The Mission Will Continue
This week has been quite a difficult one. Conflicting emotions tug me in so many directions. As a Jewish sage once commented, “G‑d gave us two eyes. From one we can smile and ignite the world with laughter and from the other we can cry and weep, when necessary”. How true is this insightful description of the human condition.
As we enter this Shabbat, we remember all those righteous and good people who lost their lives in Mumbai and we remember Rabbi Gabi and Rivka Holtzberg, a friend and colleague. Unfortunately Rabbi Gabi can’t speak this Friday Night at his own Shabbos table. Yet if he could, I know what he would say. Not because I am not a prophet. But because I heard him share a thought on this week’s Torah portion just a few years ago at the annual convention of shluchim (Chabad emissaries).
He talked about life in Mumbai and why he chose to leave the comforts in the West to travel to very deprived city in the East. They didn’t have modern medical care (their children were sent to Israel for medical procedures) nor did they have kosher food (Rabbi Gabi traveled to a nearby island to prepare chickens for his guests). “Why would anyone born in America live there?”, he asked.
His inspiration, he said, came from our patriarch Jacob who, in this week’s Torah portion, leaves the comforts of his home in the spiritually-sound Israel and sets out towards Charan (in Mesopotamia), a place of corruption and immorality. And it is in Charan that Jacob builds the very foundation of Jewish life for the very first time; the birth of his twelve children, the 12 tribes of Israel. Such, Gabi felt, was his calling to move to move to India; to be a beacon of light of the Jewish people and continue jacob’s journey.
I recall that he relayed a story that evening: He was once in the office of an Indian businessman and in middle the meeting the maid brought in a tray of food and set it down before an idol that sat in the office. Gabi turned to the man and respectfully said, “You and I both know that the idol is not going to eat. Look outside the window. Look at all the beggars. Wouldn’t it be better to give it to them?” Rabbi Gabi lovingly taught people, even non-Jews, to hear their cries of their fellow man instead of directing their efforts towards idolatry.
G‑d, in His mystifying ways, has cut their mission as lamplighters short. But each and every one of us can continue this journey that began with our forefather Jacob. And as we enter this Shabbat I challenge you to continue the journey by turning your home into a Chabad House.
You do not need a website. You do not need colored brochures or a big building. All you need is a dinning room, a table, a couch, an open heart, and some food for the soul. Call over a friend, a neighbor, or a relative. Set your table as fitting for the shabbos queen, light the candles at sundown, and then sit down to a joyous dinner. You’ll see the magic happen. The shabbos table has a way of transforming the household. Those who are sad, become happy. Those who are down, are uplifted. Those who have questions, find clarity. And, most importantly, together as one we become closer to G‑d in heaven.
If this tragic loss will result in hundreds of thousands of additional mitzvahs, than these precious lives will not have been lost in vain.
Let us do a mitzvah today!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Raleigh Resnick
