Ears to Hear 40 | Events of Moshiach's Revelation

00:00 Speaker 1 Hashem has given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear.

00:08 Speaker 2 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the students of Tomchei Temimim, from the International Eshel organization.

00:15 Speaker 1 One of them stood up and said, “And on the coming Yud Shvat, may it be for the good, the Rebbe will be revealed as Moshiach.” That is exactly what happened: a clear announcement, and everyone—everyone—shouted, “Amen!” That on this Yud Shvat, the Rebbe would be revealed as Moshiach.

00:40 Speaker 2 Sholom aleichem to all the students of Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch yeshivos throughout the Holy Land and the entire world. We are now at a special edition of Ears to Hear, program number forty. A program permeated with a spirit of steadfast connection to the Rebbe, Moshiach, shlita, and with the call for immediate Geulah and the actual coming of Moshiach. Baruch Hashem, these programs have earned a reputation among the students of Tomchei Temimim in the Holy Land and around the world, and among Anash as well. And now we are sitting down for a truly special program: a fascinating, unique, historic podcast that speaks about the past on the one hand, and on the other gives us strength and vitality to look at the present in the right way. We are sitting with the chairman of Agudas Chabad and Tzivos Hashem in the Holy Land, Rabbi Dovid Nachshon. Sholom aleichem, Rabbi Nachshon.

01:30 Speaker 1 Aleichem sholom, and a good new month.

01:32 Speaker 2 Well, baruch Hashem. This may be program number forty, but I can tell you behind the scenes that we have been waiting to do a program with Rabbi Dovid Nachshon since the very first one. And it turns out it took until program number forty, because one must reach forty to attain understanding—and “Hashem has given you”—we had to reach this program.

01:48 Speaker 1 “I have given you a heart to know and eyes to see.”

01:51 Speaker 2 “And ears to hear.” And now we have arrived.

01:53 Speaker 1 “And ears to hear.”

01:54 Speaker 2 Baruch Hashem. It is worth noting that Rabbi Dovid Nachshon has been mentioned in many of our previous programs by different people, rabbis, and mashpi’im who spoke about Moshiach. In program after program, Rabbi Dovid Nachshon was mentioned, along with the tremendous work in matters of Moshiach that, baruch Hashem, he has done. And now, in this program, the rabbi himself will give us his perspective and the authentic, firsthand stories: what really took place behind the scenes in the days of the revelation of Moshiach, when Moshiach was revealed, and, as a result, how we should position ourselves to view the whole matter of Moshiach’s revelation correctly in the present as well. These things have, of course, already been said and written in various places, in a number of published collections and books. But here, in this special podcast, we will have the unique opportunity to hear Rabbi Nachshon tell us about them in his own warm voice, firsthand, in a way that will warm all our hearts. The story of those days is really a long one. Even if we begin only with 5751, 5752, 5753, and 5754, and everything that happened during that period, we would need entire episodes to cover it. So unlike our other programs, this will not be a single standalone program; it will include several episodes. Our current episode will be the first, dealing with the background and introduction to the process that unfolded during those wondrous years, leading up to the special moments of Moshiach’s revelation. In the next episode, with Hashem’s help, we will discuss the month of Nissan and the halachic ruling, and afterward the proclamation of “Yechi,” the meeting of the Moshiach headquarters, and the Rebbe’s encouragement of “Yechi.” This episode, then, provides the background. We will hear from Rabbi Nachshon how all the revelations of those wondrous years had a solid foundation, laid down firmly in the years before.

03:46 Speaker 2 Yes. How already on Yud Shvat, and in the fifties, the 5730s, and the 5740s, one could discern the first shoots of the Geulah that reached their peak in the revelation of Moshiach. And how all those years, all the events throughout the Rebbe’s leadership, were ultimately directed toward one goal: the revelation of the Rebbe as Moshiach. Sometimes it was more open and sometimes less so, but that was the goal toward which everything was directed. That is why this introductory episode is so vital, so necessary, for us to understand and internalize the basis and foundation of everything that took place in those wondrous years. So let us begin by hearing Rabbi Nachshon give us a brief account and help us understand where it all began—what background he can give us to the events of 5751 and the revelation of Moshiach. Well, Rabbi Nachshon.

04:38 Speaker 3 Look, the truth is that it began much earlier. We tankists would always write our panim to the Rebbe. Our panim were permeated with it—I mean, generally, when writing to the Rebbe, I would write, “His Holy Honor, the Rebbe shlita.” But when we did something more general, we would write, “His Holy Honor, the Rebbe shlita, Moshiach.”

05:09 Speaker 2 Since when?

05:11 Speaker 3 From the very beginning.

05:13 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

05:14 Speaker 3 But on one occasion—perhaps even earlier, perhaps toward the end of the 5730s, when we were tankists too—

05:21 Speaker 2 The tanks really started in 5737.

05:24 Speaker 3 Ours did. The Rebbe started earlier, but... In any case, that is what we would write to the Rebbe, because that was how we had been brought up. Even back in yeshiva with Reb Shlomo Chaim, we were taught that the Rebbe is Moshiach. It wasn’t a campaign, and it wasn’t something said publicly, but among the Temimim, in our conversations, it was always there. It was clear. We knew Avraham Fried and the others; we knew Bar Chanin [unclear], Zusha, Zalman Berelsky [unclear], and Moshe Saloni [unclear]—everyone. This was the talk among chassidim, among those you might call the inner circle and those you wouldn’t, however you want to put it. But it was very clear that this was the direction. That was also how Reb Shlomo Chaim raised us in yeshiva. It was very clear. Reb Shlomo Chaim would always say—I remember him saying—“He will revive us after two days; on the third day He will raise us up, and we will live before Him.” He would say, “He will revive us after two days”—that is the Rebbe, the son—that is his son, the Frierdiker Rebbe. “On the third day He will raise us up”—that is the Rebbe, the Rebbe shlita, the Rebbe shlita, Moshiach. But what he said then was, “He will revive us”—he—that is Moshiach.

06:44 Speaker 2 Actually, since you mentioned the yeshiva in Kfar Chabad, it is important to say here on the podcast that, when speaking with you, Rabbi Nachshon, we could talk about many subjects that came before the entire Moshiach campaign: your move from the yeshiva in Nechalim to the yeshiva in Kfar Chabad, the establishment of the mitzvah tanks in 5737, the founding of Tzivos Hashem in 5741, and all the subsequent activities with the activists and in the Soviet Union. There is much to discuss, including the graves of our Rebbeim. But right now, we are focusing more on this subject of the Moshiach campaign and the revelation of Moshiach. So let’s narrow it down for a moment.

07:14 Speaker 3 You can fit it all in at once.

07:18 Speaker 2 All at once. But as you have already given us a taste of, the seeds of Moshiach’s revelation were there beforehand.

07:25 Speaker 3 Certainly. We spoke about it among ourselves. It was the strength of the Temimim. We knew it—we knew the Rebbe is Moshiach. But it was not the focus of our public work. Our focus then was spreading the wellsprings of Chassidus and giving Tanya classes. I was also somewhat involved with the yeshiva’s Eshel organization. Reb Shlomo Chaim sent me on many assignments. I was very involved in organizing things: the tefillin campaign, the Rebbe’s sichos. We worked on all sorts of things. We started the broadcasts—that was our work, the beginning of the broadcasts with Itche, and later with Lipa Kurzweil and Itche. That was the broadcast committee. It actually grew out of something I started.

08:10 Speaker 2 Yasher koach.

08:11 Speaker 3 Never mind, that is a story in itself. But as young men, we were more focused on this: how to spread the Rebbe’s teachings, how to bring Tanya and all that to people. There wasn’t such an emphasis then on Moshiach as a campaign—on the need to talk about Moshiach and who Moshiach is, and so on. It wasn’t a campaign. Although in 5730 there was a great awakening about Moshiach’s identity too—

08:38 Speaker 2 On 19 Shvat.

08:39 Speaker 3 Because of that great 19 Shvat, at the completion of the Sefer Torah—the communal Sefer Torah. We remember the tremendous excitement then: here they were completing Moshiach’s Sefer Torah, which the Frierdiker Rebbe had begun twenty years earlier, and now the Rebbe was calling for its completion, and so on. And suddenly—now the Rebbe agreed. For years he had not allowed it, and suddenly he agreed to... Of course, it also came through an awakening from below: there was a Jewish woman who raised the matter and asked the Rebbe, and the Rebbe agreed. People had been talking about it for years.

09:21 Speaker 2 Since 5702, when it began.

09:22 Speaker 3 From 5702 until—

09:22 Speaker 2 Until 5730.

09:24 Speaker 3 Until 5730, which is almost, uh, twenty-eight years.

09:27 Speaker 2 So let’s stick to—

09:28 Speaker 3 Wait, I just want to make one point. Even then, there was already that kind of atmosphere, and the misnagdim too. That’s when Shach started—all his stories started then, with this: “Look, Chabad is Moshiach.” Moshiach was some kind of taboo, a taboo. You didn’t talk about it. It was as if it were something, rachmana litzlan, among the charedi public. Moshiach was only for singing “Ani Maamin,” or saying it in the Six Remembrances [?]. But it wasn’t a subject people talked about, because, lehavdil elef alfei havdalos, the Christians talk about it.

10:07 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

10:08 Speaker 3 Rachmana litzlan. So that was their association with Moshiach. That’s why they didn’t talk about it, because it reminded them of [unclear], and so on.

10:13 Speaker 2 As the Rebbe sensed in 5734, with the non-Jews.

10:15 Speaker 3 I have a lot to say about 5734. Yes.

10:17 Speaker 2 So we’ll leave that for another time.

10:19 Speaker 3 All right. I’m just saying that this was the subject whenever you walked into a yeshiva. I would go to Ponevezh; I had friends there. “Oh, you people...” Right away, “You people...” That was always the point.

10:31 Speaker 2 They recognized it. They recognized the point.

10:33 Speaker 3 They recognized that in Chabad, however much you might talk, in the end, that was what you were about. They saw it in the events of the Six-Day War, and in a letter from the Rebbe a little afterward, at the end of Chanukah, on the 28th, where the Rebbe speaks about the Rambam and all that. They always recognized that Chabad had what they called a “messianic tendency”—a tendency to talk about Moshiach. For them it was a taboo; they didn’t talk about it. They didn’t even know about it. They probably never studied the Rambam’s final chapters, because they didn’t touch the subject. “We won’t know until it happens. We won’t know.” They didn’t touch it or talk about it. It was a good thing, something to always hope for, but not something that was actually coming. But as chassidim, we knew what the point was. I remember when Gutnick came—that was on another occasion. Chaim Gutnick, Rabbi Chaim Gutnick. I’m not talking about Moshiach.

11:25 Speaker 2 From Australia.

11:26 Speaker 3 From Australia. Rabbi Chaim. We were very friendly. I remember he farbrenged and told us that after the Six-Day War, he went in to the Rebbe for yechidus. He was speaking to the Rebbe about the Rambam, about Moshiach, about all of that. So the Rebbe told him that what is written about Yaakov doesn’t mean that he necessarily goes himself to take each person; it can even be through a hundred shluchim. He was talking about—

11:53 Speaker 2 Through his shliach.

11:53 Speaker 3 Through his shliach. And there the Rebbe hinted at it so clearly. He had told the Rebbe that this referred to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe didn’t tell him no. The Rebbe didn’t—when something was true, something genuine, the Rebbe wouldn’t—but he had gone in as a chossid.

12:09 Speaker 2 Even what Avraham Fried publicized in ’67 [?], the Rebbe denied.

12:13 Speaker 3 Certainly not.

12:13 Speaker 2 That was a denial.

12:14 Speaker 3 A denial? Not a denial. So even then, yes, it was always there. I remember once being at the beach with yeshiva students. I wasn’t in Chabad yet; this was earlier, when I was at a religious high school. There was a young man there who told me—I had shown that I had a connection to Chabad. My grandfather had been the gabbai of a Chabad chossid, and his name was... So the young man tried to talk to me about it. I always felt some connection to Chabad; I always did. I put on Chabad tefillin and davened according to the Chabad nusach because of my grandfather. I was brought up with him. But he passed away when I was still before bar mitzvah, and, you know, I went to a religious high school. My home wasn’t a Chabad home; it was a Mizrachi home. So this young man excitedly told me that Avraham Fried had taken a plane [?] and sent out—and dropped—

13:05 Speaker 2 [unclear]

13:06 Speaker 3 Yes, and what the Rebbe had said, and all that. It sounded very much like the Rebbe of Lubavitch... He was telling me this. I remember, it was at Shomer Achi, do you remember? It was on the beach at Tel Baruch. He told me about it there. Now I remember that as a teenager, you know, we already knew that it wasn’t a secret: Chabad had a tendency to—

13:35 Speaker 2 A messianic tendency, to say that their Rebbe was Moshiach. Yes, only it was something outside the bounds of time, and everyone knew that the day would eventually come. So we really see, as you’re describing, that the atmosphere was already there in those years. The chassidim knew, and—

13:50 Speaker 3 They knew. They talked about it.

13:51 Speaker 2 The whole subject of Moshiach.

13:52 Speaker 3 It wasn’t... I’ll tell you: new immigrants were arriving from Russia; spreading the wellsprings was at its height; they were giving Tanya classes everywhere, in religious high schools and Litvish yeshivas. I was there then. This wasn’t the issue, as they say. It wasn’t the subject you went around starting up—word of mouth, quietly, among ourselves at a farbrengen. The Rebbe as Melech HaMoshiach was there, but that wasn’t the driving force. Spending an hour on davening with Reb Shlomo Chaim, going in to the Rebbe, or spreading the wellsprings—I said “spreading the message” again—but the driving force was never to speak about this as a subject in its own right, one that needed all the emphasis. But I remember hearing Chaim Gutnick speak at that farbrengen. The Rebbe had told him to travel to Eretz Yisroel. It was right after the Six-Day War.

14:44 Speaker 2 In ’67 [?], the summer of ’67 [?]?

14:46 Speaker 3 Yes. What I remember is that he farbrenged with us in the courtyard. Today it’s called Beis Menachem. Back then it was an old Arab house. We sat in the courtyard; there was a courtyard there, like there is today, though of course it didn’t look the same. We sat with him through the night. It was fascinating, fascinating. And he brought up the subject of Moshiach again—that the Rebbe was Moshiach, and—

15:09 Speaker 2 With the Rebbe’s identity.

15:11 Speaker 3 Clearly. That was after the Six-Day War. That’s why I said it was ’67.

15:13 Speaker 2 Yes.

15:14 Speaker 3 He spoke about it, and he spoke very forcefully. He had a powerful conviction that the Rebbe was Moshiach. Really, and he—

15:20 Speaker 2 Despite his official rabbinic position.

15:23 Speaker 3 An official rabbinic position. He was the rabbi of the Australian army, and he was also a rabbi and dayan there in—

15:27 Speaker 2 Later on.

15:28 Speaker 3 In Australia, in Melbourne. But as a person—and we could see what kind of person he was—this wasn’t some kid. He had studied among the misnagdim, at Telz, but he came from a chassidic home. He had studied there when he was young. So he drew us into that atmosphere, and we saw it. It was the Six-Day War. We were certain Moshiach was coming, that this was the Geulah. There was also a sense that it was an eis ratzon, a favorable time, and there was a great deal of—

15:55 Speaker 2 It’s such a shame they missed that eis ratzon.

15:57 Speaker 3 Yes, it was an eis ratzon that was missed. But I remember people speaking in the Rebbe’s name then. The public was tremendously stirred, tremendously. We were so excited. You know what it meant? The Western Wall, suddenly all of that, suddenly Judea and Samaria, suddenly Chevron. We traveled there, and I was in the middle of—I'm telling you, it was a time... Reb Shlomo Chaim scolded us. I traveled with Wolf, Rabbi Wolf. I stayed with Reb Zelig, together with him. We went to do mivtza tefillin there at the Mandelbaum Gate, just as all the soldiers were coming out.

16:29 Speaker 2 Ah.

16:30 Speaker 3 As they came out, they shouted, “All honor to the Lubavitcher Rebbe!” from the soldiers’ trucks. It was an extraordinarily uplifting, moving time.

16:43 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

16:44 Speaker 3 I even managed to get into the army there—I had good connections there; never mind. I managed to get in during those days, while the fighting was still going on. We went to the Wall, and afterward we traveled to... Back then you still rode on an Arab bus, with everyone else on it Arab. I rode an Arab bus to Chevron.

17:04 Speaker 2 And everyone, as it was in the campaign, everyone—

17:06 Speaker 3 Along the sides of the road there were still Jordanian Legion soldiers, bodies of Legion soldiers. You saw G-dliness. You saw that something was happening here, something. You couldn’t remain indifferent.

17:18 Speaker 2 And from then on?

17:19 Speaker 3 So that’s why I say that throughout the years, deep down, we knew the Rebbe as Melech HaMoshiach needed to be revealed.

17:27 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

17:28 Speaker 3 So this wasn’t something new. It wasn’t that some madman, some crazy people, suddenly appeared and started all this. This was how we were brought up.

17:37 Speaker 2 If I can make a comparison, it’s like fire within an ember.

17:40 Speaker 3 Within an em—exactly.

17:41 Speaker 2 Someone comes along and—

17:42 Speaker 3 Exactly right.

17:43 Speaker 2 Fans it into flame. It was always there.

17:44 Speaker 3 The ember glows, but it burns. In other words, it exists; it’s there in every chossid’s heart. It was clear that the Rebbe is Moshiach, but it wasn’t something we spoke about. It wasn’t the conversation. There’s one thing I’ll never forget; it’s historical. I’m speaking now about historical events. During the campaign to complete a Sefer Torah to welcome Moshiach Tzidkeinu, the Rebbe said that everyone had to be included—the entire people, everyone. So they went to various people, to the leading rabbis—

18:23 Speaker 2 The Steipler.

18:23 Speaker 3 The Steipler too—he gave five shekels and all that. We went to everyone, and it really felt like this was it. So that fellow from Bnei Brak went out. But on this matter, we felt: this is it, this is it.

18:39 Speaker 2 There’s a description in one of the diaries saying that when the Rebbe lifted the crown, it felt as though the Rebbe was now placing the crown on his own head and revealing himself.

18:46 Speaker 3 There was—

18:46 Speaker 2 It’s written in one of the diaries.

18:48 Speaker 3 That was the feeling. The person writing the diary was, of course, writing what he felt. He didn’t actually see the Rebbe about to put the crown on himself—

18:53 Speaker 2 Of course, yes.

18:54 Speaker 3 On the Torah scroll.

18:55 Speaker 2 Of course, of course. It was the feeling.

18:56 Speaker 3 The feeling was that perhaps the Rebbe would bring out another box and take out a crown for himself. Anything could have happened. We were simply open to it. But what can I say? There really was a wonderful atmosphere, and the anticipation of Moshiach was tremendous.

19:13 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

19:14 Speaker 3 Then, about a week and a half beforehand, they held a meeting at the central shul in Kfar Chabad. They gathered all the rabbis for it, including the rabbi of the village and Rabbi Chen. There were many rabbis there, and all the leading activists, including Binyamin Go—Rabbi Binyamin Gorodetsky, Rabbi—

19:37 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

19:38 Speaker 3 The Rebbe’s shliach was there too, and everyone spoke with tremendous enthusiasm. Itchke Ginzburg and Shmuel Safer were there, and all those activists—they were activists, and they spoke with incredible enthusiasm. Then, suddenly, one of them stood up. I don’t remember whether it was Itchke or Shmuel; it doesn’t matter.

19:59 Speaker 2 It would fit either of them.

20:00 Speaker 3 Yes, yes. One of them stood up. No, that was the spirit of what was being said. Then one of them stood up and said, “And on this coming Yud Shvat, may it be for the good, the Rebbe will be revealed as Melech HaMoshiach.” It was an explicit declaration, just like that, and everyone shouted “Amen”—that this Yud Shvat would be the revelation of the Rebbe as Melech HaMoshiach. That was [unclear][?]. That’s it. I remember coming as a bochur. We were in the middle of the Torah scroll campaign, but you couldn’t miss a meeting like that. We weren’t on the sidelines; we were right in the middle of things. I organized the broadcast. The meeting was in honor of the first broadcast. That was when the first broadcast took place.

20:41 Speaker 4 Rivkin.

20:43 Speaker 3 He handled the technical side. I’m talking about who submitted the request and proposed the idea. That’s a story in its own right, too.

20:50 Speaker 4 A podcast in its own right.

20:51 Speaker 3 Yes, but never mind. People don’t know about it; it isn’t in the historical record. So what happened? We were involved in all of this with the Rebbe, and suddenly there was this kind of opening. Then that meeting ended, and a day or the next day later, word came that there had been an extremely sharp phone call from the Rebbe’s secretariat to Aharon Wolf, or to Ephraim, or to Binyamin Gold. I think it was to Ephraim.

21:18 Speaker 4 Ephraim.

21:20 Speaker 3 They said there had been a very strong rebuke: How could they set a time for Moshiach and declare that it would happen on Yud Shvat? How could they set a time and say it would be Yud Shvat? The objection wasn’t that they had called the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach. That wasn’t the issue, because it’s true. There’s no argument about that. Chassidim should say it because that’s the truth—not merely because they need to say it. That wasn’t the objection. The objection was to setting a time. They named a date. Do you understand? As if he can’t come today, or won’t come tomorrow, but will come on that precise day. You’re arranging for him to come specifically on a certain date, and that is heresy. That’s the point. What do you mean by saying that right now, at this very moment, the Rebbe cannot be revealed as Melech HaMoshiach?

22:04 Speaker 4 Not that they meant he couldn’t come today.

22:06 Speaker 3 They didn’t mean he couldn’t come today. So there are things here that—

22:13 Speaker 4 This also brings to mind the setting of 19 Shvat 5753 as the day of—

22:18 Speaker 3 Exactly. It’s all like that. There—

22:21 Speaker 4 All right, we’ll discuss that later. We have an episode on it, and we’ll get to it.

22:24 Speaker 3 But I have another point to make about that.

22:26 Speaker 4 We’ll come back to it and discuss it in that episode.

22:28 Speaker 3 [unclear].

22:30 Speaker 4 We’ll get to that episode.

22:31 Speaker 3 But I’m talking about what concerns us and about those periods. I’m just setting the stage. I’m showing you—and those listening—that this is ingrained in our very bones. It isn’t because of some particular thing.

22:48 Speaker 4 It didn’t start in Nissan, or—

22:49 Speaker 3 No, of course not. If Rabbi Halevi of Brisk knew to say after the first maamar, “Der yungerman halt”—“This young man thinks he is Moshiach”—about a young man of forty-nine! Yes, he understood that he was Moshiach. He said that he, he said that he was Moshiach. He may not have said it in the most positive spirit, but he immediately understood the maamar.

23:11 Speaker 4 He recognized it immediately.

23:12 Speaker 3 Anyone who reads the maamar understands it immediately. And we are the seventh generation. So, of course. There was nothing new about it; it wasn’t some sudden discovery. But because of “your wellsprings will spread forth,” the Rebbe did not allow people to speak about it openly. People weren’t ready for it yet. They weren’t ready to hear such an idea. So first, let’s bring them closer to the idea of “your wellsprings will spread forth”—spreading your wellsprings outward—and then they’ll come to understand the matter on their own, and so on. But never mind.

23:38 Speaker 4 There had to be a period of preparing the ground.

23:41 Speaker 3 Of course.

23:41 Speaker 4 “[Hashem] has not given you a heart to understand,” and then we reached the time.

23:45 Speaker 3 Of course, of course. Everything has its time. I’ll explain that shortly, also in connection with Rabbi Wolpo and with what I—yes, that too.

23:56 Speaker 4 We’ll talk about that in a moment. I’m just saying that you’ve brought us into a very powerful atmosphere of clarity about Moshiach and the Rebbe’s identity as Melech HaMoshiach, long before the years of wonders. That’s important for understanding what this means. You mentioned what things were like around Yud Shvat in the early years, and then in the twenties you mentioned what happened with Rabbi Gutnick and with Avraham Fried, and on Yud Shvat in ’34, and where it had reached by ’40. The Rebbe’s mission is part of your very being. From there we moved into another stage. The whole subject of Moshiach reached a further stage then. How do we see that as another point?

24:38 Speaker 5 Certainly. First of all, you can see that, in spreading the wellsprings, the Rebbe no longer waited for us to go to a particular person, make contact with him, or open a Chabad House and then wait for him to come, and so on. You see that in 5734, right after Yom Kippur—right after the war—the Rebbe began establishing the mitzvah tanks.

24:58 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

24:58 Speaker 5 A tank means taking the wellspring to a person. You don’t wait for a person to come and drink from the wellspring; you bring the wellspring to him. And the Rebbe said that he himself travels with the tanks. In other words, he himself is on the tank; he is there with every tankist. That’s something the Rebbe himself said: “I go, I travel with every—” Even when people threw stones and so on, the Rebbe said that he himself was there. Later the Rebbe took it further and personally distributed dollars through the tankists. The Rebbe said of himself, “Ich bin doch a tankist”—“I’m a tankist, after all.” Everything surrounding the tanks is a discussion in its own right. It was an enormous innovation by the Rebbe: doing outreach in an unconventional way, so to speak.

25:41 Speaker 4 In Torah language, “a king breaks through boundaries.”

25:43 Speaker 5 Breaks through boundaries. These are terms the Rebbe himself uses. He says, “I’ll explain it in Lashon Kodesh. What is ‘tank’? Taharos, Nezikin, Kodshim.” A Jew begins with purity; you save him from harm and raise him to holiness. And one must trim one’s nails before washing one’s hands. You approach a Jew without delays, and so on. You can see the path the Rebbe was building. At first, there was “Ufaratzta” on the kibbutzim. Then people traveled to the Chabad Houses. The Rebbe was building the path into the Geulah, according to the Baal Shem Tov’s teaching that “your wellsprings will spread forth outward.” He was building it. There was a process.

26:23 Speaker 4 Absolutely.

26:23 Speaker 5 There was a process in the Rebbe’s educational approach. Someone once asked the Rebbe why he established schools in those places. Why establish schools in—give us more ordinary places. You know, why must we always take the difficult cases, the serious problems, while others get the easier ones? Let us go to ordinary places. The Rebbe said, “We have to do the things that no one else wants to do.”

26:50 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

26:51 Speaker 5 In other words, the Rebbe goes down, like Moshe, to the very lowest place, to be “the rear guard of all the camps,” like Dan. The Rebbe sits with them.

27:02 Speaker 4 [unclear].

27:04 Speaker 5 In bringing people close [?]. And that is precisely the point: the Rebbe’s approach is to take those at the very bottom and lift them up. The Rebbe started in Zarnooga [?], and in Tanach and Brosh [?], where everyone was a new immigrant, barely knew anything—Kurds. Here in Tanach there were all kinds of people who knew nothing about any of it. The Rebbe sent us here. I’m here in Nazareth Illit. This is the hardest material there is. I remember writing to the Rebbe when I first came from Lubavitch. I wrote that I didn’t want this place to have the appearance of being only for Georgians, a Georgian school. So the Rebbe—and I was trying to reach the Moroccans as well. The Rebbe wrote to me about my connection with Morocco, and [unclear]. Yes, you’re right, we need to do that too. Everything was done in that way. That was Photoshop itself.

27:50 Speaker 4 That was Photoshop itself.

27:51 Speaker 5 What was all that?

27:52 Speaker 4 An extraordinary scene, really.

27:53 Speaker 5 Yes, but I’m talking about—

27:57 Speaker 4 About the Rebbe reaching every corner. The Rebbe goes down to every place.

28:00 Speaker 5 The Rebbe reaches everything, every nook, every corner. Only Moshiach’s work involves going so low, going all the way down.

28:17 Speaker 4 So if I want to give an analogy that might explain what the rabbi is telling us—all this progress and development through which the Rebbe prepares the world to greet Moshiach—it’s as though every action of the Rebbe, and I mean every single one: every sicha, every farbrengen, every dollar distribution, the establishment of every Chabad House, everything, is preparing the ground for the revelation of the Rebbe as Melech HaMoshiach. For example—

28:40 Speaker 5 Everything is permeated with precisely that purpose.

28:43 Speaker 4 What does that mean?

28:43 Speaker 5 There is a plan, an ultimate plan for the Geulah through the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach. An ultimate plan. It begins from the very first moment the Rebbe agrees to accept the leadership, because that was his condition. I can also explain how I see it. We held a farbrengen about exactly this on Shabbos. I explained: How can it be? I explained the whole point. How can it be that the Rebbe, who knows who he is—he knows he is a grandson of the Tzemach Tzedek, and he knows there is no one else, and he knows exactly? He was born for it. He was born for it before he even went to cheder. The Rebbe testifies about himself that long before then, it had already taken shape in his mind. Who can say of himself that the Geulah had taken shape in his mind? Only someone about whom it can be said, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” Only someone like Yirmiyahu can say that; only a prophet can speak that way. The Rebbe reveals something about himself to Ben-Zvi, something he would not have said to chassidim that way.

29:46 Speaker 4 There’s a very interesting line in Shemos Rabbah. The Midrash says that Moshe Rabbeinu was prepared for the Geulah from the beginning of his existence. From the beginning of his existence.

29:54 Speaker 5 That means even before then.

29:57 Speaker 4 Yes.

29:57 Speaker 5 Meaning, already in the womb. Rebbetzin Chana, aleha hashalom, said, “A holy chariot.” And there are those well-known telegrams from the Rebbe Rashab about how to care for him, how things should be. Uh.

30:14 Speaker 4 There’s no mistaking it.

30:15 Speaker 5 It has nothing to do with that. And I could speak at great length about each one of them. At farbrengens, I explain how the Davidic monarchy is structured, how it all works. People already think it’s disappeared, but it’s there all the time. The present situation too—everything revolves around this matter of the revelation of the Rebbe as Melech HaMoshiach.

30:33 Speaker 4 So, to give an analogy for what I started to say—and it explains what the rabbi is saying so clearly and from the heart—it’s like building a palace for a king, with the aim that the king will enter the palace and finally attain what he seeks, the fulfillment of his wish.

30:48 Speaker 5 His royal aspiration.

30:49 Speaker 4 But before that, there’s the pouring of concrete; before that, the foundations.

30:52 Speaker 5 No, you can’t see anything.

30:54 Speaker 4 You can’t see anything. It’s all hidden.

30:56 Speaker 5 On the contrary, all you see there is steel bars.

30:58 Speaker 4 Yes.

30:58 Speaker 5 You see rods, you see concrete, and you can’t understand what’s going on. This is going to be a palace?

31:04 Speaker 4 Mm-hm.

31:04 Speaker 5 What palace? What’s going on here? All sorts of people arrive—this one and that one. Some came from Russia, and this one came from Argentina.

31:10 Speaker 4 So, as you say—

31:11 Speaker 5 They’re all, well, barefoot and destitute, as they say. And the Rebbe has to take care of everything, to tell each person what to do and how to do it.

31:20 Speaker 4 It’s like when a contractor comes and lays the flooring in a house. He isn’t necessarily consciously focused on the king entering. Right now he’s laying flooring. But the overall purpose of it all is, of course, that the king will eventually enter, and so on. And according to what the rabbi is saying, every detail in the construction of this palace of the seventh generation is directed toward one goal alone: drawing down the Shechinah into the lower realms through the leader of the generation, who is the Moshiach of the seventh generation, who brings Moshiach. And you show us—the rabbi shows us—in the Yud, the Chof, the Lamed, the Mem.

31:50 Speaker 5 Exactly.

31:50 Speaker 4 These things were already clear, though like fire hidden within an ember. And in the Nun, in the years of wonders, it came to its culmination.

31:55 Speaker 5 Although—

31:56 Speaker 4 That preparation is very important.

31:57 Speaker 5 Although even then, from the sichos and everything else, people understood. You look at the first maamar and so on, and you do understand the direction, because he does speak then about “your wellsprings will spread outward,” and all those matters—“When?”—all of it. At first it begins just with “they will spread,” and then comes “you shall spread forth.” After “you shall spread forth,” it keeps advancing. All along you see the buildup, until he builds an entire system: an educational system, a system for spreading the message, a system encompassing the whole world. Shluchim throughout the world. Little by little he prepares this enormous network, which gradually reaches the entire world. And then you see that it was planned. You see a commander here, a commander sitting and planning. At first he has no army, nothing—like King David. He has a few rough fellows, four hundred there in Chevron. He sits with four hundred poor men who have nothing—not even shoes on their feet, as they say—and sets out to build with them. Some came from Russia, some from Yemen. He takes them and builds an entire system with them. And people arrived in France too. And they weren’t just destitute; they were emotionally broken and crushed. The Rebbe takes the Holocaust generation, a generation whose people had cast off the yoke of mitzvos because they felt, G-d forbid, as though Hakadosh Boruch Hu had cast them off. The Rebbe had to be the compassionate father. His name is Menachem: his task is to comfort that generation and bring them to a place where they could belong—belong to something. First he brought them in, clothed them, gave them food, clothed them, gave them—

33:39 Speaker 6 Their material needs.

33:40 Speaker 5 Their material needs. Here the Rebbe made sure they would have a village. Today, I don’t know what you’d call it—it’s a village like Savyon, for millionaires. Try going into the village now; try buying a place there. Just imagine. But those people had nothing to eat. The Rebbe threw each of them a sack of gold. My [unclear], Rabbi Zalman’s [unclear], tells me, “They don’t know how to say thank you. The Rebbe threw each of them a sack of money, a sack of gold—a home.” What? Those people arrived with nothing. Nothing at all. Their clothes were torn.

34:11 Speaker 6 So from the outset, you can see Melech HaMoshiach’s concern for both their material and spiritual needs, so that ultimately—

34:16 Speaker 5 Like a father, truly, “as a nurse carries a suckling child”—truly like a father; like an eagle over its young. He genuinely cared. He cared for every individual. Tell someone in Chabad that he couldn’t say, “In my day, I’d write to the Rebbe about everything, and the Rebbe would answer me. Should I have an operation or not? Should I go ahead with a shidduch or not?” This, that, moving from one apartment to another—endless questions.

34:46 Speaker 6 A letter was just published in which someone asks the Rebbe what to do with his two parrots.

34:49 Speaker 5 You understand?

34:50 Speaker 6 Should he take them to one place or another? The Rebbe answers that it would be better to take them to a particular veterinarian who understands parrots, and that would be good.

34:59 Speaker 5 I’m glad you told me that, because I was thinking—I once—

35:02 Speaker 6 The Rebbe answers.

35:02 Speaker 5 Someone once gave me a parrot as a gift. I remember asking Rabbi Ashkenazi, “Can I keep an animal at home?”

35:07 Speaker 6 Never mind; what’s the point about someone being brought close?

35:09 Speaker 5 It could be all right.

35:10 Speaker 6 I’m just saying how the Rebbe attends to every detail.

35:13 Speaker 5 It doesn’t matter. So I see what every detail means. The Rebbe responded to a little girl’s drawing. To the Rebbe, a gift from this young child, this small detail, is a whole world. He speaks to a person because he already sees all their generations. He speaks to each person as though speaking to generations. The Rebbe isn’t speaking just to one person; the Rebbe is speaking to generations. When you see a person, this is the outlook the Rebbe tried, and is trying, to instill in us. Now, I argued that after forty years, after the Rebbe said, “I have given you a heart to know and eyes to see,” he expects us to be a little more grown up, not to ask about every little detail, not to ask about everything. On the contrary, the Rebbe wants us to act on our own initiative. Do you need to ask me whether you should put on tefillin or help a Jew? Why are you asking me? Asking that is improper. Why ask questions like that? Don’t you understand what I want from you? I’m your father. Don’t you understand what I want? Why are you—you’re still a baby in diapers.

36:17 Speaker 6 …

36:17 Speaker 5 You need to learn to walk on your own two feet already.

36:20 Speaker 6 So that really brings us more to the subject of 5751, before the call of 11 Nissan. But first, we want to finish our overview. Covering forty years in forty minutes is a little difficult, but let’s try. We’ve reached the point where we can see how the Rebbe built the whole palace for this.

36:36 Speaker 5 Moshiach.

36:37 Speaker 6 I just want to point out that in 5741, with the “We Want Moshiach Now” of Tzivos Hashem, and then all the sichos of the eighties and so on, this subject only kept gaining momentum, despite—

36:48 Speaker 5 I’ll tell you more. I’ll tell you another two—some more things from the eighties.

36:52 Speaker 6 Just before that, let me say that despite the negative points that came up in the eighties—I’m talking about 5745 and things like that—the direction was still clear. Perhaps the time hadn’t come yet, perhaps things—

37:02 Speaker 5 Why do you call them “negative points”? With the Rebbe, there’s nothing negative. The Rebbe guides us.

37:06 Speaker 6 Okay.

37:07 Speaker 5 The Rebbe doesn’t—there’s nothing negative with the Rebbe. There’s no such thing. There’s a direction. If you come and do something before its time, go ahead and put a dome on a shul whose foundations haven’t been built.

37:21 Speaker 6 …

37:23 Speaker 5 Is putting up a dome a negative thing? No.

37:24 Speaker 6 Certainly.

37:24 Speaker 5 You need a dome. But suppose you want it to look beautiful outside, with marble. Go ahead and put marble on something that doesn’t exist yet.

37:30 Speaker 6 …

37:31 Speaker 5 Let the work be finished. You come in halfway through the work and ruin it. You—

37:38 Speaker 6 The distinction here is very important. It isn’t negative; it’s guiding them on the right path.

37:41 Speaker 5 Exactly.

37:42 Speaker 6 …

37:42 Speaker 5 Exactly.

37:43 Speaker 6 Guidance.

37:44 Speaker 5 I don’t accept that. There’s nothing negative. With the Rebbe, there’s nothing negative.

37:46 Speaker 6 Right.

37:46 Speaker 5 There’s only guidance. Even when, G-d forbid, Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives a punishment, He doesn’t do it because He takes pleasure in a person’s suffering. He wants to help him, educate him, bring him somewhere, correct him.

38:01 Speaker 6 So, as you’re saying, throughout the eighties that feeling only grew stronger. After all, the sichos about Moshiach gathered momentum, with “Ad mosai?” and “Moshiach now.”

38:10 Speaker 5 More than that.

38:11 Speaker 6 And when the Rebbe encourages it for an hour and forty-one minutes in Likkutei Sichos, volume 6, things reach a peak.

38:16 Speaker 5 Before that. Let’s take it from there. You mentioned the mitzvah tanks, but there’s also Tzivos Hashem.

38:22 Speaker 6 Right.

38:22 Speaker 5 The Rebbe establishes an army of children, of young people. What does that mean? What is this? It was only when Chana came along and called him “Tzivos Hashem.”

38:33 Speaker 6 …

38:34 Speaker 5 Until then, it couldn’t be called that. Read the parsha in [unclear] of the Rebbe. Every year I look at it and say, “It was only when Chana came along.” Chana comes and speaks about her son, and then he calls it Tzivos Hashem. The moment had arrived. Who had to give it the name Tzivos Hashem? It came through Chana’s son.

38:51 Speaker 6 “He will exalt the horn of His anointed one.”

38:52 Speaker 5 “He will exalt the horn of His anointed one.” And the Rebbe cries when he speaks about it. He often mentions it in that haftarah, the—

38:58 Speaker 6 It’s discussed every year.

38:58 Speaker 5 You can see it. So what am I saying? That it was all planned, and that Tzivos Hashem had to be established. The Rebbe is preparing a plan here, a plan of conquest: tanks and soldiers. It starts with the children, the soldiers of Tzivos Hashem. The Rebbe sees how anything goes in the world. He sees things falling apart. The Rebbe says this and explains it too. The Rebbe said it on Shabbos; we spoke about it.

39:29 Speaker 6 How?

39:29 Speaker 5 He sees that young people are stripped of good character traits. They’re given no limits. Everything is permitted. There’s no respect, no kabbolas ol, no discipline. So the Rebbe builds. If you want soldiers of the House of David later on, when they reach the yeshivos, you first have to educate them. When a sapling is young, train it to grow straight, so it doesn’t grow wild, so it has respect—respects adults and respects parents.

40:05 Speaker 6 So it won’t veer right or left.

40:06 Speaker 5 Honor your parents. No, today children talk a lot and get everything they want. A child gets—

40:11 Speaker 6 What’s interesting is—

40:11 Speaker 5 A child wants to get everything, and when he lies down on the floor, his father doesn’t know what to do. Instead of educating him, instead of teaching him limits, he gives in and ends up ruining him.

40:23 Speaker 6 What’s very interesting is that the Rebbe launches the whole Tzivos Hashem initiative, as you explain, because of what’s lacking and the absence of [unclear], but at the same time its whole theme is Moshiach.

40:32 Speaker 5 The goal is to prepare the people, to prepare their hearts. You don’t prepare them only once they’re grown up. You start when they’re little. “We want Moshiach now.” That’s the slogan. The Rebbe is saying: You must know that if you want Moshiach, you have to act accordingly.

40:48 Speaker 6 …

40:48 Speaker 5 There’s a plan.

40:49 Speaker 6 That’s part of Moshiach: restoring the completeness of Torah and mitzvos.

40:52 Speaker 5 Exactly. So you’re going to bring Moshiach. The Rebbe plants that aspiration in this young sapling. The child has a goal in life. It isn’t something vague. You’re going to bring Moshiach.

41:15 Speaker 6 From 5741 onward, we also see it intensify: every year the Rebbe gives a phrase for the year at the start of Tishrei connected with Moshiach. Moshiach is coming to bring—

41:22 Speaker 5 Exactly. Here the Rebbe begins with “May it be a year of the coming of Moshiach.” My Shimon [?] always said, and rightly so: When the Rebbe says, “May it be a year of the coming of Moshiach,” with the Rebbe it isn’t a wish.

41:39 Speaker 6 A wish.

41:40 Speaker 5 It’s a fact.

41:42 Speaker 6 It happened.

41:43 Speaker 5 It happened. When the Rebbe speaks about a year of the coming of Moshiach, it becomes a year of the coming of Moshiach. Things connected with Moshiach’s coming actually began then. I’ll tell you something very interesting about it.

41:55 Speaker 6 You told me about it.

41:56 Speaker 5 Yes, an interesting story. As I said in the introduction, we would always write to the Rebbe following the [unclear] of the King Moshiach, ahead of 11 Nissan, when we sent the tankists’ letter. So I would prepare the wording, based on a possuk in Tehillim from the chapter that was about to begin, plus other things.

42:18 Speaker 6 On the organization’s letterhead.

42:19 Speaker 5 Of course, it was all on the—yes, of course. The tankists would sign it. I would usually send the wording on 6 Nissan. That year was the eightieth year, so I included the point that Moshe Rabbeinu, the first redeemer, was eighty, and now the Rebbe shlita, the final redeemer, Moshiach, was revealed at eighty. Just as Moshe brought the Jewish people out, the Rebbe would bring us out of exile. I wrote it very strongly. At the time, writing that was very bold. Today it’s already straightforward, but back then it was very, very explicit and strong: the first redeemer, the final redeemer, and the Rebbe—just as Moshe Rabbeinu was eighty, so was the Rebbe.

43:00 Speaker 6 “I have surely remembered you”—eighty.

43:01 Speaker 5 And then—

43:02 Speaker 6 All the tankists signed.

43:03 Speaker 5 Of course, gladly. What do you mean?

43:06 Speaker 6 They were all of one mind.

43:07 Speaker 5 They gladly followed orders.

43:08 Speaker 6 Yes.

43:08 Speaker 5 You know. In short, yes, everyone. It wasn’t the first time; we always wrote, but this time the wording was very, very strong. That was also the year the Rebbe said not to come. I wanted to come with my whole family, so I asked, because I didn’t know whether to come or not.

43:26 Speaker 6 For Pesach.

43:27 Speaker 5 This was for Pesach. Some women had written that it would interfere with Pesach preparations, so the Rebbe said to allocate some of it for Pesach needs and half for tzedakah. In short, the Rebbe didn’t want people to come because there had been objections to it at the time. I had my doubts, because I was planning to travel with my whole family. But I said to myself, am I going to put a sign on myself saying I’m not like everyone else? Here I am, coming with my family. You know, it felt like rebelling against the king. I felt as if I were rebelling against what the Rebbe was saying. Still, I wrote to him, because that was the plan. No, I didn’t get an answer; apparently it didn’t arrive in time. I also submitted a note through the secretariat when I went in for yechidus. In any case, we wrote to the Rebbe and sent that letter. That’s a personal story. After Pesach, I received a letter from the Rebbe. I had also written the Rebbe a birthday greeting for 11 Nissan. Inside the letter of blessing the Rebbe wrote me, there was another letter enclosed, addressed to the Chabad mitzvah-tank crews. The wording of the letter—if you look at it, you’ll see—goes like this: there’s the standard wording for 11 Nissan, acknowledging that the letter was received, and “the beginning of the blessing” is typed there. Then it speaks about Pesach and leaving the constraints of Egypt, which is what Pesach is about, and the Rebbe signs it. Inside is that additional letter to the tank crews. And at the bottom, the Rebbe writes in his holy handwriting, “and the beginning of the blessing.”

45:09 Speaker 7 Twice.

45:10 Speaker 5 Meaning, at the top of the letter it’s printed:

45:13 Speaker 7 “The beginning of the blessing.”

45:14 Speaker 5 You know, I can read at least some of it [unclear], and at the bottom there’s a handwritten correction to the wording.

45:22 Speaker 7 “And the beginning…”

45:23 Speaker 5 “And the beginning”—regarding the blessing you wrote about the revelation.

45:29 Speaker 7 “Our redeemer.”

45:30 Speaker 5 About “our redeemer,” about the Rebbe, about the Rebbe needing to be revealed. I took the letter and traveled to see Moshe Slonim and Zusha Wilimovsky. There was also Shlomke [?]—

45:43 Speaker 7 There were young people there.

45:44 Speaker 5 They were a sort of leadership group, the committee of the tank crews, whom I would consult about everything. So after Pesach I went to speak with them, bringing the letter along. I opened it and showed them what I had written and the answer I’d received. They were beside themselves.

46:03 Speaker 7 Beside themselves.

46:04 Speaker 5 Beside themselves. Moshe was shouting. I don’t remember if he actually did a somersault. He grabbed Zusha, grabbed me, and jumped up and down. He was completely beside himself. He said, “Look what the Rebbe himself is confirming here! Look what the Rebbe writes here about himself! Look, look!” Moshe and Zusha were beside themselves, I’m telling you. It was quite a scene. As far as I remember, he even did a somersault, though I’m not sure. I think he did—that’s how overwhelmed he was.

46:30 Speaker 7 Completely overwhelmed.

46:31 Speaker 5 No, no, but he said [unclear]. I don’t remember it clearly myself anymore. I remember him grabbing me and lifting me up, with Zusha there too. It was something. That’s a story from 5742.

46:45 Speaker 7 As the Rabbi says, when the Rebbe speaks about the coming of Moshiach, there are several letters in which the Rebbe explains that there are several stages and several aspects to it. And something happened in 5742.

46:54 Speaker 5 Certainly. But the whole matter of identifying the Rebbe as Moshiach became more overt.

46:59 Speaker 7 And from there we continued to include Moshiach.

47:01 Speaker 5 There’s another story, from 5747, that affected me deeply. Two years after that, I wrote to the Rebbe that I knew he hadn’t wanted people to come for 11 Nissan back then, because of all the commotion. But now that the great commotion had died down, I was asking personally whether I could come for 11 Nissan. Back then I had listened, like an obedient child, but now I wanted to come. The Rebbe sent me a letter of blessing to come, and since then I’ve indeed traveled for 11 Nissan. I try to go every year. Then came 5747, when the Rebbe was already eighty-five.

47:48 Speaker 7 Mm-hmm.

47:50 Speaker 5 11 Nissan fell on Friday, and on Shabbos I was standing opposite the Rebbe. Avi Taub was with me. That was when the story with Russia began—but that’s a story in itself. In any case, I’m sitting in the middle of the farbrengen, and suddenly it hits me. During one of the sichos, I look at the Rebbe and say to myself: Yesterday was 11 Nissan. It’s already passed. When the Rebbe turned eighty, he hadn’t been revealed. The Rebbe wrote this, and then there was that—and another year passed, and another, and another. He’s already eighty-five. What are we waiting for?

48:32 Speaker 8 How much longer?

48:33 Speaker 5 What are we waiting for? How much longer? What’s going to happen? I started to—I felt an inner…

48:37 Speaker 8 An inner weeping.

48:38 Speaker 5 A real inner weeping. I felt like a shattered vessel. I remember that moment. I looked at the Rebbe and said to myself, “Wait—how much longer? What are we waiting for here?” And as I’m thinking this, the Rebbe is in the middle of saying “L’chaim.” Suddenly, the Rebbe turns toward me and gestures like this.

49:05 Speaker 8 A big cup.

49:06 Speaker 5 A big cup. The Rebbe could read what I was thinking, what was troubling me so much. He gestured with his hand like this: a big cup, a full cup. From then on, at every farbrengen, the Rebbe said to make it a full cup. We had already begun the trips to Russia by then, but at that point, at every farbrengen—

49:25 Speaker 8 From the very first moment.

49:25 Speaker 5 A full cup. What I saw then was that the Rebbe not only knew exactly what you were thinking; he was there with you. It was as if he were saying, “I know. I know this troubles you. It troubles me too. I’m there, feeling that same anguish.” Exactly. That was the moment it struck me. I saw the Rebbe gesture to me like that. You know, just like that—whoosh!

49:52 Speaker 8 A direct look.

49:53 Speaker 5 Yes. He turned his head toward me and gestured like that. It was as though he was showing that someone there felt the pain over Moshiach, the pain of—

50:02 Speaker 8 Real pain.

50:03 Speaker 5 It was a moment, you know, one of those inward moments, a suddenly genuine moment. And later, that Motzaei Shabbos, the Rebbe spoke—look at the sichos, they’re very interesting—about the tanks and a city, about [unclear], a city in Jerusalem. He spoke about three things: the Temimim, Lubavitch, Moshiach, all of that. The Rebbe spoke about it very—

50:33 Speaker 8 The point is that this subject ran through everything like a thread, sometimes more openly and sometimes less openly. As we said, it wasn’t stated either positively or negatively. Rather, the Rebbe was guiding us in how, ultimately, the Rebbe’s coming as Melech HaMoshiach would take place.

50:48 Speaker 5 But you see that the Rebbe knows—or, in other words, the Rebbe is saying how a chossid should feel, how he should—

50:55 Speaker 8 He encourages that feeling.

50:56 Speaker 5 Certainly. That’s how a chossid should be. What else should he—

51:00 Speaker 8 A chossid who doesn’t feel that way—it raises a question about him. Where are you? How can you not understand that the Rebbe is there?

51:07 Speaker 5 A year later—

51:08 Speaker 8 In 5748.

51:09 Speaker 5 In 5748, when we were already involved in the missions to Russia.

51:13 Speaker 8 You started in ’44, right?

51:16 Speaker 5 No, not in Russia.

51:18 Speaker 8 When, then?

51:18 Speaker 5 In ’47.

51:19 Speaker 8 In ’47.

51:20 Speaker 5 But no—not at the very beginning. Many people had traveled before us.

51:23 Speaker 8 Yes.

51:24 Speaker 5 Ours is a story in itself. We went as businessmen, which meant we could travel every two months.

51:29 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

51:30 Speaker 5 Others couldn’t travel like that. A tourist could go once a year, no more, because they wouldn’t allow it.

51:35 Speaker 8 That was a matter of opportunity.

51:36 Speaker 5 A different opportunity. But there was very strong encouragement for the trips there, and so on. A year later, it was already the third time we’d been there. It was 2 Nissan. The story of 2 Nissan is one in itself—how we got there, and how there was no one to accompany us. Even Nachum wasn’t with us then, because—

51:56 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

51:56 Speaker 5 We couldn’t make the morning flight. Everyone else had gone. The yeshiva traveled on—

52:00 Speaker 8 You were alone with Avi?

52:01 Speaker 5 So I traveled with Avi, just the two of us. We went there, and—

52:06 Speaker 8 You reached Rostov?

52:07 Speaker 5 We reached—yes, Rostov. I’m talking about 2 Nissan.

52:09 Speaker 8 2 Nissan, 5748.

52:10 Speaker 5 Shabbos was Rosh Chodesh, and Sunday was 2 Nissan, exactly like the time of [unclear].

52:16 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

52:18 Speaker 5 And at the last moment, at [unclear], in the general fax I used to write—the fax I would send to everyone, not to the place by the Rebbe Rashab there—we ended the fax with “Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu Verabeinu Melech HaMoshiach Leolam Vaed.”

52:38 Speaker 8 In 5748.

52:39 Speaker 5 Yes. And—

52:42 Speaker 8 You hadn’t yet heard the Rebbe’s sicha about “Yechi Hamelech”?

52:45 Speaker 5 Just a little patience, let me—

52:49 Speaker 8 Help out.

52:49 Speaker 5 Patience. That’s exactly what I’m about to say. The sicha came afterward. You see, we’re talking about before that. It’s morning, and I call here so they’ll inform the Rebbe that we carried it out. It was done. And what followed—

53:10 Speaker 8 What followed is understood.

53:11 Speaker 5 Now you understand.

53:12 Speaker 8 Had you already heard by then that the Rebbe had spoken about “Yechi Hamelech”? No, the Rebbe—that’s fine, but only when you returned—

53:17 Speaker 5 We came back on 11 Shvat—sorry, on 11 Nissan. We came back from there on 11 Nissan.

53:23 Speaker 8 So you were told that the Rebbe spoke about “Yechi Hamelech.”

53:24 Speaker 5 It was at the Rebbe’s house, and then I found out that the Rebbe had asked us—and told Leibel—to wait until afterward. The Rebbe was distributing dollars then. This was at the Rebbe’s house. We arrived just before Maariv, so he said we should stay in the area after Maariv. But the Rebbe had already given us dollars. We had gone by, and then I ran off. I thought of bringing him [unclear]. I came back, but he wasn’t there. The door was closed. When I came back again, there was no line anymore, nothing. So we went around the back, through the kitchen, and Sholom Ber Ginsburg started shouting to me. He said, “The Rebbe saw [unclear]. The Rebbe is waiting for you! Where are you?” Anyway, we came in through the kitchen, and the Rebbe gave each of us a box. Here, I’ll show it to you. See?

54:14 Speaker 8 Oh.

54:15 Speaker 5 So the Rebbe gave us—here, this is that very box.

54:16 Speaker 8 I took it.

54:17 Speaker 5 The Rebbe gave it to us. Do you see what it says here? Look.

54:19 Speaker 8 “I received it, together with the blessing of the Rebbe shlita, upon our return from Russia, 11 Nissan 5748.” “A happy, kosher Pesach ... from there.”

54:29 Speaker 5 “From there.” So the Rebbe gestured like this. The Rebbe gave us the box with the matzos.

54:35 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

54:36 Speaker 5 Along with his letter—a letter for 11 Nissan. He gave it with the letter. He gave my father one with the letter and wished each of us a happy Pesach. After that, the Rebbe gestured with his hand like this: “And ... from there.”

54:53 Speaker 8 Wow.

54:53 Speaker 5 He gestured with his hand. After that, the Rebbe went upstairs and started the niggun—the one he hadn’t sung since 22 Shvat.

54:59 Speaker 8 He hadn’t sung it, and then the Rebbe sang it.

55:01 Speaker 5 The Rebbe looked at us standing there and began the niggun.

55:04 Speaker 8 The feeling here—the feeling is clear.

55:16 Speaker 5 So you see, first of all, that this wasn’t some whim of a few people. There’s that passage about “interpreting it as referring to himself,” which we’ll look at in Parshas Tazria-Metzora. There’s what the text says and what Rashi says. Each of the students did indeed say this about himself, but the point is that they themselves interpreted it as referring to themselves—

55:42 Speaker 8 He would interpret it as referring to himself.

55:43 Speaker 5 He interpreted it as referring to himself. In other words, through the chassidim, the Rebbe wanted them to know about this, and he brought them to an understanding of it without saying it outright himself.

55:59 Speaker 8 But in a very interesting, very different way. On 2 Nissan 5748, it really was different. Here the Rebbe did reveal the matter very clearly and said that the king should indeed be proclaimed, and—

56:10 Speaker 5 You understand that yourself.

56:11 Speaker 8 Yes. There had to be an awakening from above here, as it says—

56:16 Speaker 5 An awakening from below. Nobody knew about it that day. There had been an awakening with “Yechi” in Rostov, at the Rebbe Rashab’s resting place, on 2 Nissan.

56:23 Speaker 8 Until now, everyone understood it differently. I heard from several chassidim that Chassidus says that before an awakening from above can be drawn down, there has to be an initial awakening from above to bring it about. So they said that on 2 Nissan 5748, the Rebbe gave things a push: “Come on, now you can ride the wave.” Then came all the activities of accepting his kingship, which we’ll discuss later. But you’re saying that something actually preceded that awakening from above: the very fact that they were at the Rebbe Rashab’s resting place and proclaimed “Yechi.” Something happened there, and the Rebbe showed them special attention.

56:57 Speaker 5 The Rebbe received word that it had been done, rather than initiating it himself. But there is a maamar in which the Rebbe speaks about “Yechi Hamelech,” many years before this. So the Rebbe had mentioned the idea before, but here it was emphasized much more. Yes: “May he live and sing until the coming of David, our king Moshiach,” and “adding life to the life of the king.” The Rebbe explained what this proclamation adds. No one yet knew how to connect it to this.

57:27 Speaker 8 That this was actually what all the proclamations were about.

57:28 Speaker 5 Maybe another time—perhaps next time—I’ll show some photographs of those panim. They were addressed, “To the Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach.” The pan said “the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach.” In other words, people knew that this was what they were talking about: that he needed to be revealed. And I’m telling you this was a year after 5747. I know the Rebbe [unclear] it. Now, the story about [unclear]—we’ll tell what happened there another time—was already in 5751.

57:59 Speaker 8 We’ll get to 5751 in the next episode. I just want to sum up this one. Rabbi Nachshon, I don’t know about the listeners, but I know what happened for me personally: you’ve brought me into a completely different frame of mind. You’ve given me a very clear view of a straight, coherent line—something sharp and unmistakable. You can see how the Rebbe was building all of this toward a goal that he stated right at the beginning, and how, little by little, he led the entire generation toward the revelation of himself as Melech HaMoshiach. There were early signs of it. We mentioned those signs and the ember burning within, how the idea of Moshiach was already visible. In certain places it came through more strongly. [Unclear.] We mentioned 5747, 5748, and 2 Nissan 5748. You can see that it was all leading there. This episode has really been an introduction. With Hashem’s help, in the next episode we’ll discuss everything that happened after 28 Nissan—the more openly expressed developments. This introduction was essential for getting a sense of the atmosphere and understanding what those things meant. So thank you very much, Rabbi Nachshon, for the first episode in our series on the revelation of the Rebbe himself as Melech HaMoshiach. Personally, I also feel there’s a connection here: throughout the years we’ve discussed, the Rebbe was leading the whole world toward the Geulah and the revelation of himself as Melech HaMoshiach. You spoke forcefully, in your characteristic way, about the tanks and Tzivos Hashem—two things you’re closely involved with. The tanks, Tzivos Hashem, and the Rebbe’s whole army are marching to bring Moshiach. So it feels natural that, after your work with the tanks and Tzivos Hashem, you also became involved openly in the subject of the revelation of the Rebbe himself as Melech HaMoshiach, having worked—

59:31 Speaker 8 —on all the foundations and groundwork that came before. So, with Hashem’s help, in the next episode we’ll speak more clearly about the events that brought the Rebbe’s revelation as Melech HaMoshiach into clearer view from 28 Nissan onward: the halachic rulings, the signatures accepting his kingship, the first proclamation of “Yechi,” and the first time the Rebbe encouraged “Yechi,” on 15 Menachem Av. We’ll discuss all that, with Hashem’s help. Thank you very much, Rabbi Nachshon.

59:52 Speaker 5 And, with Hashem’s help, may it happen today, in actuality, so we won’t have to wait for your next podcast. The story is all well and good, but we want it to happen in actuality, and we hope that will be today. So we hope it will happen this very day, and that we’ll all be able to proclaim together, joyfully and aloud: “Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu V’Rabbeinu Melech HaMoshiach l’olam va’ed!” See you at 770 and in the Third Beis Hamikdash.

1:00:19 Speaker 8 Amen. Thank you very much, Rabbi Nachshon.

1:00:22 Speaker 9 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the Temimim from World Ath. For more programs, dial *6358. Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu V’Rabbeinu Melech HaMoshiach l’olam va’ed.