Why We Went to Chamblee, GA

By Rabbi Avromi Chayempour – Atlanta, GA

I was with my wife in a town about 15 minutes away from where I lived to pickup something that I purchased on Craigslist. We were told to come 4 o’clock for pick, but as we got there it didn’t take long to discover that no one was home.

We waited for a bit as I tried getting in contact with the man but we were unable to. Whatever reason we decided to wait it out a few more minutes when an old man in his wheelchair approached us. “Sholom,” he said, “I was looking outside my garage and I saw your Tzitzis, it’s been many years since I’ve seen a religious Jew.”

We spoke for a bit more, his name is Leizik Levinson, born in Westchester NY and eventually made his way to Georgia. As I always do, I asked him when was the last time he put on Tefillin? He told me long enough that he doesn’t remember. I asked him if he would have the chance to put them on would he do it? And he said “yes”. Just then the man who I originally came to see pulled up with his car and the old man told me goodbye.

We Obviously realized it was a very big reason why the man came late, in order that we should meet this Jew. We drove back home, got my Teffilin and went to the old Jews home. At first he was surprised but was very excited he welcomed us in, and we put on Tefillin. As we were saying the Shema his eyes filled with tears and he choked up saying the last few words.

After wrapping up he told us the last time he put them on was by his bar mitzvah – and now he is 101 years old (88 years ago).

The story doesn’t end here for we will be continuing to do Teffilin at least once a week BE”H. What’s amazing is if the man was there at 4 we would have never met Leizik Levinson.