Shlichus

Rabbi Lipszyc's Story of the Week Dedicated in honor of Leah Lipszyc's birthday. From the fall of 1964 until mid 1969 I learned in the Chabad yeshiva in Montreal. I consider that yeshiva to be my “alma mater” since my main hashkafa in chassidus is what I absorbed there. Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Kagan a”h, learned in Montréal as well, and married a local girl and continued learning there during his year in Kollel. From there he went to Detroit Michigan which became his makom hashlichus. Even while he was in Montréal there were many things in spreading Yiddishkeit that he was involved with. One of the things in which he was involved was the running of a Junior congregation on Shabbat. When he moved to Detroit, he did not want that project to come to a standstill, so he asked me to take over that responsibility. I agreed. First of all, I want to make it very clear how highly I regard him. A true chossid of the Rebbe, totally dedicated, and a man of many talents. When I moved to Michigan as my first place of shlichus, I worked very closely with him and admired him greatly. As I said, he had many talents, but giving directions was not one of them. He gave me directions as to how to get to the shul where the Junior congregation was held. It was an hour and a half walk from the yeshiva which did not faze me since I was a big walker and generally enjoyed it. I got up that first Shabbos morning at 5 a.m. so that I could go to the mikvah, prepare myself, and leave in time that I would get there at 7:30 in the morning when the Junior congregation services would begin. As the general rule, whenever one wants to do a positive thing, Satan will do everything in his power to try and stop you. The weather was terrible; it was a wet snow and the type that gets into your bones no matter how you dress. Of course, that would not deter me from following through with the obligation that I had accepted upon myself. The directions Rabbi Kagan gave me was that I should walk along the street by the dormitory of the yeshiva until a street called Victoria, turn left and I would walk until I would go under an overpass. After the overpass to my right would be a fork in the road. I should take the right of the fork which would be called Jean Talon. I would then take that road for approximately an hour and 15 minutes until I would get to the shul. It sounded pretty easy until I got to the fork in the road. The problem at the fork of the road was the following: while there was a right to the fork and there was a left to the fork, but the street named Jean Talon was to the left of the fork not to the right as Rabbi Kagan had said. So now I was in a quandary -- which way was I supposed to go? Was I supposed to go on Jean Talon which was to my left or was I supposed to go to the right of the fork which was not the street name which I was given? There was no option of returning to the yeshiva, for then I would not get to the shul on time and in all probability would find it excedingly difficult to start out again in such nasty weather. So I figured to myself -- the Torah tells us that when we come to a fork in the road and we are not sure which way to go, follow the right path. In addition I figured that it is more plausible that Rabbi Kagan would know that he turned right at the fork rather than his making a mistake of saying to go right when he went left. On the other hand, it’s quite possible that he would have seen the street sign Jean Talon, not realizing that it was indicating the left street rather than the right. And therefore, I decided to take the chance and go right. Nevertheless, I really didn’t know whether I was on the right road. As I was walking along and thinking that perhaps I wasn't going the right way, I suddenly slipped on a piece of ice and entirely fell into a big puddle of ice water. I was literally covered from head to foot with ice. But at that point I continued to go with a lighter heart and with a song on my lips, sure in my conviction that I was going the right way. For if I was not going in the right direction, then Satan would have had no reason to make it so difficult for me to continue. Sure enough within 15-20 minutes I arrived at my destination. When I walked into the shul the girls began to scream and the boys laughed. When I asked what’s going on they said I should go and look in the mirror. When I looked in the mirror what I saw certainly must have looked like a monster to the girls and something which appeared very funny to the boys, for I was covered from head to foot with icicles, and especially my beard was just one big icicle! So that was the first impression those kids had of the new “Rabbi” who was going to lead them in Junior Congregation. I think it really “broke the ice” and we had a great rapport. Please feel free to share this story. Support Rabbi Lipszyc's work by donating at https://chabadcrimeaorg.clhosting.org/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/2511804/jewish/Donate-Now/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