Rabbi Lipszyc's Story of the Week, Sponsored in memory of Bentzion Keller
In the previous story, about the acquisition of the Farmington building, I made mention that when Rabbi Shemtov, having been told by the Rebbe to discuss it with anash, brought the matter to the Chabad membership, and that Rabbi Lieberman (not to be mistaken for Mr. Lieberman, the Labor Zionist lawyer) was against it, based on how would the Torah observant community view such a partnership. Rabbi Shemtov dismissed his concerns, replying “why should we worry about what others say? In other words, why do we have to reckon with what the general Orthodox community has to say, they always have had complaints with whatever Chabad did. Although, I also was not in favor of his proposal, (for different reasons,) I generally agreed with Rabbi Shemtov’s reply to Rabbi Lieberman’s worry about the Orthodox community’s reaction. I also felt it was questionable whether we should align ourselves with the Labor Zionists, but not for fear of what others would say, simply a question of is it all right to do it or not. As I mentioned in the earlier story, less than a year later, from an answer the Rebbe gave to a question that Rabbi Shemtov had asked on my behalf, it was clear that our thinking was wrong when it came to whether to reckon with the thoughts of the Orthodox community. The story behind that answer and the answer was as follows.
One of the projects I had started in Southfield was a Mesibos Shabbos for children on Shabbos afternoons. The parents would bring their children and some would just drop them off and some of the parents would stay and listen in to the program. One Shabbos one of the parents who stayed was the youth director of a Sunday school of a very left wing conservative synagogue. After watching my program and how I related to the children he made an appointment to meet with me. He asked me if I would be interested in teaching in his Sunday school. I didn’t really believe that the Rabbi of that synagogue would agree that I teach there, since he was very left wing, but the director seemed to believe that he could get me in. It dawned on me, that it might be a way for all of us shluchim in Michigan to reach the conservative and reform kids. So I said to him I would get back to him. I then discussed it with Rabbi Shemtov, who agreed that it might be worth a shot. Rabbi Shemtov wrote to the Rebbe and asked whether or not we should consider this option. The Rebbe’s response included the words that 'this should be the general rule everywhere.' 'It depends on the local Orthodox community’s approach. If it is unacceptable to the local Orthodox community that frum teachers of day schools should teach in non-Orthodox schools, such as is the policy in New York, then Chabad should not cross that line. However, in a city where it is acceptable for Frum Day School and Yeshiva teachers to teach in non-Orthodox schools, then why should Chabad shluchim be different?' In fact, many of the yeshiva teachers in Detroit were teaching in the conservative and reform Sunday schools. Here was a clear lesson that there are times when we do need to reckon with “ma yomroo hagoyim!” It anyway didn’t work out in this case. The Rabbi wanted to meet with me personally, so the director preened me on how to answer the questions he would pose. It really took some heavy control on my part. When I walked into his office, he pointed to three portraits on his wall (founders of the reform movement) and said (and I quote exactly) “this is my holy trinity.” It took everything I had to control what I wanted to retort – “and are you Yoshke hanging between them?” Although I thought it, I refrained from saying it. Nevertheless, we both saw that it wouldn’t work. So although I had originally been willing to give it a try, it turned out that it wasn't meant to be.
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Rabbi Lipszyc sent a few revisions to his previous story on the present for the Rebbe's birthday:
It was the Rebbe's 72nd birthday
Russian was not one of the languages, Arabic was
German was one of the three books the Rebbe flipped through
Revised story with pictures of the present attached
One more revision: Rabbi Stock also merited to come into yechidus with us and reminded me of two things - the Rebbe started by saying "אבער עס זאל נישט בלייבן אין מחשבה נאר עס זאל אראפקומען אין מעשה" and the Rebbe also gave each of us $10
Of course, the Rebbe when saying מחשבה was referring to A "Thought" For The Week.
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