Pesach Publications - Part 14: The Rebbe's Talks on the Haggada & Story

00:01 This is Behem Shech in continuation to the earlier installment regarding the exceptional fabrengen of Pesach Tov Shin Lamed Beis, nineteen seventy-two. We now continue with installment number fourteen. In this installment, we continue to discuss the Pesach of Tov Shin Lamed Beis, when the Rebbe made seemingly a reference to a child who has just arrived from Russia in the year nineteen seventy-two. To give a little background, in addition to what we discussed in the earlier installment, it was in winter nineteen seventy-two that a number of families were successful in leaving Medinat Ahi, leaving Russia and arriving in Eretz Israel. And amongst the families was also the family Schiff, who arrived in Eretz Israel. The covered Chag HaPesach of the year Tov Shin Lamed Beis, the Rebbe invited the family to come visit in New York to be by the Rebbe, and the Rebbe also sponsored the expenses for the trip. That year, Pesach was Thursday, so it was a three-day hem shech, two days of Pesach and then Shabbos. The Rebbe fabrenged in the two days of Yom Tov, three thirty PM. On the first day of Pesach, the Rebbe requested that one who has recently left Russia, either a child or an adult, if there is a child, it should be the child to ask the Ma Nishtana. After that, the Rebbe asked the Va'ad Hamechade that they should bring a child who just came out from the Yetzias Mitzrayim, which is basically referring to where they came from. And they brought two children from

02:21 the Schiff family who have just recently arrived. One was a boy, Yerachmiel Schiff, and one is a second boy, Aryeh Leib Schiff. The children stood near the Rebbe, they asked the questions, and the Rebbe listened very intently. After the four kashes were asked, the Rebbe began singing the nigun in Russian, which means we will not drown in water, we won't burn in fire. Those who stood near the Rebbe observed that tears were coming from the Rebbe's eyes during the time that they were saying the four kashes and also during this nigun. On the second day of Yom Tov, the Rebbe spoke about the four questions again, and the Rebbe continued that this is the appropriate place to ask the Ma Nishtana, since already yesterday the children who came out of Russia have asked the Ma Nishtana. And as mentioned that for them it's easier to understand the ingen of Yetzias Mitzrayim since they experienced it. And although it's not a geulah shleimah, but it's a Yetzias Mitzrayim in a miniature format. So today, all the children who are here, also those from yesterday and their friends, should all gather together and ask the four kashes. After the children concluded asking the four kashes, the Rebbe began speaking a sicha. The Rebbe says, in the history of Am Yisroel, there was, there was once a situation which was nothing like it, a eis tzarah l'Yisroel. From inside, it was the King Achaz. He's referred to with the name Achaz because he closed shuls and study halls.

04:30 And not only that, but he started to control what to take into the shuls, what to take into the Beis Hamikdash. And from the outside, the nations came to wage war against Am Yisroel, and it was a great danger to the extent that it was a need for a miracle higher than nature. And Yeshaya then said to Achaz, "Ask for a sign from the Eternal, your God, anywhere down to She'ol or up to the sky." But Achaz replied, "I will not ask, and I will not test Hashem." "Listen, house of David," Yeshaya retorted, "is it not enough for you to treat the agents, the prophets, as helpless that you also treat my God as helpless? Assuredly, my Sovereign will give you a sign nonetheless. Look, the young woman is with child and about to give birth to a son. Let her name him Immanuel," which means he is the image of our nation. And then continues, when he saw the good behavior of these Children, Yaldei Yisroel, as it says in Yeshayahu, the children that Hashem has given me as a sign and as a miracle in the Jewish nation, from that hour I hoped to him, and I was sure that Hashem will help the nation. And the Rebbe continues, halachas kama bekama, especially in our time when the matzav, the situation is not so threatening. We find ourselves in iquves demeshicha. We just need to refine, to conclude refining and elevating the last sparks, the pachentanim, and to rid oneself from the kel

06:41 zorah shebekirbecha, which is the evil inclination. So when the children announce ki imanu kel, which is also together in one word, Em-Emmanuel, Emunuel, boreh adavor, it is then very definite that Hashem will help Yidden in the true and ultimate redemption bekarev mamash. And then bepastus, the sicha, as Hasidim heard it then, bnegir taYeshayahu haNavi, was connected also with this child who has the name Yerachmiel. He came to the Rebbe for chag haPesach, and the lesson from the sicha was that the Aibishter will have mercy on us, which is also from the word Yerachmiel, yerachmei kel. And this is the connection with Em-Emmanuel, Emunuel, sheimanhu kel, that the Aibishter is with us as it was in the nigun that the children just sung, utzeitz et vesufar. And these two names express our tzur of Am Yisroel. When the sicha was published, in a footnote, it is mentioned that the Rebbe also mentioned the name Yerachmiel, and it could possibly be because of the name of one of these two children who just came from Russia who asked the ma nishtana. With this installment, we conclude the Ezras Hashem, this series on Pesach.