Ep. 7: A Gimmel Tammuz Conversation with Rabbi Leibel Schapiro

00:00 Speaker 1 Whatever we're doing now is not from a Chadesh Chidushim. It's all included in what the Rebbe put into us, in the Rebbe's Torah, in the Rebbe's Hanhogeh. He put in all the Yoniim that are happening now is all a Hemshacha to what he did. It's like the Rebbe started the fire, and the fire is continuing. So I feel it from a, a, a Batish perspective. A Batish, this has nothing to do with, with deep Yoniim Chassidis. It's all, it's all the Rebbe. So the Rebbe is doing it now. It's all what, what he did then till Gimel Tammuz is he responsible for what he's doing now, Filu BaLabatish.

00:38 Speaker 2 I'm Yossi Kamen. Welcome to Among Chassidim by Der Her, an ongoing farbrengen 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. Shalom Aleichem, Rabbi Shapiro. How are you?

00:57 Speaker 1 Baruch Hashem. Aleichem Shalom.

01:01 Speaker 2 Okay. I appreciate you making the, the time to have this conversation. And I want to say that generally, we've done a, a few episodes of, uh, Among Chassidim podcast, and usually, um, I like to do it a little bit free-flowing and, uh, see where it goes. Although today we are going, you know, a, a, a, a little more focused. And the reason is that this is the podcast that we, we are posting the podcasts on Sundays, and this is the one that will come out on Sunday, Gimel Tammuz. And the Gimel Tammuz is a day where everyone is looking to connect to the Rebbe and to do the proper thing. So I believe that it might be, uh, important to address that and to be, uh, to, to be focused. And, um, I myself have heard you on Gimel Tammuz speak before, at least once or maybe more than once. So, um, uh, my, my que- The, the question kind of is many people have different ways they can... They, they, they talk about or they think about, uh, the day of Gimel Tammuz. Um, you know, someone that, uh, w- that, uh, we spoke to recently called it, you know, it's a hard day, and he looks to be with other Chassidim on that day. We also know all the things that the Rebbe spoke about in the Sichas, about Yutrat, and that, that can apply. But, uh, I'm not sure. Uh, you know, I think every year people are trying to, uh, figure

02:42 Speaker 2 it out. So maybe, uh, you can help with, with this.

02:47 Speaker 1 Well, like you said, not everybody has the same feeling and not everyone has the same approach. I could just tell you what I feel. That the truth is they're both important. First of all important is to remember what we don't have, not Hashem to make us sad, but to know what the Rebbe is and what we had. And then we could also say that even though Begashmis we don't have it, we still have it, and then we continue same, same way it was before. But the first thing is to know what, what we had. And the reason why there's a difference before Gimel Tammuz and after Gimel Tammuz, and before Gimel Tammuz, we had the Rebbe here Begashmis. And after Gimel Tammuz, we know he's here, but we don't see him with our physical eyes, we don't hear him with our physical ears, et cetera. And that's very important to know that we're missing that. Why are we missing that? Some people would say, "Well, if we know, we always say the Rebbe is still here," like the Rebbe spoke after Yutrat, the Rebbe is still here with us. But nevertheless, Mitsidenu from the Rebbe side, about the Rebbe, all the Hashpas, everything before. Mitsidenu, we are Gashmisdike people. We're not great, great Ruchnisdike people. To us, Gashmi is status markem. Gashmi is something. And we are Gashmisdike people. We feel with Gashmius and we understand with Gashmius. So therefore, if we see the Rebbe Bagashmius, it's more tangible to us. Even though Mesadi Rebbe,

04:16 Speaker 1 he is towards us and with us and Mashpia the same way without him being here. The famous story with the Koshen Tsemagid. The Rebbe Serok Koshen, the Koshen Tsemagid, they say a story that before he passed away, the later years, he told his son, "You should know I worked on myself so much that I'm no more Guf. My Guf is not really a Guf Gashmi." So his son says to him, "Tata, Farvos az ich tap dir fil ich guf? Why if I'm touching you, I feel body, I feel your body? What do you mean you have no body?" He says, "Your problem is I do touch with... You're touching with body. It's your body that's feeling it, so you feel body." So it's a pro-- But Lapail, that's how we are. It's we can't change it. We are Gashmisdike people. When we're here, when we're able to hear the Rebbe, see the Rebbe, even Bagashmi, as we were able to feel what Elokus is. What's the Rebbe? The Rebbe is Ish Elokim, like it says by Moshe Rabbeinu. Filo Lameshe Ish Elokim. Zei sa brocha shebera Moshe Ish Elokim. What does Ish Elokim mean? A godly man. What does a godly man mean? So the Midrash says, with Chetzi Elomai Le-- uh, uh, Chetzi Elomate Ish, Chetzi Elomai Elokim, that means that he's Ish and Elokim. As godliness by him, Elokus is Begilui. And when you stood in front of the Rebbe and you saw him, you were able to feel it even with your

05:37 Speaker 1 Guf, even with your Nefesh Habamis. You felt. I once heard farbrengen of Avrom Paris. He was seventy came. Well, didn't come too often. He was very Im kushat de Rebbe Betach Hashleimus. He was a taf taf. The Rebbe referred to him once by farbrengen. Avrom Paris Igivena Emes Ech Sidish Tomim. That's what Rebbe said. He was a real Sidish Tomim. So I once heard in farbreng. He said like this, "Well, we talk about Aveh VeYirah, you have to be Aveh Hashem Yirah, you have to have Yiras Shamayim- Fear of Hashem. So he said, "Is there any way to describe Begashmius that the person has Yiras Hashem?" It's a, it's a feeling in the heart. Is there any Begashmius? So he says, "I'll tell you, yes, there is." Imagine you're standing in the middle of a Bringen, and the Rebbe calls you over for some reason, and you walk over, and you could imagine how people felt. You would push it, shake. What are you afraid of? He's not gonna hurt you. He's not gonna do anything to you. He's a fine man. He's, he's not gonna shake. What are you afraid of? You're afraid Begashmius, knowing that this is Gily Malchus. But you feel it, and that's why you walk over. That's why you would shake. When you went into Yechidus, that's how you felt. When you went into Yechidus Begashmius, your body felt you're going into the Kodesh Hakadashim. Always in Bachsinim we talk the, the Rebbe's room is Kodesh Hakadashim, the famous la--

06:53 Speaker 1 the Hatamim where it describes, Rabbi Israel, the whole story that he asked his father what's the end up going into Yechidus. So he told him, "We used to have a Bais Hamikdash, and there was Kodesh Hakadashim. Now we don't have a Bais Hamikdash. The Rebbe's room is Kodesh Hakadashim." When the Rebbe went in, is the Oran, but it's the Kodesh Hakadashim. So you walked in, you felt it. It wasn't, it wasn't the sometimes it's you, you felt it, and therefore Begashmius, you would shake. I remember my own Yechidus. At one time, I went in and Begashmius, my foot was shaking and was banging on the floor, made noise, and I felt so uncomfortable standing in front of the Rebbe, banging, tak, tak, tak, tak, banging. I bent down, took my hand, put it on my knee to stop it. It didn't work. What, what is the story? The story there is you push it, were able to see with your guf gashmi. In Sechel, we know the Rebbe's there in Sidot, but Begashmius... And we're more-- we relate more to gashmius. And even Amalek Hachsinam also would relate more to gashmius than to ruchnius because we're human beings. It's Noam's fault. It's Deibesh's fault that he made us gashmius-y people, and we're gashmi, relate to. So we have to keep thinking of that. So when it comes to Gimmel Tammuz, I tell people, 'cause there's always differences of opinion. You know, this guy says, "How could you say that you feel bad? That it's a

08:06 Speaker 1 day of..." The word sadness is always bad, but it's a day that's very sincere and v-very serious, and it's... And no, it has-- we have to be just as happy as before because the Rebbe, that's what... It's true. But the first thing is, if we know what we had Begashmius before, we're able to hear the Rebbe. When you heard the Rebbe, you were able to stand there, and we could describe standing by Farbrengen, you felt like standing in Gan Eden. Lif'erech har madrega, versteht sie, but you felt it. You felt the psn... L'ma'alah m'sarot rocham. You felt, you felt the different madrega. So you felt... So when you heard the Rebbe's voice, well, it says, "Min gey a Rebbe. It says, "Min gey a maimer." But in truth is, why every word of the Rebbe says is Shechina b'dbara smtich greine. And even in Chassidut, there's a simple Pshat. When Shechina b'dbara smtich greine, it means that when Moshe Rabbeinu spoke, the voice sounded it's not Moshe's voice. It's like, Chas v'Shalom, a dibuk inside him that's talking. That means Moshe Rabbeinu, his matzias is Yishmael Hakeem. So when he spoke, he-- this is a malchus being his galut. By the Rebbe, you would feel it. And that, because we're gashmius-y people, we don't feel it. So that's one thing that we have to feel on Gimmel Tammuz. This is a day that Begashmius, we don't see the Rebbe. And that's-- So we have to ins-think about it, what it meant, Begashmius. Then we have

09:22 Speaker 1 to know that lei'at of Temarison, you learn the sichas of the Rebbe from Tov Shen Yud when they gave the frid to the Rebbe, that he's still with us and he's mashpia with us. And the truth is, you could even feel it. You have to work on it harder. It's harder. You can feel it, and you have to feel that way, and you have to still sesh treinen mateh fulkano, and the Rebbe is mashpia us, and we see it. I wouldn't say Begashmius, but we see with all the things that are happening with n-not only the meisim that the Rebbe does when you go to the Ohel, which is maybe more even than the meisim he did till Gimmel Tammuz. But even-- Not only that, but you, you could feel to a certain degree, but lepe'el that. But we have to work on ourselves to feel it and to know that it's still the same. Even though when it comes to Halacha L'maase, you have to behave differently. Know what the Rebbe said Tov SheYud. The Rebbe kept on saying Tov SheYud. We all know that the Rebbe's mituz and the Rebbe's still with us. All the inyanim, he said. Came Pesach to the Seder, the Rebbe made haSeder. Till then, he didn't make haSeder because in front of the Rebbe, you don't make haSeder. So someone asked the Rebbe, "How-- You just kept saying he's still here." So the Rebbe said, "When it comes to Halacha L'maase, you have to go push it in

10:24 Speaker 1 the gashmius d'galacha and gashmi Halacha, the Rebbe is not here." So we have to take that in consideration. We have to work both sides. It's a little bit hard to work both sides, but it says in Tanya from the Zohar, "Cheth v'chi b'libo m'sitra d'ho. Chafirat ki m'libo m'sitra d'ho." I don't mean chafir kepshuta. It means that cheth v'simcha, joy should be on one side of your heart, and the loshon there is crying is on the other side. The Rebbe talks about Cheshbon HaNefer. I don't mean crying now, but to feel the seriousness of what the Rebbe was when he was here Begashmius when you could see him, you have to feel that on one side. And at the same time, you have to feel that it's all there, even though we don't really feel it. But we have to juggle between the two. I don't know if we can call it rotsa b'shuv or whatever expressions you wanna use, but that's what Gimmel Tammuz is. It has both things. S- And also, in order to really feel that it's the Rebbe still there, you gotta know what it meant that the Rebbe was there. If you don't know what meant the Rebbe was there, you don't know what to say, "Well, he's still here." Still what? So you gotta be misbonenu on what the Rebbe was and how the Rebbe was to us and what he meant to us. And from a balabatishe point of view even, from the gashmius point of view, it

11:29 Speaker 1 was a, a different, different world, different life. Then if you know that, you try to be mamshich it now, and if you're misbonenu and you work on it, you're able to feel it.

11:39 Speaker 2 Okay. Very, uh, very well explained. And I, I have a few... There's two, there's two ways where we can take this. So-

11:49 Speaker 1 We can take them both.

11:51 Speaker 2 Okay, good. So may-maybe we'll do both. My first question is-

11:54 Speaker 1 Might be I'll regret what I said.

11:58 Speaker 2 My, my first shailah is that, uh, I'm thinking about myself, um, thinking through all the Gimmel Tammuz or, uh, all the, all, all times that that happened every year in the past many years, you know, um- From when I was a bachor till now, you know? And I feel like this might-- I'm not sure if this is accurate 'cause, uh, I'm portraying it on others, but I felt like the first part, the part that we realized that we're lacking something, was very strong. You, you felt that pochlal, and then you felt that, you know, especially on Gematamos, it was kind of like in the air. Like, you can, you can, you can mamash feel it. And today, there are many... First of all, we're talking about 30, over 30 years. Second of all, we're talking about a whole, uh, new crowd and people that grew up after Gematamos or were born after Gematamos, et cetera. And is it, is it an avoda that you're supposed to work on to have that feeling of, uh, of a, a, a bekenish, a gagoyim, a yearning? Is, is that an avoda? Is that something that to, to work on? That's one, that's one, that's, that's one part of what I wanted to ask you. May-maybe I'll stop talking and hear what you have to say.

13:18 Speaker 1 Oh, definitely is an avoda. Definitely something that we have to stress. We have to work on it. And, uh, even though those that were not there by fabrengen, they were born after Gematamos, but they have to find out. That's one of the maalos of the videos. That's by the way, when you see it, it gives you an understanding, a dimion of what it was. It doesn't chas v'Shalom have to replace anything, but it gives you a dimion. Like the Rebbe said to Ovshenyud that you should have a picture of the Rebbe, and you also you should look at it mis- and misman lasman, be misbaynen in your mind, how was it when you went into yechidas and how was it when you were by a fabrengen? And then the Rebbe said that even if those that were not there could also be misbaynen, and one of the ways is bepashtas if you hear from others. When it says, "Sheaal avich v'ya'geid lach, v'zeich re'ech meloch..." It's not because the alt azoyner bes of yinedi with the young people. That's not the, the, the maidan, the great tzitzias of this keinim. Elav hai b'gashmi is they were there, and they were able to describe it. And if you describe it, you're able to feel it. We have a person here in shul by us, baal teshuva, so he's a baal teshuva many years already, but he never was by the Rebbe. So once I was mentioning it, I was trying to describe how it was by

14:30 Speaker 1 the Rebbe, and then I said, uh, "It looks like I'm making you jealous." And then I said, "You know what? Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to make you jealous. Yes, be jealous." But I said it's a shame that those that weren't there. So he turns around to me, this yungerman says to me, after hearing all the fabrengens, I start talking, I talk a lot about the Rebbe and describe it, and I try to describe it in details. And he says to me, "I feel as if I was by fabrengen. Yes, I know so much about it." So when you see the videos, avada it makes it even more see or gashmi. But so that's the way to do it, and you should stress it. It's not-- Some people put a stress on that only or very much. So all it brings out, it brings out that you have a bad feeling, and you feel what you're missing, which you are, but it, it stresses too much. So you got- but you gotta do it. Is it an avoda? It's an avoda, and it's not easy, but you gotta work on it. Like I s-same thing I said before, that in order to be able to feel that the Rebbe is with us now, we have to have an understanding of the Rebbe. Now, understanding what the Rebbe means two things: understanding what the Rebbe is. That we needed before also. Besides looking at the Rebbe, seeing and hearing his voice and seeing his holy face, we

15:41 Speaker 1 have to understand that itav zach misbeina, you have to learn chasidus, learn the secrets to know what in the Rebbe is. And that's the first thing you have to do. Push it to understand what's in the Rebbe, what's in the Rebbe, the neshamah klalis. I don't know if there'll be time we could get into it, the hasboros, what is taich in sh- the Rebbe's neshamah klalis, all other things when the Rebbe. So that you have to be misbaynen. That's from the intellectual, philosophical part. But then you also have to have the gashmiyusdike part, which before you didn't have to work on it. You were there. Someone had a gagoyim to the Rebbe, wasn't there for a while. So in some s- if you're in New York, you just, "Today I'm gonna come to amimcha." I'm talking about bochurim who have to be there anyway. "I'm gonna come to amimcha with the Rebbe's minyan. If you're out of town, you know what? For this coming Shabbos, I'm gonna take a flight and go from Miami to, to New York." It is easy. It's not a big avoda to have that feeling. Now it's hard. Now you go to the eil, it's the closest you could get, true, but it's still, it's still your eil. You don't see the Rebbe. So you have to work on that to know what it was before Gimel Tammuz.

16:42 Speaker 2 You, you mentioned something interesting that before Gimel Tammuz, you also had to work on or come to an understanding of vas is der Rebbe. So I wanna ask you, what did that mean for you? Like, when, when you were... Say, w-was the chinuch that you got from, from, from, from home, or was it coming to the Rebbe? What was it like for you?

17:02 Speaker 1 Well, it's for sure from connected to both, connected to the, to the from home, to come from a chasidishe home. That's the whole atmosphere of the home. And then when you go to yeshiva and you have the Anskem, Rashbim, Rabbeim, Rosh Yeshivas, I mean, of all, that's all part of the job, part of the-

17:18 Speaker 2 I'm asking, I'm asking you, uh, personally. What, what happened?

17:21 Speaker 1 Yeah, that's it. Well, it was from home. And then a lot we got from Reb Yael that I have to say.

17:27 Speaker 2 Were you, uh, you learned in, uh, in Bedford?

17:30 Speaker 1 At first I learned in Bedford. We were young boys when we were in Bedford. I came to actually to New York in Toshin Hof, and I went to Bedford. Toshin Hof Gimel Tammuz, that's when we ch- we went to 770, transferred to learn in 770. He used to fabreng with us a lot, especially, I mean, the, I mean, the pagdus. He could have a fabreng the Yitzhak Skislov starting n- eight o'clock in the evening or seven o'clock till seven o'clock in the morning, and the whole time talking most of the time. And the hakta rainen, he brought into the, um, uh, what the Rebbe is and, and then he did a bechel. He-- The peil, our class was actually we were known as his talmidim 'cause we were connected to him very much. So what he did was he took, let's call American boys And made him a Chassidishe Yidden. And he with his fabrengen, he wasn't a mashpia type that actually spoke to each individual bocher and, and give him hadrocha. That's not his... General fabrengens and general Chassidis and everything instilled in the Yidden to understand what the Rebbe is. That's the truth. That's what, that's what he did. And also not, not only him, he was more with sechel, with philosophy, with, with, you know, understanding than you had Reb Dovid Raskin and you had other Chassidishe Yidden who were... The Dugma Chaya said that instilled in us this, and, and they would also speak in fabrengen. So it comes from both.

18:54 Speaker 1 I even took a lot from-- Even though I was very young back, I took a lot from my Zayde, my mother's father, who was the Rebbe's melamed, and his bikur to the Rebbe was outstanding. You can't imagine. I, I was, you know, surprised. The Rebbe's his talmid. The Rebbe wrote-

19:10 Speaker 3 The Rebbe stood up for him when he came to the Rebbe

19:11 Speaker 1 ... The Rebbe stood up for fabrengen. When he got yechidas on day 10 wouldn't sit down. He sat down the second time because he couldn't stand. He was paralyzed. But the first time he wouldn't sit down. The Rebbe said, "If you're not sitting, I'm not gonna sit." So just to see his yechas to the Rebbe and talking to him, that instilled, talking about me personally, into the feeling of what a Rebbe is. But you need to has bara. See, some people just, just a Rebbe, it's very... A moises deeper because kum fun ette men efesh, you know. It's, it's tmimus Rebbe. But we're Chabad. Chabad is not enough that, you know, tmimus and this. You have to have that for sure. But in addition to that, we have to understand. And that-

19:52 Speaker 3 Some people, some people say that they came to the Rebbe for the first time, and then that was it.

19:56 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. That's good. That's good. But then after that, that's the Nase before the Nishma.

20:01 Speaker 3 Yeah.

20:02 Speaker 1 That has to be, and that's very good if that's the first thing with the farbundner. The Rebbe had such a shpoah in me that that's it. I was hooked up on it, and then that's it. Uh, but then you have to sit down and understand what this is all about. It's the same tzadikim deim libeirum, the Midrash says. Which by the way, it's a Midrash some farshum say, L'chayim ulanivar that there's no such Midrash. The Rebbe has a order with many maramaken, where this is written in Midrash. But, but Aibishter would say the same thing. There is the Emunapshuta. You have to have Emunapshuta. And the best thing is a guy, bistach, uh, feels all of a sudden he starts feeling it's like Gilyear Malmaili, feels closer to Aibishter. That's fine, but that's not enough. Chabad teaches that there has to be Yesayda Yesaydis Raboda Chochma lei da sheyesh mozerishin, that you have to know the Ramad. You have to know. It's not la hamin. La hamin... In Sefer Hamitzvos, it says la hamin. And the same thing you should believe. Here it says to know. And it's not a stire. The Rebbe quotes both. It's not a stire. Why? Because they need both. You need the la hamin. You need to know it, even if you give them the Aibishter and that's it. But then if you don't understand... I-I don't want to get into hasbaras here. This is not a philosophical discussion. But if you don't understand, what is a pshat? I don't

21:11 Speaker 1 understand. I don't understand means my sechel disagrees. That's it. I don't see how this is so. I don't see where... W-w-- Prove it to me. I don't mind. So my sechel is fighting it. So imagine you believe in the Aibishter, you have everything. Every part of you is bottled to the Aibishter, except the most important part of you, your brain. Your brain doesn't accept it. He just give up. He says, "I'm overlooking the fact that I'm fighting you, and I nevertheless, you're winning." That can't be. You have to have the understanding. So the same thing with the Rebbe, you have to have understanding. It's very good, and there are some people to which that's all there is, the Rebbe and that's it. But you have to have-- You have to learn about and think about and hear about it, but that was always. Always. E-even that was easier when the Rebbe was here begashmius. So it was shouldn't giluyim that made you see. When you sat by fabrengen and you heard the Rebbe speak and maybe the kinyanim, that itself brought out in you to understanding. I, I remember standing there. I'll give you an example. I don't know why I'm picking this example. The example of when the Rebbe said the hadan, the first hadan under Rambam. I wasn't in my fabrengen. I was here. We had a hookup. It was mamash blew your mind to understand what the Rebbe is was much easier then. Look, no human being in the world was able

22:29 Speaker 1 to say it. It, it just shows this is a, a person that says, "I shall acheim." Two days ago, uh, no, today's Wednesday. Sunday, there was a-- Someone, they made a siyum on Mesichta Shabbos. Not, not in Shaar Ezer, which is a, a Chabad Shul. And I came there and I spoke. What did I speak? Everything I say is only from the Rebbe. Even if I don't mention it. The Gemara says that Rav Lozer didn't have to say Besheim of the Rebbe because

22:58 Speaker 3 The Rebbe, the Rebbe said once, uh,

23:02 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. So-- And he doesn't have to repeat it every time. So I didn't say, but it was obvious from the Rebbe. And the guy who made the siyum, he's a Chabad guy, but they're finding a man. So he walks. The next day in the morning, he tells me, "All you said is from the Rebbe, right? I'm sure he took it from Shamayim." How, how else could this heieshe think? He took it from Shamayim. There's, there's only someone who comes from Gan Eden or who is in Gan Eden could say such biurim which has both extremes. It's very gishmak, high biurim and very down to earth. And it's, it-- So when you see the Rebbe and hear it, so you get... It's talking, talking that part to you when you learn a sicha and you see you get nispa also. But I'm just saying then it was but easier, but nevertheless, you have to have misbaneh. Now, avada. Now, you have to have misbaneh in another prat. There's two isboneness you have to have. The isboneness of what a Rebbe is with all inyonim v'chassidis the Masbir. And at the same time, the isboneness that even though he's not here b'guf gashmi that we could see, he's still here, and he's still mashpia. And we have to have misbaneh in all the kashes that people have. How could you say that he's here? I'll give you an example. This is already more a nigleh. I don't know. This is

24:12 Speaker 3 You can say whatever you want, Rabbi Shapiro

24:16 Speaker 1 Whatever. If you want, you can cut it out. That's a short thing. No, whatever you do. I was standing. It was a few-- We came back after the week of Gimmel Tammuz. Came back, standing outside the yeshiva outside.

24:26 Speaker 3 You're saying Gimmel Tammuz, Teshune Dalet you came back from here.

24:28 Speaker 1 Teshune Dalet. Came back a week later, so maybe another few days. And a guy, someone, the car drives by, sees me, stops. There was a Rov here. One of the Rabbonim, he say-- he stops, says, "Oh, good I see you. I want to ask you a question. What's gonna be with all the shluchim now?" And how the feeling was called people didn't know. Everyone was confused what's gonna be. And he says, "Al pi halakha. Like this, till now we know shlucha shel adam k'meisi." So shel shliach has to be here. The mashaleach has to be here. Now that the mashaleach is not here, and they use-- The words that they use, I'm just using it 'cause halakha terms, even though I wouldn't use these words on the Rebbe, but the din is meisa mashaleach batla shlichis. So h-h-how are these people shluchim all now? It's a kashe. And people ask that kashe. Sincerely, some people criticize them. The Retnasha, a person, a serious person who knows what the lavich is, and he says, "How do you explain that?" So I don't know what they wish to So I told him, "I'll tell you how. I'll tell you how it works." There's a din like this. It says that there's no more smicha. The real smicha that used to be in the time of the Sanhedrin, there's no more smicha. Bot lo smicha. And b'meilah we can't pasken dinim. So that's why we... The Beth Din can't pasken din. They know it's a certain din we

25:44 Speaker 1 can't pasken. What about dinim of money? They still Beth Din could pasken monetary disputes. This they could pasken. Based on what if there's no smicha? So the Gemara said, for that, We are shlichim of those. The Beth Din now are shlichim of the original Sanhedrin. But meilah, since shlichim shlom kemayeh, so they have the right. But they only made it legat be' certain dinim, moment not legat be' everything else. The question is, how could they be shlichim? How could the Beth Din be shlichim when those people from the Sanhedrin two thousand years ago are not around anymore? How are you shlichim now? So I told him what the pshat is. The Gemara says in Eruvin that tzippur lei mes. The tzippur from now is not a new tzippur. Different-- The, the people are different, but the tzippur is a com-- is a, is an entity for itself. So the same tzippur from then. Now, the Sanhedrin were tzippur. That's the tzippur represented tzippur. Lei mes. So they're still around. So what we do now, we're shlichim of that, those Sanhedrin that were then because they are tzippur. So I said, "That's the pshat." You understand? I said, "The Rebbe is tzippur." Rashi says in Parashat Chukas, Rashi says that So the Nosie HaDor is the Dor, is the Tzippur. It's Tzippur lei mes. There's no, there's no... In halakha. So the shlichus is just as good of a shlichus as then. The shlichim are the same. It's hasbara. Somebody can zag ding and saying this

27:11 Speaker 1 is not a good hasbara, but you need a hasbara, so you have to think about it. Now, the best thing is, in addition to this, that you have an ongenumen in the zach. It's clear like day that the Rebbe is with us and everything true. But if you have a hasbara, your seichel is maskim. So you have to hasbara apiniga, you have hasbara apiksita, is the way I and the other generations that came into another guf gashmi, one Rebbe to the other. And now since it's so close to Mashiach, it doesn't have to be it's full, but that nekuda is still there. I'm trying to say that this needs to be done to be misbanen. What is a Rebbe? And then the prat, how is this Rebbe, the inyan of Rebbe work? Now, if someone has no questions and doesn't need an explanation, this is sehr good because you... I don't want to be meyer kashas. Yeah, so the hasbara that you gave to the Rosh Yeshiva- Yeah ... apiniga is basically an explanation that the Dor is defined by the Rebbe, that the Rebbe is the Nosie HaDor. So, so, so that's, that's the definition of the Dor. So- Okay ... I'm saying it's the same, it's, it's, it's that it's the same hasbara. It's the same, it's the same explanation. And therefore, and therefore it's... And that day, since he's a tzibur and he's continuing. But, but the hasbara would be because tzibur lei mes. It's not that... In halakha it's not. Not

28:32 Speaker 1 only lei mes, we say in ruchnius, he's still here, he's still beruchnis, all good zachen. We wanted to know bepel begashmius. He asked me this shaila. He said, "I have a halakha shaila," and he wasn't-- didn't mean to chep a zach. Halakha shaila, how does the shlich, a shluch on kemayeh say when there's no meshaleach begashmius? And I told him, in this, in the... By a Rebbe, there is no such thing. Just like by, just like by the Sanhedrin. It says because it's tzibur. The Rebbe is tzibur. So that, that's the... But there's all kinds of hasbaras that there is, and you have to think about it and to... It's not easy, but it's definitely there. So getting back to what we spoke before, the beginning and the end. There is what was before, and the Friediker Rebbe Z"L. That's because bechlal of things that the over melamed es ha'osit. You can't, you can't live with the over. The mamol. Not the Chassidim of Stretich. HaMolach. "Choch et timche zecher hamol." Like, you can't live with hamol what used to be like that. So then forget about hamol. You can't forget about hamol either. So the Friediker Rebbe used the lashon, "Ha'over melamed es ha'osit." They teach what's right. So normally, teachers who behavior... Like there's a letter from the Friediker Rebbe where he writes to the schools that they should teach history, Jewish history, divrei meysro, and gives the reason why. Because when you learn divrei meysro, you learn the mesirat nefesh of Yidden

29:49 Speaker 1 had all these generations. So it'll be meyer you to have mesirat nefesh. That's poshut pshat. The over gives you a keloch v'rasit. But in this case, it's more than that. You have to know the over. You know, we're saying that there is no over. All that is now too. What's all that? So you gotta know. That's where you gotta take a... Listen to people who were there. And not because the people who are there are, are nicer than you or better than you. People from-- that lived in the chofetz by the Rebbe are not bigger tzaddikim. You think like there's bochurim and galait now, greater tzaddikim, greater Chassidish in galait and no more. But they've poshut begashmius, they weren't there. So you have to hear from somebody to give you a tzair. That's why, again, the milah of the pictures or the milah of the videos is about it gives you a tzair. And you still don't have a tzair because I see from people who constantly watch videos, and they still ask me such questions. When they gave what... I said, "You didn't see it there? It's on the video." It's not the s- poshut it's not the same. So that's what, that's what has to go through the mind of a person. Folks dodim. There's a, there's a sicha of the Friediker Rebbe about this concept, about the asher yishleh ish kacheho, that he writes that when, when the Friediker Rebbe was a child, he saw a Chassidim of the Rebbe Ma'arash-

31:01 Speaker 4 Describing the Rabbi Nash singing Rosh Hashanah, Asher Le Shana Hakirah

31:05 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah

31:06 Speaker 4 And all of a sudden they all got up and started singing the niggun. And the Free Dikav writes, and the way the Free Dikav writes, very explanatory and very-

31:15 Speaker 1 Yeah

31:15 Speaker 4 ... detailed how you could pasha feel like you're, you're standing by the Rabbi Nash, like, at that moment. I think that's kind of the... I mean, the whole V'gadol Talavinka, the whole Seder is basically-

31:26 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah

31:27 Speaker 4 ... Zecher L'yetziat Mitzraim and remembering it, but without the Rabbi-

31:30 Speaker 1 You have to live it

31:31 Speaker 4 ... you know, yetziat Mitzraim is hayai mamesh, right? It's every single day it's happening in the Skir of the Naso. But remembering it in order for it to happen-

31:38 Speaker 1 And but mainly not only in order. It is Naso, when you have to remember it in such a way that it's Naso. Free Dikav has the sicha, the story with the guy who was a soldier in the army, and he was summoned once to the czar, and he was trying to describe. They asked him, "How did it feel?" So he's trying to describe every detail, how did, how he got ready to go into the czar, and then finally he's there, and finally standing in front of the door. I, I don't remember the details, but describing, and with such emotion. Finally, when it gets to the point that now he's ready to go in, he fainted when he told it over because he really relived it. But that's yourself. See, I was there, and this, I'm reliving what it is. We're talking here about people who were not there. Those that were there must do that too. They start, have to start thinking and talking. That's why sometimes by a fabreng and a fabreng, I try to talk. Someone ask him, "Why are you going through the details?" I'm trying to not talk to them. I'm trying to bring it back into my mind to re... And sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I mean, it depends. So to relive again, to you, you should feel that way. That, that's what it is. So, so that's what you gotta do now.

32:38 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm. Um, so but you, you're saying so this, so saying the, the fact of the matter is that... Okay. I, I, I think, I think we, I have the balance over here. Um, is someone supposed to... Let, let's say, I mean, you're, you're the mechanech children today. You know, I have my own children, and now it's already cliche me. So-

33:12 Speaker 1 The fathers already-

33:14 Speaker 4 Right

33:14 Speaker 1 ... were there.

33:15 Speaker 4 So it, it, I mean, uh, I was, I was born, but, you know. Um, so I think the only way... I'm saying this just highlights the importance of the individ- of every individual really, really taking this seriously as a, a, as an aveida that needs to be done because the reality, we know the reality that the, that the Rebbe is here. So but, you know, are we gonna... You can not be, be involved and let it, uh, fly by without you realizing 'cause it, 'cause it's, it's not the way it was. They could just be there. So I think this is, uh, I think Gimel Tammuz is for sure the day that we have to make sure that we're there, that we're actually, that we are, we, we are alive so we can, we, we, we can continue all of this.

33:59 Speaker 1 It has to be a cliche me, but a cliche me that's mevashel. You know the vort on the pill of panicher, that send somebody to the pill or whatever to ask him. So he, he said, "Rebbe, er doch nere a cliche me." So he said, "Rebbe, I think that was a losh. It might be something similar." Rebbe said, "Cliché nevua sim mavashel." In other words, you could be a cliché me, but it's so strong that it, uh, that... So cliché is not if, but you have to live it. If you live it, then when you give over... 'Cause certainly children, chapuf, if it's metanamis or it's just lip services, miret. So in order for the children to accept it, you have to, they have to see that, they have to feel. They don't even realize it, but they feel that you're living it, the meila they live it too. Even not the target.

34:43 Speaker 4 So the cliché me is j- is technically it's a cliché me, but-

34:46 Speaker 1 Yeah

34:46 Speaker 4 ... we're not, we're not, we're not a cliché me.

34:48 Speaker 1 We're not a cliché me.

34:48 Speaker 4 I, I, I'll give a full disclaimer. I don't c- consider myself a cliché me. But, uh, I, I'm, I'm, I mean, may- maybe sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. But I'm addressing this issue for ma- for ma- for many. I, I guess the aveida is even if you're technically a cliché me, but you're not.

35:05 Speaker 1 You should be in such a way. Right, right, right.

35:08 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm. Fine. So, so, right, so this, this is very important. So maybe hi- going back to the, to the, to the Free Dikav, Asher Ish El Ech Kachaka, maybe something that we can do in this conversation is, i- i- is live with the Rebbe and relive with the Rebbe through hearing from you. So may- maybe I'll focus, may- maybe let's focus a little bit on that a little bit. Um, so I understand that, understand you grew up in... I, I'm not sure where you were born, but you grew up in Cleveland, right? Is that, is that-

35:37 Speaker 1 I was born in France.

35:39 Speaker 4 After the war.

35:40 Speaker 1 Right after the war, yeah. After when my parents, they escaped Russia together with all those people. See them escaped Russia, Tofshazayan, came to France. First they were in Ge- Germany, in the DP camps, and they came to France, and I was born, mamash, the first week that they came there, and I was Cleveland. But by, for my, for my Bar Mitzvah-an, I, I went to learn to New York. So I came Elul Tofshazakof after my Bar Mitzvah, and that's where I stayed already. Till then, I also was by the Rebbe. So if you wanna know my personal history, I mean, just to think, I don't know, my personal history is not so mega, but it just-

36:16 Speaker 4 I, I'm interested in knowing because I don't know everyone else.

36:19 Speaker 1 Okay. No, I, I'm, I'm interesting in knowing from other people too. Just here, it's very interesting. I read-

36:23 Speaker 4 Yeah, yeah. I-

36:24 Speaker 1 Especially in the Acher when I read these articles of the interview with people and they tell stories of their own, I like it. It has ashpo because it's more... When it's personal, you have more shайkas to it.

36:34 Speaker 4 100%.

36:35 Speaker 1 We came to America in Tofshin Yud Gimel. Elul Tofshin Yud Gimel. Went to Yechidus. I was a little boy. I was six years old. That was my first time I was by the Rebbe in Yechidus with my family, my parents, brother, sister. Elul Tofshin Yud Gimel. I remember, and I'm usually embarrassed to say this over, but I have to say the truth. You have to be honest. The Rebbe asked me, and I remember like today because it le- I regret, what happened I regret so much. He asked me if I know how to say Shema I said, "Yes." I was six years old. And then the Rebbe says, "No, let's hear." And I was too shy, and I didn't say. We heard later that the same night, another family that came from Europe, from Russia to America, went into Yechidas with children, the Rebbe asked him, a kid, to say Shema, and he said, and the Rebbe gave him a silver dollar. I felt so bad that I didn't have... But you know, a kid is a kid. Well, not always did I have mazal when the Rebbe-- as young, when the Rebbe spoke. The second time I was tov shin yud chai, my father took me for-- So father used to go every year from Cleveland for What, what, what were you doing in Cleveland? Why was he in Cleveland? Cleveland, because the joint who took the refugees out, brought them, and they supported them. So they divided families in different cities. They were

38:04 Speaker 1 not gonna put everyone in New York. Some people they sent to Philadelphia, some people they sent to Detroit, some people they sent to Cleveland. We were on the sent to Cleveland. So they sent us to Cleveland. And the Rebbe said, "Tak we should go." And if we wouldn't go to Cleveland, they wouldn't support us. They, they had their quota, whatever they had. So we were in Cleveland. But from there, my father was a there, and he was from the But, uh, so for Simchat Torah, tov shin chai took me to, to the Rebbe, took him with him. So I was still young then. He held you in tov shin chai. My Bar Mitzvah is tov shin, tov shin, uh, I was born tov shin zayin, and this, I was 11 years old. So we came there, and I was there with Fabringen, and it was Hoshana Rabbah. The Rebbe would give like a Hoshana Rabbah to those people who didn't get there of Yom Kippur. Every year, like years later, he would give, even for the locals, he used to give throughout the whole week of And for the Orchim, not only Hoshana Rabbah, but all of Sukkot. But then it-- Most of the years it was he gave Erev Yom Kippur to those that came, and those that weren't there got the Hoshana Rabbah. So still a big line. A lot of people just came for Simchat Torah. It's not like years later. Standing in line, there was a long line of people there,

39:17 Speaker 1 and we all know that by these times, you can't stop and talk to the Rebbe, spend time when there's hundreds of people waiting in line. I came, I walked over with my father. The first thing the Rebbe did, turned around to me. He said, "What has to be learned, let's..." Out of the blue when there's hundreds of people in line. I wasn't ready for it then. What did you learn? Yeah. What did I learn? First, I learned in Cheder Besichta Bais. So I answered, "I learned Besichta Bais." So the Rebbe says to me, "Welche halachos du gelernzt?" What he really, I assume, meant in Gemara, like which Sugia. But that's-- I didn't take it that. I was a kid. Halachos, I told him, "Hilchas Sefer." We learned, I learned the Hilchas Sefer. So the Rebbe says to me, "Wie viel kelos blost mer Rosh Hashana?" So I said to the Rebbe, "Hundert." We all know. He asked how many kelos you blow. I said, "A hundred." We all know. Everyone knows. Every kid knows you blow a hundred. So the Rebbe asked me a question. All these hundred kelos, is the Midina DeGemara or not? This that you have to blow a hundred kelos, does it come from the Gemara? Everyone knows that Miderabbi you have to blow nine, which turned into thirty because we don't know Teruah, so it's thirty. The rest are not Miderabbi. Where did it come from? Is it from the Gemara? He asked me these words, "The hundred kelos Midina

40:39 Speaker 1 DeGemara." And I didn't know. I wasn't learned that. I didn't answer. The Rebbe saw that, so the Rebbe gave him Seleka, said like things you shouldn't take them Sukka, don't you remember? And we left. And I felt very, that as a loser, you know, I didn't know the answer. I asked adults, send like a people, no one knew the answer. Ask people now, they fucked up. You didn't, you didn't ask me yet. Yeah. Which one is? So that was Hoshana Rabbah tov shin yud tes. Then I was by the Fabringen. I was a kid. I was sitting there. I didn't know, understand thing. One thing I remember from one of the Fabringen Simchat Torah that made such an impression, I remember it like, like now. I looked in the Hanakos from those Fabringen, not a word of that. But the middle of the Fabringen, middle of the Sicha, I don't know about the guy he was. The Rebbe said that to do Birur HaMides, to purify your emotions, your attributes, is Ashvera Avoda. And then the Rebbe stopped and smiled, and he said, "Aderabbe, proof to us there then. Try it, you'll see." It's Ashvera Avoda. So that was what my memory from Tov Shin Chai. Then we went into Yechidas. I was so scared to go into Yechidas with my father because who knows, he might ask me more questions than I won't know. But went into Yechidas. That was the famous Fabringen known as the Fabringen from Kalton Schmutzig. When the downstairs was-

42:04 Speaker 1 Sorry. Still... Ah? Say, say the story. Yeah. Tell, tell you the story. One of the integral components of being a Hasid are the Chassidish Yamim Tovim and Yemei Depagra. Whether it's Hey Teves, Yud Shvat, Yud Alef Nissan, or Gimel Tamuz. These days give us an opportunity to connect with our Rabbeim, to connect with each other, and be better Chassidim. What is the story behind each of these days? How did the Rebbe commemorate and celebrate these days? And most importantly, what are the lessons, the takeaways, and the action items, HaMaiseh Huha Iker needed for each of these days? All of this and much, much more are answered in the new set recently published by Der Her. Our Days is a journey through the Chabad calendar in story, meaning, and practice. With over seven hundred beautiful glossy pages with elevated content, beautiful, beautiful photographs, you, your family, and friends will enjoy and live with each Chassidish Yamim Tov.

43:16 Speaker 4 This book is a must for every Lubavitcher home, for every shul, for every school. It is a perfect gift item. This will not collect dust. It will be used day after day, month after month, year after year. You can have this set. Go to derher.org/ourdays. Order your set today and start living like Chassidishe Yomim Tovim.

43:44 Speaker 1 There was no shul, no built shul. There was just the big sukkah. They called it the shalash. So at Sukkos, it was a sukkah, and during the year, they covered with canvas, and that's where the Rebbe was. So that Simchas Torah, it was covered with canvas, and that's where the Rebbe farbrengen. The canvas had holes, and it rained in, pouring, and it was mud. I remember the Rebbe, even when he came out, they had to walk on benches because he couldn't walk on the floor. So when it came the next mo- the, the, the next morning, the Gabbai stood by the Rebbe's door and said, "We can't daven downstairs. We have to daven upstairs because unten is kalt un shmutzig. Downstairs is cold and dirty." So by the-- One of the farbrengens, the next farbrengen, the Rebbe spoke about it, and the Rebbe said, "Mit geschickt a shliach to find out what's doing, and a shlishkin shliach. It's not just a shliach. It's a shliach ven hashamayim." And the shliach brought back the message that it's kalt un shmutzig. It's still cold by us and dirty. And the Rebbe went out, "How could that be? We passed Elul, we passed Rosh Hashanah, we passed Aseres Yemei Teshuva, and Yom Kippur, Dalet Yomim, Yom Kippur, the Sukkos. We passed Sukkos already. We passed Chalhei Hames Sukkos, and we passed Shemini Atzeres. When it comes Simchas Torah, it was noch out kalt un shmutzig." The Rebbe was crying, and I remember he put his head down on

45:02 Speaker 1 the table, which was very some-- a few odd times also, but put down crying, and you could hear him out loud crying. It was very... That was the farbrengen of kalt un shmutzig. Just by the way, if we're talking about it already, Tov Shin Chof Gimel, which is only five years later, Erev Yutza Kislev, the shul was built already, the electricity went. So the, the, so the, the Gabbai stood by the Rebbe also by the door and told the Rebbe we-- And since there was no electricity, there was no lights, and there was no heating. He told the Rebbe, "We can't daven downstairs because unten is kalt un finster." When we heard that he said it, I couldn't understand the guy. And the Rebbe taka davened upstairs, but farbrengen, if I bring downstairs in the dark, daven Mincha downstairs after-- Even though those years the Rebbe would go back upstairs to daven Mincha, daven Mincha downstairs. By the end of the farbrengen, the Rebbe said, that's the last sicha, that a few years ago, the story that happened, he said with kalt un shmutzig, "But I wanna tell a story." Se geven a alt eide. There was an old lady that she started reading in Sanhedrin the stories of, of Chumash, and she read the story of Mechiras Yosef, where they sold Yosef, and she was crying such a Rachmana on Yosef. They sold him, and she was crying. Next year, when she read it again, she wasn't crying. So someone asked her, "Why aren't

46:29 Speaker 1 you crying? You cried last year." She says, "Huh, now I'm not crying." "Why didn't you remember what happened last year?" And she-- A krich shvaiter, he went again and can't cry for it. So the Rebbe said, "Ich veshen nisht shpoil." I'm not getting so excited now from this. But that was Tov-- Purim Tov-- Simchas Torah Tov Shin Chai. And the next-- Then from then on, every Simchas Torah till including Nun Daled-- No, including Nun He. I came to New York, and since then I stopped, but I used to come every-- So I was there every Simchas Torah since then. But anyway, from Tov Shin Chof, I was-- I learned in New York. I learned in Bedford till Tov Shin-

47:06 Speaker 4 So every Simchas Torah from Tov Shin Chai, you're, you're, you're-

47:09 Speaker 1 So I was there by the Nighing Nigunim. That's one of the things to remember, which is to relive the gishmak. And now I'm talking about the gishmak from Nevsha Bahamis, not only from Nevsha Lekis. The gishmak of being by the Nighing Nigun, a whole year you waited for the Nighing Nigun on Simchas Torah.

47:25 Speaker 4 Can you describe a little bit what, what, what Siyum is like when the Rebbe-

47:28 Speaker 1 The Nigh-

47:29 Speaker 4 -Nighing Nigunim?

47:29 Speaker 1 The way it started, I wasn't there. It was before my time. But after Simchas Torah at night, there was-- Siyum was like this. First, it was a farbrengen. Farbrengen started nine o'clock to went till probably twelve thirty, one-twelve zman. That was Simchas Torah night. The Rebbe left for about a half hour. They changed the structure of the shul, so it should be ready for Hakafos. The Rebbe would come down for Hakafos. So Hakafos, he came down about one-thirty zman. Then there was-- Hakafos took a few hours. After Hakafos, the Rebbe went upstairs to eat the Yom Tov meal because they used-- Till to, till as long as the Rebbe Rashab was alive, the Rebbe ate his Yom Tov meals upstairs. He went up.

48:04 Speaker 4 After Hakafos.

48:04 Speaker 1 After the-- After Hakafos. You can imagine what time that was. So the meal finished probably chazeh is, is five o'clock in the morning or so. I don't know. I'm just throwing out numbers. Then the Rebbe came downstairs, and it wasn't officially to teach a Nighing Nigun. He came down to distribute mashke to all those who take upon themselves a hesifer in Lubavitch Hasidus. And while the Rebbe was disturb-distributing it, he would teach a new nigun, and then he would ask people to sing over the nigun. Usually, he would give an introduction to the nigun, where the nigun comes from or the meaning of the nigun is. The main one what that people remember is Shamil's nigun, where he told the whole story of Shamil, and the Rebbe was crying. That was Tov Shin Yud Tes. But I remember-

48:47 Speaker 4 You were there?

48:48 Speaker 1 -Tov Shin Chai. I was there Tov Shin Chai when it was, I think, the nigun, some of that nigun. And then I remember Atah Bechoratona. By Atah Bechoratona, Reb Shmu-- Reb Sholom Araza was shichen, was laying on the Rebbe's-- by the Rebbe's feet crying, crying, crying. People said, "Shh." And the Rebbe said, "Lost them, lost them, lost them." But it's all Siyum from them, but it was such a, such a feeling. But I do remember Tov Shin Chof Daled when the Rebbe came in, and the way the Rebbe started, I told one of my friends, "I'm afraid this is the last year." What made me think so? 'Cause right away the Rebbe started saying, "I say always that this is only for those who take upon themselves a hesifer in Lubavitch Hasidus. This is not like Koshe Bracha that everyone stands in line to take." And I see little kids standing in line. So you should know that he said it very shtark, so you see that he's upset. And the Rebbe started giving the mashke and teaching the nigun. But nobody actually moved to take the kids out or to sh-- And it continued for some odd reason. It's from Shamyim. How could it be? As long as no one felt that it's up, there should've been, I guess, the Avodam Sader. I don't know, but it wasn't. So the Rebbe stopped, and the Rebbe said, "I said that this is only for those." And B'meile, what's gonna happen now, in fifteen minutes, it's

50:10 Speaker 1 gonna be over. I'm gonna stop. And the Rebbe added these words, I don't know if it's written in Anoch or not, I don't think so, but I'm telling you this is klar vider tog, clear as day. And the Rebbe finished off in saying, "Yet, un yetz vet mezen vos vet zein v'di ale chachomim vos blaibn alem ol bis n'tsof." The chachomim always waited to get kasha bracha till the Rebbe's almost finished, they come running and you have to... So look, so the Rebbe, now I'm telling you l'chatichila I'm gonna stop in 15 minutes. Me vet zen yetz vet mezen vos vet zein v'di ale chachomim vos vart nal mo bis n'tsof. It came, it was a quarter, give or me a sofek if it was a quarter to 6:00 or a quarter to 7:00. I think it was a quarter to 7:00, but I can't say sure. The clock was there and I looked when it, this clock struck 4:00, 6:00 or 7:00. I think it was 7:00. The Rebbe took the cup and put it down. That's it. He's not giving anymore. In the meantime, he taught a second nigun. So first he taught a nigun ki yo anu amech, and then he taught the, the other nigun for ho leinu.

51:12 Speaker 5 Okay.

51:13 Speaker 1 And he said, because next year I'm not sure if there'll be ano- no nigun or not, but mainly he taught it. Next year when he finished hakafos, he walked out and he said, "As I said last year, there won't be a nigun this year." B'meile, he started singing. So I remember he started singing ho leinu, last year's nigun. I have a big argument with Shmolu. He taught us a no, the Rebbe start atah vecharta. It's like that's not the way I remember. Good, I don't know if the Rebbe-

51:41 Speaker 5 So you, you're saying that I think the way people always explain it is that the Rebbe did it until the Rebbe Zachana was in Stalag and Tachshave, and then he stopped. But the way you're saying it, I mean, obviously we don't know for sure, but it sounds like this is a decision the Rebbe made then-

51:59 Speaker 1 I don't know. The Rebbe said-

52:00 Speaker 5 Well, whatever. Something was going on that year before

52:02 Speaker 1 ... he said it, he's not sure what's gonna be next year. In other words-

52:05 Speaker 5 Yeah, he said, for sure the Rebbe said that.

52:07 Speaker 1 That's what I'm saying, so-

52:08 Speaker 5 Sure the Rebbe, yeah.

52:09 Speaker 1 So it's-

52:11 Speaker 5 So there was a little-

52:12 Speaker 1 ... could've connected that because of that I what shot yontif you can't sing a nigun, yontif is no available. It's not the portion that-

52:20 Speaker 5 And, and the Rebbe-

52:20 Speaker 1 It seems connected. I also think it's connected, but I-- you can't know.

52:24 Speaker 5 There's a Nilsa D'Chama-

52:24 Speaker 1 There was another time that the Rebbe-

52:25 Speaker 5 The Rebbe felt like he wasn't taking-- people weren't taking it seriously, so.

52:28 Speaker 1 Right. They stopped with Tachshave. The Rebbe wanted they should sing, uh, sing, uh, net, net. And the Rebbe-- and no one knew the nigun. And the Rebbe said, "It's for Tachshave, I would teach the nigun, but because of my matzah frotti I can't do it." So he did hold himself back, but that was a weekday.

52:47 Speaker 5 Yeah.

52:47 Speaker 1 It was Simchas Torah. I don't know, but this is things that we could speculate, we could think that some people think this. I'm not sure.

52:53 Speaker 5 Um-

52:53 Speaker 1 I'm not sure

52:54 Speaker 5 ... the Rebbe said something similar about why he's stopping Yichud this. That people are not, uh, minutz ha'sheis, that people are not-

53:02 Speaker 1 Yeah

53:02 Speaker 5 ... utilizing it properly.

53:04 Speaker 1 Not utilize it, yeah. When them taruis shailas from a Musa Sefer, people ask shailas in a Veda, they take it out of a Musa Sefer. Nobody ask shailas, and then next year you go in and you say, "I didn't keep what you said." Yes, last year Rebbe demented and all things stopped. And the Rebbe when he stopped being Makdir Hasicha one year-

53:21 Speaker 5 The Kadesichas

53:22 Speaker 1 ... Kadesichas, so the Rebbe referred to it, that referred to stopping the no nigun. He said, "I made it as a tine." No one like took it serious. And when they stopped Hanukah Gilda, the Rebbe used to give the Bochum every year Hanukah Gilda Hanukah. So the Rebbe referred to it and as a tine that people really didn't pay attention so much to it. Stopping the Maimonim, the Rebbe said that he stopped. Um shmuot haray, he says, "I, I push in a Maimer can't seek him and roof the sun."

53:51 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

53:53 Speaker 1 So these are all things that when you talk about it, it brings back. The apostle get says, "Of the hamuna venichras m'pipiem." So I think it's a version of Hashem tov. Of the hamuna means the hamuna was lost. Venichras m'pipiem, it's cut out of their mouth. He's complaining. The Navi is complaining that people are losing hamuna. I think of Hashem tov taiches. Of the hamuna, hamuna is... You know why the hamuna is lost? Because venichras m'pipiem, stop talking about it. If we talk about it, so this talking itself is important that people should get the picture. And I always tell you, I this maybe causes you to feel jealous. Say you're good. It's exactly what the Kavona is. Be jealous. Feel, feel bad that you were there, but mainly you have to work on the having it now as much as possible b'gashmiyus.

54:38 Speaker 5 Yeah. Um, so and every year, so interesting, so every Simchas Torah you would come to the Rebbe. You already had a shul in Miami?

54:50 Speaker 1 That was years later, but-

54:51 Speaker 5 Same, but while you had-- you already had a shul in Miami-

54:53 Speaker 1 I came to Miami in after Simchas Torah Tov Shin Lamed Dalet. So till then I was always, I was in New York. Simchas, I lived there. I was in Yeshiva. I was in... I learned in some '70. I came to Beth for Tov Shin Hof and Hof. Learned there till Hof, middle of Hof, Tammuz Hof Gimel. Then I learned some seven till I got married, Tov Shin Lamed Alef. Then I learned in Kailos. I was there. But then afterwards I used to come also, used to come Bistami, Tratis, and some other times, and then came Simchas Torah. So I was always there Simchas Torah, and I had my place. Later years when they made the shul bigger, I had to move back, but I had my place right by the Rebbe. Simchas Torah, by the Rebbe I would stand. Rebbe's bima, where the Rebbe stood, I stood there by Hakafos together with Reb Yael, Reb Yael place. And since it was after Fabregen and there was no Hazore, so quietly between Hakafos, Reb Yael quietly would gather with me the Sicha, the Nekudos, the Rosh HaProkin could they to remember. So that was-

55:51 Speaker 5 This is all the years you're talking about when you were a bachur?

55:53 Speaker 1 When I was a bachur, right. Till, yeah, later when I left is when I was a bachur, yeah.

56:00 Speaker 5 Uh, 'cause you were a part of the-

56:02 Speaker 1 Part of Hazore

56:03 Speaker 5 ... the whole, whole, the whole story with that.

56:04 Speaker 1 The whole story, yeah, which everyone knows

56:07 Speaker 5 I don't know if everyone knows, but, uh, uh, but you, but you stood next to the Rebbe by the farbrengen.

56:13 Speaker 1 I stood next to the farbrengen, and here we made special to stand there, and I was... Because I stood there, I, I was able to see things, hear things, the moshiach-

56:22 Speaker 5 Ah, so you-

56:22 Speaker 1 I saw myself.

56:23 Speaker 5 So you got a place-

56:24 Speaker 1 No, I was standing right there. I got a place right there. Right in front of the Rebbe. I stood in front of the Rebbe, at place, at two feet from the Rebbe. The Rebbe was standing on the bimah, and I was on the floor.

56:32 Speaker 5 Yeah.

56:32 Speaker 1 And there were the poles there, you know, the bimah had the poles on the, the wall, the mechit, the wall of the bimah. So I was standing there, and we used to talk. I remember I saw the Rebbe put his hand into his pocket to take out his handkerchief, and when he picked up his yarmulke, I saw the gartel inside.

56:48 Speaker 5 On the, on the tzitzit. On the shirt.

56:51 Speaker 1 On the shirt. I don't know if it's on the tzitzit. People connect. Maybe it was the same thing. I don't know. 'Cause the Friediker Rebbe said on the Rebbe that get tagartl aganzn tog. I don't know if he means the gartel on the tzitzit.

57:02 Speaker 5 It's the belt on the shirt.

57:03 Speaker 1 I don't know. I saw the-

57:04 Speaker 5 So you saw-

57:05 Speaker 1 I saw my own eyes. I saw the things, the, the... Like people talking, things you talk. You have to know one thing. What people say lav davka is true. That's what the... A fill when I said this v'chraynus, I made sure only to say, "Oh, I heard it from a kleider isn't or I was there myself." But stories as such, so what, what people say, when you see it... So this I saw, I, as I say, I'm able to say when they say the Rebbe had a gartl aganzn tog, I saw it on, uh, myself. Under the shirt, when he picked up to see, I saw. When the guys from the Israeli Consulate used to come, those years, I was able to hear the Rebbe talk. I remember this was by Yom Kippur War, five thousand and seven hundred and eleven. I was still standing then. I remember. I overheard the Rebbe stood there at least forty-five minutes or so while the Elul was waiting. The Rebbe told them that they should go into Damascus. The Rebbe spoke to them. I remember the answer that Damascus can't, the tanks can't go 'cause it's too rocky. The Rebbe, I don't know what he, I don't remember what he said, but he's like laughing. It's a joke. They can't go with the rocks. What kind, what kind is it? And he said, "I want you to go... The, the right thing is to go and take over Damascus and not to keep it." To go. And he

58:14 Speaker 1 said it by farbrengen also. "You should take over Damascus and then give it back." Mir gedenkt zach. Again, this I can't say for sure. Mit dach zach, he said. That's, I, I'm pretty sure. But, you know, I started to think it's fake is that he said, "Go take... Go Damascus, take it over." I think he said, "Go into the banks, take out all the money and leave."

58:35 Speaker 5 Hmm.

58:35 Speaker 1 Something like that, I think, anyway. But that was the benefit of standing there. But I was standing there very close. But I could not have the close place to the Rebbe sakafé. Couldn't have both.

58:47 Speaker 5 You had to choose which one.

58:49 Speaker 1 Gemara. The Rebbe quoted this Gemara. When the Rebbe, when this Miyyehudim, so the Rebbe said people should go... One year, the Rebbe said people should go in the shuls on Tisha B'Av and speak about Miyyehudim. And anybody who speaks about Miyyehudim on Tisha B'Av in the shuls, the Rebbe will give him a dollar. No dollars then. We're talking those years. Which year was it? Five thousand and seven maybe. So, and they did... I, I remember I went, I went both times, Friday at, at Tisha B'Av at night and next night. Actually, I came to the Spanish Shul in, in Borough Park, and I asked the gabbai there if I could speak two minutes about Miyyehudim. He said no. He walked out, and the minyan finished. I got up, and I started speaking. I spoke about it for two minutes. By the time he heard about it, he came running, I was finished already. But anyway, I remember I got a dollar from the Rebbe. People who were Amerkeshlach, Bochurim Amerkeshlachs, weren't there. So after they came back, they wrote to the Rebbe, "We heard about it, so we also spoke about Miyyehudim in the shul. We want a dollar." So the Rebbe first of all answered that you got... Whenever you went to Amerkeshlach, Reb Akiva give each group two dollars from the Rebbe. So you got your dollar. Besides that, he quoted the Gemara in Yuma. It says when the people would stand and watch the king go to, go to the mikveh or

1:00:02 Speaker 1 go... And some people would watch him laying the tefillin, but you couldn't do both. V'lo mipi, not because you're not allowed to, because if you had a place here, you couldn't do it there. Same thing here, you couldn't do... So I didn't have that, but you could see from far. But, uh, most of that sakafé is I was there. I was there when the Rebbe... I was standing right there when the Rebbe got his heart attack. 'Cause I came from... I was still standing there.

1:00:23 Speaker 5 So you're already, you're already in shul then.

1:00:25 Speaker 1 Yeah, I was there for a f- few years, but I-- when I came back, I had my place.

1:00:28 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:00:29 Speaker 1 That's one thing, I had my place. So I stood next to Rebbe. I was standing there, and I saw Rebbe looking to the crowd. I saw the Rebbe's face go white, mamish like a sheet, pale. And Rabbi Groiner was standing right there. No one knows I'm telling you. People won't maybe believe me. I pulled Rabbi Groiner by his kapote. I was on the floor. He was standing on the bimah. I pulled him. Learn as it tooks around to me, he said, "Give the Rebbe his chair." And as I s-

1:00:59 Speaker 5 He didn't notice.

1:01:00 Speaker 1 He didn't notice 'cause he was standing here. The Rebbe was in front of him. "Give the Rebbe the chair." As I said it, I don't know if the Rebbe heard it or not, the Rebbe turned around to him and pointed at the chair. That's when the Rebbe sat down. So I was there, right, right standing right there, mamish, inches, uh, two feet away maybe.

1:01:23 Speaker 5 And the Rebbe sitting on the chair in the middle of hakafas was a-

1:01:25 Speaker 1 Yeah, it was a-

1:01:26 Speaker 5 -shockwave.

1:01:27 Speaker 1 Yeah. But I saw before her. Then when they started screaming, they knocked the windows out, and they started screaming, uh, that people, "Wasser, wasser." So they brought from the sink across the other room, they brought the water. And people write in the Yemanim, you can't believe everything it says. They write that the Rebbe didn't... Said, "I can't do it because it's, uh, no sukkiah before kiddush." The Rebbe didn't say anything. The Rebbe just dismissed it. But you know why? Besides the sukkiah and the kiddush, dirty, a dirty b- a dirty quarter, the Rebbe's gonna drink it and make him more sick than, than anything. But the Rebbe didn't want. We didn't say anything. We just assumed that this is before kiddush and before... And outside of the sukkiah, it should be not ceres. Well, I was standing there, sat there. I had the-

1:02:15 Speaker 5 No. And so you stood there later, the later years also?

1:02:19 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, later. Until they made it bigger, and then they moved everyone away, so we could... In the year, back the next year, the year Tov Shelamat Es, that's when they made it people shouldn't stand so close, so there should be more air. I was there two Tov... Even though my wife gave birth on Shabbos, and Simchat Torah was, Shemini Atzeret was Sunday night. I took a plane on Rosh Hashanah, and I came, and I don't know why I-- Tov Shelamat Es, impossible to stay home for Tov-- for Simchat Torah. The year after the heart attack, and the Rebbe is gonna come out to Akofas, impossible. Impossible. So I came back.

1:03:01 Speaker 5 And what did your wife say?

1:03:04 Speaker 1 Had no choice, I don't know. No, anyway, she was in the hospital. So I told her, "I can't do anything. I can't... Hospital is not next to the house. So what's gonna be anyway? I have to give my children out to different people to stay, and I'm not gonna be with you anyway. So what's the difference? You don't think you're gonna be there." And so I went. People couldn't believe it. I saw people on Rosh Hashanah, and I said, "I told them I got a mazel tov. I had a boy." "When did you have a boy?" "Yesterday." Anyway, but that's how it is. There's certain things, you know, it was-- I said, "That's not possible." On the test not to come.

1:03:38 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm. Yeah, and saying this is, uh, you need, you need the oxygen.

1:03:44 Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. No, but this time I've added that year when it's right after the heart attack. I was standing there, on the si- I'm standing there, and I see, and the Rebbe made a faradstov, not so strong, but one very long, standing there by a, one of the Akofas like this. I see Salma Gurari pointing to Ira Weiss, Dr. Weiss, making like this, like, "Go over to the Rebbe. Tell him to stop." I mean, it was still the Rebbe heart was not to the boy, and he didn't know what to do, Weiss, but it was on Gurari. So he started walking closer to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe noticed him coming closer. The Rebbe made him like this, "."

1:04:27 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm. And then, um, saying it was, uh, that the whole event of Tov Shelamat Es was like, um, it ca-it came out, out of nowhere, but then, but then aft- I'm saying afterwards is, uh-

1:04:43 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:04:43 Speaker 5 From Shelamat Es onwards is, is a whole new, a whole new Gili.

1:04:48 Speaker 1 A whole new Gili. True. Which as nice no one thought is possible. You looked at the Rebbe, the Rebbe is not Chayav, not things like this should happen. This-

1:04:58 Speaker 5 Wasn't there something in Tov Shechavdaled?

1:05:01 Speaker 1 Yeah, but that didn't change the Rebbe's, it didn't change the Rebbe's thought, the Rebbe's, like, da-daily work and things he's came to study.

1:05:08 Speaker 5 The Rebbe had, the Rebbe had a heart attack then, Tov Shechavdaled?

1:05:11 Speaker 1 Yeah, a small heart attack.

1:05:12 Speaker 5 You knew about it when you were bachon?

1:05:14 Speaker 1 Then some people knew, yeah. We knew a little still, right. No one knew. No one really knew.

1:05:20 Speaker 5 No, and it didn't disturb-

1:05:21 Speaker 1 No, but there were a time the Rebbe went home at night like this, he would go home eleven, twelve o'clock at night. He went home nine o'clock.

1:05:27 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:05:27 Speaker 1 And it wasn't-

1:05:28 Speaker 5 So you're saying in Shelamat Es no one... It wa- it wasn't possible, such a thing.

1:05:32 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah. The thing was not, not Elul Hadass on anybody. There should be a heart of the Rebbe. It's not Chayav. It's a different, you know, you looked at different, uh... But, you know, the Elul got to sh- to tzedek the man from that.

1:05:48 Speaker 5 So you're saying the fact that the Rebbe recovered right away reinforced the attack.

1:05:53 Speaker 1 It's a question of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a no, it's a question of that. That's Chayav different. There were no, no one thought anything else.

1:06:03 Speaker 5 And that's also... So that's, that's, uh-- We still don't understand the Chazain Adig and what the Hamazek is. So we still-- It doesn't make any sense.

1:06:11 Speaker 1 Right, right, right, right.

1:06:14 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:06:15 Speaker 1 We have no eyes for it, yeah. So later on, the Rebbe said when those bochurim were in the fire, the car fire, when they went to a chasunah, there was a fire-

1:06:24 Speaker 5 Say, say, say, say, say.

1:06:26 Speaker 1 No, there was, there was a chasunah for one of the, the-- A chavrah of my kitah, but I was, like, from the newer ones because I wasn't there all year, so I didn't go to that chasunah. It was out of town. And on the way back, there was a fire, and they got hurt. And then-- But the, and the Rebbe actually had written before, before that, in a letter in the Muftakoli, he added the vort from Gdesia Elian, "Az noch a sreif vevert men reich," after a sreif he become richer. But that vort I'm trying to bring out is one vort that he spoke with a bringin about it, and he said the reason it happened is for the clearest mimdeim, it's from the wonders of the Ibbshteig itself. In other words, there's no... Basically, he was saying he has no explanation why it happened. 'Cause the bochurim were talking, "Emes a good bochurim," and there is a... So all the different things that took place, you know, throughout all these years and experiences, some experience that blighten, I feel like small things, but sometimes it stays in you. The Moishe Tov Shechavai when the Rebbe down for the omit. Who lit the candles? So Rabbi Shalom Yisroel Chadekov, Rabbi Chadekov's son, he used to do that. He used to light the candles before Shacharit, before Mincha, before Ma'ariv. There was one day that he asked me be- after stay there that this day he can't be here by Mincha, so he asked me to

1:07:47 Speaker 1 light the candles. Boom, somebody got married the night before. He told me it was with Reyna's daughter, and if I could come and help him at this to set up his house. So I said, "I can't go because I have to be here on time when the Rebbe-- before the Rebbe comes in to light the candles." "Don't worry. You'll be finished. You'll be finished." I went to the house, and he nudged me, "Stay more, stay more." I said, "I can't. I have to leave now." And the last minute I left, and it was middle of the winter, and with a coat and with a scarf, and I saw it's late, the Rebbe's coming out any minute. So I ran, I didn't even take off my coat. I ran straight. Everyone was waiting for Mincha. I ran straight into the shul in my coat, in my scarf. I even had one of the gloves on or something, and I took the c- the matches, I started lighting the candles. And as I'm lighting the candles, the Rebbe walked in. And the Rebbe walked in, and he stood there waiting for me. Imagine I'm standing there looking like an idiot, and the Rebbe is standing next to me waiting for me to light it. I couldn't even light. It's in the

1:08:54 Speaker 5 What's the feeling?

1:09:10 Speaker 1 What, the feeling now?

1:09:11 Speaker 5 No, I'm saying way, way. Yeah.

1:09:13 Speaker 1 No, the feeling of, of how could I do such a thing?

1:09:15 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:09:16 Speaker 1 That was feeling. Standing in front of the Rebbe mamish like a... In front of the king standing and, and, and light, standing. If you're standing and doing something you would before, the Rebbe has to wait. Even the Rebbe is a second, Rebbe is one minute has to waste his time, and standing there and, and lighting. You do that before? That's why I was planning to. That's why it's like a bet that I can't come. No, no, it's a good nudist and slept into his house. Anyway, but this is something that, you know, leaves an impression. All the... How the whole time being, living, the whole life is seven seventy was living with the Rebbe. That's what, that's how it was. Especially-

1:09:51 Speaker 5 When did you come, when did you come to seven seventy?

1:09:53 Speaker 1 To learn-

1:09:53 Speaker 5 You said, you said already

1:09:54 Speaker 1 ... Tamuz Chof Gimel, I remember we came. But, uh, the whole life was, especially those who were more involved in the Sichas. So it was all around the Habrengens and around what the Rebbe said. Then when you're involved in first the Rebbe made the Chezrim, and then we were involved in making the Hanachos. So it was much involved.

1:10:15 Speaker 5 But hang on. So how, what, what happened over there w- that you got, that the Bochum got involved in the... Before it was just the Rebbe doing it?

1:10:24 Speaker 1 Yes. Oh, the Rebbe li- the Bochum who helped, but not official. Other Bochum, other Bochum said, a lot of Bochum said-

1:10:29 Speaker 5 So what was the whole official thing to make that? Why, why, why was that important?

1:10:32 Speaker 1 I believe, I've not even... I never verified it, but I think Rebbe Yoel wrote to the Rebbe.

1:10:37 Speaker 5 He said it is hard for him to do it.

1:10:38 Speaker 1 Hard for him to do it himself. He needs people to be involved more. So that's when the Rebbe I-- So all I know is we's sitting at seven seventy. Vichvat at night, the night of Vichvat, and Rabbi, Rabbi Yomun Klein comes in looking for a few guys. He had names, and he found guys he was looking for. He said, "Rabbi Chadak wants to see you." Those years, Rabbi Chadak wants to see you, it was mamish showing something. So we went in and-

1:11:01 Speaker 5 What year, what year are we talking about?

1:11:02 Speaker 1 Tov Shohsov.

1:11:04 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:11:05 Speaker 1 That's fifty-nine years ago.

1:11:10 Speaker 5 Okay.

1:11:10 Speaker 1 You know what I mean? It's a long time. And, uh, he s- he said the Rebbe asked. He said, "Call..." Usually when you say things to the Rebbe, he wouldn't say the Rebbe, the name of the Rebbe. He just would say, "This is what is, we are asking you to do." The Rebbe asked if you would be ready to become, I don't remember the

1:11:45 Speaker 5 Who was, who was the group?

1:11:47 Speaker 1 It was Reb Shloime Darki and Reb Ephraim Pekarsky and myself, Reb Shalom Mirlivitan. And he said that-

1:11:59 Speaker 5 Nach, Nach and Spiro? He wasn't-

1:12:00 Speaker 1 No.

1:12:01 Speaker 5 Okay.

1:12:01 Speaker 1 He wasn't part of the group. Either was Reb Galitsky, even though Reb Galitsky was writing the Sicha. He used to write Hanachos. I used to go over it again. I used to take off and add whatever it was, but we... But I don't know why. I can't say who chose the names. I don't know. I don't know. So we went in, and... But the next day he said, "Look, the Rebbe asked, but why didn't you guys go over to the Rebbe for this appoint, being appointed by the Fabregas of Yichvat?" Then the Rebbe said, he said, "Since they didn't go, let them come Shabbos. They'll be a Fabregas, let them come over." So Shabbos, we went up to the bimah, standing all four of us. And as we walked over, Rabbi Chadak got up from his chair to the Rebbe to tell him what we're there for. So the Rebbe said, But he turns around and he says, like saying, "What are you here for?" So the first one standing says, "I take it upon myself to help Hazore." Then he turned to next each one. You too. He wanted each one to verbally say it. Then we went down to our place. Rebbe Yoel was act-- then standing on the other side. So the Rebbe turns around to him, and he said, "Let him also say L'chaim." Then he said, "Well, or let them come to you, or you go to them." So he started coming to us, and the Rebbe said to

1:13:19 Speaker 1 him, In other words, let them go to you. So we went over on his side, and then the Rebbe told us again all to drink a full cup of wine. And then he turned around and he said that the parents of the Bochum who are here should also say L'chaim. So Reb Shalom Mirlivitan's father was there. His grandfather, Reb Shmulivitan, also said L'chaim, said something to the Rebbe. And then the Rebbe said, "Who else?" So Reb Shloime Darki's father wasn't there. My father wasn't there. He was in Cleveland. Reb Ephraim Pekarsky's father was there, and he was sitting... No, the Rebbe sitting up front. He was down one of the tables. The Rebbe says out loud to him, "Say L'chaim." Then the Rebbe says to him, Which posher shad means that the son is greater than the father. But in that Fabregas, in the Sicha before, the Rebbe brought the Chassidishe posher that And we say, he also said L'chaim. And from then on, we started working. So it's even though the Hazore, the, the Sichas Hanachos were loved after connected to these fi- four exactly, but that's when we started giving out the Hanachos. Till then, Reb Yoel used to write and the... But he stopped because he had to do the Sefer Ha'erek.

1:14:29 Speaker 5 Sefer Ha'erek.

1:14:29 Speaker 1 The Rebbe wanted to do it, so-

1:14:31 Speaker 5 The Hanachos that you were writing, this is, it was just for Hanachos that are not Muge, right? It has nothing to do with the Kote Sichas.

1:14:40 Speaker 1 That's it. This is a separate issue. Kote Sichas is a separate issue. This is just writing the Hanachos of Fabregas. And I remember when we started doing it and thinking of giving it out, there was a discussion amongst us. The, the payla worked like this. Those years, Rabbi Galitsky would sit by Hazore and take notes. Then he would type up a Sicha. He would give it to me, and I would go through it and add my five cents, and then would add and write or whatever it is. Then we decided to give it out, and this was like something illegal because it was only Reb Yoel was the one. So we did a discussion, what should write on the bottom?

1:15:17 Speaker 5 And then, and I found wasn't-- didn't, didn't Reb Yael want, want this?

1:15:22 Speaker 1 It wasn't officially made that we should give out. No. No.

1:15:26 Speaker 5 So officially, Reb Yael was still writing down the-

1:15:27 Speaker 1 He was still writing. Yeah. So whatever he wrote, he wrote. Whatever he didn't, he didn't, and most he didn't already. So we decided-

1:15:33 Speaker 5 You were doing it.

1:15:34 Speaker 1 Yeah. So we deci-- So Rabbi Golitsky would write. I would look it over and participate in the writing except the resembling Yontef Fabrengen. Rabbi Katz, himself, Katz, the Ramah Refoel Shlemer. So he would f- as soon as the demand was over, he would say, Baruch hamavdel or make Havdalah, and take... He had a pad hidden there where he was standing, and take notes, Pshat Fabrengen. And after Fabrengen, next few days, I would sit with him, and we would make a Hanoche from Fabrengen. But we had a shailah what to call it, to write Hanoche Biltemugia. I claimed it was my kind that you can't write that. That's, that's like a copyright of Reb Yael.

1:16:14 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:16:15 Speaker 1 So that's why we started writing Hanoche Satmini Biltemugia. It was a new invention. And the way it started really was funny. We didn't want-- We were afraid to do it, take a Hachrayah, so we made a Hanoche and put it out the tables where no one saw. And everyone saw it was Hanoche laying around. Who wrote it? No one knew. I have to say, Noske Wolf, he's in Chabad. He was pushing a lot of it. He said, "You have to give it out." 'Cause we were afraid, you know. And that's when it started. And the funny thing is, there were a long time we didn't have any reaction from the Rebbe. We didn't know if the Rebbe is happy or not happy till it came. This was Tov Shinov Vov. Till it came Tov Shinov Ches, I believe, one Fabrengen. And then the Rebbe said in that Fabrengen, when Yitzchak couldn't see. So in the Hanoche we wrote, Yitzchak blind. So by Fabrengen, the Rebbe said in Chabad, "Kumen de Rishimus, tot shleiten Yitzchak blind." How could you say such an expression on Yitzchak?

1:17:18 Speaker 5 It's Rebbe.

1:17:18 Speaker 1 So Rebbe criticized it. But to us, the Rebbe recognized acknowledged this thing, so it's-- We're so happy.

1:17:26 Speaker 5 They say, uh, a-all, even all press, even negative press is good press, right?

1:17:31 Speaker 1 Yeah. But in this case, it's Takik Kipshuti. The Rebbe recognized that he should mention it. The Rebbe should say that there's a Chadson, there's a founder mistake.

1:17:40 Speaker 5 You see, the Rebbe, I'm just thinking, uh, not just the q- the actual thing. You can't say that Yitzchak was blind because it's not like a li- nice Lashon.

1:17:49 Speaker 1 Yeah. So you could say he could-- He says, "Shvert zsen" or something like that. But to say the word blind, the Rebbe didn't like.

1:17:54 Speaker 5 So that was a, that was a, a, a recognition and an issue that the Hanoches-

1:18:00 Speaker 1 Hanoches. It doesn't mean everything it says there is right.

1:18:03 Speaker 5 By the way, you didn't ask Rabbi Havokov or whatever. You, you understood that you got-- you need to do this, uh, under, under the table.

1:18:09 Speaker 1 Right. And that came the way the Rebbe writing down Hanoches. This came from then, and that's when we started. That took a long time. It took a... But first it came out-

1:18:15 Speaker 5 I'm saying it's a, it's a-- The whole cloudy Srol, the whole world is indebted to you because otherwise there wouldn't be proper Hanoches all these years.

1:18:25 Speaker 1 Yeah. Maybe some private people wrote for themselves, but these are official Hanoches came out, yes. That is the truth. That is the truth, whatever it is. That later peoples, other people started helping, and it started-- That's how it developed. But when we started, it was, yeah, it was a Chidush.

1:18:40 Speaker 5 So what was the whole-- S-so from that you, you got involved in the Likutei Sichos?

1:18:45 Speaker 1 No. So I was involved in Hazarion, I was involved in Hanoches. And then when the Rebbe stopped Likutei Sichos, Likutei Sichos went on a few times. The Rebbe made Tov SheYud Ches was Chelek Alef Beis, then Tov Shiv Hov Gimmel was Gimmel Daled. Then the Rebbe stopped. What happened? This Vad Levat Sichos used to send out every week to different head, I don't know, 10,000 addresses to send out to Meipis the Rebbe Sichos. What did they do? They would send out copies of old Sichos, only Mugia. So it came to option Hof Tes. By that time, there was certain weeks there was nothing to send out. Everything was sent out already. So it was written to the Rebbe-

1:19:22 Speaker 5 Who was the Vad Levat Sichos then?

1:19:25 Speaker 1 The, the Gashmi of the Gavah that were involved was Zalman Chanan and Shalom Jacobson.

1:19:29 Speaker 5 Back then, all from the beginning?

1:19:30 Speaker 1 From the beginning.

1:19:31 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:19:32 Speaker 1 Not from the beginning, from Chelek Beis, Alef and Beis. Those, those not. I'm talking from now, from the time I'm talking, from after the Chof.

1:19:38 Speaker 5 Okay.

1:19:38 Speaker 1 So wrote to the Rebbe that maybe the Rebbe would be Magiya Nusicher. So the Rebbe agreed. So a few weeks during the year of Tov Shin Hof Tes, Rebbe was Magiya Nusicher. And then when the year was over, there was nothing else to send out. So they wrote to the Rebbe, maybe the Rebbe will start being Magiya Sichos, and the Rebbe agreed. So Reb Yael would write the Likutei Sichos, and that's where Halokim from He to the, to Tes came out weekly, Kontrasim, and then became this Halokim. And then the Rebbe stopped, and he spoke about it by Fabrengen, and the Rebbe stopped. So Tov Shin Lamed Beis, there was no Likutei Sichos that came out. So a few of us got together, and we said, "You know what? For him, it's not possible that he should work on the Sichos because the Rebbe expects other things from him."

1:20:32 Speaker 5 From Reb Yael.

1:20:32 Speaker 1 Let us try. Reb Yael, let us try to-

1:20:34 Speaker 5 The Rebbe wanted Reb Yael to do, uh, Sefer Ha'erkim.

1:20:37 Speaker 1 At that time, it wasn't known as Sefer Ha'erkim. That name came ash- after, before, when it was printed. All these years it was known-

1:20:43 Speaker 5 It wasn't printed.

1:20:44 Speaker 1 No. All years it was known the Encyclopedia Chassidis. That's what it was called. Just like Encyclopedia Talmudis, Encyclopedia Chassidis, that's what it was known as. But when they printed it, the Rebbe said, "Encyclopedia that we're talking." So the Rebbe gave it the name Sefer Ha'erkim. But we said, but the Sichos Let's see. Maybe we could do it. So we had three of us-

1:21:05 Speaker 5 Who, who, who was... Was s- was some- was there like, uh, someone instigating y- you, your chavrusah to do it?

1:21:11 Speaker 1 No.

1:21:11 Speaker 5 Was o- on your own?

1:21:11 Speaker 1 It was with-- on our own. So it was, uh, the three people who were-- the two that were gashmiyus, like the two I mentioned before, and then three of us, Rabbi Nachman Shapiro and Rabbi Leibel Kaplan, alav hashalom, and myself sat down. We said, "Let us try to do it." We didn't expect it 'cause he was-- Reb Yael was so, so good that anybody could take his place. Let's try. So we sat down and we said, "Let's prepare a few sichas and give it in to the Rebbe and see what the Rebbe will say." Then there was a whole vikuah, which language should it be, Yiddish or Hebrew?

1:21:46 Speaker 5 I know that you like the Hebrew, right?

1:21:49 Speaker 1 I-- Yeah, I pushed for it.

1:21:51 Speaker 5 I remember when I learned in yeshiva in Miami to discuss this with you.

1:21:54 Speaker 1 Yeah. I, yeah. And I, I pushed. Otherwise... Also the-- I gave my svota. I, I, I spoke up.

1:21:58 Speaker 5 Why did you feel that? Yeah, what's it... Why, why did you feel-

1:22:00 Speaker 1 I gave the svota. Most people don't understand Yiddish, that's number one, even then. Now, even more so, certainly most people don't understand Yiddish. In Eretz Yisrael, they certainly don't know Yiddish and LMA, they translate. The translations are lov daavka good. And another main thing, you ever see a Sefer written, a serious Sefer in Yiddish? Tanur Rena is written, Maaseh B'cho is in Yiddish. You ever hear a Sefer-

1:22:23 Speaker 5 It's funny, it's funny. I, I just saw a few weeks ago. I'm not gonna say which chutzar I was, I was in some other place in another shul, and I opened up their Rebbe's Torah and I saw a Yiddish. I was surprised. Anyway, so yeah, concept does exist maybe, yeah. Okay.

1:22:39 Speaker 1 Does maybe exist.

1:22:40 Speaker 5 Right.

1:22:40 Speaker 1 And there was... But no one looks-- No one could think it's a Sefer. We're talking about Likutei Sichos being, you say this, the key niggle and you say this, but-

1:22:49 Speaker 5 It's in Yiddish

1:22:50 Speaker 1 ... people don't look at it that way. So no one, no one will even look at it. So we did it. We didn't even ask the Rebbe. We did it in Lashon Hakodesh. Years later, the Rebbe was asked at one point, I think she was-

1:23:01 Speaker 5 And why, why did Reb Yael have a preference for Yiddish? 'Cause the Rebbe's-

1:23:04 Speaker 1 No, it started like before. All the Sichos in the Friediker Rebbe were in Yiddish. Sichos were always in Yiddish. So from the Likutei Torah, the Heile Kalomei, so all the writings, it continued that way. No special reason. Years later, the Rebbe was asked which one he prefers, and the Rebbe answered these two words, "Ein nafke mine." So that's why we went back and forth. But that time we decided that we're going to try. So we sat down, we prepared the Parashat Bereishit, Noach, Lech Lecha, Vayeira, Chayai Sarah, Toldot, Vayese, seven Sichos. 'Cause one of the things the Rebbe was also not so happy before that it was given in last minute. Last minute, it pressured him to do it and it was, you know... So, so we said, "Let's give it in early."

1:23:52 Speaker 5 You wanted to basically that Rebbe should know this is serious, that this-

1:23:55 Speaker 1 It's serious

1:23:55 Speaker 5 ... seven you take time.

1:23:56 Speaker 1 Yeah. Right. And we wrote it settled that we, this, we wrote our names, we are doing this, and we're asking the Rebbe to be magiya. This was, this should be, look at this. And the Rebbe would have comments. The peil, we gave in the middle of the summer. Nothing happened. The Rebbe didn't answer, didn't say anything. So we didn't know till it came Tishrei. It wasn't on the gay because till Bereishit, he's still got time. Came Tishrei, and the Rebbe is so busy, this and that. We didn't expect, so we didn't know what's gonna happen. Came, he shine a rabba at night. So we were quite a few times when the Rebbe was magiya sicha, it was happened after he finished Chumash Torah. Before Tehillim, that's the time he was magiya. So we thought maybe shine a rabba will be... So I remember all of us, all five of us standing upstairs and next to the Rebbe's room, waiting for before Tehillim Rabbi Groner would go in. Maybe he'll come out. Comes out for the Rebbe, nothing. So we decided that by Koshel Brocha, all five of us are gonna get together and we're gonna go to get Koshel Brocha. Our presence should be seen by the Rebbe, which will be like a reminder. So we went by, Rebbe looked at each one, gave Koshel Brocha, and he gave, I don't remember, to Shalom Jacobson, alav hashalom, or he gave it to Rabbi Zalman Hanin. I don't remember. One of them, he gave a bottle.

1:25:16 Speaker 1 He used to give bottles to the shluchim, mashke. He gave it, and the Rebbe gave it to him, and he said with a big, big smile, "" So we were sure, okay. And after Simchat Torah be mugia. Came after Morganuf. This is the af- after Simchat Torah farbrengen. After Morgan, after Simchat Torah, we came to seven, seven day early, waiting for Rabbi Groner to... When the Rebbe comes, he goes in right away for... Came and went in, came out, nothing. It was already Wednesday. I think Simchat Torah was Tuesday. So if it's gonna come out for Shabbos, it's late. So we didn't know what to do. So we had a hold of Shiloh at the end, came out. We decided to do a little bit chutzpah. This is what we did. We took, made a copy of Bereishit again, just of Bereishit, and wrote on a little note saying this, "This is what we are printing for Shabbos, and we're asking the Rebbe to be magiya." It was a big risk because the Rebbe could be very, "What mean you're giving it out for Shabbos?" A peil a few hours later, the Rebbe sicha came out mugia. And that's how it started. And then it came Noach, Lech Lecha, then it came. Then it was two years, and then it stopped again. Then it continued later. I left to Miami, but, uh, I left to Miami in middle, and I was writing some of the Sichos for Miami. So that's not... The Hanoch, the

1:26:47 Speaker 1 Hanoch is a separate issue. This is Likutei Sichos. It's another issue. It's different. Hanoch is just writing down the farbrengen. Likutei Sichos is dealing, communicating with the Rebbe, writing and the Rebbe's asking and answering and back and forth. It was special. And then those that stayed and kept on writing the Sichos later was Rabbi Nachman and Rabbi Leibel Oltime. That's for all the years later.

1:27:08 Speaker 5 They did it till Taf Shin and Beis.

1:27:09 Speaker 1 Till Taf Shin and Beis

1:27:11 Speaker 5 So once I-

1:27:12 Speaker 1 In the middle I was also a little bit invo- I mean, I was involved from far, but I wrote some, a few, not many, very few. I wrote even those.

1:27:20 Speaker 5 I think, I think I heard from you once that you, when you went on Shlichus you said that it's with Tenai you could be involved. Is that, is that, is that-

1:27:27 Speaker 1 I didn't say it like it, but yeah. But I, I... That was in my mind, yes.

1:27:30 Speaker 5 In your mind?

1:27:31 Speaker 1 No, no, I maybe, I probably said it, no, but not officially to the Rebbe or anything. I didn't, uh-

1:27:35 Speaker 5 That was whatever.

1:27:37 Speaker 1 I said it, yeah, to the, to the vad.

1:27:39 Speaker 5 Your Shlichus in Miami was for the yeshiva?

1:27:42 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

1:27:44 Speaker 5 To start the yeshiva?

1:27:46 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

1:27:48 Speaker 5 What was the... At that time, the only... It was only, um, it was only bachrim, like there was Shlichim bachrim, and, and it was only-

1:27:56 Speaker 1 Right

1:27:56 Speaker 5 ... it was only Shlichim.

1:27:58 Speaker 1 Only Shlichim plus one bachrim. The first year there was another bachrim besides the Shlichim. The Rebbe sent 11 Shlichim, and there was one bachrim local that joined.

1:28:11 Speaker 5 And it stayed like that, there was only Shlichim?

1:28:13 Speaker 1 Yeah, for this, but not so long. Not long. After that, there was one bachrim who learned in New York and wanted to come. I asked the Rebbe if we could take him. Actually, whenever I asked the Rebbe, I didn't write every little thing to the Rebbe. I used to write to Rabbi Chadakov. But everyone knew that if you write him a shailah, he'll give it then to the Rebbe.

1:28:32 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:28:32 Speaker 1 So I do... But I didn't have the chutzpah. So the Rebbe said, "Don't take him."

1:28:44 Speaker 5 This is the second year?

1:28:46 Speaker 1 This was the, uh, maybe the middle of the first or the beginning of the second. And-

1:28:50 Speaker 5 But there were, there were people that came the second year.

1:28:52 Speaker 1 Later they came, after I was in Yechidus Shvuis, I went up to, to the Rebbe for Shvuis.

1:28:57 Speaker 5 Wait, what, what are you talking about? I'm... No, I'm not-

1:28:59 Speaker 1 Oh, so I'm ta- This was like that first year. So I asked the Rebbe about taking this o- other bachrim. The Rebbe said, "Don't co- don't be competition. That's, you don't have to come on it."

1:29:08 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:29:08 Speaker 1 This was the middle of the winter. Then for that Shvuis, I went to New York.

1:29:13 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:29:13 Speaker 1 And I went in Yechidus, and I asked the Rebbe, the whole reason the Rebbe wrote because it's competition Timchet Mimim, what happens if the whole of Timchet Mimim wants it, that they should come? Then he said, "Then you can take it."

1:29:25 Speaker 5 I see. That's when-

1:29:25 Speaker 1 That's when we started to-

1:29:26 Speaker 5 Take in bachrim

1:29:27 Speaker 1 ... take in bachrim.

1:29:27 Speaker 5 But there weren't a, not a lot.

1:29:29 Speaker 1 Not a lot. Then came more, whatever. That's, uh-

1:29:32 Speaker 5 One of them was, uh, my shver, actually.

1:29:36 Speaker 1 Oh.

1:29:36 Speaker 5 Tevi Teldin.

1:29:38 Speaker 1 Yeah. I don't know if it was the first year-

1:29:39 Speaker 5 It was the second year

1:29:39 Speaker 1 ... but the second year.

1:29:40 Speaker 5 Think the second year, yeah.

1:29:41 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.

1:29:42 Speaker 5 Very interesting. So, so, and, and the, the Shlichus was like, um, like how, how did Shlichus work then at that, that time? It was like you had a hatsah and you wrote it into the Rebbe?

1:29:54 Speaker 1 Right. That the... Everybody was like, all Shlichim are like that. The Rebbe-

1:29:58 Speaker 5 Were there a lot of people, were there a lot of people going on Shlichus then?

1:30:01 Speaker 1 Not that much- ... but, but those that did go wrote to the Rebbe. Some people asked the Rebbe where should he go. The Rebbe said, "That's not how I do it. Sign that to us, so I'll choose which one, or maybe I'll add another one." But usually Rebbe would choose. So heroes, I had a few hatsahs, and the Rebbe wrote something as the Maskon, and he said, "Okay," he said, "then go, go to Miami."

1:30:21 Speaker 5 But you knew, you knew that Shlichus is the only, like is, is what, what you're doing?

1:30:26 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:30:26 Speaker 5 I'm trying to figure out how it, how it worked then in, in, in those years.

1:30:29 Speaker 1 What, what should be?

1:30:30 Speaker 5 When you, when you were... I'm saying, I don't know, uh, stay in New York,

1:30:34 Speaker 1 No, I had- No, I was, no, I wanted to go for Sh- on Shlichus for sure, but it has to be a Shlichus that's fit. Everyone has their I can't become a Shliach, especially then, come, come as I, I spoke English, but I couldn't give a speech in English. I mean, I was a, a bachrim yeshiva had nothing to do with all these things. So I can't go on Shlichus to a university college or some- like something like that. So I knew that this, this field would be more fit, so that's why I looked for this field.

1:31:04 Speaker 5 So you wrote to the Rebbe hatsahs that were connected to the, the-

1:31:06 Speaker 1 Hatsahs to this type of field. Another place about Rabbonis, this, whatever, but all in the, in the Klei Kodesh type of thing. Not in like a Chabad house or doing the more askonus.

1:31:16 Speaker 5 Among Siddim is brought to you by A Chassidishe Der Her. We live in a chaotic world, a world where for us Chassidim as a sei nu lo rai nu we do not have the ability to hear and see the Rebbe on a daily basis. Yet we know that the Rebbe is very much with us, and the Chassidus Chabad is alive and thriving more than ever before. One needs to only tap into it. A Chassidishe Der Her provides you and your family with the tools necessary to tap into all of this, whether it's the monthly magazine, the way it all began, whether it's Der Her books, Der Her online content, and so much more. Men, women, and children throughout the world benefit and use these tools on a daily basis. Whether it's children enjoying the children's magazine that comes along with the regular Der Her or enjoying the children's podcast, whether it's bachrim in yeshivas receiving the Der Her, whether it's girls in high schools enjoying Der Her Club in their local high school, people all over the world and from all walks of life enjoy and utilize these tools and take advantage of it. If you're not already subscribed to the Her monthly magazine, do so today at derher.org. That's D-E-R-H-E-R.org. Der Her is a dynamic organization which is committed to continue providing these tools, grow on a constant basis, and do all that we can to help this effort. Baruch Hashem, it takes a lot of resources and finances to make this all happen.

1:33:08 Speaker 5 You can be part of Der Her through your financial support as well through visiting our website, derher.org, or through contacting us to setting up a meeting Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of the podcast. But there were some, uh, there were some of your chaverim that the Rebbe wanted to stay in New York, right?

1:33:26 Speaker 1 Right, of Slonim Zarchi.

1:33:27 Speaker 5 Slonim Zarchi, yeah.

1:33:29 Speaker 1 Yeah. There were some, yeah. He told me, he asked the Rebbe a b- a year later also about going on shlichus. So the Rebbe said if he does his job in he does shlichus.

1:33:42 Speaker 5 In New York?

1:33:43 Speaker 1 Yeah, in Slonim Zarchi, yeah. And it's kinda important. You have to educate shluchim. Isn't that also shlichus? If everyone will go on shlichus and there'll be nobody to be mechanech the bachurim then you ain't gonna have shluchim. So it's, it's important then.

1:34:02 Speaker 5 It's part of shlichus.

1:34:03 Speaker 1 Part of shlichus, yeah.

1:34:05 Speaker 5 Uh, so, so, uh, let's backtrack a, a little bit when, when you were a bachur by, by the Rebbe. Um, it, it sound... I, I remember a story you said once that something about you wrote to the Rebbe, like a bunch of bachurim wrote to the Rebbe about the, about the gezera, about, that they wanted to, uh, bring.

1:34:28 Speaker 1 It's one of those things I don't like to talk about.

1:34:31 Speaker 5 Oh, I, I do, I do remember that. I remember you talking about that. I don't, I don't remember if it's, uh-

1:34:34 Speaker 1 Okay. Around it, yes, but it-- directly not. It's, uh-

1:34:38 Speaker 5 What I'm saying is I f- I don't remember the story a hundred percent, but what I take from that story is that there was like a certain... You were right next to the Rebbe the entire time. Saying like-

1:34:47 Speaker 1 That's for sure

1:34:47 Speaker 5 ... the, like, like any, any, any-

1:34:48 Speaker 1 No, but this story came through a mistake. That's not the serious story. You know, it happened, but it's... It was somebody by mistake didn't understand.

1:34:56 Speaker 5 I'm not pointing-

1:34:57 Speaker 1 I'll tell you, I'll tell you the, not the whole story, but I'll just tell you in general. We're sitting and talking,

1:35:00 Speaker 5 'Cause the Rebbe then made the-

1:35:04 Speaker 1 Yeah, yes

1:35:04 Speaker 5 ... the, the gezera mashgiach.

1:35:06 Speaker 1 So someone said, "Maybe we ask the Rebbe." So we said, "You know what? Let's..." So we took a piece of paper, and someone wrote down, "Can we drink mashke or something like that?" So someone of... Was standing there, a bachur, took the paper. He says, "Okay, mashgiach." He took this, uh, came over to a guy walking continue Rebbe and gave it to him. And the guy gave it to the Rebbe. It was a, it's a, it's a mistake, and no one... When he came back, he said, "Yeah, I just gave it." What? Anyway, but that's, uh... It wasn't pleasant.

1:35:38 Speaker 5 The Rebbe means-

1:35:38 Speaker 1 But it does show, it does show that the connection. Like yeah, but this was a not, not a pleasant thing that happened then. But there were all the different things that came out of it.

1:35:50 Speaker 5 I'm saying that in the later years, there was like a big... It was a big crowd and this big elom, but in those years, there was like a certain, like a closeness that the-

1:36:00 Speaker 1 Yeah

1:36:00 Speaker 5 ... the bachurim had. I mean, there weren't so many.

1:36:02 Speaker 1 You were, you were able, you were able to feel close to the Rebbe in a personal level. I remember Yechidus, that's what you felt. When you went out of Yechidus, I remember s- many times I felt that way, but everybody else who went in. For weeks after you were out Yechidus and you would stand there by Melka Meirim for, by , know what feeling went through your mind? This is my Rebbe. You felt because you were in Yechidus all alone, You got that feeling, and it stayed with you for a long, long time. The personal connection. Then when you have Zevulver writing , it's another type of personal connection because like a, like a Talmud Torah, you know, you, you write questions and you write and this, uh... I even tried this as a-- I was already married obviously then, so there were all kinds of shailas in a certain halocha in . And the shaila, what... How, how the Rebbe writes this, it's got to back and forth, back and forth. And the shaila, whatever that... So when I was working on the Sicha, and I thought here's a . So I wrote up a whole page with a shaila asking the Rebbe on the Sicha. And from the answer of that shaila, you would see what the Rebbe holds of Negia, that, that question, what to do. I thought I'll be a big . So now like this from the Rebbe, no one got. Here it'll be. So it's a page for itself.

1:37:36 Speaker 1 So we gave him the Sicha of Maggia, and this was a page attached to the Sicha with a shaila on the Sicha. And I was waiting to kill you and I'm, "What's the Rebbe gonna answer? Which..." Because it was a very... I was in then. We were learning these halochas and it was very . Rebbe gave out the Sicha, Maggia, the whole Sicha, and he gave out that page also with a, with a pen, made a pencil, a line the whole page and that's it.

1:38:03 Speaker 5 The Rebbe, the Rebbe knew what was going on.

1:38:07 Speaker 1 I'm sure.

1:38:08 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:38:08 Speaker 1 He, he didn't answer it. Not when it... Just cro- crossed out the whole thing and that's it.

1:38:15 Speaker 5 When you went into Yechidus and you were bachur, you asked the Rebbe some... like a shaila?

1:38:22 Speaker 1 Depends if you had what to ask. I mean, sometimes you ask whether it's a problem in ruchnius or, um, in gashmius.

1:38:27 Speaker 5 And did, did you?

1:38:28 Speaker 1 Well, one of the practical things was when I went in for my 18th birthday. So tho- then you started putting on film when you became 18, film . Everyone would ask the Rebbe. No one would do it without asking the Rebbe. So I went in, and my title I wrote, I'm asking the Rebbe if I should start putting Rebbe Tam's film. And the Rebbe when he's reading the title after he finished, he said, "." Yes, only one thing. I went in Yechidus a few weeks before my birthday 'cause I went to America shlichas, and my birthday is the middle of the summer. So I would go the last Yechidus before the birthday, so before America shlichas. So when the Rebbe said I should start, I asked the Rebbe, "Should I start right away or should I wait till I become 18?" So the Rebbe said, "" 'Cause we know that the Rebbe-

1:39:26 Speaker 5 The earlier, the better

1:39:27 Speaker 1 ... Yeah, the earlier, the better because we know that the Rebbe even Tov Shin Yud already wrote. Tov Shin Yud, when you have the Sichas, the stories that the Rebbe told the middle of shiva of the Friediker Rebbe. So one of the things he said, spoke about the four pairs of film, that the Friediker Rebbe told him to put out four pairs of film. And the Rebbe uses a lotion, a strange lotion in the Pnim. The lotion is he was afraid. You have to do apidin. What's there to be afraid of? But these, you don't have to, to do that extra, I was afraid. But the Friediker Rebbe told him to do it, and he bought film for him. And there's a big Ha'arah there. And the words that the Rebbe said that the Asher Zarah in the Tams you have to put on Al Pi Halacha. There's all Ha'arah that how you call it? I mean, the Tams Al Pi Halacha. Yes, it must be the importance of putting on Al Pi the Tamz film. And then he write, and he brings from Sha'ar HaKelo, then the Rebbe writes that it's a pele that Mispasha Taminic, Afilah Bein Anash, that you don't start putting on right away. In other words, the Rebbe already Tov Shin Yud expressed himself that Be'emes everybody should put on every Tamz film. L'maisa, he didn't change the Minich till 25 years later. Tov Shin One Mevov, that's when the Rebbe spoke Purim. He spoke that you should start putting

1:40:46 Speaker 1 on, everyone should put on for Bar Mitzvah Nan. But then it wasn't. So, and when people would ask the Rebbe, they say that sometimes the Rebbe would not say yes. Mostly he did. I know from one Bochra that the Rebbe asked him, "How often do you go to the Mikveh?" So he answered, he didn't go so often, but he's not a stupid Bochra, so he tells the Rebbe, "I take upon myself from now on to go every day." So the Rebbe said, "I don't mean every day. I mean Monday, Thursday, Friday is Shabbos, and any other day you have a Y'sadus." But this could, was a condition for putting on every Tamz film.

1:41:26 Speaker 6 So, uh, it's interesting. I think today people, you know, Mikveh every day, it's part of the thing. But you're saying from the Rebbe it sounds like it's Monday, Thursday-

1:41:36 Speaker 1 Oh, there's a letter from the Friediker Rebbe the same way.

1:41:38 Speaker 6 I mean, Tzedakah Teydah, you know, that's one, one of the three Achanas Tzedakah, right?

1:41:41 Speaker 1 Yeah, for the Davush it should be every day. But there's a letter from the Friediker Rebbe where he writes that, that in Lubavitch they didn't go every day. It was a concept Tircha to go to the Mikveh. Nowadays it's not Tircha, why shouldn't you go? But in the, those, in Lubavitch, the Friediker Rebbe writes these words, Monday, Thursday, and A.S.A.M. Shesh Sadus. I'm just wondering, when, where do you get the Sadus? In Davening. But how do you know before Davening that you're gonna get the Sadus? Maybe learning Chasidus. I don't know exactly the prayer today.

1:42:09 Speaker 6 Midani. The Rebbe, the Rebbe, the Rebbe has a Kacha Midanis. Maybe Midani.

1:42:14 Speaker 1 Emes, Emes, Emes, Emes, maybe.

1:42:17 Speaker 6 Yeah. Um, and, and other Yechidusin, did you ask the Rebbe Shailas when you get your Avederuchas?

1:42:26 Speaker 1 Sometimes I asked. Sometimes he, on his own he said, he told me once in Yechidus, "Lazayner ange tunken nilenen biziberen kop." And you should have Divreteida Balpe in your mind. In case you'll be in a place where there's no Sforim, you should be able to think the Divreteida Balpe.

1:42:47 Speaker 6 Hmm.

1:42:48 Speaker 1 So the Russian word is ange tunen, ange-

1:42:50 Speaker 6 This was without you asking anything?

1:42:52 Speaker 1 This was without me asking. No, it could be it was Behemshe. I didn't ask about this, but Behemshe was something else. It was like an answer. I ate Sehes to the ange tunen, lenen biziberen kop. To know Nun and Balpe, that's what he, that's what he said.

1:43:07 Speaker 6 But that, that was a unique thing that the Rebbe didn't tell other, other Bochrim.

1:43:10 Speaker 1 Right. Like this, a standard he would tell every Bochrim. Nun Kimaledes, he would say, first of all, Mizalton Min Hogi Kimaledes. And then he would say this, Hom Deibushim Matslocha, Liman Ateira, Liman Anigla, Liman Achsidus, Kima Mitzis Behidur. To some people, he would a-add Naveida Satfila. And some people, I guess it depend on what they wrote, Mastame, Beteich Bri Is Hanacheina. Some people, he added that. That was the standard. Then everybody else, sometimes he added different specific words that were Shaychas to them. But the whole a- going into Yechidus was a special experience. Not only the going in, the actual going into Yechidus, but the Achanas, this whole thing of making Achanas to go in Yechidus was something. Any Bochrim, the, the, the less Chidush Bochrim, you could tell on, for a week before Yechidus, you could tell he's going into Yechidus soon. Get more serious and learn better and came to Seiden Davened. It, it was a different Achanas. Different. You f- you felt it. What you see in the Sichas of the Friediker Rebbe, you know, Ben Geia, Chodam Yechidus, you could see by Bochrim. You could see before the Hergish was so, so special. Later, when there's no Yechidus, the Rebbe said that Fabreng is Yechidus good, but it's harder to feel that way. When you went in privately, you... Again, like I said in the beginning, there is things which are true, but the Nefsha Bamis doesn't relate to it so fast. The Guf. It's true. He says, "Come to a

1:44:44 Speaker 1 Fre, a Fabregen, you have to feel." The Rebbe wrote. Someone wrote to the Rebbe, he wants to go into Yechidus. Rebbe said, "Yechidus Beis Aisvades." Someone said, "The Rebbe was like that." And he used to speak about Yechidus Kloli, he wrote it. Yechidus Kloli is even better than your regular Yechidus because it's a cloud.

1:45:03 Speaker 6 Other people.

1:45:04 Speaker 1 Yeah, other people. But that's, that's true. It's at the Rebbe. It's at us. The feeling is not the same. And again, like the story with the Koshim Seraged. Mitap mit Guf. You feel Guf. You touch, t-touch it. So you went into Yechidus, you felt different. You felt, and B'meil the Achanas you made, it was certain Ruch Nisigi feeling. You f- you were in a higher Madrege. And even Bochrim were not so Epess as a great Chassidim, but this was something that everyone knew. That's one of the things that comes to Gimel Tammuz that, uh, you feel. So even before Gimel Tammuz, sometimes you remind yourself Yechidus, and now you don't have Yechidus. It was a, such a feel. I don't wanna use the word sad, but a sad feeling.

1:45:50 Speaker 6 This, this was a discussion before Gimel Tammuz that people would have.

1:45:53 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:45:53 Speaker 6 We don't have Yechidus today.

1:45:55 Speaker 1 Yeah. There's no Yechidus. This is... And it stopped, uh, already in, um, Lamad Vov. I don't know the, the, whenever years it stopped Yechidus. First stopped only for Bochrim, then it stopped later for being in the light. Even before Choshava mentioned them and it stopped. Begashmis it stopped because it couldn't be. The crowd became so big, it's impossible begashmis. You should have yichidis. Who's gonna go? I mean, how often, uh, how much the Rebbe? Used to be three times a week. Till after Chof Hei it became two times a week.

1:46:21 Speaker 6 But didn't, didn't the Rebbe say that it's because people are not using it, uh, properly?

1:46:24 Speaker 1 Yeah, that's true, because the Rebbe would not stop because of the shvere kaysn, that's for sure. But I'm just saying, I'm saying but not what the Rebbe said, I'm saying that's it. Rebbe, the ma'aman az man, but the people are not ma'aman az man. So then how could they, how could there be all the people going?

1:46:43 Speaker 6 So you're saying already before Gimatamos, there was this, uh, aveida that needed to happen of the-

1:46:48 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:46:49 Speaker 6 You know, you, you don't have the same access that people had the Altes Ulam and the Amalek Zeitin.

1:46:54 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:46:54 Speaker 6 And it's not the same.

1:46:56 Speaker 1 Also, when the Ma'amarim stopped, people felt that way, and started only Ma'aman Kenesija, then that gufa stopped later. It was a certain feeling. When everything went down, no nign stopped, everyone also had like a letdown. It was some kind of time with the hergish that you had was the ailo, the ila. Different ways. Some things are serious, some things was more freilach. There are certain times of the year Behal was special. Tekias, Nechofes, I mean, these are special. But this is something that continued, but those things did not so continue.

1:47:31 Speaker 6 On the other hand, though, the Rebbe, as the years went on, there was so much more. The farbrengens became much more often-

1:47:37 Speaker 1 Right, right.

1:47:37 Speaker 6 Much more longer.

1:47:39 Speaker 1 Yes.

1:47:39 Speaker 6 The dollars and the, then in the later years-

1:47:41 Speaker 1 Yes

1:47:41 Speaker 6 Mamash, the Rebbe was a sich every other day.

1:47:43 Speaker 1 A day, right.

1:47:43 Speaker 6 There's a sich middle of the week.

1:47:45 Speaker 1 So that is true, but I have to tell you, this is, uh, maybe it's chatoya nimaskir. Every person has his most feeling in the time when he was in seven seventy, learning a seven seventy by the Rebbe. So by me, when we're talking about the years from Tov Shin Hof till the time I left was the Tov Shin Lamed Daled, those are the main years. And whatever happened, the Rebbe came back later and this and that, there was just no question about it. But what's ivalim angekarp, what's stuck into your heart is those years. And taka you hear some bochum, some yingalai talk about the years in the mems and meiridikenyonim, which is true. But, but I'm just saying, honestly, this, uh, gashmisig zach, that you're there and you were soaked in the Rebbe, you lived with the Rebbe twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, a whole year. So that's what stayed. Later on, you did other things. You came here, came to Miami, I mean, this with all kinds of shluchim, shlichas. It's, uh, so I'm sure, yeah, the other years, there were different yonim. Yeah, other yonim which were much more than before. But, um, we're, we're talking to a person who was more then than later. Later, we was more from far. This was mamash close, being mamash part of it.

1:48:59 Speaker 6 So, so for the people today, they have, uh, everything, all, all the years.

1:49:04 Speaker 1 Yeah. In other words, they have everything, and everything in a shvere way, 'cause you gotta work on getting to it. So you could get it, you could work on everything. All the yonim that happened throughout all the years in different kufas of the Rebbe's nesias, yeah, you could have it all. But on the other hand, you don't have it bepel betzatakuf. You have it beiniyan. And to feel that way, you gotta be more like a keila to these ruchnisige feelings, especially if you wanna understand it. If you wanna just have a mun is one thing and, but if you wanna bring it down in seichel, and people do have, and there are people who have questions. Netten is the pilt. I feel by uns, Lubavitch, people have questions after Gimatamos, how is it? And it's mamash, I can tell you, the biggest mefas by the Rebbe is that thirty years after, and you have Chassidishe Eidon, Chassidishe Bochum, Bokusher, and know the sich, learn the Rebbe's teyre. It's mamash a mefas. This is beyond understanding. What did people say, Gimatamos? They said the worst thing, the Lubavitch will all fall apart. But you know what? The Rebbe started this whole thing. I f-- Um, look, I try to, to explain everything, zo honem haNev Sha Baam is, 'cause he doesn't understand these ruchnisige yonim in guf. There is prusht. It-- The Rebbe's put-- set it up in such a way, it's gonna... I'll give you a mosha.

1:50:30 Speaker 6 Hundred percent.

1:50:31 Speaker 1 Okay.

1:50:31 Speaker 6 The, the, it made out of shiveh, so, uh-

1:50:33 Speaker 1 Oh, right.

1:50:34 Speaker 6 So, uh, nigle. No.

1:50:36 Speaker 1 Okay.

1:50:36 Speaker 6 Even though mo-most of the shirim, everything, every shir had the suchas in it-

1:50:40 Speaker 1 Yes

1:50:40 Speaker 6 So it's also nigle, but it's-

1:50:42 Speaker 1 And the sefer I give-

1:50:43 Speaker 6 All the Rebbe's yonim

1:50:43 Speaker 1 I just gave out a sefer. I don't know if you know. A sefer on nisuch hakdushim. Nigle, pure nigle.

1:50:48 Speaker 6 N-not in the, in the Chabad.

1:50:49 Speaker 1 Not Chabadishig daily. That, no.

1:50:50 Speaker 6 Yeah.

1:50:51 Speaker 1 Taking-- It's a lot of them taken from there. A safer Imrei Lev it's called. Imrei, Imrei Lev, because my name is Leib, so it's Imrei Lev. And the Rosh Teves of Imrei Lev is the Rosh Te-- is the Gematria, I mean, of my name and my father's name.

1:51:05 Speaker 6 Yeah. Okay.

1:51:06 Speaker 1 So it worked out anyway. So we gotta talk in nigle. And there is n-- Everything has suchas in, I mean. So I wanna just say in, in nigle, there's a concept of Eshem Mishum Chitze. That means when you start a fire, just like when you shoot an arrow, you could try and, uh, how come I'm chayav? I hurt the guy over there. I didn't do anything to him. I pushed the trigger here. I shot the arrow here. I, I, in my shoes, I could do what I want. From that second, whatever happens there, it's as if you did it. Same thing by Eish. If someone starts a fire, one of the dalet of his nizikin is Eish. If you start a fire someplace, and the fire goes on for three days and burns down, chas v'Shalom, someone's house, you are responsible to pay. Why are you responsible to pay? Because it's all on your, on your account. So we have the famous in Mukei Yosef, Mukei Yosef Es Hakash, based on this, how could you light candles Friday? If everything that happens by a fire, it goes on that it's happening later, and you're doing it- So Shabbos is burning and you're lighting another fire.

1:52:09 Speaker 6 So Shabbos.

1:52:10 Speaker 1 So Shabbos. So the Muka Yasef answers is fakert ebshad. It's not ebshad that as it's doing, you're doing it. Whatever is done later is kolol in the beginning. So when you light the fire, it's kelal everything that's gonna be later. That's why you're chaiv.

1:52:25 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

1:52:25 Speaker 1 So if he said, if the Rebbe started a move-- started what he did, and in such a way that he started the ball rolling in such a way that that continues by itself, it's like the guy who starts the fire. I'm just wondering in Halacha, I did in Chashangaton, that if a person starts a fire and dies, and the fire continues, is the acharai sanim, in other words, is his estate chaiv to pay? Because by fire, whatever's happening later is included in your fire. So you made a fire that happens three days after the guy passed away. So according to the Muka Yasef, it's a chushut chaiv. So I'm saying by the Rebbe, the Rebbe I feel in a balabatish way, whatever we're doing now is not from a chadash chadushim. It's all included in what the Rebbe put into us, in the Rebbe's Torah, in the Rebbe's hanhoga. He put in all the yonim that are happening now is all a hemshech to what he did. It's like the Rebbe started the fire, and the fire is continuing. So I feel it from a balabatish perspective. Balabatish, this has nothing to do with, with deep yonim mesiris. It's all, it's all the Rebbe. So the Rebbe is doing it now. It's all what, what he did then till Gimel Tammuz is he responsible for what he's doing now, feel a balabatish. So it's a feeling nigla. So to meila, this is a hasborer to explain because people do wonder how do we say the

1:53:47 Speaker 1 Rebbe after we don't see the Rebbe, but still, that's the din. The din is that we started doing... People actually, you know, as these shailas mainly, shluchim, not shluchim but in galut, but shluchim bochrim yeshiva, that their first years the Rebbe would choose which bochrim should go. Who chooses now? On the holy side, so it's not the Rebbe's shlichus. The answer is it's al derech lashliach eis ha'shliach. But besides that, the Rebbe started this whole motion and this whole movement of how to do it, and it's all following what he did. So it's all on his head. So he's the mashalach still. So that's what we think. But, uh, getting back to Gimel Tammuz, that's what something has to go through people's mind. It's not just eis hisperchez. When we say eis hisper-- Yo, just eis his, no, the Rebbe's still here. You can say what you want. You gotta... So if you're mintanem es, so there's the mile of the tmim meshibedover. But the Chabad shebedover, that needs-

1:54:45 Speaker 6 Yeah

1:54:45 Speaker 1 ... you have to know where the Rebbe is, you have to know all these things.

1:54:48 Speaker 6 When you see, like, everything that's happening today that, that Lubavitch is accomplishing, there, there's so, there's so many yonim that it was barely done before Gimel Tammuz. I actually remember I heard you speak once, it was a year of Hakol, few years, I don't know, this cycle, the last cycle. I think you said, you said that everyone's koching in Hakol. I don't remember people being so into it before Gimel Tammuz, and now people are into it more. So the Rebbe's introducing all these concepts and, and in a rapid pace, you know, uh, uh, the Rebbe's introducing multiple of them. At the time, a few of them were done at one shot. You know, the Rebbe's doing multiple things, and then we're still unpacking it right now.

1:55:30 Speaker 1 What? You used a good word. The Rebbe packed it in, and we're unpacking it. So it's all the Rebbe's doing. No, I feel practically speaking, it's all the Rebbe's. No, no new things. All these new things are included. Alami, it becomes more begilah, it becomes more mudgish, more stressed, but it's all because of the Rebbe. That's, that's all his-

1:55:50 Speaker 6 Right

1:55:50 Speaker 1 ... that's his, that's his charedim, and that's his doing.

1:55:53 Speaker 6 I'm saying, Yuchvat Tav Shen Yud, the Rebbe s-started off that we're gonna-- the Rebbe actually is gonna make a dibbur tachanim, saying every-- there, there's, there's a-- that's, that's a nuclear bomb, you know, in-included in there. I'm saying that this is infinite to, to accomplish, uh, to bring Mashiach. I'm saying this is, this is, this is everything. I'm saying there's so much in there.

1:56:16 Speaker 1 By the way, when you're mentioning the, the Rebbe said after Yuchvat, so I heard from somebody a good, good word. That in the first word of the Rebbe's first maimer is hinted Chumash, Tehillim, Tanya, and Rambam. Beis is the first letter of Chumash, Bereshis. Alef is the first letter of Tehillim, Ashrei. Al- uh, bosi-

1:56:46 Speaker 6 Taf

1:56:47 Speaker 1 ... no, it says Alef and Taf is, is Tanya, and the Yud is Yei-say da Yei-say da Rambam. So the Rebbe already put down, so it's all included that way. But it's even more than we know it says, and the Rebbe's masbir when it says, "Komash talmud vos, ozer l'chadeshnit l'meshiach mesina." Whatever Talmud all the years later are gonna say come- came all was included in Meshiach Rabbeinu. So the Rebbe's masbir that all the chidushim there included in Meshiach Rabbeinu's Torah, in the Torah we have. But nevertheless, that's Torah Chadosha, that means chidush Torah, but it's included behelem. What I'm saying now is more than that. It's more begilah. Included more begilah. You could push and see that the Rebbe said this, the Rebbe said that, kifshute. Now we're utilizing what the Rebbe said, even though then it was not utilized so much. So it's mamash the Rebbe doing it. This is all a naisef of deruch disdike understanding of what it means that the Rebbe is still with us and the Rebbe's doing. That's, that's the, that's deeper truth. But I'm saying even for push of the people that don't take it, even for somebody who's not a Chossid, that doesn't, you could explain it to him. But we gotta work on it. That's one thing, you gotta work. Not-

1:57:57 Speaker 6 There's al- there's also besides working on the connection to the Rebbe, there's also another crucial part of it that pusha have to fulfill the Rebbe's haraos. I'm saying we have, we have to, we have to, we have to be the Rebbe's shluchim and to, to, to do-

1:58:10 Speaker 1 Right

1:58:10 Speaker 6 ... to, to do this. Like we, we-

1:58:11 Speaker 1 Yeah. We can't just stress that the Rebbe is here and stress his kashas. It means mekusher. It's kashas. Like there's a lotion, the freedom could have a quarter that also years later, This connects to the famous joke of this rabbi. Everyone knows this joke that the rabbi came in, a new rabbi in the shul. So the first Shabbos, he was speaking about the mitzvah of Shabbos. After Shabbos, the president comes to him and says, this is not for these people. Don't talk about it. Okay. Next Shabbos, he spoke about kashrus. After that, he spoke about film. Finally, he tells the president, so what should I talk about? What? Talk about Yiddishkeit. Talk about what? Start talking about Talk about kashrus. That's his kashrus. If you do it, that's his talk. But you got to talk. You got to talk about the Nekuda Klolis also. You got to be mazvidat also. Like I said before, you got to know. Tell somebody, what is the meaning of Nekuda Klolis? How do you explain that? So you got to go into that. I don't think now is the time for this. I don't think I should go into it unless you think it is. And I would give some explanation. But I doubt that people, it's not, it's not good that you have to learn Chassidus, whatever.

1:59:28 Speaker 6 Okay. So we have the mandate. We have the facts. We have the mandate. What needs to be done. And one of the inyonim that a chasid does on Gimot Hamas in order is strengthen the his kashrus. And that's an avayda in and of itself. But then obviously it has to lead to Hamaysehu Ha'ikar to actually fulfill the Rebbe's herois, fulfill the Rebbe's wishes and be memale the shlichas that the Rebbe gave him basilegan to make a derev yidachtaynim.

2:00:06 Speaker 1 It's easier said than done, but it's not lay bashamayimi. In other words, it's not impossible. It's possible, and we got to do it. And there are so many people that do it. That's the best thing. I remember I went to Rabbi Pliskin when he moved from Australia to New York. He said, So the Rebbe told him to bring a lot with the bochrim. So I heard from him himself. He said, he asked the Rebbe, what should I bring about? And the Rebbe said, tell stories, not of Rabbaim. Tell stories of Chassidim. Why? Because if you tell about a Rebbe, a Rebbe did this great thing. That doesn't affect me. How about that? A Rebbe could do it. Tell stories of Chassidim. That Chassidim were like me and you, and they could do it. They did it. Oh, that helps. I'm saying it also. You see so many Yidden, Taka. So many Chassidim what Taka do. Liganim, the Rebbe's tater. Liganim, the things that the Rebbe says. And it's possible. And even though it's the Shnas Tov Shin Peh Hey already, and I'll say better, it's the year 2025. Let's use the English calendar. That shows even more how low it is. And nevertheless, there are people, and it's in proportion, it's a lot. There are still people who are But you know how much there is that are involved in all the right things and do what the Rebbe wants? Look around. So you got to be one of those. That's what you have to

2:01:41 Speaker 1 think about Gimotamas. Everyone must think not about If I'm holding at it. You know the story the Rebbe told with Mecholder Alter? Famous story. Everyone knows the story about this Tov Shin Chof Hey. The Rebbe told a story and mentioned a name who wrote him the story. Araf Perlov wrote him a story in Kutis Yippurim because it wasn't printed yet. He sent the Rebbe the gelis, we call it, of the sefer. And the Rebbe repeated what he wrote. He wrote that what he heard by Fabrenga from Mecholder Alter. Mecholder Alter was a person who was a Zavas Yisroel. He was a person that he was a Mashpia in Lubavitch. And when he got older and he couldn't do the job, so they wanted to fire him. The Rebbe Rashab said, don't fire. Just him being in Yeshiva, people should see his seer is enough worth the money. But he told over a Moshe. There was once a Yishuva. Yishuva is a small village. The small village of people were there. Mamish didn't know anything. Peasants, Yidden. So it was one guy they hired to be a malama to the children. He was the Gan Salam. He was the whole They couldn't even read Hebrew. So if anybody got a letter that was written in Russian Kedish or in Yiddish, they would ask him to read it. So once a guy, one of these guys got a letter, he couldn't read it. He went to the malamed and he's reading it. And in the letter it

2:02:52 Speaker 1 said that this guy's father who gave him the letter passed away. So the guy fainted. So the Mecholder Alter asked, why did he faint? He couldn't see what it says in the letter. He heard it kleshen. He heard it from the guy. The guy who read it saw the letter himself. Why didn't he faint? Oh, this is zayn tate. And the Rebbe for months used to mention this in the Fabrenga. So that's what Gimotamas, that's what Gimotamas, that's what Gimotamas meant to me. What I'm saying now is not to anybody. I'm trying to convince myself that's the truth. If this is considered like a Fabrenga, let's consider that. What's a Fabrenga? Fabrenga, we ought to sit down and tell people what we've done. No, that's threatened to zich. So what ought to happen is sit home and ret to zich. Speak to yourself. If a guy speaks to himself at home, they'll take him to a meshugoyim house. They'll put him in the crazy house. So you got to have people listening. But it's yourself. I'm talking to the ayin. That's serious. And that's what has to be before Gimotamas. And it has to be achona. It's not enough to be on Gimotamas. It has to be beforehand. You have to prepare yourself. Achona samitzve is very, very important. Sometimes says machsidis, achona to a mitzve has more influence, more effect than the mitzve itself. And if the time is not limited, I could just say where I felt it once. I told this over

2:04:15 Speaker 1 many times, but I'll say it again. It was one year when I came from Miami to And the Rebbe was giving lekach. I was sitting in my brother's house. My brother Sholom Ber was a son-in-law of Rabbi Mindel, Nisa Mindel. And Rabbi Nisa Mindel was there. So I sat in the house talking. It was beautiful. Talked to hear. Then I told him I have to leave. I looked at my watch. I want to get in line to get lekach. So he says to me, don't worry. I'm also getting lekach tonight. I won't have to stand in line. You come with me and we'll walk in. I stayed. We stayed. Finally, it's time to go. So we came to 70. There was a long, long line down Eastern Park. But he went straight to the front door, knocked on the door. And he asked, who is this? I said, this is Rabbi Mindel. Oh, they opened the door right in front where the Rebbe was standing. I don't know why, but he was giving lekach inside. Usually sukkis he gave. But sukkis, I don't know. He was inside. So he walks in. I walk in with him because together. We walk in straight to the Rebbe. And the Rebbe gave lekach and we walked away. And as we walked away, I think to myself, what just happened?

2:05:17 Speaker 1 If you stand in line for an hour, and you're waiting, and you're anticipating, and you're getting ready, then you got to the Rebbe, "Oh, finally I got this. I didn't prepare, I didn't go, don't got... I got a piece of cake." So I thought to myself then, "No, no, you gotta stand in line." I'm saying, so I then understood the word of the Chassidus that Hachonot or mitzvah. The mitzvah itself is more important than Hachana. If you imagine a person makes Hachanas, doesn't do the mitzvah, it's going to be bad. But when you do both, the Hachana has more influence on the person. So before Gimmel Tammuz, you also have to think. Otherwise, Gimmel Tammuz comes, Gimmel Tammuz goes, and it's not a tog in the calendar, and it's, it's not like that. So that's what you have to think.

2:05:55 Speaker 7 Yeah. Okay.

2:05:57 Speaker 1 Yeah.

2:05:57 Speaker 7 Thank you very much, Rabbi Shapiro. And, uh, we should do the Hachanas and, uh, not only Hachanas, but also the days afterwards has to be-

2:06:05 Speaker 1 Yeah, but-

2:06:05 Speaker 7 ... from the-

2:06:07 Speaker 1 That's the whole kavona.

2:06:08 Speaker 7 Yeah.

2:06:08 Speaker 1 Just like Pesach. Pesach, but Pesach ending said.

2:06:13 Speaker 7 Mm-hmm.

2:06:13 Speaker 1 That doesn't finish. Whatever Gimmel Tammuz has to be Hashpa'ah later. But if you make the Hachanas on the day, it has more chance that you'll fulfill it. You'll be Makif.

2:06:23 Speaker 7 Okay. Yes, thank you, Rabbi Shapiro.

2:06:26 Speaker 1 Of course.

2:06:31 Speaker 7 Amen. Amen.