Gathering of 20 Marcheshvan 5753

00:04 Speaker 1 The great, mighty and awesome G-d—with the permission of the Torah, more precious than gold and pearls; with the permission of our esteemed rabbis, the heads of yeshivos and masters of Torah; with the permission of elders and young people seated here; with the permission of this holy and distinguished gathering, the Rebbe’s shlita shluchim. We open our mouths in song and melody. At the same time, we open our mouths in prayer and supplication. We open our mouths in song and melody to give thanks and praise. In the words of the previous Rebbe, we should “open every farbrengen,” every gathering devoted to activities for Judaism, with the words: “Boruch Hashem, געלויבט Hashem Yisborach, Who has granted us life, sustained us and brought us to this time”—for the great wonders and the open miracles our eyes have seen and will see. An earnest prayer has been said all this time and continues still: “Let me see your face.” That prayer has been fulfilled and favorably received before the Master of all, and the Rebbe’s shlita holy face has, Boruch Hashem, appeared before our eyes again, shining like sapphires and like the sun illuminating the earth and all who dwell upon it, if one may put it that way. And at the same time, my teachers and gentlemen, I open my mouth, and we open our mouths, in prayer and supplication: Just as we have merited, Boruch Hashem, to see your face, so may we very soon merit the fulfillment of the promise in its entirety: “Let me hear your voice” as well—the voice of the Rebbe shlita. As the Midrash in Yalkut Shimoni proclaims: “See My light that has shone upon you, and a new Torah shall come forth from Me”—immediately, in the true and complete Geulah, amen and amen. And with this prayer and supplication, with this song and melody, praise and thanksgiving, I have the honor of welcoming you all with the blessing, “Welcome in the name of Hashem,” to this great national gathering, the thirty-third national gathering of Chabad chassidim. We gather to bring hearts together, to unite the sparks into a single flame, to illuminate the darkness of exile and to add light toward fulfilling our mission and our deepest desire—the desire of all chassidim, of the entire House of Israel and of every Jew: to welcome Moshiach Tzidkeinu very soon, right now. My teachers and gentlemen, holy and most distinguished gathering: In keeping with our warm tradition, let us give a heartfelt welcome to our distinguished guests

03:55 Speaker 1 who merited to celebrate the seventh month in the house of our Rebbe—still, for the time being, in Babylonia, and very soon in the house of our Rebbe in the holy city of Jerusalem. From that source of our vitality, where they beheld the face of our king, we will draw tonight from their flowing spring and quench our great thirst to relive those special moments of spiritual elevation and awakening, so that we can share them with all of us and with all the Jewish people throughout the year. My teachers and gentlemen, my brothers and friends: Thirty-three—thirty-three gatherings. This mound, this thirty-third gathering, stands as a living and enduring witness to the great, far-reaching momentum generated by the central office of Tzeirei Agudas Chabad, together with all its branches and all its Chabad Houses, in preparing the people for the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu. The multitudes of shluchim, who work with self-sacrifice and a burning holy fire, tirelessly and without pause, devote themselves and everything they have, every hour of the day, to the sacred task of instilling anticipation and longing for the revelation of Moshiach Tzidkeinu in every Jew, wherever they may be. This accords with the well-known sicha of the one whose joyous and auspicious day this is—our auspicious day—the birthday of the Rebbe Rashab, of blessed memory. A meritorious matter is brought about on an auspicious day. The Rebbe Rashab’s well-known sicha about the House of David and its battles is familiar. Speaking there of the jubilee period of the footsteps of Moshiach, the Rebbe Rashab says: “We must go through the battle of the House of David.” And he concludes: “I am confident,” the Rebbe Rashab said, “that after all this we will be ready and will see the sweet end”—in his holy words—“of the jubilee of the footsteps of Moshiach, which will bring the coming of Moshiach very soon.” My teachers and gentlemen, this mound, this evening, our thirty-third gathering, shall serve as a witness, a sign and an example of renewed momentum among everyone here. Let us be like water that wets others as well, passing this on to all our friends and to the entire House of Israel: renewed and intensified momentum to carry out the call of the hour, which still rings loudly in our ears from that heart-stirring and heart-shaking occasion—the Rebbe’s

07:27 Speaker 1 urgent, piercing call: “Do everything in your power,” pleading with us to actually bring Moshiach Tzidkeinu immediately. And so, my teachers and gentlemen, we will open our gathering, as we said, with prayer and supplication, reciting chapters of Tehillim aloud. I stress the words “aloud,” because in the last sicha before the event that took place, to our sorrow, the Rebbe spoke specifically about praying aloud. Let us all now recite the chapters of Tehillim aloud, verse by verse. As the Rebbe Rashab says in that letter printed at the end of the Book of Tehillim, reciting Tehillim has the power to break through every barrier and accomplish things with kindness and mercy. May the power of our voices bring us all to hear the Rebbe’s shlita voice speaking to us this very evening, amen and amen. We have the honor of inviting the man whose name makes him especially fitting to recite the chapters of Tehillim with us tonight, a member of the leadership of Tzeirei Agudas Chabad in our Holy Land, Rabbi Sholom Dovber Butman, to lead us all in the chapters of Tehillim, together, verse by verse and aloud.

09:15 Speaker 2 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of Hashem: “He is my refuge and my fortress, my G-d in Whom I trust.” For He will save you from the fowler’s trap, from destructive pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions, and beneath His wings you will take refuge; His truth is a shield and armor. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day; nor the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor the destruction that ravages at noon. A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not approach you. You will only look with your eyes and see the retribution of the wicked. For you have said, “Hashem is my refuge”; you have made the Most High your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, and no plague will come near your tent. For He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will carry you on their hands, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the viper; you will trample the young lion and the serpent. “Because he desires Me, I will rescue him; I will raise him high, for he knows My name. He will call upon Me and I will answer him; I am with him in distress. I will deliver him and honor him. I will satisfy him with long life and show him My salvation.” A song of ascents: From the depths I have called to You, Hashem. Hashem, hear my voice; let Your ears be attentive to the sound of my pleas. If You were to keep account of sins, Hashem, who could stand? But forgiveness is with You, so that You may be revered. I have hoped in Hashem; my soul has hoped, and I have waited for His word. My soul waits for Hashem more than watchmen wait for the morning—watchmen for the morning. Let Israel hope in Hashem, for with Hashem is kindness, and with Him is abundant redemption. And He will redeem Israel from all its sins. A maskil of David, a prayer when he was in the cave. With my voice I cry out to Hashem; with my voice I plead with Hashem. I pour out my words before Him; I tell Him of my distress. When my spirit is faint within me, You know my path. On the road where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me. Look to the right and see: no one knows me. I have nowhere to flee; no one cares for my soul. I cried out to You, Hashem; I said, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” Hear my cry, for I have been brought very low. Save me from my pursuers, for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of confinement so that I may thank Your name. The righteous will gather around me when You deal kindly with me. May He Who blessed our forefathers Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, Moshe

15:29 Speaker 2 and Aharon, David and Shlomo, bless, heal and save our master and teacher, Rabbi Menachem Mendel son of Chana. Since the entire congregation is praying on his behalf, may Hakadosh Boruch Hu, in this merit, have mercy on him, restore him to health, heal him, strengthen him and sustain him. May He swiftly send him a complete recovery from Heaven, to all 248 of his limbs and 365 of his sinews, together with all the other sick among Israel—a healing of the soul and a healing of the body—speedily and soon. And let us say amen.

17:08 Speaker 3 Ladies and gentlemen, we are continuing with the program. When we truly merit to see the holy sights as well, we will surely merit what we are all praying, asking and hoping for: to see the King Moshiach very soon. We begin with a dvar malchus. Every year, without exception, we have merited to receive a special letter of blessing from the Rebbe shlita for the gathering. This year, however, that letter has not yet arrived. Surely the Rebbe will bless this farbrengen and participate by giving mashke for blessing. We will open the farbrengen with a dvar malchus from the senior Chabad rabbi in our Holy Land and a member of the Chabad Rabbinical Court, the gaon and chossid Rabbi Dovid Chanzin. Please.

18:26 Speaker 4 First of all, today is the birthday of the Rebbe Rashab. Today we began saying Psalm 133. The Rebbe Rashab founded the Tomchei Temimim yeshivah. As the Alter Rebbe explains in Shaar Hayichud Vehaemunah, citing the Baal Shem Tov’s teaching on the verse, “Forever, Hashem, Your word stands firm in the heavens,” the name of a thing in the Holy Tongue expresses what that thing is. The Rebbe Rashab founded a special yeshivah, one that would raise Temimim. He founded it ninety-five years ago, and on another occasion he said of those students that they were going out to fight the war of the House of David. The Rebbe Rashab saw that difficult days lay ahead for the Jewish people over those ninety-five years, and he paved the way to strengthen faith among the Jewish people—that tremendous source of our strength. Through the power of faith, our people have endured the exile until now. May we merit to be redeemed from exile very soon indeed, immediately, through our righteous redeemer, our master, teacher and Rebbe, shlita. Chassidim relate that when our Rebbe, shlita, was born, telegrams went back and forth between the Rebbe shlita’s father and the Rebbe Rashab about how to care for the newborn child—even concerning the smallest detail, from the moment he was born. They knew, they knew who had been born, and they raised him accordingly. When the Frierdiker Rebbe issued four public calls to prepare the Jewish people for teshuvah, for the Geulah, in one of those calls he wrote: “Do not believe the one who tells you this; believe in King Moshiach.” Chassidim said at the time that he meant our Rebbe, shlita. Even then, those who knew, knew. We are now in a unique period, unlike any other in the long years of the Jewish people’s exile. The Rebbe shlita has issued the call, “Prepare for the coming of Moshiach.” Certainly, much is being done to bring this message to every part of the world, so that every Jew, wherever he may be, whether

22:45 Speaker 4 he is distant geographically or distant in his way of life, will receive this message, and the whole people is awakening. Wherever we go, we meet Jews on the street. If someone thinks you might know more than he does about how the Rebbe shlita is doing, he immediately asks, “How is the Rebbe shlita?” and follows it with a heartfelt blessing that the Rebbe shlita be well as soon as possible. Let us not forget that this call is not only for those who are distant, to whom we must bring the message, “Prepare for the coming of Moshiach.” The Rebbe did not exclude us either. We, too, must prepare for the coming of Moshiach. And in what way must we perhaps prepare more than others? What is required of us beyond what is required of those who are very distant? For them, it is good that they have the awareness that Moshiach is about to come. Do they know exactly what Moshiach is? Have they studied it or not? They have heard about it, and they know Moshiach must come. They understand that when Moshiach comes, the world will take on an entirely different form. We must prepare in a tangible way. That means everything about the way we conduct ourselves—our davening, our Torah study, the things we do, including even mundane activities—must be done with the awareness that we are living in an extraordinary time. Moshiach could take us by surprise. Hakadosh Boruch Hu could tell Moshiach to reveal himself immediately, and we would be taken by surprise. We must be ready for that. The Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh says—and [unclear]—that mere seconds before Moshiach is revealed, the world will look exactly the same. Nothing will be apparent, and then he will suddenly come. Incidentally, the Gemara in Pesachim, page 5, says that because of several instances of the word “first” written in the Torah, the Jewish people merited several things. One of them is the building of the Beis Hamikdash. Because of “You shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of a beautiful tree, palm branches, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook,” they will merit the name of Moshiach, of whom the verse says,

26:31 Speaker 4 “The first to Zion: Behold, here they are.” The Maharsha asks: What does “the name of Moshiach” mean? Why doesn’t the Gemara simply say “Moshiach”? He explains: Moshiach’s name is Menachem—he will comfort us and bring us joy. And he continues. Very soon indeed ... because they will see him. With Hashem’s help, we have merited the name of Moshiach in the plain sense as well. Believing in something is not the same as knowing where to point and being able to name him. We have merited this, and Hashem will certainly grant us the merit, very soon indeed, to see him revealed as King Moshiach, king over the entire world. Now, to make our preparation real for ourselves, each and every person must examine himself: Do the thoughts he thinks, the words he speaks, and the deeds he does accord with the awareness that Moshiach is about to come? In one of the Rebbe shlita’s sichos published in volume 30 of Likkutei Sichos, he explains Rashi’s words on the verse, “He offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son.” “Avraham lifted his eyes and saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket; Avraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son.” Rashi asks: Why isn’t it enough for the verse to say, “He offered it as a burnt offering”? What does “in place of his son” add? Rashi explains that with every action Avraham performed in offering the ram—slaughtering it, skinning it, sprinkling its blood on the altar, until it was reduced to ash—he would say, “May it be Your will that this be in place of my son,” in place of Yitzchak. And the Rebbe shlita explains. He asks: Why did Avraham Avinu merit the oath, “By Myself I have sworn ... I will greatly multiply your descendants like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore,” specifically after he had offered the ram? Seemingly, wasn’t the test of bringing Yitzchak up the mountain, binding him, and being ready to slaughter him enough? Why was offering the ram the act that completed it? Because until then he had been ready to do it. It was tremendous self-sacrifice,

29:59 Speaker 4 but it was still only in potential. Being prepared in potential is not the same as carrying something out in practice—even for Avraham Avinu. To actually slaughter Yitzchak would have required an effort beyond his strength. That is why Avraham Avinu prayed to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: May it be Your will that the slaughter of the ram, the skinning of it, the sprinkling of its blood, and its reduction to ash be considered exactly as though he were doing all this to Yitzchak. With every action, he felt that this was what he was doing, as though Yitzchak were before him. That is why the ashes of the ram always stand in the Jewish people’s merit. Hakadosh Boruch Hu swore the oath then, and as the Ramban says, the oath made it so that this promise could never be annulled, even if the people sin. The oath must be fulfilled. Let us learn from this. Speaking in principle about the coming of Moshiach is one thing. We hold gatherings, do things, run around, travel, publicize the message, put up signs, and so on and so forth. But that is still not the same as making it evident in every action we take, every word we speak, and every thought we think—not to someone else, but to ourselves—that we are ready, that we are doing these things as people prepared for the coming of Moshiach. It cannot be that one of us says, “He could have helped so-and-so, but how is he treating me? He isn’t treating me properly. So why should I help him? I could have helped him, I could have.” And he forgets that this is a fellow member of our people. In doing so, he violates precisely the Torah’s command, “Do not take revenge.” And how can such a thing happen at all? People among us work together in one place, on the Rebbe’s matters—how can there be a misunderstanding? Let us feel the words with which Psalm 133 begins: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together.” Wherever we dwell, we must be truly like brothers, in complete unity. Very soon indeed, we will go to greet our master, teacher and Rebbe, the righteous King Moshiach, who will redeem us from exile

33:00 Speaker 4 and build the Beis Hamikdash very soon indeed.

33:10 Speaker 5 Yasher koach! Yasher koach to the distinguished Rabbi David Chanzin for the words we have heard. Ladies and gentlemen, with the great and wonderful feeling we spoke about at the outset—“to open our mouths in song and melody, in praise and thanksgiving”—for what we have merited, for all that we have merited, I ask Avi Piamenta and his orchestra, together with the entire audience, to join in abundant song and melody. May a speedy and complete recovery come. Please, Avi Piamenta and the audience.

33:55 Speaker 6 “With long life I will satisfy him, and I will show him My salvation.” Everyone! “With long life I will satisfy him, and I will show him My salvation.” “With long life I will satisfy him, and I will show him My salvation.” “With long life I will satisfy him, and I will show him My salvation.” Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. “With long life I will satisfy him, and I will show him My salvation.” “With long life I will satisfy him, and I will show him My salvation.” “With long life I will satisfy him, and I will show him My salvation.” Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. “With long life I will satisfy him, and I will show him My salvation.” “With long life I will satisfy him, and I will show him My salvation.” “With long life I will satisfy him, and I will show him My salvation.” La la la, hey hey hey hey. La la la, hey hey hey hey hey. La la la, hey hey hey hey. La la la, hey.

38:00 Speaker 7 We’ll hear them later this evening. Gentlemen, a little more cheerful, a little more lively! True, we want to see the King in his beauty. But for what we have already merited, surely we must rejoice—in the fullest sense of the word. I saw something in one of the books that is especially fitting for what comes next. It says that when the Rebbe of Slonim visited the Rebbe Rashab, whose celebration we are marking this evening, he returned to a gathering of his chassidim and said, “Fortunate are the eyes that saw a true tzaddik.” He told those assembled, in Yiddish, “Look at these eyes”—pointing to his own eyes—“that saw a true tzaddik.” Look at the eyes that saw a true tzaddik, he said, pointing to his eyes. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sure that is how we all feel. Here with us this evening are many friends and brothers, chassidim who have returned from the Rebbe’s home. Surely we can say, “Look at the eyes that saw the King Moshiach, the King in his beauty. Look at these eyes!” If we could, we would bring them all up here and look into their eyes, eyes that await the revelation of the King Moshiach, so that we too might merit that great revelation. On behalf of all those who merited to see the face of our King, those holy sights, I have the honor of inviting the mara d’asra of Kfar Chabad, the distinguished scholar and chossid Reb Mordechai Ashkenazi, to bring to life again what we merited to see in the seventh month. Please.

40:40 Speaker 8 L’chaim, l’chaim. Honored rabbis, distinguished presidium, esteemed and holy gathering. For 33 years, it has been customary to hold a special gathering to welcome those returning from the courts of Beis Chayeinu, the Tree of Life. This year, too, we merited to travel. Some went at the beginning of Tishrei, others for Yom Kippur or Sukkos, through Simchas Torah. I personally was at the very end of the line: I only merited to arrive for Shabbos Bereishis. But as the saying among chassidim, quoted in the Rebbe’s sichos, goes: “Shabbos Bereishis—as one sets oneself then, so the whole year goes.” And indeed, we can say, “Who has granted us life, sustained us, and brought us to this time.” It is hard for me to describe in words the personal feeling each of us had when we merited to see the Rebbe’s holy face for the first time. I think that... such a feeling, for a chossid in his lifetime... On the one hand, and above all, there was joy—thank Hashem—tears of joy that we had merited to see the Rebbe shlita in his beauty, with the familiar gestures we remembered from years past: the way he looks at the crowd, takes in the crowd, and the bond between him and the crowd. It came all at once, almost as a shock that is hard to describe. But everyone here in the hall understands what I mean. Ladies and gentlemen, just a few days ago, in our lesson in the holy Tanya, in Igeres Hakodesh, we learned that the Alter Rebbe explains—citing the writings of the Arizal and a source in Mishnas Chassidim by Rabbi Emanuel Chai Ricchi—that every person must return in a reincarnation in order to fulfill all 613 mitzvos in thought, speech, and action. This is brought both in Igeres Hakodesh and in the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, in the laws of Torah study, and also in the laws of... and also in Torah. But the wording differs from place to place. In Igeres Hakodesh, the Alter Rebbe writes that everyone must return in a reincarnation to fulfill all 613 mitzvos, apart from the mitzvos

45:01 Speaker 8 of a king, the mitzvos connected with the king. Elsewhere it says explicitly that even mitzvos connected with kohanim, even with the Kohen Gadol, a person is obligated to return in a reincarnation to fulfill. But in every place, as the Rebbe shlita notes precisely in Likkutei Sichos, he is not obligated to return for mitzvos connected with the king. Why? Because the king fulfills them. In the Alter Rebbe’s words, the king fulfills them on everyone’s behalf because of the bond between the king and the people. In a note to one of his sichos, the Rebbe shlita points out that the original source, Mishnas Chassidim, does not use this wording—that the king fulfills them on everyone’s behalf. It says there that this is because of the king’s stature. Because of the king’s stature, these mitzvos are so significant that, seemingly, they have no connection to each individual. They are mitzvos reserved for one who is elevated above the people. The Alter Rebbe does not give that reason, the king’s stature, but rather the bond between the king and the people, and the fact that the king fulfills them on everyone’s behalf. If we want to see an example of the bond between the king and the people, between the Rebbe and chassidim, then if it is expressed in halachah, surely here it is emphasized all the more strongly. This has a practical halachic consequence: we tell a Jew, “You are exempt from this mitzvah.” Why? Because the king fulfills it. The king exempts you from the mitzvah; you do not have to fulfill it. The Kohen Gadol enters the Holy of Holies once a year and asks on behalf of all the Jewish people. He is their representative. Yet even there, the Kohen Gadol is not said to encompass the Jewish people, although he acts on their behalf. By contrast, the king’s day-to-day role on behalf of all the Jewish people is seemingly not so openly apparent, and it is specifically there that the halachah says—the halachah says—that the king exempts the people from various

47:33 Speaker 8 mitzvos because he is, in the Alter Rebbe’s words, “the embodiment of them all.” In other words, picture a person’s body, with a head, 248 limbs, and 365 sinews. The connection between the head and the hands, the legs, the heart, the liver, and so on needs no explanation; everyone feels it. The head fulfills a role on behalf of the hands; the hands are connected to the head. And here we see a halachic ruling that the king embodies everyone. So, of course, when there was a difficult time, a time of pain and distress, everyone felt it, because all of us together with the king are one whole body. How much more so in a time of joy, a time of emerging into open space: surely every individual feels it. This is not something one has to contemplate in order to be stirred. It bursts forth on its own. The joy breaks out of itself. It is self-evident: the moment the head grows stronger and moves, the whole body moves with it, all at once. At that very instant, the body does not stop to consider the condition of the head. Rather, it is as though an electric current passes from the head to the little toe, as explained in Chassidus. And it is precisely in this regard that sometimes, from anything—even something undesirable—great and new things are revealed. Indeed, I will never forget what I merited to see during the ten days I was there: seeing, time and again, the Rebbe come out to the crowd. But not only the moment he came out—the feeling of the crowd. Standing among a multitude of people, among hundreds of chassidim, I saw the bond of the soul, the deep bond between chassidim and the Rebbe. At just such a time, it revealed itself in all its greatness and strength, with a feeling that is hard to describe. And indeed, at that moment I thought

50:55 Speaker 8 I thought to myself: How fortunate we are, how good is our portion, how pleasant our lot, that we are together with the Rebbe shlita. But together with this entire holy gathering, too—with this unity, this bond of the soul, the joy bursting from the eyes of every chossid, of every child. To see: Oh, the Rebbe moved his hand! The Rebbe moved his foot! The Rebbe moved his head! The Rebbe moved his legs! Such tremendous joy—joy coming from all 248 limbs and 365 sinews. There is no bond like this anywhere in the world. Of course, in the time of great pain, each and every person felt it. But in a time of joy, it is all the more tangible. True, complete joy that bursts forth of its own accord. No one had to stop and think: Oh, perhaps we should dance? Perhaps we should sing? The cry of “Long live our master, our teacher and our Rebbe, King Moshiach!” did not come from any contemplation, from any prior thought, or from some meeting that decided that when the Rebbe came out, we would shout it. The cry came from the depths of the heart. It came from joy, as though of its own accord. This is it. This is the reality, and this is what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants at this moment. It was a true, wholehearted cry from the mouths of thousands of Jews. Ladies and gentlemen, that cry, that outcry from the innermost point of the heart, from the yechidah of the soul that connects with the Rebbe shlita—that cry pierces the heavens. I think that in two thousand years, such a cry has never come with so much confidence, with so much joy, with such a sense that we are truly about to reach that long-awaited moment. And indeed, it came from both sides. On the one hand, we saw the Rebbe shlita’s desire to be with the chassidim, even though quite a few people noticed that when he made a certain movement, it caused him pain, the deep distress of moving his body. But everything was precious to him, everything mattered to him, so that he could be together with us. The head cannot be without the body. The body lives only through the life it receives from the head. I heard—

54:05 Speaker 8 I heard a story there: one of the doctors told the Rebbe shlita that, I think even before this happened, his father had suffered a stroke, and he asked the Rebbe shlita what he could do to help him recover. The Rebbe asked him, “What did your father like to do? What was his hobby,” as they say here, “when he was healthy?” He told him what it was, and the Rebbe said, “If so, although he is ill now, bring him the thing he loves. Let him look at it and think about it, and that will restore what has been blocked.” It is well known what the Rebbetzin, a”h, said during the famous court case concerning the sefarim—something the Rebbe shlita repeated many times. When the investigators asked her what the Rebbe was all about, she said, “The Rebbe belongs entirely to the chassidim. He is wholly theirs.” And indeed, the bond we merited to see is something of which one can say the verse, “If only their hearts would remain this way always.” But there is another point I saw and reflected on amid that great joy. The joy was true and complete, but there was something special about it. As is known, the Torah speaks of different kinds of rejoicing. Regarding Simchas Beis Hashoevah, the Rebbe draws attention to the wording of the Mishnah, of Abaye and Rava: Who was there? Who rejoiced? The leaders of the people, the heads of the Sanhedrin; the rest of the people stood and watched. By contrast, on Simchas

57:19 Speaker 8 Torah, everyone shares in the same joy. Everyone rejoices with the same joy. In other words, the unity created by the joy makes it a special kind of joy. And indeed, when the Rebbe shlita appeared, the unity within that joy was something extraordinary. So the power of that joy to break through barriers lay not only in the joy itself, but in the unity of “Bless us, our Father, all of us as one.” When we are all as one, that is true joy. I saw chassidim kissing one another, dancing together, sitting together and saying l’chaim. And I will admit without embarrassment: I saw chassidim who perhaps had not spoken to each other for some time because something had come between them. But when they saw the great joy of the Rebbe coming out to the crowd, of the Rebbe appearing before them, what did those petty things matter? What did all those little disagreements matter beside the great joy we merited to experience, seeing the Rebbe shlita appear? The unity, each person’s bittul. And if we are speaking of the head, then in relation to the head all the limbs are equal. Every limb needs the others; every sinew needs the others and cannot exist without them. Each complements the other. But above all, what is the value of the limbs, what is their spiritual value, compared with the value of the head? And indeed, that inner joy—and above all, the unity within the joy—is something special that we merited. Precisely out of distress, we merited it from the beginning of Sukkos and Simchas Torah, and from Shabbos Bereishis. This joy is something that began especially in 5753, a year of great wonders. This teaches us something. We are all returning now, still under the powerful impression left by the month of Tishrei, especially its final days: the great joy, the revelation. There is a well-known Midrash. The Rebbe shlita quoted this Midrash from Midrash Eichah: Once a king came to a city and held a banquet.

1:00:27 Speaker 8 Everyone tried to make connections. One made a connection with the defense minister; another with the finance minister; another with the interior minister; one with this official, another with the regional governor, another with the mayor, and so on. But there was one wise person who said, “Ana nesiv malka—I choose the king.” I am not interested in the ministers or in the king’s manifestations, as the Rebbe explains at length in the maamar on this subject. Ana nesiv malka. I want the king. I want to be with the king. I want the king himself. And indeed, we merited to see the king, to experience “Ana nesiv malka.” Having merited this, each and every one of us must, of course, thank Hashem. According to halachah, a person who has been in danger is obligated to bring an offering. When the Beis Hamikdash stood, he had to bring a thanksgiving offering. I do not wish to go into the details of the thanksgiving offering, but he had to offer something. Hakadosh Boruch Hu performed a miracle for you. Hakadosh Boruch Hu brought you joy. You must thank Hakadosh Boruch Hu—or, as they say in Yiddish, [unclear]. You must thank Hashem, but “when a person brings an offering from among you,” offer something of yourself. And one of the main things each and every one of us must offer, so that this will continue and grow ever stronger, is the inner unity between us: that we be one people, that we all be like one whole body. Each of you understands what I mean. I want to offer a blessing and receive a blessing: May Hashem grant that we hear of great wonders, and may we see the Rebbe shlita revealed as King Moshiach in all his splendor and strength, healthy and whole in all his 248 limbs and 365 sinews, immediately, speedily in our days.

1:03:08 Speaker 9 Yes, ladies and gentlemen, of this it is said, “From my flesh I behold G-dliness.” Not as a metaphor, not as a comparison—I truly behold it. Thank you to the distinguished Rabbi Ashkenazi for those wonderful words. His impressions allowed us to “behold from my flesh”—to truly behold—and may we indeed merit to behold in the fullest sense of the word, in complete fulfillment. Ladies and gentlemen, as the Alter Rebbe said, we must live with the times—with the weekly parsha, the parsha of welcoming guests. In honor of our hosts, hosting this gathering of Chabad chassidim in our Holy Land for the thirty-third time, here in the great city of Tel Aviv, I have the honor, with the permission of the presidium and of all of you, to invite the longtime host and chossid, the distinguished Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau shlita. Please.