A Gantze Nacht

00:00 On Acharon Shel Pesach 5736, the Rebbe gave a sicha on Rashi. Afterward, the Rebbe said that this sicha had taken him an entire night. Just imagine: for the Rebbe, an entire night! The Rebbe sat over a sicha about Rashi in Parshas Tetzaveh. How can we grasp that? Parshas Tetzaveh says, “And you shall command,” and Rashi says about “pure olive oil”: “He picks the olives from the top of the olive tree.” What is the connection? Other commentators might explain that Rashi knew this from another passage, but the Rebbe says that if Rashi says it here, it belongs to the plain meaning of the verse. The Rebbe worked on this sicha again and again. The sicha was published. What reasoning supports one explanation, and what reasoning supports the other? Why does Rashi need to add those words? Later in the sicha, [unclear]. In the course of it, the Rebbe asked: Why this way and not another way? And the Rebbe said, “It took me an entire night.” This sicha, this Rashi, took the Rebbe an entire night. Not that the Rebbe merely rehearsed the sicha to himself through the night; that goes without saying. But the plain meaning, the Rebbe [unclear].

02:16 Regarding yechidus, I remember: the Rebbe would read questions. There were very thick notes, full of questions. Someone would hand in one note, then a second, a third, a fourth; the Rebbe would read them quickly and then hand them back. He would say, “Regarding this, such and such.” He did not answer everything that person wanted, but what he did answer, he said in an instant. Within a minute, he went through complicated matters concerning shidduchim, medical issues, business, and deep matters that require a great deal of careful thought. The Rebbe [unclear]. Whether that was wisdom or ruach hakodesh, I don’t know; but he said these things. [unclear] And the Rebbe studied. But about the sicha on Acharon Shel Pesach 5736, when the Rebbe spoke about this Rashi, he said, “It took me an entire night.”