Ears to Hear 14 | "And They Shall All Accept Upon Themselves the Yoke of Your Kingship"

00:00 Speaker 1 “And Hashem has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear.”

00:08 Speaker 2 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the Temimim, presented by the International Eshel.

00:15 Speaker 1 Then I stood on my head, and suddenly someone came from the beis midrash, very angry, and wanted to get me down. The Rebbe looked at him and waved him away. He was the one who had sent the Rebbe a letter from Jerusalem, saying that someone was about to publish a book that would cause a stir and attract a lot of attention.

00:38 Speaker 2 Sholom aleichem to all the Temimim in Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch yeshivos throughout the Holy Land and the entire world. We are now beginning a special installment of the Ears to Hear audio series, a program steeped in a spirit of strong hiskashrus to the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach shlita, and to his central concern: studying the subject of Moshiach in depth. The story of the Rebbe’s revelation as Melech HaMoshiach and the encouragement to accept his kingship was undoubtedly brought to light by the pioneering chassidim who worked tirelessly to write about, encourage, and publicize the acceptance of the Rebbe’s kingship as Melech HaMoshiach. Among those pioneers is undoubtedly Rabbi Sholom Dovber Wolpo, who wrote, spoke, publicized, and published responses for people both within and outside Chabad about Moshiach and the importance and necessity of accepting his kingship, in the clearest and most unequivocal terms. Rabbi Wolpo’s first and principal undertaking on the subject was writing the book Yechi HaMelech, which sets out clearly the Rebbe’s identity as Melech HaMoshiach and establishes the necessity of accepting his kingship even before the Geulah. We would like to speak with Rabbi Wolpo about what prompted him to write Yechi HaMelech back in 5753, then about the Rebbe’s sharp responses concerning the shelving of the book, and afterward about the special, uplifting moments surrounding its printing and the Rebbe’s encouragement to bind and publish it. We will speak with Rabbi Wolpo about his feelings and about what we need to carry forward as we work to accept the kingship and welcome Moshiach Tzidkeinu. Let us begin this special program with Rabbi Wolpo. Sholom aleichem, Rabbi Wolpo. How are you?

02:42 Speaker 1 Baruch Hashem.

02:43 Speaker 2 Baruch Hashem. We’re sitting together now for a special program about the Geulah and the coming of Moshiach, particularly the revelation of Melech HaMoshiach. And really, the moment this subject comes up, you come to mind—how deeply you were, and still are, immersed in it. Perhaps we could begin with a question everyone is interested in. Let’s go back to 5753, to when you began writing Yechi HaMelech. Before we get into the details of the lack of approval, the later approval, and all the responses along the way, what is more interesting is this: what prompted you to sit down and write a book about the Rambam, with such clear implications for the Rebbe’s identity? What was your motivation?

03:32 Speaker 1 I can honestly say that the motivation was my uncle, Rabbi Moshe Slonim, a"h. He was very involved in this subject, in all the details of the Rambam’s Laws of Kings, showing how they fit the Rebbe—all the signs the Rambam gives. That drew me in too, and I began writing about it. I was completely absorbed in the Rambam’s Laws of Kings. I started writing Yechi HaMelech day and night. Wherever I went, this was all I worked on. I searched through all the later authorities and all the earlier authorities to see who discussed it. I simply couldn’t tear myself away from it.

04:09 Speaker 2 So from the very beginning, your focus was on halachah four. You wanted to establish the identity.

04:14 Speaker 1 Right. And the Rebbe spoke about it many times too, both about halachah four and about the other halachos. So I took the Rebbe’s sichos and began writing something based on them. I wrote it by hand—not on a typewriter. I didn’t even have one.

04:31 Speaker 2 All the writing was done on a machine?

04:33 Speaker 1 That wasn’t even a concept yet.

04:35 Speaker 2 Paper and pen.

04:36 Speaker 1 What?

04:37 Speaker 2 So it was with paper and pen.

04:37 Speaker 1 Paper and pen, yes, not a computer. There was a young married man from Kiryat Ata who would type things up for me. After typing them, he’d give me a corrected draft. Then I’d go over it, make more corrections, and he’d correct it again. It was an enormous amount of work.

04:56 Speaker 2 So that was from the winter of ’53. When did you start working on it?

05:01 Speaker 1 Yes.

05:01 Speaker 2 And what brought that about?

05:02 Speaker 1 Once I had several chapters in order, or perhaps even the whole thing, arranged properly after all the corrections, I sent it to the Rebbe. Later, Rabbi [unclear], z"l, told me that the book was on the Rebbe’s desk. All that time I kept writing and receiving responses, and there was nothing...

05:26 Speaker 2 There still hadn’t been any sharp response along the way.

05:28 Speaker 1 Nothing. Nothing. At one point, Moshe Sporn wanted to publish a booklet of Torah insights on the Laws of Kings.

05:37 Speaker 2 Dealing with accepting the yoke of kingship.

05:40 Speaker 1 Not so much accepting the yoke of kingship. The Laws of Kings—what the criteria for Melech HaMoshiach are according to the Rambam. He began sending it to various people, and several Chabad rabbonim started commenting on the subject. As they were raising their objections, someone, as they say, pushed things in a certain direction and sent the Rebbe an account of what was going on among the rabbonim: this one says this, that one says that. Then a response came. If they had read that response exactly as it was written, nothing would have happened. But the Rebbe wrote that the rabbonim should sit down and decide whether it could be published—because Moshe Sporn had asked the Rebbe whether he could publish the booklet. The Rebbe referred it to the rabbonim for them to decide.

06:29 Speaker 2 In other words, the Rebbe gave them the option. To begin with, the subject itself was all right, and—

06:33 Speaker 1 The Rebbe didn’t say it was all right. You can’t read that into it.

06:35 Speaker 2 I understand, but that’s what the response seems to imply.

06:37 Speaker 1 What?

06:37 Speaker 2 That seems to be the implication of the response.

06:38 Speaker 1 That’s how I understood it. Some of the rabbonim thought otherwise. If the rabbonim were against it... At the time, the whole approach to the book—what people today would call the whole “concept”—wasn’t taken for granted. When the Rebbe gives the rabbonim authority, they can decide the matter one way or the other. So what happened? The rabbonim sat down in Kfar Chabad. Moshe Sporn came before them and explained what he wanted to do and what the Rebbe had answered. The rabbonim sat down and wrote that the Rebbe had told them to decide the matter, and that the booklet could be produced.

07:16 Speaker 2 So that came from them.

07:18 Speaker 1 The negative part came from them.

07:20 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm. So that was essentially a precedent for the negative response you received.

07:25 Speaker 1 Yes.

07:25 Speaker 2 I see. So, essentially—

07:28 Speaker 1 In my response too, the Rebbe wrote... What was the response I received? Bear in mind that the book had been on the Rebbe’s desk for several months. The Rebbe hadn’t answered anything about it when it reached him. Then, all of a sudden, I got a phone call at three in the morning from Rabbi Chizkiyahu, the shliach in Lausanne. He called to tell me the Rebbe’s response. In it, the Rebbe wrote that he had already warned several times against this matter, that it could cause a chillul Hashem, and that it was astonishing that I was continuing along the same lines. Therefore, from that day forward I was not to write another word about these matters of Moshiach and the Rambam. The wording was very, very forceful.

08:20 Speaker 2 Yes, you can read it. The words are extraordinary.

08:23 Speaker 1 Right. The Rebbe wrote that if I continued, they should speak to me—that was his particular expression.

08:31 Speaker 2 Receiving a response like that makes your knees buckle.

08:34 Speaker 1 Now, I didn’t understand that response, because I felt this was bound up with something spiritual, while the claim was that what was being done now was causing confusion. And who was saying that? The Rebbe himself.

08:46 Speaker 2 There was also the human difficulty of having invested so much in writing it.

08:49 Speaker 1 It’s like someone who built a building over many years, filled it with beautiful rooms and beautiful furniture, and had everything ready for people to live in. Then they tell him, “Listen, instead of using this building for the purpose you intended, jump off its roof and say goodbye to the whole world.” It was terrible.

09:12 Speaker 2 That’s how strongly you felt it.

09:15 Speaker 1 Yes.

09:15 Speaker 2 Wow.

09:17 Speaker 1 So...

09:18 Speaker 2 At that moment, did you understand that the book would be shelved immediately, or did you still try to find a way forward?

09:25 Speaker 1 At first, I thought of burning the book. Burning it. The Rebbe hadn’t said to burn it. After all, the fact that it had been on his desk for several months showed that he hadn’t issued this response earlier. The whole response came because of something that had been stirred up from below. I also heard from one of the Rebbe’s secretaries that the Rebbe didn’t normally deal with people at three in the morning. That shows how serious the complaint about this was. Now, why did it start? Because that very day—while it was still daytime—the Rebbe received a letter from someone in Jerusalem saying that someone was about to publish a book that would cause a great chillul Hashem.

10:08 Speaker 2 In other words—

10:09 Speaker 1 With the Rebbe, if someone says, “Listen, this is a chillul Hashem,” there are people who would genuinely be taken aback by it.

10:16 Speaker 2 So it was the opposition from the staff that led to such a... response.

10:21 Speaker 1 Now, don’t say, “The staff says one thing and the Rebbe says another.” You have to hear what he says and see what he does. But the whole point of Moshiach is for people to accept it, and the whole idea of the book was, from the outset, to bring people closer to him. If the result is that they don’t accept it and, on the contrary, it pushes them away...

10:36 Speaker 2 Then you leave it under a veto.

10:40 Speaker 1 I kept the book with me.

10:42 Speaker 2 So the book stayed on your desk, and you thought the day would come—some day—when the Rebbe would suddenly give you permission? Or were things unclear to you then, and...

10:54 Speaker 1 I didn’t believe he would give permission for it.

10:56 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

10:57 Speaker 1 Chas veshalom, I didn’t believe such a thing would happen. But I felt the book was something spiritual.

11:02 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

11:03 Speaker 1 And it couldn’t possibly be thrown in the trash.

11:08 Speaker 2 There was something going on Above, accusations Above that were preventing the book’s publication. There was some kind of heavenly struggle over publishing the book and the accusations against it. That was the feeling.

11:19 Speaker 1 And by the way, I started to say that the Rebbe wrote to me at first that he had already written against it several times. He explained that it was pushing Jews away, saying [unclear], hundreds of people, hundreds or something like that. I had already shown him that, and he said that this had not been my intention in what I had done previously. Surely I was continuing with this matter. So he replied: “From now on, not a word in connection with Moshiach.”

11:48 Speaker 2 So you receive that answer and understand that there’s a sort of, uh, stop to the matter. And then we move on to...

11:56 Speaker 1 Six years.

11:57 Speaker 2 Before that, I want to go back for a moment to Bereishis 5740, Simchas Torah 5740—the harsh words said at the farbrengen. Even as the Rebbe was speaking about how the subject of Moshiach pushes Jews away, and asking why they had started that niggun and were talking about it, did you feel his words were directed at you?

12:14 Speaker 1 The niggun they sang.

12:16 Speaker 2 Everyone sang, “Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu VeRabbeinu Melech HaMoshiach leolam vaed.” But I’m asking: at that moment, did you feel the Rebbe was directing those words at you?

12:25 Speaker 1 I felt it. I was standing right below the Rebbe’s table, by the way.

12:31 Speaker 2 Did you have a regular spot there?

12:32 Speaker 1 Like you and me now, with the Rebbe’s table between us. Say you’re in the Rebbe’s place and I’m down here. So...

12:37 Speaker 2 But you didn’t need to see the Rebbe, only hear him.

12:39 Speaker 1 I could peek and see.

12:41 Speaker 2 Peek and see.

12:42 Speaker 1 Crouch a little and peek. So the Rebbe said what he said very sharply. Sharp words, sharp phrasing—plenty of black pepper in all of it.

12:56 Speaker 2 It didn’t seem to fit the atmosphere, either. Simchas Torah.

12:58 Speaker 1 Oh, yes.

12:59 Speaker 2 It was as though...

13:00 Speaker 1 As though someone had brought up the subject, and I thought the Rebbe had taken a hundred-kilo hammer and gone bang, bang, bang, bang. What I remember is that the Rebbe smiled at kos shel bracha. I hadn’t gotten to kos shel bracha yet.

13:19 Speaker 2 Did you have any thought of not going by for kos shel bracha?

13:24 Speaker 1 No.

13:24 Speaker 2 You knew those harsh words had been said, and you were going to see the Rebbe face to face.

13:30 Speaker 1 I wasn’t just going to accept [unclear]. I wanted to go up and speak to the Rebbe.

13:39 Speaker 2 Wow.

13:40 Speaker 1 So I went by for kos shel bracha. At kos shel bracha, he had an enormous smile. I went by like a snake on its belly.

13:48 Speaker 2 Your eyes were already lowered.

13:49 Speaker 1 My eyes dropped, but I searched for the Rebbe’s eyes. The Rebbe was smiling in a very, very warm way. He took a small bottle of wine from the table and poured a little into my hand.

14:05 Speaker 2 And you hadn’t imagined you’d receive a bottle from the Rebbe.

14:07 Speaker 1 And as he gave me the wine at kos shel bracha, he said, “What I had to do, I had to do. Don’t mix up two separate matters.”

14:19 Speaker 2 One matter has no bearing on the other.

14:20 Speaker 1 “What I said on one side, and what I told you about the book on the other—don’t mix them up.” Afterward he added a verse from Iyov. The verse in Iyov says...

14:34 Speaker 2 “In His angels...”

14:35 Speaker 1 “In His angels He finds fault.”

14:37 Speaker 2 What did you understand from that?

14:38 Speaker 1 I didn’t understand. I asked Rabbi Groner about the verse. There had once been an answer like that to someone: the Rebbe meant that it is precisely with those close to him—the angels—that he finds even a small fault and points it all out.

14:55 Speaker 2 Wow.

14:56 Speaker 1 Wow. For a moment I could...

14:59 Speaker 2 So did that closeness to the Rebbe at kos shel bracha give you the feeling that what you were doing was good, that perhaps it would come to light in the future? Or weren’t you thinking about those things?

15:09 Speaker 1 I wasn’t thinking about them.

15:10 Speaker 2 You simply saw that the Rebbe distinguished between the rebuke and the closeness between a Rebbe and a chossid.

15:13 Speaker 1 Right.

15:14 Speaker 2 Uh-huh. That’s important. And when we move a year forward, to Simchas Torah 5742, with the Rebbe’s extraordinary words that he didn’t mind if people interpreted them to mean that the leader of the generation is the redeemer in this generation—was that progress from your point of view?

15:41 Speaker 1 But something happened before that.

15:42 Speaker 2 What?

15:43 Speaker 1 I wrote—I don’t remember dates; I’m really bad with dates—but I wrote the Rebbe a letter.

15:49 Speaker 2 Shabbos Bereishis 5741.

15:52 Speaker 1 No, no.

15:53 Speaker 2 Even before that.

15:54 Speaker 1 But it was when I was already there, that summer.

15:57 Speaker 2 You were already with the Rebbe. Late 5744. Okay.

16:01 Speaker 1 As you’ll recall, there was writing about the Rebbe as Moshiach. The Rebbe as Moshiach. But in my book—the book that was with the Rebbe—Moshiach isn’t mentioned there.

16:15 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

16:18 Speaker 1 So I gave it to the Rebbe. If so, what exactly was the Rebbe ruling out?

16:23 Speaker 2 Publishing the book.

16:24 Speaker 1 It says in the book that according to the Rambam, you don’t have to go looking for it. There isn’t any hint. I gave it to the Rebbe; you don’t have to look very hard, though the whole thing is presented indirectly.

16:35 Speaker 2 The whole issue presents it indirectly. Okay, and from those sharp answers about the whole issue speaking indirectly, we move to Simchas Torah 5746. That was a truly exceptional sicha, and everyone talks about it. You were there for that sicha. Did you feel there was a certain turning point?

16:55 Speaker 1 Yes. Because if the earlier uproar hadn’t happened—that’s what I call it, an uproar; from the Rebbe’s perspective, it was an answer from the King of kings—then you wouldn’t have thought there was anything special here. There are many things the Rebbe mentions that might seem to refer to the matter in a spiritual sense, rather than literally. But here, suddenly, on Simchas Torah 5746, the Rebbe says he doesn’t mind. The Rebbe speaks and says, “I don’t mind,” because it means literally, a redeemer in the literal sense. Afterward, things took on a very different significance.

17:30 Speaker 2 At the moment you heard it, did you realize these were extraordinary words?

17:34 Speaker 1 Yes. Again, the Rebbe was watching and hearing what was going on. Given what had happened, that’s how I understood it. That’s right. And since some time had passed without the Rebbe hearing anything about the matter, and it was the atmosphere of Simchas Torah, nothing could do any harm. The Rebbe said several times...

17:48 Speaker 2 “It neither adds nor detracts.”

17:50 Speaker 1 So the Rebbe spoke.

17:52 Speaker 2 He said those words, and right after the sicha you did something in front of the Rebbe—stood on your hands, for instance.

18:00 Speaker 1 That was on the Rebbe’s platform, apart from what happened...

18:03 Speaker 2 Oh, on the Rebbe’s platform?

18:04 Speaker 1 Yes.

18:05 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

18:07 Speaker 1 Or on a chair on the platform. Look, we’re talking about things from forty years ago.

18:11 Speaker 2 Yes, yes. But it came from a feeling that something had happened here.

18:16 Speaker 1 Suddenly I felt that something had happened, yes, and it completely overwhelmed me. So I stood on my head. I used to do that a lot.

18:23 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

18:23 Speaker 1 I felt it set right all those things that had happened before. So I stood on my head, and suddenly someone from security came over, angry, wanting to take me down. The Rebbe looked at him and sort of waved him away.

18:41 Speaker 2 But that was another sign that something special had happened. The Rebbe had spoken extraordinary words, and there was a special awakening concerning Moshiach’s identity. So if we move further ahead...

18:52 Speaker 1 A few years passed without...

18:54 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm, years of relative calm. And before we get to the news of 11 Nissan, it’s interesting: even the sicha of 2 Nissan 5748 didn’t stir you to action? You still remained calm?

19:06 Speaker 1 I was with the Rebbe at his home, without doing anything. Only the person who spoke up for it...

19:13 Speaker 2 You were present for the sicha.

19:14 Speaker 1 And before that there had been the “How are you?”

19:16 Speaker 2 When he proclaimed “Yechi HaMelech” outside two days later.

19:19 Speaker 1 Yes.

19:19 Speaker 2 At the time, you didn’t think of...

19:20 Speaker 1 Attacking him? He was ill. “Yechi HaMelech,” “yechi”...

19:25 Speaker 2 You didn’t dare.

19:27 Speaker 1 The Rebbe had said it, and he was speaking up for it. I was wholeheartedly behind him.

19:30 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

19:31 Speaker 1 And I shouted to him. It didn’t help; he wanted “Yechi HaMelech.” But the Rebbe said plainly that it gives life to the king, and the Rebbe says that therefore we proclaim, “Yechi HaMelech.”

19:43 Speaker 2 But there was still a kind of fear surrounding everyone, that this could lead to things that were, uh...

19:49 Speaker 1 Yes.

19:49 Speaker 2 Undesirable.

19:50 Speaker 1 After that came everything involving the Rebbe in 5752.

19:56 Speaker 2 And for you, that really begins on 11 Nissan, when the Rebbe’s words about Moshiach [unclear] come back into the discussion.

20:04 Speaker 1 They certainly do.

20:05 Speaker 2 They certainly do. Mm-hmm.

20:07 Speaker 1 It was 11 Nissan. There was a phone call; Rabbi Klein read it to me.

20:11 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

20:12 Speaker 1 It appears in the thousandth issue of Kfar Chabad.

20:15 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

20:17 Speaker 1 In the Rebbe’s holy handwriting.

20:18 Speaker 2 Yes, it’s hard to read, as you know.

20:19 Speaker 1 Not very legible.

20:20 Speaker 2 Yes. The handwriting was, uh, rather unclear—[unclear].

20:26 Speaker 1 And I read that verse. I felt something of a closeness from the Rebbe. Maybe saying “Yechi” publicly, or making the proclamation publicly, really is the role of the king. So if the Rebbe writes that he takes responsibility and says to go back to [unclear], and there won’t be any, shall we say, outside interference, that already gives you a certain peace of mind about it.

20:48 Speaker 2 So it was as though the Rebbe gave a push from behind: maybe we can get on board now.

20:55 Speaker 1 Yes.

20:56 Speaker 2 …

21:05 Speaker 1 And afterward, following “Yechi Hamelech,” there were also those who said, “Let’s agree on the question of accepting his kingship.”

21:09 Speaker 2 After the sicha of 28 Nissan, essentially.

21:12 Speaker 1 Yes, certainly.

21:13 Speaker 2 And at that point there wasn’t much explanation, and we can say that plainly. With all due respect, the explanation of accepting his kingship—why it was needed and essential, from the halachic perspective and from the Rambam’s perspective—the Rebbe brought that into the world. So after the sicha of 28 Nissan, when all this began, were things clear at all? What does accepting his kingship even mean? How necessary is it?

21:38 Speaker 1 No, but what really made the difference here was the Rebbe’s answer. Shluchim in America specifically asked him whether they could have Jews sign a proclamation accepting the king’s kingship, and he said it depends on the place.

21:56 Speaker 2 The place—the local Chabad House.

21:57 Speaker 1 The local Chabad House.

21:58 Speaker 2 Yes, in South Africa.

22:00 Speaker 1 Here the Rebbe opened the door as clearly as possible on this subject. You want to do it? Work so that the local Chabad House can accept positions like these, and then you really can proceed that way.

22:09 Speaker 2 …

22:09 Speaker 1 If not, that’s a sign that something is lacking at the local Chabad House.

22:13 Speaker 2 …

22:14 Speaker 1 That’s the essence of the answer.

22:15 Speaker 2 And why—why does the Rebbe leave that choice to us? Because this is something that has to come from our side.

22:21 Speaker 1 Right, but it depends on what you do at the Chabad House.

22:25 Speaker 2 …

22:26 Speaker 1 To bring Jewish hearts closer.

22:28 Speaker 2 …

22:28 Speaker 1 By the way, all right, now the time came for [unclear]. Suddenly, in the sicha of Parshas Tazria-Metzora, the Rebbe addressed the study of matters concerning Moshiach. So the fellows sat down and got excited. Where is there material about Moshiach to study? What is there—chapter 11 of Yeshayahu? We’ll read it three times in a row. Where can we study about Moshiach? I got a phone call from Rabbi Gusevsky [?], from Lithuania, and he said to me, “Do you happen to have the book you wrote back then?” I told him, “Yes, I do.” He said, “Could you perhaps distribute it now?”

23:06 Speaker 2 He surely knew the background to...

23:08 Speaker 1 Yes, of course. I told him, “After all, that’s the answer I received. I’m responsible for making sure you won’t get answers like that.” Now, wasn’t I tired of Moshiach? It was the only book in existence at the time that people could study from. So...

23:26 Speaker 2 You sent the book to the Rebbe.

23:27 Speaker 1 I sent the book to the Rebbe again, because in the meantime there had been further corrections. And this time there were indeed references: the first book had no references, while this one had enough references.

23:38 Speaker 2 Yes.

23:39 Speaker 1 I sent it to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe wrote to me that he would look at it and [unclear] the original, because it wasn’t bound. I wanted to have the book bound and obtain rabbinic endorsements. I wrote that I wanted to get endorsements from the chief rabbis and from Rabbi Yosef, and the Rebbe underlined all those names, so that we would indeed obtain them.

24:05 Speaker 2 …

24:05 Speaker 1 Then I went to the chief rabbis.

24:08 Speaker 2 And the answer also said to consult knowledgeable friends.

24:11 Speaker 1 Yes, right. The Rebbe wrote to take three people—or perhaps he didn’t actually write “three.” It was something along those lines: to ask people who would look at the book and say whether it might cause some sort of...

24:24 Speaker 2 To remove passages that might cause that.

24:29 Speaker 1 Or to see whether there were passages like that in the book. Not necessarily to remove them. As I recall, it was about passages that could cause a Jew to distance himself from Judaism, G-d forbid. Things were already moving. I began getting requests from various places to come and speak there—to speak about the subject on the basis of halachah, on the basis of our Rebbe. Dovid Hamelech kept coming up. For example, in Lod they wrote asking me to come and give a Torah talk specifically for women. Suddenly people came and said, “No—is this in the Rebbe’s name? Why isn’t the rabbi here dealing with this book?” So they went to the rabbi. They went to hear what the Rebbe said, and the rabbi—Rabbi Yurkovich [?]—said it could be read. Then, after the Rebbe had heard what the rabbi said, he wrote, “A judge has only what his eyes see.” What greater endorsement could there be than those words?

25:37 Speaker 2 Although around that same time, just two days earlier, there was also the Rebbe’s sharp answer about the published booklet on welcoming Moshiach.

25:46 Speaker 1 Look at who it was who asked that question.

25:51 Speaker 2 Because he asked it in a particular way.

25:53 Speaker 1 He had already written explicitly that it was from him.

25:56 Speaker 2 It was as though they asked in a way that made it clear that...

26:00 Speaker 1 In general, the way you ask is the way you’re answered. All credit to someone whose whole concern is accepting his kingship. But if the public cannot accept it—and the proof is that the Chabad House, or the rabbi of that Chabad House, cannot accept it—then certainly the people who daven there and those close to it cannot accept it either. At least they have an answer.

26:21 Speaker 2 So that was essentially the approach. Someone who came with the idea, who came saying that he was spreading it and was prepared to accept it—the Rebbe encouraged that.

26:30 Speaker 1 One woman from N’shei Chabad had heard about it. I’ll finish. She asked someone from Kfar Chabad over the phone, and he told her that the rabbi—so they asked the Rebbe in that same vein. The Rebbe answered that they were printing tens of thousands of copies for N’shei Chabad, so that women could engage with the subject of Moshiach and Geulah by studying it.

27:02 Speaker 2 So let’s go back through those answers about Lod and the booklet on welcoming Moshiach. Let’s return to the answer that concerns us more right now, about the book Yechi Hamelech. You followed the Rebbe’s instruction to obtain endorsements for the book, and afterward you consulted knowledgeable friends about its passages and the book as a whole—Rabbi Vechter, Rabbi Nachum Brod, and Rabbi Goldberg in Migdal HaEmek. In their specific review of the book, were major passages removed?

27:34 Speaker 1 No.

27:35 Speaker 2 No passages were removed.

27:36 Speaker 1 No.

27:37 Speaker 2 So they simply went through the book. And yet the Rebbe had written to you, as you say in that answer from 5764, that all the sheets were arranged around that theme. That means the entire book is full of the identification of Moshiach. So if the Rebbe then gives the option of printing it in 5772, things are clear.

27:58 Speaker 1 And another thing: at that time the Rebbe wrote that hundreds of people had stopped studying Chassidus as a result of the...

28:05 Speaker 2 The printing.

28:07 Speaker 1 That book had not yet been printed, but yes. And here the Rebbe writes to remove—perhaps remove passages that might distance someone.

28:14 Speaker 2 Might.

28:15 Speaker 1 Both “might,” and even just one person.

28:17 Speaker 2 So things were put in perspective. Then, after you went through the process of obtaining the endorsements, you brought it to the Rebbe, and there was the Rebbe’s special answer about printing it.

28:29 Speaker 1 With the endorsements. Yes, the Rebbe writes not to preach it.

28:33 Speaker 2 Today, when you study the book—and I found this myself when I studied it—things are very clear. At the beginning, everything is carefully constructed, woven into Torah subjects. But ultimately, both within the book itself and throughout chapters 45, 46, and 47, it’s very clear that it leads directly to welcoming Moshiach and to his specific identity. Then, after that period of [unclear] with the third Rebbe and all these matters, many questions about Moshiach were being asked around the world. That led to the “Dial and Listen” telephone line, with Rabbi Wolpo answering all kinds of straightforward questions about Moshiach. How were those answers received by the public at the time?

29:21 Speaker 1 Look, it began with Rabbi Landsner. He had a very substantial recording setup. It was very difficult to start taking questions and answering them, to be tied down to that. I knew what it would require, especially since many of the questions came from outside our circles. Even within our circles, they came specifically from people who hadn’t really dealt with this approach. But Rabbi Landsner decided to do it, and that’s how I started the whole thing. I don’t remember how often they changed the question—every few days there was a different question. All sorts of questions accumulated, too, because a caller would ask one and it would go into the system.

30:00 Speaker 2 Yes.

30:01 Speaker 1 I would listen to the questions as they came in and sort through them.

30:06 Speaker 2 …

30:06 Speaker 1 And there were questions for which we used the caller’s own voice.

30:09 Speaker 2 …

30:11 Speaker 1 Anything that was just meant to provoke, or other things that weren’t appropriate, we didn’t use. We hadn’t expected them. Still, we covered a great deal of ground in the field, to the point that it led me to publish a book called Besorah Tovah.

30:25 Speaker 2 …

30:26 Speaker 1 It contains all the answers—all the questions and all the answers.

30:29 Speaker 2 Organized systematically.

30:30 Speaker 1 It also generated a great deal of interest.

30:33 Speaker 2 And from there we move to the book Yechi Melech HaMoshiach, published in 5753. What led you to take that next step, to shift gears from Yechi Hamelech to Yechi Melech HaMoshiach?

30:44 Speaker 1 Because if the Rebbe agrees that it should be publicized, and he says that if you are worthy of it, if you are ready for it, then it also depends on the chassidim of Chabad in that place. If I felt that all of Chabad in Eretz Yisroel wanted to apply the Rambam’s criteria, then there would be no need to look for hints, because one could openly point to Rabbi Moshe as the one who...

31:06 Speaker 2 …

31:07 Speaker 1 would lead the Jewish people. So, of course, there were many questions about the Rebbe’s proofs.

31:14 Speaker 2 Yes. You can see in the book that these are clear questions, but the answers are no less clear.

31:22 Speaker 1 Yes.

31:23 Speaker 2 So that book did a great deal. It created a lot of discussion about Moshiach.

31:28 Speaker 1 Especially the book Yechi Melech HaMoshiach. Look, if I wanted to put out a book today—but not many books come out today...

31:34 Speaker 2 …

31:35 Speaker 1 Nobody would be interested. Yechi Melech HaMoshiach came out at a time when people were longing to see something that would explain the situation to them, because there was so much uncertainty. What could be done? That was the mood in Chabad then: just give us a drop, like the drops you give a baby that bring a little life, a little momentum, something. So much had happened that people stood with their mouths open, waiting for a drop, some foundation of pure water. And that was how it was with this book, day and night.

32:11 Speaker 2 Yes.

32:11 Speaker 1 When I finished it, it was right before the Kinus Hashluchim, or before Tishrei [?]—I don’t remember. I brought dozens of boxes. A lot of people were traveling to New York then, and there weren’t the restrictions there are today. Today El Al stops you over all sorts of boxes.

32:24 Speaker 2 So there was no limit on bringing the books?

32:26 Speaker 1 There was a limit. Each person, each young married man, took two boxes. In return, he got a book, and that’s how they brought the books over. I stood there with the books, with all the boxes, in the middle of the shul. [unclear] I sold them for ten dollars, and people lined up. The atmosphere there was something else.

32:47 Speaker 2 Wow.

32:47 Speaker 1 Over that book.

32:50 Speaker 2 It was as though it breathed new life into everyone.

32:54 Speaker 1 They had been waiting for it.

32:55 Speaker 2 Yes.

32:55 Speaker 1 There was also someone who volunteered.

32:58 Speaker 2 And from that, we also understand that the Rebbe himself responded to it several times: to Rabbi Greenblatt’s translation of several chapters of the book into Spanish, and to requests for approval to teach it in certain Chabad Houses.

33:11 Speaker 1 Whoever asked received an answer.

33:13 Speaker 2 Whoever asked received an answer. It really is interesting.

33:16 Speaker 1 And he was beyond suspicion. Shlomo [unclear] examines those answers from the Rebbe closely—not only because he is someone who would not change even a letter, but because he himself did not think that way. He did not like [unclear] attributing it to the Rebbe. Yet the Rebbe gave him an answer, and he saw the Rebbe’s answer at that very time. They all support what he said. So he quoted that clear answer, and then we continued.

33:50 Speaker 2 Moving on.

33:51 Speaker 1 Now, I had spoken to the Rebbe, and then there was the Kinus Hashluchim. The gathering itself was taking place at a Torah farbrengen. Suddenly, while someone was speaking to the crowd, an announcement came that the Rebbe was coming out by the entrance to his room. And as you can see on Twenty-Twenty, it was a great miracle that nothing happened with all the cars driving there. We reached the area behind the Rebbe’s room, on that side. It was small, an ordinary room. They had changed the road; I could have gone in, but there was a door, and from there I certainly would not have seen the Rebbe sitting. Then I saw the...

34:51 Speaker 2 that gesture of encouragement.

34:53 Speaker 1 Even from a distance, I felt that here, in essence—here all his sins had been forgiven.

35:01 Speaker 2 It seems that gave you the push and the encouragement that you were doing the right thing and should continue with even greater strength. Wow. So that encouragement from the Rebbe remains engraved in you to this day; you can still see it before your eyes. Before that, the Rebbe had not responded to the shluchim. You say “Yechi Melech HaMoshiach,” and the Rebbe gives that—yes, that vision. Very moving. So, to sum up, Rabbi Wolpo, since this program is for the Temimim, the soldiers of the House of David, those who defeat the ones who taunted them—Baruch Hashem, that already tells us the victory has happened.

35:39 Speaker 1 And the victory belongs to the Rebbe, not to them.

35:42 Speaker 2 Yes.

35:43 Speaker 1 They work and act as soldiers of Melech HaMoshiach, but the victory is not credited to them. What does it mean that the victory belongs to the Rebbe? It means he reaches everywhere. Let me add one more thing about the situation now. First of all, [unclear] we say we will reach every single person. Today, [unclear], we will reach the whole world—every place, every city, every road, every home, every floor. The young men will get to you. Don’t be afraid. There are souls waiting especially for them. Come and see the Rebbe’s victory.

36:41 Speaker 3 We must remember that it does not belong to us, and nothing is recorded in our name.

36:44 Speaker 1 Right.

36:46 Speaker 3 We have to go forward with that strength.

36:47 Speaker 1 Of course.

36:48 Speaker 3 Well, to conclude: the spirit back then, in 5753 and 5754 [?], and everything surrounding the acceptance of his kingship, was very strong. Certainly the books were well received and made a powerful impact. How does the Rabbi see things today? As those standing on the front lines, we have... How can we carry out this mission so that everyone will truly accept [unclear]?

37:13 Speaker 1 As I said before, it depends on the person himself. If he is permeated with the subject of Melech HaMoshiach, then even when he teaches a chapter of Tanya—even the first chapter—he will speak about that subject too. And that will affect the people listening to him. Then that Chabad House will be among those [unclear], part of the force that goes with the Rebbe. We see now that the Rebbe’s influence extends throughout Eretz Yisroel, because everything being done today in the war that began on Simchas Torah follows the Rebbe’s wishes and instructions. They do not stop in the middle of a war. They make the objective clear, and they know that the objective is to destroy the enemy so that he cannot [unclear]. People say it, and the prime minister also says, “With Hashem’s help,” [unclear]. All these things never used to happen. People have grown accustomed to this situation, but it was never like this before.

38:18 Speaker 3 In other words, the Rebbe’s ideas have penetrated the world so deeply that things are being conducted in the Rebbe’s spirit, even without anyone saying so in the headlines.

38:26 Speaker 1 Right.

38:27 Speaker 3 The subject of Moshiach also needs to reach that point.

38:30 Speaker 1 That is Moshiach.

38:31 Speaker 3 That is Moshiach.

38:31 Speaker 1 When we see that the Rebbe is, in fact, fighting the wars of Hashem here—this Rebbe of yours.

38:36 Speaker 3 …

38:38 Speaker 1 Because if it were not your Rebbe, it would not have been possible to reach such a situation with the soldiers: hundreds of thousands of soldiers, all thoroughly imbued with this idea, thoroughly imbued with the idea that they must go all the way.

38:50 Speaker 3 …

38:51 Speaker 1 And the subject of Moshiach has penetrated the world itself.

38:55 Speaker 3 …

38:56 Speaker 1 The concept of Moshiach as one who fights the wars of Hashem is now present in the world: the Rebbe says what to do, even years in advance, and people carry it out.

39:07 Speaker 3 May we merit to see this matter through to its conclusion, and of course to the ultimate conclusion: the complete revelation of the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, in the true and complete Geulah. Yasher koach, Rabbi Wolpo. All the best.

39:16 Speaker 1 Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu VeRabbeinu Melech HaMoshiach Leolam Vaed.

39:19 Speaker 3 Yasher koach, Rabbi Wolpo. Thank you very much.

39:22 Speaker 4 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the Temimim from Atah Haolami, and additional programs. Dial *6358. Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu VeRabbeinu Melech HaMoshiach Leolam Vaed.