Not long after moving to Miami to become the principal of the Oholei Torah school, in 1970, I began teaching a Tuesday night Torah class.
One person who would attend and sometimes host this class was a local tennis champion named David Lifshultz. One day, David mentioned that he played a regular game with the owner of Kennedy and Cohen, a major regional retailer of large appliances. His name was Mel Landow.
“I would like to see if I could put on tefillin with him,” I told David.
David had his doubts over whether that could happen, but he told me when and where to catch Mel. I came to the tennis court and, between games, I interjected: “How about tefillin?”
Mel declined at first, but I proposed a bet: “If David wins the game, you put on tefillin.”
Along with being one of the great entrepreneurs of South Florida, Mel was an excellent tennis player, so he accepted.
“Dave, give us your best,” I cheered, and of course David beat him. Right after the game, Mel went with me to my car, where he put on tefillin.
Something touched him in this experience, and he started attending my Tuesday night class, as well. We used to study the Rebbe’s talks in that class, and Mel became enamored with the Rebbe and his approach to education. But, when I offered tefillin again, he turned me down. “It’s not relevant to me,” he would say. “Don’t talk to me about tefillin.”
Then, one day in 1972, as our school was experiencing some financial troubles, Mel called me over to his house. He said that his company was going public, and with his payout, he wanted to give half a million dollars to build a new Jewish school building. Back then, such a large sum was unheard of, and it was only the beginning of Mel Landow’s involvement. I called the Rebbe right away to give over the good news.
A few days later, the Rebbe’s secretary, Rabbi Hodakov, called. “It would be a fine thing if you could put on tefillin with Mordechai Shaul Landow,” he said, using Mel’s Hebrew name.
“That’s a very difficult thing to do.” I began to deflect, but then all of a sudden, I heard the voice of the Rebbe, who had been listening on an extension. I jumped out of my chair; I had never heard him on the telephone before.
“Tell him that I’m going to Ohel.” He was referring to the resting place of the Previous Rebbe, where he would often go to pray. Rabbi Hodakov explained that I should tell Mel that this would be an opportune time for him to put on tefillin.
“Beautiful tefillin,” I then heard the Rebbe say, followed by Rabbi Hodakov’s clarification that I should make sure to bring a nice pair of tefillin for Mel to put on.
Back then, only low-quality tefillin were sold in Miami, but then I heard the Rebbe’s voice again, suggesting that I use my own tefillin, but with nice cases.
I got off the phone, went to the local Jewish bookstore, bought a pair of sixty dollar tefillin, put the new cases on my tefillin, and went to meet Mel. He was playing tennis.
“You know Mel,” I began, “this is going to sound strange, but would you like to put on tefillin today?
continued on reverse
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ערב שבת פרשת תזריע-מצורע, ד׳ אייר, תשפ״ה
Erev Shabbat Parshat Tazria-Metzora, May 2, 2025
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