A Thank You

My mother-in-law, Hayya Basha bat Menahem Manis, passed away Thursday afternoon. The levaya was Friday morning at Old Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, where the Lubavitcher Rebbe זצ''ל is buried. Since few people were expected, and in accord with my wife's family's modest tastes, a simple graveside service was planned. It was raining heavily. I was expecting difficulty getting a minyan. Since we do not have a car, the funeral director sent a limousine to transport us from our home to the cemetery. I asked the limo driver to stop at the ohel, the small building housing a beit midrash, that one passes through to see the Rebbe's grave, to see if we could scrounge up enough men to make a minyan. He agreed, but not enough people were there; the place is usually packed. I returned to the waiting limo, almost giving up hope of having a minyan for my father-in-law to say Kaddish, when an Israeli hasid came running up with his cell phone, gave me the number and asked me to call when we got to the graveside. Then the limo driver informed us that he would not be able to transport the hasidim from the ohel to the grave, as company policy allowed him to go only from home to grave and back. The Hasidim, doing us a favor, would have to arrange their own transportation. We stopped at the cemetery office to fill out the necessary paperwork, and the funeral director informed us we would not be able to wait for additional people once we got to the grave. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I called the hasid's cell phone from the office and told him we would be at the graveside (Block 80, they would have to get a map in the office to figure out where that was) in a few minutes. When we arrived, the non-Jewish cemetery workers wheeled the casket from the hearse to the grave and lowered it down. This caused me much mental anguish (click here) but we only had four men, including the officiating rabbi and my elderly father-in-law. I and my son began to shovel earth into the grave. Suddenly six hasidim materialized. They had walked from the ohel to the cemetery office to the grave. Not only did they complete the minyan (along with my shul's interim rabbi who went out of his way to be there), they actually took shovels in their hands and helped us fill in the grave! They, along with me and my son, did not stop until the tzurrat ha-kever was completed. Neither the cemetery workers nor their bulldozers had any part. My father-in-law said Kaddish, and only then did the hasidim leave the scene, on foot in a pouring rain.The hashkafa problems we have with Habad are well known and need not be belabored here. But when you need them, they are there. The Rebbe's name was Menahem; כשמו כן הוא . The name fits. The Rebbe comforted me before my Bar Mitzvah (click here) and his hasidim comforted me, as they comfort countless others, last Friday. Tizku l'mitzvot - what you do will hasten the arrival of Mashiach, whoever he is.

Minyan before the Pats game

Fans of both teams daaven before kickoff

To a football fan, the hours before a game are sacred. Those hours are a communion for the fraternity of fans, a time when backseat coolers and portable grills transform stadium parking lots into a tailgate party.

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Last Sunday’s Patriots game was no exception. The New York Jets were in town – a division rival – for the first time since defeating the Pats 17-14 on their home turf. Adding to the drama was the win-or-go-home urgency of the playoffs.
Yet while most fans bonded over cold beers and grilled meats, a group of fans – supporters from both teams – met in a small corner of the Foxboro lot for quieter purposes: to say Minchah.
“It shows that if you really want to, you can find God wherever you are, under any circumstances,” said Rabbi Chaim Wolosow of the Chabad Center of Sharon. “We felt like the luckiest people in the universe to enjoy the game and still be able to pray. I would guess this was the first time a minyan was done at a Pats game.”
Earlier in the week, a group of New York fans contacted Wolosow to see if he knew enough people going to the game to form a minyan. Because of daylight restrictions, Minchah had to be said between 12:30 and 4 p.m., leaving a small window before the 1 p.m. kickoff. Planning on attending the game, Wolosow reached out to Sharon residents and found four other men with tickets – just enough to give them the required 10 for a minyan.
“They had the Jets shirts on and they got a few looks, and a little more than that from Pats fans,” said Wolosow. “We were OK, I guess, because we were on the right side. But for the service we all joined in together.”
As for the game, the Patriots won by 21 after letting the Jets hang around for the better part of four quarters. One would imagine that the ride home was especially deflating for those Jets fans. It’s a long ride back to New York before Ma’ariv.