31 Hours and a Lifetime of Shabbos

While Knesset factions are currently fighting over various pieces of legislation regarding the closure — or limited sanctioned opening — of businesses, shopping, and entertainment establishments on Shabbos, the Kretchnifer Rebbe of Rechovot has his own way of dealing with Shabbos desecration in this mixed religious-secular Israeli city.

Beneath the Rebbe’s window, vehicles honk; when the Rebbe walks home from shul, cars whiz by. The Rebbe grimaces in anguish for the lost spiritual opportunities of these unaffiliated Yidden, but he’s the last person who would ever yell “Shabbes.” In the political realm, the chassidus, which is represented on the city council, could petition for the streets of the Kiryat Kretchnif neighborhood to be closed, but the Rebbe doesn’t support coercion.

“Our job is to influence in a calm way, to cause their hearts to open,” the Rebbe has told his chassidim. The Kretchnifer Rebbe, who demands of his own people that they speak exclusively Yiddish and don’t touch Smartphones, has another way when it comes to Klal Yisrael. Every Jew is welcome; everyone is beloved.

Shuki Kromer, chairman of the left-wing Meretz party in Rechovot and director of the city’s culture center, is one of those who comes to the Rebbe despite his distance from a life of Torah. “There isn’t a Yom Tov when he won’t come to the Rebbe for a brachah,” one of the chassidim relates. “When he had a problem in his personal life, he came to the Rebbe for an eitzah. He says that here, despite the difference in lifestyle and values, he’s not judged, but rather embraced. In recent years, under the influence of the Rebbe, he has begun to fast on Yom Kippur. And in council votes, he even sides with the chareidi interests.”