[vc_row][vc_column][vc_tta_accordion active_section=”-1″][vc_tta_section title=”When There’s a Will There’s a Way” tab_id=”1624966232619-d34fa254-bfdc”][vc_column_text]”What is it, Shlomo, you need $200,000?” asked the Lubavitcher Rebbe King Moshiach Shlita to Rabbi Shlomo Cunin.
Rabbi Cunin was one of the most prominent of the Rebbe King Moshiach Shlita’s emissaries. Over 40 years ago, the King Moshiach Shlita sent him to California, where he built an empire of dozens of Chabad centers across the state, drawing in thousands of Jews with an array of exciting educational programs.
This story took place in 1973. Rabbi Cunin was then in financially dire straits. In that year, Moshiach had celebrated his 70th birthday. To mark this milestone, Rabbi Cunin decided to open 12 new Chabad centers, some in areas remote from Jewish life. One, for example, was in Long Beach, which at the time did not have even a single Shabbos-observant family. Today over 500 families pray in the central Chabad synagogue in Long Beach.
Rabbi Cunin was so enthusiastic about expanding the Chabad centers that he allowed himself to go into heavy debt. Thus, he found himself with a deficit of over $200,000.
Rabbi Cunin sent Moshiach a letter detailing his woes and requested a blessing that he should find enough donors to cover his expenses.
Moshiach opened a desk drawer and withdrew a stack of $100 bills. “Here are 10 one-hundred dollar bills. Sell each one for $20,000, and you’ll have your $200,000.”
The problem was solved. Rabbi Cunin promised all the buyers that these bills were the key to great blessings, and within a few days all the dollars were sold, for $20,000 each! Moshiach, naturally, “covered” all the blessings that Rabbi Cunin had promised in exchange for the money, and all the blessings were fulfilled.
A year went by, during which Rabbi Cunin expanded his activities even more… and once again fell into deep debt. This time his deficit was greater–$250,000. But Rabbi Cunin did not despair. I will go to Moshiach again, he thought to himself, and surely Moshiach will give me more dollars to sell…
A day before his trip to Moshiach, Rabbi Cunin received a call in his office regarding a Jew named Sammy, who had passed away that day. “Sammy asked that the rabbis take care of his burial,” the caller said. Rabbi Cunin knew Sammy. To the best of his knowledge, Sammy had never married and had no children. Without a will or any legal document, there was little hope that Rabbi Cunin would get the necessary permits to arrange his funeral or burial in a Jewish cemetery.
Rabbi Cunin called his colleague, Rabbi Avraham Levitansky of blessed memory. “Avremel, did Sammy speak with you about what his final wishes were?”
“Yes,” answered Rabbi Levitansky. “A while ago, he asked me to arrange a Jewish funeral for him when the time would come, and wrote up a will for this purpose.”
Quickly Rabbi Cunin organized a funeral for Sammy in accordance with his final wishes and then boarded the plane to New York.
In Moshiach’s room, Moshiach repeated the question he had asked a year earlier. “Shlomo, you need money again?”
This time Moshiach did not take out a pack of bills from his drawer. He simply went on, “If you think that my giving you bills this time will help, go to Rabbi Hodakov [Moshiach’s secretary] and he will give them to you.”
Rabbi Cunin was about to leave when suddenly Moshiach asked him about the will of a wealthy man who had left his fortune to Chabad of California. “I remember that there was some litigation over the will, and in the end the two sides came to some compromise,” Moshiach said. Without waiting for a response, he wished Rabbi Cunin blessings for success and a safe trip.
As Moshiach instructed, Rabbi Hodakov gave Rabbi Cunin 10 hundred-dollar bills. However, the hesitance with which Moshiach had given the dollars, together with the fact that he did not give him the dollars directly, gave Rabbi Cunin some doubts. In any case, he decided that he would sell each dollar for $25,000 and thus earn the entire sum he needed.
However, this time it did not work. People responded to his proposal with various excuses. “In another two months” … “It’s not possible right now,” etc. Rabbi Cunin felt that Moshiach had something else in mind.
When Rabbi Cunin repeated to his colleague Rabbi Levitansky the details of his meeting with Moshiach, Rabbi Levitansky said with excitement, “Wait! Moshiach said something to you about a will?”
“Yes, he did. But why are you getting so excited?” asked Rabbi Cunin.
“I think Moshiach is referring to Sammy’s will. We need to find out what he left.”
Rabbi Cunin did not think that Sammy had any property. This was a person who used to come around and eat the leftovers of the Shabbos meals in the Chabad House. How much could he have had?
However, the reality was beyond their imagination. It turned out that Sammy’s estate was worth close to a million dollars.
Indeed, it was not for naught that Moshiach had brought up the matter of a will. Sammy’s will, in which he left all his property to Chabad, alleviated the financial crisis of Chabad of California for a number of years to come.[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”The Rebbe’s Messenger” tab_id=”1624968537247-5a87e3fc-fbe9″][vc_column_text]Yehudah Hajaj did not consider himself part of the Chabad community in the town of Mazkeret Batya in Israel. But his warm feelings for Judaism and respect for tradition were reason enough for Rabbi Aryeh Greenberg, the local Chabad emissary, to visit his home and extend a personal invitation to an upcoming Chabad event.
This was about 20 years ago. Yehudah gratefully accepted the invitation and attended the event. One speech that especially touched his heart was given by Rabbi Hertzel Boruchov of Rechovot, who described to the attendees how he had become close to Judaism in merit of the Rebbe King Moshiach Shlita. He spoke about a current project of his, running the “Igrot Kodesh Center,” which allowed people to write to the King Moshiach Shlita and receive a response by randomly opening one of the 40 volumes of Igrot Kodesh, Moshiach’s published letters.
Yehudah was very impressed by the talk, and at the end, Yehudah approached the microphone and asked if he could say a few words. It was clear that he was undergoing a deeply emotional experience.
“I am not religious,” Yehudah introduced himself simply, “but I wish to share with you my personal miracle story with Moshiach.
“This happened in 1992, several weeks after Moshiach had suffered a stroke,” Yehudah recalled. “At the time I was working as a truck driver, and I used to wake up very early in the morning. A few days before Pesach I had a dream. I felt like I had woken up and could not fall back asleep. I sat on my bed, took out a cigarette and began to smoke. All in my dream. But it was extremely vivid, and I can remember the slightest details.
“Suddenly, Moshiach appeared before my eyes. I knew Moshiach only through various articles in newspapers and from the work of Moshiach’s representatives. I had never met him in person. I remember that in my dream, I pinched myself to make sure that I was not dreaming…
Moshiach did not give me much time to remain lost in thought. He turned to me directly and asked, ‘Do all the people around you have what they need for the upcoming holiday?’
“I was confused. After several long seconds, I answered that I had never looked into it.
“‘Please check,’ Moshiach instructed me. ‘Make sure there is no one around you left without their needs for the holiday.’ He said this and then vanished.
“I woke up bathed in sweat. The vision had been so real and I felt certain that the dream was meaningful. I wracked my brains and remembered that there was someone who lived nearby whose financial situation was not very stable at the time. By nature he was very shy and introverted and found it difficult to share his troubles with others. Still, we were well aware of his difficult circumstances.
“I waited until a reasonable hour, drew my courage and went to his house. I knew that I had to overcome my own discomfort and offer him help. This was the directive I had received from above… Hesitantly I knocked on the door, and my friend’s wife opened. Her eyes were red and puffy.
“In response to my question she told me that her husband was not home. Somehow I blurted out the purpose of my visit: ‘Do you have everything you need for the holidays, or maybe I can help you?’
“The woman’s response was completely unexpected. She burst into uncontrollable tears. My discomfort grew seven-fold. This was not a pleasant situation to be in. ‘What are you talking about?’ she finally managed to choke out between sobs. ‘Needs for the holiday? Yesterday the police came to arrest my husband because of his unpaid debts. I am left alone…’
“I had 500 shekel in my pocket which I had just withdrawn from the bank the day before to buy our own holiday needs. I handed them to her.
“’This is not from me,’ I mumbled. ‘Someone sent me to give this to you.’ I figured that she would be more comfortable taking from an anonymous donor than from me. In any case, it was not a falsehood. I had indeed been sent… The woman thanked me profusely, and asked me to give her thanks to the anonymous donor as well.
“I returned home all shaken up. My dream had not been meaningless after all. Moshiach knew very well why he had come to me and said what he said.
“The next day, on the eve of Pesach, my friend was released from jail. I met him after I returned home from work. He waited for me to get down from my truck, and asked me to walk home with him. He wanted to show me the table in his house, set with all the holiday delicacies. ‘This is all thanks to you,’ he said with tears in his eyes.
“It was one of the happiest days of my life,” confided Yehudah to the crowd. “The most wonderful feeling I had ever felt flooded my heart. An inner voice whispered to me that I had to let the couple know who had really sent me to help them. I told them about my dream, which caused their home to be filled with holiday joy.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”A Successful Delay” tab_id=”1624968578220-3cc279a6-713c”][vc_column_text]“I cannot understand why I still have not received the Rebbe King Moshiach Shlita’s blessing for this trip,” Rabbi Yitzchak Nemes mused to himself nervously. Rabbi Nemes is a stamp dealer whose trades often bring him into contact with postal authorities and private collectors in Central America. He would regularly visit Nicaragua in the winter and had already scheduled his appointments for this year’s trip. As always, before finalizing his journey, he wrote to the King Moshiach Shlita for a blessing. But instead of receiving an immediate answer, this time he had to wait for a reply.
As the date of his departure drew near, Rabbi Nemes asked one of Moshiach’s secretaries to help him. After speaking with Moshiach, the secretary asked Rabbi Nemes for a detailed itinerary of the trip. When Rabbi Nemes forwarded the information to Moshiach, Moshiach responded: “Make the trip but not at present.”
Rabbi Nemes found it difficult to comprehend Moshiach’s advice. ‘This is the most profitable season for purchasing stamps,’ he thought. ‘Moreover, I have already arranged meetings with prominent dealers. And postponing this trip will complicate the other journeys I had planned. I cannot understand this; Moshiach has never suggested a change in my plans before.’
Nevertheless, Moshiach’s followers are not deterred simply because they don’t comprehend his advice. Rabbi Nemes postponed his trip and canceled his appointments.
One need not be a devout believer in Divine Providence to appreciate the immense sense of relief felt by Rabbi Nemes and his family when they heard the shocking news that weekend. A severe earthquake had struck Managua, Nicaragua’s capital, causing thousands of casualties and tremendous damage. “And I had been booked in a downtown hotel there,” Rabbi Nemes thought with a shudder.
As time passed and the airport at Managua opened again to commercial traffic, Rabbi Nemes considered making his journey. His family was apprehensive. “The city is still plagued with widespread theft and plundering,” they argued. But Rabbi Nemes felt optimistic. “Moshiach did not disapprove of the trip entirely,” he told them. “He merely suggested that I postpone it.” Rabbi Nemes was further encouraged by Moshiach’s prompt blessing to reschedule the trip.
Rabbi Nemes was not prepared for the vast destruction in the streets of Managua. Collapsed buildings and mounds of rubble littered the city. Countless homeless wandered aimlessly, making its familiar districts seem foreign even to a frequent visitor.
With great difficulty and anxiety, Rabbi Nemes made his way to the Central Post Office. In contrast to his somber expectations, he was astounded to find the huge building standing erect, almost untouched by the earthquake. Quickening his step, he proceeded to the room of an official with whom he often did business.
As he opened the door, the official jumped up with a start. “Goodness! What a surprise!” he exclaimed with delight. “I hadn’t expected any stamp dealer to come here now!”
After a friendly exchange, Rabbi Nemes began to talk business. However, the local man stopped him. “As you see, the city is in a state of upheaval. It will be some time until it is rebuilt. The stamp business is obviously not an immediate priority. You are a trustworthy dealer and we’ve always worked well together. Help yourself to any stamps you require. We’ll be in touch about the price and payment schedule at a future date.”
“That trip to Nicaragua was the most profitable I have ever made,” concluded Rabbi Nemes.[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”The Answer in the Book” tab_id=”1624968683983-16d068fd-8c8f”][vc_column_text]by Refoel Avraham Dobkin
Each Friday, I would go out to a public place on Mivtzoim, the Lubavitcher Rebbe King Moshiach Shlita’s mitzvah campaigns, to persuade fellow Jews to perform Mitzvos.
I went out on my regular weekly route with my friend, Yisroel Noach Friedman, to Merkaz Giora, a main shopping and business center in Safed. After about an hour of helping fellow Jews put on tefillin, a middle-aged man passed by our stand. We asked him if he would like to put on tefillin, but he declined with a rejecting wave of his hand. I noticed that his refusal was somewhat hesitant, so I tried to get into conversation with him and explain the great value in putting on tefillin.
As he listened to my pitch, he softened up a bit, introducing himself as Moshe E., who had recently undergone some major upheavals. According to his story, he had five complicated heart operations during the last year alone, and his doctors saw no hope for his recovery. I sympathized totally with him and his plight. As we spoke, he rolled up his sleeve and asked to put on tefillin.
After he removed the tefillin, he continued to tell me his story with a heavy heart. It turned out that not only did he have five heart surgeries recently, but his doctors had informed him that he would have to go through another one even more complicated than the others. If that wasn’t enough, his wife had decided that she wanted a divorce, and he had just heard from the courts that she was suing him for half of all his possessions, including a demand for sole ownership of their house.
Due to his health problems, he also found himself out of a job. He had just been fired from work, and therefore, was forced to accept help from friends and acquaintances, something he never believed he would ever do. Because of all these events, his troubled soul found no rest.
We suggested that he write to the Lubavitcher Rebbe King Moshiach Shlita for advice and a blessing, and place the letter into a volume of Igrot Kodesh, the King Moshiach Shlita’s published letters. At first, the man had doubts about the effectiveness of writing to Moshiach, but after a little explanation, he accepted the idea.
He sat on the side and with the utmost solemnity, wrote about all that he had gone through over the past few years. The answer that he received appears in Vol. 14, p. 426:
“I happily received his letter from 7 Adar I, in which he writes about the improvement of his health and that they have already settled in an apartment. May it be G-d’s will that the general state of order, in connection with matters of livelihood, will also be realized very soon, as he desires…
“Awaiting good news in all the aforementioned, and may it be G-d’s will that just as he and his wife have seen the kindnesses of G-d Alm-ghty up until now, so they will find only goodness and kindness in their current place in proper order with health and broadening knowledge.”
There was no need to explain the answer to him, as the words were absolutely clear. Moshiach addressed every one of his difficulties: health, his relationship with his wife, and their financial situation.
This fellow was stunned. “How can it be that I write a letter to a book, and my answer is right there?” he cried.
A few months went by when suddenly one day we met him again on the street. He recognized us first and rushed to greet us.
“You won’t believe it,” he called out excitedly, “The Lubavitcher Rebbe King Moshiach Shlita is a giant among giants! Everything worked out so quickly, I’m still in shock and sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure that it’s for real!
“My wife suddenly decided to drop the case against me, and has returned home to me. Two weeks ago, still puzzled over what had brought her to change her mind, I arrived at the hospital for my sixth operation. A few days earlier, I had already made all the mental and physical preparations for the medical procedure. Yet, to my amazement, after undergoing a series of pre-surgery x-rays, the doctors informed me that based on the results, they saw no need for an operation…”
“Moshiach’s words were fulfilled, one by one,” he concluded. “Even our financial issues have been totally solved. A few days ago, I was accepted to a position at one of the precincts of the police department.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_tta_section][/vc_tta_accordion][/vc_column][/vc_row]