learned in [the non-chasidic] Lakewood Yeshiva for a while. Then one day, the Rebbe told me that the world needs me to talk to Jews. The Rebbe actually gave me a new soul. Everyone I saw, I wanted to grab and say, "Wow! Don't you know there is a Rebbe in the world?"

I decided that whenever I would go on the subway, I would not get off until I found a Jew and taught him some Torah. Once, it was the night before Shavuot, a Wednesday night. I just had the privilege of having yechidus [a private audience] with the Rebbe -- it was heaven. I left the Rebbe at about four in the morning and got into the subway. Opposite me sat a young man who appeared to be Jewish but I wasn't sure. He seemed very happy.

I said, "My friend, why do you seem so happy?" He explained that although he was Jewish, he was planning on getting married that Saturday (which would be the second day of Shavuot as well as Shabbat) to a non-Jewish girl in a church in The Bronx. "So you see", he beamed, "this is going to be a very special weekend for me."

I knew it indeed would be a very special weekend for him, but not for the reason he thought. I told him that getting married is great, but before he does so, he should get a blessing from a very holy man. I explained to him that it just so happens that this holy man lives only a few stations behind us. He cheerfully agreed to go back with me

By then it was 4:30 AM. I knocked on the Rebbe's door, and he opened it. My friends, many people have had the privilege of having yechidus with the Rebbe, but how many have had the privilege that the Rebbe should open the door for him? I had my arms around this boy and I explained to the Rebbe that this boy plans on marrying a non-Jewish girl in a church in The Bronx on Shabbat and Yom Tov. I mean, how far can you go?

The Rebbe told me to wait outside and took this boy into his office. I waited outside the Rebbe's door until 7:30 saying Tehillim (Psalms). You know what the Rebbe was doing? He was washing this boy's soul out. There wasn't just a little dust on his soul. The Rebbe really had to do plastic surgery on his neshama.

Finally, the Rebbe opened the door and the boy's eyes were red with tears. The Rebbe told me to take him to immerse in the mikvah and then to put on tefilin with him. I don't have to tell you the rest of the story. He didn't go to the church in The Bronx to marry this non-Jewish girl. Instead, he spent Shavuot in "770" and had a very special weekend.

The heartbreaking thing is that we know there was not a Rebbe like this ever before and that there will never be a Rebbe like this again.

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Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from Chabad Lights, Winter 1994-95, whose source was the Carlebach website.

Biographical 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.

Yrachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and editor of Ascent Quarterly and the AscentOfSafed.com and KabbalaOnline.org websites. He has hundreds of published stories to his credit.