In Preparation for Gimmel Tammuz

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel Archives. This program is a continuation - the third program in preparation for Gimmel Tammuz. We're very close to Gimmel Tammuz.

Last week I shared with you about the letters - how the letters went, how they were written. Also, I mentioned the hiskashrus to the Rebbe after the Frierdiker Rebbe had passed away - there was a big change in the Rebbe.

Also, I mentioned, and I'm going to mention this again today, that people wrote that have a list of blessings - they want this and they want this. But the Rebbe always answered: "You want this and this, but have you ever asked yourself, who needs me?" This was a very important point. Many times the Rebbe answered to many people - as a leader of Klal Yisroel, he demanded from every person - rich, poor, healthy, young or old, businessman, teacher [unclear] - that God created every single person for a purpose, and every person is created to give. If he gives - you can do favors, or you teach somebody - you have to give. This is what a person is created for. In other words, everybody should be a mashpia - you can be a mekabel, but you have to give, you should be a giver. The word "I" belongs only to God - "I am G-d" - but there is no "I," no "I need this, I need this, I need this." Now, what can I do for somebody else? This was the approach of the Rebbe.

Now, the Rebbe gave - excuse me - brachas all the time. For a bris, for everything - it was brachas, brachas, brachas, and he wasn't satisfied with giving just a small bracha - he gave a lot of brachas.

I want to mention again - I once mentioned this - there was a Rabbi Kastenbaum. He was the president of the Young Israel, he lived in Long Beach, and he told me he went in for yechidus for a few minutes, and he was very apologetic. He sat down like this, he made a gesture like this, and he said: "Rebbe, I know you're a busy man, you're a busy person, and I have a private request, but I need a bracha - but I'm going to need a small bracha, not a big bracha, because you're busy and I don't want to waste your time to give me a big bracha. So please give me a small bracha." So the Rebbe answered him that a person gives brachas - a person wanted everybody to do as much as they can, and everybody is created, everybody has something to give in this world.

It reminds me of a story, and maybe I did mention it to you once, but it's a good example. A son wrote to the Rebbe: "You always say that Hashem created everything - nothing is for nothing, everything has a purpose. My mother is in a hospital for years, she's brain dead, she's like a vegetable. My children, my grandchildren, don't take their eyes off her - 24 hours - they're always there. My mother doesn't know that they're there, but this is what they do. What's the purpose of her living in this world?" So the Rebbe answered: "Her purpose is - when doctors see, nurses see, people that come visiting patients see the kibbud av v'eim of your children and your grandchildren, they get the credit for your mother, and they will learn from this - this is her purpose in living." This is one of the answers from the Rebbe that shows every single person has something to give.

And since we are now closer to Gimmel Tammuz - Gimmel Tammuz, the yahrzeit, 27 years already, and Moshiach is still not here - 27 years, unbelievable. So it's time to make a cheshbon hanefesh, time to think. It's like the Rebbe said about the Rebbeim, on the day of the yahrzeit, that all the work that the Rebbe did [continues] - Gimmel Tammuz, as the Rebbe mentioned after [Yud Shvat] by the Frierdiker Rebbe - and as it says in the Zohar, that especially the Rebbe is more present with us than before. When the tzaddik is alive and there is a neshama, the influence is more limited, because it is in a keli - a guf. [After histalkus] it is unlimited, and everybody can be a mekabel from the Rebbe. And our hiskashrus to the Rebbe can be much stronger now than before.

The difference between the Rebbe and others [unclear] - the bitterness, the sadness, especially when people go to a kever, is felt. By the Rebbe we see the opposite - when we go to the Ohel, we come out uplifted. And we see, usually, when we don't see a person for so many years, if we never really knew the person, our connection isn't the same. By the Rebbe we see that people - thousands and thousands and thousands of people that were born after [unclear] - 27 years - never saw [him], yet there is a hiskashrus [unclear] when you see something of the Rebbe, a connection that you cannot find anywhere else, because the Rebbe is here with us. And when we go to the Ohel, we are uplifted - and this is the difference between [this] and another tzaddik.

The Rebbe always used to say: what is the bottom line? My belief, that the Rebbe said, is that we don't rely on miracles, we don't rely on Heaven [to do it for us]. What the Rebbe wanted from us is to make from the world - from the gashmius world - a ruchniyus world, and for every person within himself to turn over his nefesh habahamis, to work on themselves. This is what the Rebbe emphasized all his life. The Rebbe could have done everything himself - Moshe could have built the Mishkan himself, he didn't need the people to help him; Dovid could have built his [unclear] himself - but he wanted to be mezakeh everybody. So it's not enough that we sing the niggun, it's not enough that we say [Tehillim], and it's not enough to just watch videos of the Rebbe - because many people say, "Oh, we watch the video, that's everything" - this is not enough. The Rebbe wanted us to work on ourselves and to give to other people.

The [sichos and maamarim] that the Rebbe left here - I don't know if there's a person that left so many - so many letters, so many sichos, so many lessons, so many brachas, so many [essays] to the whole world. The Rebbe never took a vacation. I know in the 1950s they went to camp in the summer, to the Catskills, and the Rebbe said - I think it was in Europe [unclear] - he still didn't make up the time he lost there. What did he do there? He didn't sit on a chair, on a recliner - he worked the whole time he was there. He went on vacation one time - [that shows] how important every minute is, what we can learn from the Rebbe.

The Rebbe had a heart attack after his mother passed away - I don't think people know this. You know why people don't know? Because the Rebbe never missed coming to 770. He gave over [everything] with mesirus nefesh - even when he had the heart attack. This was a whole night of a farbrengen, and someone wrote that the Rebbe never once leaned back during a farbrengen - hours and hours and hours. And usually, rachmana litzlan, when someone has a stroke or a heart attack, where do they have it? Usually a person is at home, or at work - he works seven, eight hours a day, he comes home, he goes to shul for an hour or two - but this is where people are. Where did the Rebbe have his heart attack? Not at home. Where did the Rebbe have the stroke? [At the Ohel] - because this was the Rebbe's life. The Rebbe's life was mesirus nefesh for everybody.

And the first ten years - this is another program that we have - what the Rebbe accomplished when he came in 1941. And by the way, this year it is 80 years since the Rebbe came to America - and that's another program - but Rabbi Mindel was there, Rabbi Hodakov was there. In those days, he couldn't even keep Shabbos [properly, because of the demands of work].

So, when a person makes a cheshbon hanefesh, and thinks a little bit about what happened, what we can do - whatever it is - then that's what we need to do in preparation for Gimmel Tammuz. Learn today - that's the last thing - parshas [Vayigash?] - when the Rebbe spoke, what did he speak about? About Klal Yisroel, and about giving. And we should always think before we do something: what would the Rebbe say? And if you want to give nachas ruach to the Rebbe, we should do things properly, with simcha. And if we do all these things, as it says in the Zohar, if we follow the Rebbe's ways, and we do everything we are meant to, we are given over to the people.

Thank you.