(picture to be uploaded soon)
“Jews in America” is a large coffee-table photo book that we’ve had in Shabbos House for many years now. It is filled with vivid pictures of Jews in America, from big cities to small towns, ranging every stop on the spectrum of religious observance. About ten years ago some students were leafing through it while sitting on the beige checkered couch in the old Shabbos House. They came across this double-page photo of a mother and young daughter dipping dishes into the Pacific ocean off the coast of Hawaii. It’s a gorgeous shot. But peculiar. Why would they be dipping dishes into the ocean, what’s the reason for that?
I explained the laws of Tevilas Keilim, immersing new dishes or cooking vessels into a Mikvah or natural body of water. It intrigued these students because they never heard of this before. It led to a local Mikvah field trip and lots more discussion. All because of a picture in a book they chanced upon while hanging out at Shabbos House.
It was literally a ripple in the Pacific ocean on the shores of Hawaii, that had an effect all the way on the Eastern coast of the United States, in Albany.
—-
P.S. What an interesting postscript: This Shabbos we celebrated the Bris of our nephew “Menachem Mendel Rubin” son of Simmy and Chaya, and her family came to celebrate it with them. One of her brothers is married to a girl from Hawaii Chabad, who happened to be that girl in the picture! Years have passed. She now has a daughter older than she was when that picture was taken.