Ears to Hear 6 | "Is Not My Word Like Fire" - Holy Shluchim in Israel's Wars

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 the World Atah organization.

00:15 Speaker 5 We went out, down here in Kiryat Chabad to the square, and we danced. Remember, this was a time when there were sirens and people were hiding in their homes. We went in a procession toward Zalman Shazar Street, toward Canaan, singing. Everyone else was in their protected rooms, trembling with fear and waiting to hear when they could come out. We saw a crack open in a shutter and someone peeking out. Then the shutter opened all the way, and people simply began to smile. People began to come alive. They were gripped by such terrible fear, such panic and anxiety—and here we were dancing. It simply breathed life into Canaan, into its residents. For that alone, the dancing worked great wonders.

01:30 Speaker 6 Shalom aleichem to all the Temimim in Chabad yeshivos throughout the Holy Land and around the world. We are now beginning another program in the Ears to Hear audio series, a program permeated with a spirit of steadfast connection to the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach shlita, and to his central mission of leading the way with Moshiach. The verse says, “Is not My word like fire?” Rashi explains that when a prophetic word comes into the prophet’s mouth with strength, it comes into him like a blazing fire. Throughout all of Israel’s campaigns and wars over the years, the words of the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, were stated clearly and sharply. The shluchim—the Rebbe’s shluchim in general, and the shluchim to the Holy Land in particular—brought the Rebbe’s words everywhere in the clearest, most direct way, so that the word and decree of the King would reach every place. Now, when we want to hear the Rebbe’s clear words about Israel’s wars, we want to speak with one of the Rebbe’s shluchim to the Holy Land, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Levkivker, who was sent in 5733 as one of the shluchim to the holy city of Tzfas. We will speak about the life and spirit the shluchim brought at that time—during the Yom Kippur War, the Peace for Galilee War, the First Lebanon War, the Gulf War, and the wars that followed. About the clear spirit of the Rebbe’s prophecy, “Behold, Moshiach is coming,” and the clear knowledge that this is the safest land, “a land upon which the eyes of Hashem your G-d are always set.” We want to speak now with Rabbi Levkivker and hear what the shluchim felt so clearly at the time: how they conveyed it to the soldiers at the front and to the people at home, and what special things they experienced on those occasions. Let us begin the program with Rabbi Levkivker. Yechi Melech HaMoshiach. Shalom aleichem, Rabbi Levkivker.

03:40 Speaker 5 Aleichem shalom, and greetings to all the Temimim and everyone listening.

03:46 Speaker 6 Boruch Hashem, we are now in these special moments, on the threshold of the Geulah. In the present situation, every Tomim in the Land feels what is happening, and those elsewhere in the world also know what is happening in the Land during this war. Many questions are coming up for the Temimim. In this program we want to hear from the Rabbi about what he experienced during the Yom Kippur War, the First Lebanon War—the Peace for Galilee War—and the Gulf War. But first we want to address the underlying idea, the basic principle that the words of the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, guide our lives and light our path. When the Rebbe says, “a land upon which the eyes of Hashem are always set,” we follow that all the way; as chassidim, it is clear to every one of us. The question is simple: How does that fit with the situation we are in? What we have seen in recent weeks seems, at least outwardly, to contradict the idea that this is, in a physical sense, a land upon which Hashem’s eyes are always set. How do we live with the certainty that the Rebbe’s words hold true completely, despite what we see with our own eyes?

04:52 Speaker 7 When the Rebbe said, “a land upon which the eyes of Hashem your G-d are always set, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year,” that is what he based it on. During the Gulf War, he said that therefore there was no need to worry or be afraid. Of course, one must follow the instructions of the security forces and act as directed, but there is no need to worry. This is the safest place. I do not want to go into the details of what happened during the Gulf War right now. We really saw that those who followed this approach—perhaps we will return to that later—instilled confidence in the people around them. And among those who did not follow it, there were also tragedies.

05:33 Speaker 6 In effect, each chossid, in his own way, reflected the reality around him.

05:39 Speaker 7 Exactly. When there were sirens and all the worries and fears, the chassidim had already publicized the Rebbe’s words. Wherever they went, they said there was no need to worry: the Rebbe says everything will be all right; this is the safest place. It was similar to what happened before the victory in the Six-Day War. The Rebbe said that Israel would ultimately prevail over the enemy, and he began speaking about the territories that would be captured even before the war. That does not mean there were no casualties, rachmana litzlan. As in any war, there were casualties. But in practice, the Rebbe’s prophetic words came true. There were casualties—some hundreds, seven hundred or so—with three fronts and everything else.

06:31 Speaker 6 That is regarding the Six-Day War.

06:32 Speaker 7 Yes, the Six-Day War. During the Gulf War, the Rebbe said that this was the safest place and that we should know we were protected here, and so on. Missiles did fall, but miraculously, the injuries were only injuries. Toward the end of the war, it was reported that someone had been killed by fragments of a Patriot missile. In general, those who were harmed during the Gulf War were people who were frightened and worried, who did not believe the Rebbe. I do not mean that they did not believe him. I mean they had not absorbed his words. Some suffered heart attacks from fear, and other things like that. There were also people who were so afraid of the gas that, when their masks were defective, they did not dare take them off and died of suffocation. May Hashem protect us. By contrast, those who felt secure with the Rebbe did not panic about the masks. Those who did put on a mask did so to fulfill the requirement, because [unclear] said to, but they did not panic. They knew that everything here was taken care of, that everything was all right.

07:48 Speaker 6 Where do you get that from? You cannot buy trust in the Rebbe at a supermarket. This is a war, and your feelings tell you something else. How do you come to feel differently?

07:56 Speaker 7 True, but when we are connected to the Rebbe, stay close to him, study his Torah, and go out on his mivtzoim, we can do that even when our feelings are not with us. Sometimes, when the first boom comes and it is not far away, our feelings take over. We have a nefesh habehamis and a coarse body. But we need to say, “We are certain everything will be all right,” and project that to the people around us. Even if, at that very moment, our hearts are not fully in it, when we say Hashem’s word, the Rebbe’s word, it has its effect. It calms everyone around us, and it calms the person saying it too.

08:45 Speaker 8 So what matters is bringing it down into practice: at least saying it, even before the heart feels it, and then it becomes real. The mind’s control over the heart begins to take effect. How did you feel it yourself? It is the month of Shvat, two in the morning, and the first Scud missile is fired toward Israel and explodes. You actually hear it in the middle of the night.

09:10 Speaker 7 I told the people around me—I was in a certain place—that we had been prepared for this beforehand. The Rebbe had said, “The time of your redemption has arrived”; there was no need to worry or be afraid. And even when it happened, I am not saying that I did not feel anything. My feelings, my heart, did react. But I kept saying what the Rebbe said.

09:38 Speaker 8 I was among Jews who were not Chabad, and they were affected by it.

09:43 Speaker 7 They were affected. They felt secure around me. That’s the point: they felt secure around me. Yes, we’re talking about dozens of people. Through hashgachah pratis, I was with a certain group at the time, and they simply felt that sense of security around me. That’s what happened during the Gulf War. And in practice, we saw the outcome for those who followed the Rebbe. When buildings collapsed, people were safe. Even people who had not followed the Rebbe so closely heard about a three-story building collapsing on its occupants. By the laws of nature, you know what the outcome should have been. In fact, as you can see in photographs published at the time, people came out with scratches and minor injuries. They emerged like ants coming out from underground. It was one miracle after another, all the time. “The eyes of Hashem your G-d are always upon it.” Today, after all, we find ourselves in a similar situation. Missiles are falling in the south, and to some extent in the north as well. They’re not harmless; they’re firing them. But we know that this has been the Rebbe’s position all along. And we know that the Rebbe said the time for the Geulah has arrived. “The eyes of Hashem your G-d are always upon it” is a verse the Rebbe used in connection with the Geulah, and the matter of the Geulah is not growing weaker—it is growing stronger. So the Rebbe’s words about Hashem’s eyes always being upon the land apply continually, right now.

11:26 Speaker 9 My wife is very worried about traveling to Israel. She’s very uneasy about the trip. She’s very concerned because of the situation.

11:32 Speaker 10 [unclear] He protects Eretz Yisroel, and there is no reason for concern whatsoever.

11:41 Speaker 8 That’s really interesting. If you’re talking about the Gulf War, when you were involved with people who weren’t Chabad chassidim at the time, I can understand telling them that we have a promise in the Torah: our land is a land upon which “the eyes of Hashem your G-d are always,” Eretz Yisroel is secure, and the Jewish people will prevail. That’s a message people can accept. But talking to them about Geulah and Moshiach—didn’t that sound mystical, a bit beyond them? Was that accepted?

12:03 Speaker 7 Of course it was accepted. People took it at face value. We’re talking about converts, Litvish Jews, and baalei teshuvah—all kinds of people. They certainly accepted it.

12:13 Speaker 8 You remember that people accepted these things?

12:15 Speaker 7 They certainly did. I said what the Rebbe had told us at the time to publicize.

12:19 Speaker 8 [unclear] and all the...

12:21 Speaker 7 Yes, yes. The verse “the eyes of Hashem your G-d are always upon it” had been there all along, including before then, and that alone had not yet been enough. But when the prophet says that it is now relevant in practice, in our days, it takes on an entirely different meaning. Then it becomes the promise of the prophet and the promise of the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach. We need to be immersed in it, to live with it. The very fact that we live with it instills confidence in those around us, and that itself helps ensure that nothing happens.

12:55 Speaker 8 We’re talking now about the Gulf War, which took place in 5751. Let’s go a little further back and hear about earlier, similar events. If we go back to 5742, when the Peace for Galilee War began, the whole north was also in turmoil because of the war. What did it feel like then? As the Rebbe’s shluchim, how did you work here in the north, both to strengthen Yiddishkeit in general and to strengthen people’s confidence in Eretz Yisroel at that time?

13:21 Speaker 7 Of course, we went out on mivtzoim—to army bases and all kinds of other places. There were also shluchim who went into Lebanon at the time to distribute Tanyas and mezuzos and so on. As for us, we were at the yeshivah, and the Katyushas then were Katyushas. They fell, but we went out on mivtzoim and conducted ourselves as chassidim of the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, should.

13:51 Speaker 8 Did you yourself reach the northern front, Lebanon?

13:55 Speaker 7 I did, I went there. Generally, I couldn’t go out because I was occupied at the yeshivah, so I wasn’t among those who went to print Tanyas. They traveled for several days and so on. But once, Rabbi Aharon Leizer Zeitlin [?] a”h needed to bring something there. He had promised the soldiers a Tanya, or I think he needed to bring one there, and he wanted someone to accompany him. Since it was a round trip, I was able to get away from the yeshivah, so I joined him. We traveled to Tyre and Sidon.

14:31 Speaker 8 Was the journey all right, or were you afraid?

14:36 Speaker 7 Afraid. There was fear here too. There was fear everywhere. And there, the shelling was where it was.

14:43 Speaker 8 Mm.

14:44 Speaker 7 Living here in Tzfas, we experienced many Katyushas falling inside the city.

14:53 Speaker 8 Yes, but this meant actually going into Lebanon.

14:55 Speaker 7 Right.

14:55 Speaker 8 So you did go in.

14:57 Speaker 7 Yes, we traveled to Tyre and Sidon. We were at the camp, in the military government building, and I was busy with mivtza tefillin. Rabbi Stein [?] needed to give a Tanya to a family there—a Jewish family. So he went in to see them, and I stayed with the...

15:23 Speaker 8 With the soldiers.

15:23 Speaker 7 With the soldiers.

15:24 Speaker 8 I understand there was some kind of explosion there afterward, though.

15:26 Speaker 7 Yes. That same military government building, where I had put tefillin on soldiers, collapsed as a result of a gas-cylinder explosion, rachmana litzlan. It was called the Tyre disaster.

15:39 Speaker 8 Dozens of soldiers were killed there.

15:40 Speaker 7 Yes.

15:40 Speaker 8 I don’t know to what extent your spiritual activity there may actually have prevented something.

15:46 Speaker 7 It prevented other things, and who knows how many people were saved in the merit of having put on tefillin there, and so on. We can’t assess it; we can’t know. But it’s clear—there’s no doubt that the activity had an effect. I want to return for a moment to our current situation. What happened, happened, rachmana litzlan, and the Rebbe warned about the danger of opening the land up to them. In other words, the land is secure, but that doesn’t mean we should invite the non-Jews to attack us, hand them weapons, and offer them our necks. That’s not what we’re talking about. It’s clear; there’s no contradiction. We must act according to the Torah. Now, after all this has happened, some people have come to their senses and are beginning to act. We’ll have to see what happens next. According to the Torah, you destroy the enemy: you act and warn the enemy as forcefully as possible. As a result, the enemy to the north—which had received such warnings before—now also sees what is being done there. May it be Hashem’s will that terror and fear fall upon them, so they won’t dare use the many weapons they have. They are still using weapons, but not on the scale they could. May Hashem help that they truly do not use them to that extent, and that this be fought as a milchemes mitzvah, as the Torah requires. I hope people come to their senses and act that way. In any case, we who live in Eretz Yisroel must have complete confidence, not be afraid, and convey that feeling to those around us. There is a verse in Yeshayahu saying that the Jewish people are in their safest place in Eretz Yisroel. With Hashem’s help, no Jew should fall, G-d forbid, rachmana litzlan. May no Jew suffer any harm; may all the sick recover, all the wounded recover, and all the captives return, and so on. And as for those non-Jews who hate the Jewish people, those criminals—may not a trace of them remain. That is what needs to be done.

18:08 Speaker 11 That’s where we are now. If we go back a little further—even before the Peace for Galilee War—a certain question arises. The Rebbe’s words about “a land upon which the eyes of Hashem your G-d are always,” and about confidence in Eretz Yisroel, were clear. But then there was the Yom Kippur War, when the Jewish people suffered an extremely severe blow, with many killed in Israel. Were you already in the Holy Land at the time? I understand you were already...

18:37 Speaker 7 I was here in the Holy Land the whole time, apart from my year with the kvutzah. Yes, and my trips to the Rebbe. But—

18:45 Speaker 11 How did you relate to that war? I mean, how did you respond to it when you knew the Rebbe said the Jewish people would prevail? That had also been published in the press. You knew what the Rebbe was saying, but then you came to the scene and saw the situation.

18:58 Speaker 7 I’ll remind you. First of all, before the war, the Rebbe said we were facing danger. “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings You have established strength.” The Rebbe sent us here to Tzfas on shlichus. We arrived here. Rabbi Kaplan—the Rebbe sent him from the United States—arrived here in Menachem Av, on the 11th. He gathered a group of young married men, and I had the merit to be among those who agreed to go. We received the Rebbe’s approval and blessing to go on shlichus. We arrived in Tzfas on Rosh Chodesh.

19:32 Speaker 11 Rosh Chodesh of which month?

19:33 Speaker 7 Rosh Chodesh Elul.

19:34 Speaker 11 Rosh Chodesh Elul, 5733.

19:35 Speaker 7 Rosh Chodesh Elul, 5733. I received the Rebbe’s answer on 15 Menachem Av.

19:41 Speaker 11 Yes.

19:42 Speaker 7 We arrived here on Rosh Chodesh Elul. When we got here, there was an instruction from the Rebbe to take children to the Kosel: “Out of the mouths of babes and infants You have established strength.” It didn’t work out in Elul, but during the Ten Days of Teshuvah we managed to take two busloads of children to the Kosel. One bus was from a state school, and one was from an Agudah school here.

20:11 Speaker 11 Were they from their school, or from yours?

20:14 Speaker 7 Not ours. We went with two buses and a few young married men who took responsibility for the children, so as far as the Ministry of Education was concerned, it was—

20:21 Speaker 11 It was all right.

20:22 Speaker 7 It was all right. We took them to the Kosel and brought them back. This went on throughout that period. The Rebbe spoke about it. The Rebbe spoke about what it meant that they were positioning the missiles but not firing them. The Rebbe spoke throughout that time about the danger to life that was coming, and so on and so forth. So when the war broke out, it was terrible.

20:49 Speaker 11 Were you in shul at the time, or...?

20:52 Speaker 7 We were... yes, we were coming from shul at the time. Some of us, myself included, lived here in Canaan; some lived in the Old City, near the Tzemach Tzedek shul. The war broke out in the afternoon. Planes on their way to bomb Syria flew over us, over Tzfas, and many, many, many of them were shot down. We heard that it was war.

21:17 Speaker 11 And as a shliach of the Rebbe, what...?

21:19 Speaker 7 As a shliach of the Rebbe, what we did was continue davening. Every moment, someone else from the minyan was called up for military service. We ourselves didn’t have enough for a minyan—we were nine—so each time we brought in someone else, and then he was called up. We found another person, and that’s how the davening continued.

21:41 Speaker 11 So this was around Mussaf, between the Torah reading and Mussaf.

21:45 Speaker 7 Yes, Mussaf, and then afterward. That was the background the Rebbe had given us beforehand. It was—afterward, we all connected it.

21:55 Speaker 11 Right. It was as though the whole world was in shock, apart from the Rebbe’s chassidim, who already knew what the Rebbe had said.

21:59 Speaker 7 I don’t know. It’s hard for me to reconstruct it exactly now, but I don’t recall us going through a crisis, let’s put it that way—despite the tremendous devastation.

22:13 Speaker 11 You still didn’t know what was happening.

22:15 Speaker 7 We didn’t yet know what was happening, but of course by that night and the next day, it all became clear. It turned out that a missile had been launched from this area—from up above here.

22:28 Speaker 11 Yes, from...

22:29 Speaker 7 From Biriya. As the crow flies, it’s very close to Canaan. And my home was a shack—a shack behind a building that they rented to us.

22:43 Speaker 11 There were no reinforced rooms to speak of back then.

22:45 Speaker 7 Nothing. When it was launched, we thought it was coming right out of the house.

22:49 Speaker 11 Oh.

22:51 Speaker 7 We didn’t know whether it was being launched or whether something was coming in. I felt that we were here on shlichus and didn’t need to be afraid.

23:00 Speaker 11 Oh.

23:00 Speaker 7 We didn’t even go to a shelter. When I wasn’t home, my wife, a”h, did go to the shelter.

23:06 Speaker 11 Oh.

23:07 Speaker 7 But when I was home, there was no shelter.

23:11 Speaker 11 Oh.

23:12 Speaker 7 And it took mesirus nefesh on her part to let me go daven. Throughout the war, we walked down to the Tzemach Tzedek shul and back, to daven as the Rebbe wanted, and to keep up the learning in the kollel and so on.

23:29 Speaker 11 How did that come together when you met people in the street who were experiencing panic and anxiety, while you were, so to speak, in an entirely different frame of mind?

23:36 Speaker 7 It’s hard for me to remember now, but I’m sure we conveyed a positive spirit to them. The Rebbe immediately said that we had to be joyful, to have a sense of victory, to go out marching. The Rebbe conveyed that, and we publicized it. We didn’t keep it to ourselves; of course we spread the message.

24:00 Speaker 12 [unclear] to bring our Moshiach tomorrow; [unclear] this galus world.

24:14 Speaker 7 We went out right away. The call-up had begun, and it was rushed. All the hotels here in Tzfas were full of soldiers, so we went to them, brought them joy, danced, got them dancing, and so on. We were active all the time.

24:29 Speaker 12 Does the Rabbi remember any specific stories with the soldiers from that time?

24:34 Speaker 7 We really brought the soldiers back to life. There were hotels on Mount Canaan and hotels in town, and we went to all of them, encouraging people and bringing them joy. Later, during the war, some of us went to the Golan already on Chol Hamoed, bringing the four species to the soldiers under shellfire. Others of us went afterward. Some weren’t here on Chol Hamoed: the Rebbe had given permission for those who wanted to visit their parents, provided they returned for Simchas Torah. We came back in time for Simchas Torah, and of course we went everywhere we could to bring joy. Later in the war, we went to the army camps. I remember being at a camp in the northern salient, the territory the IDF had captured beyond—

25:38 Speaker 12 The Six-Day War.

25:39 Speaker 7 Beyond what they had captured in the Six-Day War. They captured more territory on Yom Kippur. They had taken various villages whose Arab residents had fled, and animals were roaming freely there. The soldiers asked for a shochet, to slaughter them. Anyway—

25:54 Speaker 12 You reached that salient?

25:56 Speaker 7 Yes, we were in the salient. I remember one time we arrived, of course, to bring the soldiers joy, give them Chanukah gelt, and so on. We danced with them. When it was at night, there was just Chanukah gelt, dancing and conversation. When it was during the day, there was the joy of tefillin, and they put on tefillin. There were no restrictions.

26:18 Speaker 12 Wasn’t it difficult with battalions that had soldiers being held captive at the time?

26:23 Speaker 7 I don’t know. I do know we visited a camp very close to the front. There were paratroopers there, and they had lost many friends. We came to the commander and said that, on the Rebbe’s shlichus, we wanted to speak to the soldiers and encourage them. I don’t remember whether we had mashke or coins or what it was. He said, “Please, try. But the soldiers are very broken. If you can reach them, fine—many of their friends have fallen.” We went in and started talking. Within ten minutes, everyone had climbed down from their beds—three-tier bunks—and they were dancing and rejoicing. The Rebbe simply breathed new life into everyone—

27:13 Speaker 12 Even though they knew they had friends in other places.

27:17 Speaker 7 No, what had broken them was the friends they had lost.

27:20 Speaker 12 No, it’s beyond nature. But through the Rebbe’s strength, you can lift people like that out of their beds and breathe new life into them.

27:25 Speaker 7 Right, right, right. We saw it—we saw what the Rebbe could accomplish.

27:30 Speaker 12 Mm-hm.

27:31 Speaker 7 That happened there and in other places, everywhere we went. That particular story stayed with me. But in short, we were active all the time, constantly working with soldiers and with others. People saw us in action, and the townspeople saw it too. Of course, that encouraged the whole population and breathed new life into them. Now, too, the Temimim are going out—Temimim and young married men—going out on mivtzoim, to places closer to the border. They tell people, “The Jewish people will prevail. The Rebbe assures us that this is the safest place.”

28:12 Speaker 12 In this approach, we go up to people and speak with them about the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach’s clear words: that Eretz Yisroel is the safest place, and that “Behold, Moshiach is coming.” Can this affect people who are far from Torah and mitzvos, or even people who observe Torah and mitzvos—people you might call Charedim? Can they accept this message?

28:32 Speaker 7 I told a story earlier about the Gulf War. One of the people there was the head of [unclear].

28:40 Speaker 12 Rabbi Biton.

28:41 Speaker 7 Yes. Later, when I came to ask him to sign a declaration that the Rebbe is Moshiach—it was after [unclear], I think—he said, “Of course. The Rebbe encouraged us so much in that situation. You encouraged us like that! Of course the Rebbe is Moshiach. There’s no question.”

29:01 Speaker 12 So he remembered that you had strengthened them during the Gulf War.

29:06 Speaker 7 Yes.

29:06 Speaker 12 And it was clear to him.

29:06 Speaker 7 He had seen it there too.

29:08 Speaker 12 So it was clear to him that he should sign that the Rebbe is Melech HaMoshiach. If the Rebbe could raise the world to such a level of trust and faith in Hashem, then clearly the Rebbe is Moshiach.

29:17 Speaker 7 Yes. He had no hesitation. He said, “Of course—what’s the question?” That was when I came to ask him to sign here at the kollel. Today, we see that people are receptive. Not long ago, I heard a very interesting story. It’s one particular episode; I’m not saying it represents everyone or that everyone is receptive. But it’s an interesting point I heard from Rabbi Mendy Volshansky [unclear]. A group from Maayanos Yisroel was being guided on a tour. Some of them visit 770. One of them came to 770, and as soon as he walked in, he began to cry. He felt that the Rebbe was there. The Rebbe is Moshiach. So there you have it.

30:08 Speaker 12 As the Rebbe writes in the kuntres, it is a place where it has always been evident that the Shechinah rests there.

30:13 Speaker 7 When you go in there, you receive the—

30:16 Speaker 12 Since we’re speaking about bringing the matter of Moshiach into the world, and about the halachic ruling the Rabbi just mentioned concerning Rabbi Bitton, who signed that the Rebbe is Moshiach: if we look at the history of that ruling, the matter began on 20 Nissan 5751. We heard that the Rabbi helped with the ruling.

30:39 Speaker 7 Not then, not then. It was a little later that they asked me. Rabbi Lifsh asked me to help him, and I also went to the Knesset with Rabbi Goldberg, a"h, to get members of the Knesset to sign, and so on. Rabbi Lifsh also asked me to approach rabbis, and I managed to get quite a few rabbis to sign. But that wasn’t in 5751. It was from 5752 onward.

31:09 Speaker 12 So this point about the halachic ruling is really a matter of Torah penetrating the world. It’s the same idea we’ve been discussing all along: the Rebbe’s words are what bring the true reality into the world.

31:23 Speaker 7 Yes, just as we saw then. Even though, from a natural perspective, judging by what people’s eyes saw—and I’m going back to the Gulf War—houses were collapsing on their occupants. According to Torah, you might have been able to—I don’t know if you could swear to it, but you could say with complete confidence that there were fatalities there. How many? I don’t know. But there were fatalities. In fact, there weren’t. Why? The Rebbe said there wouldn’t be. The Rebbe said it was the safest place. So the miracles happened. In other words, people’s eyes were mistaken. At the time, everyone was completely certain of what they saw, and everyone’s heart was pounding. Yet the Rebbe had said it was a safe place.

32:11 Speaker 12 And I want to ask about the doubt in each of our hearts: how can we apply that to the situation now, when we see something so bleak, so difficult, with so many fallen, so many killed and taken captive? How can we take that same perspective—that what the Rebbe says is what matters, that the land will lie open before them, and that Moshiach is here—when the present situation presses on us so powerfully? How can we bring that into our minds and hearts?

32:36 Speaker 7 First of all, we have to know this: the tragedy is beyond description. There are no words for the atrocities that happened there. People compare it to the Holocaust, to the Nazis, to the darkest places, and understandably so. The Rebbe warned that this was what could happen with such degradation. The Rebbe did not describe that degradation, but he warned, as I mentioned earlier, that the land would lie open before them and there would be victims as a result. What we do see, though, is that every development leads toward the Geulah. The Rebbe spoke of the Geulah coming from below, from the lower realm. When the Rebbe is revealed, it won’t be something disconnected from galus; it happens within galus. That’s why we need to study Moshiach and Geulah, so that we live with it, and until it happens, we live with it. It comes from within us. Clearly, many people—I don’t know how many—who had lived with an outlook that wasn’t based on Torah have changed because of this terrible, shocking event. Without a doubt, they are now more open to hearing, and are already more open to hearing what the Rebbe says. They see that “my strength and the might of my hand” are not what they thought. And when the Rebbe says that the land will lie open before them because the Torah says so—even though the Torah was given to us thousands of years ago, the Shulchan Aruch was written roughly six hundred years ago, the Rambam some eight hundred years ago, and the Gemara before that—the Torah’s statement that the land will lie open before them is decisive. You may have different conditions today, new weapons and all the rest. With surveillance, you can sit in your office and see every centimeter of what is happening across the border, then respond by pressing buttons and send a precision missile right at a terrorist’s ear. And yet—

34:54 Speaker 7 All of this still happened. What does that tell you? “The land will lie open before them” is relevant. Torah is practical today, at this very moment, regardless of one technological innovation or another. The Torah says the land will lie open before them. That is why it is forbidden to return territory, and why the Torah says to desecrate Shabbos—as though you were “violating” the Torah, in quotation marks—because that is how you uphold the Torah. That’s how it is. Don’t give me convoluted arguments. The Rebbe says it is explicit in the Shulchan Aruch, in Orach Chayim, which every Jew studies. When you make people aware of this, they see that Torah is practical. And when the Rebbe speaks, he is speaking Torah, and we must listen to him. This has certainly opened channels that were previously closed. Of course, some people still hold to their old position. The sitra achra still has a hold on them. It’s not their fault—their upbringing and environment. After living that way for so many years, you can’t blame anyone. We must not judge anyone. But in practice, there are still some who... Still, the general atmosphere is open to Yiddishkeit, open to a savior. That’s clear.

36:17 Speaker 12 This is really an interesting question for the Temimim. When they go out on mivtzoim and meet people, especially now on Fridays, is part of our shlichus to explain to people siman 329 and these Torah laws concerning the return of territories and danger to life? Or do you speak to them about Moshiach? Do you speak to them about...

36:36 Speaker 7 Of course, you need to speak about both. Presumably, you should speak about Moshiach. If you start talking about returning territories, you have to get into a discussion, speak patiently, and have enough time. But you’re coming to people who are generally in the middle of their work. You come and give them the—the—

36:55 Speaker 12 The shot.

36:56 Speaker 7 The shot, or that flash for the soul: tefillin, Shabbos candles, a thought from the Torah, whatever you manage to share. The Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach. That’s it; you’ve finished with them and you move on.

37:15 Speaker 12 It’s not the time for philosophical discussions.

37:17 Speaker 7 No, it’s not. They know themselves. By now everyone knows—apart from a small number of people who still haven’t let go of “my strength and the might of my hand.” But in general, everyone is looking forward to it. Everyone is waiting. That’s the atmosphere.

37:35 Speaker 12 Didn’t people already feel the mistake of “my strength and the might of my hand” during the Yom Kippur War?

37:39 Speaker 7 Yes, but the soul forgets. The fact is that shortly after the Yom Kippur War, there was already the Bar-Lev Line, and... let’s not get into it. They were already following a course that the Rebbe cried out against. “I called, and there was no answer.” He cried out against it, and no one listened. He wept. “Why, when I came, was there no one? When I called, there was no answer.” In private, he wept. He warned them again and again and again, and they did not want to listen.

38:14 Speaker 12 As we approach the end, on this very point: as Temimim facing this situation, we want to bring to the world the idea that everything here is connected to Moshiach and everything is leading toward him, and that even the horrific tragedy the Jewish people recently suffered is part of the process of Geulah. We have to—

38:32 Speaker 7 I don’t want to call it that, but I know that this is the outcome.

38:37 Speaker 12 This is the outcome.

38:38 Speaker 7 This is the outcome. What happened—we don’t understand it, and we won’t understand it.

38:43 Speaker 12 My question is—

38:43 Speaker 7 Only in the Geulah will we understand.

38:45 Speaker 12 Right. So my question is: how can we truly reach a perspective that we feel connected to in both our minds and our hearts?

38:52 Speaker 7 We need to—really, what is required of the Temimim now, in a situation like this? What is required of them? To learn. To learn. That is what is asked of the Temimim. The soldiers of Dovid—what does it mean to be Dovid’s soldiers now? To learn Nigleh and Chassidus, and the subjects of Moshiach and Geulah. To go out on mivtzoim according to the guidance of the yeshiva administration. That is what is required. That is how they contribute. That is how they instill strength and trust in Hashem in the army. When we learn, we instill trust in Hashem in the army, in the generals, and in all the decision-makers. The more we... There are people who are entrusted with this, and I hope those who have regular contact with politicians and military personnel will make Hashem’s word clear to them and bring them what the Rebbe says. Rabbi [unclear], who has spoken so much in the past in interviews and in the media—all of this is to get the message to the right people. But as for us, in our position, what does the Rebbe want from us? What does he ask of us? That we simply devote ourselves. Every Tomim who puts a few more minutes into learning brings about salvation in the face of all the decrees affecting Eretz Yisroel.

40:19 Speaker 3 Mm.

40:20 Speaker 7 In this, we need to live with the Rebbe and move forward. And in this way, we bring closer and hasten the time when the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach will be revealed and redeem us in actuality, Naor.

40:32 Speaker 3 Amen. Thank you so much, Rabbi [unclear]. Thank you for the program.

40:36 Speaker 7 And may we hear good news.

40:37 Speaker 3 Amen. Long live our master, our teacher, and our Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever, amen.

40:40 Speaker 7 Long live our master, our teacher, and our Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever.

40:45 Speaker 4 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the Temimim from Ata Haolami. For more programs, dial *6358. Long live our master, our teacher, and our Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever.