ב״ה THE VISIONARY LEADER WHO SPOKE ONLY ONE LANGUAGE: RABBI MENACHEM M. SCHNEERSON YOURS. “THE REBBE” WELCOME ABOUT YOU. s a twenty-first century Jew, you are likely familiar with the name Chabad, have probably heard of The Rebbe and may A even know one or more of his 4,000 emissaries. Chabad Jewish centers and services thrive in 48 U.S. States and 81 countries worldwide. Yet—cover image notwithstanding—this magazine is not really about the greatness of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneer- son of righteous memory. This magazine is about the greatness of everyone else. Over 40 years of public leadership, the Rebbe showed unshakeable trust in every person’s ability to make this world a di- vine place. With unquestioning love and a soft sense of urgency, he provided the tools for millions to find that ability within themselves. Twenty years after the Rebbe’s passing (1994), we share the stories, essays and in- sights ahead, to offer a small taste of a man and a message are of timeless value. LEARN MORE ONLINE THEREBBE.ORG A comprehensive experience of biography, personal encounters and audio/visual record- ings on the Rebbe and his ongoing impact. Diane Abrams visits the Rebbe with her CHABAD.ORG daughter Becky who was The #1 Judaism site online delivering born to the 49-year-old inspiration, education, study and practice for Abrams after the Rebbe’s every level of interest and familiarity. unexpected blessing. See First Person, page 18 Yossi Melamed, 1988 / JEM Find your local Chabad Center visit Chabad.org/centers 3 CONTENTS FEATURES Page 9 TIMELINE: The bridge to Brooklyn Page 12 IN OTHER WORDS: Teachers and students share what sparked their spirits Page 13 MISSION CRITICAL: How to live grounded like an astronaut Page 20 LAND OF THE FREE: Appreciating America Page 21 HOME OF THE SOUL: Investing in Israel JEWISH PRIDE: 12 NEW ANSWERS TO DOWN THE BLOCK, 1,100 Jewish teens Page from around the world AGE-OLD QUESTIONS ACROSS THE WORLD On parenting, miracles and evil 14 The visionary leader who 22 crowd Times Square 6 in NYC for an annual spoke only one language: concert hosted by YOURS FIRST PERSON: CTeen (Chabad’s Teen WHAT IS A REBBE? Concern for all network), 2014. Described as a profound scholar, a A METHOD TO THE mankind Bentzi Sasson / CTeen.com 8 practical teacher and a visionary guide—what exactly is a rebbe? 24 MITZVAHS Page 26 CREDITS AFTERWORD: The un-orthodox PUBLISHER WRITINGS FROM ART DIRECTION PHOTOS mindset that still drives The Shluchim Office Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Zalman Stock This publication features unique and historic a movement 816 Eastern Parkway Yanki Tauber Moishe Muchnik photos from Jewish Educational Media’s The Brooklyn, NY 11213 Joseph Telushkin Living Archive photo collection. DESIGN Page EXECUTIVE EDITOR CONTRIBUTORS Zalman Friedman The Living Archive is a project to preserve the 27 Avraham Green Tzvi Freeman Leibel Krinsky, Yanki Gitlin video, audio, and photographic recordings of MANAGING EDITOR Rochel Holzkenner and the team at Spotlight the Rebbe. Avi Webb Simon Jacobson Design Unless otherwise attributed, all photographs are copyright THE BIGGER PICTURE: JEM and can be purchased at TheLivingArchive.org Suggested reading ADVISORY BOARD Rabbi Gershon Grossbaum RESOURCES COVER PHOTO Rabbi Mordechai Grossbaum With thanks to the researchers, writers and editors of The Rebbe outside “770”, Lubavitch World Rabbi Mendel Feller the world’s premier Jewish website, Chabad.org. Headquarters in Brooklyn, NY. Levi Freidin, 1988 / JEM 4 REFLECTION RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS He Cared So Much. But, Why? A question of the Rebbe’s motive WHEREVER Jews ARE, there you will find a direct personal emissary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. And there you will see him or her reaching out to Jews and rekindling the flame of Jewish life. Chabad went and still goes every- where. Above all, Chabad went before anyone else, and at a time when it was fraught with immense danger, to the former Soviet Union to reach out to the Jews of silence and keep the spirit of Judaism alive. It was risky—it was almost impossible. And because it was almost impossi- WOULD IT BE POSSIBLE TO SEARCH ble, Chabad did it. Under the Rebbe, Chabad recognized no boundaries. OUT EVERY JEW IN LOVE AS JEWS And I have often asked myself, why? What drove the HAD ONCE BEEN SEARCHED OUT Lubavitcher Rebbe? Was it, I once thought, that extraor- dinary statement of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of AND HUNTED DOWN IN HATE? the Chasidic movement, who himself spent a lifetime going out to Jews wherever they were—in little villages, little shtetlach; who when asked why he does this, why Jewish children who never tasted sin? he doesn’t do what a rabbi is supposed to do—sit in his Chassidism uses a very powerful, highly charged Rabbi Shalom study and learn, said, “Every single Jew is a letter in the word from Kabbalah, tikkun—which means to mend D. Lipskar helps Torah scroll. And just as a Torah scroll is invalid if one this fractured world. How could you mend a fracture so a Jewish prison inmate put on letter is obliterated or missing, so the Jewish people, deep, such a hole in the heart of humanity? I once spec- tefillin and recite which is a living Torah scroll, is invalid if one Jew is ulated in a newspaper article that maybe, just maybe, the “Shema” missing. I go around restoring Jews to their place in the the Lubavitcher Rebbe had undertaken the most dar- prayer affirming Torah.” Was it that image that drove him? ing spiritual initiative ever undertaken in the history of the Oneness of Was the life work of the Rebbe nothing less than a humanity: would it be possible to search out every Jew G-d. See Knowing Yourself, page 11. recreation in a secular world of the early days of the in love as Jews had once been searched out and hunted Chasidic movement itself, when, as the Rebbe himself down in hate, and was this the only possible tikkun—the put it, that the task of Chasidism was to wake the Jewish only possible mending of a post-Holocaust world. people from its spiritual sleep? Was that it? Was he rec- Who can say? reating what had once happened two centuries before? All we know for sure is that there are few phenome- Or was it something else? Was it perhaps that the na like it in the whole of Jewish history, and it owes its Lubavitcher Rebbe lived through the black hole of Jew- inspiration to one man. ish history—the holocaust. He had seen his whole world, that world of Eastern European Jewry, go up in flames. RABBI SACKS is a global religious leader, philosopher and And I have often asked myself, what did he feel? What author who served as chief rabbi of the Commonwealth for 22 years. This essay is excerpted from a lecture did he feel about the destruction of one third of our Jew- marking one year to the Rebbe’s passing. ish people, including one and a half million children, Courtesy of chabad.org 5 IN SHORT ADAPTED BY SIMON JACOBSON 12 New Answers to Age-old Questions In public addresses, private audiences and thousands of detailed letters, the Rebbe encouraged questioners to value each moment as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to change the world for the better. The Lubavitch Women’s Orga- Of the Rebbe’s teachings: students. As of 2014, Chabad 3. What should nization founded by the Rebbe Houses serve students on 210 held its first international confer- 1. Is it okay to college campuses. schools be ence in 1955. be different? teaching? 2. Is having faith The rebellion in young people All educational efforts are 5. Can attitude is not a crime. On the con- naïve? basically meaningless unless trary: it is the fire of the soul built on the solid foundation of define reality? We see that people inherently that refuses to conform, that good character. Adam, the first man, com- believe in something greater is dissatisfied with the status plained to G-d while in the than themselves. Experiencing quo, that cries out that it Garden of Eden; Jewish men that faith requires fuel—infor- 4. Is there a wants to change the world and and women blessed G-d while mation about G-d and about is frustrated with not knowing in Nazi concentration camps; ourselves. Cultivate faith “better” half? how. (1963) all of us exist between these through study and prayer. Ac- After thousands of years of two extremes. Our perspec- The first “Chabad House” tualize it through good deeds male dominance, we now tive determines exactly where. opened in 1967 at UCLA as a and charity. Talk about it with stand at the beginning of the home-base for Jewish college family and friends. feminine era, when women will rise to their appropriate 6. Do miracles prominence, and the en- SIMON JACOBSON is the author of Toward a Meaningful Life: The tire world will recognize the exist? Wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson (William Morrow, 2004), and is director of the Meaningful Life Center harmony between man and This physical, natural world (mlc.org). He was an editor and publisher of the Rebbe’s talks for 22 years. woman. (1952) is not a separate entity from 6 In conversation with New York Governor Averell Harriman (1956). Until 1981, the Rebbe received visitors in his office three nights a week from 8:00pm until early morning.