"Tel Aviv is a Holy City Because Here Lies the Truth in the Streets"

One day, ten years ago, Ezra Brautman sat on a bench, put up a sign, and established the Ministry of Smiles. Since then, the minister hasn't changed. Every day, he's there, on the same bench on King George Street in Tel Aviv, during the two hours before sunset. The goal: smiles. The means: a clown nose, a loudspeaker, stickers, a water bottle. But it's hard to measure the amount of light he has spread in the world since that day. Thousands pass him each day, children grow before his eyes. "How much for the sticker?" someone asks. "Dance, sing, jump, smile," Ezra suggests alternatives.

Ezra Brautman was born in Romania ("Romanians are a happy people, mostly because they are drunk. I'm Jewish, so I'm just happy"), and became a restaurateur operating in Germany for 21 years. In '92, he returned to Israel and established the legendary "Basta La Pasta" on Frishman-Dizengoff, near the former home of the Cameri Theatre. "I wanted to make people happy, to give them food. We put up a sign: 'If you're fed up with everything, then pasta!'"

How did you get close?

"I think in Tel Aviv you can strengthen in an extraordinary way. A person sees the falsehood every day, lives within it, and when you know what you don't want, you've already made most of the journey. Because who can be caught by such deceit? You have to be childish to buy it. I sit here on the bench, watch people running from the center to Allenby and back, back and forth, I've watched them run for years. The evil inclination tells us, run there, and then he says, run back. Our sages said, how shall we call the evil inclination? We'll call it 'today do this, tomorrow do that.' Are you here? Then run there. In Hebrew, it's called healing by preoccupation. The inclination wants you to be running, wandering, busy, so you won't have time to think about your life.

"Here, everyone has forgotten to smile. Everyone is running. That's why I set up the stand here, in the middle of everything, on the street that connects north and south. So a person has to stop. A person who has been running for ten years suddenly sees me, and maybe a thought comes, maybe I need to stop for a moment? And that's how it starts.

Ezra Brautman

"Tel Aviv is a holy city because here lies the falsehood in the street. Therefore, it's very easy to hold the truth. In religious cities, everyone looks religious, and it's hard to tell who truly is and who isn't. Here you can see the falsehood, how people live, and from that, you see the absolute truth. And when Shabbat enters, no one is happier than me. Suddenly, quiet in the streets.

"All Jews are good," he adds. "And if you meet a bad Jew, it's a Jew who is having a hard time. Talk to him, tell him you also have problems, and then he opens up, and you see, what bad Jew? No bad. The Malbim says that at the time of the Third Temple, everyone will have a temple within him. I will dwell among them. Everyone will walk in the street like that, a walking temple. And you can be a temple today, no problem: cleanse, purify, remove hatred from your heart, always happy, secluded, and talking with Hashem. If you're happy, Hashem will make a dwelling within you. You have nothing to worry about."

How did the path from Basta La Pasta lead here?

"Divine providence, like everything else. I closed the pasta shop; the work was too hard. We sold pasta at about the price of a sticker, a plate for ten shekels, those were different times, different prices, you had a celebration at my expense. One day, I came here to King George to buy some electrical device. I had stickers in hand that I got from someone, and a person standing next to me in line said, you don't know how long I've been looking for these stickers. I gave him some, saw his eyes light up, left the store, and saw the bench in front of me. Suddenly, everything connected in my head. It was ten years ago. Since then, I've been here."

When Everything Ends – Everything Begins

Today, Ezra serves as a gabbai at the Rebbe of Vaslui's synagogue on Ben Gurion Street. Back then at the Frishman corner, he and his wife also opened a laundromat, and instead of TVs, they placed Jewish books. "Meanwhile, while doing laundry, read." Many people came closer through them, families were formed. They host those who seek, search, and wander for Shabbat meals at their home on Reines Street. Ezra says one guest stayed with them for fifteen consecutive years until today, and even got married in their home. "I'm a one-person Chabad house. My wife says I'm a street kid. At first, it was a bit hard for her, but over time she understood that's who I am, all these 100 kilos came into the world just to go out to the street."

He sits with a red nose and a pile of colorful stickers. "Do not be sad – it belongs to someone else," "Smiles=Matches" (a bestseller and sold out), "When everything ends – everything begins." What does that mean? "God created the world round," he explains. "He created everything round, even your head and mine, and this nose too. Only humans invented the square. All creation is round. Therefore, nothing ends, there's no such thing as an ending. The moment something ends, it starts anew. Everything is a cycle."

Ezra speaks English, German, Yiddish, and Romanian, and thus a kind of tourist office was created on his bench. "With Hashem's help, I convinced many tourists to immigrate to Israel." "Come to Israel, because here God is close," he tells them. "Here, it's a local conversation."

The acclimatization to the country, after many years in Europe, wasn't easy. "I returned from Germany full of Zionism and emotions," he says. "I arrived by ferry with the car and a few belongings to the port of Haifa, and cried all the way from excitement, coming to the Land of Israel. But Hashem thought otherwise. I was disappointed. The corner there wasn't sympathetic. I was in despair, didn't know what to do. I told my wife, I think of returning abroad. I don't find myself here. I feel unwell, feel I've missed my target."

A hidden tzaddik, whose identity Ezra is still not sure of, changed his perspective. This person came to the store to make a sign and heard Ezra wants to leave the country. "I will never forget his eyes. Blue-grey not of this world. He turned to me and said: 'You are light, light and light together are not visible. Light and darkness are visible. You have to be here.'" This one-time meeting with that person kept Ezra in the country and started his journey towards a life of serving Hashem.

Shortly thereafter, a book of Likutei Moharan came into his hands, and then, the terrible attack on bus line five on Dizengoff Street. These events left their mark on him. "The attack was on Wednesday. On Friday after work, I sat down with a cigarette and coffee, like a good secular person. I took Likutei Moharan and started reading. My wife later told me that she heard me saying wow, what, like a person who hasn't eaten in years and finds food. I didn't sleep that night, no nonsense. By the end of Shabbat, I finished the book. I already had a kippah on my head."

What is Teshuva? To Be Faithful

From everyone who passes his stand, Ezra asks for one thing: a smile. "I believe every person, according to their ability, whether it be neighbors, on the street, on the bus, can sanctify Hashem's name – and that's through a smile. The countenance of a Jew is for Hashem. A person who doesn't smile, despite being the greatest student in the world – smiling sanctifies Hashem in truth. Always be pleasant-faced."

How is it, really, that you are always smiling?

"The reason is that I don't need anything. Whatever they give me, I say thank you, I'm full. I see people with faces that are always lacking, and I think, I have everything: Torah, Shabbat table, the Land of Israel, the things I have been privileged to in recent years. I lack nothing. I am a complete person.

"They tell me, Ezra, it's because you traveled, lived many years abroad. I say no, even if you travel a thousand trips, they'll always tell you there's another place you haven't seen in some corner of America. What am I missing anyway? One thing, redemption. To see the sons and daughters of Israel happy, satisfied. I have no other request.

"And they tell me, still, so I try to think. Maybe a new amplifier, stickers? But no, I lack nothing. Do you know what it is to be full? It's when Hashem fills you. When does Hashem fill you? When you are constantly joyous. How do you achieve joy? You talk to Him. Solitude and conversation with Him. That's the recipe for happiness. He answers all your questions, just ask. The answer appears like a crystal ball, smooth, boom, suddenly. That's how you know it's not from you, it's from Him. If there's nothing in the world you can't talk to Him about, then what do you have to worry about?

"I say, you understand? There's no other advice. Hashem, all He wants is for a Jew to talk to Him. The speech with Hashem shouldn't be a side effect, it should be the main thing. Your day should revolve around it. Like a woman talking with her husband on the phone all day, we should be in a conversation with Hashem all day. Don't miss any opportunity to talk to Him. Be with Him all the time because this world is scary without Him. Without Him, I am lost, I have no life, I don't move a millimeter without asking Him. Otherwise, how would I have the strength to be here? Winter, summer, rain, it's not easy. But Hashem gives strength."

You've been sitting here for years, bringing many people closer, including yourself. What is teshuva in your eyes?

"I don't know what teshuva is. I know one thing, trying to serve Hashem.

"What is serving Hashem? It's not swaying in prayer or anything. In my opinion, all it means is to bring Him joy from morning till night. Doing good deeds, bringing people to smile, loving the Land of Israel, that's it. What more is there? That's being religious.

"In simple terms? Be faithful. What are we looking for? Faithfulness. We want my husband to be faithful, my wife to be faithful, my friend faithful, the bank manager faithful, the plumber faithful. Be faithful to Hashem. Give Hashem the feeling he can trust you, that he can rely on you."

As Ezra folds the stand and loads it onto his bike on the way to synagogue, an inspector gets off a motorcycle and approaches him. "What's the purpose of this stand?" he asks. "To bring people to smile," Ezra answers simply, and the inspector rides off.

· Where will you find me? Sundays to Thursdays, the two hours before sunset, near the entrance to Gan Meir from King George Street. Friday afternoons, at Reines corner Ben Gurion.

The Prescription / Ezra Brautman

Take a small room, or a quiet corner in a garden,

Add a cup of coffee or aromatic tea,

Simmer your thoughts on a low flame

Spice with the classic question, who am I?

Simple food tastes like honey, as does food for the soul,

Let’s not enter a new mess, but solve an old problem.

Open your mouth and say: Creator of the universe! Make me happy, for I am sad.

Why am I not happy like everyone else? And I feel so empty and miserable.

The sky shakes, the heavens tremble!

The heavenly hosts march by the thousands

Some carry endless light and joy,

Others sustenance, health, and love.

The child called! He discovered the secret!

He must be given more and more.

Do not lose connection with him

Now that he finally found the bridge.

Speak, friends, pour out your hearts!

Worries, requests, everything that hurts.

Laughter and tears, everything mixes,

There is someone to talk to, oh! What a joy!

On a high, exalted throne sits the king of creation

Have I not given you the choice?

I’ve waited for you for ages, my children

And now, an end to sadness, enough!

The more asks, the better!

"Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!" (Prophet Amos)