Leave Bnei Brak, the Rebbe Said

By JEM’s Here’s My Story

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Rabbi Raphael Pelcovitz, an author of books on the Sforno’s commentaries, served as the Rabbi of Far Rockaway’s Congregation Kneseth Israel for 60 years.

A member of Iggud HaRabbonim – the Rabbinical Alliance of America, he was interviewed in his home by JEM’s My Encounter with the Rebbe project in October of 2010.

He recalled how he merited to come to 770 Eastern Parkway in early hours of the morning on a particular day in the late 1950s and met with the Rebbe, an interaction he says “proved a very special encounter.”

Here is his story:

We entered the Rebbe’s office, which was a very large, well appointed room. The Rebbe sat behind a desk and he was very relaxed and very friendly and very personable. As I said, I am not a chasid, but I found the experience of meeting him to be very moving and exciting. Still, because of his manner, I felt at ease, and I enjoyed being there.

The Rebbe was an extremely perceptive person, an extremely worldly person, and extremely knowledgeable. He was a Rebbe of course, but he was not isolated from the world; he was not isolated from society; he was very much – to use the vernacular – “with it.”

He also had an uncanny ability to put people at ease and to make them feel very comfortable, so the exchange was not strained; there were no awkward silences – on the contrary, conversation flowed.

Though the Rebbe spent his time in his home, in his office, in his yeshiva – he had a grasp and understanding and insight into what was going on in the world, as though he’d spent all his days participating and being actually involved in all of these issues on the public stage. And this impressed me very much.

He was in agreement with Iggud HaRabbanim on the issues we came to discuss, and he encouraged us to stand firm. He also gave us a blessing for our work. But then he asked me a personal question about my father.

My father had served as a rabbi in Bridgeport, a position he held for over 30 years. During that time, Chabad came to Bridgeport and wanted to establish a Jewish day school there.

Since my father was the chief rabbi of the city –overseeing 5 synagogues– he was the major player in town and the Chabad emissaries came to him for help. My father gave it gladly. And the Rebbe was very appreciative. My father and the Rebbe had regular contact over the phone, consulting on how to proceed with this school.

Then, after 30 years, my father decided to make Aliyah to Israel. He had made the move about a year before I had this meeting with the Rebbe.

So the Rebbe said to me, “Tell me about your father. Where is he now and what is he doing?”

I said, “He is in Bnei Brak.” This is a very religious city in Israel, possibly the most religious city in Israel.

The Rebbe looked at me and said, “I think it’s a mistake.”

I was amazed. The Rebbe is sitting here in Brooklyn, my father is in Bnei Brak, and he tells me he thinks it’s a bad choice to live there.

I asked why. In reply, he said something that I will never forget.

“Your father was a rabbi all those years in America. He was in Ohio, he was in Connecticut; he was the spiritual leader of communities. But in Bnei Brak, nobody knows him. In Bnei Brak, he’s just another Jew with a beard.”

“Where do you think he should be?” I asked.

He said, “I think he would be better off in a city like Tel Aviv, playing a role in a neighborhood there. In Bnei Brak, no one is going to treat him the way an important rabbi should be treated, because there he is just another Jew with a beard.”

About a year later, I went to visit my father. I didn’t want to tell him directly what the Rebbe had said, but I saw that the Rebbe had been right.

My father was unhappy and precisely for the reason that the Rebbe identified. I realized what a fantastic insight the Rebbe had into the life of an individual whom he had never even met but had only spoken to over the telephone.