When Melbourne Had a Health Scare

By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives

It was the winter of 1990, and Rabbi Yaakov Winner had just arrived in Melbourne to serve as the mashpia (spiritual mentor) at the Rabbinical College of Australia. The role required him to lead classes in Chabad Chassidism and conduct Chassidic gatherings, both of which he did with the joy, spirituality, and enthusiasm characteristic of him. The students found their new mentor a breath of fresh air.

Then, in June, only two weeks after his arrival, Rabbi Winner was in a tragic accident. The prognosis was not good—even if he recovered enough to function independently, the doctors said, the demanding job he had held before would be out of reach.

Melbourne’s Chabad community reeled.

Rabbi Winner’s was only the latest in a string of tragedies and deaths they had endured that year. Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner, director of the Chabad school system in the city, began to panic. Naturally an anxious person, he worried that perhaps there was some kind of curse on the community. He wrote a letter to the Rebbe describing his fears and asked if there should be a public reckoning.

The Rebbe, who in general resisted the idea that separate negative events could be related, did not even address the question. Instead, he focused on Rabbi Groner’s attitude, which seemed, he wrote, to evince a complete lack of faith in G-d.

The Rebbe quoted the third Chabad Rebbe, known as the Tzemach Tzedek: “Think good and it will be good.”

It was difficult advice to follow. “The mood was so sour with all that was happening,” Rabbi Winner recalled. “It would be hard to be positive.” To change one’s mindset in the midst of tragedy is extremely difficult, he said, perhaps impossible.

In general, the Rebbe avoided issuing direct instructions, instead offering “suggestions” that recipients could follow on their own initiative. For Rabbi Groner, however, the Rebbe made an exception. “If you decide that it has come the time to fulfill the command of our Rebbes–‘Think good and it will be good’– do so in actuality,” he wrote.

The Rebbe was telling the community to take a leap of faith, Rabbi Winner said. “There is no other way to do it properly. You just have to think good, and put all other calculations on the side.”

So, instead of a public reckoning, the Melbourne community embarked on a campaign of positivity. They put the Tzemach Tzedek’s axiom to music, and sang the melody for years afterward.

It did not take that long for things to improve, however. Rabbi Winner was discharged from the hospital two weeks after the accident, healthy as before. He continues to mentor students at the Rabbinical College to this day.

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