Myth #2: Lubavitchers Change Peoples' Lives

"Excuse me, are you Jewish?" and two seconds later, a bearded man is
attempting to wrap leather strands around Mark's tattooed arm.

Mark's inner battle rages. He's being pulled in an unexplainable way,
yet the world has implanted wild questions and hesitations in his
mind.

He finds himself saying, "Wait a second...listen, man. Yea, I'm
Jewish....but, I'm really just a midtown punk. I never do anything
Jewish, let alone put on Tefillin. I'd feel like a hypocrite doing
this stuff...saying a blessing and all that. And besides, I'm not so
sure I want to change anyways..."

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Flashback to a Sunday in Crown Heights.

A Shliach approaches the Rebbe.

"Rebbe" he says, "everyday, I stand outside the college asking Jewish
students to put on Tefillin. All too often, I get people who say they
don't want to be a hypocrite...that they never put on Tefillin, so
'who am I to stop and put it on today?'. How can I assure these young
men? How should I respond?"

In one passing yet packed 770 moment, the Rebbe defined the Jewish
soul with his enlightening response: "Tell these young men that today
is the day they start being true, and that all the OTHER days, the
days they DON'T put on Tefillin, THAT'S when they're being a
hypocrite."

What the Rebbe was saying is that every Jew is meant to do Mitzvos.
And not just that, but that Mitzvos are actually imprinted on each
soul, and the soul senses deep hypocrisy when the person changes
things around.

Lubavitchers don't change peoples lives. LIFE changes peoples' lives.
And then a strange looking bearded man comes along and says, "Stop
trying to be something that you're not. Stop trying to change. Stop
twisting your soul and ignoring the way you really are deep down.
Here, put on Tefillin".

After Mark graduates college with a Jewish fiance and a growing beard,
he thanks his Rabbi for changing his life and his Rabbi responds "No,
Mark. I didn't change your life. In fact, I didn't do anything! You
did one Mitzva and life naturally started to un-change before your
eyes. Why? Because it was all inside of you, waiting to be revealed.
You stretched out your arm and your inner temple woke up."

A Lubavitcher doesn't have to open up a "outreach agency" to get
people to do more Mitzvos. He doesn't have to print brochures on 'why
it's good to do Mitzvos', nor create attractive banners to entice
people. He doesn't have to make the High Holiday services shorter to
make it easier for "the irreligious". A Lubavitcher doesn't dread
giving a class on mikvah or covering hair - she doesn't believe that a
Jewish soul can truly find any Mitzva ridiculous.

Simply put, a Lubavitcher doesn't have to invest any aggressive energy
into convincing people, into changing people.

Why? Because a Lubavitcher understands that it's in every Jewish nature
to do Mitzvos. There's no such thing as convincing or changing when it
comes to a soul. And that's the level a Lubavitcher lives on. A
Lubavitcher believes in the Jewish people, the Jewish soul. A
Lubavitcher understands that it's the world that often changes people,
and it's only a matter of small acts to reveal another's' essence, to
do some "un-changing".

When a Lubavitcher wraps Tefillin around the arm of a "midtown punk"
Jew, he is unwinding years of soul hypocrisy. He's not changing
anybody.

Lubavitchers are the ultimate restorers. They dissect the world,
resurrect souls, and bring assimilation to it's knees.

And they do it all without changing a thing.