Rabbi Moshe Dikshtein - Be'er Sheva - Part 7

00:19 Speaker 1 Moshe, good evening.

00:20 Speaker 2 A wonderful evening.

00:20 Speaker 1 How are you?

00:22 Speaker 2 Boruch Hashem, thank G-d.

00:24 Speaker 1 Today I’d like you to tell us about the period after you were with the Rebbe shlita, Melech HaMoshiach—when you returned to Israel and enlisted in the army, or whatever happened in between. Please tell us.

00:38 Speaker 2 Well, before— I traveled to the Rebbe at an older age, meaning after draft age. I had a problem with one eye, so I had an exemption because I was about three-quarters blind in my right or left eye. I don’t remember which one.

00:55 Speaker 1 It doesn’t matter.

00:57 Speaker 2 I don’t remember. I think it was the left eye. No, I don’t remember. Anyway, I traveled to the Rebbe and studied there for two years in Morristown, as we’ve already discussed. And the Rebbe sent me back to Israel. The Rebbe sent my entire class to study at a yeshiva they were establishing in Cincinnati.

01:21 Speaker 1 They established a yeshiva in Cincinnati, in the United States?

01:24 Speaker 2 In the United States, yes—the class I studied with in Morristown. As for me, the Rebbe wrote beside my name: “His return to the Holy Land, to the Chabad House in Bat Yam, should be at a good and auspicious time.”

01:41 Speaker 1 Why? Why did the Rebbe write to you about Bat Yam? Had you received some sort of offer from—

01:44 Speaker 2 I certainly had a connection with Zimroni. Before I traveled, I was in touch with Zimroni, and we established a Chabad House there. I worked there on weekends. I had a connection.

01:56 Speaker 1 Moshe, you can tell us the details. We want to hear the details.

02:00 Speaker 2 Ah.

02:01 Speaker 1 And the other things too. Of course, every detail matters.

02:04 Speaker 2 As we discussed on one of the previous occasions, Zimroni brought me closer to Chabad in Nechalim. When Zimroni established the Chabad House in Bat Yam, Nachum Kleinman and I—Nachum Kleinman is quite a character himself—helped him a great deal at the Chabad House. We got it going and held activities there on Friday and Shabbos, and also on weekday evenings. When I traveled to the Rebbe, my last farbrengen in Israel, my farewell farbrengen, was downstairs at the Chabad House there, and—

02:45 Speaker 1 Moshe, let’s make sure we understand. The listeners don’t know what you’re talking about. Describe it a little. What do you mean by “downstairs there”? Go on.

02:53 Speaker 2 The Chabad House—the first Chabad House—was on Kedoshei Ha’ir Street in Bat Yam. There was a courtyard by its back exit, and that was where my farewell farbrengen took place before I traveled to the Rebbe. I knew I was going, though I didn’t know exactly for how long. Rabbi Brodsky[?], who taught Torah in Nechalim, came, and Zimroni was there, along with my friends and Boaz Segal. In short, it was a very, very lively farbrengen that went on almost all night. That was it. Now, Zimroni’s wife came to the Rebbe at some point, and I think—though I don’t know, I never checked this—that she asked the Rebbe to send some help to Bat Yam, perhaps a bochur who could help Zimroni. I’m only putting things together here; I don’t actually know. Since I already had a connection with the Chabad House in Bat Yam and had finished that stage of my studies at the yeshiva in Morristown, while most of my class went to Cincinnati to establish a yeshiva and some went to [unclear] to study in Cincinnati, the Rebbe told me to return to Israel, to Bat Yam, and help Zimroni. And that’s what happened. I went in for yechidus with the Rebbe.

04:39 Speaker 3 When was that? At night, during the day, in the afternoon, in the evening?

04:42 Speaker 2 Yechidus was at night. My yechidus was at night, and as is well known, the Rebbe’s yechidus appointments were all late at night. The entire day beforehand was spent preparing—learning, davening, sanctifying and purifying oneself, going to the mikveh. Really preparing, as chassidim do, for something very serious and very holy. They say that a person’s first yechidus is his birthday: that’s when he is born as a chossid. Of course, I won’t tell you everything the Rebbe said in that yechidus, but I asked the Rebbe a question, as the Rebbe taught us to do. I asked the Rebbe what my soul had come into the world for.

05:43 Speaker 3 What? That’s what you’d call a direct question.

05:46 Speaker 2 Yes, a direct question. What did my soul come into the world for?

05:49 Speaker 3 Moshe, did you ask that aloud or in a note?

05:51 Speaker 2 No, no, in writing. You don’t speak. When I went in to the Rebbe, I gave him a letter. That is, I had submitted a letter a day or two earlier, and when I went in, I had a note in my hand with my name, Moshe ben Shulamis Dickstein. That’s what I was holding. There was a stack of letters beside the Rebbe. He went through them, stopped, and pulled out my letter. That too was a kind of miracle, considering all those letters... He opened it, and it looked as though the Rebbe hadn’t read it yet. During the yechidus, he went through it—some thirty pages in which I had written my entire life story, from as far back as I could remember until that moment. The Rebbe went through it quickly with a pencil, making various marks—all in seconds. Then he asked me, “Vos farshteist du, Yiddish oder Ivrit?”—“What do you understand, Yiddish or Hebrew?” I didn’t answer.

06:56 Speaker 3 Because you were so overwhelmed?

06:57 Speaker 2 I was overwhelmed, frightened, shaken... He kept reading and asked me again, “Nu, vos farshteist du, Yiddish oder Ivrit?”—“What do you understand?” And I still didn’t answer. After the Rebbe finished reading what I’d written, he looked up at me and said, “Nu”—as if to say, “Well, answer me.” I remember saying, “He-he-he-he.” So the Rebbe started speaking to me in Yiddish. I understood it, so that was fine. The Rebbe told me—well, first he said... In short, the main point was that I needed to work in education.

07:38 Speaker 3 Wait, wait, wait. Why “in short”? I don’t understand. Why skip ahead?

07:42 Speaker 2 Because I don’t want to tell my whole li—my whole—

07:44 Speaker 3 Then tell us what you can, but don’t skip ahead. Say what you can tell us. People want to hear it.

07:50 Speaker 2 The Rebbe told me that the mission of my soul in this world was to be involved in spreading—this is how the Rebbe put it—spreading Torah and spreading the light of Chassidus to children and young people. That’s it. That’s what he told me. He also blessed me with success in the Holy Land and in my home, and said a number of very personal things. The Rebbe told me, “With Hashem’s help, before you get married, come in here, and then I’ll give you instructions on how to begin, how to live your life after the wedding.” When I came out of the yechidus, I later heard that, relatively speaking, I’d been in there a long time—more than five minutes. Now, chassidim say—and you can laugh at me; I don’t know—that during yechidus, the Rebbe puts on glasses to read what a person has written so that his eyes won’t see it directly, so that there’s something between the Rebbe’s eyes and that person’s handwriting. I was very, very struck by that. As it happened, the Rebbe hadn’t used glasses during my yechidus. So when my friend [unclear] asked me, “Nu, what happened?” the first thing out of my mouth was, “The Rebbe didn’t use glasses.” That was it. I immediately went downstairs to the main study hall. It was two or three in the morning. I sat down and wrote from memory everything the Rebbe had said to me. I put it all in writing, everything I could remember the Rebbe saying.

09:48 Speaker 4 Do you still have it?

09:50 Speaker 2 I have it somewhere, yes. Then I started preparing to travel to Israel. On the last day, there was a Torah dedication that day.

10:08 Speaker 4 The day you flew to Israel.

10:09 Speaker 2 The day I flew to Israel. After davening, I was learning off to the side. The Rebbe looked at me and said, “For arein gezunterheit, mit achrayus, besuros tovos. Have a safe flight, and may I hear good news from you.” That was it. About twenty minutes or half an hour later, while I was putting away my tefillin and getting my books from the shelf, the Rebbe’s secretary, Binyamin Klein, told me the Rebbe was calling me. The Rebbe gave me money for tzedakah to give in Israel—either that very money or its equivalent. He gave me a dollar to give to tzedakah, making me a shliach mitzvah. That was it. I arrived in Israel, and instead of going home to my parents, I went to the Chabad House in Bat Yam. That’s...

11:13 Speaker 4 Did your parents know you were coming to Israel?

11:15 Speaker 2 My parents knew I was coming, and they waited for me at the airport. They took my suitcases home, and I took a taxi to Bat Yam. My mother was never happy about that, her whole life. “How could you do that?” I said, “Mom, it’s...” I got to Zimroni’s. We kissed, we hugged, and he started talking to me. “What do you mean? Are you all right? We’ll plan everything. Let me...” I’d arrived, I was there. That’s what he said. Oh, and then, at the yechidus.

11:53 Speaker 4 Did Zimroni know you were coming to him?

11:55 Speaker 2 Zimroni knew. Yes.

11:57 Speaker 4 You’d let him know in advance.

11:58 Speaker 2 Of course, certainly. At the yechidus, the Rebbe gave me ten liras and told me to change them into half-lira coins, and to give one to everyone I studied Chassidus with so they could give tzedakah. So I gave Zimroni those ten liras and told him to keep them, because I didn’t want to keep them on me. I told him to go to the bank and change the ten liras into halves. Sure enough, when I came back the next day, I had a bag of half-lira coins, and the ten liras were there in the bag among the halves. That very evening I already started teaching Chassidus. I had three or four people to work with, and of course each one got a coin. Two days later, someone broke into the Chabad House and stole the bag of money.

12:59 Speaker 5 Ah.

13:01 Speaker 2 The bag was in a cabinet in a little office. There was one of those old writing desks, with a closed cabinet on one side, drawers on the other, and space for your legs in the middle. The bag was in that cabinet—a white bank bag with the coins and the ten liras from the Rebbe. Maybe two days later, someone broke into the Chabad House. They stole a tzedakah box, and they stole that too. That was it. I came to Bat Yam and worked there for about a year, maybe longer. Then Rabbi Lipa Kurzweil from Kiryat Malachi came up with an idea for going into schools—not only public schools, but religious public schools too—to teach about bar mitzvah. Together with Rabbi Sofer, they put together a series of ten talks on bar mitzvah. Starting with what a Jew is, then what G-d is, why G-d, how G-d, what mitzvos are, and tefillin. Ten talks like that. I really liked it, and it fit exactly with the Rebbe’s instructions regarding young people and children. So I got involved. The first school I went to was Ben-Gurion School in Bat Yam. With the principal’s approval, of course. There were six or seven—six, I think—classes in each grade; I don’t remember, maybe three or six. I started the program there, and that school passed it on to another school, and then another and another. Eventually it reached all the schools in Bat Yam, and Holon too. I even got to the Alliance Israélite Universelle school in Ramat Aviv.

15:16 Speaker 5 Ramat Aviv.

15:18 Speaker 2 What?

15:19 Speaker 5 Ramat Aviv.

15:20 Speaker 2 Ramat Aviv. One of the teachers was a friend of a teacher there, and she told me it would be good. So I started with one class, and then the whole school. And in Ramat Hasharon and Herzliya. Every day I was at a different school. It was really organized: several talks, several classes every day, and it worked. The culmination was whatever the school wanted, or the whole class putting on tefillin. That is, all the classes would travel together to the Kosel, and the boys who were bar mitzvah age would put on tefillin, and they’d have an event there. The Rebbe’s shluchim had arrived in Jerusalem and Tzfas, and they were sitting and learning at the Tzemach Tzedek in the Old City. So the children would come to the Tzemach Tzedek, and there would be a big event there, with talks, a lecture, songs and celebration. That was after the Kosel. Or, if a school wanted, they’d go to Masada on their annual trip, and this would be part of the Masada trip. They’d go up the Snake Path in the morning, climb to the top of Masada, and at sunrise all the boys would put on tefillin, while there was a talk with the girls. In short, it was a whole event—

16:37 Speaker 6 Did you travel there with those schools?

16:40 Speaker 2 I traveled with those schools, yes.

16:41 Speaker 6 So with every school that finished the program, you went along either to the Kosel or to—

16:46 Speaker 2 Every—either there or to the Kosel, or—

16:50 Speaker 6 In other words, you accompanied the schools there.

16:52 Speaker 2 Right through to the end, yes. And I’d bring bochurim from the yeshivah in Kfar Chabad to help me. Now I remember something. Don’t laugh at me; I hope you won’t laugh. I was with a school from Holon—I don’t remember. I was with a school in Jerusalem, at the Kosel, and the boys put on tefillin and we danced there. Then there was someone with the girls, a Rebbetzin who spoke to them. It was really lovely. Around eleven, we got to the Tzemach Tzedek. They had prepared a light breakfast and a talk there. Rabbi [unclear], the shliach there—Lieberman, no, not Lieberman—one of the Jerusalem shluchim spoke to the children. At one-thirty or two, the school carried on with its trip, and we headed home. On the way to the train—the train from Jerusalem had a stop at Kfar Chabad—Yossi Polk, one of the bochurim who’d come with me, said, “Tell me, Dickstein, don’t you have a vort today?” I’d completely forgotten. It was—

18:06 Speaker 6 Meaning you were already engaged.

18:09 Speaker 2 Yes.

18:10 Speaker 6 The vort was planned for that day, but you’d forgotten all about it.

18:14 Speaker 2 I’d forgotten completely.

18:15 Speaker 6 The Rebbe’s mivtzoim, and the vort—

18:18 Speaker 2 I’d completely, completely forgotten that I needed to get dressed for the vort. I needed to wash up, I needed something.

18:25 Speaker 6 Were your parents invited to the vort?

18:27 Speaker 2 Who?

18:28 Speaker 6 Your parents.

18:29 Speaker 2 Of course! My parents, my brother, my sister, my uncles and aunts.

18:33 Speaker 6 Well, your parents were a little [unclear] about it, so that’s why I’m asking.

18:36 Speaker 2 They were, yes, but this was the vort, the engagement, as they called it, of their son. Anyway, I got to the train station and found a public phone. I called home. “Mom, Dad, I’m in Jerusalem right now.” “What? But, but, but—” “Forget it! In my closet there’s a suit, a white shirt, shoes and my Shabbos hat. Put them together, get in a taxi and go to Kfar Chabad. Come to Chani [unclear]’s house. Do you know where it is? Leave them there. Then go to where the wedding is, where the hall is. I’ll get there; I’ll manage.” My mother said [unclear], “Are you out of your mind? How can you do this? How are you going to get married? Is this how you’re starting your life?” In short, she went on about it. Then I traveled on and got to Kfar Chabad at about five, I think. I ran to my neighbor’s house, showered and got dressed. Luckily for me, at my yechidus the Rebbe had told me that my head must never be empty. I should always have something in it—a maamar, the Rebbe said, or a letter or a sicha. I should always have something in mind. At that time I had a maamar in mind that I’d heard from Reb Mendel. So I knew the maamar. At the vort I delivered a maamar I already knew; I didn’t have to learn something new. That was it. When I got there, the guests were already there, people were already there. The bride was already there. Usually they wait for the bride. This time they were waiting for the groom. That’s it.

20:15 Speaker 2 People came over with “Mazel tov,” hugs and “Where were you?” Yossi Bonk arrived. “Oh, you’re here? All right, great.” And that was it. We had the vort. Then they asked me to make the work official, meaning everything would go through the Ministry of Education. The idea was to make me a school rabbi. The Ministry of Education had a position called “school rabbi.” Who said a school rabbi had to be in a religious public school? There could be a school rabbi in a regular public school. And who said a rabbi had to be at just one school? A rabbi could serve several schools. They wanted me to be the rabbi for several schools, and then I could go in and get a salary too—up until then, I’d been working without pay. I’d get a salary from the Ministry of Education, and the whole bar mitzvah lecture program would be made official. Fine. I went to the Ministry of Education, to Beit Hadar Dafna [unclear], I remember it was in Tel Aviv. I went into the Ministry of Education office. Lots of forms. “Personal service number.”

21:27 Speaker 7 What’s a personal service number?

21:28 Speaker 2 When you come—

21:30 Speaker 7 Yes, I understand. You’re asking what a personal service number is. You didn’t have one.

21:34 Speaker 2 No, no, I know what a personal service number is, but I don’t have one because I’m exempt from the army. So she says to me, “What? You’re a Chabadnik and you weren’t in the army?” That went straight—zap—

21:51 Speaker 7 Into your heart.

21:52 Speaker 2 What does it mean for something to go into your heart? Inside, really inside. During the two years I was with the Rebbe, I had some procedure on my eye, something with a laser. In short, they fixed my eye. But then I thought, what? I’ll keep going. I was already doing holy work, a kind of national service. Anyway, I got this idea into my head... I came out of the Ministry of Education, sat down, wrote a note to the Rebbe, and asked whether I should go now.

22:29 Speaker 7 What did you ask?

22:31 Speaker 2 Whether I should leave everything and go into the army. Whether they’d take me, uh... go into the army—who knows? Anyway, I called Binyamin at the secretariat, on one of those black rotary phones. And I’m talk—asking Binyamin. I say, “Listen, Binyamin, write the Rebbe a question: this and this happened. Write to the Rebbe.” Binyamin says, “Listen, I don’t know what the Rebbe will answer you, but the Rebbe’s view is: Why is your blood any redder than someone else’s? It would be different if you were sitting in yeshiva and learning, but you’re not in yeshiva. So while you’re in the army, you can carry out your shlichus there...” I said, “Binyamin, ask him anyway...” He said, “All right, I’ll ask. I’m just telling you, that’s what the Rebbe answered many people.” And indeed, the Rebbe answered that I should take a break and go into the army.