THE MITZVAH MOBILES OF MANHATTAN
Hailbum, Isidore
THE MITZVAH MOBILES OF MANHATTAN Isidore Hailbum I receive my assignment: I am to breach a Lubavitch mitzvah mobile and flush out a story, one that will explain the parked white-walled vans, the...
...A tall order...
...the hippy is shaking his head no...
...between four and five hundred are approached...
...Perhaps seventy to eighty persons a day enter a mitzvah mobile...
...A college student majoring in journalism, he is not religious...
...But when 1 turn up with a photographer at the appointed spot on Fifth Avenue and 47th Street, it is bare of Chassidim...
...Chassid: "Religious...
...I am given the name of a contact and told to try to reach him tomorrow...
...Their crews pass out literature, coax, wheedle and cajole Jewish passers-by into the van...
...Let's tell everyone these great things...
...my ignorance in these matters is almost complete...
...I bring no preconceived notions to my task...
...He shrugs...
...Everyone respects them...
...And am immediately ushered into the van...
...He ponders a moment...
...My friend, the British Chassid, is telling me, "Today we had a Russian Jew—one of the recent immigrants— who never saw t'fillin before...
...There is only one way for Jews," he says, "the way of the Torah...
...A new authoritative voice greets me on the fifth morning...
...Swank hotels, posh eateries and smart shops glitter in the midday sun...
...Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street is taking on a Jewish communal flavor...
...Where are you...
...still, we ought to get along...
...It is the week before Passover and mitzvah "tanks" and "tankists" (so the Chassidim have dubbed their vans and crew) are roaming the city...
...I ask if he really believes that will happen...
...He has set up Lubavitch centers and Chabad houses all over the world for this purpose...
...Yitzchak, my first guide, joins me...
...The man carrying a brief case steps out of the van...
...All must do the mitzvot.'' He beams at me...
...No, I'm not religious, but this is a convenient way of fulfilling a religious obligation, isn't it...
...He answers without hesitation...
...I ask him why he went in...
...The world is full of crazy people," he says calmly...
...Curiosity," he grins...
...No other religious organization does what they do...
...Permission is elusive...
...Later in the day, as I make my way home along Fifty-Seventh Street, I encounter a mitzvah mobile—a different one...
...How many of these Yiddishists are there now...
...I leave...
...It is a breathless, slender teenager, with a short, sparse, black beard, black hat, black suit and wrinkled, tieless, white shirt...
...The Rebbe is Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who has just celebrated his twenty-fifth anniversary as leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidic movement...
...THE MITZVAH MOBILES OF MANHATTAN Isidore Hailbum I receive my assignment: I am to breach a Lubavitch mitzvah mobile and flush out a story, one that will explain the parked white-walled vans, the eager black-clad young Chassidim buttonholing pedestrians all over New York City, seeking out the Jews and inviting them into their trucks...
...There is a sixth mitzvah too, directed at females: All women and even young girls from approximately the age of 3 and up should light the candles every Shabbos and Yomtov eighteen minutes before sunset with the proper blessing...
...Then, seated on a bench at a narrow table, I finally take up where I left off weeks ago: "How many mitzvot," I ask, "are there in all...
...Yet I am not entirely without credential...
...To show I accept my fellow man," he replies...
...1 trot off to my publisher who knows some Lubavitch Chassidim of his own...
...1 ask him if he reads Yiddish books...
...The modish young man has now left the van...
...Call back after Pesach...
...Despite my nifty Lee jeans and jacket and western checkered shirt I'm spotted at once: "Are you Jewish...
...By now I've begun to feel a bit queasy...
...The student, at the other end, is talking about creation, "First there was this gas...
...The voice suggests I appear at Lubavitch headquarters the following Monday...
...My Chassid cocks an ear, has finally gotten the drift of this wrangle...
...It sounds like mysticism to me," he argues...
...My publisher is in town Sunday morning and I decide to hike over to his office and pick up a brochure about our journal...
...I'm not religious but I wanted to remind myself I'm Jewish...
...Every now and then...
...I have asked a few questions, but this seems like the wrong time to intervene...
...The British Chassid strolls over just as two drum-bearing members of the Buddhist Hare Krishna sect drift past...
...He shakes his head in disbelief...
...Yitzchak comes over to ask me about my Yiddish...
...Not many," I admit...
...Have them inspected," he says, "and put them on every weekday...
...An N.Y.U...
...Have you put on t'fillin today...
...One mitzvah brings to the rest...
...Dusk is about to fall...
...Their skulls are clean shaven, eyes half-closed...
...I say no...
...Yitzchak exits to do street duty...
...I ask him: "Why are you doing this...
...together in Hebrew, we recite the blessing and the opening paragraph of the Sh'ma...
...No one is exempt...
...Worse, I am not even remotely observant...
...Four tomorrows come and go, but either my contact is off somewhere or the schedules aren't ready...
...and later, indeed, it failed...
...he asks...
...I go over to him, I want to know what it's like for him...
...I ask him...
...I am not formally religious...
...More...
...Do you have t'fillin at home...
...make sure that I'm on the up-and-up...
...The magazine I represent is a new one, yet to make its first appearance...
...At this point, a grinning, longhaired young man — he looks like a student — has been brought into the other end of the van...
...There is a greater reason...
...Student to his Chassid: "Well, that's very interesting, but I'm still not ready to call myself religious...
...Walking over to another Chassid outside, I ask: "Do you approach women, too...
...I prepare to leave but I am called by Yitzchak, who, it seems, has a special message for me...
...A lady asks a question about ritual law...
...My Chassidim share the block with a flower cart, a hot dog stand, a row of phonebooths, a pair of newsstands...
...A phone call results in a definite appointment next Tuesday...
...A high school student in a yarmulka stops to chat with Yitzchak...
...How will I ever pass muster...
...Six, seven...
...That all Jews should do the mitz-vot...
...To them everyone is a human being...
...Again I enter the van, put on t'fillin (for the second time in over two decades), recite the bracha...
...You should go on to the other mitzvot," he tells me, "Man should never stand still...
...Begin with some of these mitzvot," he tells me...
...But a mere guided tour through a mobile unit won't do...
...I see a chance to come up with at least a snippet of my story and stroll by, trying to look casual...
...But ordinary passers-by have begun to seem peculiar...
...I expect my host to turn aside or at least avert his eyes, but he greets his visitors warmly and with a nod of his head indicates that I may go...
...It's nice to do sometimes...
...He understands more than anyone else...
...you know, is the way man shows his relationship to God...
...My aim is to linger a while, chat with both Chassidim and their quarries, the people who come in off the street...
...The Rebbe (who has been known to predict true things) gave him vital advice, told him not to enter a partnership...
...They changed my life...
...He lived in London for twenty years, he tells me, spent a year in Israel, is an engineer...
...The streets seem awash with them — especially before Jewish holidays — but what is it they want...
...Before he can answer, four smiling teenage girls have pushed into the van, come quite likely for the glass candle holders being given away...
...I admit that I am...
...Interesting...
...permission can't be granted to just anyone, it says...
...I am surprised to see them here, having been told that Chassidim avoid women...
...A red bearded Chassid approaches me...
...Because I'm told by the Rebbe to do it...
...he must climb higher and higher...
...the van has become congested...
...I ask, feeling stood up...
...The photographer is Alan Rokach, a free lance photographer currently preparing a book on Chassidism...
...A breeze has begun to blow...
...The corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifty-Ninth Street is one of the most urbane in Fun City...
...He shrugs," Of course,'' and hands me a leaflet for women...
...he asks...
...I am handed a leaflet...
...I'm ready to hang up but the man on the other end wants to know what I—a total stranger—have done to properly cleanse my house of chometz...
...An older, heavy-set man brushes aside his interlocutor, "You don't have to worry about me," he assures him...
...Leaving me, he jumps up...
...I am left with Yitzchak...
...The Chassid points to the part that describes the other mitzvot: Study Torah every day...
...A third Chassid has a catch, is walking a thirtyish man with a brief case and raincoat toward the van...
...British Chassid to me: "Another man came in to put on t'fillin for the first time in sixty-five years...
...Not those," he says...
...business student has put on t'fillin...
...A man wants to know the exact time the Sabbath begins...
...Why...
...The other tankists, I see, are dressed in identical fashion...
...The Lubavitch Chassidim speak, read and write Yiddish and so do 1. No doubt our bookshelves contain different texts...
...Instead I am greeted happily by six beaming young men who—plainly—want nothing more than to make me feel at home...
...A white haired retired man has gone in and out in the meantime...
...I tell him this is the first time since my bar-mitzvah that I've put on t'fillin...
...Horse drawn carriages are lined up waiting to carry tourists and clinging couples through the park...
...An intense debate is in progress, for this customer doesn't want to put on t'fillin...
...I'll read up on it some more...
...When I call the Brooklyn headquarters of the Lubavitch movement, I am told that mitzvah mobiles are never scheduled in advance, only on the mornings of their departure...
...I have spent nearly two hours with this mitzvah mobile crew and found them to be more personable than I had imagined...
...A familiar sight to New Yorkers, this sect too haunts the Manhattan Streets, on the lookout for new adherents...
...they are manned by rotating teams of Yeshiva students, members of the Lubavitch youth organization...
...as half deserving merit and half deserving punishment . . . and (he should) similarly (view) the whole world as half deserving merit, etc . . . if he performs one Mitzvah he has tipped the balance for himself and for the entire world to the side of merit, and has caused for himself and for them rescue and deliverance...
...Have a charity box in your home...
...He raises a finger...
...People want to know the taste of Judaism...
...I ask my friend what he thinks of that...
...He shrugs...
...I shake hands with each Chassid in turn, and go...
...We walk together down the block...
...So when I show up two weeks later, alone, for another try — this one on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street (near the main branch of the Public Library)—I am prepared for the worst...
...the foursome is chatting happily in Hebrew...
...Chassid: "How did this gas come about...
...Some Chassidic leaders I'm ready to hang up but the man on the other end wants to know what I—a total stranger—have done to properly cleanse my house of "chometz...
...I smile my yes...
...All right," my guide says, "I'll tell you about m'zuzahs...
...him about my family, secular Yiddish-ists who believed that the Jewish People are a nation, not a religion...
...I ask...
...A woman hurries over to give me a donation...
...I mention Chaim Grade, Avram Sutzkever, Isaac Bashevis Singer, a trio of renowned writers...
...But you suggest starting with only a few...
...I tell This unusual photograph shows the Lubavitcher Rebbe putting on t'fillin...
...And this is where the Lubavitch mitzvah mobile has set up its motorized pushcart...
...How would he sum up this experience...
...I go out on the street to catch the action there...
...He finds it a joyous task...
...How many are there...
...it says: If you will observe the kindling of the Sabbath lights you will merit to see the lights of the redemption of the Jewish people . I am still clutching my pushka...
...The last time was five years ago...
...My misgivings about ever getting this story have, by now, begun to take on hefty proportions...
...My own dealings with Chassidim are almost non-existent...
...they wear long flowing coral robes and sandals...
...He dashes off...
...There are, he tells me, about ten mitzvah tanks roving New York City, between thirty and forty throughout the entire U.S...
...A tall, blond bearded Chassid in his early twenties places a yarmulka on my head, helps me bind the t'fillin on my arm (next to my heart) and on my head...
...We reach as many as we can...
...A cab driver puts on t'fillin...
...They can be found on numerous street corners, their dour attire, long beards and somber headwear strangely at odds with the surrounding environment...
...Six hundred and thirteen," my young bearded guide, Yitzchak, tells me...
...Again I grin yes, glad to be able to do so...
...Surrounded by luxury towers on three corners and the fringes of Central Park on the fourth, this sector is the hub of big-town sophistication...
...In some detail he tells me what I should do...
...I wave her away...
...My mission, it seems, is finally off the ground...
...Terms mean nothing, we are speaking of a way of life...
...It doesn't matter," he tells me...
...I get Brooklyn on the line...
...it is now late afternoon...
...He shakes his head, tells me he's late for work and rushes off...
...Why did he enter the van...
...About a year ago a mutual friend introduced him to the Rebbe himself...
...Later you can do more...
...Ambling along Fifth Avenue towards the office, I run into a mitzvah mobile...
...theirs religious, mine secular...
...Eventually it will happen...
...A Chassid has cornered a hippy...
...That's all I need," a tall well-dressed man says, picking up speed...
...Forty-second Street and Fifth Avenue is booming...
...How many hours do you put inhere...
...A young man in modish dress enters the van...
...I point out that he wears no yar-mulka, has no beard...
...Have a m'zuzah on the right doorpost of every room...
...Putting on t'fillin...
...Do you put them on often...
...I can hardly believe it...
...I nod yes...
...The Chassid gives me a pushka at this point—a pink-colored charity box —asks if I have a siddur at home, and says I should get one, comes up with a round hand-made shmurah matzah for the Seder...
...The Rebbe is the leader of our generation, the most inspiring man in Judaism...
...Bearded Chassidim, I see, fit perfectly...
...Young Chassidim are on the watch, eyes and hands moving to ferret out the landsleit in the vast Sunday crush...
...The rest of the crew are out on the street chasing after Jews...
...I ask about the mitzvah campaign's ultimate goal...
...are said to work miracles, but the Rebbe likes teaching Chassidism through philosophy...
...Student: "All this sounds like blind obedience...
...If someone doesn't know, that's not his fault...
...Tanks Against Assimilation," the Lubavitcher Rebbe has called them...
...More students with yarmulkas stop to chit-chat...
...To put on t'fillin...
...My editors, in their wisdom, have made a perfect choice...
...The student gives him a maybe...
...Excuse me, are you Jewish...
...You have been brought here not just for your article," he tells me earnestly...
...In every town, in every city, they help people...
...If I can explain, rationally, the reason for one mitzvah," he says to the student, "will you follow it...
...Tell me about it," I say...
...This voice wants to interview me, Isidore Haiblum is a free lance writer and novelist specializing in Jewish and Yiddish matters and in science fiction...
...1 rush over to interview him...
...The crowd, meanwhile, is pouring past, the Chassidim dashing around...
...Student: "How was God created...
...Are you Jewish...
...A quote from Maimonides in a leaflet given me explains the tremendous emphasis placed on this and even the simplest type of mitzvah: . . . every person must view himself...
...Have you put on t'fillin today...
...an equally young but taller Chassid from Great Britain takes his place...
...His latest book THE WUK ARE AMONG US was published by Doubleday this year...
...few people have heard of it...
...the Chassid is saying, "Come on, be a sport...
...it may help to explain who I am...
...It is a warm, sunny day...
...Remember what I say...
...For this I need permission...
...Tracking them down should be easy enough...
...But he should learn...
...Keep holy Jewish books in your home...
...His mother is Jewish, his father is not...
...He is no ordinary person," my bearded friend explains...
...Now I see the Rebbe twice a year, ask him what I should do...
...British Chassid to me: "The elderly often cry when they come in here...
...then Mashiach (the Messiah) will come...
...Then Mashiach will come...
...The tank was called off, I'm told, because the tankists were busy preparing for Pesach...
...The recalcitrant student who wouldn't put on t'fillin steps out of the van...
...Why keep it to ourselves...
Vol. 1 • September 1975 • No. 3
