Rabbi Lipszyc's Story of the Week
Dedicated by an anonymous Mensch
While I was in Florida to visit the campers, an interesting incident happened.
We were running late as we were going to the day camp where the coach was, so I was speeding somewhat. It was raining and it was heavy traffic. I was weaving in and out of traffic when a state trooper pulled me over to the side. The trooper saw me and Casriel Brusowankin, (two guys with beards,) and he began to apologize but he said he had no choice he had to give me a ticket for what I was doing. When he saw my license was a Canadian license he said I would have to put a deposit of $50 to make sure I show up in court, otherwise he would have to take me to the precinct.
In order for you to understand the depth of the story I need to take a detour. As a bochur, I never had the need for money. And therefore never thought about money. So when the Rebbe said to go to Florida I didn't think about where I would get the money. I don't know if these companies are still around, but in those days there were companies that were called drive-a-ways. These companies would take money for delivering cars from New York to Florida and from Florida to New York, sometimes other states as well. Then they would offer these cars to be driven by people who wanted to get to those places but didn't have the money or whatever other reason were willing to drive these cars. I was able to get a brand new Cadillac convertible with a full tank of gas. And they gave us 4 days to deliver it to the owner. So I figured that if I could get there in one day then I would have 3 days in which to visit campers before I gave back the car to the owner. In order to get there in one day it meant driving without any stops. Since Casriel did not have a license and did not drive, it meant we had to find someone else willing to go with us. There was a new Baal tshuva who had just come to learn in Hadar Hatorah and Casriel convinced him to join us on the trip as a second driver. His name was Shmuel Ptalis (mentioned in previous story.) Hashem was definitely looking out for us, since neither Casriel nor I had taken any money with us it turned out that Shmuel, who as a normal American boy knew that when you travel you need to take some money, ended up funding the trip. [I was so clueless, I thought if the company gave 1 tank of gas, it would get us all the way to Florida.
Now back to the story. When I told the state trooper that I did not have $50 he said he would have to take me into the station. So Shmuel Ptalis, knew that he would be putting out again, and said with a groan, "okay there goes another $50." I told him, "don't worry this $50 I will get back, for surely since we are on a shlichus of the Rebbe I won't have to pay this fine and I must have a special mission to do at the court. Shmuel, for some reason, did not really believe it.
On Monday, when it was the court date, I went to the court believing that I must have a mission there. I took my Tefillin with, thinking that perhaps I would meet a Jew there with whom I had to put on Tefillin. The way the court was set up was you went to the court house gave the clerk the ticket for which you were there and then sat down in a general area. When the Judge was ready they would take you up to the courtroom and once seated in the courtroom we were told to stand up and the judge would enter. While in the general waiting room I walked around asking people if they were Jewish and they all said no. It was definitely not a Jewish area. Nevertheless, I kept walking around asking everybody believing that there must be a reason for me being at that courtroom at that time. Finally a teenager comes in and when he sits down I walk over to him and asked him if he was Jewish? when he said yes, I was excited and exclaimed, "ah, you're the reason why I am here!" I then tried to convince him to put on Tefillin, but he wasn't willing. I was still trying to convince him when the clerk announced that we should all follow the guard to the courtroom, which was on an upper floor. As everyone rose, I grabbed the boy by the arm and pleadingly asked him to first put on Tefillin, to which he responded (I guess to hopefully be rid of me) that after we are finished in court he'll put it on. Hearing that, I stuck with him as we headed to the courtroom.
As we were following the guard, he asked me for what offence I was there and we exchanged tickets to view our relevant offences. He was there for riding a motorcycle without a helmet. Now the tickets in Florida were very descriptive - thus my ticket said how I was travelling on a wet and slippery highway, 70 mph in a 55 zone, and weaving between lanes in heavy traffic. The teenager looks at The description on the ticket and says "I hope for your sake that we have a Jewish judge." I thanked him for the good thought. When the court clerk announced the name of the presiding judge, my new friend groaned and said "oy are we in trouble. He is an Italian Judge who is known as very tough and unforgiving as he hands down tough judgements. And to boot," he continues, "he is known as an anti-Semite." To this I respond, "I have nothing to fear, I put on Tefillin today and it says in the Torah, in reference to Tefillin, ...and the nations of the world will fear you, so this judge will fear me." Of course, if this guy didn't think I was a nut case before, by now he was sure.
Sure enough, as each case was called, the judge was literally"throwing the book" at them. When my name was called, I walked up to the microphone with my hat in hand and my yarmulke on my head. The whole courtroom became unusually quiet. The judge was reading the detailed offence on the ticket and you could see the incredulous look on his face. Suddenly he realises that the courtroom is unusually quiet so he looks up to see why. And he sees me standing there. He asks me in wonder, "is this you?" When I say "yes your honor" he exclaimed "what [can you possibly] plead to this?!? I said "guilty with an explanation." He shouts "what possible explanation can you have for this?" So I explained that I was a rabbinical student on my way to speak to a group of kids in a camp. I was running late. And in Montreal (I had a Canadian drivers license) there's an unwritten rule that you can drive 5 miles above the limit. I believe I was doing 60 not 70. The Judge then gives me a bawling out - "two things I want to tell you, first - Canadian drivers in general are such terrible drivers that people don't even turn around for accidents anymore. 2nd, you rabbis drive with your heads in the clouds. You need to keep your mind on the road before you kill someone." The judge then calmed down and concluded, "since I admonished you there will be no charge."
As I was walking out of the courtroom, the teenager grabbed my arm and said, "please wait for me, I want to put on Tefillin." When he came out, I asked him how it went, and he told me that had he put on Tefillin before his court case he was sure he would've gotten totally off, but since he was sure that in the merit that he had already agreed to put on Tefillin afterwards, he got off with just a five dollar fine! Of course after I put on Tefillin with the teenager I was able to get the $50 back from the court cashier and return it to Shmuel, to his complete amazement, as I related the story. He became a believer. To this day Shmuel is a good friend, runs a Chassidishe home and looks back at that trip to Florida with great fondness.
To receive Rabbi Lipszyc's Story of the week via Whatsapp add the number 513-456-7595 to your phone contacts, and then send a text to with the message "Join". Please feel free to share this story.
Support Rabbi Lipszyc's work by Donating Online https://chabadcrimeaorg.clhosting.org/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/2511910/jewish/Crisis-Relief/lang/en or sending checks to:
Chabad of Crimea World Friends, 1601 Union St, Brooklyn, NY 11213
To Sponsor the story of the week, Contact Mendy at 513-456-7595
Comments
Post a Comment