Look at our civilized world with all its infinite knowledge: it’s a dead world. Peace without being connected to the Torah doesn’t last and has no meaning,

You know, when I see an anti-Semite, I’m sad. But when I see a Jew, who doesn’t know what it is to be a Jew. I feel destroyed and heartbroken. Every year a new Torah is coming from heaven. It’s the same Torah but so much deeper and so much more alive. What we didn’t do in a lifetime, we can do Seder night. This year, Seder night, we will be up all night learning, praying and singing, initiating a new world which cannot be destroyed, the big world of all mankind and the little world of you and me

The Torah is from Heaven. Not from a Heaven which is far from earth, but from a Heaven which is right here, the Torah Heaven. It’s not a light which can be darkened by darkness, it is the light of the Torah which turns the darkness into light.

On Shavuos, the Torah says, “G-d came down from Heaven.” On this night, in this early morning, G-d is coming to every individual Jew and through us, hopefully to the whole world, to put a little bit of Heaven into our lives, Please come and stay up with us all night until dawn. We can’t do without you! We need all of Israel and all of Israel with us. Please sleep the afternoon before and be ready!

May the light of Shavuos go with us all year! If you don’t know how to carry it, G-d is giving out shopping bags on request.

Love from Mount Sinai and Jerusalem.

New York, Sivan 5754

Reprinted from Cong Kehilath Jacob News

The Torah is not a book. It is not words, it’s the light from beyond, it’s the most heavenly revelation, But night and, especially, the one hour before dawn are the holy of holiest. According to our holy tradition, all of nature, the entire cosmos, stood still when G-d told us “I am your G-d”. It is a must for all of us to be together at the holiest of all nights so we will learn from midnight to dawn. With great joy and fire, it will not be a learning with our heads alone, it will be taking in the Torah into the deepest most eternal chambers of our soul. Can’t wait to see you on these holy moments.

New York, Sivan 5753

Reprinted from Cong Kehilath Jacob News

My dear friend, the deepest depths of Yiddishkeit is that I am longing for so much and I am so broken that I don’t have it yet. Yet I do have it. The Isbitzer says, if I need a hundred dollars it is because I don’t have it. But for G-d, if crying for the Torah, if crying for Yiddishkeit, it is because I really do have it. You know friends, G-d gave us the Torah on Mount Sinai and the saddest thing in the world is that we had the arrogance to think that we had it. So we lost it. When Moshe Rabbenu broke the tablets, he gave us the Torah again and the Talmud says that both tablets, the whole ones and the broken ones, are lying in the Holy Ark.

We need both.

So basically the laws of the Torah which we receive on Shavuot are not enough to protect us from the Golden Calf. So G-d in His infinite mercy gives us broken tablets –the deepest secret of the Torah, the Torah of Rabbi Akiva and Reb Shimon Bar Yochai. He gives them to us before Shavuot, on Lag b’Omer. And then on Shavuot what we receive is even deeper than the secrets of the Torah, the utmost heavenliness and G-dliness of the Torah. The Gemara says that G-d always gives the medication before the disease. So every Shavuot there is always a possibility of making another golden calf. Maybe last year we did it, maybe we are still doing it. So Lag b’Omer is the day that G-d gave us the secrets of the Torah. You know what the secret is?

The secret is something that fills your heart so much, it fills you with longing, and it fills you with depth. A secret is like a little bit of light beyond vessels. Basically, when G-d created the world, G-d was hiding in the world. G-d is the biggest secret in the world. He is so obvious and yet so hidden. So G-d gives us the secrets of the Torah before Shavuoth. And every Lag b’Omer Reb Shimon Bar Yochai and Rabbi Akiva are giving over to us the deepest depths of the Torah. Reb Zadok Hacohen says, How do you know how much somebody loves you? When somebody loves you, they want to tell you all their secrets. You know what is living on Lag b’Omer? He gives us the deepest depths, how much the Torah loves us, how much we love the Torah. Lag b’Omer we are telling the Torah all our secrets and the Torah is telling us all the Torah secrets. Reb Akiva was longing all his life to give his life for G-d. He had such deep longing for G-d. He was ready to die for G-d, to show that the way that I love G-d is beyond vessels, deeper than everything in the world. A few days after Shavuot we are mekadesh levanah (sanctifying the moon).

Everybody knows that the moon receives the inside light of the sun. Everybody knows that during the day we take care of the outside. We work, we do business. The night is the inside. The Gemara says the night is for learning, especially secrets; the night is full of secrets. Do you know what secrets are? Secrets are: after you hear the secrets you still don’t know them, there is so much more to them. The levanah, the moon, is so deep. The moon is always longing for more. When the moon is full, it is not satisfied. It knows there must be more in the world than just this light that fills it and it begins all over again. So we Yidden get together between the beginning of the month and the full moon to thank G-d for this new light. Every month the moon is new again; the sun is always the same. Inside people are always new. In other words, inside people are always so broken, but they are also always new.

My beautiful friends, I am inviting you all for Kiddush Levanah. The first Kiddush Levanah after Shavuot, whatever we didn’t do on Shavuot, whatever we missed out, we can still do, because it is the month of Shavuot, the moon of Shavuot. It is the light of Shavuot.

You know, Shavuot night we are up all night. We are reading the beginning and the end of the every parsha and tractate. We are connecting ourselves to the beginning and the end because we know the beginning is in G-d’s hands and the end is in G-d’s hands. We pray and hope that we’ll be able to do something in the middle.

The Talmud says: If all the oceans will be ink and all the leaves will be quills to write with, we still could not tell each other the holiness of that night.

And then that morning at dawn we receive the Torah with all our hearts. G-d is telling us, I am really your G-d and I am with you always, always. And you are my people. Let’s be together that night, let’s be together Lag b’Omer and let’s be together at Kiddush Levanah. We should be together, my friends, every Shabbat and every YomTov. And I bless you that you should always have someone to tell your secrets.

Reprinted from Kehilat Jacob News

New York, 5751.

Purim: Shlomo and the Egged Bus Drivers
Background

The Shabbat before Purim is Parshat Zachor. According to many Halachic authorities there is a Biblical requirement for everyone to hear the Torah reading on this Shabbat.

“Zachor” means to remember. On this Shabbat we take a second Torah out of the Ark and we read from the Book of Deuteronomy (25:17-19) about Amalek, a nation which always harbored an intense hatred for the Jews.

When the Jews left Egypt, there wasn’t a nation who dared to pick a fight with the Jews. Who in their right mind would start up with a people whose G-d just smacked around Egypt, the sole super-power of the times, with ten awesome plagues, and drowned the surviving few in a sea which split to allow the Jews to cross?! “Peoples heard and were agitated; terror gripped the dwellers of Phillistia. Then the chieftains of Edom were confounded. Trembling gripped the powers of Moab, all the dwellers of Canaan dissolved” (Exodus 15:14-15).

Only Amalek, driven by profound hatred which defied logic, came to battle the Jews.

We are commanded to constantly remember the evil deeds of Amalek and destroy them. We read this on the Shabbat before Purim because Haman was a descendant of Amalek.

A little Amalek lurks within every person. Amalek is the voice within the person which encourages a person not to allow him or herself to be inspired. No matter what sort of Divine Providence a person encounters — and everyone does — Amalek is shrugging it off.

Egged Bus Cooperative is the largest bus company in Israel, and the second largest in the world (after London Buses). A cooperative owned by its members, Egged employs 6,117 workers and has 3,303 buses for more than 1,038 service routes and 3,984 alternative routes all over Israel. Egged makes 44,957 trips every day, transporting about a million passengers over 810,519 km of roads. Egged’s bus routes reach most settlements, kibbutzim, moshavim and cities in Israel. Egged also runs local bus networks in most Israeli cities and towns.

“They slept that night,” the Alexandrer Rebbe answered, “because of their great humility. They had learned humility from Moses who was the most humble man on Earth. On the night before the revelation each family member thought to himself, “G-d will reveal himself to all the Jews but not to me and my family because we really don’t deserve it” All the parents told their children on the night of Shavuot, “let’s not go tomorrow morning to the revelation we will be the only ones who will be sent home by Moses, telling us that we are not ready yet.”

The Alexandrer Rebbe then asks a second question. “Why do we behave as if their decision to sleep that night requires correction. After all, we have just said that their decision to sleep was based on humility, which would seem praiseworthy. Yet we commemorate. their action by staying awake as if we were connecting an old mistake. Why should we stay awake if their sleep had such holy meaning?”

The Alexandrer Rebbe explains that what our forefathers did not understand is that no one can prepare himself well enough to actually deserve the Torah. It is solely a gift from heaven. We stay awake all Shavuot night in order to tell ourselves and our children, “It’s true we have not prepared ourselves properly and it’s true that we don’t deserve to receive the Torah but G-d wants to give me a gift and I’d better be there on time.”

Some of our sages explain their decision to sleep in a slightly different way. They say that we can compare our ancestors to a bride and groom. When do a bride and groom most feel like calling off a wedding. A few minutes before the wedding is when a bride and groom suddenly how awesome a marriage is and become frightened. In the same way our ancestors became frightened that the Torah would be too much for them. When we stay up all Shavuot night and learn Torah we give ourselves the strength to be fearless and to face everything that G-d puts in front of us. Let this Shavuot mark a new beginning to give us strength to begin our Yiddishkeit all over again. Let us not flinch from the responsibilities which this gift carries with it. Let us remember that the precious gift of the Torah is given to us not because we deserve it, but because it is indicative of G-d’s great love for us.

Reprinted from Kehilat Jacob News New York, 5748.

Seder night, our children feel so close to us, they are asking us all the questions. Why don’t our kids talk to us during the year? Because, sadly enough, we look at them with exile eyes. First, you go to cheder, then you go to yeshiva, then you go to college, then you get one PhD, and another one, and you marry a rich girl, and she pays for your third PhD – you go slowly, slowly. This is all exile behavior. The truth is, every child has it in him to reach right away, from the first, for the highest, for the deepest. Anyone who is around children knows that there are times when children understand more than adults. Children are on the highest level. So, Seder night, after we call out Kadeish, our kids say, “Okay, if this is the way you look at life, we can talk to you again.”

I want you to know a very important thing. You always think that everything takes a lot of time. But, it doesn’t have to take time. First, you meet a girl, you’re not sure if you really like her. You shlep around with her for a year, then five years, then you get married and you like her a little bit more, and then finally, after 150 years, you love her. Really, though, if you love somebody very much, you just love them from the first moment on.

People who think it takes so long to get rich, when they see a poor man, they are not inviting him, they think, until this poor fellow will get rich, it will take so long, why should I invite him to eat in my home? on Pesach, it takes just one second. I say, this poor man, maybe he will become rich in just one second, so I say “Kal dichfin yetai veyaichal” – let every poor person come into my house and eat.

I say to the poor man, don’t despair, maybe you’ll be rich tonight, maybe in just five minutes.

A human being has to work himself up very slowly. It is a gift from heaven that sometimes, in just one second, I can reach the highest level.

To be in exile means I believe in G-d, but it depends on me and I have to work hard to get anywhere. Seder night, everybody knows, Seder night is a different thing. Since it’s a gift from heaven, why not ask right away for the highest thing? Begin with the highest, begin with Kadesh.

What is the difference between asking a human being for a favor and asking G-d for a favor? When I ask a human being for a favor, I cannot have the chutzpah to ask them for everything. If I don’t have a single penny, I can’t go to Baron Rothschild and ask for two billion dollars. But, with the Ribbono Shel Olam, it’s the other way around. When I have nothing, that’s the time to ask for everything.

When we were slaves in Egypt, and G-d took us out, at that moment, we reached the highest level. “I, and not an angel, I am the Lord.” That was the highest, the most glorious revelation in the world.

We treat our children in such a way that it takes so long for them to mature until we can talk to them. On Seder night, I know that everything can take just one split second.
Everybody knows, the way we came out of Egypt was not slowly, slowly but, it was actually in one minute from “avdut leherut”, from slavery to the highest level of freedom.
Brooklyn, 5745 Edited from Connections Magazine Vol 1 No 2

There are two stories.

The first one is someone came to the Holy Rizhner (Yisroel Friedman (1797-1850) (Der Heyliger Rizhiner)) ((Yisroel Friedman of Ruzhyn (1797-1850) known as der heyliger rizhiner “the holy one from Ruzhin”, was the progenitor of several Hasidic dynasties known collectively by the name Ruzhin.

As the son of Rebbe Sholom Shachne of Prhobisht, Rabbi Yisroel Friedman was a direct descendant of Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritsh who was the main disciple of the Baal Shem Tov.

Only 6 years old when his father died, he was brought up by his older brother Rebbe Avrhom of Prhobisht. He showed outstanding qualities from childhood and at the age of 7 was engaged to Sarah, daughter of Rabbi Moshe of Berdychiv. At 13 Yisroel married and settled in Boto?ani, Moldavia. Three years later his brother Rebbe Avrohom died and young Yisroel succeeded him as leader of the chasidim. After first moving back to Prhobisht and then Skvyra, he finally settled in Ruzhyn, where he achieved the reputation of a great holy man and attracted thousands of followers.

Rabbi Yisroel of Ruzhin conducted his court regally, claiming descent from the Royal line of King David. He lived a life of apparent great luxury and surrounded himself with splendor, such as his carriage with silver handles drawn by four horses.

In 1838 he was accused of complicity in the death of two Jews accused of being informers and was imprisoned for two years by the Russian authorities.

On his release he moved to Kishinev, then to Ia?i and other places before finally settling in Sadigora, Bukovina (Carpathian Mountains) in 1842. There he re-established his court in all its glory. In 1847 his wife Sarah passed away and he remarried Malka, the widow of Rabbi Hersh of Rimanov. On the 3rd of Cheshvan 1851 the Rebbe of Rizhin departed this world and was buried in Sadigora.

His six sons all established Hasidic dynasties, which include Sadigura, Boyan, Chortkov, Husyatin and Bohush.)) and said, “Can you please teach me how to repent?” and he answered, “Listen, man, when you did your sinning you didn’t come to me to ask me how to do it. If you know how to sin. You also know how to repent.”

The other story is, someone came to the Mittler Rebbe (Dov Ber of Lubavitch (1773-1827)) ((DovBer of Lubavitch (Mittler Rebbe Yiddish, lit. “the Middle Rebbe” intermediate Rabbi, i.e. the middle one of the first three generations of the fathers of Chabad);the second Chabad Rebbe, son and successor of the Alter Rebbe, and uncle and father-in-law of the Tzemach Tzedek.

Dovber was renowned for the breadth and depth of his Chassidic teachings and his incredible love and concern for every Jew. He expounded the philosophy of his father and interpreted the meaning and implications of all its intricate phases in a most lucid manner.

His commentaries on his father’s original texts are filled with detailed discussions of the ideology and philosophical concepts of Rabbi Shneur Zalman, and by their volume, preciseness and clarity testify to the great mental stature of their author.

It is interesting that when news of the death of Rabbi Shneur Zalman reached St Petersburg, the War Minister called a special session of the Cabinet to send a message of condolence to the bereaved family.

The official address was brought to Rabbi Dovber at Krementchug by representatives of the Governors of Poltava, Tchernigow and Odessa, with an enquiry as to the best way in which Russia could repay the Lubavitcher Rebbe for the support and encouragement Rabbi Shneur Zalman had given the Czar during the Napoleonic war.

The son and successor of the first Chabad leader asked nothing for himself, but requested a benevolent attitude by the Russian Government towards the Jews, and the improvement of their economic position.

Asked for specific suggestions, he requested the cooperation of the government in settling numerous Jews on the land, a project which his father had taken up just before the Franco-Russian war broke out. In this way, the famous Jewish settlements of Kherson came into being.

Rabbi Dovber continued the work started by his illustrious father, following the path he had pioneered. In addition to further expounding the doctrines and philosophy of Chabad, he devoted himself to the communal and social activities initiated by his father. Intellectually he was exceptionally gifted and he was also a fluent and sparkling speaker.

Inevitably, the Napoleonic war had disastrously disrupted Jewish life. However, during the days of Rabbi Dovber, there was a revival of Chassidism, and there was a marked increase in the knowledge of it among young students.

The Rebbe had instructed that young men should study Chassidism for at least three hours daily, and in time every Chassidic community produced a growing number of youthful scholars. Later, many of these learned young men became teachers in different communities. This had a marked effect on the local Chassidim, since the study and knowledge of Chassidism promptly increased. The Mittler Rebbe endeavored to persuade the Jewish masses to leave the precarious occupations in which they were then engaged. He urged them to go and live in villages and settlements where they could learn to till the soil, or acquire skills and learn crafts which would provide them with an honest, steady income. This would eliminate the constant worry and insecurity that accompanied their existing occupations.

Rabbi Dovber was at all times interested in aiding the settlement in the Holy Land. In 5583 (1823) he was the first to establish a colony in Hebron, and he continued to support it financially. He personally acquired a synagogue there, which bears his name.

At the time of his father’s death Rabbi Dovber was in Krementchug in Little Russia, and from there he went to settle in Lubavitch in White Russia.

En route, Chassidim provided him with means to establish himself in his new home. Upon his arrival, however, he decided to distribute these funds to the needy and wrote to a relative about forming a committee of three to supervise the allocation. In this letter he referred to a “considerable” sum.

Years later this letter came into the hands of the recipient’s heir, an unscrupulous and vengeful enemy of Rabbi Dovber. He harbored an implacable hatred of the Rebbe for some personal family “slight.” With judicious doctoring the figures in the letter, “three or four thousand rubles” became “one hundred and three or four thousand.” Indeed a “considerable” sum. What could be its purpose? And how did he gather such a sum on so short a journey? Obviously he was planning a revolution!

The money was destined for the Turks who then ruled the Holy Land. The regular remittances to needy scholars there lent an air of credibility to the charges. Other weird accusations were made concerning the dimensions of the Rebbe’s synagogue being similar to those of the Jerusalem Temple, and that meant that he intended to be king of Israel!

The similarity to the charges leveled against Rabbi Shneur Zalman in 5558 (1798) is striking.

In the autumn of 5587 (1826) Rabbi Dovber was instructed to appear in Vitebsk, the provincial capital. This was done in a most respectful manner through high-ranking officers and the arrangements were made to suit the Rebbe.

Hundreds accompanied him from Lubavitch, and at every village the elders met him with the traditional bread and salt. The honor accorded him by Jew and gentile deeply impressed the officials.

Governor-General Chavanski, a harsh man who had little affection for Rabbi Dovber, conducted the investigation. Important dignitaries interceded on his behalf. He was treated courteously and later he was permitted to worship publicly and to lecture on Chassidism.

He was officially informed that he was completely exonerated of all suspicion and released on the tenth of the month of Kislev, a date which has since been a festival amongst Chassidim.

His death, a year later, on the 9th of Kislev, 5588 (1827), exactly fifty-four years after his birth, marked the end of an important chapter in the history of Chabad.

Rabbi Dovber had plumbed the depths of his father’s teachings, explored their implications and developed the doctrines in detail and depth. His father was the creative, original thinker, the founder of a movement. Rabbi Dovber achieved its consolidation and advanced Chabad’s manifold activities.)), who’s like a master of Teshuva and has written many books on Teshuva. “You have written so many books; please teach me how to do Teshuva.” So the Mittler answers, “To tell the truth, after all the books I’ve written, I still don’t know.” Even if you study all the books in the world about repentance, nobody can tell you how to do it, just you alone. The books are only like doors to open thoughts in our heads.

There is also a very famous Torah where the Rebbe Maharash (Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch (1834-1882) (Maharash), fourth Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch) ((Fourth in succession to the leadership of Chabad was Rabbi Shmuel, son of the Tzemach Tzedek. Rabbi Shmuel continued to spread the teachings of Chabad among the Jewish people, and at the same time to engage in communal activities to improve the spiritual and material conditions of the Jewish masses within and beyond the ranks of the Chassidic movement.

In 5615 (1855), at the age of twenty-one, Rabbi Shmuel’s father requested him to participate actively in communal work. Together with a colleague, Rabbi Shmuel traveled to the Russian capital in order to take part in a conference called by the Russian Government to discuss the problems connected with the publication of textbooks with a German translation for use in the instruction of Jewish children.

This conference was under the chairmanship of one of the assistants of the Minister of the Interior. Despite his youth, Rabbi Shmuel voiced his opinion clearly and vigorously to the officials of the Czarist Government.

Between the years 5616 and 5626 (1856-1866) he traveled extensively throughout the country and abroad, in order to meet and influence important Jewish leaders. The friends that he made and the confidence he inspired at these meetings were to be of great assistance to Judaism in later years.

After the death of the saintly Tzemach Tzedek in the spring of 5626 (1866), Rabbi Shmuel was elected to succeed him as head of the Chabad Chassidim. His leadership, which lasted from 5626 to 5643 (1866-1882), coincided with one of the stormiest periods of anti-Semitism in Russian history, originating in the highest circles of the Czarist court in St Petersburg. Many princes were among the violent Jew-baiters who constantly schemed to cause trouble to the Jewish communities and to instigate pogroms.

Rabbi Shmuel, keenly aware of his great responsibility, was among the foremost fighters in the battle for the survival and defense of the Jews. He was the moving spirit in all actions taken to save the Jewish masses or defend them against the vicious attacks from Government circles.

In 5629 (1869) Rabbi Shmuel organized a permanent council of leaders of the St Petersburg Jewish community. The council’s task was to be well-informed in all matters concerning the Jewish people and to be on constant guard to defend their interests and rights. From 5630 to 5640 (1870-1880), Rabbi Shmuel again made many trips to various parts of the Russian Empire and abroad, with complete disregard for personal safety

During 5639 and 5640 (1879-1880) there was a considerable rise in anti-Semitism throughout Russia. In many cities and towns the enemies of the Jewish people incited the local populations to carry out pogroms against the Jewish communities. Rabbi Shmuel again traveled to St Petersburg to try to stop this new wave of persecution.

He had many personal friends and acquaintances among government officials, princes and nobles. They assured him that the anti-Semitic campaign would be stopped, but pogroms broke out again in 5640 (1880) in Kiev and Nieshin.

Rabbi Shmuel had just returned from a visit abroad in connection with the problems of the Jewish communities, when the sad news reached him. He at once set out for the Russian capital, and with the aid of Professor Bertenson, court physician to the Czar, he was able to obtain an immediate audience with the Minister of the Interior.

Filled with sorrow because of the desperate situation, the Lubavitcher Rebbe went so far as to reproach the Minister for not having kept his word to suppress the anti-Semitic outbreaks. He made it clear that continued failure to do so would create a very bad image of the Russian government among the highest circles in foreign countries.

In the course of his meeting with the Minister, Rabbi Shmuel mentioned that he had received letters from many personalities and bankers in other countries who had international influence. They all wanted to know what attitude they were to take, in view of the sad news concerning the plight of the Jews in Russia, and what they could do to protect the lives and property of the Jewish population in Russia.

The Minister asked: “What was your reply?”

“I have delayed my reply till I receive positive assurances in this matter from the Russian government,” answered Rabbi Shmuel.

“Rabbi of Lubavitch,” said the Minister, “do you dare to intimidate the Russian government with threats of the power of foreign capitalists? Are you threatening a revolution in this country?”

“Your Excellency does not have to interpret my words as an attempt at intimidation,” replied the Lubavitcher Rebbe. “Regard them, rather, as a serious fact to be reckoned with, for this concern is shared by capitalists and great men even of the non-Jewish world, who are shocked by such barbaric and inhuman outbreaks as have occurred here. As to the second question, it appears to me that it is the negligent and weak conduct of the Imperial Government in the past that could now bring about a revolution in this country.”

That very evening, on returning to his hotel, Rabbi Shmuel was informed by the government that he was under arrest. Two policemen stood guard at the entrance to his room for two days. On the third day, however, he was called before the Minister of the Interior and given a positive reply to his request.

This is but one example of the numerous occasions when Rabbi Shmuel turned to the Ministers and princes of Russia on behalf of the Jewish people, displaying complete disregard for any threats of punishment to himself.

Such was Rabbi Shmuel’s conduct in all his communal work. He was not deterred by the rich capitalists or the sophisticated Intellectuals of the “Haskalah” movement, who wanted to secularize the Jewish religion, nor was he intimidated even by the highest Government officials. He voiced his views clearly, forcefully and with dignity on every occasion that it was necessary to do so in the interests of the Jewish people and his outstanding leadership was reflected by the respect shown for his pronouncements and interventions. During this time the adherents to Chabad increased in number and like the leaders of Chabad since the inception of the movement he ministered to their individual needs and enquiries, strengthening their devotion to Torah in the especially difficult times in which they lived. He was the author of many volumes of Chassidic literature.

Rabbi Shmuel’s short but vital and purposeful period as leader of Chabad also heralded the next phase of its work, which is characterized by the campaign to spread the knowledge and study of Torah and the spirit of tradition and G-dliness among the Jews of the world.

This world-wide activity was spurred by the growing mass emigration of Russian Jews. While concentrating on Russia, including its outlying provinces of Georgia, Uzbekistan and Caucasia, Chabad activities spread to the land of Israel, Poland and the Baltic countries and, more recently, to the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, North Africa, South America, Africa and elsewhere.

It is noteworthy that these activities have been carried out with equal zeal and determination whether the Jews concerned have been of Oriental, Sephardic or Ashkenazi origin, once again emphasizing the all-embracing character of the Chabad movement as one belonging to the whole People of Israel.))says that you have to regret what you did wrong. He says “Imagine someone going swimming and then G-d forbid, he’s drowning. How much does he regret that he went swimming?” This is all very heavy, but here I just want to add that the Teshuva of today is a completely different Teshuva. There is one level of Teshuva which is from the tree of knowledge. This is also holy. I realize that I did wrong, and I don’t know how much I regret it, hopefully, and I decide to do good. But then imagine that I love someone very much and we become strangers. The question is not whether I did right or wrong. The question is not whether I did right or wrong. The question is much deeper; I miss him so much. And I’m just going back to him because I missed him. And imagine before I say hello to him, he asks, “Do you regret what you did? So there is a level of Teshuva that has to do with whether I did right or wrong. And promising G-d that I’ll do better and then there is a higher level of Teshuva. Mamash, I miss G-d so much, I miss Yiddishkeit. I miss the Torah so much. I miss being holy so much! Okay, the difference is very simple. If I do Teshuva because I did something wrong, then my whole approach is to make a list of all I did wrong, and then to make a list of how I can do better. It’s all very beautiful. But the Teshuva of coming home is that I miss it so much; I don’t make any excuses, I just come back.

How do I know if I am going to my own house or someone else’s? Very simple. If I knock at the door at somebody else’s at three in the morning, and I am dirty, filthy, drunk, disgusting, I have to make two million excuses why I’m late, why I’m even knocking at their door. My own house, I just open the door and I come back. I’m so glad I’m back. So the truth is, the highest Teshuva is “Hashiveinu Hashem Eilecho”. I say, “Ribono shel Olam”, please take me back to you.

I remember, there is a gevalt Torah. There is the Torah which is our Torah; and there is Toratecha, Torah that is G-d’s Torah. When we do Teshuva saying Hashiveinu Avinu leToratecha, its G-d’s Torah, Toratecha. My Torah says, l didn’t keep Shabbat, I ate salami on Yom Kippur and I didn’t put on first rate Tefillin. But when I say, “Ribono shel Olam, take me back to you”, this Torah is deeper than all the words. I’m just glad I’m back; I missed it so much.

And here I want to say the deepest Torah in the world. When Moshe Rabeinu went back to Mount Sinai, if you remember in the Aron in the Holy Ark, there are the Luchot with which Moshe came back and there are the broken Luchot. We were learning this summer what Moshe Rabeinu did. When he broke the tablets, the letters flew away and there were no more words. You know what Moshe Rabeinu did? He connected us to beyond words. We bless you to keep every word of your Torah. Let this connect you to G-d’s Torah.

Love, Shlomo

House of Love and Prayer, San Francisco, 5732

Transcribed by Donna Anderson Maimes
Edited by Chayim Aharon HaCohain
Reprinted from Holy Beggars’ Gazette