| B"H
Statement by Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky
Spokesman for the Worldwide Lubavitch Movement
Tuesday, June 14, 1994
The wound is fresh, the pain is deep, it is difficult to talk.
A light has gone out.
Rarely, if ever, has this metaphor resonated with such literal
meaning.
Rarely, if ever, has one individual radiated a light so luminous.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known
simply and lovingly as "the Rebbe," has cast the warm glow of
his sanctified existence, his Solomonic wisdom, his vision for
a world perfected, and his sensitivity and love for humanity,
over the lives of millions, to the farthest reaches of the world.
We have basked in the Rebbe's brilliant illumination - a light
that never ever waned during his more than four decades of
leadership.
And now, as we confront his passing we are left in the dark,
without his guidance.
As his Chasidim we closely followed the Rebbe's every move,
and found continued sustenance and reassurance in his physical
presence among us.
The Rebbe was always there to counsel, to guide, to teach, and
to bless.
Our pain is profound, and the loss leaves an indescribable void.
Still, it would be a grave error to think that our relationship
with the Rebbe is now relegated to history.
The Rebbe's gift to us far exceeds the parameters of his life
span of 92 years.
Through his unique and inspired vision, the Rebbe endowed us with
a passion for the good and the G-dly, and the means to understand
that the good and the G-dly are inherent in our world and within
each of us and in our everyday lives. It is a vision that will
inspire us for generations to come.
>From his early years in Nikolaev, Russia, where he was born in
1902, the Rebbe displayed a prodigious mind and a sensitivity to
human suffering.
Educated by private tutor as a child, and then at the University
of Berlin and the Sorbonne, the Rebbe exhibited an extraordinary
breadth and depth of knowledge, was gifted in the sciences, and
had a remarkable fluency in many languages.
But it was in the Torah, the Talmud, in both the exoteric and
esoteric realms of Torah and Judaism, that the Rebbe's erudition
and brilliance provided fundamental and original insights to
Jewish scholarship.
Indeed, more than 200 major volumes of the Rebbe's prolific
writing and discourses have already been published.
In all his talks, as well as in his innovative, worldwide
ubiquitous mivtzah campaigns, one discerns a unifying system
which binds the physical to the spiritual, and empowers every
individual to actualize their potential to impact their immediate
surroundings, their community, and ultimately, the world, through
their even small acts of kindness.
The Rebbe engaged the greatest thinkers of our times and
simplefolk with equal intensity.
It is truly impossible to gauge the scope of this great leader.
He never took a day off in 42 years.
He rarely slept.
He fasted most days while praying for the hundreds of thousands
of people who beseeched him to intervene on their behalf.
He also inspired us all with his incredible activism, devotion,
foresight and leadership.
He always saw what others did not and did what others saw not.
Well before activities on behalf of Soviet Jews became a popular
cause, the Rebbe quietly and effectively worked to save lives.
Well before the demonstrations and sit-ins began to make news,
the Rebbe had established a clandestine network of Chasidim to
supply money, food, clothing, and spiritual support to thousands
of Jews suffocating physically and spiritually, under Communism's
boot.
While the prophets of doom talked of the vanishing Jew through
intermarriage and assimilation, the Rebbe, in contrast,
established bold and daring programs to reach out to those people
who otherwise would be lost to the Jewish people.
When others had given up, the Rebbe always discerned even a small
ray of hope and enlarged that hope so that everyone could share
in it, and drew strength from it.
And as always, at every step, regardless of the idea or project,
there were voices of opposition to the Rebbe's movement towards
a better, saner and more G-dly world. Never inhibited by these
voices, the Rebbe persisted, and prevailed.
He has left us a legacy of thousands of educational institutions,
humanitarian projects and outreach centers the world over.
As it is impossible to gauge the scope of the Rebbe as a person,
so it is impossible to gauge the impact of his worldwide
achievements.
Millions are inclined to a better life of goodness and meaning,
due to his counsel.
Who can tally the acts of kindness and charity inspired by the
Rebbe's own example, while he stood 7 hours every Sunday, even
into his ninth decade of life, receiving people from all walks
of life, from all over the world, handing out dollar bills to men
and women, adults and children, Jews and gentiles to be given to
charitable causes??
Throughout this all, the Rebbe encouraged us to join him in his
efforts.
In this way the Rebbe graced us with untold merits and helped us
realize the enormous potential for good that lies within each and
everyone of us.
When all others pandered to popular opinion the Rebbe's was the
lone and unabashed voice of truth, a true tonic for the tumult
of the twentieth century.
By sharing with us his vision, his hopes and his promise, and
by making us active participants in the perfection of G-d's
world, the Rebbe has empowered us in a way that every parent can
only hope to empower his and her children.
Handicapped as we are now by the loss of his physical presence -
we re-dedicate ourselves to continue to accomplish that which our
beloved Rebbe taught us through his life's work for a humanity
uplifted by good, and a world sanctified and redeemed by G-d.
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