The Rebbe’s Secret Mission to Reach Bobby Fischer

re was looking for Bobby fiser he tried to get to him the Reb tried to get the Bobby fer you ever heard of RFI Samy rski he was one of the great grand masters of Chess he was one of the few Americans who was competitive at that level on the world class level in the 20th century and he competed against Fischer RFI was also a Jew he was born in Poland from a family of gidm but as a child he moved to America and he actually grew up in Crown Heights Brooklyn in fact in the 1940s he had Yus with the sixth of kabad and after the freedb is passing he continued to have a relationship with the seventh Reb and rashevsky was famous for being shamer shabas he kept chabas yeah he would not compete on chabas and that was like a well-known thing so in 1982 he turned 70 and he wanted to retire you know in general that deba was against retirement that deba never retired spoke about it's not good to retire so rvi was 70 already in 1982 and uh he wanted to retire that debba told him don't retire you should continue to compete because when you compete it's a kesem it's a sanctification of God's name why because he didn't compete on chavas and it was a known thing in fact I'll tell you a story in a second where he competed with Bobby fiser and his chabas observance actually factored into the story I want to go back in time a little bit to the 60s there was an incident that took place at the Beverly Hills Hilton called the match of the century yeah 1961 between Bobby fiser and Sammy ravski both American Jews and um it was Friday afternoon and it was still tied and they had to stop because of shabas so they told Bobby fiser we're going to continue on Sunday morning Bobby fiser was not a morning person uh they say he had the Circadian rhythm of a bartender so he slept in and he missed the Sunday match and then they scheduled another match he slept in for that too and he forfeited and then he sued the World Chess league but at any that's not even the main point of the story I told you so rashki was going to retire in 1982 at the age of 70 that debba told him continue to compete because you make a kesem when you compete cuz you keep shabas so what happened is in 1984 at the age of 72 rashevsky went to the rovic open in Iceland and he tied for first place and afterwards he got a letter from the Reb congratulating him on winning in PS of the letter and I'm going to read to you the PS of the letter the following lines may appear strange but I consider it my duty not to miss the opportunity to bring it to your attention this is 1982 the Deb is told uh or or 1984 I'm sorry 1984 rvi is 72 years old that ABBA has told him not to retire and now he just TI tied for first place at the rovic open the EBA writes words of congratulations and then a PS and says you may find this strange but I'll I'll feel remiss in my Duty not to mention this you are surely familiar with the life story of Bobby fiser of whom nothing has been heard in quite some time this is the early 80s Bobby fer dropped off the map in the 70s became a recluse became a Hermit his his his strained relationship with his Jewish identity was one of many issues he became very combative and very uh I mean he he was he was thank God in those days the papara were not as uh in full force as they are today because he was a he was a he was a spectacle he was somebody who had been a great hero of of American culture I I told you during the Cold War he was the only American who was really competitive against the Soviets and he had this tragic fall so the deba says nothing's been heard where where's Bobby fiser unfortunately he did not appear to have the proper Jewish Education which is probably the reason for his being so alienated from the Jewish way of life life or the Jewish people so the de here is giving a probable narrative and he's stating it mildly that Bobby fiser is estranged from the Jewish people but theba saying what do you want from him he didn't get an education he grew up went going to a public school in Brooklyn and he he didn't get the right education however being a Jew he should be helped by whomever possible so L is sitting in Brooklyn running his entire organization and he has an entire Community he hasm schools and and and and and congregations and and community centers and any regular leader like that in that position would say you know what Bobby fiser he already chose his lot Bobby fiser has renounced the Jewish people he's not our problem anymore it's not our problem is writing to Samy RFI and saying listen 72 years old and he's giving him work that's very difficult saying I want you to go find out where's Bobby fiser because he just he received a poor education that's all it that's all it is and he's Jewish and he's because he's Jewish we got to help him I'm writing to you about this since you are probably better informed about him than many other persons and perhaps you may find some way in which he could be brought back to the Jewish fold either through your personal efforts or in some other way and RFI actually took theas very seriously and he went to LA where Fisher lived I think he lived in Pasadena and they met and they spoke for three hours now you're going to say so then Bobby Fisher stopped renouncing his Judaism and then he put on fill then he became shabas observant and he proud observant Jew no no he didn't it's not Hollywood this is real life the story happened in LA but it's not it's not Hollywood it's real life and in real life sometimes we don't see the end of the story you know I had a dear dear friend who was one of the most intelligent people I've ever known in my life and he was a Buddhist priest and we used to study Tanya together because he was Jewish and when a Jew becomes a Buddhist he can't be a regular Buddhist be the Buddhist priest right but we used to study Tanya together and he was such a genius we I really enjoyed studying with him whenever I talk about him and then people say well where is he now I say well he passed away and they say well did did he become religious before he passed away and I say no this isn't Hollywood he he was cremated and his ashes were scattered in Tibet okay because that's what happens in this gullis that's what happens in this in this crazy Exile that's what happens but that doesn't make truth any less true the truth that remains true and eventually will be revealed to all as true is that even my friend who was cremated thinking that he was a Buddhist and even Bobby fiser who renounced his Jewish identity and any other example you want to come and you want to bring to me and say even him and even him and even her yes yes and it's sad and it's tragic when somebody is so divorced from their own Essence could there be a greater dysfunction than someone who is divorced from them from their own self but what do you think Redemption means means a lot of things it means World Peace it means an end to hunger it means an end to disease it means a lot of things but one of the things it also means and all these things are are connected is that the essence will no longer be able to be hidden or or disted and and the the true identity of every single Jewish person is going to be brought to the four even if Hashem himself has to go on a case-by Case basis and take by the hand and and bring with him and coax every individual Jew and say it's okay you can come home now you can come back to yourself now so bottom line here's what we have to know first of all if you think that you're the Jew who's the wicked son and that there's no coming back and that you already wrote yourself off and you're even worse than Bobby fer I highly doubt anyone sitting here tonight feels that way I mean maybe if I see someone brand new I never recognize I would say oh maybe they just wandered in but uh I highly doubt anyone sitting here feels that way about themselves maybe someone watching online right now accidentally the algorithm did something weird and sent you to a rabbi and somehow you got almost an hour into a talk from a rabbi maybe you you like chess and you saw it was about Bobby fiser and you just started watching and you got to this point so what I want to tell you is come back to yourself come back to the truth own who you are you cannot undo who you are okay that's one but here's here's the I think the more important lesson and this is the call of the hour and this is the work we have that we have to do until mhia comes and that is when you meet one of your brothers and sisters who claim to not be a brother or a sister you can tell them that's fine because you know what back in Egypt it was a clannish type of thing it was brothers and sisters and you could denounce the family and you could say I don't want to be part of this family and it would work back in Egypt if you would say I am giving up my my uh membership to this family and it would work and in fact four fifths of our people made that choice and and and and they're gone but once God brought you to SI and I say you as an individual he brought your soul to SI and he gathered you with all the Jewish Souls around that that mountain and and he revealed himself to us in his holy Torah and his will and his plan for the world that's it your essence was changed and there's no going back there's no way there's no way to set back the clock and go back to to the way things were back in Egypt so we we have to have this message ready we have to be clear about it we can't get confused about it I'm getting very very concerned about the fact that in the Orthodox Community I'm seeing confusion about this where people feel greater fellowship and affinity for people who share their ideological views then they feel an affinity and an essential connection to those who are fellow members of the Jewish people okay I know it's my friend AI Spiel from Tas was in town last week I he came to Soul word Studios and we sat down and we spoke and he was talking about the fact that you know uh nowadays we uh we were reminiscing when we were B when we we were Shiva boys it was understood that most Jews you speak to are going to have a standoffish attitude and they're going to ridicule religion and they're going to they're going to they're going to be at odds with you ideologically but that was all part of the fun we loved that and we were kind of lamenting the fact that in today's day and age in 2023 seems like a lot of our colleagues have become comfortable with just associating In Pockets of ideologically similarly thinking people where it just became sort of like you know you hang out with your the people who you can discuss politics with without arguing and it's like that's that's you're missing the point you're missing the point like a Jew is a Jew as a Jew as a Jew and and if there's a Jew who disagrees with everything that you believe is Jewish and let's say you're right not only you believe it's Jewish you're right you know what's Jewish and you met a Jew who who's antagonistic to every single idea that's a Jewish idea okay fine so don't talk about anything with them so give them chicken soup so say so so sing a song so so so dance a dance so give them a hug but it doesn't change the fact that the essence is the essence and so very very very soon mhia comes every single Jew even Bobby Fisher he'll come back and he'll be at peace and he'll be able to embrace who he is and everyone else every other Jew who was confused about who they are they're going to have Clarity and the whole world's going to have Clarity and it should be really really really it's it's been long enough it should be already now should be tonight hey this is shase tab you were just watching a clip from this class if you want to get the full context the full class that this clip that you just watched was from you watch right here click right here here