Ep. 2: The Rebbe's Mission with Rabbi Yosef Greenberg

00:00 Speaker 1 The entire competition was give me a moment of the Rebbe. Give me a, a Kiruv from the Rebbe. Give me a, a s- give me a Nontet from the Rebbe. That was the whole competition of Lubavitch. Sh- people went on Schlichus to the end of the world just to get that one moment from the Rebbe. 'Cause, 'cause that one moment the Rebbe is, is, is Yikar Hamipnim. There's nothing in the world like that. There's nothing. There's nothing than that moment with the Rebbe, there's nothing like that.

00:30 Speaker 2 I'm Yossi Kamen. Welcome to Among Chassidim By Der Her, an ongoing fabrengen about life as a Chassid, our vibrant connection with the Rebbe, and inspired living shaped by the way he teaches us each and every day. Okay, Rabbi Greenberg, what's machson?

00:50 Speaker 1 Baruch Hashem. How are you?

00:53 Speaker 2 Baruch Hashem. I got a report that, uh, Alaska this year was, um, the warmest winter. I know the Rebbe told you to un-van him in Alaska. I think, uh, y- you, you did it already.

01:07 Speaker 1 Well-

01:07 Speaker 2 The Rebbe told you more than once, no?

01:08 Speaker 1 Well, the Rebbe said it twice. The first time the Rebbe said it actually to Balabos, not to me directly. I mean, I was with the Balabos. I came with, um, with a couple, and she was Jewish, and he was, um, convert. And we- he converted in Crown Heights, and there is a whole story. I don't know if we should repeat that story, um, if you wanted to talk about that story. There's a whole story about this Balabos, which is, uh, an amazing, um, an amazing, uh, example of the Rebbe's vision 50 years ahead-

01:42 Speaker 2 What do you mean?

01:42 Speaker 1 Of the game.

01:43 Speaker 2 I, I think you have to say it 'cause I heard the story, but, uh, I, I don't understand the whole-

01:47 Speaker 1 So that story is amazing story because, um, here you have two Bochum, Shmuel Spritzer and Shmuel Angsam, who going to Alaska in 19th, in 1970, Tov Shin Lamed. That was the first time the Rebbe sent Schlichim to Alaska, and Shmuel Spritzer was trying to go to Alaska before that. The Rebbe didn't give permission. Could see everything is mechubad by Reb Tov SheChaveches.

02:11 Speaker 2 The Rebbe didn't?

02:12 Speaker 1 No. He asked for Tov SheChaveches. Rebbe said, "No Tov SheChaveches. No Tov Shin Lamed." Chad Hakov came out of the Rebbe's room, and he said, "Lubavitch is going to Alaska." The Rebbe gave permission. And, um, and they went to Alaska, and, uh, it's amazing. They were here for three weeks, one week in Anchorage in the big city, one week in Juneau, one week in Fairbanks, and they wrote to the Rebbe a duch from those three weeks. And when you read the duch today, 55 years later, it's like as if it was written today because they described to the Rebbe, two young Bochum, what is the matzah of Yiddishkeit in Alaska. It's just unbelievable. Anyway, and, um, I wish I would have the duch when I went on Schlichus. But anyway, I, I didn't even know about this duch. You know how it goes in Chabad, that, uh, Bochum went, and they gave the duch into Merkos, and it was laying somewhere in the, in the sch- in... And it-

03:08 Speaker 2 But what's so important about the duch? What does it say in the duch?

03:10 Speaker 1 So in the duch, they tell the Rebbe how they came to Ala- to Anchorage, and they went to the Jewish center in Anchorage, the only Jewish center there was. And there was this, this person, this Balabos, he was the, the president of the temple.

03:28 Speaker 2 But he wasn't Jewish.

03:29 Speaker 1 He wasn't Jewish. His wife was Jewish 'cause nobody else wanted to be the president 'cause who wants the, the pain to run, to run the whole place? So he was the president of the, of that Jewish center. It wasn't even yet associated with a certain movement. It was just the place of Jews to come. And, and what's interesting, what's unique about this, because he was not Jewish, he opened the center for them. He said, "You could do whatever you want. You could put on film, do whatever you want." And the other Balabos was Perry Green, who opened the home for them. Now, after a week in Anchorage, they went to Fairbanks. This Balabos wrote to the Rebbe a beautiful letter, a typed letter, and I have the letter. In Tov Shin Lamed, he writes to the Rebbe how impressed he was with the Bochum who came, how they represent the values of Judaism, how proud he was with them, and he wishes one day he could be part of this. And then he quotes to the Rebbe all kinds of lines from the Mishnayos that, you know, that he knew that, uh, what represent the values of Judaism, how the Bochum represented those values that they... It was just an amazing letter thanking the Rebbe for sending them all the way from New York to Alaska. Now, the Bochum have no idea that he sent a letter to the Rebbe. They come back three weeks later from, from Alaska to New York. Shmuel Angsam is

04:50 Speaker 1 a relative of, of Binyamin Klein because he is from the same, um, Rabbi Schusterman's family. Forgot exactly how, but, uh, he's from Schusterman family. So Binyamin tells them, "Come into the office. The Rebbe wrote something for you guys." So he comes into the office, and Binyamin shows him the envelope of this Balabos who wrote a letter to the Rebbe. And his name was a very strong non-Jewish name. His name was Erling Christensen.

05:20 Speaker 2 Doesn't get, uh, more non-Jewish than that.

05:22 Speaker 1 And under his name, the Rebbe wrote one word, Yehudi, question mark. So now they-- So Shmuel Angsam says to Ha- uh, to Binyamin, "I will-- We will write to the Rebbe, I'll report that he's not Jewish, but he wants to be Jewish, and his wife is Jewish, and he has Jewish child," and so on and on. And then later they, of course, they wrote to the Rebbe a report. The Rebbe didn't say anything about this. That was the only thing that the Rebbe wrote about, the whole duch, the whole visit in Alaska. And then what was interesting is that 21 years later, this is Tov Shin Lamed. Tov Shin Lamed, I was five years old. Tov Shin Nun Alef I'm finally going Tof Shinun. We went here to Ala- to check out this place in the summer of Tof Shinun, and the Rebbe gave us, uh, we, we asked the Rebbe, uh, if we have a soif from Rabbi Sholom Ber Lavitan, the schlicha in Seattle, to go to Alaska, and should we be misania, should we look into it, and should we go to Alaska? And the Rebbe wrote, and we asked the Rebbe, says, "Kama bracha, should we be misania there?" The Rebbe made a line, a little line under the words kama bracha, and Leibovitz showed me the line, and we knew that we're going. So we went to Al- we went to Alaska to check it out for a week, we came back, and then eventually we went on schlichas, uh,

06:36 Speaker 1 like a, uh, like seven, eight months later, we went on schlichas in Tof Shinun Alef. And we come here, this balabos, the, it only, uh, we came here like two days before Purim to Alaska, and there was a Purim party waiting for us, and there was a whole, uh, the whole community was waiting. And, um, the only person who said to me, "Shalom Aleichem" was this balabos. And I saw something unusual with him, 'cause everyone said, "Hi, hi," you know, American.

07:03 Speaker 2 Someone-

07:04 Speaker 1 The only person who said, "Shalom Aleichem"-

07:05 Speaker 2 Oh, he s- he said the words, okay, yeah.

07:06 Speaker 1 He said the words Shalom Aleichem, and I was like, "Oh, what is this all about?" And of course, a few days later, he said, he came to my office, he sat me down to my house, and he said, um, he told me the whole life story, how he was, he's from Denmark, and during the, during the Holocaust, he was a, he was a sailor, and he saw what the Nazis did to the Jews. He was so angry. When he came to New York, he jumped the border. He said, "I'll never go back to Europe." And he started to hang out with some Jew- with some, uh, you know, Europeans and Jewish kids, and she was, she was a, she was a, a daughter of a Orthodox rabbi who passed away young. She was a Yesaimer, she was a orphan. And, um, somehow they got involved, and they got married, and they ran away as far as they can from New York because the family was upset that he, she married out. And then they had a baby. They had a baby, he said to her, "Well, the baby's Jewish, so I'm going to become Jewish. We need to raise the kid Jewish." And he started to study, and he, he had... He's the only person that when I came to Alaska, he had a Shas in English and a Mishnayos in English. He would get the Jewish press, and he would read it from cover to cover, and very, he was a very knowledgeable person,

08:16 Speaker 1 very interesting person. And, um, so he sits me down, and he tells me, you know, "For 20 years, I'm begging people to convert me, and you're going to convert me." And I said, "I just came, you know, yesterday f- from yeshiva. I'm not converting anybody. Not happening." And he was, like, putting pressure on me every week after week after week. And finally, um, I called Rabbi Marlow, and I told him the whole story, and I said to him, "What should I do?" You know? So Marlow said, "If he knows everything, and he really wants it, bring him. I'll do the conversion." I don't even know if Marlow ever did any conversions beside this conversion. And we actually, we, we, the conversion, we made on, on P- you know, the old mikvah on Kingston and Montgomery.

09:00 Speaker 2 Montgomery.

09:01 Speaker 1 There we do, there we do the conversion there, if you remember that old mikvah. So, so, um, going back to the story, when I come to, I come to New York, I come to s- to 770 with this balabos. By the way, there was a whole story related to that visit, which maybe I'll tell you later, with the Rebbe. So with, 'cause I wrote the Rebbe a letter from the airport that I'm bringing the balabos for, for Sanhedrin Dallas, and that he's coming with me for the conversion.

09:29 Speaker 2 What do you mean, what do you mean you wrote it from the airport? You faxed it? You wrote it?

09:32 Speaker 1 I forgot, I forgot, I forgot to, I forgot to, I forgot to write to the Rebbe before I left that I'm bringing the balabos, and I want, I know I'm going to come for Shabbos, and I'm going to come for Fabragen, I'm going to come for Dallas. I want to write to the Rebbe. So on the way, either it was in Utah or it was in Minnesota, we found a fax machine, and I wrote to the Rebbe. And this was a few weeks after the Sikher of Chukas Nisan.

09:53 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

09:53 Speaker 1 So I'll come back to that story. That's a famous story, you know. So-

09:57 Speaker 2 No, I don't know, but you... Okay.

09:58 Speaker 1 I'll, I'll come back to it. Anyway, so, so I come to, to, I'm come to New York, and I go on Kingston Avenue with this balabos, and Shmuel Spritzer comes by, and he sees me, and he looks at me. He knew I went to Alaska. Everyone knew about it.

10:12 Speaker 2 Right.

10:12 Speaker 1 And he tell, he looks at him, he says, "Oh my gosh, that's him." I said, "What do you mean that's him? What are you talking about? I had no idea. What are you talking about?" "Oh my God, that's him." So he takes me aside, he said, "Listen, he's the person the Rebbe wrote about him in Tof Shin Lamed 21 years ago."

10:28 Speaker 2 Yehudi.

10:28 Speaker 1 Yehudi question mark. And now he's coming to the Rebbe, and he's becoming a full-fledged... Because he asked, I ke- I kept pushing him off. So he said, I said, "I'm not doing conversion." Then I said to him, "We only do conversions in New York." He said, "I'll fly New York. I'll take the whole family." So I didn't know what to do, so I said, "You know what? I only do Chabad conversions." So he said, "What is a Chabad conversion?" I said, "With a hat and a tzitzit." He said, "I'll do it." So I-

10:53 Speaker 2 You weren't expecting that, huh?

10:55 Speaker 1 I didn't expect it, of course not. And, and finally, and finally, um, so we, we came to the Rebbe. So first, the, so the, that morning, we came, like, a few days before Shabbos, so I, I, I took him into 770. Rebbe used to come those days every, every day davening. So I put him by the bimah, the, by the Kria bimah, when the Rebbe comes in. The Rebbe looked at-

11:15 Speaker 2 In the front. I see, in the middle of shul.

11:16 Speaker 1 Middle of shul.

11:17 Speaker 2 Yeah.

11:18 Speaker 1 The Rebbe came in. I was hiding, but I put him there himself. And the Rebbe came in, and the Rebbe, like, looked him up, up and down. And then when we came by Dallas, so the Rebbe, so, so I came by, and I told the Rebbe that he's, uh, that he is the person from Alaska that I brought here. And, uh, and the Rebbe said, the Rebbe responded, um, with a bracha. And then, and then I said he helps, after that, I said, "He helps us a lot. He really helps, uh, support the Chabad house." So the Rebbe said in Yiddish, "You should continue supporting more." And then when I finished what I said to the Rebbe, the Rebbe gave him a, the Rebbe gave him a dollar, and then the Rebbe turned to his wife, and the Rebbe started a whole sikher in English And the secret was, the encoding was, um, a lot, the Rebbe said like this, Alaska is very far from here, the Rebbe pointed out, very far, like to denote. That Alaska is very far from here, and Alaska has a, has a, Alaska has a name or gives a cold attention, people hear the word Alaska. But then the Rebbe said-

12:22 Speaker 2 It calls attention?

12:23 Speaker 1 No, it gives, it gives a cold attention.

12:26 Speaker 2 Ah, okay.

12:26 Speaker 1 It makes people think of coldness. When you say the word Alaska, you think of coldness. And the Rebbe said, "But to spread Yiddishkeit, you have to have a stronger temperature," which meant that to live in Alaska, you're, in the homes, you have to have a stronger temperature to live here. So when it comes to Yiddishkeit, don't think of coldness, but the opposite. To spread Yiddishkeit even with stronger temperature, with stronger warmkeit. That was the first thing the Rebbe said the first time when we saw the Rebbe with this Bal Abos. And that was in English, and I've explained the message of Alaska to the world.

12:57 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

12:58 Speaker 1 But the Rebbe's message of Alaska is to have a stronger temperature in order to overcome the, the coldness. That was the one thing. And then later, because of this Bal Abos, typically when you go on Shlichus, you don't come back three months later to 770 with your whole family. And then-

13:14 Speaker 2 You're not typical, no.

13:17 Speaker 1 And so, but because of this story, what I should just go apart is that he, this story brought me to the Rebbe every three months. So first we had the conversion.

13:26 Speaker 2 Right.

13:27 Speaker 1 And according to, according to the ultimate Halacha, if-

13:30 Speaker 2 According to Chabad, a conversion, yeah

13:33 Speaker 1 ... you have to wait three months between the conversion and the mar- and the wedding.

13:36 Speaker 2 Ah, okay.

13:37 Speaker 1 So typically today there are Terum that, uh, between, so but, uh, because such a age with people in, he was already in his 60s, that you could make it the day after. But we did, with Marlowe we did it the real way, the way , the ultimate way, so it took three months. So after three months we came back for his wedding. And the entire family, whole family from New York came to the wedding because... And they were all judges and lawyers, and they were all secular, and he, the non-Jew is becoming Chabad, you understand? He's with a Shtreimel getting married by the Rebbe. And they are all the Jews, they are all the secular Jews, they all came.

14:13 Speaker 2 Okay.

14:13 Speaker 1 And we were supposed to have a beautiful Chuppah in the, in the Chatzir, in the yard between the 770, between the 770 and the library, you know, the backyard.

14:22 Speaker 2 In the, in the courtyard, the Chatzir.

14:23 Speaker 1 Where, where, in the Chatzir where, where usually the Sukkah is. But that, an hour before the Chuppah we heard that the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Mordechai Eliyahu, is coming to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe is going to the library to-

14:35 Speaker 2 I'm sorry, this is, this is in base?

14:37 Speaker 1 This is in base, yeah.

14:38 Speaker 2 This is in base, yeah.

14:38 Speaker 1 The Rebbe is going to ex- to welcome him in his, in his o- in his office in the library-

14:43 Speaker 2 Yeah

14:43 Speaker 1 ... and not in the Rebbe's room, 'cause the Rebbe's room had a bed, it couldn't, couldn't accept guests. So we had to move the entire Chuppah and fold all the chairs because the Rebbe is going to walk there, and we went back to have the Chuppah in front of the Rebbe's room, you know.

14:57 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

14:57 Speaker 1 So Bashas, Bashas, Bashas the, Bashas the Rebbe had Rabbi Eliyahu in his office, and the entire Anash and all the Bochur were there. It was a huge crowd. We had the Chuppah at the time, and we had-

15:08 Speaker 2 The same exact time

15:09 Speaker 1 ... the Rebbe's wedding, the same exact time. You know, the microphone is out, you hear it the whole Chatzir. And we, and the, and all the guests from New York who came from the family, all the secular Jews who all came and they were like, "Oh, they all for the old Karlik, they thought everyone came for this wedding." And, um, and it was really, and that Shabbos before the wedding we, we went to the Rebbe to, to get a bottle of Mashke for the wedding, and the Rebbe-

15:33 Speaker 2 He went, he went up or you went up?

15:34 Speaker 1 I went with him together. That was the only time I went in for a bottle of Mashke, you know.

15:38 Speaker 2 You made the, made the announcement on-

15:39 Speaker 1 And actually it happened that Shabbos, there were like 50 bottles of Mashke. And there was like a whole... And w- and it took time to get this Bal Abos, he was in his 60s, he was not used to climbing up benches in 770. So it was, took time to get him there, but we finally got him there, and the Rebbe was almost to a point, the Rebbe was waiting for us, because everyone already got and he's still schlepping. I'm, I'm taking him from, from, you know, from table to table, jumping on people's heads till we got to, to the, the... But the prayer Baruch Hashem it was, um, and the Rebbe gave him a bottle of Mashke, the Rebbe gave a brocha. And then, and then, um, we also went again by dollars that, that Sunday, and, uh, and, and he gave the Rebbe album from our activities, and the Rebbe said, uh, thank for the album. And again, the Rebbe gave us a very strong brocha at that time. The Rebbe said to me that the Shlichas of Zayen Bat Salcha Raba was a very special brocha at that time, at that second time. Then the third time we went was the same year we went for Chaveshvat, because it was the Kinus Hashluchas, and somehow we decided to go the whole family. And we went for, it was our Herges, we didn't know why we decided to do it. We just were here, the whole family twice already .

16:49 Speaker 2 Was there a thing, it was the fourth Yahrtzeit, right?

16:53 Speaker 1 It was the fourth Yahrtzeit and, but I don't know, we decided to go the whole family, and this was the last time we saw the Rebbe before the stroke. And we went by the Rebbe, and, uh, we didn't, of course we had no Bal Abos with us. We didn't plan to, you know, to talk to the Rebbe or anything special. But the Rebbe stopped us-

17:12 Speaker 2 When the Rebbe, it's by dollars or by the-

17:13 Speaker 1 By dollars. By dollars, that Sunday. The Rebbe stopped us, and, um, and, and there was every time we went with our children, the Rebbe asked of every one of the children, "Er fort ich in Alaska? Fort ich in Alaska?" And even asked my, um, and, and he gave a brocha to my wife, "Zol zayn bat roch uflaaga", a very special brocha. And then we left already. And behind us was, uh, was Jacobson, um, our cousin, um, um, Boruch Jacobson's wife with his, with, uh, Boruch Jacobson's wife with his, because-

17:46 Speaker 2 Oh, she's, um-

17:47 Speaker 1 She's, uh, Rabbi Ephraim Kalb's daughter.

17:49 Speaker 2 Right, yeah.

17:49 Speaker 1 And, and she, and they had a, they had a little child, a Opshernish. And they were behind us, and, and the Rebbe already started to give her a dollar. And then the Rebbe stopped, and the Rebbe, like the way the Rebbe would turn, and the Rebbe screamed loud, 'cause we were already getting attacked. The Rebbe screamed loud, "So machen doten!" So we turn around, we ran back, and the Rebbe smiled. The whole room filled up with the Rebbe smile, and the Rebbe said, "Machen doten varen." We were standing frozen because, like, it was such an unusual, uh... It was like a real, um, like l- like Abe Gona called, uh, my shvager Yossi that day after, after Dalasi, he said to him, "Oh, the Rebbe is like Alaska has a special chivus from Rebbe." Like-

18:34 Speaker 2 So, yeah, that's what I have to say. So the Rebbe had something about Alaska that, uh... I mean, in general, it's always like Chabad is all over the world from Alaska. It's always part of the Rebbe's-

18:47 Speaker 1 Actually-

18:48 Speaker 2 ... message for-

18:48 Speaker 1 It's, it's interesting that in Sefer Hashluchim, um, you know, the Sefer Hashluchim that came out, so there is the Hagdama, the introduction to Sefer Hashluchim.

18:58 Speaker 2 Yeah.

18:59 Speaker 1 In the Hagdama, for some reason in English, they wrote, they wrote from El Paso to Anchorage. That's -- It was the Rebbe's maggia that paid it a few ago, so that's good.

19:08 Speaker 2 It happens to be your brother's shliach in El Paso.

19:10 Speaker 1 Yes, yes. Yes. So, but, you know, the Rebbe, the Rab- the Rebbe has a special koch in, uh, in, in, uh-

19:16 Speaker 2 But the Rebbe's maggia, the, the, the Pesach Dava, the forward of the Pesach Dava-

19:20 Speaker 1 The Rebbe's maggia. There's a few, there's a few agois on that very same page, like a line after that where it says from El Paso.

19:24 Speaker 2 He said the Rebbe read that.

19:26 Speaker 1 The Rebbe, yeah, the Rebbe read it and the Rebbe saw it. And, um, so the Rebbe had a special chivivus to, to Merchakim, to Shluchim in the far, far corners of the world, Katzveit Eivul. And there's a very famous fabringen from Purim Tov Shechachhes, where the Rebbe talks about it in, in length, of, of the famous story with Shmul Chefer, the old story. Um, so the Rebbe-

19:48 Speaker 2 What, what, what, what's the story of Shmul Chefer?

19:50 Speaker 1 The old story with Shmul Chefer that he, um... Shmul Chefer was the, was the head of Ch- the head of the Bisrifki in Israel.

19:56 Speaker 2 Bisrifki Chabad.

19:57 Speaker 1 The Menahil. And he was a member of our shul in Bnei Brak. He lived where, where I lived at. I grew up as a child with him. And he was, uh, one of the biggest-

20:04 Speaker 2 He lived in Bnei Brak?

20:05 Speaker 1 He lived in Bnei Brak all his life.

20:06 Speaker 2 Okay.

20:06 Speaker 1 And he was a speaker. He was, he was one of the greatest speakers of Chabad if in Chabad events or out- out events. He wa- he was one of the machers of Chabad in Israel. And we grew up as children, you know, with him, with his, in his presence. So he always told a story about how in Tov Shechachhes, he came for Purim to New York to be by the Rebbe. He couldn't go, he couldn't go to, for Tishrei because Tishrei is when school starts, and he has to do registration and the whole thing and the classrooms and... But he, but... So anyway, so he decided he'll, he'll, he'll go for Purim. So he comes to Purim Tov Shechachhes to New York. He comes for the fabringen. He comes for Purim. Rabbi Chodokov calls him in. Rabbi Chodokov said to him, "You have a special shlichas from the Rebbe." "What's the shlichas?" "You are going to travel to Minnesota for Purim." He came to the Rebbe for Purim.

20:53 Speaker 2 Yeah.

20:53 Speaker 1 "You're going to travel to Minnesota for Purim, and then you'll meet Moshe Feller, Rabbi Moshe Feller, and with him together you'll travel to, to Ames, Iowa, that little town in Iowa. And there is a Jew there, there's a Russian Jew there who, who became frum, and he asked for, that someone should come to read the Megillah, and he'll call all the Jews in Io- in, in Ames, Iowa, to come to the, the Megillah reading, so you will read the Megillah for them. And you'll go with Moshe Feller, you'll read the Megillah. Moshe Feller will translate in English, and he'll explain." And he's like, "I came to New York to the Rebbe."

21:25 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

21:25 Speaker 1 "The Rebbe is sending me away to a little town?" And he went there, and of course, the Rebbe said, so he went. He went there, and he said he was shocked 'cause, uh, two Israelis walked over to him, and they were married to non-Jews. And, um, and there was a-- He, he, he always says how they told him, "Yes, they are very into Judaism." So he says, "They are very into Jews or very into Judaism?" Anyway, and, and, and, and after that, so he said every one of them was, like, intermarried. There was nobody there was-- Both of them were Jewish. Small community. Now, there is a shliach there. Rabbi Jacobson is a shliach there. There's a campus, a city.

22:00 Speaker 2 Yeah.

22:01 Speaker 1 But even today, it's a small town compared, you know. And anyway, so, so he comes, he comes back. So the next morning, he had to fly back to New York. So he had no minyan. You know, he had no minyan to come to, you know. And he flies back to New York, and, um, a h- half a day, so he comes, he comes to New York. It's already the afternoon. He didn't hear the Megillah yet. And he goes to his brother's house in Williamsburg, and someone read the Megillah for him. And finally, he ran to the fabringen. He came to the fabrigen. He's thinking to himself the whole day, "Why was I punished? I came to New-- from Israel." You know, those days to fly from Israel, Tov Shechachhes, you know what that meant to fly from Israel to New York. It's a big deal. It's huge. "And I'm coming to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe sends me away to a little town. I mean, the Rebbe could have sent two Bachim there."

22:49 Speaker 2 Right.

22:50 Speaker 1 "Me and Moshe Feller need to go to a little town and do..." And then comes the fabrigen. After the Mayim, the Rebbe said a whole sicha. And the Rebbe start to explain the darf that, that it was-- The Rebbe spoke about the Hashviresh, that Meir Besheva Be'esrim Medina, that he had to show his malchus in all the, all the 27 countries. The Rebbe explained Hashviresh to Hashviresh, Misha Achsh- Reishit Achsh Shela Idah Eibishter. And when you have to-- And when, when do we know that the, the Eibishter is running the world? When you see it in every one of the twen- 127 countries. And then Rebbe start speak about, about the Shluchim in the small towns, in the Katzveit table. And the Rebbe start speak about that people could ask the question, "Why did Rabbeim put so much effort in going to small towns in Eckvelt where there is maybe one family, three families, when the same money, the same energy you could do in a big city and, and affect more Jews?" The Rebbe said a long sicha, a beautiful sicha about Shlichas. The Rebbe started give several answers. The Rebbe says, first of all, in a big city, there are all the Jews who can help them. So here, it's a mitzvah she'yesh la'asot deh acherem, because nobody else will go to the small town. And there is a shlcha chapatis, if you heard about this town, there's a need, you have to go chatei v'chel chatei vishti, you have to go and

24:03 Speaker 1 do it. And then after all the e- explanations, the Rebbe says, in a big city, there are many Jews who could help them. But in this place, if not you, who's going to help them? Then the end-

24:14 Speaker 2 You see the... Yeah.

24:16 Speaker 1 And then the end, the Rebbe says, which seems like the ultimate answer, the Rebbe says that, that this is the year when the Rebbe spoke about V'ho ya voyma hu yitoka v'shefer godel of the passuk. The Rebbe alwa-- The Rebbe, the-- In that year, after the Six-Day War, the Rebbe explained that the, that there are two psukim that we say in sh- in the Shofros in Rosh Hashanah. One passuk is V'ho ya voyma hu yitoka v'shefer godel, V'ho avdim be'eretz Ashur, v'dochim ad Mitzrayim, vishtachat Hashem behar chenet v'Yerushalayim. That's one passuk. And then there is another passuk of, um, that it says, uh, that we, uh, that we, uh, v- v- v- v- v- v- v'shefer godel besaras deiman. So the Rebbe said that the one passuk spoke-- speaks about what the Aibishter will do, the, the big shefer, the Aibishter will waken up the nations of the world. That's World War I, World War II. It was the fabrigen after, after the, the Six-Day War that was spoken in Tishrei, Tov Shechachhes. And then V'ho ya voyma hu yitoka v'shefer godel is about the Six-Day War, that what, what happened during the Six Day War, that many, many Jews all over the world were awakened to Yiddishkeit. So that- But if I bring a the Rebbe says that when do you know that you're getting ready for Mashiach? When, when, when you deal with the Evdim and the Nedachim.

25:34 Speaker 3 So

25:35 Speaker 1 When you, when you those who are far Beruchnius and far Begashnius, the, when you deal with the Evdim and Nedachim, then you know you-

25:43 Speaker 3 But let's talk about the first . But there were to, to big cities, no? In the beginning.

25:50 Speaker 1 Of course. Of course there were . There was... I mean, the first Morocco, which is in a certain, in a w- in a, in a certain way at that time, when most Jews left Morocco, as they were left without, without Rabbonim, without everything. So to Morocco was definitely a to a certain degree.

26:05 Speaker 3 You see, um, I see-

26:07 Speaker 1 You see the Rebbe wouldn't him everywhere. There's no question about it.

26:10 Speaker 3 Right. But there's also the heroes from the Rebbe in the, at least then. I remember once, um, as I was in Yeshiva Miami, they, um, then I think I heard from, uh, Rabbi Shapiro, from Rabbi Shapiro, that, um, they asked the Rebbe about opening of the Yeshiva Gedola. And the Rebbe said, I don't remember the but that tonight that there is no other Yeshiva, uh, that exists already in Miami. And there wasn't, so that, that was it. So did you see tack of this thing? That's definitely not a Yeshiva, but there is one there already. Let's open up a place that doesn't have, you know. Uh, so I think that's connected the thing, the, the equilibrium from-

26:52 Speaker 1 So, so the Rebbe said at the end, the Rebbe said at the end of that , Rebbe said to everyone, the Rebbe said like this, as by Purim it says, . The Rebbe said-

27:00 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm

27:00 Speaker 1 ... who has what to give? The . And they will give to all the who are sitting here and do not wanna move and go out of here and go to, and go to . So the will give them to the, to the . And then the Rebbe said all the , and then he turned around to Shmuel Kafer, and he showed him to see on a big cup. And Shmuel Kafer felt that the Rebbe said the whole to him, like-

27:24 Speaker 3 Yeah.

27:24 Speaker 1 The Rebbe was-

27:25 Speaker 3 It's done

27:25 Speaker 1 ... the Rebbe was him, even though he was a from Bnei Brak who was always going to show with a Megillah in his hand, you know-

27:32 Speaker 3 Yeah

27:32 Speaker 1 ... like the . The Rebbe was him with the, with the to feel the feeling of being in a little town and, and dealing with Jews that are intermarried and giving, giving them the Megillah. That's the... The Rebbe said, when do you know the Mashiach is coming? When the, when the, when you start to deal with the Nedachim and the Evdim. When you find them, and you bring them back.

27:54 Speaker 3 Yeah. I have a question. If those years, you, it's very about . those years in the end of the , the about . You don't see it so much in the Lameds. Why, why do you think?

28:07 Speaker 1 Well, depends if, uh-

28:08 Speaker 3 I, I, I think in the mems, when you were a bachur, I think the Rebbe started speaking it again a lot, right?

28:12 Speaker 1 Well, but, but when the Rebbe spoke in my, in my years, for example, when the Rebbe said, uh, when the Olam was singing very strong the Dan Noつach, and after that, the Rebbe said the Dan Noつach . Then what is the Dan Noつach? The Rebbe tells the Olam, "You're singing the Dan Noつach. You should know what is the Dan Noつach? to go conquer every, every corner in the world." So the Rebbe did start again to speak about this strong, in a, in a very strong way, in an unusual way. From, from the mems, it started in the first year.

28:42 Speaker 3 Well, in the the Rebbe started speaking about

28:45 Speaker 1 Right.

28:46 Speaker 3 Right? The whole-

28:46 Speaker 1 Right after, after the, after the Dan Noつach, immediately after the Dan Noつach-

28:50 Speaker 3 After, after the Dan Noつach?

28:50 Speaker 1 ... a whole campaign, a whole huge campaign of , to establish . That was the, the Shabbos the Rebbe started speaking about in a very strong way. About were the two Shabbos and the Rebbe spoke one Shabbos about, about, uh, the to building Beis Hamikdash, but, uh, that the Dan Noつach is a, a, the new step to, to building Beis Hamikdash by building . And the next Shabbos, spoke about what is that the, the, the, the that some are with us, that that's a . So the Rebbe gave-

29:23 Speaker 3 So you don't know why you don't have any from the Rebbe upon him or something that you think why the Rebbe didn't speak about it so much in the Lameds?

29:30 Speaker 1 Well, I don't know what does that mean so much. The Rebbe spoke, the Lameds, the Lameds, the Rebbe spoke more about . Which is another form of . That's how the Rebbe got all involved in . is a whole other form. the that's where the Rebbe got the - ... so it's a different-- It's another form of that the Rebbe started in addition to . The Rebbe like, the Rebbe f- um, almost like took a new, a new initiative, how to mobilize every one of , men, women, and children into, into the work of .

30:09 Speaker 3 And by the way, the when the Rebbe was speaking about strong about , the Rebbe also tied it in. It means that but also the whole was on making every home a and making, uh, every, every room a . So that was-

30:23 Speaker 1 Yeah, that's also... That's in the mems. Not in the lamed.

30:25 Speaker 3 Yes. I'm, I'm saying even when the Rebbe in the mems is speaking-

30:28 Speaker 1 Right

30:28 Speaker 3 ... about , he's making it applicable-

30:31 Speaker 1 To everyone

30:31 Speaker 3 ... to, like, like the Rebbe said you could be the, one of the six of the Rebbe says, "Give us a given the ." But then-

30:37 Speaker 1 Right

30:38 Speaker 3 ... when the Rebbe gets into the whole -

30:39 Speaker 1 Every one is .

30:40 Speaker 3 No, he does the op- the Rebbe in the sixth, I'm thinking about the Rebbe does the opposite. Rebbe speaking about the concept of to get anybody, to everybody. In the end, Rebbe says, "those are ."

30:50 Speaker 1 Right.

30:52 Speaker 3 So-

30:52 Speaker 1 And, and you could, and you could see it, you could see that, uh, in... If you, if you familiar yourself with the work of the Rebbe, that there were many, many ... accomplishments that Chabad accomplished through people who were not .

31:07 Speaker 3 I, I saw, uh, uh, there's a book, I forgot what the book is called, like, uh, it's like an encyclopedia of like, about Judaism. I picked it up, I found it somewhere from the lameds, and it has a... So there's like a bunch of pages about Lubavitch.

31:20 Speaker 1 Yeah.

31:20 Speaker 3 There's a bunch of pictures of the Rebbe. Uh, those there were... I forgot the name of it, but I have it at home. But, um, they have a list of all of the shluchim, all the Chabad around the world. There's a, there's a, Dr. Lukens is on there. The, uh- There, there's people that have worked in a, uh, in a Modern Orthodox shul that are on, that are on there, like Menachem Kagan. There, there was a this, this representative, that representative. And not necessarily I think today we, it would be con- You know-

31:45 Speaker 1 Right

31:45 Speaker 3 ... later. Yeah.

31:47 Speaker 1 The, the greatest accomplishments, major accomplishments for Chabad were done through people who did not, you would never believe that they are connected to Lubavitch. And they, they, they were able to be in such places that no, no Lubavitch or no Shliach was able to be there.

32:01 Speaker 3 What do you mean by that?

32:02 Speaker 1 So the Rebbe had... There are countless stories of people who have been in positions where they was spo- For example, I'll give you like one example. I wanna, I wanna f- first tell you the story about my letter from that visit from Hav- from here. I told you before.

32:18 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah.

32:18 Speaker 1 So when I wrote to the Rebbe from, uh, from the airport that I'm going, this was three weeks after the famous sicha from Ches 5711, and the Rebbe spoke about and 2000 . At that time, there was a tzoib between, among Chassidim to, that all the Chassidim should write to the Rebbe a letter that they all accept the Rebbe's, uh, ma'achaz as the Moshiach.

32:42 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

32:42 Speaker 1 And, uh, and of course, we all signed and we were looking for ways what, what, what... We didn't know what the Rebbe meant with that sicha.

32:50 Speaker 3 Mm.

32:50 Speaker 1 I remember, I remember when I, when I, when I heard about the sicha, it was a surprise sicha, and, uh, my brother Shalom, who's now a Shliach in China, called me, "You heard the sicha?" I said, "What happened?" He said, "Go listen to the sicha." So I went to, to call Chaib Boruch in and I-

33:05 Speaker 3 You didn't have a, you didn't have a computer call?

33:07 Speaker 1 I had a hookup, but Chaib Boruch didn't have the chat at the time yet to call everyone because it was a surprise sicha.

33:13 Speaker 3 Ah, okay.

33:13 Speaker 1 So, so anyway, either I was in a meeting, I was in Shlichus already. So I ca- I, I, I listened to the sicha. I heard the sicha. I was the all night with my friends on the phone waiting till the morning, still morning in New York, which for me is 6:00 in the morning, but you're on 10:00, to see if the Rebbe came down to daven, 'cause it was such a shock, that sicha.

33:33 Speaker 3 But, it was that you thought that the Rebbe, uh, uh, that's it. It's over.

33:37 Speaker 1 I, I didn't know what to think because-

33:38 Speaker 3 Now when you thought... Was that you th- you thought that the Rebbe is-

33:40 Speaker 1 I was afraid that the Rebbe's like making here major changes because-

33:45 Speaker 3 That's it

33:45 Speaker 1 ... I'll tell you why.

33:46 Speaker 3 Like the Samach, like the Samach Zak did, uh, and then-

33:48 Speaker 1 I'll tell, I'll tell you why. Because, because, because five years before, when I was a bachur in 5710-

33:54 Speaker 3 Yeah

33:55 Speaker 1 ... there was a very similar sicha to that sicha. Purim 5710-

33:59 Speaker 3 Maschiach

33:59 Speaker 1 ... was basically, basically similar to that sicha. The Rebbe said that, uh, now is the time that he's going to give over from the, the mission-

34:07 Speaker 3 From Ha'azinu

34:07 Speaker 1 ... the Moshiach from the leader, from the Rebbe to Hacohen to the generation.

34:12 Speaker 3 Yes.

34:12 Speaker 1 The generation. And then nobody understood what it meant 'cause it was a very long sicha of an hour and a half.

34:17 Speaker 3 Yeah.

34:17 Speaker 1 And many biurim in that sicha about, uh, different signs in the world and everything. Two weeks later, Merakokudim 5710-

34:24 Speaker 3 Is that the same fabrengen that they spoke at the atom bomb?

34:27 Speaker 1 What?

34:28 Speaker 3 That they spoke about the atom bomb, the same fabrengen?

34:30 Speaker 1 In Purim, in Purim.

34:31 Speaker 3 Yeah.

34:31 Speaker 1 Yeah, Purim.

34:32 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah.

34:32 Speaker 1 So, so two weeks later, Merakokudim 5710, the Rebbe started speaking in such a sharp way why nobody understood and nobody did anything, nobody reacted to what he said Purim 5710. And the Rebbe spoke in Merakokudim 5710 very similar to the sicha of Ches 5711.

34:53 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

34:53 Speaker 1 And, and but what he says about himself that why should he come downstairs and fabrengen with the Olam. He could lock himself up in his room, and he could better, do better things, learn for himself, daven for himself. Anyway, it doesn't affect anyone with this thing. There's no results. So when I heard that sicha, I was like, I said, "Oh my gosh, who knows what's going to happen here?" And it's interesting. So I thought the Rebbe's not going, going down. When I heard the Rebbe's coming down, I went to sleep. And it's funny, I just saw a letter from the Rebbe that the Rebbe writes to someone. I just saw it a few weeks ago. It came out a letter, and the, and someone wrote to the Rebbe that people are very confused, and are very scared, and are very this. And the Rebbe says... And, oh, it's, um, either it's a, either it's a, either it's something that Rabbi Gonor spoke with the Rebbe, and the Rebbe said, "I came down the next day to daven."

35:43 Speaker 3 Right.

35:43 Speaker 1 "I continued everything." So the interesting was like, uh, that I was literally afraid that the Rebbe would not come down, and the Rebbe said the words, "I came down the next morning to daven." But-

35:54 Speaker 3 So what happened to, what happened to the doch-

35:56 Speaker 1 Anyway

35:56 Speaker 3 ... is you s- you wrote it, you signed this letter about the Rebbe-

35:58 Speaker 1 So, so I wrote to the Rebbe, because we already... I said to myself, "If I w- if I signed it already, so when I'm writing the, to the Rebbe any letter, I have to write with that musaf."

36:08 Speaker 3 Yeah.

36:09 Speaker 1 And when I came to Motza'sh-- I came to New York, I didn't expect to get an answer. So I came to New York, and Motzaei Shabbos I went into Label Gonor to arrange that we should go by Dallas, not with the regular line. We should go the whole family together because I have a balabos with his wife. So Rabbi Yosef was sitting in the office. So Label tells me, "I need to tell you something. Come out with me."

36:30 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

36:31 Speaker 1 He didn't want Rabbi Ech to hear that. So he comes out with me to another room, and he says, "Listen, when the Rebbe saw your letter, he turned it over, and he wrote down, 'When Moshiach will come, let him know.'" I wrote to the Rebbe, Moshiach-

36:46 Speaker 3 Rebbe said, "You deal like..." You deal like or-

36:49 Speaker 1 When Moshiach will come, you deal like, you, you, you let me know.

36:53 Speaker 3 You let him know.

36:54 Speaker 1 You let him know.

36:55 Speaker 3 Uh-huh.

36:55 Speaker 1 So I was, I was in total shock, and I said to Label, "Me? I'm not even involved. What?" Mainly when I was a bachur, I know I could tell you stories from today to tomorrow about what happened when I was a bachur. But now, I'm not even involved. So like you said-

37:09 Speaker 3 Maybe you send me a bachur, you ta- maybe you, you did things that you shouldn't have or whatever.

37:13 Speaker 1 Well-

37:14 Speaker 3 But now you're just, you're just following the the-

37:16 Speaker 1 I'm like Salivo said, "Don't worry, every one of the people involved got his Nissen this week." So.

37:22 Speaker 3 Hold on one second, but there were people that wrote like that, that the Rebbe didn't, uh, write anything about it.

37:27 Speaker 1 No, he said this week, that week.

37:30 Speaker 3 Ah.

37:30 Speaker 1 So anyway, so, so later on, so when it came-- when I was afraid the next morning to go to Dallas, I didn't know what's going to happen with Dallas. After such a I was like, "Oh my God." And then the Rebbe was in such a amazing way, so that was known. So that's that story.

37:46 Speaker 3 What, what, what were the bachurim saying in Mem Zaim when the Rebbe said those about, uh, why do I come down? What, what, what were the bachurim saying then?

37:55 Speaker 1 Oh, actually, there was a very strong reaction to this. Um, um, very, very strong reaction. When the Rebbe left the, the shul, um, we made an announcement a few bachurim, and we spoke about it very strongly that, um, the whole Ohel was still sitting there at the time.

38:13 Speaker 3 W- w- you, you made an announcement like, uh-

38:18 Speaker 1 like that, uh, we are so disappointed and we are-- have to do a novard to do, to, to, to, to, to make what the Rebbe wants, and-

38:25 Speaker 3 Yeah

38:25 Speaker 1 ... nobody is doing what the Rebbe wants. Like, we were like... And, um, and the next morning we made a novard with Moshe Schlomim who just came down from Israel, made a novard to Moshiach. And, uh-

38:36 Speaker 3 That's the, that's the ?

38:38 Speaker 1 No, no. That's different.

38:40 Speaker 3 That's a different one.

38:41 Speaker 1 Uh-

38:41 Speaker 3 What's this novard?

38:42 Speaker 1 Mimush it was before that. That's a novard special for Moshiach to bring Moshiach. The Rebbe spoke at the Moshiach that we have to do things to bring-

38:51 Speaker 3 Yeah

38:51 Speaker 1 ... Moshiach. So anyway, so we went, we went all over, all the bachur went all over the sh- the shule, and we raised money. At that time we raised $10,000. It was a lot of money.

39:00 Speaker 3 A lot of, a lot of money.

39:01 Speaker 1 You know, in for bachur, young bachur. And, um, and, uh, and of course we wrote a letter to the Rebbe, and Moshe Schlomim signed the letter that, uh, we're going to make a novard to the Moshiach and all. Anyway, um, someone in Tzach didn't like it, that, uh, it's already a second novard we are making. It's one thing the Mimush novard-

39:22 Speaker 3 What, what is, what's the story of the Mimush novard? W- what, what's the-

39:25 Speaker 1 Oh, we'll, we'll come, we'll come to in a second.

39:26 Speaker 3 Yeah.

39:27 Speaker 1 So, so, so they were, they were very upset, and, um, and they wrote to the Rebbe of course, and it came out a very sharp tettel from the Rebbe, very sharp against that. The Rebbe said, "If you wanna do things, there are existing organizations. Just join the existing organization and help them. But there is no need to do..." And the Rebbe wrote a line, very interesting line. You know, and every time when the Rebbe, um, when the Rebbe comes out with gvurus, in the gvurus there is the, the ches and the gili. In that whole tettel, very sharp tettel, very, very sharp tettel, that some parts Moshe Schlomim didn't even wanna show it to me, that's how sharp it was. Um, so one line was there, interesting line. The Rebbe writes, in in 1987, this is like 37 years from then until now, the Rebbe writes,

40:23 Speaker 3 Uh-huh.

40:23 Speaker 1 So, so, so what I took from that line was that the Rebbe is building Chabad in . The Rebbe is just starting to build Chabad in .

40:33 Speaker 3 it's in the future.

40:34 Speaker 1 Rebbe said, .

40:36 Speaker 3 Uh-huh.

40:36 Speaker 1 You guys wanna build Chabad? So the Rebbe says, from making , from taking away someone else's thing, Chabad. You wanna do it, do it the right way. What I took from it is the Rebbe in he's building Chabad, just like the Rebbe said to, to, to Prime Minister Netanyahu when he came to the Rebbe in in the Rebbe's house, when he came to the Rebbe. The Rebbe said to him-- He said to the Rebbe, "Thank you for all the years that you helped me."

41:04 Speaker 3 Yeah.

41:05 Speaker 1 The Rebbe said to him, "I'm just now in the beginning." He thinks-

41:10 Speaker 3 Yeah

41:10 Speaker 1 ... the Rebbe, the Rebbe said, "I'm just in the beginning of my project." And he says to the Rebbe, "I'm also the beginning of my mission." And he said, "I'm coming-- I'm in the beginning of mission, I come to a person in the beginning of his mission." And the Rebbe kept saying, "I'm just beginning now."

41:24 Speaker 3 Right.

41:24 Speaker 1 So the Rebbe is just building Chabad. This, uh, I'm, I'm saying it's related to what's, you know, where we are now 30 years-

41:31 Speaker 3 Today

41:31 Speaker 1 ... in .

41:33 Speaker 3 So you're saying, you're saying this is the Reb- this is the plan the whole time at least?

41:36 Speaker 1 That was the Rebbe's plan. He-- it's to him, he's starting. And the truth is, anybody who had the zchus to be by the Rebbe, I mean, I, I had the zchus to be with the Rebbe like almost 10 years from when he was a, when I was a bo- a 17-year-old bachur till I went to shluchas. That was 26. That was like 10 years by the Rebbe in the Farbrengens. The Rebbe, every Shabbos at the Farbrengen would come down with such a fire and would speak about with such a fire as if it's the first time he said it, ever. I mean, a, a, a person who was not involved in a farbrengen, like a, a, like a person from Crown Heights who just came from his job and came just to Farbrengen, probably his kishes would turn because the Rebbe is speaking like it's the first time he's going to conquer the world.

42:27 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

42:27 Speaker 1 So the Rebbe wasn't like, "Oh, we worked already for 35 years, now we could enjoy a little bit."

42:32 Speaker 3 One second. But I have a, I have a, I don't know, I don't know. I have a question on this.

42:35 Speaker 1 Yeah.

42:36 Speaker 3 If that's the Rebbe's cook in . Chabad, now, now it's actually happening, right? The Rebbe said . How does that fit with the whole tnuah that... I mean, the way most people, I mean, I was alive but I was, uh, not, uh, with all my faculties, but, uh, the, the and my own family and many others. But I mean, now with the Beis, the Rebbe-

43:05 Speaker 4 It, it was, it was the end. It was the height. That, that, that, that's the Rebbe, the Rebbe said Moshiach's coming. There's, uh, there's no pl- there's no plan for 30 y- You're saying it now-

43:14 Speaker 1 Well-

43:14 Speaker 4 How does, how does this fit?

43:15 Speaker 1 I'll, I'll tell you. It's true, it's true to a certain degree, but it's not true. Meaning look, for example, when I, when I passed the Rebbe by Dallas, and the Rebbe told me, he goes, "Mach el dotan varam."

43:29 Speaker 4 Yeah.

43:29 Speaker 1 He didn't tell me, "Close the Chabad House because Moshiach is coming in a second, and you're left to sell the Chabad House."

43:35 Speaker 4 He gave you a mission for a lo- a long term mission.

43:36 Speaker 1 He gave me a mission. So what does that mean? A- and not only to me. Like, like for example, when Mordechai ben David came by to the Rebbe by Dallas, and he gave the Rebbe-

43:46 Speaker 4 After, after Chof Ches Nissan

43:47 Speaker 1 ... after the famous sicha of Chof Ches Nissan.

43:49 Speaker 4 Yeah.

43:49 Speaker 1 And he gave the Rebbe an idea. What was the idea? The Rebbe should go to the Kosel and daven with all the chassidim for Moshiach. And the Rebbe reacted very strong with him. The Rebbe said, "I said that now it's, I'm asking you for ideas. Don't give me ideas. You should find ideas what to do." And he was, got scared and he said, "No, no, no, I didn't mean it, didn't mean it." And the Rebbe said, "I don't-

44:09 Speaker 4 I, I met him once, by the way, and I spoke to him about this, but yeah, whatever.

44:11 Speaker 1 Yeah.

44:11 Speaker 4 Keep it off record, yeah.

44:12 Speaker 1 Anyway, so, so the Rebbe said, "I don't mind people giving me ideas." But the Rebbe said, ". People are using the, all those ideas to go to the Kosel or the way Yishmael wanted to make a fast and to have 10 Yidden or chassidim or something will fast all day What do you mean ? Ton to wor- to do is the Rebbe's work. That will bring Moshiach in, only that. There's no other gimmicks. But the Re- the whole sicha of Chof Ches Nissan and the whole sicha from Purim Mem Zaim, what the meaning of the sicha is really? It means the Rebbe like saying, "35 years I'm begging you to participate in my work of shlichas, and to understand that each person must take upon himself the responsibility, the achrayus to turn the, the world upside down and bring Moshiach. And that's the only way. There's no shortcuts." And the Rebbe said in Tov Shin Yud Aleph that he wants to have shluchim everywhere in the world, and the Rebbe started the farbrengen of, of, of, of, of, of in Boser Gani. This is after the do- there is no shortcuts here.

45:23 Speaker 4 One second, but-

45:23 Speaker 1 It must be done

45:24 Speaker 4 ... one, one, one second. But the Rebbe did say, "Eiseis-"

45:28 Speaker 1 So-

45:28 Speaker 4 "... in Nun Aleph."

45:29 Speaker 1 Right.

45:30 Speaker 4 He, the, the, so should know the scholars from Moshiach, the chassids-

45:32 Speaker 1 Right

45:33 Speaker 4 ... the Rebbe said things he didn't say before.

45:35 Speaker 1 No, that mean-

45:35 Speaker 4 Was that-

45:35 Speaker 1 100%. What, what it means is just like, you know, the famous, the famous line that, uh, that goes around that Rav Ovadia said that, uh, that, um, he said that, that he was zecher to see Moshiach, but he was not zecher to see the Beis, the Beis Hamikdash.

45:50 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

45:51 Speaker 1 What does that mean? When the, when the Rebbe started the day Rosh Chodesh, there was the new... The Rebbe once said, uh, Tov Shin Nun, the Rebbe said about the, that . That, that means the Rebbe started to, to Shmuel Witt, for example, by Yechidus in Tov Shin Chaf Vav, the Rebbe said to him that, "Agam as, uh, as the termin from Moshiach of the geef and the Tov Sheta Zain-"

46:14 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

46:14 Speaker 1 Rebbe said, "No, I'll tell you this. Agam I'm talking of a faratza Tov Shin Yod Ches Yitashchai, but the term for Moshiach is an open for Tov Shin Tet Zain. The gates of Moshiach are open from Tov Shin Zain, and if all the 218 Galai Siman Farbrengen will go every Shabbos, chazak chazak, Moshiach would come already." What does that mean? That means like this, that there is the, there is . There is the potential of Moshiach coming every day from the Rebbe started his moshiach, and every year became more and more. And not, not only that, the process, the talit, the process of being some Moshiach has begun. And the, the Rebbe spoke to Moshe in Tov Shin Nun about the connect the dots. You remember that ad in The New York Times-

46:59 Speaker 4 New York Times, yeah

46:59 Speaker 1 ... connecting the dots to the Simanim. What does that mean?

47:02 Speaker 4 Moshiach, it was a Moshiach-

47:05 Speaker 1 What?

47:05 Speaker 4 With, in like a tracing-

47:07 Speaker 1 With connect the dots

47:08 Speaker 4 ... and it had-

47:08 Speaker 1 All the, all the, all the mirady Canyon in the sea-

47:11 Speaker 4 Rebbe-

47:12 Speaker 1 ... the, the fall of the-

47:13 Speaker 4 Shema, Shema Skirmish

47:14 Speaker 1 ... Shema. Yeah.

47:14 Speaker 4 Yeah.

47:15 Speaker 1 Shema behind that. So-

47:16 Speaker 4 The Chai, the what's called the Chai Foundation.

47:18 Speaker 1 Chai Foundation, right. And Rabbi Gutnick sp- sponsored that.

47:22 Speaker 4 Yeah.

47:22 Speaker 1 So, so this, this whole idea meant that Moshiach is already, we, we already see the pulas of Moshiach in the world. The world is changing. So not when, when we say Moshiach is coming, it's not something that happens overnight. It's a process that's happening. Of course, there'll be the being of Moshiach that will be the gilul of Kus and Vel. But this generation, and especially from when the Rebbe started in such a strong way to speak about it, it meant that, that the Simanim of Moshiach, the world is starting to change towards Moshiach. Like we see the last 30 years things that we never saw before in, in, in any level, if it's about there are thing... I mean, things today that happened, happened in, in our, in our days that didn't happen before, could not have happened before.

48:09 Speaker 4 The Rebbe, the Rebbe spoke also about worldly things, right? The fall of communism, Holocaust.

48:13 Speaker 1 Right.

48:13 Speaker 4 Is, is the world still progressing positively that way or not really?

48:17 Speaker 1 Absolutely. Absolutely. You could see, for example, let's talk about, uh, about the

48:23 Speaker 4 Yeah.

48:24 Speaker 1 Okay? When the Rebbe said 50 years ago, I was a child. Tov Shin Lamed Ches was when, when Sadat came to Israel from the president of, um, uh, um, president of Egypt came to Israel the first time. I was a kid in the Yeshivat Lud, Yeshivat Aleph. I was 13 years old. You have to understand that from the airport in Lud until Yerushalayim, the Israelis, Jewish is, the Jewish people were standing in line to welcome him. There was a line of human from Lud to Yerushalayim, and our yeshiva came also out.

48:58 Speaker 4 The, the yeshiva came?

48:59 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

49:00 Speaker 4 They didn't know that the Rebbe doesn't like this?

49:02 Speaker 1 Everyone knew.

49:03 Speaker 4 The yeshiva came?

49:04 Speaker 1 Yeah, everyone. We, we, we, we stood right outside the yeshiva. We didn't have to go anywhere. We were on the main, on the main road.

49:10 Speaker 4 It was like a human chain.

49:11 Speaker 1 It was-

49:11 Speaker 4 Like a human chain

49:12 Speaker 1 ... a human chain. It was such an excitement as, as if, chas v'Shalom, Moshiach is coming.

49:17 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

49:17 Speaker 1 Why? Peace has came to the world. Menachem Begin, I remember as a kid, Menachem Begin was in the Cairo, in the synagogue, and he is singing from the, from the, on the radio, "Vaveinu shalom aleichem." Everyone-- And you were embarrassed to say that the Rebbe is against the peace.

49:32 Speaker 4 Right.

49:32 Speaker 1 You were embarrassed to say that because what do you mean? Mubarak wants to make peace with us. Why not? What's wrong? How can you s- how can you speak against that? And now fast-forward 50 years, October 7th, now the whole world admits where do you think the weapon came in?

49:52 Speaker 4 From Egypt.

49:53 Speaker 1 Right. From Egypt. Not only that, the pr- the son of the president of Egypt, el-Sisi's son, he is the one who made, who made a certain tax, certain amount of money on every shipment that came in the tunnels to Gaza. So the people who made peace with us are the people who brought all the weapon for us Mm ... to kill us. Until today, they are considered now, there are many people who say that they are planning a war against Israel now, 'cause they broke every rule of the peace process, and, and it's all over the newspapers. But it took 50 years for the Rebbe saw 50 years ago. It took 50 years for the whole world to admit it. Today from the Torah Karta to, to Shemirat Soher, from Reform to the most Orthodox, everyone admits that the Rebbe's truth is the only truth. So this, this is a part, this is a process of the, of Giluy Mashiach, to see the truth of Torah, that when people- So- ... couldn't see ... so you're saying that 5711, the Rebbe said and everyone's feeling that Mashiach is coming today. Mashiach actually should have come today there 'cause that's what the Rebbe said, that every day that Mashiach doesn't come, there's no beard. The same time, the Rebbe had a plan for the next 30 years. I, I would call it like a back plan, that the Rebbe had two plans. And how, what do I base it on? Yeah. There's a famous letter from

51:19 Speaker 1 the Rebbe in Tav Shin Yud Beis. 19-- in, in 1952, the Rebbe writes a letter to Israel, Haguda Chabad. Everyone understands what Israel was in Tav Shin Yud Beis, a little country just started off. And the Rebbe is writing to Haguda Chabad. The Rebbe said, "I have a plan. I have a plan to conquer Israel, to conquer Israel with Yiddishkeit, with Hasidus." That's the That's the . However, I need to know if Anash in Israel are willing to join me or not. And the Rebbe says, "If they're willing to join me, I could do my plan. If not, that means we are not yet, and we'll have to wait for later." Hmm. And then the Rebbe writes, then the Rebbe writes, "I wanna have an answer from every one of Anash to write in a closed envelope, in a closed letter, that nobody else should see it. And they shouldn't come complaining like the way they did before the Rebbe mend the when they said there was a peer pressure." So when the Rebbe put-- when the Rebbe demanded from somebody, "Why didn't you do what we ?" They said, "Oh, I'm not a, I'm not a real chossid. I, I signed. Uh, it was peer pressure." From others. You know, everyone is saying, should you say not sign? . So the Rebbe said, "This time I want a personal letter from each person. Are you willing to participate in my work or not? And whoever is not going to answer," the Rebbe says, "I

52:46 Speaker 1 sh- I, I will count him as he doesn't want to." So you can't say I'm not answering. Either you answer say, if it's a yes, it's a no. If you don't answer, it's a no. And, and we could only imagine, I mean, when I was a bocher, when the came to Israel. So the biggest, the biggest accomplishment was- The All the from the, you know, Rabbi Galitsky, Rabbi Hecht, and their groups, they came to Israel. The biggest everyone talked about is a famous letter from the Rebbe, the Rebbe said then the first priority is to be Rabbonim. If they can't be Rabbonim, they should be other. And the Rabbi Zusha Vilmosky was involved with the, with the chief Rabbi, Rabbi Goren, to get them a Ra- a Rav here, a Rav there. You have to understand, Tav Shin Yud Beis, if, if the Anash would do whatever he wants, we could have made Rabbonim all over Israel. Nobody wanted to be a Rav anywhere. Mm. Who wanted to be a Rav? You could have Anash in every city in Israel, Rabbonim. You didn't have to beg in, in the mem from chief Rabbi to give you a position of a Rav. Could have conquered Israel, could have shli-- a shliach in every city in Israel, every yishuv. You're saying the Rebbe says we're ready, bring Mashiach now. Right. The Rebbe had- And now should- Like for- Still waiting. The Rebbe's still waiting for us to keep the It's like the letter, you know, the letter

54:04 Speaker 1 that came out, the letter that came out from, uh, that the Rebbe writes, I don't wanna say the name, doesn't matter the name. The Rebbe writes to a shliach in, in, in, uh, in California, in Tav Shin Yud Alef. And the Rebbe writes a whole letter to him and to Rabbi Shmuel Dviraitchik, two letters that came out. So one letter the Rebbe writes to him, the Rebbe said, "I, I heard a person came from, from California saying that you and your wife are complaining there's no Jews." For sure there's no Jews in California. Yeah. Los Angeles, there's no Jews. There's no Jews, there's no money, there's nothing to do, you can't do anything. And the only thing that you could do is you have a plan to buy a synagogue for $40,000. You have to understand, Lubavitch, when the passed away in Tav Shin Yud, so there was a gvir in Chicago who gave the $10,000 of the mortgage of 770. Here a sh- a- Robin- Robinson Robinson. Here, the little shliach wants to, wants the Rebbe should give him $40,000 to build a, to buy a shul in, in, in Los Angeles. So 770 doesn't have money for $10,000 for 770 after 10 years of 770 to buy him a shul. And, and so the Rebbe gives him a whole letter, the Rebbe gives him ideas. This letter, if we shluchim, they were hiding this letter because it's, it's personal. Right. But if we shluchim would see this letter 30 years ago... The Rebbe

55:13 Speaker 1 gives ideas. The Rebbe said to him, "You, you are in Los Angeles, it's now summer, make a day camp. The Balabatim will love to give you the kids, they have nothing to do with them after, after, uh, the summer. Make a day camp, you could make money from it, you could become a leader." Then the Rebbe says to him, "There's a university, go and o-offer yourself to be a lecturer on Hasidism. You, you speak English well, speak about Hasidism." Then the Rebbe said there are modern orthodox rabbis that don't know about Hasidism, they would love to hear a lecture like that. Then the Rebbe says, "Make, make services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Announce, take a hotel room, announce that you'll do Rosh Hashanah services with speeches in English, and you'll have your... You'll sell seats, you'll make money." The Rebbe gives him ideas how to... In the end, the Rebbe says, "But if you are not going to be happy to be on shlichas, there's no point in you being a, you know-" Suffer and, and, and bicker about it. Just come home. So either you are taking it and you're happy with that, if you're complaining, we don't need it. Well, that Shliach came back- It's been a few years ... and it took another, another 20 years for the Rebbe send a Mekubalim. To the Mekubalim. 27 years, 20 years. Okay. So the Rebbe, so the Rebbe has a plan, and the Rebbe's partially needs-- the Rebbe wants buy-in from, uh,

56:26 Speaker 1 from, from, from the Chassidim. Exactly. And so, and, uh, I was discussing on a different conversation we had over here, I think that's what the Rebbe was saying that, that I'm in this-- I'm, I'm serious about this. This is literal. So do some- do it. That the Rebbe, the Rebbe means business. Yeah. And, and therefore, all the famous story that the Rebbe said about the fourth level of Shlichas, where the Shliach is a responsible person on his own, and he makes decisions on his own, it meant that you take it... Remember a story the Rebbe said, and the Rebbe smiled. The Rebbe said that, uh, about, uh, the Rebbe started a project. The Rebbe said he doesn't want people to start writing him letters what to do, and then he said that he's, he's like that said, "I'm willing to go on Messirus Nefesh but even to jump into the water, he didn't want to. He wanted them, they should pick him up, and they should throw him into the water. The Rebbe says, uh, come-- a guy comes and says, "I'm running to go on Messirus Nefesh, but the Rebbe should do everything for me. The Rebbe should pick me up. The Rebbe should tell me to do right or to the left." Rebbe said, "You take responsibility, you figure it out yourself, and be happy with your work." At, at a certain point, the first, the first few years, the Rebbe told people to go on Shlichas. After a certain point, the Rebbe

57:40 Speaker 1 Chabad never told anyone to go. You had to ask. Right. Right. And the Rab- and the Rebbe said clearly, in Tof Shin Hof, the Rebbe said he's not going to say anymore what, who to go, and people will have to ask themselves, and they, and they should wanna go. 'Cause the Rebbe wanted that people should feel partners in that, that they, that they, that they feel the to go. Not that the Rebbe tells them to go, and not that he goes only because he's going to get a compliment from the Rebbe. That he bu- the Rebbe wanted the people should buy into the idea what Shlichas is. What is the Rebbe's work in the world? That you are-- That, that goes all, all the way back to the Hofches, famous Hofches Sivan Farbrengen, Tof Shin Mem Tes, when the Rebbe finally accepted- Hofches Sivan The Rebbe accepted Hofches Sivan when- You're saying when the Rebbe accepted it as a date? As a, as an official... Because the Rebbe, you know, the first three years- See, no, no one knew that the Rebbe and the Rebbeson came to America on Hofches Sivan Nobody knew about it till Tof Shin Mem Dalet when the first Igros Kodesh from the Friediker Rebbe came out, and all of a sudden we, we saw there is a letter from the Rebbe, from the Friediker Rebbe telling, uh, one of the lawyers who helped, uh, bring the Rebbe to America that today, Hofches Sivan, the Rebbe came to America. That my,

58:49 Speaker 1 my son-in-law came, and then my daughter came to America, and nobody knew about this Yamim Tov. Nobody made a big deal. Even on Yamim Yam the Rebbe was hiding it. The Rebbe write Sivan Tof Shin Alef- Sivan, yeah ... didn't say a date. Sivan Tof Shin Alef, and nobody ever thought to make a big date, even though the Rebbe never made an official Farbrengen on Tes Odar, but every time it was Shabbos around Tes Odar- Talk about it ... or Shabbos, he spoke about every time. But he never made a special date. Whatever the reason is, we don't know yet. But the Rebbe didn't make it special date. The Rebbe never made a date of Tes Odar. Right. There wasn't like an official Farbrengen date. He just, uh, the head- It was not Cha- Just, uh, we just, we just published now a Sefer that, uh, it's come-- it's on the way now from, uh, from China, a Sefer of all the Yamim Tov Pagre. It goes through all of the, uh, dates, the history, what happened, what happened by the Rebbe on the date, and also there's like, um, in the spirit of the Nazim, what the Rebbe said about the date. So take Tes Odar, there's how do you know what a date is? How do we know? How do-- When we are compiling it? Whatever the Rebbe spoke about. So Tes Odar, the Rebbe spoke about it, so we know it's a date. Of course. Yitzchak Meir, the Rebbe's brother, we know

59:54 Speaker 1 it's a date 'cause the Rebbe spoke about it. The whole of whole of whole, so- Right ... Hofches Sivan also. Right. Yeah. So, so, so Hofches Sivan, the Rebbe didn't speak about in the early years. And then, it's in Tof Shin Mem Dalet came out Igros Kodesh, and there was a young man from Israel, his name was Rabbi Solomon, and he went around seven seventy showing everyone the Igros Kodesh and saying, "Why we don't make a big deal about it?" But we still didn't do anything about it. Then the next year, Tof Shin Mem He, , and it-- if you think about it, it was like, uh, Hofches Sivan was like two days before the famous of Rosh Chodesh Tammuz of the, of the Sfarim. About the Sfarim, yeah. Yeah. But this was two days before. We did- we didn't even know about the meeting then. You had no idea that the whole Sfarim was happening then? Yeah. Well, we, we knew there was a-- we knew on Rosh Chodesh Tammuz that there was a meeting with the Agudas Chabad. Nobody is allowed to know what it's about, but the Rebbe will speak about it in Beis Tammuz. That's all we know. Everyone knew that, okay. That came out f- somehow because, you know, when seven people go into the Rebbe's room in Tof Shin Mem He for a meeting, that didn't happen in many, many years, and Agudas Chabad never was an active organization in that way. So- Having meetings with the Rebbe, yeah,

1:01:08 Speaker 1 I mean. Yes. So, so, so it was-- it, it, it had to make waves. So it became, uh, known, but nobody knew what it is. But two days before, with the Bochurim in seven seventy, it was my first year as a Bochur in seven seventy. We decided, myself, Zalman Lieberoff, and a few of the Bochurim in the , we decided together that we are going to make a Farbrengen, and when the Rebbe came in, uh, to, to my room, we decided we are going to sing a song. In those days, the Rebbe used to come in upstairs and out. Upstairs and sing. Upstairs and out. There was no singing, nothing. There was-- It was still the way Sefer was- Even when, uh, even when Zalman Jaffe was there, there was no singing? Only when he was there. Zalman Jaffe, even in the middle of the week, he wouldn't sing. Only- With Jaffe ... if it was a Yamim Tov Pagre or something. Ah, okay. Shabbos, Shabbos downstairs. If there was a Yamim Tov Pagre, yeah, but, uh- So singing is for downstairs. Upstairs is, it's, uh- Yeah. It was like a... The Rebbe comes in, comes out. There was a very, um, v- I mean, well, later described Mincha upstairs was very-- Mincha and Maariv upstairs very, very special. The Rebbe sitting on that table was very unique. It's very special But anyway, so, so there, so we decided what, what, what nigun to we sing? Which nigun should we sing for Chof Ches Sivan?

1:02:17 Speaker 1 We decided what nigun, we'll sing the same nigun of Rosh Chodesh Kislev because Rosh Chodesh Kislev is a nigun that the Rebbe became, uh, the Rebbe became ill, so this is the Rebbe, Rebbe was relieved, was, was redeemed from, from the Holocaust or saved from the Holocaust. It's like a Yemei Hatzalah. Yemei Hatzalah. That's what, what I thought about. Anyway, the Rebbe comes in, we start singing, and you know, it's, it's seconds. The Rebbe comes out of his room, and he gives docket to the kids. It's, it's seconds. The Rebbe heard the singing. He came in, he made with his hand. The Rebbe could have ignored us right away. I mean, it's like the Rebbe is very- A new thing out of the ordinary, yeah. Yeah, it's out of the middle, uh, out of nowhere, and the Rebbe made with the hand very strongly, and, uh, that was enough for us, and that night was a farbrengen. You know how big the farbrengen was? Cheder Sheini in upstairs beis hamedrash, that's how big the farbrengen was. And we farbrenged all night, and the next day by Mincha we sang, and the Rebbe again made with the hand. And that was the beginning, and then Tov Shimah Vav- Who, who's... The Bochurim or there was a- The Bochurim. Just the Bochurim. Yeah. And then Tov Shimah Vav, um, that, this is the first year we decided to make a really big deal. We got together. We are going to make a big farbrengen, a real big,

1:03:23 Speaker 1 uh, you know, a huge event just like Rosh Chodesh Kislev. And it happened to be, Vayigash HaPotir, that that was Shabbos, Chof Ches Sivan was Shabbos. And it was also a yovel. It was forty-five years from when the, from the Rebbe, the Rebbetsin came to America, from Tov Sheh Alef to Tov Shimah Vav. And mamash Friday afternoon I decided to make a teshuvah. And, uh, what was the teshuvah? It was just a, a few letters for the Tzemach Tzedek Rebbe about the Chof Ches Sivan, and also the sicha the Rebbe spoke to Test-Asar the year before, a sicha about the Tzemach Tzedek coming to America, but he connected it to the new Hofot Zayyad that started in America, not just about, about the saving him, you know, about this. So I took that sicha, put it in, and, uh, and the Hagdasha was a very special Hagdasha for the Rebbe and the Rebbetsin for coming to America, yovel shanim, and we gave it in to the Rebbe. Uh, I ran upstairs to Shengalov. He was, he had a print shop there for, for Chabad, Nachas Hasidim. Yeah. Bal Forefs. And he immediately-- one of the sichas, he immediately agreed, and, um, and we worked together. We put the doser in. You had to put the letters, you know. It was not a computer. Everything was... And we put together the, the, the Hagdasha, and we printed. I came, I gave it, I gave it to, to Maskiros. I gave it to, to give it to

1:04:39 Speaker 1 the Rebbe's room, and I put it on the tables. So the whole Shabbos was already, uh, you know, beginning of a... And then by the farbrengen, so we, we gave in a bottle of mashke to Label. And we told Label that Meir Alec will come up for us because the Bochurim were not going to go to the Rebbe for this. So we asked Meir Alec. So he said, "Yeah, no, yeah, no." He couldn't make up his mind. Then Shabbos by day he started to get cold feet. He's not sure. Yeah. He's not sure. Maybe the Rebbe will not be happy with that. He's not sure. Anyway, the first, the, the, the first sicha the Rebbe started a whole sicha about... Because it was Shabbos Bo BeTammuz, so the, al- always the Rebbe spoke about Shabbos Bo BeTammuz about the Tzemach Tzedek Rebbe- In prison ... about going out of, out of jail, you know? Shabbos Bo BeTammuz- In prison ... Moshe Rabbeinu was used to the Aish HaTorah saying, "Vayidaber Hashem el Moshe lemor tzave et Bnei Yisrael, daber el Bnei Yisrael." Everything was commandments. Mitamod, the Aish HaTorah said, "If you want, say it. If you don't want, doesn't..." It's like, oh my God. Moshe Rabbeinu says something is not right here. And vehoraye, things didn't go right, so why did he do it? And then the Rebbe said, "Vayishua send them again." If Moshe failed, what is he doing it again? And the Rebbe gave the answer, which is a very, very powerful

1:08:43 Speaker 1 answer, but they all kind of D'Shvi. The Rebbe said that, um, Moshe Rabbeinu was very, very happy when the Aish HaTorah told him, "Shlach lecho el Daatcha," because it was a new Avoda. Till now it was tzave et Bnei Yisrael, daber Bnei Yisrael, commandment. The first time the Aish HaTorah says, "I want you to choose it." And the Rebbe said the famous le- in Pirkei Avot we say that there is a asei et zeincha k'irtzeini and baal et zeincha p'nigartzeini. So the Rebbe said there are two Avodas. There is baal et zeincha, commandment, you have to follow, listen what we tell you. And the Rebbe said, but the, but the, but the most, the very dear Avoda is asei et zeincha k'irtzeini, that you choose it. In Chaf Kes Nisan, the Sikha, the Rebbe said a similar thing, that we should want Mashiach and s- ask for Mashiach at Moshiach, not M- not because I said, but p'nisatzevu. Right. So it's, uh, the same- So you're s- you're saying basically that Chaf Kes Nisan, the Rebbe s- said things that he already said, kama p'amim, the Rebbe just ch- ch- chose to say it clear. V'mele it was shocking. No. There was a line that the Rebbe never said. That line- If give, if give- I... No, the line that I f- I did everything I can. And it's give, uh, and it's going to have a l'ek. Yeah. That, that- As, as was ich hab getan business der- Yeah ... the have a l'ek.

1:10:09 Speaker 1 That, that, that line he never said, and that I, and I, that I completed my work. Ich hab getan als was ich can. Like, I'm done. That everything, my mission is complete, and now I need, I need you. It's... What's left is you have to jump in. What you didn't do for 40 years, you have to do now, because diu chelek, what you have to do, I can't do for you. You have to do it. So you're saying in, in, in the Sikha Alein is already the, you know, Gimel Tammuz is already there, in that Sikha? I mean, to a certain degree, of course. I mean, nobody- But you didn't think about- Nobody, no- You didn't think that then ... no. Nobody thought about it. Of course not. To us it was 100% sure, 100% sure that Gimel Tammuz will never happen. 100%. Never. But, uh, because b- and, and it's, and it's, and the Taki didn't happen because what- whatever, as the Rebbe explains in the famous, uh, the famous, uh, Sikas of Alistalkos and Tov Shin Yud, that, uh, you know, the famous story the Rebbe brings from the, from the Eimek HaMelech, from, from Hevron. The famous story the Rebbe brings in Tov Shin Yud about Avraham Avinu that, uh, that when all the Yidden in Hevron went to Yerushalayim for, for Rosh Hash- for Yom Kippur, and only, only a few Yidden were left, and they didn't have 10 to the minyan, Avraham Avinu came, and, uh, and then he le-

1:11:35 Speaker 1 then he disappeared, and then, and then eventually he came by on his dream to the Rov in town and he said, "I was Avraham Avinu. I just couldn't s- handle to see the pain that you have no minyan, so I came." And the Rebbe asked the question, how could you be mitzvah of Avraham Avinu minyan? All the n... It's very nice Avraham Avinu came, but it's, it's not in the Shomi Guf. There is a halacha. You know, like the way the Rebbe Tov Shin Yud, the Rebbe was, uh, doing a save in, on the, on, on Pesach Tov Shin Yud- The Rebbe did it ... the Rebbe did a save it. Before the S- before these targets, he did do a save it. Yeah. And people asked him, "So you say the Rebbe is here, and there is a place for the Friediker Rebbe, and there is a, a- Yeah ... and everything." So the Rebbe said, "Then comes to halacha." Tehilim HaShem. Yeah, so it's like the reason the Rebbe is here- Like the Rebbe said, the Rebbe said Tehilim HaShem ... I don't know if the Halacha Rebbe, I don't know if the Halacha HaShem. The Rebbe said, when it comes to halacha, so we have to do it, uh... So, so the question is, the Rebbe said, "How could you mitzvah for Avraham Avinu minyan?" And the same thing the Rebbe asked about Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi that he used to come every Friday night to, to make kiddush to his family. Yeah.

1:12:35 Speaker 1 How could you be mitzvah? It's all good and nice, but, uh, it's not in the Shomi Guf. How could you? So the Rebbe answered that question that when it comes to the Nissim, they came to the world only for their generation, only for their people. They didn't come for... Their mission and their shlichut is not for themselves. And therefore, when z- when they have a Nistalkos, Ma la'alam, ma, ma kan eben shamish af lanu memshamin v'vorum. They continue their mission. There is a, there is a separate reason why they needed to, why their Guf HaGashmi needed to... They, they get another, as the Rebbe said, Yutshat Chavov. They get another Levush. So, but they are still continuing. So when they come in a Guf, they are part of the minyan. They are considered as if they be El Maleh HaGashmi. So you, you knew this Gimel Tammuz Tov Shin and Dalet? What do you mean if I knew this? Well, you're telling me now. I'm saying that this is... You knew this right away, or you had, uh- Gimel Tammuz, Gimel Tammuz, we were broken to pieces. We were in total shock, and, uh, when we, when I was in Alaska and I heard of Gimel Tammuz, I took my whole family. We were supposed to have a, a day camp that, that next Monday. We were supposed to have a day camp. It was our first day camp for our preschool. We left a, a note on the door that we left to New

1:13:51 Speaker 1 York. Sorry. And we took the whole family, went to the airport Motzei Shabbos, and we bought tickets on the spot, and we went the whole family to New York, and we did not know if we will ever come back, and we went to New York. We were in total shock, total broken. We, we had no... We couldn't think. The whole, the whole flight to New York, I didn't eat anything. I didn't daven. I didn't do anything. I was like... I was in total shock. And every airport, we stopped in two airports. Every airport, the, all the screens, all the television screens, CNN, were all about the Rebbe, nonstop, nonstop. There was no WhatsApp in those days, no cell phones. The te- the, the all the screens were about the Rebbe. And I couldn't believe that the, that the, that the sun is shining and the people are eating in the plane. I just couldn't believe it was... That, that the world is still going on. To us, the world stopped. And I came to New York. They told me, "Don't go to 770. The, the Rebbe is already going to the Ohel." I came, I ca- I went, I, we, from the airport in a taxi. The entire, the entire highway from Kennedy to, to the Ohel was, was blocked. We couldn't move. We were standing, like an hour and a half, couldn't move anywhere. It was packed with cars for all Lubavitchers and Jews and film Jews and... And finally, we made it. They,

1:15:14 Speaker 1 they... We couldn't go to the, with the cars. They wouldn't let any car in the all, the all, uh, exit to the Ohel. We had to stop by the main, by the main road. We had to walk all the way, and I had a suitcase with me, and there were two, uh, , who, who came to the funeral, and they come over to me, they said to me, "I'll schlep the suitcase for you." 'Cause they saw that I was like schlepping. I had two children. My wife was with me, and we were like, we were like oys menschen. We didn't sleep the whole night because we were, we were up already from the night before. We didn't know what's... We heard the shmups already. The rumors were coming. And, uh, we were just walking all the way up. I came there. We, uh, everything was locked up. You couldn't even go in. We were standing outside. And, uh, we were standing there, and I must tell you, there was a very, um, when I came finally to the Ohel, when I was standing there, I remember me- uh, Ershish Arftis, Er- Ershish Faltos standing next to me. We were all with the same suitcase. We all made Kriyas. And somehow there was like a little bit of a, a feeling of the Rebbe's presence that, that gave us the koach to, to hold on. I, I don't know what it is. And, um, I mean, later, Tzedek Chassidus that the, the moment when they falters,

1:16:31 Speaker 1 there is the , and the Rebbe's name was all over the world on that day. All over the news, they spoke about the Rebbe's work and about the Rebbe and about the shluchim. And, uh, and then we-- I came in, there was a line to go in. Everyone passed by the Ohel, and then there are two options. You could have one option to go behind the Ohel and sit there or go outside. So I went behind the Ohel, and I sat there. And then, and then I stay there for seven days. I stayed be- I stayed there, and there was no, there was no, there was no house, there was no tent, there was nothing. We were standing there under the trees.

1:17:09 Speaker 5 There's, there's, there's other bachurim and there's other people there also.

1:17:11 Speaker 1 Yeah, there was a bunch of bachurim and people and, and... No, in the night, there was a whole, the whole night people came. First I was, I was, I was, uh, I was, I was, uh, sitting somewhere next to the, next, um, uh, next to the Ohel, but then it was already 3:00 in the morning and people came, Madmonax people and five people, and it didn't look outside. I moved backwards. Nobody should see us. The people didn't understand. What, what are you laying here? Anyway, so, so we were, we were going back. We, we went to back, and we were staying there. And I remember the next morning after, after the falters, someone came with a, with a copy of the Rebbe's letter from Tuv Shin Yud that, uh, it's only a nisayon, and, uh, and that's only nisayon, and the Rebbe is really with us, and not to be nispel. And I remember this was gave us a lot of chizuk in the first-

1:18:01 Speaker 5 You guys were talking to each other?

1:18:03 Speaker 1 The next day we started talking to each other, yeah. And, uh, we were sitting there in groups, you know. And, uh, and we was there the, the whole week, uh, sitting there. And so we didn't know what, um... But, uh, but you know, as, uh, as we sat there next to the Ohel, we got the strength back. And Shabbos I went back to New York to Crown Heights, and there was a farbrengen of all the shluchim on Shabbos, and the elder-

1:18:35 Speaker 5 Some people, some people stayed by the Ohel for Shabbos.

1:18:37 Speaker 1 Yeah, some of them. I was supposed to stay by the Shabbos there, but I there was pressure on me that I should go back after seven days being there. And, um, so I went back and, um, and I was there, and, uh, and the elder shluchim were talking and, uh, and I remember my shver saying, he said that, uh, he said it's Yedidov Chassidim that, um, the elder Chassidim had a hard time after his falters to move on to the next Rebbe. So he said that, you know, we, the elder shluchim, we went to, to, to, to Merkes to sit shiva. The bachurim and the young Yigalites were staying at the Ohel. So we made a mistake. We have to go to the Ohel. And that's when he understood, he switched, that it took him a week to understand that he has to, he has to go to the Ohel, you know. That that's the place to go. That's where the Rebbe is. And, uh, and then we went back, and we had a big event for, for a tribute for the Rebbe and so on, and that gave us the koach to, to continue. But, uh, this was, uh, you know, we were sure that will never happen. You have to understand, when you-- anybody who saw the Rebbe, anybody who had the zechus to see the Rebbe, and I saw the Rebbe the first time when I was 11 years old. Anybody who saw the Rebbe, you saw a, a presence that you

1:20:03 Speaker 1 knew that this is not human. You knew that what you're seeing is non-human. And, and everybody, like when I was a little kid and I came the first time to the Rebbe, and I was-- My, my father used to go every year to the Rebbe, and we had the Rebbe's pictures and everything. But when I saw the Rebbe the first time was Rosh Tisha Tov, 5712, the first time I saw the Rebbe, it was like, it's like I was in shock. In shock.

1:20:31 Speaker 5 How old are you? You-

1:20:32 Speaker 1 I was 11 years old.

1:20:33 Speaker 5 Right.

1:20:33 Speaker 1 But I wasn't, I wasn't probably a typical 11, but I was 11 years old. And I mean, and I come from a, you know, from Eretz Yisroel, from Bnei Brak, from my irim, lei chacham ve'seferim. When I saw the Rebbe, I was in shock. I couldn't believe it. And the whole month of Tishrei, the Rebbe like, uh, you know the, the expression the Rebbe like, like a, like a vacuum. I was, I was, I was g- I was hypnotized to the Rebbe, glued to the Rebbe You have no idea. I mean, I was a-- I couldn't... And I was standing right behind the Rebbe. My father had a place in the first line behind the Rebbe.

1:21:08 Speaker 5 Your father came every year?

1:21:11 Speaker 1 Most, I mean, some ye-- I mean, in the early years, he started Chaf Ches, then he started Lamed. He didn't come in the beginning of the year, but then later-

1:21:18 Speaker 5 Can, can, can I interrupt you for a second?

1:21:20 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:21:20 Speaker 5 Hold your thought. I just ha-- I'm ve-very curious. Your father didn't-- wasn't born a Lubavitch Hasid, right? He be-

1:21:27 Speaker 1 Right

1:21:27 Speaker 5 ... he began as a Skverer. But he se-he seemed to have this, like, Chassidic, uh, his Kashrus. And but he never even grew up with the Re- He came from Russia. H-how the-- His Hasidism thing.

1:21:41 Speaker 1 Well, well, in two, in, in, in two words to say, my father became a Hasid at a very young age, thirteen years old. And, and the reason why he became a Hasid, because when he ran away from the Holocaust with his family, the only place they were able to run away to be safe from the Nazis was to Tashkent and Samarkand.

1:22:02 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:22:02 Speaker 1 And in those cities, in, in, uh, in, in, in, in those cities, in Uzbekistan, in those cities, the only organized Yiddishkeit underground was Chabad.

1:22:12 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:22:12 Speaker 1 So any Frum Jew, like my great- my grandfather was a Frum Jew. He wasn't a Lubavitch Hasid, but he was a Fr- very, he's a very dedicated Frum Jew. Like, he was a, he was a Chassidisher, like a general Chas-Chassi-Chassidishe. He was a Shochet in his town. He was a Mohel.

1:22:25 Speaker 5 No, my, my question, my question is not how he became Lubavitch. He, there's the-- Lubavitch has more th- There's many stories like that. There's more like that than, than, than whatever. That's not my point. I have my question. My question is, h- this, uh, this, like, deep Kabbalah sale, this is Kashrus, this, this-

1:22:41 Speaker 1 Because, because he was a Mesirus Nefeshig, my father. So when he was in, when he was in jail, he was from the very few people who did not eat treif, and he did not work on Shabbos. Most people, Mosheh, couldn't stand the pressure. And my father was a Mesirus Nefeshig. So when he went to the Rebbe the first time, Tov Schet Ches for Tishrei, that Tishrei, the Rebbe said that all the Russian Jews should stand around him. So my father, you could see the famous picture of Rabbi Levi Alefsky bringing a Balabos to the Rebbe. This picture-

1:23:14 Speaker 5 It's in Chassidei, yeah.

1:23:15 Speaker 1 It's in Chassidei. It is like a New York Times picture. There are three pictures there. And each one of those pictures is like a painting.

1:23:22 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:23:23 Speaker 1 It's such an unusual picture. And you see my father standing between Ben Tzion Shachter and Mendel Futerfas. And he's standing literally one, one foot away from the Rebbe, like literally one person away from the Rebbe. And you could see how he's watching the Rebbe, that he became glued to the Rebbe. So you could see that he is a Mesirus Nefeshig, and the first time he saw the Rebbe, he became a Mekusher like fire. But he was a Chossid of the Rebbe of it also in Russia without seeing the Rebbe. Just by learning from Chassidim who were Chassidim of the Rebbe. Uh, he had Rabbi Yosef Altaver was his Mashpia and other people, uh, right, right all the way there in, in Tashkent, in-

1:23:59 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm

1:24:00 Speaker 1 ... Rabbi Senem and of all those Chassidim over. He was a kid who grew up on there, on there. He was-- When the, when the Rebbe is saying the secrets that the Philokalia Talmidim at Peirei Peiros, my father is one of those Peiros.

1:24:11 Speaker 5 Wow.

1:24:11 Speaker 1 'Cause he was not a Lubavitcher. In Tov Shin, the Philokalia was already in America for th- It was already in America.

1:24:17 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:24:17 Speaker 1 And he grew up, he grew up raised by Chassidim of the Philokalia, Chassidim of the Rebbe Rashab. And he became, and he bec- And he had, it was a Baal Mesirus Nefesh. The, the Tachlis, I always say about him that he is a Yid, that the Yichud was begila by him.

1:24:31 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:24:31 Speaker 1 So because when you go through eight years in jail, and you go through what my father went through, you're a Yichud Yid. So Elimelekh didn't speak to him at all.

1:24:41 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:24:41 Speaker 1 It didn't mean anything to him. So he wasn't spoiled from anything anymore.

1:24:44 Speaker 5 Okay. So let's go back-

1:24:45 Speaker 1 So he saw the Rebbe, he saw the truth.

1:24:47 Speaker 5 So let's go back to Tov Shin Lamed Vov.

1:24:48 Speaker 1 Yeah. Literally, I was, um, I was literally taken by the Rebbe's presence. Like, I became a Hasid. The Rebbe made me a Hasid that second when I saw him the first time. I remember we came to New York, it was fifth Tishrei, and I was lucky that my uncle, Itche Chazan, was a Bochur in seven seventy. The Shliach in Rome, Italy.

1:25:10 Speaker 5 In Rome.

1:25:10 Speaker 1 The Rebbe now lost his son. Um, and, um, he, he started all, he created a whole empire of, uh, Shlichas in, in Rome, and he had made, made a Kiruv from the Rebbe. So anyway, so, um, when I came to New York, I was eleven-year-old kid, and he was my uncle, a Bochur in seven seventy, and he came to the airport to pick us up, and he brought us to seven seventy. And first memory of the seven seventy was all the Bochurim standing outside. It's green, the grass, beautiful grass outside. And I asked, "Where is the Rebbe?" He said, "The Rebbe went home." I was so disappointed the Rebbe went home. Said, "Mincha. The Rebbe used to go home after Mincha for, for a lunch with the Rebbetzin." And they said, "Don't worry, the Rebbe is coming back."

1:25:51 Speaker 5 The Rebbe went twice by lunch and by supper?

1:25:53 Speaker 1 No, the Rebbe used to go only by lunch, and then at night, used to go very late at night, like, uh, you know. Seven thirty at night or twelve o'clock.

1:25:59 Speaker 5 And the Rebbe didn't go home, the Rebbe didn't go home, uh, like supper?

1:26:02 Speaker 1 No, no, not such a thing.

1:26:03 Speaker 5 Not-

1:26:03 Speaker 1 Only the Rebbe used to come on... So the, in the summer, the Rebbe used to go home at twelve o'clock at night. In the, in the winter, the Rebbe used to go home after, after, uh, like after, after Maariv, about, uh, m- like ten o'clock or something like that. But, uh, the Rebbe used to go in middle of the day in the summer to, for, for lunch, uh, after Mincha. A little bit after Mincha, sometimes five o'clock, depends on the times. But the Rebbe used to go once, once a day, will go back home and come back to seven seventy. So that fifth Tishrei, the Rebbe went home after, after Mincha, and we came, and the Rebbe came back like an hour later. And, uh, at those days, the Rebbe used to come from seven se- to seven seventy. If it was middle of the Seder, nobody was outside. And even not the middle of the Seder, when the Rebbe used to come in and come out, nobody was allowed to be in the whole eastern parkway. So people used to hide be- by the Chutz by the trees, but nobody was allowed to be, like, in front, in front, in front of the Rebbe. So the Rebbe came, the Rebbe's car came. We were standing in inside seven seventy, the door was open, and Binyamin came with the Rebbe, and, uh, the Rebbe came out I went up the steps. It was only me and my father, was nobody there. And as the Rebbe

1:27:11 Speaker 1 came in, the Rebbe took out money from his pocket, and the Rebbe like, the, the Rebbe stood so strong, before the, before the heart attack. The Rebbe looked like, almost like a king, the way he walked, it was, it was unbelievable. And he like, the Rebbe has strong movements. He took out, he like, he moved his , he took out money from his pocket, and he gave it to me in my hand, and I felt the Rebbe's finger, you know, get me like strong. And he waited for me to give to tzedakah, and then he said, "A danke, thank you." And every day the Rebbe would give me tzedakah and say to me, "Thank you."

1:27:44 Speaker 5 The Rebbe would say to you thank you?

1:27:45 Speaker 1 Yeah, every day. As if, as if the Rebbe would say thank you to every kid that he told them to give money to tzedakah because-

1:27:53 Speaker 5 That was, that was a saying to them?

1:27:54 Speaker 1 That was a saying. The Rebbe kind of thanked you for giving him, for doing for him the shlichus of the mitzvah to give tzedakah.

1:28:00 Speaker 5 Hmm.

1:28:01 Speaker 1 So he would say .

1:28:01 Speaker 5 By dollars, by dollars you see the kids telling the Rebbe a danke every time.

1:28:06 Speaker 1 Yeah, no, no, no, no. This was the full, the full... I, I mean, when I was a bocher already, you're right, when I was a bocher, when I came to 770, the Rebbe gave tzedakah to everyone, the Rebbe never said anything.

1:28:17 Speaker 5 Uh-huh.

1:28:17 Speaker 1 But when I was a kid, the Rebbe said a danke every time he gave us a tzedakah. And, and that Tishrei, that Tishrei I became, like, I became the, the, the . And of course, the h- the highlight was the Yechidus, of course. The Yechidus was the highlight 'cause, 'cause not- typically the Yechidus when you... Most times when a, when a father came with his son, they would first speak to the parent and then speak to the children. That was the typical. But there were exceptions, several exceptions, and I was one of the exceptions. When we went into Yechidus, so first we were in the beginning of the Yechidus, 'cause the Yechidus to be starting from 8:00 PM and go all the way till 5:00 in the morning. The Rebbe would have Yechidus from 9:00 PM-

1:28:59 Speaker 5 When you hear that, when you hear that the Rebbe would have Yechidus till 5:00 AM, I think it was usually like Tishrei time when there's so many people, right?

1:29:05 Speaker 1 Right.

1:29:05 Speaker 5 That was the, yeah.

1:29:06 Speaker 1 Even, well, even every Yechidus, whenever there was Yechidus, it was al-

1:29:09 Speaker 5 It was till 5:00 AM? Yeah? Okay.

1:29:12 Speaker 1 4:00 AM, 5:00 AM, because we talk about in the Lameds already there was so many people want to go in Yechidus, so no matter when it was, it was packed.

1:29:19 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:29:19 Speaker 1 No matter when it was. Maybe in the youth there was short Yechidus night, but in the Lameds there was no such a thing. And that Tishrei when I was there with the Rebbe, there was night after night after night, the whole week the Rebbe had Yechidus. From all week there was Yechidus-

1:29:33 Speaker 5 If you had to stay, if you wanted Yechidus you had to stay until your appointment.

1:29:36 Speaker 1 Right. We, we stayed, we stayed till Chesvan, but not because of that. My Yechidus was Tishrei. My father made the ticket longer. So, so we, the Yechidus was the, of course the highlights, but the entire Tishrei, I mean, I could sit here all night to describe that Tishrei.

1:29:52 Speaker 5 What, what happened in Yechidus?

1:29:54 Speaker 1 When I went to Yechidus, so we went in, so first we were in the beginning 'cause I was a little child, so they gave me the Yechidus to be in the beginning. When we're standing in the line, and all of a sudden Rabbi Gonen came up to us and said, "So this, that a person who was supposed to be in Yechidus, another Lubavitcher, didn't make it yet. And if we are, if it's okay with us to go in early." So my father said sure, my father would jump in always. So, so some people were not, I'm not ready yet, I'm not, I didn't say it because Yechidus day you would go to the mikveh, you would fast all day. Even as a child I fasted, and I put new clothes and everything is so... Yechidus was like a, you, you prepared like the way a choson prepares to his chuppah day, that's how we prepared for Yechidus. All day fasting and saying Tehillim and davening and, and going to the mikveh again before the Yechidus by night. The mikveh used to be open. Everyone should be able to go to Yechidus, the, the mikveh before Yechidus. And, and I could tell you when we went in, I was so afraid. There was such a pachad. The Rebbe's, the Rebbe's, uh, demeanor, the Rebbe's face, the Rebbe's eyes was such . There was such a pachad. I was pachad shaking the whole Yechidus. Till the Rebbe didn't start talking to me and I calmed down, I

1:31:03 Speaker 1 was like, I was like-

1:31:05 Speaker 5 But-

1:31:05 Speaker 1 And also-

1:31:05 Speaker 5 Bechaval that was, uh, bechaval when, when you looked at the Rebbe that that was like a feeling to-

1:31:11 Speaker 1 Always. Whenever the Rebbe was in, in public, if it's fabringen or it was tefillahs, when, when they used to say the Rebbe gate-

1:31:21 Speaker 5 Yeah

1:31:21 Speaker 1 ... there was announcement the Rebbe gate, there was a pachad in the whole room. There was like-

1:31:26 Speaker 5 So can, can you describe this a little bit? What, what, what, um-

1:31:30 Speaker 1 When, when the Rebbe's presence, it's like, it was like a, like I said, it's not... When, when you saw the Rebbe you didn't see a, a physical person. There was a, a, like a shine, like a light that came with him. Like a, like a awe that came with him, like a real pachad. Was a real feeling of that wasn't stam. It was like therefore no picture, no video could do justice to it, 'cause that's a real thing. When you saw the real thing it was like standing by, by, by Mount Sinai and hearing ourselves the Divrei. It's the real thing. It's, it can't, it's not a, a video is, is... There are some good videos that really give over a, a little bit of that shine, but the real thing it's, uh, it's beyond the, beyond words. Anyway-

1:32:12 Speaker 5 But it's a pachad of like, uh, like pachad means like afraid. You understand?

1:32:16 Speaker 1 Pachad means physical afraid, and spiritual afraid, awe, and, and-

1:32:21 Speaker 5 So it's not-

1:32:21 Speaker 1 ... all put together

1:32:22 Speaker 5 ... it's not, it's not like a yiras, like a yirah that's explained like, that's like a covet, it's like a, it's like a different feeling. It's like a-

1:32:28 Speaker 1 It's not just yiras a covet. It's more than that. It's pachad yirah. It's a real yirah. It was a real pachad. I remember that-

1:32:36 Speaker 5 So that's, so that, that's why Bachurim at least, uh, maybe it changed later, but Bachurim were always hiding from the Rebbe.

1:32:43 Speaker 1 Of course. Of course, because when the Rebbe looked at you, you felt the Rebbe-

1:32:46 Speaker 5 Why, why, why did later some Bachurim start sticking their face around the Rebbe?

1:32:49 Speaker 1 Because people wanted to see the Rebbe, and there was no Yechidus anymore. And people want to have that closeness to the Rebbe, the feeling of closeness. So when you, when you stood close you felt the Rebbe's looking at you.

1:33:01 Speaker 5 Hmm.

1:33:01 Speaker 1 So you felt that, that, uh... You know what I mean?

1:33:05 Speaker 5 Did-

1:33:06 Speaker 1 So people, everybody, everyone in Lubavitch and everyone in the Jewish world wanted to have a piece of the Rebbe The entire competition was give me a moment of the Rebbe. Give me a, a from the Rebbe. Give me a, a, give me a to the Rebbe. That was the whole competition of Lubavitch. People went on to the end of the world just for to get that one moment from the Rebbe. 'Cause, 'cause that one moment the Rebbe is, is, is There's nothing in the world like that. There's nothing. There's nothing than that moment with the Rebbe. There's nothing like that. So people will do a whole life just for they get one smile from the Rebbe 'cause that one smile is worth than anything. There's nothing in the universe that could compare to that. There's nothing. No gold and no silver, nothing. So, so people, so we were in the Yechidas. So anyways, I was very afraid, and as we walk in, the Rebbe b- the Rebbe buzzed. The Rebbe had a buzzer on his table. We hear the buzz, and Leibel run in, and the Rebbe shows Leibel the list, and the Rebbe says, "Why there's a change in the list?" It's like... And Leibel explained that they can make it, and then he left, and then we gave the tzedakah. My father gave the tzedakah, then I gave the tzedakah. Then the Rebbe started a kasicha to me. The Rebbe says, " Can you say a devar halacha that you learned today or

1:34:38 Speaker 1 yesterday or the, or, or the day before or, or, or before that?" And I closed my eyes. I was so scared because the bochur prepared me 'cause my, because my uncle Itche, because he was a bochur he brought me into among the bochurim. So I was-- I became, within two days, I became like a Ben Bayis among the, among the bochurim, among... So I felt at home in 770, and the bochur kept telling me, "The Rebbe is going to test you." And then they also, there was, uh, one question the Rebbe used to always ask all the children about how many tzitzits there are, and they told me what to answer. You know, it's, uh, lamed, uh, lamed beis, kened ha'elef. They, they prepared me the question, but they told me the Rebbe is gonna test you. You better prepare. And I was so scared. You can't imagine. I was scared from the Yechidas, and I was scared the Rebbe's gonna test me. And after all, I was just 11 years old. Anyway, I went into the-- I went in, and so the Rebbe said it. I closed my eyes, and I just thought what I'm going to say to the Rebbe. And I was-- just came to my mind a Mishnah in Masechet Makot. At the time in my cheder we learned two Gemaras, one Ligur and one Leyyun. So Makot we learned the, le, le-

1:35:40 Speaker 5 You were, you were in a Lubavitch cheder, no?

1:35:42 Speaker 1 A Lubavitch cheder. We had a Lubavitch-

1:35:44 Speaker 5 Lubavitch.

1:35:44 Speaker 1 A very small Lubavitch cheder.

1:35:45 Speaker 5 Okay.

1:35:45 Speaker 1 We learned two Gemaras. So I said to the Rebbe a Mishnah in Makot was about, uh, about, uh, eyl olekim, about, uh, about if someone, if someone, if someone, uh, if someone kills somebody, what is his einish. And, uh, and if he, if he kills beshegeg goes to galut, if he kills bemeizid does missa, whatever. Let's put the Mishnah we learned. And the Rebbe said-- The Rebbe start to ask questions, and one of the questions I remember the Rebbe said, "Vivet zein der din in New York? How would we do in New York if someone would kill somebody? What was it?" So I said, "The Rebbe there is no, there is no bezin, so there is no galut, and there is no einish. There's no ir miklat." And then the Rebbe asked me one other question. I didn't understand what the Rebbe was asking. The Rebbe repeat it again. I didn't understand, and the Rebbe moved on. And, uh, then the Rebbe said to me, um, the Rebbe said, the first thing the Rebbe said, "Vos is dein nomen?" Even though it said on the tzedakah. I think the Rebbe saw I was so nervous. So I said, " Yosef Yitzchak." And the Rebbe said, "Vivol is dein yemei ledes?" And I didn't understand what the Rebbe asked because vivol dein yemei ledes, what does that mean?

1:36:57 Speaker 5 Like how old you are.

1:36:58 Speaker 1 Yeah. But I didn't understand that, so my father explained. So I said I'm 11. So the Rebbe said, "Ven is dein yemei ledes?" So I said to the Rebbe, "Chdes Tishrei." This was three weeks after. So the Rebbe said, "Ost du gegem zoka dem tog?" Did you give zoka? And I didn't remember, so I was silent. In a second passed the Rebbe says, "Tog even Shabbos." So you couldn't give a zoka, like you couldn't give a zoka even if you wanted it.

1:37:27 Speaker 5 Right.

1:37:27 Speaker 1 And I was, I was, I was like, "Oh my God. Thank God I didn't say anything." So, so the Rebbe said, "So even Shabbos, ost du gegem zoka far dem? Erev Shabbos." I didn't remember. So my father said to the Rebbe, "Er tog given do." My father meant to say that I used to get to the Rebbe's zoka every day zoka. So probably I got that day also. So the Rebbe laughed. Like not he didn't smile, he laughed, and he said, "Nor in Eretz Yisrael du af dem gegem zoka in chutz ladaf nit gegem zoka?"

1:37:57 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:37:58 Speaker 1 Only in Israel you have to give zoka, in chutz you don't have to give zoka.

1:38:00 Speaker 5 The Rebbe laughed b'ko.

1:38:02 Speaker 1 B'ko, like he was like laughing, you know. And then, and then the Rebbe said, um... The Rebbe moved on, and then the Rebbe asked the question, "How many tzitzits you have?" And I said, "Lamed beis, kened ha'elef." The Rebbe saw that I had already answered. And, um... But for some reason, the Rebbe asked every child that question. And then, and then, um-

1:38:23 Speaker 5 I heard that the, I heard that the Friediker Rebbe, I think it was, uh, I don't know if it's... This might be wrong, but I think, um, I think Zev Katz, the, uh, the Friediker Rebbe gave him the tzitzis to kiss.

1:38:36 Speaker 1 The Friediker Rebbe tzitzis, yeah.

1:38:38 Speaker 5 So that's I don't know, may-maybe it's connected.

1:38:40 Speaker 1 It could be connected. There is also, there is also something in that famous chizoin where the Friedi- where the Rebbe Rashab spoke about the tzitzis. There is something about tzitzis.

1:38:49 Speaker 5 Which chizoin?

1:38:50 Speaker 1 The chizoin from the, from the, when the Rebbe, when the, when the Rebbe, when the when the Friediker Rebbe told the Rebbe that he had a chizoin-

1:38:58 Speaker 5 Shteler Rebbe

1:38:58 Speaker 1 ... from Leibel. Yeah. So there is a line-

1:39:00 Speaker 5 There's a line in it

1:39:00 Speaker 1 ... there is a, there is a line there about the tzitzis. Whatever the... It's interesting. There is something about tzitzis.

1:39:06 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:39:06 Speaker 1 The tzitzis helps you, protects you from, uh, from all kinds, from not, uh, all kinds, all kinds of sins and so on.

1:39:13 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:39:14 Speaker 1 So anyway, so there is something about the tzitzis. Anyway, so then the Rebbe said, then the Rebbe, um, Rebbe told me, um, the Rebbe said to me-- The Rebbe gave me a dollar, one to give here. No, the Rebbe asked me another question. The Rebbe said to me, "Do you say Tehillim ev- Do you say Tehillim?" And I said, "Zokst du Tehillim?" So I was like, I was the head of the Chevre Tehillim on our Shabbos in our shul 'cause my father was running it, but I was running it under my father. So to me, it was like a question. The Rebbe's asking me if I say Tehillim? So I said, "Sure." So the Rebbe said, "Yeden tog?" Like means the shiur Tehillim every day.

1:39:58 Speaker 5 Oh.

1:39:58 Speaker 1 That's a whole different story. I even say Tehillim like Shabbos, in the Shabbos, in the Chevre Tehillim I would say Tehillim, you know, they do it on Shabbos. But the Rebbe said, "Zokst du Tehillim yeden tog?" So I, I was like, I already said sure, so I didn't know what to say. So the Rebbe said, "Zeyer fein."

1:40:14 Speaker 5 So you started.

1:40:15 Speaker 1 Yeah, of course. So the Rebbe, "Zeier fein." So then, so then the Rebbe gave me a dollar to give and a dollar to give out to Sol. And then the Rebbe gave a long brocha, gave me and the rest I didn't remember. It was a long brocha. The questions I remember, but the, the rest of the brocha. And then the Rebbe started speaking to my father for a very long time. They were a long time inside. There was some, there was one question that my fa- the one thing my Rebbe said to my father, my father didn't understand, and I explained to my father what the Rebbe said, was like a, he had a relative who didn't have parnasa. My father asked a brocha for him. So the Rebbe said, "" He writes to me that means he was a teacher. And my father didn't understand. The Rebbe said again and again, so I said to my father, "The Rebbe said this, that he was a teacher." But like a, a few little things there. Uh-

1:41:06 Speaker 5 The, the Rebbe looked at you when you said it?

1:41:08 Speaker 1 Yeah. And I've-- When the Rebbe finished talking to me, I was trying to look the Rebbe's room. You know, I was a kid, I was curiosity. And as soon as I tr- tried to move my eyes, the Rebbe like had his eyes on me, and he locked me up, and I was not, I didn't remember nothing from the Rebbe's room, only the Rebbe's eyes. Nothing. Barely maybe the table. That's it. When I came in after Gimmel Tammuz, I possibly didn't recognize the room. I never remembered the whole room. I only saw the Rebbe's eyes.

1:41:37 Speaker 5 I, I, I heard this from Kamar Vakama, that's it, the same thing, that they came in after Gimmel Tammuz the first time they saw the room.

1:41:44 Speaker 1 I possibly-- And I was there for a very long time. I possibly couldn't even move my eyes.

1:41:48 Speaker 5 I, I heard, I heard this even from somebody, Nishnigea, but he was involved medically after Chavlei HaMashiach.

1:41:56 Speaker 1 Uh-huh.

1:41:56 Speaker 5 And he told me the same thing, that today he sees things in the Rebbe's room that he didn't notice, and he spent hours there.

1:42:02 Speaker 1 Really? Wow.

1:42:03 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:42:04 Speaker 1 Yeah. It's a, it's a... I mean, even, even, even a simple thing like, like, uh, you know, 770. When the Rebbe was in 770 or now when the Rebbe is not there. And I never understood what is it until I saw the Rebbe ra- the Rebbe Tzanchan in Yeman. I remember 770 when the Rebbe was there, it looked huge.

1:42:25 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:42:26 Speaker 1 I come in after Gimmel Tammuz, it looks so small. And I couldn't f- understand what is this. And the Rebbe Tzanchan writes in our Yeman that when the Rebbe comes into apartment, the, the 10 minutes the Rebbe is in the apartment, the apartment looks so big.

1:42:42 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:42:42 Speaker 1 Because the Rebbe, the Rebbe's presence, it was like a, like a zar air, a, a giluy air. The Rebbe used to come in and everything looked like wow. Everything the Rebbe touched was wow. Everything, uh, was like... I'll, I'll never forget when the Rebbe sent the keys to Yankel Lekt. That moment, that simchas Beis HaMikdash when the Rebbe sent the keys. The whole 770 was like glued to that second to the Rebbe because the Rebbe did something which he never did. None of us ever saw it. And the way he did it, what we saw from the Rebbe's face coming that second was like anybody who was there was like glue. Like you, you, you s- you saw something unusual. I, I still remember the Rebbe's face and how the Rebbe does like this, and he, and he sends it to him. And I still remember the Rebbe's hand and the Rebbe's face and the Rebbe's lips when he did it. It was like... Because it's, it's, it's possibly it's a giluy lekud. It's not, not stam. So when you see that, you're like you stand like in shock. And when the Rebbe smiled, the entire... Like for example, when the Rebbe used to say a story in Farbrengen.

1:43:53 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:43:54 Speaker 1 The whole 770 would drop silent. How do we know that the Rebbe's saying a story? Usually before a story, the Rebbe starts smiling. There's a little smile on his face. The Rebbe stopped his sicha-

1:44:05 Speaker 5 Somebody said the Rebbe a lot, that the Rebbe laughs at the thing or smiles before he says it then.

1:44:11 Speaker 1 Right. And there was a, there was always when there was... In the second day because the Rebbe mostly didn't tell stories. So when the Rebbe told a story, the room was like . Even, even people who didn't listen to a word of the sicha because they didn't understand, they were too tired, they didn't have a brain for this, but a story from the Rebbe, they were like . And, and it was dropped like even though when the Rebbe spoke it was quiet, but there was a whole different quiet-

1:44:35 Speaker 5 Yeah

1:44:35 Speaker 1 ... when the Rebbe starts telling a story.

1:44:37 Speaker 5 Well, um, back to the, the Pacha, whatever. In the early years, you listen to Farbrengens, the Rebbe said something that there's a certain... That there wa- that whatever, that wa- that there's a tachas, you hear people laughing. Like they were reacting to what the Rebbe is saying. In the later years, you barely hear it. And if you hear it, you hear people saying, "Shh."

1:44:58 Speaker 1 But, but still when the Rebbe-

1:45:00 Speaker 5 The mood, the mood changed.

1:45:01 Speaker 1 Right. But when still when there was something really, really, uh, unique even in our years, I mean, not as much as the earlier, but, but still the room was like there was always something, there was a chatter in the room. Like everyone was like talking to each other. Like people will like would talk about what happened now. Like it took a moment till everything quiet down because it was like wow. Especially between the sichas. Not in middle of a sicha it would be totally silent, but in between the sichas if there was something like that, that the Rebbe would say something loud... I mean, I remember for example when Rabbi Glassman's father came to 770, and he decided, uh, in the, close to the end of the nigun, he decided to sing a, to sing a new nigun, his nigun. And, uh, the room didn't know his nigun, and the room was like trying to-- And the Rebbe said, "Help the Maruz. Other, other..." And then the Rebbe looked down and he said, "allen chok" 'cause he realized that nobody is singing, he quiet down. That was . So, so those moments when this happened in the middle of the sichas- Between the people would, would, uh, chat with each other like-

1:46:07 Speaker 5 Yeah

1:46:07 Speaker 1 ... .

1:46:07 Speaker 5 You can, you can hear it on the recording, the Rebbe says, um, they start singing. I think he was singing the .

1:46:13 Speaker 1 Right.

1:46:13 Speaker 5 Like, but maybe he didn't sing it with the right tune or something, so then-

1:46:16 Speaker 1 Right

1:46:16 Speaker 5 ... everyone started singing it. Rebbe says, uh, I was like Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:46:31 Speaker 1 But anyway, so going back to this, uh, to the , um, so this was the highlight, but the entire Tishrei, the entire Tisha, the, the Rebbe was in such an amazing way. Like, for example, uh, I was a little kid, but for some reason there was only a few... You have to understand, there were only six, seven kids from Israel that Tisha were involved. Seven kids were... And the American kids, the didn't come middle of the week to 770, they had Cheder. So we were sitting in 770 all day long, we had nothing else to do.

1:47:01 Speaker 5 You didn't go to Cheder?

1:47:02 Speaker 1 No, of course not. I came to s- I came to the Rebbe. So I was sitting near, in, in 770. So I saw the Rebbe coming and going nonstop all the time. I remember... I, I'll give you a few, a little, uh, thing, um, things that Moshel, one day I was standing in s- in , I was standing in, in the zal upstairs, and my uncle with the Bochur was sitting, was not is not, it was not So they were sitting and chatting on the, on the, on the Rebbe's table. You know, the Rebbe, the table where the Rebbe used to sit, the Bochur used to sit there.

1:47:30 Speaker 5 In the zal, yeah.

1:47:31 Speaker 1 In zal upstairs. So they were chatting, and I was standing by the, by the edge of the table near the door, and I'm just, uh, listening to their, uh, jokes and whatever. And all of a sudden I feel somebody's looking at me. So I turn around, I see the Rebbe is giving his daven, and he's like looking in to see what the Bochur were doing. So I said, "The Rebbe is here." And everyone jumped up, and the Rebbe heard me say the Rebbe, the Rebbe like, he like, like sh- moved out, like as fast as he can, and like he disappeared. You know what I mean? So it's like such moments when you have with the Rebbe, it's like, you know what I mean? It's like you become like, um, within, within days, you, you, uh, you-

1:48:13 Speaker 5 So when you were back, when you ba- back there to Israel, you're the only one that experienced the Rebbe amongst your friends?

1:48:19 Speaker 1 Amongst my friend, yeah. Actually, uh, in my city, my hometown in Bnei Brak, there was never a child who traveled to the Rebbe before me. I was the first child my age-

1:48:28 Speaker 5 Your father didn't bring you... So you're the o- you're not the oldest?

1:48:30 Speaker 1 The first... I'm not the oldest, but be- before me, um, he never brought children to the Rebbe. I was the first child he brought to the Rebbe. And, and the people in my shul, the elderly people, could even understand that. First, it was very expensive in those days, and they couldn't figure out where my father g- gets the money to take, not only to travel himself, but to take even a child. But then they would, they would tell me when I came back, the older people told me, "What did you understand there? What did you heard there?" Like-

1:48:57 Speaker 5 Mm.

1:48:58 Speaker 1 ... they couldn't understand. "Why did you, why did your father took you? You're a little kid to the Rebbe. How does he has to go to the Rebbe? What other little kid went to the Rebbe?" And I remember how my friends, I had only a very small group. You know, my friend Marty Laufer, the one who and my friend Orlando from, uh, the in Toronto. I would, I would like give over to them, and I would even, we would even imitate how it looks, the Rebbe. We would make a table with a, with a, with a stand there with a, with a bimah. We'd be imitate because they never saw. There was not even videos of the Rebbe at the time. Tishrei the first video that took from the Rebbe, and he came to Israel after that. They started to show the videos. There was no v- there's no movies from the Rebbe. So we never saw, we only saw pictures, that's all. We never saw... So I explained, Moshel, I, I, Moshel, I would, I would tell him what meant, the Kafes. I wa- I was sitting in, and, you know, under the Rebbe's table when the Rebbe came to dance his Kafes, and how the Rebbe took the children so seriously. You see how the Rebbe made the children sitting, that when the Rebbe would, the Rebbe would hold his , they would make with the head to the, the, all the pa- all the param- the parameters of the Bochurim and the

1:50:05 Speaker 1 -

1:50:05 Speaker 5 Bleachers

1:50:05 Speaker 1 ... all the bleachers. And the same, with the same . It's not like to the children, he just smiled. With the same , you know, the way the Rebbe's face looked by a Kafes, when the Rebbe's a Kafes. With the same , with the same , with the same spirituality that he did to the, to the , he did to the Bochur, to the kids, with the same . And I, I still remember till today, that Kafes more than all the Kafes I saw after because here I was standing right next to the Rebbe, 'cause I was a child, I was under the table. And it made such a big difference if he stood really close.

1:50:41 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:50:42 Speaker 1 When you stood really close to the Rebbe.

1:50:44 Speaker 5 But you didn't go back to the Rebbe for years afterwards, right?

1:50:47 Speaker 1 Right. Until I was a Bochur, when I came to stay for, for good. 'Cause I was not, uh, I'm not one of those Bochurim who knew how to raise money and knew how to, how to make jobs, and I, I was a bachelor so I didn't know how to do those things. So I went when I, when I was, uh, when I was-

1:51:02 Speaker 5 But your father, your father brought other kids?

1:51:04 Speaker 1 Other kids. When I was, when I was 16, 16 and a half, that's when I went to, to New York.

1:51:09 Speaker 5 Yeah, but that itself was unusual to go 16 to need to, to learn in New York, no?

1:51:14 Speaker 1 Well, yes. But my, my, my older brother, my brother Naftali did it, and my brother Isaac did it, so I followed their footsteps-

1:51:20 Speaker 5 At 16?

1:51:21 Speaker 1 Yeah. That's my brother-

1:51:22 Speaker 5 And it ca- it this came from your father? Your father ?

1:51:25 Speaker 1 Well, my, my, probably my father encouraged that and, uh, but, uh, the, we, we all wanted that, and that was our dream. My, my uncle, Itche Chazan, my father, my father went to Meshulam Zaslavsky, who had a , and he told Meshulam Zaslavsky that he is going to be the guarantor, that he will give back the money, and my father sent him to, to the Rebbe in Tosher .

1:51:48 Speaker 5 But your father ra-

1:51:49 Speaker 1 And this -

1:51:49 Speaker 5 Your father raised Itche Chazan?

1:51:51 Speaker 1 He didn't raise him, but he was the Lubavitch uncle in the family, so he, uh-

1:51:55 Speaker 5 So he has the influence

1:51:55 Speaker 1 ... he was the influence, and he sent him to New York. And then, uh, when we came, we had the Rebbe... My father was a big believer in going to the Rebbe and being there, the staying there.

1:52:05 Speaker 5 So, so you went all the time?

1:52:07 Speaker 1 I went to Lotey. I was in Shiar Gimel Lotey, and, um, I remember the first summer-

1:52:11 Speaker 5 Shiar Gimel, what, what year? 16?

1:52:14 Speaker 1 I was 16 and a half. I was, I was 16 and a half, almost, almost 17.

1:52:17 Speaker 5 So you were Mesivta, Mesivta?

1:52:20 Speaker 1 I was, I was in, uh, in Zal. I was in Zal learning with, uh, uh, my, my, my mechuteir was, uh, Vomen Galitsky. And, um-

1:52:28 Speaker 5 I understand. So y- so Sha'alev, whatever Sha'alev is.

1:52:31 Speaker 1 I was, I was younger than... No, I was Shiur Gimel. I was younger than the other kids, yeah.

1:52:35 Speaker 5 You, you jumped a few years?

1:52:36 Speaker 1 Because I came, because I came from Luz. So in Luz, I already finished the Yeshivat Talmid, so you know.

1:52:41 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:52:42 Speaker 1 I was already a year in Kfar Chabad. I was already, I was already, I was already almost 17, so I was already a year in Kfar Chabad, so you know. So lepoel, I, I was one year in Yeshiva, and then I went, then I went to Shlichas. From Shiur Gimel, I went to Shlichas to, to, uh, to, uh, to Seattle. Tof Shim Gimel, Mem Tal, I went to Shlichas. Did two years.

1:53:02 Speaker 5 And then, and then when you came back Mem He, you're already bachur 1070.

1:53:06 Speaker 1 1070, yeah. So I was 20. I was already beginning 20. 19, 20, yeah.

1:53:12 Speaker 5 And Mem He, everything, uh, shifted 'cause the Sfarim, and I'm saying that, uh-

1:53:17 Speaker 1 Well, yeah, but before, before the Sfarim, there was a good portion of Tof Shim Mem He, which was a, an amazing, an amazing, amazing year. And, uh, Tof Shim Mem He was still the farbrengens and the Rebbe's, the Minna, and the whole Halach Halach and 770 was still like in the Mems and the Lameds. And it changed with the, with the court case. But-

1:53:40 Speaker 5 What do you mean?

1:53:42 Speaker 1 Many, many things have changed later. Um, it was still like, um, like, uh, there was a, there was a sense of peace and, and, uh, joy, you know, that we saw from the Rebbe. And the old 770 was a different 770. Like, the S- the Sfarim took Lubavitch with a storm, and it changed Lubavitch forever, the story of the Sfarim, that the Dan Notzach. And it, and it, it did change Lubavitch 'cause the old Dan Notzach was about the future. We didn't understand it then. We didn't understand why the Rebbe's investing so much in it, why the Rebbe's taking it so heart to heart so much. You know, why it's worth it, why it's so much worth it to, to uproot the, uproot the entire Lubavitch for the Sfarim. Like, what's, what's, what's happening? Today, years later, when we listen to the Sichas and we see the, what re- what the reaction, at that time, we just felt that, that, that there is a, there is a fight, there is a kitrug against the Rebbe, there is a opposition to the Rebbe, which is Klipa opposition, kedusha, and we have to fight it, and we have to win it, and we won. But we didn't understand the real application, what really it meant. But like, just like I said before, that the Rebbe, like when he get to, to Eretz Yisroel, that the Rebbe was 50 years ahead of the entire, of everyone. Even with the Sfarim, the Rebbe was way ahead every one of

1:55:08 Speaker 1 us. We didn't understand what's behind it. Like we see, you see now how the Rebbe's moves, every move the Rebbe... Like I said, the story about this, this Jew in Alaska, that the Rebbe sees 50 years ahead what's going to be with him and, and what's going to play out. We little people don't see it. So when the Rebbe says Mashiach is coming today, and the Rebbe means that, that, that now he's planting the seeds for the coming Mashiach, and it's going to come. This is the process to bring Mashiach.

1:55:37 Speaker 5 So, so you're saying in Mem He-- So before Mem He, you're saying the, the kitrug, like the, the Heyshev brought out like a yisrin herer, not just for then, but for, for, for, for-

1:55:52 Speaker 1 Right. In other words, the kitrug happened because of the preparation for the future. Then it's well-

1:55:58 Speaker 5 It needed, it needed the Aibishter to

1:58:10 Speaker 1 That when, when the Rebbe says that what is the ultimate Avoda? When you do it because you wanna do it. And the, the Rebbe said then that Moshe Rabbeinu said that it's such a that people should have the ch- the, the ability to choose, that even if you make a mistake, it's worth it. Even if the Miraglim will mess up, it's still worth it because the nobody could do it for you, only if you could do it. So the Rebbe said that the, the ultimate is that we that we choose to do it. So the Rebbe, the Rebbe gave us a new the Rebbe like starting a new Avoda. And what is the new Avoda? The Rebbe that when it started, when is the true started? Only when were not there. Only by Yeshua.

1:59:05 Speaker 5 So I'm gonna say that, I'm gonna... 'cause I'm thinking, I'm thinking to what you- the way you're describing what it means to be in the, the always, right? In the Rebbe's presence, it's like a language you always use, in the Rebbe's presence. And for me, I mean, I, I, I wish-- I mean, I, I saw the Rebbe and the et cetera. But I, I wish that I can have of that feeling. And I obviously, like Philip Grab writes that if you have to listen to those that talk about it, then you kind of can have some type of feeling, and I, I've experienced that also. But you're saying something deeper, I think, that in order to bring Mashiach, in order to of the Rebbe and it's definitely gonna be in, in now, like you're, like you're saying over.

2:00:08 Speaker 1 But I mean, the, the, the famous line the Rebbe says, uh, the famous line the Rebbe said, that this, this is the Nekudot of, as that everyone thought after Gimel Tammuz, it's over. Well, what's going to be? And it's a true opposite that davka-- I still remember the interview that, that Chaim Potok had on CNN in

2:00:34 Speaker 5 Right. In Adar. Right, it's right before Gimel Tammuz. A few, a few-

2:00:36 Speaker 1 And, uh, and the interviewer was also a Jew, I forgot his name. A famous, uh-

2:00:41 Speaker 5 Ted

2:00:41 Speaker 1 ... famous-

2:00:42 Speaker 5 Ted, Ted Koppel.

2:00:43 Speaker 1 Ted Koppel, that's right.

2:00:44 Speaker 5 And that was Nightline, Ted Koppel, yeah.

2:00:45 Speaker 1 Yeah, Nightline. And Ted Koppel is asking Chaim Potok, what's unique about the Rebbe?

2:00:52 Speaker 5 Yeah.

2:00:52 Speaker 1 And Chaim Potok says, "It's impossible to explain it. You have to-- You know, only if you saw it, you understand it." And then he said, "I'll just give you a little example. I was afraid to be alone with him in the same room 'cause I'm afraid I'll n- I'll not be any more objective."

2:01:08 Speaker 5 Yeah.

2:01:08 Speaker 1 He didn't wanna go on Yechidus.

2:01:09 Speaker 5 Yeah.

2:01:10 Speaker 1 And when you see the video from Chaim Potok's farbrengen from top Gimel-

2:01:13 Speaker 5 At farbrengen

2:01:14 Speaker 1 ... you see how the Rebbe speaks about him, how he takes his eyes

2:01:17 Speaker 5 Yes. The Rebbe, the Rebbe tells him he has to use his influence of writing for Kiruv.

2:01:21 Speaker 1 Yes, yes.

2:01:21 Speaker 5 And he had like a so he's like, he's stroking his beard-

2:01:24 Speaker 1 He's like, he's literally-

2:01:25 Speaker 5 ... he's getting all nervous. Yeah

2:01:26 Speaker 1 And, and you-- And there is a farbrengen before that, a Yahrzeit before that when he came to the Rebbe the first time, and the Rebbe said-- And he says to the Rebbe, "I learned in Yeshiva." He's like, he's like he felt the, the need to tell the Rebbe, "I learned in Yeshiva." He wa- he was a reformed rabbi, but he tells the Rebbe, "I learned in Yeshiva." You could see that he was there in such an amazing way in the Rebbe's presence that later, by the second time he came to the farbrengen, he didn't wanna come over to say l'chaim. And to Yechidus, he was afraid to go because he will lose his objectivity. He, he felt the Rebbe's Koach. And he tells Ted Koppel in he says that, "If you didn't see it, you don't-- I can't explain it. But I could tell you I was afraid to be with him in the same room 'cause I will not be objective anymore." That he felt the, the Koach of the Rebbe that-- And he was a Yeshiva kid. He was a Yeshiva kid.

2:02:14 Speaker 5 So why are you mentioning this?

2:02:16 Speaker 1 That what-- to what extent the Rebbe's Koach is, to what extent that even a reformed Jew and a writer, a reformed rabbi who wrote books and everything, he-- When he was in the Rebbe's presence, he, he felt it.

2:02:29 Speaker 5 So what are you saying, what are you saying about after Gimel Tammuz?

2:02:31 Speaker 1 Well, it means, it means to say that, that the true could not be fulfilled-

2:02:37 Speaker 5 Uh-huh

2:02:37 Speaker 1 ... when plain Moshe were there because it was such a Koach that affected everyone. So when you went to Shlichus, you went because the Rebbe wanted you to go, not because you really understood what it is it's all about. What the Rebbe was saying that the, the ultimate of must be that we should wanna do it, that we should choose that. The Rebbe wanted to see a generation of Hasidim who choose the Rebbe, the Rebbe, who choose Shlichus, who choose the, the , who choose the Likutz.

2:03:06 Speaker 5 And I think, I think you see it. It's still happening now 'cause Gimel Tammuz happened, right? But I'm saying just right now, uh, Rabbi Shlomo Ber Lipskier passed away. Just, just now. It's like you see people-- There's like a certain... I told a few people that I was speaking to that there's certain, like, changing of the guard. You ever saw the changing of the guard in the, the palace? In Ca- As I haven't seen it in England, I saw it in Canada. You know, they come in, the old, the old, the old, the old group leaves, a new group is there right away. So they-- Us Hasidim, me and you and everyone else, it's not to direct it's different people. And it's davka, davka the younger, right? And davka those that-

2:03:55 Speaker 1 No, but, but there is another Nekuda here that the Rebbe is here now stronger than before, even though that we don't see the Rebbe's presence-

2:04:04 Speaker 5 That, that's what I was gonna ask you because at the end of the day, you can say, "Okay, fine. It's that it's deeper, it's greater," right? The Rebbe says. But, but, but, but you see, but there's a Chalishus because, because, you know, then the whole mo-- 90%, 80% of Lubavitch wa- wa- was hanging on to this, and now you could go there, you could go there, you could be here, you could, you could be into it, you can not be into it, so it's, it's ha- it's . So, so, so-

2:04:31 Speaker 1 It is-- From one hand, it seems harder. It seems harder, but in truth, it's much more easier than even was before Gimel Tammuz.

2:04:43 Speaker 5 Right.

2:04:43 Speaker 1 That's in truth.

2:04:44 Speaker 5 Right.

2:04:44 Speaker 1 Because, because, because we see BePral that it's like whenever the takes one thing away, he gives another thing. Whenever the Rebbe takes one thing away, he gives something else. Like we see it ab- about the blind people, that they have a very special in, uh, in hearing things and smelling things. Because we don't see the Rebbe physically, the Pral mamesh, the Rebbe's, uh, presence is much more in us in a way that if we only choose to do the right thing, you get such, such and such push from the Rebbe that you never thought before . So for example, I always give the example about my daughter going to, to Zambia. That, that typical when they come to a place, it takes them, uh, 10 years, 20 years to have a building. She came to Zambia, she already had a waiting for her, giving her a house and wanna give her a whole campus. Those things didn't happen 50 years ago, didn't happen, happen 30 years ago. Such a thing, such things didn't happen.

2:05:53 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:05:53 Speaker 1 The same thing happened now in Fairbanks, where the went to Fairbanks. That a bought him a building before he even set foot in Fairbanks. Those things didn't happen in our times. And what does that mean-

2:06:05 Speaker 6 There's also, there's also another of the relationship of a Rebbe relationship that today in if you're plugged in and if you, and, and, and, and, and if you have the similar slave and care about it, and you're a , you pr- you probably know and more understand the Rebbe more than people did that were standing by . Because the, because the amount that you read, the amount that you watch, and the amount that... Saying, peop- people tell me when they read the, let's say the, I heard from an older probably your age, he told me, "I read the what I like about it is 'cause I s- I read things that I stood by the f- I was at the and I didn't realize that I, that, that, that it happened, and I read it, um, so I'm learn, I'm learn, I'm learning what happened when, when I s- what I s- I'm learning what, what, about what I saw." So it's a, it's a, it's, it's a-

2:06:53 Speaker 1 I mean, obviously, obviously it's, uh, obviously that, uh, it's a, it's a very, very, uh... There, there's no, there's no need to say that how broken we are that we don't have the Rebbe here with us. That's the obvious. Obviously, that we are very broken, obviously that we are very, uh, missing the Rebbe, very empty without the Rebbe. No question about it. It's, there's no need to say that. But the Rebbe is being the Rebbe. At the end of the day, he makes the decisions. He is the Rebbe. He makes the decisions what's going to be and how it's going to be. And he made that decision. So we need to accept that decision and, and, and see that if the Rebbe made the decision, it must be that that's for the good of the generation and for the good of the entire Jewish world and for the good of the future Moshiach. That's the Hashem. That's the Rebbe's . That's the Rebbe's . If the Rebbe says in that the is going to be Rebbe says like m- maybe seven or eight times in the repeats it, that he gives away the for that . So if the Rebbe said that that's what the needs to do to, to win the war of bring Moshiach, everyone has to under- everyone understands that to bring Moshiach means that the entire universe will change, the entire world will change. This is not a simple thing, bringing Moshiach. So, so if... We, we don't, and we don't

2:08:26 Speaker 1 know anything about Moshiach. What, what do we know? We are simple people. what do we know about Moshiach? And, and when the Rebbe is telling us this is the Moshiach, so the 3,000 years from from 3 to 3,300 years, the entire Jewish world is waiting for Moshiach, and this is our generation, it's our Rebbe, and we are the people who are, who, who, are charged with that mission to bring Moshiach. I mean, this is like crazy stuff. This is not a simple thing. We are, we are talking about world, the greatest world event ever. So, uh, so obviously that, that, that things unusual are happening. So this, the fact that there was a and the fact that the, that the Rebbe is the and there was no, as the Rebbe said in New York Times to, to, to Israel Schenker in, in in 197-- in 1972 that he asked the Rebbe, "What's going to be the future?" He said to the Rebbe, "You..." And everyone could look it up in the New York Times, it's online. He said to the Rebbe, "Rabbi Schneerson, you and the, and the Rebbetsin do not have children. Who's going to be the eighth Rebbe?" And the Rebbe gives four answers, the Rebbe gives. The Rebbe says, first the Rebbe starts, "I have, I have plans to live many more years." Then the Rebbe says that, um, we should leave the worries for Moshiach, and we should-

2:09:45 Speaker 6 Worries.

2:09:46 Speaker 1 The worry we should leave for Moshiach. And then the Rebbe says, he continues and he says that, um, that, um, that, that, that, that why, and why, why should we push him off for, why should we push him, off Moshiach for tomorrow, he could come today. And then the Rebbe says, "There is a great deal of work to be done, more than 120 years of one person." And we are now right after the 120 years of the Rebbe. We're 123. And we see what happened in the last 30 years. You see the Rebbe said there is a great deal to work, of work. The Rebbe saw this whole plan. The Rebbe needed to have a in every city, in every and it's finally being fulfilled. The Rebbe said, the Rebbe said that it's not a party.

2:10:37 Speaker 6 The Rebbe said the first-

2:10:38 Speaker 1 But it's going to be-

2:10:38 Speaker 6 The first, the first night the Rebbe said it.

2:10:40 Speaker 1 Right. It's going to be for all the Yid. And finally we see that side finally we see that Now we see that everybody's frightened. I mean, we had a reform rabbi, my son-in-law Rabbi Levi Guttestein tells me a few years ago, he went to a funeral the reform rabbi had here, and he led the funeral from a printout of chabad.org I mean, this is like we are reaching just two y- uh, three years ago, I was doing the Corona, I think, four... Three, four years ago. On Erev Yom Kippur, the night, the, the, the day of Yom Kippur, the night of, the day before Kol Nidre, Erev Yom Kippur, there was in the Reform Temple here in Anchorage on the, on the, on their Facebook, there was a picture of the Rebbe with a quote from the Rebbe.

2:11:24 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:11:25 Speaker 1 I mean, for the Reform Temple, a, a picture of the Rebbe, z- and they, and they, the temple put it up.

2:11:30 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:11:30 Speaker 1 I mean, this is like things that you couldn't even imagine three years ago.

2:11:34 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:11:34 Speaker 1 If someone, if someone tell me three years ago that the Reform Temple in Anchorage would have a quote with a picture of the Rebbe on their Facebook, Erev Yom Kippur, the day when they all come to, when the biggest day in the temple, when everyone comes to Kol Nidre, they should have a quote from the Rebbe with a picture of the Rebbe, I would tell you you're crazy. You're out of your mind. It will never happen.

2:11:55 Speaker 6 So what, what, what do you say, first of all, anyone that's listening t-to our conversation, and is a Bakker, I think it's very clear, like the Rebbe says, the Mitzvah is there is to be a, is Shlichus. The other day in his Al Makasain, to be ca- to be part of the Rebbe's mission and go on Shlichus. What do you say to many, many people that were not Zecher yet to, to be, like we said before, Shlichim, but ask them official Shlichim, how are they part of the Rebbe's mission of bringing Moshiach?

2:12:27 Speaker 1 If you're not a Shliach?

2:12:29 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:12:29 Speaker 1 Like if you are Balabos, you mean?

2:12:31 Speaker 6 A Balabos, yeah. Balabos.

2:12:34 Speaker 1 I mean, it's-

2:12:34 Speaker 6 I was ma- I was ma- I was marking that anyone that's listening to this obviously understands that the Mitzvah is there is in Shlichus, and if they're a Bakker or a, or a unmarried girl, the, the, it's time to make that Halacha to do it for the future.

2:12:49 Speaker 1 I mean-

2:12:49 Speaker 6 But if you're not, uh-

2:12:50 Speaker 1 The, the answer is very simple. The Rebbe, the Rebbe created Mivtzoim for that. The Rebbe created Tankhim for that. The Rebbe created the entire... The, the, the-- By the Rebbe, there was never such a concept that if you're not a Shliach, you are, you are off, you could do whatever you want. You're, you're, you are out of the, you are, you are not part of the mission. I mean, it's like when, when I grew up in, in, in Bnei Brak as a li- as a little kid, right? In the Lameds. Every, every Purim, every Hanukkah, there were going a bus from Anash, from our Shul, would go travel to the, to, to the, to, to the, to Machon Tzvah, to the, to the bases of the, of the army, of the, of the military, to bring, uh, to read the Megillah to, to, to the soldiers, to bring, to bring, uh, to bring, um, s- Purim, Purim to read Megillah and Hanukkah to light candles. And every Yom Tov, I remember as a little kid, uh, the Rosh Yeshiva of Kfar Chabad, Rabbi Yankel Katz, he was not a Shliach. He was Rosh Yeshiva. He lived in Bnei Brak. He would go with my father, with two other Anash. We would go to the h- to the biggest hospital in Israel, Tel Hashomer, which is right near, right near, uh, Bnei Brak. We would travel there with his car. Yankel Katz was the driver, and we all schlepped thousands of matzahs in bags, all made

2:14:07 Speaker 1 in bags already, and we'd go from room to room and give out matzah to every patient. I mean, what does that mean? There is, there is so much work to be done. J- J- Um, a Shliach could only reach to a few hundred people. That's it. Well, how much can a Shliach, a Moshi- a Moshi or Anash who live in Crown Heights? Let's l- take an example. There are, how many Chabad we have in Manhattan? Let's say 10. Let's say 10. There are three million Jews in Manhattan, two million Jews in Manhattan. Is it possible for, for the 10 Chabad to reach even 30% of those Jews? It's impossible. We-- For, for that we have our whole Crown Heights. Every Jew in Crown Heights is, is Mi- the Rebbe called Meguius, is mobilized to work to the Rebbe's work. It comes Friday, you have to go on Mivtzoim, and if you are Balabos, you don't have to go on Mivtzoim only on Friday. To Mivtzoim every day. You go to work, you go a half an hour earlier, or you l- or you go during lunchtime, and you go all the office around you, and you put on Tefillin with Yidden. And, and you, and you, and you become the Shliach of those Yidden in, in, in, at your work, e-everywhere. You take them to the Ohel, you, you take, you invite them to your house for Shabbos. What, what does that mean? There is so much work to be done. It's, it's, it's the,

2:15:20 Speaker 1 the whole concept, if you are, if you are not a Shliach, I cannot do the Rebbe's work, it's crazy. You fly to Israel, you go on the plane, you put on Tefillin with Yidden. You tell Yidden to go to the Ohel. There is so much work to be done. When I wa- when I was a Yingerrman in Crown Heights, before I, before I went to Shlichas, I, I wrote the Rebbe, the book about the Rebbe, Imrei Breshes.

2:15:38 Speaker 6 Yeah. Can you talk about that? Why, why did you write Imrei Breshes?

2:15:41 Speaker 1 Sure, sure. I'm coming there. So, so I used to have a class of a, of a, of a group of Israelis who would come to my home, and we'd have a class once a week, or I'd go to their homes. And then when it, then I took them to the Rebbe, to Dallas, and, and-

2:15:53 Speaker 6 You were Kiruv man?

2:15:55 Speaker 1 I, I wa- it was, it was right after Kiruv, before I went to Shlichas. And, and I, and I, and I, I gave Shiurim, I took them to the Rebbe. Two of them had children because of that. Now they're suppo- big supporters of Chabadas in their cities where they are. Um, like Bnei Mitov Shinun was a parade. I took them, I, I passed by the Rebbe because I wanted to see the Rebbe, and, uh, and, uh, even though, even though I was not part of the groups, and I was the last group, and I asked the Shamash Baumgarten, "Can I go?" He said, "Go." So I started to go with them, and, and, and Yankel Echt is asking on the microphone, "Who is this group?" And I felt bad because I didn't tell the... I di- I didn't get official permission, so I went, "Baumgarten let me, but I want my, my Yidden to see the Rebbe." And we went by, and I told them all to look to the Rebbe. You saw the lately what Moshe, Moshe Leib Rostein said about the parade. You saw that announcement he made?

2:16:45 Speaker 6 No.

2:16:45 Speaker 1 Moshe Leib, Moshe Leib Rostein, he talked about Yuman from the Yuds. Moshe Leib Rostein made an announcement that every Bakker has to help for the parade, and he said, and every Anash, and he said, "What is a parade? What is the purpose of the parade? That all the Jewish children in New York should have opportunity to see the Rebbe." That says, "Ve-ve-ve-ve'ro, Ve'ro Yisa Arkayim, Venir Po HaNega". So he said-

2:17:04 Speaker 6 I was, I was waiting

2:17:05 Speaker 1 When the Kohen sees the Tza-- when the Tzadik sees the, sees the Yid, the nipah negeh that he, he, he, he heals the, the, the wound. That that's the mission of... What is the pare that a little kid who's not religious should saw-should see a Rebbe, and that will stay with him for the rest of his life.

2:17:20 Speaker 6 I was walking home. I went to Sham Zacha here in Sanford, and I was walking home with the uncle, not the, not the uncle of the Rakhanim or the uncle of the, not whatever, the baby, the u- the uncle of the father. It's not like we live near each other, so I was walking home with him. Talking about the Rebbe, Chabad. 'Cause I, I was, I, I was about like in sixties. Yeah.

2:17:40 Speaker 1 Wow.

2:17:40 Speaker 6 I saw the Rebbe. Yeah.

2:17:42 Speaker 1 It's, it's amazing-

2:17:43 Speaker 6 He's not, he's not the first person I met like that.

2:17:45 Speaker 1 I'll tell you in a minute a story about a Yid that told me what he saw the Rebbe. I'll tell you in a minute. Go, go ahead.

2:17:51 Speaker 6 No, no, I finished.

2:17:52 Speaker 1 Okay. So no, 'cause you asked me about the . So we'll talk about it.

2:17:55 Speaker 6 Oh, yeah. I wanna, I wanna know, uh, so you made You write, you write a book about the, the first year of how the Rebbe became Rebbe and the whole story, which is a accomplishment by whether in when we were working on this.

2:18:10 Speaker 1 Yeah.

2:18:10 Speaker 6 Why you decided to work on this book? Like, how... Where does that come from?

2:18:14 Speaker 1 So, so the real story is that when I was a little kid, I read the old Sefer HaToldos. And I was really, uh, I knew the old Sefer Toldos. And, um, and the Sefer HaToldos starts with the Alter Rebbe, goes all the Abba, and goes till the Frierdiker Rebbe. And then the Frierdiker Rebbe, what is the last chapter in ? The Istalkos from Frierdiker Rebbe. And in the Istalkos, what was the chapter about the Istalkos? It's actually a letter that a bochur wrote from America to Israel. This bochur, his name was Dubinsky. It's Moshe Dubinsky's son.

2:18:47 Speaker 6 Motl.

2:18:48 Speaker 1 He, Motl Dubinsky, he wrote the letter. So, so Chaim, Chaim Vizhnitzer took that letter and he printed it. And when I read the letter, it's-- I saw it's missing a lot of important pieces. It's just, it's doesn't sound right.

2:19:06 Speaker 6 What, what, what-

2:19:06 Speaker 1 So for... It doesn't sound that there's enough information on what really happened there.

2:19:11 Speaker 6 You're saying... Okay, yeah.

2:19:13 Speaker 1 Just from reading the letter as being a writer, I felt that a lot of holes, there's a lot of holes in that letter. Meaning that I don't, I-- you don't see, um, the Rebbe's presence in the letter, in the, in the funeral, in the, in the all the there. So I knew that something is missing here. I mean, he wrote just his personal perspective, what he felt needed to write to his father. He didn't think about... Anyway, so later on when I worked on the Sichas Kodesh, if you, if you know that I, I... Me and Gershon Eichler as bochurim in this was one of, one of my projects in that, uh, as a bochur in '70, that we, we were looking for the Rebbe Sichas, and we couldn't find. In '70, you couldn't find the Rebbe Sichas. And finally, when there was an, uh, in the library, sitting there was Sichas, I saw there is only, only... It was like t- uh, 20 or something books of all the Sichas from the Rebbe from till

2:20:14 Speaker 6 The Hanakos were coming out, but no one bothered to compile them into proper .

2:20:17 Speaker 1 No, no. No, no. No. The Hanakos from top, from the mems, they came out organized. But the Hanakos from the previous years, they were missing. The-

2:20:27 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:20:27 Speaker 1 Because there was no real organization like it was in the mems.

2:20:30 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:20:30 Speaker 1 So bochurim would write Hanakos or they didn't write Hanakos. There was the sometimes they wrote and some of them were hanakos parties, and hanakos parties means that nobody really made-

2:20:40 Speaker 6 They come like in the chafs.

2:20:41 Speaker 1 In the chafs and in the lameds. Until lamed vav, something like that, there was no real good Hanakos. So a lot of the Hanakos were like just, uh, hanakos parties, so they was not published to everyone. So only two, three bochurim had it, and it was in the Rebbe's library and, and that's it. So nobody, if a bochur like me wanted to read Rebbe Sichas, so there was only the 21, 23 volumes, and that's it. And every, every of the books miss- was missing like 10 farbrengens was missing, 20 farbrengens was missing, from this year, from that year, from that year. So we wanted for ourselves to collect the... We thought just for me, for ourselves to make for a few bochurim, so we could... We bought a copy machine and, and we asked Rabbi Krinsky's son, um, the shliach in the, um, you know-

2:21:27 Speaker 6 Levi

2:21:27 Speaker 1 ... Levi Krinsky's asked him if he, if he's-

2:21:29 Speaker 6 Permission

2:21:29 Speaker 1 ... give us permission, if, if, if Chabad give permission to have a room in 770. He gave us a room in 78, and we started to copy the Sichas. Then we started to research and we saw, oh my God, there is so much more. We didn't realize. Anyway, it took us a few years to do it, and we made 50 volumes out of, uh, from the 23. We, we researched, we found all the farbrengens. We took... We had a, we had 50 bochurim work for us. One bochur was typing. Rabbi Vogel was working for us, bochurim typing the Rebbe Sichas from tape, and then, and then, and then printing them and then binding them. It's a whole story. And we-

2:22:03 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm

2:22:03 Speaker 1 ... we, we had to go to Anash in Chanice. We promised Anash that we make, we'll make a set if they give $1,000 for us, we will give them a set. And, and, uh, like Moshe Rabbi Schaefer was one of the first people that I went to, and he agreed. And, um, he gave us $1,000, and then we would... Rabbi Zongaraye gave us more than $1,000 for the, for the project. And we didn't believe... We, we were young, young kid. We had no idea how long it will take. It took us... Anyway, so, so when I did the Sichas Kodesh, when I worked on Tuv Shin Yud, someone told me that Rabbi Eli Gross has a Yuman. So I went to him, and that started my relationship with, with, with, with Eli Gross and with the, and with the Yuman of Tuv Shin Yud. And I took some Sichas that he wrote that were not in the Sichas Kodesh, and I put them in as hanakos parties into the Sefer. But because of that, I, I started to read the Yuman, and I started, and I realized there is such a rich, uh, information on what was going on in Tuv Shin Yud. So the idea already started from there, from Tuv Shin Yud, that we have to make a book about it. But I never really took it seriously. But then finally, in after my wedding, I decided I'll do this as a project 'cause I thought... And I, I act- I actually, I

2:23:12 Speaker 1 w- I, I, uh, put some pieces of Tuv Shin Yud In the, in some of my T'shuvahs that I made for Chof Ches Sivan in the years of Mem- Mem Bet, Mem Zayin, Mem Ches. And I also, and I also did, uh, I printed in Kfar Chabad Magazine some of the beautiful stories from Totaf Shin Yud, uh, translated from Eli Gross' Yeman. So I got kind of involved as a bocher.

2:23:35 Speaker 6 So you were doing this Midrash yourself, the, the book?

2:23:38 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, of course. Yeah.

2:23:39 Speaker 6 To, to, to Kahas, the way you wanted to-

2:23:41 Speaker 1 No, no, no. No, I, I, I, I started to work on the book, and then I went to Rabbi Kinsky, and I spoke to him about this. Rabbi Kinsky said, "I know it's a very sensitive issue." Rabbi Kinsky said, "I can't promise anything. You made the book. If the book is ready, we'll give it to the Rebbe, and then we'll see." But he, he, he wa- he couldn't promise me. First I went to Rabbi Chatzke, to, to the other Plehman Kahas. They all sent me to Kinsky. I went to Kinsky. Kinsky said, "I can't promise. When the book is ready, if you want, if you're willing to do it." So I raised money for the book, and I-

2:24:09 Speaker 6 Yeah, I was gonna say, no one paid you to do this.

2:24:11 Speaker 1 No, of course not. I raised money to-

2:24:13 Speaker 6 Yeah

2:24:13 Speaker 1 ... to, to make the book.

2:24:15 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:24:15 Speaker 1 And, uh, and, uh, but when I felt there is a need for it. And, uh, then you, you know the whole story, how I, I took also, uh, Rabbi Lazar Z, Rabbi Lazar Kukowski to the in, in New Jersey to help me. He was a young bocher then. I needed help with collecting items and so on. But the whole book I wrote myself, and I was sitting on every word, uh, Shiva Nakim, as they say, uh, to make sure because I know it's a very sensitive issue. So every word was-

2:24:43 Speaker 6 'Cause you felt... You were saying you, you felt that, that the story should be told, but doesn't mean that, it doesn't mean that we have to publish-

2:24:52 Speaker 1 Right

2:24:52 Speaker 6 ... uh, things that are not in the gift or still in-

2:24:55 Speaker 1 Right

2:24:55 Speaker 6 ... whatever.

2:24:56 Speaker 1 No, things, things were not, uh... And, and, and it turned out to be that, uh, when I made the book, after the book was published, a lot of people told me, "Why didn't you come to me to interview me?" But the truth is, when I tried, they didn't want to.

2:25:10 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:25:10 Speaker 1 So a lot of people, they, they, you know, they didn't wanna be interviewed. And I f- I took... Most of the things that I took was not from interviews. I mean, Rabbi Gurary gave me an interview. What, what's interesting with Rabbi Gurary when he gave me the interview, he said to me, "I will tell you why am I even talking to you." And he said that once he remembers, in Yehidas in Tov Shin Yud, the Rebbe told him that there has to be a, the, you have to make us safer about this time. The Rebbe told him that. And he totally was not understanding it.

2:25:46 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:25:46 Speaker 1 He totally didn't. He, b'chol didn't understand what did that mean, who should make us safer, why to make us safer, and it was forgotten. And when I came to him, he said to me it came back to him how the Rebbe said-

2:25:58 Speaker 6 You Mechaven, you Pashem Mechaven to the Rebbe too?

2:26:00 Speaker 1 I, I didn't. I, I had no idea. Not like I-

2:26:03 Speaker 6 That, that's what they called Mechaven .

2:26:06 Speaker 1 So, so, you know, I, I had no idea. So that's why he said, "That's why I'm talking to you." He, he told me a lot of things that I couldn't even put in the book, very special things. But he was, uh, but, but he gave me a lot of information. And then David Raskin gave me a little bit of information, and Rabbi Mentlik gave me a little bit of information.

2:26:22 Speaker 6 But it's ma- it's mainly from the letters in Yale and from, uh-

2:26:26 Speaker 1 Yeah, mainly it's from letters-

2:26:27 Speaker 6 ... Rabbi Gross

2:26:27 Speaker 1 ... and from Yeman. Yeah, mainly from the letters. And also, um, Rabbi Mentlik gave me information w- for the T'shuvahs. He already passed away, Mem Ches, but for the T'shuvahs, he gave me information. And some of the T'shuvahs were I, I reused them for later, for the book. And then also, um, uh, Rabbi Talero passed away lately.

2:26:46 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:26:46 Speaker 1 Um, his mother, his mother, um, had a, a recording from Leibl Groner when she was a youngster in Viswoke, and Leibl Groner gave all-

2:26:55 Speaker 6 And, uh, Rabbi, Rabbi Machana.

2:26:57 Speaker 1 You know Machana Viswoke and, and but Leibl gonna give the whole history of Tov Shin Yud when he was still young. It was either it was in the Chof or the Lamed. I'm thinking the Lameds. And, uh, and, uh, it was very, very interesting. It was like a whole two hours, two and a half hours. So I took it down. I wrote it as if it's an interview, but it was really from a recording from him. And so, and a, and a few things that he said, a few special things came out later, documents that actually supported that-

2:27:23 Speaker 6 Right

2:27:23 Speaker 1 ... what the Rebbe himself wrote. And, um, anyway, so later, the last, the last 30 years, huge material came out, new material that I did not see. But all the-

2:27:35 Speaker 6 Then-

2:27:35 Speaker 1 ... materials that I s- that came out is only supporting the, the line that I took in my book the way I did it.

2:27:41 Speaker 6 What's the line?

2:27:43 Speaker 1 That, that, um, that right from the beginning, literally from the first few weeks, the entire majority of Anash around the world was already glued to the Rebbe.

2:27:57 Speaker 6 So that's-

2:27:58 Speaker 1 That is the truth

2:27:58 Speaker 6 ... we don't need to get into the whole thing, but-

2:28:00 Speaker 1 Right

2:28:01 Speaker 6 ... basically everyone knows that, that, uh, there was a Chassidishe Shailah. So I think historians that or whatever, people that tried to-- They wanna say it wasn't so simple. There was this camp, and there was that camp. And I mean, I read the book obviously, and I also by a lot of people, myself. I mean, it's, it's a . There was no movement. The only movement, a real move, maybe there was a Yehidem, a Haneha, but the only movement that existed probably from day one, you're saying a few weeks, I'll say from day one, is that the Rebbe, it's clear that the Rebbe-

2:28:34 Speaker 1 For sure

2:28:35 Speaker 6 ... is Rebbe.

2:28:35 Speaker 1 For sure from day one. For two example that, that one example I wrote in my book, but the one example Meir Ali just told lately, and a very interesting example. Um, you know, by the, by the Polish Chassidim, there's a custom that at the, at the funeral, after the-

2:28:51 Speaker 6 They make announcement

2:28:52 Speaker 1 ... funeral, they make announcement who is the new Rebbe. By Chabad, there was not such a custom. Well, usually it took a year or more. But, but the concept, the Rebbe always says, the influence, the Bor Shemesh VeZoch HaShemesh, the second Beis Din.

2:29:06 Speaker 6 The Rebbe explains about Beis Din, the Rebbe-

2:29:08 Speaker 1 Right. Right. So the, the-

2:29:10 Speaker 6 The Beis Din is the yard side, the Rebbe, the stalkers. The Rebbe always explained that the-

2:29:13 Speaker 1 And to that day, you can see it

2:29:14 Speaker 6 ... Rebbe, Rebbe, the Rebbe's, the Rebbe's book, that Beis Din is Chas Al and to see it-

2:29:19 Speaker 1 Right

2:29:19 Speaker 6 ... so you can grab it, yeah.

2:29:20 Speaker 1 So the same thing happened by the Rebbe. A Moshel, a few examples I have in the book and a few examples I heard later. One example that is, for example, that, um, that Rabbi Gurary told me that, that Shabbos by day, the Alter Rebbe passed away in the morning, Shabbos morning. Two hours later, the Rashag was holding the Rebbe's hand and walking with the Rebbe, crying and saying to the Rebbe, "What's going to be? What's going to be? What's going to be?" And the Rebbe calmed him down. And they were going back and forth in the hallway in the Alter Rebbe's house, and the Rebbe calmed down, "Everything will be okay. Everything okay. We will continue." And, and, uh, another story that happened, uh, that's in the book also, that, uh, there was a, a wonderful Anash who had the-- who was supposed to have a, who was supposed to have a L'Chaim party. It became a Chas of L'Chaim party. Motzei Shabbos, Yitzchak Tov Shin Yud.

2:30:13 Speaker 6 Yeah. Yeah.

2:30:13 Speaker 1 And he didn't know what to do. What should he do? The Philip Rebbe just passed away. So he ran to Seven Seventy, and he saw Rav Shmuel Witten. He was the authority. So he went to Rav Shmuel Witten and said, "What to do?" Shmuel Witten said to him, "Go to the Ramash. Go to the Rebbe." So right from the beginning, the Rebbe made the decisions. And the, the most interesting story that happened by the, by the Levaya that came out... So one is in the book, that when the, they took the Philip Rebbe down, the Rebbe, the Rebbe said loud that we're making a tenai, we make a condition that we are putting you here only on tenai, that if we will go to Israel, then we will take you with us. That's one thing that you saw, that the Rebbe led everything. And the second thing that Meir Alec told the story lately that I never knew before, that, um, there is a custom that you put the sand of Eretz Yisroel in the casket and in the grave.

2:31:07 Speaker 6 Yeah, yeah.

2:31:07 Speaker 1 So Mishasai wanted to put the sand. The Rebbe said that the Philip Rebbe does not need, uh, Israel sand. And someone of the family started screaming, "No, we should put, we should put." And the Rebbetzin said, "If my husband said we don't need, so I'm with my husband." And why the Rebbe... And they didn't put. So the Rebbe led the, the Nasius Rebbe right from the first second, and why they didn't put, why the Rebbe didn't want to put? Because the Rebbe said in a Sikha, in the famous Sikha in Tov Shini Dalah, Y"D Shvat, when the Rebbe explains what's the difference between a oil, what's the ma'alah of going to the oil. The Rebbe says that in Eretz Yisroel, because there was the Chum there, so the Etzem is not Begila there. There is a-- The Etzem of Elokuz is there, but it's not the essence of Elokuz is there, but it's not Begila. There, the Chum. And what-- where the Chu- where, where the Chum was, the Rebbe's giving a mashal, a parable that you-- when there is a wall, a big wall, and it falls down, so the stone on top of the wall falls the lowest. So in, in Eretz Yisroel is-- there's no Gila there.

2:32:15 Speaker 6 Falls the farthest.

2:32:15 Speaker 1 Falls the farthest. So therefore, in Eretz Yisroel, there's no Gila Elokuz.

2:32:20 Speaker 6 But the, but the Rebbe-

2:32:21 Speaker 1 But the Rebbe-

2:32:21 Speaker 6 There's no Chum

2:32:23 Speaker 1 ... because the, because, because like the Rashbi says where there's no Chum. So by the Ra- by the Rabbeim, that's the place where the Etzem is Begila. So therefore, the, the Philip Rebbe does not need the offer. It is, it doesn't need the sand from Israel when that's where the Galus is, but the Elokuz is not Begila. Where is the Elokuz Begila? It by the Arab. So the, the-- he doesn't need the sand from Eretz Yisroel. But you could see that, that the Rebbe led from the first second, that he's Nasi if the Rebbe was the Nasi, and his decisions were made. There was absolute... And, and, and not only that, especially within days, I mean, like Rabbi Dubov, that's in the book. Rabbi Dubov is the one, Rabbi Dubov from, uh, from, uh-

2:33:00 Speaker 6 Manchester

2:33:00 Speaker 1 ... from Manchester. He's the one who asked the Rebbe the f- the day after these talkas or the day of these talkas, he asked the Rebbe to take over the Nasies. And the Rebbe said to him, "What do you think?" The Rebbe said his name, "Mem Shin is a Rebbe." And then a week-- when he went back to England, and he went to Rabbi Ben Tzion's house, and he-- they together had a meeting with him, and he sent a telegram to the Rebbe to send the Nasies. So the Rebbe wrote back, "Levadai," the Rebbe wrote to Ben Tzion, "I'm sure that you heard what I told Rav Dubov, and he was here about this." So, so, so this-

2:33:33 Speaker 6 I think-

2:33:33 Speaker 1 But anyway, I think it's all the information that came out, you could see clearly that my line was true.

2:33:38 Speaker 6 I think it's connected to what you said before where you were describing what it meant to be by, by Rebbe. So after Y"D Shvat, there-- all the people there saw this right away. So it's not, it's not a, it's not a shaila.

2:33:56 Speaker 1 They actually-

2:33:57 Speaker 6 And-

2:33:57 Speaker 1 They actually saw it before. Uh, uh, uh, maybe I told you many years ago, um, uh, Rabbi Norman Lamm, the president of Yeshiva University, came to visit us in Alaska. He came for a tour here. He came with his wife and his sister, and I took them, uh, on a drive to a mountain here, a special place that's called, uh, a special place here in Alaska. And they, on the way back, then we went back from the mou- down from the mountain, and, and there was a-- we had like a smoke. The car was smoking, so we had to stop the car to-

2:34:26 Speaker 6 So Malek Ish L'Chim had the smoking cars

2:34:28 Speaker 1 ... to wait, to wait, um, even though it was actually a, a very nice, good wind, a big wind.

2:34:32 Speaker 6 This time of today, your car doesn't, uh, smoke, I'm, I'm assuming.

2:34:35 Speaker 1 Let's do that. Yeah. Anyway, so we stopped the car and, and the two ladies were sitting with Mendy, with my son, Rabbi Mendy from Masilla. Um, they were sitting with him and telling him stories. And I hear how-- And I was talking to him, to Ra- Rabbi Lamm. And I hear how the, the ladies are telling Mendy that, um, they remember they used to be young girls in, in Carle Place in the 1940s. And they remember when the Rebbe came to America. And they remember the Rebbe used to walk in the streets of Kingston. So the two ladies, she and her sister, two ladies, they tell my son, and how everybody came out of the houses to look on him. He looked like a prince.

2:35:14 Speaker 6 Mm.

2:35:15 Speaker 1 They, they just-- They, they said the beauty of the Rebbe, but it's not that. It's exactly what the Rebbetzin Chana writes in her Yoman. In her memory, the Rebbetzin Chana writes that, that when the Rebbe was a little kid, everybody was joyed to look on him 'cause there was that shine that came from him, that it was inhuman. There was, uh, it was beyond humanity. It was a spiritual shine that came that, that, that caught everyone's eye. It's like when Moshe Rabbeinu saw the, saw the, the, the, the burning bush, and where it says when Moshe Rabbeinu turned to see what is it because he saw something, a s- a . He saw something which is not natural. He saw a non-natural scene. That was the Rebbe. When you saw the Rebbe, you saw something which is not normal, and it's not human. This is not a normal thing. I still remember how I saw the Rebbe Yom Kippur- Uh, by Mincha, the first time when I was a little kid, I'm in Volver, and I still remember Rebbe sitting down and taking off his hat and, and, and sitting down.

2:36:14 Speaker 6 And the Rebbe came with Tanila.

2:36:15 Speaker 1 Rebbe came with Tanila, and I ch- and I st- I remember it like now. I remember seeing the Rebbe's feet, and something I never... You saw it's not human. You saw something not normal here. And I remember I, I, I barely davened that Yom Kippur. I was holding the machzor and looking at the Rebbe. I couldn't take my eyes off the Rebbe. And I remember when the Rebbe jumped on the chair for, for... The Rebbe was-- when Tov Sholom involved, the Rebbe was 74 years old. When the Rebbe jumped on his chair and turned around, I would not be able to do it today. I mean, it's like unbelievable. I c- I remember I was like, "Oh my God." I couldn't believe it. The Rebbe jumped up on his chair and turned around and started jumping, and he jumped, and it's a soft chair, and he jumped on it, and he was making that... It's like you have to understand, it's like it's not you saw B-B- Mukhash, you saw... I was a little kid, I saw like, I was like, "Wow, this is not, this is not..." You, you, you felt it in your bones. This is the Lucas. You felt that this is... I always used to tell my bala batim that w- any- anybody who saw the Rebbe had no doubt that there is a HaShem because you saw Lucas. You saw that there is a God in the world. You know, people who didn't see the Rebbe maybe could have doubts,

2:37:32 Speaker 1 but people who saw the Rebbe have no doubts. You know that there is a HaShem in the world because you saw a phenomenon which is beyond human nature. You saw this is, this is Moshe Rabbeinu. You saw this is, this is the sh- this is, this is the chain of, of Moshe Rabbeinu, the Alter Rebbe, Rashbi. You see the Rebbe, Baal Shem Tov. Y-you fortunately saw the Ba- you saw the Baal Shem Tov in our own time. I remember something about the Farbrengen, the long Farbrengens, Shabbosim. I used to tell about the Farbrengen. I used to stand, uh, some years I had my place on a- on the top of the, of the benches, so I was very high. I was like the same height of the Rebbe's bimah. But because I was-- the Rebbe was sitting, I was standing.

2:38:12 Speaker 6 Your, your place was directly across the Rebbe.

2:38:13 Speaker 1 Directly across the Rebbe, yeah. So I remember some of them, and that when it was long Farbrengens, it was like s- getting close to the end of the Farbrengen, and I was already tired, and, you know, you're listening for like five, six hours. You, you listen to every word to catch every word, understand every word. And, and at some point, I took like a second to breathe, and I, and I looked just on the scene. I still remember that scene. You see the Rebbe sitting, 'cause when I, when I listen to Farbrengen, I close my eyes to understand. But suddenly I took that second just to watch it, and I still remember that scene.

2:38:48 Speaker 6 What's that you didn't look at the Rebbe by the-

2:38:50 Speaker 1 No

2:38:50 Speaker 6 ... by this far?

2:38:51 Speaker 1 I, I looked at the Rebbe, but a lot of times I would close my eyes to understand.

2:38:55 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

2:38:55 Speaker 1 And I was, I was into what the Rebbe is saying, but sometimes I took the moment just to watch the scene, and this was a scene like you felt, you literally felt the light on the, on, on the Rebbe's, on the Rebbe. Like there was-- and it says in the Gemara that, uh, there was a Shechinah a-aleim. You felt it. It's not stam. You, you saw something unusual. It's like that scene of the Rebbe sitting there and Farbrenging, it's like it's out of this world. So of course, uh-

2:39:23 Speaker 6 But, but-

2:39:24 Speaker 1 ... of course, it's a, the fact that we don't have it is a, is a huge crime against humanity. That's a huge crime against the, the Jewish people. There's no question about that. It's, it's, it's, it's a chumra bais. I mean, to me, Gimmel Tammuz is Tisha B'Av and Yom Kippur. Gimmel Tammuz is Tisha B'Av. Of course, it's a, it's a crime. It's a buli dekes haMikdash. There's no question about that. It, it, it's a chumra. There's no question about it, it's a chumra. But if the Rebbe decide to do it, if the HaShem decided to do it, there must be a reason. There must be a mission. And there must be a mission, and that mission must be fulfilled. And we are in that mission. The, and the Rebbe is with us. The Rebbe is like making sure that we will fulfill this mission, that nobody is, is out of this mission. Everyone must be part of it, and we will-- the Rebbe is going to whisper, and we see clearly. We see if it's about Israeli politics, if it's about Afat Sayadus, if it's about the shluchim all over the world. The way the shluchim today are accepted, it's just you can't compare the way we are accepted today in, in, in Alaska in comparison. Like the person who built the, the, the, the Chabadas in, in, in Fairbanks, he's the person who built the Reformed Temple a few years ago there, 30 years ago. The same person who built the Reformed Temple,

2:40:44 Speaker 1 he's the one who built the Chabadas. It's like things like that, you couldn't even make them up. 30 years ago, that will never happen. The person who built the temple will build the Chabadas? You're crazy? You can't even imagine that. But this is happening today. Like there is a ma'apecha, there's a revolution in the world, and the, and the sheychez that the shluchim of the Rebbe have today with the entire leadership of the, of the world leadership, with presidents and kings all over the world, the personal connection that we have is, is beyond words. I mean, it's not only about Israel. We talk about the United States, everywhere. Look what Rabbi Levy Shemtov just had the prayer in Washington, and the president was standing out, and he was the first one who gave the prayer. I mean, things like that happen today that never we couldn't even imagine. Look how the Yitizkizet in, in Binyanei HaUmah now, what they have now every year, 100,000 Jews are coming to, to, to Yitizkizet. Things are... The people are coming to the Ohel. I mean, I had here last summer, I had a group of ladies from, from, from, uh, from Five Towns, and one of them is a daughter of a very, very famous Jewish activist. I don't wanna say the name. Like one of the top, top Jewish activists in America. And she tells me that she, she and her friends, they go every Motzei Shabbos to the Ohel. And not only that, she says to

2:42:04 Speaker 1 me, "Sometimes I have a friend who WhatsApps everyone, 'I'm going to the Ohel. Anybody wants to join?' And we jump into the car and we go." I mean, it's like I wouldn't believe it. Madre Talton is woman. I mean, I wouldn't-- I would never dream this is, could happen.

2:42:15 Speaker 6 Over, over here, I don't have to ask people. They ask me, "Let's go."

2:42:20 Speaker 1 It's just like unbelievable. It's like you can't even imagine. Who would thought that this will hap- the way it will look like today? Nobody dreamed that this will be.

2:42:29 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:42:30 Speaker 1 But it, it shows you that the Rebbe's and so, so obviously, I mean, there's no question about it that, uh, that what we saw i-i-it of course it's, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a crime. It's, it's... I mean, when I look at my grandchildren and as they go to the oil, I mean, my heart is breaking. It's... I mean, when I see bochum who don't ha- do not have the opportunity to stand by the Rebbe's farbrengen, you know what that means to be by the Rebbe's farbrengen? One farbrengen, one farbrengen. Not to, not to have the farbrengen that we have every Shabbos. One farbrengen. But, but from the other hand, I see... I mean, what you said before about the people tell you about the Rebbe, I see it myself. When I listen now to farbrengen from the Rebbe that I was there, I see a whole new depth that I never even understood the Shas was standing there when I listened to the first time. I see a whole new meaning.

2:43:26 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

2:43:26 Speaker 1 I, I in, in every farbrengen I see, I see how the Rebbe is leading to a certain goal that I never even saw then. I looked, I looked at them more akashia, teres, question and answer. I didn't understand that there is a whole... I even as much as I understood then, now it's like, and I see it in all different ways. It's like a whole... The Rebbe has a, a, a, a, a mahalach that he's leading the whole world. All of his talks and all of his farbrengens are all leading to the same nekuda, and in different ways. And how the Rebbe is like ein sof, it's, is infinite in his... If it's whatever biyurim that he has on, on Chumash, if it's on Chassidus, if it's on Nigla. The Rebbe's ein sof, there is... And, and all the tshuras are coming out with the letters from the Rebbe, with the minds from the Rebbe. It's like it's endless. It's a lifetime is not enough to, to, to, to even to, to cover just to read the Rebbe's text. Not even to understand, not even in depth. Just to read, just to listen to all the farbrengen. You know, Josh Gordon, they say that the, the Rabbi Gordon, that he listened to all the farbrengens from the Rebbe-

2:44:32 Speaker 6 Yeah

2:44:32 Speaker 1 ... I mean, I listen to farbrengens, it's like the, there's nothing, there is no biggest pleasure in the world than to listen to farbrengen from Rebbe. The, the, the reichkeit, the, the, the geshmack, the strength, the, the, the emuna you get from that farbrengen is like unbelievable. And it's, it's such a oytzer that the Rebbe gave us, such a, such a gift that the Rebbe gave us. And the, and the Rebbe actually meant it. It was bechavonah that that should be recorded. The Rebbe had a special... I, I remember, uh, not too, not too long ago, the, I saw the Rebbe said, um, the Rebbe wrote about listening to the recording from his farbrengen.

2:45:14 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:45:14 Speaker 1 There was a whole plan in Kfar Chabad that the Rebbe said to listen to the recording of his farbrengen also here in New York. There, there was not... There was... And the famous, you know, the famous story that the Rebbe said by the almost one of the last rallies, you know, in Tosh Nanalev.

2:45:28 Speaker 6 They should send the, uh, the videos.

2:45:29 Speaker 1 First to Rabbi Mishlovi to send the video to, to Russia. And the Rebbe said by the, by the sicha, the Rebbe said to the children that there are kids around the world who cannot be here.

2:45:38 Speaker 6 Right.

2:45:38 Speaker 1 But then you will make with your hands, and you'll say with a chayis they'll see the lebedike pictures, and they'll see the vi- the, the-

2:45:44 Speaker 6 The lebedike pictures. That-

2:45:45 Speaker 1 They'll see the picture, and then they'll also have the chayis that the Rebbe said to them to send it. I mean, there is also the video from the, from the Gvirim when, uh, Gvir comes into the Rebbe and he says to the Rebbe that his business is in videos. And the Rebbe says, "Have you seen the video that we made Hanukkah? You saw the-

2:45:59 Speaker 6 Mm

2:45:59 Speaker 1 ... the Jews in Russia were dancing together with the Jews of Europe?"

2:46:02 Speaker 6 They're dancing around the-

2:46:03 Speaker 1 Yeah. It's like-

2:46:05 Speaker 6 The-

2:46:05 Speaker 1 So they, they see, and the Rebbe was like saying to him, "We, we know about videos, and we are- ... we are in the business of videos. We, we..." And 'cause the Rebbe emphasized, the Rebbe put the koach in the video, in the picture. I mean, the Rebbe himself wrote a famous tettel about a woman who had the-- wrote to the Rebbe that she has a chalisha, and the Rebbe wrote that when she looks at the Rebbe's picture, "Mit tuch shamit yu," the Rebbe's emes, therefore he looks back on you, and that gives her the koach. So the Rebbe befarlish says that the picture... And the Rebbe told Moshe Harrison to carry a picture in, in his pocket. The Rebbe said many bochurim to carry a picture like that.

2:46:37 Speaker 6 In the, befarat in Tosh Yud, the Rebbe was telling people and in the to

2:46:44 Speaker 1 Yeah. So there, there is befarlish clearly that the Rebbe said that the picture and the, and the video are the koach.

2:46:50 Speaker 6 Yeah. Okay, Rabbi Greenberg, this was a very, very, uh, geshmack and uplifting conversation and, uh, uh, we are ready biksidem. We should become, uh, even bigger biksidem.

2:47:04 Speaker 1 Amen. We should all be zocheh-

2:47:06 Speaker 6 And-

2:47:06 Speaker 1 ... to fulfill the Rebbe's ratzon, and we should be zocheh to see the Rebbe bemuchal. I think we missed one important point.

2:47:13 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:47:13 Speaker 1 We have one more minute, one important point that we should talk about it, and that is the concept of what is the inyom for Moshiach in Chassidus? I think it's-

2:47:23 Speaker 6 Go ahead. Go ahead.

2:47:24 Speaker 1 I think it's very, very important for people to understand that, and that is that, um, I just wanna say one line, and Rabbi Yael has a big koach in that line, and that happened Tosh Yud Beis by the famous farbrengen of Shabbos after Pesach, Shabbos Shmini, Tosh Yud Beis. And the Rebbe asked the Chassidim to sing the nigun of the Gimel Tnuos, the nigun of the Baál Shem Tov and the Maggid of the Alter Rebbe. And the Rebbe asked the Chassid, the Rebbe was in a mirrike giloim, something unusual. The Rebbe took a lot, a lot of l'chaim, and he was in a huge mirrike giloim. And the Rebbe said to chazer the ni- the gimel, the tnuah gimel, the third tnuah of the Alter Rebbe to chazer again and again and again. And it was such an amazing farbrengen that after the farbrengen, when the Rebbe stood to Mincha, he continued singing the nigun to himself. It was, was unbelievable. And then the Rebbe said, "Why is the nigun so important? Because that is from the Alter Rebbe." And he was he was a a new soul. He was he was something a new . And he was to the after him, to the generations after him. That this, the Alter Rebbe was he brought to the world a new to the generations after him. And that's based on what the Friediker Rebbe told that, uh, several times Erev Rosh Hashanah in the last years in America, the Friediker Rebbe said, he said to,

2:48:52 Speaker 1 uh, that, um, that the, when the Alter Rebbe came the first time to the Maggid, the Maggid told him that the Ba'al Shem Tov told him that when the Alter Rebbe will come, he should tell the Alter Rebbe that he is a that he's a new soul, and he has a special mission to bring, to b- uh, a special mission for all the generations after him until to bring Moshiach. So what is a new soul? So people thought that's a soul that never came in a Gilgul.

2:49:22 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

2:49:22 Speaker 1 But that's not true. As the Rebbe says in and Rebbe Yill, um, also wrote it in the in the, where the Rebbe speaks about that a new soul means what the Alter Rebbe is talking But there it says that the Ari z"l said, and the Rebbe said it many times by the that Ari z"l said that all the that were in from Adam HaRishon till Moshiach are all from And Moshiach is Just to say in two words what does that mean? That to everyone knows about the above the there is What is is which is and means it's it's beyond, above, a- above, away from everything, and means it's being, it's being comes down to the re- to the world. So in there is, there is pleasure, pleasure is the highest level, and there is which is the will. So, um, so we have we have intelligent, and in order for us to, in order for us to do something, we wanna what do you wanna learn? You wanna learn something that you have a pleasure to learn. So when whatever you do in life is because you have pleasure. Because you have pleasure, you wanna do it. And you have-- When you wanna do it, you start learning it, and that's how it goes. So the Sefer goes, there is there is and then there is . So the, so the Ari z"l said that all the are all from from itself, there's and So But when Moshiach will come will be a and

2:50:58 Speaker 1 that is the 'cause in itself, the that's the So the, so the Ba'al Shem Tov-- the Ari z"l said there are two kinds of There is which are the from Adam HaRishon till Moshiach. Then there is which is the for Moshiach. That's So the, so the Ba'al Shem Tov said to, to the Maggid to tell the Alter Rebbe that he is a -

2:51:25 Speaker 6 Sure

2:51:25 Speaker 1 ... that he is a of Moshiach. And therefore, what is Chassidus? Why is Chassidus And the Rebbe said in that, that that what is the reward from, from for Moshiach? That we know that what is, what is Chassidus? 'Cause everything starts with Torah. In order to have-- Because everything starts with So before you bring Moshiach in the real world, you bring the Torah of Moshiach, the of Moshiach. And then that refines the world to have Moshiach in the real world. So that means that the Rebbe said in so that the what I'm trying to bring out is that the entire Chassidus Chabad, the entire Chassidus Chabad, why is it so unique? Why is our Rebbeim so unique from all the other tzadikim in the world? Because our Rebbeim from the Alter Rebbe on and going every Rebbe because every Rebbe is a of the previous Rebbe. And as the Friediker Rebbe said, the, the Rebbe Rashab said, uh, the Friediker said about the Rebbe Rashab that his neshamah is in me, and the Rebbe said it about himself in So all the Rebbeim are the same neshamah from Moshiach, and each Rebbe has a different sfira that he added to that. And the Rebbe's Sefiras Ha-Malchus which is which is the highest level. And the Rebbe's mission as is to bring that Chabad, to bring it in reality in

2:52:51 Speaker 6 So why did you, uh, well, I'm saying, why do you feel-- why do you wanna share this? What, what's important-

2:52:56 Speaker 1 I'm, I'm sharing it because it's important to understand what's the constant-- what's the, what's the connection of Moshiach with Chabad? What's the whole issue with the Rebbe of Moshiach? Why, why is it so important to the Rebbe of Moshiach? And what's the connection Why the Rebbe spoke about it? Because this is what Chassidus is. Chassidus Chabad, what's unique of Chassidus Chabad? When you learn the you'll see things there that doesn't say anywhere else before. The Tanya-

2:53:22 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm

2:53:22 Speaker 1 ... Norman Lamm said, uh, uh, Rabbi Soloveitchik, Rabbi J- J-B Soloveitchik said that the greatest philosophy of all the philosophies- ... is in the Tanya. In Tanya

2:53:33 Speaker 6 Tanya

2:53:33 Speaker 1 In Tanya. That's what Rabbi Soloveitchik said. From all the philosophers, including Aristotle and Kant and all of them. So that means that the, the, the Chassidus Chabad is a new thing, a new That's the-- It says when Moshiach will come, there'll be of Moshiach. That is Chassidus Chabad. Therefore, it's so unique. Therefore, by when you, when you spread the for Chassidus Chabad, you refine the world. You start with of Moshiach, and you bring the world of Moshiach reality. So therefore, the Rebbe, for example, the Alter Rebbe wrote the Tanya. What was the Rebbe's campaign? To print the Tanya.

2:54:06 Speaker 6 Tanyas.

2:54:06 Speaker 1 In every city. Why the Rebbe gave a gift the Tanya? Why he didn't give a for the Friediker Rebbe? 'Cause he didn't wanna give for himself. The the Rebbe gives a gift. What's the gift? A Tanya.

2:54:16 Speaker 6 Tanya.

2:54:16 Speaker 1 There again, again a Tanya. again a Tanya. a Tanya. again, I have four Tanyas from the Rebbe. Why Tanyas? And what is in the Tanya? There is all the Shaar Ha-Blat from all the cities where the Rebbe print the Tanya. Why we have to s- If you wanna give a class in Tanya in Alaska, you could take a Tanya from New York or spring them. But you have to pick a Tanya in the, in Alaska. But the idea the Rebbe said, well explained, that the idea is just like when there is a Tanya from New York or Tanya from Chabad. So everyone knows that Chabad is a source of Tanyas. That's a place where you print or they did a Tanya from Vilna. Everyone know the Vilna Tanya. Vilna was a city where you have a printed-- So that means Vilna or Chabad or Te- or, or New York became a source, a Mayan, where you print Tanyas. So the Rebbe said he wants every city that the, the for the Rebbe is to bring a that every city becomes a source of Tanyas. Anchorage has Tanyas, Fairbanks has Tanyas. Every city becomes a source of Tanya. That's bringing the down in the reality of the world.

2:55:15 Speaker 1 and that's the Rebbe's mission, the De Rashbi. So it's not like just happened to be the Rebbe spoke about Mashiach. It's not just happened to be, because that is what the whole Habbayrit, it's all the-

2:55:25 Speaker 6 And, and, and, and also, and not only it happens to be, it also was... It wasn't like I saw this lashon as like the Rebbe's personal wish, you know? It's like, like-

2:55:35 Speaker 1 Yeah

2:55:35 Speaker 6 ... Rebbe Gevalt. Like, no, no. The-

2:55:37 Speaker 1 It's not the Rebbe's wish. This is what the entire Chassidus is about.

2:55:40 Speaker 6 Rebbe, or the, or the Rebbe's personal, like, you know, campaign-

2:55:42 Speaker 1 Right

2:55:42 Speaker 6 ... or, like, uh-

2:55:43 Speaker 1 Yeah, it's as if the Rebbe was a tzadik and he wants a Mashiach.

2:55:46 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:55:46 Speaker 1 It's not just the Rebbe was a tzadik, he wants Mashiach. Of course, the Rebbe was tzadik, he wants Mashiach. But it's mu- much more than that. This is what Chassidus Chabad stands for.

2:55:54 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:55:54 Speaker 1 To change the world and bring gidil u'kavod to the world. That is what Mashiach is, and the Rebbe's De Rashbi, his mission is to bring it to reality. So therefore, what we are after Gimel Tammuz, we are the De Rashbi that brings Mashiach in reality. Therefore, there was a falcus, because that's the final, the final makkeh b'patish of us as, as people who can see the Rebbe, that we see the Rebbe from within us. That's what the whole idea is. Not to see the Rebbe from the outside, but we'll see the Rebbe from within us, to find the Rebbe in us. So def- def- that that's davka because we're in a shfir ha'matzah, because we are Chassids, because we don't see the Rebbe, we are broken about it, therefore, we find the Rebbe. And that's what the inu for Mashiach. So it's not stam. The inu for Mashiach is, is that you say that you say this, of ganz De Rashbi, of ganz Chassidus Chabad, that the Rebbe was Mashiach, and they meet the Rebbe was Mashiach, and Mashiach. They're all Mashiach, and the Rebbe is the Mashiach b'poel because he is the Sefiras HaOmaros, he brings the Mashiach b'poel. So therefore, it's so important to remember that all those sichos of the Rebbe about Mashiach, and especially sicha from, from the last Kinus Hashluchim where the Rebbe said that the entire avodas to bring Mashiach, that, that's kipshute. The entire work of shlichus and all the mivtzoim and to teach, as I said before,

2:57:09 Speaker 1 a pum chaf ches, that when do you know that Mashiach is coming? When you reach the Avdim and the Niddachim, the lost Jews and the s- the far away Jews in the ends of the world. So everyone, you know, it's coming summer, people go traveling. You travel, and you find a Jew somewhere in a, in a, in a gas station, and you put on Tefillin with him, that will bring Mashiach because this is the nekuda of the Rebbe to, to find the Avdim and the Niddachim. Chaim, L'chiim.

2:57:33 Speaker 6 Chaim l'bracha. Very, very, very good. And, uh, some simim zeihen the, the entsike shlichus, uh, uh, and, uh, that's it.

2:57:41 Speaker 1 Amen.

2:57:41 Speaker 6 Right now.

2:57:42 Speaker 1 Bekovim mamash.

2:57:43 Speaker 6 Der mei galus.