By COLlive reporter
Jonatan Urich, a strategic advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wrote about post on the X social media platform anout the Rebbe’s yartzeit of Gimmel Tammuz.
Urich regularly studies Torah and chassidus with Rabbi Or Ziv, Chabad Shliach in the Katamon neighborhood of Jerusalem.
Urich has been arrested and released for his role in improving improve Qatar’s public image, a claim which he says he aimed to target Netanyahu himself.
Here is what he wrote:
How Do You Miss Someone You’ve Never Met?
Tonight is Gimmel Tammuz.
A night when the Rebbe may have disappeared from sight — but not from the heart.
I never had the merit to see the Lubavitcher Rebbe face to face,
but I see him on YouTube.
I sit in front of the screen, and I get pulled in.
Into his gaze.
Into the silence.
Sometimes, a smile.
Into the truth that has no substitute.
I have the privilege of learning his talks — Dvar Malchus.
Words that are not just Torah, but life itself.
They open new pathways in my thinking,
and remind me who I am, and why.
And I farbreng with Rabbi Or Ziv, his faithful shliach,
a light within the darkness.
And there, around the table, on the night of Gimmel Tammuz,
I understand how we are all his children —
he, who had no children of his own.
How much love can dwell in one person.
How much responsibility he took upon himself — on behalf of us all.
How much pain he bore — without showing it.
And how much hope and action he instilled — in everyone he met.
I miss the Rebbe I never met.
He sent me a message when I was in prison.
He responded before I went in. Prepared me.
He knew how to write the right, kind words.
He was with me.
He guided, touched, spoke, and influenced —
and continues to influence — Prime Minister Netanyahu
in a way no one in the world understands.
He understood.
He saw far ahead.
There’s still so much to tell, so much to reveal — and that time will come.
For now, the candle burns, the heart yearns,
and the emptiness must be filled every moment.
And how deeply empty it is.
Thank you Jem for truly bringing the rebbe to the whole world!!!
There is a whole community that call themselves You tube Chasidim.
Johnathan Urich speaks for many Jews, either from the post-Gimmel Tammuz generation, OR for the ones who were alive and able to see the Rebbe, get a dollar from his holy hand, but didn’t…didn’t know to go, didn’t know where or why…
Beautiful words, and so very inspiring for me, blessed enough to have lived in Crown Hts in “those years” but still striving for inspiration and connection…Collive, thank you for sharing these deep and carefully crafted words…they’re certainly on the way to my printer….
Beautiful