A day of study for women on shlichus and activities

00:08 Speaker 1 We can be certain that efforts to spread Judaism do not go unanswered. We can be certain that the Jewish spark never goes out, and that one mitzvah leads to another. That is why we responded to the branches’ requests and convened this study day for N’shei Chabad activists at this fateful time, the era of ikvesa d’Meshicha, the footsteps of Moshiach. This period is unlike any other in our people’s history. It is an especially momentous time: a time when all the appointed times have already passed, a time that puts an end to the darkness, a time when Moshiach Tzidkeinu can be revealed. And may it happen very soon, immediately. [unclear]. We want Moshiach now. We want Moshiach now, in the immediate present, this year, right away. This year, 5741, is a year especially suited to Moshiach’s coming. The year following the seventh year, the Shabbos unto Hashem, is a year of Hakhel. It holds within it the possibility, the privilege and the obligation to gather men, women and children in the Beis Hamikdash, standing in the rebuilt Jerusalem, with Dovid Malka Meshicha at our head. The prayers of all the generations stand behind us: the prayers of “May our eyes behold Your return to Zion in mercy,” and the prayers of “May You speedily cause the scion of Dovid Your servant to flourish; for we hope for Your salvation all day long.” They are knocking at our door. And now the day has indeed arrived; it depends only on our holy work. We need only strengthen Tzivos Hashem. We need only reinforce our ranks, adding regular troops and reserves to our armies. We must arm our children, the young children of Israel, the sons of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov and the daughters of Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel and Leah, with the secret weapon—our ancient weapon that never wears out, the weapon possessed by no other army but the army of Hashem. We must send our children into battle against the yetzer hara, “the alien god within you,” and against a hostile environment to which the kelipah of Amalek has attached itself. And they must win. They must stand firm against everything that hinders or holds them back. Our children must go forth armed with the Torah, which is

03:46 Speaker 1 “the heritage of the congregation of Yaakov”—the Torah that has never grown old, the Torah given to Moshe Rabbeinu at Sinai and passed down to our day. We must give them Torah, mitzvos and the scrupulous observance of mitzvos, and strengthen them with the joy of a mitzvah. Only in this way can we hasten the fulfillment of “Israel will do teshuvah and be redeemed immediately.” Every Jewish child, every daughter of Israel, has the pure faith inherited from our ancestors—the pure faith of which it is said, “Educate a child according to his way; even when he grows old, he will not depart from it.” And when we begin with the pure faith hidden in every Jewish child’s soul, it is not hard to encourage a child to give tzedakah, which is equal to all the mitzvos and brings the Geulah closer. It is not hard to encourage a child to memorize the Twelve Torah Passages: beginning with the twelve passages from the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, and continuing with many more verses and many subjects of Torah learned thoroughly. Nor is it difficult to encourage a child to daven with a minyan. Every Jewish child in whose soul Torah, prayer and tzedakah are embedded, and whose whole being is surrounded by them, has the power to bring Moshiach Tzidkeinu. And of course, all this begins with “Love your fellow as yourself”: each child must not be content with the good they have received, but must share it with as many other children as possible. Only in this way can we bring Moshiach, and we do not want to delay him. We want Moshiach now. G-d forbid that we should put him off or delay him even a day, or even a moment. It depends only on us, on the women of Israel, who brought about the first redemption and have the power to bring about the final Geulah. If we remember that every boy and every girl before us and near us needs us, and if we remember that it depends on us alone, then with Hashem’s help we will very soon merit everlasting joy upon our heads. We will merit the fulfillment of the vision of Hakhel: men, women and children gathered in the Beis Hamikdash, standing in the rebuilt Jerusalem, with the scion of Dovid, Your servant, at our head. Amen, may it

06:55 Speaker 1 be His will. We were supposed to begin with the lecture by the rabbi, the rabbi of Rechovot. If he has not arrived yet, we can move on to another talk. We ask Mrs. Zahava Markowitz, representative of the Bnei Brak branch, to come up to the stage and share her experiences. She has spent years volunteering as a bridal instructor at the rabbinate office in Tel Aviv, and, boruch Hashem, has seen the fruits of her labor. Some of us have already heard Mrs. Markowitz. We heard her in Jerusalem at the study day of the Institute for Family Purity. It is good to hear words of truth, and to hear them again—good things we can put into practice. Those of us who have heard her before will also be glad to listen, recall what she says and apply it in our daily lives. Zahava, please.

09:39 Speaker 2 Yes. Can you hear me well? She said not completely. Not at all. It’s not ideal. Yes. Can you hear me? Well, the subject is the Jewish home and the three principal mitzvos incumbent on a Jewish woman, which are really the foundation of our entire people. The Jewish people draw their strength from the woman. My talk actually addresses all the questions and problems that people who are not observant generally have—let’s say, people in general. It is built around the main question: “After all, we aren’t religious. This has nothing to do with us. Let religious people do it, by all means, but we aren’t religious. Why on earth are we obliged to do all these things?” And especially the third mitzvah, which is the most important. So I built my talk around the questions of people who are not observant, and the principle is to move from the easier to the more demanding: ask for the minimum at first, while always aspiring to the maximum. And of course, when we approach our fellow Jews who are not observant, we need a great deal of love—real love—the Ahavas Yisroel that the Rebbe calls for. Yes. And if we approach someone who is struggling, if we see that person as someone in need, then we certainly must speak with love and a great deal of patience. When we approach these people with love, they will immediately sense that we are speaking from the heart. We want what is best for them. I think the rabbi has arrived, hasn’t he? Has the rabbi arrived? Yes. So we’ll continue.

12:16 Speaker 3 He’ll get settled.

12:20 Speaker 2 All right, then we’ll continue afterward. Please, I can’t hear you. What are you saying? Has the rabbi arrived?

12:31 Speaker 3 That’s a sign they want to hear her.

14:10 Speaker 2 We welcome Rabbi Kook, the rabbi of Rechovot. We thank him very much for making the effort to come, and we feel that we truly have before us a friend of Chabad, a friend of the Rebbe shlita. We would also welcome hearing a rabbi’s perspective on Chabad’s work and its connection with Jews who, for now, are not observant. I would even ask for some observations that might light our way: what to add, what to improve, and how the Chabad movement, its work and its concerns, appear in the eyes of Jews who are not observant. Please.

15:11 Speaker 4 I am glad for the opportunity to visit, to participate and to take part in this large and important gathering of women. I know firsthand about your blessed work, which carries a doubly great merit. By “doubly” I mean this: first and foremost, the merit of helping, of coming forward to extend a helping hand and a hand of affection to everyone called a Jew. Chesed is one aspect. The second aspect is that, in our case, this is not just any chesed, but chesed drawn from the depths of the Torah and its mitzvos. Perhaps I can explain. Our Sages tell us a parable. What is it like? A person had a chair with three legs, but the chair would not stay upright. One leg was weak; it wobbled and was unstable. So he took a stone and propped up the chair leg with it. By placing the stone beneath the chair, he made the chair stand firm, steady and stable. Our Sages say that this is the meaning of the verse, “Your throne is established through chesed.” The throne of Hakadosh Boruch Hu becomes firm and stable through chesed. And what chesed does this mean? There were ten generations from Adam to Noach, and they gave Him no satisfaction. Another ten generations passed, from Noach to Avraham, and again they gave Him no satisfaction. Then Avraham Avinu came, a man of chesed, and the throne of Hakadosh Boruch Hu was established—established through chesed. That is what our Sages say. The truth is, when I saw this teaching, I found it somewhat difficult. What would we do? If there is a well-kept home with a wobbly chair, I don’t think the best solution is to put a stone under it. We would suggest something else: remove the faulty leg, take away the short leg and replace it with one of the right length. That would solve the problem better. Why put a stone under that short leg? A chair with a stone under it is an arrangement

19:12 Speaker 4 Right? But here is the point: Hakadosh Boruch Hu created His world, and He left a place in it for every person, for every Jew. You will make the chair. If Hakadosh Boruch Hu had wanted to create His world so that it had no need for acts of kindness, He could have created a world in which no one needed anyone’s kindness. It would have been a world of chairs with four long, sturdy legs. Hakadosh Boruch Hu created a world that needs human action. He wants us to act. He asks this of us. A Jew’s duty is to get up and do something. That is His will; that is the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is Hashem’s command. Hakadosh Boruch Hu says: You take it on yourselves. Let each of us take a small bundle, a small act of kindness. It strengthens the world. It is the chair of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “The earth is full of Hashem’s kindness.” The point is that we perform kindness at Hashem’s command, and then the earth is full of it. There are many organizations devoted to kindness today. It has almost become, I would say, fashionable. Boruch Hashem that this is what is fashionable. It is good to have a fashion like this. There are some terrible fashions. Boruch Hashem people have understood that this, too, is needed. I believe that much of the reason it has recently become a kind of volunteer movement—with offices and clerks sitting there, drinking tea and eating cake, all at the expense of that volunteer work—is also a good thing; let it be. Where did it begin? Didn’t it begin right within the holy community that knows what Torah is, that knows what mitzvos are? After all, tzedakah and kindness come naturally; they are part of the whole way of life. Is there a shul without acts of kindness? Is there a shul where people do not bring one another closer? Is there a group of Jews who keep Torah and mitzvos living in a neighborhood

21:37 Speaker 4 together—with one Jew living here and another there—especially where the population is mixed? I mean even more so than in places where everyone keeps Torah and mitzvos. In a city like Rechovot, or in outlying towns, where the observant community is not so concentrated, is there no connection, no awareness, no hand reaching out to draw people together into a large circle? Anyone with even a trace of the scent of Torah is brought close to his fellow Jew. And from that circle, boruch Hashem, the great work called kindness reaches outward as well. And indeed, boruch Hashem, when we speak of a gathering of Chabad women—Shabbos candle lighting, visits to hospitals, help for families in need—almost whenever an idea arises for outreach, for bringing people closer, or for assistance, I think Chabad women deserve special recognition for being at the forefront of this work. I know that in Rechovot, our Chabad community is not large in number. No one knows just how few they are. Why doesn’t anyone know? Because people think there are hundreds of Chabad families in Rechovot. Judging by their work, by what they have built, it looks like one of the largest communities. Their deeds are great, even if their numbers are not always the greatest. “It was not because you were more numerous than all the peoples that Hashem your G-d set His affection upon you.” Deeds are what count; deeds are what make a community great, not numbers alone. And I would like to touch on an issue that also requires our attention. We come among people who are not religious. We know that it says in Pirkei Avos, “Know what to answer an apikores.” We need to know what to answer. What does it mean to know what to answer? Why doesn’t it say, “Answer an apikores”? It doesn’t say that. It says, “Know.” What does “know” mean? First of all, we ourselves need to know. We must know what we would answer an apikores. Whether or not we actually answer, we can decide afterward. But first, each of us must know,

24:10 Speaker 4 each and every one of us. And I want to tell you: last week I attended a Chanukah gathering in Rechovot for families of baalei teshuvah. Boruch Hashem, we have hundreds of families who have returned to Torah observance. When I look at these families—most of whom I know well, along with their struggles and problems—I do not know of a single family, or even a single person, who returned to Torah observance because, at the very beginning, at that first encounter with a religious community, with a Chassidic community, with people who keep Torah and mitzvos, when they first began to get a sense of it, to understand and consider what Torah is, what mitzvos are, what a complete Jewish life is, someone said, “Perhaps we should make it easier for them. Let’s not frighten them. Let’s tell them that Judaism isn’t really such a big thing; it’s not so daunting. You say a little l’chaim, make Kiddush on Shabbos, and sing zemiros. That’s all.” Ladies, that is not how people return to Torah observance. It does not begin that way. What is the right approach? To come and state the truth with complete clarity. What do I mean by the truth? Torah encompasses a Jew’s life and all the worlds, all the worlds in their entirety. A Jew who lives by Torah and a Jew who does not live by Torah inhabit two different worlds. A Jew who lives by Torah gets up in the morning, goes to sleep at night, and even sleeps in accordance with Torah. All his actions are guided by Torah; his entire outlook is a Torah outlook. His whole being is devoted to serving Hashem. To give a small example, there is a mitzvah very dear to us: the mitzvah of tzitzis. Tosafos, in Tractate Shabbos, gives one explanation of the mitzvah of tzitzis. In times when there were slaves, a master would tie a thread to his slave’s garment. Why? So that everyone would know that this slave belonged to that master. One explanation of tzitzis is that they are a bond of servitude. So someone may ask: Are we slaves? Of course. The question is: slaves to what? Everyone is a slave. The great

26:55 Speaker 4 majority of people are slaves to their desires. A person decides—a family decides—to buy a color television. They cannot do without a color television; it is simply impossible. What do you mean? They cannot imagine life without one. Someone started explaining it to me. He said, “What do you mean? What you see there, with all those colors—it’s so...” He said, “It’s almost like real life.” That is precisely why we do not want it: because it is so... In general, people often ask, “Why are you so strongly opposed to television?” I think that among an audience like this, we may speak about it, and we must. This is how I thought about it: once, people used to go to the movies. Even someone eager to indulge his desires—how often would he go? Once a month, once a week, twice a week. I have never heard of anyone in the world going more often than that. Someone with a television at home lives in a movie theater. He lives in a theater. He opened a theater and moved in, put a sofa there and a bookcase too. He never gets to the books. He lives in a theater. Perhaps he will not turn the theater on every day. That makes no difference: the home has become a movie theater. They live in a movie theater. At the touch of a button, you are in the theater. So even when the screen is off, you live in a theater. All your thoughts revolve around it. A person decides to replace his television with a color television. Do I know how much that costs? I think about two hundred thousand liras—no, I think you know more about that than I do. That means a person has to come up with the money. If he is not wealthy, if he works for a living—and that is generally most people—and saves every penny, then sometimes he has to work for a year, a year and a half, two years, to save up

28:44 Speaker 4 For a television. A person works for two years to buy a television. A slave! Isn’t he a slave? Why are you working overtime? Come home, sit with your wife and children, do something, study. That goes without saying. But I’m speaking on your terms. No, he’s busy. He has to work very hard. Why? He needs to save money; he has an important goal: a color television. All day long he thinks about it. All day long he waits for the moment he’ll get home. Boruch Hashem, now he has something to watch. It’s terrible! The narrowing of the mind, the smallness of mind, this enslavement to nothing—to an inanimate object, to zero, to the wickedness they show there, to all sorts of things involving immorality and bloodshed. Terrible! We are servants. Of course we are servants—servants of the Creator of the universe, servants of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, bound to Him. Tzitzis, a cord of servitude. If only we truly were like that. If only we were. And likewise, we have a mezuzah at the entrance to our home. A mezuzah in a home makes it a different home. As we spoke earlier about the home in its negative aspect, this is a home that has the name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu in it. Shema Yisroel at the entrance. You enter with Shema Yisroel, you leave with Shema Yisroel, you move with Shema Yisroel. A home with a mezuzah bears a seal. It is a home on which Hakadosh Boruch Hu has placed His testimony, His seal—a holy seal marking a Jewish home. This is Shabbos; these are the mitzvos. And when you speak of a complete way of life and tell someone who is very far away, “This is life, this is the Torah, these are its mitzvos, and they encompass everything. They do not leave a single corner untouched,” then the person begins to think. It is hard for him to observe it all at once. He doesn’t know how; even if he wants to, he doesn’t know how. That doesn’t matter. He may not know how, but he knows the goal.

31:01 Speaker 4 He knows the path he is taking. If you come to a person and tell him, “Yes, it’s just one little thing, just one little thing. Nothing…”

00:01 Speaker 1 Not the righteous people who came before him, like Chanoch, whom G-d took, and the others—not they were called Jews. For a Jew, in the truest sense, is someone who calls upon the whole world in Hashem’s name. He is someone who brings Jews closer to their source, and so he merits being called their father. Anyone who teaches a Jewish child Torah is considered as though he had given birth to that child. And the same kindness, that same attribute of kindness that was spoken of in connection with Avraham Avinu for doing this, was also spoken of in connection with David, King of Israel. The Midrash goes on to say: “With what did Hakadosh Boruch Hu bring joy to the world? He brought it joy through the kindness of David, My servant.” And all our hope is that our leader from the house of King David, who follows his path of kindness—kindness toward every Jew, every boy and every girl, from the oldest to the youngest—will truly bring the light that will overcome this redoubled darkness. In these days of redoubled darkness, may we merit a great light, the light of the beginning of the Geulah and the complete Geulah. Thank you very much. We wish the Rabbi great success in his holy work, and may he see good fruits from his labor in his city of Rechovot and throughout the country. We ask everyone to sit down. There is no break now. We’re continuing with today’s program. The next topic. We’re very happy about this get-together, and we all wish Rosa mazal tov! All the best.

02:18 Speaker 1 We ask everyone to sit down so we can hear Zehava tell us how she tries—and, boruch Hashem, succeeds—to bring Jewish ideas and principles of truth to young couples preparing for marriage. Please.

02:59 Speaker 2 Yes, it’s interesting. I don’t want to get into politics here, as they say, but this is the first time I’ve heard what this rabbi said. That the Chazon... the Rabbi said that the Chazon Ish said that this generation is a generation of, well, people like children who were taken captive, and we need to bring them closer.

03:28 Speaker 1 He’s adding that on his own. He did say it. I’ll continue.

03:31 Speaker 2 Just a moment—but never mind. He said that the Chazon Ish said to bring them closer. It doesn’t matter; I’m not here to quote from... Just a moment. What’s interesting is that we can truly say with pride: the Chazon Ish said this, and his followers and his people did exactly the opposite. And boruch Hashem, we are making every effort to carry out the Rebbe’s words—the Rebbe’s. Yes, the Chazon Ish’s followers say exactly the opposite. All the kollel students who follow the Chazon Ish, and so on. First of all, they say, we have to take care of ourselves and make sure we’re all right. As for them, they’re lost anyway. Moshiach will come and set everyone right. That was their slogan. I happened to encounter—just a moment—now, lately, they have nevertheless begun to wake up, apparently as a result of the Rebbe’s words, specifically, and not the Chazon Ish’s, and of the actions of the chassidim. Here and there they are starting to do something. Please. Yes, but it’s interesting that they quoted the Chazon Ish so often: “The Chazon Ish said,” “the Chazon Ish,” “the Chazon Ish.” And there, the Chazon Ish asked them to bring our fellow Jews closer, yet they did exactly the opposite. So let’s continue with how we actually bring them closer, how we— I’ll answer that too. How do we bring them closer? How do we come down to their level? We’ve already said that the first thing is love: “Love your fellow as yourself.” With a great deal of love, a great deal of feeling, a great deal of patience. And as they say, “It is not our task to complete the work.” Still, of all the campaigns, all of which are essential—hospital visits, candle-lighting in high schools, and so on—if I’m not mistaken, the most important campaign is actually the home visit. Because then you establish a relationship with the family, and you can gradually introduce them to the mitzvos. Even one meeting can accomplish something—they always say, “No word is ever wasted,” right? And we need to work on every front. My role

06:16 Speaker 2 is, as you heard, at the rabbinate. It’s heartening and painful at the same time. We have the opportunity to meet couples who are about to get married. On the other hand, we don’t establish an ongoing relationship with them, although I leave them phone numbers in case they have questions. I hope they’ll meet Chabad people wherever they turn—in hospitals, on home visits, at mikvaos, and so on—and that those people will complete my work. So this is how I begin: The dramatic difference between a Jewish home and a non-Jewish home began at the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. I start there to connect them, so they’ll feel that they belong to this Torah and these mitzvos, when they think they don’t belong to them at all. “That’s all for religious people, and we aren’t religious,” they argue. “It has nothing to do with us.” Yet they proudly say they are Jews. They belong to the Jewish people. They’ll say that this Torah does indeed belong to the Jewish people too, but it doesn’t speak to their hearts. So the goal here is for it to speak to their hearts, and for them to take the words of the Torah and the mitzvos seriously, and so on. So I say this: Look, I can tell you in a few words—and sometimes it helps—“As Jews, you are obligated.” Period. No arguments, no explanations, and so on. But I can also explain why, from a legal, halachic, scientific, medical, emotional, and even logical perspective. There is so much logic in our Torah. It promotes so much health, and I don’t think we need to be embarrassed about that—on the contrary. Why shouldn’t we say that our Torah is healthy? It prevents a great many illnesses. Why shouldn’t we be proud of our Torah? Of course, we need to do it in the spirit of “We will do and we will hear,” without questioning; even if it doesn’t seem right to us, we still have to observe it. But if someone comes along, even a non-Jew, and shows us

08:47 Speaker 2 that a certain mitzvah is healthy and good, why shouldn’t we say, “That’s right, it’s healthy and good”? This is our Torah. We should be proud of it. I once had a couple, and when I began to speak and to show the scientific and medical evidence, it was דווקא the bride—someone who, if we’d met her on the street, we wouldn’t have thought was interested in Torah at all—who turned to me angrily and said, “I don’t understand you. You’re explaining Torah together with science? Why should we care about science? We’re Jews, and we have to do it. That’s all.” I said, “Good for you.” The groom looked to me like a journalist or, I don’t know, an actor. He said, “No, you’re wrong. This is the only way to explain it—the way the Rebbetzin is speaking. These days we don’t swallow just anything, as they say. We want to understand why.” And she began saying, “No, that’s not right,” and he began saying, “Yes, it is”—“No, it isn’t.” I calmed them down and said, “You two are both right.” So she said, “Are you tr—oh, you’re trying to make peace between us?” I said, “No. You really are both right. Listen to the end, and you’ll see that you’re both right.” Well, the dramatic difference between a Jewish home and a non-Jewish home began especially at the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Everyone is surely familiar with that event: G-d chose the Jewish people as His treasured people and gave them the Torah as a gift. What makes this gift so great? What is special about that book? After all, there are so many books in the world: books on history, science, medicine, philosophy, music, and endless novels. There’s no shortage of books in the world. What’s interesting is that to this day, this ancient book of the Jewish people is called the Book of Books throughout the world. That means that even today it stands above all the newest books. So

11:09 Speaker 2 What is so special about it? Once, a clever man said to me, “I don’t want to embarrass you, but I have a question.” I said, “On the contrary, ask.” He said, “Who told you it’s the Book of Books? Have you read every book in the world?” Boruch Hashem, there was help from Above. When you start doing something, G-d helps, and I answered him immediately: “Did I decide that? Who said I decided it? The non-Jews decided it. The enlightened world calls it the Book of Books. The president of the United States isn’t ashamed to acknowledge that it’s the Book of Books. It’s the Jew who, out of feelings of inferiority, is ashamed to admit it.” “Well done,” he said, and after that he didn’t bother me anymore. So what is special about this book? If we sum it up, we discover that G-d revealed the secret of life to us. The Torah of the Jewish people begins, “In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth.” We believe, and even non-Jews believe, that there is a higher power. He created the world, He formed it, and who knows His creation better than He does? Who knows better than He does what is good for our bodies and what is good for our souls? And He gave us, as a gift, instructions for how to live in this world He created. As we talk, I tell them, “You’ll see that G-d revealed great secrets to us.” G-d also gave us Shabbos as a gift, and I read to them, “The children of Israel shall keep the Shabbos.” You see, this day of rest is the covenant and the sign. I explain the covenant, and I explain the sign as a sign between the Jewish people and G-d. That is why Jews have so often literally risked their lives for the sanctity of Shabbos. It wasn’t out of fanaticism or superstition. And then they no longer ask why people throw stones. Interesting that they don’t ask, isn’t it? It was

13:46 Speaker 2 out of loyalty to the covenant and the sign that G-d established between us and Him. The Jewish woman welcomes this special, holy day by lighting Shabbos candles. And of course, Shabbos candles must always be lit before sunset. People used to light them when they sat down at the table, and boruch Hashem, I think you hardly see that today, thanks to Chabad’s work, thanks to the Rebbe—may he be well—and the chassidim. I always emphasize that. May they all be well, of course. I always emphasize that if someone is late—and that can happen—they must not light. Next time, they should try not to be late. Our Sages, of blessed memory, tell us that the Shabbos candles a Jewish woman lights on Friday bring light into the home. Here we mean spiritual light. They create a special atmosphere in the home: an atmosphere of holiness, joy, blessing, and peace. I add that this little candle is also a symbol. It represents the spiritual light the Jewish woman brings into a Jewish home. In fact, that is the Jewish mother’s role: to illuminate the Jewish home with the spiritual light of the Jewish people. In other words, to make every effort to see that the home is run as a Jewish home and, G-d forbid, does not come to resemble a non-Jewish home more closely, as unfortunately sometimes happens. That is the Jewish mother’s role. Among the Jewish people, the Jewish mother is called the akeres habayis, the mainstay of the home. It means the essential part of the home, the foundation of the Jewish home. This is where the Jewish people begin. She is the one who brings the children into the world. She is the one who cares for them from their first day, both physically and psychologically, giving a baby the love it needs, which has an effect for years to come. She sees to their education from early childhood, to good friends, to a good school. The main thing is not that the school has a large soccer field or an impressive building. What matters is the education—the authentic Jewish education the child will receive at that school, so that when he grows up, he will know the difference between a Jew and a non-Jew. Unfortunately,

16:38 Speaker 2 some of our young people are growing up without knowing the difference. And as we said, it isn’t their fault. They are simply unfortunate: either they didn’t see it at home or they didn’t hear enough about it at school. Unfortunately, not every school gives children an authentic Jewish education. They simply don’t know; they aren’t aware and don’t give it thought. Of course, there is a great deal more one could say about Shabbos. One could add the tzedakah box, which is very important, and so on and so forth. It’s impossible to say everything there is to say. Today we’re keeping it brief. So that is the woman’s first mitzvah: lighting Shabbos candles on time. We also mention young girls, and that it is good and desirable for them to start lighting. The second thing is very, very important. Strictly speaking, the second mitzvah is separating challah, but since today we are almost exempt from it, because the rabbis do it for us properly and according to halachah, sometimes I mention it and sometimes I don’t. I move on to the kosher kitchen. Again, I… it depends on whom I’m speaking to. I don’t want it to feel forced or to put too much pressure on them. So I often ask, “Would you like an explanation of why, or would you rather not?” I want to tell you that in most cases—over ninety percent—they ask for the explanation. They want to understand why. So, the kosher kitchen. What is the difference between a kosher kitchen and a non-kosher one? Once again, our Torah gave us signs telling us what we may eat and what we may not eat. Everyone surely knows the signs. And if we look at them, we’ll also see that the animals our Torah permitted us to eat generally have better, calmer dispositions and are, ultimately, healthier too. By contrast, the animals our Torah forbade us to eat are

18:47 Speaker 2 generally animals with undesirable traits: they trample or prey on others, or they have other unpleasant characteristics, or their meat is simply unhealthy for our bodies. There is a small percentage—and I mention this, because people may ask you about it—for which we still don’t understand why the Torah forbade us to eat them. So it’s worth bringing it up first. If eighty or even ninety percent makes sense, then surely the remaining ten percent is justified too. It’s just that science hasn’t yet discovered the reason. Science has been revealing things to us lately through research. For example, let’s take fish. You’ve surely heard that some fish are poisonous. A fish with scales and fins is always fit to eat, and there is no concern about poisoning—not even from mercury, which can actually poison a person. Recently, though, problems have arisen even with kosher fish, such as tuna and others. I heard that two weeks ago, fish containing a quantity of mercury were found off the coast of Haifa. It’s good to stay up to date, yes? Those fish really are kosher, and they don’t naturally produce mercury. But the sea is polluted by factory waste and chemical experiments. The fish has no choice: it takes in seawater and absorbs a certain amount of mercury, just as we breathe polluted air today. Another example: two years ago, they found mercury in oranges. Do oranges produce mercury? They found mercury in them because mercury had been injected into them. Yes? So by its nature, a fish with scales and fins poses no concern about poisoning, and you can eat it without worry. At first glance, this is all very simple. But if we think about it a little, we see that all these signs the Torah gave us were given thousands of years ago in the Sinai Desert, and they still hold true to this day—not only in our region. Israel,

21:28 Speaker 2 Egypt, the Red Sea, Eilat. All these signs are found throughout the entire world, including in the seas, which are many times larger than the land, and including in America, which was discovered only a few hundred years ago. The same signs are there too. That really interests them. So what is going on here? And the answer? It gives us something to think about, and an answer to all those who try to say, “Yes, the Jews were always clever, intelligent, cultured people, and they wrote a fairly successful Torah scroll.” Let’s take the wisest, most intelligent person in the world, thousands of years ago in the Sinai Desert. How could he have seen what was happening throughout the entire world, including that enormous ocean? How? They have no answer. G-d is the One who revealed it to us. He is the One who created the world. He is the One who formed the world, and who would know better than He what is happening throughout the world? And who would know better than He what is good for our bodies and what is good for our souls? And He gave us this Torah, telling us how to live in this world that He created. I’ll also give the pig as an example, because unfortunately it is found in our country. So let’s take the pig as an example. It doesn’t prey on other animals or trample them, as far as I know, and apparently it’s also very, very tasty. If so many people around the world eat pork, it must taste good too. Our Torah doesn’t say it isn’t tasty; quite the opposite. What characteristics does a pig have? I happen to know it only from the zoo. I noticed that even at the zoo, where they could give it a clean, orderly enclosure, more or less like all the other animals, they make every effort there—excuse me—to dirty that enclosure. It isn’t just mud and dirt. It’s filth. There was one young man who was apparently very offended that I associated filth with the pig, and he angrily

24:11 Speaker 2 said to me, “But abroad they don’t do things like that at the zoo.” And thank G-d, once again I had an answer on the spot, with help from Heaven, and I said to him, “But we Jews are compassionate, the children of compassionate people. We don’t want to torment the pig. We give it what it likes.” He was taken aback and fell silent. Yes, and really, why? Why do they do all these things for it? It demands it. It seeks it out. If they want it to feel good at the zoo, they give it that. Its favorite food, its natural food rather than artificial food—excuse me—is excrement. Some say it very much likes to eat its own waste. Well, that’s truly disgusting. And because of these traits, since it is always in filth, it also picks up and transmits germs. Where are germs usually found? In filth, in dirt. And indeed, more than once entire epidemics spread through pigs, and at the time Jews did not become infected because they did not eat pork, if you remember. What’s more, the Rambam says that the food a person eats ultimately affects their character too. And here they really want to understand how. We can illustrate this as well. The Chofetz Chaim always explained the Torah through a parable, and we too can use all sorts of parables. After all, in the end

00:00 Speaker 1 The first generation—say, for example, a Jew who arrived in America from Eastern Europe, from Galicia, who kept mitzvos, studied Torah, everything. That is the generation of the wise son. He knows all the mitzvos. His son is the one who wanted to be American and threw it all away. He still knows it all very well, because only yesterday he was learning in cheder, and then he threw it all away. He is the wicked son. His son is the simple son. He asks, “What is this?” He asks because he saw many Jewish things at his grandparents’ home. He saw the challahs, the Shabbos candles, the kiddush, so he points and asks, “What is this?” He didn’t see those things at his parents’ home anymore, but he still remembers seeing something when he was a child. The fourth generation is the one who does not know how to ask. He has nothing to ask about. He never saw his grandfather, and there had long been nothing Jewish in his grandparents’ home. Certainly not in his parents’ home. There is nothing in the course of his life, no detail of his reality, of his existence, that reminds him of anything different from all the non-Jews. And there is no fifth generation. That is simply because the fifth generation is already born to a non-Jewish mother. So this is where we stand today, after roughly 150 years of vigorous assimilation that used every tool and every means, bringing us to a point where our generation must face the results as they are. If a Jew is horrified by the Holocaust—and there is no Jew who is not horrified by the Holocaust—how can he not be horrified when he hears about this self-destruction? It is slower and not so brutal, not so savage, but in essence it

01:57 Speaker 1 does the same thing. What the antisemitism of every generation wanted to do and achieve, it is achieving today. Today we ourselves are the antisemites. Today we ourselves do not want to see any expression of Ahavas Yisroel. When we come with the Tzivos Hashem campaign—I don’t know if many of you have heard about this—they brought the Tzivos Hashem campaign to a school in Rishon. The teachers there were horrified. What? Our children will stand like Khomeini’s soldiers? We agree that they can say, “Love your fellow as yourself,” but under no circumstances should they say, “This is a fundamental principle of the Torah.” That is antisemitism. We are in a situation today where we have swallowed the poison and are poisoning ourselves from within. That is the greatest victory the antisemites could have expected or hoped for. So what can we do to return to proper functioning, so that this body will once again begin to function in a healthy way and expel this poison from within? Let’s return to the concept of a system. A system... There are different systems. There are different degrees of complexity, different levels of organization. Yes? The bus. All right, I’m nearly finished. There are different levels of complexity in a system. The inanimate is the simplest. A plant is more complex, an animal still more complex, and a human being is an even more complex system: for a person to survive, they need not only food but also warm human contact. And there is the most complex system of all, the Jewish people. There is only one such system that is an entire people, and that is the Jewish people. No other people is a system. All the other nations consist of people with shared interests who came together to meet their immediate needs. A system requires an investment of energy in order to endure. At every level—inanimate, plant, animal, and human—work must be invested to sustain the system. And again, this is a principle of the natural sciences: the more

04:16 Speaker 1 complicated and complex a system is, the more easily it begins to fall apart, and the more attention, work, and energy must be invested to keep it from falling apart. The Jewish people are a system, and an enormous investment of work is needed from every individual so that this system does not break apart or crumble, but continues to exist. That is what is required of each and every one of us, quite literally. A Jew who wants the Jewish people to continue to exist has no choice but to take upon themselves the observance of mitzvos, because that is the only way. It is the only method proven to work for the survival of the Jewish people in the long laboratory of history. Jews have tried all kinds of other methods. You can examine them one by one throughout history, and it has been shown that none of them worked—including the latest method, the State of Israel. Saying that the State of Israel is an experiment that failed is a very sensitive matter among the Israeli public, but it is not hard to get anyone to agree. The disappointment is enormous even among the most Zionist, most devoted people. I heard a man who is so devoted to the Jewish people and to the Land of Israel, a completely secular man, say, “It pains me to say it, but I have left Israel. I live here physically, but I have left Israel.” So even if at first people recoil and say, “What? Israel is not a failed experiment,” it is not hard—I won’t go into this at length here because I have to move on—it is not hard at all to bring anyone to acknowledge that Israel, too, is an experiment that failed. I think perhaps the critical event for a great many Israelis was the Yom Kippur War, when suddenly Israelis found themselves in the position of Jews, after thinking all along

06:08 Speaker 1 that an Israeli was like a Frenchman, a German, or an Englishman, and that, after all, we were a country like any other. Nothing like the Yom Kippur War had ever happened in the world: a people forbidden to defend itself, standing and pleading with all the nations of the world, “Forgive us, give us permission. We’re about to raise a hand, but please give us permission, because someone facing us wants to destroy us.” Running around all the world’s capitals asking permission to defend ourselves. Such a thing has never been heard of, except with the Jewish people, and with the Jew in exile, when a pogrom threatened and others were allowed to kill him, while the Jew was forbidden to defend himself until after the first blow had been struck. Only then was he allowed to strike back. For a great many Israelis, this was a terrible awakening, because they suddenly realized that despite every effort to be like the non-Jews, to be a people like all other peoples, this national assimilation—devised after individual, personal assimilation had failed, so that the whole people would assimilate among the nations and become a nation like all other nations, a country like all other countries—had not worked either. Here is the Jews’ country. This is the country that may be struck. This is the country that may be required to give back all the spoils of war in return for nothing more than a pat on the back, a smile. Such a thing is unheard of except when it comes to Jews. For a great many Israelis, this shook them deeply. They still do not know what to call it. They do not know how to define it, but it demands something of them now. Israeli identity is crumbling; it has no foundation, nothing to stand on. They are seeking a Jewish identity, even if they do not know it, even if they do not define it that way. So this is the generation for whom the long process that began with the exile

07:55 Speaker 1 Babylon, where it says, “The Jews accepted what they had begun to do”—acceptance, rather than a giving. The giving of the Torah was imposed from above. But “the Jews accepted” means acceptance from within, out of completely free choice: kabbolas ol freely chosen. Now is the time to accept that yoke of our own free choice. Because yes, it’s true that the Jewish spark exists and lives in the heart of every Jew. It’s true that self-sacrifice exists and stirs within every Jew. But it cannot endure without something to sustain it. If that spark does not light a candle, if there is no wick and oil to keep it burning, then, G-d forbid, that spark could be lost. Of course we will not let that happen, but each person must do their part so that this spark, which truly exists in this generation but cannot continue to exist amid this kind of secularism, has something to hold on to. We will not let that happen, and we know it will not happen, G-d forbid. We know the tide is beginning to turn back, but it is very important that everyone take part in this. I want to do what I did there: tell you a story and perhaps ask each of you to read it. I’ll tell it very, very briefly—the story by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov about the lost princess. It is a parable that can be interpreted beautifully as a parable about the creation of the world, the Jewish people, and the Jewish people’s search for complete faith, which is the lost princess. Every part of the story is really very, very precise. You can see it as corresponding exactly to a part of the history of the Jewish people. What I want to tell you here is just the ending. At the end of the story, the viceroy who is searching for the lost princess finally, after very many hardships and trials, reaches the city where she is. And then

09:52 Speaker 1 suddenly the story ends with this plain sentence: “And afterward he found her.” We’re stunned. What is this? We’ve waited the whole story for the ending. We’ve been through so many hardships together with the searching viceroy, faced the difficult trials with him, fallen asleep with him, woken up with him, and wept when we realized that the princess had been right here beside us, and now she had left us. And we’re waiting for the end of the story to tell us that he found the princess, how he found her, and how he brought her back to the king’s home. Suddenly he just ends it like that: eventually he found her. What does that mean? The explanation is very, very simple. Since this is a story of the truth of the Jewish people, the story ends with us. We now step onto the stage. We are the continuation of the story. We carry the story forward. Of course he found her in the end. But how do we do it? That is up to us. Each and every one of us knows how to do it. We are doing it now.

10:53 Speaker 2 Thank you very much, Luba, and we are all looking forward to “And the children shall return to their borders.” I can see that everyone is rather anxious. We actually have two more segments ahead of us: two women who were invited to tell us about their activities, one in elementary schools and the other in high schools. Everyone is eager to hurry home for the Chanukah candles, isn’t that right? In any case, those who are able to stay—as I understand it, not all the buses come at this hour, so you can wait a little longer. I’d like to call on Mrs. Zalti Freiman[?], who is very, very active in elementary schools, to tell us about her work, particularly her activities involving Tzivos Hashem.

12:21 Speaker 1 I have a whole problem with transportation, and I don’t know whether anyone else even has a car. It’s a problem. No, it’s a problem. Look, whoever wants to— All right, whoever wants to. Whoever has one should go to the Melaveh Malkah. Ours? You know, we’ll start splitting up over this. No, but— We can ask all the neighbors. You, whoever forgets. No, it’s a problem. Whoever— some of those who think. Just say it this way: whoever stays, stays. Whoever leaves should leave quickly. It’s impossible to speak. She hasn’t come in yet. She’s by the car. She has problems. I don’t know what else she has; she deserves it. Look, some are going to eat in the meantime. She won’t come to see. I see that Sarah went to the car and came back. All right, I’ll say a few words. I’ll go. Are they handing out sufganiyos? No, it’s impossible to speak at all. There are plenty; he’ll give you some. I even [unclear]. Don’t pay attention to those who are talking. If you speak, it will be quiet, even among those who have to leave. All right, thank you. I started this way earlier, too. This week I heard a sicha of the Rebbe’s at a farbrengen about Tzivos Hashem. In the very first sentences of that sicha, the Rebbe mentioned the prayer in the Amidah: how every Jew, including young children, says when praying the Amidah, “Speedily cause the offspring of David, Your servant, to flourish.” The Rebbe was simply trying to say: when a Jewish child asks, “Speedily cause the glory of David, Your Moshiach, to flourish”—the offspring of David, Your servant—who is that? That is King Moshiach. The moment we say—or the moment a Jewish child says, “I’m waiting for Moshiach now,” the child isn’t just saying words; the child is truly asking. And with a child there are no games. With a child there are no games. We adults have our politics; we have all kinds of considerations. When a child asks, the child asks sincerely, with a

14:45 Speaker 1 pure heart. And of course all the activities being done are very, very important. Today the Rebbe speaks about working with Jewish children. A Jewish child is part of an army, part of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s army—a soldier in Tzivos Hashem. And this longing for Moshiach is felt among us, but much more strongly in places far from Torah and mitzvos. I’ve just seen it in secular schools. I started at several schools in one city and continued in another. You can feel the thirst for the word of Hashem. You feel it there much more than among us. You can actually see what the prophet wrote about a time to come: “Not a hunger for bread, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the word of Hashem.” We actually see young children in fourth and fifth grade, along with their teachers, asking and saying, “Come! Why do you come to us only once a year? Why do you give just one or two lessons in a class? Come again and again. We don’t have this. We don’t know it. We’ve never been taught.” It went so far that a teacher stood before her seventh-grade students and said, “Children, when I was little, I didn’t know what it meant to be a Jew. I didn’t know what education was. I’m feeding you nonsense. I don’t know anything. Ask the Chabad people to come and teach you about Judaism, Torah and mitzvos.” A teacher with a position in the school said that in front of her students. And you really see what the Rebbe says: the children are the soldiers in Tzivos Hashem. When you go there, you see—our children know that what the Rebbe says is sacred, and there you see that the children are truly thirsty. Not for water, not for food, not for television, and not for nice clothes. They have all of that in abundance. They are thirsty for a word of Torah. They ask for a woman teacher to come from Kfar Chabad, or from any—any other place, and say just one word to them: “Come, tell us one word of Torah.” I

17:02 Speaker 1 I go to schools. The technical part—how to approach the principal—is really very simple. You go to the school. Usually, if you speak to him on the phone, he says, “I don’t have time, an inspector is coming, we have things going on.” But when you come to the school and say, “Sir, I’m from Kfar Chabad. We visit schools, and today it’s your school’s turn. We’re going into the classrooms to give lessons.” About what? About Yiddishkeit, mitzvos, the Rebbe’s mivtzoim. Usually, the first time, the principal turns up his nose a little. But after one or two lessons, he comes and asks us to return again and again and again. As for arranging things at home, that really isn’t a problem. At the beginning of the year, I decided to take one day off from my work at school, and I hired the babysitter for one more day a week. Say I work four days a week and have a babysitter for five. So I work five days a week, from morning until noon. It’s a workday. Now, as for before Chanukah—and soon it will be before Purim—what do we teach in the classrooms? That’s not a problem, because the Rebbe gives us sichos that are practically ready to use. When we spoke about Chanukah, what did the Greeks want? They wanted “to make them forget Your Torah.” And those who followed Hashem’s path, who called out, “Whoever is for Hashem, join me!” and “Who is like You among the mighty, Hashem?”—those were the Maccabees. They won. And those who followed the Greek way, the Hellenizers, of course regretted what they had done. And what do we tell the children? “Children, we follow the Maccabees’ path. ‘Who is like You among the mighty, Hashem?’ Children, what did the Maccabees say?” And everyone shouts together, “Who is like You among the mighty, Hashem?” “And we are the Maccabees; we are Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s soldiers.” And all the children shout, “We are soldiers in Tzivos Hashem!” I’m not talking about something done in Kfar Chabad or Kiryat Malachi. This is done

19:05 Speaker 1 in secular schools. All the children, together with the teacher, shout, “We are soldiers in Tzivos Hashem!” and recite the pesukim. Between one possuk and the next, I explain a few words, the gist of the possuk, and leave them sheets or booklets with the pesukim. The teacher promises to say them with the children every day, and the children learn them by heart. When I come to the school a second time, ninety, ninety-five percent of the children—in a class of thirty-five, thirty children—know all twelve pesukim by heart, and another five know some of them. It really brings tears of joy to hear that the Rebbe says Moshiach is coming, and the children are the soldiers who have to fight. We can actually see it: the children plead and ask for more. The lesson is over. What child doesn’t want to run out for recess? What teacher doesn’t want to run and have her cup of tea? But the teacher and the children stay through the ten minutes of recess and the lunch break, asking questions, taking an interest, and asking for more. And as the Rebbe says, we have to go—and I see it for myself. It is the right of Jewish children to hear words of Torah, and our duty to give them that opportunity, every day and every hour. It’s a shame to miss out. Sometimes I think, “I’ll start a week later, and use that time to take care of a few things.” But then, when I do decide to go to a school, I see how many—dozens, hundreds of children—have said the pesukim and told me that at home they asked their mother to light candles on time, asked an older brother to put on tefillin, and asked their father to take them to shul. The child asked. So I think, my own affairs will work out or they won’t; somehow they’ll work out. And they really do. Or as someone said earlier—I don’t remember who—that there are

21:10 Speaker 1 difficulties when you go out on mivtzoim. And it’s true: on the very day you’re supposed to go on mivtzoim, a child gets sick. That very day. But I don’t know—baruch Hashem, I’m speaking from experience. When I go on mivtzoim, I come home and the child is well; when I sit with him at home, his fever goes up. I’m not just saying this. You can actually see Hashem’s help. And truly, in the merit of the hundreds of Jewish children who say the pesukim and feel that they are soldiers in Tzivos Hashem, Hashem will help us and we will succeed. And Moshiach really will come. He’s already waiting now. He’s waiting for us to open the door for him. All the best to everyone.

21:52 Speaker 3 [unclear] told us only a tiny fraction of what she actually has to share, simply because of the limited time and her great humility. But her work truly goes above and beyond. We’d like to invite Shula. Has she left? Oh, to daven. That will be too late. We’ll say goodbye to you and conclude this day of study. I very much want to thank Shoshi, our secretary, for all her work and the tremendous effort she put into making today happen. Thanks also to Shoshana Rotenberg, Tirtza, the sweet girls, Aliza Sefrani, and everyone who worked so hard behind the scenes. Without their efforts, we wouldn’t have been uplifted today. All the best. We hope many branches will continue in this way. Go forth and succeed. We decided we’d do it by phone. It doesn’t matter.

23:03 Speaker 4 She keeps having trouble recognizing those who aren’t from—