By David Gold, VIN
I am the son of a Communist victim. I am the brother of a Holocaust martyr. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am a voracious talmid chochom. I am versed in the secular. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am the Old Country. I am the New World. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am a Rogachover musmach. I am a college graduate. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am European. I am American. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am the son-in-law of a tzaddik in a shtreimel and black coat. I am a U.S. Navy civilian engineer in a suit and tie and gray hat. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am a mysterious mystic. I am salt of the earth. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I saw the past. I see the future. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am fiercely tradition-true. I am an innovator. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am an open-minded tolerant liberal fanatically bent on communicating my unimpeachable Torah absolutes. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I dispense down-to-earth advice to the intellectual. I direct divine blessing to the infertile. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am a dozen, a hundred, a thousand young rabbis worldwide. I am one rabbi in Brooklyn. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am a man who made a movement. I am a man who rarely moved. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am a beard and yarmulke in Pleasanton. I am a mikvah in Baranquilla. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am a sheitel in Daytona Beach. I am a chupah in Moscow. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am a sefer Torah in Oxford. I am a black hat and kapotah in Berlin. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am a young dead couple in Mumbai. I am the tears of millions. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am generations restored to G-d. I am the Jewish world redefined. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am a Chosid. I am a Rav. I am a Misnagid. I am a Rosh Yeshivah. I am frum. I am not yet frum. I am a Jew. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am whatever a Jew needs, wherever a Jew is. I am Ahavas Yisroel, I am Klal Yisroel. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
I am part of you. I am the Lubavitcher Rebbe. And so are you.
*
In tribute to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneersohn, zecher tzadik livracha (1902-1994), who turned Lubavitch into a worldwide force for kiruv rechokim and Jewish support services.
a minaged???
It is good, if you understand that it is SOMEONE ELSE writing it! its just a poetic way of describing the rebbes greatness
It seems like COL is a vehicle for anyone to anonymously publish their thoughts. Perhaps the poem encompasses the deep relations of the rebbe to klal yisroel, however it does not do the rebbe himself justice.
kerovim are near ones so to speak, rechokim are far ones STS.
i agree. wayyyyyyyy to many i’s whats this a ego-booster?
This poem does convey the profundity of the Rebbe, however I doubt you and I have the permission to contract the Rebbe to mere words like this, just like we can never do that about Hashem.
Who is the author?
100%
sniff, sniff
could not have put it in better words myself!!
“Ven ich bin geven a kind in cheder” and the like as needed. As far as the criticism of the “I” in the article, I think it has to be taken a little bit Behafshotoh. In other words – poetic license. It doesn’t have to mean “I” in the classic sense, it’s a vehicle to get the point across. And done magnificenlty, IMHO.
this is a truely wonderful article.. there should be more like this one!
may we be reunited with the Rebbe in our days, moshiach now! ad mosai?
The poem was nice, but to really understand the Rebbe, go to http://www.chabad.org/therebbe
I understand this is a poem. But this is a fact: The Rebbe NEVER said ‘I’ at a Farbrengen — never used the Yiddish word “Ich”
thank you for this
the rebbe once said that we are not kiruv rechokim we r kiruv karovim
Wow very powerful!
Bs”d
or “me” .
Maybe it’s just me… I don’t know.
תרלה ב”ה, רבים המחפשים ומבארים מעלות וגדולת נשיאי חב”ד בכלל, ונשיא דורנו, הוא כ”ק מו”ח אדמו”ר הכ”מ, בפרט בענינים שונים: איש המסירות-נפש, גאון, בעל מדות, צדיק, בעל רוח הקודש, מלומד בנסים ועוד ועוד. וגדלו ביותר שבחים אלו, על פי ההגדרה בתורת החסידות, מהו מסירות נפש, מהו גאון וכו’. ובכל זה – העיקר חסר כאן. ונוסף על זה, שהוא עיקר בעצם, חשוב הוא ביחוד משום שנוגע ביותר, וביחוד לנו, קהל חסידיו ומקושריו. וזהו – מה שהוא הוא הנשיא, ונשיא חב”ד. כי – נשיא בכלל, נקרא 1ראש אלפי ישראל, הוא בחינת ראש ומוח לגביהם, וממנו היא יניקה וחיות שלהם. ועל ידי הדביקה… Read more »
every word is true.
The Rebbe was very against the term “Kiruv Rechokim” – no Jew is ever far.
LOVING IT!!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWw1PGVJAzo
beautiful job, very nicely done!
The Rebbe understood the non frum Jew and spoke to him on his level but the Rebbe never was some of the adjectives written in this article
The author started off with a concept of the Rebbe being a man of opposites within one person which is true and also being represented and living on today by thousands of his Shluchim and followers but we still need to keep the Rebbe in context
As a 30 something having grown up in CH I have always been a fierce defender of my Rebbe’s honor. It always bugged me when people put descriptors beside the Rebbe’s name because no descriptor was ever adequate. This poem is the first piece I’ve ever read that described the Rebbe yet sat comfortably with me. Not because it described the Rebbe in every way, but because it didn’t try. To the author: reading this has made me feel connected to the Rebbe today although I am not able to participate in any live farbrengen or go to the Ohel.… Read more »
I agree wth #2
Very nice, but too much ‘I’
Oy Rebbe, we need you!
We cant take this golus anymore!
This is very beautiful.
Thank you