Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe was born on the 11th of Nissan 5662 (1902) to his father Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneersohn, a fifth-generation descendant of the Tzemach Tzedek, the third Rebbe of Chabad, and his mother Rebbetzin Chanah, daughter of Rabbi Meir Shlomo Yanovsky. When the Rebbe was about seven years old, the family moved to Yekaterinoslav (Dnipro, Ukraine), where his father was appointed as rabbi. The Rebbe studied privately under Rabbi Shneur Zalman Vilenkin and was known for his diligence and depth in both the revealed and concealed dimensions of the Torah. In 5683 (1923), he first met his teacher and future father-in-law, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, and on the 14th of Kislev 5689 (1928), he married the rebbe's daughter, Rebbetzin Chayah Mushkah. He then moved to Berlin, where he received rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Yechiel Weinberg, author of the Sridei Eish; he simultaneously studied at the university at the instruction of his father-in-law, the Rebbe Rayatz. In 5693 (1933), the Rebbe and his wife moved to Paris, where he studied naval engineering. In 5701 (1941), he was forced to escape the Holocaust raging in Europe. Upon arriving in the United States, he began managing Chabad institutions as the Rebbe Rayatz's representative until the 10th of Shevat 5710 (1950), when his father-in-law passed away. On the 10th of Shevat 5711 (1951), a year later, he accepted the leadership of the Chabad movement. On the 22nd of Shevat 5748 (1988), the Rebbetzin passed away, and the Rebbe referred to her passing as the end of one era and preparation for a new era leading to Mashiach. On the 27th of Adar I, 5752 (1992), while praying at his father-in-law's gravesite, the Rebbe suffered a stroke and ceased speaking. This condition continued until the conclusion of Shabbat, the eve of the 3rd of Tammuz, 5754 (1994), the day when Joshua commanded, "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the valley of Ayalon."
The incident took place on the Shabbat before Chanukah 5734 (1973), during a farbrengen in the Rebbe's study hall. Suddenly, between one discourse and another, the Rebbe called out to those present: “Glick! Rabbi Glick!” It appeared that the Rebbe was looking for Rabbi Glick.
Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Glick was the Rebbe’s ‘roving ambassador’ in Europe. He operated throughout the continent on numerous missions that the Rebbe assigned to him. However, the fact that the Rebbe was looking for Rabbi Glick among the crowd was puzzling, since he was not then in the United States…
Rabbi Aharon Dov Halperin, who was present at the farbrengen, related that the puzzle was solved for him fifteen years later, when he visited Rabbi Glick's home and heard the story of that Shabbat:
“That year I was with my wife in Barcelona. Our plan was to continue to Madrid and from there to Lisbon. But then we suddenly received a call from the Rebbe’s secretariat with an instruction to fly to the island of Majorca, a half-hour flight from Barcelona. I had never visited there, and the instruction did not specify an address or purpose: ‘Fly to Majorca,’ and that was it.
We had intended to fly to Majorca after our mission in Lisbon was complete, but when we reached Barcelona, it turned out that all flights to Madrid were unexpectedly cancelled. ‘If we have received instructions to fly to Majorca, we should put our plans on hold and go there immediately,’ my wife said. So, we boarded the first flight to Majorca, and when we landed, we began to inquire where there were Jews on the island.”
A brief inquiry revealed that a certain hotel was hosting a large group of Jews, and meanwhile the radio announced that terrorists had assassinated the Prime Minister of Spain. A curfew was imposed on the city and all access roads to it were blocked, while in contrast, the hotel in Majorca where we had arrived ‘by chance’ was full of Jews.
We barely had time to get organized when another call came from the Rebbe’s secretariat. Before Chanukah, the Rebbe published two ‘public letters,’ one addressed “to the sons and daughters of Israel” and the second “to children below bar/bat mitzvah age.” The Rebbe instructed his secretary to call me in Majorca and arrange for me to translate the letters into Spanish and distribute them among the Jews on the island.
The secretary dictated the letters to me, word by word. I found a translator from English to Spanish, and in the morning, I hurried to photocopy the translations. On Shabbat Chanukah, all the Jewish tourists we met received the letters (some in English and some in Spanish).
The story of the surprise instruction to fly to Majorca, and the way the letters were dictated over the phone, contributed to the great interest of the Jews in us and our activities. We succeeded in making contact with local Jews as well, and this continued in the following years.
Engraved in my memory is a Jew named Bini, an extremely wealthy man who lived in a magnificent house. We called him and requested a meeting, and he apologized that he could not receive us in his home, but he was willing to come to us. When he came, I spoke with him and then played a cassette on which the Rebbe could be heard singing “My soul thirsts for You.” When he heard the Rebbe's singing, he began to cry like a baby and explained that it reminded him of his childhood years.
When he calmed down, he said he felt a strong need to immediately do something for Judaism. After thinking and raising ideas, it was decided to place a large Chanukah Menorah on the roof of his house, which was situated in a high place overlooking the entire city. Indeed, we succeeded in placing an improvised but large and prominent Menorah on his roof.
The Chanukah Menorah aroused great interest among all who saw it, especially among the Jews. When we left the city, Bini had already taken upon himself several important practices of mitzvah observance.
When I set up the Chanukah Menorah, I remembered a saying the Rebbe told me one day. At that time, I was earning my livelihood by manufacturing Chanukah Menorahs. The Rebbe said to me: “A Jewish soul is like a Menorah. Just as a Menorah can remain extinguished for a long time until someone kindles its light, so too many Jewish souls stand and wait for someone to ignite the spark within them.”
As for the Rebbe mentioning my name at the farbrengen, after what I have recounted, it is clear that the Rebbe knew exactly where I was and what I was doing. The Rebbe mentioned me at the farbrengen to arouse merit for me and to give me strength to succeed in my mission of illuminating Jewish souls.
And they Believed in God and in Moses His Servant
“The power of the sender,” the notion that the emissary is an agent that carries within him the full capacity and mandate of the one who sent him, is a fundamental expression found in the Rebbe’s teachings on emissaries (shluchim) and their mission (shlichut). An emissary must always feel the Rebbe’s power acting within him and remember him constantly. But of course, there is also the commandment “And you shall remember Havayah your God, for it is He who gives you power to succeed” (Deuteronomy 8:18). What is the relationship between these two faiths: faith in God and faith in the Moses of the generation?
Through the Rebbe, we receive God’s light, or revelation, internally: the light of Torah that the emissary must teach others, his love of Israel, and his joy in his mission, these all these come from the Rebbe’s power. The light that comes directly from God is encompassing light. This type of Divine revelation is not felt within the emissary’s personality but directs it from without through “causes,” i.e., the circumstances of life and the environment that the Creator shapes for each of us. From the power of remembering God, the emissary listens to the reality that God arranges for him and knows how to act within it; from the power of remembering the Rebbe, the emissary is able to bring the light of faith into the vessels of the soul, into his own consciousness, and into the consciousness of those he influences.
About these two facets of faith, it is written that, “The tzaddik will live by his faith” (וצדיק באמונתו יחיה), where the word “by his faith” (באמונתו) can also be understood to spell “two faiths” (ב אמונות): in God and in the Rebbe. Through the faith that Moses is a faithful servant of God—“Moses is true and his Torah is true”—we arrive at a deeper faith in God as well as faith that penetrates our consciousness and our actions. Moses is known as the “faithful shepherd,” or “the shepherd of faith.” His role is to shepherd, i.e., to sustain our faith in God through the words of His Torah, and thus transform faith into knowledge, and encompassing light into inner light.
