Chief Rabbi Lobbies Chief Rabbi

By COLlive reporter

This is what you would call hashgacha protis.

Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar came to daven Tuesday morning at the Rebbe‘s Ohel in Cambria Heights, Queens, where he saw a familiar face at the minyan.

It was Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, a graduate of the Lubavitch schools in Morocco who is an avid admirer of Chabad’s Shlichus outreach network around the world.

Unceremoniously, both Chief Rabbis davened Shachris and then held a short discussion before preparing themselves to visit the Rebbe’s resting place in the Old Montefiore cemetery.

Rabbi Lazar used the opportunity to implore his esteemed colleague to come out with a public call that all men, women and children make an effort to hear the Ten Commandments on the holiday of Shavuos.

Bystanders told COLlive.com that Rabbi Amar listened attentively and related two stories about his teachers, Rabbi Nissan Pinson and Rabbi Shlomo Matusof, the late Shluchim in Tunis and Casablanca, respectively.

The Rebbe often emphasized the special significance of bringing children, even the youngest of infants, to hear the Ten Commandments.

Before G?d gave the Torah to the Jewish people, He demanded guarantors. Only after the Jews people declared, “Our children will be our guarantors that we will cherish and observe the Torah,” did G?d agree to give the Torah.

Another stop Rabbi Lazar made while in New York was the new Mikvah Mei Chaya Mushka being built on Troy and Lefferts Avenues in Crown Heights.

He was joined by a fellow Moscow Shliach, Rabbi Yitzchak Kogan, leader of the Bolshaya Bronnaya Synagogue of Agudas Chasidei Chabad in Russia.

The two were accompanied by the mikvah’s founder R’ Moishe Pinson and were updated about the additional funds that are needed to complete the project.