Dedicated in memory of my dear father & teacher, Harav Yisroel Eliezer ben R’ Moshe Rubin, who passed away on 22 Tishrei, 5787 (Oct. 3, 2026).
My Father's Lech Lecha
Anyone who knew my father as a young man knew his extraordinary love for Torah learning. Learning wasn't just something he enjoyed; it was the center of his life.
Had you met him then, you might have imagined him spending his life immersed in scholarship, teaching advanced students and producing Torah insights and scholarly works.
But the Rebbe saw something more.
In 1974, the Rebbe sent my father to establish Chabad in Albany, N.Y., not as a rosh yeshivah or rabbi of a learned congregation, but as a Chabad emissary dedicated to reaching every Jew, learned or not.
When my father answered the Rebbe's call and moved to Albany, he began a journey that revealed parts of himself that might otherwise have remained hidden. The serious young scholar became a community builder. The devoted student became a teacher, mentor, counselor, fundraiser, organizer, and friend to thousands.
He did not arrive in Albany knowing everything the future would demand of him. He simply knew that the Rebbe had given him a mission.
And with each new challenge, new strengths emerged.
What is perhaps most remarkable is that moving beyond his comfort zone did not only reveal a new side of my father. It brought forth the creative and outreach-oriented qualities that may always have been there beneath the surface. It also shaped his Torah itself.
His learning, his seforim, and many of his original insights were influenced by the fact that he left the familiar world of the yeshivah and devoted himself to serving a small community. He often taught that the life experiences of the Sages shaped the way they learned and taught Torah. The same was true for him.
His experiences became part of his Torah. Through dedicating himself to the Rebbe's mission, he developed a deeper way of seeing people, Torah, and the world itself.
The Land That I Will Show You
The opening words of this week's parshah, Lech Lecha, contain one of the Torah's most famous verses:
"Go forth from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you."1
G‑d tells Abraham to leave behind everything familiar and begin a journey, but He does not tell him where he is going. Abraham is asked to take the first step and trust that the path will become clear.
In a Chassidic discourse delivered only weeks after recovering from a very serious heart attack on Simchat Torah 1977, the Rebbe (in his office, which had been turned into a makeshift ICU hospital room) quoted a teaching of the first Chabad Rebbe: G‑d was not only saying, "I will show you the land,"He was also saying, "I will show you yourself."
G‑d was telling Abraham, “By embarking on this journey, leaving everything familiar behind to do My will, you will find a treasure hidden within that is so much more than your current understanding.” “The land I will show you” is not just a physical place on the map, but a place within you that you can only access when you leave behind your own understanding of your abilities.
Whenever I revisited this teaching, I would think of my father. This year, it rang truer than ever, as I think of him often since his passing on Simchat Torah at the age of 78.
What He Taught Me
One of the great lessons I learned from my father is that we often underestimate ourselves.
We think we need to know we can succeed before taking on a challenge. But it is not so.
Neither Abraham nor my father could see the entire road ahead. They simply took the next step.
And because they did, they discovered strengths that could never have been found by standing still.
When I think about my father's life, I am struck not only by what he built, but by what he became. Through decades of service, he uncovered talents, leadership, resilience, and depth that even those closest to him could not have fully imagined in his younger years.
My mother, standing beside him through it all, helped turn that mission into a living reality, creating a home and community that touched countless lives.
Most of us do not really know what we are capable of. We discover it only when we answer a calling larger than ourselves.
My father's life taught me that faith is not knowing exactly where the road leads. Faith is being willing to take the next step.
G‑d did not show Abraham the whole picture at the beginning. He simply said, "Go."
The rest was revealed through the journey.
I miss my father deeply. But when I think about the life he lived and the people he touched, I am reminded of this timeless lesson: our greatest strengths are often waiting to be discovered on the other side of the journey only we can take.
May his memory always be a blessing.
