Question: Where I live, I see Chabad shluchim offering Jewish passerby to put on tefillin. Is this of any value if they are otherwise non-observant? Additionally, is doing so in a street – a public thoroughfare – proper kavod for the tefillin?
Menachem
Via email
Synopsis: We previously cited the Mechaber who explains the mitzvah of Tefillin as to be worn the entire day, but due to the constraints of the human condition whereby one might not be able to always be in the state of cleanliness of one’s person – guf naki – in our time we only wear them as we pray [the Shacharit Prayer]. We enumerated the blessings and reward as relates to this mitzvah as Poshe’a b’gufo – one who sins with his body. We also noted the importance to the performance of the mitzvah to purchase tefillin from a G-d-fearing scribe who writes beautiful tefillin that are to last for many years
We then noted Esav’s marriage to the daughter of his uncle Yishmael as a single momentary opportunity to repent his many sins, including his marriage to the evil Canaanite wives. Unfortunately he and his new wife, Mochalas, did not take advantage of that opportunity and continued in their evil ways. Nevertheless, our Sages derive from this that a chatan and kallah fast on the day of their wedding, as they are forgiven all their prior sins. We also noted that such is repentance in the eyes of Hashem that if even for but a solitary moment, as the prophet Yonah is commanded [and he acts reluctantly] to save the gentile city of Nineveh from destruction. Surprisingly they heed his call and repent their evil ways. We further cited the incident of R’ Idi who would spend six months in travel – three months each way – just to spend one day in the academy. We also cited as regards the matter of punishment that one day in a year is considered as an entire year.
We followed that with the story of Keti’ah b. Shalom who was able to secure his eternal reward with one single action, on which Rabbi Yehuda Ha’Nasi proclaimed: “One may acquire eternity in one moment, while another may acquire it only after many years. Citing Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, we noted as well the special recognition Hashem accords Caleb for momentarily silencing the fears caused by the evil report of his fellow spies as to what they saw in the Land of Canaan. Even though he assuaged their fears for but a moment, it was viewed on High with great admiration. That followed the halacha that we save a person on the Sabbath [and the festivals] even if such effort only renders a momentary measure of life – chayyei sha’ah. We then cited an address of the Gaon Rabbi Eleazar Menachem Man Shach, zt”l, at a Yarchei Kallah at the Ponevez Yeshiva (Sefer Meireish Amanah, 18 Menachem Av 4738 – 1978). Rav Shach referred to two young people who Rave faced their deaths with one last act of Kiddush Hashem – sanctifying Hashem’s name. Rav Shach noted that not only did they die al Kiddush Hashem but they “lived”[that last moment] al Kiddush Hashem. We then cited that were the Jewish people to observe just two [most probably consecutive] Sabbaths, Hashem would immediately redeem them; we find even further in the Jerusalem Talmud that even for the single solitary observance of one Sabbath they will be redeemed.
Next, we mentioned that both tefillin and the Sabbath and Festivals are referred to as Ot, a sign [that proclaims our recognition and allegiance to Hashem as the Creator of the world and His having delivered us from the bondage of Egypt]. As such, on the Sabbath and the festivals we do not don the tefillin.
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Answer: Many years ago, there was a Jew who embarked on a holy mission to strengthen Sabbath observance – this was in a time when the Orthodox community was much smaller and Shmirat Shabbat was unfortunately not that popular.
Rabbi Chaim Rauch, who I knew personally, was not only dedicated to this cause but with great mesirat nefesh – self-sacrifice – he sought to influence others to observe this mitzvah, one of the primary mitzvot that bear testimony to Hashem’s having created the world, and whose punishment for willful violation is sekila – death by stoning (Numbers 15: 32-36).
To this end Rabbi Rauch would organize Shmirat Shabbat marches along the commercial strips in Brooklyn’s Jewish communities of Boro Park and later Flatbush.
When he conducted his marches in Flatbush along Kings Highway, a bustling commercial strip, he received the valued support of my Rebbe, the Mirrer Rosh HaYeshiva HaGaon Rabbi Shmuel Berenbaum, zt”l. The support was not merely a signed letter of support but Rav Berenbaum, whose whole life was spent in the Koslei Beis HaMidrash, actually left the yeshiva and joined the march. That was an endorsement that was probably above and beyond what Rabbi Rauch might have expected and no doubt one that was recognized by all who knew the Gadol Ha’Torah as mesirat nefesh on his part.
We are all aware that many marches consist of just that – a group, large or small, parading down a street and chanting some slogans. For my Rebbe the march was not to be limited to parading and singing. He sought a more proactive approach, which was to engage the Jewish store owners in conversation, thus hoping to convince them to close their businesses on the Sabbath.
It is important to note that at that time the Sunday “blue laws” were still in effect throughout New York State; thus, if one closed his establishment on the Sabbath, Saturday, he would have to close both Saturday and Sunday. These laws were the cause of much of the chillul Shabbat at the time. (We are fortunate that such laws have been repealed in most of the areas where there is high a Jewish population and I must give my father, Reb Anshel [Albert] Klass, a”h, a very unassuming man, some of the credit for this, due to his constant lobbying in Albany.)
My Rebbe was well aware of the implications; nonetheless, he sought in his conversations to explain the sanctity of Shabbat and its rewards. One such merchant he approached was the owner of a grocery on Kings Highway at East 15th Street, now known as Fruits a Plenty. The gentleman explained to the rosh yeshiva that Saturday was a very lucrative day for him and if he closed the store others will take all that business away from him – even during the week. The rosh yeshiva responded that not only will he reap the rewards of Shmirat Shabbat, but that he would not lose any money in so doing.
I remember about twelve or thirteen years ago a large kosher food store opened around the corner from his store – they spent a lot of money installing all the fixtures into the store, but they did not last long and if my memory is correct, a second owner came into that same store to again open a kosher supermarket, and they too did not succeed; that store is now a clothing store. Now there is no halacha of hasagat gevul against another Jew opening a store on the same street where all have the right to sell (see Mechaber, Rema Choshen Mishpat 166:5), however as my Rebbe, HaGaon Rabbi Shmuel Brudny, zt”l, would say in other matters, which I apply here; “Afilu az m’meg tun uber ehr is nit kein sheiner mensch – though he’s allowed to do so he nevertheless is probably not the finest person.”
Yet we see the greatness of the beracha of a tzaddik in that no one was able to compete with the original storekeeper. I’ve shopped in that store when I happen to be on that street and they are always busy.
But to be clear, it is also the blessing a Jew is fortunate to reap when he proclaims the Ot – the sign, in this case by Sabbath observance, that Hashem is the Creator of the world and all that is in it.
To be continued…
