2 of Teves - Yahrzeit of Rabbi Yakov Chuli Slonim ב טבת תרי"ז 12/29/1856

00:00 Speaker 1 I wanna do Yemei Chabad today for the second day of Teves. We're at the Beis Teves. This is in the year Taf Reish Yud Zayin, December twenty-nine, eighteen fifty-six. Uh, that's the day of passing of, uh, Reb Yaakov Chuli Slonim. Um, Reb Yaakov Chuli Slonim was a son-in-law of the Mitler Rebbe. Um, he was the husband of Menuchah Rochel. That was the name, Menuchah Rochel, who was the daughter of the Mitler Rebbe. Um, the Mitler Rebbe, we learned, had several children. We've learned about three of his children mainly. Uh, we've learned, uh, about the Mitler Rebbe's, um, um... The Mitler Rebbe, of course, was, uh, um, a son of the Alter Rebbe, but we learned one daughter married the Samach Tzedek, Reb Nachman Mendel. That was the Chaya Mushka. That was the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, okay? Then we also learned that there was another daughter that married Reb Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkas, um, who was the son of Reb Mordechai of Chernobyl. Uh, that was the family of the-- another daughter of the Mitler Rebbe who married there. And another daughter, this Menuchah Rochel, she married this Reb Yaakov Chuli Slonim, and we read that they were the ones that made Aliyah. His daughter, Menuchah Rochel, very much wanted to go to Eretz Yisroel to live in Israel. Now, this Reb Yaakov Chuli Slonim, there's a very interesting story in his birth. Uh, he was the son-- He, he was the son of a Hasid known as Reb Zalman Reizes. Uh, in the olden days,

02:01 Speaker 1 some of the, the time, the people, instead of a surname, having a second name, a family name, they would go by the mother's name or sometimes by the father's name. This mother, her name was Reize. Reize was the name. Rosie today they would call it. Uh, this Reizes, she had, um, uh, two, um, um... There were, there were two, two, two brothers over there. Uh, one of them was, um, uh, Reb Pinchas, and one of them was Reb Zalman. They called them Reb Pinchas and Reb Zalman Reizes. That was their sort of their family name. Roses. Reb Pinchas and Zalman Reizes. And they came from the, uh, city, um, of Shklov. Um, the city of Shklov was a, a very strong, uh, hold of those who opposed the Hasidis over there. Um, this Reb Zalman, who was the father of Reb Yaakov Chuli Slonim, who became the son-in-law of the Mitler Rebbe, married Menuchah Rochel. So this Reb Zalman, uh, so, um, who his father-in-law, uh, his father-in-law and his mother-in-law, his mother-in-law, they never know, her name was Reizel. That's why they called them... This was not name of his mother, but the father, uh, which we're talking about Reb Zalman. They called him Zalman Reizes or Reb Pinchas Reizes. It's-- They were named by the mother-in-law. The mother-in-law was a very wealthy woman, and she was a very important woman in the city of Shklov. And she was also very much in a position. So her daughters, both of them, married this Reb

03:55 Speaker 1 Pinchas and Reb Zalman. Um, and these two son-in-laws, they weren't brothers. I said brother, they weren't brothers. They were brother-in-laws. They both married these Reizes. But when they married them, they weren't Hasidim. They were great Misnagdim. She was very wealthy, and she took the most, uh, Hasidim, the most, uh, uh, important young people. But then they turned to her, uh, misfortune. They became Hasidim.

04:26 Speaker 2 Wow.

04:27 Speaker 1 So now t-two of her son-in-laws are now great Hasidim, Reb Zalman and Reb Pinchas. And she couldn't stand that, and she was like up there. Now, I'm not sure about what happened with her husband, but he didn't figure in this case.

04:43 Speaker 2 She, she was the powerful one.

04:44 Speaker 1 I don't know. I'm not sure exactly what happened with the... But she used to, um, cause a lot of troubles for her son-in-laws. Now, when her daughter, who was the wife of Reb Zalman, now the mother of Reb Yaakov Chuli, who married Menuchah Rochel, the daughter of the, the, the Mitler Rebbe. Uh, when his daughter, wife of Zalman, was about to give birth, you know, especially in those days, the doctors said that her life was in danger, that she was... And she reluctantly agreed, uh, to travel to the Alter Rebbe, because she didn't have any choice, to ask the Alter Rebbe for a blessing that her, uh, daughter should, uh, you know, go through this, this birth in good health. So the Alter Rebbe told her, "If you promise me to stop, uh, degrading and bothering your son-in-laws, so then I promise you that the birth is going to go through peacefully." And, you know, so she had no choice. She had to promise. And that blessing, Reb Yaakov Chuli was born. This Reb Yaakov Chuli who eventually became the son-in-law of the Mitler Rebbe. In the year Taf Resh Hei, so in five six O five, in eighteen forty-four, um, so Rabbi Yaakov Choli, with together with his wife, Menucha Rochel, together with their children, they made Aliyah to Eretz Yisrael, and they settled in the city of Hebron. And, uh, the Mitlah Rebbe had had a property in-- already bought the property within Hebron, so they settled over there. Uh, with their coming

06:40 Speaker 1 to Hebron, they sort of revived the Hasidic Chabad presence in the city of our forefathers, uh, where, of course, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are b-buried over there in the Maaras HaMachpelah, in the cave over there. I think And yeah. And their home, uh, became like a center for spirituality, uh, of the city. And, um, his, uh, resting place is in the Har HaZeisim in Yerushalayim, in the Mount of Olives in Yerushalayim. Um, following this presence of the, uh, daughter of the Mitlah Rebbe, eventually many other Hasidim, you know, followed. And we already learned that the Rebbe Rashab, that was right before, before World War, Wor- Uh, World War I, where they, uh, sent students to revive again the city of, uh, Hebron. And there was, uh, um, you know, a lot of unfortunate, you know, the community with the Arabs, with the things was always, uh, always problems over there. Um, eventually, uh, the yeshiva that used to be in Hebron actually went over to Yerushalayim, went into Jerusalem, and it continues in Jerusalem. There is no, uh, official Chabad yeshiva now in Hebron. Besides, you know, they rebuilt, you know, Kiryat Arba over there. They have the, the Jewish settlement. But, uh, that was the, um, that was the story with them. Now, there is another, um... This was in Taf Resh Yud Zayin. There's another entry here, uh, that on the second day of Teves is in Taf Shin. That's already in nineteen forty. And this was, uh, the day that the, uh,

08:33 Speaker 1 previous Rebbe has escaped, was freed from Poland during the Second World War. Well, that was the ransom was paid- Um- -to move him out. Let's see here what it, uh, what it says over here, and then in a minute we'll hear what you're saying. Okay. It says that, um, the World War II broke out in the month of Elul of Taf Resh Tsadik Tes. September. Yeah. It was October first, nineteen thirty-nine. Nineteen thirty-nine. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so the- I think September, September. Oh ... previous Rebbe, um, settled-- moved from Warsaw. He moved to Otwock. He was in, in Otwock, and he came to Warsaw to-- en route to Riga in Latvia. Uh, the war was such that there was no possibility to come-- go out from Warsaw. So he had to remain in Warsaw for three months and, um, went through all the terrible- Deprivation The bombings What went through was just impossible. There is another entry later on. That's when Poland Um, that was the time that America had not yet got involved- Right ... in the, in the war, and the Germans were trying to be at peace with the Americans. They tried to, to placate. And therefore the, the direction to trying to save the Rebbe came, uh, by, um... The direction to save the Rebbe came by means of trying to work with the embassy, the German embassy that was in the United States- Mm ... to influence that way. Uh, that turned out to be successful. And there were several

10:34 Speaker 1 times that there were high-ranking German officers that came to the home in which the Rebbe was hiding in Warsaw, and they asked about the Rebbe. They wanted to know if the Rebbe was there. But the people that were around the Rebbe, they didn't know that those people have come to extract the Rebbe- Right ... to take him out. Oh, okay. So they always answered, "There's no such a person in this home over here." Uh, but it-- later on, the people found out that these gu- these people are there to-- looking for the Rebbe to take him out. They were around him. So in order for the Rebbe to be able to go to Latvia, he first had to go to Berlin. He had to go to-- into Berlin, into the lion's den, so to speak. Uh, Traugutt Link then was right on the front, of the front lines of the- On the... Yeah ... of the war. So in order to prevent of the German soldiers who were, uh, bloodthirsty to attack Jewish people, so they were going to see people that have beards and payots, you know, that all they need. So they found a Jewish person who was an army in... Uh, he was a, uh, uh, a soldier in the first World War II in Germany, and he put on his German, uh- Uniform And he put on all of his-

12:13 Speaker 3 Medals

12:14 Speaker 1 ... medals that he had, uh, received for being a hero and everything else after the war. And he went along with the Rebbe as an escort to go along with the Rebbe. Several times along the route, they tried to do bad to the Rebbe, but this German soldier intervened, and he protected them that they shouldn't touch them. When they came to Berlin, they needed to stay there for the entire Shabbos, and they were brought into the Jewish community home that was in the city. On the next day, the people from the Latvian embassy came. They took the Rebbe to, uh, to Riga, to, uh, moved him to Riga. There's another place he quotes here that, um, after a lot of pressure from the American government, uh, has, uh, mounted a lot of pressure, also the head of the intelligence, uh, person by himself, he intervened to protect and to, uh, help the Rebbe. He gave an instruction to his assistant, who was the head of the, um, intelligence, the German intelligence in Warsaw, that he should find the Rebbe, and he should ex- take him out of there. The head of the intelligence in Warsaw, the German intelligence, found the house in which the Rebbe was, but the people of the house didn't know who he was, and they told him that the Rebbe is not at home. So after several days, he came back to the house, and he told them that he came to take the Rebbe out, and he himself took the

14:12 Speaker 1 Rebbe and his family, moved them to Berlin, and the Gestapo, along the way, those wild animals stopped him, but the head of the intelligence showed them-

14:24 Speaker 2 Documents

14:25 Speaker 1 ... that he had received orders to take these captives to Berlin. So one way or the other, I mean, this was a, uh, definitely a miraculous and an unbelievable kindness of Hashem to provide from the lines then, you know, to even think about that you have the Germans themselves, whether it was the head of the intelligence in Warsaw or whether it was, uh, from the embassy, the German embassy, a, over there. But either way, it is the Germans themselves that were, uh, there to save and extract the Rebbe from there, from, from Latvia, and eventually, of course, the Rebbe came, uh, to the United States. So that all took place on the, uh, second day of Teves on the, um, in this, in this particular thing, uh, he was taken out. This was in 1940, I mean, right in the, 1940, um-

15:26 Speaker 2 Teves in 1940. So that was '19.

15:31 Speaker 1 Yeah. Right at the beginning of 1940.

15:34 Speaker 2 Oh, the beginning?

15:34 Speaker 1 Right in the beginning.

15:35 Speaker 2 Yeah.

15:35 Speaker 1 January, right?

15:36 Speaker 2 Yeah, because Jan-

15:36 Speaker 1 Must be right in January

15:37 Speaker 2 Because September 1st was the invasion, and the war was-

15:40 Speaker 3 Into Poland

15:41 Speaker 2 ... into Poland.

15:41 Speaker 3 Yeah.

15:41 Speaker 2 The war was over 30 days later.

15:44 Speaker 3 Poland had given in.

15:45 Speaker 1 Yeah.

15:45 Speaker 3 Yeah.

15:45 Speaker 2 Poland, they, they just walked in-

15:47 Speaker 3 Yeah

15:47 Speaker 2 ... and took over. There was nothing.

15:48 Speaker 1 Yeah.

15:48 Speaker 3 Oh, same thing with Austria.

15:50 Speaker 2 Yeah, but this was different because that's what created World War II was the invasion of Poland-

15:55 Speaker 3 Yeah

15:55 Speaker 2 ... because of the treaty with the Brit- the French and the British. They gave them a mandate to be out. They didn't go out.

16:02 Speaker 3 Yeah.

16:02 Speaker 2 So that's when the war erupted.

16:04 Speaker 3 Yeah.

16:04 Speaker 2 But the United States wasn't gonna go into the war.

16:06 Speaker 3 I know, until Japan bombed us. That's what, that's what got it.

16:09 Speaker 2 And don't forget, we're dealing with an American government that was anti-Semitic.

16:12 Speaker 3 Oh, I know. FDR.

16:13 Speaker 2 There was only one Jew in the whole cabinet.

16:17 Speaker 3 Yeah.

16:17 Speaker 2 And I think it was... I can't remember what, what department it was.

16:19 Speaker 3 It was in the, uh, finance department.

16:22 Speaker 2 The treasurer?

16:22 Speaker 3 Yeah.

16:23 Speaker 2 Was the treasurer.

16:24 Speaker 3 Yeah.

16:24 Speaker 2 There was one Jew because wh- when Roosevelt brought in secretaries or anybody into his government, it wasn't what their religious affiliation was, it was their capability. But historically, they claim in genealogy, if you go back far enough, the Roosevelts were Jewish.

16:41 Speaker 3 Hmm.

16:41 Speaker 2 'Cause they were, they were from, they were Dutch, and they were in the shipping business. And that's how they amass- amassed their fortune.

16:48 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

16:49 Speaker 2 Franklin Roosevelt's grandfather was a very, in the... You know, in those days, it was the only way to move transportation from one end of the world to the other.

16:55 Speaker 3 Right, shipping.

16:56 Speaker 2 And he came to America. He came from a very privileged silver spoon family as his cousin, and all, they were all in the shipping business.

17:02 Speaker 3 Right.

17:03 Speaker 2 But, what I'm getting at is it wasn't until 1912, 1913 that a Jew actually got a prominent position in American government, and that's when Brandeis was made.

17:15 Speaker 3 Yeah.

17:16 Speaker 2 And the only reason Brandeis got that position-

17:18 Speaker 3 Is a Louis Brandeis

17:19 Speaker 2 ... yeah, was because he was a l- a lawyer.

17:24 Speaker 3 Yeah.

17:24 Speaker 2 And he wrote the workman's comp laws that are used today-

17:28 Speaker 3 Yeah

17:28 Speaker 2 ... throughout the whole United States. And that was... So what they want-- And so at that point, they were trying to get different religious groups on the court-

17:38 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm

17:38 Speaker 2 ... to just diversify the court, and that's how he got that position.

17:41 Speaker 3 Yeah. One of the, uh, anti-Semites was Hull. He was Secretary of State, H-U-L-L.

17:46 Speaker 2 Oh, Cordell Hull.

17:47 Speaker 3 Yeah, Cordell Hull.

17:47 Speaker 2 Oh, yes. Roosevelt himself.

17:50 Speaker 3 And Longbridge too.

17:52 Speaker 2 I don't, um... You know, you gotta realize one thing about Roosevelt. He was a dictator.

17:57 Speaker 3 Yeah.

17:57 Speaker 2 He wasn't a president. When the cabinet sat down, he didn't care what anybody said.

18:03 Speaker 3 Mm-mm.

18:03 Speaker 2 He would listen to them, but he still did what he wanted to.

18:06 Speaker 3 But his wife is the one who got the War Refugee Board passed in 1944 to bring Jews over, and they went to Oswego, New York, upstate New York.

18:14 Speaker 2 Yeah, and it was also Truman that integrated the military, that brought the Blacks with the whites. But see, that's what was started, but then it died out because... And he was a pr- he was a personal f- the reason Israel got recognized so fast is when he was in business in Missouri, he was a haberdasher. His partner was Jewish.

18:36 Speaker 3 Yeah.

18:36 Speaker 2 And his partner kept calling him to rec- you know, about the whole thing, and Chaim Weizmann was in the United States, and he wanted him, the president, to meet him, and the president said, "I can't. It's not a recognized state."

18:51 Speaker 3 Oh.

18:51 Speaker 2 So but he did meet him. He went in the back door through the kitchen into the White House, and they sat and they spoke.

18:56 Speaker 3 And he implored and explained history.

18:57 Speaker 2 And they, and they both sat there. And so finally, the pressure from his friend forced him to recognize the state.

19:05 Speaker 3 Oh, my God.

19:05 Speaker 2 But I don't know that... But I know the Soviet Union recognized it.

19:08 Speaker 3 Yeah, it did.

19:09 Speaker 2 But I don't know if it was the same day or the next day. Actually, I think before the United States.

19:13 Speaker 3 Yeah, they did. They recognized it first.

19:14 Speaker 2 And that was a communi- So that's ironic, is here we got a, a, a real, you know, a Soviet government. It's against religion and against everything, and they were one of the first to recognize the government.

19:25 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

19:25 Speaker 1 They probably had the most Jews in the Soviet Union. That would be-

19:29 Speaker 2 But they didn't recognize religion.

19:31 Speaker 1 Yeah, but they had the, the, the, the, the, the-

19:32 Speaker 2 Oh, at that point, they had the largest Jewish population in the world

19:35 Speaker 1 ... largest Jewish pop in the world.

19:36 Speaker 3 Wow.

19:36 Speaker 2 Because for, before World War II, Poland had the largest-

19:39 Speaker 3 Oh, I know, I did. I know

19:39 Speaker 2 ... population of Jews.

19:40 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

19:41 Speaker 2 And the only reason the Jews were in Poland is because the Polish king's girlfriend, he had a Jewish girlfriend.

19:46 Speaker 3 Oh.

19:47 Speaker 2 Okay? And you know that in, in, in Catholicism, they're not allowed to loan money and charge interest.

19:53 Speaker 3 Well, that comes from Judaism.

19:55 Speaker 2 So-

19:56 Speaker 3 So

19:56 Speaker 2 ... but the, so what it was is the economy of Poland was so stagnant.

20:01 Speaker 3 Oh.

20:01 Speaker 2 So they gave incentives from the Jews from Germany in the east, the west, well, east, the western part of Europe to come in and revive their economy.

20:10 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm. And that's how we met the Goldberg's.

20:11 Speaker 2 And that's how it, the pop- And it was, and it became very prosperous.

20:16 Speaker 3 Yeah.

20:17 Speaker 2 And that's why there was such a large influx into such-

20:19 Speaker 1 But you see-

20:20 Speaker 2 ... such a large population there

20:20 Speaker 1 ... but you see, it says that, um, God-

20:24 Speaker 2 In the beginning

20:25 Speaker 1 ... dispersed the Jewish people amongst all the nations. So one of the things, it was a kindness so that in case they get in trouble in one place, there should always be-

20:35 Speaker 2 They must have another place to go

20:36 Speaker 1 ... and there's always some other Jews elsewhere.

20:38 Speaker 3 Yeah.

20:38 Speaker 2 Yeah.

20:38 Speaker 1 And, um, you see, even though there seems to be, like, reasons how things transpired, but there was a master plan over there. This was, uh-

20:49 Speaker 3 Right

20:50 Speaker 1 ... Hashem's want and Hashem's will, and the same thing you talk about, like the state of Israel, and you s- you're, uh, you know, surprised how Russia was the one that-

21:01 Speaker 2 One of the first

21:01 Speaker 1 ... approved that. But, you know, the heart of, it says, there's a verse that says that, "Leiv melachim vesarim beyad Hashem," the heart of the officers and kings is in God's hand. Hashem-

21:15 Speaker 2 But this was Stalin

21:15 Speaker 1 ... makes them, yeah.

21:16 Speaker 2 This was Stalin.

21:17 Speaker 1 Yeah.

21:17 Speaker 2 I mean, we're not talking, uh, so-

21:19 Speaker 1 Well, well, that proves the point even more.

21:21 Speaker 2 Yeah.

21:21 Speaker 1 That even somebody like, like a Stalin-

21:24 Speaker 3 Yeah

21:24 Speaker 1 ... still, you know, when Hashem makes his heart.

21:26 Speaker 2 I mean-

21:27 Speaker 1 The problem mostly we have is with Jewish people, because Jews have freedom of choice in, in certain ways, uh, they can make trouble.

21:36 Speaker 2 But, you know, I think if I'm-

21:37 Speaker 1 They can ruin it, sort of.

21:38 Speaker 3 Yeah.

21:38 Speaker 2 I'm not positive, but I think Golda Meir was the first ambassador to the Soviet Union.

21:43 Speaker 3 Yes, she was, in the 1950s or '60s.

21:44 Speaker 2 And then she went to the shul in Moscow-

21:47 Speaker 3 Yeah

21:47 Speaker 2 ... which created chaos-

21:48 Speaker 3 Oh, yeah

21:49 Speaker 2 ... in there.

21:49 Speaker 3 Thousands of people came-

21:50 Speaker 2 And Stalin was-

21:51 Speaker 3 ... to hear her

21:51 Speaker 2 ... beyond-

21:53 Speaker 3 Yeah

21:53 Speaker 2 ... dealing with that because-

21:54 Speaker 3 And she gave the Russian people hope

21:55 Speaker 2 ... because all these thousands of Jews in Moscow came out into the streets, which was prohibited.

22:02 Speaker 3 Yeah.

22:02 Speaker 2 Jews couldn't gather.

22:03 Speaker 3 No.

22:03 Speaker 2 And here she was, and they couldn't tell a, an official of a, of a government not to do it. So that created a lot of havoc.

22:11 Speaker 3 Surprised they let her in. And she brought prayer books with her, too.

22:14 Speaker 2 Yeah.

22:15 Speaker 3 To people.

22:15 Speaker 2 You know, it's like you were talking about how they dispersed. You know, i- i- in Germany, all these little city states before, um, uh, Bismarck-

22:23 Speaker 3 Yeah

22:24 Speaker 2 ... consolidated the country, you know, everyone... And there was such s- uh, discrimination that, and the, that's why they came to America.

22:32 Speaker 3 Uh-huh.

22:33 Speaker 2 And they came to America, and they couldn't go in the banking business 'cause Jews were prohibited.

22:37 Speaker 3 Right.

22:37 Speaker 2 So they went to Wall Street.

22:39 Speaker 3 Ah.

22:39 Speaker 2 So they became the bankers of the bankers.

22:41 Speaker 3 This is the early 1900s or 1800s?

22:43 Speaker 2 This is in the 1870s, after.

22:45 Speaker 3 Okay.

22:45 Speaker 2 Okay?

22:45 Speaker 3 Yeah.

22:45 Speaker 2 But what people fail to realize, in World War I, it was the Jewish bankers, the Jewish, um, brokerage houses in Europe, the investment bankers, the Goldman Sachs and all of the Warburg and Pinchas.

22:58 Speaker 3 Yeah.

22:58 Speaker 2 They financed the German war.

23:02 Speaker 3 In Germany.

23:03 Speaker 2 In Germany.

23:03 Speaker 3 And these were German bankers.

23:04 Speaker 2 They raised the money through bonds to give Germany to fight the war, to the Kaiser.

23:10 Speaker 3 Like the rabbi said, it's the Jews.

23:12 Speaker 2 So-

23:12 Speaker 3 Just kidding.

23:13 Speaker 2 So you see, everything, you know, here on one end, you know, it's one, and then, and because, you know, it was so bad in some parts of Germany in the late 1870s, the Jews were, you know, they were killed in the streets-

23:24 Speaker 3 Yeah

23:24 Speaker 2 ... just like in, in the, in the Soviet Union.

23:26 Speaker 1 But the-

23:27 Speaker 2 And this was a civilized society.

23:28 Speaker 3 This is a blip America right now, that we're living in such peace.

23:32 Speaker 2 Well, I don't know, some would say-

23:33 Speaker 1 Let the, um, but just, you know, as we see in this week's parsha, we just started reading it, Vayeitzei Yaakov. There is a whole story that seems to follow, you know, one incident after the other incident, and but this was actually God's master's plan to have the Jewish people go down to Egypt and-

23:56 Speaker 2 Yeah, well-

23:56 Speaker 1 But it st- it started off with, uh, Jacob. In this week's parsha, Vayeitzei Yaakov, he, he goes down to Laban, and he has all of his family over there. And then eventually the brothers take and they sell their brother-

24:09 Speaker 2 Right

24:09 Speaker 1 ... and they sell him into Egypt. And then, and then all of the Jewish people-

24:13 Speaker 2 Leave

24:14 Speaker 1 ... leave and go down to Egypt.

24:15 Speaker 2 Egypt.

24:15 Speaker 1 And then eventually to go out and to-

24:18 Speaker 2 And then come back up to the next place

24:19 Speaker 1 ... to the land of Is- Israel. So-

24:21 Speaker 2 You know-

24:21 Speaker 1 A lot of times, a lot of things take place in the middle. And while, while it's taking place, you don't see-

24:27 Speaker 2 There's an alternative motive

24:27 Speaker 1 ... you don't see-

24:27 Speaker 2 There's another motive involved

24:28 Speaker 1 ... well, the, the big, you don't see the whole picture.

24:30 Speaker 2 Well, you know what they say in history.

24:30 Speaker 1 But then things get pictured.

24:31 Speaker 2 You know what they say in history, what goes around comes around.

24:34 Speaker 3 Yes.

24:34 Speaker 2 And it's true. History does repeat itself.

24:37 Speaker 1 Yeah.

24:38 Speaker 3 Yeah.

24:38 Speaker 1 But the thing is, they say you have to learn from history.

24:40 Speaker 3 Absolutely.

24:41 Speaker 1 And if you learn-

24:41 Speaker 2 But if you learn, yes, because if you learned what happened, you'll know it's coming.

24:46 Speaker 1 Yeah.

24:46 Speaker 3 Hitler said they didn't do any- the world didn't do anything about the Turkish killing Arm- the Armenians, and no one's gonna do anything about us killing the Jews.

24:54 Speaker 1 Yeah.

24:54 Speaker 2 Well, the test, the whole test with Hitler was each invasion, especially Czechoslovakia.

25:01 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

25:02 Speaker 2 He tested the British.

25:04 Speaker 3 Yeah.

25:05 Speaker 2 And the British are very passive people.

25:06 Speaker 3 Yeah.

25:07 Speaker 2 They used to be warmongers, but warmongers become passive. And Hitler tested them.

25:12 Speaker 3 Yeah, and no one said anything.

25:12 Speaker 2 And when they went to the Sudetenland and they didn't bother and then he went over to the, um, uh, um, the land that they took-

25:20 Speaker 3 Austria

25:20 Speaker 2 ... uh, from... No, uh, uh, France and Germany where the industrial zone was, the Alsace-Lorraine area.

25:28 Speaker 3 Oh, yeah.

25:28 Speaker 2 Because that's the industrial heart of Germany that they gave France, took over as reparation for the war. And when he came in and took that over, then he said, "That's it."

25:38 Speaker 3 Yeah.

25:38 Speaker 2 Nobody stopped him from building arms.

25:40 Speaker 3 No. Yeah.

25:40 Speaker 2 Nobody enforced anything.

25:41 Speaker 3 Now, Elie Wiesel said, "It's the bystander that's almost or as guilty as the offender because they didn't speak out." Like, Britain was the bystander that didn't-

25:49 Speaker 2 But it's the problem... You know who I bla-

25:50 Speaker 3 ... do anything

25:51 Speaker 2 I blame, I blame World War II on France. France is the culprit.

25:56 Speaker 3 For giving in? Yeah.

25:57 Speaker 2 Because at the Treaty of Versailles, France said, "I will not sign the treaty. This is what we demand. We want reparation. We want Germany to pay for everything, and we want to put them into the ground. We want to keep our foot on them." And you can't do that to a people, and make them pay the reparation. They couldn't afford to pay it, so the people were starving in the streets. People were going with wheelbarrows of money, and the country was going into a severe depression.

26:29 Speaker 3 And this is after World War I.

26:31 Speaker 2 Right.

26:31 Speaker 3 Yeah.

26:31 Speaker 2 In the '30s. Meanwhile, the rest of the world was, was flourishing.

26:35 Speaker 3 Well, we had our own depression.

26:35 Speaker 2 But Germany wasn't. Yeah, but, you know, in the, in the 20- in the middle '20s.

26:40 Speaker 3 Late '20s.

26:40 Speaker 2 But the thing is, you can't do that.

26:42 Speaker 3 Late '20s was the Depression, early '30s.

26:43 Speaker 2 And, and, and, and Wilson was against it, but he was outnumbered.

26:48 Speaker 3 Mm.

26:48 Speaker 2 Because he had the British was siding with the French be-- and which was very unusual because they were always-

26:53 Speaker 3 Yeah

26:53 Speaker 2 ... warmongers amongst each other, that they had to, they were living side by side.

26:57 Speaker 3 And, right, I know Lenin promised the Russian people-

27:00 Speaker 2 Oh

27:00 Speaker 3 ... food, land, jobs.

27:03 Speaker 2 If you'll let me, I'll just say one thing. In history, and we've talked about this, I don't know if you were here, if you don't keep people's stomachs full, you have a revolution.

27:11 Speaker 3 Right. Yes.

27:11 Speaker 2 'Cause I told you the story that the, that the ship was going down with the grain down the Rhine. It was w- was heading to Austria for food for the troops, because they were also starving in the Austro-Hungary.

27:22 Speaker 3 Oh, yeah.

27:22 Speaker 2 And Germany made the mistake of taking all the farmers and putting them into the military in World War I. There was nobody to grow the crops.

27:30 Speaker 3 Oh.

27:30 Speaker 2 So what happened? The people are rioting in the streets. The Kaiser doesn't know what to do. This barge comes down full of grain. They hijacked it.

27:38 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

27:38 Speaker 2 It was heading there.

27:39 Speaker 3 Oh.

27:40 Speaker 2 Okay? So if you don't feed the... You gotta feed the troops.

27:44 Speaker 3 Yes, yes.

27:44 Speaker 2 You gotta feed the people, and if you don't do it-

27:45 Speaker 3 They're desperate

27:46 Speaker 2 ... you have revolution.

27:46 Speaker 3 Yeah.

27:46 Speaker 2 And what happened in the Soviet, in Russia? Under, under the czar.

27:50 Speaker 3 Yes. I know. Communism came from that.

27:50 Speaker 2 You had revolution because-

27:51 Speaker 3 Yeah

27:51 Speaker 2 ... the people were in the streets. There was no wheat.

27:53 Speaker 3 Right. It w-

27:54 Speaker 2 I mean, things were bad to start with.

27:56 Speaker 3 It was after World War I.

27:56 Speaker 2 But that's the culmination.

27:59 Speaker 3 Yeah.

27:59 Speaker 2 That's why they had to pull out of World War I. They signed a treaty and then they walked away.

28:04 Speaker 3 Yeah.

28:04 Speaker 2 Right? But things weren't any better under communism.

28:07 Speaker 3 No. No, they weren't.

28:08 Speaker 4 But in any event, listen, somebody's running the world, and hopefully-

28:12 Speaker 2 No, nobody's running the world

28:13 Speaker 4 ... we, they, but there's someone who's running the world.

28:15 Speaker 2 Yeah. Individuals, I don't think half of them know what they're doing anyways.

28:19 Speaker 4 Yeah, but that's it. But the, the, the thing is, uh, that we have to try to make this world a better place, and we have to teach the world. Because you have to, um, you have to say that we do see that the world has progressed a lot-

28:34 Speaker 2 No question about it

28:35 Speaker 4 ... in the sense of responsibility, Father.

28:37 Speaker 2 Yes. Absolutely.

28:37 Speaker 4 When you have a, a disaster happening in some country-

28:42 Speaker 2 People run

28:42 Speaker 4 ... people are always there to help.

28:43 Speaker 2 Right.

28:43 Speaker 4 Other countries, they have nothing invested there, but they'll help.

28:46 Speaker 2 Right.

28:47 Speaker 4 We have progressed as a human race.

28:49 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

28:49 Speaker 4 Instead of being just selfish, living for ourselves, we realize that we have to extend ourselves. There's a lot, a lot, a lot more to go.

28:58 Speaker 2 But this is unbelievable.

28:58 Speaker 4 But it, it is, has become, the world has become... The world has learned. Abraham started off this with, years ago, but the world has learned. The Jewish religion has slowly but surely infiltrated the conscious of people, and people have responded in various different ways.

29:17 Speaker 2 The perfect example of that-

29:17 Speaker 4 So we are, and that, and Mashiach is going to bring the world to its ultimate-

29:22 Speaker 2 So, so the perfect example is that, that the United States Constitution is based on Jewish law.

29:27 Speaker 4 On Jewish law.

29:28 Speaker 2 Think about it. When the, when the Constitution was written, it was so everybody would have a right, okay? And there wouldn't be a dictator, number one. Number two, every time there's a question about something, where does it go? To the Supreme Court. It's like having a group of rabbis sitting there interpreting the law.

29:44 Speaker 3 Yeah.

29:45 Speaker 4 Yeah.

29:45 Speaker 2 So five rabbis. So now you got nine rabbis sitting on the Supreme Court in Washington, and this year they make a decision.

29:52 Speaker 4 A lot of them. Right.

29:52 Speaker 2 Right? In 20 years, that same case'll come back and you get a different decision.

29:56 Speaker 4 Yeah.

29:56 Speaker 2 Is it the same way when the rabbis sit and study the Talmud?

29:58 Speaker 4 Well, at a certain level, to a certain, a certain level.

30:01 Speaker 2 Okay. But basic, the basic concept is read what Alan Dershowitz says about that.

30:04 Speaker 4 No, but the difference is that the laws of the people of the country, even though if they're based, but they're human. They're human-made.

30:13 Speaker 2 Yes.

30:13 Speaker 4 They're based on the human intelligence and the human, uh, condition, and that changes with the condition, that changes with the human-

30:21 Speaker 2 And that's what the Constitution-

30:22 Speaker 4 ... experience. But the Torah is eternal. The Torah is, the Torah's law is eternal. That goes through, and it's not changed because it is beyond, it's beyond time.

30:32 Speaker 2 Okay.

30:32 Speaker 4 It's not a product of the people. It's a product of the divine, and that's why it lasts and it goes over the years.

30:38 Speaker 2 But, but the, but what, what I'm getting at is, is there's a point in here where there's an interpretation, there's a discussion, and it's not etched in stone.

30:47 Speaker 3 Right, like a dictator.

30:48 Speaker 4 Exactly.

30:49 Speaker 2 So the Constitution-

30:49 Speaker 4 You can figure it out

30:50 Speaker 2 ... you can figure it out and, and you, and, and what it is is, is Dershowitz says in it, is constitutional, was a constitutional professor at, at Harvard, he bases American law-

31:02 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm

31:02 Speaker 2 ... it goes back to biblical times.

31:04 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

31:05 Speaker 4 Yeah, absolutely. And I've, I've heard also that the, um- The Rebbe once said, "I'm no expert in the various different kinds of governments. There is-- We have all kinds."

31:14 Speaker 5 Of course.

31:14 Speaker 4 So the Rebbe says that the good parts of every system comes from the Torah.

31:21 Speaker 5 That's right.

31:21 Speaker 4 So the good-

31:22 Speaker 5 That's right

31:22 Speaker 4 ... the, the, the positive parts from the systems. So, you know, there are some positive ideas in the communist regime, too. There are some ideas-

31:31 Speaker 5 I'm not... Yes

31:32 Speaker 4 ... over there.

31:32 Speaker 3 The quality-

31:33 Speaker 4 The good-- But the good are in each point is based on the Torah, and the rest is-

31:39 Speaker 5 Yeah, and what else has changed?

31:40 Speaker 4 When they run into problems.

31:41 Speaker 5 And what else has changed society is technology.

31:43 Speaker 3 Yes.

31:44 Speaker 5 Just think, in the last fifty years-

31:46 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm

31:46 Speaker 5 ... there's more technology than all of human history.

31:48 Speaker 4 But now with technology, we can understand, like we, we read a, a Mishnah that says, uh, "Look, think what's above you. There's an eye that sees, an ear that hears, and everything that you've done, that you're doing, is being written down." So now with the NSA over there, uh, making their surveil-surveillance on the phone calls of a prime minister-

32:12 Speaker 5 Yeah

32:12 Speaker 4 ... hey. So you say, "Hey, you know, that idea sound-- somebody a way is listening." Hey, you know what? With technology, it's happening every day and every minute.

32:22 Speaker 5 That's what-

32:22 Speaker 4 Everything you're doing is being written down.

32:24 Speaker 3 Yeah, and recorded.

32:24 Speaker 4 It's being recorded, and it's, and it's gonna be played back to you.

32:28 Speaker 5 Okay. So now I'll give you an example. You bring back one of-- You bring Abraham back and show him the world today versus then. Well, what these people expect, the rules-

32:36 Speaker 4 They, they are the one that inven-

32:37 Speaker 5 Yeah

32:37 Speaker 4 ... that, that started it out and they, you know-

32:39 Speaker 5 So think about if-

32:40 Speaker 4 But I, but I, I guess the point that I, that I want to make and we'll leave it with this.

32:44 Speaker 5 Yeah.

32:44 Speaker 4 Point is that Abraham started something. It didn't catch on to everybody immediately, but it's catching on. It's catching on. People are realizing there's plenty of tyrants out there. There's plenty of gangsters. There's plenty of savages out there.

33:01 Speaker 5 There always will be.

33:02 Speaker 4 And the-- But the impact and the influence of the, uh, Judea, you know, in idea of monotheism and responsibility and accountability, and that, you know, our actions count and that it matter and we're supposed to, and we're part of the whole, and all these ideas are catching on, and people are responding slowly, and a lot of people in various different ways. But we just gotta keep at it and make this world a better place, spread the Noahide laws for all human beings, the Jewish people to keep the Torah. And, you know, Mashiach will come, and the world will come to perfection.