An oral history project dedicated to documenting the life of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. The story is one of thousands recorded in over 1,700 videotaped interviews conducted to date. While we have done our utmost to authenticate these stories, they reflect the person’s recollection and interpretation of the Rebbe’s words.
Become a kosher slaughterer. At first, he resisted the idea: A shochet is expected to meet the highest standards of personal piety, and my father felt that he wasn’t of the right caliber, that he wasn’t holy enough to be shochet.
Through an intermediary, the respected chasidic mentor Rabbi Shmuel Levitin, the Rebbe told him: “I would still like you to learn shechita. The very fact that you feel unworthy of being a shochet proves that you are worthy of being a shochet!”
He eventually learned the practice and it wasn’t long before it came into good use: In 1953 my parents got married, and shortly after, my father got a position in an Orthodox synagogue in a little town in Connecticut. The congregation didn’t want to hire a formal rabbi, and so while he officially served as the cantor, my father took care of everything in the synagogue. While they were living there, my father was the only one who could slaughter kosher chickens — both for his own family as well as for others in the community.
Throughout my father’s 7-year tenure there, in the 1950s, the Rebbe’s office would often call him, at times late at night, giving him guidance and advice for working with the people of his synagogue.
My father would also produce a regular bulletin, and he sent a copy of every issue to the Rebbe. The Rebbe took the time to read the newsletter, and every so often made a comment on it.
For example, the newsletter included instructions for how to light Shabbat candles, along with the transliterated blessing. One day, my father received a call from the Rebbe’s office about this. Although the general custom is to say “Blessed are You...who commanded us to light the candles of Shabbat,” the Rebbe noted that in Chabad the proper terminology was “Shabbat Kodesh” — “to light the candles of the holy Shabbat.” The Rebbe stressed that even those who don’t use the Chabad liturgy should include this additional word when reciting this blessing.
The Rebbe emphasized that it is worthwhile to publicize that this is the proper way to say it.
But my family’s relationship with Chabad extends even further back. My father’s father, Yosef Nelson, began studying in Lubavitch — the Russian town of Lubavitch for which the movement is named — at the age of nine, when his father sent him there to learn.
While there, he too came to know the Previous Rebbe’s family well, and he would frequent their home.
Although he received rabbinical ordination and served for a time as a community rabbi in his hometown of Babroisk, his upbringing in Lubavitch taught him to be humble and modest, and later in life, he preferred the title “mister.” Once in the United States — he immigrated in the 1920s — my grandfather never compromised on his Judaism. He played an instrumental role in establishing Chabad communal life in America but, as for his professional life, he left the rabbinate and became a house painter.
His work as a painter brought him in contact with another side of Lubavitch — and the Rebbe.
It was at some point in the 1950s, after the Rebbe had succeeded his father-in-law. My grandfather, by then one of the elder chasidim of Chabad, was at that time working at a job — painting the walls in 770.
As he was walking up to the building carrying a collection of paint cans, my grandfather suddenly felt a gentle tug at his hand, as someone tried to take a few paint cans from him. He turned around and saw that it was the Rebbe, who had just come out of his car. Seeing my grandfather carrying those cans, the Rebbe quickly came over to lighten his load, carrying several of the paint cans into 770 for him.
As a finance manager, Mr. Jonathan Nelson has previously worked for JP Morgan Chase and for the past fifteen years has been working for an internet service provider. He resides in Boynton Beach, Florida, and was interviewed in June 2006.
