No one would have believed it unless I had seen it first, and at first, it was a shocking realization. I’m speaking about the Rebbe, Menachem M. Schneerson of Chabad and the movement that emanated from his deeply religious entrepreneurial spirit.
They call it the Rebbe?s Army.
It started with one Shliach, sent from Crown Heights, New York to Los Angeles to be the emissary of the Rebbe, to awaken the spark of yiddishkeit (Jewishness) in all the Jews of Los Angeles, and then the rest of California, and then Nevada.
And as Rabbi Shlomo Cunin was doing that, other rabbis were going elsewhere in the world to every country and every city in every country (Brazil, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Romania, Greece, Nepal) as well as throughout the United States of America, to spread the word, to spread the joy, to touch the hearts of Jews who needed to know what the Rebbe knew – that to be a Jew is to be a ?chosen people,? as instructed by God.
Millions of people, throughout the world today, Jews and non Jews alike, have been moved, touched, helped, supported, educated, and by all means loved, by the dancing Shluchim, the spirited Chabad rabbis, the soul of the Rebbe, the now more than 4,000 Chabad rabbis moved by the impossible expectations of a truly impossible man, are transforming the world.
That to me is the spirit of entrepreneurship, and what the entrepreneur within each of us is called to do.
The Rebbe had a dream. He had a vision. He had a purpose. He had a mission.
You, too, must have a dream, a vision, a purpose, a mission.
We all must. If we are to truly transform the world.
Is that even possible? Is this simply childish prattle?
To answer that question, look at what the Rebbe did. Look at what his Shluchim (rabbis) have done and are doing.
Imagine, being a young man with your young wife, making a commitment to move to a city you?ve never been to before. Starting from scratch in your black felt hat, your paez, your long untrimmed beard, you black suit, your long black coat. Arriving Butte, Mont., or Denver, Colo., or San Mateo, Calif. Knowing no one, being an orthodox Jew, committed to waking up every Jew in this new community to the joy of being a Jew, when, in fact, no one is standing at the city gates to welcome you, but hiding instead.
How in the world do you start? What in the world do you do?
Especially when you have little money, need to make a living without getting a job, need to excite someone among the Jewish strangers in this unprepared community to donate something to the Rebbe?s cause. To the cause of your of your Chabad House, which is being opened in this strange city to bring the true spirit of Yiddishkeit to Jews who never asked for it – who don?t even understand what it is. Imagine how difficult that would be. Imagine how impossible.
Imagine how you would feel being a stranger in a strange land, being asked by your Rebbe to conquer your fears, to overcome your resistance, to do things you’ve never before done, and to do them simply because they need to be done if the Jewish people are ever to rise to their extremely special occasion of being the “chosen people,” as instructed on Mount Sinai by our one and only G-d.
But, this is not about being a Jew. Rick Warren did the same with his Purpose Driven Life. The Maharishi did the same thing with his Transcendental Meditation… Muhammad Yunus did the same thing with his founding of Grameen Bank.
Entrepreneurship is all about religion. It’s all about G-d.
It’s all about creation. It’s all about more life. It?s all about sending out the flocks to touch the other flocks and to transform their lives.
It’s all about you.
the tzadik Rav Raichik Obm was the FIRST …. WE MISS HIM SO MUCH 🙁
his family should only have blessings and simchas Amen!
he helped me my business
its grate to see him working with shluchim
he said evewrything so straight out
The first Shliach to CA was Rabbi Raichick.