One may wear a knitted kippah and the other a shtreimel, but when two neshamos unite, outer trappings melt away. Meet six non-chassidim who have unlikely connections with chassidic rebbes
UNIQUE CONNECTION “When my turn came he held my hand and said ‘I know this sounds strange but I think there’s a kesher between our neshamos. When I said I hope you’ll come visit I really meant it’
W e often see them from afar chassidic rebbes in their resplendent silk robes holding court in front of thousands. But we’ve also seen the rebbe sitting close while counseling a young man or holding the hand of a distraught mourner his eyes locked in empathy and pain. For those whose religious life doesn’t revolve around the rebbe’s word there might be something foreign about the seemingly oversized role of this spiritual leader in day-to-day life — yet there’s something in those tender intimate moments that can pull the heartstrings of even the most kalte Litvak.
In the stories that follow we meet non-chassidim who have made unlikely connections with chassidic rebbes and rabbinic leaders. Each came to his special relationship in his own way along his individual life journey yet there is something in common that binds the tales: One may wear a knitted kippah and the other a shtreimel but when two neshamos unite the outer trappings melt away.
As executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Malcolm Hoenlein is perhaps the most powerful Jewish lay leader in the United States. How did he forge a connection with the Belzer Rebbe — Rav Yissachar Dov Rokeach shlita of Jerusalem — who leads one of the largest chassidic courts in the world?
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