Boro Hall Hosts 3 Tammuz Event

Sarah Schmerler

“In Unity is Strength”: that’s the English translation of the Dutch phrase that graces the seal of the City of Brooklyn. You’ll find it in the interior of Brooklyn Borough Hall’s Courtroom, where, on the night of June 27, in honor of the 17th anniversary of the passing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe (an event called “Gimmel Tammuz”), a crowd gathered that couldn’t have been more diverse.

In the audience were Jews frum and secular, men and women (sitting together), all from a broad range of ages and educational backgrounds. The rabbis who sat behind a long and imposing wooden lectern were black-hatted representatives of the Lubavitch Hassidic community; surrounding them on the Courtroom’s walls were 150-year-old paintings of former Brooklyn judges and mayors, mutton-chopped and bearded, wearing dark cassocks; while, to the right of the microphone, a rabbi of decidedly clean-cut and pinstriped profile, Benjamin Blech awaited his turn as the night’s keynote speaker.

Given this mixed multitude, at a distance one might easily have taken that phrase (“Eendracht maeckt Macht”) for Yiddish. One might also have mistakenly thought that the person to whom all were giving their rapt attention—one Dr. Domenico Lepore— was Jewish. But apparently it’s a mistake that many make. An Italian, and possibly the only non-Jew in the room, Lepore soon proved himself as enthusiastic for the tenets of Hassidus as he was for finding new ways to solve problems in the worlds of science and business from which he hails.

Lepore, founder of Intelligent Management Inc. and who has studied Torah on a weekly basis for over 5 years, got up to speak on “Infinite Business: Applying the Rebbe’s Integrative Thinking to Create Success” after the strains of Shalom Aleichem and a few Carlebach tunes (courtesy of the Belz Choral Ensemble) died down.

Rabbi Aaron Raskin, senior shaliach of Chabad of Brooklyn Heights (the night’s co-organizer along with Rabbi Shimon Hecht, senior shaliach of Chabad of Park Slope), introduced him as a student from whom he himself had learned. Lepore’s manner was humble yet confident as he transitioned between the language of Torah study, Talmudic argument, and secular theoretical analyses, using terms like “sechel” and “epistemology,” “chochmah” and “integrative solutions” in a grassroots and whatever-works way—all the better to prove his point that Torah thinking is in fact a kind of lateral thinking that opens doors to closed problems on a vast scale. After a few minutes, Lepore’s wife, Dr. Angela Montgomery, manned a PowerPoint presentation complete with flowcharts and parshah references (specifically the chapter of Shemot in Exodus), while Lepore laid down some basic ground rules for judging his rather unique assertions.

“I don’t think we can learn to think like the Rebbe or accomplish anything close to his amazing tasks,” said Lepore. “But rather, we can understand that in each of us is a spark of Moses, in each of us is a spark of infinity, a chance to go past the restrictions in which we find ourselves.”

His outline was clear, if complex: when we’re presented with a conflict in the world of business, we should approach it much in the way a student of Hassidus might approach a Talmudic issue: in a way that doesn’t get bogged down in argument, but which brings a more globally compassionate view to bear.

“Think of it: Torah study is an ecology of the mind,” said Lepore, “when you read the parshah and analyze it from a Hassidic mindset you can feel that the synapses in your brain, that your mind, is working correctly. Hassidus,” he went on to observe, “combines the rigorousness and logic of Talmudic investigation with the lateral thinking that Kabbalah provides. It offers a new plane of solutions. When we take this ability to resolve conflict into the world of business or science, from which I come, we transport this conflict into a realm where it can be solved. Ultimately,” Lepore opined, “in this world there are no conflicts—did you know that? There are only assumptions, mental models, and there are factors that can maximize what we can potentially achieve. By unveiling and connecting the Rebbe’s thinking patterns we can accomplish manifold more than we accomplish today.”

The Rabbis on the dais, many of whom had been personally charged by the Rebbe to achieve some (at first seemingly impossible) goal nodded as if they knew all too well. Lepore’s speech was on target; it may have been in an unusual context (business, corporate management) but definitely on par with the boundary-breaking, this-problem-isn’t-a-problem approach that anyone who had ever been close to the Rebbe knew well.

As the sky grew dark outside the windows, it was Blech’s turn to talk. He spoke of his being adjured by the Rebbe to travel to the Far East (Australia, China, Bangkok) to spread words of Torah. He spoke of the spark of Moses as leader of the Jewish people (as Lepore did) only adding that it inhabited the Rebbe himself—a man uniquely capable of putting a sense of pride and leadership into every Jew. Given the basis of Lepore’s talk, the inspiration of the Rebbe can be seen to extend far beyond the Jewish community alone.

As Blech’s speech took on its most emotional turn, the Courtroom’s fire alarm suddenly went off, in loud, piercing, electronic peals. It was strange, but no one moved a muscle. Blech continued his speech—and finished. More noise, and now a flashing strobe light as the Belz choir got up a final time to lead the crowd in “Sheyiboneh Bait Hamikdash” — “May you rebuild your sanctuary, speedily in our days” the sounds of singing eventually drowning out the din, the strobe adding, as it were, to the floor show.

Outside the windows, the lights of the neighboring office buildings came on, and one sensed the room had somehow transformed. After a few closing remarks the crowd dispersed, and all the rabbis, bearded and not, gathered for a group photo. Eventually, the rabbis too, left, and a banner bearing the Rebbe’s smiling countenance, that had been strung behind the dais, was lowered. With the banner gone, and the courtroom back to ‘normal,’ a line of flags was now revealed. Here, suddenly, was another motto to ponder, this one for the State of New York: “Excelsior” it read in Latin. Translation: “Higher.”

Note: For those wishing to ascend further in the sprit of Gimmel Tammuz, Rabbi Raskin will lead his Brooklyn Heights community on a trip to the land of Israel beginning July 7. All are welcome.

Sarah Schmerler is a writer living in Brooklyn; she can be reached at
www.sarahschmerler.com.