English was the spoken language in 770 long before Gimmel Tammuz, and for some reason there was never a directive From the Rebbe to add the ABC’s to Ohlei Torah’s curriculum.

Excuse me, one of them politely protested but you do not speak a word of English! How will you communicate? Not to worry Reb Mendel reassured him in Yiddish. As soon as they reached Times Square, Reb Mendel approached a fellow Jew and offered him to perform the Mitzvah. The young New Yorker, predictably spoke neither Yiddish, Hebrew, nor Russian. With a smile Reb Mendel said, I Jew, you Jew.

When his listener nodded in affirmation, Reb Mendel continued: I Tefillin, you Tefillin, and without hesitation the other Jew agreed. The above encounter explains why the Rebbeim were so sure that outreach work would be successful. They knew that the core of the Jewish soul is a Divine spark that longs for connection with his Godly source. All that is needed, is a fellow Jew to warmly encourage that spark glow.

Language is never a barrier. But rather as the rule is well known “words from the heart enter the heart of the listener!

“The speech of each and every one was a concoction of many tongues. No one was able to express himself coherently in any one language, but rather in a mixture [of languages], as [Nehemiah 13:24] states: “And their children spoke half in Ashdodit and did not know how to speak the Jewish language. Rather, [they would speak] according to the language of various other peoples.”

“Consequently, when someone would pray, he would be limited in his ability to request his needs or to praise the Holy One, blessed be He, in Hebrew, unless other languages were mixed in with it. When Ezra and his court saw this, they established eighteen blessings in sequence.”

(Rambam, Hilchos Tefilah 1:4)

For some reason, back then they preferred a different solution…