770 in 1960s, Rebbe: Are you interested in insurance?, Marriage #2- RC Dalfin

we're here with Rabbi Lawrence the second part of a wonderful interview please continue thank you when I came to New York to laich of course the my stereotype of New York was streets paved in Gold everybody was rich I what a mistake I made the golden and Medina came into laab to Brooklyn in the 60s I couldn't believe it it was like walking into a garbage can with Sirens took me a long time to climatize myself the other thing that I found difficult was just the the Der of Lich and understanding a reab was very difficult because everything I knew before was very different I'll give you an example I was sitting in 770 and I was learning with my who I came over with me and was the rash Shiva then walks in who was your he was LE nak Le oh from South Africa okay we learned together in Gates head once I decided to go to laabi says you're going to I'm going with you right so I was sitting and learning with him and there were two Bim sitting and shoing next to me of course which was not the right thing to do and I Rabbi mli walks in and I looked and I went the hey the Russia shiver's walking in and they looked at me they said so what and I thought to myself well at least pretend you're learning what they were telling me is don't fool yourself and one thing they on the bage teach is don't fool yourself don't think you're at sadic Etc holier than thou holier than thou the first time I saw the rebba was at a Min avening and I didn't look at the rebba directly but he was sitting at the table where he normally sits what they tell me is that he he looked at me for a long time huh so mustam he was trying to remove some of the Schmutz that was there the spiritual Schmutz the ga yeah yeah after after after a few months I had Yus with a rebel and I I wasn't expecting anything I walk in I wrote some questions I remember one question they asked was if I'm ding in a minion and they're ding too fast what do I do the re says start hodu with a minion and go your own speed so I do that now I start howo and I finish before them now the strange thing was and I wasn't expecting anything I gave the rubber the pan rubber ready and he had his small pencil and he used to write when he answered my questions it was me at the other side of the table he became me literally now I wasn't expecting that I had no clue but he literally enclothed himself in in me the RE became me and looked and I said what's going on with you I saw myself at the other side of the table and after he answered my questions he turned to the side and he started to say things that I didn't understand I didn't ask those things and it was connected with Jewish Education later on I ran a school Etc so later on I understood but at that time I didn't understand and you say he was faced to the side to the side towards the wall just like this and he was talking it was going on on on I never never asked him those questions he was answering and then I I'd asked him for a broa no specific broa and he said to me you should get a good sh just like that so I told my wife M he meant you you should a good how old were you at the time 22 time I was maybe around about 22 23 okay I got married in New York and your wife was from where and my wife was originally from DP camp in Germany came to New York she was teaching in the the in in in the Bron the all right and there was the family name or they can trace their lineage all the way back to I can trace my lineage back to my parents okay now and who made the SH now there was a reverend Aon sansky and I'm still friendly with him unfortunately he passed away yes we were very close he was my uncle yeah he knew me he knew my wife because he also taught in the laich shiver of the Bronx and um he knew you from 77 knew me from and one day I noticed he was sitting and was looking at me I thought well maybe he's admiring my good looks I what I didn't realize he was sizing me up to introduce me to this girl who's teaching other the BRS so he introduced us rest history as they say we got married uh Dr BL shom who from London Ontario that time he came to s s looking for a teacher he started a day school in London Ontario s the Reber he said fine I went to onario and there the rabbi left and because they knew me not that they would hire laich so they hired me as the rabbi but then I was teaching in the school oh there was a Sho there an orthodox Sho Orthodox sh yeah out beside this wasn't under rabit blocks opes so you became the rabbi there the sh yes now during that time I was also going um my wife wanted me to go to university and I said no yeah I'll ask the rebber if he says yes fine if not I'm not going so he um I went into I asked the RAB my wife was there if I should go to university and theba said to me it's a good idea so I went to Weston and then later on three years later I I left and I went to University in Toronto in The Graduate School and what did you graduate with the Jewish Education no in psychology mysch psychology yeah um and did you see in your career how it helped you oh yes I saw how a degree I had a master's degree in Psychology how it helped me get my job later on and help me because I run a school let let let's yeah let's come now so what year was this Yus do you remember this was probably in round about 1970s early early 70 early very early '70s now I went into my wife and in the M the reab stopped looked at me smiled and he said are you interested in insurance insurance I I didn't say anything my wife said to the rabba my husband's an insurance salesman I kept quiet the kept quiet the re knew exactly what to say and when not what not to say so I forgot about it went back went to University uh eventually this what the RAB said about insurance wasn't the same about college no no no this is a different later later so the rebit said it's a good idea for you to go to so you went so I went so what later on why is he telling you about insurance agents so right right I didn't I it didn't hit me at the time and yet the re said are you no he didn't say to me go into Insurance are you interested the r had a Derek that you didn't do that I wasn't really going against what he said right are you interested in insurance so I stay I went to University after University uh I left and I came to Toronto and I continued in graduate school now how do I get into insurance I'm not going to look for a job in insurance I was working with kids emotionally disturbed kids which actually helped me in Insurance teach training agents I told them that if experience with emotionally stri kids I meet a laer in Toronto coin called K coin coin and he's in the insurance industry and he approaches me and he says he'd like to start a Hebrew school fine get the parents together we started school we had 350 children it went for 14 years wow in addition to what I was doing and then we gave it over to to larich at that time now right now what's up stop I going to ask you a question yes were you a practicing psychologist during this time as well I was working with psychologists yes with emotionally stripped kids so that was your bulk of your livelihood of your parosa that's what I was doing yes yes so this Torah thing was just a volunteer no I was paid I was a principal we actually built it up so so you had two businesses at the same time two jobs at the same time I was going from one to the other people in the one job didn't know I was going to another job I understand how do we get into Insurance you see astis aming asce so I I was traveling with at the school I was working at the time with a psychologists I was traveling to a different town and in the winter it was difficult and I said to this individual that I started the school with I said you know I'm going to this other town it's difficult and I didn't say for any reason two weeks later he said to me you know a job opened up in my company insurance company if you're interested you can have it I thought to myself Insurance why you it's a different field I'm not Insurance two weeks later he said a job opened up in his Department the actuel department if I'm interested I can have inly hit me why did the re say three years earlier are you interested in insurance I said you know what the rebel wants me to do that so I quit my job went into his company started real learning everything etc etc I used to write policy pages and I used to write their manuals and everything so I assume that this new job was a a better paying job than the previous position it was it was that wasn't the reason that that I went why did you take it because you felt the re because the rebber wanted me to do and so which job did you quit the the Tator or the psychology the psychology jobor we kept on because that was important yeah when I went into in the in Insurance uh it was called Confederation life they didn't know I had a school they didn't know I was running a school wh why they wouldn't because because it wasn't allowed if you had a full-time job you couldn't get another job oh so but they did notice that I was leaving every day at 4:00 on the dot but didn't know where I was going because I was going to catch a bus in order to go to the to go to the school wow and you were the principal and I was the principal I developed the curriculum and everything and 350 students and of course we attracted because they saw you know principal has a master's degree in education said that's see they did help now very strange thing happened in the company many many things and for this one story it's worth it I was in the after I've been in the company two months I was giving a Shear during lunchtime gar and people came from around one day a guy I had never seen before approached me and he said somebody just joined the company and he allowed to come to your class fine introduce me I go to the guy no way he would have known about my class he wasn't religious and so I said to him you know I I give a a class in tal you don't have to know anything I I explain he said I'll speak to my wife I thought to myself son I forget it it's probably his wife will said this m you're going to go with him so I next day I went to him and I said what did your wife say and he said she thinks it's a good idea he started to come once a week twice a week three three times a week was able to get in start learning Tanya a little bit at the end and his whole family became religious sent his kids to Jewish schools and one day I said to him I said uh do you know the guy that introduced us did you know him said no I never saw him and I never saw him again so who who you know who was he could have been alovi could have been Etc um anyway so we um had many many I saw many Nissim in the company I had a sing sing so are you intimating that he saw the Reb in a dream or something no no so how did he know about you and that you're giving a toal class because the guy this whoever he was I guess from Heaven they wanted this guy to become religious they saw that re saw this and so therefore some guy came and introduced us who I don't know who he was this guy doesn't know he was we never saw him again now if he would have been a regular guy wouldn't he have said come back to me and said what happened yeah of course no never saw him again wow so what you're saying is when the rebes uh are you interested in insurance that that led ultimately to this person his family becoming from people yeah yeah the whole F became religious that's wonderful now um and I had many uh I used to write to the rebber in the company for non-jews too now after that I moved to another company because this company the government shut them down that's another story I went into another company mutual vaho and I had a they would you did not they did not allow you to put anything on your desk once you left out to be clear but I had a big picture of the rubber on my desk I what's the reason for this policy they just wanted to clear what whatever the reason they okay but I had a big picture of the rber on my desk okay and whenever anybody saw it they'd say who's that I'd say sit down and tell them picture tell them stories of The Reel one time they never asked me to remove the picture by the way one time a woman there she tells me elderly woman she wasn't Jewish she was a nice lady and she tells me her mother's having a leg amputated a week on Friday she's been in the hospital for maybe five months six months all they're doing is changing the bandages that's all so I gave her a book on the rber and she says thank you by the way nobody ever said to me it's not my religion whether it's just shev Mitzvah Etc gave it a book on the rib and I said I'll write to the oil this was after G thas I'll write to the oil ask your blessing for your mother so I wrote to the oil faxed it in and forgot about it two days later I get a telephone call from This Woman's other daughter she says I'd like to thank you for the miracle the miracle she said excuse me the nurses came in the next day the nurses came in yeah the next day day yeah started taking off the bandages and they saw the legs beginning to heal they don't understand why the like heal wow another story I had that another woman who was not she wasn't Jewish I saw one day she was sitting and she was um depressed I said well why are you depressed my husband is sick yeah you know he had cancer whatever so I again I told her about the rebel gave her a picture of the rebba I said I'm I I will write to the oil for you ask for a blessing thank you very much again never said it's not my religion so I wrote to the rebel and the husband became better they became better and then whenever I would go to the oil I would tell her I'm going to the oil and ask a blessing thanks very much and one day she said to me you know I have more feelings for your Reber than I do for my for my leader so there was a and I used this is a funny story I used to give out every Friday the magazine MH and then would give out the Manas yeah and before PES I would sell comets for the Jews that would go and the Jew so I'd been given this particular woman for four years every Friday the magazine comes before pesak and I've done this probably three times with her already I said you know it's before pesak and we have to sell a com no problem she can I ask you a question sure she say you know I'm not Jewish I said so in that case give me the mat back it cost money it costs money but the time you can keep imagine never and then they had another guy this guy had a Jewish name because we put our name plates up so I had an idea he was Jewish so one day I go over before PES with mson and I said are you Jewish and he says I used to be I said no would you Jewish you're Jewish I'm not even discussing it I have some mats ex o if it's food I'll take it so you took the MS he took little and then after that it was much easier so