The story of Chai is a mystery. One that has been passed on by generation to generation, parents telling their children, cousins telling cousins, friends telling friends. The exact date and location of Chai’s birth is unclear...and as you would expect the lack of solid scientific evidence has sparked heated debates in synagogues and delicatessens across the globe.

This much is clear…Chai was born at 4:20 pm into a working class family. Chai has one sibling, although no one is sure if it is a brother or sister.

Chai led a fairly normal childhood and flew below the radar until one day his father came home with terrible news…he had lost his job. This is where agreement between Chai scholars ends.

Some, such as Rabbi George Silversteinbergman, argue Chai’s father was fired because he spoke-out at the work place when he noticed an injustice being done.

According to legend...Chai’s father was at lunch with his boss, Doug Gimmel, when he noticed that Mr. Gimmel had left an inadequate tip for the waiter. Incensed, Chai’s father demanded that Gimmel include the tax when calculating the tip. Unmoved by his employees sensitivity and compassion for the working man, Gimmel fired him.

That’s one story...the other, according to Professor Shalom Wineberg, head of the mystics department at the University of Chai, Mr. Gimmel asked Chai’s father to buy new office furniture...Chai’s father was honoured, and he challenged himself to do the best job he could...but when it was time to write the cheque Chai’s father began to negotiate, he couldn’t be expected to pay retail. Unmoved by his employee’s desire to save the company money, Gimmel fired Chai’s father after the man that owned the furniture store, a Mr. M. Ghadafi complained.

Regardless of which story you believe, Chai was deeply affected by his father’s firing. He was just 13 at the time, but even at such a young age, Chai realized that the only way to be secure his future and the future of his family was to go out on his own...you couldn’t count on the Gimmels of the world.

Chai surrounded himself with believers...and set out to find his way, with a simple mission statement...“The Chai-Way” or the highway.