These were rare and special moments. Young students at Chabad’s small Lubavitcher yeshiva in Monsey, New York, went on a trip to upstate New York this week.
Moshe Lang, one of the students in Shiur A at the yeshiva, took a pair of tefillin with him, and during the trip he walked among passers-by and looked for Jews who did not wear tefillin that day, as is the custom of Chabad followers, to put on tefillin.
In his distress he did not find a Jew for a long time. Only hours later did he and his friends encounter an older man, who told them he was Jewish. They asked him if he was interested in putting on tefillin, and Hela said no.
The young Moshe Lang did not give up quickly. He explained to the Jew that if he agreed to assume this would be a great joy for him personally, because he had been looking for Jews for hours and could not find them. When the man heard this, he agreed to assume.
After putting on the tefillin and reciting the Shema, Rabbi Sander Lustig, the yeshiva director who accompanied the students on the trip, approached the older Jew and asked him his name and place of residence. The Jew replied that he was the son of Holocaust survivors. Then he added and surprised, as Christ according to his innocence: “My name is Bill Lang.”
The Chabad boys excitedly told him that the young man who had just helped him put on tefillin shared the same last name with him. “His name is only Moshe Lang,” they said.
The Jew heard this and found it difficult to hide his excitement. “My father,” he said, “was called Moshe Lang.”