Farbrengen Gimmel Tammuz 5773, Kfar Chabad

00:01 Speaker 1 I was privileged to know the well-known veteran chossid Reb Avraham Pariz for many years. He also came to Jerusalem, to the neighborhood where I was born, Shaarei Chessed, where evening study sessions had been organized. I remember him telling me: “A chossid—a chossid should make his salary the Rebbe’s. He should say: ‘Rebbe, I received my salary. This salary is yours.’” And what does he do then? He says he needs bread, milk, fish. He says, “Rebbe, I need bread,” and the Rebbe gives permission. “Rebbe, I need milk,” and the Rebbe gives permission. “I need fish,” and the Rebbe gives permission. What have you gained? He said, “You’ve gained two things. First, an awareness of your connection to the Rebbe. And second, you’ll be embarrassed to ask the Rebbe for luxuries, so you’ll have fewer luxuries.” That is what I heard from Reb Avraham Pariz. Ladies and gentlemen, connection to the Rebbe. That is what we need to strengthen. I now have the honor of inviting the local rabbi to strengthen us, to explain and inspire us to connect with the Rebbe: the distinguished chossid and scholar Rabbi Mordechai Ashkenazi shlita.

01:22 Speaker 2 L’chaim, l’chaim. We are at a Gimmel Tammuz farbrengen, in a special year. Nineteen years have passed since that difficult day of Gimmel Tammuz 5754, and we are entering the twentieth year. In the early years of his leadership, the Rebbe noted several times, in connection with the Frierdiker Rebbe: How many years make a generation? Twenty years. So this Gimmel Tammuz, this coming year, is a special year, one that demands that every one of us cry out, “Ad mosai—how long?” We have almost passed the span of a generation, but it cannot be that a generation will pass and we will not see the Rebbe. We are now in the month of Tammuz. Gimmel Tammuz marked the beginning of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s release; he was freed on 12 Tammuz. Later, after Simchas Torah 5688, the Rebbe was ordered to leave Russia. He went to Riga, then to Poland, and then to America. My mother, a”h, once told me that she had been there after Simchas Torah 5688, when the Rebbe left Russia. She was five years old, but she always remembered the scene, and she described it to me. The Rebbe boarded the train. Of course, he was forbidden to receive chassidim for yechidus, because the KGB was watching him, and he had also been told that he was not allowed to receive chassidim. But all the chassidim gathered at the train station called Varshavsky Vokzal, the station for Warsaw. She described what the place looked like, and about twenty years ago, when I happened to be in Petersburg, the first thing I did was go to see it. It was exactly as she had pictured it for me. Beside the station was an open field where all the chassidim gathered. The Rebbe stood at the train window and waved his hand like this. We saw a picture like that of the Rebbe in [unclear]. He stood on the train and waved his hand like this, and when the train just began

04:30 Speaker 2 to move, there were perhaps several hundred chassidim standing there. And from everyone’s heart, all at once, came a cry: “Oy, Tate! Oy, Tate!”—“Oh, Father!” That is what she remembered, and what she told me about so many times. She told me what it looked like. A five-year-old girl—how much could she understand? But that cry of the chassidim, “Oy, Tate!”—that expressed the deep bond between chassidim and the Rebbe. They felt the train moving, the Rebbe leaving Russia, while they remained in its bitter, terrible exile. They cried, “Oy, Tate!” What did that cry mean? “Father, we want to be with you. Father, we are with you. Father, we are not parting from you.” That is how she explained it to me. Later, the letter the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote on the train was published: chassidim and the Rebbe do not... do not part. Sometimes they are separated by distance, but spiritually, and even physically, they remain together. That is the cry that must come forth today and tonight, this Gimmel Tammuz: “Oy, Tate!” Nineteen years have passed. Sometimes, G-d forbid, people grow used to the situation. Time has its effect; life has its effect. Culture, the culture of the world, has its effect. But this cannot go on. We are approaching the end of a generation. We must cry, “Oy, Tate!” In Parshas Korach, the Rebbe discusses in his holy sichos [unclear] what Korach’s claim was. He argued that we do not need Moshe Rabbeinu; we can receive directly from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Why do we need an intermediary? That was Korach’s claim: “For the entire congregation, all of them, are holy—why do you raise yourselves above them?” So why do we need all these intermediaries? That was the point of Korach’s claim, and it was there that Moshe Rabbeinu’s greatness was revealed. The question is: Korach had many people with him, holy Jews, 250 heads of Sanhedrins. How could it be

07:28 Speaker 2 that they all joined Korach? Only a year and a half earlier, they had seen the splitting of the sea. And what happened there? “They believed in Hashem and in Moshe His servant.” Suddenly they claimed that they could manage without Moshe Rabbeinu. How could that be? Who knows? Are we such great people that we can put ourselves in their shoes? We cannot, but we can feel something of it. Yes, we saw the splitting of the sea, but time has its effect. And if, G-d forbid, we let ourselves be drawn into that habit of letting time have its effect, that would be a terrible thing. So we must strengthen ourselves and others, and above all cry out, “Ad mosai, ad mosai!” May it be Hashem’s will that through this Gimmel Tammuz farbrengen, we merit to see our King in His beauty—to see the Rebbe with our own eyes.

08:45 Speaker 3 Our thanks to the local rabbi. May he lead his community for many years in goodness, health and joy, and may the wellsprings spread forth from Kfar Chabad to the entire world. Ladies and gentlemen, when the Rebbe Rashab was a four-year-old child, his grandfather, the Tzemach Tzedek, called him over, took out a coin from Russia and asked him, “What is this?” He answered, “Half of the coin.” So his grandfather, the Tzemach Tzedek, told him, “Pay attention to the center of that half. At the center is the tzaddik, the Rebbe. And one who is always close to the Rebbe is chai—alive—for many good, long years.” With us here, honoring us with his presence, is the chief rabbi of the city of Modi’in. He is connected to the tzaddik and helps the tzaddik’s shliach who is here with us, Rabbi Baruch Slonim. It is my honor to invite the rabbi to speak. Please.

09:55 Speaker 4 With the permission of the local rabbi, the distinguished chossid and scholar Rabbi Mordechai Ashkenazi shlita; with the permission of the rabbis, city rabbis, community leaders, shluchim and Jews who have come to farbreng today. We have gathered here today, on the day of the hilula. Parshas Chukas describes the Jewish people’s parting from Miriam the prophetess and Aharon the Kohen. In this parsha, we also hear about the parting from Moshe Rabbeinu that was to come. When the Torah speaks about parting from Moshe, Aharon and Miriam, it mentions, almost in passing, that immediately after their passing, something happened. Immediately after Miriam’s passing, “Miriam died there and was buried there. And there was no water for the congregation”—no water to drink. When Aharon the Kohen passed away, the Clouds of Glory departed. During Aharon’s and Miriam’s lifetimes, people did not always appreciate that we had water in Miriam’s merit and the clouds in Aharon’s merit. Sometimes the passage of time lets us grasp and understand things. Sometimes we only come to see the picture when it is no longer before our eyes; only then do we feel that something is missing. The Rebbe’s towering figure stood, and still stands, before the eyes of—I would say tens of thousands, but that is far too few. Many more than that. I can give you one small example: my father’s book, which describes the difficult days he endured during the destruction of European Jewry, and other events afterward. The book, Al Tishlach Yadcha El Hanaar, was translated into several languages. One of the languages into which it was translated is Chinese. People in China, non-Jews, wanted to hear, to learn, to know, and it turned out there was a very large market for the book in Chinese. I must tell you, ladies and gentlemen, I picked up the book, looked at the Chinese translation, went over to him, opened it to page seventy-five and said, “I think the translation of this line here is completely inaccurate.” He looked at me. “The whole book is pictures to you—you can’t understand a thing in it anyway.” They took

12:56 Speaker 4 Several photographs. A photograph of him emerging from the destruction. A photograph of him by the Western Wall. A few photographs, not many. And of all the photographs of rabbis that appear in the Hebrew edition, only one person’s photograph also appears in the Chinese edition. You already understand. And my father asks the publisher, “Interesting—of all the photographs, why did you choose this one?” He said, “First of all, his eyes shine for me. Second, I think that even in China, among the millions of people there, there’s no doubt they’ve seen this photograph. They know this rabbi, so it will speak to them.” Chinese people at the other end of the world, with no connection to a shliach—not even a connection to a shliach—living in some village, and this photograph speaks to them. This great figure, whom we cannot see with our physical eyes—and just this past winter, I had the privilege of davening Shacharis while holding a Torah scroll in the Rebbe’s room, and of standing at the tziyun. I had the privilege of attending the Kinus Hashluchim. And you see this great, radiant figure, who shines even before our physical eyes, because our physical eyes also see the students, the shluchim, the seekers, the people farbrenging, those who gather in every corner of the world and want to be part of the great legacy and the great Torah that lives on and is heard in every corner of the world. May this merit stand for us too, for all those farbrenging today and asking Hashem to grant us the privilege of soon seeing the splendor of Your might, and of soon witnessing the coming of the righteous redeemer and the building of the Beis Hamikdash, with the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu very soon, amen.

15:25 Speaker 5 Yasher koach, Rabbi Lau.

15:30 Speaker 4 How shall we put it? Many blessings. The son’s strength surpasses the father’s. May he enjoy long years in his position. And again, what did Rabbi David Lau say? What did he tell us? Three words: We have a Rebbe. My friends, we have a Rebbe. There’s only one thing left for us to do: bring him down here. And these things are done specifically with joy. We’ll ask the choir to continue the farbrengen, with joy. Welcome, Professor Schussheim. Welcome. We didn’t see you. The choir, and those accompanying them, will bring us joy as we head out. Don’t forget the after-blessing. Our thanks and appreciation to the energetic and modest chassidic young man, Reb Reuven Posner [?], who organized this entire event, this beautiful and wonderful program. Let’s give him a round of applause. Many thanks, of course, to Tzeirei Agudas Chabad, the organizers of the event. Many thanks to Reb Yoni Shlomo. Many thanks to Ahar’le. Thank you to the choir, each and every one of you, and thank you, the audience, for being with us—and please stay with us.