Weekly Chasidic Story #1435 "Preserving Heavenly Protection"

“I summon you to a Torah trial before the Heavenly Court, for you shamed me.”

Why This week? In the final episode in this week’s Torah reading, Baha’lote’cha, Miriam speaks words to shame her younger brother, Moshe (although solely to her older brother Aharon, not publicly like in the above story.

Story in PDF format for more convenient printing

The Jew On The Damascus Football Team

Alex Eisenbach was a well-known and successful businessman in Israel for nearly 40 years. We met often and he had stories to tell about every subject. One day he amazed me [R. Yaakov Cass] by saying, "Even though I am not a Chabadnik, I once did a very big favor for the Lubavitcher Rebbe".

I was quite taken aback. With a big smile he said, "I bet you would love to hear the story, wouldn't you?" and he was absolutely right.

He then told me about his early life. He came with his family to British Mandated Palestine from Rumania when he was a youngster, moving to Tel Aviv. In 1946, aged 18, he decided to study pharmacy. There was no school of pharmacy in 'Palestine.' The nearest was in Damascus, Syria, where many Jewish men went to study pharmacy.

Alex enrolled there, and soon thereafter formed a pharmacy football team that travelled to all the other universities in the Middle East. No one suspected that he was secretly working as a spy for the Hagganah. He supplied them with a great deal of information which was proved to be invaluable during the War of Independence.

In May 1948, the leaders of the Zionist towns and settlements declared themselves as a state. The five Arab states surrounding Israel, promptly attacked, initiating a war. As a result, Alex was soon thrown out of the university together with all the other Jewish students, while he was still missing one more year of study in order to qualify.

The Haggana had evolved to become the Israeli Army and Alex turned to them for help in finishing off his university studies. They kindly organized a place for him at the University of Boston. In 1948 the journey to Boston from Tel Aviv was by boat across the Atlantic to New York, and then by train to Boston. Everybody in Alex's neighborhood was excited at his good fortune. His imminent journey became the 'talk of the town.'

Shortly before his departure, a lady knocked at his door. Introducing herself as Mrs. Aryeh Leib Schneerson, she asked Alex if he would be willing and able to deliver a very important and valuable set of documents to her husband's brother, Rabbi M.M. Schneerson, the Ramash, as our Rebbe was known then, in the years that the Rebbe Rayatz was still alive. He was living in the Chabad community in the Crown Heights Section of Brooklyn.

She related that her husband had brought these irreplaceable documents with him when he left Russia, and the Ramash needed them urgently. She did not want to risk sending them by mail; she would trust only a personal emissary. She explained to Alex that upon arrival in New York City, he would have to immediately leave Manhattan by taking the subway to Crown Heights.

Alex replied that he would have no problem to do that. She instructed him to deliver the package to her sister-in-law, the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, who would be waiting for him at her home.

A month later Alex duly knocked at the door of the Ramash's home. The Rebbetzin herself came to the door and thanking him most profusely, asked him to leave the package with her. She said she would deliver it to her husband and requested Alex to come back at 4 o'clock in the afternoon to meet him.

When he returned, however, the Rebbetzin apologized that her husband was very busy with his duties and was unable to meet Alex after all. She explained that he had asked her to convey his deepest appreciation for performing such a vital service. "No words can express our gratitude to you for this great mitzvah and favor that you have done; the Ramash sends you his blessing," she said.

* * *

In the year 2000 approximately, Alex came to my office one day with tears in his eyes. He explained that the next day he was due to appear at the high court of justice, together with two colleagues. The three of them had conducted a multimillion-dollar business deal, after taking legal advice as how to avoid paying large taxes.

Instead of assisting them though, this advice had led them into serious trouble. The income tax authorities took them to court where they were found guilty of evading taxes. They were fined a million dollars each and sentenced to one full year in prison. Now they were awaiting the results of their appeal.

Alex looked at me and said, "It is not about a prison sentence for me, rather it is about a death sentence. At 80-years-old there is no way I can survive a prison term, and the fine will make me a pauper."

As he spoke, I remembered the story he had told me some ten years earlier. "Alex," I said, "a long time ago you told me that the Rebbe was extremely grateful for the great service you rendered to him. Do you think the Rebbe will simply leave you in the lurch? Come, say your prayers, put your trust in The One Above and ask the Rebbe for his blessing. With G-d's help everything will turn out just fine."

The next day at five o'clock in the afternoon, I was thrilled to hear on the radio that the high court of justice had acquitted all three defendants accused of cheating on their income tax filings. The high court pronounced that as they had taken legal counsel, even though the advice was incorrect, they had acted wrongly in all blamelessness and thus they were innocent.

The very next day as I sat in my office, in bounced Alex grinning from ear to ear. I hugged him as he said, "You see, I did indeed receive the Rebbe's blessing."

"Of course," I replied.

"Yes, but I know it; you just say it," retorted Alex.

Observing the puzzled look on my face, Alex related that as he entered the room in the high court where the appeal was to take place, he looked straight into the face of the chief justice. At that moment something extraordinary happened: he saw the face of the chief justice disappear momentarily and be replaced by the face of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who gave him a big smile. Within a few moments, the face of the chief justice reappeared.

Alex finished by saying, "At that moment I knew deep in my heart that the Rebbe was with us, and that surely we had to win our case and thank G-d, I was right!"

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Source: Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from a well-written submission by R. Yaakov Cass.
Rabbi Yaakov Cass is a Lubavitcher chasid living in Jerusalem. Before his recent retirement, he was a senior official in the Israel Ministry of Health.

Why This Week? Moshe selecting and sending twelve men to spy the Land of Israel is the opening topic of this week's Torah reading, Shelach; this week's story opens with a Jew who was a successful spy for Israel outside the Land.

Biographic note:
Yisrael Aryeh-Leib "Leibeh" Schneerson [21 Iyar 1906 - 13 Iyar 1952] was the youngest of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak and Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson's three sons. In 1930 he fled the USSR for Berlin, where his brother, the future Rebbe, lived. He relocated to British Mandatory Palestine in 1933, where he married in 1939 and had a daughter in 1944. In 1950 the family moved to England, to complete his doctoral thesis in the Department of Theoretical Physics of the University of Liverpool. Tragically, he passed away in 1952 at the young age of 46. At the Rebbe's directive, he was buried in the historic Chabad portion of the ancient cemetery in Safed, Israel. In the 1970s, a mathematical paper of his was published in the Journal of Approximation Theory.

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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