Dear Friend,
Twenty-four years ago this week, the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—delivered what would be his final public address.
The week’s Torah portion, Vayakhel, was central to his talk. The word “vayakhel” (“and he gathered”) refers to Moses bringing the entire nation together. The Rebbe spoke of the importance of Jewish unity today and at all times. When the Jewish people stick together, no one can harm us. We are collectively strong, and our history has demonstrated time and again that no matter what our enemies scheme, we will come out stronger on the other side. That is the power of the Jewish nation. But we must be there for each other.
This year—as readers of Chabad.org no doubt are aware—is a year of Hakhel, commemorating the once-in-seven-years coming together of every Jew, adult and child, in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem to hear the king read from the Torah. We observe this today by hosting assemblies of Jews wherever we are. The focus is Jewish unity and the enhancement of our Jewish observance. We remind ourselves that at the end of the day we have each other to depend on, and that is the key to our survival.
Praying for the day that we will once again unite in Jerusalem,
Rabbi Eliezer Zalmanov,
on behalf of the Chabad.org Editorial Team
To Chaim Vogel
Below are thoughts of many Jews who are with me around the Shabbat table and who are commenting appreciatively on many my published thoughts regarding the Jewish Identity (as you may guess, many commented negatively as well).
We (the Jews I have mentioned) believe as well that “every Jew has a real soul emanating from the Essence of G-d and if we just tap into it we would find that every Jew at his core wants to” … but not to follow His command because of fear of G-d. We believe we have to follow His commandments because they are the best guidance for building a better world for everybody and because God created the humans precisely for this purpose – to continue His creative work in the human society by creating a better world for everybody.
Because the God’s creative process is permanent, we have to study the Torah permanently to be able to apply His commandments to the ever changing world. And God made us the Chosen to lead and help the others in tailoring His commandments to the ever changing world, and the evidence of our success in fulfilling our mission of the Chosen is our eminence in almost all areas of spiritual and material sciences.