Monday 11 January 2016
Warm story......You Never Know
I'm sure you get those emails as well. Usually it's from some non-jewish religion student, asking if they can interview you for their course about Judaism's view about G-d-knows-what. In our busy schedules we often brush them off or ignore the emails all together.
Early on in our Shlichus, my wife and I decided that no matter how busy life gets we would take the time for those one-off encounters, random emails and facebook messages.
About 3 years ago, I got a call from a 7th grader. He explained that his teacher asked him to interview a religious leader about the traditions of marriage in their religion. Even though he was not Jewish he had chosen to explore Judaism's view on marriage and asked if he can come interview me.
We scheduled an appointment and a few days later he came to my office together with his nanny, who had driven him to see me. For an hour or so, he drilled me with the questions he had been given by his teacher, and some of his own as well. Quite a serious kid, so much so that this encounter stands out in my mind. The nanny said but 2 words - she just sat in the back of the room, minding her own business. They bid farewell and I thought nothing of this encounter.
Today, a frum-looking woman walked into the Chabad house during davening. She sat quietly in the last row. During kiddush she told some of the women that three years ago, she was a nanny for about 3 months. One day, she had brought a 12 year old boy to ask me questions for a school project. She sat quietly, listening to our conversation about Jewish marriage. At the time, she was living with a non-jew and as a result of that random encounter she left him and began her path back to Judaism.

Never forget the power of a random encounter, email or call. There is someone on the other end reaching out to you in their time of need, sometimes its Hashem reaching out to them and you are just the shliach!
A gut voch!
Yisroel barnath
That's who it happened to
Toby Lieder
Early on in our Shlichus, my wife and I decided that no matter how busy life gets we would take the time for those one-off encounters, random emails and facebook messages.
About 3 years ago, I got a call from a 7th grader. He explained that his teacher asked him to interview a religious leader about the traditions of marriage in their religion. Even though he was not Jewish he had chosen to explore Judaism's view on marriage and asked if he can come interview me.
We scheduled an appointment and a few days later he came to my office together with his nanny, who had driven him to see me. For an hour or so, he drilled me with the questions he had been given by his teacher, and some of his own as well. Quite a serious kid, so much so that this encounter stands out in my mind. The nanny said but 2 words - she just sat in the back of the room, minding her own business. They bid farewell and I thought nothing of this encounter.
Today, a frum-looking woman walked into the Chabad house during davening. She sat quietly in the last row. During kiddush she told some of the women that three years ago, she was a nanny for about 3 months. One day, she had brought a 12 year old boy to ask me questions for a school project. She sat quietly, listening to our conversation about Jewish marriage. At the time, she was living with a non-jew and as a result of that random encounter she left him and began her path back to Judaism.

Never forget the power of a random encounter, email or call. There is someone on the other end reaching out to you in their time of need, sometimes its Hashem reaching out to them and you are just the shliach!
A gut voch!
Yisroel barnath
That's who it happened to
Toby Lieder
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