ANASH-SHLICHUS: R’ Moshe Bardugo

“I believe that every child can achieve excellence. There is no average or weak child. Every child is outstanding and needs to be helped to reveal his potential. This is the mission I received from the Rebbe. In this field, you cannot stand in place; you must always advance.”

Name: R’ Moshe Bardugo

Married with 13 children

Age: 56

Location: Migdal HaEmek

Occupation: 1st grade teacher

For nineteen years now, the Chabad community in Migdal HaEmek gathers every Motzaei Shabbos at R’ Moshe and Chemda Bardugo’s home for a shiur in inyanei Moshiach and Geula. All the Lubavitcher rabbanim and mashpiim in town attend the shiur, and each week the shiur is given by another rav.

The shiur’s stellar reputation brings participants from all over the surrounding region and it’s always packed. The women have their own shiur. Every Wednesday they sit around a long table with delicious refreshments and delve into the Rebbe’s sichos on inyanei Moshiach and Geula.

This is not R’ Moshe and Chemda Bardugo’s only project. The Bardugo family has been active for over two decades in hastening the Geula in a variety of ways.

SHLICHUS IN CHINUCH

R’ Moshe is a smiley, eloquent person and a mechanech by profession and in his soul. He has taught first grade for thirty years. “It’s my life’s mission,” he says. “I went on this shlichus with the Rebbe’s bracha. He wrote me ‘your work is the work of heaven,’ and since then I have been the shliach to the first grade in the Chabad school in Migdal HaEmek. Boruch Hashem, the Rebbe’s bracha has accompanied me for thirty years already, along with success in the classroom.

“I believe that every child can achieve excellence. There is no average or weak child. Every child is outstanding and needs to be helped to reveal his potential. This is the mission I received from the Rebbe. In this field, you cannot stand in place; you must always advance.”

LIFE’S MISSION

Aside from chinuch, R’ Moshe and his wife have another life’s mission which is to bring Moshiach. They also received this mission from the Rebbe, along with his haskama and bracha to publicize the identity of the Redeemer. Since that time, this is what they do. In a corner of the living room, for many years now, there is a chair upholstered in red velvet that is ready for Moshiach’s imminent arrival.

They started with signs. “We had signs made that said, Hichonu L’Kabbalas P’nei Moshiach (Get ready to welcome Moshiach), which we hung on dozens of porches around the city. In 5752, we put photos of the signs into a beautiful album and I gave it to the Rebbe and received his bracha.”

Then R’ Moshe had illuminated signs made which said, Boruch Haba Melech HaMoshiach and arranged for a billboard at the entrance to the city which said, Migdal HaEmek Muchana L’Moshiach (Migdal HaEmek is ready for Moshiach). “By the way, the billboard was put up without any permits but it eventually became part of the scenery. Ten years ago, the sign fell and we made a new sign that was dedicated by the mayor.”

The highlight of his work is definitely the weekly shiurim for men and for women. “We learn the Rebbe’s sichos about inyanei Moshiach together. I choose the sichos and excerpts, photocopy them, and prepare them so that the shiur will be focused and hands-on. The shiur is exactly one hour long so that people know when to show up and when they can expect to leave, and the hour is packed and fascinating. It’s been 19 years already that the shiur is in existence and so far, we have rarely ever repeated a sicha.

“Another amazing thing about our shiur is the achdus. We all sit down together for the purpose of learning the Rebbe’s sichos on inyanei Moshiach and Geula. Every week, someone else gives the shiur, and with all our different opinions we unite around the Rebbe’s words.”

Decades of nonstop work. What motivates you?

“First is what the Rebbe said to the shluchim of Migdal HaEmek (which appears in Likkutei Sichos vol. 14, p. 338), that by going out of the constrictions of Migdal HaEmek, the entire land will go out of its constrictions toward the true and complete Geula. In a footnote, the Rebbe points out what it says in the Zohar that ‘Melech HaMoshiach will be revealed in the land of the Galil.’ In other words, from here, from Migdal HaEmek, the light of Moshiach will go forth.

“Then, it’s the brachos that I received from the Rebbe personally, when I submitted the album and the bottle of mashke that I was given. From that bottle I pour l’chaim at every shiur, for twenty years now, and from it I derive the strength to continue until we succeed in the mission and bring about the hisgalus.”