By: Dovid Zaklikowski
The last trolley of the evening rolled by as a jolly young Shimshon Stock ushered a close acquaintance and his soon-to-be-Bar-Mitzvahed son into the synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway. Inside “770,” as Lubavitch headquarters is known, was the study and office of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who a few years earlier had accepted the leadership of this small Chassidic community.
At the time, the Rebbe had only a handful of representatives scattered across Israel, America, Europe and North Africa; but he was already relentlessly and tirelessly building a global network of communities.
Shimshon introduced his friend and his friend’s son to the Rebbe, who greeted them with his comforting and warm handshake, requesting them to please take a seat. The Rebbe briefly blessed the boy that he should grow to become a source of pride to the Jewish people and to his family. As they turned to leave, Rebbe surprised the three Americans with the question he addressed to the youngster: “Are you a baseball fan?”
The Bar-Mitzvah boy replied that he was. “Which team are you a fan of — the Yankees or the Dodgers?” "The Dodgers", replied the boy. “Does your father have the same feeling for the Dodgers as you have?” "No." “Does he take you out to games?” "Well, every once in a while my father takes me to a game. We were at a game a month ago." “How was the game?” "It was disappointing, the 13-year-old confessed. By the sixth inning, the Dodgers were losing nine-to-two, so we decided to leave." “Did the players also leave the game when you left?” "Rabbi, the players can’t leave in the middle of the game!" “Why not?” asked the Rebbe. “Explain to me how this works.” "There are players and fans", the baseball fan explained. "The fans can leave when they like — they’re not part of the game and the game could, and does, continue after they leave. But the players need to stay and try to win until the game is over." “That is the lesson I want to teach you in Judaism,” said the Rebbe with a smile. “You can be either a fan or a player. Be a player.”
Outside 770 father and son said goodbye to Shimshon, the three now sharing a new admiration of a pioneer in Jewish education.
General Walks in on Jewish Soldier
Shortly after World War II began, 18-year-old Mottel Chaiton was drafted into the Canadian army. During the next three years, he was stationed first in Halifax, Nova Scotia, then in Ottawa, Ontario.
Once the family heard he was sick and went to visit him. When they arrived at the army base and asked for Chaiton, the soldiers told them, “He is our rabbi,” and proceeded to relate how he had earned the title.
On Sundays, the soldiers were required to attend church, and Mottel had asked that he and the other Jewish soldiers be excused, saying that he would arrange Jewish services for them. When the clergyman objected that there was no Jewish chaplain, Mottel replied, “We don’t need one. We can make our own.” From then on, Mottel organized Shabbat prayer whenever possible. He would lead the prayers and read from the Torah.
His brother Aaron Chaiton was the first boy in the family to attend a yeshiva when, in 1941, the Lubavitch Yeshiva opened in Montreal. At the age of 12, Aaron went to New York to study at 770 Eastern Parkway, Chabad Headquarters. Mottel, who had then just begun his army service, requested leave to go to New York and help his younger brother get settled and purchase a pair of tefillin for him.
While there, Mottel had a private audience with Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, the sixth Chabad Rebbe. He asked for a blessing that all his friends should remain safe and return unharmed from the war, and the Rebbe gave his blessing, adding that he should tell his friends not to do any unnecessary prohibited actions on the Shabbat, such as smoking and sewing.
Back at the base, Mottel was asked to be the assistant to the commanding officer, General Perterson. One of his duties was to wake the general each morning at a certain time, for which purpose he slept in a room close to the general’s.
Mottel himself would wake up much earlier to put on tefillin and pray. Once, General Perterson woke up early, and, knocking on Mottel’s door, strode into the room to find him in the middle of his prayers. Immediately, he turned and left without saying a word.
When he reported for duty that day at nine o’clock, the general asked him to come into his office and close the door behind him. Mottel walked in with a sinking heart, certain that he was about to be disciplined. “Chaiton,” the general said, “don’t ever let me disturb your prayers again!”
“At that moment,” Mottel said later, he saw what it says in the Talmud (Berachot 6a), “When the nations will see you with tefillin on your head, they will fear you.”
Dovid Zaklikowski is an archivist, researcher and biographer, many of his books can be purchased at HasidicArchives.com or on Amazon. He can be reached at [email protected]
