* Translated by Janine Muller Sherr
Shavua Tov from New York. I just had the opportunity of spending Shabbat at the International Conference of Chabad Women Emissaries.
You can draw a line from every single shelicha (emissary) of the thousands who gathered for the huge group photo on Friday and focus on her particular mission. The stories are endless:
One shelicha from the Caribbean Islands told me about their first Jewish kindergarten, I heard from the shelicha from Taiwan about the first mikveh, I listened as the shelicha from Kiryat Malachi told me with tears in her eyes about an innovative school developed for children with disabilities, I listened as the shelicha from Berdichev in the Ukraine described evacuating groups of Jews to Israel under fire, and precisely at that moment, the shelicha for new olim in Jerusalem turned to me to talk about a recent bar mitzvah celebration that was held for elderly Holocaust survivors who did not have a chance to have a bar mitzvah at age 13. Next to her stood the shelicha from a university campus in Atlanta who spoke about their struggle with antisemitism and anti-Israel demonstrations.
I was overwhelmed by their stories. What can we take away from this? What does this mean for regular people like us who don’t go out in the morning to save Israeli tourists who went missing somewhere in the far east, but who struggle to navigate between our various responsibilities at home and at work?
As the shelichot were posing for this photo, I received an answer to my question from Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, coordinator of these conventions. He explained:
“The Lubavicher Rebbe didn’t send only these women on a mission. This photo is not too big, but too small. Our mindset should be that each one of us is on a mission. In this photo we see women who dedicate themselves to a specific mission 24/7. I encourage everyone to take a look at this photo and say to themselves: Perhaps I can’t be involved in a project 24 hours a day, but maybe I do have 24 minutes a week. Maybe I don’t need to fly to a distant country, but instead can invite my neighbor for a Shabbat meal. Maybe I can start a new shiur or pay attention to the elderly woman who lives by herself in my building. Our entire world is meant to be one huge kinus shluchim.”
May each one of us merit to find our own mission in this world.
