By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives
The young, quiet Bostonian, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, kept to himself through the duration of his studies at the Lubavitch Yeshiva. He was the son of immigrants who created a large, thriving and observant home during a time when Jewish practice was in decline in the United States.
A short while before Rabbi Krinsky’s marriage, the Rebbe’s assistant, Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Aizik Hodakov, asked him what he planned to do for a living. The young man responded that he still had no concrete plans. Rabbi Hodakov then asked the 23-year-old groom if he wanted to join the Rebbe’s secretariat. Rabbi Krinsky was astonished at the request and enthusiastically responded in the affirmative.
During his first week of employment, the Rebbe called Rabbi Krinsky into his office. When he entered, he found the Rebbe correcting a letter draft. The Rebbe had made numerous corrections and asked Rabbi Krinsky to retype the letter. The task was daunting; the letter was replete with changes between and atop the lines, with arrows in every direction pointing to further changes.
The Rebbe guided Rabbi Krinsky how to decipher the letter: “Start from the beginning. Retype it word after word, line after line. In the end, you will see that everything works out okay.”
The young aide took this lesson to heart as a life lesson for finding clarity when things look confusing and disjointed.
Find Hasidic Archives latest books on HasidicArchives.com Dear Rebbe and The Edifice: Dating, Marriage and an Everlasting Home, also available on Amazon Prime.
