Journalist Motti Tochfeld, political analyst for “Yisroel HaYom,” gave an electrifying speech at the banquet for the Kinus HaShluchim in 770. * “I believed the Rebbe is Moshiach before I became a Lubavitcher.” * The full speech.
BELIEVING IN THE PAST AND FUTURE; HAVING A HARD TIME WITH THE PRESENT
It is a great privilege to be here at the banquet and to address the shluchim regarding their final mission, Kabbalas P’nei Moshiach Tzidkeinu.
As shluchim who spread the Besuras Ha’Geula, you are certainly aware that people, even religious ones, want to live rational lives. They don’t want you to mess with their minds. They want to live according to what their eyes see, what their ears hear, and what their minds can absorb.
Yet, they are believers. They believe, for example, that there was a Mattan Torah at Har Sinai. It is not exactly an event that you can grasp and understand, and yet they believe it happened. They also believe that the sea split. They even believe that just a few generations ago, those stories about the Baal Shem Tov happened, miracles and all. All that is in the past.
When you ask them about the future, they are willing to believe that Moshiach will come. We all believe that, in the future, Moshiach will come and there will be wonders then too. There will be the Resurrection of the Dead and a Beis HaMikdash will descend from the heaven. As long as we are talking about the future, they are willing to believe.
However, when you speak to them about the present and say that great and wondrous things are happening today, now, they find this hard to accept. They will say, “Leave us alone. We live in the world for 70, 80, 120 years. During this period of time, let us live normally.”
The truth is, though, that we are in an unusual time. We are living in Yemos HaMoshiach and the amazing thing about this is that everybody acknowledges it. Although sometimes, externally, there is some opposition and it seems as though it is not accepted as such, deep inside people are aware that it’s true.
The Rebbe spoke about this over twenty years ago, but we are slow on the draw and only understand things later. Today, even we are starting to see this, that the world is ready. This reality is known to all.
DESIRE TO HEAR ABOUT MOSHIACH
A few months ago, in the course of my work at the Knesset, I was sitting in the Knesset cafeteria and talking to two journalists who are not yet religious. As we were sitting there, a senior minister who is religious joined our table. He saw me wearing a Moshiach pin and made a snide remark. I don’t even remember what he said, but a conversation ensued about Moshiach and Geula.
At a certain point, we began talking about Hilchos Melachim in the Rambam. Most people are not as familiar with the Rambam as Lubavitchers are, especially in the laws of Moshiach.
After we discussed it for a while, he had enough. He turned to the two other fellows and said, “Okay, there are another two people here. Let’s stop this. I don’t think it interests them.”
I glanced at the other two and I saw how they were both sitting riveted to our conversation. They said to this minister in surprise, without a drop of cynicism, “Why should you stop? When we’re finally hearing an interesting conversation here in the Knesset, you want to cut it off?”
THE REBBE GUIDES ME
Before I made the move to work for Yisroel HaYom, where I work now, I was a writer for Radio Kol Chai. The workplace at Kol Chai was like a comfortable hothouse, especially for a religious person. Then I was made an offer to work for a newspaper which did not previously exist and nobody knew whether it would exist. Even if it would finally open, nobody knew what its fate would be.
I decided to ask the Rebbe. In the answer I opened to in the Igros Kodesh, there was a bracha for a transfer to a new job and the Rebbe said that the person’s influence in the new place would be even greater. As many of you know, Yisroel HaYom is now the biggest newspaper in Eretz Yisroel and is the most influential media outlet in the country.
When I read this bracha, all my doubts dissipated. I had already learned that with the Rebbe’s direction, you don’t look right or left but walk with closed eyes and just obey. In the end, things work out.
THE REBBE’S INFLUENCE ACROSS THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM
In my work, I know a variety of people in the world of politics, all kinds of askanim, politicians, ministers, etc. Most of them have an interesting story in connection the Rebbe, whether an encounter they had with him or one of his shluchim. When you speak to them about the Rebbe, their eyes light up and amazing stories come forth.
I’ve seen this in the course of my work in the last two to three years, when I meet with politicians who are serving today.
I want to tell you a story. The hero of the story is politically active although you haven’t heard his name, because he works as a secret political advisor. He does all his work behind the scenes. For a hefty fee, he pulls political strings employing a battery of lawyers. He is the kind of person who handles major political issues.
We’ve known one another for many years. Although he belongs to the Left and he is not fully religious, he has a strong feeling for Judaism. Inside, his Jewish neshama burns strong.
Some time ago, he took the law boards in order to become certified as an attorney. He was tired of constantly paying for lawyers, and since he knew nearly all the laws, he decided to become one himself and save a lot of money.
We spoke on the phone the day before the test and I wished him luck. I told him that I would say T’hillim for him during the test so he would pass, as it’s a very difficult test. He was happy to hear that. Then I thought of asking the Rebbe for a bracha for him in the Igros Kodesh. I didn’t tell him about this idea. I wrote a letter and on the pages I opened to, I saw a long letter. I noticed wishes for bracha and hatzlacha in all areas. It looked like a very positive letter to me.
I decided to call him and I said: I asked for a bracha for you and there is answer from the Rebbe, the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
He asked: What do you mean – how can that be?
I explained what we do with the Igros Kodesh and gave him some examples (each of us has an example or even dozens of examples about answers he got from the Rebbe). I told him one of the amazing answers I opened to, as follows.
THE REBBE’S ANSWER
When I was first married, I was very close to Chabad but not yet a Lubavitcher. I was serving in the IDF Reserves and my wife was pregnant. After four to five days in the Reserves, my wife called. In tears, she told me that she had just come back from a checkup and they told her that the fetus was at high risk for a serious illness. They even recommended that she do a dangerous test, and even went so far as to discuss the possibility of abortion.
This was her first pregnancy, and obviously, this shook us up. I could not go back home and she was there alone. I tried to be comforting but I really didn’t know what to say.
The first thing that occurred to me was that I must write to the Rebbe. I called Shneur Bloch, a Lubavitcher friend, and told him what was going on. He said he would write to the Rebbe. After he opened the volume he asked me, “You’re in the Reserves now?” I said that I was and he asked me, “Are you doing mivtza t’fillin?” I said I was.
(During those four days, I had suggested to the guys in my tent to put on t’fillin and they were agreeable. They even began passing it around, and I saw people taking the t’fillin on their own and putting them on.).
Shneur said: I don’t believe it! I can’t believe what the Rebbe writes here!
I asked: What does it say?
Shneur read the Rebbe’s letter to me: In the merit of mivtza t’fillin and in the merit of the spreading of Judaism in the place you are in, there will be a refua shleima for you, your wife and your offspring.
I immediately called my wife and told her: No tests, no doctors, no nothing. All is well. With the Rebbe’s bracha, we are in good hands.
The other week we celebrated our daughter’s eighth birthday. She was born healthy.
THE REBBE RESPONDS
I told this story to that political activist who was very interested in hearing the Rebbe’s answer. I decided not to read the entire letter to him, because it was quite long, just the points that seemed relevant, but he wasn’t satisfied. I tried to explain: Listen, there are brachos here …He still did not understand what it was about.
I decided to read the entire letter. The Rebbe began with a bracha for a move to a new home and said that it should be the source of good luck and bracha. I assumed this wasn’t relevant because he was living in Ashdod for twenty years. People like him don’t move around.
But he stopped me and asked: Who is this letter written to? I said: It’s a letter to you. He asked: The Rebbe is wishing me success in my move? I said: Yes, why, are you moving? He said: Yes!
Then he told me that he was about to move to a home he bought with a loan of three million shekels. He had already signed the contract and paid the advance, but the bank made its approval of the loan for a mortgage conditional on his passing his law boards. That was the guarantee that he would be able to repay the loan.
I told him: If so, then you’ll pass the test, because the Rebbe said you’re moving.
The test took place the next day and it was one of the hardest tests ever given by the Israel Bar Association. Those who were in Eretz Yisroel remember that at the final test, all the law students demonstrated outside the Bar Association’s headquarters in Tel Aviv about this being the hardest test ever. 51% failed, which is a very high failure rate.
He passed the test and made good hachlatos, to put on t’fillin and not to smoke on Shabbos. He also agreed to serve as legal counsel, pro bono, for the shul in Givat Mordechai where I am the gabbai, an account that could easily run into tens of thousands of shekels.
EXPLOITING THE MEDIA
This is what we see. The world is ready for the Rebbe’s leadership. The entire world wants Moshiach and awaits his coming. What are we doing with this?
Not everybody has ready access to the media, but today there are many avenues to the media. There are unlimited opportunities for every one of us, including shluchim.
Every person can have a website and on this website, he can write whatever he wants and publicize the truth, that the Rebbe is Moshiach.
The Rebbe spoke about the role of radio and newspapers to spread the Besuras Ha’Geula. We can also publicize the Geula on other websites by writing comments and by sending emails far and wide. These are tools within our reach, and words are powerful.
AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE REBBE MELECH HAMOSHIACH THAT RESTORED HER FAITH
Here is a final story which also occurred when I was getting more involved with Chabad. By the way, when someone argues with me that today it is impossible to understand and explain that the Rebbe is Moshiach, I give myself as an example. I was not Lubavitch on Gimmel Tammuz, or for a decade after Gimmel Tammuz. Yet, I believed that the Rebbe is Moshiach before I became a Lubavitcher!
Yes, you can explain it! And the person you are explaining it to will be compelled to accept it at some point.
At that time, I was on Radio Kol Chai and I also worked a little for Maariv’s Internet site where I wrote about Judaism. Before Yud-Tes Kislev, I told the editor that this is a very important holiday in Chabad, and since there is a debate as to whether the Rebbe is Moshiach, I wanted to write an opinion piece about his being Moshiach. To my surprise, he was happy with the idea.
I wrote an article about what I knew at the time and I wrote it under the heading, “The Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach.”
The editors liked it and put it on the home page, not just on the Judaism page but on the home page of the website!
The way of the Internet is that the headlines are changed for new headlines and things disappear into archives, though they don’t really disappear because the written word continues to exist.
A year ago, I was with my family in Tzfas. While I davened in Tomchei T’mimim, my wife davened in Ascent. She met a girl, a Lubavitcher. When they began talking, and she heard my wife’s name, she asked: Are you the wife of Motti Tochfeld? When my wife said yes, the girl exclaimed: Wow, it’s thanks to your husband that I am a Lubavitcher!
She told my wife that she came from an irreligious home. At a certain point, she became interested in religion. She became acquainted with Chabad and was drawn to it. She began keeping mitzvos and became religiously observant but one thing bothered her, the belief that Lubavitchers have that the Rebbe is Moshiach. When she tried to clarify it, nobody was able to explain it to her.
She struggled with this for a long time, until this belief in the Rebbe as Moshiach undermined for her not only the belief in Chabad but belief in religion altogether.
Then, she sat down at home late one night and resolved that she was dropping out of religion. No more mitzvos for her. As much as she connected to Tanya and despite all she had learned, in Chassidus, sichos, etc. the Moshiach thing bothered her. It made no sense. If that is what they were based on, she was dropping out.
At this point, she thought: I want to go on the Internet and read something from a Chabadnik, someone who writes about the Rebbe as Moshiach, in order to be able to reassure myself that I fully understand what these delusional characters have to say, and then cut myself off once and for all.
She did a Google search with the words “Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach,” and she found my article which I had written years before. She began reading it and her jaw dropped. All of a sudden, whatever she hadn’t understood all that time, which nobody had managed to explain to her, it was all there in the article. She concluded that the Rebbe is Moshiach and that she would be religious.
Today she is a Lubavitcher who lives in Tzfas. I don’t know her name; I did not meet her. But that’s the story.
THIS IS OUR MISSION!
This is our mission, your mission, everyone’s mission, to write things, to inform the world. The world knows it already, but even if someone knows something, you have to push it so that not only his neshama knows the truth, but the body too, so that the body is permeated with Moshiach and believes in Moshiach. Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu V’Rabbeinu Melech HaMoshiach L’olam Va’ed! L’chaim!