May Hashem yisbarech help that we will not need to rely on “let us render [for] bulls [the offering of] our lips.” Rather, the Rebbe himself, the Rebbe shlita, should lead us to greet Moshiach Tzidkeinu.
Freedom, therefore, is not a static state of being, but rather a cyclical state of flux: The freer you become, the more of yourself you discover; the more you discover, the more of yourself you need to express in order to become free… and so on.
The whole world now sees that steps taken by the government of Israel aren’t worth the newspaper on which they appear. If these are the harshest measures the Israelis can devise against the Palestinian Authority, then why should anyone on the Arab side want to show us respect and refrain from harming our soldiers?
In many ways, the challenge today is greater than any time previously. Our task now is to see these threats to our spiritual existence as false challenges and for us to recognize that they are not reality. These temptations do not represent the true nature of our world; deep down the world has become saturated with the G-dly energy generated by millennia of Mitzvah observance, notwithstanding all of the hardships it entailed.
R’ Nosson Krepel Kublanov a”h passed away one year ago. He and his family were moser nefesh for Torah and mitzvos and for Chassidus and Chassidim in the Soviet Union. * The extraordinary story of how an entire family was arrested in the Soviet Union.
R’ Chaim Zvi Konikov, friend of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon a”h, shares some stories. * Ten years since the Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed and its crew perished in February 2003.
“I cannot make you into a Chassid; only Moshiach will warm the sea of ice!” * A compilation of stories about Simcha and Geula. Going from Adar, the month of joy, into Nissan, the month when we experience Geula.
“I’m afraid I’m becoming a baal t’shuva,” he said to me one day. I calmed him down and said he could put on t’fillin without becoming a baal t’shuva. * This is the story of Tamar Hana Botnaro who tells how she came to discover Hashem and found her way to Judaism and Chassidus.
About the person who surprised the participants of the farbrengen with Chassidishe ideas in fluent scientific and Chassidic terminology. * About the guard who did not fall asleep on duty at the 770 building in Kfar Chabad, and about the person who showed up for Tanya classes with a dog and a camera. * Stories about the power of Torah study and its effect on a Jewish soul.
The Rebbe displayed a special regard for the Kupas Bachurim fund for which he himself held the position of honorary chairman for fifteen years before becoming Rebbe. The Rebbe took care of the bachurim’s needs, food, and clothing, in Europe before the war and in the United States. * We spoke with some people in charge of Kupas Bachurim in recent years who told us about the organization that every year received the Rebbe’s Matanos LaEvyonim.
March 8, 2013