The Rebbe and the Infinite Value of the Individual

It is, uh, very special for me to be here with you at this rare occasion of the gathering of so many communities, which is in itself beautiful to see. In addition, I don't know how many people realize that the congregation, which has graciously hosted this event, Congregation Beth El, has a, uh, very important role in the history of Chabad in America because when the sixth Rebbe of Chabad, when our Rebbe's father-in-law and predecessor, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, came to America, he visited Congregation Beth El. Now, I believe it was a few miles away, the actual building. It was, uh, in in fact, I think they used to call it also, informally, the Fowler Street Shul in Dorchester, but it's the same congregation where we are right now. And, uh, if you tune into it, I think you can pick up on the on the energy of that. There was a, uh, small city in medieval Europe that had a significant Jewish population, and the local bishop was, uh, an anti-Semite. So, the bishop wanted to expel the Jewish community, and he told the city's rabbis that unless one of them could defeat him in a in a debate of theology, then all of the Jews from the this small city would have to leave. They'd be expelled. So, the rabbis were convening and they were discussing how they're going to deal with this uh situation. They were very worried. They didn't really have a didn't have a resolution to the problem and all of a sudden in comes Moishele. Who is Moishele? Moishele was a simple Jew. He says, "Rabbis." They say, "Moishele, not right now. We're busy. We have a very serious issue to deal with." Moishele says, "I know. I heard. The bishop is going to expel the Jewish community. I'm going to help." They said, "Moishele, it's a theological debate. You didn't even graduate Hebrew school, okay? It's Moishele says, "Listen. You know this whole thing's a setup anyways, right? So, send me and the way I look at it is maybe I win, you know, okay? And if I don't, then maybe you'll buy some time and you'll say, 'Well, we only sent Moishele. He didn't even graduate Hebrew school.' So, the rabbis say, "Moishele, we don't have time to argue with you and we don't have a better plan. Go. Debate the bishop." Oh, but one thing they said, "Moishele, we we have to tell you the the terms of the debate is the debate is in pantomime. There's no words. It's in sign language." So, Moishele says, "I'll figure it out." So, uh there's a big platform in the middle of the town and the bishop is waiting there with his entourage and he's waiting for some rabbi to come up on stage with him. And who walks up on stage? Moishele. Okay? The bishop sees this is who he's going to uh be debating with. So, he starts off and uh the bishop goes like this. So, uh Moishele sees this and he goes Bishop goes Meshulah goes The bishop takes out the communion wine and wafer. Meshulah takes out an apple. At that point, the bishop throws up his hands in defeat. He says, "THIS MAN IS A THEOLOGICAL GENIUS. THE JEWS CAN STAY." He walks off stage. About an hour later, the bishop is at his manor his estate and he's sitting with his entourage and they say, "Would his Excellency please explain to us what transpired in the debate with the Jew because uh we couldn't follow it." So, the bishop says, "You must understand. I'll explain to you exactly what happened, but you must understand I don't know who this man was. I'm not familiar with him. He's not one of their formal rabbis, but the man is a theological genius because every point I made, he refuted. Perfect. Thank you so much. Okay. Every point I made, he refuted in a way that I had no counter. They said, "Tell us. Tell us." He says, "Okay. I came out and I said three, the trinity, the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost. He says to me, "Yes, but we both believe in one God." I said God is transcendent. He said, "Yes, but God is also immanent. He's present here." I pulled out the communion wine and wafer to represent the expiation of sin. He pulled out the apple to represent original sin. The man's a genius. I could not defeat him. About the time the rabbis are in shul. They're sitting with Moishele. They're elated, obviously. The community gets to stay. But they say, "Nu, Moishele, what's the issue?" What happened? Cuz we didn't follow. So, Moishele says, "I'll explain it to you. It's very simple, okay? He came out. He said, "You got 3 days to get out of town." I told him, "Not one of us is leaving." He said, "You can go anywhere but here." I said, "We're staying right here." And that was it. They said, "Nu, Moishele, there was one more thing." He says, "That I don't know. He took out his lunch, so I took out mine." I don't know if that story ever happened. Okay. If it didn't happen, it should have happened. But I'll tell you a story that did happen. On the steps of 770, Eastern Parkway, the iconic world headquarters of Chabad-Lubavitch in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. It was a bitter, bitter, bitter cold winter day 1973. And the Lubavitcher Rebbe was uh coming out from 770. You know, there are steps coming out from 770. The Rebbe was coming down the steps. And generally speaking, the Chassidim would stand away. They would give the Rebbe room out of reverence. And therefore, it was quite the spectacle when somebody from the crowd sort of made a beeline right to the Rebbe and walked straight up to the Rebbe. A stranger, someone nobody knew. He had long hair, leather jacket, tight jeans, cowboy boots. It was 1973, you know, he looked the look. It was very stylish in 1973. And everyone is standing away, they're standing back. So, they see this happening, but they can't hear what's going on. All they see is this young man is speaking to the Rebbe. The Rebbe stops. The Rebbe stops and this young man is speaking with the Rebbe. And they see that he's very, very emotional. They can't hear what he's saying. And they hear the Rebbe answer, but they can't hear what the Rebbe says either. But they can see that after the young man asks his question, the Rebbe goes like this. The young man asks again a question, whatever it may be. And the Rebbe goes like this. Again, same motion. The young man says something again. This time, the Rebbe takes his hand, places his finger on the young man's chest, right on his heart. A few more words are exchanged. The young man in tears turns around and disappears into the crowd. And for 30 years, nobody knew what discussion took place. So, I'll get back to that. I'll let you know. Remind me if I forget at some point. I'll tell you the discussion that I ever had with this young man. Um but let me uh talk about the topic. The topic is the infinite value of the individual, yeah? So, this is Boston. Intellectual crowd, at least I assume. Or you skew more on the intellectual side than uh other locations which shall remain nameless. But yeah, is it true? Is the stereotype true that generally Boston's a more brainy crowd? Yeah? I guess I'll find out, right? Okay. Uh All right. Um So, there's a word in that title, infinite, the infinite value of the individual. And uh infinity is an interesting concept. There was once uh a man he cries out to God. He said, "God, is it true that for you 1 minute for you is like for us 1,000 years?" And God answers him, says, "Yes, it's true. What for you is 1,000 years is a minute for me." So, the guy says, "So, then is it true by that logic that for you, God, what for us is a million dollars. It's for you a penny. God says, "Yes, that would also be true." The guy says, "Okay, God, can I have a million dollars?" God says, "Sure, in a minute." What is infinity? Generally speaking, we think of infinity as that which is so huge that nothing is too big for it. That a galaxy is like a grain of sand. And that's part of infinity. But if you only have partial infinity, you don't have infinity at all. The other half of infinity is that just like there is nothing too big for infinity, there's also nothing too small. So, a galaxy is like a grain of sand, but also, by the same token, a grain of sand is a galaxy. That's infinity. I think it was William Blake, the English romantic poet, let's see if I can get this right. I didn't learn this one in Yeshiva, so. He said, "To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wildflower. Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour." You want to explain what it means. The Rebbe's view of the individual, the infinite value of the individual. And it's pretty simple. That from the point of view of infinity, just like there's nothing too big, no goal too grandiose to pursue, equally so, there's nothing too small. There's no person who's insignificant. There's no act, there's no moment, there's no place, there's not a square inch of earth on this planet that doesn't have cosmic significance. That is the infinite view. So, the micro is the macro, the macro is the micro. That's infinity. The Rebbe once spoke about the fact that the Talmud tells us the reason why Adam was created alone. People mistranslate Adam Adam Adam, they mistranslate that as man. It's not a man. The original Adam or Adam Harishon was not a man or a woman. He was all of humanity in a single organism. And the Talmud asks, why was it done that way? God can do whatever he wants, and the simple answer is to teach us the lesson that one person is an entire world. Just like the first person was an entire world. And even after the splitting, you know the story, how Adam was then divided into Adam and Eve, which by the way, Boston crowd, that was the first incident in history of the splitting of the atom. Okay. I don't get to use that joke in a lot of places, so I Okay, thank you. By the way, just cuz for me, not for you, for me, um an atom walks into a bar and he says to the bartender, he says, "I think I lost an electron." And the bartender says, "Are you sure?" He says, "Yeah, I'm positive." Boston, I love it, Boston, okay. All right. Let's do this every night, okay. What was I talking about? Atoms, okay. Why was Why did humanity originate as a single being to teach us that each one of us, each human being, is humanity, is the world, is a universe? And And the Rebbe once spoke about that that passage in Talmud and actually said something very sharp to the rabbis about how rabbis waste the 48 hours of Rosh Hashanah, which are the most potent, powerful hours of the entire year. Rosh Hashanah means the head of the year, and just like a head, whatever's going on in the head, that affects the entire body. So, whatever you do for those 2 days of Rosh Hashanah, that affects the entire year. So, the Rebbe once said that the rabbis squander the 48 hours of Rosh Hashanah by getting up to the pulpit and giving sermons about The Rebbe was writing in Yiddish, he said, "Greysa velt problemen." Big geopolitical issues. When they should be focusing on personal development. Because if you want to be really universal, look at the lesson of Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is not the anniversary of the creation of the cosmos. It's actually the anniversary of day six of the seven days of creation. Rosh Hashanah is the anniversary of the creation of humanity as a single being. So, the whole anniversary of Rosh Hashanah is to celebrate that one being is the world. So, that I've been said that the rabbis, if they want their sermons to be really powerful, don't talk about politics, get specific. Get personal. And each one of us knows where we can develop. We like to talk big. Yeah, yeah, big, big, big. You know, when before the revolution in uh in Russia, they used to send around guys to try to indoctrinate the the masses into communism. So, they tell a story, a guy comes to a little farm town, he's trying to teach these these peasants about communism and he gives a whole long speech about how communism works. And then he says, "Okay, I want to make sure everyone understands how communism works." So, he says, "You, comrade." Points to this little farmer in the back. He says, "Uh how does communism work if if if you have two cows, what do you do?" Little farmer says, "Okay. Uh let me think." He says, "If I have two cows, okay. So, I keep one cow and I give one cow to the party." The communist says, "That is correct, comrade. Very good. Okay. Now, um you have two goats. This scenario now, you have two goats. What do you do?" Little farmer says, "Two goats, okay. Uh communism, okay. Um I'm going to keep one goat and then the other goat I give to the party. And the communist says, "Very good, comrade. Okay. Well, one last test. Two chickens. You have two chickens. What do you do, comrade?" And the farmer is silent. So, the communist says, "Comrade, two chickens, quick. Two chickens, what do you do? Revolution's going to come. What are you going to do? Two chickens." And the farmer won't answer. He sees The communist sees the farmer is hesitating. He says, "Comrade, I don't understand why you're hesitating. When I asked you two cows, you're ready to give away a cow to the party. I asked you two goats. Two big goats, you're ready. Cows are big. Goats are big. Now, two little chickens and now you hesitate?" He says, "Yeah, you know the difference? I really have two chickens." So, it So, the Rebbe said, "Don't talk about the big grace and wealth problem. Talk to people where it counts. Do another mitzvah. Take another Torah study class. A little more tzedakah. Do something for your neighbor. Like something actionable, something attainable. You know why? Because there's no such thing as small from the perspective of infinity. There's no small act if you look at things from God's eyes. Nothing's too big. We're going to change the world. That was the Rebbe's agenda from day one. And nothing's too small. How do we change the world? Little acts. The next mitzvah. Do the next right thing. And that's what it comes down to. It comes down to individuals doing one more mitzvah. Reaching out to one more person. And that's the world. After the Rebbe left, they came over. They flocked to to this guy and they said, "How dare you? You don't know what you just did. Do you know how busy the Rebbe is? Do you know what the Rebbe is dealing with? Do you know how many giant world issues are on the Rebbe's shoulders and how many people are waiting for the Rebbe's answer and you come and you take the Rebbe's time? How dare you? You You did a very bad thing. And it's not going to be good for you." They started, you know, scaring him. So, the guy felt terrible. He felt really, really guilty and he wrote a whole long profuse apology. And then he went to 770, which is the shul and also the location of the Rebbe's office, and he gave this letter, this uh profuse apology letter, to the secretariat, to the Rebbe's secretaries. Basically, begging the Rebbe to forgive him for wasting the Rebbe's time. The response to the letter was was almost immediate. There was a Sometimes the Rebbe would communicate on slips of paper. Not a whole letter or correspondence, but like a note. In uh Yiddish, you call it a tzettel. So, uh a tzettel came out from the Rebbe's office and the secretaries told this guy, "Hold on. There's There's an answer for you right away." I mean, it didn't always happen so quickly like that. There was an answer to his profuse apology letter. Now, he felt double guilty because here I am, I took the Rebbe's time in front of his house, now I'm taking the Rebbe's time again that he has to stop and respond to my apology. I didn't I didn't need an answer. I just wanted to apologize. What did the answer say? Something one sentence, one sentence, but absolutely stirring. Mi yidea. Who knows if the entire purpose that the Rebbe's writing this, who knows if the entire purpose of my soul's descent, you read this nishmasi, the entire purpose of my soul's descent into this physical world, into a physical body, was not for the sake of doing you this one favor. And then the Rebbe added, "And who are the yeshiva boys to mix in? And especially what were they doing on President Street during class time?" The Lubavitcher Rebbe, you know how much the Rebbe accomplished? You know how many biographies have been written? A global leader. How many people did the Rebbe touch? It's mind-boggling. And then the Rebbe said, "Maybe the purpose of all of it was this one favor." "One person comes up to me on President Street and pours out his heart and we have a fleeting moment of connection. MAYBE MY SOUL CAME TO THE WORLD FOR THAT MOMENT." The Rebbe said. And I promise you, when the Rebbe said that, it wasn't poetry. It wasn't figurative. That was the Rebbe's worldview. The Rebbe would say this all the time, by the way, quoting Maimonides. Maimonides describes the attitude that someone has to have all the time when they look at their their their situation in life, and they look at the the the purpose of the world. Maimonides gives this visualization, this visual meditation, sort of. He says, "You should see yourself." That's what he says, "You should You should see." Obviously, he doesn't mean physically see. He means in your mind's eye. Envision, visualize that you have scales. And you and the entire universe there's a scale, there's a side of merit, and there's a side of the opposite side. Not merit. The Rebbe always spoke very positively and would avoid using negative words, so I'm going to avoid using I'll say like the Rebbe would say, "The opposite of merit." So, Maimonides says, "You have this scale, and you have the side of merit, and you have the opposite of merit. And you should see, you should envision in your mind how those scales are absolutely even, 50/50. And that therefore the next action can be the act to tip the scales and bring salvation to the individual and to the universe." So, can there be a small act? THERE'S NO SUCH THING as a small act. One mitzvah CAN TIP THE SCALES OF salvation for you and the entire world. THERE'S NO SMALL ACT. And that's infinity. So, the Rebbe said his entire purpose in life could have been for that 5-minute conversation on President Street. Are we willing to start thinking infinitely? The Rebbe's yahrzeit is coming. Yes, we pay tribute to great leaders. Yes, sometimes we express our emotions, our lack that we miss the Rebbe's physical presence. But I believe the Rebbe would want most of all that his yahrzeit should be a time of personal introspection and action. And and and may I suggest that we need to start taking ourselves and our lives a lot more seriously and realize the infinity that is in every single action and every single moment and every single interaction. As I was standing out in the lobby, Rabbi Posner pulls out his phone and he showed me a text conversation I forgot I had with some guy in Ohio a month ago. I didn't even remember the crazy stuff I told him. Apparently, he took it seriously. Rabbi Posner showed me the guy started learning Tanya. I don't hit and run. I like I don't even remember the I mean I remember I visited the guy. I mean I I had a conversation. I don't remember telling him to learn Tanya. When I was We don't know. We don't know. We don't know. WE DON'T KNOW. WE HAVE NO CLUE WHAT WE ARE DOING CUZ WE EVERY moment is infinity. Every moment is a life-changing. Every moment changes the course of history. Do we see it? No. But the Rebbe sought and the Rebbe lived that way. And if we look at how the Rebbe lived, WE CAN START TO believe it, we can start to see it. We walk past people ALL DAY LONG HAVING NO CLUE ABOUT THE INFINITE POWER THAT WE HAVE IN THIS MOMENT, in a moment that we'll forget, in a word that was exchanged, we won't even remember. You know, there was an article in the New Yorker about the Golden Gate Bridge about unfortunately, all the suicides that happened there. And they interviewed a guy, a forensic psychologist, for the San Francisco Police Department by the name of Dr. Jerome Motto. And his job was when they would find someone who had jumped and hadn't survived, he would have to do forensic psychology to basically retrace the steps of this person and to establish their state of mind that they were indeed suicidal and that there was no foul play. And there was enough Unfortunately, there was enough of this that that was his full-time job for the San Francisco Police Department. So, he said in his tenure with the SFPD, he saw hundreds of jumpers and he visited their homes and read hundreds of suicide notes, and he became immune to it. But he said there was one incident that happened to him that shook him to the core. After all of the morbidity that he had with witnessed, there was one incident that he just couldn't get over. He said, "They found a jumper, they found ID, they figured out the address, they went back to the apartment where the guy had lived. He said, "I went in, I knew where to look. Bedroom dresser, there's the note, predictable routine. Going through the motions, reading the note. I read the note, it's a one-sentence note. And it just took me apart. The note said, 'I am walking to the bridge now. If one person stops and says hello to me on the way, I'm turning around and coming home.' We have no clue. But we possess infinite power. And every moment we have the potential to make decisions with infinite ramifications. And the Rebbe believed that about each and every one of us. He believed in our infinite power. You know, they say, "To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world." And I think that's what the the gift that the Rebbe gave to this generation. Rebbe Siegel said that uh the Rebbe demanded this of his his shluchim. And I want to agree to that, and I want to add to that that the Rebbe considered every single man, woman, and child to be one of his shluchim, his emissaries. The Rebbe saw our generation as a generation of global leaders. Each one of us. In fact, when people ask me, "Why didn't the Lubavitcher Rebbe appoint a successor?" I mean, the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin had no biological children. Surely, there would have been an opportunity for some forethought. And obviously, I can't deconstruct and try to offer you what I think the Rebbe's actual thinking was. But when people ask me, especially around this time of year, Gimmel Tammuz, that the Rebbe's yahrtzeit, "Why didn't the Rebbe appoint a successor?" My answer is, "Have you studied the Lubavitcher Rebbe's teachings? I know that you may have met his emissaries, you've gone to a Chabad house, maybe you got a nice Shabbos meal when you were on vacation somewhere, maybe a minyan. There are many ways that people cross paths with Chabad, and there are many different Chabad experiences. But have you studied the Lubavitcher Rebbe's teachings? Have you actually studied his teachings? Because if you study the Lubavitcher Rebbe's teachings, one thing will become readily apparent rather quickly. And that is the Rebbe's opinion of us. The Rebbe's incredible faith in the individual. The Rebbe's lofty opinion of each of us. And if you would ask me, "Did the Lubavitcher Rebbe leave a successor?" I would say most certainly yes. You. No, no, not the person next to you. You. And you. You are the leader of world Jewry. You are infinite. You are the one who will tip the scales for the entire world. Because there's no such thing as something too small for infinity. This year, earlier this year, almost a year ago, we lost one of our great teachers in Chabad, Reb Yoel Reb Yoel Kahn. And uh there was a story he used to like to tell, which I heard from him, about uh an Israeli couple. There was this Israeli couple, and they were very, very secular. They were from a Hashomer Hatzair kibbutz, like really secular. And um to the extent you know the the style, we're Israeli, not Jewish. And they relocated purposely. They were both academics, they were both professors, Dr. Michael and Dr. Atara Hasofer, and they relocated to Hobart, Tasmania, partially because it had no Jewish community to speak of, and they had no desire to be in a Jewish community. They wanted to distance themselves. So, they arrive the HaSofer family arrives in Hobart and they get there and they always find you. You know what I'm talking about, right? They always find you. There's a group of people knocking at the door. Hi, we're from the Hobart Jewish Community Center. No, it wasn't Chabad. There was no Chabad there. No, not yet. This is 50 years ago. We're from the Jewish Community Center. And we would like you to join. He said, "Eh, not for me." They said, "Well, it's going to be kind of hard if you don't because we just met and we decided you're the new rabbi." So, Dr. Michael HaSofer was completely secular, anti-religious, atheist. He said, "I cannot be your rabbi." They said, "You can because you have one qualification that none of us have. You read Hebrew." So, he spoke with his wife. He said, "You know, I don't believe in this stuff, but I believe in being a good person. I believe in being a good neighbor. So, if they're asking, I think it's the neighborly thing to do. Okay, I'll go in there. I'll read some Hebrew for them." So, uh Michael became the new rabbi of the Jewish Community Center in Hobart. And but it was purely just a a goodwill gesture. He didn't believe in any of it. But, uh you guys know about the slope, right? Yeah, I could stop anytime I want. Right? I can quit when I want to quit, right? And what happens is you start playing with fire, right? A little Torah here, a mitzvah there, and he starts actually kind of liking it. And the excuse they came up with is they said, "Well, listen, we don't believe we for sure we certainly do not believe in this, but our children need an identity. And they're not growing up in Israel. We grew up in Israel. So, since they're not growing up in Israel, how are they going to have a cultural identity? Not religious, cultural. So, we're going to have to keep certain Jewish rituals which we do not believe in." You know the story about the the the the couple that they sent their son to Catholic school? Yeah. And cuz they they were totally secular. They were not affiliated. They didn't go to synagogue. In fact, they were atheists. They sent their their son to Catholic school cuz they figured, "What do we care, you know, Catholic, whatever. It's a good education, private school, why not?" And one day the boy came home from school and he starts talking about the Trinity, the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost. The father, the atheist, said, "Hey, cut that out. There's one God and we don't believe in him." Okay. So, anyways, they said, "We don't believe in this, but so that our children should have a cultural identity, we'll start to keep certain rituals in the home. So, they make kiddush Friday night and they had a Shabbat meal and they kind of lit candles purely as a cultural relic. But again, there's a saying I once heard, if you hang out long enough in a barber shop, you're going to end up getting a haircut. So, you start acting like you believe, after a while, you start to believe. And at some point, they really, really believed it. And now they had a real problem. This was Hobart, Tasmania, 50 years ago. We are spoiled. Even those of us who who remember pre-internet reality are spoiled. We don't remember how isolated isolation used to be. I I've met Jews today. I met a guy who lives in a trailer park in Nebraska, 4 hours from any Chabad, and he told me he learns Rambam every day with Josh Gordon on the Shulchan Aruch Chabad.org. Okay, like that's internet. Like Moshiach's times that we're living in. But 50 years ago, you were in Hobart, Tasmania, there was no access. There was nothing. You couldn't even get books. So, they had nothing. They had no information. They were trying to practice Judaism, and all they had was a Chumash. They had a Bible, five books of Moses. And they were trying to piece together ideas, impressions of Judaism that they might have had, but they'd avoided Judaism their whole lives. So, and here they are desperately trying to figure out how to live as Jews. So, it was one morning, and Dattel is in the kitchen. The children had just left for school. Now the children were out of the house and she had a real moment of sincerity with her husband. She told him She told Michael, "I want to do Hashem's Torah and I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. I want to serve God and I don't know what I'm supposed to do." And she became frantic. She started screaming. She was hysterical. She said, "WE NEED HELP. WE HAVE ONE BOOK. IT'S CALLED THE CHUMASH. IT'S CALLED THE FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. EVERY TIME YOU LOOK IN THE CHUMASH, if the Jews need help, Moshe comes, Moses, and he TEACHES THEM. THAT'S HOW JUDAISM WORKS ACCORDING TO EVERYTHING THAT I KNOW. AND IF THAT'S HOW JUDAISM WORKS, WHERE'S MOSHE? WHERE'S MOSES? NOW, WHERE'S MOSES? WE NEED MOSES. MOSES HAS TO COME AND TEACH US TORAH." AND SHE'S SCREAMING. AND SHE'S CRYING. AND MICHAEL DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO COMFORT HER. He has no answer. The next day, Michael goes to the Jewish community center, where after all, he's the rabbi. And as he walks up to the building, he sees a stranger who looks very unusual for Hobart. A man with a black hat, a full beard, tzitzis hanging out. Looks like a religious Jew. Michael says, "Can I help you?" And the man says, "I'm looking uh for the Jewish community center. This is it." He says, "Yes." "Who are you?" He says, "I'm Rabbi Gutnick. I am Gutnick from from Melbourne." He says, "You're a rabbi." He says, "Yeah, I'm a rabbi. I'm the rabbi in Melbourne." You understand, Tasmania is an island off the coast of Australia. How often is a rabbi in Hobart? Never. All of a sudden, Rabbi Gutnick is standing there. Michael says, "YOU COME WITH ME RIGHT NOW. DON'T GO ANYWHERE. YOU COME WITH ME." HE BRINGS HIM HOME. He says to his wife, "There's a rabbi came to town. Remember you wanted you wanted answers? HE'S A RABBI. HE'S GOING TO TEACH US." And so he did. And he answered she had so many questions. He couldn't answer all the questions she So they started corresponding. And then after a while, it just became apparent to them that they needed to leave Hobart and they moved to Melbourne, which is a very established Jewish community with many schools and many synagogues. And the Hasselhofer family became part of the Jewish community in Melbourne. And they became such a part of the Jewish community, no one really even thought of them as the family from Hobart. The kids didn't even know. I mean, the Hasselhofer's kids' friends, the other children, didn't even know that this family came from somewhere else. So it was a number of years later where one of their children, their daughter, was already a teenager. She was in high school. And she was talking with a friend of hers her age. Her friend Penina who was the daughter of Rabbi Gootnick. And she mentioned, yeah, that was whatever it was before we lived in Melbourne. Yeah, that was when we lived in Hobart. And Rabbi Gootnick's daughter says, "Oh, you you used to live in Hobart?" She says, "Yeah, before we moved to Melbourne, we lived in Hobart, Tasmania." And Rabbi Gootnick's daughter says, "I I heard about Hobart once. I heard about Hobart once. I remember it was years ago. Years ago, but we got a telegram from the Rebbe. You know, getting a telegram from the Rebbe is a big deal. So, it was a whole big ceremony to read the Rebbe's message, the Rebbe's telegram. And telegram also means some urgency because it's not, you know, it could have been a letter. This is a telegram. And uh yeah, it was I don't remember how many years, many years ago, and we got a telegram from the Rebbe. And my father read it. And it said, "You're doing a wonderful job with the Jews in Melbourne. But what about Jews in outlying areas? Even distant areas like Hobart, Tasmania." It's all it said. That's all it needed to say. Because Rabbi Gootnick was a Chossid. He understood very clearly. If the Rebbe sends you an urgent telegram, "What about the Jews in outlying areas like, for instance, perhaps, Hobart, Tasmania?" You know what you do? You go right there and then to Hobart, Tasmania. And that's what he did. The next day, he shows up in Hobart. He doesn't even know who he's looking for. So, he started asking people, "Where are the Jews?" Right? That's what Jonathan Sacks said, right? We're seeking out of Where are the Jews? I don't know any Jews. No Jewish community in Hobart. Finally, he found somebody who said, "I don't know. There's some building that's a Jewish community center." He said, "Fine, I'll go there." Rabbi Gutnick went to the Jewish community stand center. He stood out front not knowing who he's looking for or what he's supposed to do with them until Mikhail walks up and says, "You, Rabbi? Come with me. You're coming home with me. My wife has some questions for you." And that's exactly what transpired. This was the answer to a Jewish mother's tears. And to her plaintive cry and to her question, "Eifo Moshiach?" Where is Moses in our time? When a Jewish mother is crying in her kitchen in Hobart, Tasmania, and thousands of miles away, a man who many would call the world leader of jewelry somehow feels that and sends his arm, sends his emissary for that one Jew. For that one Jew. You think the reason that we're paying tribute to the Rebbe is because the Rebbe was a genius. The Rebbe was a genius. That's not it. It's not that the Rebbe knew so much. A Torah scholar, a master organizer, somebody who everyone who met the Rebbe, whatever their specialty was, they would always say the Rebbe spoke about it. He was completely at home in every subject, whether it was mathematics or medicine or military strategy, a genius. But I promise you, that's not why we're here. The reason we're here is because not because what the Rebbe knew, but because how much the Rebbe cared about people. And now I want to tell you the trick, the bait and switch. This is not about the Rebbe. The Rebbe wouldn't want it to be. This is about you. This is about you. This is about you, the world leader of jewelry. You and you and you and you. You are the tzaddik. You are the Rebbe. And there's lots of smart people in the world. They're a dime a dozen. With artificial intelligence, we don't even need smart people. We can Google anything we want. You know what? There's a You know what's a precious commodity? NOT INTELLIGENCE. COMPASSION. I WANT TO TELL YOU A a rule of life. People don't care what you know until they know that you care. Why did people thirst for the Rebbe's teachings? Not because they thought the Rebbe was so smart, but because they knew the Rebbe cared. And why are people going to listen to you? Because they're going to know that you care. Because when you look in their eyes, you see infinity. The way the Rebbe saw in us. You are the leader of world jewelry. You. You know, the Rebbe used to give out dollars. Sunday dollars. When the Rebbe was turning 90 years old, a few weeks before the Rebbe's 90th birthday, there was a Sunday dollars and there was a wealthy Jew from Toronto named Gabriel Aram originally from Hungary and he was the publisher of Lifestyles Magazine which is a an executive magazine. It's for very posh people. For CEOs and millionaires and the jet set. So Lifestyles Magazine was doing a profile on the Rebbe in honor of his 90th birthday. So Gabriel Aram, the publisher of Lifestyles Magazine, comes by for dollars. I'm sure many of you have seen the pictures or the videos. And he comes by and he tells the Rebbe, "We're writing an article about the Rebbe's upcoming 90th birthday. Does the Rebbe have a message for us?" And uh And the Rebbe says, "Yes. The number 90" The Rebbe says in English. This is in English. "The number 90 is represented in Hebrew by the letter tzadik. Every letter of the aleph-bet aleph is one, bet is two every letter represents a different number. So the Rebbe says, 'The number is represented by the number tzadik.' So it was the Rebbe's 90th birthday coming up. And Gabriel Aram asked the Rebbe a message for his 90th birthday. So the Rebbe said, 'A message for my 90th birthday? 90 is tzadik. Now, tzadik also is a word. It means a righteous person, a holy man. Tzadik is the word that the Chassidim use to describe all of the the leaders, the Chassidic leaders, the miracle workers from the Baal Shem Tov and all of his disciples and successors. Tzadik means that type of a figure. So the Rebbe's is 90 is tzaddik. And the message is that every single Jew can be the tzaddik. So, Gabriel Aaron says, "And what about non-Jews?" You know what the Rebbe said? The same message for the entire world. The non-Jews through their seven Noahide laws, every single human being can be the tzaddik. That was Sunday dollars. Khavav Adar, Tav Shin Nun Bet, spring of '92. The very next day, while standing at the Ohel, at the resting place of his father-in-law and his Rebbe, where the Rebbe would go to pray on behalf of all those people all over the world who asked for his blessings, the Rebbe was standing at the Ohel the very next day after that encounter, the Rebbe suffered a stroke and did not speak publicly again. This was the last dollars. A last will and testament of sorts. The Rebbe's message to a generation. His last lecture, if you will. The Rebbe's parting words to us is that you are the tzaddik. And that just like Moshe, Moses, sees the infinite value in every single individual, each one of you, in turn will see the infinite value in each other. And understand the secret of put the man together and the whole world falls into place. There's no small act from the perspective of infinity. And your next mitzvah can tip the scales of salvation for you and for the entire world. That was the Rebbe's entire message. Your infinite power and the infinite power of every single other individual in the world. And like a chain reaction, each one OF US REP- RECOGNIZES THE INFINITY, THE GODLINESS WITHIN EACH OTHER. AND WE CREATE A GODLY WORLD. HOW IS THIS ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE dream of world peace, of utopia, the messianic redemption that the Rebbe envisioned, HOW IS THAT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN? Very simple. It starts with you. We saw a video of the Rebbe before where the Rebbe was speaking about in the words of the prophets, Prophet Malachi, that the Jewish people are called a treasured land. There was one time a Hillel rabbi from a campus in Canada. University of uh of uh Manitoba from Winnipeg. Came with a group of college kids to the Rebbe. And one of them asked the Rebbe, he didn't know he was being disrespectful. He said, "What good is a Rebbe?" So, the Rebbe said, "I can only tell you from my perspective about my Rebbe. My Rebbe is a soul geologist. A soul geologist." "What's a soul geologist?" "So, what's a geologist?" The Rebbe proceeded to explain, "The world, the earth, possesses natural resources. And uh these natural resources are very valuable. But, they're not everywhere, and you have to know how to locate them. So, the mining company will hire a geologist to tell you where to dig and what to dig for. That's a geologist, someone who studies the earth." So, the Rebbe said, "Uh similarly, every single individual possesses treasures. But, they don't necessarily know what their treasures are or how to access them. So, you go to a Rebbe, a soul geologist, and he tells you what to dig for and how to dig and to bring out your infinite treasure." So, remember that story I told you that I didn't finish. Can you remind me to finish it? Yeah? Okay. Remember 1973, bitter cold winter. Hippy kid, long hair, leather jacket, tight jeans, got cowboy boots, runs up to the Rebbe at front steps of 770. Starts talking to the Rebbe, the Rebbe is going like this, talks more to the Rebbe, the Rebbe goes like this, talks more to the Rebbe, the Rebbe puts his finger on his heart. Remember? Okay, so I'll tell you the rest of the story. This This guy's name is Elliot Laski. And uh he is the son of Holocaust survivors. In fact, he was born in a DP camp, in a displaced persons camp, after the war. And then, when he was young, he moved to America and he was raised in Buffalo, New York. And his parents raised him with a Jewish identity, he even spoke Yiddish. But when he grew up, he kind of started to get interested in doing his own his own thing, and it was a wild time. This was when he was a teen, it was the the late '60s, the early '70s, and he got into the counterculture, and he became a kind of like a, you know, rock and roll type guy. In fact, he was a roadie on the American tour of the Rolling Stones. Yeah. Pretty cool. Also, not the most wholesome environment for a nice Jewish boy, as you could imagine. But God has his plans. While he was touring with the Stones, he met a promoter, rock and roll promoter, uh who is best known as Wavy Gravy. And Wavy Gravy was into Zen Buddhism at the time. And he was talking to Elliot about meditation and mysticism. So, Elliot thought to himself, I wonder if there's anything like that in Judaism. So, he went back to Buffalo. And he asked the shliach, the Chabad rabbi there, Rabbi Gurary, "Wavy Gravy's talking about meditation. Is there something like that in Judaism?" And to his credit, Rabbi Gurary said, "You know, I don't know. You have to ask the Lubavitcher Rebbe." And so, Elliot took it seriously. Got on a bus, shows up in New York. "Where's 770 Eastern Parkway?" And he goes to 770, right there in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. And they he starts asking people, "Where's the Rebbe? When's he coming out?" He just waits. The Rebbe comes out. And he bursts through the crowd, makes that bee line right up to the Rebbe. And his first question, actually, he asked the Rebbe in Yiddish, "Are you the Lubavitcher Rebbe?" The Rebbe said, "Yeah." And then he said, "Can uh fragen a paar frages? Could I ask a few questions?" In Yiddish, he said. The Rebbe said, "Yeah." So, then he said, "Okay, now I get to ask my big questions, my big philosophical quandaries, my theological dilemmas." So, they actually he asked the Rebbe, "Can I speak in English cuz I'm more comfortable expressing myself about deep subjects in in English." The Rebbe told him, "Of course." So, um No, actually, he switched to English later. At this point, he was still speaking Yiddish. Because he asked this question in Yiddish. He said, um, very simple Yiddish, a very simple question. I mean, very deep question, but simple sentence structure. Who is God? Where is God? So the other said, Umatum. Everywhere. So Elliot says, Ich veis. I know. Aber avu? But where? So the other says, Umatum. In alts. In a shteyn, in a boym. Everywhere, in everything. In a stone, in a tree. Elliot says, Ich veis. Aber avu? And he's emotional. If I can take the liberty to translate, I'm not asking a philosophical question. I'm not asking someone who's smart. I'm asking someone who cares. I'm not asking for the theologically wise answer. I'm asking from the depths of my heart with urgency. Where is God? And the Rebbe puts his hand on Elliot's chest. He points at his heart and says, "Dah in dein hartz oib dos is vi du fregst." Here in your heart if that is the manner in which you're asking. At that point, Elliot switched to English. They exchanged a few more words. The rebbe told Elliot to put on tefillin every day and to study Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, the concise code of Jewish law, basic halakha, practical Jewish law. That was the end of the conversation. Elliot disappeared into the crowd and nobody knew what they had discussed. And Elliot said, "I did not start putting on tefillin that day or the next day. But a few months later I started putting on tefillin. I started studying Jewish law and I haven't stopped since. That was 50 years ago." The rebbe showed us God. The rebbe showed us infinity. The rebbe showed us the answers to all of the world's problems. And you know where that answer is? Dah, in dein hartz. In your heart. Because you are the world. You are infinity. And your next small act will tip the scales for salvation for you and for the entire world.