How I Got Involved With Chazara • Rabbi Yossi Lew

So again, I since I'm a kid, I'm writing when I was in in my young teens, when I was already 13, 14, 15, I was writing by the Fabangans the the Fabangan, not just uh words, I was writing them. So I can I have You're talking about still on the on the hookup. Yeah. Yeah. In the laments when I was when I was out when I was not in New York, I would sit and write the faban and um I would also record the fab make tapes as well. And so I would keep it with me. You know, the WLCC wasn't so advanced in that time and the Hanukkah could have come a few weeks later. So it was good to have with you reminder sometimes ever said a about the para about whatever it is and I had a non- labav teacher and in less the fabangans of Shabas were always much of shabas and school would start late he wouldn't know cuz he was not lab if there was a fabangan or not so he would come regular time he come at 9:00 and we wouldn't come in till 10:30 and it frustrated him. And one time after a few weeks like this, he said, "Okay, so you were up for 3 or 4 hours from from 11:00 to 2 and then 3:00 in the morning and you're coming late in the morning for to for your gar. Tell me what did the Reb say in these three four hours?" And so we started giving Khaz and he said, "Forget about the continue." He got very inspired and he started coming himself to uh to one once or twice. He didn't come every week but he came didn't come every time but he came once or twice. He says this is might this is this is inspiring he was very taken. So anyway so when you had a particularly heavy beautiful like that it was good to have in writing. Um so I had experience in this area to begin with and I came in me giml when I was in New York. I came to learning in all I was I was in Zal right Zal was on Troy Avenue those days and I was asked to come in to be Mia to check for mistakes. Those days it would all be typed. So Simon Jacobson who was the writer he would type it up and then it would go undergo different people would look it over his father-in-law for language and then other people who are writing the and so the it was retyped again to be in the format like of printed like you have it today but the retyping needed to be perfect it needed to be without mistakes I came in as a without mistakes And within a few months though I was already started getting involved with the writing. But then um in the beginning of Mdalid in Tavis of Mdalid I was had the one of the biggest hus of my life that we were chosen 10 Bram were chosen to go to open up a yeshiva in South Africa Johannesburg. So we left um when we came back we came back at the end of me hey that's why I said before me mdala that was in South Africa was me hey we were still in South Africa it was a two-year not to come back in the middle type of and so we came back in of mehe so mev we got very involved in me pes time was the first the first one we started giving out the katzer Katzer was more than a rad was like two pages. So Katzer was a smaller version in Hebrew of what the Reb said a brief version. So first there was a no the first thing came out was katu. So when was something else? Theat came out because also wanted to give something out. I guess I'm I don't know how. So that is okay. Yeah came up and I was extremely involved by that point. me. We were writing already and um but the I was writing it together with Abrahams who today is in Postville Iowa and we were on together in South Africa and then is a mev problem with me was when we came back from South Africa Tish Mev uh David Rasin Sham came over and he said that he wants us to go to Ocean Parkway. Ocean Parkway needs a lot of kizuk. He wants us to go to Ocean Parkway. So we told him, I'm sorry, but we just came back from a two straight years without seeing the rebbber and we are done. We're finished and he started badgering us. David Raskin was very good at getting things done. So he came he came and but we there was a says he wrote about him metapo that he he really getting things done right and he knew that it would be critical the ocean parker was about to fall apart and he did it was relentless and we but they had they had a z there they had a a a mifal so the kids were 13 14 15 and we were 21 22 23 and We were not listening. There was no way he was going to get us to go. There was just absolutely no way. So he went over to the rashag and the rashag had aidas with the Reb in ganak in beginning part of tish and the rashag asked the rebbber if he could make this happen. He said he said he wants the kutzer from we came back from South Africa to go da dutzer. Everybody's talking about discutser. So we didn't know any of this but uh that year mev was on Monday Tuesday and on either the later in the end of that week maybe Thursday that week or Sunday of the next week after Shabas Pacius Benam in Klein sent a message that he wants all the 10 B to come in to get mosquitoes. I said, "We're going to the mosquitoes." And he says, "The Reb wants you to go to Ocean Parkway." Huh? The Reb wants you. So one of the brim with a little bit of guts said to him, "What the Reb said? What did the Reb say? What the words the Reb say?" So he says, "I'll tell you exactly what the Reb told me." Said the Reb said Africa and Ocean Parkway. I want that the group that came returned from South Africa should go to Ocean Parkway. 7:30 the next morning we were all at the seda and we stayed longer than any other group that was sent to Ocean Parkway. We stayed all the way into ear basically till the end of almost to the end of the year. So mev we weren't really around um we we didn't miss any shabas of course and we didn't miss any fabbrangan in the weekday even the quick the the the sudden fabangans didn't take that long to get from ocean parkway to six 20 minutes so we were there and but we weren't like the I would come back to check over the hanus every time or they would send it to me or so you know I was involved but not it didn't have my whole uh my whole focus but me Zion was a great year in that sense we didn't go anywhere and so we started the kata then and I remember I was the head counselor in Gro inv video of you um when the camp comes told me he he needs to go over with one of the head counselors to get dollars and he found me so I went with him. Yeah. But me Zion, he came to me again and I I wanted once you're there, you really it's it's a special specialus to be the head counselor there. But um Simon Jacobson told me now that you're writing this camp is finished. Your tal onto is finished. You need to be at the Fabangans. You need to be there on time and you need to be you know you can't you can't sherk a responsibility. Even when I became a and I wasn't able to he says you need to find a replacement or else don't get married. Bye.