When I walked into my office on Sunday morning, I immediately knew something wasn’t right. I was the last one to leave the night before and I’m meticulous about turning the lights off, but now they were on. The door was open, something I am even more careful about. I lock the door every night and double-check it; growing up in South Africa, it’s second nature to me.
At first, I thought perhaps one of our cleaners forgot something and came back to retrieve it, but then I noticed a mess on the floor.
Fortunately, we have state-of-the-art cameras and I started looking back to see what I could find.
Lo and behold, at 7am that morning a thief broke into our offices. I saw him clearly on the cameras working on the lock for all of 20 seconds before gaining entry, while still somehow leaving the lock intact. I thought that lock was state-of-the-art, but apparently not!
I then watched him helping himself to whatever was around. He looked closely at the Torah, luckily it was of no interest to him. He liked some toys lying about. And he grabbed an Amazon package which I am sure he did not notice contained only some brochures, which are of no value to him.
In total, he was in our Chabad house for about 3 minutes—very quick work!
He even saw a $20 bill lying around on one of the desks but did not touch it.
Of course, we filed a police report and they came and took it seriously. Thank G-d, this was not an act of antisemitism. Just a New Yorker who broke into a few buildings on a random Sunday morning.
We’re fortunate we have cameras and that nothing substantial was taken or destroyed. It was a hassle, but nothing more, thank G-d. But I found myself wondering—why? What is the lesson here? What does G-d want me to learn from the experience?
And I thought of Rabbi Zusya of Anipoli, who learned a number of methods of serving G‑d from a thief.
a) Thieves worked quietly without others knowing. In our Divine service, it's admirable to do good deeds without broadcasting them to others.
b) A thief goes to great lengths—even placing himself in danger—to achieve his goals. This guy could’ve easily been caught; I’m often in my office at 7am. We should be fearless in our service of G-d and our commitment to His mitzvot.
c) Minor details are critical to the thief. The police noted how quickly and expertly he unlocked the door. By paying attention to the smallest of details, we will become experts in our service of G-d.
d) A thief works hard! I mean, look at this guy—no sleeping in on the weekend! Up early and hard at work by 7am. If only we had this dedication in our tasks.
e) Thieves work quickly and efficiently. This one spent less than three minutes in our Chabad center. Surely we can embrace that alacrity and use it in our service of the Creator.
f) Thieves are confident and optimistic—qualities we should emulate.
g) Perseverance: If he does not succeed the first time, a thief tries again and again.
If we commit to doing a mitzvah—going to shul, lighting Shabbat candles, eating only kosher—and we struggle to keep the commitment, we just have to keep trying. Commitment. Perseverance. Just like the thief.