Ears to Hear 33 | Kuntres 'Beis Rabbeinu' from a Personal Angle

00:00 Speaker 1 And may Hashem give you a heart to understand, eyes to see, and ears to hear.

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

00:14 Speaker 3 The feeling of that day, when it came out and I was with the Rebbe a few hours later, as he went out with it to the holy Ohel—that will never leave me. And I’m sure it was the same for everyone in the group of 5752. Not only that: it caused a stir throughout the world. Whoever picked up the phone back then heard about it. The kuntres caused an extraordinary stir. It was astonishing—astonishing in the best sense. A new light, literally a new light. Something was happening. The Rebbe’s unique mission was being revealed. Sholom aleichem to all the Temimim in Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch yeshivos throughout the Holy Land and the entire world. We’re now beginning a very special program in the Ears to Hear audio series, a program steeped in a spirit of firm hiskashrus to the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach shlita, and to his central mission: to bring Moshiach in actual reality. In this program, we’d like to talk about what makes the kuntres Beis Rabbeinu ShebeBavel unique. This special kuntres was published on 28 Cheshvan 5752. We’ll hear about its uniqueness and what was so remarkable about it from one of the Temimim in the 5752 group: chairman of the World Headquarters for Saving the People and the Land and chairman of the Be’oholei Tzaddikim Institute, Rabbi Shabsai Weintraub. Sholom aleichem, Rabbi Weintraub.

01:36 Speaker 4 Sholom uverachah.

01:38 Speaker 3 Welcome.

01:38 Speaker 4 Blessings to all the listeners.

01:39 Speaker 3 First of all, it’s very, very special to sit together and talk about such a special kuntres, one that every student learns, especially before traveling to the Rebbe. But you could say it’s a special kuntres for any time. Often, though, people learn it as a Torah text—a sicha of the Rebbe, like any other sicha in Likkutei Sichos or Sefer Hasichos—and don’t always understand what went on behind the scenes when it was published. What makes this kuntres so remarkable compared with the other kuntreisim, selections, and sichos? Perhaps we can hear from Temimim who were in the 5752 group about the emotional upheaval they experienced and get a bit of a personal perspective on what makes this kuntres so special. What did you experience at the time?

02:24 Speaker 4 Yes, that’s a very complex question. The year we were with the Rebbe as a group, 5752, was a very, very complex, unique, and wondrous year. Even its Hebrew letters form the wonderful phrase “wonders in everything,” and that year is still felt today. Everyone who lives with his hiskashrus to the Rebbe lives with 5752 every day. That year shaped tens of thousands of chassidim and shluchim throughout the world in their work on the Rebbe’s shlichus, centered on bringing Moshiach. All this was happening in the period when the Rebbe published Beis Rabbeinu ShebeBavel, followed immediately by the Kinus Hashluchim, whose theme was bringing Moshiach, and by the Rebbe’s unique sichos. But to understand it, you really have to understand that special time. When we came as the 5752 group, something was already happening in Lubavitch, as they say.

03:32 Speaker 3 You arrived after a certain upheaval was already in the air, following the sicha of 28 Nissan. Did you feel that something was different, that there was a special atmosphere? Can you say that, or...?

03:43 Speaker 4 Certainly. Absolutely. And it wasn’t only 28 Nissan, though that shook everything to its foundations. The Rebbe entrusted the mission of bringing Moshiach to each and every person. The pain and the outcry we heard from the Rebbe—his sicha shakes us to the depths of our souls to this very day. Especially with the perspective of so many years having passed: with every day that goes by without it happening in actual reality, the outcry and the shock of that sicha grow stronger. But from then on, the Rebbe’s expressions really changed. We heard things we had never heard before. For example, we’re now at Shabbos Shoftim: in the sicha of Shoftim 5751, the Rebbe spoke about a prophet and about fulfilling all the directives of the leader of the generation, the counselor of the generation. The whole style of the Rebbe’s sichos changed from 28 Nissan onward; everything dealt with Moshiach. The farbrengens began with Moshiach, and the Rebbe would open them by speaking about the Geulah. That was how they all began. So the Temimim really arrived into a very different atmosphere. Our group was delayed for various reasons. Those who remember will know that in Elul there were riots in Crown Heights following the death of a Black child who was struck by a vehicle while the Rebbe was returning from the Ohel. Because of the riots, the U.S. government held up the special visas for our group. We actually arrived only after Rosh Hashanah. The Rebbe himself intervened so that our group could come, through the journalist Reb Gedalia Jacobson, a"h. The Rebbe intervened, and we did arrive right after Rosh Hashanah, but we missed Rosh Hashanah. I arrived—

05:40 Speaker 5 Missing Rosh Hashanah with the Rebbe is almost unbearable.

05:42 Speaker 4 Very hard, but that’s what happened. Perhaps it was a hint of what lay ahead for the group. In any case, we arrived on the eve of 6 Tishrei, the yahrzeit of Rebbetzin Chana, the Rebbe’s mother. I arrived in Tishrei; most of the others arrived then too. The whole year began with tremendous uplift. The atmosphere throughout the world concerning Moshiach, the attention in the press, the increase in good deeds—a truly new spirit of Moshiach was blowing through people’s hearts. You could almost touch it. These aren’t stories; it’s a fact. With every sicha of the Rebbe, you felt yourself moving closer to Moshiach. You felt the Rebbe lifting us, taking us another step higher, and another, and another. And the sicha on the eve of Yom Kippur lasted forty-five minutes—the Rebbe sitting and speaking after Minchah, then starting the niggun, the [unclear] niggun. I’m just mentioning things as they come to mind.

06:46 Speaker 5 To convey the atmosphere—that something special was happening.

06:49 Speaker 4 And the first day of Sukkos—who could forget it? The Rebbe stood and listened to each of us make the blessings, one by one, and answered amen to both blessings, because he had those blessings in mind as well. I stood near the Rebbe for hours; I didn’t get to pass by until between one-thirty and three in the afternoon.

07:03 Speaker 5 So you got there—

07:04 Speaker 4 Yes, I went as soon as they woke us and told us the Rebbe was standing there and giving out the lulav. It was beyond comprehension. The atmosphere was absolutely incredible: the Rebbe stood and answered amen to every blessing. I think the Rebbe only began davening at four. It was three-thirty, or three, by the time—he had stood for hours, close to six hours. And all that uplift, all the sichos of Tishrei, about [unclear], and everything on Simchas Torah, when the Rebbe spoke in a Moshiach spirit about the children. He said he hoped that in future generations, too, you’d see “Moshiach” in the children—that when you saw a young child, you’d see Moshiach. What would you see in that child? Moshiach. All of it created an atmosphere that was blazing, truly on fire, a fire in our hearts, and—

07:56 Speaker 5 And then we come to that point in time.

07:58 Speaker 4 Right, then we come to it. By then, of course, all the guests had gone home. And Rabbi Eliyahu’s visit—who could forget that? I remember when Rabbi Eliyahu came. I even had the privilege of seeing the Rebbe enter the library. Very few people were there when the Rebbe went around and entered it. I remember seeing the Rebbe, and afterward we accompanied him when he came out with Rabbi Eliyahu. And all the Rebbe’s remarkable words to Rabbi Eliyahu about Moshiach—that the time had come for everyone to bring Moshiach into the room. Those things truly affected all of us and gave us a living spirit of Moshiach. It wasn’t something in books. It was real; you could almost touch it. Moshiach felt natural, as they say—you could touch it. Those are certainly days you can’t forget. And since I’m here on a podcast and we’re speaking in the spirit of a farbrengen, not as though this were a museum exhibit—

09:00 Speaker 6 Yes.

09:00 Speaker 4 We have to remember that we’re surrounded by miracles. We need to live those things with that same atmosphere. That’s what really matters. Even those who weren’t in the 5752 group should know that it’s a group that continues all the time, because it never really ended. It was, so to speak, stopped in the middle, in Cheshvan, so it’s a group that keeps going.

09:22 Speaker 6 So perhaps we can touch on that, to bring these lofty ideas down to something more concrete. How can we really take them and bring them into our own personal lives? In this program we’ll talk about and focus on Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel. So after all these lofty things, with that spirit, we come to Cheshvan and the publication of the kuntres. After everything that had happened before, another bombshell lands. What did that feel like?

09:55 Speaker 4 Right. By the way, two things happened in Cheshvan that people don’t know about—or don’t remember. For fifty days, the Rebbe did not release an edited maamar. From Rosh Hashanah until 20 Cheshvan, no edited maamarim came out from the Rebbe. Then, by Divine Providence, on 20 Cheshvan the Rebbe released an edited maamar after those fifty days, the maamar “Vayihyu Chayei Sarah.” The Rebbe distributed it to each person with his holy hand on Sunday.

10:25 Speaker 6 A special maamar.

10:26 Speaker 4 A special maamar, beside the Rebbe’s room. The Rebbe gave it to each person. There was such an uplifting feeling in Cheshvan: the Rebbe was distributing a maamar of his own—not a maamar of the Rebbe Rashab, as in previous years. Receiving that maamar really gave us a tremendous lift. That was the first thing. The second happened on Monday, as I remember it. The kvutza didn’t study in 770; we studied at Chovevei Torah, about a block away.

10:56 Speaker 6 A block and a half, yes.

10:57 Speaker 4 A block and a half from 770, and across the street too. Of course, seder ended at nine, and by nine-fifteen we were running to 770. Don’t hold me to the exact times. It’s been thirty-two years, almost “Open my eyes, that I may behold wonders from Your Torah.” We ran straight to the mikveh. You don’t go into 770 before going to the mikveh. I remember running toward 770, and some construction had started too. I don’t know whether it had already begun then, but that was what was happening: the renovations were starting. And I see Reb Chaim Sholom Brook, chairman of Vaad Hanachos B’LaHak, setting down a bundle of kuntreisim at the entrance to 770, on the steps. They weren’t the steps there today.

11:46 Speaker 6 Yes.

11:46 Speaker 4 It wasn’t today’s entrance. Those steps weren’t there yet. He set down the bundle, and I took a kuntres immediately. At first you think it might be another maamar, or perhaps a likut. It was Monday; an edited sicha would usually come out only on Wednesday. That was a little surprising—something on Monday, something unusual. Then I look at the kuntres and see: “For a miniature sanctuary”—this is Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel. I don’t remember the exact heading, so don’t hold me to it, but I remember the scene as if it were happening now. We used to go to the Lincoln mikveh, there on the corner. Kastel’s mikveh there no longer exists. Already on the way, I’m looking at it. And my first thought, as a curious bochur in the kvutza, was: Something is happening here. I open it and say, “Something is going on here. This is no ordinary thing.”

12:37 Speaker 7 It wasn’t just another regular sicha.

12:38 Speaker 4 It wasn’t a regular sicha. I remember it as though it were happening now. After just ten minutes’ thought, we understood that an atom bomb had landed. I remember talking about it. I can’t recall exactly who was there, but I remember that we were all excited even before [unclear]. I said, “This is something out of the ordinary.” It speaks about [unclear]. You see it immediately, once you give it a little thought. In the first five minutes, as soon as you open it, you can see the fire there, even before sitting down to learn it. Within an hour or two it was the talk of the day; it spread like wildfire. That sicha became the subject everyone was discussing.

13:21 Speaker 7 You started learning the sicha.

13:22 Speaker 4 We started learning the sicha. It was being discussed, you could say, until [unclear]. I don’t remember. This sicha made a very powerful impression. Something changed after it, and then, of course, came the entire Kinus Hashluchim and everything else—but it all revolved around Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel. I remember that Dvar Malchus had also begun coming out in Eretz Yisroel. Reb Tuvia Peles, a”h, had been publishing it for a year already. Until then, unfortunately, the Rebbe’s sichos had only very limited circulation in Eretz Yisroel. Perhaps a few hundred copies from Vaad Hanachos B’LaHak reached there. But once Reb Tuvia Peles printed tens of thousands of copies, people saw the Rebbe’s sichos and maamarim from his holy handwritten manuscripts. They were reaching tens of thousands of people in all the chareidi cities, throughout the Torah community. Everyone could see the Rebbe’s sichos; it was all out in the open. And by Divine Providence, the sichos in Dvar Malchus reached hundreds of thousands of people. Hundreds of thousands read them week after week. Then he printed this sicha of the Rebbe too.

14:16 Speaker 7 The one about Beis Rabbeinu.

14:17 Speaker 4 Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel. I think he printed it then and doubled or tripled the number of copies. It caused a stir all over the world. Suddenly, everything took on an entirely new dimension.

14:39 Speaker 7 What, amid all this special excitement you’re describing, struck you personally? Was it the particular ideas in the kuntres, or the overarching message of the kuntres itself?

14:49 Speaker 4 First of all, every chossid knows this and lives with it. It isn’t new that 770 is holy and is the Rebbe’s house. As the Rebbe quotes the Frierdiker Rebbe, it is our Beis Hamikdash. That’s clear to every chossid. But once that takes on [unclear]—and we are in the King’s house—the holiness of 770, the way we need to conduct ourselves there, and all that it places upon us, our obligation, all those extraordinary words...

15:24 Speaker 7 Perhaps we can say, from what you’re describing, Rabbi Weintraub—sorry to interrupt—that suddenly a kuntres appeared that spoke about 770 not only in Jewish or Chassidic terms, as “our Beis Hamikdash,” as it says [unclear], but even from a somewhat halachic perspective. I mean, it draws on the Gemara and Midrashim to explain why the Shechinah rests here during the exile.

15:45 Speaker 4 Absolutely.

15:45 Speaker 7 Arriving at that understanding is something special.

15:48 Speaker 4 Right, right, absolutely. Like everything from the Rebbe, he grounds it in halachah and in the full depth of Torah, both Nigleh and Chassidus. That brought something entirely new. This was a kuntres of the Rebbe, bearing the Rebbe’s name, with all those tremendous expressions in it. And it came as 770 was about to be renovated. 770 underwent major renovations; it wasn’t like the building you know today. It was completely different, and all these things took on much greater force. Everything the Rebbe says there—that in every generation there is the Moshiach of that generation; the teaching he cites from the Arizal that “Beis Moshiach” has the numerical value of 770. Not just “breaking through,” but “Beis Moshiach” too. All this gave 770 an entirely new dimension, and changed how we related to the Rebbe and to its holiness. Looking back, I really think it was all for our time as well. You see that the Rebbe left us this kuntres so that we would know how to relate to the Rebbe and to the holiness of 770, and remember what 770 is. It isn’t some museum. 770 is a place from which [unclear], something that has not existed since Moshe Rabbeinu. Since the first nasi, there has been nothing like this: light and holiness go out from the house at 770 to the entire world. And to this day, when thousands of shluchim come to the Rebbe each year for the Kinus Hashluchim, along with tens of thousands of chassidim and hundreds of thousands of others, it is all that same light, still going out from 770, from Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel. Looking at it now, I think we didn’t fully understand its power then—what it would mean for the generations to come, until the Rebbe’s revelation. I think that already then the Rebbe was preparing us for the situation we’re in. We have to say it: the Rebbe was preparing

17:58 Speaker 4 us for exactly this situation.

18:00 Speaker 8 What you just said is fascinating, Rabbi Weintraub—about 770 being a place that influences the whole world. Just recently I was looking through the kuntres. The concept of Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel comes from Rav’s house in Bavel after the destruction of the Second Beis Hamikdash. At first Rav was in Nehardea, which was a major center of Torah and so on. But Rav wanted, so to speak, to go out on shlichus and open a Chabad House in Sura.

18:30 Speaker 4 A place where he could make his own contribution.

18:31 Speaker 8 Yes.

18:32 Speaker 4 Make his own contribution.

18:32 Speaker 8 Yes. So he traveled to Sura, where, as the Rebbe explains about 770, it was specifically by going down to America, and so on. He went specifically to Sura to influence the ordinary people. Now, when you read these things, you say, fine, okay, so they established “the house of our Rebbe in Babylonia” in Sura, in the lowest place. But where did his influence reach? It reached Sura. It reached Nehardea. Certainly not the entire world. Then suddenly you look at 770, as you just mentioned. Here we’re talking about something that reaches the entire world. That’s what makes this place unique.

19:01 Speaker 4 Right.

19:01 Speaker 8 And it transforms the entire world toward the Geulah, which is why the Geulah begins there.

19:04 Speaker 4 And so, to this very day, and until Moshiach comes in the literal sense, we need to know how to relate to this holy house. We need to approach it with all the intensity it deserves. Anyone who reads this—it’s a kuntres that obligates every single person to know. A person has to imagine: I’m entering the Beis Hamikdash. I’ll give you a scoop. That day, I had my [unclear]. I remember a day when I especially loved watching the Rebbe leave for the Ohel and the mikveh. So I was standing outside when the Rebbe left for the Ohel that day, on the festival of the Hasmoneans.

19:49 Speaker 8 The festival of the Hasmoneans.

19:50 Speaker 4 He left for the holy Ohel that day, on the festival of the Hasmoneans. At that point the Rebbe was already going on Mondays and Thursdays. At first, the Rebbe went on Sundays, but because the dollars distribution ran longer, the Rebbe also began going on Mondays and Thursdays. And I’m standing at a distance there, on the path by 770. The Rebbe comes out from where Leibel’s room was.

20:07 Speaker 8 Leibel’s room, there.

20:07 Speaker 4 And I see the Rebbe holding two kuntreisim in his hand. I saw it with my own eyes. I think I’m the only one who noticed. And which two kuntreisim was the Rebbe holding? The Beis Chayeinu kuntres that was coming out regularly at 770 then. Kaplan was its editor at the time.

20:25 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

20:25 Speaker 4 Sholom Ashulovin [?].

20:26 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

20:27 Speaker 4 Oh, Kahana was in earlier years.

20:29 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

20:30 Speaker 4 Boruch Kahana—today he’s a mashpia in Kiryat Gat. And the Rebbe was holding Beis Chayeinu and Beis Rabbeinu.

20:35 Speaker 8 The Beis Rabbeinu kuntres that had just come out—

20:36 Speaker 4 That had come out that morning. Yes, yes. And I see the Rebbe holding it. In fact, if you open Beis Chayeinu from a few weeks later—three or four weeks later—there’s a picture of the Rebbe leaving for the Ohel with the two kuntreisim in his hand. You can’t tell from the picture that they’re Beis Chayeinu and Beis Rabbeinu, but I saw them. That identification is based on my testimony.

20:56 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

20:56 Speaker 4 So they wrote in Beis Chayeinu that the Rebbe had gone out with Beis Chayeinu and Beis Rabbeinu. I immediately passed that information on to the people at Beis Chayeinu, who wrote to Rabbi Kaplan then, I think.

21:06 Speaker 8 Oh.

21:06 Speaker 4 Rabbi Kaplan—or perhaps it was Elyashiv. I don’t remember exactly who it was then. In any case, they got the picture from Eli Ona [?], I think, and the picture did appear, showing the Rebbe leaving with those two kuntreisim. The Rebbe would keep various things at the back of his siddur, and the Beis Rabbeinu kuntres was there too. So you can see the importance the Rebbe attached to this whole matter.

21:26 Speaker 8 I’m reading one of the diaries about Tishrei 5752, about those moments when the kuntres came out on 8 Cheshvan, and to my surprise I suddenly realize that the person who wrote the diary is Rabbi Shabsai Weintraub. So I’ll read a passage. It amazes me to read something written years ago and suddenly realize that these things are alive and present—how you speak about them now with that same excitement. This is what the diary says: “We began eagerly drinking in the new kuntres, trying to find its distinctive themes. Those soon shone out in a precious light. The feeling was lofty and special. Davening with the Rebbe that day felt completely different. All at once, we felt that the Rebbe had lifted us two handbreadths off the ground and raised us to other worlds. We were given to understand the immense stature of Beis Chayeinu, which from today will presumably also be called ‘the house of our Rebbe in Babylonia,’ or ‘Beis Moshiach.’ We understood clearly that we had entered a new and elevated period. The Rebbe had opened a new channel in our connection with him.” I read these words, and they’re alive and present in what you’re saying.

22:30 Speaker 4 It’s hard to describe. As you read that account, I’m telling you, to this day it fills me with extraordinary emotion.

22:36 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

22:36 Speaker 4 Despite everything we’ve gone through, all the upheavals, and the pain of 7 Adar and Gimmel Tammuz. But the feeling of that day, when it came out, and of seeing the Rebbe leave for the holy Ohel with it a few hours later—that will never fade for me. And I’m sure it won’t fade for anyone who was in [unclear] at the time. And not only that: it caused a stir throughout the world.

22:56 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

22:56 Speaker 4 This was a kuntres that caused an extraordinary stir with everyone you called about it.

23:00 Speaker 8 That’s what I want to talk about.

23:01 Speaker 4 And really, by the way, the whole expression “the house of our Rebbe in Babylonia” took hold from then on.

23:05 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

23:05 Speaker 4 Within a day or two, the Rebbe also used that expression, “the house of our Rebbe in Babylonia,” in his sichos.

23:10 Speaker 8 And afterward, in letters and correspondence.

23:11 Speaker 4 “Beis Chayeinu in Babylonia,” “the house of our Rebbe in Babylonia”—also in sichos on weekdays, which we have on video recordings too.

23:17 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

23:18 Speaker 4 So you see the tremendous importance of it. It’s not just anything. And I say this especially to the Temimim: if someone is looking for a museum piece, something that belonged to the past, then perhaps he should find other people to be nostalgic with. That’s really not what we’re talking about here. I’m speaking with you as at a farbrengen, to know that these things are alive and endure forever. That’s the feeling you should truly have when you enter 770. A young man needs to know that 770 isn’t a place to let off steam. It’s a place where you must conduct yourself with great holiness. You have to be careful about how you behave there during davening and Torah study. Beyond that, there’s the impression it makes on the people who come in. I don’t know if you realize it, but tens upon tens of thousands of people come to 770 over the course of the year. You may not know them, but I recognize all sorts of people by their voices.

24:06 Speaker 8 Among the—

24:07 Speaker 4 Among them are [unclear], sons of great rebbes who come simply to daven Maariv, wanting to taste 770 for a minute, to spend another ten minutes there; senior businesspeople. So many people come in, and you can’t even know who has entered. 770 needs to be enveloped in an atmosphere of awe, an atmosphere of holiness. We need to know... It’s a staggering kuntres. Forgive me for saying this—I’ll tell you, I’m even afraid to study it. I’m telling you the truth. I’m telling you the truth. When you study this kuntres, it places very, very great demands on you. Very great demands. Yes. Conduct in 770 needs to be something truly elevated. Elevated—to live with the fact that he is truly our redeemer, in the literal sense. So sometimes I say to you: we need to know there is a connection between what’s written and the reality, and we need to see to it that this connection is visible to our physical eyes. That’s natural for us, as people living on earth today. And I truly say this about myself too. Do you understand? Nobody is perfect. But we need to know, especially those who are there with the group, or study in 770, or come for Tishrei—we need to know the enormous responsibility. Not just remember it: live it. Because [unclear]. Certainly. Because if you live it, all your conduct changes. At 770 you receive spirituality without end. It’s an endless flow, and you have to know where you’ve come and to whom you’ve come. That’s really a fascinating point. This responsibility is certainly something every student takes upon himself when he studies the kuntres personally. He truly understands that it obligates him to consider how to behave and how to conduct himself. [Unclear.] To know before Whom you stand—that you’re standing right there, within his four cubits. Now, what is true is,

25:50 Speaker 4 We’re reading through all the qualities the Rebbe lists about 770 in the kuntres Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel: it’s the place from which guidance goes out to everyone in the generation; it’s the place that will be connected to the third Beis Hamikdash in the closest possible way; the third Beis Hamikdash will be revealed at 770 and from there return to Jerusalem; and it’s the house of our Rebbe, the house of Moshiach, where the redeemer of the Jewish people is found. But among all these expressions, there’s one very distinctive one—the famous atmosphere of 5752 that you mentioned earlier: that 770 has the numerical value of “Beis Moshiach.” My question isn’t coming from a non-Torah place, or from a philosophical place, but from a place of feeling. When you saw that atmosphere, as Temimim who already knew the earlier sichos and their distinctive expressions, did that expression feel unique, like a break from the ordinary? Or, on the contrary, had that period already become so full of Geulah, with such clear statements about Moshiach—even about Moshiach’s identity—that saying 770 is Beis Moshiach didn’t really strike you as something out of the ordinary? I’m very interested, because I’m trying to get a sense of what it felt like to be a student in the 5752 group. I’ll tell you very clearly, again: the kuntres as a whole caused astonishment—astonishment in the best sense. A new light, literally a new light. Something is happening here. The Rebbe’s yechidah is being revealed. This is no joke. And that expression? The expressions too. What kind of question is that? “Beis Moshiach,” 770—that was an expression chassidim hadn’t known until then. It wasn’t known. “Ufaratzta” was known; that “Beis Moshiach” has the numerical value of 770 wasn’t known. After that, a letter also arrived in 5752 from Menachem Yosef Itzkowitz [?]

27:37 Speaker 4 Dovor. I have something to add about that too, but I’ll talk about it here—or perhaps in the next podcast. But really, these were things—I’m telling you, every sentence there landed on us like a ton of bricks. It truly hit us. We could hardly believe it, among ourselves. We really felt that the Rebbe was in an entirely different atmosphere, and wondered whether we were even keeping pace with him. Mm-hmm. That’s genuinely how it felt. The Rebbe was advancing, and we had to race to keep up with him. The Rebbe was in such lofty places—in the chamber of Moshiach, literally, [unclear], as the Zohar says, in the chamber of Moshiach itself, where the Baal Shem Tov had visited—and we simply had to rise. Suddenly we began to feel the distance between the Nasi and the chassidim. I’m telling you honestly: this is my own feeling, speaking to you now as a nineteen-year-old bochur. We felt—or at least I can speak for myself—I suddenly felt the tremendous, extraordinary distance between us and the Rebbe. It was no ordinary distance. You could see with your physical eyes that something was happening here. And where were we? You felt the Rebbe rising and rising and rising. The revelation is about to come—and where are we standing? I’m telling you what I felt. I’m telling you how it felt then, in 5752, not how it feels in 5784. Mm-hmm. That was the feeling, and I felt it many, many times. But it wasn’t a feeling that left you behind. It was an uplifting feeling that gave you the strength to leap forward and keep rising. There was great awe, an awe born of exaltation, certainly—but it was in the air. It was in the air. Something is happening here.

29:29 Speaker 4 On the one hand, the Rebbe was drawing very, very close to us. The Rebbe’s answers were extraordinary. From stories I heard after Gimmel Tammuz, I learned that in 5752 the Rebbe gave an extraordinary number of answers during that period, up to Adar, up to the end of Adar 5752. It’s almost unbelievable. You hear stories and see with your own eyes how the Rebbe attended to the smallest details, while on the other hand he was elevated far above everyone. And that miraculous quality of 5752 is perhaps the one thing that keeps us going until the revelation in the literal sense. That’s how I feel. Maybe I’m biased, because for us it’s 5752, 5752, 5752. But that’s the feeling: to this day, that extraordinary, wondrous year, its sichos and the sheer number of them, give us all the strength to remain connected to the Rebbe even when we can’t see the Rebbe with our physical eyes. That’s actually my question now, as we approach the end of the program, with all the—What, it’s ending already? That’s not right. As far as I’m concerned, it’s only just beginning. Okay. Well, in the winter of 5751, the Rebbe finished davening, and they said the kuntreisim hadn’t arrived yet, so the Rebbe would go up to his room and then come back. The Rebbe said that instead of a break, there should be a continuation. With Hashem’s help, there will be a continuation of our conversation. And truly, it’s enough for me if one bochur is awakened by it. If one person is awakened—and if I’m awakened by it—that’s everything. It’s already worth it. Well, I’ve been awakened, so if I’ve been awakened, it’s already worth it. One of the rebbes, a Polish rebbe, said, “I say the Torah teaching for myself. If it helps someone else too, all the better.” So we were speaking to ourselves. Now we’ll see, with Hashem’s help. For us, this has already raised us to an entirely different level: to understand the atmosphere, not just study the kuntres, but understand the atmosphere, its uniqueness, and the tremendous, extraordinary wonder

31:13 Speaker 4 of this kuntres—its historic significance—which truly brought us to an entirely different level. And here I want to touch on a more emotional point as we come to the end. There was that whole electrifying atmosphere, that surge of Geulah, if you can call it that; then, as you said, the kuntres Beis Rabbeinu; after that, Parshas Chayei Sarah 5752; and as time went on, Parshas Mishpatim 5752 and all these things. Then suddenly, as a student in the 5752 group, you reach 27 Adar. With the whole period of 5752 and the direction it was taking in your heart—how did you, as a bochur, feel that this surge of Geulah, this special atmosphere of Moshiach, continued even after 27 Adar, and that everything was still on one path toward the Rebbe’s revelation? I realize that’s a somewhat emotional question, but it needs to be asked and answered. It’s being asked, and it’s the right question. [unclear]—that’s a question. The suffering of galus is a question. Every day is a question: how we’re getting through this difficult, bitter galus and seeing it grow more and more intense. But on the other hand, that doesn’t contradict at all what the Rebbe told us and instilled in us: that a chossid has to live with the Rebbe in precisely this way. And that’s exactly why the Rebbe gave us so much specifically in 5752. Those are the remedies. The Rebbe prepared us for this situation. So when you look at it from today’s perspective—I’m taking what you said and telling you that it was true for a bochur in the 5752 period too. And I’m telling you this as someone from the 5752 group. I still remember what Rabbi Leibel Groner, a”h, the Rebbe’s secretary, said: “Do you think it was for nothing that the Rebbe delivered so many sichos?”

33:02 Speaker 4 After all, in most weeks before 27 Adar 5752, the Rebbe spoke three or four times a week. What he’s saying is that the Rebbe left this for us deliberately, because the Rebbe knew everything that would happen, and this kuntres is part of that too. It’s no accident that the Rebbe prepared the remedies for us against the painful blow of galus. It’s all to show us how a bochur today, in 5784 and 5785, can live with this. We’re here today, living with it—really living with it. How do we live with it in practice? We see that the Rebbe is no less present than in 5752. I’ll tell you the truth: I’m often envious of today’s Temimim. On the one hand, you see how many challenges there are, but on the other, you really see their sincerity and faith in the Rebbe. To tell you the truth, I even feel that I’m more of a chossid of the Rebbe today than I was in 5752. Yes, because as the days and years go by, it isn’t a matter of growing more distant. The fact that so many years have passed and Moshiach hasn’t come is an even stronger reason to believe that Moshiach will come today. The faith grows stronger and more fervent. And the world today is also a thousand times more aware of the Rebbe’s revelation and of the Rebbe as Moshiach than it was then. Back then we felt it because it was coming from the Rebbe all the time. We felt it coming down from above. Moshe came down to us. Now the avodah really is harder. All right, we need to know that. A person can’t come to it without preparation, without going into the details. A person needs to know that he has to prepare himself. But someone who prepares himself and learns as he should—especially the Temimim, who really put all the Rebbe’s advice into practice, with all the many instructions that are for their own good, materially and spiritually—rises much higher. And I’m telling you,

34:49 Speaker 4 you can see it materially too, much more than with the Temimim of 5752—much more, beyond comparison even. Why? Because today, when you genuinely reach the matters that the Rebbe left us and passed on to us, you take them in much more deeply, much more deeply. And it’s no accident that Rabbi Akiva laughed. As it says about the destruction, Rabbi Akiva laughed, because today, someone who truly lives with [unclear] as he should, and with the Rebbe’s sichos and everything else, receives insights that we didn’t receive then. And I’m not saying this with my eyes closed. Today, someone who lives with the Rebbe and decides within himself that he’s going to live with the Rebbe, with everything that entails, lives it far more deeply—beyond comparison with how it was in 5752. I have no doubt about it. Wow. And you can ask people who see it with their own eyes. Yes, you hear that, and it doesn’t contradict anything about how terrible, difficult and grave the situation is, or the feeling that Geulah is coming any second, any second. It intensifies the Rebbe’s cry. But at the same time, the two can go together, because a Jew can hold both things at once. One moment. First of all, these are very, very emotional things. But you can certainly also look at it this way: it isn’t only that every moment of galus becomes more terrible and more terrible. Because every moment brings us closer to Geulah, the Temimim are also in a more elevated place. There’s no doubt about it. So the approach the Rabbi is presenting here is really special. It’s a very simple approach. Simple, and one you hear a lot. People emphasize it. Yes. But it’s a very sound approach. You hear it again and again, and every

36:26 Speaker 4 time you tend to look at the— But on the other hand, there has to be a very weighty sense of responsibility. I’m telling you this as a bochur from the 5752 kvutzah: today the responsibility has to weigh very, very heavily. We have to focus on what matters most, to know what is secondary and what is essential, what truly matters to the Rebbe. It’s all written down, and it’s all known. We just have to put it into practice, and we see wonders. So that’s a fascinating point to end on, one that has a lot to do with the Rabbi’s role today. I mean, we’ve spoken a great deal about Beis Rabbeinu, a setting for farbrengens, deeply Chassidic and deeply Chabad, where the Temimim are fired up about the uniqueness of the kuntres and of 770, Beis Moshiach—where the future Beis Hamikdash will be revealed, and from there it will be brought to Jerusalem—and the whole course of Beis Rabbeinu and so on. And how, even after 27 Adar and everything that followed, it all continues, because it’s the truth. 770 is the place. Here we’re touching on a very interesting point. You work a lot on connections with rabbonim, Rebbes and public figures in the chareidi community, from across the spectrum. And you certainly reach them through the books you’ve published on this subject, Siach Sarfei Kodesh and Besod Siach—books that really deal with— The latest book too, Yair Pnei Hamizrach. The latest, Yair Pnei Hamizrach, which really shed light for many, many people on how to see that the Rebbe is—the Rebbe is the Rebbe. But here’s something interesting: do you think that, with all the fire we’ve just been talking about, people out there in the chareidi community can accept this kuntres? It’s a question I’m trying to explore, because the Temimim ask it as Temimim, as those who are committed, who are on the front line bringing the Rebbe’s words to all of Anash, publicizing all the Rebbe’s sichos and all the Rebbe’s instructions

38:22 Speaker 4 to all of Anash, and certainly this kuntres. In your view, how can we best bring it to people from those communities? Of course they can understand it. Each person understands it in his own way. That’s why the Rebbe said that you have to present things to each person according to his intellect and understanding. Clearly, if you present something properly, in the right way, it can be understood. But it really is very individual. It depends on which community you’re speaking to, and the bochurim need to know that. You don’t speak to everyone in the same style. When you speak about Chassidus with a simple person, you need to speak about simple things. If someone speaks about the many Igros Kodesh—anything, including hiskashrus to the Rebbe—you need to speak to each person in a way that suits him. Not everyone was born in 770, not everyone studied in Tomchei Temimim, not everyone ate the straw of Tomchei Temimim. Each person understands it in his own way. You have to take into account each person’s style and background. So a chossid has to be wise, and speak in a way that suits each setting. You can present Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel in many ways, according to the people you’re addressing. Some people are simpler; others are more learned Torah scholars. Some are deeply versed in Gemara and Torah, and they understand the scholarly angle of Beis Rabbeinu. There are simpler Jews who respond specifically to the angle of the gematria, to those numerical allusions. But the kuntres Beis Rabbeinu isn’t just about Beis Rabbeinu. It’s there so that we know how to conduct ourselves, how to convey the Rebbe’s words. The kuntres Beis Rabbeinu is also for us, so that we know how to convey the Rebbe’s teachings. We certainly have to study it.

39:59 Speaker 4 The kuntres itself, but also how we need to conduct ourselves as part of our daily service of Hashem. So I say: if I come up to someone on the street with the news that I can tell him the precise place where the Shechinah rests during galus, then certainly, even for an observant Jew, that is news beyond compare. Hundreds of thousands of people really do flock to the Rebbe today. I’m saying, it’s amazing; it’s unique. I just need to know how to explain it to him. Should I start with [unclear], or can I start with a sicha, a sicha of the Rebbe? Speak about the Rebbe’s greatness, give him the book Siach Sarfei Kodesh. Yes, I remember bringing it to Rabbi Yoram Abergel. He was a very holy Jew, and he truly brought Tanya and love for the Rebbe to hundreds of thousands of Jews. No question. I remember bringing him Siach Sarfei Kodesh, the first book I published about the Rebbe and the great Torah sages of the Jewish people, seventeen years ago. Yechidus meetings between the Rebbe and great Torah sages. When was the institute established? Yes, exactly seventeen years ago. I remember bringing it to him. He looked through it for a few minutes—there are pictures in it too—and then he said to me, standing in front of many people: “This is a book that should be printed in 600,000 copies.” Then I saw that here was a great man of his generation who understood the point. That’s what he told me; those were his exact words: “This is a book that should be printed in 600,000 copies.” If he had received the book Ya’ir Pnei Hamizrach, he would have said, “Oh, six million copies.” Six million. No, but why do I say that? Because it’s true. First of all, today we already—

41:27 Speaker 4 are several generations on, and unfortunately not everyone knows the Rebbe. First we need to draw the spark close to the luminary. What is the Rebbe? The Rebbe is the one and only in his generation; it isn’t simply that the Rebbe is the nasi of the generation. “From Moshe to Moshe, none arose like Moshe.” People need to know that. It isn’t for nothing that people today... And who is that with Mordechai? The Torah scholars, the rebbes, the tzaddikim. When you truly bring people close to the Rebbe, when they see the Rebbe’s work in the world, the work of Moshiach in the world... We’re used to speaking in a somewhat Chabad style, but when you speak to someone from outside, you also have to speak entirely in his style, with each person. That’s why I said I’m not laying down hard-and-fast rules about this. I know everyone has agendas today, and I’m not getting into all of that. I’m only saying that you need to speak to each person according to his understanding. The Rebbe says this clearly about Moshiach too: each person according to his understanding. [Unclear.] And really, as with anything, you don’t set hard-and-fast rules here. How do you get a Jew to keep Shabbos? First you explain it to him in language he understands. How do you get him to put on tefillin? One Jew needs it explained one way, another Jew another way. A chossid is wise; he needs to know how to approach someone properly. And just today I saw a letter from the Rebbe saying that at farbrengens people shouldn’t speak in “hard-core Chabad” language. That’s how the Rebbe puts it. Don’t speak that way at farbrengens, because you need to convey things to people in their language. Convey the message of “hard-core Chabad,” but make it accessible. The Rebbe conveyed every message to the world. At first, the Rebbe’s messages seemed disconnected from reality. Going out with Jews in Lag BaOmer parades and putting tefillin on Jews in the street—

43:05 Speaker 4 seemed disconnected from reality, but the Rebbe brought it into the world. Anything true can take hold in the world. What we see is that on the subject of Moshiach, specifically, there is still some difficulty, because this is the last stop, the final stop. So... because Moshiach is something very, very real. It’s something very, very... and we need to know that. We need to present it in a way people can understand, in every place according to people’s understanding, as I said. But we certainly need to study [unclear], just as we need to explain to everyone what Moshiach is about, everything concerning Moshiach, why we need to live with it, and why we need to live with faith and anticipation. This is a foundation of faith. Without it, there is no faith in the Creator. That is why the Rambam begins with “the foundation of foundations is to know that there is...” and ends with Moshiach, with all the mitzvos in between. This faith has to go together with everything else. But as the Rebbe said, we need to know how to live with it—not because I belong to one party and he belongs to another. We have one Torah, and we need to know that. The Rebbe’s Torah belongs to everyone, and the Rebbe doesn’t belong to any one party. The Rebbe belongs to the entire Jewish people. The Alter Rebbe prayed that Chabad would not become a party. Chassidus is not a party; today it belongs to every Jew. And the Rebbe spoke to every Jew equally. That is how the Rebbe regarded Jews. Every sentence of the Rebbe’s sichos, even... So we need to approach these matters as something genuine: how can one more Jew connect with Moshiach? How can one more Jew believe in and anticipate Moshiach—the matter itself? [Unclear.] In truth, drawing close to the Rebbe is much easier. We take the kunt—

44:43 Speaker 4 this special kuntres, Beis Rabbeinu, bring it to the wider public, and pause for a moment beforehand to understand whom I am addressing, how to convey it, how to make it accessible—in a general sense—and to convey these messages precisely. In a general sense, the Rebbe’s sichos are not only from 5752. Right, I mean, it’s not only Beis Rabbeinu; this is a continuation of our programs. Yes. From 28 Nissan onward, there was a major change in the Rebbe’s whole approach to Moshiach. We finished with Parshas Shoftim, Shoftim 5751. By the way, I always say that “navi” is 5752 and 5751. “Navi” contains the letters of 5752—all the sichos from 5752 back through 5751. “Navi” is an expression of the lips, “the fruit of the lips.” So all the Rebbe’s sichos have an element of prophecy, especially the later sichos, in which the Rebbe emphasized Moshiach very strongly. The Rebbe also gave us a gift: each person bears personal responsibility for bringing Moshiach. A very great responsibility. The Rebbe speaks about how each person needs to have twenty people close to him. We need to remember the directives. By the way, I once wrote for the Kfar Chabad newspaper. I had a column on practical action—the concrete actions called for in the Rebbe’s sichos, the directives from 5752. Every sicha contains directives. In fact, Reb [unclear] said, and the mashpia also said, that one of the problems with the sichos of 5751–5752 is that people didn’t study them all the way through. If they’re a bit long, [unclear], they don’t reach the directives. There are countless directives in the sichos of 5751–5752. We need to know that. If we carried out even ten percent of the directives, we would already see life with Moshiach differently and live with the Rebbe’s revelation at every moment. And there are so very many directives. For example, among the last directives, I remember the secretaries speaking about this after 5752, at [unclear].

46:19 Speaker 4 And during the year, each person needs to have twenty people close to him. That is a directive from the Rebbe. If each of us lived with that, we would look completely different. So yes, stepping out of our comfort zone and bringing Moshiach is hard work. The Rebbe gave us hard work, but he also gave us the strength for it. Once he told us that this is our task, we have the strength. And [unclear], and Beis Rabbeinu is part of the whole picture: today, every one of us is a soldier in Moshiach’s army. Every one of us. No one can say, “I’m not a shliach.” I am a shliach. Each person has a personal responsibility, a personal responsibility, a task he received from the Rebbe to bring Moshiach. So today, in Chabad communities—and Chabad is very diverse, with different communities and so on—each person has to take personal responsibility for bringing Moshiach and drawing Jews closer. There may be plenty of organizations doing this, but we need to know that it is truly a personal responsibility. When a person looks at it that way, Beis Rabbeinu looks completely different. Shofetim 5751, Mishpatim 5752, Toldos 5752—it all looks completely different. When we know the goal, know that we have a shlichus, and live that shlichus, everything looks different. Wow. So to sum up the program, there’s no question that we started with a particular point and arrived at the whole picture. We spoke about the kuntres Beis Rabbeinu and reached the central, overarching task of every chossid of the seventh generation: to bring Moshiach. So, to conclude, how do we actually—by the way, that’s what the whole kuntres is about. Yes. It discusses how the Geulah reaches the whole world from [unclear]. Certainly. So, Rabbi Weintraub, in a few words: how should we relate to this special kuntres at these moments of Geulah? Simply to live

48:17 Speaker 4 with the Rebbe twenty-four hours a day and to recognize our privilege. I spoke about responsibility; now I also want to speak about privilege. Someone who finds himself in Chabad shouldn’t say, “Oh, what have I gotten myself into?” He should simply break into a dance every day. Really, dance every day—even out in the street, I would say—to welcome Moshiach, because he has merited to be connected to the Rebbe. I don’t know whether the mashpi’im speak about this enough, but I think every Tomim and every young married man in Chabad should feel that he is connected to the Rebbe. How fortunate we are; how good is our portion! I know many, many other circles, and I say to each and every person listening to us now: there is nothing like it. Being connected to the Rebbe is the greatest privilege a person could have. Do you understand? He should say, “Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe”—how fortunate he is to be a Chabad chossid, a chossid of the Rebbe. Of course, I’m not suggesting any partnership in G-d’s sovereignty; no one should misunderstand. These days there are all kinds of [unclear], but we need to say every day, “How fortunate we are; how good is our portion!” The kuntres Beis Rabbeinu gives you a glimpse of the tremendous privilege the Rebbe gave us, and certainly of our own portion in it. The privilege of knowing. The Rebbe gave us a great responsibility. If the Rebbe gave us the task of bringing Moshiach—a task that wasn’t given to us in all the generations—throughout the generations Jews kept Torah and mitzvos themselves, but to give every Jew responsibility for bringing Moshiach! That means every Jew receives extraordinary strength. The question is whether we use that strength properly. If a person would just reflect on the strength he received from the leader of the generation, strength with which he can bring Moshiach, it should weigh on his heart every day: What did I do today? What progress did I make today? L’chaim, l’chaim. Thank you so much, Rabbi

49:55 Speaker 4 Weintraub. You’ve strengthened us. May it be a good sign for everyone, [unclear], and may the Rebbe be revealed immediately, right now. Amen. May we receive [unclear], the fullness of the Torah, with all its detailed discussions and explanations, and everything needed for all these matters. L’chaim, l’chaim. Thank you so much, Rabbi Weintraub. Long live our master, our teacher and our Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever. Thank you so much, Rabbi Weintraub.

50:19 Speaker 9 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the students of the Temimim, from the World Ata organization. For more programs, dial star six three five eight. Long live our master, our teacher and our Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever.