During my days on the Hill, many people have asked me, “what is this ‘Chabad’ thing that you do on Friday nights?” I suppose I have become the guy to ask that to and I am happy that formally now. Many of you would be surprised to learn that I also asked this question when I was a curious first-year.
I know if I answer this question historically you might fall asleep. If I answer this question politically however, contrary to some assumptions, Chabad is not a political entity at all, so I cannot. I can try to answer metaphorically: Chabad is like having a second home away from home at Hamilton College—a home that is always warm and filled with the friendliest students and community members who call this space their home too.
A Chabad house serves as an enclave of Jewish life. Each one is unique, and we are lucky to have the Waks family leading ours in Clinton, right down the Hill. It is a community center that provides a welcoming space for Jewish students and wider Clinton community members of all backgrounds, regardless of their level of religious observance or prior experience with the religion. The Waks family provides hospitality, education, prayer services and community for all who enter their home.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (also known as “the Rebbe” Z”L) was a visionary of the Chabad Hasidic movement, a branch of Jewish Orthodoxy founded in the late 1700s in modern-day Belarus. After surviving the Holocaust, the Rebbe moved to Brooklyn from the former Soviet Union to lead the Chabad movement. Chabad transformed into the sole externally-facing branch of Orthodoxy, with the core idea that every Jew has a purpose and every corner of the world can be illuminated with a Chabad house. Beginning in the 1960s, Chabad families were sent all over the world, including hundreds of college campuses, to serve Jews regardless of their education, background, or level of observance.
The Rebbe believed deeply that a little light dispels a lot of darkness. Before electric street lighting, a lamplighter would be employed to light each street lamp. Every lamp already had the potential to shine, it just needed to be lit. Chabad’s task is to awaken this light within every Jew. One can interpret this in a secular manner. For example, a Hamiltonians’ task is to ask the question in class that someone else may also have, thus catalyzing further thinking and exploration within the classroom.
Through programs at Chabad, I have had the opportunity to travel on subsidized trips to Spain and Gibraltar and Poland – both transformational experiences that allowed me to meet new friends from across the country and engage in experiential learning to its fullest extent. If I had to pick, these were my “Know Thyself” moments that Hamilton opened and Chabad fulfilled.
If you are Jewish, think you might be Jewish, are a friend of the tribe or are just bewildered by the last few paragraphs you read, we invite you to the Sands Chabad House on 108 College Hill Road this Friday at 6:30 p.m. for Shabbat dinner. Shabbat is the Jewish day of rest, observed from sundown on Fridays to sunset on Saturdays, celebrated with prayer, song and traditional foods. I hope to see you there!
