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בס״ד TORAH WEEKLYParshat Korach 10 - 16 June, 2018 BUT WHY so well-intended and noble at THE REBBE: 27 Sivan - its core, albeit misguided, why 3 Tammuz, 5778 LEADERSHIP? was he punished? Was he even A BRIEF In this week’s Torah wrong? What is, in fact, the Torah : Portion we read a tragic story, role of a leader in the world of BIOGRAPHY Numbers 16:1 - 18:32 one in which many meet a Torah and Mitzvot? The Lubavitcher Reb- bitter end due to misguided The Lubavitcher Rebbe be, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Haftorah: behavior. This all begins when explains that the inherent Schneerson, of righteous me- Samuel I 11:14 - 12:22 a man named Korach attempts holiness of every single Jew mory (1902-1994), the seventh to lead a mutiny against the is indisputable. Every Jewish leader in the Chabad-Lubavitch leadership Moses and Aaron. man, woman and child pos- dynasty, is considered to have CALENDARS He claims, “All the people are sesses a spark of God Himself been the most phenomenal We have Jewish God’s chosen ones, all the pe- which can never be taken away. Jewish personality of modern Calendars, if you would ople are holy. Why should you It is for that reason that was a times. To hundreds of thou- like one, please send us and Aaron be exalted above Jew, any Jew, performs a Mi- sands of followers and millions a letter and we will send everyone else?” tzvah, he or she is introducing of sympathizers and admirers you one, or ask the Rab- Moses takes his claims additional Godly light in the around the world, he was — bi / Chaplain to contact to God and a face-off is set to world regardless of his or her and still is, despite his passing us. determine who is in the right. religious affiliation, status or — “the Rebbe,” undoubtedly, FAMILY Each of the respective parties scholarship. the one individual more than PROGRAMS would offer a sacrifice to God Nevertheless, that any other singularly responsi- Do you have and the people would watch alone is not always enough ble for stirring the conscience family on the outside and see whose sacrifice would to drive a person forward. and spiritual awakening of who are struggling, be accepted. Needless to say, That spark of God alone is not world Jewry. please contact or have God’s holy presence descends always enough to generate the The Rebbe was born them contact our office upon the sacrifice of Moses motivation needed to keep a in 1902, on the 11th day of Nis- san, in Nikolaev, Russia, to the to learn more about our and Aaron, and Korach and his person going. As we see clearly renowned kabbalist, talmudic family programs. You many followers suffer a fatal in the Torah that time and time again, throughout our history, scholar and leader Rabbi Levi and they are not alone, consequence when the earth we have failed to keep oursel- Yitzchak and Rebbetzin Chana we are here to help. miraculously opens up un- derneath them and they along ves as a nation motivated to Schneerson. Rebbetzin Chana GRAPE JUICE & with all of their possessions are follow God’s ways. It is true, (1880-1964) was known for MATZAH swallowed up. as Korach claimed, that the her erudition, kindness and Aleph offers free There was some element of value of a Mitzvah performed extraordinary accessibility. Her Grape Juice and Matzoh wisdom and virtue to what by Moses is exactly the same courage and ingenuity beca- for you to be able to Korach and his henchmen as that of one performed by me legend when during her make the blessings every were claiming. Their logic was the most simple minded Jew. husband’s exile by the Soviets Shabbos. Please have simple; being that the bottom That, however, is the role of the to a remote village in Asian your chaplain / Rabbi line is the action, the level of Jewish leader. A leader is not Russia she labored to make contact us to enroll, it is a person’s spiritual inspiration one who simply instructs or inks from herbs she gathered in available to all prisons. or divine sensitivity should be directs others, but a true leader the fields — so that Rabbi Levi irrelevant. If the main thing is someone who is able to light Yitzchak could continue wri- ALEPH INSTITUTE is that the mitzvah get done the spark in others, no matter ting his commentary on kabba- Hyman & Martha Rogal in the physical sense, and no how deep it might be buried lah and other Torah-subjects. Center matter how spiritually inspired inside their souls, and ignite The Rebbe was named after 5804 Beacon Street one is he must still perform the it so it glows with the warmth his ancestor, the third Rebbe, Pittsburgh, PA 15217 action, what difference then and passion necessary to keep Rabbi Menachem Mendel of 412-421-0111 does it make whether that per- moving forward in the service Lubavitch, with whom he later Fax: 412-521-5948 son is a “Moses” or a “Regular of God. shared many characteristics. www.alephne.org Joe?” By Rabbi Nissan Isaac To Save a Life [email protected] Now, if his protest was indeed There is a story told about the Rebbe’s early life that seems to be almost symbolic sing in acts of goodness and kindness. of everything that was to follow. When he was nine years Passing: old, the young Menachem Mendel courageously dove into the On Monday afternoon (March 2, 1992), while praying Black Sea and saved the life of a little boy who had rowed out at the gravesite of his father-in-law and predecessor, the Rebbe to sea and lost control of his small craft. That sense of “other suffered a stroke that paralyzed his right side and, most deva- lives in danger” seems to have dominated his consciousness; statingly, robbed him of the ability to speak. of Jews drowning in assimilation, ignorance or alienation— Two years and three months later, the Rebbe passed away and no one hearing their cries for help: Jews on campus, in in the early morning hours of the 3rd of the Hebrew month isolated communities, under repressive regimes. From early of Tammuz, in the year 5754 from creation (June, 12 1994), childhood he displayed a prodigious mental acuity. By the orphaning a generation. time he reached his Bar Mitzvah, the Rebbe was considered an illuy, a Torah prodigy. He spent his teen years immersed in the study of Torah. In Jewish History Marriage in Warsaw: In 1929 Rabbi Menachem Mendel married the sixth Shabbat, 3 Tammuz, 5778 - June 16, 2018 Rebbe’s daughter, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, in Warsaw. (The Joshua Stops the Sun (1273 BCE) Rebbetzin, born in 1901, was chosen by her father, the sixth On the third of Tammuz of the year 2488 from creation (1273 Rebbe, to accompany him in his forced exile to Kostroma BCE), Joshua was leading the Jewish people in one of the in 1927. For sixty years she was the Rebbe’s life partner; she battles to conquer the Land of Israel. Victory was imminent, passed away on 22 Sh’vat in 1988.) He later studied in the but darkness was about to fall. “Sun,” proclaimed Joshua, “be University of Berlin and then at the Sorbonne in Paris. It may still at Giv’on; moon, at the Ayalon valley” (Joshua 10:12). have been in these years that his formidable knowledge of The heavenly bodies acquiesced, halting their progress through mathematics and the sciences began to blossom. the sky until Israel’s armies brought the battle to its successful Arrival in the U.S.A. conclusion. On Monday, Sivan 28, 5701 (June 23, 1941) the R. Yosef Yitzchak Released from Prison (1927) Rebbe and the Rebbetzin arrived in the United States, having The sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneer- been miraculously rescued, by the grace of Almighty G-d, sohn (1880-1950), who was arrested on Sivan 15 of 1927 by from the European holocaust. The Rebbe’s arrival marked agents of the GPU (soviet secret police) and the Yevsektzia (“Jewish section” of the Communist Party) for his work to pre- the launching of sweeping new efforts in bolstering and serve and disseminate Jewish learning and observance through- disseminating Torah and Judaism in general, and Chassidic out the Soviet Empire. Held in the notorious Spalerno prison in teachings in particular, through the establishment of three Leningrad, he was repeatedly interrogated and beaten. Initially central Lubavitch organizations under the Rebbe’s leadership: sentenced to death, international pressure compelled the Soviet Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch (“Central Organization For Jewish regime to first commute the sentence to ten years hard labor in Education”), Kehot Publication Society, and Machne Israel, a Siberia, and then to a three-year term of exile in Kostrama, a social services agency. Shortly after his arrival, per his father- town in the interior of Russia. in-law’s urging, the Rebbe began publishing his notations to On the 3rd of Tammuz, 18 days after his arrest, he was released various Chassidic and kabbalistic treatises, as well as a wide from prison and allowed six hours at home before reporting range of response on Torah subjects. With publication of these to the Leningrad train station to embark on his exile. Many works his genius was soon recognized by scholars throughout gathered at the station to see him off. Though he knew that the world. there were GPU agents present, he spoke to the assembled Leadership: crowd, encouraging all to persist in the very activities for which After the passing of his father-in-law, Rabbi Yosef he had been arrested.