A Blessing for the Bochur from Newark

Yisroel Safrin grew up in Irvington, New Jersey, and learned at Mesivta Torah Vodaath. Among the rabbanim who influenced the teenagers of the Newark area was Rav Eliyahu Chaim Carlebach, twin brother of Reb Shlomo Carlebach. He was the mara d'asra (communal rav) of the Hillside Kehilla and also a shochet in Newark. His wife was Hadassah, daughter of Rav Zalman Schneerson, who saved many lives in the Holocaust. A Chassidishe Rav who wore a shtreimel, he headed Machon Zecher Naftoli, which has produced hundreds of seforim.

On Chol Hamoed Pesach and Chol Hamoed Sukkos he took a group of teenagers to the Bobover Rebbe's tisch in Crown Heights. They came away uplifted each time, touched by the Rebbe's warmth and his ahavas Yisroel. One year Yisroel Safrin sat there with friends, among them a baal teshuva who had gone back to college for a master's degree in English literature. He had shaved off his beard and given up his Chassidic dress. The Rebbe, known in Bobov as the Rav, handed out cups of wine. To this friend he said: “A cup for the bochur from Newark. This bochur from Newark will yet have a beard.” Then he added with emphasis that the bochur would wear a beard with kavana.

Years later the friend was living in Meah Shearim in the full Meah Shearim dress. He told Safrin that the Rav had come to Yerushalayim, one of the few times he came to Eretz Yisroel, and held a tisch at the Chayeh Olam Hall on Kikar Shabbos, with thousands in attendance. As the Rebbe entered, the friend, wearing a shtreimel, pushed his head through the crowd and called out that he was the bochur from Newark. The Rebbe stopped, took his hand and, arm in arm, led him to the dais and seated him at his side for the whole tisch. The Rebbe himself seemed amazed that his blessing had come true. In time this friend led nine children to the chuppah, each into an excellent Yerushalayim family. Safrin tells it as a sign of the power of the Bobover Rebbe's bracha.