The Inner Meaning of the Revolution in Syria | Amazing Things I Heard from the Rebbe 35 Years Ago

00:00 These days, we are all living through history—extraordinary upheavals, things happening day by day, moment by moment, hour by hour. Things that are utterly surprising. Who could have imagined it? Who could have hoped for it? Who expected, who thought that within a few days what has happened would happen, and in such a surprising way? Things that in the past we would have thought could only come about through much bloodshed, many wars, and a heavy price—and suddenly it is all happening just like that, in the blink of an eye, before our eyes. Clearly, these days we are making history. We—we know clearly that we are now in a process heading in a certain direction. Of course, as believing Jews, we believe in the coming of Moshiach. “I await him every day, that he should come.” And in these moments, in these days, our belief in the coming of Moshiach is growing stronger. We are certain that all this is part of the great vision, the great process the prophets spoke about and told us about, and now we see it before our eyes. Today I want to share with you things I was privileged to hear from the Rebbe at this time of year, in the month of Kislev, exactly thirty-five years ago. It was during Kislev, between Rosh Chodesh Kislev and 19 Kislev. These days—Kislev in general is a special month, a joyous month, a month of Geulah. Of course, first of all there is Chanukah at the end of the month. But for Chabad chassidim there is 19 Kislev, the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus, and many Chassidic occasions—celebrations connected with the births, passing, and days of liberation of our Chabad Rebbeim—are connected with Kislev. So that year was 5750. The Rebbe gave sichos that, when we think about them today, study them again, and recall them, it is deeply moving to connect with those words—as though time had stood still. In other words, what the Rebbe said then is truly alive and relevant in these days, this year, the time we are living in. It was the year 5750, and the Rebbe spoke about the year 5750

02:35 as a year of miracles. The Rebbe spoke about 5750 even before the year began. Several months earlier, in 5749, the Rebbe said: A special year is approaching. We are about to enter 5750, whose Hebrew initials spell “May it be a year of miracles.” Even before the month—before the year—the Rebbe was already preparing us. He explained, urged, demanded, and taught what the subject of miracles means for a Jew. He spoke about serving Hashem in a miraculous way: rising above nature, rising above habit, each and every person going beyond their usual, everyday service of Hashem. He called for miracles in our service of Hashem, a kind of service by way of a miracle, service above our limitations. And in continuation of this, the Rebbe spoke about how we were beginning to see miracles in the world as well. The year 5750 truly turned out to be a year full of miracles and wonders. The things that happened in those days—and I remember this now, in the month of Kislev—the Rebbe addressed them very, very directly at the farbrengens on those Shabbosos. Many miracles happened at that time. What happened in Russia in those years, the upheaval in Russia: the Communist regime fell. And what happened in Russia affects what we are witnessing to this day—in Ukraine and all the surrounding countries. The Rebbe spoke about China, where there was also an upheaval at the time. India, too. In many of these countries, which until then had been governed in one way or another under dictatorships, there was a great easing and enormous change. That was also when the Berlin Wall fell. And then the Rebbe spoke about this point: We see that all these things—extraordinary things, momentous things—happened precisely in a quiet way, and that is a tremendous wonder. Such events in history, in the past of the peoples and nations of the world—even lesser events—took years upon years and bloody wars. How many people lost their lives along the way. The history of the world is full

05:09 of such things. Yet the events of those days—radical, far-reaching upheavals in superpowers and major countries, affecting millions upon millions of people—all passed smoothly. Relatively speaking, of course, they happened more or less in a way utterly unlike what would have been expected in ordinary times. What does all this come to tell us? The Rebbe addressed this and said: We are not political people; that is not our purpose. But what does it mean to a Jew when he sees such things happening in the world? Here the Rebbe went into a very, very wonderful explanation, connected both to the parshiyos we read at this time and to the history of Chassidus in the month of Kislev. First of all, if we look in the Torah, we see that precisely the parshiyos read during Kislev—Parshas Vayeitzei, and especially Parshas Vayishlach and Vayeishev—speak to us about Yaakov Avinu and the tribes, but all in relation to the nations of the world. We find Yaakov Avinu leaving Be’er Sheva, going to Charan, and living in Lavan’s home, far from his parents’ home, for more than twenty years. There is the whole long and winding story of his time in Lavan’s home, and precisely there he establishes the House of Israel, the tribes. Then comes something even more striking: Parshas Vayishlach. Yaakov Avinu is returning to Eretz Yisroel. He has completed his mission in Lavan’s home after twenty-two years and is finally returning to Eretz Yisroel—and then he encounters Eisav. Parshas Vayishlach is an extraordinary parsha that describes for us a war that was supposed to take place between Yaakov and Eisav. Eisav arrives with four hundred men to fight Yaakov, and then the whole expected course of events falls apart. Yaakov Avinu prepares with a gift, with prayer, and for war, and so on and so forth—the whole story the Torah tells us about Yaakov. Then, at this meeting between Yaakov and Eisav, suddenly everything, everything

07:30 changes. They embrace, they kiss, they bow to one another. Astonishing and wonderful things, as the Torah tells us, happened there. So much so that this same Eisav, who has been pursuing Yaakov for more than twenty years, seeking revenge and wanting to kill him—not only does he kiss and embrace him for a moment, he tells him: Come with me. I want to go with you. Let’s go together to the city, to my home. And Yaakov Avinu tells him: Slowly, slowly; we are not ready yet. We will go soon. “Until I come to my master in Seir”—the story of Parshas Vayishlach. What does this story tell us? And let us not forget the story of Yaakov’s struggle with the angel. Before Yaakov meets Eisav, he encounters Eisav’s angel. There is a struggle, and in that struggle Yaakov defeats Eisav’s guardian angel and receives from him the great blessing: “Your name shall no longer be called Yaakov, but Yisroel, for you have struggled with G-d and with men, and prevailed.” That is Parshas Vayishlach. What does this parsha teach us today, in the history of the Jewish people today and throughout the generations? We know that the struggle between Yaakov and Eisav is the struggle of exile. Eisav is Edom. The first verse of the parsha speaks of “the land of Edom.” Edom represents the exile of Edom. We know that the Jewish people have gone through exiles in many places, and the longest and harshest exile, which we are still in the midst of, is the exile of Edom. It began when the Romans entered and conquered Eretz Yisroel more than two thousand years ago, and to this day we are still in this difficult exile called the exile of Edom. Eisav is Edom, and the whole story of Yaakov and Eisav in the weekly parsha is the story of the Jewish people in the exile of Edom. And the message the Torah gives us here—the Torah is eternal. The Torah is not merely a story of something that happened in the past. The deeds of the fathers are a sign for their children. The Torah tells

09:41 ...the life of the Jewish people throughout the generations. There is Esav, who hates Yaakov; there is Esav, who pursues Yaakov and wants—G-d forbid—the worst of all. But Yaakov Avinu knows the power of prayer, the power of a gift, and the power of battle. Throughout the generations, the Jewish people have always used these three approaches. Prayer, always: “Save me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esav.” The Jewish people knew how much prayer helps and how much it accomplishes. On the other hand, at different times it is necessary to send a gift, as the holy Shelah explains at length in the weekly parsha. That is how the Jewish people have conducted themselves throughout the generations, in all kinds of circumstances: sometimes with a gift, sometimes with battle, and of course, always with prayer. But we have the promise: “And You said, ‘I will surely do good to you.’” We have Hashem’s promise that we will reach the point where Yaakov triumphs over Esav. “Yaakov was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until dawn broke.” The battle against darkness, the battle of exile, the battle against the darkness of this difficult exile we are in—until dawn breaks. We are now in the period of dawn breaking, the light of the Geulah, and here we begin to see the great strength of the Jewish people and their victory. That is really the story of the parsha. It is the story of the Jewish people. If we now look at the period of the Alter Rebbe: in these days, as we said, we celebrate in the month of Kislev the festival of the Alter Rebbe’s liberation and the festival of the Mitteler Rebbe’s liberation—the great events that took place in Russia. The Alter Rebbe, as the successor to the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezritch—the Maggid’s yahrzeit is also on 19 Kislev—began, as the one who continued their path, to spread the wellsprings of Chassidus. And then there was a heavenly accusation. Then came the imprisonment. That imprisonment did not happen for the various reasons one might imagine, for political reasons.

12:04 It happened for precisely the deepest reason: the teachings of Chassidus. As is well known, the Baal Shem Tov received the blessing from Moshiach, “Your wellsprings will spread outward”—that his task was to bring the wellsprings of Chassidus to the whole world. “Outward” means throughout the world, to all the nations of the world. The teachings of Chassidus, the inner dimension of Torah, the Torah of Moshiach, are meant to spread throughout the world. That was the Baal Shem Tov’s vision, which he received from Moshiach. The Alter Rebbe began to put it into practice when he was released from prison. As is well known, he then received the Baal Shem Tov’s blessing to continue. There is a famous story told by the Frierdiker Rebbe, passed down from Rebbe to Rebbe: the Alter Rebbe related that while he was in prison, the Baal Shem Tov came from heaven to visit him. This was many years after the Baal Shem Tov’s passing. The Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezritch came down from heaven especially to visit him because of the self-sacrifice with which he endured imprisonment for the sake of the teachings of Chassidus. They told him not only not to be shaken and, G-d forbid, not to stop, but on the contrary, to spread them even more—to continue spreading the teachings of Chassidus more widely. That is what the Alter Rebbe began doing after he was released from prison: making Chassidus known in every way and by every means, in the most wonderful manner, so that every Jew, in every corner of the earth, wherever in the world they might be, could benefit from the inner dimension of Torah—the light that prepares us for the Geulah through Moshiach. And here I return to the farbrengens at which the Rebbe spoke that year. The Rebbe said, in these words: We know that the purpose of creation, the purpose of creation, is for a Jew to make the world a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The Jewish people are not here only for themselves. The Jewish people are here to make the entire world, to transform it into a place of G-dliness, a place

14:12 of holiness, a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. All of this is hinted at in the first verse of the Torah: “In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth.” Rashi says: “In the beginning”—for the sake of the Torah and for the sake of Israel. The entire existence of the world, heaven and earth, was created for the sake of the Torah, for the sake of Israel. A Jew, through the power of Torah, makes the world a world of light, a world of holiness, a world of G-dliness. This began and spread through Avraham Avinu and the patriarchs, and that is what these parshiyos are about, as we discussed earlier. Later, the Jewish people went down to Egypt, until they reached the giving of the Torah. Then, throughout the generations and throughout history, the Torah began spreading to every place in the world. Wherever the Jewish people went in exile, this was always the inner purpose: that a Jew, wherever he finds himself, transforms that place into a place of Torah, a place of holiness. Throughout the generations, the Jewish people went into exile, traveling to all the countries of the world. There was no place the Jewish people had not reached. The Jewish people were in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in every region, in every place, until they reached America. And so the Jewish people continue to spread to every place in the world. The goal is that the whole world, and all the nations of the world, will recognize. As we say in the Aleinu prayer, “All the inhabitants of the world will recognize and know”: the whole world will recognize and the whole world will know, “For to You every knee will bend.” Everyone will recognize the reality of Hashem, the greatness of Hashem, the kingship of Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the world. This work is really the work that began with Yaakov and Esav, and it has continued throughout all the generations. This is also what Rashi tells us in the weekly parsha. When Yaakov Avinu asks Esav—sorry, when Esav asks Yaakov: Come with me, let’s go to Seir, let’s travel together. Suddenly Esav wants to be together with Yaakov. Yaakov tells him, “I will travel at my own slow pace.” We are not ready. Yaakov sees that Esav is not yet truly ready

16:22 for the Geulah. Esav symbolizes all the darkness, all the evil, all the impurity, all the kelipah, all the sitra achra. The world will still need time to be refined, to be purified, to become fit for this holiness. And he tells him, “Until I come to my master in Seir.” I will come. He was not lying to him. Rashi says Yaakov Avinu does not speak falsely. Yaakov is a man of truth. “You will grant truth to Yaakov.” Yaakov says: We will reach Seir. He kept his word. It just would not happen now. When will he come? Rashi asks. And Rashi says: in the days of Moshiach, when the verse we also read in this week’s haftorah will be fulfilled: “Saviors will ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esav, and the kingdom will be Hashem’s.” The day is coming when we will reach the end of the darkness, the end of this exile. Then saviors will ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esav, to complete all the work that needs to be done, to transform the entire reality of the world, so that the nations of the world will recognize and know the true reality of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Then “the kingdom will be Hashem’s”: the kingship of Hakadosh Boruch Hu will be revealed in the world. And this is what is happening. So the Rebbe spoke about the fact that we are seeing events take place precisely in these days, in this period. What does that tell us? Events like these, events that encompass the world, happening all at once, quietly. When a Jew sees these things, hears about them, the first thing he sees is the greatness of Hashem. First of all, it moves him to praise and thank Hakadosh Boruch Hu for His great kindness. When a Jew sees miracles happening in the world, he needs to thank Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He needs to celebrate them, to rejoice and feel great joy, on the one hand. Second, the second and main point is that this must strengthen our faith and our lives, our genuine hope that, here, Moshiach is coming. As our Sages tell us

18:29 The Midrash says: “If you see kingdoms provoking one another, anticipate the footsteps of Moshiach.” When has there been a time when kingdoms were provoking one another more than in this recent period we are witnessing? We see the turmoil among the nations and the surprising things that are happening. They themselves are, as the verse says, “He struck Egypt through its firstborn”: the nations are fighting among themselves, and they are handing us everything ready-made. These events in the world remind every Jew of the words of the Midrash: “Do not be afraid; do not fear. The time of your Geulah has arrived. Everything I have done, I have done only for your sake.” The Midrash says this about the verse in Yeshayahu: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of Hashem has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the nations, but upon you Hashem will shine.” That is really the essence of the time we are living in. And what must we do? Very good. We are beginning to understand that we are in a wonderful, extraordinary time. What does that mean for us? It means that we Jews, especially in these days, need to strengthen ourselves and the Jews around us; to awaken in them strength, hope, confidence and faith in the coming of Moshiach; and to encourage them to grow stronger in observing mitzvos generally, and especially in studying Torah and the inner dimension of Torah. As we discussed, Kislev is a month associated with oil. Oil symbolizes the inner dimension of Torah. The month is associated with the Alter Rebbe, with 19 Kislev, and with all the celebrations and special days it contains. It reminds us of what the Baal Shem Tov received from Moshiach: “Your wellsprings will spread outward.” This is the time for each and every one of us to devote ourselves to that task, to make an effort to spread the wellsprings of Chassidus and to tell one Jew after another: Come study Tanya, come study Chassidus, come receive and enjoy the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. Because it is through this path of Torah, in particular, that we will live. We are preparing; we are

20:53 beginning to enter an atmosphere of Geulah, an atmosphere of Moshiach. And then what is written in the haftarah we read for this week’s parsha, Parshas Vayishlach, will truly be fulfilled. The haftarah begins, “The vision of Ovadiah.” As is well known, Ovadiah was a convert from Edom. “The vision of Ovadiah concerning Edom: Thus says Hashem concerning Edom.” Ovadiah’s prophecy is addressed to Edom, to our exile, to all the nations of the world. And at the beginning of the haftarah he says this wonderful verse: “Though you soar like an eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares Hashem.” First, he speaks to the arrogance of the enemies of the Jewish people and tells them: If you think you can reach the heavens and accomplish something, know that it will not happen. “From there I will bring you down, declares Hashem.” And toward the end of the haftarah, he speaks in a wonderful verse about the ingathering of the exiles, mentioning Spain and France and other lands from which Hakadosh Boruch Hu will gather the Jewish people. He then concludes with the wonderful verse we discussed earlier: “Deliverers shall ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esav, and the kingdom shall be Hashem’s.” May we merit to see this truly happen already—in those days, at this time, in the month of Kislev this year. May we merit to see that “the kingdom shall be Hashem’s,” and “Hashem shall be King over all the earth; on that day Hashem shall be one and His name one.”