Rabbi's Blog

So there we are, my sons Binyamin, Shlomo and I, standing inside the Chabad shul in Niagara, the first morning of their short mid-winter break. Realistically, the only way we are davening with a minyan is if the shul pulls it off. We arrive at 7:15 and find only the Rabbi's son with his tefillin bag. At 7:45 the Rabbi pulls in. He normally drives to Buffalo or Hamilton daily to catch a minyan. Today he is actually driving in from St Catherine's because he lives there most of the school year to be closer to the university. We wait and shmuz. He tells me a great story about the Lubavitcher Rebbi. Once a group of college students were in his office and a girl asked him who he felt was better, the rabbinical students or the college students. The Rabbi responded that there is a Jewish tradition to answer a question with a question. He proceeded to ask the following; imagine you have a four story building and a ladder stretching all the way to the top. There are two people on the ladder, one in between the 3rd and 4th floor, and one at the first floor. Who is closer to the top? He then answered his question by saying that it all depends if they are climbing up or down. Where we are standing is not as important as which direction we are headed. As he finishes his parable, 200 chassidic yeshiva students show up to complete the minyan. And as I am writing this article, the good Rabbi has just called me to make sure my boys and I are still around and available to complete the mincha minyan for tonight. All in a days work for a humble out of town Chabad Rabbi. Yasher koach to Rabbi Zaltzman and all of our unsung heroes. Halivay (tough word to translate) those 200 young men from Brooklyn will walk away from the falls seeing Hashem's handiwork, but more importantly, they should walk away from Chabad of Niagara and see Hashem's handiworker. Good Shabbos, Stay Jewish, Live Jewish.