#299 (s5763-45 / 9 Tammuz)

A Grandfather's Tears

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Scheersohn shared a very interesting idea from the Baal Shem Tov.

 



A Grandfather's Tears

Tzvi Jacobs

The phone rang. "Hi, Karen, it's Tzippi. Would you like to spend this coming Shabbat with us?"
Karen, a student at a local college, felt touched that someone from the Lubavitch community in S. Paul still remembered her. She had met Tzippi the previous summer, in 1978, when she took some classes at the Bais Chana Women's Yeshiva in Minnesota, and had enjoyed many Shabbat meals with Tzippi and her family.

Although she had recently become ambivalent about mitzvah observance, Karen accepted the invitation. Afterwards, she was glad she did. It felt good to be back in the Lubavitch community, experiencing the joy of Shabbat. She felt fortunate to know them, even if she was not one of them. As her mother had recently told her, "Your grandfather was very religious, but he was not a chasid."

On Saturday night, Karen let herself be talked into going to the Chabad House to hear Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Hecht. Rabbi Hecht was an emissary sent by the Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Scheersohn, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, more than thirty years previously, in the 1940's, to strengthen the Jewish community in Chicago. That night was the Rebbe's yahrzeit.

"I had the privilege to be with "the Previous Rebbe" on the 12th of Tammuz [the anniversary of his miraculous release from a Russian death sentence in 1927] before he passed away. He shared a very interesting idea from the Baal Shem Tov***. The Baal Shem Tov had the custom of asking anyone who came to him, 'What do you remember?' meaning, what event in your life sticks out in your memory. When the person told him what he remembered, the Baal Shem Tov explained the meaning to him as it related to that individual's own personal life and mission.

"One of the basic interpretations of Divine supervision is that each and every individual hears that which is important for him to hear, and sees that which is necessary for him to see."

Rabbi Hecht went on to tell stories about the Previous Rebbe. Karen was inspired by the stories. Suddenly, Rabbi Hecht's deep voice boomed like thunder, jolting Karen from her reverie.
"During the war years, in Chicago," Rabbi Hecht said, "we had a fund called Keren Hatzala. By the war's end, we had collected $180,000 to be distributed to the Jewish refugees in Paris and the Holy Land. Amongst the three people sent to distribute it was Shumel Broida. Shmuel Broida was the president of Best's Kosher Food Products and he was also the president of Keren Hatzala."

Karen was stunned. "He's talking about Grandpa," she realized, astonished.

Rabbi Hecht continued talking. "When they came back [to Chicago], Mr. Broida gave a report and then told us, 'I had an experience that I shall never forget. In Paris, there were a thousand Russian Jewish refugees. I was very interested in finding out how these people lived through all the years that they were in Russia, so I spoke to the elders, the middle-aged, and then picked a little boy at random and asked: 'Look, little boy, I am going back to America. Is there anything that I can give you that you want very, very much?'
"As tears welled in his eyes, Reb Broida said, 'Do you know what this little boy said? He said, "I want to come to America to see the Rebbe." '

"Mr. Broida said he could understand an older person wanting to see the Rebbe, but a little boy of eight years old! He said, 'I thought he would want candy, a toy, a suit, shoes. Only one thing he wanted: to come to America to see the Previous Rebbe."

Rabbi Hecht lowered his voice and said, "Mr. Broida, who was not a chasid, told us, 'If the Rebbe can leave such an impression twenty years after he has left the country, so that even little children grow up with the hope that someday they will be able to see the Rebbe -- this is something unique.'
Rabbi Hecht glanced around the silent room. Some people were wiping their eyes. In the front row he saw a young woman with tears streaming down her face.

Rabbi Moshe Feller, the Rebbe's emissary in Minnesota, also saw Karen sobbing. After the talk he whispered to Rabbi Hecht that he thought the teary young woman was the granddaughter of Mr. Broida.

Rabbi Hecht approached Karen privately and confirmed Rabbi Feller's guess.
"Your grandfather and I were not close friends. He was much older than I, and well, let's just say we had different viewpoints on certain subjects. Still, we worked together on some projects. After he told the Keren Hatzala committee about his experience in Paris, he called me and asked if I would arrange a private meeting for him with the Rebbe. It was 1947 and the Previous Rebbe was in very poor health, so it was very hard to get an appointment with him. Nevertheless, I was able to arrange it.
"We flew to New York together. After a relatively long meeting, your grandfather walked out of the Rebbe's room and said, 'This was one of the most incredible experiences in my life.' That's all he would tell me. Then the Rebbe's secretary came out and said 'the Rebbe wants to see you.'
"The Rebbe said to me, 'Reb Shmuel Broida was just by me, and I asked him what he was involved in, and he told me. And then I asked, "What's doing with your children?" and Reb Shmuel burst into tears.'"

Rabbi Hecht looked solemnly at Karen and said, "The Rebbe looked at me and said, 'I promised him that one day he will have nachas [gladness] from his grandchildren.' "
"Until this moment, I didn't understand why your Zaidy cried and why the Rebbe called me into his office and told me what he said to your Zaidy."

Karen understood. Grandpa had six children, and all of them stopped being observant during their teen years. When Mr. Shmuel Broida passed away, of his 17 grandchildren, not one was the least bit observant.
Rabbi Hecht smiled slightly and said to Karen, "It was your grandfather's tears with the Rebbe that brought you back."

That night, Karen decided to follow Rabbi Feller's advice to study full-time at the Machon Chana Women's Yeshiva in Brooklyn.
Today, Karen and both her brothers are married and observant. Karen (now known by her Jewish name, Shifra Chana) lives a fulfilling, Chasidic Jewish life with her husband and children in Morristown, New Jersey.
~~~~~~~~~~~

[Edited by Yrachmiel Tilles from an article in L'chaim #424, and from the source story in the book "From the Heavens to the Heart" by Tzvi Jacobs, available from the author: tzvi.jacobs@pobox.com]

*** Editor's note:
The Baal Shem Tov was the founder of the Chasidic movement - see Story 222 in this series]

Biographical note:
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (12 Tammuz 1880-10 Shvat 1950) was the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, from 1920 to 1950. He established a network of Jewish educational institutions and Chassidim that was the single most significant factor for the preservation of Judaism during the dread reign of the communist Soviets. In 1940 he moved to the USA, established Chabad world-wide headquarters in Brooklyn and launched the global campaign to renew and spread Judaism in all languages and in every corner of the world, the campaign continued and expanded so remarkably successfully by his son-in-law and successor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (see last week's story).


 

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.

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