We are at the fifty-fourth lesson in the chain of our Rebbeim, the leaders of Chabad, in part fourteen - the Rebbe's life story. Today we will learn about the year 5712.
"5712 - He urges that the yeshivah students and also the avreichim should speak words of chassidus in shuls." On 6 Teves, the "Vaad HaMesader Chazoras Dach" - the committee that arranged for students to repeat words of chassidus in shuls - came in to the Rebbe for yechidus. The Rebbe told them that he sees from the report of those who went out that the names of many students are missing and do not appear in it. Therefore they should tell the students who are being lax that this is not right; rather, everyone must go out on Shabbos to the shuls and repeat chassidus. And this is not only for the benefit of the Jews who hear ideas of chassidus, but also for the benefit of the students themselves.
And if there are not enough shuls in the neighborhood for all the students - said the Rebbe - they should repeat in this very matter: each student should take nine students and repeat before them; but there is no option to forgo the matter. These words were said at yechidus on 6 Teves, and afterwards the Rebbe again urged about this at a public farbrengen on 24 Teves, and again on Purim of that year. The Rebbe spoke about the fact that not only the temimim, the bochurim in the yeshivah, but also the married avreichim need to take part in this, and he impressed it strongly upon everyone's heart that they should see this as an obligation - to go out on Shabbos and spread chassidus in the shuls.
"He also urges that the students and also the avreichim should receive semichah, and that in addition to receiving semichah they should acquire knowledge in many sugyos in Shas and the poskim." At the farbrengen of 24 Teves that year, the Rebbe urged that the students need to learn in order to receive ordination for horaah, ordination for rabbanus, and also that the married balebatim should be fluent in halachah. Regarding the married avreichim the Rebbe said that even if in practice they will not receive the certificate, it is enough that they learn on a level that makes them worthy of receiving it; but the bochurim need to learn until they actually receive a certificate of ordination for rabbanus. The Rebbe again spoke about this in the summer, on 3 Tammuz, and urged much about the matter - that one must invest in it, until each one will ultimately be like a rav in his own home; not necessarily that he should know how to rule, but that at the very least he should know what constitutes a question.
"He brings about in practice the founding of the organization "Ateh" (Igud Talmidei HaYeshivos - the Union of Yeshivah Students)." At the farbrengen of 10 Shevat the Rebbe said that in the year 5701 - when the Rebbe himself was not yet in the United States, but the previous Rebbe had already arrived here in Adar 5701 - the previous Rebbe asked that an organization be established uniting all the yeshivah students, that they should have a special union and shared goals; but for several reasons the matter did not come to fruition. The announcement was made, but in practice it was not organized. At the farbrengen of 10 Shevat 5712 the Rebbe proposed that the time had come to activate it, and he went into the finest details - who the members of the union are, how it is organized, what the membership dues are and what they would engage in - literally a detailed plan for establishing it. Today it already exists in all the yeshivos, an organization uniting everyone.
"He declares that the education of young schoolchildren is the only remedy to annul all the decrees," something the Rebbe repeated many times over the years. The Rebbe brought the verse in Tehillim, "From the mouths of babes and sucklings You have established strength, because of Your adversaries, to silence the enemy and the avenger" - that even babes and sucklings, when one learns with them and accustoms them to words of Torah, this has the power to annul and silence all the vengeful enemies. In the summer of 5733, before the Yom Kippur War, the Rebbe urged very strongly about this matter, and when the war broke out, three days later the Rebbe said at a farbrengen about all that he had spoken and urged that summer: "He prophesied and did not know what he prophesied." Again the same point - that the education of children has the power to silence all the matters and all the decrees.
"He begins to explain one mishnah in Pirkei Avos on the Shabbosos between Pesach and Shavuos." This became the norm over all the years at the farbrengens that the Rebbe held during this period, and afterwards it continued right along through the entire summer until Rosh Hashanah: at every farbrengen on Shabbos the Rebbe spoke about the chapter of Pirkei Avos of that Shabbos, and explained a particular mishnah. It began in 5712. That year there were only two Shabbosos after Pesach: on Shabbos Mevorchim of the month of Iyar the Rebbe spoke about the introduction to Pirkei Avos, "Kol Yisrael," and about the first mishnah; and the next time, on Shabbos Mevorchim of the month of Sivan, when they were already learning the sixth chapter, the Rebbe explained in the sixth chapter of Pirkei Avos. That year it was only twice, but that is when the practice began of the Rebbe dwelling on explaining matters in Pirkei Avos.
"He founds "Tzeirei Agudas Chabad" in the Holy Land. He founds Agudas Neshei UBnos Chabad in the Holy Land." The Rebbe founded the organization Tzach, Tzeirei Agudas Chabad. And as for Agudas Neshei UBnos Chabad - the idea of founding it was written by the Rebbe already a year earlier, in the summer of 5711, and then he urged about the matter; but in practice the organization was established in the summer of 5712, and there already appears a letter that the Rebbe sends to the Neshei Chabad organization, in which there is a real detailing of the work plan - how they should operate.
"He founds "Reshet Ohalei Yosef Yitzchak - Lubavitch" in the Holy Land and in Australia." An organization uniting schools, which exists to this very day both in Eretz Yisrael and in Australia, and the Rebbe established it in 5712. Here too the Rebbe wrote the idea a year earlier, in the summer of 5711, but the actual approval from the Ministry of Education - that Chabad would be able to establish such a network as a stream unto itself - was given in 5712.
The story that happened with this is interesting: the one who officially handled its establishment, Rabbi Zusha Wilimowsky, met with the Minister of Education at the time, and the latter told him that the matter was not possible and that he could not give approval for it. In the middle of the meeting the Minister of Education received an internal phone call that the Prime Minister at the time was calling for him to come to him quickly, and in the middle of the meeting he left. Rabbi Wilimowsky did not think much - for the one who runs the world is the Rebbe - he went out to the secretary and told her: "The Minister of Education said that you should give the approval, and we are moving forward." And she simply handed over the approval, and that is how the whole enterprise got underway...
"He founds the charity campaign "Keren Ohalei Yosef Yitzchak," to support the institutions called by this name." This is the last item mentioned for this year. The Rebbe founded a fundraising fund whose purpose was to support the institutions called by this name - all the institutions named after the Rebbe, Ohalei Yosef Yitzchak, such as the network of schools and the like - that there should be a special fund that would grant them support and assistance in meeting their great expenses.