Ears to Hear 8 | The Sole Mission - Receiving Moshiach

00:00 Speaker 1 “But 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 students of the Temimim, from the Or Yomi website.

00:15 Speaker 9 But if you speak to a soldier today and your only message is, “Put on tefillin,” then you’re not really here. You’re missing the point entirely. Your message to every soldier and every Jew is that we are entering the Geulah. We are connecting with the King Moshiach. That is the gateway today. That is the central thing. Within that, of course, a Jew should put on tefillin and light Shabbos candles. But what is the soul of the matter, and what is the body? What is the engine, and what are the details? Shalom aleichem to all the students of the Temimim in Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch yeshivos throughout the Holy Land and the entire world. We are now beginning another program in the Ears to Hear audio series, a program permeated with a spirit of strong hiskashrus to the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach shlita, and with our central concern: the avodah of the days of Moshiach. In the sicha at the Shluchim Kinus of 5752, the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, focused the shlichus and stated with utmost clarity that only one thing remains in the work of shlichus: welcoming Moshiach Tzidkeinu. In this program, we want to talk, discuss, and farbreng about the content and essence of the one shlichus that remains: welcoming the King Moshiach, the Rebbe shlita. How were these things said in the sicha? How do we understand them? And above all, how can we put them into practice on the ground and convey to every Jew, wherever they may be, this clear message and special announcement: now is the time to welcome the King Moshiach. In this program, we’ll be speaking with the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach’s shliach to the city of Beit She’an, Rabbi Shalom Ber Shmuelevitz, about the essence and content of this one shlichus and how it is carried out on the ground. We’re now beginning this week’s program with Rabbi Shalom Ber Shmuelevitz. L’chaim, l’chaim, Rabbi Shmuelevitz. Shalom aleichem.

02:27 Speaker 1 Shalom u’vrachah. L’chaim u’vrachah. Long live the King! L’chaim, l’chaim.

02:32 Speaker 9 L’chaim u’vrachah. Boruch Hashem, we’re sitting together now for this special program following the sicha of 18 Kislev 5752 at the Shluchim Kinus, and the great, remarkable shift that sicha brought about concerning the one shlichus that remains: actually welcoming Moshiach Tzidkeinu. Before we delve into the depth and essence of this one shlichus, how to carry it out on the ground, and stories from the field, let’s start with a question any student might ask when he sees a shliach doing so much in his city. The first question is: what’s it like? Before we get to the one shlichus, let’s first hear about the life of a shliach itself. What interests us is what it’s like to live that life. And we’re not talking about a shlichus you embarked on a decade ago. This goes back to when you were born, to 5756, when your father, a"h, arrived in Beit She’an. Since then, you’ve lived as a shliach—as a child, a teenager, a bochur, and now as the shliach in Beit She’an. What does that feel like? We’d really like to hear stories and get a sense of what it’s like on the ground.

03:39 Speaker 1 The greatest gift a father can give his son, his daughter, and his family is to go out on shlichus. You can’t describe the happiness, or how clear and focused life is, when you grow up in a home where you know: I’m a shliach. Perhaps half, or most, of childhood’s complications and spiritual struggles can be avoided when a child grows up knowing: We’re the shluchim here. My whole purpose is to bring light into the world, to transform the world into G-dliness. It gives a child a tremendous ideal from the very youngest age. Especially in our case, I was privileged that my father, a"h, was truly permeated with it. The week of the Shluchim Kinus was his celebration. He would travel to the Kinus with every fiber of his being. In a moment, I’ll tell you another special episode from our Kinus in 5752.

04:37 Speaker 10 There was an atmosphere at home. You could feel it.

04:39 Speaker 1 There was an atmosphere at home around the Kinus as it approached. And throughout the year, we knew: We’re shluchim. We’re different. We have an influence on the neighborhood, on the city. My father was very idealistic about it. For example, when he farbrenged with bochurim at the Shluchim Kinus, he would simply hand out treats or gifts to the bochurim sitting at the farbrengen in exchange for a promise—an oath—that they would go out on shlichus. His face would shine. All his friends know that; everyone who has read the stories from the Chabad House knows it. That was him. And before we even get to the foundations of the sicha, before we talk about its finer points, what defined my father and the shlichus in Beit She’an was that every Jew there knew exactly what my father believed. What does it mean to be a shliach? Who is the Rebbe, and what is the Rebbe? My father was very dignified and respectful toward everyone, but everyone knew that he proclaimed “Yechi.” My father spoke about the prophet of the generation, about Moshiach. That was the thing. I’ll never forget: There was a Jew from Beit She’an whom I was already learning with as a bochur—perhaps even as a child in eighth grade. We would learn Chassidus together once a week, in person. If [unclear], I would call him and we’d learn over the phone. His name is Oren. One day he bought a home in the Rabin neighborhood, which was new then; his was one of the first houses there. He invited me to the housewarming. It was on a Thursday night, on a Shabbos when I was home visiting my parents, as they say, and he invited my father, a"h, to the same housewarming. I had come from Tzfas, all fired up, and I was at that stage where you think you might be more connected to the Rebbe than your father, or more of a chossid, more on the cutting edge. So I said—

06:51 Speaker 1 I’ll come to the housewarming, let my father and the veteran shluchim sitting there say the standard divrei Torah, and then I’ll come in and really make my point with what I’ve brought from Tzfas. And I remember, as soon as my father began speaking at the farbrengen, with Jews from all over Beit She’an sitting there, he said to Oren, “Listen, you’re moving into the Rabin neighborhood. Do you know what ‘Rabin’ means? How do you say ‘Rebbe’ in Yiddish? ‘Rabbin.’ You’re moving into the Rabin neighborhood, and your whole mission now is to make the Rebbe felt in this neighborhood.” That was it. In short, he spoke so powerfully. And Oren was a fellow with a knitted kippah, from the national-religious community—a teacher, an educator, an educated man. My father didn’t leave me much to add, because right from the start he had laid the foundations and told him that he was coming there as the Rebbe’s shliach in the neighborhood. Over the years, I also came to the Rabin neighborhood, and we opened a Chabad House there. But this story is from about twenty years ago, when Oren first moved in.

07:55 Speaker 10 The way you were raised was clear. The subject of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the Rebbe, Moshiach—that was simply a given.

07:59 Speaker 1 Yes, yes, yes. And again, every rabbi in Beit She’an knew he could come and speak at the Chabad House. Every community knew my father could come and speak there. At the same time, mutual respect with all the communities and all the different groups was—and still is—something very, very strong. When my father took me to the Kinus, it was in 5752. I was a young child then, and I remember—I remember the Rebbe. I have a picture in my mind of the dollar distribution. I have a picture of the Rebbe coming in. I don’t know whether it was for davening or a farbrengen, but I remember my father lifting me up and seeing the Rebbe come in. I think it was for a farbrengen. The Rebbe was walking alongside a long table. In any case, what happened at that farbrengen was that my father thought a child my age—I might have been five—wouldn’t be able to listen through the whole farbrengen, and that he certainly wouldn’t be able to hold me the entire time. So he asked our hostess, the woman we were staying with, if I could stay there and sleep at one-thirty in the afternoon. The hostess, whom I won’t name, didn’t want to look after me then. So I ended up going to the farbrengen with my father. I don’t know whether it was at the beginning or in the middle, but at some point my father put me on a bench by the entrance and signaled that I should sleep so he could listen to the farbrengen. And I was probably tired. But—

09:42 Speaker 11 Do you remember that, or...?

09:43 Speaker 1 I don’t remember. My father told me this story. He would tell it all the time. At some point, little Shlomi started crying and disturbing the people standing near him. So they asked what was going on. Someone said it was Shmulovitch’s son. They went looking for my father and told him, “Shmulovitch, your son is crying and disrupting the farbrengen. People can’t listen.” In short, maybe my father tried to hide, but he wasn’t a short, skinny fellow, so he didn’t have much success. I’m just guessing. I don’t actually think he tried to hide. In any case, he had to go out and calm me down, and apparently he missed a substantial part of that farbrengen—thanks to me, because of me. Sometimes he would remind me and say, “Because of that little donkey, I missed part of the last farbrengen at which the Rebbe spoke to the shluchim, on Chayei Sarah 5752.” And that planted in my mind a desire to make it up to him.

10:43 Speaker 11 To make up for it.

10:43 Speaker 1 To make up for it. So when people ask me to lead a farbrengen in honor of Chayei Sarah 5752, or to speak about that sicha, or make a recording about it, I’m more open to it. Because I know: your father missed half a farbrengen because of you, so at least you’re making up for some of it this way.

11:00 Speaker 11 Amazing. So as we appreciate how special it is to grow up in a home devoted to shlichus, with a father who is a shliach, in that atmosphere, and to come to the Rebbe, let’s turn to the sicha you mentioned, the one you were present for. You didn’t really understand the Rebbe’s words then, or perhaps didn’t hear them. But now, after studying and examining the sicha that all the shluchim engage with—the last sicha we received from the Rebbe, the sicha of Chayei Sarah 5752—let’s take an overall look at it. Let’s try to put things in order for a moment. What is the sicha’s main innovation, and what is its essence? Because for all the lofty ideas in it, it develops along several lines: the more straightforward discussion at the beginning about Eliezer’s shlichus, and then everything that follows, up to the sicha’s tremendous innovation. First, we want to understand the specific point: what is unique about the sicha of Chayei Sarah 5752 compared with the sichos from earlier Kinus Hashluchim gatherings?

12:08 Speaker 1 Absolutely. [unclear] years after the sicha, we can start paying attention to what it says. This really is the time. Well, the sicha has a magnificent, remarkable structure, building step by step, as you said, both in the straightforward reading and then on the deeper level of its Chassidic perspective. Over several sections, the Rebbe lays out what Geulah is, what the union of above and below means, how we see it in Yitzchak and Rivkah, and how we see it in Eliezer as a shliach. How does he himself bring the two together? In a relatively condensed way, it builds the whole picture of Geulah: joining G-dliness with the world, the union of above and below, as all the Temimim surely know backward and forward. Then, after the Rebbe takes us through several levels and stages, we come to a discussion of Moshiach, the person himself. He embodies this union of above and below, because he is the quintessential shliach. He is a person in his own right, a flesh-and-blood human being who fights the wars of Hashem. At the same time, he is completely nullified to G-dliness. That is why he is Moshiach. He is the one who brings the world into an era when the physical and the G-dly become one, when above and below are united perfectly, both within each individual Jew and in the world as a whole, and so on. Then, as the Rebbe approaches the practical directive, he speaks very, very sharply, leaving no room for philosophical speculation, explanations or uncertainty. The Rebbe spells it out: since we are at a time when the shluchim are long past the beginning of their work of shlichus and spreading awareness, past the middle, and have even completed it—yet we see that Moshiach has still not come—we must say that there is something else left to do. There is one single final thing. The Rebbe then explains that the sefarim say—citing [unclear] and the Kesav Sofer—

14:25 Speaker 1 that in every generation there is one person from the line of Yehudah who is fit to be the redeemer, and he is simply waiting for Hashem to give him permission to reveal himself. And since we are at a time when, as the Rebbe quotes the Frierdiker Rebbe, all the necessary things have already been completed, the Rebbe says that this person in our generation, the Moshiach of our generation, the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach shlita, has, so to speak, already received permission to reveal himself. The only thing missing is for Jews to welcome him—for us to welcome him—so that he can finish his work and bring the Geulah in actuality. Before we get to the practical directive in section 14, which follows from this point, the Rebbe has already said something very explicit: help is needed here. This Jew, who has already received permission to reveal himself and redeem us—now there is work for us to do: we need to welcome him. Many analogies and explanations have been given for this. We’re at war now. Here in [unclear], I’ve met many families waiting for their father to come home from reserve duty. Half of Israel is on reserve duty right now. Yesterday, in one of the classes I gave, there were several women waiting for their husbands to come home from reserve duty. So I gave them an example. People have used it about a king, but I said, “Imagine you’re waiting for your husband, or a child is waiting for his father. He’s been away on reserve duty since Simchas Torah—already a month—and they tell you, ‘Listen, Dad is coming home this Friday.’ They told you on Sunday, so as a mother and as children, you get the house ready. There’s cooking and cleaning, shopping for things Dad likes—it’s a celebration. You can’t imagine what it means for children who’ve been waiting a month for their father. It’s not just that he went away, which would be hard enough. He

16:30 Speaker 1 went somewhere he needed protection, where he needed miracles. His return is a tremendous joy. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday—everyone is preparing. The mother is working hard, the children are working hard, setting things up and making plans on the computer. Then Friday morning arrives. The mother knows he could walk in at any moment. He doesn’t have his phone, so she doesn’t know whether he’s already in Afula or still in Tel Aviv, whether he’ll be there in half an hour, ten minutes, or just one minute. Of course, the wife and children are eagerly waiting for him now. They aren’t waiting any less than yesterday; they’re waiting even more. But if they just keep cleaning and cooking, and Dad comes home to find Mom in the middle of cooking and the children dirty from cleaning, clearly that misses the point. Now the children are focused on one thing alone: Dad is about to walk in. How am I going to welcome him? How does Dad want to see me? What is the right way for me to be standing when my father comes in? When my husband comes in?”

17:50 Speaker 12 The focus shifts to the arrival of the person himself, rather than the preparations that go along with it or the surrounding details.

18:00 Speaker 1 Right, yes. But if we focus it more closely, this brings us to the instruction in section 14. The Rebbe puts it in simple terms. I’m speaking now after discussions with many friends of mine, shluchim, and from my own experience on the ground in Beit She’an, and from many farbrengens where I’ve met Jews in cities all over the country and had the privilege of speaking with them. In a moment, we’ll give a few examples from the field, which is the most important thing. But if I stick for a moment to the instruction booklet, to the manufacturer’s instructions, the Rebbe comes and tells you that today, the work must focus first of all—before we return to the identity of the redeemer—on my role. Something is happening here. This is a historic moment. Moshiach is already here, waiting to be revealed. In other words, Hakadosh Boruch Hu has already supplied what’s needed; He’s waiting for you to receive Moshiach. If we look closely at the wording of the instruction in section 14, the Rebbe says, first of all—and unfortunately, even this is considered a novelty by many self-sacrificing chassidim and shluchim I’ve discussed it with. In most cases, people simply don’t know the sicha, and that is the most important point in their favor. They don’t know the sicha. They say, “Of course, it’s all about bringing the Geulah.” But there’s an entire sicha in which the Rebbe speaks very clearly about something new happening here, and we’ll come back to that in a moment. As for the instruction—and we’ll return to section 13 shortly—the Rebbe says: You now explain to a Jew what Moshiach is all about. The work is for shluchim to think about how every Jew in their city will understand what Moshiach is, in a way he can accept. That, as we know, is an even greater demand: not merely to say something acceptable, but to rack your brains until he accepts it. Perhaps that’s why the expression is “receiving Moshiach”: he has to receive Moshiach.

20:00 Speaker 1 So he has to be able to accept all of it intellectually. You can’t leave out a single Jew among the twenty thousand people in Beit She’an, for example—and the same goes for each person in his place of shlichus—until he understands the subject of Moshiach in full, as explained in our sicha: what the unification of Mah and Ban is, and why it is this person himself. The expression “what Moshiach is all about” already appears in the middle of the sicha, where it discusses Moshiach’s role as a shliach. Both from experience on the ground and from studying the matter, I don’t know how you can carry out this instruction without introducing the person to the individual we’re talking about. Because, ultimately, it’s only when you bring someone face to face with a reality that cries out, in every aspect, “the unification of Mah and Ban,” and you don’t speak to him in hints. You don’t say, “Listen, I’m uncomfortable saying the name outright, but there is such a thing as Moshiach.” The most natural thing—the greatest kindness you can do for a Jew if you love him—is to introduce him to the Rebbe. And not just as a great adviser or guide, though those are important too, and we have instructions about them. A great adviser. The greatest kindness you can do for a Jew is to say to him, “Listen, here is a Jew…” After all, the Rebbe says that the world today is ready for the entire revelation, ready for all of it. And if I’m ready, and I grasp that the Rebbe is the only solution to the war and to every aspect of exile—specifically the Rebbe as I know him, with everything he represents—that is precisely what’s needed: for the soul of Moshiach to be revealed here in its full force, and for that soul of Moshiach to be revealed in the world. So why do you think your neighbor, or—

21:57 Speaker 1 —or any Jew you meet on mivtzoim has any less of a G-dly soul? Why do you think he can’t accept it? Clearly, it all depends on how much effort I put into explaining it to him. Shluchim would explain to people that the splitting of the sea happened. Is that something easy to accept? That manna fell from heaven—is that easy to accept? That the Land of Israel is the safest place in the world, when fourteen hundred Jews were killed here a month ago, and you still tell them it’s the safest place because that’s what the Rebbe said. So manna fell, snow fell, Moshe Rabbeinu was there for forty days. These things don’t drive people away. But to come to someone and tell him that this person—the whole world was astonished by him before Gimmel Tammuz, and today is even more astonished by all of this; everyone today is looking for the Rebbe’s teachings, and everyone knows that the shluchim and the whole enterprise of shlichus are the one genuinely real thing in this generation—and then to connect him with a few sources and say, “Sir, this is exactly the person fit to redeem the Jewish people.” That is exactly the job; that is what this is about. I’m not talking about a ballot box. I’m not trying to get his vote for this. Chabad has no political party. I’m not trying to solicit a donation or get anything out of him. I’m telling him, “Sir, I love you. Of course I care that you put on tefillin. In the same way, I care that you come to know the light of this generation, the light of these lives.” Explaining what Moshiach is all about without revealing who the person is—first of all, that’s very difficult. You have this person right here, and every aspect of him is the unification of Mah and Ban.

23:41 Speaker 1 He is a Rebbe—a Rebbe of whom the sicha of Shabbos Hagadol says, “A prayer of Moshe, the man of G-d”: a man you can see is entirely one with G-dliness. So there is no better way to make the subject of Moshiach accessible to a Jew than to introduce him to this person.

23:59 Speaker 13 That’s an explanation that’s sort of “one plus one equals two,” which seems more suited to section 4. But what I hear in section 13 is that it’s something essential. It’s not just that I explain who the Rebbe is, and the person connects so strongly with the Rebbe that he immediately understands the Rebbe is Moshiach, making it easy to explain. It really sounds as though we need to introduce everyone to the reality of the Rebbe as Moshiach, because only then can they receive him. In other words, that’s a deeper step, isn’t it?

24:30 Speaker 14 Those things are stated explicitly in section 13. The Rebbe insists on saying it, following what the Rebbe revealed at the end of the sicha and in preparation for what the Rebbe would say in the sicha on Parshas Mishpatim, and so on, about “Menachem is his name,” and so forth. So yes, in section 13 the Rebbe says the name explicitly and takes care to say it. And if the Rebbe puts it into an edited sicha forty-two years after the previous Rebbe’s histalkus—by all accounts, Yud Shvat was a histalkus—then surely I can come and say it today about the Rebbe, Moshiach, when, by all accounts, what is called Gimmel Tammuz is not Yud Shvat. By all accounts. And I’ll tell you more than that. Again, I get to speak with friends, young married men, and shluchim from different places, and at the Kinus we always talk about it every year. No shliach today has told me in these discussions—I haven’t encountered one—no shliach today, if he sees a Jew in his community who is already ready and receptive, would refrain from telling that Jew who Moshiach is. In other words—

26:00 Speaker 13 So it’s really a matter of stages. It’s not actually—

26:03 Speaker 14 Yes. I also don’t think there’s a shliach who believes that this news would drive a particular Jew away at this point and would nevertheless make a point of telling him now. I think even the most openly Moshiach-oriented shliach would make the necessary preparations. In other words, all the shluchim agree, and it’s clear to them, that you don’t keep a secret like this to yourself. A secret like this isn’t something you keep. And I’ll tell you something else, which may already relate to the next question.

26:43 Speaker 13 Have you actually sat down with shluchim, even just as friends, and talked with them about this straightforward message? Because if we’re talking about the sicha of Chayei Sarah ’52, and we really study it with a clear head, we see the Rebbe’s clear words and how the Rebbe weaves Moshiach’s identity into the instruction to welcome Moshiach Tzidkeinu. So how is it that, until now, we aren’t all under the same umbrella? In practice, you see differences, if you can call them that, among different Chabad Houses, different kinds of shlichus and different shluchim everywhere. Should this subject be discussed at all? Should it even be mentioned? Have you ever spoken about it with anyone? Have you managed to talk with shluchim and bring them to a different understanding than they had before? I’m just curious, at the most basic level, how shluchim discuss this subject.

27:34 Speaker 14 In practice, you can see shluchim who go with this openly. Last week I went to speak at Chabad in Herzliya—the most, what would you call it, northern city in the country, or however you’d put it. And you see dozens and hundreds of people, and it’s simply a given. Everyone knows what Rabbi Alperin, a”h, believed, and what the shluchim there and the whole community continue to believe. In the end, you’re dealing with another Jew. That Jew wants you to respect him, like anyone else. If you don’t respect him, then even if you give up all your beliefs, he won’t respect you. And if you do respect him, you can convey anything to him—certainly truths that the Rebbe devoted an entire sicha to, asking us to connect people with them. I’ll tell you more. I once spoke with a shliach whose grandfather, or perhaps great-grandfather, risked his life in Russia to spread Yiddishkeit. I’m not getting into whether he was among those who gave their lives and were killed, or those who risked their lives and survived. But he was like so many shluchim whose grandchildren and great-grandchildren we all are, biologically or spiritually. So he told me, “These messages today are hard. It’s hard to live with them for such a long time. Is the world ready for them or not?” I said to him, “Tell me: imagine your grandfather sitting with friends in Moscow in 5707, or 5712, or 5698. The Frierdiker Rebbe had left them with instructions that seemed far more outlandish than the instruction in Chayei Sarah ’52—which any shliach who tries it sees is practical. The Frierdiker Rebbe left them under a terrifying Communist regime with instructions to keep spreading Yiddishkeit and teaching children in cheder. That’s the proof. Chassidim went on—they went on

29:38 Speaker 14 risking death for it, again and again, going to Siberia, to prison, and to their deaths, while the Frierdiker Rebbe had already left Russia. I said to him, “Imagine a chossid standing up at a farbrengen there—I’m sure there were people like this—and saying, ‘All right, the Rebbe left us an impractical instruction. Let’s put our energy into more practical things, things people will find easier to accept. Let’s at least devote ourselves to studying Chassidus.’” Obviously, anyone hearing that would laugh. Obviously, they wouldn’t have let such chassidim put forward that opinion. Since when does a chossid measure the Rebbe’s message against the world? Rack your brains to work out how to make it acceptable. They didn’t know, as we do, how it would turn out well—that they might get out of Russia and that Communism would fall. They didn’t know that. They knew they were going to die, and they kept doing what the Rebbe had said, because there is nothing besides Him.

30:42 Speaker 15 Did he have an answer for you?

30:43 Speaker 14 Huh?

30:44 Speaker 15 Did he have an answer to that?

30:46 Speaker 14 I don’t—

30:46 Speaker 15 These are questions that come up at a farbrengen.

30:47 Speaker 14 I’ll tell you the truth. I think it’s exactly like someone coming along today and saying, “Listen, most shluchim have smartphones. Most of Chabad is on the internet—in fact, most of the Jewish world is today.” And then asking how Hakadosh Boruch Hu expects people in a generation of smartphones to live with the awareness that there is nothing besides Him, to live with G-dliness. In the end, what’s the answer? It’s an individual, personal question. If you study Chassidus, you live with G-dliness, and suddenly you see that the world is ready for G-dliness, that the world is ready. [unclear], and the world is ready. I watched the Kinus Hashluchim of 5753 yesterday, in preparation for this farbrengen, along with material from the Es Ha Olami team and the Or Yomi website. And what do you see there? What do you see at the Kinus in 5753? Twelve hundred shluchim—the emcee says there are twelve hundred—stand up and can’t stop singing “Yechi.” The emcee can’t bring it to a stop; he joins in. A Litvish rosh yeshivah stands up and says the very things we’re saying today. And I ask what everyone asks: in 5753, almost a year after the stroke, was it realistic, according to nature, that the Rebbe would be revealed as Moshiach? The Rebbe had suddenly suffered a health crisis before our eyes. Wasn’t it just as realistic as it is today? Who could have believed then that a Jew of that age, after such a health crisis—but you see an entire gathering of shluchim standing there, shouting it and singing it.

32:31 Speaker 16 Without qualifications, without other opinions. It was simply the guiding approach for everyone.

32:35 Speaker 14 Of course. So what happened? Years passed, and we became more caught up in the material world. It’s like someone saying to me, “Because I don’t always live with the awareness that there is nothing besides Him, let’s reconsider that message.” I don’t always live with that awareness because I ate too many schnitzels, or became too caught up in the material world, or saw something inappropriate, or whatever. But all right, thirty-two years have passed. In a certain sense, anyone who tries sees that those thirty-two years have only connected more people to the Rebbe, and that grows from year to year. Today, reality shows that people are looking specifically for the Rebbe’s teachings. The world is looking for Chassidus. The whole world is studying Chabad Chassidus today. So what I see on the ground is that you simply approach a person and sit down with him. Chassidus conveys its teachings. Chassidus teaches that there is no world. The Maggid’s teachings say that there is no world. In the maamarim of [unclear] and Reb [unclear] and all those things we learned in yeshivah: there is no world. Try explaining that to people at a class. Is that any easier to explain? So rack your brains. In the end, people will understand. Living and davening and pestering people for money is easy enough, and you manage to get money out of them. So conveying this G-dly truth to them—that there is a Rebbe who spent forty years transforming the world, and that there is, how do you say it... This is something that a person who invests effort in it succeeds at. That’s already something.

34:17 Speaker 16 From the very clear, warm approach you’re describing, it sounds as though the problem is simply the shliach’s own struggle with the material world, not some problem interpreting the sicha, understanding the sicha or the Rebbe’s words, or understanding the encouragement of “Yechi,” and so on. In that respect, the problem is less serious. The problem is really where we ourselves stand materially—the poor ground we have to work with on this subject.

34:44 Speaker 14 Anyone who studies the sicha with heart and soul, and isn’t lying to himself, understands that something is happening here. He understands that the Rebbe is talking about something here. He understands that today, when you come to a Jew and put tefillin on with him or give him Shabbos candles, if that Jew doesn’t leave you with a clear message that we are now preparing for the revelation of the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach—how? Through tefillin, through Shabbos candles, through a Chabad House [unclear], through whatever you choose, but also through studying Chassidus, which is a major preparation for the Geulah. That does the most to bring a person into the subject of the yichud of Mah and Ban and all of that. But anyone who studies the sicha carefully would have to be lying to himself to a great extent, G-d forbid, to come along and say, “Yes, it’s just another encouragement for the shluchim,” or, as that wise man said at the end of the farbrengen, “a wonderful explanation of the yichud of Mah and Ban.” One of the righteous people there said that.

35:47 Speaker 16 To deny them.

35:48 Speaker 14 Yes.

35:57 Speaker 16 So really, the points are clear. They’re very, very sharp. You look at the sicha of Chayei Sarah 5752 and understand that welcoming Moshiach Tzidkeinu is an avodah. It’s a new avodah, as the Rebbe explains at the beginning of section 13: an additional innovation in our generation, at this time, is welcoming Moshiach, and connecting that with the Rebbe’s identity as Melech HaMoshiach. So that all sounds good, and we said that when you look at the sicha, the points are clear. And then there’s the Kinus Hashluchim of 5753. The question is very simple: when we actually go out into the world as shluchim, dealing with one thing or another day after day, year after year—rather than reading what is so beautifully written in the books—does this message really get through? We want to speak honestly, [unclear], heart to heart. Is the message of welcoming the Rebbe as Melech HaMoshiach really one that can be conveyed to every person, whoever they may be? Or does it depend on certain things that you, as a shliach, can help us understand? Do people accept it?

37:01 Speaker 3 First of all, absolutely yes. Completely. People today accept messages that are far more far-fetched. Half the country believed the judicial reform was harmful and endangered the country. Now half the country thinks terrorists need to be released to free the hostages. People buy into messages—Hashem protect us—whether negative or positive, messages that are so far removed from reality. Here you’re talking about an entire edifice, one that of course doesn’t begin with the Rebbe. There’s a whole understanding of what Yiddishkeit is, what Geulah is. Now, I agree with you that it’s like any message. I’ve had many shluchim come to me and say, early in their shlichus, “I have no chance of raising funds. Forget it. I’ll never raise a single shekel. I tried once; the person said no, and I’m not trying again.” And to someone like that I said, “My friend, it takes an investment. There are consultants today who will take you through it step by step. It’ll cost you a little money, but in the end, with Hashem’s help and a lot of work...” What are the odds of getting a thousand shekels from someone? He worked hard for that money. Think about it: he’s holding tight to something that matters deeply to him, and you’re trying to open his hand. Just as with fundraising there are many ways to encourage a Jew to give, connect him to the cause, enlist his partnership and try to do chesed, and so on, the same goes for every message. And how hard is it to get people to come to a class at all? Everything is hard. There’s an explanation from the Rebbe: on one hand, Hashem says of every detail of creation, “And behold, it was good”—“behold, it was good,” “behold, it was very good.” And on the other hand—

38:56 Speaker 3 the conclusion they reached was that it would have been more comfortable for a person not to have been created. So is the world good or isn’t it? There’s an explanation—I don’t remember whether it’s from the Rebbe or one of the earlier Rebbeim—that the world is good, but it isn’t always comfortable. It would be more comfortable not to have been created, but the world is good. You want to reach the good? You have to step outside your comfort zone. So this is definitely something that, when you invest in it and explain it, people understand and connect with. And you also gain people who become ambassadors. Because when someone really grasps it... It’s like studying Chassidus. They always say at the Kinus Hashluchim—Rabbi Gruzman from Migdal says this, I think the younger one; I can’t remember his name right now. No, sorry, not Rabbi Gruzman—Rabbi Gruzman from Rishon, the one younger than the head shliach. He always says: “Do you think one vort from Maayan Chai or Sichat HaShavua will turn a person into a chossid? Or that reading a vort every week, hearing a sermon every week, will do it?” He says, “Think about how you became a chossid. How did you come to feel that the Rebbe is your life? Was it from a few vortlach in Maayan Chai? You studied Chassidus in depth for years—maamarim, sichos, farbrengens.” He says a Jew needs that same recipe. A Jew needs that same recipe. You can’t give him some interesting, topical Chassidic saying about the Geulah and— It’s the same here. Once a person understands that there is a king here, that something G-dly is being revealed, you haven’t just gained another person close to you, another Jew who donates, another Jew who— You’ve gained a

40:37 Speaker 3 person who understands that there is a king here. So he’s a soldier. He’s a shliach, you understand? Maybe you invested more time in him, but in the end you gained everything. It’s a long path that’s short. You understand? Someone who grasps not just a word of blessing, but grasps Dvar Malchus and everything going on there—you’ve brought him several leagues forward.

40:56 Speaker 4 Does it succeed? I mean, speaking from actual experience, with stories from the field—does this really happen? When you look at it broadly, a Temimim student goes out on mivtzoim, says “Yechi HaMelech HaMoshiach,” hands out a Moshiach card, and even gets someone to sign some [unclear]—each person in his own way. Those things may still remain fairly distant from the person. He might forget them within six months, a year, or even less. Shluchim in the field have a community. They experience what it means to walk hand in hand with someone close to them and bring him closer to the Rebbe as Melech HaMoshiach. So the question here is much more fundamental: does this actually succeed in taking someone through the whole process and bringing him fully to that place?

41:43 Speaker 3 In the end, not only does it succeed; as I said, it lifts everything to another level. Because, you know, people like joining something successful, something powerful, a powerhouse. You understand? People talk about the “powerhouse of shlichus”—it’s incredible, a wonderful powerhouse. Once you sit down with someone and explain that he’s joining the army of a king, of Melech HaMoshiach, the Jew who is meant to bring all of history to its conclusion, he doesn’t just join—he wants to bring others in too. And the answer is yes, of course it works. It takes patience, and it takes consistency. You know, I heard Moti Tuchfeld tell this story at one of the Kinus Hashluchim gatherings. He said he was just a young man in Manhattan, working at some sales stand or something—I don’t remember what—and some young men would come around every Shabbos and make Kiddush and so on. He said, “Kiddush was fine. We heard Kiddush, we heard words of Torah. It didn’t move me.” He said, “When I heard them saying ‘Yechi’”—this was in the years [unclear]—“when I heard them saying ‘Yechi,’ I thought, ‘They’re talking about that? Come on, until now they seemed normal. What happened?’” So he started talking with them. They said, “Yes, the Rebbe is alive; the Rebbe is Melech HaMoshiach.” He told them, “You can’t be serious.” He was the intellectual type, not one to swallow things whole. And when they insisted, he described it in journalistic terms. He said that to get someone to read your article, you need a headline that nags at them—or I don’t remember what he called it in journalistic language—but you understand, a headline that won’t leave them alone. Like the opening of a video: it has to get under your skin, or the person just scrolls on. He said,

43:30 Speaker 3 “It bothered me that there was something here beyond my understanding, beyond my intellect. If they had only shared words of Torah and never said ‘Yechi’ to me, I would never have come to Yiddishkeit and Chabad.” And afterward, when they brought him there and he heard it all around him, he saw two thousand other “crazy people” saying “Yechi Malka Meshicha.” Then he understood it was serious. You understand? So there’s consistency here.

43:56 Speaker 4 But you’re saying that, seemingly, what first drew him in was something like a headline. They didn’t hand him all of Likkutei Sichos and all the [unclear] with detailed explanations. They gave him a headline—“Yechi,” a broad idea—and then, of course, led him into the depth of the subject. That’s basically the process.

44:15 Speaker 3 Right. I know that here in Beit She’an we have a minyan in the new neighborhood, in Rabin, and we also have a minyan at the central Chabad House downtown. I know people come because the davening is unhurried. People come because it’s Chabad, because there’s depth to it. And I always notice them at the end of davening: no matter how deep or fascinating the talk I gave was, at the end comes that “Yechi.” Sometimes, at first, it sticks in their throats. It’s like, “Why did you do all that, only to end with this Yechi?” But if a person is smart, or feels that you care about him and respect him a little, he puts two and two together. This man is intelligent. He shares words of Torah; he davens seriously. He’s meticulous about the lightest mitzvah as well as the most stringent. There are no games in this shul, no concessions, no one getting hurt, no shortcuts, no shortening the davening. And at the end, that Yechi always comes—and then there’s a Yechi dance too. So the person says, “You know what? Let’s look into this. The ruling is there, and hundreds of rabbis are behind it. These Chabad people aren’t fools. Let’s check it out.” In the end, even if he doesn’t fully agree, he understands there’s something here he needs to investigate.

45:37 Speaker 4 And little by little, that investigation bears fruit.

45:40 Speaker 3 Of course, of course, of course.

45:42 Speaker 4 Wow, wow, Rabbi Shmulevitz, it really is strengthening, encouraging, and heartwarming to hear how things work on the ground in the shlichus of welcoming our righteous Moshiach. But ultimately, everyone is human. Every shliach is flesh and blood, and when you’ve been on shlichus year after year—let’s ask this honestly—the world has a way of wearing you down. Time passes, and then more time passes. And you’re constantly speaking about the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, about the shlichus and this very sharp, clear message. How do you keep yourself fueled? I understand this is a question one could ask any shliach, but seeing how strongly you feel the responsibility and shlichus of welcoming Moshiach, I’m sure you’ll have an interesting answer: how do you keep that message burning and fresh, as though you had just received [unclear]?

46:38 Speaker 3 Yes, that’s an excellent question. It’s really a general question for every Jew, not only about Moshiach but about everything. But let’s address what you asked. The world definitely pulls you down. It draws you toward material things, social life, and so on. A shliach needs to learn a lot of Chassidus every day, with particular emphasis, of course, on learning Dvar Malchus. And I mean both. Again, if you want to live in the world with things that transcend the world, you simply have to live them. You have to encounter them, not just nibble at them. Earlier we spoke about giving someone you’re bringing closer access to Chassidus itself, to the wellspring itself, to the source itself, to the Rebbe himself. For the shliach, that’s all the more true. You can’t sell strawberries if you don’t like strawberries. You can’t sell food you don’t love, that you’re not hooked on. So I try, at least, to arrange things so that every day... Why do I say both Chassidus and Dvar Malchus? First of all, Dvar Malchus is oxygen. Learning Dvar Malchus at the beginning of the week, at least once in depth and with focus—those two familiar concepts. It’s simply so you can keep your grip, as they say, so you stay connected. First of all, to what’s happening now: you leave the Chabad House and step into the street, and there’s a war outside and people are afraid for their lives. And you tell them, “Hashem appeared to him”—He reveals Himself and becomes manifest. Hakadosh Boruch Hu reveals Himself. You need a counterweight. You have to live it. And that’s very, very important: learning the weekly Dvar Malchus with deep focus. Personally, I feel that when, in addition, I learn Chassidus in depth... This Shabbos, because it was the Rebbe Rashab’s birthday,

48:58 Speaker 3 I went back to a maamar in Hemshech 5672 that I really loved as a bochur. After [unclear], I started learning it. But you can’t just stop, because suddenly you realize you’re in the middle of a whole hemshech. Then you realize you need to make up the two maamarim before it and the two after it; otherwise, you come away realizing you haven’t understood anything. So to this day, baruch Hashem, I keep looking into Hemshech 5672 every day—a few lines forward, a few lines back, as time allows. But when you learn Chassidus... After all, the Rebbe is the [unclear]. The Rebbe brings into the world what the Master of the Universe wants.

49:44 Speaker 5 You see that in the maamar of Chayei Sarah itself, where the Rebbe gave us the idea of studying these concepts.

49:49 Speaker 3 Exactly right. Exactly. It shows that when a Jew learns Chassidus, he simply... When a Jew learns Chassidus—again, you want to bring yourself, and the other Jew you’re bringing closer, to a place where he’ll look down on the world and say, “There is nothing else besides Him.” To say today that the Rebbe is Melech HaMoshiach, that the Rebbe is alive, and that the Rebbe is about to redeem us—that is the ultimate “There is nothing else besides Him.” It means saying that G-dliness is the obvious reality, while existence is something novel. So you have to be there. You have to eat every day—eat an hour of Chassidus every day. You understand?

50:28 Speaker 5 Do you manage to maintain that consistency—learning Dvar Malchus and learning Chassidus at that level?

50:34 Speaker 3 Yes, that’s what I want to be. That’s how it should be. Learning nigleh adds a great deal of seriousness to the whole thing. When you’re also able to learn nigleh, and you’re consistent in learning Gemara, it adds real seriousness to Chassidus and Dvar Malchus. But I can tell you that Chassidus and Dvar Malchus are simply oxygen.

50:59 Speaker 5 Well, the Temimim are already immersed in learning Dvar Malchus every day and learning Chassidus. So all that remains is to keep adding more and more.

51:09 Speaker 3 Yes. Yeshivah is the time for a bochur to decide that there is nothing besides Him, that G-dliness is the obvious reality, and that he answers only to the Rebbe and the yeshivah administration—with kabbolas ol and by putting himself aside in bittul. That’s an excellent foundation for becoming, with Hashem’s help, a shliach deeply immersed in Geulah. I know that the parts of my time in yeshivah to which I gave myself and committed myself are the parts whose fruits I’m reaping today on shlichus. And if I had days in yeshivah that weren’t like that, I see their fruits too, in a less positive sense. Did you already have it in mind back then that you would definitely go on shlichus, out into the world, on that level? I didn’t know my father would pass away young. I didn’t know it would be Beit She’an, and so on. There was a lot we didn’t know. But yes, it was clear. As I said, my father raised us with that from day one. It was clear that we were going on shlichus. We lived in Tzfas at first, so the question was whether it would be a kibbutz or a neighborhood, and so on. But we ended up in Tel Aviv and afterward in Beit She’an. Yes, that was clear.

52:33 Speaker 6 So, Rabbi Shmulevitz, to sum things up after this whirlwind of a special program—both the subject of shlichus itself and life on shlichus, and, of course, the one shlichus of welcoming our righteous Moshiach, in its essence and content, as well as how to convey it to the world—in one sentence for the yeshivah students: how do we go out into the world with this message? How do we connect to it?

52:58 Speaker 3 In one sentence: a Jew is a G-dly reality. A Jew has a G-dly soul, and if you live with your soul—because you learn Chassidus, you’re connected to the Rebbe, you attend farbrengens, and in yeshiva you see the other person too, not just yourself—then you’re living with your G-dly soul. So when you go out on mivtzoim, your soul meets the other Jew’s soul. And when you meet his soul, he can teach you that the Rebbe is Melech HaMoshiach. He can teach you all of it. On the level of the soul, there’s no difference between us. And here I’m speaking perhaps to shluchim, perhaps to myself, but when I’m on my smartphone looking at the news—even frum news—well, what’s the wonder? What’s the wonder that you don’t understand how to put the Chayei Sarah sicha into practice? The problem isn’t with the Chayei Sarah sicha. The problem is—the problem is that you’re absorbed in the news. To you, the world is the obvious reality, and G-dliness is something new. So the big question—the question—is about G-dliness. The shliach can’t bring the Chayei Sarah ’92 sicha to people. The question isn’t about G-dliness. The question is why. Why have I become so caught up in the material world? I’ve become caught up in it. So do teshuvah, go to the mikveh, go to a farbrengen, and with Hashem’s help, learn the sicha anew. Chabad is such a force in the world today that Chabad could sell strawberries to the world and people would buy them. They could sell strawberries. And then, to come and offer a G-dly message like this, built so magnificently on seven generations of G-dliness, on forty-two years of... This is something that should have taken a little patience, a little thought, talking things through together, gathering together to think. After all, there’s an instruction here to, as they say, convene this council, to gather and discuss it, and so on. But what? What will you say? What will you say to the people close to you when the Rebbe is revealed and suddenly he

54:54 Speaker 3 sees that the whole point of these last years was to connect with the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, and he asks you, “How did you keep this from me?” What will you explain to him? “I didn’t trust you. I didn’t think you were ready for it. I felt uncomfortable. I was afraid it would push you away.” We’ll be caught with our pants down. It’s exactly like what happened when the tefillin campaign began during the Six-Day War. A soldier’s mother will come to me and say, “Why didn’t you tell my son that he needed to put on tefillin? He’s in Gaza. Tefillin could have protected him.” “I don’t know. I didn’t want to push you away. I don’t know.” You’re an idiot. The Rebbe says, [unclear]. This is what could have saved my son. So today, this can save every Jew, because everything is contained in that foundation of ’92. It can save the Jewish people from war. It can save everyone. On the other hand, to come today and tell Jews that the message is the tefillin campaign because there’s a war—what does today’s war have to do with the war of 5727, the Six-Day War? Of course, of course every word the Rebbe says is eternal, and every soldier should put on tefillin. But if you’re speaking to a soldier today and your only message is “Put on tefillin,” you’re not here at all. You’re missing the point entirely. Your message to every soldier and every Jew is that we’re entering the Geulah. We’re connecting with Melech HaMoshiach. That is the gateway today. That is the one thing today. Within that, of course, a Jew should put on tefillin and light Shabbos candles. But what’s the soul of the matter, and what’s the body? What’s the engine, and what are the details? How can we go back? It sounds as though someone found

56:42 Speaker 3 an explicit, edited sicha that says, “Now, thirty-two years after the Chayei Sarah 5752 sicha, we hereby inform the shluchim that the one and only shlichus is apparently unrealistic, and we must go back fifty years.” It sounds as though someone found a sicha like that. Who gives us permission to hold this back? It could be that we’d already begun to enter the Geulah. It could be that we’d already have been far beyond the revelation. It could be that we’ve held back this great unfolding. Perhaps, while we’re making a personal accounting, Bibi needs to make one about why the disengagement happened—and those things certainly contributed to the present situation. For my own part, I need to think: perhaps I could already have brought about the revelation if I’d held fast to the Chayei Sarah sicha. Perhaps the Jews in Beit She’an would already know what Moshiach is about. Perhaps we’d already have begun to enter the Geulah and would have been spared all these things. L’chaim, l’chaim.

57:46 Speaker 7 Yasher koach, Rabbi Shmuelevitz. L’chaim and blessings. Yasher koach for your words.

57:53 Speaker 8 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the Temimim from the World Ata organization. For more programs, dial *6358. Long live our master, teacher and Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, forever and ever.