The Rebbe’s Response to My Fear of Flying

Welcome to our weekly Mitzvah of Shabbos program.

This coming week is Gimmel Tammuz, the Yom Gadol, the Hilula of the Rebbe. It says in Tanya, brought down from the Zohar, that "Tzaddika d'ishtapar ishtakach b'chol almin yatir mib'chayohi" — that after a person is niftar, a tzaddik is found in all the worlds more than before. His influence is unlimited, constant.

I think everybody should learn this page, kuf-zayin, in Tanya, in Iggeres HaKodesh, and also learn what the Rebbe writes about after Yud Shvat, about the Frierdiker Rebbe. And we see that "yatir mib'chayohi" by the Rebbe — we see it even more than by other tzaddikim.

It's already thirty-two years since Gimmel Tammuz, tav-shin-nun-daled. And the entire world — not only Chabad, even many other thousands of Yidden — when they tell a story about the Rebbe, when they speak about the Rebbe or mayses of the Rebbe, it's like the Rebbe is here. The way they speak — I mean, you remember stories about the Baal Shem Tov, the Alter Rebbe, so we know them, but we know it's all "alav hasholom" and "zatzal." But the way we speak about the Rebbe, it's unbelievable. It's very strange — it's like the Rebbe is here now. And even people who were born after Gimmel Tammuz, they never even saw the Rebbe. Or people in their late thirties, who were babies when the Rebbe was still here, never saw the Rebbe. The way they go on shlichus, and the way people speak about the Rebbe and tell a story, it's like the Rebbe is here. It's something different.

Since 1941 until 1994, the fifty years of the Rebbe — even before the Rebbe became Rebbe — what that one person accomplished in the entire world, I don't think there was ever a tzaddik like that. Accomplishing everything that had to be done in this world, the Rebbe did.

And the ikar — the Rebbe was a Yid. Not "Yiddishkeit." Not "Judaism." A Jew. It's a very important word. People say "Judaism," "help Judaism." The Rebbe — a Jew. A Yid puts on tefillin. A Yid does a good thing, learns Torah. "Kol hamekayem nefesh achas miYisrael k'ilu kiyem olam malei" — it's as if he saved the whole world. As the Baal Shem Tov said, a person can live in this world seventy, eighty, ninety years just to do one Jew a favor. A Jew — the Rebbe, a Yid, was important. A Yid, a Jew, not "Judaism," as some philosophers say.

How many Jews do we know whom the Rebbe helped through the mivtzoim — the mitzvah campaigns? I want to tell you a few that I know personally. The Rebbe told people: check your mezuzahs, check your tefillin. I know people who had heart problems. They went to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe answered, "Check your tefillin." They checked the tefillin, and in the passage of "with all your heart," the letters were erased or missing. And how many mezuzahs did the Rebbe have checked? Push the mivtzoim.

I remember the Rebbe was involved in every little thing. Let me think — a plane. I was afraid to fly. Now I fly a lot. I asked the Rebbe a few times, and the Rebbe answered me what to do: I should wear a kosher tallit katan, have tzitzit, have tefillin, and have a pushke when I fly. And the Rebbe said, "You're going up, so why are you afraid?" He told me not to be afraid. He gave me his word, and I'm not afraid.

I remember, talking about a plane — I remember that when Prime Minister Sharon was by the Rebbe, years ago, I was standing outside. He was inside for a while, and when he went out, people asked him, "What happened inside?" One of the things reported was that he was supposed to go back to Israel the next day — that was his role. The Rebbe asked him, "Why are you going tomorrow? Why don't you go Tuesday, another time?" He didn't know what the Rebbe was talking about — why not? The Rebbe didn't give him any reason. And then, in the middle, again the Rebbe said, "It would be a good idea that you should go another day." He had never heard such words before. Anyway, he didn't think much of it — he was supposed to go the next day. But somehow he spoke to the people around him, and people said, "Listen to the Rebbe." He listened to the Rebbe, and he didn't go on the day that he had planned. What happened? The plane that he was planning to take was hijacked.

Did the Rebbe know? No, probably not, as we once spoke about. But these are things that I know from the Rebbe's mazkirus [secretariat].

You know, how many times did someone come [who] the Rebbe said not to make an operation, and the Rebbe said not to make the operation. People would ask the Rebbe about shalom bayis. I remember a story — it reminds me of shalom bayis — I remember it from Rabbi Mayer Halik [?], who once told me, in the early years, I think it was 1953. Mayer Halik's father was a big Rav. He was a Rav. And one Shabbos afternoon he was going with his wife for a walk on Eastern Parkway after the meal, and the Rebbe was coming from 770, going home, and the Rebbe met the father. The father said to the Rebbe, "Good Shabbos." The Rebbe said, "Good Shabbos." The Rebbe said, "You remember that a few months ago you were mesader kiddushin for such-and-such a couple? Do you know that there is a shalom bayis issue there — they need shalom. And you're going for a shpatzir, you're going for a walk?" The father said, "No" — he didn't even know there was such a problem. That's it. Motzei Shabbos, the father got on the phone, found out the whole story and all the details, worked on it, and it became shalom mamash — one hundred percent shalom.

[Regarding] things the Rebbe did with the war in Eretz Yisrael — in the '67 war, I have a chaver whose wedding was scheduled, and it was the middle of the war. He was supposed to get married in a couple of days — two, three, four days — impossible, there's a war, it's '67. And the Rebbe gave him brachos that he would be able to have the chasunah. How many people put their lives in the Rebbe's hands — so many Yidden in Eretz Yisrael didn't know what to do, and they said, "What does the Lubavitcher Rebbe say?" Look at the shluchim — look what the Rebbe did in this world.

Sfeikus in emunah — the Rebbe became Rebbe after the Holocaust, [a time when] people had sfeikus in emunah, doubts in their faith. How many people did the Rebbe save with letters, especially English letters — if you read about sfeikus in emunah.

Shabbos, mitzvos min haTorah — the Rebbe had my father-in-law [Rabbi Dr. Nissan Mindel] [unclear — do something] on Shabbos in the name of G-d. [unclear] How many conditions [unclear] did the Rebbe [set]?

Thousands and thousands of hours did he speak — which Rebbe ever spoke so much, pushing nigleh [revealed Torah] and not only that — some people, when they speak, they need to look at a piece of paper in the middle. The Rebbe could sit seven hours without even looking at a piece of paper, and he brought sources down from all over. If you really think of it — which Rebbe had this? Standing and giving dollars, you can do this until late, late at night, until Moshiach. That's what he wanted — the goal is to bring Moshiach. This is the work of the Rebbe.

So this is what I know, and the Rebbe worried about everyone. As the Rebbe wrote — [unclear reference to a book] — that [a Rebbe/leader] has three crowns: one crown is the crown of being a Rav of a shul [community]; the second crown is being Rav of all of Israel; and then he was also the head — the Nasi. The Rebbe accomplished all of these things that needed to be done.

[Regarding] the [unclear — "sukkah on the roof"?] of the [unclear] business, I will talk about that another time, what happened with that.

Somebody once asked the Rebbe, "Why isn't Chabad involved in kashrus?" You know, usually other chassidim — Satmar chassidim, other chassidim — are involved in that; nowadays we do have it, but years ago kashrus was not under Chabad. So the Rebbe answered: every [group] is created in this world for a purpose. The Satmar chassidim are involved in kashrus — kashrus is tied to the shul, and that is very important — and if they wouldn't do it, we would have to do it, just like other things. The Rebbe mentioned, baruch Hashem, we have people who do that; their inyan is to give people kosher food to eat, and our inyan is to [unclear — "bring people close"]. This is the inyan of the Rebbe.

Can you imagine — before the Rebbe Rashab passed away, he told his son, the Frierdiker Rebbe: "Ich gei in himmel, ich loz iber dem shul in yerushe" — "I'm going to heaven, and I'm leaving the shul [community] to you as an inheritance." And he passed away. Can you imagine? This is what we have. So the Rebbe Rashab — when we learn about the Rebbe Rashab — it's as if the Rebbe Rashab left [that much]. How much more did the Rebbe leave? How many shuls? How many letters? How many things did the Rebbe leave?

Did you ever see a person — a Rosh Yeshiva, a Rebbe — write letters in English? Write letters in Spanish? Write letters in Russian? Usually a Rosh Yeshiva, a Rebbe, writes a letter in Hebrew. The only one was the Rambam — the Rambam wrote in other languages. Besides the Rambam, you don't have that. The Rebbe stood against all of that — he wrote in Hebrew, and he wrote in English, and in other languages, and how many sugyos, how many Rambam shiurim, and how many farbrengens we can learn from the Rebbe. Can you imagine what the Rebbe left over? Millions and millions of teachings about sugyos. And how many people put on tefillin today because of the Rebbe? How many people make a Pesach Seder, say brachos, bentch on a lulav, because of the Rebbe? So when we say the words "yatir mib'chayohi," this is the Rebbe.

I once heard — the word went from the Rebbe to a menachem avel, and he said to somebody — somebody asked the Rebbe, why do we say "HaMakom yenachem eschem"? Why "Makom"? Why not "Hashem yenachem," "HaKadosh Baruch Hu"? Why the word "Makom," meaning "a place"? The Eibershter is called "Makom" because there is no place where the Eibershter is not. So why use the word "Makom"? The Rebbe said it like this: every person has a place in this world. A Yid has a place. That place is now missing — it's empty; the person has passed away. So "Makom," that place, is menachem — comforts. Before, that place was limited — whatever the person accomplished was gevul, limited. Now that place is menachem; the Makom is menachem. That place is unlimited. So you can imagine — that's a regular person — but can you imagine the Rebbe, whose "yatir mib'chayohi" is unlimited.

May the Rebbe help, that [we merit] the ikar mamash — we should see the geulah sheleimah, and it should be techiyas hameisim, and we should see the Rebbe in good, revealed form, bimheira beyameinu, amen.

With you next week, we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.