PUSH

A man was sleeping one night in his cabin, when suddenly his room filled with light. G-d appeared and told the man, that He had work for him to do. G-d showed him a large rock in front of his cabin, and explained, that the man was to push against the rock, with all his might...

So, this the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sundown; his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might!

Each night, the man returned to his cabin, sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.
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Since the man was showing discouragement, the Adversary (Satan) decided to enter the picture, by placing thoughts into the weary mind:
"You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn't moved."

He gave the man the impression, that the task was impossible, and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened, the man. The Yetzer Hora said, "Why kill yourself over this? Just put in your time, giving just the minimum effort, and that will be good enough."
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That's what the weary man planned to do; but decided to make it a matter of prayer, and to take his troubled thoughts to the One Above."G-d, I have labored long and hard in Your Service, putting all my strength, to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter.

What is wrong, why am I failing?"G-d responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve Me and you accepted, I told you, that your task was, to push against the rock with all of your strength, which you have done.

Never once did I mention to you, that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed.

But, is that really so? Look at yourself, your arms are strong and muscled, your back brown; your hands are callused from constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard.

Through opposition, you have grown much; and your abilities now surpass that, which you used to have.

True, you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient, and to push and to exercise your faith and trust, in My wisdom. That you have done. Now I, will move the rock."
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At times, when we hear a word from G-d, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He wants; when actually what He wants is just simple obedience and faith in Him.

Although, no one can go back, and make and change the past; anyone can start from now on, and make a brand new beginning."

The Silent Majority

The hard, quantifiable fact is, that the peaceful majority, the 'silent majority,' is cowed and extraneous.

Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died,

because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts--the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.

And who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points.

“Rather Cut Off My Hand, but Don't Touch My Beard"

I merited hearing the following story from the grandson of the Kapischnitzer Rebbe zt’l (R’ Avrohom Yehoshua Heschel, 1888-1967), who heard it directly from his grandfather.

[It was recently published in “Heroes of Spirit – 100 Rabbinic Tales of the Holocaust” by Rabbi Dovid Hoffman (Israel Bookshop, 2009), pg. 320].
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The Kapischnitzer Rebbe zt’l was one of the most widely respected and beloved Torah leaders of our times*. With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the Rebbe fled with his family to Vienna.

When Jewish life was shattered by the German occupation of Vienna, the Rebbe was seized, and forced to clean the streets, to the amusement of the jeering Germans.

On one occasion, in an attempt to humiliate the Rebbe, the Germans sent one of their offices with a scissors, to cut off his beard. The Rebbe promptly stuck out his hand and told the officer, “Rather cut off my hand, but don’t touch my beard.” The German, startled by the Rebbe’s courage, miraculously left without carrying out his evil orders.

[ The Kapischnitzer Rebbe won the respect and the esteem of all the gedolim of his era. He was a member of Moetzes Gedolei Torah of Agudas Yisroel, and founding member of Chinuch Atzmai.

The Ponovezer Rov, R’ Yosef Kahanaman zt’l, would often say, that from the day the Chofetz Chaim was niftar, he hadn't had a Rebbe, until he met the Kapischnitzer Rebbe.]
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Throughout Jewish history, Jews were moser nefesh not to cut their beards. An entire chapter in sefer Hadras Ponim Zokon (Part II, Chapter 14), features documented, amazing incidents regarding Jews of all backgrounds, who risked their lives and livelihoods, rather than cut their beards -- including under Nazi persecution during World War II, and under Communist persecution in Russia.

“Jews considered the beard, as ‘an organ, on which the soul depends’....

The possibility of living without a hand or a foot, was more acceptable, [even to a simple Jew], than the possibility of living without a beard. (Imrei Simchah, Vol. I, p. 310).
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For a comprehensive treatment, regarding the cutting and growth of the beard, in Jewish law, please see sefer Hadras Ponim - Zokon

[A third, greatly expanded edition (1,024 pages), is now available at Seforim stores].

The sefer may also be purchased on-line at:
http://store.kehotonline.com/index.php?stocknumber=HL-HADR&deptid=&parentid=&page=1&itemsperpage=10

or (for the deluxe edition) at:

http://store.kehotonline.com/index.php?stocknumber=HL-HADR.D&deptid=&parentid=&page=1&itemsperpage=10

Rabbi Moshe Wienerm.wiener@jccgci.org

Colonel Kemp and anti-Israel rhetoric

During the one-sided debate, at the United Nations Human Rights Council, regarding the Goldstone Report in Geneva, Switzerland; the anti-Israel rhetoric and condemnations of the Jewish State, were momentarily halted, during a heartfelt and honest assessment of the situation, by Colonel Richard Kemp.

Colonel Kemp, (a well-respected military personality, who is the former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan); immediately captured the attention of the people in attendance, by unequivocally stating at the outset of his remarks that:
“during Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone, that any other army in the history of warfare.”

According to Colonel Kemp, “the civilian casualties were a consequence, of Hamas’ way of fighting.”
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To view a video of Colonel Richard Kemp’s speech, to the United Nations Human Rights Council; or to read a transcript of his remarks, click here:

http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=bdKKISNqEmG&b=1313923&ct=7536409

Israel look up / Rabbi Adin Even-Yisrael (Steinsaltz)

10-18-09

"Israel is in a difficult position. We try to move to the right, and the way is blocked. We try to move to the left, and the way is blocked. We try to go forward, but we cannot. We are surrounded and blocked on every side.

There is one direction, however, that is not closed: upward!

That route is still open, and it is the way we should try to move. We should do this, not as a statement or a slogan; but to propel us, toward a different way of life."

A G-dly Beginning/ Rabbi A. Moss

Question:
Recently my son and I, were talking about the origins of humankind.

He said, that he was offended by the belief, that man had descended from the ape family; and was adamant, that we all came from Adam and Eve.

I, on the other hand believe, Darwin's theory to be a more reasonable explanation of our evolution.

As this discussion can go round in circles, are you able to shed some light, on this age old topic?
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Answer:

An elderly Rabbi was once on an airplane to Israel, sitting next to a self-professed atheist. They were amicably chatting, the whole trip.

Every now and then, the Rabbi's grandchild, sitting in another row, would come over to him, bringing him a drink; or asking if he could get anything to make him more comfortable.

After this happened several times, the atheist sighed, "I wish my grandchildren would treat me with such respect. They hardly even say hello to me. What's your secret?"

The Rabbi replied, "Think about it. To my grandchildren, I am two generations closer to Adam and Eve, the people made by the hand of G-d. So they look up to me.

But according to the philosophy which you teach your grandchildren, you are two generations closer to being an ape. So why should they look up to you?"
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Beliefs have consequences. Why do you think children today lack respect and are unable to honor their elders? Why is tradition looked down upon, and the values of the past all but forgotten? Is it not a natural consequence of modern education?

If we teach our children, that they are merely advanced animals, then they will act that way. And they will treat their parents and teachers, like the obsolete versions of humanity, that they are.

We have to be aware, of the affects of our beliefs. If we believe that humans came about by accident, then life has no meaning. There can be no meaning to something, that happens by chance.

A random explosion or mutation, cannot give us purpose. My life, your life, and all human history, has no real significance whatsoever. Whether I live a good life, or one full of evil, makes no difference. It is all a big accident anyway.

We only have purpose, if we were created on purpose. Our lives only have meaning, if we were created by a meaningful being. If we teach our children, that they were created on purpose, with a purpose; then they will know, that more is expected from them, than from an animal.

The Adam and Eve story needs to be taught; not just because it is true, but because it is the basis of morality.
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Both creationism and Darwinism have ramifications . To accept that G-d created man and woman, has ramifications.

To accept that a single-celled organism spontaneously mutated billions, of times to form the human being, also has ramifications. But only one of these beliefs demands, that we live a moral life. That's the one I want my kids, to know about.

Victor Frankl- World-famous Psychiatrist and The Lubavitcher Rebbe

This is a story about a Jewish girl, (who became an opera singer, performing in front of Adolf Hitler); The Lubavitcher Rebbe; and Victor Frankl, a world-famous psychiatrist; – and how their three lives converged.
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It was a strange phenomenon. The famed professor Victor Frankl, author of the perennial best-seller Man's Search for Meaning, and founder of Logotherapy, would send a check each year to Chabad of Vienna, before the High Holidays.

Nobody in the Chabad center or in the Jewish community, understand why. Here was a man, who was not affiliated in any fashion with the Jewish community of Vienna. He did not even attend synagogue on Yom Kippur. He was married to a very religious Catholic woman. He is not even buried in the Jewish cemetery in Vienna . Yet, he would not miss a single year, of sending a contribution to Chabad before Yom Kippur.
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The enigma was answered only in 1992.

Margareta Chajes walked into the office of my colleague, Rabbi Jacob Biederman, the ambassador of Chabad to Austria. Rabbi Biederman built the magnificent “Lauder Campus” in Vienna; creating a Jewish renaissance in Austria, (the country which gave birth, to the greatest monster in Jewish and human history, Adolf Hitler (yemach shemo)).

Margareta, an 85 year old woman, was dressed very classy, and looked youthful and energetic. She told Rabbi Biederman: “I know you think you are the first Shliach, (emissary, of the Lubavitcher Rebbe) to Vienna; but that is not the case. I have served as the first ambassador of the Lubavitcher Rebbe to the city, many years before you.”

In the 1930’s Margareta was a young Jewish opera singer in Vienna. She even performed at the Saltzburg Opera Festival, in 1939, in the presence of Hitler himself. She escaped to the US, but lost her family in the Holocaust. Years later, she paid a visit to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who she said, became like a father figure to her.
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From the Chassidim to the Opera

She began to relate her story. Margareta’s maiden family name was Hager; she was an heir to the famed Chassidic Hager family; producing the Rebbe’s and leaders; of the Vishnitz Chassidic group.

As a young girl, she left home. The lifestyle and belief system of her parents, did not inspire her. She traveled to the cultural center of the world, Vienna; where Margareta Hager, a granddaughter of the Vishnitzer Chassidic Rebbes, became an opera singer.

Margareta performed during the 1930’s in the Salzburger Festspiele (pronounced: Fest Shpile) -- The Salzburg Festival. A prominent festival of music and drama, held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
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On 12 March 1938, German troops marched into Salzburg. The Anschluss (the annexation of Austria by Germany) was now complete. Nazi ideology immediately began to affect the Salzburg Festival. All Jewish artists were banned; the leading Jewish conductors and composers, were “deleted.” Yet Margareta Chajes, was still performing.

For the Festspiele in August 1939, Hitler himself made an appearance at two Mozart operas. He did not know, that one of the young women singing so majestically, was a young Jewess, a scion of a Chassidic family, Margareta Chajes.

Shortly thereafter, the general management made a surprise announcement, that the Festival would terminate on August 31, a week ahead of the scheduled finale, on 8 September. The reason was, supposedly, that the Vienna Philharmonic was required, to perform at the Nuremberg Party Convention.

But the Germans were cruel liars.
The true reason became apparent on September 1, when the German army invaded Poland, and unleashed the Second World War (exactly 70 years ago) which exterminated a third of our people, including much of Margareta’s family.
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On the very night after her performance at the Salzburg Festspiele, close friends smuggled her out of Germany to Italy. From there, she managed to embark on the last boat to the US; before the war broke out, just a few days later.

Margareta settled in Detroit, where she married a fine Jewish young man, with the family name Chajes (a grandson, of one of the most famous 19th century Polish Rabbis and Talmudic commentator, the Maharatz Chayos). And they gave birth to a beautiful daughter.
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Fast forward the tape recorder of history. It is now many years after the war. Jews were rebuilding their lives and their careers. The Rabbis were rebuilding their communities. But one Rabbi was thinking of, not just of his own community.

The daughter of Margareta, married a prominent Jewish doctor; who was honored by the dinner of a Chabad institution in the US. And his mother-in-law, Margareta, acquired an audience with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Related Margareta to Rabbi Biederman: “I walked into the Rebbe’s room. I cannot explain why, but suddenly, for the first time since the Holocaust, I felt that I could cry.

I, like so many other survivors who have lost entire families, never cried before. We knew, that if we would start crying, we might never stop; or that, in order to survive, we can’t express our emotions.

But at that moment, it was a though the dam obstructing my inner waterfall of tears, was removed. I began sobbing like a baby. I shared with the Rebbe my entire story: Innocent childhood; leaving home; becoming a star in Vienna; performing in front of Hitler; escaping to the US; learning of the death of my closest kin...

The Rebbe listened, but not only with his ears. He listened with his: eyes, his heart, his soul, and he took it all in. I shared everything, and he absorbed everything. That night, I felt like I was given a second father. I felt that the Rebbe adopted me as his daughter.”
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“At the end of my meeting with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, I expressed my strong desire to go back and visit Vienna. The Rebbe requested from me, that before I make the trip, I visit him again.”

“A short while later, en route to Vienna, I visited the Rebbe. He asked me for a favor: to visit two people during my stay in the city.

The first was Viennese Chief Rabbi Akiva Eisenberg, and give him regards from the Rebbe (the Rebbe said, that his secretariat would give me, the details and literature, to give to Rabbi Eisenberg.)

The second person he wanted me to visit, I would have to look up myself. The Rebbe said, that he was a professor at the University of Vienna, and his name was Dr. Victor Frankl.”

The Lubavitcher Rebbe said to me: “Send Dr. Frankl my regards, and tell him in my name, that he should not give up. He must remain strong, and continue his work with vigor and passion. If he continues to remain strong, he will prevail.”

The Rebbe spoke for a long time (using the German dialect, so Margareta would understand), about the messages he wished to convey to Dr. Frankl.
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Close to forty years later, she did not recall all of the details, but the primary point was, that Frankl should never give up, and he should keep on working to achieve his goals, with unflinching courage and determination.

I didn’t understand a word the Rebbe said. Who was Dr. Frankl? Why was the Rebbe sending him this message? Why through me? I did not have an answer to any of these questions, but I obeyed.
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Margareta traveled to Vienna. Her visit with Rabbi Eisenberg was simple, but meeting Victor Frankl, proved far more difficult. When she arrived at the University, they informed her, that the professor has not shown up in two weeks.

There was thus no way that she can meet him. After a few failed attempts to locate him at the University, Margareta gave up.

Yet feeling guilty not to fulfill the Rebbe’s request, she decided to violate Austrian mannerisms. She looked up the professor’s private home address, traveled there.
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She found the address, and knocked at the door.
A woman opened the door. “May I see Herr Frankl please?”
“Yes, please wait."

“I saw a room filled with crosses. It was obvious, that this was a Christian home. I thought to myself, that this must be a mistake; this can’t be the person whom the Lubavitcher Rebbe, wanted me to encourage."

But in 1947, Frankl married his second wife -- a very devout Catholic, Eleonore Katharina Schwindt.
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Victor Frankl showed up a few moments later. After ascertaining, that he was the professor at the University, she said that she had regards for him.

“He was extremely impatient, and frankly looked quite uninterested. It felt very awkward.”

“I have regards from Rabbi Schneerson in Brooklyn , New York ,” Margareta told him.

“Rabbi Schneerson asked me to tell you in his name, that you must not give up. You ought to remain strong, and continue your work, with unflinching determination, and you will prevail".

Rabbi Schneerson said: “Do not fall into despair. March on with confidence; and I promise, that you will achieve great success.”
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Suddenly, the uninterested professor broke down, and began sobbing like a baby. He could not calm down.

I did had no idea what was going on, I just saw him weeping uncontrollably.

Dr. Frankl finally said to me: “Wow, this Rabbi from Brooklyn, knew exactly when to send you here.” He could not thank me enough.
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Margareta then completed her tale: “You see Rabbi Biederman,I have been an emissary of the Rebbe to Vienna, many years before you came around.”

Rabbi Biederman was intrigued. Victor Frankl was now 87 years of age, and was an international celebrity. He had written 32 books, which were translated into 30 languages.

His book “Man's Search for Meaning,” has been deemed by the Library of Congress, as being one of the ten most influential books of the 20th century.

What was the secret behind the Rebbe’s message to Victor Frankl?
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Rabbi Biederman recalls: “I called him immediately.”
I asked Dr. Frankl: “Do you remember Margarete Chajes?”

“No,” the professor responded. But, he can be forgiven, because more than 40 years had gone by.

“Do you remember a regards she gave you, from Rabbi Schneerson in Brooklyn?”

Suddenly, a change in his voice. Dr. Frankl melted like butter in a frying pan.

“Of course I remember. I will never forget it. My gratitude to Rabbi Schneerson is eternal.”
Victor Frankl then began to unveil the “rest of the story.”

This story captures one of the greatest debates of the last 100 years, encapsulates the essence of Jewishness, and reveals to us the secret of Kol Nidrei.
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In the Camps

Victor Frankl was born in 1905, (three years after the Lubavitcher Rebbe) in Vienna. The young Frankl, studied neurology and psychiatry. In 1923 he became one of the inner circle, of one of the most famous Jews of the time, Dr. Sigmund Freud, the "Father of Psychoanalysis," who lived and practiced in Vienna.

The “Final Solution” did not skip over the Frankl family (7). Victor’s mother and father were murdered in Auschwitz; his first Jewish wife, pregnant, was murdered in Bergen Belsen. All of his siblings and relatives, were exterminated.

Professor Frankl was a lone survivor (he had one sister, who emigrated to Australia before the war.) He returned to Vienna, where he taught neurology and psychiatry, at the University of Vienna.
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Already before the war, and even more so, during his three years in the Nazi death camps; Victor Frankl developed ideas, which differed radically from Freud.

Yet the entire faculty of his department at the University, consisted of staunch Freudian scholars. Academically, they hunted down Victor Frankl, calling his ideas: “pseudo-science,” and the joke of the century.

This was no small debate. These two Jews, were debating the very meaning of human identity; and Victor Frankl had been advocating a view, extremely alien to the then-dominant Freudian outlook. In a word: A human being has a SOUL; what we Jews call, a Neshamah.

Freud, like most medical schools, emphasized the idea, that all things come down to physiology. The human mind and heart, could be best understood as a "side effect" of brain mechanisms.

Humans are like machines, responding to stimuli from within or from without; a completely physical, predictable and godless machine; albeit a very complicated machine. Creating psychotics, neurotics, and of course psychiatrists.
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Victor Frankl disagreed. He felt, that Freud and his associates reduced the human being, to a mere mechanical creature, depriving him or her of his true essence.

“If Freud were in the concentration camps,” Frankl wrote, "he would have changed his position." Beyond the basic natural drives and instincts of people, he would have encountered the human "capacity for self-transcendence."

"Man is that being, who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being, who entered those chambers upright, with the Shema Yisrael on his lips.”

"We who lived in concentration camps, can remember the men, who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread.

They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof, that everything can be taken from a man, but one thing: The last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

Of course, there are many things about our life we have no control over. But there is a dimension of the human self – the essence of human identity -- which nothing and nobody can control. It is transcendent by its very “nature” – free, uninhibited, wholesome and deeply spiritual.

Never defined by life’s circumstances and limitations, but rather free to define them, to define their meaning and message.

He taught: A person was not a son of his past, but the father of his future.
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But in the University in the 40’s and 50’s, they defined Frankl’s ideas, as fanatic religiosity. Raising up all the old, unscientific notions, of conscience, religion and guilt. It was unpopular, for students to attend his courses.

Frankl told Rabbi Biederman: “The situation was horrible. Rabiner Biederman! I could survive the German death camps, but I could not survive the horrific derision of my colleagues at the university, who would not stop taunting me, and undermining my every iota of progress.”

“The pressure against me was so severe, that I decided to give up. It was simply too much to bear emotionally. I was drained, exhausted, depressed. I fell into a melancholy. I was watching all of my life-work fade away, right before my eyes.

Then one day, sitting at home, I began drafting my resignation papers for my University job. In the battle, between Freud and Frankl – Freud would be triumphant. Soul-less-ness, would prove more powerful, than soul-full-ness.
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And then suddenly, as I am sitting in my home, depressed, defected, feeling down; in walks a beautiful woman. She gives me regards from a Chassidic master, Rabbi Schneerson from Brooklyn, New York.

His message: “Don’t dare give up! Don’t dare to despair! If you will continue your work, with absolute determination, you will prevail!”
I could not believe my ears.

Somebody in Brooklyn, no less a Chassidic Rebbe, knew about my predicament? And what is more – he cared about my predicament? And what is more – he sent someone to locate me in Vienna, to shower me with courage and inspiration?

"I began to sob. I cried uncontrollably. I was so moved. I felt like a transformed man. That is exactly what I needed to hear. Someone believed in me, in my work, in my contributions; in my ideas about the infinite transcendence, and potential, of the human person; and in my ability to prevail.

“That very moment, I knew that I would not surrender. I tore up my resignation papers. New vitality was blown into me, I was confident, secure, and motivated.”
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“Indeed, a few months later, I was given a chair at the University!"

And a short while later, Frankl’s magnum opus “Man's Search for Meaning,” was translated into English.

It became not only an ongoing bestseller to this very day; but has been deemed as one of the 10 most influential books, of the 20th century.
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Then professor Frankl’s career began to soar. The once-scoffed-at professor, became one of the most celebrated psychiatrists of a generation. “Man’s Search for Meaning,” has been translated into 28 languages, and has sold over 10 million copies, during his life time.

Frankl became a guest lecturer, at 209 universities, on all five continents; he held 29 honorary doctorates, from universities around the world; and received 19 national and international awards and medals, for his work in psychotherapy.

His brand of therapy, inspired thousands of other books, seminars, workshops, new-age and spiritual groups; which have all been based on Frankl’s ideas, of the unique ability of the human, to choose its path discover meaning, in every experience.

From Scot Peck’s “Road Less Traveled,” to Steven Covey’s Seven Habits; and hundreds of other bestsellers, during the last 30 years; all of them were students of Victor Frankl’s.
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Victor Frankl concluded his story to Rabbi Beiderman in these words:
"איך וועל אים אייביק דאנקבאר זיין"
“I will forever be grateful to him,” to the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
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Not knowing, who he was talking too, Frankl added:
A number of years ago, Chabad established itself here in Vienna. I became a supporter. You too should support it, they are the best.

Finally, Rabbi Biederman understood why he was getting a check in the mail, before each Yom Kippur.
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The story is not over

In 2003, Dr. Shimon Cown, (a Lubavitch Australian expert, on Frankl), went to visit his non-Jewish widow, Elenor, in Vienna..

She took out a pair of Tefillin and showed it to him. She said to him: “My late husband would put these on, each and every day.”

Then she took out a pair of Tzitzis, he made for himself to wear.

At night in bed, Victor would recite the book of Tehilim (Psalms).

On Yom Kippur nobody saw him in Shul, but he did not miss a day of Tefillin!

When they asked in interviews, whether he believed in G-d, he would usually not give a direct answer.
But he would not miss a day of Tefillin!
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In 1973, an Israeli soldier lay in the hospital, depressed and dejected, saying that he feels like committing suicide.

You see, he lost both his legs during the Yom Kippur war. He felt, that without legs, his future was hopeless.

One day, his doctor walked into the room. The soldier was sitting upright, and looked relaxed and happy. The doctor looked at him, and saw that his eyes regained that passionate gaze.
What happened? The doctor asked.

The soldier pointed to his night table. He has just finished reading “Man's Search for Meaning,” and the stories, about how certain Jews behaved in the death camps.

He learnt of the capacity of the human being, to choose to turn adversity into triumph, by discovering the meaning in his life’s experiences. “This transformed me,” the soldier said.
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This was the potential, the Rebbe saw, when he sent Margareta on a mission. to Vienna.

Imagine: One single message from a man in Brooklyn who cared, transformed tens of millions of lives!

And what was the message: Don’t despair, you will prevail.
Because the Lubavitcher Rebbe was determined to get out to the world this message: we really do have a soul; the soul is the deepest and most real part of us; and that we will never be fully alive, if we don’t access our souls.
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What is a soul?

A soul is our inner identity, our raison d’être. The soul of music, is the composer’s vision, that energizes and gives life, to the notes played in a musical composition. The actual notes are like the body, expressing the vision and feeling of the soul within them.

Each soul, is the expression of G-d’s intention and vision, in creating that particular being. The soul, is the very fabric of our being—as conceived by G-d’s vision, in wanting us to exist.

Each of us is a unique musical note, in a grand cosmic composition. It is incumbent upon us, to discover our soul—our higher calling,—and play its unique music...