We know the tremendous impact a caring Rebbe can make. Here are some stories that bring out this point.
A yeshiva in Lakewood decided to expel a 10th-grade boy because he was negatively influencing his peers. The Rosh Yeshiva intended to stay in touch with the boy after his departure, but he became so busy that it slipped his mind. By the time he remembered, he felt too embarrassed to call the boy and so he hoped to run into him eventually. Four years later, the Rosh Yeshiva bumped into the boy exiting shul with his hat and jacket. He apologized for not staying in touch with him. They then conversed, and the boy mentioned the many yeshivos he attended after his ejection from the yeshiva in 10th grade. During their conversation, the Rosh Yeshiva asked him what spurred the boy's turnaround. The boy replied, “R' Horowitz, my 10th-grade Rebbe. For the two years after I left the yeshiva until I attended yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael, he called me every Friday.” When the Rosh Yeshiva later saw R' Horowitz, he shared what the boy had said. Upon hearing this, R' Horowitz began to cry, and said, “It’s true. I called him every Friday for two years straight without fail. But he never answered the phone once!” Despite never speaking, this boy knew that his Rebbe cared, although his Rebbe was unaware that the boy received his message.
Here is another unbelievable story. A 90-year-old Jew named Yaakov residing in Queens, New York who grew up in Russia related that when he was a young child there were no yeshivos where he was raised. As a result, his parents sent him to Grodno, which was a one-and-a-half-week trip, where R' Shimon Shkop had a yeshiva. In order to be accepted into the yeshiva, he needed to pass an oral test. Although Yaakov didn’t have much of a background, he prepared as much as he could for the test. The day came when he finally arrived in Grodno and he went to R' Shimon’s house. R' Shimon Shkop welcomed him into his house. Yaakov told R' Shimon that he just arrived from Russia. R' Shimon said that he had two questions. Yaakov began thinking, “Now he will ask me questions on the gemara and I know so little with my background. Why did I travel here?” His negative thinking was interrupted with R' Shimon’s questions. His two questions were: “When was the last time you ate a hot meal? And when was the last time you slept on a bed in a warm room?” R' Shimon then put on an apron and prepared a meal for Yaakov and then later prepared a bed for him. Yaakov related that not too long after, the holocaust took place where his family and all he had was wiped out. He continued “Many years passed and I forgot all the questions of the gemara, Rashi and Tosafos I learned in yeshiva. But those two questions of R' Shimon Shkop stayed with me all my life. And it is because of those two questions that I remained a religious Jew.”
Here is one last story. In 1991, when Rabbi Michael Weisser and his family moved into a new home in Lincoln, Nebraska, he would receive calls from the Grand Dragon of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Nebraska, Larry Trapp, who would say, “You’re going to be sorry you moved in, Jew boy.” Two days later, a thick package of anti-black, anti-Semitic pamphlets arrived in the mail, including an unsigned card that read, “The KKK is watching you.” Rabbi Weisser called the police and learned about Trapp: A bitter 42-year-old who was nearly blind and confined to a wheelchair after both of his legs had been amputated because of diabetes. He had terrorized countless other Jewish, black and Asian residents over the years. Rabbi Weisser called Trapp’s racist hotline and sat through a 10-minute message that spewed hate at nonwhites. At first, Rabbi Weisser intended just to tie up the phone line, but then he started leaving messages of love. One day, Mr. Trapp finally answered the phone. Rabbi Weisser told him, “I heard you’re disabled. I thought you might need a ride to the grocery.” Then, one night, Mr. Trapp called Rabbi Weisser, “I want to get out of what I’m doing and I don’t know how” The Rabbi and his wife drove to Mr. Trapp’s apartment that night and spoke to him for hours, which led to a close friendship. The couple’s home eventually became a kind of hospice for Mr. Trapp, who moved into one of their bedrooms as his health worsened. Mrs. Weisser became Mr. Trapp’s caretaker and confidante. Larry Trapp resigned his position with the KKK, renounced his membership in all the hate organizations he had joined, and made amends to the people in Lincoln, Nebraska, whom he had harassed over the years. He met with law enforcement officials from various agencies such as the FBI, the Anti-Defamation League, and the local police and gave them inside information on the activities of hate organizations operating underground in the US. If that wasn’t astonishingly enough, listen to this. On June 5, 1992 Larry Trapp converted to Judaism. Three months later he passed away of a diabetic-related illness.
