By COLlive reporter
“Tonight we are going to break all medidos v’hagbalos (measurements and restrictions).”
That is the promise that Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar made during an unprecedented virtual Chassidic farbrengen that has been running consecutively for 6 hours on Sunday.
That farbrengen was organized in honor of Beis Iyar, the birth date of the Rebbe Maharash known for his motto of l’chatchila ariber – rising above obstacles.
During the farbrengen, Rabbi Lazar repeated his call from Motzoei Shabbos that unity should be sought between Chassidim and peace should be reached between feuding institutions and individuals.
“Tomorrow morning, we will work on every issue that there is,” he said, adding that he was planning to create “a body that will help connect between chassidim, shluchim and rabbonim” to resolve internal conflicts.
He indicated that he is ready to begin at home. “There are many worried about Alma Ata, Moscow etc.” he commented. “I promise, that with Hashem’s help, in the 24 hours the issue will be resolved. There is a Yid who is ready to mobilize it.”
“We will bring to achdus yisroel and there will be achdus around the world. Don’t worry, it will all be fine,” he said and then asked Kazakhstan’s Chief Rabbi Yeshaya Cohen, with whom he has been feuding, to say L’chaim.
His call for unity has already led to advances in Kfar Saba, Israel, where heads of 2 institutions met for the first time in many years. Additionally, Central Africa’s Head Shliach Rabbi Shlomo Bentolila notified that he will be recognizing 2 rabbis who have been operating unofficially.
Rabbi Lazar said that the coronavirus pandemic and the many deaths in the Chabad community that it caused was a wake-up call for all chassidim to advance ahavas yisroel. He called one person to reach out to another person they don’t agree with, in addition to making peace between Shluchim.
“I’m willing to work with you and everyone else to make this happen,” commented Rabbi Yosef Braun, member of the Crown Heights Beis Din who was one of the rabbonim addressing the farbrengen. Other rabbonim were Bnei Brak’s Chief Rabbi Aizik Landa and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Gluckowsky of Rechovot.
Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Vice Chairman of Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch, spoke as well as Kfar Chabad Mashpia Rabbi Zalman Gopin, London Shliach Rabbi Shmuel Lew, Antwerp Shliach Rabbi Shabtai Slavatitzky, Berlin Shliach Rabbi Yehuda Teichtel and Montreal Shliach Rabbi Zusha Zilberstein.
There were also relatives of the victims such as Rabbi Eli Wolff, brother of Rabbi Benny Wolff OBM, Shliach in Hanover, Germany; Rabbi Yossi Groner, son of the Rebbe’s Mazkir Rabbi Leibel Groner OBM; and Rabbi Aron Ginsburg, son-in-law of Crown Heights Beis Din member Rabbi Yaacov Schwei OBM.
“It took 18 hours to organize this farbrengen,” Rabbi Lazar commented. “Until the very last minute, it wasn’t clear if this farbrengen will happen.” He then added, that if this farbrengen can happen, unity can happen.
VIDEO:
The first step to peace is open communication.
Messaging and communicating are not the same thing. Communication means to “talk” and “listen” to each other with respect.
ENOUGH!!!!
Rabbi Lazar, such great words! Show us what you mean! I challenge you to step up to the plate and call each shliach that you have wronged and apologize to them.
Those who have been trodded upon in public, should get a public apology as well.
A real shliach of the Rebbe shows what he means by acting upon what he believes. Let us see you do that and then iyh all others will follow.
…
You have to explain who your comment is directed at…
B”H
we as chassidim of the Rebbe, should have real true love for our dear brothers who are also chassidim fun Rebbn, and ahavas chinom will truly bring the geulah now mamash.
enough of fights, politics, no one is better than the other, we are all equal, we share the same father the rebbe.
MEshichistim, not meshichistim, everyone is the same, we want the same thing, so no reason to feel and think that we are better…
Enough of Levayas Beezras Hashem as He sees that we are reuniting and will fight to bring Moshiach ASAP!
As holy as tishrei is the yetzer hara is so strong ! Enough fighting
Beautiful, very inspiring, and encouraging. This Is Lubavitch!
Family’s and neighbors are fighting and being cruel to each other and some even to their ‘enemies’ children!! Can people not see that tehilim and good deeds will be enhance and reach higher with Sholom!
We need to regain focus on what shluchos is and was meant to be.
Sholom is EVERYONE realizing the seriousness of this situation and sincerely making an effort to work things out al pi Torah. If only one side gives in and tbe other stays rotten you have just introduced a new. Virus into ur life. Lets get it together like real Yidden should get it together.
We cannot be. We have to be relentless in finding a way To work it out (or course al pi Torah) and not assume the other side is rotten while we are the one that is in the right .
Here’s a true story. I BEGGED someone…. in public! to make sholom in the merit of a young woman who was seriously ill. I was publicly rebuffed. I then went further & wrote to the person’e brother, a well-respected Rav, laying out everything & explaining I didn’t know what I had done to cause the conflict but if I did know I would move heaven & earth to put it right, again because I truly believed that if we made sholom, even if we were merely cordial going forward, then things would improve. Nothing happened. I did my best but… Read more »
You did your part reaching out. Of course, you should try again and again. But each attempt saves lives.
And in reply to some other comments, of course we don’t give up our honest held views. We just share them as mentchen and friends and brothers, not as beasts. It also makes our words more effective, not less.
Just be careful that your “Sholom is not making peace with an unchanged enemy” isn’t just stubbornness.
This is the yetzer hara letting you think this . Please stop . During the days of the Omer push the yetzer hara away . Ask a rav to guide you or your Mashpia .
NO MORE UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS PRAYING ONLY IN 770, ONE MINYAN, NO MORE 2 KINUS, MOSHIACHIST, OR NON MOSHIACHIST, CHASSIDIM HAVE TO STUDY IN-DEPTH EVERY WORD THE REBBE WROTE RIGHT BEFORE THE STROKE. AND PLEASE, NO MORE EGOS, REALLY NO MORE EGOS, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Reb Kalman is right ! No more two banquets ! Kalman is a voice of truth .
Thank you Rabbi Lazar! Don’t stop! Don’t allow anyone to stop your mission!
whats the zoom ID
Two Shluchim hurt my family a lot. Both are friends and refused to show up to a Din Torah. We need a Vaad who will be objective, listen to both sides, review evidence, and have a way to enforce penalties to parties who refuse to comply with Daas Torah. I reached out so many times to make Sholom and they just won’t communicate. We need help!!!
call Rabbi Lazar or Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky to address your issues. They will reach out to those shluchim.
WOW!
darchei Shalom
Moshiach NOW
should start by asking for מחילה from the dozens of shluchim he threw from Moscow in recent years.
He already did he asked on the zoom farbrengen publicly and I’m pretty sure he said he will ask by everyone individually
I am a teenage girl in Chabad and it makes me so happy to see Am Yisroel coming together as a nation. You see, this pandemic shows us more and more how Hashem is in control. Baruch HaShem, Yidden are stepping up and following in Hashem’s ways and doing what He wants from us. This will bring Moshiach. Keep going! Keep showing the youngsters role models and ways to act like a proper Yid. Remember we learn from you. Thank YOU! All the best!!
I hope it wont stop here and this start at peace will lead to many more people working together despite their diferences
It’s not about solving all the problems or denying they exist! At the end the the day we are all Chassidim and regardless of individual stories or situations we need to be united, especially in a time like this.
We need to solve all the problems. And we can do it
Hashemi is NOT pleased that children have been kicked out of school since last year! Apologize to those families and let them back in !
Very happy and hopeful to see the movement toward unity. Yehi ratzon that it will be successful. As a balei tshuvah who was rescued by the Rebbe while I was almost in the grave, Chabad was my lifesaver, my family……my life. When there became a division in chabad, I returned to the divorced home of my youth, where I wasn’t permitted both parents but had to choose among them. How many others have been tortured by this matsav, and others stemming from it. If chabad was the only real thing left in the world, please tell me where I was… Read more »
As a family of BT, this is a problem even before gimmel tammuz. As for yourself, Keep your values and faith. Follow the Rebbes directives via Igros kodesh / sichos. Our Rebbe is with us and will always be!
KOl Hakavod to Rabbi Lazar for bringing up something that so many are scared to do…
He is the right man for the job.
Let’s hope he does it!
Ad Mosai!
Moshiach now!!
Best news I heard in a long time, b”h only better from here!!!!
Hasn’t chabad in Kenya been official for a few years already?
I read this with tears streaming down my face.
How long have we waited for the moment for achdus to become our number one focus?!
May this bring immense nachas ruach to our beloved Rebbe, and may this be the final step to bring about the complete revelation of Moshiach – now!
B”H
Moshe Rabbainu also wanted peace – but there was Korach. So if someone then said, just make peace ? Please explain.
What he is suggesting is not easy, but it is extremely relevent for the times, and it is a practical application of ahavas chinam, which everyone talks about. He is not suggesting he is perfect, and there is NO REASON to publicly denigrate him or challenge him. Let him do his own work in this area, and you focus on YOURS. A young person just commented how inspiring she found this initiative, people are yearning for peace and leadership and positive directives, and when you criticize Rabbi Lazar, or shluchim, or anyone else, you are continuing the sinah, and also… Read more »
You are 1000% right. We – *I*- need to stop the finger pointing & turn the image around. I certainly am going to do my best to achieve that. Thank you for your words of wisdom.
I’m only sorry it took 8 little orphans in Germany for the shluchim to wake up . Hashem should bless Mrs Wolff with extra strength and courage to be able to raise her family in the right way and with ease and continue the wishes of her late husband . I beg the shluchim to not forget all this when the heat of the moment is gone . Put an end to the kinusim, an end to fighting in 770 in tishrei and end to kicking children out of this Cheder or that school . Enough is enough ! These… Read more »
I heard an interesting story b’kegon da by a farbrengen: Once upon a time, there were 2 shluchim who were having a fight. the Rebbe had heard about this, and sent a chosid to go talk to them to try with all of his power to make Sholom between them, on condition that he does not reveal that he was sent by the Rebbe (for then it would not be real Sholom, rather they would feel forced to act as if there was shalom while still harboring their negative feelings toward each other…). The chased dutifully did as he was… Read more »
awesome
When my mother was in the concentration camps,
she wrote in her story,”Here, i began to learn the meaning
of the word’hate'”. NOT from the Germans, Y”Sh. But, here they
are in the same grim boat, but you had like the Yidden from
different European countries bickering with each other because
of their nationality. PATHETIC.
It is wonderful that an effort is being made to have Shalom, virus or not.
maybe this is what the rebbe meant when he said “do all you can do”. Achdus brings the long awaited Geula. may it be now!!!! amen
At long last MAY THERE BE ONLY 1 KINUS FROM NOW ON If G-d forbid Moshiach is not here by then.
Only in this way will it be evident that the peace is REAL and not just in a manner of ‘tolerating’ the other…
As it says in Hayom Yom Adar 23, when the ‘head’ is healthy, then the ‘body’ is healthy…
seems like a positive step. ultimately of course it’s the world of action that means the most. so if there’s a realistic way to implement that all are unified under one body whose authority all accept, so that when inevitable disagreement occurs it’s resolved, then this is fundamental and constructive change.