Ears to Hear 40 Part 3 | Awakening the Kingship in the Royal House

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

00:08 Speaker 2 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the students of the Temimim from ATA Haolami.

00:14 Speaker 1 And then I said it a third time, out loud: “Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu VeRabbeinu Melech HaMoshiach Leolam Vaed.” Loudly—I shouted it very loudly, with all my heart. The whole crowd shouted “Yechi” loudly. I turned toward the Rebbe, and I saw him sitting like this. The Rebbe was sitting with a smile, leaning back against the backrest, regally. The Rebbe usually sits leaning forward, but here he was sitting back like a king. You know, the Rebbe was smiling. And I said, with Hashem’s help, “Lechaim” ... It was very, very good. As they say, I felt as though an enormous stone... I don’t even know how to explain it. We came out of there and walked around. When I got to my place, I said Shehecheyanu out loud right there. And Sholom Ber Lipsker—Lipsker shouted “Shehecheyanu” from a distance. They were stunned. Everyone was in total shock. Afterward I went out into the street. Chaykel, Zalman Chanin’s father, saw me walking. Chaykel ran over, embraced me, and kissed me on the face, the way Russians do. A real kiss. Here was an older man with a lifetime of mesirus nefesh in Russia behind him, and he was so moved. He didn’t know how—how to express his thanks. They were tremendously excited. I hadn’t absorbed it. I myself hadn’t absorbed it.

01:46 Speaker 2 Sholom aleichem to all the students of the Temimim in Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch yeshivos throughout the Holy Land and around the world. We’re now beginning another installment in the Ears to Hear audio series, a program steeped in and permeated with a spirit of steadfast hiskashrus to the Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach, and with the cause so dear to us: the coming of Moshiach in actual reality. This is episode three of our special podcast series with Rabbi Dovid Nachshon, chairman of Agudas Chabad and the ATA staff in the Holy Land. Baruch Hashem, in the first two episodes we received a fascinating overview. The first covered the special events that prepared the ground for the Rebbe’s revelation as Melech HaMoshiach. In the second, a particularly special episode, we spoke in greater detail about the events surrounding the revelation of Melech HaMoshiach following the sicha of 28 Nissan: the special process of writing and wording the rabbinic ruling, the rabbis’ signatures on it, its presentation to the Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach, and the Rebbe’s particular encouragement regarding it. In this episode, with Hashem’s help—a special, longer episode—we’ll speak about what happened next: the establishment of Mateh Moshiach; the special gathering at which the Temimim and Anash signed their acceptance of his kingship; the Rebbe’s particular encouragement of this; and, at the heart of it all, the first declaration of “Yechi” in the presence of the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach: “Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu VeRabbeinu Melech HaMoshiach Leolam Vaed.” We’ll also discuss the events that followed, on 6 Iyar and Lag BaOmer, and all the wonderful developments that came out of those special days. So, with Hashem’s help, we now begin this special program with Rabbi Dovid Nachshon, episode three. Sholom aleichem, Rabbi Nachshon.

03:39 Speaker 1 Sholom aleichem.

03:39 Speaker 2 Baruch Hashem, we’re sitting down now to continue our discussion of the special events surrounding the revelation of Melech HaMoshiach and the message of the Geulah. We spoke about the background—how, throughout all those wonderful years, chassidim pointed to the Rebbe as Melech HaMoshiach, and how, during [unclear], it became clearer through the Rebbe’s guidance and encouragement. We spoke about how it really began to gain momentum on 28 Nissan, followed by the special rabbinic ruling presented to the Rebbe at Beis Shaar and the Rebbe’s positive response. Now we want to focus on the next stage: from Beis Shaar onward, the special events surrounding Moshiach’s revelation that took place later in 5751. We’re all familiar with the special event on 6 Iyar, when you declared “Yechi Adoneinu” in front of the Rebbe for the first time—a defining, moving, historic moment. But it turns out that other steps led up to it, and others followed it. We want to talk about those and understand the significance of the events surrounding Moshiach’s revelation at that time. So perhaps we’ll start with what happened after Beis Shaar: the establishment of Mateh Moshiach. What exactly happened there?

04:46 Speaker 11 Yes. As we said at the outset, the idea that the Rebbe is Melech HaMoshiach isn’t something new that we came up with. Every chossid recognizes it clearly and knows it. How did we put it? “From where do we know this?” It goes back to the Gemara, where each student said that about his teacher. So that isn’t the new element here—the fact that we say the Rebbe is Melech HaMoshiach. That isn’t new. We’ve known it since the Rebbe became Rebbe. What’s new is that the time of your redemption has arrived. Hayom Yom says that walking under your own power is greater than being led by the hand. That’s in Hayom Yom. Here we had reached that greater stage. We’d come to the end; now we had to act under our own power. At this point, we really had to decide: if you know that this is what the Rebbe has wanted all these years—that all the campaigns, all the mitzvah tanks, everything we have, are directed toward one goal, the Geulah and Moshiach, so that the Rebbe can be revealed, the acceptance of Moshiach, and the true and complete Geulah—that is the goal. And we have to bring it down into reality. That’s been our goal since the first episode we discussed. So that’s the goal. Now we’ve reached this moment. Now he asks us, he tells us this, and then we take the steps we’ve been talking about.

06:30 Speaker 2 Right, the rabbinic ruling.

06:31 Speaker 11 The rabbinic ruling. We drew it up and gave the rulings to the Rebbe, and we saw the Rebbe say that it has power, it has power. And then, suddenly, on Tuesday, I received a response to my letter—the letter that I think I mentioned—

06:50 Speaker 2 About leaving the country.

06:51 Speaker 11 About leaving the country.

06:52 Speaker 2 Yes, you mentioned that.

06:53 Speaker 11 An hour before departure, and that we were going to bring this about. “I will mention it at the Ohel; the time is ripe, and the matters...” What greater response could you ask for? We were coming—arriving—to bring about the revelation of the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, before the eyes of all flesh. That’s the wording there. We were coming to bring these things about, and he was telling you yes.

07:14 Speaker 2 That you’re on the right track.

07:15 Speaker 11 That’s the way. That’s exactly what you’re doing—“the time is ripe, and the matters.” Now is the time. And “the matters” always means matters of Moshiach. But you see the words the Rebbe used. That’s it. That’s exactly it. Everything I’ve said isn’t just something I’m saying. You see that the whole direction now is: this is the time.

07:37 Speaker 2 The time is ripe.

07:37 Speaker 11 The time is ripe. Before, the time wasn’t ripe; now it is.

07:40 Speaker 2 And out of that whole atmosphere—

07:41 Speaker 11 But I understood even more from it: you also took the initiative, and you understood the matter correctly. I didn’t have to tell you. You came and did this—this is what I want; this is how you have to work. There are things where “a wise man has his eyes in his head.” So you see that this is what he wants, but he can’t shout it about himself. As a chossid, you have to know what he wants, and then he confirms it and says, “Correct. I didn’t say it, but it’s correct.”

08:09 Speaker 2 So this is when you decided to establish Mateh Moshiach.

08:11 Speaker 11 Now, this gave us... We went back to 770, as I said, after the... And suddenly you see a response like that. That was on—

08:23 Speaker 2 Tuesday.

08:23 Speaker 11 On Tuesday, the very next day after that, and suddenly you begin to understand that something much more substantial has to be done here. So I told a few of the fellows about it, and we decided—we made a proposal and decided to bring someone in. We needed someone who... The idea was to bring in someone who was—

08:51 Speaker 2 Official.

08:52 Speaker 11 Official. Someone who already headed a recognized Chabad organization.

08:58 Speaker 2 An official institution.

08:59 Speaker 11 Official, yes. Something that people knew and accepted. That would give it—

09:04 Speaker 2 Authority.

09:04 Speaker 11 This isn’t some slapdash operation where you come along and write a letter. We’re serious. The King is the King. We’re not here to play games. This is the King, and we have to act. The Rebbe said to act decisively. You choose serious people. From among them, you choose someone you have a bit more of a connection with, someone you’re on good terms with. I’m not looking to approach people who are very establishment, as they say, who generally find it hard to think outside the box. I have organizations and everything myself, but that’s human nature. You need people with a little more imagination or vision, whatever you want to call it.

09:57 Speaker 2 And you found the man.

09:58 Speaker 11 So we said, all right, let’s go approach him. We started planning, and then we said—

10:03 Speaker 2 Who’s “we”? Why the plural?

10:06 Speaker 11 I was among them too. I spoke with a few people. We were the Moshiach Headquarters.

12:01 Speaker 2 The committee of the Moshiach Headquarters.

12:03 Speaker 11 The—

12:04 Speaker 2 Official one.

12:04 Speaker 11 The official committee of the Moshiach Headquarters. We established it, and so on. He agreed to take on the position of chairman. Reb Molik[?], Rabbi Butman, Gershon and I—we signed; we organized the whole thing.

12:22 Speaker 2 And at that meeting, what were the decisions? General decisions concerning Moshiach.

12:26 Speaker 11 These were the decisions. You can read them in the letter; it’s very clear. We divided up the work. The plan had several levels. The headquarters would divide the work among people, with each person responsible for a particular area. For example, someone in charge of rabbis, someone in charge of Hebrew speakers, media, school principals, printed materials, finances. There were Hebrew speakers, Russian speakers—in short, a division of labor among department heads, people who would assign the work. That was exactly it. We would work in an organized way to spread the matter and the idea, and so on. We also decided to hold a meeting for Anash the following evening. There had already been a meeting at the beginning of the week, or a few days earlier. It was before Shabbos—no, after Shabbos. I was told there had been a meeting. They hadn’t known exactly what to do there. They didn’t yet have a—everything was—

13:49 Speaker 2 Up in the air.

13:49 Speaker 11 It was very much up in the air. There was no plan, though there was tremendous excitement. Of course, the sicha was earth-shaking, but people didn’t know what to do. There was no real plan. They held a meeting, but nothing came of it. So we decided to hold a meeting for Anash, but this time there would be a definite plan. Here are the members of the Headquarters for Bringing Moshiach, and others would join as needed for the good of the cause. There was also a plan to send a letter to the Chabad Houses and the shluchim. Then it was decided to hold an urgent meeting the following evening to present the plan, at 9:30 p.m. in the study hall.

14:34 Speaker 2 A gathering at 770, at 770.

14:35 Speaker 11 A gathering at 770, at 770. Words of encouragement and a practical division of labor. Then there’s this, and the division of work into committees, each with its own person in charge. We listed the committees, though not in order of priority.

14:56 Speaker 2 One time.

14:57 Speaker 11 Yes. There were also notices attached that would be posted in the shul. Everything had already been prepared. The meeting would be announced throughout Crown Heights by loudspeaker and by phone, across the whole neighborhood. There’s also a list of participants here: Rabbi Gershon Mendel Garelik, Rabbi Menashe Slonim, Rabbi Yehoshua Zelig, Avraham Katzman, Rabbi Nachman Shapiro, Yitzchak Yitzchak Ravitchik[?] Springer, Sholom Zalman Majeski, Rabbi Shmuel Shmueli, Rabbi Nachum Yitzchak Pinsod, Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Haber, Rabbi Mordechai shlita Chen, Yekusiel Menachem shlita Erev, Rabbi Sholom Ber shlita Friedman, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid shlita Nachshon, Rabbi Avraham shlita Taub, Rabbi Shmuel shlita Harel, Rabbi Hakohen shlita Marshall, Sholom Zalman Blumenfeld—he’s no longer with us either—Rabbi Menachem Nachum Gerlitzky, and Rabbi Itamar Nachum shlita Tamari. Then we asked for a blessing for great and wonderful success, to go from strength to strength, and that his revelation before the eyes of all flesh take place immediately, and with joy and gladness of heart, right now, right now, right now. On the side of the letter itself I wrote, “Long live the King, the Rebbe shlita, King Moshiach, forever and ever.” That was written there. The signatures were those of Rabbi Gershon Mendel shlita Garelik—he wrote “son of Rivkah Leah”—Reb Dovid Michoel, son of Sarah Leah, Nachshon, and Shmuel Menachem Mendel, son of Yehudis bas Pnina. We signed, and on it the Rebbe wrote, “Everything enclosed herewith has been taken for review.” We understood that this was already something serious. It was a bombshell.

17:00 Speaker 12 In other words, the Rebbe approves—

17:01 Speaker 11 Approves. You can see all of it.

17:02 Speaker 12 The establishment of the Moshiach Headquarters.

17:04 Speaker 11 You wrote, “Long live the King, the Rebbe shlita, King Moshiach, forever and ever.” It’s in there. It isn’t something separate; it’s part of the Rebbe’s receipt of this matter.

17:14 Speaker 12 So this was essentially the first time you wrote that wording, “King Moshiach, forever and ever,” to the Rebbe. You’re saying it was in the letter to the Rebbe.

17:23 Speaker 11 There had been a few times before that, but privately, in things I wrote, not... Or on the forms we wrote, “His honor, the Rebbe shlita, King Moshiach.”

17:31 Speaker 12 No, I mean the wording “Long live King Moshiach.”

17:33 Speaker 11 “Long live”—yes, “long live” appears inside. But writing it to the Rebbe in this form, yes.

17:41 Speaker 12 Yes. So this was a precedent for the proclamation he made then.

17:44 Speaker 11 That had happened before, yes.

17:46 Speaker 12 So this is the letter to the Rebbe about all the conclusions of the Moshiach Headquarters meeting, and the Rebbe receives it.

17:53 Speaker 11 It’s the report.

17:55 Speaker 12 A report to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe encourages—

17:56 Speaker 11 A report on its establishment and the details, together with a request for a blessing.

18:01 Speaker 12 I want to sum this up for a moment. Here we see that the Rebbe receives the news of the establishment of the Moshiach Headquarters, the Rebbe encourages it, and the Rebbe says everything—

18:06 Speaker 11 In the clearest, simplest way.

18:09 Speaker 12 And whoever was then—

18:10 Speaker 11 There was something else here too: “Lend a hand to bring Moshiach today.” So there’s a detailed, practical plan here as well. That was included too, and the Rebbe wrote that everything enclosed had been taken for review. That applies to this page too. On this page there’s also something concerning Yehuda Krinsky shlita. You can see that more was written; it’s all here. So the World Headquarters for Bringing Moshiach had already been established. All of this went into the archive, and—

18:36 Speaker 12 All of it was taken for the archive.

18:38 Speaker 11 Everything enclosed herewith.

18:39 Speaker 12 Everything enclosed herewith. That day was a great day. The Rebbe gave this special response.

18:53 Speaker 11 You see, there’s progress here.

18:56 Speaker 12 I’m trying to sum up the progress. We see this special response from the Rebbe, and immediately afterward we see the Rebbe use the same wording from that response for the halachic ruling submitted to the Rebbe that same day, with the signatures of Rabbi Marlow[?] and Rabbi Ostrover[?].

19:11 Speaker 11 Toward evening, the Rebbe returned early from the Ohel. By then I had obtained the signatures of another two rabbis, the rabbis of the Crown Heights Beis Din. Just after Rabbi Ostrover[?] finished signing, I went in to give it to Leibel. He looked at it and said to me, “I’ll send it in.” That’s all he said—

19:42 Speaker 12 You asked him to bring it in to the Rebbe.

19:44 Speaker 11 To bring it in to the Rebbe, with these rabbis’ signatures too.

19:47 Speaker 12 Again, we should mention that this was in addition to the halachic ruling already submitted to the Rebbe.

19:50 Speaker 11 Yes, but he didn’t know about that. He hadn’t seen it; it hadn’t gone through him. I gave it over near the mikveh.

19:55 Speaker 12 Right, so Leibel didn’t know what had been brought in to the Rebbe then.

19:58 Speaker 11 He didn’t know. The Rebbe hadn’t reported it to him.

20:02 Speaker 12 Right.

20:02 Speaker 11 People came to me and gave things to me, and did things for me. It wasn’t...

20:06 Speaker 12 What happened at the mikveh was done discreetly.

20:08 Speaker 11 Yes, he didn’t know about the halachic ruling.

20:11 Speaker 12 Here he saw the new signatures.

20:12 Speaker 11 Suddenly I put it in with the earlier signatures. So he looks at it and says something to me [unclear]. He said, “All right, I’ll just say one thing, just one thing.” It was as if he didn’t know what to make of it. Then word came that the Rebbe was on his way back from the Ohel. There was a phone call from there saying the Rebbe was already on his way back. It was amazing, because the Rebbe never came back that early. Suddenly he was already returning before sunset. It was that day—but you should check the diary. He came back very early. Then, after Minchah—after Maariv, Minchah—I went up to him and asked him. That was it. So he asks me, “Tell me, has the Rebbe seen this already? You won’t have a complaint against me”—he said it in Yiddish. Those were his words:

21:07 Speaker 13 “You won’t have a complaint against me.”

21:09 Speaker 12 As though I’d gone around you.

21:12 Speaker 11 “You won’t have a complaint against me.” So he says, “No, tell me.” I said to him, “Yes, the Rebbe saw it.” “Where did the Rebbe see it?” I told him, “Near the mikveh.” He smiled, and apparently the Rebbe was very pleased. That’s what I understood from his smile at the time. The Rebbe had asked me, and he was very... So apparently the Rebbe was very pleased. Then he tells me—the Rebbe said it was the same answer you had received that morning.

21:40 Speaker 12 We’ll take all this for the archive.

21:41 Speaker 11 We’ll take all this for the archive. This is a continuation of that same response about Mateh Moshiach. This relates to that too.

21:49 Speaker 12 You can see how pleased the Rebbe was with the halachic ruling, and...

21:52 Speaker 11 You see that.

21:53 Speaker 12 A direct continuation.

21:54 Speaker 11 You can see that it was really well received, that the Rebbe took great pleasure in the action.

22:00 Speaker 12 So that’s another action that leads us to what happened afterward.

22:03 Speaker 11 But I’m just telling you the behind-the-scenes story of how—how the response to it came about.

22:11 Speaker 12 And from there we come to the gathering.

22:14 Speaker 11 Then, that evening at nine-thirty, there was... From there we go to... Of course, it felt different, because you knew the Rebbe was firmly behind it. Then the speakers spoke. But in the background there was still an atmosphere among those who—I don’t know whether they were objecting or opposing it, or whether they were confused. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t always come from opposition; sometimes people are confused and can’t believe there could be such changes, such drastic changes in the Rebbe’s whole approach to this matter. And there had been a note the previous week in Milan to Rabbi Gershon Mendel Garelik. That note was a little hard to understand. It was sort of...

23:11 Speaker 12 Puzzling.

23:12 Speaker 11 It was puzzling; it wasn’t clear. He gathered everyone, had them put on Shabbos clothes, and they all came to sign for the Rebbe. Rabbi Gershon Mendel had already understood that we needed to make a declaration accepting his kingship. We needed to do this, and everyone came. But the wording was a little—how can we put it gently? It wasn’t well thought out. What did it say there? One of the phrases they wrote to the Rebbe was, “We demand, with chutzpah, that the Rebbe...” Something like that.

23:54 Speaker 12 Reveal himself.

23:55 Speaker 11 Yes. We need to look at what they wrote: “with chutzpah.” That wording, “with chutzpah.” So the Rebbe’s response there was, in effect, “What is this writing? I don’t understand it at all.” I immediately understood: What does “chutzpah” mean? If he is Moshiach, then of course we need to accept his kingship. That isn’t chutzpah; it isn’t some kind of [unclear], something snatched up on impulse. It’s a serious matter. It isn’t chutzpah, it isn’t chutzpah. And if it isn’t true, then it isn’t true. You don’t do things that aren’t right. This isn’t a game with a king. You’re not playing around here. Do you know how we trembled over every single step? We were literally in fear and trembling. Every step was taken with fear and trembling—just wanting to know that the Rebbe was pleased, that we were doing the right thing, that everything was precise. That’s exactly how it was. People think you just come along and do it. No. Everything was done with fear and trembling. You’re dealing with a king. With anything like this, woe betide us if, G-d forbid... I told you last time that I said to Avi then, “If we do this now, I’m not sure we’ll come back.”

25:04 Speaker 14 Mm-hmm.

25:06 Speaker 11 In any case, it meant taking a risk. This was something very... Until then, it hadn’t exactly been the Rebbe’s approach, and suddenly...

25:15 Speaker 14 But you can also see a certain thread in the responses: when people wrote to the Rebbe—whether using the word “chutzpah” or in more general terms—with a request and a demand that the Rebbe reveal himself, the Rebbe effectively said, “I don’t understand what you want from me.”

25:28 Speaker 11 Right.

25:29 Speaker 14 He said that the Rebbe said to Ginsburg on Shemini 5751, in the middle of [unclear], or to Groner’s [unclear].

25:34 Speaker 11 Yes.

25:34 Speaker 14 So I’m saying it’s the same approach. People come and demand that the Rebbe reveal himself.

25:37 Speaker 11 You—you need to do your work.

25:40 Speaker 14 Exactly. But what the rabbi did with the signatures accepting his authority—

25:43 Speaker 11 It’s all on us.

25:44 Speaker 14 That’s the opposite approach. It’s really—

25:45 Speaker 11 The exact opposite.

25:45 Speaker 14 ...self-nullification. Not a demand, but self-nullification. And that the Rebbe did accept.

25:49 Speaker 11 Certainly.

25:49 Speaker 14 Okay, so that makes the distinction clearer.

25:51 Speaker 11 It’s a very important distinction that people didn’t notice. We say it all looks the same. No. You don’t come to the Rebbe and say, “Rebbe, reveal yourself. Rebbe, do this. Rebbe, you...” He says, “No, no. You—if you want to do what I say, you and you and you...” That’s what he says to everyone: “You do what I say. Do you want to hear what I’m saying? Do what I say, and it depends on you. Don’t throw the responsibility back onto me.”

26:14 Speaker 14 And that brings us to the gathering.

26:15 Speaker 11 But when they wrote that, everyone in 770 knew there was a problem.

26:20 Speaker 14 Yes.

26:21 Speaker 11 So they waved it around. Then I insisted, and he had already said, “The meeting is adjourned.” I’d spoken—I mean, I need to... So I speak there, right? He invited me to speak, and that was official, but afterward you also have to give...

26:38 Speaker 14 Groner.

26:38 Speaker 11 And by the way, when I listen today to what I said in that talk, I can see that I wasn’t there yet. All of this was still before—I hadn’t reached that point yet. I knew that the next day he would answer us favorably, and all the things we’ll hear about later. But everything I’m talking about here was the night before.

26:54 Speaker 14 Let’s tell it a little more systematically. There was a meeting at nine-thirty on Thursday evening. Chassidim, mainly Temimim, gathered in 770 for a meeting.

27:03 Speaker 11 There were also members of Anash, not just...

27:04 Speaker 14 Members of Anash too. So they gathered in 770. Everyone knew there was a gathering of Mateh Moshiach, some new organization.

27:11 Speaker 11 Moshiach, Anash and the Temimim.

27:12 Speaker 14 Anash and the Temimim. And people spoke there. Rabbi Butman spoke, and afterward—

27:16 Speaker 11 No, no, there weren’t only [unclear] there.

27:19 Speaker 14 Several rabbis spoke. A video came out of it.

27:21 Speaker 11 Look, I’m not making this up.

27:22 Speaker 14 A video came out showing what Avi [unclear], and afterward you can see Rabbi Nachshon speaking very forcefully about accepting his authority. Immediately afterward, at that time...

27:35 Speaker 11 There was also the idea there of bringing the light into vessels capable of containing it—that the Rebbe wanted different things from us. It wasn’t what had been done until then. The idea already existed; that point was already in our minds. But putting it into practice came immediately after that farbrengen.

27:51 Speaker 14 But what would you identify as the significant milestone reached at that special gathering in 770?

27:58 Speaker 11 So I called for action. There we spoke about what needed to be done now. Once we knew we had rabbis and everything else, we needed to do what depended on us: accept his kingship ourselves. We needed to show our self-nullification and move forward with it. So I spoke, and I tried to speak with all the strength I could muster at the time. You can see it—how passionately I spoke.

28:28 Speaker 14 With enthusiasm.

28:28 Speaker 11 Yes. And there was that whole matter—as I said, by then I knew the Rebbe was pleased, and there were the halachic rulings and everything. Not everyone knew the details. People didn’t know about it. When I spoke, I don’t think... I don’t think it appears there, right? It isn’t mentioned in the speech, is it?

28:45 Speaker 14 In the speech, the rabbi does talk about accepting his kingship.

28:47 Speaker 11 I mean the halachic rulings.

28:48 Speaker 14 Not the halachic rulings.

28:49 Speaker 11 That’s what I’m saying. That hadn’t happened yet.

28:50 Speaker 14 Yes.

28:51 Speaker 11 Accepting his kingship was already the result. I understood that we needed to accept his kingship, so I spoke about the result. But in the background, I could already see the Rebbe responding to us—all of that, and what happened near the mikveh. I didn’t tell any of that there, right? It isn’t in there.

29:06 Speaker 14 Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

29:07 Speaker 11 Why don’t I tell the story? It isn’t relevant; it hadn’t happened yet. It isn’t something for the public. This is our work—mine, or that of the people working with me—in relation to the Rebbe. It isn’t for the public yet. You have to reach the point where you see that something is wanted, that you’re going in the right direction. The approach is right; it’s the Rebbe’s approach, and you continue with it. True, it wasn’t stated in the sichos; it isn’t in the sichos or anything like that. But it’s an approach the Rebbe wants from us. Here it’s no longer a question of what he says, but of what he wants from us. What he wants you, as chassidim, to do. So it’s a somewhat different way of working. And then...

29:51 Speaker 14 We get to the wedding.

29:53 Speaker 11 Before the signatures, I insist that Reb Shmendel speak. That isn’t quite how I put it earlier. Maybe it wasn’t in the plan. Why did I want him to speak? I wanted him to explain the note. I wanted him to explain it, and he really did address it. He explained it. His words needed a little more clarification, because he had left things somewhat—not as riddles, but a little open-ended: let the wise understand more. No, that was precisely the point. What I said about what was written there—he does say it. He says it. Everything I said, he says too. But more was needed; the conclusion went further. Now we would do it properly, and it would be clear. That was it. I just wanted him to put people a little more at ease about that answer, so it wouldn’t seem as though he was avoiding it, or people would later say, “But there’s another answer, and we never discussed it.” There’s an answer from the Rebbe—explain it. That was exactly the idea. And he explained it. It was excellent. Whether people wanted it or not, baruch Hashem, he spoke. Right afterward I proposed that Reb Shmendel begin collecting signatures for kabbolas hamalchus—the acceptance of the Rebbe’s kingship. Most of those who signed were Temimim. There were also a few of Anash. They saw the wording and were startled, because it said: “All those assembled here accept upon themselves the kingship of the Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach, and undertake to act with mesirus nefesh in accordance with his every wish, in everything asked of us, with joy and gladness of heart.” It was spontaneous.

31:47 Speaker 11 That’s what came to me up there. We hadn’t sat down and planned it; it’s what came out, and everyone came forward. But some who read it drew back at the words about mesirus nefesh.

31:59 Speaker 14 They took a step back.

32:01 Speaker 11 Yes, some did. But there were still 250 signatures.

32:05 Speaker 14 One of the diaries has a beautiful description. It says there were 250 signatures to make amends for the sin of the 250 men with Korach and his company.

32:13 Speaker 11 Who says that?

32:14 Speaker 14 It’s in Kaplan’s diary.

32:16 Speaker 11 But I’ll tell you something else. At the time I said, “I have prepared a lamp for My anointed.” What is a lamp? That’s 250. “I have prepared a lamp”—250—“for My anointed.” Those were the first 250 to sign, a lamp for... We were already preparing the lamp for Moshiach. That’s a little more...

32:37 Speaker 14 Clearer.

32:38 Speaker 11 No, that’s the positive side of it.

32:40 Speaker 14 So here we see that those signatures really went in to the Rebbe on Friday, and he gave his answer—

32:47 Speaker 11 Now we’re moving forward. On Friday, before Minchah, I took the four pages of signatures I had. I thought about adding a note: “Last night, such and such happened, and here are the signatures.” I decided not to add anything. Just give him the signatures. Still, I wrote, “Enclosed are the signatures from last night’s acceptance of the Rebbe’s kingship.” That was all. I didn’t want anything extra. I wanted to know how the Rebbe received it, without any interpretations. We have a real problem with interpretations and all sorts of things. I wanted everything to be straightforward. I handed it in before Minchah, and that was it. After Minchah I went to my room and called Leibel. I asked whether the Rebbe had seen it, whether he had responded, and what his answer was. He said, “Yes, come and get it.” I asked, “What was the answer?” He repeated, “Come and get it.” In any case, he wanted me to come and get it.

34:11 Speaker 14 He didn’t tell you over the phone; he said—

34:12 Speaker 11 I already knew that wording. In those days it was used for answers expressing thanks and things like that. At that time there was a standard wording for everything. So he told me, “Come and get it.” I went and got it. That was all. I didn’t realize how crucial the—the—

34:30 Speaker 14 Picking it up.

34:31 Speaker 11 Why did I have to come and pick it up? Anyway, I came, and he gave it to me with the clip I’d put on the letter, together with the wording of the answer. The text was printed.

34:49 Speaker 14 How did you feel, seeing an answer worded like that?

34:51 Speaker 11 No, I knew the wording; I was familiar with it. My feeling was that the Rebbe had accepted it, that we were going in the right direction. That’s all. I could see we were on the right track. I didn’t let my feelings overwhelm me too much. We were in the middle of the work; we didn’t have time. You know, when you’re moving toward an objective you need to capture, you don’t stop every moment, every few feet, for feelings and all that. You keep working. You’re in the middle of a battle.

35:16 Speaker 14 [unclear].

35:17 Speaker 11 So the answer read: “Received, and many thanks. Let it be an ongoing activity, with further additions—especially as the time is opportune—in keeping with the empowering words and blessing of our Sages: ‘Whoever adds, more is added for him,’ and especially with the blessing of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Whose additions are abundant. Particularly as we come from the month of Nissan and its influence and enter the month of Iyar, whose initials stand for Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, and Rachel, as explained in several places. In the year ‘May it be a year of “I will show him wonders.”’ Already at the tziyun.” The words “May it be a year” were in parentheses; he would always complete the abbreviation for the year, spelling out “May it be a year of ‘I will show him wonders.’” So, “already at the tziyun.” Well, as soon as they saw it, all the bochurim were excited.

36:11 Speaker 14 And you immediately sent it to the bochurim to put up.

36:14 Speaker 11 They ran with me to the office. There was Shimshon—Shimshon Brook—and a few others with me. Shmotkin was there. They were all waiting at every moment to see whether there was anything from the Rebbe. They were what you’d call [unclear] then.

36:33 Speaker 14 So they ran with you to the office to print the [unclear]?

36:35 Speaker 11 No, we came to the office and took what we had there—the text from the previous night. We attached the note the Rebbe had given me to it. They prepared it, made lots of copies, and ran around putting them up all over 770.

36:55 Speaker 14 They put them up on the walls.

36:56 Speaker 11 On the walls. You know, 770 was covered with them.

36:59 Speaker 14 Mm-hmm.

37:00 Speaker 11 And I sent Akiva to buy a bottle of mashke.

37:05 Speaker 14 The secretary of the administration.

37:06 Speaker 11 Yes, Akiva Marshall, who ran the office there and was the administration’s secretary. He went to get the mashke, and I wrote a note.

37:15 Speaker 14 The mashke was to be brought to the Rebbe’s farbrengen.

37:17 Speaker 11 This mashke was connected with the people’s acceptance of the Rebbe’s kingship in every place. We understood that if things had reached this point and were moving forward, and the Rebbe had written that it should be an ongoing activity, then we had to continue. In every place in Eretz Yisroel—and not just there, but in America and everywhere else—there should be a bottle. We bought a large bottle, because it would represent the people’s acceptance of the Rebbe’s kingship in every place.

37:45 Speaker 14 Just to clarify, we’re talking about a bottle that would be brought to the Rebbe’s farbrengen.

37:48 Speaker 11 of the Rebbe in the proclamations of the people’s acceptance of his kingship in every place. The letter said that, and it said something else too. I don’t remember exactly. I don’t know whether I thought that would make it easier, but it was very clear that the bottle was going in. So I sent Akiva. Akiva took it to Leibel, whom I mentioned earlier. He went to give him the bottle, with a note attached. Leibel read the note and said, “Listen, I’m not taking this in without his permission. I’m not putting it on the table without the Rebbe’s consent.” You know, someone else might have been hurt by that. I was happy. Why? Because it needed the Rebbe’s approval. This was about accepting his kingship everywhere. If the Rebbe said yes, that meant this was the direction. This was how we would go forward. Every step was another reinforcement, another layer in accepting his kingship, another step in the Rebbe’s revelation. So I said, “Excellent.” I think he took it in Friday night, or perhaps Friday afternoon. I don’t know when he took it in. Maybe he told the Rebbe what it was, or maybe the Rebbe read the note. I don’t know how it happened; I wasn’t in the room. In any event, that was it. Friday night, and—

39:11 Speaker 14 But you didn’t know whether the bottle had gone in or not.

39:14 Speaker 11 What do you mean—

39:14 Speaker 14 You waited until Shabbos day.

39:15 Speaker 11 I knew it had gone in.

39:17 Speaker 14 All right.

39:17 Speaker 11 It had gone in. The question was whether it would be placed—

39:20 Speaker 14 On the table. You couldn’t know that.

39:22 Speaker 11 I would only know that after he asked the Rebbe.

39:25 Speaker 14 Yes.

39:25 Speaker 11 The next day. No, no, I didn’t want to keep checking every five minutes. You know how it is. Friday night, there’s Kabbalas Shabbos. We always stood not far from where the Rebbe davened. The Rebbe came out, and all the walls were covered with notices about accepting his kingship, and the lines of text, and all that. You’re putting me on the spot. Suddenly there were notices all over 770. You’re putting me on the spot. I stood there, you know, genuinely embarrassed. I didn’t know—it was all so much. You make another breakthrough, and another breakthrough, and then something else. And the bochurim did what they did, and that was good. You can’t restrain the bochurim. How did you put it? [unclear]. Then we were standing there as the Rebbe came out, amid singing and rejoicing. The Rebbe passed us and made a gesture toward us with his hand. That was it. We were standing to the side. The Rebbe knew who we were. There was no need for him to gesture like that.

40:31 Speaker 15 He was giving you encouragement.

40:33 Speaker 11 The Rebbe passed by and gestured with his hand, like this. The two of us were standing there, Avi and I. He gestured toward us. Shmaryahu was probably there too. In any case, the Rebbe gestured to us and went outside. I always stood behind someone, you know; I didn’t push myself forward. That’s not me. But the Rebbe looked. That was it. As soon as the Rebbe had left, the crowd dispersed, and then it began. The dancing started, and we began to dance.

41:09 Speaker 15 You mean, “This is the Geulah” [?].

41:10 Speaker 11 We started dancing to that tune, “This is the Geulah” [?], with Kuti and the other fellows who were with us. We were dancing by the paroches, near the Aron Kodesh. While we were dancing, I changed the words to “Yechi Adoneinu” instead of “This is the Geulah.” I started singing “Yechi Adoneinu,” and that was how it happened.

41:32 Speaker 15 That was the first time.

41:33 Speaker 11 The first time we sang it to that tune. It was spontaneous.

41:37 Speaker 15 “Melech HaMoshiach.”

41:38 Speaker 11 It just came out spontaneously. You know, after everything that had happened, you were already full of enthusiasm and excitement. That’s how it came out. We were already at “Yechi Adoneinu”; we were already at Moshiach. I started singing “Yechi Adoneinu,” and it caught on. We began dancing to “Yechi Adoneinu.” Everyone was dancing. I remember Shmulik passed by—he’s one of the people mentioned here—and did a somersault. Later, when I reminded him, I said, “There are things you can’t even…” But there it was. Shmulik really did a somersault, with such enthusiasm. Anyone who saw it could have felt faint. It was very, very—

42:30 Speaker 15 A very stirring feeling.

42:32 Speaker 11 Very, very moving. Later that night there were sholom zochors. I remember going to one, and they were singing “Yechi Adoneinu” there. It had already begun to catch on, even at a sholom zochor. Something had started. It hadn’t fully taken hold yet, but it was there. The atmosphere was very, very special.

42:51 Speaker 15 What was that night like for you, before the Rebbe’s [unclear]?

42:56 Speaker 11 Afterward, when I got home from the sholom zochor, I sat there thinking: What’s going to happen here? Where is this going? There’s a bottle in there. What’s going to happen tomorrow? You can’t sleep anymore. You’re under tremendous pressure.

43:10 Speaker 15 You really couldn’t sleep?

43:12 Speaker 11 It was very, very difficult.

43:14 Speaker 15 Mm-hm.

43:16 Speaker 11 I mean, you know, I was tired, but the tension was very strong. Until then, it had been between you and the Rebbe, quietly, behind the scenes. So even if, G-d forbid, you did something wrong or offended someone, the embarrassment was private. Now, preparing to do something in public—that was a completely different story, a different world. During davening I was very tense. After davening, a public-relations person came over and asked me, “Are you going to make a proclamation? Are you going to do something? Are you going to proclaim it today?” I told him, “I don’t know. We’ll see what happens at the farbrengen.” I had told him about the bottle; he knew the story. “We’ll see what happens at the farbrengen. I’ll know then; I’ll understand.”

44:23 Speaker 15 Mm-hm.

44:24 Speaker 11 Meanwhile, someone came over and told me, “But [unclear] is here.” There was some commotion among the older chassidim. People were coming over, one saying this, another saying the Rebbe had said that, and someone else saying it wasn’t true. Something had gotten mixed up.

44:42 Speaker 15 The maaneh.

44:43 Speaker 11 Yes—that the Rebbe hadn’t given it. “Who said the Rebbe agreed to this?” He had begun to cast doubt on the matter.

44:49 Speaker 15 He was questioning the maaneh concerning it.

44:51 Speaker 11 He was questioning it. There were probably others too, but he was a prominent figure. So I immediately ran over to him at the western entrance. We stood downstairs, and I asked him, “Did you say this wasn’t true? What exactly did you say about this?” I mean, about what had been put up just before Shabbos. Whether it was meant to bring it down, I don’t know. Things had become heated.

45:25 Speaker 15 The Rebbe’s maaneh about the signatures.

45:27 Speaker 11 About the signatures. Exactly what’s written here. It was about two hundred and fifty; that’s what it said there. Two hundred and fifty—I don’t know the wording, apparently—

45:37 Speaker 15 Yes.

45:37 Speaker 11 Never mind. So I said to him, “Are you telling people here that something isn’t right, that people are lying and invoking the Rebbe’s name?” I asked him, and he looked at me. I said, “In other words, you’re saying I’m a liar.” He said, “No, you’re not a liar, but you didn’t understand.” I answered him rather sharply: “Look at me. What do you think I am? [unclear] Do you think I put this up myself? Leibel called me over, put it in my hand and told me he had received it from the Rebbe.” He was a little stunned. I said, “What do you think—that I would put this up myself? It came from the Rebbe.” He had told me I hadn’t understood. He immediately ran to Leibel, knocked on the door, went up to the secretariat and confronted him too: “Why did you give it to him?” What had he been thinking? At that time, the Rebbe had given a general instruction that when someone did something good, you could convey thanks to him in the Rebbe’s name. You didn’t have to ask about every instance in advance. You came back from a tefillin campaign, having put on tefillin with so many Jews on Friday, and you submitted a report. The Rebbe wanted reports. Then you received an immediate response: “This is from the Rebbe. The Rebbe told me to give this to you.” It was from the Rebbe.

47:15 Speaker 15 [unclear].

47:16 Speaker 11 [unclear]. And that was it. So he was sure Leibel had given it to me—that Leibel had given me what the Rebbe had told him to give me. He had never given me anything like that before; there had been no such thing. But he knew that the Rebbe answered me on every matter, and that had been the pattern all those years. So he says—and I was at the Knesset almost every day—so he shouted at Leibel, “Why did you give him that?” Leibel said, “The Rebbe instructed me to give it to him. The Rebbe told me to give it to him.” He said the Rebbe had given it to him. That’s why he later gave me that note. He said he’d been told to give me the thank-you for it.

48:14 Speaker 15 Because in that phone call he told you to come pick it up.

48:16 Speaker 11 He told me to come pick it up. Exactly—that was why he said, “Come pick it up.” After that there was a farbrengen. I usually stand facing the Rebbe, and I thought perhaps there would be some kind of hint. The one thing that happened during the farbrengen was that, right between one sicha and the next, the Rebbe gestured toward us with both hands and encouraged us very strongly. It was very strong encouragement. There was encouragement, but nothing beyond that. The Rebbe spoke about Geulah and all those subjects, and about “I have yearned so deeply”—all the things in that sicha about the middle parshiyos. But there was nothing clear that would tell me what was going to happen with the bottle. I saw the encouragement, but I didn’t know what would happen with the bottle. The sichos were very powerful, very much about Moshiach—very, very powerful. We could see that, especially compared with the week before.

49:23 Speaker 15 Mm-hmm.

49:24 Speaker 11 That week it was all Moshiach. Everything, the whole sicha, was Moshiach, Moshiach, Moshiach. [unclear], “I have yearned so deeply”—the entire sicha. Toward the end, the Rebbe said—now, regarding the letter, the Rebbe suddenly began speaking explicitly. I think it appears only as a hint in the edited version. Or perhaps it’s in the second one. The Rebbe spoke there about proclamations that would now be made and heard from one end of the world to the other, everywhere. I seem to remember the Rebbe saying another expression as well—“from one end of the world to the other,” or something like that. There were about three expressions to that effect. It was very, very powerful. The Rebbe said people would go up and proclaim it, that it would happen now, even before—and the Rebbe said there that the proclamations had to be made in a way that would not be like Nadav and Avihu. Their avodah was ratzo without shov, and the Rebbe writes about this in Likkutei Torah: they “offered a strange fire.” It doesn’t mean a strange fire in the ordinary sense; it was a “strange fire” in a positive sense. They opened a new path in serving Hashem.

51:03 Speaker 15 It was ratzo without shov.

51:05 Speaker 11 But what was the issue? It was ratzo without shov, and therefore it had to be—and then the Rebbe emphasized that it must specifically be souls in bodies.

51:16 Speaker 15 Mm-hmm.

51:17 Speaker 11 Now, I did understand a little, because in the wording we had written at the beginning of the week, before submitting the halachic rulings—we wrote the letter in the people’s name—we had also mentioned the matter of the body, that we were prepared to give everything. And here the Rebbe said—

51:36 Speaker 15 In the letter accompanying the first ruling of the beis din.

51:39 Speaker 11 Yes, the letter accompanying the beis din’s ruling. So I took that as a bit of a hint for myself: we had written that there, and here the Rebbe was saying it must specifically be souls in bodies.

51:52 Speaker 15 Mm-hmm.

51:52 Speaker 11 The avodah has to be ratzo and shov. And then the Rebbe said that now, even before Minchah, there would be a proclamation that would be heard—we said, throughout all the worlds, and so on. I’m not giving the exact order here. Yes, the Rebbe said it would happen even before Minchah, and people would be able to... And even before Minchah there would be the revelation [?] of Moshiach, to the point that we would be able to recite, “Who has granted us life, sustained us, and brought us to this time”—and “brought us” in the sense of actually touching it. In other words, everything would be absolutely real. We heard very, very powerful wording. And yet, even with the Rebbe speaking so forcefully, I was still standing there, not knowing what would happen with the bottle.

52:45 Speaker 16 Whether you’d have the opportunity to go up.

52:48 Speaker 11 Right. I still didn’t know what was happening with the bottle. I still didn’t know what was going on. There were about seventeen bottles there, sixteen or seventeen, bottle after bottle. Usually there was singing and talking, the Rebbe dealt with each person, and announcements were made, but nobody heard anything. That was generally how it went. Sometimes you heard a little, but someone would make an announcement rather quietly, and then go down with the bottle. The Rebbe would give some of the bottle to the person, and that was it; the bottle stayed there. Suddenly Leibel came out and gestured to us like this, clearly indicating that we should go up.

53:33 Speaker 16 He signaled for you to go up.

53:34 Speaker 11 To go up, yes. The gesture was somewhat toward Avi too. He signaled us to go up. So we went up. Shmaryahu came from one side, and we came from this side.

53:51 Speaker 16 Were you on the east side or the west side?

53:54 Speaker 11 Wait, how did it happen that he came from there?

53:56 Speaker 16 The other side.

53:56 Speaker 11 Yes. I don’t remember exactly how it was. He stood there like this, and we approached. It really was as you said, but you’re still in shock. At a moment like that, you’re not thinking. I went up, with Avi standing behind me. Avi always says, “If something happens, I’m here. I’m standing right here.”

54:24 Speaker 16 What were you feeling at those moments?

54:26 Speaker 11 Nothing... It wasn’t a matter of feelings. As I told you, there was tremendous tension—not just a lot of tension, but tension that’s almost impossible to describe. But on the other hand, you know you have a mission, and you’re not thinking about yourself. You detach yourself. There’s a moment when you have to detach yourself. There’s no room for feelings or anything else. As I said, you’re tense, but detached. It’s like being in a war. You’re in battle; you can’t stop then. What does the Rambam say? You have to forget about your wife and children, about everything, when you go into battle. That’s it. You’re on a mission. We went up, and the Rebbe poured a full cup of mashke for me and for Avi. Then Shmaryahu approached too, and the Rebbe asked Leibel, “Is he with them too?” Leibel nodded, and he received some. Then I began to make the proclamation. I made it in Yiddish. I said that recently there had been halachic rulings that the time of the Geulah had arrived—rulings by rabbis in Eretz Yisroel, authorities in halachah, that the time of the Geulah had arrived and that the generation should join in. And very recently—meaning in those very days—there had been halachic rulings that the Rebbe is Melech HaMoshiach, who is to redeem us. Therefore we all accept the Rebbe’s kingship upon ourselves. That isn’t the exact wording; I said it from memory. We accept upon ourselves to do whatever he tells us, with mesirus nefesh. We accept his kingship upon ourselves and will do whatever he tells us, with mesirus nefesh. And we proclaim, “Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu Verabbeinu.” Then I said aloud, “Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu Verabbeinu Melech HaMoshiach Leolam Vaed.” Of course, I hadn’t included that in the plan. The Rebbe was sitting right there, and I made the proclamation looking upward. My head was tilted upward throughout the whole proclamation, like this.

56:53 Speaker 17 So that it wouldn’t distract you.

56:55 Speaker 11 No one. I didn’t see anything. I was just saying it, and I didn’t even look at the Rebbe. It was all just about accepting his sovereignty, even doing everything he instructs us to do with mesirus nefesh. They told me that I said the words “to do every day with mesirus nefesh.” The Rebbe smiled, and then Shmaryah was stunned and the crowd was stunned. The crowd was in shock—complete shock, absolute silence. You could have heard a fly. As they say, not a bird flew, nothing. A silence like you’ve never seen in your life. Everyone was stunned. A very small number of people said “Yechi.” They said “Yechi” loudly, but not the whole... just the word “Yechi.” That got the crowd going a little, and I announced it again, very loudly, clearly, slowly. By then, half the crowd could clearly see that the Rebbe was smiling. That’s why they said, “Yechi! Yechi!” Then I said it a third time, out loud: “Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu VeRabbeinu Melech HaMoshiach LeOlam Vaed.” Loudly. I shouted it with all my heart. The whole crowd shouted “Yechi” loudly. I turned toward the Rebbe, and then I saw him. The Rebbe was sitting like this. He was smiling and leaning back against the backrest, sitting with a regal bearing. The Rebbe usually sat leaning forward, but here he sat back like a king. You know, it was the Rebbe, and the Rebbe was smiling. Then I said, “Lechaim velivrachah.” It was such a good “lechaim velivrachah,” as they say. I felt as if a huge stone... I don’t even know how to explain it. We left and walked around a bit. When I got to my place, I said “Shehecheyanu” out loud, where Berel Lipsker was standing. Berel Lipsker shouted “Shehecheyanu” from a distance, because the Rebbe had said that we could say “Shehecheyanu.” You had to take that in. That’s all

59:00 Speaker 11 moments. When you’re studying the sicha afterward, you say, “Wow, why didn’t you do it this way?” But in the moment, you have to be there.

59:07 Speaker 17 Connect the dots.

59:08 Speaker 11 Connect the dots, and everything happens immediately. That’s really how it was. I remember that right afterward, the farbrengen with the Rebbe ended. Then I remember one of the older men stood up. He’s actually a relative of mine, and he was a very skeptical person. Afterward, they were... they were stunned. Everyone was in total shock. Then I went out into the street. Zalman Chanin’s father, Chaim—I knew him a little. He used to come to Rabbi Brooks’s shul, of blessed memory, and I would see him there now and then. I knew them all well. In those days, you showed respect to elders, to older people. That was how it was. Then suddenly he ran up to me. I was walking somewhere in Brooklyn to eat, probably to a kiddush or something, after the farbrengen. Chaim ran up to me and embraced me, kissing me the way Russians do. This was an older man who had lived a life of mesirus nefesh in Russia. He was so moved. I’ll never forget it. He was moved in a way... he didn’t know how to thank me. They were tremendously excited. I hadn’t absorbed it. I really hadn’t absorbed it. I wasn’t oblivious, as they say, but I hadn’t taken it in. I also heard someone describe that time. A few people said, “We’re not such big Moshiach enthusiasts, but when we saw the Rebbe’s broad smile as Rabbi Nachshon proclaimed ‘Yechi,’ we understood that this was it.” There were several times he proclaimed it and the Rebbe smiled. It wasn’t... yes, it happened over time. Each time after the...

1:01:06 Speaker 11 proclamation, the Rebbe was smiling. And not just smiling—the Rebbe was also sitting back. Usually you see the Rebbe sitting like this, but he was sitting like this. I saw the Rebbe’s smile at the end. After the third time, I turned toward the Rebbe to say “lechaim.” We say “lechaim” for the occasion. It was certainly an event. Afterward, my father and I came back for Maariv in the small zal. At that time, the Rebbe still davened Maariv upstairs. In later periods he came downstairs. We stood there waiting. We came back and started singing “Yechi Adoneinu” before the Rebbe entered. “Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu...” We started singing, and the crowd sang in the small zal as the Rebbe entered. Without the words? I don’t think I’m saying that. With the words. What do you mean, without? Of course, with the words. It was the same tune they had sung the night before, but now we were singing “Yechi Adoneinu.” We sang it, and the Rebbe came in. The Rebbe placed his siddur on the shtender with both hands, like this. There’s no recording of it because it was Motzaei Shabbos—it had been Shabbos, yes. The Rebbe moved both hands like this, forcefully, very forcefully. It was something; I don’t know. It was as though what had happened that day was all right. The Rebbe made a forceful motion with his hands. It was something. So those who still had a few doubts about the announcement didn’t see that either. Some people davened upstairs. It was all word of mouth, and what you happened to see. You didn’t always put it together. You saw what happened at the farbrengen and thought, “Okay, we saw it, we did it.” You didn’t connect everything. The picture was still dots—dots here, dots

1:02:54 Speaker 11 there. You didn’t get the full picture. We were inside the picture. It was happening to us: the Rebbe was leading one thing after another, how he received each thing, and everything was going as it should. I also explained to you then the response about the complicated matter, about this—that it had to come from us. Not that the Rebbe would say, “Go announce in all the newspapers that it’s me.” You see? Boruch Hashem, we understood that. We understood the direction. On Motzaei Shabbos, Yair Kahn gave a review. Rabbi Yair Kahn would review the Rebbe’s words with all the Temimim. I went downstairs—or rather, he came downstairs. Yair saw me from a distance, came outside, ran over to me and said, “Dovid, I am sorry, I am sorry.” He apologized. Yes, he asked my forgiveness. Later—I don’t remember when he said this—there was a farbrengen. Someone asked him how it could be possible, whether it was permissible or not. He still wasn’t sure of himself; he wasn’t at ease. It didn’t fit with [unclear], you know. But then they said to him, “But Dovid Nachshon was there, and the Rebbe...” and they had seen it. So he said, “Dovid Nachshon is one of those souls who [unclear].” “Dovid Nachshon is one of those souls who [unclear].” As if it wasn’t the usual order of things.

1:04:41 Speaker 18 Something outside the ordinary.

1:04:42 Speaker 11 Yes, I was sitting next to him when he said that to them. So I said to him, “[unclear]. You understand souls too? I didn’t know.”

1:04:53 Speaker 18 You have an understanding of that too.

1:04:54 Speaker 11 Yes, I didn’t know that. So he gave me a look, you know. We were very close then, but never mind.

1:05:01 Speaker 18 So if we make a brief summary, Rabbi, there really is a very, very uplifting feeling about this whole continuation of the revelation of Melech HaMoshiach, the Rebbe’s responses and positive reactions, especially his encouragement of “Yechi Adoneinu.” Now, suddenly, from Sunday, 7 Iyar, we enter what seems to be a somewhat unclear period. We need to explain it and tell it clearly so we can understand what’s happening here.

1:05:26 Speaker 11 And look, we still have Motzaei Shabbos. They say Rabbi Weinberg reviewed the sicha then. Every Motzaei Shabbos, he would repeat what the Rebbe had said. He had a time slot, from ten to eleven, I think. The Rebbe would have Melaveh Malkah with the Rebbetzin then, so he wasn’t there, but it was the Rebbe’s time, and the Rebbe would listen to Weinberg reviewing that day’s farbrengen. Weinberg said there had been something special that day, and he spoke about... we would have to see exactly what he said.

1:06:04 Speaker 18 He said there had been lofty matters.

1:06:05 Speaker 11 Lofty matters, things like that. He spoke with great excitement. Everyone was excited. It really was something. It shook people up in a positive way. He spoke about things the Rebbe had not mentioned before, and he spoke very emotionally.

1:06:27 Speaker 18 Also a little bit of restraint, to some extent.

1:06:29 Speaker 11 Then Sunday morning came. I wasn’t at davening then.

1:06:36 Speaker 18 When did Leibel call Gershon Mendel into the room?

1:06:41 Speaker 11 I’m telling you what happened now. He didn’t call him in. Before davening, Gershon Mendel went in to ask whether there were any answers to something—like when we go in to see whether there are any replies. And then he told him to stop all these things. At nine in the morning he started telling him what he’d found out: apparently several important people, rabbis, had already called Leibel. “What’s going on there? This happened, and it’s become a whole commotion. What is this? How can you let people do things like that?” And Leibel told him, “No, that’s it. That’s what happened; that’s what it is. Stop this, stop that, and take it away from him.” So I called, and afterward I called Leibel after davening. The Rebbe came down late that day—I think at ten to eleven or a quarter to eleven.

1:07:54 Speaker 18 Some people connected that with—

1:07:55 Speaker 11 Ten to eleven, and they were already... There are always people like that. They decided the Rebbe came down late because “Yechi” had been proclaimed the day before. I don’t know why he came down at all, then; if it wasn’t right, according to their theory he shouldn’t have come down at all. Who are these people telling all these stories and legends? But in the morning, Shemaryah started up. What was he singing in the morning? They started singing, that’s it. He got up in the morning, and I think maybe Leibel said something to him, or Mark [?]—something like that happened there. I don’t know exactly what it was. He said—

1:08:34 Speaker 3 He was singing by himself, and they were singing there until [unclear].

1:08:37 Speaker 11 I don’t know. He was singing it loudly, and he has a strong voice. “What are you doing here?” and all that. By the way, it was the same thing when we arrived: he asked us, “What have you come here to do?” That was before he actually saw the note with the Rebbe’s answer [?]. “What have you come here to do?”

1:08:51 Speaker 3 Make a commotion.

1:08:52 Speaker 11 Make a commotion—something like that. That had already happened.

1:08:54 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:08:55 Speaker 11 At first he didn’t know how the Rebbe would react. In any case, he wanted to keep things orderly, so there wouldn’t be... He supports the institutions. He didn’t want any wild behavior here, you know, anything like that. We’re serious people. With all due respect, we’re not... But he didn’t know. You know, people show up, and they can do all kinds of things. So...

1:09:18 Speaker 3 Rumors start.

1:09:19 Speaker 11 What?

1:09:20 Speaker 3 Rumors spread.

1:09:21 Speaker 11 Yes, of course. All it takes is for one person to say something, then one tells another, and conjecture and all sorts of things are enough to turn it into a fact.

1:09:33 Speaker 3 Because it’s like a field of dry weeds.

1:09:34 Speaker 11 Yes, immediately, of course. “The Rebbe doesn’t want this”—because on the face of it, that makes sense to people. As if... because usually it wasn’t like this, and then suddenly... Now I’m hearing things, including that Mendel got told off and was told to stop. So I called him too and asked, “What is this? What are these rumors?” Not the part about the Rebbe coming down late—I didn’t buy that at all. I understood that was just a joke. But what was this? “On what basis are you saying it has to stop?” “Yes, yes,” he said, “I’m telling you, it has to stop. It’s destroying forty years of Lubavitch’s work.” Whatever. He said, “Yes, we have to...” I asked him, “On what basis are you saying that? Did the Rebbe tell you to say anything?” He said, “No. The Rebbe only said they shouldn’t come with complaints,” and so on. So I said to him, “You told people as though the Rebbe had said it.” He said, “I said it.” So the Rebbe had told him... It was his own decision. No—he himself acknowledged it was his own decision. Clearly it wasn’t an instruction from the Rebbe. It fit his approach. Well.

1:10:43 Speaker 3 That everything comes from Heaven.

1:10:43 Speaker 11 As though they were coming to the Rebbe with complaints. You heard? You don’t know—it was someone else. As though they had come... So he says to me, “But did the Rebbe tell you anything to tell me?” He says to me, “No.” I said, “All right.”

1:10:55 Speaker 3 And we’re continuing with the approach we’ve taken until now.

1:10:56 Speaker 11 No, I didn’t say that to him. I didn’t tell him anything. I said to him, “But you yourself gave me a note from the Rebbe on Friday.” He said, “Fundestvegen”—“nevertheless.” So I asked him, “Did the Rebbe tell you to say something?” I mean, he was asking me what I was basing it on. There had been some big commotion there that morning. By then, hardly anyone was coming to me anymore. Because of the rumors, people weren’t coming the way they always had, sitting in my office. Only two people came to see me that morning. I’ll never forget it: Zelig Katzman and Sholom Ber Lipsker. They don’t get worked up; they’re people who know what they’re doing. So they came, and it was almost like—I don’t want to say it—like a shivah visit. You know, they come to you as though something has happened to you and you don’t know what to do. And here Leibel is telling me this, and I’m saying to him, “But the Rebbe told you...” “Aber fundestvegen”—but nevertheless. [unclear]. I said, “But the Rebbe gave you...” “But I’m telling you,” and something like that. It struck me as very strange. It was so out of the ordinary. What was going on here?

1:12:08 Speaker 3 Emotionally, it must have been very hard to take.

1:12:10 Speaker 11 Emotionally too. But here the Rebbe is writing this, here there’s a letter from the Rebbe, here there are answers—and all at once you bring it all down like a ton of bricks. I sat down and wrote the Rebbe a letter. This was before dollars. I could still run and bring it over. I was actually crying as I sat and wrote. I said, “Rebbe, if I’m doing something wrong here, please help me. I’ll leave right away. I’ll go. I have no intention of... I didn’t come here to cause distress.” I wrote a very difficult letter, and that was that. Then we went toward dollars, not knowing what would happen to us. Yochanan Avi [?]... And Mordechai Butman was standing there too. This was after we had set everything up. He said to me, “Listen, some people have heard all these things. We’ve created a conflict here,” and so on—as though we’d done some sort of—

1:13:06 Speaker 3 Gone back to where we started.

1:13:08 Speaker 11 Not just back to where we started. More like, “Run away!”—as though you’d committed a crime and had to flee. Or I don’t know what you’d call it. You’re thinking, “What is this?” You’re shattered; you don’t know what’s going on. You’re making an effort, doing this and that and everything. Then we passed by the Rebbe, and I said to the Rebbe... and he said to me, “You did the right thing.” I said, “We’ll leave today. We’ll leave, if we’re causing distress.” I’d written that to the Rebbe too: if we’re causing it...

1:13:43 Speaker 3 We’ll go back to Eretz Yisroel.

1:13:44 Speaker 11 Maybe I wrote the letter during dollars, or beforehand. It could have been beforehand. So, “We’ll go back.” Then I passed by the Rebbe and spoke to him. The Rebbe gave me a dollar and said, “Hatzlachah rabbah.” So I said to the Rebbe—

1:14:03 Speaker 3 Which books?

1:14:58 Speaker 11 The ones we’d brought from Russia before Pesach, around Pesach time. Now he was thanking us for those books.

1:15:05 Speaker 3 Without addressing the trip back to Eretz Yisroel.

1:15:07 Speaker 11 No trip back to Eretz Yisroel, nothing about that. What was going on? We were supposed to flee from here! We’d caused damage here—or I didn’t know what we’d done—so perhaps we had to leave. But the Rebbe wasn’t going in that direction at all. You could see the Rebbe didn’t address it. On the contrary, he gave you renewed strength. Everything was said positively, and suddenly, on top of that, a thank-you for the books. Why bring up the books now? That had been several weeks earlier, and now he suddenly remembered to thank us? It was such a warm expression, and you couldn’t understand what was going on. Then I went back to the room and started to take it in, to make sense of it for myself. I gathered a few of the fellows and told them what was happening. The Rebbe hadn’t answered us about this, and we still had more signatures, because, as you said, there was the bottle at the end.

1:16:02 Speaker 3 I forgot.

1:16:03 Speaker 11 And everyone who signed got some from the bottle. L’chaim! That bottle.

1:16:08 Speaker 3 Yes, the bottle that had been received on Shabbos.

1:16:10 Speaker 11 On Shabbos, there was a big bottle, and he gave some to everyone who had signed. We still had more signatures. What do we do? So I called a meeting. I asked the group we’d started with to come, and I invited the mashpi’im. There were about twelve of them—Nachman Shapiro[?], Moti Asafi[?], everyone. I called them all together and told them what was going on, what had happened here, what people were saying about us. Listen, I was very confused. On the one hand, people tell you you’re causing such a commotion, such a mess, doing such terrible things. And on the other hand, the Rebbe is so pleased, and you don’t know what to think. You’re caught in the middle. You don’t know whom to believe. On the one hand, this is the most elevated time; on the other, they’ve turned it into something terrible over essentially nothing. It was torment. So I told the group to come to a meeting. We spoke on Sunday about what to do. I went out with the others between the rooms. Meanwhile, Shmueli—by then I already knew—tells me, “You don’t know what happened today.” “What happened?” And he tells me about it, about Dovid Nachshon and his group: there’s a rumor going around that people need to keep away from Dovid Nachshon and his group.

1:17:52 Speaker 3 Didn’t you ask the Rebbe whether the rumor was true?

1:17:54 Speaker 11 Yes, that happened. The whole rumor was going around, and someone came to ask the Rebbe about it. A journalist asked the Rebbe. He was very, very unhappy to hear it. You could see that the Rebbe had a real aversion to it. The Rebbe said—possibly; I’ll translate in a moment—“I have no dealings with rumors. If I dealt with rumors, I wouldn’t have time to daven or to do anything else.” That’s almost exactly how I remember it. So, to translate what the Rebbe said: “I have no dealings with rumors. If I dealt with rumors, I wouldn’t have time to daven or do other things.” I have no dealings with rumors, one way or the other.

1:18:45 Speaker 3 Shmuel Shmueli told you that. What do you know?

1:18:48 Speaker 11 It was very, very important, and it was very reassuring. And Shmuel Shmueli—of course, for me, I understood that this was the Rebbe’s approach. I also saw how the Rebbe treated us. But still, you know, the whispering among people went on all the time. And here you needed... The Rebbe wasn’t going to issue a written denial. Denials and such—the Rebbe said that if he occupied himself with denials, he wouldn’t have time to do anything. So...

1:19:21 Speaker 3 But as they say, it’s much easier to set a field of thorns on fire than to put it out.

1:19:25 Speaker 11 Certainly, putting it out. As people say today, a stone that one fool throws into a well, a hundred wise men can’t get out. One fool is enough to throw the stone in, and afterward a hundred wise men can’t undo it.

1:19:44 Speaker 3 So the next step, after all that uproar, was another meeting of the chassidim.

1:19:49 Speaker 11 Another meeting, and the group asked me...

1:19:51 Speaker 3 To strengthen the matter of accepting his kingship, or to clarify the situation in general?

1:19:55 Speaker 11 To clarify it. I called them to a meeting. I was in that position, and we wanted to see how to proceed—whether to stop everything. They all said, “But he didn’t say to stop.” Then they asked, “Wait, did you receive any instruction from the Rebbe about anything?” I told them exactly what had happened, what he had said. I remember Moshe Slonim feeling very strongly about the Rebbe’s saying, “That is precisely your view.” That’s how it has to be: it has to come from the people, not from the Rebbe. The Rebbe didn’t say, “Tell people on my behalf that I am...” It fit the whole approach exactly. So they said, “No, you need to write to him. We’re continuing. The Rebbe wrote to you, ‘an ongoing activity,’ and what else was written there? It was a timely matter...”

1:20:39 Speaker 4 Without end.

1:20:40 Speaker 11 Without end. That was one of the phrases there: “without end.”

1:20:42 Speaker 4 What, in Ma’ayanah Shel Ha’ir?

1:20:44 Speaker 11 Yes.

1:20:45 Speaker 4 It was mentioned at the beginning: “And may his activity continue without end, and at this opportune time.”

1:20:49 Speaker 11 “An activity continuing without end.” What does “an activity continuing without end” mean? I don’t know at what stage this happened. On one of the occasions when I went in to him, they had decided and told me, “You keep going, keep collecting signatures, and submit it all to the Rebbe. Write that there was a meeting and we decided to continue.” Those are the letters you see here. We wrote that at today’s meeting it was decided that, until we receive a different instruction, we’re continuing with this matter. I took the additional signatures, several pages.

1:21:25 Speaker 4 Yes.

1:21:26 Speaker 11 I took the letter from everyone who had been at the meeting. I put them in two small white envelopes, separately. My concern was—I didn’t know—one would go in, would both envelopes be delivered? I didn’t know, so I kept them separate. These were anxious thoughts[?]: if one didn’t make it, perhaps the other would be read; perhaps someone wouldn’t want to bring it in. I didn’t know.

1:21:55 Speaker 4 And then the Rebbe received the...

1:21:56 Speaker 11 When the Rebbe would come out after Minchah, if it was very late, he would usually daven Minchah and Maariv together and wouldn’t go upstairs again. But here there was a gap, because he had arrived early, so he went upstairs after Minchah and came down again for Maariv. So as he was leaving, I thought: whenever I wanted something handled quickly, I would do it this way, because I knew it would go in immediately. You put it in an envelope, and then... As he passed, I handed him both envelopes.

1:22:26 Speaker 4 Okay, you gave the Rebbe both envelopes.

1:22:28 Speaker 11 I gave him both envelopes. Leibel brought them in. Then the Rebbe suddenly announced that he was going to the Ohel again the next day, Tuesday. As the Rebbe was leaving, Leibel motioned for me to come over to him. Out on the street, as he was leaving, he told me, “There’s an answer”—there were answers.

1:22:45 Speaker 4 There’s an answer.

1:22:46 Speaker 11 An answer. So I went over to him, and he said, “You sent two things, right?” You gave two things, and both received the same answer: “I will mention it at the Ohel. Good news.” Wow.

1:23:00 Speaker 4 That really reassured you.

1:23:02 Speaker 11 Yes—well, it didn’t reassure me completely, because...

1:23:05 Speaker 4 But it gave you tremendous encouragement.

1:23:07 Speaker 11 Certainly. Certainly. I saw that the Rebbe—this was it, this was right. The approach was right; everything was right. All the confusion around us, all that needless chatter, was nothing. It was just people talking. And here the Rebbe had said, “I will mention it at the Ohel. Good news.” That was it. This was our path. It fit every note we’d received up to then; it was all consistent.

1:23:36 Speaker 4 You continued according to the...

1:23:37 Speaker 11 What came to me from the Rebbe—that’s what you need to listen to. Everything around it is background noise; it doesn’t concern you. He said to continue, so we continued. And look at the letter there: it doesn’t contain a question. “Should we continue?”—no. There are no questions. I try, as much as possible...

1:23:52 Speaker 4 A very clear approach. You inform the Rebbe, and the Rebbe acknowledges it.

1:23:54 Speaker 11 If the Rebbe doesn’t approve of something, he tells you. You should know, as I told you, that I once received an answer in a postscript—I told you about the shlichus in Ukraine. The Rebbe wrote, “[unclear] to ask about every step, not to get into all this in the first place, and above all, [unclear] will help us with this, and they should begin and continue until it is completed.” There are two approaches. No questions, no... “I have given you a heart to understand and eyes to see.” You have to—you’re not babies who need everyone to change your diapers. You know what you need to do, and you’ll have the strength. Whoever sends you knows you’ll know what to do. Anyway, that’s what happened here. Then, on the stairs leading up to the secretariat, I said to Leibel, “Leibel, I want it in writing.” He asked me, “What happened? It’s been two days—don’t you believe me?” Many times, when I leave something there, he writes the answer down for me. But if I’m there, I copy it myself. I always want to see what the Rebbe answers. He said, “What? Why? It’s only been two days!” I told him, “Rumors have come out of here.” He asked, “What rumors?” I said, “That the Rebbe came out late, and all sorts of things like that—that the Rebbe wasn’t pleased and came out late.” He gestured like this. Came out late? Maybe people outside heard something and said the Rebbe wasn’t... What could they have heard? Through the windows, all the way to the road? What is this?

1:25:22 Speaker 5 Inventions.

1:25:22 Speaker 11 He laughed. He himself laughed at those inventions. I told him, “A rumor has come out about Avihu[?], and I want it—I want it in writing.”

1:25:33 Speaker 5 In the wording.

1:25:33 Speaker 11 “I want it in writing.” He immediately wrote it on the page with the signatures. You saw it—on the [unclear] and on the signatures. He wrote it clearly.

1:25:42 Speaker 5 Yes.

1:25:43 Speaker 11 I told him, “I want it written clearly.” He was also writing here, [unclear], and Rabbi Shimon Dovid Nachshon [?] on the letter. What’s that? On the letter, [unclear], and about the chassidim—two things. So, about the Ohel and the [unclear]. Luckily, I insisted that he write it, because it didn’t stop.

1:26:16 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:26:17 Speaker 11 Now, we kept collecting signatures, and two days later I started hearing things again. Not necessarily—there was room to see it either way. It was less, less, sort of—

1:26:36 Speaker 5 Clear-cut.

1:26:37 Speaker 11 Less clear-cut that there was no such thing, and so on. But it wasn’t exactly that. There were conflicting reports about the Rebbe. How should I put it? All kinds of reports, and I really didn’t like it. It was very painful for me. So then I wrote another letter. I wrote to the Rebbe that there were still very troubling rumors: that this was against his wishes, and that what we were doing wasn’t in keeping with his wishes. I pleaded with the Rebbe—we were pleading. I signed it—I mean, listen a moment, it’s easier this way... I pleaded with the Rebbe to let me know if there was indeed any displeasure with this, or if anything was wrong. I asked the Rebbe to let me know. I begged him to let me know if I was doing something wrong. I went to Binyamin and gave him the letter. He read it and asked why I was giving it to him. I said, “Look, all sorts of rumors are going around. I don’t know.” He said, “I don’t know what to do. It’s terrible.” You understand, nobody wants to find out that he’s going against the Rebbe. What could be worse? It’s an awful thing. And this was after all the answers and everything that had happened. We wrote it in about four lines, but it was a very heartfelt plea. We begged the Rebbe to tell us immediately, so we could stop immediately and do everything according to his wishes. I gave it to Binyamin and asked him to take it in. He said, “All right. As an exception, I’ll take it in.” And he did; he took it in to the Rebbe. Binyamin would go in only once a day, once or twice a day. He didn’t go in nearly every hour. He took it in to the Rebbe after Minchah. The Rebbe looked at it. He told me about it afterward. I asked, “What was the answer?” He

1:28:45 Speaker 11 said, “The Rebbe looked at it, read it, and put it on top of the letters like this. He didn’t say anything.”

1:29:03 Speaker 6 So far we’ve spoken about the signatures, the activists’ meeting about how to proceed, and both the negative reports and the Rebbe’s positive encouragement. Now we come to the answer, another milestone in the matter of “Yechi Adoneinu.” What actually happened that day?

1:29:20 Speaker 11 So, we kept collecting signatures. A second batch had already gone in to the Rebbe, and now we were collecting a third batch. Then, on 15 Iyar, I went to the rabbis and asked for signatures. I wanted something issued in the name of the Badatz. I asked the rabbis. Rabbi Marlow said he had already signed. I told him, “Let’s do something in the name of the Badatz.” Rabbi Marlow said, “You’re right. This is something for the Badatz.” I got Rabbi Marlow, Rabbi Osdoba, and Rabbi Heller to sign again, so that the Badatz beis din would issue a clear ruling about the Rebbe as Melech HaMoshiach. This was something more: it was in the name of the Badatz. An unequivocal ruling, and that was it. And that has significance—a ruling by rabbis in the Jewish community who are halachic authorities. Three-quarters of a year later, the Rebbe mentions it.

1:30:29 Speaker 6 At Mishpatim.

1:30:29 Speaker 11 At Mishpatim. So they signed. And that same day, the Rebbe gave a sicha after Minchah. In the sicha, he mentioned that in the merit of righteous women we were redeemed and will be redeemed in the future. Again, Moshiach. Then, in the middle of speaking, the Rebbe mentioned Nachshon ben Aminadav: that he jumped in and opened a new path. He jumped in, and afterward everyone followed.

1:31:16 Speaker 6 You took that as some sort of hint about your work.

1:31:17 Speaker 11 I didn’t hear it that way myself, but all right. It’s nice to think about it, but the guys immediately interpreted it that way.

1:31:29 Speaker 6 That the Rebbe was giving encouragement.

1:31:31 Speaker 11 That he had mentioned my name, and that the Rebbe was encouraging this approach. And sure enough, immediately after the Rebbe came out, they began dancing very enthusiastically to “Yechi Adoneinu.”

1:31:42 Speaker 6 Before the Rebbe—

1:31:43 Speaker 11 No, they started singing before he came out.

1:31:45 Speaker 6 And the Rebbe encouraged it.

1:31:46 Speaker 11 They weren’t dancing yet, and the Rebbe encouraged it. The Rebbe came out and encouraged it with his hands. After that sicha there was a great awakening, and they began singing “Yechi Adoneinu.” This is the first time there’s a recording of it.

1:31:56 Speaker 6 And this is actually the first time the Rebbe instructs—

1:31:58 Speaker 11 It’s the first time it was filmed and documented: they were singing “Yechi Adoneinu,” and the Rebbe came out and encouraged it with his hands. That hadn’t happened before. I mean, there had only been Motzaei Shabbos. The song hadn’t caught on yet; it wasn’t being sung all the time. People were talking about it, but it hadn’t caught on. Here, though, the Rebbe spoke about the righteous women and Nachshon ben Aminadav, and that stirred people. Then they began singing “Yechi Adoneinu.”

1:32:25 Speaker 6 Did that change how people who hadn’t been on board until then saw things? There had been a period of uncertainty. Suddenly the Rebbe comes out after davening and encourages “Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu Verabeinu Melech HaMoshiach Leolam Vaed.” That doesn’t happen in a vacuum. There’s some kind of change in perception here.

1:32:38 Speaker 11 There wasn’t any—

1:32:41 Speaker 6 No, I’m not talking about you. I’m talking—

1:32:43 Speaker 11 You could see it among the crowd. That’s clear; I assume it changed people’s lives. I didn’t go around taking a poll. But everyone saw the Rebbe encourage “Yechi Adoneinu,” and afterward people spontaneously burst into dancing. In the western section, more or less everyone started dancing. It’s on film: everyone dancing very enthusiastically to “Yechi Adoneinu.” We’re dancing there too. It was completely spontaneous, because they saw the Rebbe come out and encourage it. The sicha itself was also very stirring, and then there was “Yechi.”

1:33:21 Speaker 6 It happened again after Maariv.

1:33:22 Speaker 11 Then, after Maariv, the Rebbe spoke about distributing kuntreisim. That was the first time the Rebbe distributed a Dvar Malchus. All of this was on the same day—a day when he spoke a great deal about accepting the kingship.

1:33:43 Speaker 6 The revelation of the kingship.

1:33:44 Speaker 11 Yes. I’ll tell you what I know happened. The Rebbe said he would distribute them, so they talked about taking a break.

1:33:59 Speaker 6 The kuntreisim hadn’t arrived yet.

1:34:00 Speaker 11 The kuntreisim hadn’t arrived, because the Rebbe’s request was sudden. He made the request in the afternoon. I remember everyone involved in Chabad book distribution was stunned by it all. You could see that the Rebbe was in an exalted state regarding kingship, Melech HaMoshiach, the revelation of Melech HaMoshiach. As you say, clearly, it was something quite remarkable. I told you, in those days there was also that passage later on in the Rambam. It all went together. That’s why I told you: yes, yes.

1:34:29 Speaker 6 It was growing stronger.

1:34:30 Speaker 11 Today, when I look at the date, it strikes me even more strongly. So there was that, and then the Rebbe distributed them. I have the Dvar Malchus here. Afterward there was “Yechi” again, and the Rebbe encouraged it with his hands. These were very powerful things.

1:34:47 Speaker 6 So, from 15 Iyar, we do see a certain narrowing of the focus on Moshiach. We just want to take a moment to explain that.

1:34:55 Speaker 11 I’ll tell you what happened.

1:34:56 Speaker 6 Where did it actually begin?

1:34:58 Speaker 11 In Israel it was three days before Lag BaOmer, and it started. They saw that it was gaining momentum very quickly. So the opposition saw what was happening with the Rebbe, and there were [unclear]. They immediately wrote to the Rebbe that very day, that evening. They wrote that in Israel, if they continued doing this, they might stop allowing them into the schools. That was more or less the line. Someone in Israel sent the Rebbe a very strongly worded message. They wrote it in the name of Tzach[?], in the name of someone there in Kfar Chabad. And then the Rebbe wrote to them: “In that case, take it down.” “We want Moshiach now.” They said that if they continued with “We want Moshiach now”—after ten years of the Rebbe singing it, calling to the children at the gatherings, with the Rebbe himself starting “We want Moshiach now”—they dared to write to the Rebbe that it could interfere and cause harm, and so on and so forth. So the Rebbe said, “In that case, take it down.” Now, during those days they asked the Rebbe whether to hold the Lag BaOmer parade, and the Rebbe said yes, because usually when the Rebbe says to hold a parade, it’s only on Sundays. Then the Rebbe comes out to speak to the children. Imagine: there’s a parade right beside the Rebbe’s room, everything is there. Suddenly something happens, something terrible happens here. They write this to the Rebbe, after the Rebbe has already given the okay for the parade. They’ve arranged the parade, they’re preparing things, and suddenly a letter comes here from Israel saying that it’s causing a problem. So the Rebbe says, “In that case, stop it.” And Shmuel Shmueli is about to run a headline in “Yisrael Shelanu” about the King Moshiach, about the Rebbe, and then the Rebbe writes to him: “According to the results so far...” In other words, the Rebbe wants it, but it has consequences. We’re checking how it works, so to speak, “and according to the reports received to date, in print...”

1:37:04 Speaker 11 “Recently, new practices have been instituted to distance people from the study of Chassidus. And what is the point of a debate about this in print? As with any debate, the questions are readily accepted; the answers, not so much. And seemingly, given the present situation, it would make more sense to pause this for a time.” In other words, as far as I’m concerned, I want this. Of course it’s needed. But in light of the current reality, in which new practices have arisen...

1:37:37 Speaker 7 “Seemingly, it may be worth pausing for a time.”

1:37:38 Speaker 11 So “seemingly”—even that isn’t phrased in a—

1:37:42 Speaker 7 Sharp way, not sharply.

1:37:43 Speaker 11 Definitive way. “Seemingly, it would make more sense.”

1:37:47 Speaker 7 Yes.

1:37:48 Speaker 11 In other words, very, very—worded in a—

1:37:52 Speaker 7 Vague way, yes.

1:37:53 Speaker 11 Very much based on what had been reported and on the results. In other words, yes, it’s right, yes, it was needed, but the results are such that perhaps there needs to be a pause for a while. New practices had arisen.

1:38:10 Speaker 7 And that’s how I knew about it.

1:38:11 Speaker 11 And that was in [unclear]. The source of these things was in Israel, and perhaps somewhere else too. There may have been other things; I don’t know everything. I’m talking about what was discussed then. There were things that openly came from Israel, with their emphasis, and then [unclear]. Then they sent a letter to all the branches saying that an instruction had been received, although there had been no instruction to the branches. They wrote that an instruction had been received. They didn’t say it was an instruction from the Rebbe or specify what it was; it had come “from above,” as though something had arrived. They took it as an instruction. The message was: You say this is causing you a problem? Then don’t put me in it. That’s what they’re saying. You say I’m getting in the way? Take it down; take me out of it. But at that time it was the eve of Lag BaOmer. Suddenly we receive word that the Rebbe has announced he won’t come out. He won’t come out to the parade. It was a shock. True, it wasn’t a Sunday, but still. The Rebbe had given blessings for it to be held even in the middle of the week and everything. They pass right by his room. There’s no such thing as the Rebbe not coming out. The Rebbe is the commander of Tzivos Hashem, of the whole thing, and suddenly what? It was a slap in the face. Do you know what a slap in the face is? And we all understood that something terrible had happened. So I called a meeting. We gathered at my place, where the Moshiach headquarters had been set up. I called all the mashpi’im and the others who were involved at the time, including Rabbi Yosef Weinberg. Everyone was there, and we discussed it. Nachman Shapiro was there, Rabbi [unclear], all the mashpi’im—everyone who was involved. It was more a gathering of mashpi’im, not the broader circle, but the spiritual side, to understand what was happening here. We understood that this was a slap in the face, that there was dissatisfaction. He was saying, “If that’s the case, take it down”—suddenly stop everything, just two days after the Rebbe had

1:40:18 Speaker 11 been so emphatic. This wasn’t censorship. Suddenly they were sending the Rebbe things like that. It came from below, all of it from below—the results from below. As they say, the results weren’t coming from the Rebbe. The Rebbe hadn’t changed: the same Moshiach, the same Rebbe. The question was how the crowd, how the public, how the people were receiving it. So we held the meeting while the parade was going on. We didn’t go there. The Rebbe didn’t come out, and we said, “If You don’t go with us, I’m not going either.” As Hashem says to Moshe Rabbeinu—how does it go? I said to the Rebbe: They’re telling you that the Rebbe is causing them a problem. Okay, [unclear]. There’s no Moshiach, right? No Moshiach? Then there’s no Moshiach. He isn’t coming. So there’s nothing to do. This isn’t the place. In short, we sat and thought about what to do. We decided to write the Rebbe a clear letter saying that we did not accept this. So we sat down and wrote it.

1:41:28 Speaker 8 “We do not accept a pause.” Was there something new to say, or something?

1:41:32 Speaker 11 No, no. We didn’t accept the whole idea. We didn’t accept that it could cause a problem. We said—

1:41:43 Speaker 8 That there were [unclear].

1:41:43 Speaker 11 “We want Moshiach now”—that’s what we wrote, “We want Moshiach now.” Hundreds of thousands of children had been raised with this for ten years, and it had only brought them closer and accomplished more and more. Therefore it had to continue immediately. And if there needed to be a pause—we knew from the answer—if there needed to be some pause in the meantime, that pause had already happened. The Rebbe hadn’t come out. If there needed to be a pause, it had already happened. We wrote all this on Lag BaOmer. It was very, very strong. We all signed it. I handed it in. When the Rebbe came back from the Ohel—when the Rebbe came back, he distributed dollars, and I went past. The Rebbe gave me a dollar and looked at me. The Rebbe held it out to me like this, with a smile.

1:42:41 Speaker 8 A smile.

1:42:41 Speaker 11 Yes.

1:42:43 Speaker 8 A look of satisfaction.

1:42:45 Speaker 11 Yes, a small one. Yes. I understood it was about the letter. That was all. I didn’t need anything else. I understood. We understood. [unclear].

1:42:55 Speaker 8 And despite that, despite that, we do in fact see some kind of pause for a while. In practice, regarding unification or regarding—

1:43:03 Speaker 11 In practice, when they remove it, when they remove it—

1:43:06 Speaker 8 Yes, I’m only saying that. I’m not saying what the reason was. I’m saying what happened in practice and what the results were. In other words, there was a pause.

1:43:10 Speaker 11 The Rebbe made the pause.

1:43:11 Speaker 8 The chassidim.

1:43:12 Speaker 11 The pause happened because the chassidim said it wasn’t working, it wasn’t making progress, it wasn’t advisable, it was doing this and that. They were making noise[?] and calling the Rebbe. They said it was interfering with the spreading of the wellsprings; they said it was causing a problem. They reminded the Rebbe that in 5745 he had said this and that, and now it was causing a problem, and all of that. The Rebbe said, “Well, if that’s the case, it seems you should pause it a little.” Then I wrote to the Rebbe, because I saw the situation and thought perhaps this was possible. I wrote that I understood that in Israel they didn’t understand what was happening here; they didn’t understand all the developments or everything that was going on. And perhaps now I needed to go back to Israel. That was 21 Iyar, Sunday. Right?

1:43:58 Speaker 8 Yes, Sunday the 21st.

1:43:59 Speaker 11 Here, 21 Iyar. If Lag BaOmer was Thursday, Friday—

1:44:08 Speaker 8 Yes, yes, 21 Iyar was Shabbos.

1:44:10 Speaker 11 Shabbos, the 21st, the 21st. So then we—I wrote to the Rebbe that if that was the case, perhaps this time I could travel after all, though he hadn’t allowed us to travel before. Perhaps now it would be worthwhile to travel, even for a few days, and come back before Shavuos—to go there for a few days and try to speak with the rabbis, with everyone, and start explaining what was happening here. After all, it had all been rumors and so on. And then the miracle happened. I saw that the Rebbe—[unclear]. We informed the Rebbe, and the Rebbe gave us money for the trip that very day. On Sunday, he gave another dollar, and after Minchah, Leibel suddenly came running to call us. He said the Rebbe had given each of us another ten dollars for the trip.

1:45:02 Speaker 8 That’s something rare.

1:45:03 Speaker 11 Yes. And by that time, the Rebbe also wasn’t giving Israelis money anymore; it was mainly dollars. But the Rebbe gave each person ten dollars for the trip. That was after Minchah. Then we traveled, and from Israel I wrote to the Rebbe that I wanted to meet with him. So I met with Rabbi Yaroslavsky. I arranged a meeting with him, and we met at Heichal Shlomo. I told him, “Let’s meet. I want to show you these things.” He saw them, and he was stunned by all the answers. He agreed to sign the documents. Suddenly, things he hadn’t known were revealed to him.

1:45:58 Speaker 8 Did he sign the halachic ruling?

1:46:01 Speaker 11 I think that was then.

1:46:02 Speaker 8 Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

1:46:04 Speaker 11 So he signed. He read everything and told me, yes, I should speak with all the rabbis. Yes. Actually, that’s how it happened. He had been somewhat hesitant about it. We met downstairs in the shul at Heichal Shlomo, and afterward I wrote to the Rebbe. Before that, there was a Shabbos—Shabbos Parshas Bechukosai. I was in Israel, and Tuvia Peles invited me to come to Kfar Chabad for Shabbos, to farbreng and explain to everyone what was happening. So I came; my family and I stayed with him. He announced to all the shuls that I would be there for Shabbos and would farbreng in the new housing development. On Friday we sent in a letter from here. Mordechai sent it; Shlomo submitted it; I sent it. Before we traveled, we wrote that we were going to Kfar Chabad to farbreng with the bottle [?], about accepting the Rebbe’s kingship and all that, and to farbreng with the people. On Shabbos, people came there to Kfar Chabad. We were in the new housing development, and gradually more and more people gathered. Lots and lots of fellows came from the shuls. I stood on a bench and told them everything that had happened, all the details. The crowd was stunned. They didn’t know anything. It was just as I’d thought: they knew nothing, only rumors. Then, when we got back, I already had a response from the Rebbe on Motzaei Shabbos: [unclear], “May his activity continue with an increase.” That was in response to my writing that I was going to Kfar Chabad to farbreng. So I wrote again. Then the fellows at the yeshivah in Migdal HaEmek asked me to come farbreng with them. I said, if the Rebbe wrote “with an increase,” then I’ll go to the bachurim too, to the Temimim. There were seventy or eighty bachurim there. We sat together—not in the yeshivah building they have now, the big one. They had a sort of dining room there, fairly large, though narrow and long. Anyway, I farbrenged with them. I brought the folder and showed them all the Rebbe’s answers.

1:48:28 Speaker 11 They were very moved. I wrote to the Rebbe that, as an addition, I had gone and farbrenged with them. I received another response from the Rebbe: “May his activity continue with an increase”—but “with an increase” was underlined. That was the second time in just a few days.

1:48:42 Speaker 9 Wow.

1:48:44 Speaker 11 So I understood that this now had to be

1:48:47 Speaker 9 the direction.

1:48:47 Speaker 11 That had to be the direction. So I invited all the tankists and farbrenged with them. I told them everything that was happening, what needed to be done here, and all the related matters.

1:48:59 Speaker 9 Thank you very much, Rabbi Nachshon, for this episode. We already need to wrap up episode three of the forty-part series. So thank you very much. Baruch Hashem, this really was a very special episode, bringing together all the events surrounding the revelation of King Moshiach, particularly the special moments of 6 Iyar 5751 and 7 Iyar 5751, along with the establishment of the Moshiach headquarters, everything that followed from that, and the restrictions that came afterward. We’ve already begun to touch on what was revealed during the journey through the Holy Land concerning Moshiach, which the Rebbe so strongly encouraged, and on accepting his kingship. With Hashem’s help, in the next episode, episode four, we’ll speak at greater length about the special revelation that followed, about Shavuos 5751, the rabbis’ signatures, the expanded halachic ruling that he is bechezkas Moshiach, and especially the remarkable story of the letter of appointment to send the halachic ruling and [unclear] of all our Rebbeim, our Nesi’im. With Hashem’s help, we’ll discuss that in the next episode. And of course, we want to thank you very much, Rabbi Nachshon. We’ll continue, with Hashem’s help, in the next episode.

1:50:07 Speaker 10 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the students of the Temimim from Ata Haolami. For more programs, dial *6358. Long live our master, our teacher, and our Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever.