This week in our open forum: We have a responsibility to the Jewish people. If we have connections, we need to use them for the greater good and only after that for our personal matters, as important as they may be.
There are pictures that seem to be a part of the very existence of every Lubavitcher, which we see from an early age. This time, I’m not talking about famous pictures of the Rebbe like the picture of the Rebbe with Moshiach’s Torah from Yud Shevat 5730, or the picture from Lag B’Omer 5750. I’m talking about the pictures of Lubavitcher askanim when they visit Israeli political figures.
Everyone is familiar with the picture of R’ Mendel Futerfas, R’ Zushe Partisan, R’ Berke Wolf and R’ Shmuel Chefer with Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir. And everyone is familiar with the pictures that are publicized regularly of askanei Chabad from recent years visiting recent prime ministers as well as ministers and Knesset members.
When you compare the pictures of askanim from the previous era to those of today, something immediately stands out. Something in these pictures is missing (and it’s not the ties of the askanim of the previous generation).
Without meaning to offend any of the askanim who surely do great work for Chabad mosdos in Eretz Yisroel, and without disparaging the tremendous good they accomplished on behalf of those who sent them (and obviously, without disparaging the political capital they generated through publicity on Chabad internet sites), something is still missing.
It is not the job of Chabad askanim to acquire funding for mosdos or to get legislation passed in some office. That is important and it definitely gives the Rebbe nachas, but our first responsibility is toward the Jewish people. If we have connections, we need to use them for the greater good and only after that for our personal matters, as important as they may be.
When Chabad askanim meet with a Prime Minister or the Defense Minister, the goal ought to be very clear: to let them know the Rebbe’s warnings about the danger in giving away land to terrorists, or to let them know what the Halacha has to say about freeing murderers from jail. When giving away land is not the issue of the day, the meeting should be used to remind the Education Minister that there are still hundreds of thousands of Jewish children in Eretz Yisroel who do not know how to say the Shma.
The goal should be clear and have nothing to do with pictures and hugs, but to attain things on behalf of Am Yisroel, Eretz Yisroel, and Toras Yisroel. Only after that can we think about additional benefits for Chabad institutions or to ensure that the traffic light at the entrance to Kfar Chabad isn’t shut down.
These are difficult times for the Jewish people in Eretz Yisroel as PM Netanyahu gallops toward dangerous concessions and has begun to carry out extremely dangerous measures, intended as a “goodwill gesture.”
Now is the time for Chabad askanim to take advantage of the doors that are open to them in government offices and to protest forcefully, citing the Rebbe’s clear words aimed directly at them. The pictures and articles can wait for another time.
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