by Reb Gutman Locks at Mystical Paths

(Reb Locks writing, regarding his Kotel outreach activities...)

You asked about feedback. In truth, it is very rare that any of the people I meet contact me again. It is really the nature of this type of outreach. I have their attention for one or two minutes at the most and that’s it. Whereas, most teachers have their students for a year or two, or at least an hour or so, I see mine for just one minute flat. I have only that short amount of time to turn their lives around. Then they are gone, and I rarely hear from them again.

But once in a while, someone lets me know that I was of some particular help. As I look back, my books draw fairly frequent responses, but my “street teacher” role does not. Here are a couple recent favorites, but please do not think that I am always so obviously successful. I am sorry to say that we do not get them all, not by a long shot.

A young man came up to me at the Kotel and said, “You won’t remember me, but seven years ago you showed me how to put on tefillin and how to pray for my family. I want you to know that I have been doing it every day since.” Bingo!

A few weeks ago a young man from a local yeshiva told to me that he used to have a guru and study yoga three hours a day. He said that he felt spiritual then, but now in the yeshiva, he does not feel any spirituality at all. What should he do?

I wanted him to appreciate that my answer was coming from a place of great experience; that it was not going to be just a standard rabbinical answer.

I asked him, “Do you know anything about my background?”

He said, “Yeah. I read your book ‘Coming Back To Earth.’ That’s why I left the guru and came to the yeshiva.” Bingo!

There are a number of these type of contacts, but other than these few, I never know for sure whom I have reached or whom I have seemingly not even touched. But one thing is certain, every single person you try to help, whether you see any results or not, something in their life was affected. It may take a few more times before the shell cracks open, but when it does, it will open because you tried to help him, too.