Thirteen Life-Changing Minutes
Rabbi Doctor Aryeh Leib Solomon
Although I had attended a secular high school in Sydney, Australia, and planned to continue to university, I was influenced by student emissaries of the Rebbe to take a break and spend two “gap” years studying Torah at the Yeshivah Gedolah in Melbourne.
I vividly recall those shluchim — Rabbi Yosef Minkowitz and Rabbi Hirshel Morozov — when they first came to my high school during the intermediate days of Sukkot. Although they spoke briefly, they spoke passionately about Judaism, in a language the students could relate to, and they moved the hearts of several youngsters like me, who became followers of the Rebbe. Later on, I heard it said that the Rebbe had compared education to nuclear energy, and that is certainly what happened that Sukkot. It was as if the Rebbe took a Yiddishkeit bomb and dropped it on Australia through those shluchim.
After two years at the yeshivah, I went on to Sydney University to study for a Bachelor of Arts degree.
In December 1974, during the summer vacation in Australia, I came to visit the Rebbe in New York.
During that trip, I was granted a private audience with the Rebbe. I knew it would be a life-changing moment and I meant to take full advantage of the opportunity, writing a long note to the Rebbe in which I enumerated all my issues and questions. When I finally came before him, I saw my note on his desk with many detailed pencil markings on it. I understood that the Rebbe had spent time reading everything I had written and had something to say about it all. I was awe-struck by that thought.
In my note, I had mentioned that I was becoming disenchanted with university. I had already completed two years toward a three-year Bachelor of Arts degree but I had no intention of continuing on with a fourth year, which would grant me the Diploma of Education, because I wanted to return to yeshivah.
I didn’t really need the Diploma of Education because any Jewish school would hire me without it — after all, as a religious person, I would serve as a good model for their students even without the extra certification. I had also written that because I believed that I had a natural teaching ability, I did not need the diploma.
Not surprisingly, the Rebbe did not agree with my plan. He said, “Despite what you write about the Diploma of Education, you should complete it. It will help you in many ways.” And he spelled out how it would help me in spreading Judaism and chasidic teachings and in furthering Chabad’s mitzvah campaigns.
I didn’t quite understand how this diploma would help me achieve such lofty goals, but I trusted the Rebbe and followed his instructions. Back in Sydney it all became clear. Midway through my studies toward that Diploma of Education, as part of that course, I was invited to participate in practice teaching, continued on reverse
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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.
