Music and tefilin

Rabbi Lipszyc's Story of the Week Sponsored in honor of Adina Perel's Birthday                                                                                                              My strong point seemed to be starting new places and projects. Rabbi Shemtov would then bring someone else to maintain and further expand them. In the early 1970’s, I started going to university campuses. Rabbi Kagan a”h would go once a week to give shiurim in several universities – Wayne State, University of Michigan, Grand Rapids, etc. I would take one university at a time and spend all day there getting to know and build deeper relationships with individual students. There were many amazing stories at U of M (University of Michigan) in Ann Arbor, so I’ll begin there. This was before any campus Chabad Houses had been opened in Michigan. Two days a week I drove from Oak Park to Ann Arbor, and from 10 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. I would set up and man a tefillin stand. The main campus consisted of four buildings arranged in a square. 95% of all students had to attend classes in these buildings. All four buildings opened up onto a square known as the Diag, because there were sidewalks that criss crossed between the four buildings. The side of the opening of the main building of these four, had curved glass from floor to ceiling and was commonly known as The Fishbowl, because that’s what it really looked like. During the cold weather, anyone wanting to promote a cause would set up a stand in the Fishbowl.  During warmer weather the stands would move outside onto the Diag. I, too, would set up the tefillin stand in the Fishbowl or on the Diag, depending on the season. Classes on the average were about 50 minutes each, with a short break in between to move from one class to the other. During classes, aside from some stragglers, it was mainly quiet in the Fishbowl, but during the class breaks, all the stands were kept pretty busy. The stand next to mine was the communist stand, and of course it was manned by a radical Jew. During the quiet periods, he would use all his powers of persuasion to win me over to his cause. I would agree to discuss absolutely anything with him, but in order to open common grounds, I convinced him to start by first putting on tefillin. He did. Today he is a Lubavitcher yunger man living with his family in Israel and using his amazing powers of persuasion to help many young Jews find their way back to their roots. An interesting note: The very same day that he finally came into the Chabad House in Ann Arbor, his twin brother in Los Angeles, California (who was also quite talented) entered the Chabad House in UCLA for the first time. He too became a complete Lubavitcher and established a Jewish home based on Torah and Mitzvos as illuminated by Chassidus. Unfortunately, he passed away at a fairly young age, leaving behind a chassidisher family and a number of baalei tshuva whom he had influenced. In those years, frat houses were in decline. A group of students, from various backgrounds on the Jewish spectrum wanted to make a co-op but couldn’t come to an agreement on rules acceptable to all. Surprisingly, (only two of the 20 students knew me,) they agreed to ask my opinion on what the ground rules should be. I advised them that in all the common areas (kitchen, dining room, living room, hallways, etc.) everyone should keep kosher and Shabbos, and there should be no immoral behavior in any public areas. In their individual rooms they could do whatever they wanted, as long as it wouldn’t infringe upon or disturb the others, (i.e. on Shabbos sounds from the radio and TV should not be able to be heard through the walls, etc.) I was quite thrilled when they accepted my terms and they asked me to kasher the house and be their unofficial rabbi. They called the co-op Hebrew House, and it had a positive effect, not only on the residents, but on many students on the campus as well. I would hang around there, and set up a shiur in the evenings. I know of at least three students (one a fellow Kohein) who became Torah observant. One resident student was a music major, so for his birthday I gave him the first volume of Sefer Hanigunnim, which included the nigunim of the Rebbeim.  Several months later he came running over to me, very excitedly. He had shown the book of nigunim to his music professor, a non-Jew who was quite an accomplished and well known music professor, who asked if he could borrow the book for a few weeks. When he brought it back, he told this student that all music, including Jewish music, can be traced back to the region in the world whMusic and ere it had been developed, because it carries a trace of that region’s influence. His professor had continued, “but the music in this book is not from anywhere on this earth!” 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".  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

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⁠⁠[15:33, 8/17/2017] Rabbi Lipszyc Weekly Story: ⁠⁠⁠35.