1005

DVAR MALCHUS
NOW ITS TIME

FOR YOU TO DO
YOUR MISSION
I have completed my mission, and now the time has
come for You, as it were, to do Your mission (since
G-d is a Shliach as well (he relates His words to
Yaakov, etc.), and together with Your Ten Sfiros,
the very Essence of G-d is, at it were, Moshiach
Tzidkeinu): Shlach na byad tishlach send to us
Moshiach Tzidkeinu in the literal, tangible sense!
* From Chapter Five of Rabbi Shloma Majeskis
Likkutei Mekoros Vol. 2. (Underlined text is the
compilers emphasis.)
Translated by Boruch Merkur
13. [] It is known that In

each generation there is born one
from the descendants of Yehuda
who is fit to be the Moshiach of
the Jewish people, one who,
in terms of his righteousness,
is fit to be the redeemer, and
when the time comes, G-d will
reveal Himself to him and send
him, etc. And my revered father
in-law, the Rebbe, leader of our
generation, the only shliach
of our generation, the only
Moshiach of our generation,
has announced that everything
has already been completed. It
is, therefore, understood that
the promise, Shlach na byad
tishlach, the shlichus of the
Rebbe, is being fulfilled. All that
remains now in the avoda of
shlichus is to welcome Moshiach
Tzidkeinu in the literal sense,
in order that he can fulfill his
shlichus in the literal sense and
take all the Jewish people out of
exile! []
15. May it be G-ds will that
through every shliach fulfilling
his mission completely, with all

ten powers of his soul, especially
when all the shluchim cooperate,
immersing themselves in this
project, immediately we will
bring about (the revelation
and perfection of) the true
and primary shliach, together
with the revelation of his ten
soul-powers, Shlach na byad
tishlach, the shliach of our
generation, the Rebbe, leader
of the generation. And as it
was in the previous generation,
when the Rebbe became unified
with his father, the Rebbe being
his only son, we now have the
completeness of all seven
branches of the Menora, all
seven generations.
Moreover, and this is of
primary importance: Since
we have completed the avoda
of shlichus, every shliach
approaches the true Shliach, G-d
Himself, and proclaims: I have
completed my mission, and now
the time has come for You, as it
were, to do Your mission (since
G-d is a Shliach as well (he

relates His words to Yaakov,
etc.), and together with Your
Ten Sfiros, the very Essence
of G-d is, at it were, Moshiach
Tzidkeinu): Shlach na byad
tishlach send to us Moshiach
Tzidkeinu in the literal, tangible
sense!
Even if there if there is room
to consider that G-d wants Jews
to remain an additional moment
in exile for the sake of the great
nachas ruach and pleasure that
He derives from avoda in exile
a Jew cries out: The ruling is that
one must do all the baal habayis
(the host or owner) says except
leave. Baal habayis refers to
G-d Alm-ghty. We must do all
that G-d says except leave, we
do not have to remain another
moment, G-d forbid, in a state
of leaving, cast away from
our Fathers table. We ask and
we demand, as it were, of G-d,
in the year of indeed, at the
beginning of the year of Yad
Tishlach [which is numerically
equivalent to the year 5752]:
Shlach na byad tishlach and
finally bring about the true and
complete Redemption!
(From the address of
Shabbos Parshas Chayei Sara,
25 MarCheshvan, Mevarchim
HaChodesh Kislev; Seifer HaSichos
5752, pg. 110-112)
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FEATURE
DRAMA
IN THE
CLASSROOM
R Tomer Rothaus, a Lubavitcher actor, decided to take his acting talent
to public schools around Eretz Yisroel and teach Tanach in a dramatic
way that includes the students. He includes explanations and stories that
intensify the learning experience and draws the fascination of the students
to the soul of Torah. * The organization he started has grown and now
employs a staff of teachers.
By Nosson Avrohom
4 12 Shvat 5776 - Hakhel
19/01/2016 12:40:23
he Lubavitcher actor,
Tomer Rothaus, entered
a third grade public
school classroom where
he teaches drama. The subject
he was teaching through drama
was the story of the Splitting of the
Sea. In the middle of the lesson, a
girl got up and politely asked to say
something.
Moreh Tomer, do you believe that the story is true?
R Rothaus, who did not expect to hear such a provocative
question from a little girl, was
momentarily thrown off guard.
But he quickly recovered and answered, Every story in the Torah
is absolutely true.
But my parents taught me
that the Bible stories are made
up!
R Rothaus was now in a bind.
How should he react? Should he
explain or deflect? It wasnt the
girls fault that her parents taught
her that.
Then he had an idea. He decided to act based on the principle with which he had founded
his drama organization, LSachek
MBreishit.
I greatly respect your parents
and you, but at the same time I
expect you to respect the truth of
Judaism.
What happened at that point
was astonishing. The children
in the classroom, who had remained silent and curious as they
watched this dialogue, suddenly
began shouting in unison, We
believe that the story of the Splitting of the Sea really happened.
A few minutes went by and the
girl joined in and said that she
also believed it. At that point, the
lesson was back on track.
Experiences like that make
it worth getting up in the morning, said R Rothaus, summing
up three years of work.
Before he became religious,

R Tomer Rothaus studied acting
at the renowned acting school
in Tel Aviv, Nissan Nativ, and
he had started an acting career.
When he became religious, he resolved to use his acting talents to
spread the wellsprings. He is allowed by the government to enter
public school classrooms with an
enrichment program. We started with one school and now we
operate in about twenty public
schools in the center of the country.
A TASTE OF TANYA
He started his acting career
right after his army service. He
registered for the Nissan Nativ
acting school where, out of 1500
students who apply each year,
only fifteen are accepted. He was
one of the few lucky ones.
The classes were very demanding and exhausting and after three years of study, producers and directors started casting
me in various roles in theater and
movies. I felt that my career was
beginning to take off and then I
decided to fly to India.

The feeling was that after
three years in the army and another three years of serious
studying, he should take some
time off before beginning life.
I decided to have all the experiences India has to offer. I
went to ashrams where I took
courses. I went from city to city
and as part of my India experience I also went to the Chabad
House in Pushkar which is run
by R Shimmy Goldstein. I remember my first encounter with
him; outside it was forty degrees

Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and he
was wearing woolen tzitzis and
a jacket. I realized he was very
committed to his religion.
After a Vipassana meditation
course, Rothaus joined a Menorah lighting on the banks of
the river and he enjoyed it. The
next encounter was more personal. He sat with R Goldstein
and learned Shaar HaYichud
VHaEmuna in Tanya with him.
Thirty minutes of conversation with R Shimmy were
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FEATURE
enough for me. All the courses
and experiences Id had suddenly looked shockingly superficial
and shallow and from then on,
I became a regular guest at the
Chabad house.
Before I returned home,
R Goldstein suggested that I
write to the Rebbe through the
Igros Kodesh. I did so and was
amazed. The Rebbe wrote about
the need to harness the media of
radio and television to spread the
wellsprings and not to ignore this
field. This answer impressed me
and I felt I have a shlichus from
the Rebbe to use my talents and
abilities to be mekarev people and
spread the wellsprings. Instead
of accepting jobs that were offered to me in the acting world,
I started writing plays and shows
in the spirit of Chassidus.
It seems that every Lubavitcher child in Eretz Yisroel has met
R Rothaus in one of his plays.
Along with a number of different
casts, he constructed a number
of fascinating shows and presentations and he has appeared
with them all over the country.
The high point for him was in
5666 when he performed before the shluchim at the Kinus
HaShluchim.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN

One day, an irreligious relative asked me whether I would
substitute for a drama teacher
who was on maternity leave. I
was unsure about accepting the
offer and was first inclined to refuse, for what kind of fit would
it be for me in a public school?
And during that time I would not
be performing in other venues;
was it worth it?
In general, I had the feeling
that the principal of the public
school would not like seeing a religious bachur with tzitzis out, a
kippa, and a beard. I finally de-
cided to do what every Chassid

does in a dilemma I wrote to
the Rebbe. I was excited by the
clear answer I got.
The Rebbe wrote, Blessing
and success in both your new and
old work together, may you merit
to instill the spirit of love for G-d
and fear of G-d in all those connected to you. This answer did
not leave me with any doubts and
that week I went for an interview,
and as the Rebbe wrote in his letter, I got the job.
I decided I wouldnt be an
ordinary drama teacher. Instead
of having the children dramatize
nonsense, I would use the stories
in Tanach which are learned by
that specific grade. In the first
part of the lesson I taught them
the section in the spirit of traditional Judaism and in the second
part we worked on dramatizing
it.
I wanted to instill the Torah
stories, which are usually given
over to them in a boring way,
in an experiential way, through
drama. The curriculum was constructed so that it wasnt preaching but greatly respectful of the
target audience. We have never
been accused of religious coercion; we make Avrohom Avinu
and Moshe Rabbeinu into dignified personalities, with depth.
We write all the lessons according
to explanations given in Chassidic teachings. At first there were
doubts about how successful it
would be, but it has worked out
well.
At the end of the first year
another two schools joined and
the project received the encouragement of mashpiim and rabbanim. When the demand grew
and other schools wanted to join,
they had to get more teachers
involved and R Rothaus opened
a non-profit organization and
included his friend from Even
Yehuda, R Alon Simon. They

began a search for Lubavitcher
teachers who were happy at the
opportunity both for the salaried
work and for the shlichus aspect
of it. Today we operate in eighteen schools and have plans for
expansion.
MAKING AN IMPACT
When we spoke with the
teachers, we heard many moving
stories that illustrate the shlichus
aspect of this educational endeavor.
When I taught the third
graders about the midwives in
Parshas Shmos, one girl asked,
Why didnt the midwives listen
to Pharaoh? Another child in
the class answered, Because they
had a Jewish soul. I couldnt
have given a better answer, says
one of the teachers.
That teacher told about another incident. One day, when
we were learning about Pesach
and I explained how in every
generation Hashem saves us
from those who wish to destroy
us, we made a play about a flock
of sheep grazing in the meadow
and a wolf comes and the shepherd saves them. The concluding
assignment was to draw the story
in their notebooks. In the background I played a Chassidic song
whose words were how Hashem
saved us from the gentiles not
only in the past but in every generation. Then one of the children
began to cry and we had a hard
time calming him down. We did
not know why he was crying.
When he finally calmed down
he said that the song moved him
very much. In Chassidic terms,
his neshama was aroused.
Another teacher told us about
connections with the students
parents and related an incident
that happened with one of the
other teachers in the project.
19/01/2016 12:40:28
One of our teachers met

two mothers of her students after Pesach. One of the mothers
who knew the teacher introduced
her enthusiastically to the other
mother who did not understand
what connection there was between them and the religious
woman standing there. This
is the girls drama teacher! My
daughter loves your class more
than all the others. With you
she feels she has an opportunity
to express her abilities. She not
only teaches drama but incorporates many values into the lessons.
She then parenthetically
added, On Pesach this year, for
example, my daughter did not
allow chametz into the house,
not even a crumb. She said her
teacher said that its a mitzva and
a commemoration of going out
of Egypt and in this merit we will
have the Geula. And that was
that, we did not have any chametz in the house this Pesach at
all.
When we tell them about
upcoming holidays, we mention
practices observed by all as well
as Chassidic practices. Many
children hear for the first time
about basic mitzvos like the blowing of the shofar, the four minim,
etc.
We are careful not to invite
them to the Aseres HaDibros or

to a Lag BOmer parade because
the Education Ministry does not
allow that. Nor do we want to be
accused of brainwashing but we
have seen how a little bit of light
dispels a lot of darkness. I heard
from many teachers that their
students came, for the first time
in their lives, to Hakafos Shniyos
or a Lag BOmer parade. They
said that when they learned about
this custom in class, it sounded
special and intriguing and when
they saw the advertisements in
the streets, they asked their parents about going. Theres no
doubt that the influence of the
children is far greater than we
imagined.
Another teacher shared what
happened in her classroom.
When we learned about the
exile in Egypt, we had a discussion about how the Jewish nation
did not change their names, their
language, and their way of dress,
despite the hardships of servitude. I had the children divided
into groups and each group had
an assignment, to put on a play
for the other students in which
they acted the roles of Jewish
families in Egypt who were dealing with the vicissitudes of enslavement. The family members
had discussions about whether
they should change their names,
dress, and language and assimilate within the Egyptian people or

preserve their Jewish identity.
One after another, the students came up and performed
before the class. It was moving to
hear them say firmly, We will not
forgo our Jewish identity! We will
not forgo our Jewish language!
We are not willing to change our
names to Egyptian names!
At the end, the students were
asked what they learned and one
of the girls said, I learned that if
the Jewish people had not been
stubborn to preserve their Jewish
identity in Egypt, we would not
be here today.
AN ORDER AND A DONOR

THAT WERE SENT BY THE
REBBE
The activities of the organization are not limited to drama lessons. If Tomer Rothaus thought
that his shlichus ended with that,
he was quickly disabused of that
idea.
At the end of the first year in
which I taught in three different
schools, when the week before
Pesach vacation came around,
I was exhausted. I had put in
hours to prepare the Pesach
classes and to construct successful lessons and I was feeling
it. I looked forward to vacation
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FEATURE
Ill never forget how when the truck came with

the matzos I thought that we are marionettes
and the Rebbe pulls the strings. Without the Rebbes
bracha I would never have thought of undertaking such
a project.
so I could rest and get my energy
back.
At the first opportunity I sat
down to write to the Rebbe and I
told him about the many difficulties I experienced. The answer I
opened to was astonishing. The
Rebbe wrote to a teacher that he
was happy to hear that he planned
on giving out shmura matza to
his students. The Rebbe said,
Surely you will give each one at
least a kzayis and you will let me
know the expenses involved for it
is an extremely proper thing. I
read it and understood that the
Rebbe was not giving me a vacation but more work to do.
I called my mashpia in a tizzy and he said simply, Thank the
Rebbe for telling you that he will
get the money for you.
In the three schools that I
taught I had about 250 students.
I bought 11 kilograms of matza
and sat until late into the night,
breaking it into kzeisim and putting them into bags which I gave
out to the students that week.
The following year there
were about 3000 students who
participated in our classes and I
remembered the Rebbes instruction from the year before. This
time I looked for a donor. Bags
were prepared with matzos along
with a page of customs and blessings. Ill never forget how when
the truck came with the matzos I
thought that we are marionettes
and the Rebbe pulls the strings.
Without the Rebbes bracha I
would never have thought of undertaking such a project.
Last year, R Rothaus offered

that whoever wanted to be registered for a letter in a Torah scroll
could do so. I am sure that this
provides protection for the children as the Rebbe said and also
gives the Rebbe much nachas.
WIDER IMPACT
In conversations with the
teachers I learned that the work
doesnt start and end with the
students, but impacts the staff of
the schools as well, as one of the
teachers relates:
In my work at the school in
this program, I spoke with the
Torah teacher about what she
teaches. She told me that she
explains the verses according to
Israeli commentaries that she
compiles from various books.
And what about Rashis commentary? I asked her. She said
it wasnt included. I then asked
her what topic she was teaching
that week and I opened a Chumash to the topic she cited. The
topic was the manna. I explained
to her what Rashi said and she
was fascinated. She decided that
from then on, Rashis commentary would enrich her lessons.
In addition, she asked me to
refer her to stories of our Sages
that illustrated good behavior and
character. I told her about the
series, Ko Asu Chachameinu (in
English, Our Sages Showed the
Way) and she asked me to buy
one for her. After I bought the
book, she immediately adopted
it and told me that she was tell-
ing her students stories from the

book to illustrate the Ten Commandments and other subjects
they learned.
It sounds ideal Wasnt
there any hesitation on the
part of the principals of these
schools about having an ultraOrthodox person come in and
teach their students?
I believe that we offer a professional curriculum on a very
high level and principals recognize quality. In many of the
public schools the entire field of
Tanach studies is very dry and
we make it interesting so theyre
definitely happy about that. Furthermore, when I walk into the
classroom, I am not coming to
make any baalei teshuva; there is
no attempt to impose any views.
There is an attempt to present Judaism as something nice, correct,
and deep.
90% of the principals and parents do not want their children or
students to be ignoramuses when
it comes to the Torah and so our
program is well received.
And yet, does it remain nice
fluff or is there any real educational value?
Of course there is. First, we
teach subjects that cover the curriculum of that class. If that class
is learning a certain parsha in
Chumash, we do drama on that
subject. If the class is studying
the story of Dovid HaMelech or
any other story, that is what we
use in our drama lessons. What
they learn in their curriculum, we
take and dramatize it, of course
adding to the material that they
learned.
In the final five minutes of the
lesson, we tell a Chassidic story
that connects with the topic we
learned, and with every subject
that we teach, we bring in the
practical aspect. For example,
when we learn the story of Av-
19/01/2016 12:40:29
rohom Avinu who was visited by

the angels because he wasnt well
after the bris, we emphasize the
value of visiting the sick. Or we
will talk about respecting others,
love for another, and of course
the importance of hospitality. In
some instances, together with the
students, we will initiate a student activity such as to commit
to be members of a bikkur cholim
committee, or the like.
Where does the drama part
come into the lesson?
In the forty-five minute class,
half or sometimes less is devoted
to the concept and in the remaining time we work with the children to act out scenes that bring
out the ideas we spoke about.
For example, if we are learning
about Yehoshua and the spies,
the children will rehearse and
then put on a play connected to

the story.
PROJECTED GROWTH
R Rothaus credits the impressive growth of the project to
the major donors of the initiative,
led by Keren Meromim directed
by R Moshe Shilat, who have
helped the organization grow and
develop. When we spoke with R
Rothaus, he was in the process
of enlisting new Chabad female
teachers in order to respond to
the demand from principals of
additional schools to have the
program in their schools.
We are looking for professional teachers with a teachers
certificate, teachers with a shlichus spirit who also want to make
good money. We are also looking
for teachers that excelled in sum-
Continued from page 17

Azariahs. And what was the discussion on today? They said to him,
On the section of Hakhel.
And what was his exposition?
Assemble the people, the men and
the women and the little ones. If the
men come to learn, and if the women
come to hear, why do the little ones
come? In order to give reward for
those that bring them. He said to
them, There was a beautiful pearl
in your hand, and you sought to deprive me of it!
We see from the above that when
parents invest in their childrens
education and go beyond their comfort zone to bring them to the Beis
HaMikdash, not only will it not take
away from the parents service of
Hashem, on the contrary, they will
receive the ultimate reward: true
Yiddishe and Chassidishe Nachas.
[This is a good place to remind
everyone to register as many children in Tzivos Hashem (www.tzivoshashem.org and the Childrens
mer camps, who know how to

engage children in an experiential
way. The schools that we work
in are from Haifa to Ashdod. Its
important to have experience in
working with children in a school
setting with knowledge of or an
inclination toward drama and
teaching drama, charisma, and
the ability to be both authoritative
and to generate enthusiasm.
Our organization prepares
the teaching materials, maintains
contact with the schools, and
professionally supports the teachers with hours of enrichment,
training, an experienced coach
and more. We are overseen by R
Chaim Shlomo Diskin, the rav of
Kiryat Ata, along with a staff of
Lubavitcher educators.
Seifer Torah www.kidstorah.org]

Children are also very much connected to bringing Moshiach. In the
words of the Rebbe (Simchas Torah
5752): According to our sages, the
verse, Do not touch My anointed
ones (Meshichoi), refers to the children who study Torah.
One of the explanations of this
statement (in addition to those provided by the commentators) is that
the education of school children has
to be in a manner that the children
are completely permeated and absorbed with the ideal of Moshiach.
Just by looking at a Jewish child,
what should one see? - Moshiach!
His entire being is Moshiach - i.e.,
the realization of You have been
shown... there is none beside Him.
The idea is even more pronounced with respect to the schoolchildren of our generation who are
called (and endorsed by Jewish leaders as) Tzivos Hashem-the Army
of G-d. The name Tzivos Hashem
signifies that the children are totally
devoted and subordinated to G-d,

as (and even more than) the devotion of soldiers to their general.
It follows that Jewish children of our
generation - boys and girls - possess
in an even more revealed measure
the status of Meshichoi, i.e., G-ds
own anointed ones.
This provides for the preparation and introduction that leads to
the impending revelation of the general Moshiach of all Jews, with the
true and complete Redemption. And
As in the days that you left Egypt I
shall you wonders, all the Tzivos
Hashem departed from the Land of
Egypt, so, too, the Tzivos Hashem of our generation will depart
from the present exile to the true and
complete Redemption.
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.
Issue 1005
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PROFILE
R Moshe Shuster was a known
personality in Bnei Brak. He
was a man of tzdaka and chesed
who acted like a simple person.
Not many knew of his spiritual
greatness which he worked to
conceal from all. * He was in
touch with the Rebbe and even
this was done secretively, but
from the little that he revealed
we see that the Rebbe greatly
cherished him and recognized
his greatness. The crowning
moment was when they met
and the Rebbe received him in a
most unusual way.
By Menachem Ziegelboim
Moshe Shuster was a

Belzer Chassid who
was strongly attached
to the tzaddik, R
Aharon of Belz ztl.
A mysterious figure slightly
bent over, that was R Moshe
Shuster. He had gone through
the terrible years of the Holocaust
and stayed alive through open
miracles. After the war he moved
to Eretz Yisroel and settled in
Bnei Brak.
He always tried to cast a fog
about him so that people would
not see his true greatness. His
life was shrouded in layer upon
layer of concealment. For example, anytime he quoted a Ge-
mara, he would preface it with

an apology, Yesterday, I saw in
some book that brings from an
amazing Gemara in Eiruchin,
or Before Mincha I glanced in a
book that brings the psak of the
Nimukei Yosef. He made it appear as though he never opened
a Gemara or halachic work on
his own, even though peers of his
testified that when he was very
young he learned Gemara day
and night with unusual diligence.
Back then, the heads of his yeshiva sensed his unusual abilities and
they sent him to learn in one of
the big yeshivos of the time.
Only on rare occasions would
R Shuster open his mouth. In a
quick, whispered voice his words
flew from sharp sayings, short but

sharp as a razor, to captivating
stories of tzaddikim. His words
were still flying in the air and
making hearts race and he was already gone from the table
His davening was also shrouded in mystery. Throughout the
day his face had, as it were, seven
seals, but when he davened it was
fortified with seventy-seven locks.
He sat motionless, his lips barely
moving, just the pages moved
quickly before his staring eyes.
Only on Friday night, during the
Zohar recitation of the davening,
was a change apparent in him.
His blue eyes would roll upward
and his entire body would tremble
in awe. This was an inner storm
19/01/2016 12:40:29
STORY
OF A
HIDDEN
NESHAMA
of a fleeting instant, and then immediately he would recede into
the mysteries of his soul.
R Moshe Shuster was not
only a man of Torah and tfilla, but
was mainly a man of chesed. His
entire life was chesed with every
hour devoted to doing kindness
with another Jew, whether doing
physical acts of chesed with those
who needed help or by making his
rounds and collecting money for
those in need.
There were a few wealthy Jews
in Eretz Yisroel and abroad who
knew R Moshe Shuster and knew
that he wasnt just another beggar. They would send him large
sums now and then for him to
distribute to the poor and needy

as he saw fit. They considered
it a boon for their success, for
they knew that there was no more
trustworthy and upright man than
R Moshe Shuster, who would
not retain even a cent for himself.
He would give it all to those who
needed it. As for him, that same
day he would run from one shul
to another, from one collapsing
house to another, would hand
over a sealed packet and then he
would instantly disappear, moving on to the next address.
His acts of kindness were nonstop giving, whether with money,
food or drink or a comfortably
made bed. He would also mention peoples names to tzaddikim
and ask for a yeshua on their behalf, ample livelihood, and good
health. It was a secret between
him and those great men.
R Sholom Horowitz of
Crown Heights was a shliach, on
behalf of his father-in-law, the
gabbai tzdaka and chesed, R
Yaakov Friedman, to R Moshe
Shuster. R Yaakov Friedman,
a known figure of kindness in
Crown Heights, would collect
money throughout New York for
various tzdaka causes and would
send money to R Moshe Shuster.
In the book, Tiferes Yaakov,
that he wrote about his fatherin-law, R Horowitz relates an
amazing anecdote, Whenever
I traveled to Eretz Yisroel, my
father-in-law would send money with me to give to R Moshe.
The first time I went to him, I
did not know him and had never
seen him. He identified me as I
was walking toward him and announced, Sholom ben Chana
Rochel.
Until today, I have no idea
how he identified me, how he
knew my name and my mothers
name, and I had not informed
him ahead of time that I was planning a trip to Eretz Yisroel.
The Klausenberger Rebbe
ztl (d 1994) said about him, R
Moshe belongs to earlier generations. It is like they drew him out
of an ancient box. Just like that
they took him out and planted
him in our generation.
Many people who knew R
Moshe for years never heard him
say a bad word about anyone.
His lips were sealed. In general,
he was reticent and you only occasionally heard his voice.
Throughout the day he ran
from place to place and nobody
knew from where to where. He
wisely managed to conceal himself from all, cloaking himself
with mitzvos and good deeds,
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PROFILE
but his true identity was
known only to the tzaddikim of the generation.
R Moshe Shuster was
a wondrous riddle. His
Rebbe, R Arele, summed
him up pithily, Hes a secret.
HE SENT MAAMAD,
INCLUDING BACKPAY
FROM 10 SHVAT 5711
R Moshe Shuster had
a soul connection with the
Rebbe. Few were those
who knew about their reThe Rebbes letter to R Moshe Shuster
lationship and the little
that was known concealed
far more. He would speak
mekarev Jews. R Moshe Shuster
loftily about the greatness of the was upset by this. In contrast to
Rebbe who sacrifices himself his usual practice of suffering in
for the sake of Jews; speak- silence, he warned the rabbi, You
ing in wondrous terms about should know that you are playing
the Rebbes incredible genius as with fire. R Moshe referred to
seen in his sichos; he would say the statement in Avos, Beware
we ought to thank G-d for this lest you be burned by their [the
great neshama that He planted fire of the sages] embers, but
in this world so that the genera- the rabbi maintained his position
tion would have upon whom to and continued speaking derisively
depend. Holy of holies, such about the Rebbe.
was the intensity of his expresShortly after R Moshe resions about the Rebbe, which was buked him, a spirit of folly sudnot something he commonly said denly entered the heart of this
about other tzaddikim.
rabbis only son and he began to
R Moshes acquaintance leave a life of Torah and mitzvos.
with the Rebbe began in the 50s Within a short time, he had bewhen he started sending Maamad come completely irreligious. The
(money in support of the Rebbes father and the entire family were
household) on a regular basis. devastated by this. Due to their
He even wanted to send back pay exalted stature in the community,
from Yud Shvat 5711.
they tried to involve various perHe was awesome in his de- sons to try and speak to their son,
fense of the honor of the Rebbe but nothing worked. Months and
then years passed and the bond
as the following story illustrates:
At a certain point, one of the between father and son was comrabbis in Eretz Yisroel had the pletely severed. The parents sinerve to speak disparagingly lently bore their terrible pain.
One day, their son was walkabout the Rebbe and his holy
ing
on a busy street in Tel Aviv.
mitzva campaigns and on a cerA
Lubavitcher
there was asktain occasion he spoke sharply
ing
passersby
to
put on tfillin.
against the holy work of the RebHe
offered
tfillin
to the young
be and his Chassidim in being
man but was refused. The

Lubavitcher did not give up
quickly and tried to persuade
him. Seeing that the young
man was still refusing, the
Chassid said, Im going to
ask you a personal favor.
Ive been standing here a
long time and havent managed to put tfillin on with
even one person. Please, do
me a favor and put on tfillin,
if not for the mitzva then at
least for my sake.
At this, the young man
agreed to put on tfillin. As he
put them on, the Lubavitcher
saw that he knew what to do
and so he got into a conversation with him, in which the
young man told him about the
frum home he had been born into
and how he had decided to walk
away from it all.
They exchanged phone numbers and kept in touch. Slowly,
the Chassid was able to be mekarev him and after some time,
he became a baal teshuva and returned to his parents home.
Realizing the chain of events
that led to his sons return, the
father decided to travel to the
Rebbe and apologize. He had yechidus in which he told the Rebbe
how he used to speak against him
and his mivtzaim, and about what
happened to his son and how his
son came back because of the
Rebbes Chassid. He emotionally
asked the Rebbe for forgiveness.
The Rebbe said, When your
only son left the derech, you were
very pained by it, for that is the
love a father has for his son. You
should know that to the Rebbe,
my teacher and father-in-law, every Jew is an only son.
THE REBBE IDENTIFIED R

MOSHES HANDWRITING
R Moshe Shuster loved the
19/01/2016 12:40:30
Rebbe. He once said to one of

the Chabad rabbanim in Bnei
Brak with great surprise, Where
could a Chassidish young man
travel today for the yomim tovim
if not to Lubavitch?
Speaking about a connection
between souls, this connection is
not measured in things visible to
the eye but in those things that
the neshama senses. R Moshe
saw the Rebbe only one time, at
the end of his life, and yet they
had a hidden, deep, amazing connection.
One of the Chassidim, with
whom R Moshe would send
packages of kvitlach (pidyonei
nefesh), most of which contained
requests for salvation for people
in material or spiritual matters,
related that the Rebbe attributed
special importance to the envelopes from R Moshe Shuster.
The first time R Moshe sent a
package with me to the Rebbe was
in 5730. When I had yechidus, I
took the large envelope with me.
At the end of our conversation, in
the middle of the night, I asked
permission to give the Rebbe
something from R Moshe Shuster of Bnei Brak.
Yeh. The Rebbes face lit up
and he immediately accepted the
envelope and glanced at it, seeing the name of R Moshe on it.
The Rebbe took out a pencil and
between the words Moshe Shuster he made two lines above and
wrote ben Toiba Rassi. Then the
Rebbe said, This envelope is full
of the names of Jews, fahr Yudens
veigen [for the sake of Jews].
It was amazing how the Rebbe used this expression, fahr
Yudens veigen, a Belzer expression that R Moshe always used.
The Rebbe used it as someone
who knew R Moshe well.
Another time, R Moshe sent
notes to the Rebbe in a sealed
envelope.
On the envelope,
R Moshe Shuster
In
contrast
to his usual
practice of suffering
in silence, he warned
the rabbi, You should
know that you are
playing with fire. But
the rabbi maintained his
position and continued
speaking
derisively
about the Rebbe.
R Moshe had simply written,
Please give this to the Rebbe
shlita.
The Chassid who brought
the envelope to the Rebbe was R
Moshe Yehuda Leib Landau, rav
of Bnei Brak. When R Landau
gave the envelope to the Rebbe,
the Rebbe glanced at it and said
in excitement, This is R Moshe
Shusters handwriting!
R Moshe would have his
name mentioned many times to
the Rebbe. Often this was done
through a friend, the gabbai

tzdaka, R Yaakov Friedman. For
example, he wrote to R Friedman
in a letter from 4 Tetzaveh 5740:
To his honor, the friend of those
who are broken, R Yaakov ben
Alte Chava.
Please mention me to the
Lubavitcher Rebbe for good
health. I was unable to walk on
my left foot and this interfered
with mitzvos. Boruch Hashem,
Ive improved and today the doctor told me to put my foot on the
ground. With Hashems help,
in the merit of the tzedakos for
which I am an emissary, this will
stand by me and it will be, with
Hashems help, even better.
Mention me to the Rebbe for
a complete recovery, speedily and
consistently.
He wrote another letter dated
11 Cheshvan: I greatly beseech
you to mention me constantly to
the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
HIS ONLY ENCOUNTER

WITH THE REBBE
When R Moshe had to go
to the United States for medical
reasons, he went to the Rebbe for
dollars. People who knew who
he was, brought him with his escorts to the Rebbe.
This was the only time he saw
the Rebbe. As soon as the Rebbe
saw him, even before he opened
his mouth, the Rebbe said with a
luminous countenance, We have
a long-lasting connection through
letters. Boruch Hashem that we
get to see one another face to
face. That was all the Rebbe
said. He gazed at R Moshe who
stood before the Rebbe wideeyed, paralyzed with awe. Afterward, he did not remember any of
it and was only glad that he had
merited to be in the Rebbes presence.
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FEATURE
n the previous installment

we presented the documents
that show the American Joint
Distribution
Committee
(JDC) agreeing that Chabad work
in Morocco is valuable, but yet
refuses to provide financial support
for these activities. This created
the need for an independent
fundraising effort in the USA to
support the Chabad activities.
This weeks installment will
focus on how Chabad proceeded
to secure the JDC support, and
the rare and unique letters written by Rabbi Binyamin Gorodetsky on the Rebbes letterhead!
These fascinating documents
are part of the JDC Archives
(which were digitized and uploaded online, thanks to a grant
from Dr. Georgette Bennett and
Dr. Leonard Polonsky CBE).
FUNDRAISING IN THE USA

On Rosh Chodesh Nissan
5711, Merkos Linyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of
Chabad Lubavitch, issued a
Pesach appeal dedicated to the
educational work in North Africa,
stating:
The terrible poverty of our
brethren there, deprives the children of even an elementary Jewish education. Yet their traditional love for Torah and devotion
to our people is a citadel which
must be preserved at all costs.
The MERKOS LINYONEI
CHINUCH the central world
organization for Jewish education, is doing pioneer work
in North Africa. It established
there a Teachers seminary, a Yeshiva, Yeshiva-Ktanas, TalmudTorahs for boys and ones for
girls, evening courses for workers. These institutions are named
OHOLEY JOSEF YITZCHOK
LUBAVITZ after their great
founder of sainted memory. They
Exclusive:
Signed on
the Rebbes
Letterhead
After the JDC refuses to support
the Chabad activities in Morocco, an
independent fundraising effort is launched
* Rabbi Binyomin Gorodetsky signs two
rare and unique letters on the Rebbes
letterhead, and manages to secure the
financial support of the JDC * Part Three
have won recognition and fame.

To help support these sacred
institutions, enlarge them, and
found more like them is our appeal to you, dear fellow Jews and
Jewesses Send your donation
immediately.
JDC WORRIES:
CHABAD WILL EXPAND
REGARDLESS
On April 17, 1951 (Yud
Aleph Nissan 5711), Mr. William Bein, who served for some
period of time as the head of the
JDC office in Morocco writes
to Mr. Judah Shapiro, head of
the educational department of

the JDC in Paris, addressing the
Chabad appeal letter, and stating
that Chabad will expand regardless, the only question is whether
the JDC will support Chabad
or Chabad will fundraise themselves:
my answer was made much
easier because of a Passover circular issued country-wide by
the Lubavitcher, the original of
which we are enclosing. It speaks
for itself.
I have to repeat myself that I
have the greatest admiration for
the integrity and efficiency of the
Lubavitcher group
19/01/2016 12:40:31
recall with gratification that you

received the report favorably and
expressed your desire to be of
utmost assistance, but wished to
have a little time to think about it.
Inasmuch as you mentioned
ten days in this connection, I
have waited to hear from you,
but presumably pressure of work
caused a delay. I would not have
pressed you for your early and
favorable decision, were it not for
the fact that our financial position is getting more difficult and
our work is suffering thereby.
I therefore cabled you yesterday as follows:
EAGERLY AWAITING EARLY FAVORABLE DECISION
REGARDING OUR WORK IN
NORTH AFRICA ESPECIALLY
AS OUR FINANCIAL POSITION IS VERY STRINGENT
STOP THANKS HAPPY PASSOVER
I do hope you will give this
matter your earliest attention and
will let us know your favorable
decision, for which please be assured of our sincere appreciation.
THE JDC AGREES: WE

WILL FUND SIX MONTHS
There is no fear in our minds
concerning a precedent. The
precedent may refer only to the
Lubavitcher. If we will now start
to subsidise two of their institutions, the will definitely expand
and will ask for further subsidizing of additional institutions. As I
pointed out in my previous correspondence, this represents an
important decision to be made by
the JDC, either we will start to
subsidise their institutions in Morocco, with or without a limit, or
they will create institutions and
will begin raising funds for the
purpose (see circular)
ON THE REBBES
LETTERHEAD
It is clear that Rabbi Gorodetsky was aware of the storm
that he created with the fundraising letter (and maybe that was
the purpose of the letter), and
so, on the same day, he sent a
letter to the head of the JDC office in Paris, Mr. W. Beckelman,
asking for the JDC to support the
Chabad activities. This letter was
signed on the Rebbes letterhead!
I wish to refer to our conference at the end of March in
Paris, when I gave you a report
on our work in North Africa. I
During the next week, the

JDC agreed to support Chabad
activities in Morocco. In a letter
dated April 24, 1951 (18 Nissan,
5711), Mr. Judah Shapiro (JDC
Paris) writes to Rabbi Gorodetsky:
Mr. Beckelman has discussed
with me the entire subject of JDC
assistance to the program in Morocco with which your organization is involved. There are several
aspects of this question which
require further study and investigation on our part. I am writing
after further review of the matter
with Mr. Beckelman, following
your cable, in the knowledge that
you are eager to have some statement of our position respecting
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19/01/2016 12:40:31
FEATURE
your request.
Our financial commitments
have been made for the first six
months of this calendar year, and
it is Impossible at this time to
increase these during the period
until July 1st, 1951. We are, however, prepared to consider assistance to the program in Morocco
with which you are associated,
for the second half of 1951
In the meantime, we would
appreciate it if you could send us
a specific statement of activities
in Morocco, the cost of the program, and the amount of participation by the local community.
CHABAD: SURPRISED
AND DISAPPOINTED
On May 3, 1951 (27 Nissan
5711) Rabbi Gorodetsky responded, again on the Rebbes letterhead, not with thanks but with
surprise and disappointment

that the support will only begin in
July
Referring to your letter
of April 24th, we are rather surprised and disappointed with the
position of the JDC, as stated in
your letter, regarding our program in Morocco, especially as
Mr. Beckelman had taken a favorable attitude toward the question through our negotiations.
As you know, we started our
program in Morocco last June.
Since the end of February, when
our program was well under way
and we turned to the JDC for
support of this program, we have
been counting on it, in line with
our past experience. Now, if the
JDC should commence its participation in July 1951, as indicated
in your letter, it would mean that
we should have to bear the entire
financial burden of the program

on our shoulders for a full year
a thing we are not able to do, nor
would it be fair of us to expect.
We appreciate the fact that the
JDC has other financial commitments, but that does not alleviate
our burden, nor can this fact justify the JDCs delay to participate
in this program.
We must therefore ask you
to reconsider the question with
a view to commencing your participation in our work at least as
from the beginning of 1951
Once the support of the JDC
was secured, Chabad activities
in Morocco expanded in a quick
pace, although the JDC had different plans for Chabad. In the
next installment we will present
the plan of action that the JDC
proposed, and the plan of action
that Chabad took.
19/01/2016 12:40:31
HAKHEL & MOSHIACH
THE POWER OF
CHILDREN IN HAKHEL
AND BRINGING MOSHIACH
By Rabbi Gershon Avtzon
Dear Readers shyichyu,

This week - the week following Yud Shvat - we read Parshas
BShalach. The highlight of the Parsha is the miraculous splitting of the
sea and the singing of Az Yashir,
hence the nickname for this Shabbos: Shabbos Shira - the Shabbos of
song.
Concerning the parting of the
sea, let us keep in mind a statement
of our Sages, What a maidservant
saw by the sea, Yechezkel Ben Buzi
did not see in all his days. Yechezkel saw an incredible prophetic vision, referred to as the Works of the
Holy Chariot. Great Rabbis studied
this passage, and were never satisfied
that they fully understood it... and
yet the Midrash tells us that a maidservant saw even more than this!
In the Sicha of Parshas BShalach
5748 the Rebbe points out a very
interesting connection between the
story of the revelation of G-dliness
that was revealed by the splitting of
the sea and Hakhel: The adults were
inspired to G-dliness from the purity
of the children!
Regarding the splitting of the
sea, Chazal (Sota 11b) say They the children - recognized the revelation of G-dliness first! The Midrash
elaborates on the description of the
events:
When the Egyptians saw the Israelite women going to the fields to
give birth, they would take stones
and go to kill the infants. God per-
formed a miracle, and the babies

were swallowed by the earth. One
tradition attests that the infants were
swallowed in the field, to reappear
far away, before being swallowed yet
again and again, until the Egyptians
tired and left. According to another
tradition, the Egyptians would bring
oxen and plow the ground in order
to find the infants, but without success.
After the danger had passed, the
children would burst forth from the
ground, like the plants of the field, as
it is said (Yechezkel 16:7): I let you
grow like the plants of the field; and
you continued to grow up. When
they grew up, they returned to their
homes in flocks, as the same verse
says: and you continued to grow
up ba-adi adayim, reading the latter phrase (literally, with the choicest adornments; usually translated,
in the context of the verse, in the
sense of until you attained to womanhood) as be-edrei adarim, in
flocks (Ex. Rabba 1:1; Deut. Rabba, loc. cit.).
How did they know which was
their home? God would enter with
them. He would show each one his
house, and tell him: Your father is
named so-and-so, and your mother
is named so-and-so. The child would
ask her: Dont you remember that
you gave birth to me in such-andsuch a field on such-and-such a day,
five months ago? She would ask
him: And who raised you? And
the child would reply: A young man
with curly hair; none is as fair as he.

Here, he is outside and he brought
me here. His mother would request:
Show him to me. They would go
out and search in all the lanes and
alleys, but they could not find him
(Deut. Rabba, loc. cit.).
This is why when God was revealed to the Israelites at the parting of the Red Sea, the children were
the first to recognize Him, since He
had raised them and cared for them
in their infancy. Consequently, they
were the first to sing This is my God
and I will glorify him (Ex. 15:2),
for they had already met Him and
knew Him at first hand. When they
saw Him at the sea, they would tell
their parents, pointing with their
fingers, This is my Godthis is
the fine young man who raised me
(Sota 11b; Deut. Rabba, loc. cit.).
The same - that the parents connection to Hashem is enhanced by
their children - is seen by Hakhel:
The Gemara (Chagiga 3A) describes
an interesting discussion about
Hakhel: Our Rabbis have taught, It
happened to R. Yochanan ben Beruka and R. Elazar ben Chisma, that
they went to visit R. Yehoshua in Pekiin. He said to them, What innovation was there in the house of study
today? They said to him, We are
your students, and of your waters do
we drink.
He said to them, Even so, it is
impossible for the house of study to
be without something new. Whose
week was it? It was R. Elazar ben
Continued on page 9
Issue 1005
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BITACHON BYTES
THE BITACHON
PARADOX
By Rabbi Zalman Goldberg
he Torah in Parshas
BShalach tells us about
the
Yidden
finding
themselves
facing
a
difficult challenge, the various
mistaken reactions that are
possible, and Bitachons guidance
for each one.
The existence of the entire
Jewish nation is in grave danger.
The Yidden are trapped with the
sea before them and the Egyptians in hot pursuit right behind
them. With good intentions, the
Yidden offer different ideas on
how to proceed1.
In Avodas Hashem, all of the
approaches suggested have merit, and are thus worthy of being
mentioned. Nonetheless, each
contained certain flaws which required correction. Even the highest of the levels was lacking a certain element of Bitachon.
The first response to the crisis
was that they should throw themselves into the sea, . In
Avoda, this corresponds to an ongoing situation that is challenging
the public and which causes the
individual to completely withdraw from helping others in order to weather the storm. He
figuratively jumps into the sea
and surrounds himself with holiness and purity, thus saving nobody but himself from calamity.
The downside of this approach
is so blatant that the Rebbe does
not even explain its deficiency.
Saving oneself is worthless when

others could have been helped;
even if its only a few, and only
in small ways. The whole Torah is
founded on Ahavas Yisroel, and a
person who is lacking this foundation places everything else he
does into question2.
The second group of Yidden proposed admitting defeat
and returning to Egypt. Spiritually this refers to a Yid whose response to national calamity is, I
will do everything in my power,
including assisting others, to ease
the difficulties. But this is done
with a feeling of defeat. Generally, Torah and Mitzvos must be
fulfilled with zeal and zest, with
pleasure, liveliness and joy, but
this response to crisis is a feeling of helplessness and despondency. Of course, one of the
basics of Yiddishkait is
, and therefore, even though
this second group had a better response to the difficulty at
hand, wholesome it was not3.
The third suggestion was to
wage war against the Egyptians.
This group had energy. They
were not crushed and depleted
by the approaching enemy. They
gathered their strength and boldly stood up to the challenge. The
problem was that their decision
was human, and not congruent
with what Hashem wanted from
them. Hashems goal was that
they serve Him4 at ,
, and battling the

Egyptians was not on the agenda5.
The fourth group was better,
for they did not venture to fight
a war or to deviate from Hashems plan. They campaigned for
davening to Hashem to attain
salvation from the emergency.
Although they were mostly on the
right track, by caring for others
and not just themselves, maintaining simcha and not becoming despondent, not allowing
themselves to be distracted with
other plots, there was still one
small but crucial ingredient missing: moving forward to complete
Hashems will. Although davening is nice and important, it lacks
the element of taking action and
doing what Hashem wants from
us. Even though an individual is
so battul to Hashem to the extent
that he has none of his own opinions or perspectives, and his davening also expresses this bittul,
the lack of avoda in the right direction shows that the bittul was
taken too much to an extreme.
A person who acts and accomplishes does not seem to
be battul per se; after all he is a
person doing material actions.
Nonetheless, he is fulfilling the
will of Hashem.
A story is told of two people
who were about to come before
the king. One was a civilized person who understood the greatness of a king; the other person
was a coarse peasant who was ignorant of such phenomena. The
19/01/2016 12:40:32
king called for the first individual, and having contemplated the
exaltedness of His Excellency, he
fainted upon entering the kings
chamber. The peasant was then
ushered in and was commanded
to buy a box of matches for the
king, which he proceeded to do.
Although bittul is important, it
mustnt stop the kings will from
being fulfilled.
To better understand the importance of actual avoda notwithstanding the value of bittul,
the Rebbe gives an example from
Emuna and Bitachon. In a sense,
these two are opposites, yet both
are demanded of us. Emuna reflects the belief that all our needs
derive from Hashem, and Hashem is all good, and thus everything we have is ultimately good.
Bitachon, on the other hand,
mandates that a Yid believe that
all will be revealed good, and not
just good that only Hashem can
relate to.
So we have here two paradoxical elements; that of Emuna
in Hashem and focusing on His
greatness, which is an act of Bittul, and simultaneously strongly
believing that the good will be relatable to even us mortal beings.
Interestingly, according to
other Chassidic sources6 it seems
that exercising bitachon represents the strongest connection to
Hashem (a spiritual experience,
not a practical one), one that supersedes even sin, and the punishment that should otherwise
come along. But its not just a
lofty experience; bitachon means
that we will see that it will be go
od.
The physical aspect must be
there. The same is true with the
fourth group, those who advocated davening. They were missing
the action part of Avodas Hashem, and even though action may
seem to contradict the bittul to
Hashem, its demanded nonetheless.
In the end, it turns out that
in the context of bitachon (and
in the context of any real bittul),
the physical aspect was not at all
a distraction to the cleaving to
Hashem. The reason for this is
that the aspect of the gashmius is
secondary and flows automatically from the spiritual experience.
This never changes; the gashmius
never takes prime importance lest
it affect the devotion of the bitachon.
The same is with the people in

the fourth group who preferred
to daven: if they would have followed Hashems will even in material aspects, out of their bittul
to Hashem, the material aspects
would not have detracted from
their closeness to Hashem at all7.
Rabbi Zalman Goldberg is
a well sought after speaker and
lecturer on Chassidic thought. His
writings and recordings on the
topic of Bitachon can be accessed
at http://www.gotbitachon.com.
.879 ( 1
Bitachon encourages helping (2
others, to the greatest extent
possible and with the right
intentions. Shaar HaBitachon
chapter 4 paragraph
Bitachon strongly promotes (3
simcha, as it says oz vichedva
bimkomo, strength and joy are in
.194 ' '' '' .Hashems place
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www.MoshiachForKids.com
Check it out!! Educational and Fun!!
In Crown Heights area: 1640/1700AM
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Issue 1005
19
19/01/2016 12:40:32
PARSHA THOUGHT
RESPONSIBLE
LEADERSHIP
By Rabbi Heschel Greenberg
THE ENEMY: DOUBTS!
MOSHES HANDS
The Jewish nation emerged

from Egypt where they experienced great miracles, culminating
with the splitting of the Red Sea.
At the very moment they were rid
of one threat they confronted another: Amalek.
Amaleks attack, our Sages tell
us, was provoked when the Jewish
nation expressed doubt whether
G-d was still with them when they
ran out of water in the desert.
The word Amalek is numerically
equal to the Hebrew word for
doubt: safek. Amalek is the external manifestation of an internal
Amalek, which sows doubt in the
hearts and minds of people.
It follows then that the war
waged against the external Amalek was a reflection of the war one
must wage against the internal
Amalek.
Let us examine how this external war was won. While the Jewish people, commanded by Yehoshua, fought what would seem
to be a conventional war, the
power behind winning that war
was anything but conventional.
The Torah describes Moshe,
his brother Aaron and his nephew
Chur, climbing a mountain with
Moshe carrying G-ds staff in
his hands.
It would seem that the power

to win the war was vested in this
Divine staff, the very one with
which Moshe performed miracles
in Egypt.
Yet, as we read further, the
Torah describes how the war was
won:
It came to pass that when
Moshe would raise his hand, Israel would prevail, and when he
would lay down his hand, Amalek
would prevail.
In other words, it was not the
Divine staff that Moshe used to
support the troops fighting Amalek but the raising of his hand!
Rashi anticipates the question of why Moshe had to raise
his hands for the Jewish people
to win, when he had the power
vested in the staff with which he
performed some of the greatest
miracles ever.
Rashi cites the words of our
Sages, as recorded in the Mishneh:
Did Moshes hands win the
war? Rather, when the Jewish
people gazed heavenward and
subjugated their hearts to their
Father in heaven they were victorious, but if not they would falter.
The Torah continues:
Now Moshes hands were
heavy; so they took a stone and
placed it under him and he sat

on it. Aaron and Chur supported
his hands, one from this side, and
one from that side; so he was with
his hands in faith until sunset.
THE FOUR QUESTIONS

At this point several questions
arise:
First, why didnt Moshes
staff, which worked so well in
Egypt, suffice to bring about the
miraculous victory?
Second, why did Moshe need
Aaron and Chur to help him in
prayer?
Third, if Moshes hands were
heavy and needed support, why
does the Torah state that they
placed a rock underneath him?
How did sitting on a rock help to
support his arms?
Fourth, when the Torah stated
that they supported his hands, it is
self-evident that they were standing on his two sides. Why does
the Torah add: one from this
side, and one from that side?
TWO DYNAMICS
The answer lies in the very
different dynamics of the battle
against Pharaohs Egypt and the
battle against Amalek.
To be sure, both struggles
were not just physical. The exile
experience in Egypt was more
than just bondage; it was stifling
and constricting of the soul. The
19/01/2016 12:40:34
Jews in Egypt were as much in

a spiritual prison as they were
in physical confinement. They
had degenerated and begun to
fall into the spiritual abyss. They
could not pull themselves out;
they needed Moshe to use G-ds
staff, i.e., G-ds singular power,
to remove the physical and spiritual shackles.
The situation with Amalek
was markedly different. The Jewish nation was no longer in exile.
While they were not yet in the
Promised Landand had not
even received the Torahthey
were nevertheless out of Egypt.
With all the miracles they experienced first-hand they had begun
to bask in G-ds transcendent
light.
At this point, when the Jewish
people expressed doubts about
G-ds presence in their midst,
those doubts were not going to be
remedied by a Divine revelation.
This new scenario demanded
that they roll up their proverbial
sleeves, get out of their comfort
zone and fight both the external
and internal Amalek.
MOSHES ROLE
We must now try to understand Moshes role in this battle.
Why was he needed if it was the
Jewish people who had to pull
themselves out of the spiritual
quagmire they got themselves
into?
The answer lies in our understanding that Moshe, the paradigmatic Jewish leader, possessed
two aspects of leadership. Moshe,
on the one hand, was G-ds messenger and instrument to perform
all the miracles. And as G-ds instrument he was the most qualified to lead because of his humility. His transparency enabled
him to serve as an unobstructed
channel to G-ds energy.
This explains why when we recite from the Hagada at the Seder
we speak of how G-d redeemed
us and did not delegate this role
to His messenger. The question
has been raised, how could we
say that there was no messenger, when Moshe initiated every
plague? Wasnt Moshe G-ds
messenger?
The answer is that unlike Gds other messengers, Moshe was
so self-effacing and transparent
that it was as if he were not there.
inadequacies.
Moshe thus sat down upon a
rock. Rashi points out that Moshe
chose to sit on a rock and not on
a cushion, because he wanted to
share the pain of his brethren.
Moshe perhaps attributed their
losses in the battle against Amalek
to his lack of empathy for them.
When can a leader best inspire his
flock? When he is connected to
and has great empathy for them.
Moshe, in his humility, felt he
was not doing enough as a leader
While these two traits are diametrically opposites,

one on the right and one on the left, nevertheless
they both relate to the Oneness Of G-d. When a person
lives a unified life because everything he or she does is
directed towards the one G-d, the differences between
right and left become irrelevant.
CONNECTION
By contrast, Moshes role in
the war against Amalek was no
longer going to be channeling a
Divine revelation. Now, Moshe
had to ignite the spark of Moshe
that is within each and every Jew.
No Divine staff could do this.
Moshe had to inspire the Jews
to change and direct their hearts
heavenward by raising his own
hands heavenward.
However, Moshe felt there
was something amiss. Moshe,
whom the Torah testifies never
lost any of his physical strength,
even on the day of his passing,
suddenly experienced difficulty
keeping his hands aloft!
Moshe realized that something
was seriously wrong, but rather
than ascribing his weakness to the
people who were still not cleansed
of their internal Amalek, Moshe
humbly attributed this to his own
to connect with the people, so he

sat on the rock to feel their pain
and reinforce his bond with them.
In truth, Moshe the faithful
shepherd was not the one responsible. The problem with the
faulty connection between Moshe
and the people was a frayed wire
in their connection to Moshe.
CONNECTING TO THE
RIGHT AND LEFT
In his attempt to strengthen
his connection to the people
Moshe realized that he had to relate to them in a specific way. He
had to connect to their individual
personalities and shore them up.
When a person needs inspiration, it must relate to the individuals specific character. Just
instilling a general feeling of faith
and inspiration will not suffice.
One needs to augment that faith
with a deep feeling of love and
Issue 1005
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19/01/2016 12:40:34
FEATURE
reverence for G-d.
Moshe therefore took his two
deputies, Aaron and Chur, for
support. Aaron was the epitome of
kindness, and Chur the model of
rigid discipline. In the parlance of
Kabbala, Aarons soul was associated with the attribute of chesed
while Churs was the embodiment
of gvura. By having them support
his arms, Moshe inspired the Jewish nation to strengthen its own
soul-powers of chesed and gvura,
which translate into love for and
awe of G-d.
The Torah does not end the
scene there. The Torah continues on to mention that they were
standing on this side one and on
this side one. This was meant to
underscore that while these two
traits are diametrically opposites,
one on the right and one on the
left, nevertheless they both relate
to the Oneness Of G-d. When a
person lives a unified life because
everything he or she does is directed towards the one G-d, the
differences between right and left
become irrelevant.
Continued from page 23

mock his mushpaim with the term
reporter. If someone got that
censure from R Mendel it meant
that R Mendel wanted him to
get into things, and not merely
observe a farbrengen as a reporter
would.
Recently, the frum world has
turned the concept of reporter
into a title of respect, someone
whom many seek out at the mikva and the coffee corner in shul.
One of the advantages of a staff
of writers that are not reporters is
There are many parallels to

our time. We too are in the interim period between Galus-exile
and Geula-Redemption. We have
witnessed incredible miracles, of
Biblical proportion, when we saw
the collapse of the former Soviet
Union, the modern day Egypt
that enslaved its Jews physically
and spiritually. As the Rebbe stated, this and other miracles of recent times were actually the product of Moshiachs impact and a
sample of what will come next.
These were G-dly actions, channeled through Moshiach, in the
same way as the miracles of the
Exodus came directly from G-d,
channeled by Moshe. Moshe only
served as a conduit while using
G-ds staff.
Moshiach, like Moshe before
him, has a second role consistent with a new reality. In this
transitional period, while we are
standing on the threshold of the
final redemption, there are those
plagued by doubts. We dont
see the overt miracles we saw in
the past, while we are witness to
negatives such as terrorism and

other ills. These doubters raise
the question, Is G-d within us,
or not?
To deal with this new scenario,
Moshiach must put on a different
hat, so to speak. He is not only
a channel for G-ds energy to
change the world; he also seeks to
cement his connection to us and
our connection to him so that we
are freed from our internal Amalek.
While, in the past, we passively enjoyed the benefits of
modern-day miracles, to defeat
Amalek now we have to be proactive and strengthen the hands of
Moshiach. If we do not take the
cue from Moshes/Moshiachs
uplifted arms, it means that we,
the people, have failed to eradicate our internal Amalek.
Whether we are on the right
or on the left (spiritually speaking), whether we are Aaronites
or Churites, as long as we are
directed to the goal of bringing
G-ds oneness to the world, we
will succeed in destroying Amalek
and bringing about the ultimate
Redemption!
that they feel like shluchim, that

their writing is a shlichus, and
not, G-d forbid, journalism.
So what motivates the writers,
editors and publisher to invest
so much energy to produce this
magazine? A few months ago, a
shliach wrote me an email that
Ive saved. I must share with
you an experience that I have every Shabbos. The farbrengens
and conversation in shul have
changed completely. There are
people whom Ive never heard
tell a story about the Rebbe, a
Chassidishe vort, etc. but now
that Ive subscribed them to Beis

Moshiach, their entire family is
connected to the Rebbe!
The bottom line is that what
gives us the strength to continue
is another subscriber who connects to the Rebbe and connects
his entire family. For us, its not
about producing a magazine, but
connecting Jews to the Rebbe.
Ill end on a personal note.
If you have friends from Anash,
mekuravim, neighbors, who dont
yet subscribe to the weekly infusion of connection to the Rebbe,
now is the time to connect them.
PARALLELS TO OUR TIME
19/01/2016 12:40:34
STORY
BEHIND THE SCENES

AT BEIS MOSHIACH
By Oholiav Abutbul
he following episode
comes to mind every
time I meet someone who
refuses to understand
what Beis Moshiach is about. Two
years ago, after a lengthy process of
back and forth with an ad agency,
one of the largest health plans in
Eretz Yisroel decided to advertise
regularly with us. The ad is
on the way, the media director
told me about an hour before the
closing of the magazine.
When I got the ad I forwarded it to the vaad ruchni for their
approval. A few minutes later I
received their response: The ad
cannot appear in our magazine
because of a not-kosher animal
in it.
I cant believe you! Were
talking about tens of thousands of
shekels in the long-run, and if you
dont put it in, forget about it all.
And you know how much work I
put in to get it!
The director of the agency
was livid. He was unwilling to
hear me out. The ad goes into
all the religious publications, even
in How are you different?
I told him this came from the
Lubavitcher Rebbe and therefore
we would be forced to give up on
the ad, even at the cost of losing
our relationship with that agency.
That evening the magazine went
to print without the ad and with
the feeling that we had lost out
big time.
For
us,
its
not
about
producing a magazine;
its about connecting
Jews to the Rebbe.
The next morning I got a

phone call. On the line was the
religious sector liaison for that
health plan. Please explain it to
me, he asked. We arranged to
meet and I showed him what the
Rebbe says.
You have no idea how happy
I am that weve met. From today
on, I will only have ads with ko-
sher animals and naturally I will

be happy to advertise with you.
***
I remember that night in a
basement in Crown Heights. On
the table were empty plastic cups,
half-filled bottles of Smirnoff, and
the remains of cookies, evidence
of a farbrengen which had taken
place a few hours earlier. At the
head of the table sat the mashpia,
R Yitzchok Springer ah, known
as R Itche, along with the members of the editorial board of Beis
Moshiach.
That is how the meeting for
the 700th issue looked. Experiences from the previous years
were shared and a happy atmosphere prevailed. Then one of the
participants banged on the table
and politely asked to be allowed
to say a few words.
I think someone here missed
the point. The celebration is wonderful and all is fine and well, but
we did not achieve the goal. Every
page, every magazine, every cover
that is printed while the Rebbe is
still not revealed to us all means
we did not yet achieve what we set
out to achieve. The only goal, for
which Beis Moshiach was founded, is to achieve the hisgalus.
To me, that is what Beis
Moshiach is about. There is one,
clear goal before all the members
of the editorial board. As long as
the goal was not achieved, we are
still only on the way.
R Mendel Futerfas would
Continued on page 22
Issue 1005
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19/01/2016 12:40:34
STORIES
TIRELESS
SHLIACH OUT OF
THE LIMELIGHT
R Aharon Mordechai Zilberstrom was a
fascinating personality. For decades he worked
as a soldier in the service of the Rebbe in the
field of chinuch. This was in addition to his being
the director of Reshet Oholei Yosef Yitzchok
and one of its founders. * Over the years, he
experienced some interesting events, some of
them extraordinary, in which he saw the hand of
Hashem directing and helping him.
By Shneur Zalman Levin
he name of R Aharon
Mordechai
Zilberstrom
may not be known to
many, since he never
stood out among the public figures
in Chabad, although for decades he
held important jobs in education,
starting from the time that he ran
schools in France during and after
the war, and then when he went
to Eretz Yisroel, where he served
as menahel of the Reshet Yosef
Yitzchok schools for fifty years.
Although he was one of the
founders of Reshet Oholei Yosef
Yitzchok and one of its directors
for many years, and he was an
outstanding talmid chacham who
taught Torah and Chassidus, his

name wasnt known enough. For
that was R Zilberstrom, a modest
and humble person. His great genius was also in his modesty and
his silence which spoke more than
a thousand words.
A DREAM THAT I HAD

During his years of service for
the Reshet, he experienced great
difficulties as well as outstanding
successes. On the course of the
bumpy road he traveled, along
with the other founding activists of the early years, he saw the
open hand of Hashem guiding
him. Literally open miracles. For

example, the following story occurred in 5720 when the school
in Ganim first opened, under his
administration.
R Aharon Mordechai struggled mightily in order to found,
establish and develop the Chabad
educational empire. Sometimes it
was against officials in the Education Ministry who wanted to torpedo the Reshet, and sometimes
they were officials in the education department of the municipality in Yerushalayim who did
everything to thwart the growth
and development of the Chabad
school in the Monachat neighbor-
19/01/2016 12:40:35
Issue 1005
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19/01/2016 12:40:36
STORIES
hood (today Malcha) and then in

Ir Ganim. The Histadrut labor
unions which were then politically
aligned with the Mapai party did
not sit idly by, and they waged a
war against the Chabad school.
This was especially so during the
months of registration when a
real battle took place between the
Lubavitchers who wanted to save
precious souls and register the
immigrant children in the Chabad
schools to preserve their Judaism,
and the members of Mapai who
wanted to rip them away from Torah and mitzvos and register them
in public schools. R Zilberstrom
even received threats to his life
and that of his family.
R Aharon Mordechai, with
seven years of battles behind him,
was fearless. That year, 5720, he
managed, through brilliant tactics, to increase the registration
of the Chabad school. In light of
his successful registration drive
and the poor results for the public
school in that neighborhood, he
demanded of the city that he be
given half of the beautiful public
school. It was simply absurd that
the Chabad school be housed in
old, ramshackle buildings, with
some of the classes in temporary
structures, while the public school
was fully funded and was given a

spacious building, half of which
remained empty. This demand
aroused the fury of the Histadrut
leaders, who decided to wage an
all-out battle against him.
R Aharon Mordechai fought
like a lion with the directors of the
education department of the city
of Yerushalayim in order to get
what he felt he deserved, said R
Dov Wallis, a Lubavitcher Chassid in Yerushalayim who worked
with him during those years.
However, by order of the Histadrut, the education department
of the city ignored his requests
and even fought him. The issue
reached the upper echelons of the
Education Ministry which found
itself involved up to its neck in the
battle which had turned into a political struggle.
I wont forget that short winter Friday in Teves or Shvat when
there was a fateful meeting with
the elites of the Education Ministry. R Dovid Chanzin also attended that meeting. Although he
was a widower and took care of
his five small children on his own,
he came especially to Yerushalayim for this meeting. It was two or
two thirty in the afternoon and he
still had to return to Petach Tikva
under the unreliable transportation conditions of those days.

Nevertheless, R Chanzin led the
meeting calmly as though he had
just begun his day. We all went
crazy seeing him run the meeting
with self-control despite the fact
that the tone and emotions of the
people present were rather high.
The Education Ministry, along
with the education department of
the city led by members of the
Histadrut, vigorously fought the
Chabad school, while R Aharon
Mordechai stood resolute, almost
entirely alone, and fought valiantly for the souls of the Jewish
children.
At a certain point, the matter reached the High Court of
Yerushalayim. The administration of the Reshet hired a top lawyer, Mr. Tzvi Tal (later a judge
on the Supreme Court). The
situation did not look promising, as the judge was known for
his anti-religious sentiments. R
Aharon Mordechai later said that
this wasnt a local matter about
an individual school. We knew
that the ramifications would affect generations to come. As
menahel of the Reshet in those
days, he feared for the fate of the
entire Reshet.
Mr. Tal, the lawyer who represented the Reshet, was very
nervous before the hearing to the
point that he couldnt sleep at
night.
The day of the hearing, R
Aharon Mordechai went to the
courthouse in Yerushalayim early
in the morning. There he met the
lawyer Tal who looked relaxed. R
Aharon Mordechai was surprised
by this and asked what was going
on.
I had a dream in which the
Rebbe came to me and told me
not to worry, everything will be
fine. So Im relaxed, said the
lawyer.
19/01/2016 12:40:38
What happened was no less

than a Baalshemske miracle.
When it came time for the hearing,
the judge, who was always very
punctual, was running late. Time
passed and more time passed and
there was still no judge to be seen.
The legal representatives of the
litigants were already sitting and
all were tense. Apparently something had happened to the judge,
so another judge was selected to
replace him. As it turned out, the
replacement judge was a friend of
the lawyer Tal!
After a lengthy proceeding,
the judge decided in favor of
the Reshet. The Histadrut people were furious, for they were
forced to approve the transfer of
half their school building to the
Chabad school.
Tzvi Tal
R Aharon Mordechai was fearless. That year he

managed, through brilliant tactics, to increase
the registration of the Chabad school. In light of his
SHLIACH FROM HEAVEN
successful registration drive and the poor results for the
Among the many projects that
public school in that neighborhood, he demanded of the
he was constantly busy with, R
Aharon Mordechai had to raise city that he be given use of half of the beautiful public
funds for the official and semischool, half of which remained empty. This demand
official activities that he wanted
to do for the school but for which aroused the fury of the Histadrut leaders, who decided
he did not receive an official budto wage an all-out battle against him.
get. Where did he obtain the
funds from? Nobody knew but
the following incident shows what
kind of heavenly assistance he received.
One time he needed a large
sum of money for various school
expenses. He knew that if he did
not have the money in the morning, it would be a complete mess
with the schools bank account.
He was preoccupied with this. Although he usually did not include
his family in these matters which
besieged him from all sides, that
evening he told his wife that the
police might come tomorrow.
He did not explain why.
It was late in the evening
when there was knocking at his
door on the fourth floor of the
Beit Gazit building on Rechov
Strauss in the center of Yerushalayim. A stranger stood there

and asked, Zilberstrom family?
When they said yes, he said,
I have an envelope for you, and
without any explanation he thrust
the envelope into the hands of
R Aharon Mordechai. The man
then disappeared. In the envelope
was a significant sum of money.
R Aharon Mordechai tried to
figure out the identity of the man,
who had appeared suddenly as an
angel, but nobody knew. It must
have been Eliyahu HaNavi, said
his family.
The next day, R Aharon Mordechai hurried to deposit the
money.
Some time went by and one
day he noticed the man walking
down the street. It looked like
the man was rushing somewhere
so R Aharon Mordechai did not
have a chance to find out who
he was and why he had suddenly
showed up with money for him.
Years passed and one day R
Aharon Mordechai was invited to
serve as sandak for a family in the
Ir Ganim neighborhood. He arrived in the morning and someone invited him to his home for
coffee and cake.
Uncharacteristically, he felt he
should say yes and he went with
the man to his home. R Aharon
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19/01/2016 12:40:39
STORIES
Mordechai was an organized and
well thought out person with every minute dear to him. This was
completely unlike him to accept
an invitation from a stranger on
the spur of the moment and yet
he went. And there he met the
anonymous donor.
This time, he did not allow the
opportunity to slip through his
fingers and he asked the donor,
Why did you bring money that
evening? You were an emissary
from heaven to me!
The man gave him a surprising response. Just that day I
earned a lot of money and I was
so happy that I resolved to give a
tenth of it to someone involved in
education. I asked various people
in Kiryat Yovel and Ir Ganim who
was involved in chinuch and they
all told me, Rabbi Zilberstrom. I
managed to get your address and
brought you the tithe that same
night.
MONEY FROM HEAVEN

Along with all his sterling
qualities, R Aharon Mordechai
performed acts of kindness physically, spiritually, and with his
money. His compassionate heart
had him feeling the pain and lack
of many and he would help them
to the best of his ability. Requests
came his way to help needy families, both needy locals in Yerushalayim and Lubavitcher families
from around the country. The
mashpia, R Moshe Weber, would
often go to him and ask him for
help in the various communal
causes he directed.
R Aharon Mordechai tried to
help even though he himself was
a salaried worker who lived off
a set salary from the Education
Ministry.
An acquaintance of his had
run into money difficulties, for he
had not yet sold his current apart-
ment but had signed a contract to

buy a new apartment. It was time
for him to pay the seller but he
did not have the money. The seller threatened that if he did not receive the balance of the purchase
price on time, he would sell the
apartment to someone else and
he would lose his down payment.
R Aharon Mordechai heard
about this and he showed up at
the mans house with an open
check and told the man, Write
what you need and may Hashem help you; when you have the
money youll give it back to me.
Another time, at the end of a
shiur that took place in the kollel for balabatim attached to Yeshivas Toras Emes (he was one
of the founders), the rosh kollel,
R Zelig Feldman ah, banged on
the table and said that that day
he had received a request from a
family in distress who were about
to marry off their son but did not
have money. They needed 32,000
shekels for wedding expenses.
He asked the people present to
contribute. There were only ten

men, none of whom were men of
means.
R Aharon Mordechai went
home lost in thought. He wanted
to help but didnt have the means
to do so.
As in other instances where
divine providence guided him,
it happened this time too. The
next morning the phone rang.
On the line was an official from
Keren HaYesod (UIA-United Israel Appeal) who said that a man
had died and left money to the
fund and the official wanted to
give some of the inheritance to a
needy family. The amount was
exactly 32,000 shekels.
Astounded by this turn of
events, R Aharon Mordechai
exclaimed, I have just the right
family! and he told her about
what happened the day before
and the exact amount that the
family needed for the wedding.
He received the money and
went directly to the home of R
Zelig Feldman and gave it to him.
Those who knew R Zelig know
that he was very intellectual and
not given to emotional outbursts,
but in this case even he said,
Something like this should be
written down and documented.
On another occasion, there
were knocks at the Zilberstrom
door and it was the noted askan,
R Shlomo Maidanchek. R Shloimke smilingly got to the point.
Can you have a guest now?
R Aharon Mordechai understood that this was not an ordinary visitor and he said, I will go
down to welcome him. He immediately ran down to the street
where he was surprised to see the
mashpia, R Mendel Futerfas. R
Aharon Mordechai wondered why
the elderly mashpia had bothered
to visit him.
R Mendel said, We are fundraising for Tomchei Tmimim.
19/01/2016 12:40:39
We heard that you can obtain

large sums but from what I can
see, you dont have any. So lets
make a compromise between
what we hear and what we see,
and R Mendel, as fundraisers
in Russia would do, stated an
amount of 25,000 shekels that R
Aharon Mordechai should raise
for the yeshiva. It was a vast sum
and R Aharon Mordechai, who
was careful with his speech and
all the more so with his promises, did not commit. He said he
would try.
Two days went by and he
somehow obtained that amount
of money which he rushed to give
to R Mendel.
IN HIS LATER YEARS

R Aharon Mordechai devoted
the years after he retired to giving shiurim in Torah and Chassidus, by the explicit instruction
of the Rebbe who told him at
dollars distribution, Spreading
the wellsprings with joy and gladness of heart. In these shiurim
he revealed a bit of his enormous
knowledge in all parts of Torah,
as well as his pedagogical skills
in giving comprehensible shiurim
constructed step by step. His
teaching abilities drew hundreds
of people of all ages and sectors
who loved his Torah lessons as
well as his general knowledge.
He gave numerous shiurim across
the country and was invited to address all sorts of crowds. All this
went counter to his nature and
conduct throughout the years.
He was no longer a young
man when he went from shiur to
shiur, but his youthful spirit followed him to each place and this
is how he was able to bring the
pure wellsprings of the teachings
of Chassidus to thousands of people. He paid no attention to his
advanced age and his daily schedule was packed with learning and
teaching Torah.
In the last period of his life,
he told his grandson, R Moshe
Zilberstrom, stressing that he had
never told this to anyone before,
that he had received a special bracha from the Rebbe. It was when
he had a private audience with
the Rebbe. At a certain point,
the Rebbe bent over and looked
for something in a drawer of his
desk. The Rebbe suddenly raised
his head and blessed him with
length of days and good years.
R Zilberstrom stood there
flustered, astounded by this blessing. The Rebbe continued to
search for something and suddenly straightened up and said,
together with her, meaning his
wife, Miriam.
Throughout his life, every
minute was accounted for, knowing the value of the deposit he
had been entrusted with, i.e.
time. You never saw him sitting
idly. About two or three months
before he passed away, one of
his children saw him looking introspective with a tinge of gloom
about him. It was not at all characteristic of him and when he was
asked what happened, and why he
wasnt happy, he said, I did not
accomplish anything in life.
The son recounted, I had just
read a story about the Tzemach
Tzedek which said that before his
passing, his assistant saw that he
looked sad. When he asked the
Rebbe, the Rebbe said that he had
not accomplished anything in his
lifetime. The assistant showed
the Rebbe the closets packed with
booklets of Chassidus he had
written, but the Rebbe was not
assuaged. When he tried to appease him with the work that he
did on behalf of dozens of agunos
that he had allowed to remarry,
the Rebbe was not assuaged. Finally, he said, Rebbe, you made
so many baalei teshuva! and this
appeased him. I used this story to

assuage my father and reminded
him of the thousands of students
he had who, thanks to him, were
exposed to the light of Torah and
mitzvos and the teachings of
Chassidus.
About a month before his
passing, during a visit of one of
his daughters, he suddenly said,
If prayers were ineffective, then
maybe it will be possible to accomplish through joy.
In the last days of his life, his
nephew, R Shmuel Menachem
Jacobson visited him. R Aharon Mordechai welcomed him
and said, I feel that I am in the
doorway between this world and
the next world. When his nephew tried to dissuade him, he remained silent. On the historically
tragic day of 17 Tammuz, R Aharon Mordechai passed away in
his ninetieth year, the fulfillment
of the Rebbes blessing to him
for long life. He passed away in
Bikur Cholim hospital where his
father, R Binyamin Nachum, and
his father-in-law, R Tuvia Spiegel, passed away.
That night, Motzaei Shabbos
Parshas Balak, a Chassid who devoted all his energies, talents and
his very life, to the spreading of
Judaism and the wellsprings of
Chassidus, as well as fulfilling
the shlichus given to him by the
Rebbe Rayatz and the Rebbe, was
accompanied to his final rest by
a huge crowd who filled the shuk
of Mea Sharim. These included
rabbanim, great Torah scholars,
elder Chassidim and mashpiim,
a large crowd of Lubavitchers
and members of other Chassidic
sects, family and students.
Indeed, he not only merited the
fulfillment of the Rebbes blessing
for length of days, but also good
years, as his entire life was filled
with work in spreading the good
of Torah and Chassidus.
Issue 1005
29
19/01/2016 12:40:40
CROSSROADS
WE HAVE MET
THE ENEMY, AND
HE IS US
The investigation revealed the true face of the
leftist industry, which uses any and all means to
slander and vilify the Jewish People under the
guise of being human rights activists. These
quislings place innocent Arabs in the hands
of the Palestinian Authority for committing
the vilest of all crimes: selling land to Jews,
punishable by a torturous death.
By Sholom Ber Crombie
Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry
1.
The following took place
thirty-eight years ago during a
yechidus between the Rebbe and
Rabbi Simcha Elberg, chairman
of the executive board of the
Union of Orthodox Rabbis in
New York. The Rebbe moved to
a discussion on a new left-wing
movement, virtually unknown
by the world media at the time.
The Union of Orthodox Rabbis
must take action with firm resolve
in disseminating information
against the movement that
recently came into being and
calls itself Peace Now, the most
dangerous movement to the

Jewish People, the Rebbe said
with determination. When Jews
rise up and establish a movement
whose entire purpose is to give
away territory, regarding this it is
said, Those who destroy you and
those who lay you waste shall go
forth from you.
The Rebbe explained to
Rabbi Elberg that they are
much worse than the spies, as
the spies did what they did only
among the children of Israel to
weaken them, saying only that
they should remain in the desert.
Whereas, the new movement
also takes action among the

nations of the world, explaining
to them that the Jews have to
relinquish Eretz HaKodesh while
they slander the land, within and
without. Therefore, the danger
is quite great, and the Union of
Orthodox Rabbis must work with
all its strength in [spreading]
information and to awaken all
those who have influence.
The Rebbe continued: If they
dont take action before its too
late, there will be great suffering of
a kind that Israel has never known.
All rabbinical organizations must
know of the great responsibility,
19/01/2016 12:40:40
for if they wont visibly fight this

organization in the public forum,
there will be within a short time a
root that produces hemlock and
wormwood, and all the wise men
of Israel will be unable to repair
its damage and corruption.
Rabbi Elberg was surprised.
Why was the Rebbe so worried
about a fledgling leftist group,
working behind the scenes to
set up meetings between Israeli
policymakers and the PLO terror
organization? They represented
an appalling form of radicalism,
far from Israeli national consensus
and whose activities were against
Israeli law. Who ever imagined

that we would be concerned over
a handful of extremist kooks
who dreamt about bringing PLO
terrorists to Eretz Yisroel and
turning them into world leaders?
Thirty eight years have passed,
and only recently has the Israeli
public come to realize the great
harm that has been caused. This
organization, which the leader
of our generation saw decades
ago as a mortal danger, has
become the symbol of left-wing
causes, i.e., those who defame
the Holy Land before the eyes
of the world. These are the ones
who brought us peace now

and war afterwards. Were it not
for this organization, these other
leftist fronts never would have
sprouted, like mushrooms after
a rainstorm, funded by billions
of shekels from the international
anti-Jewish incitement machinery
to sow seeds of hatred against the
People of Israel.
Billions of dollars have
been invested since then in the
industry of incitement against the
settlers of Yehuda and Shomron,
IDF soldiers, and anyone else
who dares to support the return
of the Jewish People to their
Issue 1005
31
19/01/2016 12:40:40
STORIES
birthplace. They wander around
the globe, purportedly involved
in ideological activism, spreading
their lies and engaging in antiSemitic provocations all in
exchange for money. It is beyond
belief how the entire Jewish People
sat by with sheer complacency
for more than thirty years, while
only one voice the voice of the
Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach
identified the danger even then,
warning that Peace Now will
bring disaster.
2.
Nowadays the danger is quite
evident to all. Recently, antimole legislation was proposed
in the Knesset, designed to make
things far more difficult for these
spy rings, posing as legitimate
Israeli organizations while they
serve the subversive interests of
anti-Jewish forces.
As always, the Israelis got
the idea a little late. This didnt
happen after the Goldstone
Report, sustained entirely from
material supplied by New Israel
Fund organizations and which
concluded that leading figures
in the Israel Defense Forces are
war criminals. This also didnt
happen after the minister of
defense and other top officials
in charge of national security
were called to appear before
international tribunals on criminal
investigations for daring to
protect the lives of their citizens.
The people of Eretz Yisroel
have only recently understood
the extent of the devastating
damage, after the findings of a
comprehensive
investigation,
conducted over a period of several
years by prominent right-wing
activists, were made public. The
inquiry revealed that the left-wing
organizations operate with Mafiastyle aggression against the Jewish
settlers in Yehuda and Shomron,
all financed with billions of

dollars flowing from anti-Semitic
countries. The high point of the
investigation came in the form of
a human rights activist, who
delivered land brokers to the
Preventive Security Forces of the
Palestinian Authority for trying
to sell land to Jewish settlers in
southern Har Chevron.
The investigation revealed the
true face of the leftist industry,
which uses any and all means to
slander and vilify the Jewish People
under the guise of being human
rights activists. These quislings
place innocent Arab merchants
in the hands of the Palestinian
Authority for committing the
worst of all crimes: selling land
to Jews, punishable by a torturous
death. It turns out that for these
groups, concepts such as freedom
and democracy are merely tools
to be used as malicious weapons
against Jews.
Just as the Rebbe had warned
decades earlier, our terribly poor
state in the eyes of the world
has come from those radical
organizations emerging from
within our very own ranks. These
are the ones who trot around the
globe and tell everyone that the
IDF is a terror organization and
its soldiers are murderers - no
less. They pull the ground under
the international legitimacy of our
right to defend ourselves, claiming
that the Arab-Israeli conflict is
between two equal sides, each of
which has crossed red lines and
slaughtered innocent citizens. In
their stupidity and foolishness,
they have managed to turn the
worlds most ethical army into a
regular Wehrmacht.
3.
After they succeeded in
bringing the Tunis gang to
Eretz Yisroel and transforming
them into heroes of peace, they
passed the Oslo Accords with

international diplomatic pressure
and then created the monster
known as the Palestinian
Authority - the institution
responsible
for
the
worst
incitement against the Jewish
People since the era of the Third
Reich. Furthermore, since were
talking about pious fools, who
also make a good living through
impressive salaries provided by
this peace industry, they dont
let themselves get confused with
facts. Even after two decades
of seeing their efforts blow up
in their faces, with the blood of
thousands of terror victims, they
continue to claim that the other
side is a partner and only we
are to blame for the breakdown of
the peace process.
When the President of
the United States demands
a
construction
freeze
in
Yerushalayim,
Yehuda,
and
Shomron, it doesnt just come
out of nowhere. What rationally
thinking Senator or Congressman
would agree to support such a
ridiculous proposal to forbid only
Jews from building in Yehuda
and Shomron, while the Arabs
build at a staggering pace? But
when he is backed by a campaign
of
international
incitement,
preparing public opinion for any
demand against the settlers in
Yehuda and Shomron, Barack
Obama can relax. He doesnt
have to run around the world and
explain his position this job has
already been done for him by the
leftist organizations.
4.
However, theres also some
encouraging news. Although
these groups are being funded
by the billions, seeking in every
possible way to prevent Jewish
settlement of Yehuda and
Shomron, newly publicized data
19/01/2016 12:40:41
shows that the settler population

has grown to more than four
hundred thousand. This is an
extraordinary phenomenon that
has never happened anywhere
else in the world: A region where
no construction is taking place
has been developing at a dizzying
pace, far more than any other
region in the country. Despite all
the pitfalls and the recent wave
of terror, the cost of homes in
the settlements continues to rise
with an unprecedented demand
for new residential units. This
serious housing crisis, after years
of a harsh construction freeze
imposed by the current prime
minister, has failed to stop the
growth of the settlements. Every
porch closed off in Elon Moreh
or Eli is immediately grabbed, as
if we were talking about Beverly
Hills.
In another year and a half,
the territories of Yehuda and
Shomron will celebrate the fiftieth
anniversary of their liberation.
As the nationalist camp in Eretz
Yisroel prepares for this auspicious
date, its members will try and

advance the cause of establishing
Israeli sovereignty over Yehuda
and Shomron. The time has come
for the Israeli government to stop
denying the fact that this region
is an integral and indivisible part
of the Land of Israel, where our
forefathers once dwelled. This
realization will only come when
the politicians internalize how
our presence here is solely in
the merit of G-ds Divine
promise. Thus, it makes no
difference whether were
talking about the territory
conquered in 5708/1948
or nineteen years later
during the Six Day War. We
did not come here because
of the Balfour Declaration,
rather due to the strength
of the Torah. Therefore,
what goes for Tel Aviv, goes
for Yitzhar and Itamar.
Israeli
policymakers
claim that the world is not
ready to accept the idea
of total Israeli sovereignty
over Yehuda and Shomron.

However, the truth is that we have

to accept it first. The real problem
is not the world, but among
ourselves. When the Israeli public
at-large stands firm with the
understanding that Eretz Yisroel
belongs to us, with no need to
apologize or obtain permission
from the Gentiles, the nations
political leaders will understand
this as well.
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Issue 1005
33
19/01/2016 12:40:41
TZIVOS HASHEM
By D Chaim
I walked the streets of

Moscow on my way to school
as I huddled in my coat, trying
to warm up in the subzero
The place I
temperature.
was heading toward was not
well-equipped
beautiful,
a
building like you might imagine.
The classroom that is for
me and another five classmates
My parents
is underground.
a place
for
looked
ely
purpos
would
nobody
that
this,
like
my
when
and
to,
ion
attent
pay
cellar
the
ted
sugges
Dov
uncle
under his house as a place to
learn, they liked the idea. Why?
Because in Russia it is forbidden
to go to yeshiva and someone
who is caught can be sent to
Siberia for many years. So we
have no choice but to learn in
hiding.
Three times a week a bachur
comes from a Chabad yeshiva
to teach us Chumash, Gemara,
and Tanya. He does this with
self-sacrifice and on the days
he does not come we review
the material we learned during
the previous days. That day
the teacher announced in a
telephone call to my home that
today the doctor was there
and the patient could come.
Surely you have figured out who
the doctor and patient are
The evil Russians from the
KGB do not sit quietly and
wait for us to come and tell

them that we have broken the
law and are learning Torah.
They do all they can to watch
us and catch us red-handed.
So we are very alert and are
constantly making sure that
nobody is following us.
Now too, on my way to
the home of Dov my uncle, I
quickened my steps and hoped
to get to the cellar classroom
as fast as I could. I was happy
to see that the streets that I
was walking on were empty
and figured that the bitter cold
had kept those who watched
When I got to
us indoors.
the parallel street though, I
suddenly noticed something
suspicious.
It was a long shadow that
fell on the wall of one of the
stores which let me know that
someone was walking at a short
distance from me. I did not
know if he belonged to the KGB
and preferred to think that he
was just an innocent person but
I could not take chances and
decided to check it out.
I continued walking straight
while constantly checking out
of the corner of my eye to see
whether he was following me.
When I got to the square before
the main street and he kept
following me like a shadow,
I realized that the KGB had
decided to find our yeshiva. I

cannot allow them to do so,
Before I decide
I thought.
will walk around
I
do,
to
what
times. If he
few
a
square
the
then he is
me,
ng
followi
keeps
KGB.
the
from
ely
definit
I quickly turned toward the
square and before he realized
where I was heading I began
running around it. It was a
funny sight to see him begin
running too, thus revealing his
identity. At the last moment
he stopped and stood on the
side, hiding behind a public
phone booth.
Now I was sure he was
My heart
following me.
terrified.
was
I
and
pounded
decides
he
if
and
adult
He is an
much I
isnt
there
me,
to catch
d to
decide
I
t.
though
I
can do,
firm
a
With
.
Hashem
trust in
resolve I began walking on the
main street toward the business
center which was full of people.
Over there it would be easy for
me to slip away.
I entered one of the stores
and then I had an idea. Its a
clothing store. I will buy clothes
that gentile boys usually wear
and that way he wont identify
me and I can finally get to
school, I thought. I felt around
in my pocket and found a few
bills that my mother gave me
for my allowance. I picked
19/01/2016 12:40:42

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DVAR MALCHUS

NOW ITS TIME

13. [] It is known that In

his mission completely, with all

G-d is a Shliach as well (he

4 12 Shvat 5776 - Hakhel

Before he became religious,

decided to fly to India.

him; outside it was forty degrees

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

cided to do what every Chassid

Yehuda, R Alon Simon. They

6 12 Shvat 5776 - Hakhel

One of our teachers met

them to the Aseres HaDibros or

dress, and language and assimilate within the Egyptian people or

AN ORDER AND A DONOR

Ill never forget how when the truck came with

Last year, R Rothaus offered

ing her students stories from the

8 12 Shvat 5776 - Hakhel

rohom Avinu who was visited by

then put on a play connected to

Continued from page 17

mer camps, who know how to

Seifer Torah www.kidstorah.org]

devoted and subordinated to G-d,

Moshe Shuster was a

mara, he would preface it with

flew from sharp sayings, short but

10 12 Shvat 5776 - Hakhel

distribute to the poor and needy

man but was refused. The

THE REBBE IDENTIFIED R

12 12 Shvat 5776 - Hakhel

Rebbe. He once said to one of

through a friend, the gabbai

HIS ONLY ENCOUNTER

n the previous installment

FUNDRAISING IN THE USA

have won recognition and fame.

the educational department of

14 12 Shvat 5776 - Hakhel

recall with gratification that you

THE JDC AGREES: WE

During the next week, the

surprise and disappointment

financial burden of the program

16 12 Shvat 5776 - Hakhel

HAKHEL & MOSHIACH

Dear Readers shyichyu,

formed a miracle, and the babies

with curly hair; none is as fair as he.

Saving oneself is worthless when

, and battling the

18 12 Shvat 5776 - Hakhel

The same is with the people in

In Crown Heights area: 1640/1700AM

worldwide, online: www.RadioMoshiach.org

USA NEW phone: 347 990 1136

THE ENEMY: DOUBTS!

The Jewish nation emerged

It would seem that the power

placed it under him and he sat