On a Wing and a Prayer
| January 24, 2018
B ack in the early 1970s soon after the Lubavitcher Rebbe initiated mitzvah campaigns to encourage unaffiliated Jews to lay tefillin light Shabbos candles hear the shofar and participate in other basic Jewish practices a young Israeli bochur named Yekutiel (“Kuti”) Rapp decided to take the Rebbe’s instructions to the place where thousands of Jews passed every day — JFK airport. Initially he would engage El Al staffers but it wasn’t long before he was known as “the Rebbe’s man at the airport.” Rapp — who died tragically after being hit by a taxi two summers ago — might have been the first to tap into the huge potential of Jewish air travelers but his turf soon spread out internationally. Taking his cue Chabad shluchim — some official airport chaplains others who man “tefillin booths” — have been setting up shop in major international airports for years helping countless thousands of Jewish travelers to benefit from essential Jewish rituals — donning tefillin receiving Shabbos candles lighting menorahs and performing other holiday mitzvos.
A Jewish presence in airports hasn’t gone unnoticed.
A synagogue serving Jewish travelers passing through Moscow’s bustling Domodedovo International Airport was recently opened and among Chabad’s 11000 menorahs displayed in public internationally many are in airports. But there’s nothing like the personal attention of a black-hatted Jew who makes himself available to help every traveler with his needs. What does a day look like for those dedicated men who stand for hours behind their tefillin stands watching the world go by?
RABBI YOSEF BUTMAN
Ben Gurion Airport Israel
Rabbi Butman a mashgiach for over 300 talmidim at Chabad yeshivah in Lod manages the Beis Chabad at Ben Gurion International Airport a few times a week on the 3-7 a.m. shift one of about 150 rotating Chabad airport volunteers. Not everyone who stops by is a Jew interested in putting on tefillin for the first time though. Beyond the tefillin booth many religious travelers take advantage of an inner room in order to daven a late Maariv or early Shacharis or to have a chalav Yisrael cup of coffee before their flight.
My Most Memorable Minyan
Sometimes we have non-religious people who have a yahrtzeit and they want to say Kaddish. Since they’re flying and in a big rush they stop by our tefillin booth and we find them ten people for a minyan so they can say Kaddish on the spot — otherwise they wouldn’t make it in time to say it in a shul.
We’ve had travelers on their way to their parent’s levayah who said Kaddish at our booth.
One time I leined the Megillah at 5 a.m. for a family who was on their way to a levayah. If I hadn’t they would have missed hearing the Megillah.
My Most Common Sh’eilah
Since I am at the airport so early in the morning chareidi travelers often ask me “How can you put tefillin on people now? It’s not yet zeman tefillah!” I explain to them that we have a psak from Rav Moshe Feinstein ztz”l in Igros Moshe Orach Chayim siman yud-alef which he wrote 82 years ago. An anus — one who has absolutely no other choice but to lay tefillin earlier than the proper time is allowed to lay before the zeman.
My Busiest Day
Each day we put tefillin on at least 300 people. Many travelers who don’t wear a hat yarmulke or tzitzis proudly show us their tefillin. I would say about 20 percent of non-Orthodox men put on tefillin every day. Monday morning Thursday and Erev Shabbos are the busiest days. People leave for business on Monday and leave on Thursday to travel somewhere for the weekend. (Excerpted from Mishpacha Issue 695)
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