By COLlive reporter
The 60 year-old Lubavitch Chossid who frequently walks Tel Aviv’s bohemian Dizengoff street does not resemble a criminal.
Bearded and wearing a long black Kapota, Rabbi Yankale Baruchman is headed to deliver another Torah class to local merchants.
Attendees vividly remember his past, but that does not stop them from greeting him with a smile and listening to his words.
“It always gives us chills,” says Nissim, an electronics store owner who didn’t give his surname.
“I know him for many years and we have gone through a lot,” he told Israel’s Channel 1 TV in a profile of Baruchman.
It was from his store that Yankale Baruchman operated an extensive drug and narcotics business some 20 years ago.
Out of a store with a display of appliances such as ovens and washing machines as a front, Baruchman led a high-stakes life and was a constant target of Israeli Police.
“I was high on the ecstasy of power and drugs. I felt as if I ran the world,” he recalled in an interview.
All this came to a halt during a deal that went bad in the Netherlands.
Baruchman was to have pocketed thousands from a deal, but a client ran off with it, leaving him humiliated and helpless.
“I promised Hashem, if I get 100,000 Gilden I will abandon this kind of life; I will become a baal teshuva and move to Jerusalem,” Baruchman said.
“At 5 am I heard a knock on the door. A Dutch friend walks in and asked if I know her friend. I said yes. She said: ‘I stole 100,000 Gilden from my friend’s safe. Please hold it for me. I’ll be back.’
“She left (to get more) and I left (to Israel).”
But his promise to change his life was forgotten as soon as he returned to Israel.
“I kept doing crazy things and was (eventually) arrested. When they brought me to the police car, I told them: I’m not getting in without my Tefillin.
“They said: You? Tefillin? With G-d? You’re not embarrassed?
“I told them: I’m not embarrassed and I’m not going without Tefillin.”
From then things went uphill for him – all from his jail cell.
“I recovered from drugs and became an instructor for Narcotics Anonymous. When I was released, I had already begun keeping Torah and Mitzvos. Slowly I became a useful Jew.”
Today, married with children, Baruchman lectures students and youngsters at risk about the dangers of drugs and addiction.
As an alternative for addiction, he offers Chassidus.
“Learning Chassidus puts you on a ‘high’ without a ‘down’ and without ruining people’s lives,” he tells them.
His autobiography in Hebrew, “A Lion Without Teeth,” elaborates how his former life was empty and dependent on artificial boosters.
His friend Nissim agrees. “This is the best thing that could’ve happened to him. He’s now calm and understands what life is about.”
most of you don’t know what the Baalei Teshuva have been through, and how much they have to offer!!
i hope he paid back the money
How many campus Shluchim have students that not only marry Jews yet become frum and even wear Shaitels! Chabad all over is doing great work and i know the Rebbe is proud. We can always to more thats, true.
your not getting the message:
HE WAS JOKING!!!!
your not getting the message:
he has life now
“Learning Chassidus puts you on a ‘high’ without a ‘down’ and without ruining people’s lives,” he tells them.
you are focusing too much on gashmius 🙁
rely on Hashem for all your needs – that is true freedom
Some people may be inspired by the Tzfati behavior and become frum but more sophisticated pple will not!!
Every shliach has diff personalities which attract people in their community. I’ve seen this firsthand. Some cold shluchim are not that successful and warmer shluchim are more successful, because MOST people are attracted to the “varemkeit”.
Each one of us must do his work without judging and evaluating eachother.
The question you and I should be asking ourselves is: “How many chassidim have I made”?
2. Success is not necessarily in quantities as you write. The Rebbe mentions in a Sicha the value of quality Chassidim/Baalei Teshuva. The difference between stam fruits and a vineyard.
3. If you are not a shliach….
Der iker iz m’zol zain freilach, freilach begashmius. Dos iz chassidus 🙂
he as to give that 100,000 back to that lady he stole from…………..
why is this a sign tha he can take it?
and you people wnat to change 788 for this guy?
could you please put in English translation to the video.Thank you
can tell you are a typical farmer. the shluchim today have plenty of beutifull and great bal tesuvas, the part that you dont see is that since they dont stand out with flags and bumper stickers you do not notice them. the so called BT’s from maschistin are only that “maschistin” which in fact is realy a danger, if you look on the web you will find videos of some of these BT’s which become mushrooms and your hair will stand up with some of the things that they do. for the most part most of them arent even knowledgeble… Read more »
its a amazing story, and leaves hope for the ppl i know out there who are off the derech and into drugs.
wow
ever wonder:
how many shluchim out there actually produce lubaitchers? I mean, with all the works, (as they used to do going back 30 years)? very few…
and those crazy tzfatis make them by the dozen (sure, they are all nuts, but tachles… they have results while we are sitting in our own ——)…
L’chayim!
(a little farbrenignen for Yud Daled Kislev.. 🙂 )
yankele baruchman,hatslocho being a good jew and a mishechist!
pls pls bring us more of such authentic people
frankly, we are fed up with those stories about the same ppl running the world from 788
Here is just one example where you see the positive in the Tzfatim society, they provide people who have very strong spiritual needs with something to be “High” on.
Although we may disagree and it may be annoying to some of us we can still see the beauty in what they do, instead of being a crack-cocaine user they get high on other things.
If you want to hate you can hate, but if your looking too love you can always find it.
He probably had more parnassa as a drug dealer.
it gave me chills too!
just comes to show how someone can really change his life around and that its never too late
thats really neat…
thanks so much for bringing in all these interesting articles and videos!!
You guys are getting better and better by the day!