In an exclusive interview, Rabbi Sholom Ber Lipskar, shliach of Bal Harbour, FL, and founder of the Aleph Institute, shared fascinating experiences with the Rebbe in his youth and on shlichus, including special directives he received throughout the years.
A Chassidisher Derher
The Rebbe’s Mekuravim
“Personally, I try to avoid entering the Rebbe’s room,” shares Rabbi Lipskar. “The first time I entered the Rebbe’s personal study, referred to as Gan Eden Haelyon, after Gimmel Tammuz, I was struck by the room’s modest size. Over the years, when I merited to have many yechidusen with the Rebbe, the walk from the door to the Rebbe’s desk seemed a mile long. We didn’t perceive the place as physical at all. The Rebbe’s presence transcended the reality of the space; it was like ‘makom ha’aron eino min hamidah.’ And that is a feeling that I want to retain.”
We sat down with Rabbi Sholom Ber Lipskar to hear about his youth in 770 and his early years on shlichus, when he merited to receive extensive guidance from the Rebbe.
“I’ve learned over the years of my shlichus that one of the most impactful things I could do with my mekuravim was to bring them to the Rebbe. Over the years, baruch Hashem, we’ve brought countless Yidden to the Rebbe, before and after Gimmel Tammuz, where each one was impacted in a significant way and the impact continued to be priceless.”
Some of these individuals experienced open miracles. One couple who didn’t have children for many years joined a group of benefactors traveling to New York for dollars. They asked the Rebbe for a blessing for a child, but the Rebbe gave them two dollars, saying, “This is for the children.”
“The wife was so shaken by the experience,” Rabbi Lipskar relates, “she needed to be supported as she left the Rebbe and was taken to Ess & Bench to calm down. Nine months later, she gave birth to twins, after which she had two more sets of twins. Needless to say, their Yiddishkeit was strengthened and they became dedicated Chassidim of the Rebbe.”
In other instances, Rabbi Lipskar witnessed how the Rebbe personally motivated and demanded of mekuravim to enhance their commitment, both on a personal and financial level.
In 5734, the Federation’s “Young Leadership Cabinet” of the tri-state area came for a yechidus, and Rabbi Hodakov arranged that a few young and eloquent shluchim join the group. Among them was Rabbi Lipskar.
During an hour-and-a-half of intense discussion, the Rebbe answered questions about Russian Jewry, fundraising, spreading Yiddishkeit, chinuch and the Holocaust. Towards the end of the yechidus, the Rebbe said that he hoped he answered all the questions adequately and satisfactorily. “But now,” the Rebbe said, “I’d like to ask you something.
“I’m 72 years old,” the Rebbe said. “Before I go to sleep tonight, I hope and pray to Al-mighty G-d that when I wake up tomorrow morning, I will do one thing more or one thing better than I did until today. And for that reason, I have the right to ask you to do the same.”
“People always left the Rebbe’s room impacted,” Rabbi Lipskar explained. “But for us Chassidim, especially as bochurim, it took on a whole new dimension. When I was a bochur in 770, we prepared for yechidus for at least a week before. On the day of yechidus, you fasted and spent time alone, b’hisbodedus. It was a very serious matter. I vividly remember the feeling of standing at the Rebbe’s door, about to be called in. It was an awesome feeling.”
We asked Rabbi Lipskar to share some details of his personal yechidusen, and he shared the following story.
“When I was a 17-year-old bochur in 770, I began to observe iskafya to an extreme degree, as a result of learning Chassidus and hearing the stories of Chassidim in Russia.
“The Rebbe said to me in yechidus that iskafya in our day isn’t achieved through physical deprivation. Iskafya means to not waste your time, to not do what you want, and to eat healthy. He said that this type of behavior brings to atzvus, not merirus, and that I should approach my mashpia to better understand the difference. Afterwards, Reb Yoel learned with me Perek 26 in Tanya.”
The Long and Short Way
During the yechidus with the Federation leaders, the Rebbe made a point to them which has served as a guiding light for Rabbi Lipskar in his shlichus.
“The Rebbe repeated the Gemara’s story of the long and short way to Yerushalayim. There are two ways of raising funds, the Rebbe explained to them. The short and long way is to publicize a touching story, and, with the help of a good spokesman, the donor will be impressed and write a check. But the following year, if a new emergency arises in another environment, it will take precedence over your project. Although you received your financial needs in the short term, you haven’t ensured any long term progress. The long and short way, the Rebbe said, is to make the benefactor own the project, where it becomes his project. In that case, you won’t need to approach him again. ‘Whatever he gives, he gives to himself.'”
The Rebbe expressed a similar sentiment when Rabbi Lipskar accompanied a well-known judge (Judge Weinstein) to the Rebbe for dollars, where he informed the Rebbe that he would share the Rebbe’s views on imprisonment with the Federal Sentencing Commission. That wasn’t enough for the Rebbe. “But you will tell them as your personal views also,” the Rebbe emphasized.
Another important directive Rabbi Lipskar received from the Rebbe in his shlichus was “Kol d’poshit maale tfei— the simpler, the better.”
“This was after a certain benefactor was very inspired by our work and offered me an unlimited amount of money to spread ‘my’ message of an accessible Yiddishkeit in a massive campaign across the country. The Rebbe rejected the idea outright. National media campaigns might be nice, but real impact is made organically, from the ground up, when a shliach makes a real connection with a person, who goes on to form more connections himself. That’s how real change and success happens.”
Today, The Shul of Bal Harbor is one of the most famous Chabad Houses in the world, with thousands of Jews coming through its doors on a regular basis. The Shul’s foundation began in the year 5741 through the help of an individual who already had a connection to the Rebbe.
“When we moved to Bal Harbor, most people were against us, if not just apathetic. But there was one Jew, a friend, Mr. Sam (Shmuel) Greenberg, who while in yechidus was asked by the Rebbe why no shul existed in Bal Harbor. He provided us with our beginning, arranging for a space that he had through his real estate connections.”
When Rabbi Lipskar came for a yechidus with one of his main supporters, the Rebbe noted that The Shul was a pilot project which could serve as an example for many other locations because Florida draws visitors from all over the world, specifically mentioning the entire US, Canada, Central and South America and Europe. People could observe the community in Bal Harbor and then implement those same ideas in their home communities.
(“We once received a similar message about the Aleph Institute,” says Rabbi Lipskar. “When one of our staff told the Rebbe that she worked for Aleph, the Rebbe said, “Aleph iz doch der vegveiser far ale andere osios. Ba zei zol azoy oich zein der Aleph—Aleph is the lodestar for all the other letters. May this Aleph also be so.”)
When Rabbi Lipskar first wrote to the Rebbe about the idea to open The Shul in Bal Harbor, the Rebbe responded, ‘נכון הדבר —it is an appropriate idea.’
“Over the years, we received countless brachos from the Rebbe for our projects and the Rebbe always took an interest in our activities. Rabbi Sholom Duchman once reported to the Rebbe that he had witnessed a very well-attended Torah class, saying, ‘I hope it will give the Rebbe nachas ruach.’ The Rebbe underlined the last two words, and added ‘מאוד.”‘
Shortly after he started The Shul and the Aleph Institute, the Rebbe sent Rabbi Lipskar a three thousand dollar check (for Mivtza Tefillin, Mivtza Pesach and all other mivtzoim, one thousand each), but he didn’t want to cash the check as it was signed by the Rebbe. He soon received a call from Rabbi Hodakov.
“It seems that you are doing well financially,” Rabbi Hodakov said. That couldn’t have been farther than the truth, and Rabbi Hodakov told him in no uncertain terms that the check must be cashed or returned to the Rebbe.
“In addition to constant encouragement, the Rebbe also ensured that the institution be run properly. He instructed me, for example, to make sure that everything was punctual; the announced time for tefillos should be carefully observed.”
First Encounters
Rabbi Lipskar’s early childhood was spent in the DP camps of Schwabisch Hall and Feldafing, where cheder was taught by Reb Elya Chaim Roitblat in a basement and recreation meant walking long distances to milk cows for cholov Yisroel. He was born only 20 days before his family’s escape from Russia on the famed eshalones, where, for lack of a proper passport, he was concealed in a suitcase by his grandfather, Reb Zalman Duchman.
“During that journey, my father, Reb Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar, merited to assist Rebbetzin Chana,” says Rabbi Lipskar, “and with the Rebbe’s approval, we engraved on his matzeiva, עזר הרבה בהצלת אמו של כ”ק אדמו”ר שליט”א—he greatly assisted in the rescue of the Rebbe’s mother.'”
Upon the Rebbe’s instruction, his father searched for immigration opportunities in North America, ultimately receiving a Canadian visa, and they set sail in 5711 (the ship they sailed on was so rickety that it sank on its return trip).
“We settled in Toronto, where my father soon became a melamed, on the Rebbe’s suggestion. Our first real welcome to ‘Jewish America’ was when we unsuspectingly walked into a Reform temple to attend the bar mitzvah of a relative who had immigrated and assimilated much before our arrival. Upon entry, my father was informed that he wouldn’t be allowed to wear his tallis or yarmulke, and then we noticed men and women sitting together. It hit us like a ton of bricks; we immediately made our way to the exit.”
The family made trips to the Rebbe twice a year—each Sukkos-Simchas Torah and Yud-Beis Tammuz. Rabbi Lipskar shared memories of hearing the Rebbe teach the niggunim on Simchas Torah night (“Chazarah on the niggun would go on for several hours, often in Reb Yoel’s home”), participating in the farbrengens from under the Rebbe’s table (“There was literally no space for us anywhere else”), and helping his grandfather bring kettles of hot water to 770 after the farbrengens were over (“The rain would seep in through the canvas cover of shalash, and everyone would be shivering cold”).
A special moment of the trips would also be visiting Rebbetzin Chana, whom they knew well. She would converse with the adults and give candies to the children.
An interesting anecdote from those trips that Rabbi Lipskar shared was his curiosity to see the Rebbe’s home.
“My uncle, Reb Yankel Lipskar, had a grocery store, and his children would make deliveries to the Rebbe’s house. On this one occasion in 5717, they allowed me to make the delivery. I nervously knocked on the front door and the Rebbetzin opened; she showed me where to place the box and then tipped me a quarter, which was a lot of money in those days; it was worth several soda cans… As soon as the door closed behind her, I fled down the stairs.”
The highlight of the visit was the yechidus before they departed.
“When I was young, the Rebbe would smile at us and ask us if we knew brachos or Shema, but my first real conversation with the Rebbe was when I was nine-years-old. The Rebbe asked me which perek Gemara I was learning, and I responded that I had just learned a portion of Hamafkid by heart.
“‘Nu, say it,’ the Rebbe said.
“I was very nervous, but I recited the entire daf and a half. It took several minutes, and the Rebbe listened to me closely the entire time.”
Even as a child, Rabbi Lipskar would often write directly to the Rebbe, something he was taught to do by his grandfather, Reb Zalman Duchman. The Rebbe would usually acknowledge them with a letter signed by Reb Eliyahu Kwint of mazkirus, and on one unique occasion, he received a letter with the Rebbe’s personal signature.
Learning in New York
Rabbi Lipskar arrived in New York to learn in Tomchei Temimim on Bedford & Dean when he was 15-years-old, where he joined the class of Leibel Kaplan, Leibel Shapiro, Shlomo Zarchi, Zev Katz, and others.
“Whenever there was special news from 770, we would race the 20 minute walk from Bedford & Dean to 770, jumping into a mikveh that was on the way. But we went to 770 primarily on Shabbos, and for the Rebbe’s farbrengens.
“We came to learn in 770 in Elul 5723. Our relationship to the Rebbe was unique in those days. Although we wrote to the Rebbe sparsely and had yechidus only once a year, we were still a tight little group, where everyone was on a first name basis. Davening was upstairs, which is a tiny area.”
The Rebbe would come in for Mincha, Maariv and kriah. Two bochurim would also have the opportunity to accompany the Rebbe home from a distance each evening. “Sometimes when he would turn the corner, he would look back to see us.”
“We would remain in 770 until the end of yechidus,” Rabbi Lipskar says, “until one in the morning or later. When important people would come, they would lock the door to the zal to keep the bochurim away, but we would make sure to catch the individual at some point and ask him what the Rebbe said.
“I’ll share two notable incidents.
“Reb Chaim Zimerman was a brilliant and eccentric rosh yeshiva in Chicago who wrote a sefer called ‘Agan Hasa’har’ about the international dateline. He only printed 50 copies, because he felt that nobody would understand what he writes anyway. He sent one book to the Rebbe even though he wasn’t a Chossid; he was known as a strong supporter of Rabbi Hutner.
“He came for yechidus after Mincha one day. He was told to wait in Gan Eden Hatachton, and when the Rebbe returned from Mincha he had his yechidus there. He paced the entire hallway back and forth while talking to the Rebbe, who was standing in the doorway of his office.
“He came out after a significant amount of time, and we asked him what the Rebbe said. ‘You won’t understand anyway,’ he said. ‘One thing I could tell you: You don’t know what you have here. You don’t understand what you have.’
“On another occasion, Arik Sharon came to the Rebbe, some time after his son was accidentally killed. We asked him to tell us something about the Rebbe when he came out, and he said as follows:
“‘The Rebbe isn’t like the IDF Chief of Staff, nor like the generals; he is like every soldier combined in one person. The Rebbe knows what is going on behind every tree in El Arish!'”
With the Rebbe’s Brachos
“When I went into yechidus in Av 5727, I asked the Rebbe for a bracha that nobody should bother me about shidduchim, as I had just turned 21. The Rebbe responded that I should push them off until after Rosh Hashanah. B’hashgacha pratis, a shidduch was suggested right after Rosh Hashanah, and we soon got engaged.
“I spent a year in kollel upon the Rebbe’s instructions, but then the Rebbe said it was time to go. He said to bring suggestions of places for shlichus, and of the three places I proposed, he chose Miami and instructed us to be involved in education.
“When we moved to Miami in 5729,” says Rabbi Lipskar, “it was the type of place that if a yeshiva bochur was caught visiting, he would be immediately expelled from his yeshiva. It was a spiritual desert. In yechidus before we left, my wife mentioned that although she is fully dedicated to the Rebbe’s mission, leaving her family and friends behind was going to be difficult. The Rebbe looked up with a smile and exclaimed, ‘Ich for doch mit eich! S’zol zein b’simcha. Oib nit b’simcha, vos darft ir mir mitnemen— I’m traveling with you! You should go joyfully. If you won’t be joyful, why do you need to take me along?’
“Looking back, there is no way to explain our shlichus if not for the fact that the Rebbe came along with us, literally. This was something we experienced at every step of the way.”
There were several stories of open miracles. Rabbi Lipskar’s first job in Florida was to run the day school that had been established by Rabbi Avraham Korf several years earlier. Mrs. Lipskar served as a teacher.
“Our school building was declared a fire hazard, so we paid a fireman to sit in the lobby during school hours every single day, where he got to see my wife and everyone else in the school.
“One night, I was out at a meeting when a fire started in my apartment. A lock malfunctioned, my wife couldn’t get out of the apartment, and she passed out from smoke inhalation. When the fire department found her, she was already in a very severe situation. Amazingly, she was found by the same fireman from the school. He took off his own mask and put it on her, a selfless deed which, we discovered later, actually saved her life.
“When she began to recover, a plastic surgeon offered to do cosmetic surgery over her burns, but the Rebbe told her to reject it outright. During our next yechidus, the Rebbe asked if she still had scars from the burns, and when my wife answered in the affirmative, the Rebbe said, ‘Noch a sreifah vert men reich—One becomes rich after a fire…’
“Miraculously, my wife healed completely.”
Another medical miracle occurred with Rabbi Lipskar himself:
In 5732, Rabbi Lipskar was going through some medical tests in the hospital, when he didn’t wake up after being administered anesthesia. In the midst of the mayhem of doctors and nurses around his bed, Mrs. Lipskar ran to call mazkirus and inform the Rebbe. Rabbi Hodakov soon called back and said he had a message from the Rebbe for Rabbi Lipskar, and asked that he be put on the line.
“He’s in a coma,” Mrs. Lipskar reminded him. Rabbi Hodakov was insistent. “I have a message for him from the Rebbe; please put him on the line.”
Mrs. Lipskar transferred the call from the nurse’s station to the hospital room and pressed the phone to the unconscious Rabbi Lipskar’s ear.
“The next thing I hear,” Rabbi Lipskar says, “is Rabbi Hodakov telling me that Professor Branover is coming to Miami to give a lecture, and the Rebbe wanted us to welcome him and care for him…
“On a side note: The doctors claimed that because of defects in my heart, I would end up in a wheelchair by the age of 40. When I repeated it to the Rebbe, the Rebbe waved his hand in dismissal, saying ‘Ah!’ Needless to say, I am, baruch Hashem, in good health 45 years later.”
A unique period in Rabbi Lipskar’s life was when the Rebbe allowed him to do something extraordinary.
“A friend of Mel Landow once came to my office and asked me a surprising question. What was something that I deeply wanted to do, but didn’t have the opportunity to accomplish, he asked. He was ready to sponsor it.
“I was stunned by the question but when I began to think of it, I realized that I wanted to take a year off to learn Chassidus on a deeper level. I had been interacting with people for over 10 years, and I was dealing with many difficult questions that I felt I didn’t have the proper answers to. It was also a difficult period in my shlichus in the school, and I felt that a year off would be beneficial.
“To my surprise, the Rebbe approved of the idea, calling it a ‘temporary leave of absence for one year.’
“The benefactor sponsored the entire year, including travel expenses to every single farbrengen of the Rebbe. That year, 5740-5741, the Rebbe farbrenged for many hours almost every single Shabbos!
“I also traveled to many Jewish leaders of other communities to better understand their movements, and I had the opportunity to make many connections which came to good use years later.
“Throughout the year, I wrote to the Rebbe often, and the Rebbe would answer my questions almost immediately. On many occasions, the Rebbe answered them in the course of the sichos.
“At the close of that year, I needed to make a decision about our future, and the Rebbe said: ‘בשטח החינוך והקשור לזה, כמענתי מאז, ללמד וללמד (the Rebbe added nekudos “lilmod ulelamed“, to those words) להתנהג על פיהם, ואין צריך כלל וכלל לקרות בספרי חיצונים, ובלב בטוח יכול לסמוך על גדולי ישראל האמתיים… In the field of education, as I told you some time ago [meaning, when we originally went on shlichus] to learn and to teach, and to live according to [those teachings]. There is no need at all to study secular books, and with a complete assurance you can rely on the true gedolei Yisroel.’
The next year, we started The Shul.
Caring for Individuals
Another lesson that Rabbi Lipskar shared with us was about the importance of each individual.
“Every time we would have yechidus, I would write a report wrapping up all our activities of the entire year.
“One year, the Rebbe read through the entire 5-6 pages of the report, checking off the important points with a pencil, and then he asked, ‘What’s with the mother of the girl?’
“At first I was puzzled, and didn’t understand the Rebbe’s intentions. But then it hit me.
“On an earlier occasion, we had mentioned a girl whose mother had gone off to India with a boyfriend. The Rebbe asked us to ensure that she had received a proper Jewish divorce. We had tried to locate her, but were unsuccessful.
“I started to shake. I realized that the Rebbe had asked me to do something and I hadn’t delivered. I couldn’t wait to get out of the room and I couldn’t focus on what the Rebbe said afterwards, although my wife said he gave us beautiful brachos.
“I ran out of the room and started working for 24 hours, until I located the husband, arranged for a get, and then I reported it to the Rebbe.
“It taught me that although you may be involved in great and important endeavors, you must never forget the individual. The Rebbe didn’t forget them.
“This had an impact on a story several years later.
“There was a young woman from Beis Rivkah who ended up in Miami in a very bad situation. It so happened that we were in New York at the time, and at Sunday Dollars, the Rebbe gave a dollar to my wife and me and said, ‘Far gantz Florida—for the entire Florida.’
“We searched for the girl upon our return, and we found her on the street late at night in a bad neighborhood. She wasn’t interested in what we had to say, until my wife threatened her, ‘If you don’t start behaving, we will throw you out of the neighborhood.’
“‘Who made you the boss?’
“‘The Rebbe just made us in charge of the entire Florida,’ my wife said.
“The girl took it seriously; when we mentioned the Rebbe she realized that she was dealing with something of a different nature, and over time she shaped up.
“It was amazing to see how one word of the Rebbe could make a huge difference in someone’s life.”
For me this is truly amazing stories