I Asked Around What Will it Take to Succeed in Shlichus

By Rabbi Menachem Levin

We moved on Shlichus to Balboa Terrace in San Francisco, California. While still living in Crown Heights and fundraising there for our Shlichus, I bumped into many A-list characters, all great at what they do. I decided to use those short encounters to pose the following question:

“How do you have Hatzlacha in Shlichus?”

Here is a compilation of the highlights. Please note that each person I spoke with offered their insights with a genuine desire to help and had no intention of their advice going anywhere beyond the person they were talking to. It was only after friends recommended it that I decided to turn their answers into an article. The people I spoke with were notified, and they gave their consent to be published. The advice they gave should be read with the raw simplicity of a friend speaking to a friend, not as an answer to an interview. That’s why many of the answers may seem straightforward and simple, but were spoken with the forceful energy of years of life experience, and with the focused attention to share what worked for them, or at least, what they wished they told themselves at the onset of their journey.

I was davening late one morning in 770 and saw Rabbi Mendel Kaplan davening nearby. He was one of the first people I asked so I was a bit more shy. After getting past the pleasantries of where I was going and how we are related, he said, “Learn three Prokim Rambam every day and make sure you have a strong Seder. Don’t waste time.”

I thanked him and I went back to my place. He came back a minute later, and added, “And if you want more than one line, you should write to the Rebbe often. If you’ll write often you’ll have to have what to write about”

Then he recapped, “Seriously, you got to wake up early and have a strong Seder. If you want to be Matzliach it’s not going to happen by davening at 12 o’ clock.”

I learned in Brunoy, so when I saw Rabbi Itche Nemenov in 770 during Mincha it was my natural next choice.

“Shalom Aleichem, Reb Yitzchok, I am going on Shlichus. What do I need to know?”

He told me, “You need to make a scheduled time to study the Rebbe’s Maamarim. It can be small, a half hour or even ten minutes, but it must be fixed. Connect to the Rebbe. If you’re connected, you will be able to connect others as well.”

It so happens that a few minutes later walking down Kingston I spotted Shmuley Boteach. Privately enjoying the contrasts of personalities, I saw my next fish.

“Yegiah.” he said after a short pause, “Diligence.  Work really hard and you’ll be successful. But don’t neglect your family. Family first. Community second.”

There was a lot of overlap of the kinds of things people told me, but each one had its nuanced flavor.

Rabbi Sholom DovBer Levitin from Seattle told me, “You need to do the Shlichus! That’s the advice.”

Then almost immediately he followed with, “Put on Teffilin with a Jew every day. I don’t know. It might be hard with Covid. If it can’t be every day, Teffilin should still be right, right at the top. Have a Geshmak to put on Teffilin with a Yid. Carry it with you wherever you go. If it’s difficult with Covid, so call people to put on Teffilin. Get them a pair.”

At a wedding one night I met Rabbi Aaron Cousin from England. Rabbi Cousin pointed towards the ceiling and said, “You’ll need a lot of mazel. You need to work hard. Ver nisht nispoel, and let me tell you, if you’re doing the Rebbe’s work, you will be Matzliach. That’s what I do.”

At the same chasuna, I saw Rabbi Shais Taub. Shais was great.

“Do you have a swiper?” he asked me.

“Yes.”

“So take it out!”

Shais swiped his card and entered his donation.

“Ok thank you. So what’s your one-liner for success in Shlichus?”

“Take out your swiper and go around this wedding. You can make a thousand dollars just tonight.”

“And that’s your one-liner for success?”

“Yes!”

Rabbi Yosef Kantor called out as he was running out of 770, “I’ll tell you what I heard from Rabbi Berel Shemtov at a farbrengen. “Take out a big mortgage and you will be forced to do good things!”

Rabbi Zalmen Liberow from Flatbush told me, “Do what the one who sent you asks, not what you want. Remember the main Shlichus is what the Rebbe said in Chaya Sarah Nun Beis. You should learn it three times before you move out.” Then smiling, “Money begins with an ‘M’ for ‘Moshiach.'”

Rabbi Meir Harlig answered without skipping a beat, “Do what the Rebbe wants and not what will get you in the papers and you’ll have Hatzlacha.”

Rabbi Ahrele Loschak told me, “You need to have a Mashpia Ruchni that you can ask questions to on a regular basis.”

I met Rabbi Simon Jacobson in 770 the last Shabbos before I went out on Shlichus. My question was sounding a bit more canned at this point. “What’s a one-liner for success in Shlichus?”

“A one liner? Az m’iz farbunden oiben, falt men nisht unten. That’s if you want a one liner.”

He must have seen I wasn’t satisfied, so he continued, “You need to do Hafatzas Hamayanos. You’re not a ‘programs guy.’ For programs they can go elsewhere. I have friends on Shlichus, they tell me they can’t compete with what’s out there. If someone suffers a personal tragedy they google for help, and they will find something. What’s your edge on all the competition? Chassidus. That’s what no one else has. You have to make Chassidus relevant to people, if you didn’t learn how to make Chassidus relevant yet, then you better learn fast. When there is an event happening in the city, a tragedy, a simcha, you need to be on the front lines, sharing a higher insight. Something that when they go home, they will naturally share it with their families and friends. If they don’t do that, I don’t care how inspiring you thought you were. You didn’t do your job.”

I asked him, but what about the very secular Jews. He said, “What are you joking? You’re playing devil’s advocate?”

I said, “No really, your average Chabad house crowd are people with some level of familiarity. Whether Hebrew school as a kid or some Jewish camp, or a parent that kept Passover or Chanukah. What about the people that their grandparents went to Hebrew school maybe once a week, and their grandchildren never even heard of it?”

He said, “Do they laugh? Do they cry? Do they have families? What kind of question is that? They are people just like me and you, and they have struggles in life like anybody else. Chassidus speaks to that.”

So these are the highlights, a wealth of information that I will treasure. Of course, some of the juicier lines from my interactions have been omitted, but if you’re keen enough to know the ‘players’ you can imagine what else was said.

If you would like to help or message me regarding our Shlichus email me at [email protected].

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