Michoel Praporshchikov

1.06.04

TORAH NAME: HaTamim Michoel ben Victor Chazak!

AGE: I was born in 1976

LINEAGE: Parents are from Odessa Ukraine

GREW UP IN: Born in Odessa moved to Sydney, Australia when I was 3 years old.

HAVE BEEN FRUM SINCE: 2002

HAVE BEEN IN YTM SINCE: November 2003

THINGS I LOVE MOST ABOUT YTM: the chance to learn without interruption, the food, and the weight room. The Rabbis are also not so bad!

MY RESPONSIBILITIES AT YTM CONSISTS OF: To learn as much as I can and keep to the schedule. And when I can to help train my fellow students in fitness.

I GAUGE MY TORAH STUDY AT WHAT LEVEL: Beginner, I still daven in English, but adding more Hebrew every day. Learning to translate the Hebrew texts.

HOW DO I MAKE THE MOST OUT OF MY TIME: I just do what I do. I try to concentrate at what I’m doing and not let myself get distracted.

WHAT DO I EXPECT TO GET OUT OF YTM: At first I had no expectations other than to learn to be a good Jew. Now that I know what’s really involved (all the particulars and details) I want to learn as much as I can so I can observe the mitzvos in the proper way.

WHAT SURPRISED ME THE MOST: How much learning there is.

HOW I AM BETTER THAN BEFORE: I’m wiser, more committed to Judaism and to learning. I am also much closer to raising a Jewish family according to Torah.

A WORD TO Prospective Students: Listen to the Rebbe and find a good Rabbi to guide you. Dedicate at least 1 year to learn in Yeshiva.

A Bio of Michoel Praporshchikov 11.19.04

The Beis Moshiach Magazine

Starting from the age of seven, he devoted his life to intensive training in freestyle wrestling. He won fight after fight and won valuable prizes. The change in his life began when he was drowning in the Yarkon River in the middle of a Maccabia ceremony and was miraculously saved. Hours before the final competition before becoming a member of the Olympic team, he passed the final critical hurdle. Despite the shock of his fans in Australia and the U.S., he committed to a life of Torah and mitzvos. * The story of a young man who turned his life around.

By Nosson Avrohom

I first made Michael Praporshchikov’s acquaintance at the bar mitzvah of the son of the shliach in Sydney, Dayan Yehoram Ulman, which took place in 770. Rabbi Ulman was instrumental in Michael’s commitment to religious observance, and he advised me to talk with him.

“His self-sacrifice, his earnestness, and his resolution to leave the career that he devoted most of his life to, in order to return to Judaism, will interest you,” he promised me.

I met Michael one afternoon at Yeshiva Tiferes Menachem, headed by Rabbi Avrohom Lipskier, in the secluded Seagate section of Brooklyn. I had a tough time arranging a time to meet with him as he was resolute not to be distracted from his study schedule. “Now that I have the privilege, after so many years of searching, to immerse myself in Torah study,” he says, “I don’t want to forego it for anything.”

* * *

Michael was born less than thirty years ago in Odessa, Ukraine. His father is a physical fitness trainer and his mother runs the home. They were Jews but did nothing to express this, yet the years of communism did not succeed in eradicating their Jewish identity.

At age three, Michael and his parents emigrated to Austria, and after a brief stay there they traveled to Italy. They had three choices of where to live: Eretz Yisroel, the United States, or Australia. They chose Australia.

Within a few days, the family was flying to Australia, where they settled in Sydney in the Bondi Beach area. Many immigrants from the former Soviet Union live there.

At age seven, when his parents looked for a good school for their son, they met the shliach, Rabbi Feldman, who was working in that neighborhood at the time. He convinced them to send Michael to the talmud Torah that he ran.

Since the parents didn’t have much money, they agreed to send their son to the Chabad school. Rabbi Feldman made one condition – that he have a bris mila. He explained to them the importance of having a bris and the parents agreed.

Michael’s father, being a fitness trainer, emphasized the importance of sports and combat skills. At the young age of seven, when Michael finished school he went to train in freestyle wrestling with a famous private trainer. After an exhausting daily session, Michael would go home.

His trainer, amazed by Michael’s motivation and talent, told the father that his son had a great future ahead of him. The father was thrilled, for this was his whole world. Michael did not disappoint; he threw himself into his training.

His intense involvement in training didn’t work out well with his attendance at the Chabad school. Three years later, he switched to a public school, where most of his friends went to school. When I asked Michael whether his study of Jewish subjects at the Chabad school made a noticeable impression on him, he says they didn’t: “Wrestling took up most of my time, and was my whole world. I was a child, and my life goals weren’t yet clear to me.”

By age twelve, Michael was the youth champion in Australia in freestyle wrestling. The road to the championship meant having to fight with older boys. One time, his trainer forged his ID card and added some years to his age.

In his free time, Michael also studied other forms of fighting such as Thai boxing, and he participated in many sports competitions such as Australian football, where he did exceedingly well.

For four years in a row, he held the youth title in Australia. A year later he went to the U.S. and Canada for wrestling competitions, and won first place. He did so well that his classmates nicknamed him “Killer.”

The fact that he was Jewish was something he was constantly aware of, but he remained ignorant of its significance. To him, his being Jewish was like somebody else being Japanese or Chinese. He simply did not think he had to search for anything, and thus, did not seek to expand his Jewish knowledge.

At age 17, when he was famous throughout Australia, he led a team of Jewish athletes from all over Australia to the Maccabia sports tournament in Tel Aviv. He fought older boys, but won many fights nevertheless, coming in second overall. He also won a number of competitions in Australia, and garnered the championship title, a title he retained for seven years in a row.

At age 18, he began to realize his dream when he led a delegation to an important tournament in England in which many former British commonwealths participated. Unfortunately for him, two days before the competition, after being certain that he would win, he broke his shoulder and lost the opportunity of winning the coveted championship.

At a later point, he attended university in British Colombia in Vancouver. After six months, when he felt he had reached his potential, he returned to Australia.

But Michael didn’t rest on his laurels. He was focused on the Olympics, and his father encouraged him and spent a fortune on this goal. One day, when he was in the Ukraine, he discovered a world-famous trainer and took him as his personal trainer.

They made a short trip to many European countries, such as Hungary and Austria. He spent most of his touring time visiting historical monasteries and churches, as well as ancient synagogues, l’havdil. A ray of his Jewish soul shone through, and he began taking an interest in Jewish history.

* * *

Trumpets blared and drums rolled in Ramat-Gan as the sports teams entered, one by one, into the enormous, packed stadium. The official opening ceremonies for Maccabia had begun with great fanfare. Millions of people were watching the events live on TV.

A special bridge had been constructed in a corner of the stadium, and dozens of Australian athletes crossed it, one by one, led by an official holding the Australian flag. But then, to everybody’s dismay, the bridge they were crossing collapsed and dozens of people on it fell into the filthy Yarkon River.

“The boards began to creak, and before we realized what was happening, the bridge broke in two,” recalls Michael, who was on the bridge at the time. There was chaos and screaming. The entire Australian group was drowning.

“I found myself lying flat with people on top of me. I simply couldn’t extricate myself from the pile of bodies underwater. I could hear the muted screams, and if at first I thought this was a minor accident and we would be fished out shortly, the long period of time under water made me abandon that hope. My entire life passed through my mind like a movie. These moments seemed like an eternity, and I made peace with my fate.

“Something very strange happened to me at that time. For some reason, the time spent on the riverbed didn’t make me panic or react in the way you would have expected. There was a sense of indifference and of making peace with my fate.

“Suddenly I felt the weight of the people on top of me shifting. I heaved with all my strength, and miraculously, I escaped. Next thing I knew I was floating on the surface. I was exhausted but I swam to the edge of the river and vomited all the water I had swallowed.”

Michael didn’t just sit and recover from the trauma of nearly dying, but he got to work on rescuing his friends. The camera of a photographer caught the rescue operation on film and the pictures subsequently publicized won Michael great esteem and admiration after he returned to Australia. Some of the athletes owed him their lives.

When Michael speaks about four friends who died that day, he bends his head in sorrow. He knew them well.

Broken by the tragedy, he returned home, but the drive to succeed didn’t allow him to rest. He went to the Ukraine to continue training to gain rating points for the Olympics.

However, the impact of the catastrophe remained engraved in his heart. At a certain point, he returned home, sad and withdrawn. He was distraught by the fact that G-d the Omnipotent had allowed his friends to die. After all, they had only gone to Eretz Yisroel in support of the Jewish people. At the same time though, he was appreciative of the fact that his life had been miraculously saved.

Much to the consternation of his parents and friends, he abandoned wrestling and began working as a bouncer in a local nightclub. He was in a turmoil. That year, he didn’t enter the Australian competition and he lost his title.

This situation didn’t last long. Family pressure as well as pressure from friends motivated him to continue training. A year later he entered the competition again and won, regaining the title he had lost the year before. All in all, he was champion for seven years.

Then he decided to pursue his original plan to enter the Olympics. He trained in Kazakhstan and although he injured his leg, he managed to fool the inspectors.

When Michael describes those days he is amazed by the emptiness of his former life. By day he trained for hours on end, and he sometimes worked at various jobs, and in the evenings he and his friends would hang out at the home of a Jew named Zev (he also became a baal t’shuva, see 'Influencing Others' at end of article).

His personal turning point, which began with a look at the meaning of life, came all at once:

“It was a rainy, chilly night as I sat with some friends at Zev’s place, when I suddenly noticed a large picture of a Jew on the wall. The man’s face was majestic and it shone. I asked my friend who it was, and he said it was the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the leader of the Jewish people. He couldn’t answer any more of my questions.

“The conversation took off though, and everybody began telling of their ties to Judaism. Some of them said they had had themselves circumcised at an advanced age, and there were other stories along these lines. I began to wonder, ‘The only thing I know is that I’m Jewish, but what is Judaism? What is the Jewish heritage? What does it mean to be a Jew?’”

Michael joined Zev at the Chabad shul the following Shabbos. Rabbi Yehoram Ulman graciously welcomed them.

At the reading of the Torah, when he was given an aliya, Michael felt himself trembling, “Something I didn’t experience even at the toughest competitions. As I recited the brachos, I was overcome with a feeling that I had never experienced before.”

Michael said he was amazed by the fact that he had felt cold and indifferent at more difficult times in his life, whereas at the aliya he couldn’t control his emotions.

The next day he met the T’mimim Menachem Reich and Dov Biala, whom he had met the day before in shul. Menachem was the first to recognize him, and he suggested that Michael put on t’fillin. Michael didn’t know anything about t’fillin. It seemed odd to him to put on black boxes on his head and arm, and he politely refused.

The next day, they met again, and with a big smile Michael rolled up his sleeve and put on t’fillin.

He became close with the two bachurim who, along with Rabbi Ulman, taught Michael about Torah and mitzvos, as well as concepts in Judaism, such as what a Rebbe is and how one connects to him.

“I was a tough nut to crack,” smiles Michael bashfully, “and I demanded satisfying explanations for every question I posed. Rabbi Ulman and the bachurim dealt with me wisely.”

Despite his growing involvement in Judaism, this was a confusing time in his life. Along with his Torah studies, he continued to serve as a bouncer in clubs. He still dreamed of the Olympics and the more he learned about Judaism the more he envisioned himself winning.

For a long period of time, Michael sat on the fence. Being a truthful person by nature, he finally sat down and gave his life serious thought. Where did he want to see himself? “Either I should go all the way and become a baal t’shuva and change my life completely, or I should abandon Judaism.”

His final decision, and it didn’t come easy, was to deepen his knowledge of Judaism and to abandon his life of emptiness.

The day after he made this decision, he met the two bachurim and he told them about his doubts and his new resolution. He suddenly felt a powerful thirst for Judaism and a strong desire to acquire more and more knowledge about it.

Dov Biala sat with him for hours, and explained to him why, despite the hardship it entailed, he had to leave his gentile girlfriend.

“He spoke without tiptoeing around, and clearly explained the damage such a marriage would cause.”

Michael stopped training on Shabbos and began putting t’fillin on daily. He would also take t’fillin along with him and put them on his Jewish friends. He didn’t know that this was called “Mivtzaim,” but he realized that this was a big mitzva that he needed to share with others.

As he took giant steps in his observance of Judaism, he enjoyed success in his wrestling career. He had to pass one more hurdle on his way to the Olympics: a competition in Long Island.

Preparations for the competition went into high gear, but when he got the details about it, they spelled trouble. All the competitions would be taking place from Erev Shabbos through Shabbos.

Michael didn’t know what to do. For the first time in his life, he faced a crossroads, and it was hard for him to make a decision. On the one hand, he didn’t want to desecrate the Shabbos. On the other hand, he was about to realize his lifelong dream for which he had invested years of hard work. He tried to get the dates changed but failed.

Before the fateful Shabbos he called Rabbi Ulman in Australia, and told him what was going on. Rabbi Ulman’s sensitivity and influence prevailed, asking Michael to stand strong and not desecrate the Shabbos.

Thousands of admirers and hundreds of sports journalists in the American and Australian newspapers heard about Michael’s decision not to step into the ring because he didn’t want to desecrate the Shabbos. It shocked many people, especially his friends and family.

With the challenge behind him, and having broken the psychological barrier, all he had to do was go to yeshiva and study Torah and Chassidus. Rabbi Ulman urged him to do so, though at first, Michael didn’t understand why he had to go to yeshiva when he was keeping mitzvos already.

He went to Tiferes Menachem in Seagate, where he has spent about nine months. The process of adapting to Yeshiva life wasn’t too difficult, putting to use the discipline he had acquired in training.

After the interview, when we parted ways, I noticed Michael sitting in the Beis Midrash deeply involved in his learning once again.

INFLUENCING OTHERS

Michael, having been a public figure who had thousands of pairs of eyes upon him, did a lot of good when he became a baal t’shuva. Many family members and friends changed their ideas about Judaism from one extreme to another.

One of his best friends, Zev, the one who had a picture of the Rebbe hanging in his house and who later walked with Michael to shul for the first time, also became a baal t’shuva.

Zev’s story is also fascinating. He was friendly with a non-Jewish girl who was well-known in the Australian world of fashion. One day, she suddenly left him and he went into a depression. Michael, who was taking his first steps in the world of Judaism at the time, gave Zev moral support.

A few months ago, Zev arrived in New York to meet with Michael. Zev chose not to contact his cousin in Chicago because he is a member of the Underworld, a Mafia leader.

When the cousin found out that Zev was in the U.S., he called him up and asked why he hadn’t come to visit him. Zev tried to find a way out and said it was because the cousin was uncircumcised. The cousin loved him so much that the next day, a Friday, he underwent bris mila. Zev and the Tamim Menachem Reich were present at the seudas mitzva.

And then his cousin’s friend, who had attended the bris, also decided to have himself circumcised. It was all a great kiddush Hashem!

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