A boy from a Chabad school stops a stranger on the streets of Manhattan,
“Excuse me sir, are you Jewish?” the boy asks.
“Yes.”
“Would you like to put on Tefillin?”
“Oh,” says the man “I’m really not religious…”
“It’ll only take a minute” the boy says.
“I understand,” says the man “but I’m not religious!”
“Did you know that putting on Tefillin helps people everywhere?” says the boy
“Okay. But I’m not religious!” the man says.
The boy starts rolling up the man’s sleeve. “Say Baruch, Atah…”
The man starts repeating the blessing. “Baruch, Atah, but I’m not religious!”
This story has happened a thousand times and still does all the time.
Clearly they are not communicating. The source of the misunderstanding is that the man thinks that tefillin is a religious thing, therefore it is for Religious people.
The boy was raised with the rebbe’s teachings, that Tefilin is for the Jew. That “religion” has nothing to do with it.
The Rebbe taught that every Jew is a part of God, who wants to be connected to God.
And the fact that this story keeps happening, and ending with the Jewish man putting on the Tefilin and loving it, proves him right. Who needs religion anyway?
