Musings Of A Shliach From Montana

Chavie and some of the women at the Latke Making and Gift Exchange Celebration

The kids making menorahs at a pre-Chanukah event at the Bozeman Chabad Center

It’s Motzaei Shabbos.

Shabbos just ended. It was beautiful, uplifting, and so enjoyable. About twelve guests joined us around our Shabbos table on Friday night. We sang, farbrenged, shared divrei Torah, and enjoyed Chavie’s awesome delicacies. On Shabbos morning we had a full shul with locals and friends visiting from Chicago and Maryland and about thirty joining us for Shabbos lunch, which was delightful. It was my bar mitzvah parashah, Vayeishev, so I enjoyed re-reading it for the 30th time and the same with my Haftorah. All in all, it was another beautiful Shabbos in Gan Eden.

And then came Sunday morning.

I had written most of my column and then woke up Sunday to the horrific news out of Sydney. My colleague, HaRav Faivel Eliezer Ben Binyomin Halevi Schlanger, Hy’d, was murdered along with ten others at the Menorah lighting in Bondi Beach. In light of the murder of our brothers and sisters in Australia, I would like to touch on the subject of aliyah and whether we should all consider it at this time. Or at least the Torah leaders of our communities.

Recently, I saw a Meaningful Minute debate between Michael Weichbrod, who lives in Israel, and Rabbi Elchanan Shoff of Los Angeles, moderated by Nachi Gordon. The debate was about whether all Jews must move to Israel. It was a civil and respectful conversation which I appreciated, but I was shocked when Michael quoted a Gadol who supposedly told a certain rabbi of a small community, where he was the source of all things Jewish, that it’s more important to make aliyah and move to Israel than to remain in his diaspora community where he was the drive and energy of Jewish life.

From my perspective, as someone who has lived in Montana since 2007 and spent every waking moment alongside Chavie bringing Hashem’s children back to their Father in Heaven, who has seen what happens to Yidden when they lose any semblance of a connection to their Judaism, I cannot understand how anyone could say we don’t have an achrayus to our fellow Jews.

Imagine Moshe Rabbeinu leaving the Jews in the desert and going to Israel for his own spiritual benefit? Imagine the Ben Ish Chai leaving his kehillah in Baghdad for his own benefit in Israel? Imagine the Chofetz Chaim packing up and leaving Eastern European Jewry for a loft in Ramat Beit Shemesh? How ludicrous would that be? I envy Jews who make aliyah and raise their children in the land of our ancestors, the Holy Land. I would love to do the same with my family, but to demand that everyone abandon the Jews in the diaspora to find spiritual fulfillment in Israel is wrong, in my opinion.

Last week, when my uncle Rabbi Yossy Goldman spoke for our community, he shared that Rav Menachem Ziemba (1883–1943), Hy’d, the famed Polish Gerrer Rav and Torah scholar who along with the other two surviving members of the Warsaw Beis Din, Rabbi Shimshon Sztokhamer and Rabbi David Shapiro, were suddenly summoned to the Judenrat. They were told that the Catholic Church was offering to rescue them. They refused to go, saying that the existence of the beis din in the ghetto with Gedolim gave Jews the strength to carry on and they wouldn’t abandon ship.

Yes, they could have gone, but is that Yiddishkeit? Is that leadership? Save yourself so you can do the dafyomi, visit the Kotel, eat authentic falafel, and speak Ivrit while the Jews of Montana are yearning for Torah and mitzvos but have no one to show them the way? On Monday of last week, Chavie hosted a pre-Chanukah women’s event to make latkes and do a gift exchange where they learned about Chanukah. The day before that, on Sunday, the kids gathered for an awesome menorah making event where the fathers laid tefillin and the kids watched a video about the Chanukah story and made their own wooden menorahs. On Tuesday, I wrapped up a six-week course on the “Kabbalah of Meaning,” with thirty-one students. On Wednesday, I sat with a local Yid to encourage him to give tzedakah to our growing efforts. On Thursday, I brainstormed with a few other Chabad rabbis, including Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky in New York, on how to get more Jewish kids to go to Jewish overnight camp, and on Friday, I helped the son of a prominent North American rav get a menorah to light on Chanukah (no, he isn’t frum, but he wanted a menorah), and that’s just me in small Bozeman. How can we leave our brothers and sisters behind?

I received an email on Thursday that read: “Hello rabbi! My name is ______ and I’m an employee at the Big Sky resort. I’m realizing that I and a number of other Jewish employees don’t have menorahs to light for the holiday! Would tea lights work? Any suggestions are welcome.”

When I responded that I will be in Big Sky on Sunday night, the first night of Chanukah, for two events, she was delighted and will be coming to pick up her Chanukah box.

In this week’s parashah, Miketz, we read about Pharaoh summoning Yosef and appointing him Viceroy of Egypt. Now that Yosef was free, why didn’t he demand that Pharaoh allow him to return to Israel? Why didn’t he make immediate aliyah? Later, when the brothers reunite in Vayigash, Yosef tells them not to feel guilty about selling him into slavery: “But now, do not be distressed or reproach yourselves for having sold me into slavery here since it was ultimately in order for me to be able to provide for your needs that Hashem sent me ahead of you.”

Of course, every Jew belongs in Israel. Of course, we yearn and pray for Mashiach three times each day with the heartfelt longing of a Yid who wishes to return to Eretz Yisrael and live under Mashiach’s rule with peace and tranquility, Torah learning, a Beis HaMikdash, unity and holiness, but until Kibbutz Galuyos, when every Jew will be gathered by Mashiach and brought to Israel, we must never swap our love for Klal Yisrael for a love for Israel. If a place is unbearable for Jews, then we should move, but the leaders must not desert the people until they can bring every last Jew with them.

Yehuda Maccabee taught us that we don’t give up on finding the pure oil; we keep searching and searching until we find the pure sealed jug. We don’t give up on searching just because it’s hard or at times unsuccessful temporarily. We keep going and then the miracles happen where that little oil, the one we almost gave up on, shines brightly for way longer than we could have ever imagined.

I will stand in downtown Bozeman and celebrate publicly. I will inspire my fellow Jews to be proud and observant Jews and I will light, light, and light the menorahs until we can finally come home to Eretz Yisraelspeedily in our days, Amen. n

Rabbi Chaim Bruk is co-CEO of Chabad Lubavitch of Montana and spiritual leader of The Shul of Bozeman. For comments or to partner in our holy work, e-mail [email protected] or visit JewishMontana.com/Donate.