By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives
Rabbi Abraham Hecht was vacationing at a bungalow colony in the New York Catskills when he was asked to speak at the Sephardic prayer service. The congregants connected with the charismatic young leader, and soon asked him to become a rabbi for their youth.
Rabbi Hecht was successful in the Sephardic and Syrian Jewish communities in New York. He revitalized their education system, and enabled young veterans returning from active duty to participate in a like-minded community. The synagogue loved their rabbi.
The businessman and philanthropist Isaac Shalom held Rabbi Hecht in the highest esteem, too. They became very close and shared a common goal to revitalize Jewish education in the global Sephardic community.
One day, Rabbi Hecht brought Shalom to meet the Rebbe at Lubavitch World Headquarters. The Rebbe had recently sent Shluchim to Africa to build a modern Jewish education system, and Rabbi Hecht suspected that Shalom would be interested in supporting this new project.
When Shalom met the Rebbe, he asked, “Lubavitcher Rebbe, I don’t understand. Why don’t you write a letter to G-d asking Him to send the money you need? Then you will have no more problems with funding.”
The Rebbe explained we need to toil in order to make a difference, and not just pray that G-d does everything for us, stating: “Mr. Shalom, if I would write such a letter to G-d, I would be asking him to take away my job!”
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Beautiful story and great picture . Thank you. It may be of special significance that HaRav Hatomim v’Chosid Reb Avraham Dov Hecht was born Exactly 100 years ago – on zayin Nissan. Erev Shabbos Hagodol was his birthday. I heard this story a bit differently. Mr, Isaac Shalom was in Yechidus together with HaRav Avraham Hecht to discuss the Oholei Yosef Yitzchok schools in Morocco and other Arab lands. How to finance them etc. Mr. Shalom – at that time an owner or highly placed officer of Israel Discount Bank – said “Lubavitcher Rebbe why can’t Hashem just give us… Read more »