By Rabbi Elkanah Shmotkin – Executive Director of JEM
Dear Friends,
My daughter, a fifth grade teacher in Bais Rivka, asked me, “Ta, how do I teach 27 Adar to 10-year-olds?”
We have tools to deal with many difficult days, I told her. But 27 Adar? (It’s the day the Rebbe suffered a stroke in 1992). On this day, I usually talk to my children about how much I miss the Rebbe (Yes, yes; of course. I mean his physical presence.)
It’s okay to have a day where we just feel bad, without a headline. It’s a horrible day for us, and certainly it must be similar for the Rebbe himself. But you can’t tell a young teacher – herself born ten years post Gimmel Tamuz – to teach her ten-year-olds that it’s just a yuchy day.
A friend reminded me what we experienced in real time – it had slipped my memory. The Rebbe himself told us how to process it. About seven weeks prior to the stroke, on Gimmel Shevat, he spoke about the Previous Rebbe’s tremendous suffering: “The professor treating the Previous Rebbe was incredulous. How could it be that a Jewish leader, whose central job is to teach, could be lacking in the very area most central to his mission in life?! ”
3 Shevat 5752 (January 8, 1992) Duration 3:41:
Each of us, the Rebbe explained, needs to be the “Aaron,” the amplifier, to our Moshe. We may not have liked it, but on 27 Adar, we knew what the Rebbe had guided us to do, just 7 weeks earlier.
Every day, and through each of their projects, the JEM team amplifies the Rebbe’s voice, and we do our best to keep it present in the world’s conversations. In particular, however, I want to point to Enduring Peace.
Since October 7, we have done our best to answer the need of a Klal Yisrael that is newly-willing to listen; studying, curating and amplifying the Rebbe’s urgent guidance on Israel’s security, his plea that we listen to the Torah’s practical, compassionate guidance, and his articulation of exactly how that looks.
Most of our focus has been on educating Shluchim and Anash to understand and talk about these topics. And it’s clear to anyone paying attention that Klal Yisrael is listening over these 2+ years like never before.
The funding for Enduring Peace, provided by kind and generous individuals, ran out several months ago. We are at a point where we need to decide whether to continue. There’s a lot more critical direction from the Rebbe that needs to be shared! We want to keep building on the work we’ve already done; to study, curate and to release more guidance.
The items we’re ready to focus on right now are:
1. The next portion of the Roadmap to Peace Series, about the Israel-US relationship.
2. The Enduring Peace Knowledgebase, where you can read in-depth the Rebbe’s guidance on numerous topics and specific situations and locations (ready to launch).
3. A 30 or-so minute video on the vital importance of settling civilians in Yehuda V’Shomron (the West Bank of the Jordan River).
Please partner with us and take part in amplifying the Rebbe’s clear voice on this topic, and save countless Jewish lives in the process.
You can take part here:
https://www.enduringpeace.org/donate
If you’d like to learn more, or for dedications or a larger sponsorship, please email me at [email protected].
Thank you for taking part, and for allowing the Rebbe’s voice to be heard.
Can we please get Geula content that teach what it is?