When you enter the Chabad World Center-770 – and you immediately feel the excitement. The electrifying atmosphere. Well, it's no wonder. Today is Rosh Chodesh. It's morning and the singing of Hallel is heard loudly.
I enter the women's shelter and approach the partition. I want to see the Rebbe's place. Just to see. To pray. I have already prayed in the holy place, on my way from the airport to the house that has become a symbol - the Rebbe's house - 770 Eastern Parkway.
And as always, here too I encounter a story. Her name is Sylvie. She is a war widow. The war is the Yom Kippur War. She is a mother to daughters. She is a grandmother to granddaughters. Today she is studying law at the university. Yes. At her age, when she is a grandmother.
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She lives in a northern city and came here to draw strength. No. She is not Haredi in the classic sense. But when you see her gathering girls in her city and teaching them verses and blessings, you will classify her as a soldier in the army of God.
There is Chabad, there is no Coca-Cola
This week I was in the Knesset on the day of the salute to the Rebbe and Chabad emissaries. Chabad followers sat around the table alongside Knesset members and ministers who told the story of the greatest Jew of the last generation. Someone whose activity encompasses the world 21 years after no one had met him.
""There is a Chabadnik in everyone," Minister Ofir Akunis concluded his remarks.
MK Yair Lapid, who was Minister of Finance until some time ago, chooses a different, but similar, conclusion. "The conflicts between us are fake and the connection between us is real," said Lapid.
And I remember the Rebbe's letter in which the following line is written: "The one who divides [between Jews] is fake and the one who creates is real.".
Outside the hall, in the corridors, there is an impressive exhibition that tries in vain to bring to light the activities of the Rebbe's emissaries around the world. The corridors are filled with Haredim in hats and suits. Photographers exchange glances and take the opportunity to snap more and more illustrative photos.
During the event, I learned that it had been planned to take place the previous year, on the two-decade anniversary of the Rebbe's passing, but the war that raged here the previous summer postponed it until this year. One by one they enter the hall. Knesset members from the right and the left, Sephardim and Ashkenazim. People from the periphery and representatives of the upper class. From the coalition and the opposition. Ministers and deputy ministers.
Everyone comes to salute. To express their respect and appreciation for the one who dedicated his entire life to the people of Israel and the Holy Torah. Each one has a story about the Rebbe. A story about Chabad. Stories of miracles and life stories. Everyone repeats the same statement: The Rebbe is not yours. He is ours. All of us. The entire Jewish people.
Lapid tells, and you've surely already read this, that he opposed those who tried to prevent the construction of a synagogue in the Ramat Aviv G neighborhood, the neighborhood where he lives. "I told them: Are you out of your mind?" Lapid said with his characteristic pathos, adding that many years ago, as a young reporter, he wanted to do a profile article on the Lubavitcher Rebbe. "I'm glad I did that article," he says, convincing even skeptical people like me.
And here comes the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv-Yafo, the Grand Rabbi of the Law. His charismatic voice carries high. "I traveled to Japan and from there to Sydney. I had a two-hour layover in Tokyo. A young Chabad man approaches me and asks me: 'Does the rabbi need anything?' I asked him for a Diet Coke. After an hour he comes back and says: 'The rabbi. There's only Pepsi here. No Coca-Cola.'.
""I told him: You see the world is wrong. They say there is no place without Chabad and Coca-Cola. Here, there is Chabad. But there is no Coca-Cola.".
The roots of the Knesset Speaker
This is how many speakers go through it. Each one has their own personal story. Their own salute to the Rebbe and Chabad.
""I was thinking about what I could share with you," says businessman Eduardo Elstein, a controlling shareholder in the giant IDB concern. "I will share something close to my heart: Before I met the Rebbe, I was asked to take a matzah reserved for a family living in Moscow. Because the Rebbe took care of every Jew personally. Even if he was thousands of miles away and beyond the Iron Curtain.".
Minister of Construction, MK Yoav Galant, talks about his personal connection to Chabad.
""My mother is from Mezritch," he is proud of his lineage. "In 2008, after I finished commanding Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, I was invited to Mumbai to share the insights of the IDF with the Indians. I arrived at the Chabad house and saw the blood on the floor. I understood the power and importance of Chabad followers who come everywhere and openly show Jewish brotherhood. Throughout thirty years of service in the army, I had the opportunity to meet Chabad followers everywhere.".
The Minister of the Interior, Minister Silvan Shalom, also spoke: "It was a snowy winter in New York. They brought us in to the Rebbe. Me and my later wife [Judy Shalom-Nir-Moses]. They brought each of us in from a different side and the Rebbe turned to me and said: 'You are entrusted with bringing light to the people of Israel.'".
""I told him: Of course. I am the chairman of the electric company. After all, I am in charge of the light... In the end, we received seven dollars. The secretary told me: 'Tell the Rebbe that you are running for the Knesset.' The Rebbe wished me blessings and success. When I came out, the Hasidim who were outside told me: 'That's it. You are in the Knesset.'.
""But when I ran in the third seven - there were no primaries then - I failed. Ariel Sharon suddenly decided that two of the candidates who were not selected would be included on the list. One of them was me. Here I am. I'm in the Knesset.".
Minister for Gender Equality, MK Gila Gamliel says: "When I met my husband, we went to visit my brother in New York. Rabbi Glauberman took us to the Rebbe's memorial service. We went to Manhattan and sat down to eat. My husband received an extra dollar and it turned out that it was a dollar from the Rebbe... One day, they surprised me on the Moreshet network. They put me on air and at the same time they put the family that lost that dollar on air...""
Gamliel continues: "We have had a Torah lesson at home every Monday for six years now. Thank God, we have a minyan and a Torah lesson at home every week. Chabad's emissaries are an address for every Jew and every Israeli anywhere in the world. They don't ask where there is a hotel. They ask where there is a Chabad house.".
The Speaker of the Knesset, MK Yuli (Yoel) Edelstein, expresses his appreciation in an original way.
""I want to tell you that the fact that I am sitting here is a great miracle. The only community that managed to maintain its Jewish character was the Chabad Hasidim community in Russia, and the only minyan that operated in the city where I lived was of Chabad Hasidim. The first Jew who came to us to teach us how to baptize vessels was a Chabadnik from Marina Rasht in Moscow.
""I have a confession: I had ideological arguments with Chabad followers, but when I took my daughter on a roots trip to Russia, we took out old Soviet IDs and our Russian name was Solomon. My great-grandfather was called Shneur Zalman. Guess for yourself what part of Judaism my roots belong to...""
• Part of the column is based on the talks of the Lubavitcher Rebbe | The writer is the owner of "My Choice", an event host, lecturer, and radio broadcaster. | For comments: [email protected]
