Farbrengen 19 Kislev 5764, Kfar Chabad

00:00 Speaker 1 [unclear]. In other words, according to the Alter Rebbe, the story of the liberation does not need to be written down, because it is something living and eternal. On the day of his liberation, the Alter Rebbe foretold that this day would be established as an enduring festival in Israel. And indeed, my friends, this farbrengen, and the hundreds and thousands of farbrengens for the Festival of Liberation held on this day throughout the world, year after year, are living testimony to the fulfillment of our Alter Rebbe’s holy words: “This day will be established as an enduring festival in Israel.” In one of his letters, the Rebbe Rashab calls 19 Kislev by the name familiar to us all: the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus. For just as life is granted for the entire year on Rosh Hashanah, so on 19 Kislev the treasures of blessing and abundance in the inner dimension of Torah are opened Above, and every Jew can draw new strength to study Chassidus and follow its ways. My friends, what has characterized Chassidus throughout the generations is its constant growth, its increasing strength and resolve, particularly when ill winds blow through the world and it becomes harder to preserve the purity of authentic Jewish life. Chassidus is not content merely to preserve what exists. It adds light and holiness, reaching beyond its own boundaries to spread the teachings of Chassidus to every Jew. In our generation, my friends, that outreach has reached its height. The Tanya, the book of the one whose liberation we celebrate, has been printed throughout the world in many thousands of editions and can be found in every Jewish home. The Tanya is studied in many yeshivos, Chassidic and non-Chassidic alike. The ideas of Chassidus have spread through every part of our people and become so familiar that many find it hard to believe they were innovations introduced by Chassidus. Today, in the seventh generation from the Alter Rebbe, the generation of His Holiness the Rebbe, the leader of our generation, we can certainly say that Moshiach’s words to the Baal Shem Tov have been fulfilled: “When will the Master come? When your wellsprings spread outward.” If so, this is the time for us to await his imminent arrival. The Festival of Liberation, my friends, teaches us not to be daunted

03:24 Speaker 1 by challenges and obstacles. The journey toward the Geulah cannot be stopped, just as the spread of the light of Chassidus could not be stopped. On this day, let us draw renewed strength to prepare ourselves for the imminent Geulah, primarily by strengthening our study of Chassidus, which is the true preparation for the coming of Moshiach. So let us wish one another, and all the Jewish people, that even during this farbrengen we merit to see Moshiach Tzidkeinu revealed. “May our eyes behold Your return to Zion,” together with the Rebbe at our head, very soon indeed. Amen and amen. My friends, in keeping with the custom of chassidim, we will open our gathering with a prayer, the Rebbe’s chapter, Psalm 102. I am honored to invite the chossid Reb Zev Kesselman, mashpia of this shul, Beis Menachem, to open with Psalm 102, the Rebbe’s chapter. Rabbi Kesselman.

04:38 Speaker 2 “A prayer of the afflicted man when he is overwhelmed and pours out his plea before Hashem. Hashem, hear my prayer, and let my cry come before You. Do not hide Your face from me on the day of my distress. Incline Your ear to me; on the day I call, answer me quickly. For my days have vanished like smoke, and my bones are scorched like a hearth. My heart is stricken like grass and withered, for I have forgotten to eat my bread. Because of the sound of my groaning, my bones cling to my flesh. I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl among the ruins. I lie awake and have become like a solitary bird on a roof. All day my enemies taunt me; those who rage against me use my name as a curse. For I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with tears, because of Your indignation and anger, for You lifted me up and cast me away. My days are like a lengthening shadow, and I wither like grass. But You, Hashem, will endure forever, and Your remembrance from generation to generation. You will arise and have mercy on Zion, for it is time to favor her; the appointed time has come. For Your servants cherish her stones and favor her dust. The nations will fear the name of Hashem, and all the kings of the earth Your glory. For Hashem has built Zion; He has appeared in His glory. He has turned to the prayer of the destitute and has not despised their prayer. Let this be written for a later generation, so that a people yet to be created will praise Hashem. For He looked down from His holy height; Hashem gazed from heaven to earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to release those condemned to die, so that the name of Hashem may be declared in Zion and His praise in Jerusalem, when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to serve Hashem. He weakened my strength along the way; He shortened my days. I say: My G-d, do not take me away in the midst of my days; Your years endure through all generations. Long ago You founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will endure; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing You will change them, and they will pass away. But You remain the same, and Your years will never end. The children of Your servants will dwell securely, and their descendants will be established before You. Long live our master, our teacher and our Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever. Long live our master, our teacher and our Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever. Long live our master, our teacher and our Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever.”

09:08 Speaker 3 You may sit down. Thank you, and yasher koach, to the shul’s mashpia, the chossid Reb Zev Kesselman. And to those outside and at the entrance to the shul: please come inside; there are still seats available. Join us all together—“How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to sit together”—and farbreng together. I repeat to those at the entrance to the shul and outside: please come into the beis midrash. My friends, we begin with a teaching from the Rebbe. I am honored to invite the rosh yeshivah of the Chabad yeshivah in Tzfas, the distinguished scholar and chossid Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Wilshansky shlita, to open with a teaching from the Rebbe relevant to this day. Rabbi Wilshansky, please.

00:03 Speaker 1 With the permission of the Chief Rabbi of the IDF, Rabbi Yisrael Weiss; my friend Rabbi Aharonov, chairman of Tzeirei Agudas Chabad; Rabbi Ashkenazi, the rabbi of Kfar Chabad; and Rabbi Binyamin Lifshitz, the new chairman of the village—may he rise and succeed for the sake of the village and for the sake of Chabad. Distinguished rabbis, distinguished guests: Two hundred and five years have passed since Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad Chassidus, was released from a Russian prison. Two hundred and five years have passed, and still, this evening, hundreds of thousands of Jews gather here and in many other places around the world, warming themselves in his great light and drawing strength from his path. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi is the pillar of fire that goes before the camp. He established Chabad’s path, a path that added intellectual depth to chassidic fervor. He continues to lead the way by teaching us a lesson in self-sacrifice. He showed us that we must fight for ideas we believe in, and even be prepared to pay a price. But Rabbi Schneur Zalman showed and taught us something else, perhaps the most important thing of all: When we believe in something with complete inner conviction, fight for it courageously, and are even prepared to pay a personal price and a price as a movement, in the end we also win. Rabbi Schneur Zalman’s path is the path of Chassidus, and the Chabad path has prevailed. This evening, and the words being spoken here, may be among the clearest and best proofs of that. History repeats itself, and today, too, Chabad marches at the head of the camp like a pillar of fire. Chabad chassidim bring light to remote places around the world and awaken dormant sparks in every corner. And in days of uncertainty and confusion, Chabad is also the one that raises its voice for the whole Land of Israel—a voice we so sorely miss today in a public landscape that is sometimes entirely devoid of any genuine connection, in values or national feeling, to the Holy Land, the Land of Israel, our

02:52 Speaker 1 only land. The Rebbe of Lubavitch, a great believer in the idea of the Land of Israel for the People of Israel according to the Torah of Israel, taught us all a lesson in the public courage befitting a true leader. He was not afraid to voice his views and fight for them, even when it sometimes seemed that the movement and its activities might suffer somewhat as a result. And to you, Chabad chassidim, I say this evening: Continue on your path; continue to greet every Jew warmly. Greetings to the honorable minister Yisrael Katz. Good evening. Continue on your path; continue to greet every Jew warmly and radiate kindness and love to each and every person, whoever they may be. And just as firmly, continue to state your position on the Land of Israel and the security of the Jewish people, for that is what Rabbi Schneur Zalman taught us: In the end, truth will prevail. May you go from strength to strength, and yasher koach. Good evening.

04:11 Speaker 2 Thank you very much, and yasher koach to Knesset member Mr. Gilad Erdan. And Gilad: “gil” means joy, and “ad” means forever. We wish Gilad everlasting joy, and may he always take part in chassidic celebrations. Thank you very much, and yasher koach. Ladies and gentlemen, at a farbrengen in 5752, the Rebbe said in one of the sichos about Yud-Tes Kislev farbrengens that at these farbrengens people should encourage one another, and be inspired themselves, to increase in the three paths of Torah, prayer, service, and acts of kindness. Now is the time for all of us together to be inspired in these three paths, which our Sages connect with the verse, “He redeemed my soul in peace.” I have the honor of inviting the mara d’asra of Kfar Chabad, the distinguished chossid Rabbi Mordechai Ashkenazi shlita, to offer words of inspiration on the three paths. Rabbi Ashkenazi, please.

05:42 Speaker 3 L’chaim, l’chaim, and blessings to everyone who has come to take part in the celebration of the Festival of Liberation, the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus. May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year in the study of Chassidus and the ways of Chassidus. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m a little tired, but happy too. I only arrived an hour ago. I had the privilege of being at the Ohel of the Alter Rebbe in Haditch last night, and at the Ohel of the Mitteler Rebbe in Niezhin early this morning. From there I went straight to a plane from Kyiv, until I arrived here in Israel for the farbrengen. Every year I travel on 24 Teves, but 24 Teves is a day of hilula. Although it is called a wedding, in practice it is not quite so joyous. This was the first time, through Divine Providence, that I was able to be there on Yud-Tes Kislev with the one whose hilula, celebration, and liberation it is, and to feel—or try to feel—some of the joy and liberation. Of course, I also asked for great success for the continuation of the celebration here in Kfar Chabad. To be there and feel that the joy belongs not only to the one whose hilula it is, but to each and every one of us—especially when you are in the country where the miracle took place. After everything that has happened over the course of two hundred and fifty years, to see how the teachings of Chassidus are flourishing and going from strength to strength—that is the real victory. Not just what is written in books, but seeing it in actual practice. [unclear] It strengthens, encourages, and gives us life to carry on, further and further, until the revelation of Moshiach. Since I must share some words of Torah, I’ll say something we discussed at the farbrengen there last night. I had the opportunity to speak there to a seminary for girls, Russian girls, of course. I sat with them for several hours, and they asked thoughtful questions, which was itself deeply moving. One of the questions I was asked was about the weekly parsha. On Shabbos we read, “And Dinah, the daughter of Leah, went out,” followed by what happened to Dinah, the daughter of Leah. Rashi explains earlier why something so terrible happened to Yaakov Avinu—why his daughter

08:58 Speaker 3 suffered what she did, and so on. Rashi says that when Yaakov met Eisav, he hid Dinah in a box, in a chest. He was afraid Eisav might set his eyes on her and want to marry her, and Yaakov Avinu was punished for that. Why? After all, he had done a good thing. But had Eisav married her, perhaps she would have brought him to teshuvah. Dinah might have brought Eisav to teshuvah. So I asked: In the previous parsha it says, “Leah’s eyes were tender.” Rashi explains: Why were Leah’s eyes tender? Because people said, “The elder daughter for the elder son, and the younger daughter for the younger son.” Leah, the elder daughter, would marry Eisav, and Rachel would marry Yaakov. Leah wept, and her eyes became tender. She did not want to marry Eisav. And what was her reward? She did indeed marry Yaakov. Why wasn’t Leah punished for not marrying Eisav and bringing him to teshuvah? Was Dinah a greater tzaddekes than Leah? So Yaakov was punished for not giving Dinah in marriage to Eisav, while Leah was rewarded for not marrying Eisav. That was the question I was asked there. I didn’t have much time to look into it, but when you are at a Yud-Tes Kislev farbrengen and living with the Alter Rebbe, with the Rebbe, you understand it more clearly. The punishment was not Dinah’s; it was Yaakov’s. Yaakov should have given Dinah in marriage to Eisav, because she could have brought him to teshuvah. Who would have given Leah in marriage to Eisav? Yaakov? No—Lavan, a wicked man, the son of a wicked man. Even though Leah was a tzaddekes, she was not permitted to put herself to the test. How could she know she would succeed in bringing him to teshuvah? Perhaps, G-d forbid, he might corrupt her. But when you go on a mission from Yaakov Avinu, you travel on a well-paved road.

11:44 Speaker 3 You cross a secure bridge. As our Sages put it, “We are confident in the strength of that elder.” That is the power of the Rebbe’s mission. That is the power of the Alter Rebbe’s mission, and the power of the Rebbe’s mission: to send his shluchim to those places, the most remote places in the world, into deep and doubled darkness. They will emerge with their reward, bringing the precious out of the base. We see it throughout the world. We see it in Russia, in Ukraine, and everywhere. This is the victory of the teachings of Chassidus, of the power of the one who sends them. May it be Hashem’s will that on Yud-Tes Kislev, a day of connection with the Alter Rebbe, we deepen and strengthen our connection to the Rebbe’s instructions and the Rebbe’s campaigns, carrying the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus into the entire year. L’chaim, l’chaim!

00:00 Speaker 1 To offer the guest’s blessing at the farbrengen. Please, Rabbi Weiss.

00:15 Speaker 2 With the permission of the local rabbi, Rabbi Ashkenazi. Honorable Minister of Agriculture Mr. Yisrael Katz, members of Knesset, Rabbi Aharonov, Rabbi Lipschitz, the new chairman, my teachers and rabbis. Ahavas Yisroel is the heart of Chassidus, and it is no coincidence that Ahavas Yisroel appears in chapter 32 of Tanya, the numerical value of lev, “heart.” I want to tell you that Ahavas Yisroel is also the heart of the Military Rabbinate, which seeks to take things to heart and give its soul. With your permission, I would like to read one sentence from Tanya. The children are invited to listen too. “And of this Hillel the Elder said: Be among the disciples of Aharon, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving your fellow creatures and bringing them close to the Torah.” The Alter Rebbe says: “This means that even those who are distant from Hashem’s Torah and His service, and are therefore called mere ‘creatures’—even them, those mere creatures, one must draw with thick cords of love, etc.” The “perhaps” here really is a perhaps. It may be that if we draw even those who are as distant as can be with cords of love, perhaps we will bring them close to the service of Hashem. I saw in Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz’s commentary there that he says the following: “The author is precise in his use of the word ‘creatures,’ meaning that even those who are distant from Hashem’s Torah and His service are therefore called mere ‘creatures.’ The only distinction these people possess is that they are the work of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s hands, even if they are very far from the Torah and the faith of Israel.” “Creatures,” G-d forbid, is not an expression of contempt. It is—a term for a lowly state of being, a general expression that includes even those at the very lowest level. Nothing positive can be said about them apart from the fact that they are the work of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s hands. My teachers and rabbis, in the connection between Chabad’s activities and the Israel Defense Forces, there is, first and foremost, an Ahavas Yisroel beyond compare, and a self-sacrifice beyond compare. I see you everywhere, in Israel and around the world, and there is no place that the faith of Chabad does not reach. I travel throughout Israel and everywhere else in the world, and the genuine connection that

04:28 Speaker 2 Chabad chassidim have enables them to connect with a person simply as a person, whatever his beliefs, religion, speech, dress or style may be. Chabad people are able to peel away the layer of outward appearance that people wear, remove it, and touch the soul, the Jewish soul. And even if that soul is covered by many layers of filth, and even if one of us tries to suppress his connection to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to stifle it and distance it, the power of this faith and your devotion can break through those layers and touch the hand of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, resting there or reaching out, and touch the faith of Israel. This is a special strength, a genuine strength, one that comes from the faith of Avraham Avinu, the first believing Jew, who stood before Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s decrees and said to Him: “Here I am. I am ready for any mission. I am ready for any challenge, [unclear], not my own personal concerns.” You Chabad chassidim know how to take your private selves, put them aside, and face the challenge of the Jewish people as a whole, and speak, my teachers and rabbis, to the true unity within the Jewish people. For you know that a community is made up of the righteous, the intermediate, and the wicked. And we know how, even on the High Holy Days, to stand and say: “Master of the Universe, by the authority of the heavenly court and by the authority of the earthly court, we permit prayer with the transgressors,” because they too have merits. And the Torah spoke of four sons—not only of the wise son, but also of the wicked son. And you know that the four species include, on the one hand, an esrog, but on the other, an aravah that has neither taste nor fragrance, and that may represent those at the very margins of the Jewish community. But you know how to take the entire community and bind them together as one. May it be Hashem’s will that this important work, which springs, as I have said, from Ahavas Yisroel and genuine self-sacrifice, continue to broaden its reach, in days, with Hashem’s help, of

07:33 Speaker 2 joy. Mazel tov and a happy holiday!

07:44 Speaker 3 Thank you very much, and yasher koach to our distinguished guest, the Chief Rabbi of the IDF, Brigadier General Rabbi Yisrael Weiss shlita, for the wonderful words we have heard. And we welcome the Chief Rabbi of the Israel Prison Service, Rabbi Moshe Toledano, and the Interior Ministry’s district director, Mr. Shuki Amrani. We welcome a member of Knesset and a longstanding, loyal friend of the Rebbe’s house and of Lubavitch Chassidus generally, Rabbi Meir Porush. A warm welcome to the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, MK Yuli Edelstein, whose greetings we will hear later, and welcome to the chairman of the Beis Rivkah institutions, Rabbi Shmuel Chayon. My teachers and rabbis, it is known from the history of the Alter Rebbe and the Rebbeim who followed him that the Rebbe sent chassidim to work the land and engage in farming. As is explained in Chassidus, in keeping with the weekly parsha, they bind sheaves in the field in order to elevate the field to holiness. We have an important guest with us here, the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Yisrael Katz. Please. We welcome the Chief Rabbi of Israel, the distinguished Rabbi Yonah Metzger. Welcome in the name of Hashem.

09:59 Speaker 4 Good evening. I am pleased to greet the honorable Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Yonah Metzger; the rabbi of Kfar Chabad, Rabbi Ashkenazi; the Chief Rabbi of the IDF, Rabbi Yisrael Weiss; Rabbi Aharonov, chairman of Tzeirei Chabad; and my friend Rabbi Binyamin Lipschitz. I wish you success on your election as chairman of the Kfar Chabad committee. Rabbis, my friends, members of Knesset, and Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein, who fulfilled the great mitzvah of making aliyah to Israel after being a Prisoner of Zion in the Soviet Union—and the former Minister of Immigrant Absorption is here with us. I heard that Rabbi Meir Porush was welcomed? My friend, MK Rabbi Meir Porush, a loyal friend of the Torah and the Land of Israel, a partner in our work, and a lover of the Land of Israel. I am glad to be here this evening as we celebrate 205 years since the release of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad Chassidus, from his imprisonment in a Russian prison. What strength it shows that 205 years have passed and we are here celebrating the day of his release—and not a single year has gone by without this holiday being celebrated. It is an expression... I greet my friend Minister Effi Eitam, who has arrived. I, I was appointed in your place and... I am serving as master of ceremonies in your place. If anyone else needs to be announced, just tell me; I am ready for any assignment. I think this continuity, this persistence and this steadfastness are among the great defining qualities of Chabad Chassidus. That strength is found throughout the world, here in the State of Israel and in many countries around the world. Right now, this evening, people are celebrating the same holiday, celebrating their commitment to the same path. Today, as on other occasions in the past, we stand at a crossroads regarding our steadfastness and determination in holding on to the Land of Israel—the Land of Israel, the birthplace of the Jewish people, promised to our people for all eternity. And I want to tell you—I must say this, honorable rabbis and my friends—

14:13 Speaker 4 on a personal note as well: when all sorts of plans come up, and as a citizen of this country, a member of Knesset and a government minister, you suddenly hear that someone has gotten up in the morning and announced a plan that he says will make us stronger, will improve things, if we make some concession. And like anyone else, you try to understand what he is saying. He says: If we leave one community, we will strengthen all the others. If we leave two communities, we will strengthen all the others. If we leave three, if we leave four. It recalls Avraham’s plea to G-d, only in exactly the opposite order: What if there are ten righteous people, and what if there are nine righteous people, and finally, what if there is one righteous person? And you ask yourself, rationally, why not listen to this argument? Perhaps it is true that if we evacuate one community out there at the edge, it will save all the others. And then I must tell you that I—I am speaking personally, honorable Rabbi Aharonov and friends—I remember at that moment my roots, my upbringing, my faith, the Tanach, the Jewish people, and the fact that the right to the Land of Israel belongs only to the Jewish people. And you say: A right is not something you give up. And I remember the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who held so firmly to the integrity of the Land of Israel, without any condition, without any compromise, without any permission to give up that integrity or that right. These are the things that give us the real strength to stand up and say: We will not give up ten communities, or nine, or eight, or seven, or six or five, or four, or three, or two, or even one community. Not even one community, and no community will be moved, no community will be moved. Because whoever gives up the right—whoever compromises on the right—has given up everything. Whoever

16:57 Speaker 4 That gives up the fundamental principle that this land belongs to us. Policy has to be made, and it has to be made wisely. There are constraints, but we must not give up our right. I think that conviction is sorely lacking today in too many parts of the public, and it is important that the Chabad movement bring the education it knows how to provide, and does provide, with its faith. I am not talking about politics. I am talking about education: teaching people to know and understand why we are here; teaching love for the Land of Israel and devotion to it. Without that education, no one truly has the strength to hold on and remain here. And I am convinced that this people, which for thousands of years has known how to overcome the greatest hardships and has held fast—we are on the eve of Chanukah, commemorating the revolt of the Maccabees, who refused to accept the decrees of the Greeks and were not prepared at any price to violate the Torah’s grave prohibitions—I think this people has strength enough. And with Hashem’s help, with Hashem’s help, with proper education and steadfast devotion, we will be here, educate here, and live here in security, with much love, much, much settlement, and a firm hold on the Land of Israel. I wish you a happy holiday, and l’chaim.

18:46 Speaker 5 Thank you, and yasher koach to the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Yisrael Katz. Mr. Yisrael Katz, the large gathering here at this chassidic farbrengen wants to tell you: the moment you join us here at a chassidic farbrengen, you become a Chabad chossid. And if you are a Chabad chossid, there is a promise from the Alter Rebbe that what a Jew asks for and resolves on this day will come to pass. We wish you that the chassidim’s hand will prevail, and that everything you said here will indeed be realized in practice. Thank you very much, Mr. Yisrael Katz.

00:00 Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen, the Alter Rebbe’s letter is well known: the Geulah and the miracles took place before the eyes of the ministers. Back then, it was before the eyes of the ministers. Today, by contrast, it is not only before their eyes, but with the participation of our ministers here, at the great farbrengen celebrating the Geulah of 19 Kislev. I have the honor of inviting the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, Member of Knesset Mr. Yuli Edelstein. Please.

00:39 Speaker 2 Good evening. With the permission of the Chief Rabbi of Israel, the local rabbi, the Chief Rabbi of the IDF, the Chief Rabbi of the Israel Prison Service, and all the distinguished rabbis; with the permission of the new chairman of the committee, Rabbi Lipschitz—may he succeed for the benefit of this entire holy community—and my fellow ministers and members of Knesset. Two hundred and five years ago, an open miracle indeed took place, one that became a foundation of the Chabad movement. And when I say that, I am not thinking of the community sitting here, with all due respect, or of the wonderful things this community does in Israel. I must say that it takes me back twenty-five years, to the Soviet Union of those days. The jokers say, “Wherever you go, there’s Coca-Cola and Chabad.” I can testify personally: twenty-five years ago I had never seen Coca-Cola. I didn’t know what Coca-Cola tasted like, but I had tasted Chabad. My friend the Minister of Agriculture spoke here about faith and how Chabad acts with faith. Perhaps I can give him an example of what he meant. Some twenty-four years ago now, we gathered in an apartment in Moscow for a bris milah. The only mohel available was none other than Rabbi Mottel Lipschitz, whom some of those present may know. May he live to 120—although he is already at an age when it isn’t so polite to say “to 120.” We waited and waited. The doorbell rang. What could we do? Instead of Mottel Lipschitz, the police came in, took everyone’s passports and began writing down their details. It turned out that Rabbi Mottel had been on his way in just then, but someone warned him and he fled. And ladies and gentlemen, I am speaking of someone who had lived through Stalin’s camps. As soon as the police left, we said, “Well, the bris won’t take place.” A few minutes later the bell rang again, and Rabbi Mottel came in, white as a sheet with fear. But faith is faith.

03:18 Speaker 2 He knew there was no turning back. Yes, he was afraid; he was white as a sheet. But he knew that if he did not perform the bris, no one would. That was the kind of faith I came to know as part of the Chabad movement. I once learned a passage in the Gemara—and the learned rabbis will forgive me; I don’t have the page in front of me, so I may not quote it correctly. It teaches us: who is fit to be a charity treasurer? Not merely someone who would never misuse the funds, but someone whom no one in the community would even think of suspecting of misusing them. That is the meaning, or at least my free rendering of it. A few years ago, before the High Holidays, someone from a newspaper called me and said, “We’re asking various well-known people one question: Have you ever known a tzaddik in your lifetime?” I didn’t hesitate for a second. I said yes, and the reporter was terribly surprised. She asked, “You really knew a tzaddik?” I said yes. I knew a man named Rabbi Geitche[?], who twenty-five years ago used to walk around with a bag full of money. Not only did he never misappropriate any of it, but I cannot remember a single person who thought for even a moment, for even a second, that Rabbi Geitche[?] might give a ruble to someone unworthy or, G-d forbid, put it in his own pocket. To me, I told her, that was a tzaddik. Everyone who looked at him saw a tzaddik. I could go on with examples, but I won’t. There are still many people to offer greetings and speak. But I will tell you one thing: the young people sitting here are filling the windows. I very much hope they heard what I said—not out of respect for me or because my words are important, but because those people, in perhaps the hardest and darkest times of our era, knew how to take the Rebbe’s message and not just keep it for themselves, but bring it to others. May these young people continue on that path, and then, with Hashem’s help, we will all succeed here in Eretz Yisroel, as the Rebbe instructed.

05:43 Speaker 3 Thank you, and yasher koach for the wonderful words we heard from the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, Member of Knesset Yuli Edelstein. Thank you, and all blessings to you. Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to take a short pause. As we mentioned, today is the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus. Yesterday, on its eve, we completed the Tanya, and today we begin it anew. We would like to use this special opportunity to present copies of the Tanya—the foundational book of Chabad Chassidus, written by the Alter Rebbe, whose Geulah we celebrate. They will be presented by the chairman of Tzeirei Agudas Chabad, who heads the spreading of the wellsprings in the Holy Land. I have the honor of inviting Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak HaKohen Aharonov to present the Tanya to our distinguished guests here: the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yonah Metzger; the Chief Rabbi of the IDF, Rabbi Yisrael Weiss; the Chief Rabbi of the Israel Prison Service, Rabbi Moshe Toledano; Minister of Housing Mr. Effi Eitam; and Minister of Agriculture Mr. Yisrael Katz. And in Torah, there is no earlier or later. Rabbi Aharonov, please. And we all know the promise that, with the Tanya, we will all go out to greet Moshiach Tzidkeinu very soon indeed. Thank you very much, Rabbi Aharonov. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the pleasure and honor of hosting an old friend who joins us at the farbrengens every year. Here, on 11 Nissan, the day before the election for the chief rabbis, we stood and, with the strength of the chassidic farbrengen, offered our blessings to the man who would be elected Chief Rabbi of Israel: our distinguished guest, the renowned Rabbi Yonah Metzger shlita. He will bring us the blessing of the Chief Rabbinate and of the Chief Rabbi of Israel. Rabbi Metzger, please.

08:12 Speaker 4 My dear friend, the distinguished Rabbi Ashkenazi shlita; the Chief Rabbi of the IDF and an honorary member of the Council of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, my friend Rabbi Weiss shlita; the Chief Rabbi of the Israel Prison Service, Rabbi Toledano; the rabbis of Arad, Ramla and Holon; Rabbi Brod; honorable ministers—the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Housing and Construction, my friend Minister Effi Eitam; members of Knesset Rabbi Meir Porush and Yuli Edelstein; the chairman of the new committee here in Kfar Chabad, Rabbi Lipschitz; and the district director of the Ministry of the Interior. Ladies and gentlemen, as our dear emcee, Rabbi Roth, mentioned, I stood on this stage with great emotion on the night before the election for the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and expressed my confidence in the Rebbe’s blessing. Before this entire gathering, I told the story of what had happened thirteen years earlier, and how, on the night before the election, I saw with complete faith that the Rebbe’s blessing was about to be fulfilled. And boruch Hashem, today is the second time I have appeared on this stage since, on my first visit to the United States as Chief Rabbi of Israel, I said, “I will not leave America before visiting the Ohel to express my gratitude to the Rebbe.” And that is what I did. Now, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to share a thought about Yaakov Avinu’s prayer: “Save me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav.” The Beis HaLevi asks—excuse me for not mentioning Rabbi Blake[?], the new assistant to the Chief Rabbi of the IDF, who honors us with his presence—“Save me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav.” The Beis HaLevi asks, as others before and after him have asked: If Yaakov Avinu had, say, ten brothers, then when he said, “Save me, please, from the hand of my brother,” we might ask, “Which of your ten brothers do you mean?” and he could answer, “My brother Esav.” But when Yaakov has only one brother, why does he need to add

12:00 Speaker 4 Why did Yaakov Avinu say, “Save me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav”? His brother was Esav. He had no other brother. And the Torah is so precise with every word. This is a well-known question among the commentators. I wanted to share an answer I once heard from a student of a student of the Ksav Sofer, who quoted his father, the Chasam Sofer. We say—and we said it just yesterday morning—“Splendor and faith belong to the One who lives forever.” Splendor here means a coat. What does a coat have to do with faith? What do we mean when we connect the coat with faith? The Chasam Sofer says: “In a parable, the wind and the sun argued with each other. Which was stronger? Which deserved greater honor in the world? The wind came and said, ‘I am stronger. When I blow, my force is so powerful that I can uproot trees, mountains, houses, whole cities.’ That is the power of the wind. The sun came and said, ‘With all due respect, wind, with just a few rays of sunlight, I can burn up the whole world with my heat.’ Their argument grew loud, until they spotted a Jew down here in our world walking along in a coat—a fur coat. So the wind said, ‘Well, dear sun, I’ll show you that I’m stronger. Watch me take that coat right off his body.’ The sun said, ‘Go ahead. I don’t believe you.’” The wind began to blow, and as soon as it did, the Jew started buttoning his buttons. Then the wind blew harder, and the Jew took out his gartel and tied it around himself to hold the coat closer and keep warm. When the wind blew hard a third time, he raised the fur collar and huddled inside it, so at least his neck would be warm. The sun smiled and said, “Well, where’s your strength? Instead of taking off his coat, he’s pulling it tighter around himself.” The sun said, “Let me try.” The sun sent down a ray

15:13 Speaker 4 of light and warmth, and the Jew began to feel a little warmer. First he lowered the fur collar. The heat grew stronger, and he took off his gartel. It got warmer, and he opened his buttons, until a heat wave set in and he took off the coat altogether. The Chasam Sofer says this struggle between the wind and the sun is a struggle between two approaches in the world. There are times when the Jewish people suffer storms of antisemitism, like Haman’s decree “to destroy, kill, and annihilate all Jews, young and old.” But precisely in those stormy times, when there is opposition to the very existence of the Jewish people, we see an awakening. Jews draw their tallis and tefillin closer; they add more Chassidus, more warmth, more things that strengthen their bond with the Creator. The danger comes when the sun smiles—when the nations approach us not with antisemitism but with cleverness, equality, rights, a smile, and warmth. Then people take off their tefillin, put away their tallis, leave the siddur in the cupboard, and come less often to shul and Torah classes. That is a much greater danger. The Chasam Sofer says: “The coat—oh, it is connected to faith.” The more firmly the coat stays on, the stronger the faith. And that is what Yaakov Avinu meant in his prayer: “Master of the Universe, this non-Jew who acts like my brother, who smiles, embraces, and kisses me—that is far more dangerous. First of all, Master of the Universe, ‘save me, please, from the hand of my brother,’ from the one who smiles at me warmly. As for ‘the hand of Esav,’ I’ll know how to deal with that afterward.” I say these things as I enter my seventh month as Chief Rabbi of Israel. During these months, we have tried to do a few things within the Chief Rabbinate. In the coming months, G-d willing, we will hear about ending the employment tie between a kashrus supervisor and the person he supervises. We will no longer allow it by law. G-d willing, we will do things in which we feel the Rebbe’s guiding hand, following his blessing.

18:25 Speaker 4 And I have to tell you how I saw an awakening in Russia, Ukraine, and Europe through the work of Chabad chassidim, precisely at a time when waves of antisemitism are rising around the world. I’ll tell a story, and with that I’ll finish. Many here in Kfar Chabad knew Reb Baruch Wolf, z”l. He has two sons in Ukraine. I visited Rabbi Avraham Wolf, the rabbi of Odessa. I want to tell you how impressed I was by his work, and share a story that is moving in its own right. When we landed, we went to meet the leaders of the community. It turns out Odessa was once a major center of Jewish life. It had eighty-three shuls. The Nazis destroyed eighty; three remained. Two are in use, while the third was taken over by the communists sixty years ago. They turned that shul, called Brodsky Shul—a huge building nearly five stories high—into Ukraine’s national archive for documents. For sixty years, it has been closed to Jews and used to store papers. It stands in the city center and is worth millions of dollars. I haven’t mentioned Rabbi Aharonov, chairman of Tzeirei Agudas Chabad. I was speaking and simply didn’t notice you were sitting here with us. What? Yes. Last but not least. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that shul was taken over for use as an archive. They asked me to appeal to the governor to have it returned. I asked, “What is a governor?” They told me, “He rules all of southern Ukraine.” “How much power does he have?” “He has an army, he has a parliament, and he is second in power only to the president of Ukraine.” A very powerful man, who had ruled the region even in the communist era. I asked whether anyone had spoken to him about the shul before me. It turns out the shul is 135 years old, and Jews from the Jewish Congress in the United States, and lords

21:48 Speaker 4 in England, had spoken to him, without success. So I said, “What? I’ve never studied diplomacy; they don’t teach that in yeshiva. How am I even going to speak to him? I don’t know Russian.” They told me, “There will be an interpreter. But you should know that you are the first Chief Rabbi of Israel to visit Odessa. Please speak to his heart.” I arrived, and there was an honor guard of soldiers. They raised the Ukrainian flag to the Ukrainian anthem, then raised the Israeli flag to “Hatikvah.” As they played “Hatikvah,” I looked to my right and saw a group of elderly Jews crying. Afterward, I went over and asked them in Yiddish, “Why are you crying?” They didn’t answer. I thought perhaps they didn’t understand Yiddish, so I asked someone to translate my question into Russian. They told me, “We’re crying because of the honor.” “What honor?” “The honor the Chief Rabbi of Israel is receiving here.” “And that makes you cry? What’s wrong with that?” They said, “If the Chief Rabbi only knew—until eight years ago, we didn’t dare set foot within two kilometers of this building.” One very elderly man said, “I still remember a sign on this building, on that door across from us. It said, ‘Entry permitted to all except dogs and Jews.’ And today our Chief Rabbi is receiving such honor—how could we not cry?” Only then did I grasp the significance of this visit. Deeply moved, I went upstairs to the second floor. We sat with the governor for over an hour. We spoke about Israel and Ukraine, about words and Jews and antisemitism. I even shared a Torah thought that a non-Jew could understand. Afterward, I explained to him the importance of a shul in general. Every wall, every millimeter, every floor tile is saturated with the Torah study, prayers, and tears of Jews. I mentioned a passage of a line and a half in the Zohar that asks why a shul is called

24:45 Speaker 4 “A little Beis Hamikdash”? Why is a shul called that? It should say “a small Beis Hamikdash,” or “a tiny one.” “A little” doesn’t fit a shul, a building. The Zohar says: “Since the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, its stones have been scattered to every place in the world. Wherever a stone came to rest, a shul would one day be built there, and every shul in the world contains a little piece of the Beis Hamikdash.” A little Beis Hamikdash. I said to him, “You know that Jews throughout Ukraine pray facing the Beis Hamikdash, toward our Temple Mount in Jerusalem. So do Jews in England, in Europe, in the United States, all over the world. And here, in the shuls you still have, are stones that are the heart of the Jewish people. A piece of our heart is there.” Someone sitting beside me, who was translating for me, gestured to me: Look how his eyes are shining. I looked, and sure enough, I suddenly saw that his eyes were shining. I realized I had reached his heart. Then I said to him, “Your Excellency, Governor, I will leave here as a loyal ambassador for you and for Ukraine if you do right by me and my people and return to us this historic Brodsky Shul, 135 years old, for our Jews.” He immediately apologized and said, “Rabbi, I must admit something. Sixty years ago, when the Communists took it from you, I wasn’t even alive, so I’m not to blame. But I’m not evading responsibility. Whether to return it or not is my responsibility. Until today, people spoke to me about it and I thought it was an economic matter. Today I understand that it is far more emotional—that it is part of your heart, Rabbi. And if it is your heart, it is the heart of many Jews. So allow me to invite you back here to my office at five this afternoon, if you can spare fifteen minutes. I want to hand you back the key to the Great Synagogue of Odessa, the Brodsky

27:23 Speaker 4 Shul.” I must admit to you, ladies and gentlemen, that I burst into tears. Then I immediately collected myself, very concerned that this might turn out to be an empty promise. We once had a distinguished prime minister who said, “I promised, but I didn’t promise I would keep my promise.” Who says this governor wouldn’t do the same? Then an idea came to me. I said, “Governor, I know you’ve arranged a large press conference outside in honor of our historic meeting. From here I’m also traveling to see your president. I want to send greetings to my people all over the world. Allow me to thank you through the international media, so everyone will know that you have indeed made this gracious gesture.” In plain language, I wanted to pin him down. He put his hand over his heart and said, “Rabbi, where we come from, a person’s word is his honor. Please.” We exchanged gifts and went outside. He began speaking into the microphones, before thirty journalists from radio, television and the newspapers, and he spoke highly of me. I took the microphone and spoke highly of him in return, but I was waiting for him to say something about the shul. Nothing. With no other choice, when the microphone came back to me, I thanked him for the gracious gesture of returning this shul to us. You have to understand: this shul had become a national symbol. You should have seen what happened next. I was actually frightened. There were displays of antisemitism. The journalists shouted at him, “Governor, what is this? In a matter of seconds you give the Chief Rabbi of Israel a shul worth millions? Who will take the archive? Who will move all the paperwork? Where will there be a replacement archive? How can you do this—without decisions, without parliament, without anything?” He was very decent. He pushed back against the press and told them, “Ladies and gentlemen, sixty years ago this was the Jews’ building. It will go back to them. I will give orders to our soldiers. They

29:59 Speaker 4 will take the paperwork and move it to a military base. A replacement building will be established there, and that will be the new archive. Here, the shul will be restored.” For three days it was the lead story on the news there, with arguments about who was right. We Jews had majority support in Odessa, too. I must tell you about the moving part of the story... The next day, Rabbi Wolf organized a fairly spontaneous dinner there. To our surprise, six hundred Jews came. A thirty-two-year-old Jew stood up and asked to speak. They gave him the microphone, and he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Sasha. I’m Jewish. Why am I Jewish? I know only one reason: my mother was Jewish. I have no connection to Yiddishkeit, to shuls or to rabbis. But I must tell you that last night I saw on the television news the governor giving the buil-- the key to the Chief Rabbi of Israel, and I cried like a little child. I can’t remember ever crying that hard. And you’ll ask me,” he said, “why did you cry? You just said you have no connection to a shul. I’ll tell you. My grandfather was at home. I came back from school—I was fourteen—and saw him dying. My mother and father hadn’t come home from work yet. I held him, with his head resting in my arms, and these were his last words to me: ‘My dear grandson, on the corner of the street parallel to ours, there is a holy building for Jews. I had my bar mitzvah in that building. You don’t even know what a bar mitzvah is. In that building, my grandfather was a gabbai. You don’t even know what a gabbai is. I ask you: you are young today. If a day ever comes when you have some influence with the Communist authorities, work to return this holy building to the Jews, and I promise to bless you from Heaven.’ That boy thought to himself, What a dream. What did I have to do with the Communists

32:46 Speaker 4 at fourteen? But today I saw the wheel turn, and I’m bringing the story full circle.” Hashem helped this young man. At thirty-two, he had bought several airports in Russia and Ukraine and become wealthy. He said, “I hereby announce, before the Chief Rabbi and the whole community here, that I want to make my first donation toward restoring the shul: one million dollars.” Two weeks-- three weeks ago, Rabbi Wolf called me. “Rabbi Metzger, you have no idea what we did to him. The Chief Rabbi’s visit completely changed his outlook. He has already agreed to have a bris. Now he has come to me and invited me as the rabbi.” Rabbi Wolf told me, “He invited me to his tenth wedding-anniversary celebration.” So Rabbi Wolf said to him on the phone last week, “What do you mean? You’re not married?” He said, “Of course I’m married. I have children.” “But a rabbi didn’t marry you. What kind of marriage is that?” “What does it matter? I’m registered at city hall.” He hadn’t understood that a rabbi was needed at all. So they agreed that he would be willing to have a Jewish wedding if the Chief Rabbi of Israel came and officiated. I haven’t promised. I don’t know if I’ll manage it. I’ll make every effort. A Jew who gives a million dollars to a shul—I think he deserves it. I hope we succeed. I only wanted to tell you that this is one example set against the displays of antisemitism. On the other hand, there is an awakening, and much, much of that awakening comes from the Rebbe’s shlichus. And as for what Yuri Alshin[?] said about Coca-Cola, we find this kind of awakening everywhere. May it be Hashem’s will that we all succeed in fulfilling the Rebbe’s heartfelt wish: to continue adding soldiers to the ranks of Torah, to draw hearts closer to our Father in Heaven, and to welcome Moshiach Tzidkeinu speedily in our days, very soon. Amen and amen.

35:31 Speaker 5 Applause. Thank you, and yasher koach to the Chief Rabbi of Israel, the distinguished Rabbi Yonah Metzger shlita, for the wonderful words we have heard.

00:01 Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen, we mentioned the Alter Rebbe’s words about the festival of liberation, 19 Kislev: it is an auspicious day. The Rebbe said that the Alter Rebbe said, “I have dedicated this day so that whatever a Jew asks for on it will be granted.” With your permission, and on behalf of all the residents of Kfar Chabad, I would like to serve as a faithful emissary in giving the priestly blessing: to bless, on this auspicious day, the newly elected chairman of the village committee, Rabbi Binyamin Lipschitz. Along with the chairman, we wish all the elected members of the village committee success in going from strength to strength here in Kfar Chabad, the center of Chabad in the Land of Israel. It is my honor to invite someone beloved by everyone here, the newly elected chairman of the Kfar Chabad committee, Rabbi Binyamin Lipschitz. Please.

01:50 Speaker 2 Honored Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, government ministers, distinguished guests on the dais, holy congregation: On behalf of the residents of Kfar Chabad, I am honored to thank each and every one of you who came here to rejoice in the joy of the one whose liberation we celebrate, to take part in this great chassidic farbrengen and to bask in the great light of Chabad Chassidus. It is known that the denunciation of the Alter Rebbe was based on his sending money to support the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel; the informers claimed that the money was actually intended for the Turkish government. After his release, the Alter Rebbe wrote that it was the merit of the Land of Israel that stood by him and enabled him to go free. Kfar Chabad is a direct continuation of that effort by the Alter Rebbe to settle our Holy Land. The village, founded by the Frierdiker Rebbe and built and developed with the Rebbe’s blessings and close guidance, is the capital of Chabad settlement in the Land of Israel and a center for spreading the light of Torah and Chassidus throughout the country. May you and we merit to host multitudes of our fellow Jews for celebrations of joy and Ahavas Yisroel for many more years, and may we soon, truly soon, welcome Moshiach Tzidkeinu here. Amen.

03:22 Speaker 3 Thank you very much, and yasher koach to Rabbi Binyamin Lipschitz. Once again, on behalf of everyone here and all the residents of Kfar Chabad, we wish you success, going from strength to strength, in carrying out the Rebbe’s mission for the village and the special blessing given to Kfar Chabad. Ladies and gentlemen, we all know the Alter Rebbe’s famous promise: “Whoever rejoices in my joy”—according to one version—“I will bring him out of confinement into a wide-open space,” or “from the material to the spiritual,” or “out of Gehinnom.” Recently I found another version: “Whoever rejoices in my joy will merit to see nachas from all his descendants.” Ladies and gentlemen, who among us would not want all these blessings fulfilled? Avi Piamenta, the Arens brothers with the children of Kfar Chabad, the joy coming out of Kfar Chabad—and with them, with them too, the chassidic singer Reb Mendy Jerufi. But that is not enough. Together with everyone here: rejoice and celebrate the joy of the liberation!

04:55 Speaker 4 [unclear] those who dwell in the shade; [unclear] those who dwell in the shade. Let the nation rejoice, and let no one say [unclear]. Rejoice, “And you shall love Hashem your G-d,” “and you shall love Hashem your G-d,” for He is your G-d, the G-d of your fathers, your fathers. [unclear] in heaven and on earth, your strength, your strength, your strength, the glory of your G-d. [unclear] my G-d, the G-d of your fathers, your fathers. Hashem your G-d, Hashem your G-d, [unclear], Hashem is One, Hashem is One; you shall have no other gods, no other gods besides You, besides You. And You, my G-d, [unclear] my sinful heart. [unclear] my sinful heart. [unclear], no, no, [unclear]. [unclear], no, no, [unclear]. My eyes will open, my eyes will open, my eyes will open, my eyes will open, my eyes will open, my eyes will open, my eyes will open, will open, will open. My eyes will open, my eyes...

15:00 Speaker 5 Thank you very much to the Arens brothers, Avi Piamenta, Reb Mendy Jerufi and the delightful children of Kfar Chabad, soldiers in Tzivos Hashem, for the joy that has only just begun and will not end. Ladies and gentlemen, may I ask all the children to return to their places nicely, like soldiers in Tzivos Hashem. Good. Ladies and gentlemen, from this wonderful joy we continue the farbrengen together with our distinguished guests, the rabbis, ministers and Knesset members. It is my honor to invite the Minister of Housing, Mr. Effi Eitam.

16:02 Speaker 6 Ladies and gentlemen, thank G-d you have given more members of Israel’s political leadership the opportunity to come here, year after year, doing what we are called upon to do, returning to those days through the power of this time. Joined together in dancing and joy that begins with the little children, from whom strength is established. And thank G-d, here with us are, first of all, the local rabbi, an outstanding Torah scholar, my friend, teacher and rabbi, Rabbi Ashkenazi. The head of the Nachalim yeshiva, Rabbi Bagad, is here. Welcome. And of course, as I said—and I am glad I said it—just as I remarked that the government comes here to draw strength, the table began to fill up. They immediately gather and come toward the light, the warmth and the faith that this place radiates. Seated with us are Minister Uzi Landau, my friend; my friend and partner in the leadership of the National Religious Party, Minister Zevulun Orlev, the Minister of Labor and Social Welfare; the Minister of Tourism, Minister Benny Elon; and beside him, Deputy Minister Tzvi Hendel, Deputy Minister of Education. And I see there a modest Jew who has done so much to spread this special spirit—“but My servant Calev, because he had a different spirit with him”—who has come from the depths, from the valley, from the depths of Chevron, my friend [unclear], a man of Chevron, from which we draw a spirit of connection to the Torah, the people and the Land. Thank G-d, how fortunate are the eyes that have seen ministers and leaders of the State of Israel gather and sit here to draw water from the wellsprings of salvation, the wellsprings of faith. We need that so much now, as the next level of the Geulah of the Jewish people is being built. I cannot hear what he is saying; I am sure it is important. A Jew fired with faith, here too in the synagogue on this special day. It is known that there is a secret in the three levels of Chochmah, Binah and Daas. The three levels, the configurations of Chochmah, correspond to three revelations of Hashem in the world: point, line and plane. I heard this teaching from Rabbi Ginsburgh. I hope I am accurately attributing it to its source. A point is a reality that exists entirely in potential. When a person is in his mother’s womb, when he is

21:14 Speaker 6 there in the mystery of the cave, which can be a womb or a grave, everything is already there within, in potential. When a seed is planted in the ground, the trunks, leaves, branches and fruit are all there in that hard, compact grain. But, as Rabbi Ginsburgh says regarding the inner teachings of Chassidus, this is the idea of the point. Our Sages call it “reaching and not reaching”: a reality that is not yet a reality, touching and not touching. A potential reality. True, everything is contained there, but nothing has yet come into being. Then, when that reality begins to expand, the line appears. Kav, “line,” is related to tikvah, “hope”: “Let the waters be gathered.” The waters gather into channels, streams, brooks and rivers, but they are constantly flowing, constantly narrow. There are hardships all the time. There is always a state of constriction. The line has already begun to emerge into actuality, but it is very sensitive, very delicate, very vulnerable. It is like a sprout when it first emerges: if, G-d forbid, the rain does not come on time, it wilts and dries up, and everything dies with it. The line, too, is not yet a full reality. Yes, it is something beginning. As the Gemara describes Adam: in the first hour, at the beginning, the Gemara says, his dust was gathered. He was a pile. He was a point. Even his form had not begun to appear. Then, the Gemara says, in the second hour his limbs were stretched out. He began to take on some form, but it was still very general, very sensitive, very vulnerable. Then we were told of the level above it, the level of a plane. A plane is already a reality. We speak of the realms of life. There are three verses describing light, mentioned in the Torah, repeated in the Prophets and stated a third time in the Writings. In Bereishis: “And Hashem said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” A reality that does not touch reality. A light whose nature is not clear. Light—all realities are contained within that light. But

24:54 Speaker 6 After that, this light enters in. And in the Prophets: “House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of Hashem.” The light of Israel’s Geulah is already beginning to dawn through the movement, through the walking of the House of Jacob. This whole emergence, this whole beginning, takes place in the light of Hashem. The beginning of a line. And then, in the Writings: “Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright of heart.” Now the light has been sown. It is already a field of light. It is light that lives a full life, illuminated by holiness and purity. It begins with “Let there be light,” continues with “House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of Hashem,” and ends with a reality of sown light. Hashem’s name is not even mentioned anymore. The light is so clear, so fully realized, so complete in every sphere, that the word of Hashem is recognizable in every part of life, in the sense of “Know Him in all your ways.” Rabbi Ginzburg said something remarkable in this class. He said: Look at the way Israel’s Geulah has progressed since the hidden light began to break through and the Jewish people began renewing their independent life in Eretz Yisroel. As the Rambam says of the Hasmonean kingdom, sovereignty returned for more than two hundred years. Is it a small thing in your eyes for sovereignty to return for two hundred years—and it was not a kingdom of such great tzaddikim? Not everyone there was meticulous down to a hair’s breadth. But the Rambam marvels at the very fact that sovereignty returned for more than two hundred years, and writes of it as a sign of the era, as something new, as a miracle greater than the miracle of the flask of oil. The Ramban has a different approach. But for the Rambam, clearly, the renewal of sovereignty, the renewal of national independence—the very ability of Jews to live independently in Eretz Yisroel—is something needed for generations. Rabbi Ginzburg says: Look at this wonder. “Go out and see what the people do”—see how the nation speaks. It really is remarkable. He says: In the beginning was the point. Anyone who remembers the terminology from before the War of

28:20 Speaker 6 Independence remembers a world of points, points, points. The eleven points. A settlement was called a point. It was also surrounded by a wall and a tower, each one on its own. The whole State of Israel of today was already contained there, but it was all still potential, enclosed by a wall, with a tower. How did he put it to me? A person—what a remarkable thing, he says. The wall was like the seed: the hard, tough thing that could withstand the forces of nature and security threats. But at the center of that wall stood the tower, sending signals of light. They communicated in Morse code, with flashes from lamps. There was a language of light that already connected the points, but there was not yet a state. Points, points. After the War of Independence, a concept appeared for the first time in our consciousness, in security thinking, in settlement thinking, in thinking rooted in faith: the line. And not just any line—the Green Line. Remarkable. He showed me this. The Gemara in Chagigah, 12b. Oh, Shlomo Klich[?]. The Gemara in Chagigah, 12b, gives a definition. It says there: What is tohu? It is a green line that encircles the world, from which darkness emerges. That is to say, there was already a line. That line, I remind you—especially the younger people among you—cut through Eretz Yisroel. It separated us from Chevron, divided Jerusalem, and cut us off from the Har Habayis. That Green Line distanced us from Beis Lechem and from Shechem. What we received was the lowland, the lower parts, the secular parts—the sands of Tel Aviv, quite literally. The Green Line. He said this was no coincidence. It is no accident that, of all colors, the term matched the Gemara in Chagigah, which says that tohu is a green line encircling the world, from which darkness emerges. It is a warning to us, as we return and rebuild the sovereignty of Israel: Do not be confused. This Green Line is a line of tohu. It is temporary, the beginning of something coming into being. It is not the end of the

31:30 Speaker 6 matter. And if you remain within that line, it is a line of tohu that darkens not only us but the world. The entire rectification of the world depends on abolishing this Green Line, this line of tohu that encircles the world, from which, G-d forbid, darkness can emerge: the separation of holy from mundane, of light from darkness, of the Jewish people from its holy places. So that was the Green Line. But still, a line had to emerge, something connecting the points. Then came the Six-Day War, and the seventh day, in terms of the completion of the work of Creation. On the seventh day, a new concept was born. After the points and after the Green Line of tohu came the concept of an area. Point, line, area. And this area is not a flat surface. It is not an area parceled out by people with a flat view of things. It is a field of life: “Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright of heart.” Through our renewed encounter with the land, we rose to the level of full life. We are at the stage where things are coming into being. And when people arise who have no understanding of the inner meaning of this, who do not understand that all of it is among the wonders of the One perfect in knowledge—that such a marvelous vision of a nation returning to its land is being realized through the power of Hashem, through the power of the One who performed miracles for our ancestors in those days, and through them in our time—and they have moments of weakness, moments of doubt, and want to roll back to the line of tohu, that is where Chabad must come forward with all three dimensions of its life and teach the leadership of the State of Israel chochmah, binah, daas, and faith, with joy and attachment to the Torah and to Torah scholars. And here Gideon Ezra has arrived too—Gideon and Ezra, all together. I was born on Kibbutz Ein Gev, on the shore of the Kinneret. My father, may the memory of the righteous be for a blessing, traces his lineage to the family of Schneur Zalman of Liadi. My brother Tzvi was the chief rabbi of all the communities of the Far East, Rabbi Kislev[?]. We mentioned this once. His well-known book, Mishberei Yam, has been found. They told

35:22 Speaker 6 me they found it. I found it in this. Rabbi Ashkenazi told me he found it too. Questions, responsa, and matters of Jewish life among Jews dispersed to the ends of the earth, to distant China. But I was born in a place that had no Shabbos, no holiday, no festival, yet had tremendous self-sacrifice for Eretz Yisroel, for settling Eretz Yisroel. They lived beneath the muzzles of Syrian guns. I remember myself as a seven-year-old child standing on the pier at Ein Gev, watching my father sail north in a small fishing boat, escorted by navy gunboats. I stood there, a little boy on the pier. There was none of today’s promenade or tourist facilities, and I watched as they fired on my father from Kursi—where today [unclear], where the Kinar resort is now, the Gilad Kosher[?] resort. Kursi was a Syrian outpost. They fired from the shore at the boat, and the navy boats fired at the shore, with my father in a small fishing boat in the middle and me standing on the shore, on the pier at Ein Gev. I remember that, as a child, I was doing the closest thing I knew to prayer: that my father should come back, that he should come back safe and sound. I think this was a kind of what it means that Avraham knew his Creator even before he knew these things in his mind, with his intellect. He knew them first in his heart, in the soul of a child standing and praying for his father to return safely. And I would say to him, “Dad, why is this necessary? Why take this risk?” And he would say, “What do you mean? There has to be Jewish fishing on the Kinneret.” Back then, that was not considered a settlement, or an act of insolence, or political foolishness. It was the spirit that carried people forward. But we must also know that here, too, as discussed in the maamar on the verse “And I led you upright,” this structure of returning to the land, like an individual’s return, is built from two

38:04 Speaker 6 There are two stages, and neither can do without the other. The verses say it: “When Hashem returns the exiles of Zion,” and “Bring us back to You, Hashem, and we will return.” This requires two stages. The first comes when a great wind, beyond people’s awareness or choice, shakes them profoundly and gives them far more strength than they ordinarily have, or than they understand themselves to have or deserve. But afterward comes the stage of choice. The stage of “He sets over them a king as harsh as Haman the wicked” is very powerful. When a person has no choice, he has tremendous strength, but that strength does not last forever. At a certain point, a person, like a people, must say, “I want this.” He must truly understand his purpose and recognize his mission—not build only out of persecution and necessity, but build on that foundation the stage of choice, the stage of the Beis Habechirah, the Chosen House. Indeed, when the Rambam describes the order in which Jewish sovereignty is built, he names it, as with everything, for its ultimate purpose. Any Jewish sovereignty that does not strive to build the Beis Habechirah, that does not strive to build the holy dimension of the Jewish kingdom, will ultimately weaken, even if great troubles constantly beset it. It begins to have doubts and misgivings. Even if a person is called Ariel, a lion, and Hashem’s name rests upon him, he must ultimately arm himself with the power of Torah. He must ultimately strengthen his courage in battle, his courage in settling the land, and his faith in G-d, Creator of the world, Who is bringing us home to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Nothing less. Perhaps now, in these very days and hours, the role and purpose of the Chabad movement are becoming clearer than ever before. It must be a wellspring of faith and joy that knows neither despair nor doubt—the faith and joy of those who work with G-d, with the One Who spoke and the world came into being, with the One Who

41:23 Speaker 6 is building this land and our holy nation within it, in order to perfect the entire world. In this vision of a state, of purity and holiness, you must now carry out the same mission you carry out in every place in the world, in every corner, with even greater devotion and mesirus nefesh—in the hearts of this nation’s leaders, its prime ministers, defense ministers, finance ministers and Knesset members. Fill them with a spirit of courage. Fill them with a spirit of faith, so that they will not be ashamed or falter before those who frighten them with demographics and geography and every other kind of “-ography” that amounts to nothing but faintheartedness and weakness, while the reality cries out, pleads and thirsts for holiness, strength and faith. I am so happy and so grateful to you that I have merited to be part of you; that Rabbi Ashkenazi and all of you, as a community, have welcomed me and all of us sitting here into your shul, into your holy sanctuary—a place from which one draws a holy spirit and inspiration from the holy Rebbe. I tell you, many times when I come home in the evening after a day like this, I ask myself: How can this be the Geulah of the Jewish people? Through all sorts of petty matters, schemes, weaknesses and deceptions? I open this great volume of the Rebbe’s, which he calls “I Called, and There Was No Answer.” And I say to myself: Rebbe, holy Rebbe, who will roll the dust from your eyes? We will answer you with a great amen, trusting in G-d, the faithful King, Who will not abandon His people or forsake His inheritance. We will be the ones who answer your call by building this land and this nation—in its holiness, its purity and its center, the center of its life. That Beis Habechirah, from which a holy spirit blows, is the Sanctuary set between two Divine Names, standing upon the earth: “The Sanctuary, Hashem, which Your hands established.” All of us here, united in love and great faith, will not

44:33 Speaker 6 join the camp of the despairing, the camp that consoles itself with the blasphemous consolation of “What can we do? We’re done for.” Instead, we will rise and call out in a great voice. And even amid the troubles Ishmael causes us, may G-d hear our prayer and our cry and answer us speedily in our days, amen. Happy holiday.

45:06 Speaker 7 Our friend, Housing Minister Rabbi Efi Eitam, expressed the Rebbe’s message powerfully and clearly. “Rabbi Efi Eitam yichyeh” has the numerical value of 770. That is the source from which we draw the strength for the things you said, and we truly wish you success as a faithful shliach in the government, putting the Rebbe’s words into practice. And as you said, Mr. Efi Eitam, most of the government’s members are here with us. You did well to move the cabinet meeting here and turn it into a chassidic farbrengen. The Alter Rebbe says that what a chassidic farbrengen can accomplish, the angel Michael cannot accomplish. We call on the government ministers here to make a decision. A chassidic farbrengen can accomplish more than a cabinet session or anything else. Here is where the decision will be made: a new government headed by Melech HaMoshiach. Ladies and gentlemen, judging by the ministers’ expressions, there is unanimous agreement. We mentioned the Alter Rebbe’s words that on the festival of Geulah, “the light and vitality of our souls were given to us.” We have the honor of welcoming here a Jew and a great friend of Chabad who has both light and vitality—and heart as well. I have the honor of inviting Welfare Minister Mr. Zevulun Orlev.

47:15 Speaker 8 Mr. Deitra[?], Rabbi Ashkenazi shlita, distinguished rabbis, city rabbis, neighborhood rabbis, roshei yeshivah shlita, the new chairman of the village committee, whom I met for the first time this evening, Yami Lifshitz[?]—I wish him every success. My rosh yeshivah—I am a graduate of Yeshivas Nechalim—Rabbi Ba-Gad, with whom I first came to a 19 Kislev gathering so many years ago. My colleagues in the government: the chairman of the National Religious Party and Minister of Construction and Housing, Minister Efi Eitam; Minister Gideon Ezra; Minister Dr. Uzi Landau; Tourism Minister Benny Elon; Deputy Education Minister Tzvi Hendel; and all the guests, the district commissioner and all our distinguished guests. For many years, since my youth in yeshivah and throughout my various roles—as director-general of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, director-general of the Ministry of Education and Culture, and later in the Knesset—I have known the work of the Chabad movement firsthand. It is very easy for me to call it the number-one Jewish movement spreading Judaism throughout the world and among the Jewish people. This great movement succeeds through love, through Ahavas Yisroel, through devotion and through the joy it brings to our people. Our people face serious problems, and a large portion of them are profoundly estranged from everything—everything connected with Judaism. New laws will not help, and religious ministers will not help. A few more Chabad chassidim, a few more mobile outreach vehicles and a few more classes—those are what will bring our people much closer to Judaism. One can point to many causes of our security problems, our economic problems and the problems affecting our unity. One can give many reasons for each issue. But there is one cause that, if we address it, will probably solve all the problems. That cause is Chabad’s secret weapon: Torah, Judaism and more classes. The more connected our people are to their roots and sources, the closer they are to Judaism, mitzvos and Torah, the better we will be able to solve

50:30 Speaker 8 our security problems, our economic problems and all the other problems our people face. Chabad has an immense mission here. On the festival of Geulah, let us all wish the Jewish people and the Chabad movement: May your wellsprings spread outward; may you increase mitzvos, Torah and classes; and may we all be redeemed with the complete Geulah.

51:10 Speaker 9 Thank you very much, and yasher koach to Mr. Zevulun Orlev, Minister of Welfare.

00:01 Speaker 1 Ladies and gentlemen, about a week ago I drove to the airport to meet my son, who was returning from Beis Rabbeinu. On my way to the arrivals hall, I met our friend, Minister Uzi Landau, and the first thing he asked me was, “Are you getting ready for the Festival of Liberation?” That was his question a week ago. I was told Mr. Uzi Landau’s title was Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, responsible for the intelligence services. Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know, but I’m trying to guess. The intelligence services. A week earlier he asks whether we’re getting ready for the Festival of Liberation, and today, on the Festival of Liberation, we received the news that the wicked tyrant, the great enemy, had been captured. And Uzi Landau asks me, “Are you getting ready for the Festival of Liberation?” On this day we heard the good news. Ladies and gentlemen, let us welcome our longtime friend, Minister Uzi Landau.

01:14 Speaker 2 Ministers, deputy ministers, members of Knesset, distinguished guests, residents of Kfar Chabad, members of Chabad, and ordinary Jews like myself who have been honored to attend this important evening. With your permission, I would just like to make one small correction. The true friend of this Chabad community, and the one who brought it into our family, was my father and teacher, Rabbi Chaim Yitzchak ben Yosef Landau. He was the true friend, and he brought the light of Chabad into our home. And I do my best, with my limited abilities, to follow in his footsteps. Here we stand today, 19 Kislev, 205 years after the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, was released from Soviet prison. And here today, on 19 Kislev, there is such joy, noise and excitement, as though this miracle had happened only last night, not 205 years ago. Truly, “in those days, at this time”—“the Eternity of Israel will not lie.” It is worth mentioning that today, too, something happened—not a great miracle, perhaps, but a small one, and not exactly here, but in Padan Aram. A miracle: Saddam Hussein was captured. But I’m not at all sure that this is why we gathered here tonight. Nor is it why I asked a week ago whether you were getting ready for the Festival of Liberation. Our liberation is something altogether different. But this festival, our devotion to it, our observance of it as we observe all the other Jewish festivals, and the eternal Tanach—these are proof of our bond with the Land of Israel, of our sovereignty over it and of the fact that it belongs to us. The people of Israel and the Land of Israel—the Land of Israel is ours forever and ever. I say this against the backdrop of the weekly parsha, Parshas Vayishlach, where we find the confrontation between Yaakov and Esav. As the confrontation approaches, it says: “Yaakov was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people who were with him.” On this verse, Bereishis Rabbah teaches: “Yaakov said, ‘All these years that I, Yaakov, have been abroad in Padan Aram, Esav has been living in the Land of Israel. Could it be that he is coming against me—that is, to prevail

04:19 Speaker 2 over me—by virtue of his residence in the Land of Israel?’” Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever, one of the great rabbis of Eastern Europe and one of the great leaders of Chibas Tzion, who passed away about 105 years ago, asks about this Midrash. He writes: “At first glance, it is astonishing that Yaakov, who testified of himself, ‘I lived with the wicked Lavan and observed all 613 mitzvos,’ should fear his brother Esav, who fulfills just one mitzvah—the mitzvah of settling the Land of Israel.” From this we learn that this one mitzvah, settling the Land of Israel, even when fulfilled by a wicked man and sinner like Esav, who leads many others to sin, can weigh against many mitzvos fulfilled by a wholly righteous man like our father Yaakov. How much more so, says Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever—and I would add, many times over—is a Jew’s residence in the Land of Israel today dear and precious before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, even if he takes some other mitzvos lightly. I stress this at a time when a debate is flaring up among us. Sadly, we hear voices of defeat among those who have grown weary. There are people among us who are tired of the struggle and, G-d forbid, want to let terror win and give up parts of our homeland. To those people we say that we learn from the parsha, where it is written: “Yaakov came safely to the city of Shechem. He encamped before the city. And he bought the parcel of land where he had pitched his tent for a hundred kesitah.” Rashi says of “Yaakov came safely to the city of Shechem”: sound in body, sound in wealth, sound in his Torah. And we will add: through his purchase of the field, he was complete in the mitzvah of settling the Land, establishing a presence there and taking hold of it, as his father Yitzchak and his grandfather Avraham had done. This is an important lesson for all of us at this very time, amid today’s political struggle for the integrity of the Land and the restoration of the people of Israel in their land. I have just come from a meeting of the Likud Bureau, which I have the honor to chair. I convened it especially in light of recent events and statements by ministers, members of Knesset and other prominent people among us, and we hear

07:21 Speaker 2 there the same messages from those who have grown tired of the struggle and are prepared to give up. We know Parshas Shelach Lecha and other similar accounts, about those who hasten to give up our beloved homeland. I want to tell you the substance of the resolution we adopted. I am quoting from memory, but this is its spirit: The Likud Bureau categorically rejects unilateral withdrawal from the Land of Israel and the evacuation of communities in the Land of Israel. Whenever I join you for the Festival of Liberation, there is one empty chair and one man I miss. This is the second year: Rechavam Ze’evi, Gandhi—may Hashem avenge his blood—a friend of Chabad, a personal friend of mine, and a man of the Land of Israel and a Zionist with every fiber of his being. This Thursday, an event in memory of this important man was once again held at the International Convention Center. I would like to conclude by wishing all of you, all Chabad chassidim in Israel and, through you, all Chabad chassidim throughout the world, a joyous festival! And in the traditional wording of this festival: May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year in the study of Chassidus and in the ways of Chassidus. All the best.

09:21 Speaker 3 Thank you to our friend. As someone remarked here, uh, [unclear][?], a friend and the son of a friend of Chabad, Minister Uzi Landau. There is a well-known saying of our Sages: “A Chassidic vort brings life.” In Hebrew, a Chassidic saying, a Chassidic maamar, gives life. In keeping with tradition, I have the honor of inviting the rabbi of the community of Karmei Yosef and head of the rabbinic ordination institute at the Ohr Simcha yeshivah in Kfar Chabad, Rabbi Eliezer Brod, who delivers the maamar each year in clear, eloquent language. I have the honor of inviting him to give us life with the Chassidic maamar. Before that, we will ask the Arens brothers, Avi Piamenta and Mendy Jerufi to lead the whole audience in a niggun before the maamar. After the maamar we will hear greetings from Minister Rabbi Benny Elon, Mr. Gideon Ezra and other guests. A niggun before the maamar.

14:37 Speaker 4 “He redeemed my soul in peace from the battle against me, for many were with me.” The Gemara in Tractate Berachos says of this that anyone who studies Torah, performs acts of kindness and prays with the congregation—Hakadosh Boruch Hu says that Scripture considers it as though he had redeemed Me and My children from among the nations of the world. In other words, there is a connection between the verse “He redeemed my soul in peace” and these three things: Torah, acts of kindness and prayer with the congregation. Torah is connected with “redeemed in peace” because Torah’s purpose is to bring about peace. As the Gemara says, Torah joins and brings peace between the heavenly retinue and the earthly retinue. This is expressed within a person as well: the heavenly retinue is the person’s G-dly soul, while the earthly retinue is the person’s animal soul. Torah joins and brings peace between a person’s G-dly soul and animal soul, to the point that Torah joins and brings peace between Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the world. In the most straightforward sense, as the Rambam writes, Torah was given to bring peace to the world, as it says, “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” As we also say in our prayers every day: “Torah scholars increase peace in the world.” They do not merely draw down a measure of peace; the peace they draw down is one of increasing peace in the world. Acts of kindness, too, are connected with peace: when one person does a kindness for another, it creates peace, a bond and a connection between the giver and the recipient. This is the meaning of “redeemed in peace”: the word “peace” alludes both to Torah study and to acts of kindness. Then the verse continues, “for many were with me,” referring to the third element, praying with the congregation. By engaging in the three pillars on which the world stands—Torah, avodah and acts of kindness—we thereby redeem the world

17:02 Speaker 4 And we continue with the theme of peace in the world. These three paths, these three aspects, also have an inner connection to the number three. The idea of three is to bring together two things that are opposite and opposed to each other. When there are only two, that can lead to opposition and conflict. That is the role of the third: “Let the third come and decide between them.” It brings the two together and makes peace between them. We find something like this already at the giving of the Torah. The Gemara in Tractate Shabbos says: Blessed is Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Who gave a threefold Torah to a threefold people through a third, on the third day of the third month. In other words, the Torah is connected with the number three. And through the three things—Torah, avodah, and acts of kindness—we bring about redemption, “He redeemed my soul in peace,” leading to the third Geulah and the third Beis Hamikdash. Now, these three aspects are also present in being “redeemed in peace” in the literal sense. There is “He redeemed my soul in peace from the battle against me”: there is a state of war and battle, and he succeeds and wins the battle. This is also the literal meaning of the verse “He redeemed my soul in peace,” which was said by King David. And our Sages—this was in connection with his war against his son Avshalom, and [unclear]. There was battle and war here, to the point that David had to flee from his son Avshalom. The Jerusalem Talmud, in Tractate Rosh Hashanah, even discusses David’s halachic status during those months when he fled from Avshalom: did he have the status of a king with regard to bringing a king’s offering, or not? In other words, there was war and battle here, but he won the battle. That was because “many were with me,” as the Gemara says about

19:12 Speaker 4 this: even Avshalom’s men prayed for David’s victory. But afterward there is a higher level, associated with David’s son, King Shlomo. In King Shlomo’s time there were no wars at all; there was peace and tranquility. That is why it was specifically King Shlomo who could build the Beis Hamikdash, although David longed for it and asked Hakadosh Boruch Hu to allow him to build it. But Hakadosh Boruch Hu told him that because David had been involved in wars—“you have shed much blood”—he could not build the Beis Hamikdash. It was specifically his son Shlomo, in whose time there was peace and tranquility, to whom the whole world paid tribute and brought gifts while he sat in his place in the Holy Land, in the holy city, who merited to build the Beis Hamikdash. In other words, with King Shlomo there was already “He redeemed my soul in peace” in the literal sense, without wars. But its perfection, its third level, will come with the arrival of Moshiach, when “I will remove the spirit of impurity from the earth.” There will no longer be any possibility of evil or opposition, and peace will be complete. These three aspects are also present in a person’s avodah. There is a kind of avodah that involves battle. This is connected with the avodah of prayer, about which it is said, “He eats bread at the point of a sword.” This is also the translation of the words “with my sword and with my bow”: the Targum renders them “with my prayer and with my supplication.” Sword and bow are weapons of war. A bow is used to fight from a distance, while a sword is used in close combat. This is also the meaning of “from battle against me”: it suggests closeness, a battle fought at close quarters. That is one level in a person’s avodah. But afterward one reaches a

21:13 Speaker 4 higher level. Unlike the previous level, where one must overcome evil through iskafya, one reaches the higher level of ishapcha, transformation: one overcomes the evil until the evil within is completely nullified. As it says, “You found his heart faithful before You”—there was no evil in it at all. And as we say every day in the Shema, “with all your heart”—with both your inclinations, the good inclination and the evil inclination—so that the evil inclination is completely nullified. Then one reaches the fullest level: not only is the evil inclination completely nullified, but it itself becomes good. This is also the sequence in which we say, “From when may one recite the Shema in the evening?” First comes evening, darkness and night, the state of battle. Afterward we come to “From when may one recite the Shema in the morning?” We bring about the light of day, so that the evil inclination also becomes good. This prepares the way for the ultimate perfection in the true and complete Geulah through Moshiach, when the promise “I will remove the spirit of impurity from the earth” will be fulfilled, as will the verse “Hashem will be King over all the earth; on that day Hashem will be one and His name one,” speedily, in our days, in actuality.

00:00 Speaker 1 Thank you very much, and yasher koach to Rabbi Eliezer Brod for reviewing the maamar. As we said, the maamar beginning... the Chassidic maamar—it gives life. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, we continue the farbrengen. I have the pleasure, the honor, and the privilege of inviting to the microphone our distinguished longtime friend, Minister of Tourism Rabbi Benny Elon. Please.

00:46 Speaker 2 Rabbi Naftali Roth shlita, chairman of the Kfar Chabad committee; Reb Binyamin Lipschitz; my friend Tzvi Hendel, the deputy minister; rabbis; distinguished guests. It is truly a great privilege, and you are doing a great kindness by opening your home on a night like this. Elsewhere, perhaps, this would be a night when chassidim devote themselves only to one another. But you open your home, as you do all year long, in the spirit of “He redeemed my soul in peace” and of the Geulah of the Festival of Liberation 205 years ago: “For the many were with me.” You put that into practice both through Torah study with the many and through prayer with the many. In the position I hold now, I have occasion to visit many more distant places around the world. What I knew before is nothing like what I see now. The shluchim are everywhere. Their self-sacrifice and their firm resolve not to worry about themselves, but to live by “For the many were with me”—their whole purpose is “as though he redeemed Me and My children from among the nations.” They are in every place, with small children. And they do not worry about themselves, not even with the sort of spiritual self-interest that would make anyone else I know immediately ask: What about my children’s education? What about my own fear of Heaven? In places you would never have believed possible—what a kiddush Hashem! What love radiates from all the Israelis who arrive there, and from all the Jews who gather there, with no distinctions whatsoever! What a beacon of light these thousands of shluchim are, serving with such self-sacrifice in such an organized movement, all to benefit the many. It truly is “as though he redeemed Me and My children from among the nations.” All these things have come to pass, and they are truly saving the Jewish people in these awesome, holy, important days we are living through—days that are also so difficult. “Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.” After all, no one can know from one day to the next what will happen here. It is my prayer and my hope

04:45 Speaker 2 that we will succeed in continuing our mission and saving the Land of Israel. If our vote in the government can tip the balance against harsh decrees affecting the Land of Israel, we will use it there. And if, Heaven forbid, we cannot do that from within the government, perhaps we can do it from within the Knesset. We will try in every way possible to fulfill our mission. The source of inspiration that is this movement, Chabad—the source of inspiration for the genuine self-sacrifice of thousands of shluchim throughout the world, and for this special village, Kfar Chabad, where that inspiration is concentrated—accompanies and strengthens us all. I really want to thank you, Rabbi Naftali Roth. Perhaps we will meet there again this year, and you will bring that machine that lifts us up to the Chanukah menorah. I would be glad to take part. May we merit to be little shamashim helping to publicize the miracle through this holy movement, Chabad. Yasher koach to you all! Shalom.

06:44 Speaker 3 Thank you very much, and yasher koach to our friend, Minister of Tourism Rabbi Benny Elon. When Benny Elon comes, we go up together on the great lift in Jerusalem and light up Jerusalem with the Chanukah candles. Rabbi Benny Elon, you mentioned the finger—the vote. I want to tell you that “Rabbi Benny Elon” has the same gematria as “It is the finger of G-d.” So that is the finger you will need to vote with in the Knesset. Thank you, and yasher koach! We continue, and I have the honor of inviting our friend, Deputy Minister of Education and Knesset member Mr. Tzvi Hendel.

07:37 Speaker 4 Good evening, everyone. With the permission of the rabbis and the distinguished guests, each according to his honor and standing. I have come to you from Jerusalem, but I want to bring you something of the place I left this morning: my home in Gush Katif. We got through the night, thank G-d. There are small-minded, fainthearted people who cannot understand how anyone can get through nights like that with children. It was a night of outright war. Dozens of mortar shells. Anti-tank missiles. Machine-gun fire. There was not a moment’s pause. When I was still young and handsome, I too fought in wars. I was on the Syrian border; I fought on the Golan Heights on Yom Kippur. I know what the rate of fire is like in a war. And the children of Gush Katif lived through a war last night in every sense of the word. I said “thank G-d” because not everyone merits what we have merited. Had I been told about it without seeing it with my own eyes, I would not have believed it. If I heard that more than 3,700 shells had fallen on the communities clustered in the heart of Gush Katif and that, Heaven forbid, to my great sorrow, one soldier had been killed—but only one soldier—I would say, as I imagine most people do, that apparently those shells do not kill. They must just make noise and have nothing in them, because it is hard to believe. But then you see the car or the house after one of those shells that supposedly “does nothing” hits it, and you see how it has been destroyed. And you have an account of every single shell. Three shells fell in the middle of the girls’ school courtyard exactly during the long break. But the girls did not go out for break because a rabbi was giving a lecture, and it was so interesting. So they said, “Rabbi, never mind the break—please continue the lesson.” This is a true story. He continued, and three mortar shells fell in the middle of the courtyard, exactly where all the girls are every day, all year long. That day, they were not there. Only someone who is cynical,

11:24 Speaker 4 who hates the Jewish people, to whom faith is foreign and who has no G-d in his heart, fails to see the open miracles. Then there is the elderly man and woman who take a walk around the community every night. They get home at a set time, and she goes upstairs to shower while he stays downstairs. That is their routine all year, apart from Shabbos and holidays. But that night they had forgotten the mailbox key. So they went back home to get it, and everything was delayed by half an hour. During that half hour, shells hit the bathroom and destroyed it completely. No, not one tile was left intact, let alone the bathtub, the shower, or anything else. The ceiling was completely destroyed. And it was on that very night that they forgot the key, and so on and so forth. In short, there are endless stories. If Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted to do what Olmert thinks he wants to do, He would not have shown us all these miracles. He is not showing us all these miracles so that Jews will be uprooted from their land. And so Jews who lack faith, who are fainthearted, have no strength. Why do they have no strength? Because a lot of shells fall on Gush Katif. They are ashamed that they are not fighting the enemy. They have no strength. My children have strength. My father-in-law has strength. My grandchildren have strength. Olmert has no strength. His strength is gone. These are moments of truth. And apparently it is from places like these that strength must come. We have to make our voices heard in every possible way. No one—not one of us—is exempt. Anyone who feels he has some way of reaching the people sitting in Jerusalem who need encouragement has a duty to act. They are at a moment of weakness. No one is exempt. If you have a friend, an acquaintance, a neighbor—whatever the connection—or an aunt’s or cousin’s phone number, everyone must make an effort.

14:20 Speaker 4 And if, with Hashem’s help, rallies are organized to strengthen the leadership and strengthen the Jewish people—I heard they are organizing something in Herzliya on Thursday, where there may be some defeatist speech—we have to go. And if we make our own effort, it is not a matter of Hashem coming to our aid. He is already doing His part. It is time for us to do ours. These are the days. Everyone who can join any struggle, answer any call, offer any encouragement, so that the weakness up there will dissipate and some strength—the strength of faith—will flow in, must do so. We are obligated. With Hashem’s help, through our combined strength, with great faith and great love, we will act, and Hashem will grant us success. Thank you.

15:39 Speaker 5 Thank you very much, Knesset member Tzvi Hendel, Deputy Minister of Education. Ladies and gentlemen, after hearing these heartfelt words from our friend Mr. Tzvi Hendel, I want to take this opportunity—when a chassidic farbrengen can accomplish more than the angel Michael—and, on behalf of everyone here and all Chabad chassidim, offer a blessing on this auspicious day to the pioneering communities living with self-sacrifice in Gush Katif and throughout Judea and Samaria. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu watch over them and protect them in every way. May the merit of the holy shlichus you carry out stand by you in everything you need, as in the Alter Rebbe’s blessing, always, materially and spiritually: in livelihood, family, nachas from your children, and everything you need. And may He Who makes peace in His heavens make peace for us and for all Israel. Amen. Ladies and gentlemen, as we mentioned, at a chassidic farbrengen, a blessing for a complete recovery for Perl Avraham ben Rivkah. I’ve just received a call from the hospital asking me to mention Orly bas Rachel and Yafit bas Ahuvah for a complete recovery, and let us say amen. Ladies and gentlemen, last but certainly not least. Well, how could it be otherwise? The man who was the rosh yeshivah of all the ministers who sat here, of all the public figures who sat here. How could we do without him? “Open the gate for us at the hour of closing”—our friend, the distinguished Rabbi Yosef Bagad, rosh yeshivah, who spreads the wellsprings of Chassidus, and so on.

17:52 Speaker 6 Holy gathering. I’ve just come from—the yeshivah. There was a gathering there of high-school yeshivah students. I want to tell you, students were there from all the yeshivos: from Neve Dekalim, from Kiryat Arba, Netiv Meir, and of course Nahal’im came in great numbers. It was a moving occasion. So I want to tell you: mazal tov is in order. Why mazal tov? Because [unclear]—mazal tov, it’s the day of Geulah. But mazal tov is in order: Avraham Avinu had a son. What was that son’s name? Yes, that’s right, Yitzchak. Why was he called that, children? Who knows why he was called Yitzchak? Yitzch—Sarah laughed. How lucky Sarah didn’t cry. They would have called him Crybaby. How lucky Sarah didn’t get angry. They would have called him Grumpy. What sort of name is that for a child? She laughed, so he’s called Yitzchak. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to Avraham Avinu: “Know this: people will laugh at you and mock you, but in the end you will prevail.” Yitzchak goes and digs the well of Esek; they quarrel with him over it. The First Beis Hamikdash was lost. Yitzchak goes and digs more wells, calling them by the same names his father Avraham had given them. The same Rashi, the same Tosafos, the same Tanya. They called it Sitnah. The Second Beis Hamikdash—because of baseless hatred. And Yitzchak doesn’t break, and Yitzchak doesn’t give up. He digs a third time, and they call it Rechovos, “for now Hashem has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.” The Third Beis Hamikdash will stand forever. People laugh at us, mock us over this and that, over shortcomings and all sorts of things. The Rema opens his gloss on the Shulchan Aruch. If I took a poll here among this whole holy gathering—what should he have opened the Shulchan Aruch, the Rema’s gloss, with? One person would tell me bris milah. Another would say Shabbos. Another would say Torah study. Nobody would say, “And he should not be ashamed before people who mock him.” That’s the opening, because

21:03 Speaker 6 Avraham Avinu’s son was called Yitzchak. They laugh, they mock, but we will prevail. And so, on the day of Geulah, after hearing these wonderful words about the Rebbe’s holiness—I had the honor of receiving his personal blessing, and [unclear] personally—we will merit to see the day when not only will people no longer laugh at us, but we will laugh and rejoice with the whole world at the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu, speedily in our days. Amen.

21:45 Speaker 7 Thank you, and yasher koach to our distinguished friend Rabbi Yosef Bagad, who joins us regularly, not only on 19 Kislev but throughout the years. And I want to tell you, Rabbi Bagad: you said “mazal tov”—that’s nonsense. Rabbi—no, excuse me—Yosef Bagad is twice “mazal tov,” but nineteen is missing. That’s 19 Kislev: 19 Kislev completes twice “mazal tov.” Thank you very much, and yasher koach. To the blessings for a complete recovery, let us add Meir Ilyas ben Matzlacha and Rachamim ben Zachiyah, for a complete recovery, and let us say amen. Ladies and gentlemen, before we move on to the farbrengen and the celebration with plenty of song and music, I ask everyone here to observe the final parsha of the Torah, Vezos Haberachah. And there is no earlier or later in the Torah, according to the list we’ve received. Special thanks to Kol Shaar, under the management of Rabbi Shmuel Rivkin, for the sound, lighting, and video. Thanks to those who stood guard and provided security: the Kfar Chabad Border Police volunteers; Rabbi [unclear] Nachman Reichman; Mr. Chaim Kahlon, commander of the Border Police operations base; and Mr. Eli Zilberman, the community police officer. To the mother and the Rivkin brothers of Rivkin Catering for the lovely refreshments. To Tzeirei Agudas Chabad, headed by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak HaKohen Aharonov, for all their help in making the celebration in honor of the Rebbe a success. To Mr. Joe Davidson for his wonderful help. To the chossid Rabbi Yoel Kahn, his son, and all the staff of the Kfar Chabad secretariat for the exemplary organization. To the orchestra, which has brought us so much joy and will continue to do so: the Arentz brothers and Avi Piamenta. And special thanks to the chassidic singer Mendy Jerufi. To Agudas Chassidei Chabad, headed by Rabbi Shlomo Maidanchik, for its considerable assistance. Ladies and gentlemen, last but certainly not least, the entire Kfar Chabad committee, headed by our friend Rabbi Binyamin Lifshitz, to whom we send a heartfelt blessing. Lifshitz on the right—may all the blessings be fulfilled and continue until 120. The singing and music do not stop; they go on and on until we merit to see Moshiach, with the Rebbe at our head,

24:27 Speaker 7 very soon indeed. Rejoice and celebrate in the joy of the Geulah—and Mendy Jerufi. Avi, Avi Piamenta, excuse me, the Arentz brothers—rejoice and celebrate in the joy of the Geulah.