Sterna Sarah, will you open a Chabad House with me?
I received this picture from people a few times, so I started investigating the story behind it. Well, it is real. The bride, Sterna Sarah, got engaged a few days ago to Ophir Heldi. I'll hand the microphone to Ophir:
"I grew up in Zur Igal, studied at the Beit Berel High school, and now I study building engineering at the University of Ariel. Here in campus I got to know Rabbi Sassi Carmel, a Chabad emissary, and I got involved with Judaism. The building in which I proposed to Sarah is a synagogue currently under construction of which I worked as a Project Manager. I thank my friends who hung the sign with me and inflated the balloons, but most of all I thank my bride-to-be who said yes. I am not your ordinary kind of person, and I didn't want to write 'Will you marry me?', so I thought to myself that really, our aspiration is that our home will be a Chabad house, a home with a mission, a home that is open to everybody. I want to explain this message with a short story about the Lubavitcher Rebbe, a story that touched me deeply:
"When the Rebbe walked from his home to his office, he would meet a little boy every day. The Rebbe would say 'good morning' and ask 'how are you?', and the mere fact that such a conversation took place - this in itself is already huge. Here stands the Admor, the Rebbe of the most influential Hassidut in the world, a person who has one million and a half other things to tend to, a person who talks with presidents and heads of states - and he chats with a little boy. This in itself is a wonderful thing. But then the Rebbe tells the child: 'Can I have your school bag for a moment?' The Rebbe lifted the bag and found that it was very heavy. The Rebbe said to the boy: 'Can you do me a favor? Tell your school principal that I, Menachem Mendel, have asked that he put lockers at school, so that you will not have to carry all this weight around.' For me, this story says it all: the greatest person is the one who deals with the smallest things, one who sees himself as responsible for every thing and every matter and helps everybody, wherever he can."
Mazal tov, Ophir and Sterna Sarah. May you build a wonderful Chabad house.
