לחיים, א גוט יום טוב, לחיים, לחיים. חג הגאולה, and we're in between the two days, י\"ב and י\"ג, which is the time that includes both. By the רבי used to be, usually the פארברענגען was like tonight to night, the night after י\"ב, which is between י\"ב and י\"ג. So, you're both, סיי by קדשים it says הלילה הולך אחר היום, the night goes after the day, by other things the day goes before the night, so we're יוצא both. Cuz it's the night after י\"ב and it's the night towards י\"ג. So, it has both מעלות, so it has both עניינים, סיי the call it בכח and the בפועל. י\"ב was not the גאולה בפועל because he was just notified about it, it was a Tuesday. He was notified that he's free, but the office was closed because of some kind of חגא, some kind of גוייִשע חגא. People tried to figure out exactly what kind of חגא it is, what was the חגא then at this time of the year, but I saw, I don't even remember what people wrote, they looked into the history and they figured out that it was a רוסישע חגא, some Russian חגא there that was on that, they figured out the English date and the גוייִשן date. And anyway, so they couldn't give him the papers, but the next day, that's when he got the official papers and it was officially free. So, it's both. This is the בכח, this is when they gave him the news, which itself is a big thing, and then they told him, then they let him actually go free. And he said the first day when he י\"ב, when he heard about it, he said the מאמר הוי' לי בעזרי, and then the next day he said, after he got the papers, he said the מאמר ברוך הגומל. And then when he came שבת again, and then he בענטשט גומל, etc., etc. Anyway, so we have both מעלות. So לחיים, לחיים, and we should take it, we should take from י\"ב תמוז, י\"ב-י\"ג תמוז, what we're supposed to take. לחיים, לחיים. First thing is we make out of י\"ב תמוז a big יום טוב, but the way the פריערדיקער רבי writes, it's not just a so-to-speak a יום טוב for חסידים, for חסידי חב\"ד. He writes in that famous letter that he wrote the first year for the first י\"ב תמוז, תרפ\"ח, that this is a יום טוב for all אוהבי ומחבבי תורה and שומרי מצות and כל אשר בשם ישראל יכונה. It's for every ייִד. It's a שמחה for כלל ישראל. And there are people who ask the question: Why is it such a שמחה for כלל ישראל? It's a שמחה for the רבי and the חסידים, it's their רבי, and the רבי was freed from jail, and it was a very harsh sentence לכתחילה, חס ושלום, היפך החיים. And לפועל they took it off and then he went out free completely on י\"ב תמוז. So, it's a big שמחה, פאַרשטייט זיך. No one is denying that for ליובאַוויטש it should be a big שמחה. But why is it a שמחה, universal שמחה that's for כל אשר בשם ישראל יכונה? But באמת, I want to say, such a שאלה is only possible years later. בשעת מעשה, that first year, the whole world, all the ייִדן celebrated. There are posters, I actually saw one of the posters that they hung up in ארץ ישראל, in ירושלים and other places, signed by the עדה החרדית, signed by רב פסח פראנק, and by other other גדולי ישראל, nothing to do with חסידים, with ליובאַוויטש. And they hung up that this is a day that everyone should celebrate because it's a day from פריערדיקער רבי, but they made it into a something special for everybody. Years later, when things go regular, I don't mean דווקא now because it's already 93 years later, I'm saying even 25 years later, then people could ask such a שאלה that: Why is this a something for כלל ישראל? Actually, I even remember there was once a בחור that came to 770 to learn, was from a ליטווישע ישיבה, he came from קול תורה, and they put him into my room to be my roommate, to be משפיע on him, he came for a year. And once he wrote a letter to his זיידע. זיידע was a very big חשוב'ער רב in ארץ ישראל, and he left it on the table open, so I I don't know, I believe I believe he left it open so I should look at it. He left it open on the table in the room, so I just looked at him, so I just wanted to see what it is. So, I saw he's writing, and he comes from a ליטווישער, his background actually is ליובאַוויטש, but he learned in פאָנעוועזש, so he writes to his grandfather, he says, \"Now we're getting ready for י\"ב תמוז and י\"ג תמוז. Here they say in 770, this is a יום טוב for everybody.\" And he says, \"I don't understand.\" And he asks a שאלה, \"I don't understand what's the יום טוב for everybody. Why is it for everybody?\" So, the first thing we got to know that it is not so. The רבי a few times mentioned this ענין, and the רבי said, the לשון that the רבי said was that at that time, רוב מנין and רוב בנין of ייִדן lived in Russia. רוב מנין and רוב בנין lived in Russia. Which we have to make calculations is exactly what, how many יידן lived in Russia at that time, in פ״ז, but from the רבי came out that they were the majority of יידן of the world lived in Russia then. And I think that even though, as far as the numbers, the official numbers that's given that they take how many יידן lived there, the רבי said once, it's not true, these numbers are not real. These numbers are all taken from the people who put into their, into their passport, or not their passport, or their whatever their papers, they put in that they're Jewish. But you know how many people did not put in that they're Jewish? They were afraid. So you probably could double the number, whatever they knew you could double the number. So ממילא, it was רוב מנין and רוב בנין of יידן lived in Russia. And when the פריערדיקער רבי was put into jail, it was putting in jail, basically, the whole spreading of יידישקייט in Russia. And if not for the פריערדיקער רבי doing what he did, then the whole יידישקייט in Russia would have died out, על דרך הטבע, I mean האמת האייבערשטער could do things, but על דרך הטבע, it would have died out. And since there was the majority of יידן lived there, ממילא, this is a שמחה for כלל ישראל. A שמחה that... It hap... We טאקע see that it's all based on the י״ב תמוז of the פריערדיקער רבי, that he went out of jail, and ממילא, he was able to do his work even after he left, that people follow, and then it's all the יסוד of why or what Russia is doing now. The fact that you're able to have a such a revival of יידישקייט in Russia now, is all thanks to י״ב תמוז. וממילא, the יום טוב is a יום טוב for It's it's like a a step, a certain stage in the development of יידישקייט for כלל ישראל. So we as חסידים, אוודאי, have to celebrate it because there's a דין, it's it's a שמחה that happened to your רבי, so you have to do it. We find this by others, also. The רמב״ם had a day that he made a יום טוב for his family, there is the the the תוספות יום טוב made something, the the שפאלער זיידע, and he was saved a certain time from a from a צרה, so you have to make The people who are שייכות to him have to make a שמחה out of it. Also, not like people ask, \"מען טאר נישט מאכן קיין נייע ימים טובים, we can't make new ימים טובים.\" You could! You see from all these גדולי ישראל throughout the generations that made a יום טוב of their day. But this case is something that's even much more, because this is something that saved יידישקייט in Russia, which, for all of us here, certainly would not have been, if not for י״ב תמוז, what would be. But בכלל, it saved יידישקייט in Russia, so this is a יום טוב that we have to celebrate as a יום טוב for כלל ישראל. And that's what the פריערדיקער רבי writes, that it's a יום טוב for everybody: פאר מחבבי תורה, and שומרי מצוה, and כל אשר בשם ישראל יכונה, everybody who is called a ייד, because even those people who are not פרום, but the fact that they're still יידן and they still continue יידישקייט, it has a יסוד in what happened in Russia at that time, at the time of י״ב תמוז. So ממילא, י״ב תמוז is is is a special day in the Jewish calendar, not only in the חסידישע in חסידישע calendar. So, for that, exactly, we have to say לחיים. חיים ולחיים. It's also בעצם a day that we are מדגיש the מסירת נפש of the יידן in רוסלאנד. It's a day which we stress, which we bring out the greatness of the מסירת נפש of the יידן in רוסלאנד, because באמת, the מסירת נפש of the יידן in רוסלאנד, סיי in the time, that time, at the פריערדיקער רבי's time, and after he left, all the way till the Iron Curtain fell, all that מסירת נפש is all thanks to י״ב תמוז, and they all got the כח to this מסירת נפש all from what happened with the פריערדיקער רבי, and later continued with the רבי. So it's a day that we give the credit, so to speak, and we take a lesson in the ענינים of the מסירת נפש of the יידן in רוסלאנד. And that's why בכלל what I פארברענג, in a חסידישע פארברענגען on י״ב תמוז, what's brought out is a little bit to get a שטיקל picture of what was the מסירת נפש of the יידן in רוסלאנד. That's one צד of it, and then there's another צד of it. And the רבי mentioned this more than once, that the same people that had מסירת נפש in רוסלאנד, why don't they continue the מסירת נפש when they're out of Russia? And the רבי spoke about it a few times. What do we need more than the מאמר \"באתי לגני\"? Where one of the one of the things the רבי says towards closer to the end of the מאמר, is this ענין, that we see that people that when they were in Russia, they פשוט went on מסירת נפש, and then when they came out, so I think I didn't I didn't look back to see מדויק, one time says, \"לא כל כך,\" it's not so much מסירת נפש as they have the same later, the same when they come to the מדינות הרווחה, and I think... And in one of the place it doesn't even say the word כל כך, they don't really have this מסירת נפש. So that's a time also to be מעורר again the מסירת נפש that they're missing. But it's also a time to think about what was the מסירת נפש, and when we think about the מסירת נפש of the יידן in רוסלאנד, it gives us a שטיקל a שטיקל קיצל, as we say, that if they were able to be מוסר נפש over there, so we, who don't have to have that מסירת נפש, certainly should be that יראת שמים, that way אודאי ואודאי. So it gives us a little קיצל, so it's good to know. I know there's a פריערדיקער רבי wrote a letter, it's printed in אגרות קודש also, but I saw the a copy of the original letter that was written to רש״ג in America. רש״ג ran the ישיבה, תומכי תמימים, so the רבי פריערדיקער רבי wrote him things. So one of the things he wrote, a long letter giving instructions about תומכי תמימים, and he says one of the things is that they should learn דברי ימי ישראל, Jewish history. You're thinking, \"Oh, in a ישיבה they learn גמרא, גמרא, רש״י, תוספות, חסידות.\" This is always, in modern schools they have a subject history, they have a subject דקדוק, they have all kinds of other תנ״ך, we don't, but the פריערדיקער רבי writes they should learn תנ״ך, but he writes also דברי ימי ישראל. לכאורה, what's so important to know דברי ימי ישראל? What's so important to know Jewish history? It's fine, and good, some people they can't learn so much, let them learn Jewish history. So the פריערדיקער רבי writes, \"No, you should have you have to classes learn Jewish history, דברי ימי ישראל.\" And he gives a reason, because when you learn דברי ימי ישראל, you learn and you hear all about the מסירת נפש that the יידן had throughout the generations. You learn about the inquisition, you learn, I don't remember if he gives examples or not, but he writes this, that it's important to know this because this gives a person יראת שמים. If you hear בנוגע the מסירת נפש of יידן in Russia, this gives us יראת שמים, pushes us. To a certain degree, it gives us even more than when we learn about מסירת נפש of the רבי, of the פריערדיקער רבי. Tell you why: I remember when פליסקין, רב אבא פליסקין came, moved to America. He used to He was a real חסידישע ייד, he was one of the best friends, best חברים of רב מענדל פוטערפאס in Russia. Then when he left, he came Anyway, he was in Australia. He lived in Australia. Then he moved from Australia at a certain point. He moved from Australia, he got a job to become the שמש of 770, whatever. So I once heard from him, he said, when he went into יחידות, the רבי told him that he should make sure to פארברענג with the בחורים from time to time. He didn't have a position in the ישיבה, he wasn't a משפיע, but he was a real חסידישע ייד. So he said, he asked the רבי, what should he talk about? So the רבי told him, \"In your פארברענגען, tell stories.\" But then the רבי added, \"I don't mean stories of the רביים.\" Usually stories, story about the רבי, מופתים, גרויסע צדיקים, so the רבי says, \"I don't mean stories about the רביים. You should tell stories about חסידים.\" And the רבי explained to him why: \"Because if you tell something that the רבי did, some great, some place, אודאי a צדיק, a רבי could do such things. What has it got to do with me? How could you expect me to do it? But if you tell a story what a חסיד did, נישט קיין רבי, נישט קיין צדיק, and nevertheless the certain things that he did, מסירת נפש or all the kinds of things that he did, this will give a person יראת שמים. This will give a person a thinking that a חסיד could do it.\" So I'm saying when the רבי says that you should learn דברי ימי ישראל, and we're talking about י״ב תמוז, so י״ב תמוז really is the time to talk about the מסירת נפש of the פריערדיקער רבי, the נס that happened, but the מסירת נפש, that's really the bottom line, the מסירת נפש that the פריערדיקער רבי had for יידישקייט in Russia. So I'm saying it's also a time to talk about the מסירת נפש that חסידים had. And it's all connected, because the חסידים got their מסירת נפש from from the רבי, there's no other way. The פריערדיקער רבי right in the beginning of his נשיאות gathered 10 people and he made with them a כריתות ברית, פשוט made with them a covenant. He said, \"I'm making a I'm כורת ברית with you, I'm making a covenant with you that we should all go to spread יידישקייט עד טיפת דם האחרונה, till the last drop of blood.\" I remember one of these people was רב בנציון שם טוב. So I remember once, this was I can't tell you the details because I don't I don't know, I was still just 13 years old, as a kid, and I was standing by the פארברענגען, that before I even got a place behind the רבי, and in between the שיחות, the רבי turned around, and I don't know, by קשר to what, and I don't know, turned around to רב בנציון שם טוב, and he said to him, to רב בנציון שם טוב he said, \"איר האט כורת ברית געווען מיט'ן רבי'ן, און מען שוויצט נישט? איר האט כורת ברית געווען מיט'ן רבי'ן, און מען שוויצט נישט?\" Twice he said, and he didn't answer. The reason I think he didn't answer is because מסתמא his policy was that is by you don't speak to the רבי, in front of the רבי you can't say a thing. I don't know, some people have that סברא. פארקערט, the רבי asks you something, how could you not answer? But as other people say, you know, the רבי, in front of the רבי you don't answer anything. If the רבי says something, you don't say anything, but if he asks, I don't know. But some חסידים were like that that they wouldn't answer. Some חסידים, but what the רבי says is one thing. They say that once the פריערדיקער רבי called over זלמן משה middle of פארברענגען and said something to him. And when he walked away, someone asked him, \"What did the רבי tell you?\" So he says, \"I have no idea.\" \"Why not?\" \"Because when I I couldn't hear a word he said because every second I was standing in front of him, what went through my mind was: ווען וועט דער רבי אראפנעמען זיינע הייליקע אויגן פון מיין חזיר'ישן פנים? When will the רבי take off the holy eyes from my חזיר'ישע face?\" So, I guess some people that had in front of the רבי, but I remember the רבי said these words to him, \"איר האט כורת ברית געווען מיט'ן רבי'ן? מ'שווערט זיך נישט!\" Because he was one of the them people that the רבי was כורת ברית. All the מסירת נפש that the חסידים got, got from פריערדיקער רבי, from the רביים. וממילא, it's all one thing. So, this is a time also to think of the מסירת נפש that the חסידים had, which was all because of the רבי. And that is, here's the יסוד of it. And we know the מסירת נפש they had. They went, learned, had חדרים, became שוחטים, and they did everything. And they were, some of them were caught, and some of them were פשוט shot, sent away to Siberia, no, Siberia all these for many, many years. Remember by פארברענגען once the רבי, it was after the the תקופה when a lot of the רוסישע אידן came out, and the רבי made a contest by פארברענגען. He was going to give a bottle of משקה to the רוסישע אידן that came, but he said, \"Whom should I give?\" So he said, \"Let's make a contest: who sat more years?\" And one person said he sat, געזעסן פאר פופצן יאר, געזעסן... I don't remember who won, maybe it was לייזער ננס, 19, I don't know, a lot of years. Then the רבי gave him the bottle, and the רבי said, \"פאר נישט טאר מען זיצן\", so אידן, Yiddish it's called זיצן, געזעסן אין תפיסה is זיצן. \"פאר נישט טאר מען זיצן, נאר מען דארף זיצן און לערנען תורה. Now you should also sit, but sit and learn תורה.\" So their מסירת נפש was ממש that they put their life on the line for for spreading אידישקייט. And even though that there was one one night that they arrested, this is in תרצ\"ח, when the פריערדיקער רבי was פ\"ז, this is תרצ\"ח, and חסידים even called it תרצ\"ח, it stands for the word \"תרצח\". So they arrested, I don't know if that same one night, 10 חסידים, but around the same time. And this was not like others that they had a trial, a joke fake trial, but a trial and then the verdict was 10 years in Siberia. Here on the spot that same night they shot them all. And חסידים, I used to hear this from my father a lot because he was in Leningrad then. And they called them the עשרה הרוגי מלכות. That's what they called them, I remember my father used to use the לשון. חסידים used to say, the עשרה הרוגי מלכות. The רבי in a שיחה says you could imagine the מסירת נפש of the פריערדיקער רבי sending people on מסירת נפש. As much as the רבי was ready to be מוסר נפש himself, but what was harder for him was to send other people to be מוסר נפש. And the רבי said it was unbelievable kind of צער he had. And the case was, it was and when he sent them he didn't tell them like something like, send \"Go, and I take אחריות upon myself, nothing going to happen.\" He בפירוש did not say that. He never promised anything, you're going to survive. And then when they caught them they sent them away to Siberia, the פריערדיקער רבי asked somebody else to go. You can imagine the But this was the מסירת נפש of the חסידים. And they were מוסר נפש on on on יראת שמים of them was And this was that time, at the time of the פריערדיקער רבי, it was ממש the biggest סכנה. But all the way till the end it was a מסירת נפש of אידן to, in Russia, to to to be officially פרום yourself was not so. I I went to Russia, I went to Russia twice. Once I went with my wife, this was before the Iron Curtain fell, much before. And then the second time I went with Rabbi Tanenhaus. So, one of the times The first time I was there, I was speaking to a guy called קלמן מיילך. קלמן מיילך תמרין, I think was his last name. And he was one of the activists there. And he told me that the KGB called him in, and they harassed him. They told him... So, once he said, \"I got the כח and I said to them, 'I don't know what you want from me. According to our Constitution, like the רבי said many times, the פריערדיקער רבי said, according to our Constitution, we're allowed to be פרום. We're allowed to... The main thing was, by them you can't teach children, also, it depends how big the group is, but officially the Constitution... So what do you want from me?' And I'm not talking now about תרפ\"ז. This is something that happened in תש\"מ.\" So he says, \"You know what they answered him? They answered him, 'Yeah, you're allowed to be פרום, but you're ליובאוויטש.'\" ליובאוויטש was the worst enemy by them, because ליובאוויטש is the ממש the לעומת זה of what communism is. Communism is atheism, and ליובאוויטש is אין עוד מלבדו. So they said, \"Yeah, you're different, you're ליובאוויטש.\" They still then they still knew that this is their greatest enemy is ליובאוויטש. And nevertheless, they went on במסירת נפש. And I was there, I can just tell you the way the things were, and the way you could see the behavior of people. I asked one of the guys there who was arranging like classes and things, so I asked him, \"You're not afraid?\" So he says to me, \"Yeah, I'm afraid.\" And he says, \"So? So what should I do? I'm afraid, but I got to do it, you got to do it.\" The הרגש of מסירת נפש was was so... I mean, the time when we went, it was פארשטייט זיך a hundred times less פחד than it was then. But you could have a שמץ מנהו, at least, a feeling, because I always used to hear from my father how it was going on what went on in Russia. Now, he himself, he was never arrested because he managed to escape. He was arrested once, taken in, but they let him go. And then he ran away, and then they were looking for him again, and they couldn't find him. So, ברוך השם he saved to be caught, to be arrested and put in jail. But the way חסידים were then, you could hear from him. So this was ממש. But to have a שמץ מנהו you could have from being in Russia in those years, even in the in the מ's, the beginning of the מ's, was also showed. Just to give you a few examples. I know the people from from our שול heard it from me more than once, but I know there are other people on. Just to say over just to give a feeling of the time when of the מ' time, how it was. I just give you an example. We came there for פורים. Actually, the רבי was very, very careful. The רבי knew who he was dealing with. Because the people, the שלוחים who went before us, שלוחים from עזרת אחים, the רבי gave them משקה. When I went, I was waiting for the רבי to give me משקה. The רבי didn't give us משקה. So before I left, I asked Rabbi Groner עליו השלום to ask the רבי. So I remember standing outside, he went in after מנחה, and he came out, and he said he asked the רבי, and the רבי told him that he should tell me that since you're going there for פורים, פורים is a day that people drink משקה, and you're going to a מדינה שכולה משקה, so by the customs, it וועט זיין a שאלה, imagine how the רבי was thinking, by the customs it וועט זיין a שאלה: \"Why are you bringing in משקה for פורים from America when you're coming to a מדינה שכולה משקה?\" So better don't take משקה along. And he says, \"Tell him let him take salami, things like that.\" That's what he said. So the רבי was very careful. Then you saw when he gave us dollars, he said, first time he wrote it, and then later by dollars he said, not to change it there באופן ליגאלי, legally, because he didn't want that there should be any any problems. But we came there for פורים. So I remember at night, תענית it was תענית אסתר, so we had a פארברענגען in someone's house that night, פורים at night. So a group of us were going, but we made up that when we go into the house, in the apartment building to go into the house, we shouldn't all go together. Because every house has somebody there, a guard or some person there watching, because that's בכלל. You could see every move that you made, and we're talking the מ's, and not talking now in the, it's in the פ's or the צדיק'ס. They looked at you. When they say Big Brother watches, ממש you could see the half of the country is an agent of the KGB watching what you're doing. So every So if you go in a group, they're knowing that there's some gathering here. So you'll be in trouble. So we made up that two people would go in, five minutes later two other people would go in and another, to make not to be so obvious. So I remember that's what we did. We came in, we sat down, חדר לפנים מחדר, locked it, closed the door, in a room, deep room. There was משקה on the table, there was some פארבייסן, not too much. I hadn't broken my fast yet, but היות I didn't want to take food that, how much food do they have? So I took a glass of משקה. That was how כ'האב געפאסט. And we're sitting and talking. There was a guy who was translating. In the middle there's a knock on the door. A knock on the door to the apartment. A knock on the door meant a knock in your heart. Remember everybody got white, didn't know what to do. I got scared, obviously. And the host, who was actually Udi Kamishov, he walked out to see what's happening. He was very very nervous. Comes back, this is what happened. Down there at the bottom floor, when the entrance, there was this אלטע גויה. I mean she she must have been 80 years old, an אלטע גויה. She realized that there's something going on here, so she went upstairs and knocked on the door to find out. And the first thing they that were trained to do is from Stalin yet, to pick up the phone and call the KGB, call the police. That's the first thing if you know any gathering. And if they would come, what would be? If they see a foreigner, the worst thing is a foreigner in their house. So she came in, so he walked into the room, this host, went over to the bottle of משקה, took a glass, and I'm telling you a big glass like this, and filled it up with משקה, turns around to me, spoke in לשון קודש, Hebrew, because he can't couldn't speak English, couldn't speak Yiddish, so he says, \"זה להמתיק הדינים.\" He took a glass of משקה to give her to quiet her down so she shouldn't call the KGB. So he walks out, few minutes he comes back with an empty glass. And he didn't pour it out. She drank it up. And he turns around to me with the empty glass, and he says, \"עוד לא נמתקו.\" She still threatened to go to the KGB. So he took the bottle and poured another glass and walked out, came back with an empty glass, and he said, \"נמתקו.\" And everyone calmed down, everyone you know became calm because, and this we're talking I'm telling you in the in the beginning of the מ'ס. It was that's how the feeling was. Just I don't want to go into many stories, but just something that interesting. One of the things they sent along with us is that's when the digital watches just came out. Just came out then. So they wanted to know they sent as I said they sent packages to Russia, and they put in stuff that if they get it, on the black market they could sell it and probably live four months, a half a year with it. Came out the digital watch and they wanted to know how much you could get for that in the black market. 300 ruble or 400 ruble? That was the שאלה. So when I came, came to געטשע's house, there was a guy called יודא, and everywhere we made up, I gave him the watch, I said, \"Before I leave back to America, let me know.\" We waited. Came the last day came back to געטשע. געטשע picks up the phone, calls יודא and and I didn't want to talk on the phone because the phone you know were bugged so they would hear a voice, and he says to יודא, \"יודא,\" and I heard it, he said to him, \"נו, what's the answer?\" He couldn't tell him on the phone whatever, 300, 400 ruble. Right away something So he says to him, \"ס'איז דערינען פֿון חב\"ד.\" He hangs up the phone, and he tells me, \"The answer is 300 ruble.\" Said, \"Because he said חב\"ד. חב\"ד is חכמה, בינה, דעת, three.\" So I said to him, \"אין חסידות it says sometimes we say that דעת is נחלק לשניים. דעת sometimes is נחלק to two, חסד and גבורה. So maybe he meant four?\" So oh, ער איז גערעכט! He said, \"You're right.\" Picks up the phone and he says, \"יודא, נו, דעת is נחלק לשניים or not? What do you say?\" So he says, \"נע, דעת is not נחלק לשניים.\" So he hangs the phone, he tells me, \"It's it's 300 ruble. It's not 400 ruble. It's 300 ruble that you get for it.\" And there are more things. I don't want to you know go into that into the stories of our our being there, because that's not the purpose of I just want to bring out the feeling we get there when we were there, the מסירות נפש that they had. You know it says sometimes בא ללמד ונמצא למד, sometimes you come to teach and you really learn. That's what happened here. Thought we thought we came there to teach them, had פארברענגענס underground, you know, everything was like underground. But it came out with such a התעוררות from seeing how they were, and this was in those years when The פחד wasn't like חס ושלום like it was in those years. So you could imagine the מסירות נפש of of the יידן in Russia then, that we have to say if they had מסירות נפש and they were like this, so what what should we do? אנן מה נענה בתריה, what should we do? Also, and it's כדאי to mention בכלל we know the the ענין the the interest and the Rebbe was involved by the רוסישע יידן. It was on his mind constantly, constantly at every געלעגנהייט by the רוסישע יידן. There were many times that the Rebbe spoke about the רוסישע יידן and made all kinds of things when they gave the רוסישע יידן and you could see and he cried about it. This was on his mind. They say this סתם, I I don't I heard about it, but I don't know how true it is, that when לייזער ננס came out, he told over that תש\"י in jail they told him, the government they the communists told him that your Rebbe passed away. Depends, some חסידים they told the Rebbe in a very not nice way. They told, \"Yeah, he passed away. You're finished. You should know that Lubavitch is over.\" And some they didn't do that. To him they told that, \"And he has a son-in-law, who took over? His son-in-law. And son-in-law is a big תלמודיסט, and he hates us more than his father-in-law did.\" That is what they told him. And the story goes, maybe some heard the story with more details, maybe it's different, I don't know, this is the story, I'm not taking אחריות. And the story goes that he went in to the Rebbe, and I don't know if he told the Rebbe or the Rebbe asked him to tell him over, whatever, but anyway he told the Rebbe this this ווארט. And the Rebbe looked at him and he said, \"ס'איז ביידע זאכן נישט אמת.\" In other words, you're saying I'm not such a big תלמודיסט, whatever, and he also said, \"It's not the פשט that I hate them more than the my my שווער.\" In other words, because why should he hate them? You don't hate anybody. The Rebbe, the the ענין of communism, besides the צרות they made, the philosophy of אפיקורסות that not to believe in the אויבערשטער, not to that's what the philosophy, that's the opposite the complete opposite, the לעומת זה of חסידות. So by the Rebbe it's like that. But by the Rebbe the רוסישע יידן were on his mind constantly. And there were many times that what things that happened that I remember by the פארברענגענס, once when he spoke about the בחור, everyone knows this, what I'm going to say now, I'm not saying any חידושים, but I'm just you know it's good to repeat, י\"ב תמוז is a time to to to to rethink about these ענינים. And he spoke and he cried a lot, it was שמחת תורה at night, but we've got a letter from a בחור from Russia, and what is the בחור asking? ברכה for מחשבות זרות in דאווענען. And the Rebbe said, \"שטעלט זיך פאר, a בחור that doesn't have what to eat, in Russia what do they have? צרות he has, everything. When he has finally a chance to get let have a letter somehow go out from Russia דורך געהיימע זאכן to come to the Rebbe, what's his בקשה? מחשבות זרות in דאווענען.\" And the Rebbe was crying, and that's crying about the רוסישע יידן, the מצב of the רוסישע יידן. I remember when זלמן גורעוויטש, זלמן גורעוויטש from Montreal, he used to run the בית רבקה Montreal, he came out of Russia many years before, I don't know how he got out, and he managed to go to Russia. I think it was תשכ\"ח, I think, תשכ\"ז. He managed to get to go to Russia. His מעלה was that he spoke Russian. So I don't know if they knew he spoke Russian in Russia. Could be that I don't I think he's געמאכט that he doesn't know, but he understood everything that they were saying anyway. So he managed to go, and he finagled it in such a way cuz they didn't let let go only a few places, they wouldn't let you go סתם places. They didn't let you go only went to you're able to go to Moscow, even if you got your visa, Moscow, Leningrad. I went Moscow, Leningrad and Odessa, which is also one of the biggest cities, but other cities not. He managed to get to Lubavitch, and he managed to get to Rostov in those years. And he's the one that actually brought back the אלטער רבי'ס תפילין. So and then everyone saw it, but this is nothing, this is not נוגע. So he wrote to the Rebbe a whole report and he came back with with a very sad, you know, situation, what goes on in Russia in those years, how the יידן are and he met So I remember he was שבת by פארברענגען, and why do I think it was פרשת בהעלותך? I'm not sure. And he gave a bottle of משקה, and and this and he started crying. By the פארברענגען, זלמן גורעוויטש was crying. He was on our board, but really a הארציקער ייד. And when the Rebbe said לחיים to him, it was מעורר the Rebbe. You could see, the רבי started crying and started talking about the רוסישע אידן. You could see that this was not planned. I mean, you could see that this was not like they were planned, I don't know, I don't know what do we know how the רבי planned פארברענגענס, if he's planned before what he's going to talk about this, I don't know, whatever. But this, you could see it was spontaneous, that since he saw him crying and it was בהמשך to being a Russian, by the רוסישע אידן, the רבי started crying and the רבי started talking about the רוסישע אידן very, very strongly. Then another time when ר' מענדל פוטערפאס came. ר' מענדל פוטערפאס came from Russia תשכ״ד. He came out of Russia ראש חודש כסלו to England, and then for י״ט כסלו, he came to the רבי already. And he stayed by the רבי till after פרשת יתרו. שבת פרשת יתרו, רבי said a מאמר: וידבר אלקים את כל הדברים האלה. רבי actually by the פארברענגען, the שיחה itself, the רבי spoke about three guests that were there. Those years, if there was a, it's a guest for שבת, everyone knows, not like here, you have thousands of people coming every שבת, if there was a שבת that you had an extra person, it's a guest, ooh, this שבת, this and this חסיד came! So there were three guests at that שבת. And the רבי in fact spoke in a שיחה that you represent three different types of people. Who were the three guests? Was ר' מענדל, he was leaving, and ר' פאלע קאהן, and Reb Zalman Jaffe. And the רבי made them the three categories. A איד that was just in Russia, a איד what came out of Russia, איך ווייס וואס, in 20 30 years ago, and a איד which is not from that type, like not America, English, but also that type. And the רבי made a whole thing about it. But in the מאמר, the מאמר the רבי spoke, what was the תוכן of the מאמר? It was וידבר אלקים את כל הדברים האלה לאמר, but the רבי מאמר was חזר it over the מאמר of the מיטעלער רבי. There's a מאמר of the מיטעלער רבי that starts off with להבין ענין לקיחת אנשי חיל. Time the מיטעלער רבי started קאנטאניסטן. And this was big מסירת נפש on many אידן. And the מיטעלער רבי said a מאמר, actually someone gave me a copy of, I didn't have that ספר, now I have it someplace here of that רשימה of that מאמר, of the לקיחת אנשי חיל. What's, he's מסביר in the מאמר: What's the ענין? Why the אייבערשטער made that you should take the קאנטאניסטן and force them and, and they should go on מסירת נפש? Why do you need it? So the רבי quoted the, חזר'd over the מאמר and he said in the מאמר the מיטעלער רבי explains that the שטן comes to be מקטרג against אידן by the אייבערשטער, and the שטן says that the אידן, even if they do מצות, but it's not with real feeling. The מצות they do is מצות אנשים מלומדה. It's just they do it out of habit, it's not they don't have feeling in it, there's no really תענוג in doing מצות. So what does the אייבערשטער do? The אייבערשטער says to him like this: I'll show you. How's the אייבערשטער going to show that they have תענוג in מצות? So he says because אייבערשטער makes it hard for them to do it, basically takes it away from them, makes it that they shouldn't be able to do it, and if they can't do it, they feel so bad. And the רבי went through the לשונות, you look in the מאמר of the מיטעלער רבי it says the same thing, but the רבי said and he was crying. And a איד who's they have צרות and he can't do it, שרייט צו דעם אייבערשטן: אוי לי, אללי לי, and he's ממש using these words and crying out loud: אוי ווי לי! And the אייבערשטער shows the שטן: You see? Look how much צער they have when they're missing it. We know that צער and תענוג are כשני קנים שקולים. It's all the opposite. Something that if you don't have it, you have צער, shows that when you do have it, you have תענוג. It's it's two both opposite ends of the same thing. So now that the אידן have צער, shows, the אייבערשטער shows him: You see that when they're doing it, they have תענוג. So אייבערשטער did that, and the רבי applied it to the רוסישע אידן. That the רוסישע אידן, the אייבערשטער made this צרות all כדי that the אידן should, when they have צער that not able to do מצות, that brings out that they have תענוג. So, י״ב תמוז is a time to to think about this and the רבי, you know, סוף כל סוף, it was the רבי who worked and the רבי, we can say we know we can say it, some people say: How do you know the Iron Curtain fell the רבי knocked it down just like Purim תשי״ג when Stalin פגר'ט because of the מאמר, and that the רבי acknowledged, חסידים always said, but when the מאמר came out, the second מאמר, when the רבי was מגיה that מאמר years later, in the in the פתח דבר it says that this has to do with the fact that Stalin died. So the רבי in Purim, that פארברענגען, said a מאמר and when Stalin died, it became already a little bit less problem. Not only that, there were other problems. Before, whatever there was, גזירות they wanted to make. So the רבי with the רוסישע אידן worked so much, and there's, I I heard from somebody, again, these anything that I don't know from firsthand I can't say, but I heard years, years ago I heard this. Probably 50 years ago, 60 years ago, that there was somebody he went into יחידות, and not a ליובאוויטשער, and he said to the רבי, \"You have שלוחים all over. What about Russia? Why don't you have שלוחים in Russia?\" So the רבי said to him that, \"Where more could I have a שליח than I have a שליח in the Kremlin?\" He had a spy in the Kremlin and probably worked on making it easier for for the אידן. But the רבי worked so much at שבועות תשכ״ד that everyone knows, when no one the רבי finished the שיחה, no one sang a ניגון, no one said לחיים. The רבי was very upset, and then I'm not gonna חזר it over because I חזר it over many, many times. So this is what we have to think about י״ב תמוז. But באמת the direct thing is thinking about the מסירות נפש of the פריערדיקער רבי. And here the רבי goes into interesting that he said the פריערדיקער רבי's מסירות נפש was divided into three חלקים. 30 years of his נשיאות, each 10 years was a different level of מסירות נפש. They were all מסירות נפש, but a different level of מסירות נפש. In a different פארברענגען, the רבי said that if you make a חשבון how many days he sat in jail, so the days that he sat in jail fits fits to the days of his נשיאות. Let me just think. I remember when he said this, a פארברענגען, then. תש... Okay, he said that the days, made a חשבון the days, because it's from ט״ו till י״ג. So it's 29. Make the חשבון like maybe not to the minute, but I think it's against the the same amount of years of his נשיאות. I think that's what he said. Anyway, but the מסירות נפש said when he was in Russia for 10 years, which is about 10 years, not exact these are not exactly 10 years, from תר״פ till תרפ״ח it's eight years, the מסירות נפש was the מסירות נפש בפועל, פשוט a מסירות נפש, פשוט his life was in danger. And then the other 10 years he was in Poland, and here had מסירות נפש also. Here it wasn't מסירות נפש from the outside, from the enemies, and the way the רבי used the לשון the מסירות נפש was this was a place where was a כלי to spread חסידות. All Poland was full of פרומע אידן, full and to spread חסידות. And the פריערדיקער רבי had a lot of problems. The פריערדיקער רבי had problems from the אייגענע מענטשן, not ליובאוויטשער, from חסידים, from other חסידים. And the רבי used the לשון that ויקנאו בו אחיו. Same לשון says by the אלטער רבי, that one of the things by the אלטער רבי was not only because of the מתנגדים, ויקנאו בו אחיו, the other תלמידי המגיד. The main תלמידים were with the אלטער רבי, there's no question about it, the מלאך, and רב זושא, and and the בארדיטשעווער, I mean all the main תלמידים, but there were 120 תלמידים, many of them were against the אלטער רבי'ס שיטה. ואביו שמר את הדבר. ואביו goes on the מגיד, שמר את הדבר. He was waiting for the אלטער רבי because the אלטער רבי knew that, and the רבי used the same לשון on the פריערדיקער רבי, ויקנאו בו אחיו, אבל he knew that ואביו שמר את הדבר. ואביו the רבי טייטשט אביו is the אייבערשטער, אבינו שבשמים, שמר את הדבר, he was שומר, and he knew that this is the right thing and that's what the אייבערשטער wants, but it was מסירות נפש. And it's at the באמת is although it's not spoken about so much, because it's not נוגע, מסירות נפש of the אידן in Russia is נוגע to חזר over and חזר over of the רבי in Russia, חזר over it's נוגע to know פשוט we have to have מסירות נפש for אידישקייט, but here it's not really spoken. Even in the שיחה, the רבי does it בקיצור, but if you talk to people who I mean now unfortunately we don't have so many of those that were there those times, you hear. Look in the in the זכרונות that he wrote, לוזינסקי, רבי לוזינסקי, not the one who just passed away, his father, because he was from the פוילישע תלמידים there and he went to to spread חסידות, and he had only צרות. People didn't let him, and it it was ממש Also, I heard from my mother-in-law they were in the city in Poland called ווישקעווע, And it was all other חסידים, and her father was חיים מאיר ליס, who was he went to ליובאוויטש when he was not even בר מצוה yet, and he became one of the big חסידים. פריערדיקער רבי said, דער עמירין בינה איז פאר דיר. I mean he came back from ליובאוויטש, he started giving a תניא שיעור, so they put him in חרם, ס'איז געטאן לעבעדיק דארטן, it was עולם. So this on the פריערדיקער רבי went on מסירות נפש to spread הפצת המעיינות. And then the other 10, the last 10 years, is the מסירות נפש of the פריערדיקער רבי here in America. And he says that's a different מסירות נפש. Each one has he said in the first לכאורה the main מסירות נפש is in Russia, כפשוטו. But to a certain degree the second מסירות נפש with אייגענע מענטשן, with אייגענע פרומע יידן, it's a harder thing. And in America מסירות נפש against the שטראם, that's what the רבי says. ס'איז א קעגן שטראם. The stream is one way and you have to fight it. It's not easy. It's a much it's a different type of מסירות נפש, but it's a... And we all know when the פריערדיקער רבי came to America, everyone was against him. The רבנים here were against him, the people they were against him. Besides the people that told him that, you know, אינגאנצן הצלחה here, ס'איז שיין רעדן, he said it comes אזוי. I mentioned that at the other פארברענגען that the day he came they told him, some רבנים told him, אזוי ווי דא וועט וואקסן האר, just like hair is gonna grow here, you're gonna make America a מקום תורה. And the פריערדיקער רבי writes, you can imagine, he says I didn't say anything to them, but you can imagine how I couldn't sleep the whole night. Imagine telling that to... He didn't get נפעל. But בכלל, he had all kinds of צרות, and people There were even some people who said against certain things. Somebody who was a a רב, so the פריערדיקער רבי opened the Wednesday hour, the release time, he was against it. So they asked him, \"What's wrong with it? Why are you against it? What's wrong with taking kids out for an hour from public school and teaching them תורה?\" So he said, \"אז די ליובאוויטשער רבי זאגט אזוי, דארף איך זאגן פארקערט.\" He had Why was the פריערדיקער רבי מקרב so much הרה\"ג יאלאס? And then the רבי האט געיארשנט this thing, because he was one of those people that did not go against, and he said he was behind the פריערדיקער רבי. I don't know if he actually helped a lot this, but he definitely was, and that was a a big יחוס. And the פריערדיקער רבי went on מסירות נפש, and the רבי פארקערט טענה'ט, he said this מסירות נפש is greater than the other מסירות נפש of the of Russia. So על כל פנים, י\"ב תמוז when we celebrate the פריערדיקער רבי's birthday, but the day he went out of jail, so it's it's celebrating מסירות נפש. And the רבי says that we have to learn and we have to do מסירות נפש, too, learn. Now it's a different type of מסירות נפש. It's not מסירות נפש, you don't have to give up your life. It's מסירת הרצון. נפש is רצון, you have to give up your רצון. נישט טאן, not to do, and I'm not saying it to anybody, I'm saying it to myself because who am I to say to people to, but just trying to convince myself. Not to do only וואס מיר וויל זיך. מיר וויל זיך נישט. We have to do something a little bit giving up the רצון. The רבי, one times would make like a comment about people nowadays who think they're doing מסירות נפש. Actually, the רבי gave over a message to me when we went to Russia that time, I'll say it over. So we went to Odessa, and in Odessa we visited a family. We got there, and this was and there was a husband and a wife there, and there was someone in Russia gave us a book written in Russian about Jewish women that was supposed to be translated or something. And we had it, and the guy who gave it to us said, \"Be very careful because if you're caught with this book...\" ממילא, we had our own ספרים which they took away anyway. You could say you brought for yourself, but we don't speak Russian. So what are we doing with a book in Russian on יידישקייט? So he said, \"Never leave it in the room because if you leave it in the room, they check your room when you're not there and they'll find it. Wherever you go, take it with you. Also, let your wife hold it, not you, because it's less chance that they're gonna search your wife.\" But as long as we had this book, which we had to bring from Moscow to to Odessa, those few days, the הארץ האט געקלאפט, because if they catch us, we go straight to jail. And it even happened, we're going in a taxi, and this guy, יודא, was with us in the taxi, and we were talking, which language? Talking Hebrew. And the taxi driver passed a red light, and a policeman stopped him and called him out, took him out. So this יודא tells us, \"You know, sometimes when a driver sees that in his car, in his taxi, there's something fishy going on, he specially goes through a red light so the police should stop him and then he tells him, 'Go check them out.'\" So, you never know, he said, this might be happening now, too, because he heard us speaking in Hebrew. So it was took 10 minutes and he was outside there. I don't remember ever being scared like I was scared those 10 minutes. Because he said that, \"Yeah, they can if he did this, they're gonna come and they're gonna check you.\" And then בפועל ממש, ס'איז טאקע passed a red light. It wasn't it wasn't this thing, but it was so Anyway, and we took it to Odessa. We came to Odessa, They told us when, as soon as you come, give it to the guy, and tell the guy to run out of his house and hide it someplace behind behind the house, because you'll see the police will come right as soon as you come in, they'll go follow you. בפועל we came to Odessa, they didn't follow us. They were there already before we got there. The KGB was standing outside before we got. Anyway, that's not what I'm trying to bring, I'm trying to bring out. So the lady was there and we saw a baby laying in the crib who was about a half a year, you could see about a half year old. So the mother talking to the mother. So the mother says that the baby was born about two weeks before יום כיפור. So that's about it, a half a year before. In Odessa there was no מוהל. So any person, a few people who there wanted to do a ברית, had to travel to Moscow, and to do an underground ברית. So she tried to go. But usually they go when the babies are already a few months old. First of all, the baby is not is so small to travel such a long trip. Also the mother just had a baby, so she's not well yet. But she says to us with that all sincerity, \"But I was thinking to myself, how could I allow my child to pass יום כיפור without a ברית? So I have to go before יום כיפור.\" She tried to make a reservation on the plane, there was no reservations. She took a train, which was close to 24 hours one way, had the ברית done, took the train right after the ברית took the train back and came back before יום כיפור. But she said it with such a sincerity, such פשטות, \"How could I have my son without a ברית before יום כיפור, when יום כיפור passes?\" It's one thing. Then the second thing, we're talking, where do you go to the מקוה? There's no מקוה there. She says, \"Where do I go? To the sea, the Black Sea.\" I said to her, \"The Black Sea, middle of the winter?\" Now everyone knows the Black Sea does not freeze, it doesn't become ice. I think because it flows, whatever, but it's freezing water! ממש freezing water, middle of Russian Russian winter. So she says, \"Yeah.\" די פשטות, didn't even make a fuss over it. \"Yeah, I go מסירת נפש, and I go into the freezing water.\" It's די פשטות. That's what you got to do, you got to do, there's nothing to talk about. Remember when I came back, it was a Friday. I wrote to the רבי a short, קיצור'דיקע report, and I wrote that I'm going to write a longer report after שבת, sit down and write it. I had to, I meant this is such, as a מיט אזא דוגמא, I had to write this to the רבי. Had to write this, these two things she said. But I was so צוטומלט I wrote and I forgot. I gave in the letter. Later, א כאפ געטאן, so I called up Rabbi Groner and I say to him, \"I meant to write this to the רבי, I forgot. If you get a chance, tell it to the רבי.\" This was Friday. Friday night it was in 770 so people tell me Rabbi Groner is looking for you. I find him, \"Yeah, I told this to the רבי and this is what the רבי said: זאלסט זאגן, to tell me, זאל ער דאס דערציילן צו די היגע בעלי מסירת נפש.\" Let him tell this to the people here who think they're going on מסירת נפש, to show what טייטש מסירת נפש this is. Anyway, so the רבי wants us not to go on מסירת נפש, חס ושלום, regular מסירת נפש, but מסירת הרצון, to do what the רבי wants, to do yourself what you're supposed to, with others, learn a little more חסידות, learn עפעס more, a ביסעלע זיין a ביסל איידעלער, a ביסעלע a ביסעלע א ברעך טאן זיך. That's, in other words, we're so used to here that we do whatever, whatever is comfortable. Doesn't have to be that, that comfortable. If it's something has to be done, something like that. That's the the lesson that we have to take from from י״ב תמוז, so לחיים, לחיים. We should take what we have to, and יהי רצון שיפעלו הדברים בלב השומעים, לחיים, לחיים. I think we should sing a ניגון, we're waiting for for Rabbi יוסי Lew to come on, because he's supposed to he's going to be the running the פארברענגען today. He's not the main, Rabbi Schapiro, you're the first, you're the main, and thanks. I'm the first, yeah, okay, true. We're not we're not finished with you, please don't run away. No, I'm not running away. We gave you an hour, we started a couple of minutes late, and it's 10:58, so you still owe us a couple of minutes. I just want to share before I ask you to maybe a couple of short moments, and Rabbi Lew who is in Detroit, so I told him he better be on his A-game because, Rabbi Schapiro, you were amazing. So we warned him. I just want to say one quick thing is that the year that you went with Rabbi Tennenhaus to Russia, for פורים, Rabbi Tennenhaus runs a very, very big פורים festival every year, very big פורים event, so he brought me and שמולי Gniwisch, who I saw was online, the two of us to run the show, but Rabbi Tennenhaus didn't trust us, because we were young בחורים, so he brought Rabbi Bistin to be the spiritual overseer. I know Rabbi Bistin's on And I don't know if he remembers this. And Rabbi Tennenhaus, who's a master at PR, had all the news stations there to cover the event, the big פורים festival, you know, which is the biggest פורים festival in the world. So, the news anchor the news anchor pulls me and Rabbi Biston over and says, \"We're going to interview both of you. One we're going to ask, what about פורים? You know, tell us the story of פורים. And the other one, we're going to want to know what's the schedule of events tonight.\" You know, Rabbi Tennenhaus is with you with the Etch A Sketch, right, when you went? You guys were scared to talk because of the KGB, so you were talking with like the kids... Right, right. I remember, I was very involved when you went. Anyhow, so the news reporter comes and pulls me and Rabbi Biston over, and I say, \"Okay, Rabbi Biston, you do the spiritual, the religious stuff, and I'll tell them what happened.\" All of a sudden, the TV goes on, and they say, \"Rabbi Pinny, tell us about פורים.\" I say, \"Eh, no, I'm supposed to tell you the schedule.\" They said, \"No, tell us about פורים.\" So they switched it on me, and I had to all of a sudden start my rabbinical career by talking about פורים, and Rabbi Biston got to tell the schedule, so that was just an incident when you went for Russia. When you're talking about the Russia when we went with him, we had a פארברענגען in Russia, פורים at night in מארינא ראשצע שול, the old, old מארינא ראשצע שול, and imagine, outside we had one person standing guard, and we made up that he should see if he sees the KGB coming, he would run in and tell us, and we would change, but we're sitting there every time, the whole time by the פארברענגען, afraid, who knows, they might come, because this isn't a public place. ברוך השם, they didn't. But every time there's some kind of move, so this remind me of all the stories that they would sit, and so on. That was when I was with him, that was the second time, yes. Anyhow, so that time I must have impressed Rabbi Tennenhaus enough that he allowed me to come and become the שליח of Southwest Broward, and in a שטיקל it's why we're all here tonight, so a גוט יום טוב and a לחיים to everyone. Rabbi Biston, you remember that day when you were in charge of the of the festival there? לחיים, Rabbi Biston, and to everyone, a גוט יום טוב. I think we should we should try to sing, we always try by this type of פארברענגען. It's hard to sing, If you want, I can probably mute everybody to sing the the י״ב תמוז ניגון. Let's sing, let's sing the י״ב תמוז ניגון. Give me just one second, Rabbi Shapiro, because I do want to, first of all, thank everybody here. I want to thank all the שלוחים of Florida for joining me and helping put on all these events. This, אם ירצה השם, this Wednesday night we're going to be doing a סיום הרמב״ם. I put it on COL. Every Wednesday night since the pandemic started, we started a featured class. Tonight especially, I want to announce a couple of announcements. First of all, tonight is dedicated to a very special friend of ours who just had a big דידן נצח, and he should have continuous ברכה והצלחה, to מרדכי בן שרה. I want to dedicate tonight to him. Also, a שליח in Florida who's been doing amazing work and is our point man in the capital, חב״ד of Tallahassee, I want to wish a יום הולדת, שנת ברכה והצלחה to our colleague, שניאור אורכמן, שניאור זלמן בן אילנה, and wish that his son, ברוך שמואל בן חנה, who we've been דאווענען for, should have a רפואה שלימה. So I thank again, and Rabbi ביטון from the מגן דוד שול in North Miami and all the חב״דs, thank you very much for helping make this night such a הצלחה. We have over 300 people who've already signed on just on Zoom, and I'm sure there's many, many more on Facebook. Let me see if I can unmute everybody, so I'll tell you what, I'm I just allowed everybody to unmute themselves, so everybody, if you don't mind, if you want to be משתתף in singing, as Rabbi Shapiro just requested, we should all sing together the י״ב י״ב תמוז ניגון, yeah. י״ב תמוז ניגון, and then afterwards, we will have Rabbi Yossi Lew, who's in Peachtree City, Georgia. It sounds like somebody has coronavirus. Somebody stop coughing. חבר׳ה, start the ניגון. ר׳ ישראל, start the ניגון. Unmute everybody. Rabbi Shapiro, with all due respect, that didn't sound so great. I don't know if that experiment was a good experiment. I know, it's hard when... I know from... One second, one second, Rabbi Shapiro, I need to unmute you. Rabbi Shapiro. That wasn't such a good experiment, was it? It doesn't matter. We should've, we should've gotten the choir because some of these guys, I don't know, it was... No, it doesn't work together. It doesn't synchronize. It syncs, or whatever, whatever the word is. Anyway. Okay, I just hope that our next speaker speaks better than we sing. Let's try that. Rabbi Yossi Lew, you're on... Oh, you know what? Ruvi, you want to sing? Maybe we'll ask Ruvi. Ruvi, you want to sing a ניגון with... I asked him to unmute, he didn't unmute yet. But, Rabbi Shapiro, you're, right? You're here. I'm here, yes. And Rabbi Lew, you're here, right? I am. Welcome. Rabbi Lew is actually was in, is in Detroit. He's the משפיע for גן ישראל over there, so that's why he joined us late. But we look forward to hearing your words of inspiration. Rabbi Lew, Rabbi Shapiro is also unmuted, so the two of you now could take over. I was just the facilitator. א גוט יום טוב, and ברכה והצלחה in everything you do, and take it away. אמן. א גוטע וואך, Rabbi Pinny and Rabbi Shapiro, and all good friends. א גוטע וואך, א גוט יום טוב, and thank you very much. I unfortunately missed the, the best part of tonight according to Pinny, Rabbi Shapiro's פארבריינגען. Rabbi Shapiro's פארבריינגען is always the best part. But I only heard ממש the last maybe 30 seconds, a minute, and Rabbi Shapiro was saying about the מסירות נפש. That's obviously what י״ב תמוז leads us to. And I think that the biggest מסירות נפש that we could ever possibly imagine is happening right now, as 26 years after ג׳ תמוז, we're still in this ג׳ תמוז phase, and we're being asked to continue on. It's expected of us to continue on, האלט זיך צוזאמען, and for 26 years, it's a חורבן בית המקדש. י״ב תמוז תשמ״ד, at the פארבריינגען, before, at the end of the fourth שיחה, the רבי said then the famous line that if somebody is alive and sees the בית המקדש burning, even if he has a a heart made of stone, וואו די געקערטע וועלט? And so the גמרא says that whoever the בית המקדש wasn't built in his life, כאילו נחרב בימיו, as if was as if it was destroyed. And so הא דארף מען קערן א וועלט היינט! The רבי screamed out, מקירות לבו. י\"ב תמוז is about קערן א וועלט, which is what the פריערדיקער רבי asked. And so here we are in a time of מסירות נפש, it's a a very difficult and problematic situation, and I can't imagine the רבי could have been more proud of us that we sit together all these years later, and we're just waiting and hoping and doing everything to the utmost we can, and believing that it's happening, it's going to come. And so in in my travels and in my discussions and פארברענגענס with different people, different communities, the question is always asked. I was asked this question today by one of the staff members of the camp, and that is, it's all good for you, you can go back in time and remember, you can listen to a פארברענגען, and you could remind yourself that you were there, etcetera. What about us, people who never saw the רבי, we never heard the רבי, we never had any interaction with the רבי? And so that's, I I I couldn't really answer the question על רגל אחת, that that takes a פארברענגען. But I I said to myself, I think that's a good opening to פארברענג among חסידים, among אנ\"ש, among friends this י\"ב תמוז. What's demanded a מסירות נפש of all of us to stick together and finish the job that the רבי wants of us even after so many years, that's Yeah, I don't like this. Just cut it in half, like with your teeth, cut it in half and then That just means that everybody is standing in a תנועה of מסירות נפש these days, and we're pretty good at it. But that point hurts, the people who didn't see the רבי or people who were not old enough to have memories of any kind of value. And I want to talk about, it's this year 70 years from יו\"ד שבט, I want to talk about 70 years from the רבי. And I told this story before, and to to דוקא a Florida פארברענגען, but it's כדאי to discuss it again and to talk about this and expand this נקודה. י\"א ניסן, the רבי's 70th birthday, I was just under eight years old. I remember the טומל, I remember the שטורעם. י\"א ניסן was on Sunday. My father went, like ערב פסח left home and went to New York for for שבת, שבת הגדול, and then and Sunday was י\"א ניסן. I was at the שידור, I was at the פארברענגען in London, but I I I spoke Yiddish, but there was nothing in the פארברענגען that I could remember. And then a few years later, I was about 13 or 14 and I started going through the הנחות that was in my father's library, and I came across י\"א ניסן הנחה, י\"א ניסן שנת השבעים, תשל\"ב, and over there it says that the רבי said the מאמר in the הנחה, and right after the מאמר it says ניגנו בך ה' חסיתי, they sang the ניגון בך ה' חסיתי, בהתעוררות גדולה, with a great התעוררות, and the רבי said the following שיחה after that. What is the שיחה after that? So the רבי says then that there is a is there was something that he wanted, the רבי wants to an an an אוועקשטעל, he wants to establish in a in a powerful way, and he was waiting for התעוררות, he's waiting for an inspiration. So the רבי says that this ניגון, obviously the רבי wasn't referring to the מאמר, the ניגון that they sang was something that the רבי was waiting for. And the רבי continues in that שיחה that he was asking to establish 71 new institutions in honor by by the next י\"א ניסן, for his 71st birthday, and throughout the year of 71, ע\"א, and the רבי said this in response to people who are asking him to slow down and to take it easy, to retirement, and a very, very beautiful, געשמאקע, interesting, sweet שיחה. And then the רבי said he wants 71 And when you listen to the tape or you watch the video, you sort of hear this gasp, it's not a gasp, but you sort of hear like this, and the רבי immediately said, מ'דארף זיך נישט דערשראקן, you don't have to be scared about this kind of thing, you'll see you'll see, you'll start working, it'll happen. And many more than 71 מוסדות were established by the next י\"א ניסן, obviously increasing the רבי's work beyond measure to what it was before. Now, I'm reading this line that it says that they sang this ניגון with a great התעוררות, and there was no page in any other הנחה anywhere which has a line like that, that they sang a ניגון with התעוררות and the רבי responded to that התעוררות, and I wanted to understand what does it mean that they sang this ניגון with a התעוררות מיוחדת? How does that express itself? How how does How do you explain that? So I went to my father, I opened up the book, and I said, \"Oh, it says over here about this התעוררות מיוחדת, what what went on?\" And then my father started oohing, \"Ah, oh boy, that was unbelievable! It was an amazing experience!\" I said, \"Okay, what what what happened? Like what did they sing? Did they jump up and down? Did they What was different than any other time where they sang a ניגון with a lot of לעבעדיק? Ah, you can't compare it to anything else, it was amazing!\" But there was no אותיות, there was no explanation, and I didn't I wasn't able to get any kind of explanation. And so, I asked other people. There were other people who were there, and when I got a little older, I was already 17, 18, I was in New York, I asked all kinds of people that I knew and everybody answered the same way, \"Oh, it was amazing! I can't I can't describe it, it was unbelievable.\" And then in the early מ's, מ\"ב, מ\"ג, מ\"ד, they started selling tapes. WLCC, the World Lubavitch Communication Center, was selling tapes from previous years. י' שבט תשל\"א was on tape then. They took bunch of פארברענגענס from the big reel, reel-on-reel tape, and they put it on cassettes and they were selling it. So I immediately went and bought י\"א ניסן תשל\"ב so I could hear the song. And for whatever reason, those days, they did not record the ניגונים, they maybe recorded 30 seconds of it and it was off. This ניגון went on for a long time, 25 minutes or half hour, you hear 30 seconds of it, very disappointing, there's nothing you can tell from the tape. And so, I continued on with my life, and this this was a part of the history that I could not figure out what could have been so special. And then somebody gave me a very big gift, about 10 years ago, and this gift included all of the available DVDs of the רבי at that time. Today there's a lot more that's come out and it's much more professional, but these were like DVDs of entire פארברענגענס that I guess were pirated or taken, I don't quite know, but this was a gift given to me. And so I came home that evening, about 12:30, and I opened up this this case that contained all these DVDs, and the first thing that I looked I looked for was something really unique, and I stopped at כ' שבט תשל\"ב, משיח'ס ספר תורה. There can't be something more dramatic than that. And so there's about an hour-long footage of that, and so about 1:30 I finished with the the ספר תורה, and I went to the י\"א ניסן תשל\"ב, forward it straight to the to the end of the מאמר, and you see that they sing בך ה' חסיתי. It was not the first time they sang that ניגון, whoever was started the ניגונים started something else, but בך חסיתי, בך ה' חסיתי sort of it just came, it just it had to happen. And the עולם started singing it, and the camera keeps on going back and forth, the entire 25 minutes is on footage. And you see that the רבי does encourage the ניגון every couple of minutes, maybe two or three, four minutes, but the response of the עולם, the way that people were responding, was completely שלא בערך, you can't compare it to the way when the רבי was was encouraging a ניגון that was לעבעדיק, but it remained לעבעדיק. And every single person there is stomping up and down, there's like there's Even the notorious non-singers at the פארברענגענס were all like everybody was At some point, the people from down below were standing and like they were dancing. Even the old guys behind the רבי were clapping and The entire 770 is just moving up and down. Rabbi Mentlik, who never sang at any time, a כוס של ברכה, the רבי could have been putting down the cup and Rabbi Mentlik, יש אומרים that he was so בטל to the רבי that he was just standing like a soldier. There's footage of him looking around with this big smile on his face. Like you can feel that there is electricity in the air. You can see it. And I watched the whole thing, 25 minutes of it, and then I rewound and I watched it again. And during during the second time of watching it, I suddenly jumped up and I I got caught up. I felt myself there. You can call me a nutcase, and you might be quite right, or a fanatic or whatever it was, but I פשוט felt like I was there. And while I was standing up and and jumping and dancing like everybody else, it dawned on me what was going on there. What came to me was that every single person, and I know there are people who are on this Zoom right now who were there, that everyone who was there was פשוט screaming, \"I love you.\" They were screaming to the רבי a love, there was an אהבה there that just burst out. It was this אשרינו מה טוב חלקנו, a thanks to the אייבערשטער that we have this this incredible ברכה in our lives. There was no other way. I felt that. I'll be honest with you, I had tears streaming down my face, and this went on, and the next thing I know, it was 5:30 in the morning. I watched it again and again and again to to see it, to capture it, to experience it. Then after this, I went to all the people, I went to my father, I went to יוסי הכט, different people that I know who I had asked originally, I said, \"Would you say that this would be accurate? That the people over there were פשוט screaming, 'I love you'?\" And everybody בפה אחד, not not one person said to me, \"No, no, we didn't say that, that wasn't this.\" That was the exact sentiment. That was the feeling that the people who were there really, really were expressing at that time. And the רבי said, \"You love me? Oh good, now you're going to get to work for real.\" That was the response. ער האט געווארט, he was waiting for this kind of התעוררות. Obviously, when the רבי was saying, as I recognize what you're doing, and יישר כח for coming, now get to work. That was the feeling that I have, and if anybody has any want to slug me up, you want to hit, I wasn't there, so I can't tell you that, but I felt like I פשוט felt like I was there. And this this led me to think something else. בפועל ממש, I wasn't there. I wasn't there. But I was familiar with the שיחות, I've learned the שיחות, I've listened to the שיחות, I've read the שיחות, סיי in Yiddish, and סיי in the newer version now. I'm familiar with every part of that פארברענגען, to till the חזרן, everything. And אדם נברא יחיד, the whole the whole theme of the פארברענגען and the and the the way the פארברענגען developed, six hours, מוראדיקע מוראדיקע פארברענגען, very יסודותדיקע פארברענגען. But I wasn't there. But somehow I managed to dump myself in there. I managed to climb in there because I wanted it and I felt this you know, I just felt this move, and the הזזה just from trying to experience a פארברענגען and try to understand what was the feeling there, what was going on. And so I thought about the following: Imagine if somebody told you that you have an opportunity to go back one moment to be with the רבי. Look, when משיח would come, it's תורה חדשה, nobody knows what's going to fly over there. Are we going to get our old places back at the פארברענגענס? How is it going to work? All these questions nobody knows. No one knows. הלוואי they'll let us in. At least that. But from the past we do have an idea, we were there, or at least we can watch the videos and feel like we were there. So if somebody gave a person, gave us an opportunity to go back in time, and you can spend whatever you want with the רבי, you go back to your your favorite פארברענגען, יו״ד שבט תשי״א. You could go back to תקיעות, you could go back to הקפות, you could go back to יחידות, you could go back to, you know, anything you want, the סדרים with the רבי, whatever you want. Somebody gives you an opportunity to go back. What would you choose? And I'm talking to people who were there, you have one moment, and to people who were not there as well. What would you A lot of people say, when I ask this question in the public, a lot of people say they would go back to יחידות, to have to spend a moment, to spend a minute or two minutes at the רבי, you just you and the רבי, you could feel whatever you want, you can say, you can you can do, you can experience. A lot of people choose that. Personally, I was in יחידות, ברוך השם, many times, and I had that experience. I would love back to go back to an experience that not only I wasn't there for, but I wasn't I can't even imagine because I have no precedent, I have nothing to compare it to. In י״א ניסן תשמ״ב, I can compare it to the hundreds, thousands maybe of פארברענגענס that I was at, but I can't compare the one thing that I I was not זוכה to have, and that is on שמחת תורה night that the רבי would teach a ניגון. I can't imagine standing there and hearing שאמיל׳ס ניגון, אתה בחרתנו. These are not just ניגונים. These express the רבי, and the רבי'ס עצם. A ניגון is is a קולמוס הלב. It's is a is an expression of the heart. What was it like? I was never there, and anybody who I've spoken to cannot really describe it. Were the רבי'ס eyes open or closed? Did was the רבי singing with his hands? Where were where were the רבי'ס hands? וכולי וכולי. There's so many different questions that are technical questions really, they're not, but that creates an image in a person's mind. Unless you were there, it's hard to imagine that. And if you were there, who is looking at the רבי'ס hands? You were you were you were engulfed by this incredible expression of of געגועים or שמחה or whatever the ניגון was. סטאוו יא פיטו, can you just like imagine the tune? אנעים זמירות, these are such powerhouses of ניגונים, and they so express the רבי. There there's the רבי written all over them, especially a ניגון like אתה בחרתנו that has in it like so many different sighs and so many different meanings and so many different expressions. I wasn't there. So it's very difficult for me to put myself there. The רבי standing on a bench, on a milk crate, in which part of the שול exactly, and under what, next to who? These are all what was Khanikoff doing, what these are all technical questions, not real questions, but that enables a person to imagine the מעמד, to imagine the opportunity. That's a very difficult thing. So I my response to people who say, \"I was born too late. I wasn't able to be in יחידות, I wasn't able to get a dollar, I wasn't able to be at a פארברענגען, I wasn't able to be at the סדרים with the רבי, ניגונים with the רבי, whatever it might be,\" is always, I feel the same way. I missed ככה ככה וככה. I missed quite a few different things over there. I was born only maybe 25 years too late. My father asked me, \"Would you like to be 80 years old this these days?\" And I said I wasn't thinking that. I was just thinking about that my my personal feelings about something that I missed, and I can't even imagine getting it back. That's I imagine how somebody who born after the ג׳ תמוז, how that person would feel. But the thing is you don't have video of הקפות, and you don't have a video of תקיעות, and you don't have a video of the סדרים, and you don't have a video of the רבי teaching a ניגון. But you do have videos and from every single angle of פארברענגענס, and שיחות, and תפילות, and other parts that can bring a person to experience that. So י״א ניסן תשמ״ב, it happened to me. I I thought I I was I I I was there so so to speak virtually there or whatever, but I really felt it. I ממש felt it, a a a גאנצע נאכט. And to those who were there, I shared this with them, and they see nobody disagreed So far, I haven't found anybody who said, \"No, that was not the feelings.\" So לכאורה, I think I might have, you know, arrived over there. Which means that I I would To safely say that anybody, even somebody after the ג' תמוז development, who were were standing all in a תנועה of מסירת נפש, and it's, it's demanded of us to to feel to be a חסיד to, we we have the opportunity to connect to the רבי, not just because we're learning his תורה. That's obvious, you can connect to the אלטער רבי that way, you can connect to משה רבינו, תורה צוה לנו משה. The חידוש here of דור השביעי is that we actually have videos of the רבי teaching תורה, the רבי saying a מאמר. Imagine if once a week, you put on your hat and your, a קאפאטע and your גארטל, and you just put on a מאמר. A מאמר can take 20 minutes. Stand there, watch it, learn it, absorb it, read it before, and then hear how the רבי says it. Do it once a week, do it once a month, ראש חודש, you take out a מאמר, or a שיחה, something that you learned, something that you heard about, something that somebody described. You can connect, you can ממש be there. I know that because I did it, and I continue to do it. I don't take out a video every מוצאי שבת, but almost every מוצאי שבת I take out some פארבריינגען which is connected to that time, and I go to the מאמר. The מאמר was always very very הימלדיק, the מאמר with the ניגון דווקא. And just listen. לאו דווקא you'll understand, לאו דווקא you'll be able to follow, it's just sometimes it becomes a little a little over your head type of thing, it's okay. Just to hear the singsong, the ניגון before, and to hear the רבי saying it. If you see the רבי saying the מאמר, you see the רבי's the head down and the הכנות during the ניגון how the רבי prepares himself, and then the מאמר itself, and the רבי's, yeah, you can ממש see the difference, as if the רבי just dropped down from heaven. It's, it's really unique and special. The מאמר, that's a הרגש. You can do that with a שיחה, you can do that with dollars, you can do that with so many different things. And each time you do it, something in there will touch you. Something, a word, a ווארט, a השגחה פרטית'דיק type of feeling, look, this מאמר the רבי said something that I was learning, I was thinking, I was needing, these kind of things. They ממש happen. That's called the דור השביעי התקשרות. That's all we have now, but we have it. You do not have that from any other גדול בישראל in history. And we're not talking about history here, we're talking about our רבי. And we're talking about מסירת נפש because it's difficult and it's a challenge how to educate our children and how to get them involved. We have the Living Torah that we watch on מוצאי שבת. In my house, it's חק ולא יעבור, I do not make הבדלה until after it's over, until after the video. And when the video is on, I בפירוש turn off all the lights, and I ask everybody in there, \"Do not say a word. You have to say something, hold it until it's\", 15 minutes, that's it. But in that way, the the connection to the רבי is real. At least during the time when the רבי פארבריינג, nobody said a word, there was no questions and answers, there was no interaction, there was no like, \"Oh, I have a thought, can I share a thought? Can I share a ווארט, please?\" It was it was the most a rare thing that the רבי even asked somebody else to speak on very very rare occasions. י\"ט כסלו תשמ\"ב, the רבי asked Rabbi Paltiel, who was leading the the campaigning of against the מיהו יהודי problem, to say a few words. And on י' שבט תשכ\"ו, the רבי asked several רבנים to get up and talk about ארץ ישראל. There were It was so rare. The רבי asked ר' זלמן שמעון to talk about a תענית שעות in תש\"מ. This was very very unusual that anybody should say a word. And so, why should we say something when the video of the רבי is playing, and we're all trying to focus on what's going on there? So the idea is somehow to be connected, the מסירת נפש is still definitely there, because the bottom line is when the video screen is turned off, it's it's terrible. I remember when the first פארבריינגען was put was given out by JEM on a video, and ah, we spent four or five hours transported to this world, this world of תורה, this world of מצוה, the world of the רבי, the world of אויפגעהויבנקייט is elevation that you feel when you were at פארברענגענס, that that everyone who was there, if if you hooked in, you were elevated. You were you were inspired to a point where you were on you were like, thank God the רבי elevated me here. I remember one שבת after פארברענגען, I and after מנחה, it was one of these really I think it was in מ\"ז, maybe מ\"ו, and one of these really heavy, uplifting פארברענגענס. And I walked outside, and I was like looking. I I I didn't want it. I didn't want it. And that's the כח of a פארברענגען. The רבי took you פשוט to heaven during the פארברענגען. And so this פארברענגען of the on the video of JEM went on, and then יחי, בשמחה זיין, the רבי leaves, and all of a sudden, doodle-do-do-do-do-do, this video was produced by an ah! The the the fall, the down-to-earth clop. This wasn't real. This was only a video. But in reality, it is real because the רבי left this for us. He allowed them to do this so that we should have this now, not just to remember, but to re-experience and to relive and to be part of it. And so the מסירת נפש never stays because after the video, you have to open up your eyes, and you're right back where you were before. But this time the רבי דיר אויפגעהויבן, the רבי elevated you even a little bit, and you came away with some kind of inspiration, some kind of point, some kind of idea that you can take with you, and you can feel that, ah, I need to do this next time again because I I was put into the right place, and I was taken to the right I was elevated to the right place. So from the one hand, we are we are demanded a great מסירת נפש, and ליובאוויטש is pretty good at מסירת נפש. We all know that the אמת is right here, and nobody's running to anywhere else, כמובן וגם פשוט. But for our sake of ourselves, every once in a while we need this. And for the sake of our children, even more. And for the sake of our grandchildren, even more than even. They should know that this is not סתם a thing that we remember, but it's a thing that we're קאכט, that we are involved, we are engaged, and we continue to be engaged. You were at the פארברענגען of ל\"ב. ל\"ב, my friends, was almost 50 years ago. It's a long time! And you remember the פארברענגען, good. You don't remember every word of the פארברענגען. You don't remember the רבי חזר a מאמר ביום עשתי עשר from, you know, י\"א ניסן ל\"ב in addition to the ל\"א one, וכולי וכולי. So there there's something to be found in every single one of these פארברענגענס, and and try it. When you try it, you make a החלטה and you try it, not סתם to watch, but to be ממש involved, you'll see that you will have at least part of that experience. And at least the children should know that this is מיט דעם לעבט מען, not just with the memory, but with the actual doing of it. לחיים, לחיים. לחיים, יוסי, a big יישר כח. Rabbi Schapiro, get ready, you're back on because we promised that the פארברענגען goes till 12:00. So we will is Rabbi New on? Let's see if Rabbi New on. We're going to try a different Hey, I wanted to I wanted to tell a story that you were you you were involved with this story. I'm not in rushing you. Hold on, let me unmute Rabbi Schapiro. No, Rabbi Schapiro, I'd like to hear his rebuttal. But one יוסי, give me a second. I do want to wish two people a happy birthday. I got messages. So I want to wish one of my colleagues, my dear colleagues and partners, Rabbi חיים Lipskar of the שול of downtown, a happy birthday. And from Facebook, I got one of my בעלי בתים, who I share with Rabbi Biston, Alan Levine, today's his birthday, 47 years since his בר מצוה. So I want to give him a shout-out and wish him a a a יום הולדת, a שנת ברכה והצלחה, a year of blessing and success. Rabbi Biston, I see, is writing his name down to run after him. Let me get the next donation, okay? You got the last one. The The The other thing is I just want to say before we hear your story and then we'll have Rabbi Schapiro continue, and we don't have to stop, by the way. My Zoom count is unlimited, so we don't have to stop at midnight, especially we have Australia, we have lots of Australia, Rabbi Rosenfeld, Rabbi Tenenbaum, סרולי and Levy, so we can keep on going. It's only morning there. But I will say that Wednesday night, Wednesday night on the same link, and you'll see it on COL and crownheights.info, they both advertise this as well, we're having a very, very special evening, again, a global lecture on סיום הרמב״ם and משיח, so we hope we hope we have a young rising star who's going to be one of our guest speakers, so we hope you'll join us. Rabbi Lou, tell us your story. It better be, better be a good one, and then we go to Rabbi Schapiro, don't go. Hold on, let's see if Rabbi Schapiro has something to add to what I just said. Rabbi Schapiro, your rebuttal. Am I unmuted? Yes. I think it's very good what you just said. I have You mean from that פארברענגען? Can you hear me? Yeah. We hear you. You mean about the פארברענגען from תשמ״ב? י״א ניסן, that's what you're talking about? It's like you said. It's like you said it. All right, there you go. So, guys, it could happen. That's all. I don't think I'm any more special than anybody else, and I I felt it, I experienced it. Try it. At least try it. If you don't feel it, you'll learn something for sure. And you'll spend a couple of hours with the רבי, that's זיכער גוט. But to get to the מעשה, this is a a מוראדיקע מעשה that happened about 13 years ago. Pinnie and I were in Poland for we were on the Southern Region March of the Living. And we were the rabbis, the שלוחים that went with the students there. And we were going to spend the שבת in Kraków. And just a couple of months before, we were there we were there for the שבת after פסח. So for a couple of months before, a new שליח, who's today the veteran שליח there, Eliezer Gurary, the son of יוחנן גורארי׳ from חולון. So he was the שליח appointed to Kraków. So I called him up a few weeks before. We got permission, Pinnie and I think Pinnie got this permission, to take 15 students, 15 of the kids with us to the הרמ״א שול in Kraków, which is then the שול that that Gurary was in, and then to go back to his house for סעודת שבת, for פארברענגען. And so I called Gurary, and I said to Gurary, \"We're going to be there this שבת, שבת שמיני, and we want you to put on the table, you know, ווי עס דארף צו זיין, you know, the whole business, to get the fish with the טשאלנט, the קוגל, it should be a spread. We'll take care of you for that שבת. And we want to bring 15 kids to your house and פארברענג with them.\" And כה עשה, we gave the guy about a thousand dollars, maybe some more, and we went to the שול to דאווען. After דאווענען, we took these 15 kids back to his house. And we had a curfew, I think it was 2:00. I don't think we got back till 4:00. And in Poland, the legal age is 18. All these kids were 18 or over. And we made sure to take care they had a little bit of לחיים. And I remember, Leibel Alevsky, זאל ער זיין געזונט, he was at he was it's his אייניקל who was there. He was sitting at the table. Leibel Alevsky is a legendary פארברענגער. Used to be at least, before he got not well. And nobody said a word. It was just Pinnie and I, and we were האקנדיק. I can tell you that from all the kids that I know who were around that table, they were all פרום יידן today. That was really, really a special, special פארברענגען. Good, then we and then we the שבת was over. We, or whatever it was, we went to the other places around Poland, then we went to Israel for a week and we came back. Fast forward three months, it was ג׳ תמוז. ג׳ תמוז, this is I tell you the year, this is תשס״ז. So yeah, 13 years ago. It was ג׳ תמוז, and I was at the אוהל like everybody else was at the אוהל. Spent the whole day there. I spent the whole day at the אוהל, from early in the morning, went to דאווען שחרית there, and then to to learn a מאמר, to write the פ״ן, stand on the line for hours, and then before and after. You know, that's the the ג׳ תמוז routine. And I was leaving the אוהל, I was I left one of the tents, I walked out, towards the street to go back. And lo and behold, פונקט the exit that I was leaving, there was אליעזר גורארי, Kraków's שליח. Hey, אליעזר, שלום עליכם! וואס מאכסטו? I haven't seen you for three months! And then I look at him, and he does not look right. מדוע פניכם רעים היום? Why, I said to him, you look terrible. He says, I feel terrible, I have a big problem. What's your problem? He says, I need to go back to Kraków. I said, oh, Kraków! That's where we had that big פארברענגען, and the בית הקברות of the רמ״א, and the ב״ח over there, the תוספות יום טוב, and and the this dead שול and that dead שול, and that there's standing memorial for for what life used to be like. I was starting going through all the different things that we experienced in Kraków, and the פארברענגען that we had in his house, and like we were there for one or two days. And I suddenly realized, I'm, you imagine, this is a new שליח. It's a new country with a new language, he doesn't have a penny to his name. And not only that, but he had some big struggles over there with the community. The community is of all of 100 people or something, חרדישע יידן, and they were they were fighting him tooth and nail, or still are. And, you know, he doesn't have a friend, and he doesn't have they have a little family, little kids, he had little little children, and he's thinking to himself, it's the first time he came to the United States since he went out, and he's depressed, he's got to go back. And that's a big problem for a שליח who's just starting out with מסירות נפש. And in my mind, it's all going through in my head, I'm saying to myself, there's a reason why I of all people went out of פונקט this exit to be able to meet with him so I should be able to give him something, some kind of חיזוק, some kind of inspiration. And what am I going to say? Just that at that moment, coming from the street towards the אהל was one of the דור השביעי's great שלוחים, עליו השלום, יוסי רייטשיק, who פשוט enjoyed doing favors for another ייד, a person who invested himself in building some of some of the most beautiful מוסדות around the world. And I I was very close with him. He's much older than me, about 10 years older than me, but I had a very close relationship, he had been to my house in Atlanta several times, וכולי וכולי. Anyway, ah, יוסי, שלום עליכם! So good to see Oh, by the way, let me introduce you to the שליח over here, the שליח of Kraków, גורארי. Oh, you're גורארי from Kraków? This morning I was in a home in Boro Park, and this was an אייניקל of the last chief rabbi of Kraków. Kraków had some very very big prominent רבנים, like as I mentioned before, the the רמ״א himself and the the ב״ח and the תוספות יום טוב and the מגלה עמוקות, מגיני שלמה, all kinds of great names, the the איגר family, this. Anyway, so it was known for their their their רבנים were the big גדולי ישראל. And this guy was I don't know who who the last chief rabbi was, but he said that I was in this guy's house, an אייניקל from the last chief rabbi, and he said to me that I heard that חב״ד moved to Kraków, and I want to donate a ספר תורה לעילוי נשמת my grandfather. So יוסי רייטשיק says to גורארי, he says, do you need a ספר תורה? He says, yeah! And then he oh, just the other day I was another thing, an אייניקל from from Kraków in New Jersey, and the guy wants to donate a significant amount of money for חב״ד in Kraków. Do you need Do you need any money? Do you need money, he says! Ask a שליח, not somebody who was there for for just six months, ask a שליח who has been there for 600 years if they need any money. And גורארי says, yeah, yeah! And so he says, okay, here He pulls out a notepad from his from his pocket, and he has in there the names and the addresses. He says, for this guy, if your father is in town, take your father with him because he's this בן תורה kind of person. The other guy, you don't need to take your father. These are the addresses, this is the name, this is the number, and go to these people. And they are exchanging this information. And I'm standing there, והאיש משתאה לו, I could not believe. You should have seen this guy's face that changed from from one end to another end, ממש. ממש מוראדיק to see this guy how Anyway, so יוסי רייציק went on into the אוהל, and I turned around to גורארי and I said to him, \"נו? וואס זאגסטו? What's your response to this?\" So גורארי said like this: \"I came to the אוהל today and I found out that they are letting you I I wanted to pour my heart out, and I found out that you only have two minutes. And within the two minutes, they keep they keep on reminding you, 'Ah! 30 seconds have passed, you have one and a half minutes to go!' You can't even concentrate and focus to do anything. It's it's just, you know, it's a a quick in and out, it's like getting a dollar and going out. So, he said, I decided I'm not writing a צעטל, I can't stand there and read it. I stood at the אוהל in my two minutes, and I said over and over again, 'רבי, I need a ספר תורה and I need money, that will make me happy.' That's all I said. And before I leave the premises they are both in my hands.\" In case you're in case you might wonder if this is a true story, you could go to your favorite חב״ד news site and put in 2009 ספר תורה Kraków, and you'll see the pictures. In the in the meantime, יוסי רייציק passed away, and the guy agreed to do the ספר תורה in his in his in his memory. And they made it in 2009, תשס״ט, right after פסח, that that תקופה. I wasn't there in Kraków, that was the one year I did not go in the few years that I would go on this this program. I was in Kraków about three years ago, and I was in the שול with אליעזר גורארי, and he comes over to me, says, \"I'm not sure you remember, but 10 years ago on ג׳ תמוז, I was at the אוהל.\" I said, \"Stop!\" I said, \"You're not sure if I remember? It was a מופת גלוי that happened in front of my eyes! I can't even take the credit for it. I was just I just introduced you to to יוסי רייציק, and the rest is history.\" It ממש set him up, by the way. He set him up on a on a path that that ענין, he still לייענט from that ספר תורה, and and ברוך השם, was able to to straighten himself out. But that was a complete turnaround. So, so, the נקודה of this מעשה is that when you פשוט call out from the bottom of your heart, you have a point like יצעקו אל ה׳ בצר להם. It's that צער, you're you're you're you've you're climbing walls, and you don't know how much more you can climb. You've done אלס וואס מען קען. We have a father, we have a טאטע, who who looks at our מסירת נפש, and the טאטע says, \"Listen here, קינדערלעך, what do you need? Just tell me. Just keep me informed, and you'll see that I will come to help you.\" הקדוש ברוך... זאל דער אייבערשטער העלפן, I know we're talking about מסירת נפש, י״ב תמוז, מסירת נפש is גענוג מסירת נפש. מסירת נפש is very is a we're very we're too good at מסירת נפש, unfortunately. Now we need to find the time where we should have, טאקע, everything that we need בטוב הנראה והנגלה, כפשוטו ממש, and that we should the most important thing that we need is that the רבי should come back and put an end to this מסירת נפש תנועה and an end to missing him, and we should be able to פארברענג with the רבי, תכף ומיד ממש. לחיים! לחיים ולברכה. אמן. לחיים יוסי, beautiful! לחיים, לחיים. By the way, Rabbi Olevsky, חיים ברוך, posted the link for the תורה. I have actually a request on the chat. We're going to allow Rabbi Shapiro to to conclude the פארברענגען, and again there's no time, so you keep on going. We have over 300 people on, we almost hit 350 tonight. And I just want to say that I do have a request from somebody who wrote, \"Can you ask Rabbi Shapiro to finish off the story from Odessa?\" Now, I didn't notice that you didn't you didn't finish it, but the question is, can you ask Rabbi Shapiro to finish the story with the ספר in Odessa? But Rabbi Shapiro, I'm not telling you what to speak, this is your platform. And again, I thank each and every one of you for joining, and hope you will join Wednesday night for more. And I do wanted to I wanted to also say that we're going to conclude with a ני– ניגון, Rabbi Frankfurter, my my partner and colleague is going to finish off by posting and sharing a ניגון, so that it doesn't get all muffled like it did before. Rabbi Shapiro, a גוט יום טוב. לחיים. לחיים, לחיים. You hear me? We hear you. We hear you. Okay. The truth is the story I finished, I just what I mentioned that there's more to it is the whole הכנה to it. When we came to Odessa, it was right after פורים, and that day, there were a few people that were there that were arrested because it was they they made underground they made a פורים שפיל, and the KGB found out about it, and there many people arrested. And because of that, the danger was much more. So we came there, we couldn't even talk. We came there, there was in the house a a chalk, a blackboard with chalk that we would write to each other. So in this house that I mentioned before, we managed to talk, but there was another house there the name was, I forgot already, they had arrested the father. So the communication took place by writing on the blackboard and you erase it and then people answered, and they said because there's a car outside standing picks up everything that we're talking. And this is talking in those days, in the מ'ס. They pick up everything they're talking and therefore we have to be very careful. Later the news in America had the news that there was in Odessa a whole incident, and I was there then. So בכלל, so the fear that was there, which is I don't want to go into the detail, but the fear that was there to come there and especially with that book to come there was there were raids in a few houses that people arrested. They came in, they tore off the מזוזות from the houses, the KGB, and they looked through the cabinet, any food that was there that had came from Israel that had Yiddish words, they took it away and it was it was very terrible. But we came in, we had מצה שמורה that we brought along to give to people. So we gave this guy a box of מצה, two pounds of מצה, this person, his name was Kaufman actually. And the שמחה that he had that he's able to have שמורה מצה is is unbelievable. So being there was living through פשוט the מצב the way it was that the fear that they had. Just to continue in this line, in one of the פארברענגענס that we had, we had many פארברענגענס in different people's houses, one of the פארברענגענס, there was a man there actually spoke Yiddish, but he spoke like a פוילישע Yiddish, and he says לחיים to me, and he says, \"לחיים, לחיים, דער אייבערשטער זאל העלפן און איר זאלט ארויסקריכן פון דאנען.\" And then he thinks, he says, \"I believe you'll get out.\" He thought he make me feel good. Imagine he's telling me, \"I I think you'll get out.\" Not sure, but \"I hope I hope you'll get out.\" So the fear that was there the coming into the Russia was very hard. In other words, the customs, it took us two and a half hours by the customs. Every little thing that we brought in, they would they checked. As a matter of fact, I even bought a book in English, a tourist book for Russia, and I had the Rebbe's a picture and I put it into the book and they took they looked through every page. So he was looking and looking with his hands, finger and I saw he's going to get to that picture. So I didn't know what's going to happen. He'll see the picture and as he's moving his hands, a guy calls him, so he turns around and his fingers continued moving and the picture passed and it went through. Other things they didn't let us take take through, we had in order to get there to bring, so we brought along, I'll give you an example, we brought along ink for a סופר. What did we do? We bought shoe polish, emptied it out and put ink from a for a סופר into the bottle as if we're taking shoe polish. ציצית, we took the ציצית and we made it into a roll, and my wife bought two needles and it was crocheting needles and this is meant for crocheting. Everything had to be done in such in such a in such a way. And they took away any ספרים that we brought, they took away. But anyway, it was the the body search, everything. So we saw right, as soon as we came down the plane, I can tell you, there were when we went down the steps into the airport, first of all the airport was very dim, dark, and there were soldiers standing with machine guns like that. Reminded me of what it said the פריערדיקער רבי writes in when he was in שפאלערקע, and he went how dark it was and he describes it, this is exactly how he felt. But the מסירת נפש that they had, as I was saying before, ברוך השם now we don't need it, and as Rabbi Lou was saying, ברוך השם we shouldn't have to have the מסירת נפש, but they had it. But the feeling they had. When we went to Leningrad, I was by a חתונה there, I was מסדר קידושין by a חתונה because they wait they waited for guests because the people there were afraid to מסדר קידושין because it was illegal. In middle of the חתונה, I got a message that before we leave when we come back to Moscow before we leave there is a certain person that needs us to call him before, to get a message to him, we have to he has to speak to us. Something important. What was it? We got to we got back to to Москва and we got you called him, and his mother answered, it was a בחור, the mother answered that he is sick with high fever, but nevertheless he'll take the train and he'll come to the house to see us. He came to the What was his thing? He had a box of מצה from last year, and it was laying, no one touched it. But you never know, it wasn't put away in the פסח place, can he eat it on פסח? So I said, if no one touched it, you know no one touched it, and in Russia how did they have the מצה, the כשר מצה? So he says So I said it's okay. So he says to me, \"Are you saying it because of me, because I'm in Russia, or you're בעצם saying it?\" So I said, \"Take away the top מצה and don't use it.\" I'm just want to bring out that the מסירת נפש that they had, it was something that it's it's unbelievable. One of the places we came to learn, I came to learn, before we came in the person, the יונגערמאן that was with me, that was walking with me, he calls his house from the pay phone because the head of the KGB was she the wife said, before he left he saw that the head of the KGB from that area was walking around, so they were afraid that he picked up that there is something going to happen because on the phone they made arrangements about the שיעור. He picked up and he's coming He's afraid, so he called his wife first to see if he's still around and he wasn't, so we walked. And when we came there we sat down, we took Actually I gave a שיעור in גמרא, it wasn't even a פארברענגען, a שיעור in גמרא, מסכת כתובות. And in middle, there was a knock on the door. Right away everything was put away, nothing. And למעשה, it was a latecomer to the שיעור, but we got so scared. My wife, the first night gave a שיעור to the women. So we made up on the phone that she should stand at this and this corner, and a lady will walk by with a red scarf. That's all. She'll just pass by. You follow behind her. Stay away, but follow behind her. And when you came so that's what she did. She followed, you couldn't talk, and when they came to the building she took her under her coat and they took her into her apartment under her coat into a back room, and she said, \"I'm afraid in the house I'm afraid of my mother-in-law.\" Just to bring out that the the way they they lived then and they learned and they דאווענט. So this is a מסירת נפש that they had, and we don't need a מסירת נפש, but we have to learn from that that we have to do. And everything that Rabbi Lou said is אויסגעהאלטן, I'm telling you, just to mention בנוגע the new ניגון. ברוך השם I had the זכות I was there, not by all, the first time I was there was תשי\"ח, because I didn't live in New York, we lived in Cleveland. So the first פארברענגען that I came to the רבי was for שמחת תורה תשי\"ח. I was in יחידות תשי\"ג when we came from Europe moved to America, אלול תשי\"ג I was in יחידות, I was a kid. But then for the first time my father took me along was for שמחת תורה תשי\"ח. And the interesting part of is מאדנע זאך. The רבי would give לעקאך הושענא רבה. To those that didn't get ערב יום כיפור he would give הושענא רבה. So I was standing with my father in line to take לעקאך from the רבי, and the line wasn't as big as later, obviously, but still it's הושענא רבה after דאווענען it was and there was a big long line and it's no time to stop and talk. But when the when we came over to get לעקאך, the רבי turns around to me and he says, \"What did you learn lately?\" In middle of the line of לעקאך. So I said, \"I learned מסכת ביצה.\" So then the רבי says to me, \"What הלכות did you learn?\" Which right later I realized he probably meant which הלכה in מסכת ביצה, I imagine. But I didn't understand, so I said, \"הלכות שופר, that's what we learned, the last הלכות.\" So the רבי asks me, \"How many קולות do you have to blow on ראש השנה?\" So I said, \"A hundred.\" So the רבי asks me these words: \"This that we blow a hundred קולות, is this מדינא דגמרא or not? Is it from the גמרא's time or not?\" And I didn't know. But I was everyone was surprised! In middle of the line of לעקאך the רבי is asking learning and asking a קשיא in in in in הלכות! Anyway, but that was the first time I was there, first שמחת תורה, the first פארברענגען I was there, and that time was שאמיל'ס ניגון. I was there, and from then on, from תשכ״א till the end, till תשכ״ד, which was the last time of the רבי saying the ניגון. So the ציור of, you described it, is the ציור was such and so special, a whole year you waited for the new ניגון. After the רבי taught the new ניגון and waiting already what's going to be next year. The ציור was, it changed when it came to the like I think כ״ג. Used to be that the רבי came out it was after after the פארברענגען, there was a פארברענגען started around 9:00, went about till 12:00, 12:30 or something, 9:00, 9:30. Then there was הקפות lasted till 3:00, 3:30, then the רבי went upstairs to eat the סעודה by the apartment of the פריערדיקער רבי. And after the סעודה, that's when the רבי came down. And the רבי came down, so those beginning it was the first time that that happened, it was didn't even expect it, that's why it was like this, but I wasn't there. But this time there was in middle of the שול, it wasn't where the רבי with the פארברענגען, it was in middle of the שול. The שול was only the first part of the שול. In middle of the שול, there was a few milk boxes, and on top of the milk boxes there was a board. And the רבי stood on top of that, and the רבי was giving לחיים for those who are מקבל upon themselves a הוספה in לימוד החסידות. And while he was doing this, he was singing the ניגון. And he would usually say something about the ניגון. So I remember when he special שאמיל'ס ניגון, remember when he sang the ניגון סטאוו יא פיטו, that was a very hard ניגון. It's a hard ניגון because it's not Russian, no one understood the words. It's not Russian, it's not Ukrainian, it's a mishmash, it's a it's not the language is not so clear, and it's a lot of words, and it's a complicated ניגון. That's why, after יום טוב, the רבי gave out a piece of paper with the words in Hebrew letters. Not the רבי'ס כתב, but they I think they say the רבי wrote it, that's what they said then, I didn't see the כתב יד, they gave out a paper with with the words. And this is the famous one that what the רבי used to do, used to sing the ניגון, then ask רב יואל to sing over, he asked רב משה טעלעשעווסקי, and people would sing and the רבי would sing it again. Then the next night, when there was the big פארברענגען, the רבי would repeat and usually sing again the ניגון. So by סטאוו יא פיטו, I remember, this was תשכ״ג, סטאוו יא פיטו, the רבי sang it and it was hard to catch, but the next night by the פארברענגען the רבי sang it over again, but I remember the way he did it. He sang it, and when he got to the words, \"אוי חשבון צדק א דאוואטי\", so he came to the words, \"אוי חשבון צדק\", and he stopped, and he said, \"דאס מיינט מיר, און דיר, און דיר, און דיר, א דאוואטי\". He pointed actually at three people. He didn't mean these specifically people, I guess, he meant like all three parts of the שול. I remember the last time when he came down to sing the ניגון, this was תשכ״ד. When the רבי walked down, and right in the beginning, I saw that it's going to be over, that this is the last time. You could see it. He came down and the first thing he started saying that, \"You should know that this is משקה that I'm giving is not for everybody. It's only for those who take upon themselves a הוספה in לימוד החסידות.\" Because what used to happen, everybody got into the line, even little kids were standing in the line. After the רבי said this, what the רבי expected is that somebody from the ועד המסדר would take care that little kids or they shouldn't it's not for them, it's not. For some reason, no one did it. And the רבי started giving and he looked and he saw, you saw that the רבי was was upset. And then the רבי said that, \"As I said before, it's only for those who accept upon themselves a הוספה in חסידות.\" And nothing happened. The רבי said, I just don't remember if it was 6:00 or 7:00, he said it was a quarter to I have a ספק, was it a quarter to 6:00 already in the morning, or a quarter to 7:00? And the רבי said, \"When the time will be,\" I think he said 7:00, but it sounds like too late, maybe he said 6:00, \"I'm going to stop. We'll stop giving.\" And the רבי said, \"און יעצט וועט מען זען וואס וועט זיין,\" these I'm quoting the words, \"וואס וועט זיין מיט די אלע חכמים וואס ווארטן אלעמאל ביזן סוף.\" Because he's going to stop in the middle, and we'll see what will be with those חכמים that are waiting that always wait till the end. That's exactly what happened. When the clock struck, the clock, clock across struck, I think it was seven, but that makes me a ספק, maybe it was six. רבי put down the ברכה, and he stopped, stopped giving. But he taught the ניגון while he was giving, he taught the ניגון. So first he taught the ניגון כי אנו עמך, the new כי אנו עמך. כי אנו עמך, it was called the new one because it was after the old one. And then when he finished, he said next year, whether there's going to be a new ניגון or not, it's a ספק. Therefore, I'm going to teach another ניגון. And that's when the רבי taught the ניגון of הוא אלוקינו, as a second ניגון. And I remember when the רבי was teach- teaching the ניגון, and he was trying, and he said יחיאל the חזן used to be the one used to sing it. It was a known ניגון in ליובאוויטש, it wasn't a new ניגון. Everyone knew the ניגון. Maybe with a little different twist. He would put it to the words of הוא אלוקינו. And the רבי started singing the ניגון and trying to put it into the words. Seems like he hadn't practiced before to put it into the words. That's where the איי איי איי comes from. How does the איי איי איי there? איי איי איי איי, why is it there? You could fit it in. But the רבי was trying, and the רבי said, \"I don't remember the words by heart.\" He took a סידור and opened the סידור, start saying it with the סידור, and he taught the ניגון, and people, but that people caught very fast. The next night, by the פארברענגען, when they sang it over, the רבי asked משה טלשבסקי to sing it over. משה טלשבסקי already had time to fit it into the words properly, so he sang it without the איי איי איי. So he sang it solo, and then the whole עולם sang. When the whole עולם sang, they sang it with the איי איי איי. So when the עולם finished, the רבי turns around to משה טלשבסקי and he says, \"Why don't you sing it with the איי איי איי like everybody else?\" And in my mind, again, everyone can say their own סברות, it looked like the איי איי איי came in not because the רבי planned to make the איי איי איי. But nevertheless, if that's how it came out, by the רבי, that's true, that's how it has to stay. Even though when the רבי דאווענט for the עמוד himself, usually he did not say the איי איי איי. But I think that's a different thing, because when the רבי דאווענט for the עמוד, קדושה is the middle of שמונה עשרה. חזרת הש״ץ is שמונה עשרה. So he didn't want, in the middle of שמונה עשרה, to say the איי איי איי. I mean, other people do that, חזנים always do that, they always. But by the רבי, middle of שמונה עשרה, he wouldn't. He wouldn't make with his hands then, like this, always the רבי would make with his hands. But when he דאווענט for the עמוד, he didn't make. I remember the first time he דאווענט for the עמוד after he taught this ניגון, we were standing, the בחורים, there, and we were talking amongst ourselves that the רבי is definitely not going to make with them. How do we know if he wants to sing it or not? Like this, not every time they they sang הוא אלוקינו. Later it became a a weekly thing, but not always. So we didn't know if going to be, will he want it or not? But he's not going to make I said clearly. So he said, \"No, he could make with the...\" I said, \"No, he's not going to make with his hands. In the middle of שמונה עשרה, you're not allowed to. You're not allowed to make anything. It's שמונה עשרה. חזרת הש״ץ is a regular שמונה עשרה with all the דינים of שמונה עשרה.\" It came טאקע לפועל, he didn't make with his hands. But we were standing up front, so we were, a few of my חברים, we started singing, taking a chance. The people further on didn't see, so they don't know, they heard singing, so everyone started so everyone sang. But we didn't know. And the רבי repeated, he sang it, so we knew the רבי was happy. But I think the reason he didn't say the איי איי איי, because in the middle of שמונה עשרה, he didn't want. But לכתחילה ווען the רבי said to make the איי איי איי, why? Because even though, and maybe I'm wrong, but even though it seemed like it's just because he couldn't fit it into the words, it didn't this, that's why he sang it. But by the רבי, אזוי געווען ביים רבי'ן, איז דאס אזוי. Which reminds me the in ליקוטי שיחות, once, there was a שיחה that the רבי said, it was on פרקי אבות. Then, you know, פרקי אבות there is between פסח and שבועות, then there's later. So, that year, in ליקוטי שיחות, it was actually in the תוכן ענינים yet, they took the after שבועות, every שבת was a שיחה on פרקי אבות. So they took the שיחה on that פרק that the רבי said six weeks before, and gave it in to the רבי to be מגיה. The רבי was מגיה the שיחה and crossed out a certain line, a few two lines that he said by the פארברענגען, but he crossed it out. You know, the רבי was מגיה the שיחה twice. The second time, the רבי put it back in. שבת by פארברענגען, the רבי spoke about it, and most people didn't understand what he was saying, because they didn't know the ins and outs. But the רבי said that לכתחילה he said this, but then he realized that it's not true, it's a mistake he made in in the ענין that he said. \"So I crossed it out. But then,\" the רבי said, \"but I started thinking to myself that I said it in public, and I said it בפני כמה עשיריות מישראל, so it has to be true.\" And he started thinking, yeah, and he explained how the whole thing is true. And that's why he said, \"I put it back.\" So what did I see here? That even though the רבי What did he think? It's doesn't seem like it's right, but if he said it, there's no mistake. So you got to think deeper. The same thing I was thinking לגבי this איי איי איי, that he wanted that it should be with איי איי, if he said clearly, פארוואס זינגסטו נישט ווי די אלע ווי אלע זינגען מיט'ן איי איי איי. But that's going back to the to the ציור of the new ניגון. By the new ניגון the סדר that was there, it was something very special. I wasn't here by by by רחמנא, so someone said like people told me, I don't know, I can't say, that by רחמנא, when וואסילעווסקי started repeating it, so he started singing it with חזנות, רחמנא דעני with חזנות. So the רבי turned around to him, and he was telling him so I don't know exactly how it was, but that's what they say the רבי said to him, \"ווען א עני שטייט בפתח, זינגט ער נישט קיין חזנות.\" רחמנא דעני, דעני, ועני א עני עני שטייט and expects money, זינגט ער נישט קיין חזנות. It's not, whatever the רבי would say. בנוגע ר' יואל, everyone said, נו, wie ר' זלמן דוכמאן זאגט אז ר' יואל can חזר'ן a ניגון, not only he can חזר'ן a שיחה, he can חזר'ן a ניגון also, if he has a חוש in נגינה. So the רבי would ask him to repeat it. But the whole ציור, remember once by אתה הראתנו ר' שלום מורוזוב had taken א סך משקה, and when the he was laying on the floor under the רבי's feet, and he was like making noise because he was he was drunk, and people tried to push him away, and the רבי said, \"לאזט אים, לאזט אים.\" Okay, he was a special person, ר' שלום מורוזוב, he was a גאון עולם and he was a חסיד and he was an an emes, an emes. But the whole ציור, so like I said, it was in the middle of the שול, but I think it was from תשל״ב on, I think from that, they changed it. The רבי would do it from the place of his פארברענגען, but he was standing the whole time, he wasn't sitting. Asking where was his hands, he wasn't sitting, he was standing, always before and then also when he did it in the farbrengen the רבי was standing the whole time when he was giving the משקה and he was singing the ניגון and it was some kind of, you know, connection. Remember when he sang the the ניגון אנעים זמירות, and he told the story about this guy, פוילישער חסיד, who was מוצאי יום כיפור standing there the whole night and singing this ניגון. So it was always הקדמה. Anyway, when the רבי, just want to finish, when the רבי spoke about stopping to be מגיה לקוטי שיחות, תש\"ל, שמחת תורה תשל\"ב, he said there are a few things that he stopped and he was really like upset why no one bothered him about it. One of the things he said was he stopped giving חנוכה געלט to the בחורים, he used to give חנוכה געלט every חנוכה, the fifth light he used to give the בחורים, לומדי חסידות. He said he stopped saying מאמרים, like this used to be a מאמר every שבת מברכים and every יום דפגרא. That year, תשל\"ה, the רבי stopped and he only said sometimes, not always. And he used the לשון, and what I do is, I כאפ אריין a מאמר in a שיחה. A שיחה קען מאמר, I don't know which words he used, but it was an expression that I felt good about because it was we who wrote the הנחות made up that expression. Where did it come from that expression a מאמר קען שיחה, a שיחה קען מאמר, whichever we We made it up. We wanted that it's a מאמר, but it's not a real not a מאמר, so so the רבי said כאפט אריין a מאמר in a שיחה. And then also one of the things he said about a new ניגון, that he had to stop it. And now also he's taking a טענה of stopping לקוטי שיחות and and the רבי complained why no one bothered, no one cared. I don't know if no one cared or not, nobody wrote to the רבי or not, מן הסתם not, but the רבי, in other words, himself felt bad and he stopped it. And like I said before, why did he stop it? Because the whole thing was during the time when he's giving the משקה for חסידות and it didn't the people were continuing, the kids were continuing in the line and the רבי it was you can see wasn't so happy then. When it came the year later, after the after הקפות, the רבי said, \"Like I said last year, that there's not going to be a new ניגון, therefore,\" he started I hear there's a חלוקי דעות exactly what which ניגון he started, but he he said, \"Like I said last year, there's not going to be the new ניגון.\" Another thing, we were wondering when it came to יום כיפור, which כי אנו עמך does the רבי want us to sing? Till then they sang always the old כי אנו עמך. Now that the רבי taught, so I'm telling you what I think, it's my own what I observed, I was waiting and I looked standing there, looking at the רבי, what's going to happen? I think that the רבי wanted the new one, but the people don't know, the crowd in the back doesn't see, doesn't know, so they don't know, so everyone started the old כי אנו עמך and that's when the רבי continued and moved his hand. How do What makes me think that? Because I looked at the רבי and when it came to כי אנו עמך, this is what the רבי did: like that, not like this. In other words, כי אנו עמך. It looked like it, but what I'm telling you, like this one, to play all in one, the רבי, you know, a lot of times like that, it didn't go, געענדיקט. It's not it, it's not it. Anyway, but this is something which I wanted just to confirm that waiting for the new ניגון was, it was a moment that everybody was waiting for, something special. Now, could be that the specialty of this, why everyone was waiting for that, is not because of the נפש האלוקית, maybe because of נפש הבהמית, but נפש האלוקית maybe should be can hear us, because it was so געשמאַק. It was such an enjoyable thing. See, you can't say that כי הוא was enjoyable; כי הוא was הייליק. הקפות was also enjoyable, a different type, but it's הקפה. This one had a special, עפּעס a טעקער תענוג to hear a ניגון, and a new ניגון, it's, it's more even פּשוט גשמיות for the person, it's as געשמאַק, it's. So, could be that, and also because it's עפּעס אַ ענין רוחני, פֿאַרשטייט זיך. Anyway, the bottom line is to the השתטחות of the world, and it's השתטחות תש״פ, and we heard everything from Rabbi Lou. It's after ג׳ תמוז, 26 after ג׳ תמוז, און זי גייט אָן מיט אן גאַנצן שטורם and we're able to, and he brought out the point, I just בנוגע the videos and the pictures as always. We get videos, על דעם פּאַסט צו זאָגן exactly what it says in the מדרש: לא היה העולם ראוי להשתמש בזהב, ולא נברא זהב אלא בשביל בית המקדש. And the רבי writes הגם till they build the בית המקדש with זהב, you know how many עבודה זרהs were made with זהב? They use זהב, but that's their בחירה. אייבערשטער doesn't take away בחירה. But the whole purpose is, I think the whole מציאות, why is there such a thing as videos, is because of this, because it because of after ג׳ תמוז. I, too, do you know what they could use videos, the internet? השם ירחם, they can lose their mouth. זהב was also used פּשוט for עבודה זרה, for all kind of things, but the purpose was the בית המקדש. It's the purpose that we have things that we could see. It's like a only a דמות, only a shadow, but you know, it gives you some some feeling, some feeling it could give you. So, it's something that's that's very important. So, I just want to second the motion. And finish off with that. So, לחיים, לחיים. לחיים, לחיים, Rabbi Shapiro. We're We're not necessarily finished yet. We're, again, this is unlimited Zoom. I know, but Rabbi Lou could continue. We could go we could go till בדיקת חמץ if you want, but I'm just We actually have a question, and we could maybe wait till the next יומא דפגרא. I just want to say a couple of things. First of all, tonight was really very special, it was priceless. And for those who want to hear more Rabbi Shapiro, he there's a זכרונות. I think you've been slacking off a little bit. I haven't gotten it in a couple of weeks, unless you Not slacking off, I stopped. It stopped when it stopped with the corona. I stopped it, I was busy. So then, you know, when you stop, you don't Right. Hey, the רבי wouldn't let you stop, I'm not letting you stop. So now I'm telling you, Rabbi Shapiro, start giving, because it's something I look forward to, I listen in the car. Really, tonight, I was asked about tonight's sharing this farbrengen. It was recorded. You could go on to my the Facebook, Chabad of Florida Facebook, and watch the recording, or it'll be on on YouTube later. I'm going to share it as well, and probably get COL and CrownHeights.info to share it as well. I wanted just last thing for me is, when you talked about the shoe polish and all that, I was actually in ארץ ישראל, one of the ones who packed up the the shoe polish, and I don't I never looked at your shoes, but I think since I emptied out that shoe shoe polish, Rabbi Tennenhaus has not polished his shoes since. That I know. And I remember taking the film out and putting in little מזוזות, so it was, but these times are over. That מסירות נפש, as you know, there was an article recently, Stalin over Schneerson. We know that, you know, קיין עין הרע, with the work of our the שלוֹחים worldwide, today throughout the Soviet Union, where it was used to be מסירות נפש, today it's flourishing and growing, and אם ירצה השם, we should טאַקע be זוֹכֶה for all of us to be together, not on Zoom, and we should be together with the רבי, with with the גאולה שלימה. Today's the חג הגאולה, so what better day to to for for you know, the רבי to come, and we should have משיח here in the בית המקדש השלישי. I am Thank you. I thank everybody for joining. I just allowed the So ישראל, if you want to finish off with a ניגון, you can share the ניגון, and I guess we will, we'll wait for the next the question, so you could note it, Rabbi Schapiro, is the question was asked, they wanted to know the relationship that your father had with the פריערדיקער רבי. That was going to be the next question. So if you want to share a word or two before Rabbi Frankfurter, before Reb ישראל shares it, if you have just 30, 60, 120 seconds, I'm in no rush, and then afterwards you'll share the thing and a ניגון, and I wish everybody לחיים, אַ גוט יום טוב. All I can say is בנוגע that, that we found a letter in the רבי's library actually, a letter that my father wrote to the פריערדיקער רבי in the year ת, ר, צ, צדיק, צדיק ב I think. And the way he writes the letter, ממש ווי אַ חסידישער בחור בעט רחמים פֿאַר עבודה, and this it it ממש refreshing that, and that's a letter he wrote when the פריערדיקער רבי was in Riga, and he wrote it from Russia. He was in Leningrad, and then later he was in, my mother was from Ekaterinoslav obviously, her father was the רבי's מלמד, and then he was in Samarkand and in Tashkent, but he from there, as a בחור, he still wrote he wrote a letter to the פריערדיקער רבי in Riga, and asked, the way you see the way a בחור would write in those years. And that's a years when the מסירת נפש was in, ממש every little thing that he did. He told me he used to walk around many times with a scarf around his face as if he has a toothache, because he had a beard. He was one of those בחורים, many בחורים cut off their beard because of of סכנה. He never did, but he used to cover it. But the way he wrote, that's one of the things on the, the יחס to the פריערדיקער רבי, that's one thing that's that to us is very, very special. Anyway, but next time, אם ירצה ה׳. Okay, listen, Rabbi Schapiro, start the זכרונות again. I also, one last thing is, I remember my friend, colleague משה Moskowitz went to Kharkov, so he went into the שול and there was an old man in the corner and he said, מסתמא רב זלמן בער איז אַוועק, וואָס מאַכט זײַן זון רב יוסף יצחק? I remember that, but just I had somebody who came out of Russia, not a real ליובאַוויטשער, okay, he came out of Russia and in in תשמ״א, so he went to a פֿאַרברענגען, so he says, he told my father, דער ליובאַוויטשער רבי קוקט אויס אַ ביסל אַנדערש ווי איך האָב אים געזען, ווי דאָס. Anyway, a big יישר כח to all, and אם ירצה ה׳ we'll stay tuned for for future פֿאַרברענגענס and שיעורים, and hopefully, like I said, חג הגאולה it should happen so we don't have to do this virtual, we can give each other a kiss and a, you know, and a לחיים in person. Reb ישראל, take it away. אַ גוטע נאַכט, אַ גוטע וואָך, everybody. Thank you very much. Everybody, a good, a גוט יום טוב. רבי שפירא, really, רבי הלל, thank you so much, and again, we should be זוכה to only everything good. אמן. אמן. אמן. א גוטע וואך and a good, a פרייליכן יום טוב.