Girl’s Clever Scheme to Light Shabbos Candles in Her Home

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel Archives. This program is a continuation of last week. Last week we mentioned the Frierdiker Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, when he came to America in 1940 together with Rabbi Hodakov and Rabbi Mindel, and when he sent Rabbi Mindel to Washington to succeed in establishing release time. We also spoke about the opposition that he had from the frum people and from the secular people.

Now, what is release time? Release time means that once a week the public school allows children to attend religious instruction somewhere else, not in the school. Meaning, every day public school finishes at two o'clock — I'm sorry, three o'clock — but on Wednesday, once a week, with the parents' permission — they have to sign that they give permission for their children to go to religious instruction — we take them to religious instruction. We pick them up from school at about two o'clock, five to two, and we take them to shul. There were thousands and thousands of children.

So the Frierdiker Rebbe worked on this, and, baruch Hashem, the New York legislature voted that public schools can do that. This was not in every state — it's not that every state has it — so that's called release time, and baruch Hashem thousands of children became frum from it.

I want to tell you a personal story. In the '80s, I opened a release time program in Long Beach, Long Island. My in-laws lived in Long Beach, so I saw there were a lot of Jewish children who don't go to Hebrew school — nothing, just public school. So I said, let's open a release time, with the Rebbe's brocha.

So, baruch Hashem, we had a release time. We picked them up, we came to shul, and we taught them. We divided the hour into four chalakim, four parts, fifteen minutes each: fifteen minutes we learned and told a story, fifteen minutes was parshas hashavua, fifteen minutes was prayer, and fifteen minutes was a discussion. That's how we did it.

One of the things that I taught them was that girls should light Shabbos candles. The girls came back every week and they were happy — they knew the brocha, they knew the time, they were all happy. One girl came back and she started to cry. She said, "My mother doesn't let me light the Shabbos candles." That week I had a call from the mother. The mother said, "Rabbi, I sent her to release time only to know Jewish history, not to tell me what to do at home."

So I told the girl, I said, "You know what? Don't light Shabbos candles. Maybe your mother will change her mind, but don't do it. If your mother told you to desecrate Shabbos, then I would talk to you differently, but lighting candles is not like desecrating Shabbos, so don't do it. Listen, there's also a mitzvah of kibud av va'em — honoring your parents." That's all I said.

But she saw so many girls enjoying the brocha, and she took it very seriously. Without my knowledge and without her parents' knowledge, what did she do? She went to the grocery store and said, "Can I have a holy candle?" So the storekeeper says, "A holy candle? I never heard of that — ask your mother." Of course she's not going to ask her mother. But before she left, he called her back and said, "I think I know what you mean," and he took out a yahrzeit candle and gave it to her.

She went home Friday. She knew the brocha. Her mother didn't know. She went into her room — she had her own room — and she made the brocha, and she went to sleep. Can you imagine the picture — she's lying under the blankets and there's the yahrzeit candle burning.

So I think it was in the middle of the night, or in the morning, the mother opened the door and saw the candle. She almost fainted, but she screamed. Her husband got up, and the girl got up. The mother said, "What did you do?" She said, "When my mother passed away, I had this on." "Oh, how come you did it?" She says, "Mother, I wanted to light — you didn't let me light, so I wanted to light for my sake, for me and for you." That's what she said.

And so, since then — I mean this was the beginning — the mother felt like... she didn't know how sincere this girl was. Anyway, this girl later went to Hebrew Academy, I think she went to seminary [?] later, she got married, baruch Hashem, everything [worked out]. This is an example of a child from release time.

This is what the Frierdiker Rebbe wanted — thousands of children became frum from release time.

Now, the Frierdiker Rebbe asked the bochurim to take off Wednesday from learning to go teach release time. He even asked Chaim Berlin [?] — he asked other yeshivas, too, not only Chabad — that they should go help him.

So some of the bochurim, as it's written down here, asked, "Isn't this called bitul Torah? You tell us Friday afternoon [to skip class] — I understand the middle of the week, Wednesday, to take off, but it's not just an hour. Some people had to travel to the Bronx, some people had to travel to Staten Island." So it was about an hour and a half before release time, then they were there an hour, and then an hour and a half coming back, plus lunch. Almost all of Wednesday was not learning — they couldn't learn. They said, "Is this right?" And they asked the Frierdiker Rebbe. I'm going to read you what the Rebbe answered them.

So the Rebbe answered like this. He said: "All the angels, malachim, in Gan Eden are jealous of you — jealous of all those who are involved in this mission to save Jewish children from kfirah, from atheism, and bring them to proper Talmud Torahs."

And the Frierdiker Rebbe continued: Chazal say, "kasha misas ruchanis mimisas gufanis" — a spiritual death is worse than a physical death. We see it by Mitzrayim — when you see someone drowning or trapped in a burning home, and you can help rescue them from death, would you stand back? All these Jewish children are drowning in a sea of kfirah — how can you stand back? All bochurim should be involved. This is what the Frierdiker Rebbe told them.

And he continued — the Frierdiker Rebbe [said]: "All the souls in Gan Eden, even my own soul, are jealous of you, because you have the opportunity to say Shema Yisrael Hashem Echad with young Jewish children."

So we see the importance — even though they would take off from learning, look what they accomplished. Children were drowning, and this is what the Rebbe told them: it's worth it, it's important to go to release time.

In 1960 — or 1970, later — the Rebbe sent a delegation to Washington, D.C., to a conference on children and youth. I have a badge here — Rabbi Nissan Mindel was one of the people [who attended]. This was a White House Conference on Children — this was 1960.

At that time, the Rebbe, being the one managing it, sent them, and he instructed them on three things: number one, federal financial aid for parochial schools; number two, opportunities for religious instruction; and number three, to separate the genders in school, raising moral and ethical standards. This is what the Rebbe told him to do. This was at the time of President Eisenhower, this is 1960.

Who were the rabbis then? Rabbi Holland [?], Rabbi Mindel, Rabbi J.J. Hecht — everybody knows him, and he was the head of release time — give him a lot of credit for what he did, mamash. And Rabbi Zalman Posner, and Rabbi Zimmer [?], and Rabbi [Gash?] and Jacobson went with them, but he [Rabbi Mindel] was the correspondent. These were the first shluchim the Rebbe sent to Washington to break the ice of America.

I mean, the one before — Rabbi Mindel went in 1940, as I read to you last time, and also with the 500 Rabbis [march], he went more times. But actually, the Rebbe sent all of them together to break the ice of America. This is what the Rebbe wanted.

Now, from the notes of Rabbi Mindel — when he went to dictation, and this was around the time of Washington, before they went, I don't know the exact date — the Rebbe told Rabbi Mindel to give over to the other four shluchim who went to Washington, [including] Rabbi Holland [?] and Rabbi Zimmer [?], what he told him. And I wrote this down here, and this is from Rabbi Mindel:

"Here you are going to Washington — you're shluchim to Washington, just like a nanas on top of a giant. Now, when you have a giant, he's a tall person, he can see far — he's tall. But when you put a dwarf on top of his shoulders, he can see even further. So you are like a dwarf [on the shoulders of a giant]."

The whole point is that our generation [accomplishes what it does] because there is a previous generation, because of the Frierdiker Rebbe. In other words, the Rebbe told him that he should know — the Rebbe didn't take credit for himself, he's following [in the footsteps of] the Frierdiker Rebbe — how the Frierdiker Rebbe started release time, how the Frierdiker Rebbe started everything in Washington. That we are [able to do what we do] is because of that [unclear] to accomplish what the previous generation did.

And that's why I want to say, whoever [went to] Washington, baruch Hashem, they paved the way — those before paved the way for today, and wherever they are [may they be well]. This is what the Rebbe wanted — to bring Moshiach. And this — what sent them — is not only to Washington, it's all over the world, that we should try to bring the Rebbe('s message) to many people. And this is what we want, as much, right away. Amen.