The Kinus HaShluchim is coming up soon. For me, these
are the happiest days of all. My home is crowded with distinguished guests,
baruch Hashem, for I host dozens of shluchim, and many others visit.
Among them are my father-in-law, sons, sons-in-law, friends, and acquaintances,
all of whom have the joint privilege of being the Rebbe’s shluchim.
This is one of the nicest times in my personal calendar. Just
meeting with former classmates, family, neighbors, and acquaintances scattered
around the globe throughout the year is reason enough for excitement. If we add
to that the dozens of miracle stories that each shliach has to tell, it’s
mamash as though we’re given a neshama yeseira that week.
At that time I love to think about the mighty army that
gathers in the king’s palace. When the strongest force in the world, the Rebbe’s
soldiers, received a new order, a new mivtza, they brought it, and still
bring it, to thousands of locations around the world, and millions of Jews get
to fulfill the Rebbe’s directive. Is there any precedent to something like this
ever before in history?
During the Kinus I see how the various programs add
chayus to the shluchim. For a whole year they have to contend with
all sorts of material and spiritual headaches, which the readers of this
publication are quite familiar with, and here all the soldiers meet with their
general. In the Rebbe MH"M’s dalet amos they hear about their colleagues’
struggles and exchange ideas to strengthen their work.
When thousands of shluchim gather in Beis Chayeinu,
as one man with one heart, we see how each shliach is raised above his
local problems and receives chayus for the continuation of his work in
the coming year. I see this in my family members and friends who are shluchim.
However, and here I want to express my personal feeling: As
Chassidim of the Rebbe of the seventh generation, we were taught that the task
of our generation is to actually bring the Geula. The main thing: Moshiach’s
coming.
Every year as we gather again, I hope and pray (and this is
certainly the feeling of every single shliach and Chassid) that by the
end of the Kinus the Rebbe would have been nisgaleh already.
After all, this is the purpose of the Kinus. The Kinus isn’t
organized as a reunion, and all the programs and workshops have as their main
goal: seeking ways of hastening Moshiach’s arrival until he actually comes.
But at the end of the Kinus, on the day the
shluchim return home and we still did not merit the hisgalus, I feel
we missed a tremendous opportunity. It’s a feeling of great pain, of having
fallen from a great height into a deep pit.
I sit home alone after having parted from my relatives and
friends, the shluchim, and think about how it is possible that again a
year passed and we missed the most important part, and did not yet achieve the
final result of the Kinus - the coming of Moshiach! How was it possible
that thousands of shluchim sat together, learned and discussed, ate and
danced, but the main thing - the coming of Moshiach - was not achieved?!
And another Kinus goes by and another one, and the
same thing happens!
I don’t mean to set myself up as a preacher; I am simply
getting my feelings, as well as those of some of my friends, down on paper.
Im yirtzeh Hashem, in another few weeks, the shluchim
will gather once again. Since we all know what the goal of all the
mivtzaim and the avodas ha’shlichus is - Moshiach - we have to make
sure we don’t miss the main point. My suggestion is that a specific time be set
at "prime time," when all the shluchim can farbreng together and
cry out that Moshiach must come. For a few hours, let them come and cry out and
daven that the Rebbe must be revealed, that Moshiach must come - each in
his own words.
After all, the shluchim are the Rebbe’s greatest
power. Hashem certainly reckons with the strongest force in this world, as the
Rebbe said - that upheavals in the world for the good are a result of the
shluchim’s work.
Many wonderful issues are discussed at the Kinus, but
ultimately these are not the only thing required of them. The point of it all
and the goal of the shluchim is to prepare the world to greet Moshiach.
During the Kinus, time should be dedicated to saying T’hillim, to
talk, and most importantly - to cry out "Ad masai!" and actually bring
about the Rebbe’s hisgalus.
While the shluchim gather and cry out, it would be a
good idea if in all Chabad communities worldwide - men, women, and children,
especially children, hevel sh’ein bo cheit - would gather at the very
same time and cry out for the hisgalus of Moshiach. This would be
especially timely in this Shnas Hakhel.
Furthermore, every shliach is the Rebbe’s
representative in his city, state, and country, and he is responsible for all
matters of Judaism in his place. Therefore, each shliach should see to it
that in all mosdos under his jurisdiction, whether a Chabad House,
yeshiva, or talmud Torah, large Kinusim should be organized.
While the shliach is in New York making a tumult about Moshiach, a
Kinus should be taking place in his city. If the whole world would cry out
simultaneously, Moshiach would certainly come.
The very decision to do this will hasten the hisgalus
of the Rebbe MH"M, such that by the time of the Kinus we will surely
merit to hear Torah chadasha from the mouth of Moshiach Tzidkeinu.