Crown Heights Teacher Visits Former Student in the IDF

By Tzemach Feller

Twenty-seven years ago, Shmuly Ben, a young man who grew up in Crown Heights, was a student in United Lubavitcher Yeshiva—Ocean Parkway. His third grade Rebbi was Rabbi Moshe Reinetz, who has taught in Lubavitcher Yeshiva for some three decades, infusing hundreds of talmidim with a passion and love for Yiddishkeit — and he was about to discover just how deep is his connection to his students, even all these years later.

It’s 2023. Now known as Sammy, he has traveled far from Crown Heights, and is a businessman living in Los Angeles. He looks very different from the young schoolboy who chanted pesukim of Chumash in third grade in the 90s. He moved to Israel and served in the IDF as a young man and is now in his 30s, living a traditional Jewish lifestyle.

But he never forgot his rebbi, and his rebbi never forgot him.

Rabbi Reinetz kept in touch with Sammy throughout his adult life; first by phone, and now by WhatsApp. They’d chat from time to time, Sammy keeping his rebbi apprised of how he was doing; what he was up to.

Sammy was visiting Israel on Chol Hamoed Sukkos, and met up with a fellow former classmate during a visit to the Kotel. Together the two filmed a video for their beloved Rebbi, which they proudly sent to him.

Then the war broke out.

On Shemini Atzeres, 5784, Sammy got the call that more than 300,000 miluimniks received: our nation is under attack, and we need you back in uniform. We need you to defend your land, your
people, your home.

And like hundreds of thousands of others, Sammy answered the call. He dropped everything and rushed to his unit, leaving his life behind. The IDF’s supply chains were stretched thin by the sudden influx of soldiers, and non-essential items simply weren’t prioritized, so Sammy and his buddies went without.

Bravely, they fought for their country, enduring risks and privations that others cannot imagine—and that they cannot even talk about. As the weeks went by, they struggled to maintain their morale. But then Sammy got some news from home.

His rebbi was on the way.

Rabbi Moshe Reinetz, along with his wife Rivkah, were visiting Eretz Yisroel, on a mission to bring chizuk to its inhabitants, and especially to the brave soldiers defending the Holy Land.

“Sammy actually reached out to my husband and asked that we come visit him, as he understood we were in Israel,” Rivkah Reinetz told COLlive.com. “My husband asked him what he’d like us to bring, so we brought things for the soldiers; food, and various supplies that they needed.”

They finally found Sammy at a base in an undisclosed location in Israel. Between corrugated steel-walled buildings hastily constructed out of shipping containers, Sammy was spending some time with his buddies in their makeshift gym; rows of weights and exercise gear on a turf floor, hidden beneath camouflage netting.

In that distant base, for Sammy, and the rest of the soldiers in his unit, the pintele yid shone forth. Warmly, he embraced his rebbi of decades before. Excitedly, he distributed the goodies
the Reinetzes had brought with them for their entire unit. He proudly introduced his Rebbi to the commanders on the base and his fellow soldiers.

And proudly, he called each of his buddies to take their turn putting on tefillin.

“My husband put on tefillin with many of the soldiers, and Sammy was actually recruiting soldiers to put on tefillin,” Rivkah Reinetz proudly related.

Then, another moment of inspiration.

Israel’s oldest soldier—Ezra Yachin— was visiting the base, also on a mission to boost morale. At 95, he is the oldest reservist in the IDF, and he was there, speaking to the soldiers. Yachin
was 19 years old in 1948 when he put on the uniform of the IDF for the first time. He saw combat, losing the vision in one eye in the fighting. Now he has put that uniform on once again, and
travels from base to base, motivating the soldiers.

The Reinetzes met him, and were impressed by his story of decades-long commitment to Eretz Yisroel.

For Ezra Yachin, the same fiery zeal for his homeland that led him to put on the uniform in 1948 continues to inspire those around him. And for Sammy, the same pintele Yid that was fueled decades ago in United Lubavitcher Yeshiva rose to the surface, inspiring him and those around him to renew their commitment to Yiddishkeit as they put their very lives on the line to defend our Holy Land.

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This article was first published in the COLlive Magazine – Chanukah 5784 edition, distributed free in Crown Heights. Look out for your free copy at your door and in local stores and restaurants or download here.