0224 - The Rebbe is the Alter Rebbe

00:00 The farbrengen of Purim Tov Shin Yud Alef, which was the first Purim after the Rebbe officially accepted in the Sias, was a very special farbrengen. I obviously wasn't there, but I heard it was a very special farbrengen. The Rebbe took a lot of mashke and said different things to different people. But one of the things I heard that the Rebbe said, I heard this from Rabbi Yael. When I told this over to other people, some people told me they heard it a little differently. I'm just gonna say it over the way I heard it from Rabbi Yael. That the Rebbe wanted to give somebody mashke, and the person was standing a little far, and it was hard for him to get to the Rebbe, so he asked that somebody should pass it down. So Rav Mentlik, who was standing there, says to him, "Der Alter Rebbe alein vil dir gem l'chaim, un du betst ihm iz dodzer dir iber shiken." The Alter Rebbe himself wants to give you l'chaim, and you're asking that he should pass it down, and you're not coming up yourself to get it? So he was referring to the Rebbe as the Alter Rebbe himself. So the Rebbe said, "Das ventsach leidish tzvei shites in Kabbalah vegen dem kav. Tzis ya kav echad oruch, tzis ya kav osoim in nekudes nekudes." In Kabbalah, we have this concept of a kav, that after the tzimtzum, Hashem took a light, a line of light of Ein Sof, and brought it into the place

01:15 of the tzimtzum. And that's where the holy shtal shulaz goes. And there are two opinions in Kabbalah. One opinion is that the kav, this line of through hesed of the shtal shulaz, is made up of nekudes nekudes. It's made up of points, points, points, points, and that makes up the kav. Another opinion is that it's all one kav echad oruch, one long kav. So the Rebbe used that same term here. Whether he is mamish the Alter Rebbe or not depends. If it's kav echad oruch, one long kav from beginning to end, then it's mamish the Alter Rebbe. If it's osoim in nekudes nekudes, if it's made from pieces, pieces, points, points, nekudes nekudes, that even though it's all one kav, but each one is a separate thing, so I guess you can't say that this is the Alter Rebbe himself. I guess that's what the Rebbe meant. That's what Rabbi Yael said the Rebbe answered him when he heard him say that this is the Alter Rebbe alein.