0121 - 15 Shevat 5731 Conquering the World with Torah

00:01 Chamesos BeShevat, Tov Shin Lamed Alef, 1971, the Rebbe went to the oil. Now, those years, it wasn't so common that after the Rebbe would come back from the oil, there should be a sudden farbrengen. Las-later years, it was more common. But those years, it wasn't so common. But l'peel, when the Rebbe came back from the oil, he said there's going to be a farbrengen, and you can imagine what happened to 770. There were no cell phones, so the only communication was by running home or going to the payphones. So everyone was running to the houses to tell the people that there's a farbrengen. The payphone on the corner of Eastern Parkway and Kingston and the payphone inside 770 were full of lines, and this is like a ton of Tishna bank, as they say, 770 gangen afreder. But l'peel, they went downstairs, they prepared a place, and there was a farbrengen. By the farbrengen, the tekhen of what the Rebbe was speaking about is that since the Gem-- it says in Pasik, "Ki ha'adam eitz ha'soder," a person is compared to the tree, and Chamesos BeShevat is the Rosh Chodesh for trees. And the Gemara says this goes on the talmud chacham, on a person who learns Torah. So obviously, Chamesos BeShevat is connected to learning Torah. And therefore, the Rebbe said, from now on, we have to start this inyan of conquering the world with limud haTorah, to kivush the world, to conquer the world with learning Torah and stress the importance of learning

01:19 Torah, and that should be the inyan that we should stress from now on. And for months, many months, many farbrengens, the Rebbe would refer back to this sicha of Chamesos BeShevat, the importance of learning Torah, and he would say, "Vimi od yareh Chamesos BeShevat." Different farbrengens, many, many months. Some of them are even printed, little bit mugedike parts of it in the Likutey Sichos and the hisosfas of Cheile Kovom, Cheile Zayin of Cheile Ches. All about this inyan of learning, stressing the inyan of kivush, to conquer the world with Torah that started on Chamesos BeShevat. One of the farbrengens later, I think it was Shabbos Parshas Tzav, which is Shabbos Hagodol. I don't remember for sure, but I think that's what it was. The Rebbe also spoke about it, and he said when the g-- the bochrim and everyone, they should strengthen the learning Torah. But in that farbrengen, the Rebbe said-- told what happened Chamesos BeShevat. He says Chamesos BeShevat, he was by the oil. And by the oil, tzach mir geshtut farbrengen. While I was there, I had an urge to farbreng, but I didn't know whether I should give in to the urge or not. L'peel, I decided to give in to the urge, and therefore there was a farbrengen Chamesos BeShevat. But since there was nothing special to talk about, k'vayochol, I guess, that other farbrengens when there was a sudden farbrengen, so then there was always some kind of special theme that the Rebbe spoke about, some kind of special

02:40 mitzvah that the Rebbe came out with, something-- stressed something special. But the Rebbe said here there was nothing special that he was supposed to speak about. So he said, "So what should I speak about?" Since the Gemara says that Chamesos BeShevat, which means trees are connected to people who learn Torah, and Chamesos BeShevat is the Rosh Chodesh to trees, so I decided to speak about conquering the world with Torah. But the Rebbe said a while later, there was a discussion in the United States government to start drafting yeshiva bochrim to the army. And there was a big tumult, and the Rosh Yeshivas and all the, the Rabbonim started talking, "Now we have to do something about it." So there was a big assifa that was through-- there were the Rosh Yeshivas, the Litvishe Rosh Yeshivas there, Chassidishe Rebbes were there, et cetera, et cetera. And the main thing about that assifa was that we have to see to strengthen learning Torah. Since there's a gezera against learning Torah, we have to strengthen learning Torah. And they had tainess why Lubavitch didn't participate, which they meant was why the Rebbe didn't come to the assifa like other Rebbes and other gedolim came to the assifa. I do think that Rashag went as a representative of Lubavitch Yeshiva, but not sure. But what they would expect is that the Rebbe himself, so to speak, should come. The Rebbe didn't mention those words, but that's the tekhen of what was. And they had tainess why Lubavitch didn't participate

03:58 in this whole assifa where we're talking about strengthening Torah. So the Rebbe says, "What we did was even better. Before the gezera came yet, we already spoke about strengthening limud haTorah." The Rebbe was magdim refua lamaake that before the gezera came, he already Chamesos BeShevat spoke about strengthening the learning Torah. So the Rebbe says they can't have tainess because we did it even more, and that was what happened on Chamesos BeShevat when the Rebbe farbrenged. But the Rebbe said one thing, one hero, so to speak, that he took to himself from here is that from now on, asi vetzach mishtupen farbrengen, v'lich farbrengen. Since he saw here that when he got an urge to farbreng and he did farbreng, and what he spoke about was limud haTorah, happened to be something that was very important. That was the refua before the maake, before the gezera. So he took the lesson from here that from now on, if I'll ever have, have an urge to farbreng, I will give in to my urge and I will farbreng.