The 8th day of Adar - a lesson for us

00:00 We find ourselves in the day of Ches Adar, the eighth day of Adar, which is the first day of Yeshua's leadership after the passing of Moshe Rabbeinu. On this day, in Tov Shem Emalech, 1981, the Rebbe spoke an unusual sicha which was understood after Gimel Tammuz, approximately thirteen and a half years later. The Rebbe said the following on Shabbos Zachor, which was the eighth of Adar, and the sicha was also published by Sichas in English. Shabbos Parsha Zachor this year comes on the eighth of Adar, the day when Yeshua assumed the leadership of the Jewish people. On the day that Moshe passed away, the seventh of Adar, the leadership was shared. The first half of the day, Moshe was the leader. In the second half, Yeshua took over. The sixth of Adar, Moshe alone was the leader. So it was not until the eighth that Yeshua alone was the leader. The difference between Moshe and Yeshua was that the face of Moshe was as the face of the sun, and the face of Yeshua was as the face of the moon. Yeshua was the student who received from Moshe, as the moon receives from the sun. And on the eighth of Adar, Yeshua was on his own. The lesson drawn from this is that sometimes a person must use his own brains. Formerly, the leader of our generation led him and guided him in every little detail, leaving him only the job of carrying out the mechanics of the task. But now that Moshe is

01:53 gone, he must think for himself. For a person may think that if he no longer receives the instructions of the previous Rebbe, that it isn't as formerly when the Sederenu took him by the hand and screamed into his ears what he should do in all the details in his mission, but now he doesn't know what to do. Without his Rebbe, he's nothing. This is the lesson of the eighth of Adar. Although Yeshua was now on his own and his teacher Moshe had passed away, he nevertheless carried out his work with every fiber of his being. So too, although the previous Rebbe is not here and we have only general guidelines, we must still carry out our work. This is the general concept of shlichos, the mission. A person is sent overseas to perform a mission to spread Yiddishkeit. In such a situation, he does not receive detailed instructions on every particular thing he does. Such a person must think for himself, using the general instructions received from the leader of our generation as his foundation. If he tries hard enough, he will surely arrive at the right conclusions compatible to that of the leader. We find this idea expressed in the war against Amalek. Moshe did not himself fight, but rather sent Yeshua, saying to him, "Go out, fight with Amalek." Moshe was on the top of the mountain within the cloud, while Yeshua fought with Amalek outside the cloud. Although Moshe fought according to the general instructions given to him by... Although Yeshu- although

03:54 Yeshua fought according to the general instructions given to him by Moshe, he had to rely on his own initiatives for the particulars of the war. And the victory is ascribed to Yeshua, as it says, "Vayachelish Yeshua," and Yeshua weakened Amalek.