BH. 10 Shvat 5775 30 January 2015 Number 959 Price: $6.

00 Part 2 of 2

The international weekly heralding the coming of Moshiach

The righteous Jewish women need to be

confident and certainly are confidant
that the true and complete redemption is
coming immediately.
(Shabbos Parshas BShalach 5752)

THE KEY:
CONNECTING
TO THE REBBE
BASI LGANI 5715
FINAL INSTALMENT

THE REBBE IS
NOT ALONE
AND CHASSIDIM
ARE NOT ALONE
YUD SHVAT

MOSHIACH: THE
STRAIGHT PATH
TO HISKASHRUS
INTERVIEW WITH
RABBI GERSHON
AVTZON AND RABBI
SENDER WILSCHANSKY

BH. 10 Shvat 5775

30 January 2015 Number 959
Price: $6.00 Part 2 of 2

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LONG LIVE THE REBBE MELECH HAMOSHIACH FOREVER AND EVER!

27/01/2015 15:15:04

CONTENTS

6
FEATURED ARTICLES

WEEKLY COLUMNS

3 Dvar Malchus
5 Moshiach & Geula
31 Parsha Thought
50 Tzivos Hashem

YOU ARE MY SPIRITUAL

CHILDREN
Yaron Tzvi

THE
14 MOSHIACH
DERECH HAYESHARA
TO HISKASHRUS
Yisroel Lapidot

20

REBBE IS NOT
24 THE
ALONE AND HASSIDIM
ARE NOT ALONE

Rabbi Heschel Greenberg

STARTS
34 CHINUCH
AT HOME
R Nachman Twersky

AMAZING
41 THE
PRINTING PLATES
Chaim Brook

DEFINITION OF
44 THE
TRUE EDUCATIONAL

19
744 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11213-3409

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SUCCESS

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
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ENGLISH EDITOR:
Boruch Merkur
editor@beismoshiach.org

2015-01-27 9:26:50 AM

DVAR MALCHUS

BASI LGANI
5715
The leaders of the Jewish people connect the
generation with the very essence and being of G-d,
as it is said, I stand between G-d and youto tell
you the word of G-d. Here the leader of the general
serves as a connecting intermediary, bonding the
Jewish people with G-d. Thus, through connecting to the leader, the nasi,
one establishes a dwelling place for G-d in this physical world. * Beis
Moshiach presents the maamer the Rebbe MHM delivered on Yud Shvat
5715, in accordance with the custom established by the Rebbe to review
each year a section of the Rebbe Rayatzs maamer Basi LGani of 5710.
This year we focus on the fifth section of the profound and foundational
chassidic discourse. Part 6 of 6
Translated by Boruch Merkur

THE ACCUSER BECOMES THE DEFENDANT

The above discussion about transforming evil is
supported by what is written in this weeks parsha:
And they arrived at Mara. They could not drink the
water of Mara for it was bitter and G-d instructed
him [i.e., Moshe] to cast wood into the water,
and the water became sweet. The Rebbe Rashab,
nishmaso Eden, comments that it says in the Zohar
that here eitz wood actually refers to Torah, as
it is written, it is a tree of life, etc. However, in
the Midrash it says that it was eitz mar a bitter
type of wood. (To be precise, there are a variety
of opinions on the matter, one of which maintains
that it was Hardofni (Nerium Oleander), a toxic
plant. But the general consensus is that it was a type
of bitter wood.) It was specifically through this
bitter wood that the bitter water was transformed
into sweet, fresh water, an expression of the
concept of the accuser becomes the defendant, as
the Midrash states: With the object that caused the
wound (izamel, blade or scalpel) he heals.
The Rebbe concludes this sif, Section Five,
by elaborating on the avoda of transforming that
which is beneath reason into that which is beyond

reason. Many things are done as part of a routine,

(not because logic dictates that they should be
done, but simply) because that is what people do.
(I.e., it is accepted as being the way of the world.)
For example, the common outlook is that meals and
sleep patterns are set and established for certain
times, scheduled into ones day with little flexibility.
Even in the context of work, a life priority, these
set times maintain their rigidity for most people,
and certainly they are not neglected outright. (That
is, even when eating and sleeping are obstacles to
business objectives, work obligations typically do
not displace the times for eating and sleeping. In
fact, they are usually not even delayed.) Set times
for the study of Torah and prayer, on the other
hand, are often pushed aside and not scheduled in
as a priority. (Trivialities are given priority and lead
to the postponement or shortening of designated
times for Torah study or prayer.) Sometimes they
are missed out altogether, G-d forbid.
Of course, a person who is introspective and
scrutinizes his own spiritual standing asks himself
whether there is any wisdom in this conduct,
for who knows his time, the moment he faces
mortality? As stated in Midrash Rabba, one does

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Dvar Malchus
not have the authority to say wait for me until I
have made an accounting and until I can provide
a will and testament to my household, etc. How
then is it possible for one to forsake his own soul
for that which is vacuos, devoid of substance,
things that have no value at all? Irrespective of their
irrelevance, these triflings are granted permanent
fixed times, whereas scheduled times for Torah and
Mitzvos, which are of supreme importance, are
neglected and postponed, diminished and outright
discarded.
In recognizing this massive error, one must
summon within himself the discipline to redirect
and refocus the energy he had invested in unholy
activities and dedicate it towards holiness. Instead
he should be devoted to maintaining times for
Torah study and times for prayer, and to fulfilling
Mitzvos bhiddur, doing Mitzvos in the finest
possible manner.

THE KEY: CONNECTING TO THE REBBE

7. By perfecting the avoda of ishafcha,
transforming evil shtus into shtus dkdusha, one

Continued from page5

This is the way Hashem made
it, beginning from the very first
king, Dovid HaMelech!
The second relevant idea is
from Parshas VaEira. We learn
that Hashem commands Moshe
Rabbeinu to go to Pharaoh to
instruct him to send the Jewish
people out of Mitzrayim. To this
Moshe responds (6:12), Behold,
the children of Israel did not
hearken to me. How then will
Pharaoh hearken to me, seeing
that I am of closed lips?
Seemingly Moshe Rabbeinu is
lamenting the situation of Bnei

Yisroel. But it should still make

us wonder: what is the inner
connection between the two
points made in the Pasuk? Why
does Moshe Rabbeinu not want
to go to Pharaoh just because he
is not accepted by Bnei Yisroel?
Based on the above Sichos it
is clearly understood. The power
that Moshe has to take the Jewish
people out of Egypt comes from
the peoples acceptance of his
leadership. If the Bnei Yisroel
are not ready to accept Moshe
Rabbeinu, he feels that he does
not have the power to do his
shlichus to take the Yidden out
of Galus. It is just as we quoted

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builds for G-d the Mishkan and Mikdash. This

avoda entails replacing foolish conduct, behavior
that is below reason, with holy conduct that
transcends reason. The holy counterpart of shtus is
symbolized by atzei shittim, the Mishkans planks
that were made of acacia wood.
Through this avoda, one makes a dwelling
place for G-d in the lower realms, for when evil
is shunned (and this itself is not only in a manner
of weakening and eradicating, but in a manner
of transforming it into holiness), the glory of the
Alm-ghty is manifest in all worlds, the light of
Soveiv Kol Almin shines and is revealed, a revelation
that transcends all worlds equally.
From this sublime manifestation, G-dliness is
drawn down and revealed in this physical world
through the leaders of the Jewish people, who
connect the generation with the very essence and
being of G-d, as it is written, I stand between G-d
and youto tell you the word of G-d. Here the
leader of the generation serves as a connecting
intermediary, bonding the Jewish people with G-d.
This bond thus establishes a dwelling place for G-d
in this physical world.
earlier. The Rebbe stated, And
therefore its obvious that the
only thing that now remains in
the work of shlichus is to greet
our righteous Moshiach in actual
reality, in order that he should
be able to fulfill his shlichus in
actuality and bring all the Jews
out of exile!
So what does that mean
practically? This we will IYH
explain in our next article.
Rabbi Avtzon is the Rosh Yeshiva
of Yeshivas Lubavitch Cincinnati and a
well sought after speaker and lecturer.
Recordings of his in-depth shiurim
on Inyanei Geula uMoshiach can be
accessed at http://www.ylcrecording.
com.

worldwide, online: www.RadioMoshiach.org

In Israel (Nechayeg Venishmah): 08-9493-770 (press 1 # / 9 # / 3 #)

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MOSHIACH & GEULA

MOSHIACH
& GEULA
By Rabbi Gershon Avtzon

Dear Reader shyichyeh,

Firstly, I would like to start off by
wishing each and every one of you,
Lchaim! May we be mekabel the
Nesius and Moshiach bsimcha and
bpnimius! This year (5775) is the
65th anniversary of the leadership
of the Rebbe. The number 65 is
the numerical value of the word
Hallel, giving thanks. It is of the
utmost importance that we realize
the tremendous privilege that we
have by living in the Dor HaShvii,
the Rebbes generation, and offer the
proper thanks to Hashem.
In our previous articles, we
spoke at length about the qualities
of a Jewish king, Malchus Beis
Dovid and Melech HaMoshiach. We
quoted the Rambam (Tshuva, 9:2):
[These changes will come about]
because the king who will arise from
Davids descendants will be a greater
master of knowledge than Shlomo
HaMelech and a great prophet, close
to the level of Moshe, our teacher.
Therefore, he will teach the entire
nation and instruct them in the path
of G-d.
At this point it is imperative
that we discuss the role that we,
the people and nation, have in the
process. Let us start with some
quotes from different Sichos of the
Rebbe:
1) The appointment of David,
the King Moshiach, has already
occurred, as it says, I have found
David My servant, with My holy oil

I have anointed him. It requires only

an acceptance of his kingship by the
people and a complete revelation of
the attachment between the king and
the people, with the true and perfect
Redemption. (Mishpatim 5751)
2) What is needed is the
following: It is known that in
every generation an individual
descended from Yehuda is born who
is qualified to be the Moshiach for
Israel, and that one who qualifies
because of his righteousness to be
the Redeemer, then when the time
arrives G-d will be revealed to him
and send him, etc. And according
to the announcement of my sainted
father-in-law, the leader of our
generation, the singular shliach
of our generation, the singular
Moshiach of our generation, that
everything has already concluded,
its understood that there has begun
to be fulfilled the send now the one
You will send, the shlichus of my
sainted father-in-law. And therefore
its obvious that the only thing that
now remains in the work of shlichus
is to greet our righteous Moshiach
in actual reality, in order that he
should be able to fulfill his shlichus
in actuality and bring all the Jews out
of exile! (Chaya Sara 5752)
From the above it is clear that
in order for Moshiach to fulfill
his shlichus, there must be an
acceptance by the people. Why is it
like that? Because King Moshiach is
not a dictator who comes from the

outside to take over the world. His

reign needs to be instated by the
will of the people, as it says, And
his kingship will be accepted by
their will. The empowerment of the
Jewish king is by the people.
I will share with you two points:
Recently, my son learned
that which is brought down in
commentaries that Adam HaRishon
was supposed to live 1000 years. Yet
we find that he only lived for 930
years. Where did the last 70 years
go? It went to Dovid HaMelech
who was supposed to be a stillborn. My son asked: Seemingly,
the world needs Dovid HaMelech,
for Moshiach comes from him, so
he would have had to live anyways.
Why did it need to be that he got his
life from Adam HaRishon?
I explained (without really
investigating the matter) that it is
an important message for the king
and the people. For the king, who
has such immense power over the
people, it is important that he knows
that his life was not his own, but
rather from Adam HaRishon, the
father of all people. This will make
the king act and rule with more
respect and sensitivity. It is also
important for the nation to know
that the life of the king comes from
them! If we love our king and want
him to continue to have strength,
that life comes from the people.
Continued on page 4
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INTERVIEW

YOU ARE MY

SPIRITUAL
CHILDREN
R Leibel Posner, one of the ziknei Anash in Crown
Heights, was one of the first talmidim in the
younger division of Tomchei Tmimim
in the United States in 5701. He was
one of the first shluchim of the Rebbe
Rayatz under the auspices of Merkos
Shlichus, and received a shlichus
from the Rebbe MHM in 5710. * He
relates his memories of the early
years of Lubavitch in the
United States. * Presented
for Yud Shvat.
By Yaron Tzvi
Photos by Michoel Hillel

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mong the thousands

of families who live in
Crown Heights today,
only a few dozen were
present in the first years of the
Rebbes nesius, and only very few
merited basking in the presence of
the sixth nasi, the Rebbe Rayatz,
seeing him daven and being blessed
by him in yechidus. One of those
few is R Yehuda Leib (Leibel)
Posner, the son of the famous
Chassid R Sholom Posner ah,
who was one of the Tmimim in
Lubavitch, about whom the Rebbe
Rayatz said, Sholom is mine.
For Yud-Yud Alef Shvat, the
day the Rebbe Rayatz passed
away and the day that the Rebbe
MHM accepted the nesius,
I spoke with R Leibel Posner
who saw both great luminaries. I
asked him to share his memories
with me.
I met with R Leibel in his
home on Crown Street. He had
memories and stories to share
along with detailed descriptions
of the Rebbe Rayatzs arrival
in America, the Rebbe Rayatzs
passing, and the period after the

acceptance of the nesius.

In his descriptions, R Leibel
took me on a virtual tour of Beis
Chayeinu-770, as it looked then.
It was a small, quiet place, most
unlike the constant commotion
of 770 as we know it today. He
described his meetings with the
Rebbe Rayatz and the Rebbe
MHM; when he wanted to
illustrate something more clearly,
he would disappear for a few
minutes into his library in the
next room and come back with
pictures and books.
Everything
has
been
documented already, he said,
trying to cool off my enthusiasm a
bit over hearing things firsthand.
I have no doubt that among the
things I heard there are details
that were never documented
before. Even those things
written in the history books are
completely different when heard
from someone who was a witness
and participant in the events.
In our conversation I noticed
something
interesting.
The
dizzying pace of events in the
Rebbes court in recent years

with the many farbrengens,

dollars, etc. has made many
people come to life only when
they hear something out of the
ordinary or an outright miracle
of the Rebbe. By way of contrast,
when R Leibel told me about
the early years, he was full of
enthusiasm, emuna, and simcha
over a look or a word, not to
mention a few words, that he
heard from the Rebbe in yechidus
or at a farbrengen.
R Leibel did not tell me
about miracles as I thought I
might hear. He told, simply and
with awe, about the beginning
of Lubavitch in America, about
the Rebbe Rayatz and the
Rebbe MHM, as he himself
experienced it back then.
I was particularly impressed
by R Leibels expression when
he quoted things he heard from
the Rebbe in yechidus. In those
moments, I could see the bittul
and deep seriousness. At first
he quoted what the Rebbe said
in Yiddish, word for word, then
he translated it, and then he
described the Rebbes look and

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Interview
manner as though he was seeing
it right then.

AMERICA IS NOT
DIFFERENT!
As soon as the Rebbe Rayatz
arrived in America on 9 Adar
II 5700, he held a meeting
and announced the founding
of Yeshivas Tomchei Tmimim
Lubavitch in America.
In those days we lived in
Chicago and I was 11 years old,
but my older brother Zalman,
who was already bar mitzva, was
sent to New York to yeshiva. He
was one of those who welcomed
the Rebbe. I myself went to
New York only at the beginning
of 5701, and I had yechidus
with the Rebbe Rayatz. The
Rebbes secretary, R Eliyahu
Yochil Simpson, took me and my
brother and went into yechidus
with us. R Simpson told the
Rebbe that we were the sons of
R Sholom Posner and the Rebbe
blessed us.
During that year, the Rebbe
decided to open a yeshiva in 770
for young boys, and I was one of
the first talmidim in this yeshiva.
Back then, our class was in
a room that later served as the
secretaries office, and the zal
was used for the older talmidim.
Today, it is called the small
zal, relative to the large zal
downstairs, but back then, it was
just the zal. There was no other
one. And R Leibel showed me
pictures of 770 from back then to
show what he meant.
On
holidays
and
at
farbrengens, when we needed
more room, they would open the
passageway between the small
zal and the Merkos LInyanei
Chinuch and the room was a
little bigger. The room adjacent
to the small zal that is now called
the Cheider Sheini served as

the womens section. The Rebbe

Rayatzs secretary, R Chaim
Lieberman, sat in the room that
today has the radio broadcasting
equipment at the end of the
entrance hall to 770 on the left.
I asked where the Rebbe
Rayatz received people for
yechidus and where he davened.
R Leibel described the yechidus
room on the second floor,
the floor of the Rebbes living
quarters.
Usually, the Rebbe davened
in his apartment on the second
floor, but on a few occasions
the Rebbe davened in the zal
downstairs. I remember the
tfillos of Rosh HaShana and
Yom Kippur in 5702 when the
Rebbe Rayatz davened in the zal
downstairs and I had the privilege
of seeing him daven. Since the
Rebbe was in a wheelchair, four
strong Chassidim brought the
Rebbe upstairs after the davening
where the Yom Tov meal took
place.
On Yom Kippur, the Rebbe
slept on the first floor in the room
that became the Rebbe MHMs
yechidus room.
While I pictured the hordes of
people who visit Beis Chayeinu
today, R Leibel saw the look of
wonder on my face regarding the
small place they once used for
tfillos, farbrengens etc. I asked
him, Where did everyone fit?
and he said, What do you think?
How many people do you think
there were? When they needed to
arrange a minyan for the Rebbe
for Mincha on Friday afternoon,
they could barely find anyone! It
wasnt like today where there are
so many people in every minyan.
It was the beginning of Lubavitch
in America!
I slowly began to understand
that we were talking about a
completely different time, the
beginnings of Lubavitch in

Crown Heights, in America.

This understanding gave me
perspective on the tremendous
development that took place
here. It is an amazing illustration
as to how far you can go when
you go with the Rebbes kochos;
even the sky is no limit!

SUDDEN YECHIDUS ON
MOTZAEI SHABBOS
For Pesach, said R Leibel,
I was supposed to go home to
Chicago. Since my bar mitzva
celebration was on 11 Nissan, I
wanted to have yechidus along
with my brother before we left for
Chicago. In those days, yechidus
took place three times a week,
on Sunday night, Tuesday night,
and Thursday night. Since we
had to leave by bus on Sunday
afternoon, we were given an
appointment for yechidus for
Thursday night.
At ten oclock at night, R
Simpson said that since it was
late and the Rebbe was tired,
we would have yechidus at the
next opportunity. We told him
that we were leaving on Sunday
afternoon and could not have
yechidus that night. He said that
if so, we would have yechidus on
Motzaei Shabbos.
It was Motzaei Shabbos
and R Simpson, who lived in
Boro Park, had not yet appeared.
We called him and asked what
we should do. He said to go
to R Shmuel Levitin. We went
to R Levitin and told him the
situation, and he referred us to
R Chaim Lieberman, the Rebbes
secretary.
We went to his office and
knocked on the door and told
him the situation. He said, Wait
a minute outside the office. I
have no idea who he spoke to as
we waited outside, but when we
came back in he said, Go up to

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the Rebbes room now. That was

most unusual, to have yechidus
on Motzaei Shabbos.
Before we went in, I asked
my brother Zalman to knock
on the door. He knocked and
opened the door a bit. The Rebbe
sat at the desk, busy with his holy
matters, but when he saw that we
had entered he looked up at us. I
noticed that when he saw us, he
smiled broadly.
Our fear dissipated a bit.
We walked in and stood next to
the desk. The Rebbe asked, Is it
warm on the bus? We looked at
the Rebbe. Perhaps we had not
heard what he said correctly. It
was very hard to understand the
Rebbe because his speech was
unclear at that point. I suppose
we were also a bit taken aback
by the Rebbes sudden, solicitous
question. The Rebbe repeated the
question and we answered in the
affirmative.
Then the Rebbe asked
whether we davened on the bus.
We said yes to that too. Tfillin
too? asked the Rebbe. When we
said yes, the Rebbe said, Good,
and it seemed that this gave him
much nachas.
Then the Rebbe said,
Everything must be measured
by the place and the time.
According to place and time, I
am pleased with you. But when
your father was in Lubavitch, it
was completely different. Dont
look at the children in the street.
Then the Rebbe said a line which
remains etched in my heart, You
are my children. To your parents,
you are fleishidiker kinder
(children of the flesh) and to
me you are ruchniusdiker kinder
(spiritual children).
Then we spoke about my
upcoming bar mitzva and the
Rebbe said, Children, travel in
good health.

You are my children. To your parents, you are

fleishidiker kinder (children of the flesh) and to
me you are ruchniusdiker kinder (spiritual children).

THE REBBE RAYATZS

FIRST SHLIACH ON MERKOS
SHLICHUS
The years passed and R
Leibel progressed in his learning
and earned a certificate as a
shochet. The minyanim in 770
were small and the learning
took place in the two rooms; the
atmosphere was intimate. I asked
R Leibel to tell me about his last
encounter with the Rebbe Rayatz,
but he preferred to describe
another encounter that took place
two years before the Rebbes
histalkus, perhaps because of the
importance of what the Rebbe
said in that yechidus or maybe
since he wanted to refrain from
ending with the last encounter
with the Rebbe. What the Rebbe
said in that yechidus is connected
with R Leibels first shlichus.
Before Purim 5708, the
Rebbe Rayatz founded Merkos

Shlichus, a program in which

bachurim went to cities and
towns across America to spread
the teachings of Chabad. R
Leibel was the first shliach in this
program which is still ongoing
and has a tremendous impact on
Jews nationwide.
I was the Rebbes first
shliach for Merkos Shlichus.
At first I was sent to New
Jersey, Philadelphia, and then to
Pittsburgh.
When I asked R Leibel what
the shlichus entailed, he gave
me an astonished look and said,
What was the shlichus?! Mainly
to distribute the Sifrei Chassidus
that were published then, but
also to tell the Jewish world in
America that there is Lubavitch!
This was the beginning of
Lubavitch in America!
R Leibel had another special
yechidus with the Rebbe Rayatz
before going on shlichus. Since it
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Interview
was the first shlichus of its kind,
R Leibel considers the yechidus
a fundamental one with the
instructions given then apropos
for all shlichus and for all times.
By way of preparation for
this shlichus, the Rebbe told me
the following words: You need to
see the good qualities in others,
but not cover over the negative
qualities. Chassidim say that
in the Torah there are different
kinds of letters, big and small.
You need to see the good qualities
with big letters and the negative
qualities with small letters.
I understood from this
that we need to emphasize the
good qualities; not to ignore the
negative qualities, but the main
thing is the good qualities in
other people.

HE BORE THE REBBES ARON

When I asked R Leibel to
tell me what he remembered
about the histalkus of the Rebbe
Rayatz, he was silent. Then he
said it was hard for him to talk
about it, and he suggested that I
read the books that documented
those days. I begged him to share
something of his own perspective
and he finally agreed.
He recalled Shabbos morning,
Yud Shvat 5710, when he entered
the zal at about eight oclock and
heard the horrifying news about
the passing of the Rebbe Rayatz.
He later reported to his father
and brother what happened and
they began preparing for the
funeral. R Leibel went as part
of the delegation of Anash and
the Tmimim, led by R Benzion
Skolik of the Chevra Kadisha, to
dig a grave at the cemetery and
then he returned to 770 to attend
the funeral.
R Leibel showed me a
picture of the Rebbes funeral in
which one can see the thousands
of people who filled Eastern

Parkway. He pointed at the aron

and said that the plan was to take
the Rebbes aron until the yeshiva
building on Bedford Avenue, but
due to the crowding that idea was
dropped and they only carried
the aron to the corner of Eastern
Parkway and Brooklyn.
It was very crowded and
it was hard to walk. Everyone
wanted to be close to the aron
and it was terribly crowded. I
persisted in remaining near the
Rebbe and managed to reach the
aron and carry it along with other
Chassidim who were there the
entire time.
When they put the coffin
in the Chevra Kadishas car,
they put four little chairs for
the Chassidic elders so they
could place their hands under
the coffin and this would be
considered as though they were
carrying it as the Rambam writes,
The deceased is carried on the
shoulder until the cemetery.
Three
elder
and
distinguished Chassidim R
Shmuel Levitin, R Yisroel
Jacobson, and R Berel Rivkin
entered the car and one place
remained empty. Due to the
commotion, additional senior
Chassidim could not approach
the car. The Rebbe MHM was
near the car the entire time and
he suddenly turned to me and
said, Leibel, get into the car.
R Leibels eyes light up as
he tells of the Rebbes personal
request that he get into the
car with the elder Chassidim
at such an awesome time. I
suddenly found myself the fourth
one holding the Rebbes coffin
together with the ziknei Anash
and I was in my early twenties.
R Leibel made sure that at
other funerals in the royal family
the coffin in the car was held from
below so that it would be like it
was carried to the cemetery. He

did this for Rebbetzin Nechama

Dina and Rebbetzin Chaya
Mushka.

DURING THE
TRANSITION PERIOD
For me, it wasnt kabbalas
hanesius on 11 Shvat 5711, for
I had accepted the Rebbes nesius
earlier. I had decided that the
Rebbe is the nasi and that was
it. I had no questions about it. I
simply decided and that is how
I conducted myself toward the
Rebbe.
During the year of mourning
for the Rebbe Rayatz, in the
summer of 5710, R Chadakov
called me and said he had a
shlichus for me from Ramash,
to go to California to spread
Judaism. At that time, I had other
plans. I was in Pittsburgh looking
for a job as a shochet, but when
the Rebbe says something, you
dont ask questions and it was
obvious to me that he was the
Rebbe.
The Rebbe wanted me to
be there for Chai Elul. I had
yechidus before the shlichus,
before Chai Elul. At that
yechidus, the Rebbe gave me a
booklet to give out in California
and I hinted that I wanted to be a
shliach mitzva in the hopes that I
would get a bill or coin from the
Rebbe for tzdaka.
The Rebbe smiled and said,
What shlichus mitzva is greater
than giving out a kuntres of the
Rebbe? Then he smiled again;
since he understood what I
meant, he took out three coins
from his pocket, a dime and two
nickels and gave them to me.
I immediately asked whether I
could exchange them and give
other money in their place to
tzdaka and keep the coins the
Rebbe gave me. The Rebbe
smiled and said, Yes, but not
less.

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Another incident which is

etched in R Leibels mind from
those days goes as follows:
I was in touch with a young
man who was learning about
Judaism and I asked that the
Rebbe see him and talk to him.
The Rebbe agreed and received
us for yechidus at eight at night.
Before the yechidus, the Rebbe
told us that at 8:30 he had to
go upstairs to his mother-inlaw Rebbetzin Nechama Dina,
and then he would come back to
continue the yechidus.
That is how it went. The
yechidus began at eight, in
the course of which the Rebbe
talked to the young man and
was mekarev him to Torah and
mitzvos. At 8:30, the Rebbe went
upstairs and returned half an
hour later.
R Leibels wedding was on
30 Shvat 5711, shortly after
the completion of the year of
mourning for the Rebbe Rayatz.
This was the first wedding
the Rebbe attended after the year
of mourning, said R Leibel
excitedly.
Since, in the period before
the wedding, R Leibel was on
shlichus in California, he had
yechidus with his kalla before he
went on shlichus.
In that yechidus, the Rebbe
revealed to us the significance
of simchas chassan vkallah as
it is explained in the Zohar. The
Rebbe asked: Why is the simcha
of the wedding so great when a
marriage is meant to preserve the
species, reminding us that there
is also death in the world? The
Zohar says that the neshama of
the male and female is one soul
in heaven and only down below is
it divided into male and female.
This is the joy of the chassan and
kalla, that the two halves of the
soul are reunited!

The Zohar says that the neshama of the male

and female is one soul in heaven and only down
below is it divided into male and female. This is the joy
of the chassan and kalla, that the two halves of the soul
are reunited!

WHY I WASNT PRESENT AT generation of exile and the

THE KABBALAS HANESIUS first of Geula, was accepting
The moment that the entire
world and all the worlds were
waiting for had arrived. The
nasi of the seventh generation
in the Chabad dynasty, the final

the leadership during a special

farbrengen in which he would say
the first maamer in the series of
explanatory maamarim based on
the maamer of Basi LGani, the
Rebbe Rayatzs maamer before
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Interview
his passing.
At this time, R Leibel was
in California, but like many of
Anash he yearned to be at the
event of kabbalas hanesius.
It was a historic occasion and
everyone wanted to be there.
On the one hand there was
the shlichus in California; on the
other hand, the yearning to be
with the Rebbe on such a special
occasion. R Leibel decided to ask
the Rebbe whether he could be
there. The answer was negative
and emphasized that he should
remain on shlichus and farbreng
there on Yud Shvat. R Leibel was
disappointed and looked for a
way to be able to go anyway.
Since it was close to his
wedding which was planned for
Adar, R Leibel found a tactic to
use the wedding in a Chassidishe
way and he wrote to the Rebbe
that since he was getting married
in Adar, he had to see the tailor
to have a garment prepared
for the wedding, a process that
could take time. He asked for
permission to go to Crown
Heights already. The answer was:
The tailor will work quickly and

there is nothing to worry about.

R Leibel told this with the smile
of a child who was caught trying
to pull off a Chassidic ploy.
R Leibel looked at me and
said, Nu, when the Rebbe says
to do something, what do you?
You do what the Rebbe says! His
bittul to the Rebbe was apparent
in every word he said when
he spoke about him. From the
expression on his face I could see
the respect and awe that he has
for the Rebbe and he is reticent
about describing his feelings
directly related to the Rebbe.
When I asked him what else
he could tell me about the Rebbe,
he looked at me sincerely and
said, What can I tell you? Any
attempt at describing the Rebbe is
lacking. With all the words in the
world it is impossible to explain
one moment with the Rebbe.
Nevertheless, he agreed to
share another story about his
shlichus:
One year after he completed
his shlichus in California,
R Leibel went to Marinette,
Wisconsin, a small city north of
Chicago, where he was involved

LIVE SHIURIM 0NLINE

among other things with Jewish

education. In that city there was a
religious woman, a convert, who
maintained a correspondence
with R Leibel even after he left
Marinette. Many years later, she
wrote to him about an occurrence
that touched him deeply.
A certain young woman, who
had been a student of his as a
child, was living in California
and working there as a teacher.
She was about 25 at the time
when she had to fly home to her
family in Marinette on Erev Yom
Kippur. Due to flight delays,
she arrived at her home the last
minute when it was already too
late to eat the pre-fast meal. Her
mother, who had prepared and
warmed the food for her, asked
her how she would be able to fast
without having eaten anything.
The young woman replied that,
Rabbi Posner said that on Yom
Kippur we fast, so I am fasting!
R Leibel sent the letter with
the story to the Rebbe, and it
was only much later that he
received a response: You never
know what you are capable of
accomplishing.

vww c

Anywhere, Anytime !
CHITAS
INYONEI GEULA
& MOSHIACH
RAMBAM
SHIURIM IN LIKUTEI
SICHOS KODESH

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owwcnr
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12 10 Shvat 5775
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SHLICHUS

ANASH-SHLICHUS
Name: Elad Goldman
Age: 28
Married with one child
Location: Netanya
Occupation: Sports director for
children and youth
By Zalman Tzorfati

f you ever passed by the sports

field belonging to the exclusive
school in northern Tel Aviv, and
you heard kids warming up for
training while singing Nyet, Nyet
Nikavo, or you heard kids screaming
the psukim a minute before a sports
exercise you could safely assume that
their coach is Elad Goldman.
Elad is a sports director
for children. He works as an
independent consultant and trains
kids as part of an extracurricular
program in schools and in camps
during vacation.
I spend all day with kids, he
says. I consider it my shlichus.
I cant always do what I want to
do with them openly, so I try to
incorporate it in a way that wont
arouse opposition. For example, I

take a big box and we decide that its

a pushka and the children need to
aim the ball into the pushka.
Elad grew up in Haifa. Toward
the end of his army service he began
becoming religious and keeping
Shabbos. He then went to learn in
the yeshiva in Ramat Aviv.
At that time, I was already
working as a sports director and
teacher of physical fitness in a
number of schools. I asked the
Rebbe what I should do and opened
to clear answers from which I
understood that I should continue
in my line of work with an emphasis
on chinuch. I realized that I was no
longer a regular employee. I felt that
the Rebbe had assigned me a task
and I was a shliach in my work.
Elad began working at a school
in Ramat Aviv.
I would talk to the children
whenever I had free time about the
Rebbe, Moshiach, about the world
in the time of Geula. The kids were
mesmerized by the stories and asked
what they could do to make this era
begin. Slowly, the children began
to make small, good hachlatos like
saying Shma before going to sleep or
Modeh Ani in the morning, to say the
12 Psukim, etc. It was moving to see
their earnestness and the enthusiasm
with which they committed to these

mitzvos to hasten the Geula.

After a period of learning and
work/shlichus in Ramat Aviv, he
moved to learn closer to home, in
the yeshiva in the Chabad house in
Achuza. Afterward, he married and
moved to Netanya, a good location
in between.
Today, Elad runs his own
business providing sports training
for children. He provides services for
schools, youth centers and camps.
In his work he trains the children in
sports exercise and physical fitness
in many schools including religious
ones, government-religious, and
Chabad schools.
You
can
do
mivtzaim
everywhere, he says, even with
chareidim and knitted kippot types.
I have a rule, for example, that
we dont begin until we say the 12
Psukim and Yechi. Thats my rule,
everyone knows it, the teachers and
principals.
In the summer I coached in an
exclusive camp in northern Tel Aviv.
Every morning the kids are served
rolls with various spreads. I noticed
that one of the spreads was chalav
akum. I spoke with the director of
the camp. She did not see what was
wrong with it, it had a hechsher from
the rabbanut. We had a shiur on the
topic of kashrus and I explained to
her what chalav akum is, the lenient
opinions, and what Chassidus has to
say on the subject. In the end, she
changed the spread for one with a
Badatz hechsher. So I was able to do
mivtza kashrus while on the job.
I see it as a real shlichus. I write
a report to the Rebbe every day about
what I did in the course of my work
and open to much encouragement
and brachos from the Rebbe in the
Igros Kodesh. Its my shlichus and I
try to do it as best as I can.

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HISKASHRUS

MOSHIACH
THE DERECH
HAYESHARA

TO HISKASHRUS
They grew up in old-time Lubavitcher families
and were raised on Geula and Moshiach from
childhood. The ability to explain things, along
with their fascinating lectures, were known already
in their youth, and at a relatively young age they
displayed superlative talent in their
lifes work raising the next generation
of Chabad. * In this joint interview, R
Gershon Avtzon of Cincinnati and R
Sender Wilschansky of Milan, discuss the
integration of the pleasantness and appeal
that is characteristic of Chabad along
with unyielding firmness, the inner source
for a lack of involvement in publicizing
the Besuras HaGeula, and their common
chinuch approach: no to compromise and
yes to principles.
R Gershon Avtzon: Principal of the
Lubavitch yeshiva in Cincinnati. At 18
he ran a summer camp in a number of
European countries. He authored a book
of essays on inyanei Moshiach and Geula.
A well-known educator and lecturer.
R Sender Wilschansky: Principal

of Yeshivas Heichal Menachem in Milan. In his

younger years he wrote Melech HaMoshiach based
on sources in Chazal. He was one of the editors of
HaTamim. A well-known lecturer and member of
the hanhala of the international AtaH organization.

By Yisroel Lapidot

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THE DOR HASHVII

WITHOUT MIVTZAIM?
The Rebbe is the one who
establishes what shlichus is and
what our role as the seventh
generation is. R Avtzon states
from the outset that being
involved in publicizing about
Moshiach is not another Chabad
minhag but is the way we express
our hiskashrus to the Rebbe.
The shlichus which the
Rebbe Rayatz demanded of his
Chassidim in Russia was mesirus
nefesh to found chadarim and in
giving a pure chinuch to Jewish
children. They say about the
Chassid, R Itche der Masmid,
that he was a true oved Hashem
and a tremendous gaon in Nigleh
and Nistar, but it was very hard
for him to be involved in chinuch.
At that time, during a farbrengen,
the Rebbe Rayatz said to R Itche,
Listen Itche, if you are involved
in tashbar (chinuch) then you are
mine, otherwise, you may well be
Itche but you are not mine.

In the sicha at the Kinus

HaShluchim 5752, the Rebbe
instructed us Chassidim that
the gateway to all aspects of
shlichus is preparing the world to
welcome Moshiach. This means
that this is the avoda today,
expected of all those who call
themselves Chassidim. Those
who are involved in it are the
Rebbes, and those who arent

As to my question about
those who are involved in other
horaos of the Rebbe and not the
Besuras HaGeula, R Avtzon
reacted strongly. Nobody has
the privilege of avoiding it or of
saying that he is occupied doing
other horaos of the Rebbe aside
from publicizing the Besuras
HaGeula. As the Rebbe says
unequivocally, Moshiach is the
gateway. So anyone who thinks
that this is not for him, aside from
this being absurd since kabbalas
pnei Moshiach is the purpose of
all the mivtzaim, would anyone

think someone could get up in

the Dor HaShvii and announce:
I am a Lubavitcher Chassid but
without mivtzaim and shlichus?

FIRMNESS AND
PLEASANTNESS NOT A
CONTRADICTION
R Avtzon: I heard this story
from R Yitzchok Meir Lipszyc,
shliach in Simferopol in Crimea,
Ukraine, who has been a shliach
of the Rebbe in many places.
While he was on shlichus in
Detroit, the mashpia, R Mendel
Futerfas came to him and
said: How about moving to do
shlichus in Alabama where there
is no Chabad house yet?
R Lipszyc rejected the idea
saying: I am on shlichus here!
After a four hour conversation,
R Mendel said to him: I see that
I cannot convince you, so I will
tell you the truth. This is coming
straight from the Rebbe!
Upon hearing that, R
Lipszyc left Detroit that very
week and moved to Alabama.
Upon arriving there, he had
to fight with many people and
until he made any headway
he had to go through many
hardships. When he finally
settled in peacefully, a new
horaa came from the Rebbe
for him to move on.
As a loyal Chassid, he did
what the Rebbe told him to do,
but when he went to New York
he asked the secretary why,
after he finally settled into his
place of shlichus, was he being
moved elsewhere? The answer
he got from R Chadakov
was: A person who breaks
things cant be successful. You
prepared the groundwork and
now, someone else needs to
come to grow the wheat. Its
like an army that conquers a
city and wreaks destruction

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Hiskashrus
and afterward, their architects
and contractors come and build
the city.
This story is definitely
unusual, but the Rebbe certainly
demands of a shliach to work on
both fronts simultaneously to
be both firm and pleasant.
At first glance it seems as
though these two approaches
are mutually exclusive. R
Wilschansky addresses this:
The thought that these
two things are contradictory is
mistaken, since there are two
things here that are essentially
different. Darkei noam, ways that
are pleasant, is the way to convey
the message, while the tokef
firmness relates to the level of the
persons resolve.
To explain, let us use an
example. A Chabad askan meets
with the Education Minister in
order to be able to start a Chabad
school somewhere. On the one
hand, in speaking to the minister
he needs to be respectful and
present things well and in the
most convincing manner possible.
On the other hand, he has to be
sure to convey that this isnt just
any proposal but something that
must be done, since the need for
Jewish education demands it.
That
means
that
the
message that will be conveyed
to the minister will be that this is
something he has the privilege of
carrying out, and its definitely
not optional.
You dont need to go as far
as meetings with government
officials.
According
to
R
Wilschansky, Any bachur who
goes on mivtza tfillin needs to
use both darkei noam as well
as the requisite firmness. The
suggestion that the person put
on tfillin needs to be done
pleasantly, of course. But what
needs to get across is that this is
a must, not just a nice idea.

This is explained in the sicha

of VaYigash 5752 about the
behavior we learn from Yehuda in
his addressing Yosef. On the one
hand, Yehuda gives him all the
respect due a king in his manner
of speech. On the other hand, he
makes it clear that granting his
request is not optional; it must
be done. From this, the Rebbe
learns how a Jew needs to behave
in galus in general, and especially
at the end. Its a combination
of respect for royalty with the
uncompromising firmness of a
Jew.

CHABAD IS A MOVEMENT
OF CHANGE
There is an expression, We
may not agree but we can be
tolerant. R Avtzon says, Many
of my classmates and those my
age work in shlichus positions.
We often discuss it. In general,
the conversations can be divided
into two ways of thinking and
outlooks which illustrate the
differences in approach.

There are those who think

that the Chabad movement is
about accepting everyone as he
is. Even if he says something
against Halacha or our approach,
we accept everyone. The problem
is that if that is how it remains,
there is no reason to be mekarev
anyone and to make any changes.
If there is a Jew who comes to the
Chabad house every Shabbos for
three years and throughout all
this time makes no progress in
his Jewish practice, that shliach
is not working with the Rebbes
approach, period.
The
following
story
illustrates what the Rebbe expects
of shluchim. One of the shluchim
once went to the Rebbe with a
mekurav who was about to get
married, so he could get the
siddur, as is customary. The
shliach and the mekurav walked
into Gan Eden HaTachton and
the Rebbe gave the groom the
siddur. Then the Rebbe said to
the shliach: With how many Jews
do you work in a pnimiusdike

16 10 Shvat 5775
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I can tell you from personal experience.

Dozens of friends began davening with
these sichos and saw miracles in their personal
lives. Obviously, a person who davens and
meditates upon the Besuras HaGeula and lives
with it, will deal with others with darkei noam.

way?
The shliach, who had not
expected a conversation with the
Rebbe, suddenly found himself
in a yechidus and was overcome
by emotion. He could barely utter
a word. The Rebbe said to him:
You must work in a pnimiusdike
way! Then the Rebbe took out a
handful of coins from his pocket
and gave them to the shliach
while giving him a bracha for
success in his shlichus.
To put it another way, the
real Chabad approach that the
Rebbe taught us is not that we
accept and make peace with the
Jews present state. With a sober

understanding of reality, that a

person does not change in a day
and its a process that takes time,
we have to be patient. This is how
the Rebbe taught us to operate.
Never to slacken or to make do,
but to always look to progress
and augment.
In every encounter with the
Rebbe, especially in yechidus
with wealthy donors, we see from
the Rebbe how to act. Nicely and
firmly. One of the most famous
of these encounters is the one
with David Chase, one of the
gvirim of Machne Israel. You
might think that the Rebbe would
not want to offend a person like

this who is such a big supporter

and one who brings many other
gvirim to Chabad, but at the
cornerstone laying ceremony
to expand 770, Chase said to
the Rebbe that he knows that
every time he comes, the Rebbe
demands more and more of him.
Not only is he not offended by
this, but he stands there and
says emotionally, Rebbe, I love
you very very much. At this, the
Rebbe smiled that famous smile.
The responsibility placed
on Chabad, especially in the
seventh generation, is to change
the world. If our approach is only
to be nice fellows and to accept
everyone pleasantly, this wont
bring about any changes. Only
firmness breaks the world and
moves us toward the goal. And
that is why we need both.
We need to take the model of
businessmen. In order to succeed
and not lose, it is necessary to
take a firm, uncompromising
line on matters of principle while
always
improving
customer
service, so that the business
continues to flourish.

WANTED: RESOLVE IN
CONVEYING THE MESSAGE
The truth is what makes
speaking firmly a must, says
R Wilschansky. Something
that is true, which does not
tolerate compromise, has to be
said firmly. Why? First, when
the firmness isnt there, there
is a high likelihood that it wont
happen the way it should. After
all, a suggestion is not binding
and is much more likely to be
negated.
But here we are talking
about something far deeper.
When things arent said firmly,
the entire message, even if
its accepted, is not received
accurately since it was accepted

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Hiskashrus
end up hurting us.
Everyone,
especially
a
shliach of the Rebbe, must be
strong. We need to explain simply
and clearly that we are Orthodox
Jews and the Orthodox have
rules. People will accept it and
respect those who stand on their
principles.

PUTTING THEORY INTO

PRACTICE

as an idea or a suggestion and

not as the absolute truth. If we
suggested that someone put on
tfillin and he politely accedes
to our request, as wonderful as
this is considering that he did a
mitzva, something fundamental
is missing. Tfillin stands are not
advertising booths for credit card
or cell phone companies that are
offering you the opportunity to
join them. This is a mitzva which
we are all obligated in.
R Avtzon: We need to
know that often our exaggerated
pleasantness can hurt us ten
times more in the end. In the
US there is a program in which
shluchim lead a learning program
of basic concepts in Judaism for
an hour, three times a week,
which is attended by Jewish kids
studying in public school.
In a certain community,
there was a family in which the
father was Jewish and, sadly,
the mother was not. The shliach
was asked by the father to allow
his non-Jewish children into the
program to learn about Judaism.
The shliach felt uncomfortable

telling him that his children are

not Jewish and so he decided to
accept them at this stage, but
when theyd reach bar mitzva,
he would tell the father that they
are not Jewish. Seven years later,
the older boy was turning 13 and
the father wanted to make a bar
mitzva celebration in shul.
At this point, the shliach
decided to tell the father that
he could not make his son a bar
mitzva since he was not Jewish.
Hearing this, the father began
screaming and he made an
uproar in the community. All
these years you lied to me. You
just wanted to take my money.
Why didnt you tell me the truth
until now?
This
incident
had
a
strong negative impact on the
tremendous work the shliach
had invested in over the years.
Where the shliach only wanted
to push off the inevitable and
be the nice guy, not only didnt
pleasantness help him, it caused
him immeasurable damage. From
here you learn that sometimes
our desire to be the nice guy can

When all is said and done,

there is quite a gap between
the theory of standing strong
and
uncompromisingly
and
how it plays out in real life. R
Wilschansky agrees and says,
This is mainly about avoda
pnimis. You must be resolute
with yourself that the job needs to
get done and that the person you
want to influence understands
this.
For example, publicizing the
Besuras HaGeula and the Goel.
Its a topic about which much has
been said regarding the ability
to convey these messages and
how it should be done. It is safe
to say that most of the problems
in conveying the message come
from this point: the lack of
resolve. There is the uncertainty
that the other person will be
receptive and whether he needs
to hear it altogether and based
on what am I talking about this
anyway?
In order to be able to convey
the message that we already have
the revelation of the metzius of
Moshiach in the world, it first
has to be crystal clear to me, and
this isnt always the case. Often,
the whole inyan is like some
dry, technical fact, something
everyone believes, without much
understanding of why. A Chassid
can feel that we are not justified
in demanding that everyone
believe this. If a person like this

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has to deal with the topic, he

wont have that strength and
firmness and certainly not to the
degree necessary, but rather he
will develop many strategies to
sidestep the tough questions.
On the other hand, if
someone learns the sichos
thoroughly and knows we are
in a historic period, Moshiach
already began the hisgalus
process and announced the
Besuras HaGeula: humble ones,
the time for your redemption
has arrived. Moshiach is
already accomplishing things
in the world and preparing it
for Geula obviously, he will
say things with the requisite
resoluteness. He feels that he has
a real message to convey which is
really encouraging and he looks
forward to sharing it.
Moshe Rabbeinu told the
Jewish people that they would be
redeemed. Although the Geula
did not yet happen and the tzaros
of galus became even greater,
since I went to speak in Your
name, it has become worse for
this nation! every Jew of that
generation who internalized the
message told it to whomever he
came in contact, and he did so
excitedly. He did not think for a
moment of keeping it to himself
because the other person wasnt
ready to hear it.
Unfortunately, many of us
dont pay enough attention to the
whole subject and this engenders
many
strange
arguments,
sometimes ludicrous ones, such
as the recent argument about
whether the Rebbe said a specific
keitz or not. Without getting
into the details of the argument,
why are we even talking about
the keitz issue which is simply
defined as (just) a time that is
uniquely auspicious for Geula
when the Rebbe made it clear
that the actual time for your

As a young person I look at them and think:

what a pity that this is the state of affairs. We
were given a treasure called Klalei Chinuch VHadracha in
which the Rebbe Rayatz writes how to properly educate
Tmimim. If those in Chabad chinuch would only use
it, they would prevent a lot of aggravation on the part
of the kids, the parents, and above all else, the Rebbe.
Chabad chinuch is successful. If it is not successful, it is
not Chabad!

redemption has already arrived?!

Just try to imagine someone
trying to check whether Moshe
Rabbeinus announcement of
Geula included a keitz or not.
Some time ago, I spoke with
the menahel of a big mosad who
was in financial difficulties. As we
spoke the question arose, sort of
as a challenge, as it were: where
are all the wonders of the era of
Geula which the Rebbe spoke so
much about when this shliach
was in such straits?
It was clear to us that
something was missing here. It
was also clear that the situation
the Rebbe spoke about definitely
exists; the question is whether I
am living it. The Rebbe says that
bpnimius, the spiritual eyes of
the Jewish people already see
the Geula. It turns out then, that
your situation depends on where
youre holding.

The decision we both made

was to strengthen our learning
of the weekly Dvar Malchus
and to live with it. Within a short
time, he got a huge donation,
monumental in relation to the
previous donations.
The point in all this is that in
order for things to be in ways of
pleasantness, it is very important
that the person speaking really
live with it. This way, it will be
words that come from the heart
and they will enter the heart.
The idea of learning inyanei
Geula is, as is explained in the
sichos, to live with Moshiach, to
live with the feeling of awareness
that we are on the threshold of
Geula. To live this way its not
enough to just learn it; there must
be contemplation and avodas
hatfilla. We need to daven with
the sichos, and this is the only
way to live with the promises
of the Geula. Its not enough to
know that every Jew is wealthy;
we need to live it.
I can tell you from personal
experience. Dozens of friends
began davening with these
sichos and saw miracles in
their personal lives. Obviously,
a person who davens and
meditates upon the Besuras
HaGeula and lives with it, will
deal with others with darkei
noam.

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Hiskashrus

If its obvious to you that when you have a

problem you write to the Rebbe, it is very easy
for you to tell someone else to do the same thing, because
you genuinely feel that its a good thing.
R Avtzon adds:
The shluchim who asked the
Rebbe whether to publicize that
the Rebbe is Moshiach were told
it depends on Chabad in every
location. What does that mean?
Sometimes you walk into Chabad
houses and see interesting sights.
Over here, irreligious balabatim
wear gartels; over there, they go
to the mikva. There are Chabad
houses where they farbreng and
live with certain things. Where
does it come from? From the
shliach. One shliach can say that
to discuss a gartel with someone
who is not religious is crazy. But
to another shliach, for whom a
gartel adds a chayus to davening,
he can approach a mekurav
and tell him in all sincerity that
if he wants a special chayus in
davening he should also wear a
gartel. If its alive for you, it is
very easy to convey and influence
others. It works for me. Im
telling you, as a friend, that it will
work for you too.
Along the same lines, there is
the famous letter of the Rebbe to
the mashpia, R Shlomo Chaim
Kesselman, in which the Rebbe
writes to him about going places
and talking to people about
the Rebbe. And its very easy
to talk about the Rebbe. The
point in that letter is that if its
obvious to you that when you
have a problem you write to the
Rebbe, it is very easy for you to
tell someone else to do the same
thing, because you genuinely feel
that its a good thing.

MESIRUS NEFESH IN OUR

DAYS: MOSHIACH
When the Rebbe gave us
the job of bringing Moshiach,
he defined it as lights of Tohu
in vessels of Tikkun. What
connection is there between that
and the Rebbes modus operandi
throughout the years, and do
vessels of Tikkun limit how
one carries out this horaa?
R Avtzon: Mivtzaim are
all about lights of Tohu. The
concept of mivtzaim, that you go
to a city and stand in the middle
of the street and suggest that
people put on tfillin, shake the
lulav, take Shabbos candles, etc.
was considered lunacy forty years
ago. The Rebbes entire approach
is one of lights of Tohu, which is
the inyan of dira batachtonim, as
Chassidus explains.
The meaning of dira
batachtonim is not that G-d
limits Himself within the world.
The idea of a dira batachtonim is
that G-dliness is revealed within
this physical world as it is. Along
with lights of Tohu, there needs
to be vessels of Tikkun. There
are rules, ways of behaving, etc.
We saw this, the lights of Tohu
within vessels of Tikkun, with

the Rebbes approach in general

and it did not start with mivtza
Moshiach. Rather, it gains
emphasis and relevance especially
in the publicizing of the Besuras
HaGeula.
Limitation?!
There
is
no limitation! exclaimed R
Wilschansky. There is a horaa
to convey the lights of Tohu; its
just that this needs to be within
vessels of Tikkun. Lights of Tohu
and vessels of Tikkun are not
mutually exclusive so that we
need to navigate between them.
They are two different things.
Lights of Tohu is the content,
the message you are conveying.
Vessels of Tikkun is the manner
in which you convey it. This
applies to everyone and we must
make sure it can be accepted or
received by every person, with his
understanding, and not left up in
the air without any meaning.
In that fundamental sicha
(Kinus HaShluchim 5752), the
Rebbe explains at length the new
avoda of today, which is the main
and only shlichus, that it is about
Moshiach starting to redeem
the Jewish people. The Rebbe
makes it clear that this applies
to every single Jew! He says to
explain it to everyone and this is
the shlichus. Furthermore, if you
learn the sicha from beginning
to end and dont rely merely on
sound bites, you see that this
is not about limits but the exact
opposite, it is meant to define our
obligations.
Essentially this is the same
idea as ways of pleasantness
along with the appropriate
firmness. There must be vessels
of Tikkun, ways of pleasantness.
But this vessel must be full of
real content, lights of Tohu,
appropriate firmness. As we
mentioned earlier, the fact that
it does not seem so simple in real
life is because its a challenging

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demand. Whether because this

is something that relates to a
persons inner world, intellect,
consciousness, or because its the
call of the hour and comes along
with big tests and challenges.
Ill tell you a nice vort
which I heard at a farbrengen.
In that sicha, the Rebbe makes it
clear that the avoda of shlichus
ended and what remains now is
only kabbalas pnei Moshiach
Tzidkeinu. Much has been
written and said to explain what
is meant by the avoda of shlichus
having ended and what the avoda
of kabbalas pnei Moshiach
is. There doesnt seem to be
anything specific, other than an
emphasis on learning inyanei
Moshiach and Geula, so what is
meant by this?
The explanation that I
heard, which is probably not the
literal explanation, but has a big
lesson to teach, is as follows. In
the Igeres Hakodesh of Tanya it
explains the difference between
the maaseh/action of tzdaka
and the avoda/labor of tzdaka.
The point which applies to the
matter at hand is that maaseh
is something that has become
routine. It doesnt have much in
the way of iskafia and hardships.
Avoda is the part that requires

working on oneself, breaking

habits, mesirus nefesh.
When the Rebbe Rayatz
was in Soviet Russia, the avoda
was the very struggle for the
observance of Torah and mitzvos
and this required real mesirus
nefesh. Came the seventh
generation and this mesirus
nefesh for Torah and mitzvos
ended and the avoda of shlichus
began. This entails leaving a
Chassidishe environment, going
to foreign places and this is a
type of mesirus nefesh.
Many years passed and
shlichus became routine. All the
difficulties and even the mesirus
nefesh became the norm. The
avoda aspect of shlichus ended
(in a good way, of course).
Now the avoda is kabbalas pnei
Moshiach Tzidkeinu!
Like the mesiras nefesh that
was the avoda of the Chassidim
in Russia, today too, the main
challenges and difficulties are
in the avoda of publicizing the
Besuras HaGeula and the Goel.
Only a resolute commitment can
be a true vessel to the appropriate
firmness, and from there the road
is paved to convey the message in
ways of pleasantness.

FOOL! THERE MUST BE A

HEART!
On the subject of getting the
message out, there are apparently
interesting and endearing ways of
getting conversations on to the
topic of the belief of the Rebbe
as Moshiach, and R Wilschansky
seems to have the knack:
During a long flight, I
asked my seat neighbor a
halachic question. If a person
was mekadesh a woman on
the condition that the Rebbe
is Moshiach, would she be
considered permitted to marry
anyone else.
What?!
asked
my
companion. Was someone that
crazy?
What difference does it
make whether he was or wasnt,
I said. Is the woman permitted to
the rest of the world or not?
She requires a divorce out
of doubt, he said.
Aha so you think there is
a doubt. Nu, so you are already
modeh
bmiktzas
(partially
conceding)
Or, a famous speaker
encountered at a lecture of
his someone who asked him
derisively, Are you also one
of those who believes that the

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Hiskashrus

The responsibility placed on us is to change the

world. If our approach is only to be nice fellows
and to accept everyone pleasantly, we wont bring about
any changes. Only firmness breaks the world and moves
us toward the goal. And that is why we need both
We need to take the model of businessmen. In order to
succeed, it is imperative to take a firm, uncompromising
line on matters of principle while always improving
customer service, so that the business continues to
flourish.
Rebbe is Moshiach? The speaker
immediately said, no. Then he
winked and added, I dont just
believe; I know!
****
Action is the main thing.
Seemingly, we must respond
in the proper manner in every
instance. If and when is it ever
the right thing to downplay the
issue and cover up, and in a
situation where pleasantness is
not effective, can we forgo the
message or should we just plow
ahead with firmness?
This question reminds me
of a story about the Tzemach
Tzedek who tried to get someone
to do something, without success.
The person was either not too
bright or had a large measure of
chutzpa for he said to the Rebbe
that apparently the Rebbes
words had not come from his
heart. The proof being that they
had not entered his heart!
The Rebbe smiled and said:
Fool! In order for it to enter the
heart, there must be a heart!
As to your question, said
R Wilschansky, it all depends.
Obviously, to put forth a position
when it will have no significance
other than unburdening of the
mashpia who yearns to shout the
truth at any price, is meaningless.
On the other hand, to not put
forth a position when it might

have the opposite effect, that

people might mistake silence for
admission, is also forbidden. One
cannot state anything definitively;
each case has to be handled
differently.
R Avtzon agrees with R
Wilschansky that it depends on
the situation.
Lets talk about chinuch
and we can use that to shed light
on many other subjects. Even
bachurim who learn diligently
and work on themselves to keep
the sdarim, trip up. Often, the
hanhala knows about this but
opts not to tell the bachur about
the information they have so that
the bachur wont think they no
longer view him as a Chassidishe
bachur which can have negative
ramifications.
But sometimes, in a case
where the bachur is having a
negative influence or his slide is
serious, something must be done
since we cannot know how things
will end up. As I said, sometimes
it pays to look away so as not
to interfere with the bachurs
progress and sometimes you
need to take a strong stand.

UNSUCCESSFUL CHINUCH?
NOT CHABAD
Time is short and we want
to hear about the thing which is

closest to your hearts, chinuch.

How do you see the integration
of the pleasantness and appeal
that is the public face of Chabad
with the tendency towards
uncompromising chinuch?
R Wilschansky: I understand
what it means to be both
pleasant and firm because of my
involvement in chinuch. In many
instances it is necessary to insist
on proper standards of conduct
on the one hand, and on the
other hand there is the need to
find the right way get that across.
The seeming conflict of how to
convey the message properly
without conceding the point
leads to the understanding that
there really is no contradiction.
These are two separate things
that complement one another.
As someone who works
primarily in chinuch, I see the
difficulty in integrating firmness
and pleasantness nearly every
day, says R Avtzon. Many
lectures at chinuch symposiums
claim that today we must use only
pleasantness and love and make
life easy for the bachurim. Just
love. Others say we must insist
on the firmness like there was in
Russia; we are building an army
and there is no place for games.
As a young person I look at
them and think: what a pity that
this is the state of affairs. We
were given a treasure called Klalei
Chinuch VHadracha in which
the Rebbe Rayatz writes how to
properly educate Tmimim. If
those in Chabad chinuch would
only use it, they would prevent
a lot of aggravation on the part
of the kids, the parents, and
above all else, the Rebbe. Chabad
chinuch is successful. If it is not
successful, it is not Chabad!
I asked R Avtzon to point
out what needs strengthening
in chinuch to hiskashrus to the
Rebbe. He said:
I would divide it into two

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points that are connected and

need strengthening. Firmness
and Moshiach. As we said before,
we see both extremes by the
Rebbe. From the Chassidim he
was very firm in his demands,
as in his famous answer to the
bachurim-shluchim in Miami
who committed to learning a
chapter of Tanya by heart. The
Rebbe wrote to them, this is the
case of a rich man bringing the
sacrifice of a poor man. The
bachurim today are completely
unaware
of
the
Rebbes
demanding approach. A bachur
who would hear an answer like
that today would say, how could
the Rebbe write something like
that? They dont know that the
Rebbe is endlessly demanding
of mekusharim and that the
bachurim back then accepted
this happily, because the Rebbe
viewed them as rich.
And with Moshiach, there
is tremendous ignorance when
it comes to the sichos of 57515752. When learning these sichos
with the bachurim, its all news to
them. I see it every time. They
say, the Rebbe really said this?
I was a guest of a shliach and
there was someone there who is
known as not being a Meshichist,
as someone who likes making
fun of Chassidim who are loyal
and believe. I asked him, which
is worse, a person who has a
Yechi yarmulke or a person who

doesnt believe the Rebbe is

Moshiach. Without hesitating
he said, of course the Chassid
who doesnt believe the Rebbe is
Moshiach because that shows a
fundamental lack in hiskashrus.
I called over his grandson
and asked him: Is the Rebbe
Moshiach? The child declared, of
course not. So I said to that anti
you make fun because you
think that we are crazy but look
at your grandson and see with
what pride and confidence he
says the Rebbe is not Moshiach.

MOSHIACH ELECTRIFIES
THE KIDS
R Avtzon:
In the maamer Basi LGani,
the Rebbe demands that we bring
Moshiach. Already in the first
maamer, the Rebbe begins by
cultivating the sense of how we
as Chassidim are outstanding in
relation to the rest of the world,
something lacking in todays
chinuch. Generally speaking,
there are progressively higher
levels in Jewish character: not
religious, religious, Chassidic,
Chabad.
These
levels
are
progressively more demanding.
A
person
might
ask,
why should I be at the most
demanding level? Why live
such a hard life? It is only if he
understands that this is the most
important of all, and that this

level contains amazing things,

that he will be happy and proud
to be chosen by the Rebbe.
Moshiach is not about
politics; its the most important
thing! It is the most elemental
and the most educational! If
a boy knows that his Rebbe is
Moshiach, this strengthens him
in all of the other demands aimed
at Chassidim. There are people
who say we need to give honor
to the Rebbe and write terms of
histalkus for him. Without getting
into a debate about whether we
need to or not, Im telling you
that when your son sees this, it
disconnects him from the Rebbe.
You think youre giving honor to
the Rebbe? You are distancing
another child from the Rebbe.
Its the topic of Moshiach
which electrifies kids these days
since this is what sets us apart.
We tell a child there is a tough
galus. Why should we be and
conduct ourselves as Chassidim?
Because any minute now, the
Rebbe will appear as Moshiach.
As the Rebbe says in VaEira
5752, Knowing that the Rebbe
my father-in-law will enter
immediately and look at each one
of his Chassidim A Chassid
who lives with the idea that the
Rebbe will walk in any moment
has a different chayus in all his
avoda.

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YUD SHVAT

THE REBBE IS
NOT ALONE
AND CHASSIDIM
ARE NOT ALONE
To mark the special day of Yud Shvat, Dov Levanon
presents a compilation of stories about the relationship
between the Rebbe MHM and the Tmimim, unusual
expressions about hiskashrus to the nasi, and the
Chassidic conduct expected of the seventh generation.

TMIMIM
WHAT IS LACHLUCHIS?
The Rebbe once told R Abba Pliskin
to tell the Tmimim alte chassidishe
masiyos (old Chassidic tales), saying:
This is Chassidishe lachluchis (lit.
moisture or juiciness).

THE SHORTEST
YECHIDUS EVER
One of the bachurim who went to
learn in 770 had a private audience
with the Rebbe as soon as he arrived.
Did you see the note on the wall, the
schedule of the yeshiva? asked the
Rebbe. And the yechidus was over.

NOT TO MIX HOLY

AND THE MUNDANE
When a bachur once asked the
Rebbe about getting a drivers license,

the Rebbe said, If you cant conduct

yourself, how will you be able to
conduct a car?!
To another bachur who wrote that
he wanted to learn how to drive in order
to do mivtzaim, the Rebbe said, Why
are you mixing your taavos (desires)
into my matters?

THE PURPOSE OF A COAT

One winter day at the beginning of
the 80s, a bachur arrived at 770 after
seder had begun. He parked his car
near the steps of 770 and ran into the
small zal. Suddenly, the door opposite
him opened and the bachur found
himself facing the Rebbe. The bachur
stood there silently and waited to get
it over the head, since every bachur
in Tomchei Tmimim knows how
important punctuality for sdarim is to
the Rebbe.
The Rebbe stepped forward and

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Yud Shvat
gazed at him and asked, Where
is your coat?
In the car, blurted the
bachur, a second later biting his
lips. Why did he tell the Rebbe he
has a license?
A coat was not made to
warm a car, said the Rebbe, and
he continued walking toward
the car that was waiting for him.
Needless to say, throughout that
winter, the bachur was no longer
late and he did not go outside
without a coat.

AN EXPLICIT RAMBAM
In the early years, there was
a bachur in 770 who stayed late
at night in order to see the Rebbe
leave for home. The Rebbe once
came out and saw him. What
are you doing here?! You need
to sleep eight hours! You dont
believe me? It says so in the
Rambam, Ill show it to you.
The Rebbe went to find a
Rambam but the bachur did not
wait for it to be shown to him
and left immediately.

NOT ON MY ACCOUNT
After one of the farbrengens
in which the Rebbe spoke about
mivtzaim, some bachurim in 770
decided that that week would be
devoted to mivtzaim. On Motzaei
Shabbos they told the hanhala of
the yeshiva about their decision.
The next day some tanks were
parked near 770 and they waited
for the Rebbes encouragement
before they set out. To their
disappointment,
the
Rebbe
passed by the tanks as though he
didnt see them.
The same thing happened on
Tuesday and Wednesday. The
Rebbe ignored the tanks and
the bachurim. On Tuesday, the
Rebbe asked R Leibel Groner
what they were doing there. R
Groner told the Rebbe about

the bachurims decision and

the Rebbe said, What?! as he
banged on the desk. They want
me to take responsibility for bittul
Torah? Go and tell them that I
meant they should do mivtzaim
during their afternoon breaks
which are designated for lunch
and resting.

THE BACHURIM SHOULD

KNOW HOW TO LEARN
The Rebbes desire that the
bachurim know how to learn is
well known. When R Meir Tzvi
Gruzman asked the Rebbe how to
get the bachurim to want to learn
when they did not have ambitions
to be gdolim, the Rebbe said that
he wants the bachurim to know
how to learn. In Chassidishe
lo lishma there are three
possibilities: for Chassidus, for
hafatza, and for hiskashrus.
For the tenaim of R Shneur
Chaim Gutnicks oldest daughter,
the Rebbe told him to invite his
Litvishe friends. After the simcha,
the Rebbe asked whether they
said divrei Torah. R Gutnick said
that R Gifter, the Telzer Rosh
Yeshiva, had asked a question
on the Rambam and had left it
unaswered.
The Rebbe told him to go to
R Mentlick and tell him that the
bachurim should work on this
Rambam, find an answer, and
send it to R Gifter.
The Rebbe told R Yosef
Goldberg in yechidus that when a
bachur is asked a question in the
Shaagas Aryeh and he doesnt
know it, its an embarrassment
for the Rebbeim (and the Rebbe
enumerated them).

THE REBBE APPROVES

In 5733, the bachurim in the
yeshiva in Morristown began
printing pamphlets of insights of
the Tmimim and Anash. A short

while later, a rumor spread that

the Rebbe was not pleased with
the pamphlets and they stopped.
After a few weeks, one of the
secretaries called and said they
should start printing them again.
Around that time, the mashpia
of the yeshiva, R Elimelech
Zwiebel, had yechidus and he
told the Rebbe why they had
stopped printing the kovetz.
The Rebbe said, A rav wrote
me a question on one of the
sichos and I took the kovetz
where the question appeared
along with an answer and I sent
it to him.

HISKASHRUS
HOW TO FOLLOW
THE REBBE
Once in 5738, when the
Rebbe returned from the Ohel
and saw some people waiting
for him, he said, What are they
doing here? to Dr. Reznick.
They
should
follow
me
spiritually, not physically!

IRREPLACEABLE
R J. J. Hecht once wanted to
replace the lamp in the Rebbes
room. I got it from my fatherin-law, how can I replace it?
said the Rebbe.

PICTURING THE REBBE

In a yechidus, the Rebbe said
to R Yitzchok Dovid Groner,
Whoever had the merit of
seeing the Rebbe, each morning,
it makes no difference whether
before the morning brachos
or after, needs to go off to a
corner and picture the Rebbe,
my father-in-laws face. This will
give him chayus (vitality) where
necessary.

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A NEW THILLIM
When they began saying perek
71 on 11 Nissan 5732/1972, R
Yaakov Katz asked the Rebbe
why it says, may the righteous
flourish in his days and not our
days?
The Rebbe said, Dont tell
the bachurim. They will reprint
the Thillim ...

FOR THE REBBE

IT IS NOT HARD
One Shabbos in the early
years, in the middle of the
farbrengen, the Rebbe asked
that they bring him a Gemara
Sanhedrin. They brought a
large, heavy Gemara and after
the Rebbe looked into it, he
continued the sichos with the
Gemara on his lap.
R Moshe Gurary who was
present wanted to take the
Gemara but the Rebbe said to
him, Either way, if I am then
nothing is difficult. And if its
difficult, then its a shame that
youre sitting here.

WHERE IS THE LINE?

Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka said
that the Rebbe once complained
to her that when he encouraged
the singing with his hand at
farbrengens, the Chassidim began
singing with greater enthusiasm,
and when he gave out kos shel
bracha or dollars, people stood
for hours on line. Why then,
when he asked the Chassidim
to do something or other, there
wasnt a long line down Eastern
Parkway with people waiting to
hand in reports of what they did?

NO NEED TO TARRY THERE

In 5715, R Yisroel Yitzchok
Piekarski, rosh yeshiva of 770,
went to Eretz Yisroel. Before he
left, he went to ask the Rebbe for

The responsibility placed on us is to change the

world. If our approach is only to be nice fellows
and to accept everyone pleasantly, we wont bring about
any changes. Only firmness breaks the world and moves
us toward the goal. And that is why we need both
We need to take the model of businessmen. In order to
succeed, it is imperative to take a firm, uncompromising
line on matters of principle while always improving
customer service, so that the business continues to
flourish.

a bracha and the Rebbe asked

when he was returning to New
York. When he responded, the
Rebbe asked in surprise, Why
are you spending so much time
there? You can return two days
earlier ...
R Piekarski of course
changed his itinerary and made
a ticket for two days earlier.
A day after he returned to the
US he discovered that his life
had been saved thanks to the
Rebbe. The El-Al flight he was
originally supposed to be on
veered off course near Yugoslavia
and entered the air space of

communist Bulgaria which shot

it down. All 58 people on board
were killed.

YOU NEED TO HAVE PITY

ON THE REBBE TOO
The Rebbe once said to R
Yitzchok Goldin that there are
those who think that one need
not have pity on the Rebbe.
If Chassidim had behaved
otherwise,
my
father-in-law
would be with us today. Upon
saying this, the Rebbe leaned his
head on his hands and cried.
When R Nissan Nemanov

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Yud Shvat
had yechidus and he asked
the Rebbe to go back to doing
things the way they were done in
Lubavitch, when chozrim would
review the maamer in the Rebbes
room, the Rebbe said, The half
hour I have for myself you also
want to take away?
On the other hand, the
Rebbe once asked a woman why
her husband did not ask him
questions regarding parnasa. The
woman said that her husband did
not want to take up the Rebbes
time. The Rebbe said, Thats
why Im here.

involved bruchnius (when I

dont go physically, I am more
spiritually involved).

AN ENTIRE YEAR
R Shlomo Yosef Zevin
related, A person I knew had a
hard time finding a match for his
daughter. I advised him to go to
the Rebbe for a bracha. The man
decided to go to the Rebbe for
Simchas Torah.
I told him that in order to
successfully reach the Rebbe
despite the tremendous crowding
he should say he has a shlichus

When a rosh yeshiva says a shiur, he cannot be

sure that what hes saying is true. But when you
teach little children kometz alef ah you can be certain it
is true, say lchaim!

CHASSIDIC
CONDUCT
THERE GOES A CHASSID
When R Saadia Liberow
went to the Rebbe, he walked
on Eastern Parkway with his
eyes cast downward. The Rebbe,
leaving 770, saw him and said to
the bachurim who were standing
around, See how a Chassidishe
Yid walks.

OCCUPIED WITH RUCHNIUS

R
Shmuel
Zalmanov
submitted something he had
written to the Rebbe for the
Rebbe to edit. The Rebbe said he
could not work on it that evening
since there was a wedding. R
Shmuel knew that the Rebbe
had stopped going to weddings
and was surprised to hear this.
The Rebbe explained, When I
dont go bgashmius, I am more

from me. Consequently, they

brought him close to the
Rebbe and he gave the Rebbe
regards from me and used the
opportunity to ask for a bracha
for his daughter. The Rebbe
smiled and blessed him that his
daughter would do a shidduch
that year.
The man walked away from
the Rebbe in good spirits but then
the Rebbe called him back. The
year ends on Simchas Torah, he
emphasized.
When the man went home
and told me this, I did not
understand it either. It was only
on Chol HaMoed of the following
year, when I was invited to the
vort, that I suddenly got it how
precise are the Rebbes words!

MOSHIACH WILL VISIT YOU

AT HOME
After Tishrei 5735, R Reuven
Dunin had yechidus and told the
Rebbe he wanted to move with

his family to the US. When

Moshiach comes, we will all go to
Eretz Yisroel.
The Rebbe nixed the idea.
Then I want him [Moshiach]
to come to my house, said
Reuven.
Moshiach will make a stop
in every Jewish home, said the
Rebbe.

IMMEDIATE RECOVERY
R Elimelech Neiman, a
Gerrer askan, passed by the
Rebbe when dollars were given
out to Tankistin. He asked for a
bracha for a refua shleima for the
Lev Simcha, R Simcha Bunim
Alter, the Gerrer Rebbe. (6 April
1898 6 August 1992). The
Rebbe said, May it be a refua
shleima lalter (a play on words
with alter meaning immediate
and also being the Gerrer Rebbes
name).

A RAY OF THE
SUN VERSUS THE SUN
In 5710, R Moshe Twersky
told the Rebbe that he had
found a manuscript from his
grandfather, the Horensteipler,
which was in the manner of
Chabad, and that Kehos should
publish it.
The Rebbe said, Why do we
need according to Chabad when
we can have Chabad itself?

NOTIK IS ALSO A JEW

One year, a grocery delivery
arrived at the Rebbes house
and was left at the door. In the
evening, the Rebbe entered the
house with the heavy bag.
Notik can also do that!
exclaimed
the
Rebbetzin,
wondering why the Rebbe did
not leave the schlepping for the
assistant to do.

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Notik is also a Yid, said the

Rebbe.

MY MELAMED
At one of the farbrengens in
the early years, the Rebbe poured
a cup of non-alcoholic beverage
for R Shneur Zalman Vilenkin
who had been his melamed. Then
the Rebbe turned in order to give
him the cup.
Someone tried to intervene
and pass the cup so the Rebbe
wouldnt have to exert himself.
The Rebbe said, He was my
melamed, not yours, declining
the help.

WHEN TO GO
AND WHEN TO STAY
The night of Simchas Torah
5739, two Chassidim, mekuravim

of Beis Rebbi, went to the library

in order to make kiddush on
mashke. The Rebbetzin was there
at the time. She was waiting for
the Rebbe to come and make
kiddush for her. The Rebbe
suddenly walked in and one of
them, R Binyamin Altheus, began
to leave the room upon seeing
the Rebbe. The Rebbe stopped
him and said, One doesnt walk
away from mashke.

HOW DO YOU CHOOSE A

YESHIVA?
R Berel Zaltzman told the
Rebbe about his uncertainty
as to where to send his son,
to Morristown, as he had first
thought, or to Oholei Torah,
about which he had heard nice
things.
But the air in Morristown

is better, said the Rebbe as he

raised his hands upward.

A REAL ROSH YESHIVA

At a Shabbos farbrengen in
5715, the Rebbe said that all the
roshei yeshiva should say lchaim.
When the Rebbe saw that the
melamed R Eliyahu Chaim
Roitblatt wasnt saying lchaim,
he said to him, When a rosh
yeshiva says a shiur, he cannot
be sure that what hes saying is
true. But when you teach little
children kometz alef ah you can
be certain it is true, say lchaim!

ABOUT OBSERVING
MINHAGIM
Before the nesius, the Rebbe
would bring mezonos to the
sukka so that someone who said

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Yud Shvat
the bracha on the lulav could eat
immediately afterwards. When R
Shmuel Levitin pointed out that
it wasnt necessary for the eating
before davening to be done
publicly, the Rebbe said, There
is nothing to be ashamed about a
Chassidishe practice.

MIRACLES IN RUSSIA
Professor Branover related:
Since I worked as a scientist
in Russia, they refused to let
me out. Following the few days
I spent in jail as a result of my
request to leave, I decided to
contact the Rebbe and ask for
a bracha. Anash, who heard
the idea, tried to dissuade me
and said I would not be able to
contact America and they would
arrest me.
I decided I would try
regardless. I went to the local
post office and asked to make
a call to New York. Within ten
minutes, the height of speed in
those days, I was able to speak

Continued from page48

parents to have their fingers on
the pulse regarding all matters
taking place in school? Is there
such a thing as a nudgy parent?
Where do you draw the line?
In most instances, the avoda

to the Rebbes secretary. The

secretary told me that the Rebbe
did not speak on the phone. I
insisted and said that the KGB
could come at any time. They put
on Chadakov who said the same
thing and while I argued with
him, I heard the Rebbes voice on
the line.
Tell him that he already has
all the brachos and it wont be
long before he leaves in peace.
Three weeks later I was called
to the emigration office where
a clerk told me that as long as I
remembered the science I learned
in Russia, I would not leave
until I forgot it all. I went home
despondent but when I arrived
there they called me back to the
office. The woman greeted me
again with derision and said, We
decided to let you go.

YERUSHALAYIM HIS CITY

More
from
Professor
Branover:
When the Rebbe told me

must be with the parents, not

about the parents. That means
looking upon parents as full
partners, working together with
them for an important objective:
the childs education. On rare
occasions, there are parents who
interfere with their childrens




to build a neighborhood in
Yerushalayim
for
Russian
immigrants, there were a number
of places that were suggested. I
decided to go to the Rebbe and
ask his advice.
When I had yechidus and
began enumerating the options, I
put my hand in my pocket in order
to take out a map of the city I had
prepared. The Rebbe motioned
that this was unnecessary and
began explaining to me without
any visual reference, If the
neighborhood will be here, when
a person will go to a convention
at Binyanei HaUma, he will
have to go via that street and it
will take him x amount of time.
If the neighborhood is located
there, when a woman goes to the
grocery store, it will take her x
amount of time.
To my astonishment, the
Rebbe, who had never been in
Yerushalayim, showed me that he
knew the city better than me and
the map together.

educational success. In such

a case, we have to work with
them on changing their habits
and conduct for the sake of
their children. In this book, you
can find effective tools for this
purpose.

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30 10 Shvat 5775

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PARSHA THOUGHT

TWO
MODELS
OF ANTISEMITISM
By Rabbi Heschel Greenberg

THE POWER OF HATE

When Pharaoh had a change
of heart and decided to pursue
the newly liberated Jewish
people, the Torah relates how he
prepared himself for that pursuit:
He harnessed his chariot and
took [or: persuaded] his people
[to come] with him.
Rashi makes the observation
that Pharaoh harnessed his own
chariot.
Apparently,
Rashis
intention is to point out how
unusual it was for a powerful
monarch to harness his own
chariot and not delegate the task
to a servant!
Why would Pharaoh behave
this way? And why would the
Torah point out this anomaly?
At first blush, one is tempted
to explain Pharaohs bizarre
behavior by referring to the
Torahs statement that the
heathen prophet Bilam saddled
his own donkey on his way to
curse the Jewish people. There
too Rashi makes the observation
that Bilam personally saddled his
donkey and explains:

From here we can derive that

hatred undermines the rules of
normal behavior, for he saddled
it himself. Said the Holy One
Blessed is He, Wicked one!
Their Abraham had already
preceded you as it says, He
woke up early in the morning and
saddled his donkey.
Rashi
interprets
Bilams
saddling of his donkey as a
demonstration of his irrational
hatred for the Jews and implies
that Abrahams act of saddling
his own donkey was evidence
of Abrahams irrational love for
G-d. Indeed, Rashi (BReishis
22:3) applies the saying love
undermines normal behavior to
Abrahams saddling of his own
donkey.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN

BILAM AND PHARAOH
Based on the foregoing it
would seem that Pharaohs
personal involvement in the
harnessing of his chariot was
also motivated by hatred, which
can cause an otherwise normal
person to behave irrationally.

However, if this is true one

can ask why Rashi stresses,
from here [i.e., the story of
Bilam] we can derive that hatred
undermines the rules of normal
behavior, intimating that the
earlier incident with Pharaoh
does not convey that message.
Why doesnt Rashi cite Pharaohs
unconventional
behavior
of
harnessing his own chariot as an
even earlier source for the lesson
that the power of hatred can
cause one to behave irrationally?
Moreover, the Midrash does,
in fact, compare the hatred of
Bilam, who personally saddled
his donkey, to the hatred of
Pharaoh, who harnessed his own
chariot. Why does Rashi deviate
from the Midrash in this regard?
The Rebbe (Likkutei Sichos,
volume 28, p. 162) explains
that there was a fundamental
difference
between
Bilams
behavior and that of Pharaoh.
Bilam was consumed with an
abiding and profound hatred
for the Jewish people. Pharaoh,
on the other hand, wanted to
convince his people to join him
in pursuit of the Jewish people to
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Parsha Thought
retrieve the wealth they took from
the Egyptians. In other words,
Pharaohs behavior was not
irrational and was not motivated
by hatred but by greed and the
need to convince his subjects to
follow him in the pursuit of the
fleeing Jews.
The question can be raised:
While this explains Rashis
approach, what can we say with
respect to the Midrash? Why
does it impute the motive of
hatred to Pharaoh and compare
him to Bilam? Wasnt Pharaoh
motivated by greed and Bilam by
hatred?

level of the Torah. When Rashi

reads the text of how Pharaoh
harnessed his own chariot he
reads it in context. Right before
this verse the Torah states,
Pharaoh and his servants had
a change of heart towards the
people, and they said, What
have we done, that we have sent
away Israel from serving us?
In other words, they regretted
having freed the Jews and thereby
having lost the benefits of slavery.
Another clue that his
harnessing of his own chariot
was not an overt act of hatred

But there is an even more insidious form of

antipathy to the Jewish people although it is
often couched in other terms. While some state openly
that they despise us, others hide behind neat clichs
and euphemistic expressions. Some the so-called
intellectually elite such as many academics, journalists,
and political leaderseven sound as if they truly care for
us; if we would only give up another part of the Land of
Israel, they would love us! They charge us with all sorts
of injustices even as they turn a blind eye to all of the
injustices perpetrated against the Jewish People, as well
as all the others in the world who suffer from the forces
of evil.

TWO DIMENSIONS OF
HATRED
The answer to this question
seems to hinge on the different
approaches of Rashi and the
Midrash which are reflected
in the way they view the text of
the Torah and, by extension, the
way we are to understand and
interpret peoples motives.
Rashi follows the dimension
of
pshat,
the
simple,
straightforward
and
surface

is the way the Torah states, He

harnessed his chariot, and took
the people with him. This,
Rashi explains, means Pharaoh
convinced them to join him by
promising them he would lead
the charge and divide the spoils
equally. Harnessing his own
chariot was a calculated and
rational gimmick.
The root of the word Midrash
means to investigate and probe
beneath the surface. It is in the
Midrash that we dig deeper into

the text and into human behavior.

Yes, it is true that Pharaoh
was motivated by greed and the
desire to get back his wealth
and his slaves. But beneath the
surface greed there lurked a
deep-rooted hatred for the Jewish
People.

MODERN DAY FORMS

OF ANTI-SEMITISM
In
modern
times
two
modelsthe Bilam and Pharaoh
modelsof anti-Semitism have
emerged. There are some who
do not hide their irrational hatred
for the Jewish People; they state
openly what violence they desire
to do to us, may Hashem protect
us from their designs! Tragically,
we have seen too much of this
evil in recent times. But there is
an even more insidious form of
antipathy to the Jewish people
although it is often couched in
other terms. While some state
openly that they despise us,
others hide behind neat clichs
and euphemistic expressions.
Some
the
so-called
intellectually elite such as many
academics, journalists, political
leaders, etc.even sound as if
they truly care for us; if we would
only give up another part of the
Land of Israel, they would love
us! They charge us with all sorts
of injustices even as they turn a
blind eye to all of the injustices
perpetrated against the Jewish
People, as well as all the others
in the world who suffer from the
forces of evil.
We ought not be fooled
by these fake excuses for
their opposition to the Jewish
People.
Underneath
their
pronouncements lurks hatred,
much like Pharaohs underlying
motive for pursuing the Jewish
people. While the pshat declares
that their opposition to us is
based on other considerations,

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the Midrash reveals the truth of

their hatred for us.
One may suggest that the
more insidious a form of evil is,
the harder it is to combat and
neutralize it. Often the hater
himself does not believe he is
motivated by hatred. As we see in
the current international climate,
the greatest critics of Israel and
the Jews bristle at the suggestion
that they are motivated by antiSemitism.
Now that we know who our
enemy is, we must know how
we can defeat both the overt and
covert forms of anti-Semitism.

ABRAHAMS LEGACY
The answer is provided in a
better understanding of Rashis
comments. Rashi cited G-ds
response to Bilam that Abraham
had preceded him with the
unconventional saddling of his
own donkey. The Rebbe (in the
foregoing
citation)
suggests
that Abrahams unconventional
devotion to G-d not only
neutralized the hatred of Bilam,
but also empowered us to
transform the curses of Bilam
into blessings.
How can we apply the
transformation of Bilams curses
into blessings insofar as this
hatred is concerned?
The Rebbe explains that
Judaism encompasses two areas
of service to G-d: doing good
and refraining from evil. Love

is what motivates us to perform

the positive or active Mitzvos,
whereas our hatred and revulsion
of evil endows us with the
strength to resist it.
However, the two areas of
service are themselves divided.
There are two levels of love of
G-d and doing good and two
levels of the parallel hatred for
evil: a rational, measured and
limited form of love and hate
and an unlimited, supra-rational
form. It was this supra-rational
love of good and abhorrence of
evil that Abraham bequeathed
to us. This is the powerful force
which enables us to transform
Bilams hatred of the Jews and all
that is holy to them into hatred of
all that is evil.

HIDDEN LEVELS EMERGING

We may take the Rebbes
analysis of the transformation of
Bilams hatred and apply it also
to the hidden hatred of Pharaoh.
Pharaohs
anti-Semitism
is particularly insidious. The
Pharaohs of this world must dig
very deep into their psyche to
discover the root cause of their
antipathy to Jews.
When we transform this
brand of evil, we can develop
the ability to resist, neutralize
and transform even the most
insidious forms of evil.
The Rebbe often referred
to the phenomenon in recent
times whereby hidden forms

of good and evil have surfaced

in the world at large and within
individuals. This phenomenon,
the Rebbe stated, was a symptom
of the Messianic Era. As the
prophet
Daniel
predicted,
everything will become clarified
and crystallized in that Era.
Hidden evils are now surfacing,
which explains why so many
people whom we thought of as
civilized, reasonable and decent
have turned against us.
When we consider the
pervasive nature of this hatred
throughout the world, where
supposedly decent people have
teamed up with the greatest
of haters or given them tacit
support, we cannot become
intimidated. Instead, how can we
find the strength to cope with this
new situation?
In truth, we have already
been given that strength. Our
father Abrahams unconventional
love of G-d has empowered us,
his descendants, to unleash our
heretofore hidden powers to
neutralize and even transform
that hidden evil. Although
Abrahams power was always
available to us, it has become
most accessible in these last
moments of exile. We are about
to say our final goodbye to Galus
and welcome Moshiach and
the Final Redemption, when all
forms of evil will be obliterated
and transformed into good.

www.MoshiachForKids.com
Check it out!! Educational and Fun!!
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CHINUCH

CHINUCH
STARTS
AT HOME
How can we get children to feel secure at home?
What ingenious solution did the Rebbe advise
a woman who wanted to bring her angry son
back home? Why does the key to success lie in
the Shabbos meals? How do the children feel
when their father is tired at the Shabbos table?
* A practical article on chinuch, part 1 of 2, by
R Nachman Twersky, a longtime mechanech in
Crown Heights, based on a speech.

INVESTING MORE INTO

CHINUCH TODAY THAN
EVER BEFORE
Before we start talking about
chinuch, we have to define what
chinuch is. Rashi in Parshas
Tetzaveh, Chapter 28, Pasuk 41,
says, Every [mention of] filling
of the hands is an expression
of initiation, chinuch. When a
person begins something [such
as a position] that he will be

established in from that day

on [it is referred to as filling a
position].
The word Chinuch is similar
linguistically to the expressions
Chanukas HaBayis, Chanukas
HaMizbeiach,
Chanukas
HaMikdash. What is a Chanukas
HaBayis? I have a house, its
built and fixed up and furnished.
Everything is in order, but we still
dont make a Chanukas HaBayis.
When can we do so? It is only

when we actually enter it and

live in it. A Chanukas HaBayis
takes place when the potential is
actualized. Thats what chinuch
is.
Every child has wonderful
kochos; they just need to be
revealed. Thats what chinuch is
about, actualizing that which the
child has in potential form.
Id like to speak about how
we get a child and even an
adult to feel that the home is his
protective environment. This is
very pertinent, especially in our
times, when we see what is going
on in the street. We see terrible
things, but we also see wonderful
things.
The topic of chinuch is one
we talk about and focus on
very much in our generation.
What changed in our generation
that chinuch has become a top
priority and there are so many
professionals in the field?
The Torah says, Ask your
father and he will tell you, your
elders and they will say it to

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you. In earlier generations

there was innocence, like that of
the Jews in the time of the Baal
Shem Tov. In those days, they
knew that if father says so, you
follow. They followed their father
and grandfather with utmost
sincerity. Even if they were
ignorant, they had the foundation
of simple faith and bitachon.
People were very simple and
many did not even know how to
read, but they had bittul before
the rabbi, the mashpia, before
a Chassid and talmid chacham.
These authority figures were the
center of life.
But over time new ideas
entered our world. The big world
became small, and everyone
knows everything. Everyone has
become a know-it-all and has
an opinion. This started back in
the time of Haskala when they
started pulling young people
away and caused a spiritual
Holocaust. Then it continued
with the various movements and
it slowly penetrated our homes

too.
Since then we dont have
that simplicity anymore of ask
your father, that if a father says
something, thats reason enough
to do it. Today, every child thinks
for himself.
So we must find ways of
getting into the head of a child
and understanding how he
understands the world and how
he sees the world. If we dont
speak his language, the child
wont be receptive. Children
nowadays dont have the bittul
they once had, that if a father says
something its sacred, and if a rav
says something its sacrosanct.
Nowadays, we must invest
thought in the proper approach
to the child and we need to be
careful with every word so as
not to miss the opportunity of
reaching his heart and mind.

ENJOYING THIS WORLD

AND THE NEXT WORLD
By

Divine

Providence,

someone recently came over

to me and asked if I ever saw
a certain letter of the Rebbe
Rayatz. That letter is the basis of
what I will say next.
The Rebbe Rayatz writes
what conditions are necessary to
build a Jewish home according
to Torah. It is through such a
structure that we merit Torah
and mitzvos, health and parnasa,
nachas from children and the
fulfillment of all those whom
people are pleased with, the
Spirit of HaMakom [Hashem] is
pleased with him.
How do you attain this? The
Rebbe Rayatz writes in letter
#1180: First understanding,
energy,
devotion,
patience,
goodness of heart, cleanliness,
calm, order, joyous temperament
with a positive face and a friendly
approach.
Those are the Rebbe Rayatzs
words and we can spend hours on
each word. It is really amazing.
Sometimes the question arises:
Do we really need to invest so

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Chinuch

Boruch Hashem for giving us the great gift of

children, blessed seed of G-d. It is the greatest
shlichus Hashem has given us and it is the greatest joy.
And this is where we must invest all our kochos. Chinuch
is not a task that is done at a certain time of the day,
the week, or the month. Its a 24-hours-a-day task. Your
presence at home, your conduct and speech, are chinuch.
much and work so hard when we
are so preoccupied with making
a living and putting out so much
effort to simply manage day to
day? How is it possible?
In my experience as a teacher,
sometimes there is a class with
30-40 boys and it goes easily and
sometimes there is a class with
only 15 boys and its chaotic.
A person who puts himself
and all his energy into his
teaching does not fight with the
children but controls them in a
professional manner; not just
professionally, but with yiras
Shamayim. If he invests his soul
into the chinuch of the talmidim,
ultimately the children get it, and
the classroom is quiet. They are
mekabel from him and the work
goes smoothly. But a teacher who
does not resolve things within
himself will find it hard to face a
classroom and then hell scream
at them and have the kids scream
back. Nobody benefits.
The same is true at home.
When the father puts his
energy into his home as the
Rebbe Rayatz puts it: with
understanding, energy, devotion,
patience, goodness of heart,
cleanliness, calm, order, joyous
temperament with a positive
face and friendly approach
and he invests himself into all
these things, thinking of each
point individually and how
to implement them, he sees
completely different results in the

chinuch of his children. It takes

work; not physical work, but
wisdom and self-sacrifice.
One who is involved in
chinuch and carries it out from
a place of internal wholeness
sees both This World and the
Next World. The Kotzker Rebbe
said on the words, All Israel has
a share in the world to come:
The World to Come is something
every Jew has, but only erliche
Yidden have This World.
We can understand this point
as it pertains to chinuch. He who
wants This World should invest
in the chinuch of children and
then he will have a genuine Olam
HaZeh, a Jewish home where
there is pleasure and chayus.
Im not saying everyone is
perfect, and the ideal would be
wonderful. Every person goes
through difficult things in life
and nobody is 100% perfect.
We arent robots. Sometimes
a person explodes and it is
impossible to demand of oneself
that things have to be completely
quiet all day every day.
But generally speaking, when
children see their father keeping
it together, serene, relaxed, and
working on himself, even if it
happens that he loses it because
he is human after all, the child will
understand that sometimes its
hard for his father and sometimes
he also loses it, but usually his
father is a calm relaxed person
that he can rely on.

A childless man went to a

tzaddik to ask for a bracha for
children. He asked which part of
the davening on Rosh HaShana
he should concentrate on in order
to be blessed with children. After
all, Rosh HaShana is the time
that Hashem remembered Sarah
and Chana and they conceived,
and its an auspicious time.
The tzaddik told him, I
suppose you are asking for
someone else because a person
who doesnt have children will
think and pray about children
with every paragraph of the
davening. When you say
opens the eyes of the blind
in the morning, its to merit
children; clothes the naked, it
is children. Whatever you daven,
its about children. A person who
is childless is always crying out
that he wants children!
Boruch Hashem for giving us
the great gift of children, blessed
seed of G-d. It is the greatest
shlichus Hashem has given us
and it is the greatest joy. And this
is where we must invest all our
kochos. Chinuch is not a task
that is done at a certain time of
the day, the week, or the month.
Its a 24-hours-a-day task. Your
presence at home, your conduct
and speech, are chinuch.

CHABAD CHASSIDIM HAVE

A SPECIAL POWER WHEN
IT COMES TO CHINUCH
The psychiatrist Rabbi Dr.
Abraham Twerski once spoke at
a gathering of mechanchim and
said that chinuch today is one
of the biggest challenges and
you, Chabad Chassidim, have
the koach of the Rebbe. For you
its no problem at all. You, who
have the kochos of the Rebbe,
are generals when it comes to
chinuch.

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We need to know that we have

the kochos and ensure that we
use these kochos properly, going
Lchatchilla Aribber, on the very
highest level.
We as Chassidim need to
take the Rebbes words, think
about them, and implement
them. Here is an example: one of
the biggest problems that cause
worry at home is parnasa. There
are endless expenses that are not
covered by the monthly income.
How much does a Jew need to
earn? The truth is that each of us
ought to be rich, not for luxuries,
just to live. Hashem ought to give
each of us wealth and then Jews
wont live with so many worries.
However, until the wealth
comes, there are parnasa worries.
What does the Rebbe say about
this? When you eat the toil of
your hands, fortunate are you
and it is good for you your
head needs to be immersed in
Torah and mitzvos and the study
of Chassidus. As for parnasa,
Chazal say you shall eat the toil
of your hands, not the toil of

The moment you think this way, you become

another sort of person. Then your head is free
to think about the children, who are the priority. As for
parnasa, Hashem helps and will help.

your head! The Rebbe raises us

up above the raging currents and
daily worries!
The moment you think this
way, you become another sort of
person. Then your head is free
to think about the children, who
are the priority. As for parnasa,
Hashem helps and will help. He
does not abandon us. There is
emuna and bitachon.

THE REBBES ORIGINAL

SOLUTION
A womans son went off
the derech and left home, and
she wanted very much for him
to return home, no matter his
spiritual state. She asked the
Rebbe what she could do to get
her son to come back home. She
felt she had done all she could

already.
The Rebbe answered her
in Yiddish, Ir zolt basheinin
ayer Shabbos tzimmer (make
your Shabbos room beautiful).
The Rebbe did not elaborate or
explain.
She went home and looked
at the dining room and the first
thing she noticed was that the
curtain was a little torn. After all,
there were children in the house
and when walking into the room
you didnt see the niceness of it,
just the disarray. She ordered
beautiful new curtains. Then she
changed the dishes she used on
Shabbos.
Throughout the week she
thought about which delicious
dishes she could make for
Shabbos. She bought each child

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Chinuch
the nosh he liked best. She went
shopping, cooked, and prepared
the Shabbos meals in the finest
way.
Thursday night she set the
table with the new dishes and
matching napkins. It was all
perfect. When the children came
home, they all felt the Shabbos
atmosphere.
When her husband saw his
wifes efforts, that she prepared
for the Shabbos Queen as if for
a wedding, he also started his
Shabbos preparations. They all
looked forward to the moment
they would sit down together at
the Shabbos table.
At the Shabbos meal, the
children sat like princes and
princesses. One said a Dvar
Torah that he learned in school,
and
a
daughter
repeated
something she had learned.
The father told a story and said
something on the parsha and

Their brother didnt believe

them because he knew what
Shabbos was like at home. It was
nothing special at all. But his
siblings insisted: Come and see.
Its not what you remember. He
decided he had to go and see.
He showed up and loved it.
His siblings had not exaggerated.
There were nice curtains, a
magnificent
table,
beautiful
dishes, it was all respectable. His
father sat like a king, relaxed,
not sleeping at the table. His
mother served delicacies in the
nicest way. Nobody shouted at
one another. He saw royalty and
could not believe his eyes.
That is how it began and how
it continued. He came more and
more often for meals until he
eventually returned home and to
Judaism, Boruch Hashem.
The story speaks for itself.
Shabbos is the only time that
parents and children eat together,

They would be going to church to make you

one of us. He walked with them and once again,
along the way, the song Shabbos Shalom UMevorach
came to mind. Once again, he remembered his parents
and he stopped walking.
the meal was just wonderful.
The children looked forward to
Shabbos because their mother
prepared special things each
week. The parents said nothing to
the children about their brother.
Shabbos united the family.
Several weeks went by in
this manner. Then one day, the
children met their brother on
the street, the brother who hated
his home, hated his father, his
mother, and did not want to
live at home. They told him that
he did not know what he was
missing. Every Shabbos was like
a wedding.

especially on Friday night. The

rest of the week, the family is
occupied and each one eats at
a different time, the older ones
when its good for them and the
younger ones when its good
for them. The father eats when
he comes home from work. The
mother sometimes eats with the
little ones and sometimes with
the big ones. Sometimes she
doesnt eat at all.
The Satan puts all his energy
into ruining the Friday night
meal. Children report that when
they repeat a Dvar Torah at the
Friday night meal, their father

snoozes, so why should they say

it?
When there are guests and
the parents ask the child to say a
Dvar Torah and he doesnt want
to, then if the father says a harsh
word to him and embarrasses
him, it makes the child think his
father hates him.
They once brought an
educational expert from Los
Angeles to the Kinus for teachers.
He is a frum man who works
with dropouts. He works in the
schools with kids at high risk
in order to prevent them from
dropping out. He meets with
parents and children. During his
speech he said that for 90% of
the children he deals with, the
problem starts with the Friday
night meal.
The tzaddik R Shlomo of
Karlin, one of the great disciples
of the Maggid of Mezritch, said
that the father (or parents) must
take a nap Friday afternoon in
order to be alert at the Shabbos
meal. The Minchas Elozor, the
Munkatcher Rebbe (whom the
Rebbe highly esteemed), said in
connection to what R Shlomo
of Karlin stated that he does not
understand why this obligation
was not included in the Ten
Commandments.
The
speaker
from
LA
explained how important resting
on Erev Shabbos is, how its a
must. Its the foundation of a
Jewish home and the foundation
of chinuch!
He delineated the sequence of
events: The father says something
critical to one of the children
or gets involved in one of their
fights, and in the end they are
all angry at him and he despairs
and gets up from the table and is
the first to go to sleep, with the
mother following him and the
children all awake. If they are
upset and the child is somewhat

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older, he leaves the house without

the parents even being aware of it
and he hangs out with other kids
who are angry like he is, and it
goes downhill from there.
If you want your children to
feel that the home is secure and is
their security, we have an explicit
horaa from the Rebbe to make
a proper Shabbos meal. The
parents need to be the last ones to
leave the table. The father must
be alert and run the Shabbos
meal in such a way that the child
looks forward to the Shabbos
meal the following week.
For all the Jewish people
there was light in their dwellings
every Jewish home has light
when there is Shabbos, because
Shabbos illuminates.

REMEMBERING THE
SHABBOS MEALS
Here is another story. In
America there is a practice of
people going to Eretz Yisroel as
part of organized groups. An
older man in his 60s-70s joined
a group from Young Israel that
went for two weeks to Eretz
Yisroel. He was a quiet person
who sat in his corner spot in shul.
The plan was for the group to be
in Yerushalayim in a hotel the first
Shabbos. Erev Shabbos they took
taxis to the Kosel, as tourists like
to do, to participate in the special
Friday night davening. The group
arranged to meet at the end of
davening at a designated spot
from where they would walk back
to their hotel together.
When they arrived at the
Kosel, they decided that unlike
every Shabbos when they
davened together in shul, this
time they would disperse among
the many minyanim in order
to get a taste of the different
customs.
After the davening, the

FAMILY IS LIKE A BOOK

Many parents consult with me. Some say: I see what is going on in the
street, how many children have fallen out of the system and we are very
worried. They ask me for my opinion.
I tell them what I heard from my mother, Rebbetzin Sarah Twersky
of Rachmistrivka Yerushalayim, who is a special woman who encourages
and supports many people. In a special yechidus with the Rebbe in the
winter of 5737, she was given a special shlichus to be involved in Taharas
Hamishpacha, and till today she works with kallos.
She always tells kallos who consult with her: Parents to children are like
the binding of a book with the children as the pages. When both sides of the
binding are straight, strong and matching, the pages stay in well. Even if the
page sometimes get crumpled or torn a little, when they are together with
the binding, even if it is used a lot, all is well. However, if the binding falls
apart or is crooked, then even if the pages are perfect, in the end it all falls
apart, scatters, and the book is put into sheimos.
There are three problems that are responsible for 90% of the dropping
out. There are other problems, but these are the main ones, represented by
a book with one side of the binding missing: 1) in the event that one parent
dies, G-d forbid, 2) in the case of divorce, and 3) when there is no shalom
bayis.
Obviously, when tragedy strikes, thats not under our control, but when
there is a couple and they are not careful with honoring each other, then that
is the greatest tragedy. The binding is not straight! In this case, there are the
two covers but the pages are falling out because the binding is not straight.
In the end the book will be discarded into sheimos.
On the other hand, when the binding is good and straight, then even if a
page is bent, the book remains in the bookcase.
After becoming aware of the problem, we need to deal with it. When you
invest all your strength into Shalom Bayis and, as the Rebbe Rayatz writes in
the letter, into understanding, patience and all the rest of the things he said,
you will get all the good things: nachas, people are pleased with him, the
spirit of Hashem is pleased with him, and many more blessings.

members of the group convened

at their meeting place, all except
the older man. Of course, they
did not leave the Kosel without
him and they went to look for
him. They finally found him. He
was emotionally overwrought. He
said he could not return to the
hotel at that point; he would do
so only when he calmed down.
They were all surprised
because they knew him as a quiet
person. There are people with
excitable temperaments but that
was the opposite of this older

mans nature. However they

asked no questions and let him
be. They waited while he paced in
a storm of emotion.
After half an hour of waiting,
he was ready to go back to the
hotel with them. When they
arrived there, they made Kiddush
and began the meal. Then it was
time to hear what had happened
to the man and why he was in
such a state.
This is what he said. My
parents were taken to Auschwitz
when I was a child. I looked

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Chinuch
Polish and it was easy to hide
my origins. My father arranged
papers for me that said I was the
son of the Polish neighbor. He
gave all his money to the gentile
neighbor who promised he would
take care of me until after the war
when my father could come and
take me back.
The neighbor was not afraid
that the Nazis would discover
me, because I looked like a
typical Polish child. I joined his
family, played with his children,
and they treated me well.
After the war, nobody
came back because they were
murdered. I stayed with the
neighbors. I went to school and
grew up as one of their children.
Every Sunday I went to church
with them.
One day, when I was 12,
I arrived home from school
and saw a white tablecloth and
candles on the table and did not
understand what was going on.
They said it was a holiday. Which
holiday? They explained to me
that they saved my life, but the
problem was I was Jewish. Today
the priest would come and take
me to their church to make me
like one of us, and this is why
they were celebrating.
As he told this moving story,
the man recalled that he did not
see any problem with this and he
went with them. But suddenly,
on the way, he remembered
something. His father had been a
Chassid of one of the Nadvorna
Rebbes who would sing Shabbos
Shalom UMevorach with great
passion. When his father would
return from the Rebbe, he would
sing this song on Friday night
with such fervor, before the meal
and during the meal.
On the way to church to
convert me, Heaven Forbid, I
remembered that song. I could
picture how my father was so

emotional as he sang it, and I

could see my mother sitting at
the table along with my brothers
and sisters. Even without
knowing anything about Judaism,
I thought: how can I go to this
place?
I stopped still. I really
couldnt go. When they saw this
they returned home and did not
bring up the subject again.
The man continued to
recount his tale to the members
of his group. He attended Polish
high school and at 17 the same
thing recurred. A white tablecloth
was put on the table and a festive
meal prepared and when he asked
what was going on, he was given
the same answer. They would
be going to church to make
you one of us. He walked with
them and once again, along the
way, the song Shabbos Shalom
UMevorach came to mind.
Once again, he remembered his
parents and he stopped walking.
At this point, as a young
man of 17, he thought: what will
happen if they try again? He was
very afraid and he decided to
run away at his first opportunity.
He did so and went to work,
earned money, and was able to
get the paperwork he needed to
sail to America. Upon arriving
in America, he began studying
Judaism and became a member
of Young Israel.
Tonight I went to the Kosel
and walked around the many
minyanim and heard people
singing
Shabbos
Shalom
UMevorach! When I was a
child, I did not understand the
words of the song that had been
sung in my parents home. This
was the song that my father
sang with such passion, the
song which saved me twice
from shmad! When I heard the
song sung at the Kosel, I was
emotionally overcome.

This
story
powerfully
illustrates the impact of the
Shabbos meal and the songs
that are sung, transmitting the
warmth of Judaism to children.
In the beginning of Tractate
Shabbos the Gemara discusses
a textual difference between the
first Mishna and how that same
statement appears in tractate
Shavuos. The expression that
the Gemara uses is to explain
the seeming discrepancy: Here,
where Shabbos is the main thing,
it mentions the Avos and the
Toldos. There, where Shabbos is
not the main thing, it mentions
the Avos but does not mention
the Toldos.
We can explain it homiletically,
that when Shabbos is the main
thing, there are the Avos/fathers
and the Toldos/children, all are
there on Shabbos. But if Shabbos
is not the main thing, then we
dont mention the Toldos, there
are no Toldos.
When Shabbos is the main
thing, shopping is done on
Wednesday and Thursday and
thought is given as to how to
make Shabbos special. Just as
we prepare for a wedding, on
Shabbos there is a wedding!
Sometimes people laugh at
the custom of adding kugels
on special Shabbasos like Rosh
Chodesh etc. However, if it is
lkavod Shabbos, whats the
problem? True, its not a maamer
Chassidus, but giving a special
feeling to a special Shabbos
generates good feelings towards
Shabbos, and not only on
special Shabbasos, because every
Shabbos is special.
It is important that already by
mid-week, parents buy nosh for
Shabbos so the children see there
is something to look forward to.
They will anticipate Shabbos,
which is a fantastic thing.
To be continued

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MIRACLE STORY

THE AMAZING
PRINTING PLATES
A businessman who asked for the printing of a Tanya received instructions
from the Rebbe to use the meticulously accurate printing plates prepared
by Rabbi Sholom Jacobson. They had been made with great toil and
effort by a printer in New Jersey, and they were placed in the cockpit
of an airliner and sent to the airport in Frankfurt, Germany. From there,
they were transferred to the Lufthansa offices in South Africa and taken
for safekeeping at a local Chabad House. A dramatic 3 a.m. phone call
brought the printing plates back to the center of attention, and ten
years after the story began, Rabbi Jacobson met the child who had been
restored to life in the merit of the Tanya printing.
By Chaim Brook
Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry

he following amazing
miracle
story,
which
concluded with its own
unique and moving brand
of the closing of a circle, was
told by Rabbi Sholom Jacobson,
member of Vaad LHafatzas
Sichos, who was placed in charge
of Tanya printings across the globe:
The chassid, R Fishel Katz,
is a well-known personality
in the diamond industry. As
part of his business activities,
he would travel to numerous
countries all over the world. As a
Chassid, he used these journeys
to spread Yiddishkait, including
the fulfillment of the Rebbes
instructions to print Tanyas in
various locations worldwide. He
had printed copies of the Tanya
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MIRACLE STORY
in Beijing, China, in the southern
African nation of Zimbabwe, and
other nations where no Chabad
Chassid had previously been.
One day, the telephone rang
in the offices of Vaad LHafatzas
Sichos, and R Fishel was on
the line. He told me that he was
planning to travel to Africa and
he wanted to print a Tanya there.
He added that he had written to
the Rebbe about this, and the
reply he received was: He can
print where he travels, but on the
condition that he takes everything
from here...
So how can I help you? I
asked him.
Please give me the plates,
the slides, and everything else
required for an orderly printing,
he said. I knew exactly what he
meant.
He was referring to the
equipment used for Tanya
printings.
I
had
invested
considerably in the equipments
high quality to produce as clear
and precise a printing job as
possible. The equipment actually
belonged to a printer living
in New Jersey with whom we
worked on a regular basis.
As much as I would like to
help, I simply cant give you these
valuable articles, I told him. I
added that the equipment was
not only an extremely expensive
and one-of-a-kind set, it also
did not belong to me it was the
property of the printer.
R Fishel would not relent.
But the Rebbe instructed me
to take everything from here,
he said. Against such a claim I
could make no argument. I went
into the mazkirus and clarified
with Rabbi Leibel Groner that
the Rebbe indeed had said he
takes everything from here.
I immediately called R Fishel
and informed him that the matter
would be handled in accordance

with the Rebbes instructions.

I called a resident of Crown
Heights who worked in New
Jersey, where the printing press
was located, and I asked him to
bring the equipment home with
him.
In the meantime, I received
a phone call from R Fishel
with an update. He said that he
had changed his plans and he
wouldnt be going via Kennedy
Airport.
So how exactly are you
planning to have the equipment
reach you? I asked him
apprehensively. In his customarily
calm demeanor, he replied, Ill
be traveling with Lufthansa
Airlines, and my flight is due to
make a stopover in Germany. Go
to Kennedy Airport and speak
with one of the stewardesses or a
pilot flying to Frankfurt. Ask one
of them to take the equipment
with them and Ill be able to pick
it up from there.
R Fishel, what are you
saying? This is a large and bulky
package. Its simply impossible to
place it inside a small carry-on!
Dont worry, they have
plenty of room in the cockpit,
he replied with inexplicable selfconfidence.
Have you lost your mind? I
cried.
But he remained completely
unruffled. Dont worry; thats
what I always do with the
diamonds
It all worked out in the end,
and just as he had suggested, the
equipment found its way into the
cockpit of a flight heading for
Frankfurt.
Then, just as it appeared
that everything was fine, I got a
phone call from R Fishel for the
umpteenth time. Once again, his
plans had taken a surprising turn:
Dont ask what happened; in the
end, my plane landed in Munich

instead of Frankfurt!
I gasped. What about
the Tanya? The Gentiles will
throw it out when they come
to clean the airplane, I said
in a panic. R Fishel quickly
reassured me. Dont worry.
The printing equipment is at one
of the counters at the Frankfurt
airport...
I felt that I was about to lose
the valuable Tanya printing set
in which I had invested so much
time and energy. R Fishel, what
have you done to me? I beg of
you: This is the best copy of the
Tanya available and there are
no additional sets. Have mercy
on me. The Rebbe said that you
should take everything from here,
but he didnt say to leave it on an
airport counter...
All right, dont worry, dont
worry, Ill take care of it, R
Fishel said in his usual soothing
voice.
He called the Lufthansa
offices where they already knew
him from his business affairs. He
arranged to place the printing
equipment on a flight for South
Africa, where his brother-in-law,
one of the Rebbes shluchim in
that country, would pick it up.
Finally,
after
a
nervewracking delay of two days, the
long-awaited telephone call came.
I received word that everything
had reached the appointed
destination and the equipment
was being safely kept at the
Chabad House in Johannesburg,
South Africa. The Tanya printing
would now take place as soon
as R Fishel arrived.
However,
as
expected,
considering what had transpired
up until then, R Fishel suddenly
cancelled his trip to the African
nation where he had prepared
to print a Tanya. It would be
postponed until an undetermined
and much later date. At the very

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least, I arranged for the plates

and slides to be placed in a safe
location.
Several years passed. Nothing
was done, no progress was made,
and the equipment continued to
collect dust in the Johannesburg
Chabad House
When it became clear that
this valuable equipment was
not coming back to me so fast,
I began preparing a new set of
equipment for additional Tanya
printings.

A TELEPHONE CALL AT THREE

OCLOCK IN THE MORNING
One night, at three oclock
in the morning, I received
a telephone call from a Jew
speaking from the South African
capital of Pretoria. The man on
the line identified himself as a
Chabad businessman speaking
for a woman in his community
who was expecting a baby.
The doctors had said that the
fetus was no longer alive and
it was poisoning the mothers
blood. As a result, they were
recommending an immediate
operation. Naturally, the family
asked the Rebbe what to do, and
the Rebbe replied: They should
immediately begin preparations
for the printing of a Tanya in
their city. Since I was very
involved with printing editions
of the Tanya, he was turning to
me. He wanted to know what to
do, how does one start printing a
Tanya?
The
Rebbes
answer

immediately
begin
preparations was not typical.
After thinking for a few minutes,
it suddenly hit me: The slides
were still in Johannesburg, South
Africa! I immediately gave him
the address where the slides
and plates were located, and I
told him, Make certain that the
material reaches the printer, and

Rabbi Jacobson, this is the boy who was born

because of the printing of the Tanya.

youll have already have done

more than half the job
The conversation ended,
yet due to the importance and
urgency of the matter, I didnt
even have the chance to ask with
whom I had been speaking...

A CLOSING OF THE CIRCLE

AFTER TEN YEARS
In 5756, one of my students
from
Machon
Chana
got
married. Her parents were
people of considerable financial
means living in South Africa. She
had become closely connected
with Chassidus, the classes on
Moshiach and the Redemption,
etc. She invited me to her
wedding, scheduled to take place
in South Africa during the week
of Purim. While I was very
pleased to receive her invitation,
I informed her that it would
be difficult for me to leave my
home in the days right before the
holiday.
She was a young woman of
tremendous initiative. You must
come, she said as she added
a little surprise for me. I have
arranged a series of lectures on
Moshiach and the Redemption
for you. The community in
South Africa is thirsting to hear
about this subject, and theres
no one there who can speak
about it. As far as the expenses
are concerned, Im paying for
everything. There was no way
that I could turn down such an
offer, and I happily agreed to
attend.
The trip was a great success
beyond all expectations! Three
lectures took place each day. As
soon as I landed at the airport,
they took me to the local yeshiva
where I gave over a class. From

there we proceeded to the home

of a local Anash family for a
gathering of Chabad supporters.
Every day was filled with activity.
Even on the day of my return trip,
I was invited to speak at a large
party held for the community. At
the conclusion of my speech, I
headed straight for the airport.
Naturally, I also participated
in my former students wedding,
a joyous event conducted in a
most Chassidic atmosphere.
She made certain that men
and women were completely
separated during the wedding
celebration and you could clearly
see the long journey this girl had
made in her Jewish life.
The Shabbos Sheva Brachos
took place in Pretoria, where
I spoke in a synagogue before
a Friday night congregation of
three hundred people. After the
lecture, people approached me
to shake hands, thanked me for
coming, or asked questions about
the subject matter covered in my
talk. Among those congregants
who came up was a woman who
introduced her teenaged son, a
strapping young man. Rabbi
Jacobson, this is the boy who was
born because of the printing of
the Tanya, she said.
I
was
overcome
with
emotion. She told me that they
did according to the Rebbes
instructions, printed the Tanya,
and everything worked out in a
totally miraculous fashion. The
doctors thought that they were
going crazy. The fetus, which
they had declared as dead and
poisoning the mothers blood,
was born in the proper time
completely whole and healthy.
Here he was now standing before
me at the conclusion of a lecture
at a synagogue in South Africa!
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CHINUCH

THE DEFINITION
OF TRUE
EDUCATIONAL
SUCCESS
In an exclusive and inspiring interview, Rabbi Shachar Shaer, well-known
educator and principal of the Chabad Talmud Torah in Elad, discusses
the publishing of his first book, Nchanech VNatzliach. He recalls his
childhood in Rechovos in an atmosphere of shlichus, the moment he burst
into tears before his sons teacher, homework for teachers, the complexity
of the parent-teacher relationship, and success in education. How much
involvement should parents have in whats happening in school? Is
there such a thing as a helicopter parent? How do we define success in
education? What educational message did he learn from an elderly toy
salesman excited over a new piece of merchandise?
By Zalman Tzarfati
Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry

I have an elderly friend, the

owner of a toy store, said Rabbi
Shachar Shaer. Every new toy
he brings to his store, he shows to
me with the excitement of a child.
Once I noted to him that his
excitement over his merchandise
was more appropriate for a child
of seven than a man of seventy.
My friend looked at me and then

said something that has remained

permanently engraved in my
memory: On the day that I stop
getting excited about toys, I can
stop selling them.
I make certain that my
educational staff and my students
keep this story in their minds
at all times, said Rabbi Shaer.

On the day that we stop getting

excited about education, well
have to stop teaching.
At the start of the current
academic year, Rabbi Shaer
introduced his first book,
Nchanech VNatzliach (We Will
Educate and We Will Succeed).
This book provides a collection

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of insightful and useful tools

for success in education, based
on his tremendous record of
achievement and many years of
experience.
Its impossible to stop getting
excited about education, Rabbi
Shaer explained as we began
our interview in connection with

the publishing of his new book.

The world is changing rapidly.
Modern-day reality constantly
poses new challenges for us,
and we must develop ourselves
accordingly. While the basis
remains the same, the manner of
presentation must be appropriate
for the emerging condition.

One must constantly learn,

renew, diversify, and develop
professionally.
In recent years, Rabbi Shaer
has become a well-known
personality in the world of
Chabad education. He has a
history of key educational roles,
and today he fills a variety of
senior positions in the field.
He was one of the founders
of the Kfar Chabad education
committee, together with Vaad
Kfar Chabad representative for
educational affairs Rabbi Yaakov
Koenig and Vaad secretary R
Ofer Dishon. He has served
as administrator of the Chabad
Yeshiva in Ashkelon and Tzivos
Hashem in Kfar Chabad,
founded and ran Yeshivas Tamim
Lchatchilla in Rechovos, and
today he is the principal of the
Chabad Talmud Torah in Elad.
I was privileged to grow
up in a home of teachers and
shluchim of the Rebbe, recalled
Rabbi Shaer, when I asked him
how he got caught up in the
education fervor. My father,
Rabbi Shimon, and my mother
have been shluchim in the
western Rechovos neighborhood
of Kiryat Moshe for decades.
It is known that one of the
most important foundations
in education is the personal
example and natural environment
one grows up in. Thank G-d I
was privileged to grow up in a
home that breathed shlichus and
education. These are the things
that I absorbed from my fathers
house. I remember myself at a
very young age doing outreach
activities with children who were
older than I was.
However,
Rabbi
Shaer
did not settle for the home
atmosphere and transformed
his childhood experiences into
his lifes mission, never ceasing
to supplement his professional

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CHINUCH

What was I asking from the teacher? Just one

thing sensitivity. I cried out from the depths of
my heart: Dont create a rift between me and my child;
your conduct is causing my child to hate the path that
we as parents and educators want him to follow.

acumen in the field of education.

I started as a counselor with
the vocational school in Kfar
Chabad, he said, as I asked him
how it all began. I moved up to
be a reading teacher in cheider
and a classroom instructor in
the Chabad Talmud Torah in
Rechovos. Under the tutelage
of Rabbi Amir Hertz, I acquired
experience in virtually every role
in the basic education system,
after serving as a consultant
to school rabbis on behalf of
the Ministry of Education in
Yerushalayim,
a
classroom
teacher, and an advisor and vice
principal at Ohel Meir School in
Kiryat Ekron. Then, I was called
upon by Reshet Oholei Yosef
Yitzchak director-general Rabbi
Yisroel Baruch Butman ah to

serve as principal of the Chabad

school in Kfar Saba. Later, I ran
the Ohel Shalom School in Rosh
HaAyin for eight years. During
this same period, I began working
as a lecturer at the Beit Rivka
College in four central areas of
educational activity: leadership
and
classroom
discipline,
evaluation
and
assessment,
building learning programs, and
educational research.
Rabbi Shaer began his
training for education in a course
for educational coordinators
at Bar-Ilan University, and
continued learning at Moreshet
Yaakov College and at Beit
Rivka for his teaching certificate.
He completed his course in
teachers counseling at Bar-Ilan
University, courses in academic
administration and organizational
education
counseling
at
Michlalah-Jerusalem College, his
studies in teachers counseling
and family life groups at Beit
Rivka College, and his bachelors
degree in education at Talpiot
College.
While I also studied other
fields, said Rabbi Shaer,
everything I learned over the
years was utilized for educational
matters. All this was done in
accordance with the Rebbes
letter stating that investment
in education is worthwhile and
redoubles itself many times over.
Yet, it turns out that after all
the courses and degree work,
his main educational principles
have come specifically from the
Rebbes teachings. The Rebbe

provides a clear and orderly

doctrine in education. It is
amazing to see how precise and
appropriate it has been for every
situation, even with the changing
reality. In each book published
on the subject, in every sicha I
learn, I look for the connection
to education. Even when I
was working for governmentsponsored religious educational
institutions, I always included
sichos and messages from the
Rebbe in the weekly newsletter
for parents and homework for
teachers.
Homework for teachers?
Yes, incredible as it may
sound. Each week, I give the
teaching staff a sheet with
excerpts from the Rebbes sichos,
relevant and timely instructions,
and informational, thoughtprovoking material about the
class. The standard weekly
parsha brochure is not enough.
What exactly is Nchanech
VNatzliach?
Nchanech VNatzliach is
a practical guide for success in
education. The book seeks to
deal with a variety of challenges
that we confront as teachers
and parents. What is education?
How do we deal with problems
of discipline? How do we deal
with violence? How do you
conduct a classroom? And
the list goes on. The book
was compiled in a systematic
manner, built from numerous
models designed to help the
teacher or the parent remember
the necessary procedures in a
moment of truth. For example,
the book uses a code EMET,
which is an abbreviation for
three essential chapters Ahava,
Miktzoiut,
Tikshoret
BeinIshit (love, professionalism, and
interpersonal communication).
It is impossible to detach these
three areas from one another;

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together they comprise the secret

of success in education.
You suddenly got up in the
morning and started writing a
book?
First of all, why not?
If youre in an active mode
and you feel confident about
putting things in writing, then
absolutely. The Rebbe has always
encouraged anyone who can
put his educational innovations
in writing. If these things have
meaning and significance, and if
they can help others in the field
of education, we should feel
rewarded.
From my point of view, I
see the writing of this book as a
shlichus of the highest order. If
you have a method or approach
that has proven successful in
numerous places, it would be a
crime not to share it openly with
other educators. However, the
truth is that the idea for writing
this book came specifically from
out there.
One of the courses I gave
at the Beit Rivka College was a
course in leadership. The entire
subject of classroom leadership,
school leadership, and leadership
in education in general is one
of great importance. We have
developed it considerably in the
course program, creating detailed
models of leadership. Teachers
who have passed the course
say that they didnt come out
as they had gone in. It created
a conscious change among the
teachers, and they asked that
the learning material be put in
writing in an orderly fashion.
Thus, the idea for the book was
born. We eventually added some
more chapters, expanding into
additional
areas.
Nchanech
VNatzliach became a reality.
For whom is this book
intended?
Teachers
and
educators, or parents?

Anyone who thinks that parents and teachers

are on opposing sides of the fence will eventually
cause damage to the very education they all want for
their children. Parents and teachers must feel that they
are on the same side for the good of the child. As long
as the cooperation and connection between the parents
and teachers remains firm, the success will grow.

It is impossible to break the

connection between parents and
educators in a childs education;
period. Anyone who thinks
that parents and teachers are
on opposing sides of the fence
will eventually cause damage to
the very education they all want
for their children. The parents
and teachers must feel that they
are on the same side for the
good of the child. As long as
the cooperation and connection
between the parents and teachers
remains firm, the success will
grow.
Initially, the book was
primarily
directed
towards

teachers
and
educators.
However, at the request of
many people who read its early
drafts and asked that the book
also relate to parents, it was
eventually expanded and made
into appropriate reading material
for parents as well.
In other words, anyone who
reads the book will succeed?
Anyone who reads it? No.
Anyone who acts according to
its suggestions and proposals?
Yes. I didnt invent the wheel.
This book does not contain
any of my own innovations or
discoveries. All of the approaches
and guidelines are based on

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CHINUCH
the Rebbes holy instructions. I
merely presented and organized
his instructions collected from
various sichos and letters, putting
them into practical language for
parents and educators.
I have been following after
your educational activities for
some time. I have noticed that
this success pattern of yours
repeats itself in a variety of
contexts. What is the meaning
of the phrase success in
education?
The word success is among
the words we have heard the
most from the Rebbe, Bracha
Vhatzlacha. I was personally
honored to hear this from the
Rebbe himself dozens of times
when I went for dollars. On one
special occasion, I was privileged
to be alone with the Rebbe in
Gan Eden HaTachton when I
received his siddur as a chassan.
What is educational success?
The Rebbe defines success
in education as bringing the
student willingly to follow the
path of Torah and mitzvos, with
his understanding that this is the
best way for him to go.
In a sicha from Shabbos
Parshas Shoftim 5751, the Rebbe
said that as a preparation for
the coming of Moshiach, the
influence upon another Jew must
be similar to an advisor, who
can bring the person to practical
action through proper Jewish
identity, pleasure, and joy.
From my viewpoint, this
is educational success. While
I know that its not simple to
attain this, I am certain that this
is the definition that the Rebbe
gave to education, and the Rebbe
chose us to be his shluchim in
dealing with education. This
made the mission an attainable
goal. It demands tremendous
effort, dedication, perseverance,
and precision. As a result, the

book comes to bring the correct

prescription for achieving this
objective.
You
mentioned
previously that interpersonal
communication
is
a
fundamental part of education.
Where did the Rebbe speak
about this idea?
Interpersonal communication
is the ability to connect with
others through understanding
and sensitivity for their situation,
thereby enabling us to have a
positive influence upon them.
Thus, even if the Rebbe wouldnt
have spoken about this, we should
see this clearly in his actions.
However, the Rebbe definitely
did speak about this, for example,
when he demanded that even
when we are compelled to scold a
child, it must be done firmly and
gently. Can this be anything but
interpersonal communication? In
the Rebbes instructions, he asked
that people take note of potential
consequences on the future lives
of children and students that
will surely take place because of
statements made by parents and
teachers.
What should be the nature
of the relationship between
parents and teachers?
This is a very complex topic.
On the one hand, it is quite clear
that there must be cooperation
and mutual support between
teachers and parents. As one
who fills a role of authority in the
educational system, I talk with
teachers who share their feelings
with me, as they complain that
parents simply dont understand
them. On the other hand, parents
contend that they often sense that
the teachers fail to understand
their situation in dealing with
their children. One of the books
objectives is to serve as a bridge
between parents and teachers,
presenting each with the

others viewpoint. It would seem

to me that parents and educators
who read this book will already
be able to understand one
another and work with greater
cooperation.
What is your message to
teachers today?
Ill tell you something: A
few years ago, in the middle
of a discussion with one of my
childrens teachers, I wasnt
able to contain my emotions
and I suddenly began to sob
uncontrollably. What was I asking
from the teacher? Just one thing
sensitivity. I cried out from
the depths of my heart: Dont
create a rift between me and my
child; your conduct is causing my
child to hate the path that we as
parents and educators want him
to follow. At that moment, I told
the teacher of my decision: I will
not let anyone separate me from
my children, and the educational
path that I want for them.
This is my message to the
teaching staff at my Talmud
Torah, my students, and my
fellow school administrators:
Lets appreciate the fact that
these parents have placed their
children in our hands. This is
a very heavy responsibility, and
we must validate their trust in
us. We will spare no effort as we
declare openly what our path in
education is, the tools we use,
and what we hope to reach with
our students.
Does a teacher who learns
Chassidus receive tools that
can help him become a better
teacher?
Chassidic
education
is
achieved through love and inner
personal avoda, as well as on the
students part. Maximum love
brings maximum compliance.
How important is it for
Continued on page 30

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959_bm_eng.indd 49

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TZIVOS HASHEM

HOW TO GET

A DRAFT
EXEMPTION

ship.
Presented for 11 Shvat, the day the Rebbe accepted the Chabad leader
Shmuel paced about in the
yeshiva, lost in thought. He
was trying to come up with a
solution to his problem. Worry
did not let him rest and it was
a few days already that he was
unable to eat.
The Korean War was raging
and Shmuel had been sent a
draft notice by the US army.
In a few days he would have
to appear at the draft office.
What should he do? How could
he obtain an exemption? In
wartime, it is hard to gain an
exemption. He tried coming up
with ideas of things that would
exempt him but wasnt able
to come up with a satisfactory
plan.
Moshe, his roommate, saw
that something was on Shmuels
mind. He knew Shmuel well
and so he put his hand on his
shoulder and in a friendly
voice he said, Shmuel, whats
bothering you? Tell me.
The army mumbled
Shmuel.
Well, did you ask Ramash

for a bracha? Moshe asked.

Ramash? Why? I am still
mekushar to the Rebbe Rayatz
said Shmuel firmly. This
was shortly after the passing of
the Rebbe Rayatz. As we know,
for that entire year after the
passing of the Rebbe Rayatz,
the Rebbe refused to accept the
Chabad leadership. Despite this,
most of the Chassidim would go
to the Rebbe who was known
at that time as Ramash for the
acronym of his name. Miracles
occurred even at this time.
But Shmuel was still at a point
where he had not accepted
Ramash as the next leader of
Chabad.
What do you have to lose?
asked Moshe. Go to Ramash
and ask for his bracha! And he
kept on insisting until Shmuel
agreed.
The next day, Shmuel went
to the Rebbes room and asked
the Rebbe for a bracha that he
be exempted from serving in
the army. The Rebbe looked at
him and was silent for a long

time. The bachur waited for a

while and then understood that
the yechidus was over. He left,
disappointed.
You see? I told you that
nothing would come of it. I
went to Ramash and did not
get a bracha, he told Moshe
angrily.
Moshe did not know what to

say.
Someone who overheard
Shmuel said to him, Tell me,
did you immerse in a mikva
today? Did you make the
necessary preparations before
you had yechidus?
Shmuel was embarrassed
and he shook his head. No, he
had not gone to the mikva
that day and he had not made
any special preparations before
seeing Ramash.
No wonder then that you
did not receive an answer!
When you go to the Rebbe you
need to prepare!
The man gave Shmuel avoda
for the week, what and how

50 10 Shvat 5775
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3
to
much
learn, and told
him to immerse
in the mikva
before yechidus.
S h m u e l
listened to him
and did precisely
as he was told.
week
A
Shmuel
later,
felt ready for
As
yechidus.
he entered the
room,
Rebbes
he trembled and
the preparations
he made were :
apparent.
ed and the
to what had occurr
the Rebbe said no
'
im
told . But
Shmuel
, it would
who were
bachur
other
that idea too and said
.
,
the Rebbe about his problem
... Rebbe
caught up
got
around
g
standin
asked,
the
Then
help.
not

open

the

:
and asked for a bracha. This

over
ent

excitem

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in

problems with
have
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l'
,'
Do
Chaza
said,
Rebbe
the
time,
:
,
"
. e.
miracl

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: your
say that whoever accepts upon

the
.and

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few
days
Shmue
A
said
!No,
l in
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but

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Chassidim did."not
. e.
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that
. d
"
deman
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.ued
contin
need
Do your parents have
removed from him. You
. " . ,"..."
ly accept."the
formal
Rebbe
the

teeth?
i.e. proble ms
their
Torah,
with
to accept the yoke of

."!

hip. The Rebbe
leaders
Chabad
and
n,
occasio
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l said
to learn Gemara every day
g.
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: kept
no.

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. Again,
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just

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. e story we
miracl
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go to the
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govern

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the
them you have told, the Rebbe said to the
office,
draft
drafte
tell

d.
be
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need
wont

You
your teeth, said

problems with
dont
tand
unders
I
ry,
. secreta
,
, . to
asked,
Then the Rebbe
the astonishment what they want
the Rebbe

my
" :when
me
"? of
: l. ,
"
on
you , plan
did
What
Shmue
of
uing
contin
still
is
in-law
father
" " l went
. ,""
an
claiming in order to,receive
Shmue
The day came.
his work as the nasi hador as

"
a bachur
exemption?
with
"?ly
his heart we saw recent
to the draft office with

was
I
When
ed
said,
l
review
He
Shmue

the
beating rapidly.
who wanted .a bracha
from

ing
"!

with
ms
proble
advice
had
I
from
tion
a boy,
exemp
an
for
the Rebbes surpris
Rebbe

"

, a, claim

I am
asking
again.
,and
my heart. I think thats
, again
He made
"a good
the army.
,"

, e I have that had no basis whatsoever

becaus
tion
claim. I will tell them
an
exemp
for
this
about
the
. him
gained
will
is what
they
this
hope
I
and
and
m

teeth.
proble
my
with
proble.ms
exempt me from the army for
He presented himself to exemption!
health reasons.
the
Of course the Chassidim
99 ~ 772 ' clerk and stated his health
The Rebbe said, That wont problem. Shmuel could not were not impressed by this
think of believe it when the clerk signed and continued to beseech09/01/2011
the20:47:25
help. You have271.indd to
3
something else.
his exemption for matters of Rebbe and on 11 Shvat, the
few
a
for
t
health! He returned to yeshiva Rebbe officially accepted the
though
l
Shmue
with
up
came
then
all excited.
and
leadership of Chabad along
minutes
have
s
parent
My
hugged
idea.
with the most important task
another
Moshe! and he
will
I
eyes.
their
Rebbe!
with
a
of all, bringing the Geula to the
problems
his friend. We have
with
ms
proble
e
have
miracl
I
Jewish people.
say that
You wont believe what
help.
will
that
Moshe
Maybe
my eyes.
just happened! He told

Issue 959

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2015-01-27 9:26:52 AM