By Rabbi Sholom DovBer Avtzon
Rabbi Mendel Gluckowsky
On the last day of Pesach, our custom [in Lubavitch] is to partake in a special seudah (meal) beginning after Mincha, and many extend it past sunset. The Rebbe Rashab publicized this tradition in 5666 (1906) and informed us that it is called The Meal of Moshiach, and we are to drink four cups of wine.
This year I participated in this meal, where Rabbi Mendel Gluckowsky, the Rov of Rechovot, Eretz Yisroel farbrenged (spoke) and he related the following touching and inspiring story. With his permission I am publicizing it.
[To give some context to the story, Rabbi Gluckowsky grew up in Toronto, and maintained contact with many of his friends and acquaintances. This continued even after even after he settled in Eretz Yisroel and became a Rov etc. One of them is the focus of this story, a man by the name Jack, who learned his bar mitzvah lessons from Rabbi Gluckowsky’s father, Rabbi Yaakov.]
I hope you too will be motivated by it.
While my position as a Rov brings me to many communities, I made it a point to visit Toronto very often, in order to visit my parents. While I was there, I also reconnected with numerous friends and acquaintances. As my responsibilities in Eretz Yisroel increased, I also would do some fundraising there for the numerous causes I am involved in. Many of my friends and acquaintances helped me in this endeavor as well.
Amongst them is a wonderful person, Jack. He wasn’t a neighbor, nor a person with whom I went to school with, but rather someone who took his bar mitzvah lessons from my father. Nevertheless, we connected and remained close for many years. While his family is traditional, he would constantly ask me about the Lubavitcher Rebbe and insist that I share with him something that the Rebbe spoke about. It was the early nineties, and when we spoke that year, it was shortly after the Kinus Hashiluchim, so I mentioned to him that the Rebbe said, “Everyone has to prepare themselves and be ready to greet Moshiach.”
Hearing this he said, Rabbi I just moved into a new house and I don’t want Moshiach to catch me in pajamas, i.e., that I was sleeping on the job and didn’t do anything to prepare myself for his coming. Rabbi I want mezuzos for my house, as soon as possible.
I asked him, Jack, how many doorways to you have? He was silent for a few moments as he mentally counted them, and then replied twenty-six.
A Proper Mezuzah at That Time Cost $75
Jack, a proper mezuzah [at that time] is seventy-five dollars, should I get them? Without a question, he replied. I definitely want one on each dooorway.
Could I come over at nine tomorrow morning, I inquired? That would be wonderful and I would be extremely grateful if you do.
Hearing this, I left my parents’ house and drove to a sofer, whom I knew and asked him to prepare the twenty-six mezuzos, their coverings, as well as the nails etc., that I would need to place and attach them to the doorposts.
The following morning, I brought all of the mezuzos to his house and helped him place them on the doorposts. After placing the final one, I saw that Jack was extremely uplifted, he then declared, Thank you, Moshiach will not find me in my pajamas, I prepared my house for his coming.
After speaking with him for a few more minutes, I left and began driving back to my parent’s home and he went to his work.
Struck Me Like a Thunderbolt!
Suddenly after driving a block or two, I was overwhelmed with the following thought and it struck me like a thunderbolt. Jack, is not a Lubavitcher, he is not a chossid etc., yet, as soon as he heard these words of the Rebbe he made a momentous decision that changed his life-style. He felt a need to do something to prepare himself for Moshiach’s coming.
But what about me? Yes, I learn and teach the Rebbe’s sichos and maamorim, as well as being active in the Rebbe’s institutions and activities. But, did I change anything in my life or perspective? Did I do something just for the sake of preparing myself for the coming of Moshiach? Or as Jack said it so poignantly, Am I going to be dressed when Moshiach comes, or will he find me in my pajamas?
In simple words, did anything in my daily routine change before I heard those words of the Rebbe or not?!
Reprinted from the Parshas Acharei Mos 5784 Weekly Story of Rabbi Sholom DovBer Avtzon.
