Ears to Hear 5 | Soldiers of the King Moshiach on the Offensive Front in Lebanon

00:00 Speaker 1 And Hashem did not give you a heart to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear.

00:08 Speaker 2 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the Temimim from Atah Haolami.

00:15 Speaker 1 I tell them, “Capture West Beirut and get rid of [unclear].” And they tell me, “We’re still far from Beirut. We can’t do it—we’re far away.” And here is the Tanya they printed in Beirut.

00:42 Speaker 2 Shalom aleichem to all the Temimim in Chabad yeshivos throughout the Holy Land and the entire world. We are now beginning the fifth program in the Ears to Hear audio series, programs permeated with a spirit of steadfast hiskashrus to the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach shlita, and to our primary task, the work of Moshiach. We know clearly, each and every one of us, that however great the darkness, light follows and breaks through. And with absolute faith in the prophecy of the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, “Behold, Moshiach is coming,” it is clear to each and every one of us that the present situation, in which the Jewish people are shaken and alarmed, will end immediately, in the true and complete Geulah through the Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach. Meanwhile, in the present situation, we can draw strength from this program and come to understand what it means to believe the Rebbe’s words and to hold fast to the words of the man of G-d. We will speak with Rabbi Shloime Raskin, director of Beis Chana in Tzfas and a member of Agudas Chassidei Chabad in the Holy Land. Rabbi Raskin will recount remarkable episodes and stories that show each and every one of us just how completely we follow the Rebbe’s words and instructions, and how they guide our every step. From the city of Gorky near Siberia to the printing of the Tanya in Lebanon under shelling by PLO terrorists. We now begin this special program with Rabbi Shloime Raskin. We’re beginning the program with Rabbi Raskin. Shalom aleichem, Rabbi Raskin.

02:27 Speaker 1 Aleichem shalom, to you and all the listeners.

02:30 Speaker 2 Baruch Hashem, all the Temimim are now eager to hear and know the clear, well-trodden path we need to follow—the path the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, lights for us. Of course, the Rebbe’s shluchim are the ones who can guide us toward the point of truth: how we should act, what we should know, and what we should think in this period we’re living through. One of the most important things is to know that the Rebbe’s words are words that endure, that our king’s words live and stand forever, and that we hold fast to the Rebbe’s words absolutely, to the very end. That applies both to matters concerning “the land upon which the eyes of Hashem your G-d rest from the beginning of the year to the end of the year,” and, above all, to the prophecy of the Geulah: “Behold, Moshiach is coming.” First, we’d like to hear from you about holding fast to the Rebbe’s words—what that has meant in your life, from Russia onward, through your move to the Holy Land. About holding fast to and believing in the Rebbe’s words.

03:28 Speaker 1 Yes. Greetings to all the Temimim and to our esteemed interviewer. I’ll simply tell things as they happened. For as long as I can remember, the Raskin family has had a tradition and a history of hiskashrus with the Rebbe Rashab. My grandfather, after whom I’m named—the Rebbe Rashab arranged his shidduch. He didn’t want the match because he was young, among other reasons. There are books about it, and I won’t go into it at length. But when my grandfather and his father, my great-grandfather, were traveling to the wedding in Shafran [?], near Lubavitch, they stopped in Lubavitch and went in to see the Rebbe Rashab, who was in the middle of lunch. My great-grandfather was like a member of the household, so they let him in even though the Rebbe was eating lunch. The Rebbe Rashab asked them, “What are you doing here?” They said, “We’re on our way to the wedding, and we want a yechidus; we want a brachah.” The Rebbe Rashab stood up, put on his sirtuk and hat, and his face changed color from red to white and back to red. He said, “It is written in the sefarim that when one stands under the chuppah, one can draw down kabbolas ol of Torah and fear of Heaven upon one’s spouse, enough for fifty years.” In fact, when I heard this as a child, it was still within those fifty years. And in fact, every one of my grandfather’s grandchildren, without exception, remained Jewish and connected to Chabad Chassidus while living in Russia through the wars, persecution, and everything else. So when you’re in Russia and you see people falling all around you, with the rifles [?] and all that, and you see that the Rebbe’s word cuts through everything—it splits the sea, whatever the time or place—you simply see that what the Rebbe said will come to pass. It’s not that I studied a great deal of Chassidus as a child or anything like that. It was simply a fact of life in the family I grew up in. The whole

06:01 Speaker 1 extended Raskin family grew up, and continues to grow up to this day, with this family history: the Rebbe’s words stand and endure. There were other things he promised, which this isn’t the place to discuss, but they all came true.

06:17 Speaker 3 As the stories describe, your home, from what I’ve heard, was a place that drew people in—almost like a Chabad House in Russia in those years. Anyone who came out of Siberia and passed through your home received that sense of hiskashrus to the Rebbe and faith in the Rebbe’s words.

06:35 Speaker 1 Indeed, our family, its children and descendants, were privileged to live with Chabad, with hospitality, and with looking out for others—making sure they were well and, in particular, that they weren’t hungry, materially or spiritually. From then until today, all the children in the family have seen and experienced this from early childhood. They don’t see anything unusual about it. It’s simply how things are.

07:07 Speaker 3 Even under fire and during wars, and...

07:10 Speaker 1 Listen, even under fire and during wars. Before I was born, during the war, my grandfather’s household included my father, who was unmarried then; two widowed daughters, one with four orphaned children and the other with three; and another daughter’s family living there with five children, and more besides. There was hunger, and there was war. My grandfather’s house was near the Volga River, and the Germans bombed the bridge every night but never hit it. So although Gorky was under bombardment night after night, systematically, like clockwork—the Germans knew how to do that—it certainly was under fire, too.

08:11 Speaker 3 And then there was holding fast to the Rebbe’s words—the Rebbe’s brachah for leaving Russia. Was there something you experienced in connection with the Rebbe’s brachah when you left that place?

08:23 Speaker 1 I don’t want to attribute this to any special greatness of ours, either, but to speak of it as something simple. About a year and a half before we left, my father’s sister and brother-in-law, Rabbi Moshe Vashchatsky [?], left Russia, also miraculously. My father asked him to ask the Rebbe, when he went to see him, whether we should submit papers to leave Russia and, if so, from where. Perhaps from a city with many more Jews, where people regularly submitted applications and received approvals or refusals. In Gorky there was nothing. There wasn’t even a KGB department there for submitting applications—no office for permits or authorization to leave the country. There was nothing like that at all. So my father wanted to know whether perhaps we should move to a city with many more Jews, where such applications, approvals, or refusals were more common. And the Rebbe answered yes, they should apply from where they were. We submitted our application for the first time. Before that, we had wanted to, wanted to.

09:42 Speaker 3 In Gorky?

09:43 Speaker 1 In Gorky, because the Rebbe said, “From where they are.”

09:45 Speaker 3 Even though, naturally speaking, it had no chance.

09:48 Speaker 1 Under normal circumstances, before our uncle left, almost no one got out. The Iron Curtain was sealed shut. Many Jews tried to submit applications, and afterward they only suffered for having submitted them: they were fired from their jobs, evicted from government housing, and expelled from places of study, including institutions of higher education. In other words, they mainly suffered. They were immediately branded enemies of the state and the people, anti-Communists, and so on. So applying carried far more risk than chance of success. But the Rebbe said to apply from where they were, so we simply did it and waited. We knew it would take a miracle, and we expected a miracle. We weren’t sitting comfortably; only a miracle could help. We expected that miracle, knowing that only a miracle could help. When it came, there was tremendous joy, but it was something we had expected. It was an expected miracle. Many people asked, “How did it happen on the first try? Maybe you paid a bribe? Maybe some KGB man sold you something?” Nothing of the sort. A non-Jewish woman, a captain, received the papers and handled our case. Twenty years later, when I was in Russia again, just as perestroika was beginning, I wanted to enter the city officially. It was a closed city, secret because of its industry and other things. I made an official request to enter. That same woman was still sitting there, apparently with a different rank by then. They asked which family it was, and she said, “Raskin? Raskin is forbidden. The Raskins must not be allowed in.”

11:52 Speaker 3 Wow.

11:52 Speaker 1 So, that’s how it was.

11:58 Speaker 3 So there was faith in the Rebbe’s blessing and in what the Rebbe said.

12:03 Speaker 1 Without making a big thing of it. It wasn’t, “We have the Rebbe’s blessing; we have the Rebbe’s miracle.” It was simply the natural thing to do. There was another Jew, too: my first teacher of Gemara sugyos in Samarkand was Reb Yankel Notik, a”h, the great scholar Reb Yankel Notik. He left two or three years after us, or four. We [unclear] five years after us, and the Rebbe asked him and other chassidim who left then to go meet Rabbi Moshe Feinstein. When Rabbi Moshe asked and heard about it—Reb Yankel knew all four sections of Shulchan Aruch thoroughly and was a great scholar in general—he asked, “How could you do it? How could you withstand all of that?” Reb Yankel answered, “The alternative was the decree, and this was the choice.” There’s simply no other choice, so you do it.

13:05 Speaker 3 Yes. So faith in the Rebbe’s words and holding fast to them really is something simple in a chossid’s life. Seeing that people lived this way even at moments like those is encouraging.

13:15 Speaker 1 Yes.

13:15 Speaker 3 At moments like those.

13:16 Speaker 1 It gives tremendous encouragement at moments that are similar or different—moments of pressure, uncertainty, or danger, like now, and in events and situations like the present ones. It certainly gives encouragement, strength, and steadfastness: not to be shaken, and to know the Rebbe’s words that Eretz Yisroel is the safest place, because this is “a land upon which the eyes of Hashem your G-d are set, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.” That gives confidence and protection far beyond anything else. Even though there are decrees and tragedies along the way—may there be no more—and we long to see the Rebbe’s revelation immediately.

14:05 Speaker 3 Amen. So as we speak about faith and steadfastness in the Rebbe’s words to the very end—the words of a man of G-d—we see many instances of holding fast to the Rebbe’s words throughout Chabad Jewish history. That is especially true regarding the security of the Holy Land and its residents. We recall the First Lebanon War, which began on 6 Sivan 5742. The Rebbe was involved in both the spiritual and practical efforts, including the Rebbe’s well-known sichos about what needed to be captured and how. One of the most powerful spiritual actions the Rebbe led during that war, with the aim of victory, of course, was printing the Tanya in Lebanon—in Tyre, Sidon, and Beirut. Boruch Hashem, you had the merit of being among the group that printed the Tanya there in Lebanon, under shellfire and close to terrorists, may their names be erased. You did it because you knew it was the Rebbe’s will. You went to the most difficult places and printed the Tanya. So the simple question is: How does one do such a thing? Where did that decision, and that mesirus nefesh, come from—to go to such difficult places and print the Tanya as the Rebbe wished?

15:30 Speaker 1 I’m sorry if what I say dampens the excitement a little, because from where I stand, I see it much more simply. Let me start with an example. You’re asking me to tell you about the Six-Day War. First of all, printing the Tanya in Lebanon was an awakening from below, not an awakening from above. The Rebbe had previously instructed that the Tanya be printed wherever there are Jews or had been Jews. So as soon as our forces entered Lebanon, one of the shluchim here began stirring up the young people living here, saying this was an opportunity and we had to act. His name was Avremel Goldberg—Shalom, Rabbi Goldberg. And he managed to get things moving. Because who am I to go to Lebanon during a war, with the IDF? You always think there may be more important people, that perhaps it’s more their role—organizations authorized for this sort of thing. Maybe it should be Agudas Chabad, or whoever. We went in private cars, with various IDF permits. To tell the truth, at the beginning of the First Lebanon War, we didn’t sense any particular danger. When IDF soldiers entered Lebanon, the residents greeted them with rice and sweets. That went on for weeks, perhaps months, until we—the government, or at any rate the army—began to waver. Then various groups sprang up, terrorist cells of every kind. Until then it was very safe. We traveled around Lebanon without an IDF escort, although our first entry was with an IDF convoy, perhaps forty vehicles, including trucks. But we got a flat tire within the first fifteen minutes of entering, at night. We stopped—

18:09 Speaker 1 I pulled the car over. I was driving my own car. All the other vehicles passed us, and we were left alone in complete darkness. It was the beginning of the month.

18:18 Speaker 4 In Lebanon.

18:19 Speaker 1 There was no moon, and no stars. We had a box of matches, but how far could that get you? We had a flat tire and needed to change the wheel. It was quiet, with orchards on both sides, and it was terribly uncomfortable. It would be uncomfortable anywhere, but here you knew that all sorts of foxes or jackals—or predators in human form—could come out. Even though we knew they were afraid of the IDF, I wasn’t at ease—I’m speaking for myself. My heart wasn’t at ease until we’d changed the wheel. Then we got into the car and sped off, and things worked out. But the whole time we were standing there... Do you want to—

19:08 Speaker 4 That was already inside Lebanon. Before Beirut, though.

19:12 Speaker 1 Yes, before Beirut. Beirut is on the coastal road. The coastal road we know as Highway 2 or 4—it doesn’t matter—continues past Rosh Hanikra to Tyre, Sidon, Beirut, and farther north. It’s the same road. By the time we reached Beirut, we’d traveled perhaps two hundred kilometers—somewhere between eighty and two hundred kilometers. This happened after we’d gone perhaps the first five kilometers into Lebanese territory.

19:48 Speaker 4 How long did it take?

19:50 Speaker 1 To change the wheel in the dark?

19:51 Speaker 4 The trip there altogether. Did you know you’d be coming back within a day or two? How long did it take?

19:56 Speaker 1 We said we’d decide according to the situation. We didn’t know how it would work out. So we set out. There were two groups in private cars, plus another, taller pickup truck with a printing press, and...

20:14 Speaker 4 Belonging to Bentzion Cohen.

20:16 Speaker 1 It belonged to Bentzion Cohen, and afterward it was replaced with another vehicle. First they printed in Tyre, then, following the route, in Sidon, and then in Beirut. As for the Rebbe’s assurances about safety and security, I want to tell you that back during the Six-Day War, we arrived—we came to Israel on Purim Katan 5727. That was a few months before the Six-Day War. There was a sicha on Lag BaOmer in which the Rebbe spoke about how safe Eretz Yisroel was and how everything would turn out well, while the whole country was shaking and people were digging trenches in every yard, everywhere. The mashpiim in Tomchei Temimim allowed the Temimim to go dig trenches near the homes of elderly people and others. I remember the blisters all the Temimim came back with after digging with hoes. Then the war broke out. I was sleeping in the yeshiva. I woke up in the morning and they told me there had been sirens all night and Temimim had run to one shelter or another. Trenches. Nothing. Once again, I had—

21:43 Speaker 4 You didn’t hear a thing.

21:44 Speaker 1 I had that kind of confidence. I heard the Rebbe on a tape, and it gave me confidence that everything would be all right. [unclear] I went to sleep. I didn’t hear a thing. I didn’t hear a single siren. Not that I’m [unclear] sirens.

22:07 Speaker 4 Like what I was saying about Chizkiyahu: I sleep in my bed.

22:11 Speaker 1 So for chassidim who were born and raised on the Rebbe’s words, we relied on the Rebbe’s words completely.

22:23 Speaker 4 Yes. Yes, that’s right.

22:25 Speaker 1 That’s how it was with the Rebbe. That’s life.

22:27 Speaker 4 That really is how it is: anyone who grew up with that belief in the Rebbe’s words follows it all the way through. But the question is very simple. You’re now standing in Beirut, and you know that a hundred meters in front of you, facing the position where our soldiers are entrenched, are terrorists’ positions—and their daring actions were already notorious. How did you feel at that moment?

22:46 Speaker 1 When we were there, we knew—we had arrived. The route to Beirut wasn’t direct, because the direct route along the coastal road passed an airport that had been bombed and was effectively under terrorist control, and the Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp. So the IDF made a dirt-road detour around that southern entrance, and we came in on this dirt road that skirted Beirut. We asked for directions, but they weren’t very clear. Were we in Beirut or on the way to Beirut? What was this? We were in touch from Lebanon with the Rebbe’s secretariat from time to time, and the secretariat said that the Rebbe wanted us to make absolutely sure we were in Beirut. We said, “We’re in Beirut.” “Verify clearly that it’s Beirut.”

23:57 Speaker 4 That came from the secretariat.

23:58 Speaker 1 The secretariat—and I wanted to ask the Rebbe. You can’t call the Rebbe directly; you speak to the secretariat, and they ask the Rebbe. It turned out that the first place we entered was a suburb of Beirut called Baabda. That’s where the parliament and the government buildings were. We asked the soldiers and others there. “Yes, yes, yes, it’s Beirut.” But then someone told us, “It isn’t really Beirut. It’s a suburb.” We said, “No, we need Beirut.” So we went down and down until we reached an intersection.

24:36 Speaker 5 What do you mean, “went down”?

24:37 Speaker 1 Because—

24:38 Speaker 5 Who went down? With whom? Did you have an escort or not?

24:42 Speaker 1 No escort at all. We went down because Beirut is like Haifa: there’s the shore and the coastal plain, and then there’s Hadar and Mount Carmel. Beirut is like that too. The coastal road would have taken us straight along the shore, but the detour they made went up the mountain. Afterward we came down from that mountain into Beirut, passing through Baabda first. I remember that descent; it was really long and quite steep. We entered Baabda, and there was no point printing the Tanya there yet. We printed a sicha of the Rebbe there.

25:23 Speaker 5 Why was there no point printing the Tanya?

25:25 Speaker 1 Because the Rebbe wanted Beirut.

25:26 Speaker 5 Mm-hm.

25:27 Speaker 1 The Rebbe wanted Beirut. So why would we stop? It was clear. The Rebbe wanted Beirut, so Beirut it was.

25:31 Speaker 5 You printed a sicha of the Rebbe.

25:33 Speaker 1 A sicha, yes, a sicha of the Rebbe. We went down until we reached the plain, and there was a fork: one road went left across the plain, and the other went right and uphill again. We asked the soldiers. At that intersection, we saw a position off to the side with soldiers, mortars, and soldiers carrying small arms. We asked, “Where’s Beirut?” They said, “This is Beirut.” “So where are we?” They said, “A hundred meters down this road to the left is a terrorist position. We’re the last IDF position.”

26:19 Speaker 5 Wow.

26:20 Speaker 1 The terrorists were a hundred meters from us, and to the right the road climbed into Beirut, like the road up Mount Carmel.

26:27 Speaker 5 So they stopped you from going on toward the terrorists, of course.

26:31 Speaker 1 We didn’t go either way. We stopped at that little intersection. There was a small shopping center there with a parking lot, but there were no cars in the lot because it was wartime.

26:45 Speaker 5 Mm-hm.

26:45 Speaker 1 We set ourselves up in that parking lot, and the soldiers were at the last IDF position in Beirut.

26:55 Speaker 5 And now you move on to printing the Tanya.

26:58 Speaker 1 Yes. My friends and I didn’t feel afraid. We simply didn’t. We were so focused on our shlichus. We were on a mission we’d taken upon ourselves: to print the Tanya now and keep doing whatever needed to be done. All I can say is that during the day, you hear bursts of gunfire and that’s one thing. At night, when you’re trying to get a little sleep and suddenly a burst from something heavy cuts through the silence—not a submachine gun, but a heavy machine gun or something like that—you wake up. And when that happens twenty or twenty-five times, I don’t know how many, it isn’t a restful night. You keep waking up, and—

27:51 Speaker 5 Wow. The reality didn’t match what Army Radio, or anyone else, was reporting.

27:57 Speaker 1 Whenever they reported heavy fire, it was completely quiet, and whenever they reported quiet, there was heavy fire. But it was never directed at us. It was somewhere else, really not where we were.

28:11 Speaker 5 And then you actually began printing the Tanya. How did you get electricity in a place like that?

28:15 Speaker 1 The shops in that commercial center were operating. Electricity wasn’t really available, but there were generators.

28:26 Speaker 5 Mm-hm.

28:27 Speaker 1 So we paid to connect to the generator of a shop that sold electronics. And then almost every one of us bought one of those radio-cassette players, the kind they had in America, a [unclear] one.

28:42 Speaker 5 Mm-hm.

28:42 Speaker 1 It was cheaper. Later we bought a diesel generator, and jerrycans of diesel to fuel it, and we printed.

28:57 Speaker 5 You printed. And during the printing itself, were the soldiers with you? Or did they see it as some unfamiliar Chabad activity that had permission, but wasn’t something they were involved in?

29:06 Speaker 1 They didn’t think about whether we had permission. Nobody thought about what we had or didn’t have. They saw Chabad; it seemed natural to them that Chabad was everywhere. The soldiers were busy with their own work and with traffic. It wasn’t a place where people sat around. It was an intersection.

29:29 Speaker 5 Mm-hm.

29:30 Speaker 1 Sometimes someone of higher rank would issue something. And the journalist Moti Eden, a”h, suddenly turned up there.

29:40 Speaker 5 Yes.

29:40 Speaker 1 He passed away about half a year ago. That was where I met him, at that intersection. He was as happy as a real Chabadnik. He’d met his family, who were engaged in the best thing there is.

29:53 Speaker 5 Wow. It’s really moving to hear all these descriptions. From what the Rebbe said, it’s clear that afterward the Rebbe asked that this Tanya be studied with IDF soldiers.

30:02 Speaker 1 If I may, I’ll say exactly what the Rebbe said. While we were still in Beirut, the Rebbe instructed us to bind copies of the Tanya on site. I say “try”—he didn’t say to try, but that’s how it turned out. We tried, and it didn’t work at all. These were small books. All we had were [unclear] with staples. There was no way to join those little booklets together afterward. It also took us time to fold the large sheets so that the pages would come out in the right order, and we had no paper cutter to trim them. In short, what we managed to do wasn’t it. Afterward, the Rebbe gave another instruction. We knew we were going back before Shabbos. This was around the middle of the week, at the beginning of Tammuz...

31:13 Speaker 5 And before Shabbos you were already returning to Tzfas.

31:15 Speaker 1 Yes, so we went back to Tzfas. It wasn’t Shabbos yet. We went back to Tzfas for Shabbos, and after Shabbos I returned with the Rebbe’s instructions. The following Shabbos was already 12 Tammuz. So this is what happened: the Rebbe urgently instructed us that when we returned to Israel—apparently because the binding in Beirut hadn’t worked out—we should go back to Tzfas and urgently bind as many books as we could. Even if we couldn’t manage proper binding, we should urgently send him a certain number of books. We were to continue binding the rest of the books printed in Tyre, Sidon and Beirut. At that point, those were the only three places. Then, after Shabbos, we were to return with the bound books, gather the Jews living in those places, give every Jew a Tanya, and study with them from the Tanya printed in that very place. I’m not talking about the soldiers, but the local Jews. In Tyre, I think they found just one or two.

32:45 Speaker 6 One second. From what I understand, you headed back toward Lebanon. You returned to Tzfas, and then you...

32:50 Speaker 1 We returned to Tzfas and found a Jew, a dear, beloved Jew who passed away just this past year, [unclear], may he rest in peace. He was very, very capable when it came to logistics and planning and carrying out operations. While we were still on the road—you remember, there were no cell phones then—we called him and asked him to arrange for us to bind the books urgently, so we could send some to the Rebbe and also take some back with us. I think we returned on Thursday, not Friday afternoon. We brought him a quantity of books—really, everything we had. He managed to find a bindery that was expensive but could work quickly. They took some books, brought them straight to the airport, and found Jews who took them to the Rebbe. That Shabbos, the Shabbos before 12 Tammuz, there was a farbrengen, and the books were on the Rebbe’s table. The Rebbe had already called for the army to enter central Beirut. Central Beirut was what I explained at the beginning: the left turn led toward the sea, and there were terrorists there. The Rebbe called for the army to go in and destroy that Hamas—though they weren’t called Hamas yet.

34:34 Speaker 6 The PLO.

34:35 Speaker 1 Or the PLO. But that’s dissolved now.

34:39 Speaker 6 Exactly.

34:41 Speaker 1 So at the farbrengen, the Rebbe said, “I tell them to take central Beirut and rid themselves of those enemies of the Jewish people, and they tell me, ‘We’re still far from Beirut. We can’t do it; we’re far away.’ And here is the Tanya they printed in Beirut.”

35:26 Speaker 7 L’chaim. L’chaim. L’chaim. To all the Jewish people.

35:32 Speaker 6 So the Rebbe said those remarkable words about the Tanya that had reached Lebanon.

35:36 Speaker 1 He held up the Tanya and waved it, saying, “Here is the Tanya they printed in Beirut.” So they shouldn’t claim or tell stories that they weren’t there, that the army was far from Beirut and couldn’t take control of the terrorists. Later, at the large 12 Tammuz farbrengen, the Rebbe spoke about it again. That was recorded, and you can see and hear it. But the first time was on Shabbos.

36:08 Speaker 6 So printing the Tanya was also a spiritual action by the Rebbe, intended to show, in practical tactical and strategic terms, how to take Beirut.

36:19 Speaker 1 It gives us perhaps—perhaps—a glimpse of something. When the Rebbe gives an instruction, we may think we understand exactly what it is and what its purpose is. But far more is hidden than revealed. So many other things are happening in the world, in every realm—the inanimate, plant, animal and human worlds, among the nations, in the galaxies, throughout the universe. The Rebbe is in charge, because the whole world is his and he belongs to the whole world, not only to the Jews. Here we get a small glimpse. There was an instruction to print the Tanya: an immense spiritual action to bring Moshiach closer, to spread the wellsprings outward, in all sorts of places. But it was also to give life to the Jews there. Every Jewish man and woman would receive a Tanya from the Rebbe, sitting in New York, in Brooklyn, America. He remembers a poor woman who doesn’t know where her husband is or what will happen to them tomorrow, with terrorists all around her. She and her son or daughter don’t know how to escape or how they’ll face the next day. There is a rabbi who remembers her and personally sends people from Israel to print a book there and give her Jewish strength through this little book printed there for her. It saves Jewish lives, strengthens people and lifts them up. That’s another glimpse of something else that was happening. When there is Divine light, does it come only to give life? It does give life. There is enough for everyone, and it comes to give life to everything, to illuminate everything and give life to everything.

38:47 Speaker 6 Amazing. So when you later heard the Rebbe speak publicly about the Tanya—something you, in a sense, as the Rebbe’s young shluchim had actually done—that must have warmed your hearts.

39:00 Speaker 1 It fills you with this feeling of “wow”—that you really are part of the great worldwide puzzle the Rebbe is putting together, and you were the soldier able to move your piece. Knowing it was so important to the Rebbe was deeply fulfilling for everyone involved.

39:30 Speaker 6 Heartwarming. So, really...

39:31 Speaker 1 It’s much more than heartwarming. “Heartwarming” doesn’t describe it. It fills you. Wow. Really. Not even “wow.” It’s a pure warmth that fills you with life and light.

39:50 Speaker 6 Now, so many years later, we see how the Rebbe approached all of Israel’s military campaigns, and particularly the Peace for Galilee War we’ve been discussing. The Rebbe saw the spiritual campaign as a very important campaign. People worked on printing Tanyas and on other matters; at certain times, he would speak about Sifrei Torah too. So in our present situation, how do we grasp our role in the spiritual campaign, especially when we’re speaking about students of Tomchei Temimim?

40:25 Speaker 1 From long ago, the Rebbe has instructed the Temimim to conquer the world through Torah study. That applies at every time and in every place, and especially in times of distress—times of shock, decrees or danger. That is the role of the Temimim, of the Jewish soldier: to conquer the world through Torah study. Then there are the mitzvah campaigns, beginning with the Six-Day War. There are two points concerning the tefillin campaign that Chabad undertook, which has since spread to many other chassidic groups as well. Especially when there is war and danger, the Rebbe explains the verse, “All the peoples of the earth will see that the name of Hashem is called upon you, and they will fear you.” That’s one point: they will be struck with awe and fear. The second concerns the quality of the descendants of Gad and Reuven: “He tears the arm, and even the crown of the head”—the arm representing the arm tefillin and the crown of the head, the head tefillin. So that is one way to defeat the enemy. There is also the matter of protection. Over time, since the Rebbe launched the writing of Sifrei Torah for children and general Sifrei Torah—the first initiative was to complete Moshiach’s Sefer Torah—this developed further. The Rebbe spoke more than once about how registering soldiers for a special general Sefer Torah saves their lives. We in Tzeirei Chabad even wanted to propose that the IDF give us lists of all the soldiers’ names, so we could purchase letters for all of them and give each of them a share in a Sefer Torah. The Rebbe did not accept that. It was important for each person to feel—I don’t know if “feel” is the word—for the soldier to take a step toward the Torah, toward the Sefer Torah. These are our explanations; the Rebbe...

43:01 Speaker 1 ...didn’t say why. But we come up with our amateur psychology and all sorts of ideas about what’s needed. Chassidus also explains that when a person takes the first step himself, it has a much stronger effect than if people simply come around to him. So...

43:23 Speaker 6 That is what needs to be done, and we need to work in that direction.

43:25 Speaker 1 When going out on the mitzvah campaigns after the regular study schedule, there are two campaigns that stand out now, especially at a time like this: the tefillin campaign and the Sefer Torah campaign. There is also Torah study with all the soldiers. At a time like this, we should add further protection for the soldiers—mezuzos, tzitzis, Chitas and other such means of protection. Whatever we can do. We need to use every weapon available.

44:02 Speaker 6 What is distinctive about our situation now, after the Rebbe announced that we are already on the threshold of the Geulah, that Moshiach is coming, and that the focus of shlichus is to welcome Moshiach? How do we keep that as our focus when we address the war and victory?

44:19 Speaker 1 Listen, I can’t add anything new. I can only tell you what the Rebbe said, and that’s how we can look at it. We are workers of the day. We have to try to do what we’ve been entrusted with. The Rebbe and the chassidim always knew that with every day that passes, and with everything that happens, good or less good, galus is further and further behind us, and we are another step closer to the Geulah. Are there terrible, horrific tragedies? Listen, we are soldiers, and soldiers don’t stop and begin mourning the fallen. When, G-d forbid, we have to bury our dead and observe the halachos, may such a thing never happen, then those who need to do that will do it. But a soldier in an army cannot stop to weep and eulogize the fallen when he needs to defeat a bitter enemy. That is our goal: to defeat the bitter enemy, and we have to do it with joy. Today, I came back from the funeral of a young man from Tzfas. Yesterday, I was at the funeral of another young man from Tzfas. They fell in the Gaza Strip. It is deeply saddening; it hurts. I know the families. We have to march forward. We have to win, that’s all. We are on the way to the Geulah, and with Hashem’s help, we will succeed.

46:12 Speaker 6 Amen. One thing that’s interesting to ask as we conclude: when we talk about printing the Tanya in Lebanon as part of that campaign, it gives the Temimim a feeling that they should go all the way, as you did, march forward, go as far as Beirut and print the Tanya. But you were something special. Back then you were called the RPG group: R for Raskin, P for Rabbi Popack, and G for Rabbi Goldberg. You were at the forefront of an operation. So a question might arise in a bochur’s mind: you went all the way and printed the Tanya, and nothing held you back. How can we bring that same feeling to the Temimim, each one in his own yeshiva, his own place, his own home—the feeling of the RPG group?

47:03 Speaker 1 I’m sorry to bring you back down to earth, but our group, that RPG unit, was one team in one vehicle. We weren’t leading the unit; we were a team within it. There was no flag flying above our car. We weren’t the flagship. We were part of the fleet—the winning fleet. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but we were part of the people, the team that happened to be given the privilege of doing it. And as with all the momentous things in the lives and histories of people, families or nations, you don’t realize at the time that a defining moment is something so immense. Later you remember it as something special—so special that others wish it would happen to them, long for it, or feel disappointed that it hasn’t. We simply did what we knew we had to do. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted us

48:38 Speaker 8 to have the privilege

48:38 Speaker 1 of it becoming something special. It turns out that everyone does very special things. Most of the time, we just don’t notice. We don’t notice.

48:46 Speaker 8 We don’t notice.

48:47 Speaker 1 We don’t notice. Another bit of learning, another page of Gemara, another line of Tanya, bringing another Jew closer. Or noticing a fellow bochur who had been invisible to us, whom we hadn’t seen how to encourage or make room for. Move over a little from the place you occupy as someone marching at the head of the King’s army. Move over a little and give him room to be part of the King’s army that is now conquering the land.

49:24 Speaker 8 Just know that we are part of a campaign, and each person has his place. The small thing he does—whether in Torah study or in spreading matters connected with the Rebbe, especially the subject of Moshiach—is part of how we win the campaign. We win through the small details too.

49:39 Speaker 1 Certainly.

49:41 Speaker 8 Thank you so much, Rabbi Raskin. With Hashem’s help, may the merit of seeing those who stood under fire and amid terrible danger then in Lebanon—and now throughout the Holy Land—strengthen us. You stood so firm and followed through in your connection to the Rebbe, doing the Rebbe’s will. May each of us grow stronger in this, and may all the Temimim go forward with heads held high, connected to the Rebbe, to bring the days of Moshiach and greet Moshiach Tzidkeinu speedily in our days. Amen.

50:13 Speaker 1 Indeed, I was privileged to hold on to the Rebbe’s door handle. I give thanks for that every day, and I hope we will continue to have that connection and keep holding on to the Rebbe’s door handle. Long live our master, our teacher and our Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever.

50:37 Speaker 8 Thank you so much, Rabbi Raskin.

50:40 Speaker 9 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the students of Tomchei Temimim from the World Ata organization. For more programs, dial *6358. Long live our master, our teacher and our Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever.