“I Watched You Daven Maariv”: How a Bochur Davening Maariv Won Over a Chassidishe Rav
Every Shabbos, the Bochurim of Lubavitcher Yeshiva Mesivta on Ocean Parkway fan out to shuls throughout the neighborhood, Chassidish and Litvish alike, bringing the Rebbe’s Torah with them. Sometimes, though, it isn’t the D’var Torah that leaves the deepest impression.
Learning on Ocean Parkway, away from Crown Heights, the Talmidim are surrounded by a wide range of Frum Kehillos, and the Bochurim have turned that into a Shlichus.
Each Shabbos, between Mincha and Maariv, the Bochurim go out to many different Shuls and share a D’var Torah from the Rebbe.
Rabbi Scharf, Menahel of the Mesivta, shared one encounter that captures what these visits are really about.
At one Chassidishe shul, the Rav, an Einikel of a prominent Chassidic dynasty, received the Bochurim politely but with some reserve. Young Shiur Alef Bochurim from Lubavitcher Yeshiva getting up to speak before his Kehilla was not something he was quite ready for.
At some point he asked them what D’var Torah they had prepared. It was about the Alter Rebbe and his son, they told him.
“Which son?” the Rav asked.
The Mitteler Rebbe, one of the Bochurim answered, to which the Rav excitedly shared that he himself was an Einekel of the Mitteler Rebbe.
“So we’re cousins!” the Bochur exclaimed, he too was a descendent of the Mitteler Rebbe.
The ice had begun to thaw. But he still wasn’t ready to let them address his shul.
Then came Maariv. No D’var Torah, no speech, just the Bochurim davening. And the Rav quietly watched.
When Davening ended, the Rav walked over and told the Bochurim he had been so moved by the way they Davened Maariv that from now on, he wanted them to come every week, and speak.
They have been there every week since. The Rav even invited them back for Yom Tov, and the Bochurim went on Tahalucha to his Shul on Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah.
What won the Rav over was seeing Lubavitcher Bochurim Davening and learning like true Chassidim of the Rebbe, real Temimim of Tomchei Temimim. It was a true Kiddush Lubavitch.
It is an Achrayus the Bochurim carry with them wherever they go. In a neighborhood surrounded by so many Chassidishe Kehillos, it is never lost on them that every word they say, the way they walk and the way they act, represents the Rebbe. When people see them, they should be able to say: “Es geit a Chossid, there goes a Chossid.”
