Gimmel Tammuz 5754: Broadcast on Channel 3 (33) of the Broadcasting Authority

00:00 Speaker 1 And they contribute to the funding. But details like that I simply don’t know.

00:04 Speaker 2 And once again we return to the pictures from New York. A heavy rain has begun in New York—a rain that fell there this morning and apparently stopped in the last few hours. Now there’s another heavy summer rain in Brooklyn, outside the Rebbe’s home. This rain may disrupt the start of the funeral procession, which was supposed to begin quite a few minutes ago. Meanwhile, as we can see, the large crowd is waiting patiently outside the Rebbe’s home, with umbrellas. Some of the people—perhaps most of them—have umbrellas, and the rest are getting wet. Elimelech, are you sheltered under an umbrella?

00:55 Speaker 1 I don’t even need an umbrella. I’m standing under an awning. I’m not getting wet.

01:02 Speaker 2 And is this rain delaying the funeral procession?

01:04 Speaker 1 It’s a bothersome rain, a very bothersome rain. I don’t know if it will cause a delay. It rained a few hours ago too. The people opened their umbrellas again and didn’t move. I assume they won’t move this time either; they’ll wait. It’s a matter of minutes. This rain is interesting too. It doesn’t last long. It starts, a few minutes of raindrops fall, and here, as you can see in the picture, this time the rain is heavier. I assume it will stop, and even if it doesn’t, I don’t think it will delay the funeral procession.

01:40 Speaker 2 Yes, a summer rain falling right now in New York.

01:44 Speaker 1 This rain is very unpleasant too, Yoram.

01:45 Speaker 2 Yes, I remember that summer in New York—

01:48 Speaker 1 Yes, it’s very unpleasant.

01:49 Speaker 2 Is full of rains like this, but we’ll wait along with the large crowd. I think I can see the coffin. Yes, the coffin is coming out of the Rebbe’s home right now. The Rebbe’s coffin is being carried on the shoulders of his chassidim, out of his home toward the avenue, toward Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn—

02:11 Speaker 1 Yoram.

02:12 Speaker 2 Yes, Elimelech.

02:13 Speaker 1 Notice how people are touching the coffin. How the people, besides those carrying it—look at the large crowd—

02:23 Speaker 2 Yes, trying to touch the coffin.

02:24 Speaker 1 Trying to touch the coffin.

02:26 Speaker 2 And I assume there are—

02:27 Speaker 1 To touch the coffin.

02:28 Speaker 2 I assume there are hundreds and thousands of people who want to—

02:31 Speaker 1 And notice something else. Despite the rain, people have put away their umbrellas.

02:34 Speaker 2 Yes, we can see that.

02:35 Speaker 1 They’re exposed to the rain.

02:38 Speaker 2 I assume, Elimelech, that there are hundreds and thousands of people here who would want to carry the coffin. That is a mitzvah—

02:45 Speaker 1 A great mitzvah.

02:45 Speaker 2 In our tradition, to carry the coffin of the deceased.

02:48 Speaker 1 They’re now placing the coffin—

02:49 Speaker 2 All the more so the Rebbe’s coffin.

02:50 Speaker 1 On the vehicle waiting there.

02:53 Speaker 2 Yes. That is, the coffin—

02:55 Speaker 1 And it’s obscuring the vehicle.

02:56 Speaker 2 Yes, certainly. The coffin is now being moved toward the car.

03:01 Speaker 1 And in fact, since—

03:03 Speaker 2 And—

03:03 Speaker 1 The coffin will make its way through the crowd of mourners, and the funeral procession itself will begin.

03:10 Speaker 2 And along the funeral route here on Eastern Parkway, there will be no eulogies, just as there will be no eulogies at Montefiore Cemetery.

03:17 Speaker 1 You know what? That’s what we were told. We’ve been asking specifically since early this morning. What we were told is that since the Rebbe has no heirs—that is, he has no sons—the entire crowd will recite Kaddish at the burial.

03:39 Speaker 2 Professor Ravitzky—

03:39 Speaker 1 The Rebbe, as you know, had no children.

03:42 Speaker 2 Yes, that’s known, and perhaps that’s one of the reasons he has no successor. Professor Ravitzky, today is Gimmel Tammuz, and Chabad chassidim have spoken of this date as a significant one in the Rebbe’s life. A few years ago you published a book called HaKetz HaMeguleh UMedinat HaYehudim, in which you tried to describe a possible scenario for what would happen after the Rebbe’s passing. Do you still stand by that scenario today?

04:07 Speaker 3 Yes, I think I— That was two years ago, when the book was completed, and the Rebbe was already ill then. But the split, or the possibility of two extremes—one, which I defined as moderate, which speaks of a Moshiach in every generation, and the other, which awaits his personal resurrection and in fact refuses to accept his death—that is the scenario I unfortunately laid out. But I think that, if we have time, it would also be interesting to discuss how the messianic tension developed within Chabad Chassidus.

04:44 Speaker 2 Perhaps just briefly: why will there be no eulogies? Is that a matter of principle in Chabad Chassidus, or perhaps something the Rebbe specifically instructed?

04:53 Speaker 3 Who is worthy of eulogizing him? Who is worthy of eulogizing him? A person regarded not only as the greatest of his generation, but as the greatest of generations. You know, it’s a little hard for me to speak dispassionately when I see the pain, and I feel some of that pain myself. It’s hard to speak about other questions, but certainly in the eyes of his chassidim, who could eulogize him? Who could speak in his praise? You and I?

05:13 Speaker 2 Since, of course, no one of his stature could do that, and since, of course, he still has no successor, that is why there are no eulogies. I want to note that the funeral procession is now leaving Brooklyn for Montefiore Jewish Cemetery in Queens, and I think these may be the last pictures we’ll be able to see of the procession as the car travels along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn toward the cemetery. It’s very doubtful that we’ll be able to see any more pictures from here, from outside the Rebbe’s home in Brooklyn, and of course we won’t be able to accompany the procession to Montefiore Cemetery in Queens. Among other reasons, as Elimelech said, Chabad officials have prohibited filming inside the cemetery itself. So I think we’ll have to make do with these pictures of the thousands of chassidim streaming after the coffin along this avenue in Brooklyn, trying to keep up with the funeral procession as it makes its way toward Montefiore Jewish Cemetery. Meanwhile, the rain has stopped too. Elimelech, are these the last pictures we’ll be able to see here?

06:44 Speaker 4 I assume so. I just want to point out that the people we see walking here will go a few hundred meters, that’s all. Afterward they’ll get into vehicles, and the procession will continue by car to the cemetery. A second thing I want to note: it’s less visible now, but two or three minutes ago you could see the massive police presence, the extensive police activity to maintain order. Now, I don’t know how many of this enormous crowd will continue all the way to the cemetery. In any event, they’re walking behind the car, which drove off fairly quickly at first. Eventually they’ll get into vehicles and continue toward Montefiore Cemetery in Queens. Can Avi Ravitzky hear me? I’d like to ask you one question.

07:38 Speaker 2 Please, Elimelech.

07:40 Speaker 4 Is it possible that the struggle over who succeeds the Rebbe will actually be between two groups? That’s the impression I’ve gotten here from conversations with Chabad chassidim today and over the past few weeks: that the struggle will be between, let’s call them the messianists, those who encouraged and still encourage the idea that the Rebbe is Moshiach, and another group, a much more—I would say—levelheaded group, whose aim is to prevent Chabad Chassidus from breaking apart over this.

08:20 Speaker 2 There’s no doubt that these two directions have already taken shape, and I had a chance to describe them on the news broadcast—

08:28 Speaker 4 And now as well.

08:28 Speaker 2 And now as well. Are groups vying for power necessarily driven by questions of principle? That I don’t know, because I don’t study sociology. I know—or try to know—the world of beliefs, the world of ideology, and there, certainly, two directions have taken shape over the last two years. Most Chabad chassidim are left wondering in the middle.

08:52 Speaker 4 Professor Ravitzky, if I’m not mistaken, we haven’t discussed the political involvement of the Rebbe, who has passed away. On Mabat, we saw the rare interview he gave at the time to Oded Ben-Ami, who was the Broadcasting Authority’s correspondent in the United States. I think it was in 1988, when he very openly and explicitly encouraged his chassidim in Israel to vote for Likud, for the right-wing parties, so that Yitzhak Shamir would remain prime minister. Was that an exceptional case?

09:23 Speaker 2 Look, first of all, this is a very interesting phenomenon because it shows the clear separation in Chabad Chassidus between messianic anticipation and a mystical outlook on the one hand, and realpolitik and pragmatism on the other. I’ll give you an example. At the time, when the autonomy agreement began under Mr. Shamir, the Rebbe said not to agree to autonomy, because autonomy would lead to a Palestinian state within ten years. The Temimim might ask, “But you said Moshiach would come this year—why should I care what happens in ten years?” Yet there was a very clear separation. Just as a Jew prays to Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the morning to heal his son, but then takes him to a doctor, so too I have a mystical messianic belief that Moshiach will come immediately, but that does not exempt me from considering things in a rational, realistic way. Despite their belief in Moshiach’s imminent arrival, people did not stop building houses in Brooklyn. This, then, is a very interesting aspect of that separation among Chabad chassidim, and it is one of the things that completely distances them from the accusation of Sabbateanism. Because in the time of Shabbesai Tzvi, people sold their property and went up to the Land of Israel.

10:36 Speaker 5 Of course.

10:37 Speaker 2 What’s more, among the Sabbateans there was a violation of halachah. In other words, they cast off the yoke of religious observance. Here it is precisely the opposite: messianic consciousness led to greater care in observing mitzvos, to a stricter halachic position. You know, their opponents tried to find some element of halachic violation among them. So they found that the Rebbe, because of a certain tradition, said there was no obligation to sleep in the sukkah. If that is the non-halachic or antinomian element one can find among them, then clearly the comparison with anti-halachic phenomena in Jewish history is not a sound one.

11:14 Speaker 5 Perhaps you could remind us, in a word, for anyone still wondering, why the Rebbe never set foot in Israel.

11:25 Speaker 2 Well, he did not say so explicitly, but—

11:27 Speaker 5 But he was never here.

11:28 Speaker 2 But one can assume that—

11:30 Speaker 5 He also wanted to be buried in the United States.

11:31 Speaker 2 One can assume that coming to the Holy Land is connected with a collective historical realization for the Jewish people. That is, the arrival of the individual, of the leader of the generation, is connected with a collective historical realization for the Jewish people—in other words, a messianic realization. I can’t—I have no evidence for this, but it is a hypothesis. Perhaps you’ll also allow me to continue on the subject you raised, political involvement.

11:54 Speaker 5 Yes.

11:55 Speaker 2 There is something very interesting here. This messianic anticipation, unlike, say, the religious leadership of Gush Emunim, is not tied to the state; it is not tied to Zionism. It is tied to the era. Of course, they moved away from the anti-Zionist position they held at the beginning of the century, but they are still non-Zionist and, in a certain sense, pro-Israel. They can be pro–State of Israel without adopting the Zionist ethos. For example, the Zionist ethos included the ingathering of the exiles, sometimes even the elimination of diaspora communities. The Rebbe forbade eliminating any diaspora community. He also told the Jews of South Africa to remain where they were, because Moshiach would bring them. In that, he contradicted the basic Zionist ethos. On the other hand, he was pro–State of Israel, and he believed that when the State of Israel comes into possession of territories for security reasons, in the course of war, it must hold on to them. We even heard a certain messianic rationale. During the exile, we stood bent over. The relationship between the Jew and the non-Jew was one of subservience. Now, on the eve of the Geulah, Jews must stand tall and face the non-Jew with pride. That is true in Crown Heights, when Black residents threaten to enter the Jewish neighborhood, and it is true in the Holy Land.

13:11 Speaker 6 This may be the place to mention, Professor Ravitzky, the extensive involvement of Chabad people here in Israel in the right-wing demonstrations against the government and against the agreement with the PLO. I think that, at least in the first demonstrations, Chabad chassidim were among the most active in organizing them, and perhaps in funding them as well.

13:30 Speaker 2 Without a doubt, because the hawkish position that refuses any territorial compromise was one of the Rebbe’s clearest messages in recent years. From their point of view, in this matter they continue to represent him and, through him, Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

13:48 Speaker 6 And do you believe this activity by Chabad people against the Oslo Accords and the Cairo agreements will continue with the same intensity now, after the Rebbe’s passing?

13:58 Speaker 2 Look, if there is no new leadership and no new leader, then perhaps the intensity will diminish, but the position will not change. If a new leader emerges over the years, we cannot be sure what positions he will take. In movements like these, which center on a leader, a change in the leader’s opinion is also a change in the movement’s opinion. But all of this is speculation, predictions that really have no basis.

14:21 Speaker 6 Yes, since we do not even know who the candidate to lead the Chabad movement might be, or whether the Rebbe left a will naming a candidate, or left it to the chassidim to choose one. I assume discussions on the subject will not even begin before the thirty days of mourning are over.

14:40 Speaker 2 Look, right now people are focused on the pain, on the loss of a father figure—a father figure both in the sense of a deep love for one’s father and in the sense that there is someone who makes decisions for me, guides me, encourages me, and gives me energy. Right now people are focused on that pain. I assume that, as happens when people experience pain—healthy people, and of course the great majority of Chabad chassidim are healthy people—they will then have to collect themselves and think about the future.

15:15 Speaker 6 Meanwhile, we are watching the funeral procession of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson making its way slowly along the avenue in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood. The thousands of people, perhaps tens of thousands, accompanying the Lubavitcher Rebbe on his final journey are now passing along the avenue here. From the picture, they are already some distance from the Rebbe’s home, and they are trying to make their way by vehicle from the Rebbe’s home in Brooklyn to the cemetery where he will be buried shortly. I repeat, we will not be able to see the burial ceremony at Montefiore Cemetery, and we will continue to follow the funeral procession for a few more minutes as it slowly moves away from the Rebbe’s home, from Chabad headquarters—really Chabad’s main headquarters—in Brooklyn. Chabad will certainly continue to operate from this house, this large house in Brooklyn, even after the death of the Lubavitcher Rebbe today. Perhaps we should mention again that the Lubavitcher Rebbe had been unconscious for the last three months and was hospitalized, unconscious, at Beth Israel Hospital in New York. The doctors, of course, made efforts to save his life, but in recent weeks it was already clear that the Lubavitcher Rebbe would not regain consciousness, and that it was a matter of days or weeks. The Lubavitcher Rebbe passed away this morning by our clock, last night by New York time. The Lubavitcher Rebbe was ninety-two when he died, and he led Chabad Chassidus for forty-three years. And besides his broad Jewish learning, the Lubavitcher Rebbe was also an educated man who completed studies in mathematics and philosophy at the University of Berlin and the Sorbonne in Paris. He emigrated to the United States when the Nazis conquered France during World War II. There, in the midst of World War II, he arrived in the United States, and there he established Chabad Chassidus in this house, in this area, in this neighborhood, Crown

18:01 Speaker 6 Crown Heights in Brooklyn, where he lived and worked from the 1940s until the day of his passing. Thousands of people are still making their way along this avenue in Brooklyn, trying to catch a glimpse of the Rebbe’s funeral procession, which left here, from his home in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, just a few minutes ago. As we saw, the Rebbe’s coffin was carried on the shoulders of his chassidim. Many of the chassidim tried to carry it, even for a few seconds, and many more tried to touch it or get close to it. But the procession with the coffin lasted only a few minutes, and shortly afterward the coffin was placed in a vehicle and driven from here, from Brooklyn, toward the cemetery. So very few people were able to get near the coffin, and even fewer, I imagine, were able to enter the house and pass by the coffin of the Rebbe while it stood there from the morning hours, New York time. Only a few were able to enter the house and pass by the coffin of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. And now, as you can see, the satellite transmission from the Rebbe’s funeral has ended, and we will end this broadcast as well. Professor Ravitzky, a few final words in closing.

19:46 Speaker 7 Yes. I think it is clear that we have lost a great Jew, an outstanding leader—something even those who disagreed with him recognized. Chabad Chassidus will now have to find its way toward the future, and I hope it does so without a fixation on the past, because the future is open and the past is closed.

20:13 Speaker 6 Thank you very much, Professor Avi Ravitzky, and thanks to the crew who were with us in the studio and brought the funeral procession—the beginning of the Rebbe’s funeral procession—from Brooklyn, New York, here to the television studios, the Channel One studios on Channel 33 of Israeli television. Thank you very much. Good night from Jerusalem. Our correspondent in Brooklyn, Aryeh Ulan, reports that Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s ambassador in Washington Itamar Rabinovich, Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gad Yaacobi, and the consul in New York, Colette Avital, have arrived at the Rebbe’s home. New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani also came, wearing a kippah. United States President Bill Clinton sent Chabad a letter of condolence on behalf of himself and his wife, praising the Rebbe’s work to rebuild Jewish life after the Holocaust. Our correspondent adds that special arrangements were made to allow Chabad chassidim arriving from Israel to attend the funeral: they could leave the airport without being delayed at passport control and reach the funeral on time. Our correspondent, Yaakov Wassenboim, reports that thousands are streaming to the Kfar Chabad synagogue and tearing their garments as a sign of mourning. They are watching the live broadcasts from Brooklyn on a giant screen. On Reshet Bet, we are broadcasting the funeral procession live. Central Command chief Ilan Biran has announced a series of measures easing daily life for residents of central Hebron. Today the market was opened...