Mumbai Memorial

we just read in the torah "hakol kol yaokv v'hayodaim yeda esav... the hands are those of Esau but the voice is yakov's. these words  refer as well how through out the ages  Esau uses his hands and violence towards dominance while yakov and his children use the words of Torah and prayer to bring g-d into the world.

the Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote in his book ha'yom yom that " anan pola d'yemoma anan" we chasidim are day workers or in other words our function is dealing with the spreading of light.we do not debate or fight with evil, we increase light. and the darkness is dispelled by itself.

rabbi gavriel and his wife rivka a'h hykom'd or any other shliach around the world  are not trained in weaponry or war fare...they do not know how to take a part a gun and put it together in three minutes....or learn how to grapple down a wall or shoot at a moving target..

their basic training like all Lubavitcher was how to be a lamp lighters to themselves and the world around them.. to illuminate the world with light.

Indeed this was true of the other four kedoshim hashem yekom damom  and basic with every jew ...even those who learn to fight do so only out of necessity not pleasure...

every yid is ner hashem neshmas odom.. every yid is sent to this world to be a candle and bring light. Rabbi gavriel and Rivkie where the candle that lit up the other yiddishe candles..

i believe what is happening now in our times and been going on for many years however especially expressed now is evils fight against goodness,  in mumbai it hit even harder.

the Torah teaches us that light shall prevail over darkness goodness over evil.. that one who is occupied in doing mitzvos is protected and yet here in mumbia instead of protection and goodness we have questions.

questions for a Lubavitcher as too where is the rebbe?

questions as to a religious jew. where is the protection of hashem while doing a mitzva?

questions to each and every  jew where is g-d's love for us so soon after the Holocaust?

questions to each and every god fearing human being. how can g-d  allow evil to succeed so easily?

as a Lubavitcher and as a jew and as a human being we need to see this and our times for what it is ...a war against the core beliefs of Judaism and Torah, rebbe and chasid , chassidus and against all goodness...terrorism guns are aimed not only at jews in the territories and chassidim it is aimed against all that the world holds true and dear....the very meaning and value of life.

 through violence it wishes to shaken and weaken the will of the chosid and his connection to his rebbe ....it wishes to shaken and weaken every  jew that is on a purpose for something he or she believes in  and worst of all wishes to cause a divide amongst the jewish people that they know exist. and to all of man kind it causes fear..

 the average person person looks to his government to defend them but governments today are more concerned with politics then with the lives of its citizens. This is unfortunately true in Israel where jewish lives are at stake g-d forbid but also here in the USA and around the world.

to end on a positive note it is said that Moshiach will arouse the "yichida" the pintela yid in each and everyone one of us...The pintala yid were each of us are one with g-d- one with the land of  israel and one with each other...in those days when the mumbai massacre began ... from wed. until the funeral in Israel and the shabbos after where many synagogues made appeals for chabad and the widows and the orphans r'l and here too now and the later in the gatherings that will be  to honor the kedoshim and speak about the meaning and lessons to take... the Yicheda is alive and felt.

to conclude with a story of the simple yid who lived with his wife in a small farm in europe ....the rabbi said moshiach will come and will all go to israel. he wife was afraid to leave the security of her home. the rabbi then said when we  go will leave the Cossacks behind said  the wife well then let moshiach come and take the Cossacks to israel.

events like these r'l show us how we are still in exile - golus. it is insufficient to only pray that our time in golus is peaceful but to demand and cry out with greater feeling for moshiach to come and believe that g-d hears us and he will come.

let us pray that no more events as these occur regardless of the good that comes from it and 

that the feeling of oneness amongst jews continues... it is only through unity we will merit the moshiach may he come soon bechsed ubrachamim....

the conscious of the world

what is a shliach? how do u become a shliach? is it something that only a select few may be?

The Rebbe writes (hayom yom) that a shliach is one who does...one who acts ...

a shliach is not born with any talents or gifts necessarily but what they are born with is a deep desire to better the world...the words of the rebbe are heard by many yet it is he shliach who is touched by them and moved to act upon them....

the rebbe's strategy was/is brilliant and yet so simple take the average person- you or I- and charge them with raising the consciousness of the world...

on average most people only  care about events that effect them directly...

people may be killed ...starving...g-d forbid  etc. Jews may be intermarrying and or being lost yet it does not matter to them..

along  comes the rebbe and says lets create mass inspiration using  average people who care or who wished they  cared and send them amongst the masses in order to arouse them to care as well.

moashiach will come when the consciousness of the world is raised at least to the point that people are aware of each other..

interesting but not surprising the shliach somehow grows into the shlichus mission.. he might have not started as a scholar, states man, director, author, teacher, administrator, fundraiser or even a perfect chosid.. etc. etc but he becomes one . he becomes what ever it is the shlichus needs and demands

i remember being in yeshiva on shlichus. where the seder was in the winter months that on motzie shabbat the bochurim would say a pilpul for the zal....the joke amongst our selves was that ..."the balie nigla said in nigla..the balie chasidus said in chasidus and the one who knew neither said in both". why because he was not limited only to his abilities but did  what was demanded of him.

the end will be that we will all become shluchim because we are already shluchim..when our souls left heaven and where sent to come upon the earth  it was in order to fulfill the mission of g-d to create a dwelling place and temple for g-d on the earth...

the only difference between the appointed shluchim and the not yet appointed ones are that

the former must arouse the latter to realize his /her full potential and shlichus. amen 

moshe... moshe... min ha'mayim me'sheseho

today i was at a bris and as the child was cut with the bond of g-d, he cried...as he cried we all cried in our hearts for the moshiach to finally come...we cried like moshe'ly cried "emma-emma" at the memorial for his parents r'l in India

everyone is crying "ad mosia" aloud or quietly..

yet as we rushed our children to say tehillim for the yidden-shulchim of mumbia r"l did we wonder what effect it has on them... "from the mouths of the young children we get strength" we need the prayers of children and yet they need our support and love...

they prayed and have yet to see the physical answer to their prayers ..a child needs support and love...everyone is glued to the media and the constant news -videos -articles -memorials
we must not forget our children and remind them that Hashem is with them and us and they should desire life. teach them to desire shlichus and to do the rebe's work in what ever capacity they find them selves but most of all to live the rebbe's will !
to have miserat nefesh to live in the shlichus of the rebbe.

one can only wonder how the lubavitch kids in Russia living under Stalin learning in a hidden cheder in Samarkand, Tashkent, Charkhov and heard stories of heroism and mesrot nefest of legendary chassidm like r'mendel futerfas, r'chonia marozov, r'yesroel nevelor who spent time in Russian prison and some of whom where shot to death in prison. These little chabad kids hear all the stories and look up to these chasidim as heros'...
people to emulate and hence search for mesrot nefesh that they too end up g-d forbid in a Russian prison or gulag for yiddishkiet..

No! the rebbe taught us...our way is that of avorhom avinu to live and spread yiddihkiet not the meseret nefesh of Rebbe Akiva...our "inyan" is "v'yikra shom bsehm hashem" we do not look for meseret nefesh we look to call out and make others call out g-d's name...we look to do the rebbe's will and if g-d forbid the situations calls for....but we do not look for meserat nefesh.


i do not know what the lubavitch russian kids thought but i do know that some of the finest shluchim living today are those kids growing up in russia watching thier elders sacrifice all of the friedeker rebbe...they choose to live and make others live yiddishkiet


we must teach our children that the true chosid , the true shlaiach is about life and bringing hashem into every part of life living it on earth. Hashem aloud this Moshe'ly to live as he allowed Moshe rabbenu to live. min hamayim meshsehu.... g-d sent baya to take moshe out of the water g-d sent sandra to take moshe out of the fire ...

our generation is the moshe of the golus... we are the remnant of the sword of the crusades...the
public burnings of spain...the ashes of the crematoria ....the sucide bombers of israel ...the bombs and bullets of terrorism.... and mumbia.... ad mosai ad mosia...

what now...

as a chosid of the "pepsi generation" we where told that the essence of the chabad chosid in earlier generation and present is the same "bitul ed'iot" bitul is walking..the chosids job description is to nullify his entire self into the will of Hashem ...as taught to him by the rebbe.

in the time of the previous rebbe it was to walk upright into the bullets of stain r'l . with the present rebbe's it was to awaken a jew to do mitzvos. go on shlichus and give up the comforts of home but u will not need to give up ur life...that was chasidim-yidden of an earlier age...

..has the mission changed? Jews have always lived with meserot nefesh but we thought that the times of tzar nikolia, stalin, and the need to die because u are a jew ended with the Holocaust...

true Jews still die hashem yerachem!!! but there was always some explanation (as if there can be one). an Israeli soldier in the territories... an Israeli citizen killed by Arabs in Israel.....or in the USA at the twin towers because a political point was being made by killing civilians and using their deaths as an argument for their point... "nothing personal just war." the terrorist tries to convince the world..

what happened here? we dare not even wonder..yet some how it was different...these people where killed away from all political "hot spots" and where killed in a religious institution..
killed because they where yidden doing mitvos..shluchim doing the rebbes' work...
will never know what these monsters where really thinking..

" Dovid ha"melech was told that he cannot built the Bies Ha"Mikdash because "dam rav shofchto" much blood you spilt .. who's blood is it referring to the blood of the enemies he killed or the blood of the yidden who fell in the melcehmes mitzva he was commanded by hashem to do..maybe this was why the rebbe used to refer to his leadership as the leader ship of the previous rebbe... where r'l blood was spilt for yiddeshkiet ...while the rebbe's nisais will be after moschiah will come when no more Jewish blood will be spilt at all ever...we know nothing ...
however this much we know the rebbe is our rebbe he chose us to complete the mission of all the rebbiam- and we accepted- it is a double knot that cannot be undone.

let g-d allow this holy bond of rebbe and chosid where the rebbe and chosid are one soul- one mind and one goal.

we only pray and pray that it all be b'chesed ubrachamim alone...

the last time...

today i watched a bit of the funeral r'l of the kedoshim hashluchim gavriel noach and rivka ha'yikom"d and thier bodies wrapped in tallasim with lit candles above thier heads lying on the floor of 770 kfar chabad.

the last time i saw a body wrapped in a tallit in 770 was of the rebbe on gimmel tamuz 5754 as he lay on the floor of his office .. we all past by and had kria done upon us by the chevra kaddisha r'l...( i wonder...does anyone still have that kapota..)


you ask where is the rebbe...he is here with us. in us! most important he is in the sichos, mammarim, egrus and p'ulos we do for him.....the words of the rebbe are taking on new meaning and must be read again and again....
he knew ... he knew....and is talking to us.

you ask does he feel our pain?
does the head feel the pain of body...and what if the head is a head to a body made of millions and millions of yidden kain yirbu and they are all in pain can we even imagine the pain of the rebbe...

the only "nechoma" if we my even dare say it... is the rebbe saw the next step and taught us that the stage we are in now is only for a short time. (ad mosai....) but to say presently "odchoie ki onafato bi" is is..

unfortunately after watching the levaia it was "business as usually" ...

...what we need to do is to take all the krechtzing and crying ( and allot of that there is laider .. )and make sure we do something!! something real ..something good ..something that will last.. for them.. the rebbe.. and us all.

the unthinkable...

the unthinkable has happened.. shluchim of the rebbe together with other yidden shot dead in a chabad house h"yekom domom ... lo yakom oid tzoro r'l .

questions questions where is the rebbe ?
what happened to "it is on the rebbe's platzus he is acharoi"...

what will happen to chabad houses around the world ?

how do we explain to our children ?

did we think the effect this would have on them as we rushed them and all of us to say thillim on that horrible thursday and friday erev shabbos?

time to rethink everything and not come up with quick and easy solutions...

it is said that when the malot massacre happened in the early fifties the rebbe locked himself in

his room for three days before responding....how many days that that equal in our time...