A moving event took place in the Hyper Lipskar supermarket in Kfar Chabad last week, COL reported.
The store’s owner, Reb Zami Lipskar, explained that he called a technician he never used before to repair their bread machine. The technician came and successfully fixed the machine.
“Reb Yisrael Feldman, who works in our office, asked him if he wants to put on tefillin,” Reb Lipskar said. “The technician answered: ‘I’ve never put on tefillin in my life and I won’t start now. At my age, I don’t make changes.'”
“Yisrael wouldn’t be mevater. He picked up the phone and called his father, Reb Boruch Feldman, and said: ‘Abba, leave whatever you’re doing and come. We have a Jew here who never put on tefillin his entire life.'”
Reb Boruch hurried to the makolet and successfully convinced the man to put on tefillin. “And surprisingly for someone who only minutes before had been adamantly opposed to the idea, the technician’s happiness at performing the mitzvah was apparent – he was smiling from ear to ear,” Reb Lipskar said.
Reb Lipskar couldn’t hide his curiosity. He asked the technician: “How is it that this is your first time putting on tefillin? You’ve never met Chabadnikim? You never bumped into a Chabadnik even once?”
The technician’s answer shocked him. “I’ve met many Chabadnikim and I’ve even been in Kfar Chabad here and there. But no one ever offered me to put on tefillin..”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
amazing…
he was saved from being poshay yisrael bgufan
I once hosted a man that for several years was keeping shabbos, kashrut, and had been attending a daily daf yomi shiyur for at least a year. In conversation about tefillin (the costs and styles), he dropped a bomb shell, that he NEVER put on tefillin in his life. I asked him if he wats to do so now. He agreed and my husband put tefillin on him. After, I asked him, “Why? Why did you never put on tefillin before today?” And he simply answered, “Because no one ever asked me to.” Incredible! This guy learns daf yomi, but no one ever asked him to put on tefillin! Sometimes you gotta ask. Don’t assume. Ask. You don’t need to be a Chabadsker to reach out and ask another Jew to put on tefillin.
When I wrote “Chabadsker”, it is not meant in any way c”v as derogatory, it is simply another form of the Israeli term that was used in the article “Chabadnikim”. If the term I used is somehow different and maybe offensive, I ask b’lev sholem mechila. I respect greatly the work of Chabad, not just in kiruv rechokim, but also their help to any yid (frum or not yet frum) assisting both b’gashmiyus u’b’ruchniyus. When on vacation in remote areas with zero frum community nearby and needing a minyan , mikva, kosher food – we call Chabad. When my husband needs a reliable and trustworthy contact in an Asian country for business, he calls Chabad. When my friend’s child was off-the-derech and hanging out in Utah, they called Chabad (and the Shaliach invited their child for shabbos (and when she refused to come alone, he extended the shabbos invite to her goyish friend! -THAT is mesiras nefesh!), and b”h the girl is back home and back on track, as a direct result.