It was on Shabbat morning, 73 years ago, on the 12th of Shvat, 1950. The Rebbe Rayatz (Rabbi Yosef-Yitzhak Schneerson) of Lubavitch, the sixth Rebbe of Chabad Hasidism, passed away, not yet seventy years old.
His period of leadership was turbulent and difficult. He assumed leadership in the midst of the communist revolution in Soviet Russia, which exerted all its power to suppress Judaism. The Rebbe faced it with unimaginable dedication.
It was self-sacrifice in the simplest sense – risking one's life for the sake of Judaism. He himself, and hundreds of his followers and emissaries, risked their lives every day to educate children in the spirit of Judaism, to establish purification baths, to hold prayer meetings, to provide Passover matzah and kosher food, and to perform circumcision ceremonies.
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Surrender of all forces
Indeed, he was arrested and sentenced to death, but by the grace of God he was saved from the hands of the communists and managed to emerge into the free world, while his faithful emissaries remain in Russia and continue the sacred work of preserving the embers of Judaism.
The Rebbe, who was severely tortured during his imprisonment, was broken and shattered, but he continued to work in Latvia and Poland for the survival of Judaism. When the Holocaust broke out, he miraculously escaped burning Warsaw, managed to reach America, and immediately devoted himself with all his strength to building Judaism on the new continent.
A year after his passing, on 12 B'Shvat 5711 (1951), his son-in-law, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, took over the leadership, and expanded and developed to enormous proportions the life's work of his predecessor. In him too, we saw enormous dedication, dedication under the conditions of the free world. It is not about risking one's life, but rather about giving up all one's strength, resources, and desires for the sake of the people of Israel.
Dedication is the Rebbe's refusal to take even a single day off during all his years of leadership. Dedication is the willingness to devote himself completely to the needs of the Jewish people, to receive crowds of Jews at night, to answer their letters, to stand on his feet seven or eight hours a day to bestow his blessings and advice on all of Israel.
Dedication is the principle that the Rebbe set for Chabad activity - not to do what seems good and beneficial to it, but "Chabad must do what others do not want or cannot do." And as he once said to a respected Chabad rabbi, who asked whether to engage in kashrut matters: "Others are also willing to produce kosher meat; your job is to 'produce' Jews who will want to eat kosher meat.".
Expected destination
Dedication is the Rebbe's uncompromising fight for Israel's security and his firm opposition to a policy of concessions and retreats. The Rebbe knew that these positions were unpopular in several circles, but he did not cease to warn and alert, out of his deep concern for the peace of the people who dwell in Zion.
Amidst all this, the Rebbe devoted himself to spreading Torah on a vast scale, to initiating broad campaigns to combat assimilation and assimilation, and to instill in hearts a fervent faith in the coming of our righteous Messiah and the imminent redemption. This is the goal toward which he directed all of his activity, and this is our great expectation to soon see the true and complete redemption, and in peace and rest, as the prophet Isaiah said: "In the return and rest of salvation.".
