Our Man In Dakar

Our Man in Dakar and other stories of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Zalman the blacksmith's horse and wagon disappeared in dense Russian forests. Feivl sold snuff in his ramshackle store before rushing off to study Torah. Itzik went AWOL from the czar's army.

Their descendants travel on jumbo jets; the woodchopper's great-grandson is a brain surgeon. Yankel the tailor, who rarely ventured beyond Babruisk, has progeny listening to all the news, all the time.

The externals of our lives may have improved, yet we face the same challenges as our forefathers. Staying open on Shabbos in 1801 Odessa was no less tempting than in 2002 Orlando. A goose could disable a careless hand in Krasnoluki as effectively as a computer mouse in Silicon Valley.

The solution? Do everything possible to muddle through. Then ask the Rebbe.

In these pages you'll hear a bizarre announcement on a flight to London; meet a scientist digitizing self-discovery, a rabbi stumbling through the outback. Kfar Chabad Magazine's peripatetic editor, Ahron Dov Halperin, has gifted us with chassidic stories from the age of postmodernism. Zalman the blacksmith would be proud.

Hardcover / 238 Pages