R'eb Zalman Lipskier

 Rabbi Zalman Lipsker

"It happened in the summer of 1961, but I remember it like it was yesterday.  I was a young yeshiva student and had just returned to 770 Eastern Parkway, Chabad Headquarters, from my summer mission – Merkos Shlichus, the Jewish outreach program by rabbinical students.

 I wanted to catch a glimpse of the Rebbe, whom I hadn't seen for a couple of weeks. As it was about 2:00 a.m., I decided to wait in the study hall, hoping that as the Rebbe would leave 770 after his late night yechidussen (private audiences), I would be able to see him, however briefly. I found a table, and put my head down for a bit. Due to exhaustion I immediately fell asleep.

 I had just fallen asleep when I felt somebody tapping me on the shoulder. Totally exhausted, I decided not to pay attention. Again I felt somebody tapping me. I still ignored him, thinking, “If this happens once more, I’m going to let him have it...” And, sure enough, it happened again.

 I whipped around and was startled to see Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Aizik Hodakov, the Rebbe’s chief secretary. “Reb Zalman?” he asked – I was only a student, a regular yeshiva bochur, but Rabbi Hodakov addressed me as "Reb Zalman", as if I was a married respectable person, he was very proper. "Reb Zalman, when did you come back?” “I came in tonight,” I replied.

 “Do you want to do something?” Even though I was half asleep, I knew that when Rabbi Hodakov asked if you wanted to do something, it was probably coming from the Rebbe. I quickly became more alert. “Sure,” I said, and followed him to his office where he began to explain to me what he wanted me to do:

 “I will give you a pair of tefillin and you’ll take them to Long Beach, New York. There’s a man there by the name of Mr. Louis Shelder. You should bring him the tefillin and show him how to put them on. Make sure not to come before 6:00 a.m., because you might wake him up. But don’t come after six, because you might miss him!” I responded, “Fine.”

 I washed up, and by then it was 3:30 in the morning. Wanting to follow the instructions to the letter, I departed for my destination with plenty of time to spare. By 5:30 a.m., I was waiting at Mr. Shelder’s front door. At exactly 6:00 a.m. I knocked, and sure enough, a man opened the door. I smiled and said, “My name is Zalman Lipsker. The Lubavitcher Rebbe sent me here to give you this pair of tefillin and to put them on  with you. 

 “Are you Mr. Shelder?”

He replied, “Yes, come in.” 

We made some small talk and then I did exactly as Rabbi Hodakov requested. As I was showing Mr. Shelder how to put on the tefillin for the first time, I distinctly remember there was a little girl sitting quietly in the room. 

Then he asked, “Where are you going?” “Back to Crown Heights,” I replied.

“And I’m going to Manhattan,” he said. “Let’s go together.” 

I agreed.

On the way he said to me, “Your Rebbe is really something special.” And then he told me what had transpired:

“Last night at around 11:00, I had an audience with the Rebbe. In the middle of the conversation, the Rebbe asked me whether I put on tefillin every day. I said I didn't and that I don't even own a pair of tefillin, and we continued to talk about other matters. A bit later, the Rebbe asked me, ‘If you had tefillin, would you put them on?’ I replied, ‘I don’t know how,’ and we continued to talk about something else. Then he again came back to the subject of tefillin: ‘If you had tefillin and someone showed you how to put them on, would you?’ I had no choice but to say yes. 

During the conversation, the Rebbe made sure to find out exactly what my morning schedule was – when I get up in the morning, when I leave the house to go to work, everything. And here you are, only a few hours later! He sent you with the tefillin. 

This is simply amazing.” 

Upon my return to 770, I reported to Rabbi Hodakov. 

 But that was not the end of the story. Many, many years later, I got a call from a woman in Israel, asking about this story. Apparently, I had told it to someone and it had been published in a magazine. This woman read it and decided to find me. Why? Emotionally, she told me that she was the little girl who was in the room that morning, as I lay tefillin on Mr. Louis Shelder – her father.  She told me that the family eventually became fully observant. She now lives in Israel with her husband, and her son is learning in yeshiva. After reading the story, she had to call and let me know the happy ending to this remarkable story."

                                                                                                                                         

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 Imagine: The Rebbe at 3:00 in the morning, after a long night of the most strenuous sort of  work (as is well known the story of the Rebbe Maharash's "sweating" because of yechidus.) What does he do? What is his standard operational procedure? He calls in his chief of staff to discuss the ‘homework’, things which need immediate attention. And by ‘immediate’ we mean NOW!!  (In addition to things that have to be done in the next couple of hours etc.). The Rebbe tells Rabbi Hodakov to get a pair of tefillin (seemingly there must have been spare pairs of tefillin available for just such situations), go find a bochur and ask him to go, right now, at 3:30 in the morning etc., from Crown Heights to Long Beach, so that a yid should not miss even one more morning without putting on tefillin!! Only the Rebbe, filled with infinite love towards every Jew, coupled with the true appreciation of what a Mitzvah is, and what it can accomplish for a yid; has ‫מסירת נפש in his ‫עבודה to connect with others, and who also inspires the same sort of ‫מס''נ in all of his followers.

May the ‫זכות of The Rebbe, and the unbelievable awesome spiritual forces of this day, bring us all an increase of ‫ברכה, ‫הצלחה and ‫מזל, in all areas of our lives; in a Ge'ula'diker and Moshiach'diker way.