shlichus continued

Rabbi Lipszyc's story of the week. Sponsored in honor of Dovid & Devorah Leah's Aufruf / Shabbos Kallah Even before we actually left to Michigan, on our first official shlichus, there were three ‘mini’ shlichusim that we went on. Each one came with its own adventure. The first one actually started before we were married. Rabbi Kastel used to send bochurim to make Shabbatons in different communities around Long Island. In one of the towns there was an interesting phenomenon. Whatever bochurim went to that town for Shabbos became chasanim right afterwards. (Not to girls from that place!  ;-)  )  So it was somewhat humorous when Rabbi Chaim Moshe Bergstein and I went to that particular town, and sure enough not long afterwards we both became chasanim as well. While in that town for Shabbos, I made a special Shabbos afternoon party for the children, a "mesibos Shabbos," as it was called. I taught the children about the portion of the week, told them stories and taught them songs, such as “Ain’t gonna work on Saturday.” At that mesibos Shabbos, the father of one of the children who was there, watching from the side, was the director of the local synagogue’s Sunday school. He liked what he saw and was especially impressed by the songs. Afterwards he approached me and asked if I would be willing to come some Sunday to teach these songs to the children in his Sunday school. I agreed and told him to work out a date and time with Rabbi Kastel. I didn’t hear from him for quite some time. About one week before my wedding, Rabbi Kastel came over to me and mentioned that the director of that school had called him and wanted to arrange my coming for the Sunday, which as it turned out, was during my sheva brochos. As soon as Rabbi Kastel realized that it was the week of my sheva brochos, he told me to never mind -- he’ll try and rearrange it for some later date. To his surprise I asked him why? Why not show the kids a great time and make an impromptu sheva brachos at the Sunday school? Let’s take a minyan of bochurim there and really liven the place up. Rabbi Kastel proposed the idea to the director, who was very pleased with the idea, and it was arranged. So early in the morning on the Sunday of my sheva brochos, three carloads left to Long Island for what was supposed tho have been a short event. A 45 minute drive to the school, and hour and a half program including the sheva brachos and the expected 45 minute drive back. A total of what we thought was three hours. We expected to be back in Crown Heights at the latest at 2:00 p.m. When my mother a”h heard my plans she was very upset because that evening’s sheva brochos was being made by my in-laws a”h in West Long Branch, NJ. I couldn’t understand what the problem was. I was going to be back in Crown Heights by 2:00 and it was an hour and a half drive to West Long Branch. The sheva brochos weren’t called for until 7:00 p.m. Plenty of time. But as usual, G-d had His own plan, and it did not coincide with mine!  On the way back from the school, we somehow got lost (this was way before GPS) and ended up somewhere quite far, where we had to meet some Jews who needed for us to put on tefillin with them. We did not get back to Crown Heights until 8:00 p.m. My mother had been quite right to be upset with me. We didn’t get to my in-laws until 10:00 p.m.  By that time all the invited  guests had eaten and left. It was one of the very few times that my father-in-law got annoyed with me.  The second ‘mini” shlichus was in the summer of 1970, just about a month before we left to Michigan. Rabbi Kastel arranged for three newly married couples, Rabbi & Mrs. Bergstein (now in Michigan,) Rabbi & Mrs. Yisroel Teitelbaum (now in New Jersey,) and my wife and I, to run a Shabbos program in an overnight camp run by a Reform Temple. Since this was the very first time that such a project was being undertaken, a number of mistakes were made. Of course we had to take our own kosher food, so Rabbi Kastel arranged for Mermelstein Caterers to prepare what we needed. Unfortunately they didn’t have it ready until late Friday afternoon. In general, based on the mileage that was reckoned from Crown Heights to the camp, the wrong amount of traveling time was accounted for. Whoever did the reckoning did not take summer traffic into the Catskills into consideration. We did not make it to the camp.  We got stuck on the way and because of the onset of Shabbos we had to stop and spend Shabbos in a motel in Newburgh, NY. Interestingly enough, the previous Shabbos, in middle of the Rebbe’s farbrengen, right in the middle of a talk, the Rebbe digressed from the topic at hand and said, “sometimes someone ends up somewhere for Shabbos, in a place where he hadn’t planned to be, and it is only for the purpose for him to walk in the street wearing his Tallis on top of his sertuk, so that local Jews would be able to see it.” The Rebbe then returned to the topic that he was speaking about beforehand. As three young newlyweds, we took three separate rooms in the motel. We asked at the desk if there was a Jewish synagogue in walking distance and were told it was about an hour walk. We said kabolas Shabbos, made Kiddush, sang, and farbrenged that evening. In the morning we were all set to make the hour trek to the synagogue. We started to put on our talleisim under our kapotes, when I said, “whoa, didn’t the Rebbe say last week that the whole reason we are here is so that we can walk in the street with our talleisim on top of our sertuks?” Of course they too remembered, and we wore our talleisim on top of our sertuks. We nearly caused numerous automobile accidents, as people driving were staring at us. When we got to the shul, there were about 20 elderly Jews there who were thrilled to see us. They asked that we conduct the services. So one led the davening, one spoke before musaf, and one sang and danced. After the Kiddush, they asked us to come back for mincha. It was quite a long walk and on a hot day. We really hadn’t intended to come back for mincha, but they begged us that it meant so much to them, that in the end we agreed to do so. When we came back for mincha and shalosh seudos, the shul was jam packed with young people. Everyone had called their friends, children and grandchildren. There were well over a hundred people and we washed for shalosh seudos and farbrenged with them until late at night, when we bentsched and made havdallah. Today there is B”H a shliach and a vibrant Jewish community in Newburgh, NY.   Finally, the third ‘mini’ shlichus -- we rescheduled and got to the camp a couple of weeks later. The set up was not quite the way we envisioned it. [I am sure that Rabbi Kastel also didn’t understand what the camp administration had in mind.] We were under the impression that we were going to run the whole Shabbat programming. No way. What the camp had arranged was that they were going ahead with their regular Saturday (chillul Shabbos) programming. Throughout the 25 hour period, they had us meet at different times with different age groups to do whatever program we were going to do. Obviously we were not very happy about this, and we don’t know what kind of positive hashpa’ah we had with the younger kids. However, with the teenagers, were an entirely different situation. We had the teenagers from Shabbos at shalosh seudos time, until after havdallah. We spoke, we sang and everyone warmed up. After havdallah, we danced, the men with the boys and our wives with the girls. Afterwards we opened up for questions and answers. I was chosen as the guy to field the questions. Sure enough one of the questions was: why do we dance separately?  I explained that we each have a designated partner for life and only with that partner do we have a very special relationship. So one of the kids asked if I was allowed to dance with my wife. I answered “yes.” “Let’s see,” was the immediate rejoinder. The other two gave me a look as if to say, Ok fellow you stepped right into that one what are you going to do now? My wife was mortified!  But Hashem did not let me falter. I leaned over the lectern and said, “what kind of a low life do you take me for. Do you think that I would flaunt my ability to dance with a woman in front of you guys who can’t?!?” Their response was a burst of applause and the “ice” was completely broken. We farbrenged with them late into the night, having an impromptu melave malka. There was no question that we had some kind of hashpa’ah there.  Maybe one day we may even merit to hear about it. 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