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#1169 (s5780-32/
10 Iyar, 5780 / May 4, 2020)
A Budding Engineer in Search of Meaning
His 3rd third question.to the Lubavitcher Rebbe in private audience
was, "What do youadvise me to do when I return home to Israel?"
Connection: Weekly Reading of Emor -- beards (Levit. 19:27 - Not to
shave off your beard)
Story in PDF
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A Budding Engineer in Search of Meaning
Rabbi Meir Bastomski was born in Vilna in 1941, in the midst of World War Two.
After the war his family moved to Israel, and he grew up in the city of Haifa,
known as the "Red City" for its Communist-atheist atmosphere. Judaism
was nowhere on his agenda. After he finished his army service, his father urged
him to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering at the prestigious Haifa Technion.
Not only did Meir attain the highest grades but, after graduation, was wooed
by several large companies.
But something was missing. A voracious reader, he had taught himself about
almost everything under the sun. It was all very interesting. He had never felt
that his engineering career, successful as it was, would fill the hole in his
life and the world. He wanted more. But what?
* * *
At the Technion, he had met a student named Shmuel Katan, who was connected
with Chabad, and this association led him to draw close to two local and well
known Chabad Chassidim, Rabbi Yechiel-Michael Dubruskin and Rabbi Reuven Dunin,
who might better give him attention and possibly all the answers.
His two new teachers came from the opposite backgrounds. Rabbi Dubruskin was
a Talmudic prodigy from a long line of rabbis, while Rabbi Dunin was a tractor
driver brought up in a Communist kibbutz. Meir spent hours arguing with them
until, slowly, he suspected that maybe Judaism had the answers and anyhow certainly
wasn't just another religion. He even considered, much to his father's consternation,
taking on a few of the commandments.
Slowly but surely, he moved toward Torah observance. Meanwhile, his father,
who had pushed him to become an engineer, had great hopes for his success. But
Meir felt he needed to fill the great gap in his Torah knowledge. Feeling himself
at a crossroads, he decided to try the yeshiva in Kfar Chabad (one train stop
from Tel Aviv) for a few months.
All the while, Rabbi Dunin was urging him to go to New York and seek advice
from the Rebbe. However, he wasn't totally convinced. Therefore his two teachers
suggested that he visit the headquarters of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in New York
for the month of Tishrei. This was 1966, when such visits were not common, but
neither was Meir Bastomski. He had to know what Judaism was really about.
* * *
As soon as he arrived, he was enthralled. The atmosphere in the Rebbe's synagogue
was something fresh and vibrant that he had never experienced. He enrolled in
the yeshiva there and immersed myself completely, learning day and night very
seriously, because he felt that he had to learn a lot of material in a short
time.
The young men there were friendly, lively and open-minded. Much of the day was
spent learning and discussing the intricacies of the Talmud, as well as the
Rebbe's responsa to questions just like the ones that had been bothering him.
The time passed quickly. He pushed off his return home several times during
the nine months he studied there. Finally, towards the end of the year, a yechidus,
a private meeting, was arranged with the Rebbe. Little did he realize then that
it would shape the rest of his life.
He entered armed with three questions to ask, but when he actually stood before
the Rebbe he completely forgot them. The Rebbe's face and eyes were something
that took him by surprise. But then, the Rebbe greeted him warmly and suddenly
Meir remembered.
His first question: "Why do I have such an affinity to the ideas of Chabad
Chasidism? Could it be possible that somewhere in my family tree there had been
such followers?"
The Rebbe did not reply. So Meir understood that he was the first.
The second question was more serious. "My father had a severe heart condition;
the doctors gave him, at most, two or three years to live and warned that any
emotional strain could be fatal. But my father is also a staunch atheist. Who
knows what will happen if I come home with a black hat and a full beard!"
The Rebbe responded that he should not touch his beard under any circumstances.
He gave him a deep and fascinating explanation about the beard and its essence,
according to Halacha (Jewish Law), Kabbalah and Chasidut.
The Rebbe then answered Meir's question directly. "Do not worry. If you
arrive home with an attitude of compromise, it will encourage arguments and
complaints from your father. But if you come with a firm decision to do what
is true and right, will not this be harmful. Just the opposite, in fact -clinging
to your principles is what will make your father happy and healthy." He
then blessed his father with a long, healthy, happy life.
The third question addressed his main dilemma. A bright, lucrative future awaited
him in Israel as a mechanical engineer. But he felt more drawn to Judaism. Therefore,
"Rebbe, what should I do when I return to Israel?"
The Rebbe's answer startled him. "If money is of foremost importance,
then you should work as an engineer. But if money is not the main thing, you
should be a teacher."
"A teacher?" Meir thought. It was something that had always been
in the back of his mind, but he had no training or experience in anything other
than engineering.
* * *
One month later he returned to Israel and, just as the Rebbe had said, when
his father viewed his adherence to his beliefs he actually seemed relieved that
his son had found himself. But there was a bigger problem-telling his father
about the decision to become a teacher. Here he was, ready to toss away his
diploma and everything he had worked and hoped for all these years. If the beard
didn't kill him, this news certainly would.
Meir was referred to two chasidim in Kfar Chabad, Rabbi Moshe Naparstek and
Rabbi Shlomo-Chaim Kesselman, both of whom decided that nothing would be more
fitting for Meir than a teaching career, and if he did what the Rebbe said,
for sure nothing bad could occur.
So Meir braced himself, chanted a few prayers, practiced smiling and returned
to his father to break the news.
"Dad," he began, watching his father closely for signs of distress
or chest pain. "You know, the Lubavitcher Rebbe gave me some advice and,
well, I talked to other rabbis and I decided that I'm not going to be an engineer.
"Dad, I love you and I want to do what's right. But I decided I'm going
to try to be a teacher. I want to teach young people Torah."
His father fell silent and a slight smile appeared on his lips. "Just
wait right here," he said, while he went into another room, opened a closet,
and searched through some papers.
He returned with some sort of folder. "Open it."
As Meir was opening it his father explained, "I don't know if you remember,
but over ten years ago you took an aptitude test. I never told you the results.
I really wanted you to be an engineer, to make a good wage and be secure, and
I was sure that was what the test would show.
"But it didn't. It showed that you have more of an aptitude for spiritual
things than for physical. I didn't want to tell you but . . . well, I guess
that Rebbe of yours really knows what he's talking about."
Indeed he did. Rabbi Meir Bastomski became a well-known Torah educator, who
had a significant influence on hundreds and hundreds of young students, and
is still going strong as he approaches his 80th birthday. And as for his father,
against the projections of all the doctors he lived another twenty years, which
they admitted was an open miracle, and rejoiced with many grandchildren and
great- grandchildren until the age of eighty-two.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rabbi Meir Bastomski served as the principal of the vocational school
in Kfar Chabad for twenty-three years, and spent almost twenty years as principal
and then general director of the Tzemach Tzedek Talmud Torah in Petach Tikva,
for several hundred children, mostly from non-observant backgrounds. (To hear
him tell his story in a video interview, go to www.chabad.org/3908664.)
Sources: Compiled and adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from the rendition of Rabbi
Tuvia Bolton, which he heard directly from R. Bastromski, as recorded in an
email from "The Avner Institute" <Rebbebook @ gmail.com>, with
factual corrections from "JEM - Here's My Story."
.
 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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