“You don’t know who I am?” the famous singer asked the shliach. How a dedicated Lubavitcher managed to touch the pintele yid of a famous Israeli singer, specifically because of what he didn’t know.
By Anash.org reporter
When a shliach wrapped tefillin with a famous Israeli singer, the latter naturally assumed that it was because of his fame. When he heard the truth, he was even more touched.
Sunday night at Madison Square Gardens saw thousands of Jewish people pack into the venue for a concert by Israeli singer Ishay Ribo.
Shliach Rabbi Shlomie Sirota was also at the venue, to fundraise for his new Chabad House in Back Mountain, PA. Of course, he also brought his tefillin. He planted himself at the backstage entrance and began asking concert-goers, workers, and producers if they wanted to don tefillin. He was there for hours but was met with little success.
Three hours in, he spotted two Israelis standing outside the venue and smoking. He walked over to them. “Can you please do me a favor and put on tefillin?” he asked. Without much ado, they declined.
“Guys, I’ve been on my feet for three hours and barely got two or three people to put on tefillin with me. I need you to do this for me,” Rabbi Sirota asked.
One of the men acquiesced, and the wrapping commenced. After putting on tefillin, reciting Shema, and ach tzadikim Rabbi Sirota introduced himself.
“Hi, I’m Shlomo Sirota, nice to meet you,” he said.
“Hi, I’m Amir Dadon,” the man responded. Dadon is one of the most famous secular Israeli singers, and he obviously expected his name to elicit a reaction.
“Nice,” Rabbi Sirota innocently responded.
“You don’t know who I am?” the singer asked.
“No, I have no clue who you are,” said Rabbi Sirota.
“I’m a famous singer!” said Dadon.
“Oh, nice!” was Rabbi Sirota’s response.
At that point, Dadon asked him if he’d ever heard his well-known song “Livchor Nachon’, to which Rabbi Sirota invited him to sing it aloud to him. Once, Dadon sang the song, Rabbi Sirota did indeed, recognize it and realize who he was.
“Now that I know who you are,” Rabbi Sirota shared, “I’m so honored that I was able to wrap tefillin with you.”
“No, no no,” Dadon quickly responded. The honor is all mine.”
“I was certain you approached me to don tefillin because you knew who I was and wanted the excitement of someone famous. Now that I know that you just wanted to share the mitzvah with me as any regular Jew, I feel so much better. The mitzvah is so much more meaningful to me.”
He then asked for a hug from Rabbi Sirota, followed by, of course, a tefillin selfie.
From there, Dadon continued to the stage to do his job, and Rabbi Sirota continued with his work preparing for his new shlichus in Back Mountain, PA.
To help establish the new shlichus in Back Mountain, PA, please contact Rabbi Sirota, at [email protected].
What a fire of a shliach.
4 generation tefilin wrapper.
Zaide Motze is definitely smiling and shepping nachas.