"Then the Professor Came Out and Said: 'I Don't Know to Whom You're Praying - But Don't Stop'"

When Rabbi Avraham Lachkov began specializing in Greco-Roman wrestling, his colleagues predicted a bright future for him in the field.

During high school, he participated in several youth championships, even winning second place in one. However, if you had told him he'd find himself on the other side of the globe serving as a synagogue rabbi, he would have laughed sarcastically. "I came from a very traditional and believing Bukharian household, but living a fully religious life was a long journey," says Lachkov (38), married and father to eight children, who serves as a community rabbi at the 'Ahavat Yisrael' synagogue in Yavne.

Lachkov's family immigrated to Israel from Uzbekistan, where he met his cousin. "I don't know how to explain it, but even from a young age, I knew she would be my wife," he recalls.

At first, his wife refused to marry her cousin, but when he revealed his feelings to her and mentioned he felt she belonged to him since childhood – she was persuaded, and the two married during their military service.

After the wedding, they lived secular lives for a few years until the birth of their second son. "The trigger that led us to seek answers in religion was our desire for true shalom bayit," he explains. "I thought I knew what a wife is and how to treat her, but today I know I was wrong and that I still had much to learn."

"Every day I discover I love my wife more than the previous day"

He states that realizing this was unbearable. "When you marry secularly, you don't really know how to maintain marriage, understand or respect the wife, you are fully self-involved."

In search of answers, the rabbi began listening to many lectures on marriage, including those by Rabbi Zamir Cohen. "The amazing thing is, during that very period, my wife worked with someone who had returned to religion a few years earlier and constantly shared different religious matters with her. But because we were secular, she didn’t dare to talk to me about it."

"Only when she saw that I was taking that step and starting to strengthen my faith, did she also make an effort and immediately adopted modesty and head covering."

At that point, and only when he delved deeply into the essence of the Torah, did Lachkov begin to understand what a true Jewish home is and the kind of marriage he should aspire to. "When I understood this, I realized the change must be 180 degrees, and I went all in. Either I'm here or I'm not, and if I’m here, I have to not only discover the truth but also live according to it absolutely."

What did you understand about marriage that you didn't before you returned to religion?

"When you make this change within yourself and think about the other’s welfare instead of your own, the satisfaction is immense. Only with the tools I discovered in the Torah did I begin to understand what a wife is, and today I can tell you that with each passing day, I discover that I love my wife more than the day before."

The Professor Said:"I don't know to whom you're praying – but don't stop"

Marriage may be the primary trigger that led the two to religion, but what set the tone and tipped the scales in this path "without regrets" was a difficult trial the couple experienced with their second son. "He had muscle issues, and compared to our first child, we saw he wasn't really developing," recalls the rabbi. "Although he was nearly two years old and should have been crawling by then, we saw he barely moved and could hardly lift his head."

Their son's name was Danel until a certain rabbi they met under miraculous private supervision advised changing it to Daniel "so no severe judgments would befall him," and so it was. "Already that Shabbat, we suddenly saw the child make movements we had never seen before. We couldn't believe it. Within two weeks, he began walking, and at the health clinic, they asked my wife: 'What did you do to him that he developed in two weeks what hadn't happened in six months?'"

Adding to the wonder of this story was the mysterious figure "sent from above" in the form of that rabbi. "To this day, we have no clue who that rabbi was," explains Lachkov.

From that moment, this child—who grew up to be hyperactive remarkably—underwent miracle after miracle in his life. "One day he climbed onto a table and pulled a glass that shattered, and one of the shards flew into his eye. I was at the synagogue, and when I came home, I found my wife crying hysterically, telling me she saw a spray of blood coming from the eye."

The panic and terror were immense. "We rushed him to the hospital, where he underwent a series of tests and scans. Doctors kept coming in and out of the room until one of the professors came, looked at the small kippah on my head, and examined me from head to toe. Then he said to me: 'I don't know to whom you're praying – but don't stop'. Only then, when he showed us the before-and-after images of the eye, did we understand the magnitude of the miracle that happened to us. 'People go blind from such injuries, and your son miraculously got out without a scratch,' he told us, and at that moment, I felt the Creator of the World was speaking to us through this trial."

"When I Learned How to Read the Torah for the First Time – I Stood Up and Said: 'I'm Not Cut Out for This'"

Anyone who sees Rabbi Lachkov today might think he's an ultra-Orthodox from birth, and would never guess that behind the serious exterior, which dedicates nights and days to holiness and glorifying Hashem's name, lie many hardships he overcame. "When I first started getting close to religion, I connected with a young rabbi who taught me how to read from the Torah. The first time he showed me how to read, I remember just standing up and telling him: 'Thank you for your efforts, but I'm not cut out for this.'"

"To his credit, he didn’t give up. He held onto me, didn't let go even when it took me an entire month to go over three verses."

What gave you the strength to persevere in learning, despite where many might have given up?

"I'm not used to losing. It was precisely the difficulty and the fact that it didn't come easily that spurred me on to keep trying. I started with haftars, then moved to short aliyot. I was truly persistent with it, and made it my goal to succeed." And from there to being a public emissary and cantor, the path just leapt forward.

Today, as a synagogue rabbi, his daily schedule is filled with activities—from teaching Bar Mitzvah boys to delivering classes three times a week, in Hebrew and Bukharian. "Those who wish to succeed in the holy path must know it's possible but also requires quite a bit of investment and effort, just like in sports. When you go to battle with a certain opponent where you're a lightweight by comparison but are determined to reach his dimensions—you'll reach it.

"The same applies to the world of holiness. When you're around rabbis and tzadikim and aspire to reach their level, you'll succeed. Everything depends on your desire and the effort you're willing to invest."