Rabbi Lipszyc's Story of the Week Dedicated for a Refuah Shleima for all those in need. To Sponsor the story of the week, Contact Mendy at 513-456-7595 As has always been handed down through the generations, the holiday of Lag B’Omer was very special by the Rebbei'im of Chabad. Even though when the Rebbei'im were called upon to do miracles, they generally tried to do them in a “hidden manner,” Lag B’Omer was the exception. The Rebbei’im would do miracles openly. The Rebbei’im would go out in the field, make themselves available to anyone who needed miracles and would grant them freely. In our generation, the Rebbe instituted the Lag B’Omer parades. What an awesome sight! Whenever Lag B’Omer would fall out on a Sunday, the Rebbe would ask that a big public parade should be arranged showing Jewish Pride in Torah & mitzvos. Although in later years (the late 1970’s and 1980’s) there were parades even when Lag B’Omer fell on a regular weekday, generally speaking the earlier parades were only on Sundays, when public school children would be able to attend as well. (There was one exception. Just 3 days before Lag B’Omer in 1963, which fell on a Tuesday, the Rebbe asked for a parade to be arranged. Of course it was done, and to everyone’s amazement, was very successful, yet obviously it was not on the scale of the Sunday parades.) Lag B’Omer 1970, the year I got married, also fell out on a Sunday. By then it was already well entrenched in our minds that there would be a parade. In those years the official organizational sponsors of the parade were NCFJE, SHALOH, (two organizations run by Rabbi J.J. Hecht a”h,) Mesibos Shabbos (I believe that organization was also run by Rabbi Hecht, but not like the previous two, it was officially under the auspices of Chabad) and Machne Israel. (Tzivos Hashem wasn’t created until the 1980’s.) In order to really appreciate what happened in 1970, the story needs to be told in the manner of how it developed. In the telling, it may seem that I am speaking in a denigrating manner of some of the important “players” in the story. It is true that at first we were upset with some, but not only did we put those personal feelings aside, in the end we had nothing but the highest respect for those people, and whatever we were able to accomplish was only because of their help. Now for the story... It seems that Rabbi Hecht was trying to get people involved in working on the parade, perhaps also financially. But for whatever reason, as we know, new projects bring excitement, however ongoing projects, not so much. So Rabbi Hecht found himself alone without the needed help to make the parade happen. Rabbi Hecht had a weekly radio program, Friday mornings on the Jewish station WEVD. On Friday, the 9th of Iyar, just 9 days before Lag B’Omer (the 18th of Iyar) Rabbi Hecht announced on his radio show that the Lag B’Omer parade had been cancelled! I was teaching that year (as mentioned in a previous story) but I was still very connected with my chaveirim, with whom I had learned in Montreal. When they got married, they were learning in the Rebbe’s kollel in Crown Heights. I was approached that Friday by my friend Moshe Yosef Engel, (now a shliach in California,) and told about this tragic cancellation. We all knew how much the parade meant to the Rebbe, and to cancel it was unacceptable. And so, those of us who were involved in 1967 with the Lag B’Omer parade in Montreal, decided we could not just let this be. We understood that to make it happen, we needed to do several things immediately, and we only had 9 days (which included 2 Shabbosim) to do it. First of all, we needed money. In those years we didn’t get much chasunah gelt, but we immediately pledged and gave more than we could afford. Second, we knew we had to get the people who were involved with previous parades to throw their support behind us. Not mainly financial support, though that also, but mainly the moral support and work that needed to be done. To our chagrin, when we turned to these askonim, they flatly refused. They said that in this short amount of time it is impossible to make a decent parade and it would be a chilul Lubavitch rather than a Kiddush Lubavitch. So they refused to have anything to do with it. Just to mention a few of us (young “pishers,”) trying to get the “older” respected askonim involved: Mendel Lipskar; Motti Berger a”h; (vyblcht”a) Elya Dovid Borenstein; Moshe Yosef Engel; myself; etc. We, young know-nothings were trying to get the experienced askonim aboard. We convinced them to at least come to a meeting on Shabbos morning, after Musaf, in the kollel, which was behind 770. We then begged Reb Yoel Kahan to help us convince them to stand behind us in this undertaking. Reb Yoel agreed, and in fact his speech was the turning point. At the meeting we tried our best to convince our “elders” to get on board. They tried every way possible to explain to us that it is impossible at this point and we are setting ourselves up for failure and a chillul Lubavitch. Reb Yoel then got up and said to these askonim, “you and I know that these young chevra are totally ridiculous, and it can’t be done. However, why should we let them put the blame on us for this obvious failure. Let us make ourselves available to do whatever they ask us to do, and when it doesn’t work, they’ll know that they can’t blame us.” Lo and behold, Reb Yoel’s short speech got them motivated. Of course, first we needed to be assured of the availability of funding. Reb Mendel Bartfield stood up to the plate. He accepted upon himself to take responsibility for the handling of the money (for he had a good name as a financially responsible person) with one condition. We would ask every member from Anash to give $100, with the promise that whatever money might be left over after the parade would be divided equally and returned to them. No excuses, like it should go to other projects since it’s tzedaka money anyway.... He got the agreement (nobody really believed there would be left over money.) There was indeed left over money and Reb Mendel got his way. Although there were some who wanted to reneg, Reb Zalmon Shimon Dworkin a”h stood behind him. Of course, we now had to get the entire Anash behind this. At the Rebbe’s mincha, that Shabbos afternoon, in front of the Rebbe, Rabbi Shmuel Butman got up at the bima and announced that after Shabbos at 10:00 p.m. there will be an emergency meeting for all of Anash, regarding the Lag B’Omer parade. 10:00 p.m. that night 75 people showed up. The organizers felt “ok, that’s what we have to work with.” Rabbi Butman got up to start the meeting, when suddenly Rabbi Shmuel Fogelman jumped up and gave a fiery speech. “We are talking about the Lag B’Omer parade, which means so much to the Rebbe and only 75 people show up?! This is unacceptable! I say we put off the meeting for one hour and everyone here should go out in pairs and knock on every door of those who call themselves Lubavitchers. Ask them why are they not at such an important meeting. Shlep them here in their pajamas! What a chutzpa, a meeting was called for right in front of the Rebbe, and they didn’t show up?!?” Amazingly, everyone got behind Rabbi Fogelman’s proposal and spread out in pairs to knock on every Lubavitcher’s door. Rabbi Dovid Raskin a”h asked for volunteers. He opened up the Tzach office and had people calling Lubavitchers in Boro Park, Manhattan and other places that would allow them to get to 770 in time. The meeting was brought to order at 11:30 p.m. and 770 was packed like for a farbrengen. It was unbelievable! The response to the proposals made at that meeting was even more amazing. Every member of Anash, pledged and immediately gave $100 and irregardless of age, each one of Anash was drafted to help with the parade. (I.e. In trying to cut corners we approached Reb Zalmon Shimon and asked if we could use mezonos rolls for the sandwiches, thereby saving a potential balagan at the park. Reb Zalmon Shimon, replied with a resounding NO! He said, “the whole idea of the parade is for chinuch, so you want to do away with washing the hands, making Hamotzi and bentching?!?” All the zekeinim (over 70) stood in lines in pairs one washing the hands the other making brachos with the 10,000 children who showed up. Impossible to describe this beautiful scene.) We of course wanted to make sure that the Rebbe would come out and speak at the parade. So we asked Reb Yoel’s advice on how to go about getting the Rebbe to agree to come out. Reb Yoel said that we should ask Rabbi Hecht to ask the Rebbe. We were a bit ticked off that Rabbi Hecht had cancelled the parade on the radio, and we were planning on asking "Uncle Yossi" (Goldstein) to translate instead of Rabbi Hecht. Reb Yoel told us, “if you want the Rebbe to come out, you are going to ask Rabbi Hecht to ask the Rebbe and for him to translate. If not, I assure you the Rebbe will not come out.” We sent a delegation to Rabbi Hecht (I think it was Mendel Lipskar, Moshe Yosef Engel and Motti Berger a”h, but am not sure.) When they came back, they told us that Rabbi Hecht knew that everyone was ticked off at him, so he was very surprised that we wanted him to translate and be a big part of the parade, and he was very happy to agree. He did ask the Rebbe and the Rebbe agreed to come out. (I just want to add here, that I later realized that such a devoted soldier of the Rebbe as Rabbi Hecht was, would not have made that announcement on the radio without first asking the Rebbe.) Did everything go smoothly? With the parade itself, yes. With the preparations, not at all. The old vanguard, always made the parade exactly as the Rebbe made the original parade in the 1940’s. Signs about keeping kosher; keep the Shabbos holy; etc. We “yungatchen” started making other signs fit for the times: POT & LSD – Put On Tefillin and Let’s Start Davening! When our “elders” walked in and saw the signs, they freaked out and said no way! Get rid of those signs now! We took them out, but didn’t get rid of them. We hid them and at the parade itself we gave the madrichim different sets of signs. The kids were holding up the old signs of kosher, Shabbos etc. But by each group the signs about POT & LSD were lying face down on the ground and we told the madrichim that only when the Rebbe comes out should they lift those signs. When the Rebbe came out, and the children lifted those signs, the old guard turned white and were looking at the Rebbe expecting the worst. To their relief they saw the Rebbe look at the sign and a broad smile lit up the Rebbe’s face. I actually saw Rabbi Butman take a handkerchief and wipe the sweat off his face! Each of us had different jobs that we were in charge of. Actually some of my ideas were considered totally off the wall, but they worked and it made a big difference. I heard that Rabbi Chaim Gutnik a”h was coming in from Australia and I knew that he was the official chaplain of Her Majesty’s armies in Australia. So I put forth the idea that we should ask him to come in his uniform and be the Grand Marshal at the parade. They all thought I was nuts and that he would never agree, but they figured what do we have to lose by asking. He agreed, and what a sight he was, in his uniform, as the Grand Marshal. The jobs I was left with were the jobs that everyone else felt were impossible and therefore left me to be the fall guy. However, we were working le’maala min hateva. One thing was that I felt that we should introduce actual marching bands into the parade. Of course I was aware that on such short notice, it could only be with non-Jewish music. But my feeling was that if it happens that year, in the future we could get marching bands playing Jewish music. Since there was no money reserved for that, they told me go ahead see what I could do. I made telephone calls and actually got 6 marching bands to donate their services. An Army Marching Band; Navy; Marines; I don’t remember the other two; but I made one bad mistake (B”H I was able to fix it.) I also got a public high school marching band. When they showed up it was both boys and girls and the girls weren’t very tzniusdik, to say the least. I figured, maybe if we separate them with the girls marching by the girls in the parade, it wouldn’t be so bad. However, they refused to separate, so I apologized and thanked them for their willingness to participate but I explained this is a religious event and we could not use them. They left. This left us with only 5 marching bands. The Rebbe actually asked why only 5, to which we explained what happened. So the Rebbe smiled and said, “by now the first band already reached the end of the parade route; perhaps they would agree to come back and march again.” I immediately ran to the park and told the one in charge of the first band that the Rebbe enjoyed their music so much, he had asked if they would go another round. He was so pleased to hear the Rebbe enjoyed it, that they marched again. Another job I was given was to arrange the park and entertainment. The problem here was that when Rabbi Hecht cancelled the parade, the arrangements with Prospect Park (where we always went for the picnic and games after the parade,) were cancelled as well. When we tried to reserve it again, they wouldn’t agree. What to do? Hashem helped. I found a high school football field and bleachers that could seat more than 10,000 people. If I remember correctly, it was on Albany Ave. past Empire Blvd. But that meant I also had to find some entertainment, since there was no place for individual games as in Prospect Park. Again, I wasn’t given a tremendous budget for this -- what an understatement! Again Hashem came to the rescue. I found a three man circus that was available. I hired them, but the morning of the parade I realized that a three man circus was not going to be able to keep the attention of 10,000 children. (By the way, it was my job to keep track of how many children there were, that’s why I know there were bli guzma 10,000.) So I came up with another of my wild ideas. I asked 3 of my chaveirim that they should dress up as clowns and mix in the stands with the children to keep them entertained. These three chaveirim looked at me as if I had fallen from the moon. No way were they going to make fools of themselves in public. I explained that obviously I was not asking them to do this in front of the Rebbe, by the parade itself, I was only asking them to do it in the park. They refused because they were sure they would be recognized. So I made a deal with them. I told them I would have the people from the circus paint them up. They would then look in the mirror, and if they can recognize themselves I wouldn’t make them to do it. They agreed, and when they looked at each other and at themselves in the mirror, they realized that no one was going to recognize them. So they became the first clowns at the Lag B’Omer parade. (In later years the bochurim “clowns” had no problem doing their antics in front of the Rebbe. But in our days we wouldn’t dream of it.) I actually got into trouble over it. No one expected the Rebbe to come to the field. But on the way to the Ohel, after the parade, the Rebbe asked to be driven onto the field. As soon as everyone realized that the Rebbe was on the field, everyone ran to the car, except for the 3 bochurim dressed as clowns they dove under the benches to hide. I had to hide from them for some days afterwards. They were probably ready to kill me. By the way my kudos and deepest respect for these 3 bochurim -- they really kept the kids entertained. They were Chonye Geisinsky, Sender Munitz and Laime Levitin a”h. As I mentioned, the old guard was very antagonistic to the innovations that we wanted to introduce. When we ran the parade in Montreal in 1967, we introduced a beautiful float. Elya Dovid Borenstein (now shliach in Bolgna, Italy) truly has golden hands. He built a beautiful Shabbos float. It was on an18 wheeler flatbed truck. It had 7 tiers representing the 7 days of the week. Each day had someone working at a different trade. And on Shabbos, the highest tier, there was a table with Shabbos candles and a seudas Shabbos with the family. There was a curtain around the sides of the truck, covering the wheels, with a sign SIX DAYS A WEEK WE WORK AND THE SEVENTH DAY WE REST. We wanted to do the same by the Rebbe in 1970, but the vanguard was nixing the idea. Again we didn’t listen. Elya Dovid and his cohorts, had the truck delivered Friday, just before Shabbos, on Montgomery and Bedford (at that time a totally black neighborhood.) They worked throughout the night. Only a handful of us knew about this. We had walkie talkies to keep in touch and in the middle of the parade the agreed upon sign was given for the float to move in. I especially ran back to 770 from the park because I wanted to see the Rebbe’s reaction. What I saw then, is what I believe has kept my chayus throughout my years of shlichus. This awesome Shabbos float was coming down the street. The first one on the Rebbe’s stage to see it was Rabbi Hecht. He was so excited and overwhelmed he could not speak. That in itself was a wonder! He turned around to the Rebbe, and saw that the Rebbe was facing the other way, speaking to someone. He didn’t want the Rebbe to miss this, but he couldn’t speak so he tapped the Rebbe on his shoulder to get his attention. I saw this myself, and started screaming “what are you doing?” Meanwhile, the Rebbe jumped in surprise (nobody ever touched the Rebbe) and he looked at Rabbi Hecht. He saw that Rabbi Hecht was speechless in hispaalos, and was pointing for the Rebbe to look at what was coming down the street. The Rebbe turned to where Rabbi Hecht was pointing with a look on his face wondering what could possibly get Rabbi Hecht so behispaalos. What happened next is really something very difficult to describe. When the Rebbe saw the Shabbos float, the Rebbe’s holy guf began to bubble. The only way I can describe what happened -- I coined an expression at that moment -- the Rebbe’s guf began to tremble and it looked like his blood was boiling with “bubbling nachas.” And then the Rebbe broke into applause. Although the Rebbe many times clapped while singing, never had we seen the Rebbe applaud something until then. It was only years later when the Rebbe would applaud at Tzivos Hashem rallies. Over the years on shlichus, how many times have I thought, “oh when will I again be part of a project that will bring the Rebbe the 'bubbling nachas' of that parade?” I have never ever seen that kind of reaction from the Rebbe, never before and never since. That evening when the Rebbe returned from the Ohel, he announced a surprise farbrengen. (The Rebbe generally did not farbreng on Lag B’Omer.) The Rebbe began the farbrengen with the words, “This is a special thank you farbrengen for the tremendous nachas that you caused today!” I believe the nachas was two-fold – 1. The phenomenal Lag B’Omer Parade that was definitely lemaalo miderech hateva; and 2. The tremendous achdus between everyone in Anash to make it happen. Support Rabbi Lipszyc's work by Donating at 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
Rabbi Lipszyc's Story of the Week Dedicated for a Refuah Shleima for all those in need. To Sponsor the story of the week, Contact Mendy at 513-456-7595 As has always been handed down through the generations, the holiday of Lag B’Omer was very special by the Rebbei'im of Chabad. Even though when the Rebbei'im were called upon to do miracles, they generally tried to do them in a “hidden manner,” Lag B’Omer was the exception. The Rebbei’im would do miracles openly. The Rebbei’im would go out in the field, make themselves available to anyone who needed miracles and would grant them freely. In our generation, the Rebbe instituted the Lag B’Omer parades. What an awesome sight! Whenever Lag B’Omer would fall out on a Sunday, the Rebbe would ask that a big public parade should be arranged showing Jewish Pride in Torah & mitzvos. Although in later years (the late 1970’s and 1980’s) there were parades even when Lag B’Omer fell on a regular weekday, generally speaking the earlier parades were only on Sundays, when public school children would be able to attend as well. (There was one exception. Just 3 days before Lag B’Omer in 1963, which fell on a Tuesday, the Rebbe asked for a parade to be arranged. Of course it was done, and to everyone’s amazement, was very successful, yet obviously it was not on the scale of the Sunday parades.) Lag B’Omer 1970, the year I got married, also fell out on a Sunday. By then it was already well entrenched in our minds that there would be a parade. In those years the official organizational sponsors of the parade were NCFJE, SHALOH, (two organizations run by Rabbi J.J. Hecht a”h,) Mesibos Shabbos (I believe that organization was also run by Rabbi Hecht, but not like the previous two, it was officially under the auspices of Chabad) and Machne Israel. (Tzivos Hashem wasn’t created until the 1980’s.) In order to really appreciate what happened in 1970, the story needs to be told in the manner of how it developed. In the telling, it may seem that I am speaking in a denigrating manner of some of the important “players” in the story. It is true that at first we were upset with some, but not only did we put those personal feelings aside, in the end we had nothing but the highest respect for those people, and whatever we were able to accomplish was only because of their help. Now for the story... It seems that Rabbi Hecht was trying to get people involved in working on the parade, perhaps also financially. But for whatever reason, as we know, new projects bring excitement, however ongoing projects, not so much. So Rabbi Hecht found himself alone without the needed help to make the parade happen. Rabbi Hecht had a weekly radio program, Friday mornings on the Jewish station WEVD. On Friday, the 9th of Iyar, just 9 days before Lag B’Omer (the 18th of Iyar) Rabbi Hecht announced on his radio show that the Lag B’Omer parade had been cancelled! I was teaching that year (as mentioned in a previous story) but I was still very connected with my chaveirim, with whom I had learned in Montreal. When they got married, they were learning in the Rebbe’s kollel in Crown Heights. I was approached that Friday by my friend Moshe Yosef Engel, (now a shliach in California,) and told about this tragic cancellation. We all knew how much the parade meant to the Rebbe, and to cancel it was unacceptable. And so, those of us who were involved in 1967 with the Lag B’Omer parade in Montreal, decided we could not just let this be. We understood that to make it happen, we needed to do several things immediately, and we only had 9 days (which included 2 Shabbosim) to do it. First of all, we needed money. In those years we didn’t get much chasunah gelt, but we immediately pledged and gave more than we could afford. Second, we knew we had to get the people who were involved with previous parades to throw their support behind us. Not mainly financial support, though that also, but mainly the moral support and work that needed to be done. To our chagrin, when we turned to these askonim, they flatly refused. They said that in this short amount of time it is impossible to make a decent parade and it would be a chilul Lubavitch rather than a Kiddush Lubavitch. So they refused to have anything to do with it. Just to mention a few of us (young “pishers,”) trying to get the “older” respected askonim involved: Mendel Lipskar; Motti Berger a”h; (vyblcht”a) Elya Dovid Borenstein; Moshe Yosef Engel; myself; etc. We, young know-nothings were trying to get the experienced askonim aboard. We convinced them to at least come to a meeting on Shabbos morning, after Musaf, in the kollel, which was behind 770. We then begged Reb Yoel Kahan to help us convince them to stand behind us in this undertaking. Reb Yoel agreed, and in fact his speech was the turning point. At the meeting we tried our best to convince our “elders” to get on board. They tried every way possible to explain to us that it is impossible at this point and we are setting ourselves up for failure and a chillul Lubavitch. Reb Yoel then got up and said to these askonim, “you and I know that these young chevra are totally ridiculous, and it can’t be done. However, why should we let them put the blame on us for this obvious failure. Let us make ourselves available to do whatever they ask us to do, and when it doesn’t work, they’ll know that they can’t blame us.” Lo and behold, Reb Yoel’s short speech got them motivated. Of course, first we needed to be assured of the availability of funding. Reb Mendel Bartfield stood up to the plate. He accepted upon himself to take responsibility for the handling of the money (for he had a good name as a financially responsible person) with one condition. We would ask every member from Anash to give $100, with the promise that whatever money might be left over after the parade would be divided equally and returned to them. No excuses, like it should go to other projects since it’s tzedaka money anyway.... He got the agreement (nobody really believed there would be left over money.) There was indeed left over money and Reb Mendel got his way. Although there were some who wanted to reneg, Reb Zalmon Shimon Dworkin a”h stood behind him. Of course, we now had to get the entire Anash behind this. At the Rebbe’s mincha, that Shabbos afternoon, in front of the Rebbe, Rabbi Shmuel Butman got up at the bima and announced that after Shabbos at 10:00 p.m. there will be an emergency meeting for all of Anash, regarding the Lag B’Omer parade. 10:00 p.m. that night 75 people showed up. The organizers felt “ok, that’s what we have to work with.” Rabbi Butman got up to start the meeting, when suddenly Rabbi Shmuel Fogelman jumped up and gave a fiery speech. “We are talking about the Lag B’Omer parade, which means so much to the Rebbe and only 75 people show up?! This is unacceptable! I say we put off the meeting for one hour and everyone here should go out in pairs and knock on every door of those who call themselves Lubavitchers. Ask them why are they not at such an important meeting. Shlep them here in their pajamas! What a chutzpa, a meeting was called for right in front of the Rebbe, and they didn’t show up?!?” Amazingly, everyone got behind Rabbi Fogelman’s proposal and spread out in pairs to knock on every Lubavitcher’s door. Rabbi Dovid Raskin a”h asked for volunteers. He opened up the Tzach office and had people calling Lubavitchers in Boro Park, Manhattan and other places that would allow them to get to 770 in time. The meeting was brought to order at 11:30 p.m. and 770 was packed like for a farbrengen. It was unbelievable! The response to the proposals made at that meeting was even more amazing. Every member of Anash, pledged and immediately gave $100 and irregardless of age, each one of Anash was drafted to help with the parade. (I.e. In trying to cut corners we approached Reb Zalmon Shimon and asked if we could use mezonos rolls for the sandwiches, thereby saving a potential balagan at the park. Reb Zalmon Shimon, replied with a resounding NO! He said, “the whole idea of the parade is for chinuch, so you want to do away with washing the hands, making Hamotzi and bentching?!?” All the zekeinim (over 70) stood in lines in pairs one washing the hands the other making brachos with the 10,000 children who showed up. Impossible to describe this beautiful scene.) We of course wanted to make sure that the Rebbe would come out and speak at the parade. So we asked Reb Yoel’s advice on how to go about getting the Rebbe to agree to come out. Reb Yoel said that we should ask Rabbi Hecht to ask the Rebbe. We were a bit ticked off that Rabbi Hecht had cancelled the parade on the radio, and we were planning on asking "Uncle Yossi" (Goldstein) to translate instead of Rabbi Hecht. Reb Yoel told us, “if you want the Rebbe to come out, you are going to ask Rabbi Hecht to ask the Rebbe and for him to translate. If not, I assure you the Rebbe will not come out.” We sent a delegation to Rabbi Hecht (I think it was Mendel Lipskar, Moshe Yosef Engel and Motti Berger a”h, but am not sure.) When they came back, they told us that Rabbi Hecht knew that everyone was ticked off at him, so he was very surprised that we wanted him to translate and be a big part of the parade, and he was very happy to agree. He did ask the Rebbe and the Rebbe agreed to come out. (I just want to add here, that I later realized that such a devoted soldier of the Rebbe as Rabbi Hecht was, would not have made that announcement on the radio without first asking the Rebbe.) Did everything go smoothly? With the parade itself, yes. With the preparations, not at all. The old vanguard, always made the parade exactly as the Rebbe made the original parade in the 1940’s. Signs about keeping kosher; keep the Shabbos holy; etc. We “yungatchen” started making other signs fit for the times: POT & LSD – Put On Tefillin and Let’s Start Davening! When our “elders” walked in and saw the signs, they freaked out and said no way! Get rid of those signs now! We took them out, but didn’t get rid of them. We hid them and at the parade itself we gave the madrichim different sets of signs. The kids were holding up the old signs of kosher, Shabbos etc. But by each group the signs about POT & LSD were lying face down on the ground and we told the madrichim that only when the Rebbe comes out should they lift those signs. When the Rebbe came out, and the children lifted those signs, the old guard turned white and were looking at the Rebbe expecting the worst. To their relief they saw the Rebbe look at the sign and a broad smile lit up the Rebbe’s face. I actually saw Rabbi Butman take a handkerchief and wipe the sweat off his face! Each of us had different jobs that we were in charge of. Actually some of my ideas were considered totally off the wall, but they worked and it made a big difference. I heard that Rabbi Chaim Gutnik a”h was coming in from Australia and I knew that he was the official chaplain of Her Majesty’s armies in Australia. So I put forth the idea that we should ask him to come in his uniform and be the Grand Marshal at the parade. They all thought I was nuts and that he would never agree, but they figured what do we have to lose by asking. He agreed, and what a sight he was, in his uniform, as the Grand Marshal. The jobs I was left with were the jobs that everyone else felt were impossible and therefore left me to be the fall guy. However, we were working le’maala min hateva. One thing was that I felt that we should introduce actual marching bands into the parade. Of course I was aware that on such short notice, it could only be with non-Jewish music. But my feeling was that if it happens that year, in the future we could get marching bands playing Jewish music. Since there was no money reserved for that, they told me go ahead see what I could do. I made telephone calls and actually got 6 marching bands to donate their services. An Army Marching Band; Navy; Marines; I don’t remember the other two; but I made one bad mistake (B”H I was able to fix it.) I also got a public high school marching band. When they showed up it was both boys and girls and the girls weren’t very tzniusdik, to say the least. I figured, maybe if we separate them with the girls marching by the girls in the parade, it wouldn’t be so bad. However, they refused to separate, so I apologized and thanked them for their willingness to participate but I explained this is a religious event and we could not use them. They left. This left us with only 5 marching bands. The Rebbe actually asked why only 5, to which we explained what happened. So the Rebbe smiled and said, “by now the first band already reached the end of the parade route; perhaps they would agree to come back and march again.” I immediately ran to the park and told the one in charge of the first band that the Rebbe enjoyed their music so much, he had asked if they would go another round. He was so pleased to hear the Rebbe enjoyed it, that they marched again. Another job I was given was to arrange the park and entertainment. The problem here was that when Rabbi Hecht cancelled the parade, the arrangements with Prospect Park (where we always went for the picnic and games after the parade,) were cancelled as well. When we tried to reserve it again, they wouldn’t agree. What to do? Hashem helped. I found a high school football field and bleachers that could seat more than 10,000 people. If I remember correctly, it was on Albany Ave. past Empire Blvd. But that meant I also had to find some entertainment, since there was no place for individual games as in Prospect Park. Again, I wasn’t given a tremendous budget for this -- what an understatement! Again Hashem came to the rescue. I found a three man circus that was available. I hired them, but the morning of the parade I realized that a three man circus was not going to be able to keep the attention of 10,000 children. (By the way, it was my job to keep track of how many children there were, that’s why I know there were bli guzma 10,000.) So I came up with another of my wild ideas. I asked 3 of my chaveirim that they should dress up as clowns and mix in the stands with the children to keep them entertained. These three chaveirim looked at me as if I had fallen from the moon. No way were they going to make fools of themselves in public. I explained that obviously I was not asking them to do this in front of the Rebbe, by the parade itself, I was only asking them to do it in the park. They refused because they were sure they would be recognized. So I made a deal with them. I told them I would have the people from the circus paint them up. They would then look in the mirror, and if they can recognize themselves I wouldn’t make them to do it. They agreed, and when they looked at each other and at themselves in the mirror, they realized that no one was going to recognize them. So they became the first clowns at the Lag B’Omer parade. (In later years the bochurim “clowns” had no problem doing their antics in front of the Rebbe. But in our days we wouldn’t dream of it.) I actually got into trouble over it. No one expected the Rebbe to come to the field. But on the way to the Ohel, after the parade, the Rebbe asked to be driven onto the field. As soon as everyone realized that the Rebbe was on the field, everyone ran to the car, except for the 3 bochurim dressed as clowns they dove under the benches to hide. I had to hide from them for some days afterwards. They were probably ready to kill me. By the way my kudos and deepest respect for these 3 bochurim -- they really kept the kids entertained. They were Chonye Geisinsky, Sender Munitz and Laime Levitin a”h. As I mentioned, the old guard was very antagonistic to the innovations that we wanted to introduce. When we ran the parade in Montreal in 1967, we introduced a beautiful float. Elya Dovid Borenstein (now shliach in Bolgna, Italy) truly has golden hands. He built a beautiful Shabbos float. It was on an18 wheeler flatbed truck. It had 7 tiers representing the 7 days of the week. Each day had someone working at a different trade. And on Shabbos, the highest tier, there was a table with Shabbos candles and a seudas Shabbos with the family. There was a curtain around the sides of the truck, covering the wheels, with a sign SIX DAYS A WEEK WE WORK AND THE SEVENTH DAY WE REST. We wanted to do the same by the Rebbe in 1970, but the vanguard was nixing the idea. Again we didn’t listen. Elya Dovid and his cohorts, had the truck delivered Friday, just before Shabbos, on Montgomery and Bedford (at that time a totally black neighborhood.) They worked throughout the night. Only a handful of us knew about this. We had walkie talkies to keep in touch and in the middle of the parade the agreed upon sign was given for the float to move in. I especially ran back to 770 from the park because I wanted to see the Rebbe’s reaction. What I saw then, is what I believe has kept my chayus throughout my years of shlichus. This awesome Shabbos float was coming down the street. The first one on the Rebbe’s stage to see it was Rabbi Hecht. He was so excited and overwhelmed he could not speak. That in itself was a wonder! He turned around to the Rebbe, and saw that the Rebbe was facing the other way, speaking to someone. He didn’t want the Rebbe to miss this, but he couldn’t speak so he tapped the Rebbe on his shoulder to get his attention. I saw this myself, and started screaming “what are you doing?” Meanwhile, the Rebbe jumped in surprise (nobody ever touched the Rebbe) and he looked at Rabbi Hecht. He saw that Rabbi Hecht was speechless in hispaalos, and was pointing for the Rebbe to look at what was coming down the street. The Rebbe turned to where Rabbi Hecht was pointing with a look on his face wondering what could possibly get Rabbi Hecht so behispaalos. What happened next is really something very difficult to describe. When the Rebbe saw the Shabbos float, the Rebbe’s holy guf began to bubble. The only way I can describe what happened -- I coined an expression at that moment -- the Rebbe’s guf began to tremble and it looked like his blood was boiling with “bubbling nachas.” And then the Rebbe broke into applause. Although the Rebbe many times clapped while singing, never had we seen the Rebbe applaud something until then. It was only years later when the Rebbe would applaud at Tzivos Hashem rallies. Over the years on shlichus, how many times have I thought, “oh when will I again be part of a project that will bring the Rebbe the 'bubbling nachas' of that parade?” I have never ever seen that kind of reaction from the Rebbe, never before and never since. That evening when the Rebbe returned from the Ohel, he announced a surprise farbrengen. (The Rebbe generally did not farbreng on Lag B’Omer.) The Rebbe began the farbrengen with the words, “This is a special thank you farbrengen for the tremendous nachas that you caused today!” I believe the nachas was two-fold – 1. The phenomenal Lag B’Omer Parade that was definitely lemaalo miderech hateva; and 2. The tremendous achdus between everyone in Anash to make it happen. Support Rabbi Lipszyc's work by Donating at 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
Comments
Post a Comment