By Shaun Zeitlin
Dad lives on Long Island, but owns and runs an auto body shop in a rough Brooklyn neighborhood, where he is probably the only Jewish person around. One day a coworker came in to tell him that his cousins were outside. Who could it be?
Dad came out and saw a group of Chasidic boys walking by carrying lulavs and etrogs. He was shocked to see not only white people in that neighborhood but ten young bearded men with black hats and suits! Dad asked them if they were lost or needed help, but they explained that they were on their way to an old shul to help make a minyan.
The Yeshiva Students Were from Israel
The boys were Lubavitcher yeshiva students from Israel, but two spoke English. They thanked Dad for his concern, said they were happy to meet him, and told him they would stop in again. They did just that, and returned every week on Friday afternoons to put on tefilin with Dad.
Known as phylacteries, tefilin are the black little boxes that a man ties on his head and arm to focus his mind and heart on G-d. Dad hadn't done this mitzva since his Bar Mitzva, and these young men were happy to help him make the connection again.
Even the non-Jewish workers enjoyed these visits. Once when I called on a Friday, one of the non-Jewish mechanics quipped, "I am sorry, but Mr. Zeitlin is all tied up," referring to his wearing the tefilin. The students also put up a mezuza on his store and brought jelly doughnuts for Chanuka and hamantashen on Purim.
Dad started to look forward to the Lubavitchers' visit and to respect them. It was nice to see Dad in the living room on Shabbat afternoon reading the weekly L'Chaim publication cover to cover. One of the boys left to a yeshiva in Peru, but the other boys continued to visit.
A Strong Appreciation for Putting on Tefilin
Dad developed a strong connection to the tefilin. He told Mom that he wanted a new pair of tefilin for Father's Day, and that's what he got. Each morning before work Dad puts them on and recites the blessing and the Shema from the card the students gave him. Even when he is traveling, Dad won't leave his tefilin behind.
One Wednesday in the summer, the Lubavitcher boys came in to put on tefilin, since they were going upstate for Shabbat. The next Friday the boys did not come, and Dad got nervous. Calling to find out what happened, he learned that the boys were in a car that had gotten into a terrible accident.
Three of the four boys were killed and one barely survived. The boy who survived was the boy he had befriended, so Dad took my brother and me to visit him in the hospital.
Asked the Young Man if He Had Put on Tefillin that Day
We drove up to Nyack Hospital in Rockland County, New York. The young man was lying in bed with his mother at his bedside. He was very pale and looked very thin. His mother told us he was in extreme pain and had just had his spleen and some ribs removed in an effort to save his life. He smiled faintly when he saw my father and they began talking. His three best friends had been killed and he was very depressed from his traumatic experience. Dad tried to cheer him up, and during their visit, asked him if he already put on tefilin.
His mother said he was still too weak, and had not put on tefilin since the accident. Dad spoke to the boy and encouraged him to put on tefilin. He agreed, and told him where to look for his tefilin bag in the suitcase.
The scene was now reversed: Dad was putting tefilin on a yeshiva boy! It was amazing to watch Dad, with dedication and love, help the young man hooked up to tubes and machines put on his tefilin.
For the next month Dad called every day to talk to the young man, ask how he was doing, and also checked if he wore his tefilin that day.
Miraculously, the boy recovered, was rehabilitated, and returned to Israel where he is now married. Dad still speaks to him every so often, and of course, they always check up on each other's tefilin progress.
It's easy to get caught up in negative cycles in life. I'm glad Dad got caught up in a good, mitzva cycle.
Reprinted from the Behar-Bechukosai 5761/2001 edition of L’Chaim, a publication of the Lubavitch Youth Organization in Brooklyn, NY. Shaun was a student at SUNY-Albany and gabbai of the Shabbos House on campus. Reprinted from The Jewish Holiday Consumer.
