Friday, November 14

Longer than usual. But important.

My late father was, among other things, a phenomenal genealogist. He researched and created our 31-generation family tree which covers an entire wall and traces us back to Rashi, the famous 11th century French sage and commentator. Proud to note that he was descended from many great rabbis, my dad never missed an opportunity to remind me and my siblings that we were 9th generation descendants of the great Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk. Pretty meaningless to us as kids, this detail took on new significance in the past decade or two, and even more as of last night. I’ll get to that in a moment.

Rebbe Elimelech was one of the fathers of the Chassidic movement. There are many wonderful stories about him, and the famous Yiddish song “Der Rebbe Elimelech” tells about how this great Rebbe merrily celebrated. As one might expect, Chassidim throughout the world all know of him. So much so that once, when my son in Israel was in a Jewish bookstore looking for the Noam Elimelech book, and the Chassidic shopkeeper learned that my son was a descendant, the shopkeeper came out from behind the counter and asked my 18-year old son for a blessing.

For a Chassid to be enamored of this man is not surprising. Surprisingly, though, when I was visiting the ohel* of Elimelech’s grave in Poland, in addition to the Israeli tour group that stopped by, two Catholic nuns from Sweden came in to pay their respect, as did a non-Jewish Polish woman with her teenage grandson. When I asked what they were doing there, both explained to me that they wanted to see the grave of this great and holy man.

How did they hear of him? Apparently, it all had to do with his unique outlook on humanity, which was something unheard of at the time. Rebbe Elimelech was renowned not only for his holiness, but for his boundless compassion for every human being, not only Jewish people. This was an utterly revolutionary thought at the time. Back in 18th century Poland, Jews were with Jews, non-Jews were the “other” and, as the Rudyard Kipling saying goes, never the twain shall meet. But Rebbe Elimelech taught that Gd’s presence rests wherever genuine kindness is extended, not only to one’s own community, but to all of Gd’s creations. Absolutely unheard of at the time. Covering the wall of Elimelech’s ohel are his words, reminding us of his message.

Books have been written about Rebbe Elimelech’s groundbreaking idea that holiness can not be insular, and that we must expand our compassion outward, and I could go on and on about this.  But I want to get to last night.

Last night I attended AGPI’s Defender of Israel Tribute. Avi Benlolo founded the Abraham Global Peace Initiative in October 2021, and his team has been doing phenomenal work ever since, most especially since October 7, 2023. The guest last night was Israel’s former prime minister Naftali Bennett who, as you might imagine, spoke brilliantly. Like you, I have attended many events in acknowledgement of heroes who have done remarkable things since October 2023. But last night, the honouree was a non-Jew, Joseph Mancinelli, who heads up LIUNA, the international labour union, here in Canada. He was being honoured for standing up for Israel and the Jewish community. Two local church leaders were also acknowledged and honoured for the same reason, and I found myself incredibly moved. This is exactly what Elimelech taught. 

Currently, with the insane challenges we are facing with our local government, I feel that we Jews are turning insular, crying to each other. It is vital that we reach out, acknowledging those outside of our community who are there for us. I left last night’s event with more hope than I have felt in a very long time here in Toronto. There are people there for us. Let us find them and thank them. May the memory of my great, great. . .grandfather, Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk z”l, be blessed, and may we have the merit to live our lives as he taught, connecting to the entire community and living a life of inclusiveness towards all of Gd’s creatures.

Am Yisrael Chai!