With Psalms in hand and envelopes thick with handwritten names, thousands of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries waited their turn outside the Ohel in Queens, N.Y., on Friday morning. Some had flown in from the other side of the world. Others had driven in from down the road. Ask any of them why they came, and the answer was the same.
“When you come to New York, you come to the Rebbe,” said Rabbi Noam Roth, an emissary with Tzeirei Agudat Chabad in Jerusalem. “How could anyone skip it? Simple as that.”
The visit to the Ohel, the resting place of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, marks the high point of the 43rd International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries, which began on Wednesday and runs through Monday, Nov. 9.
The emissaries, part of a global network of more than 6,000 couples serving Jewish communities in every U.S. state and more than 100 countries, came to pray for their families, their communities and humanity at large. They brought with them thousands of prayer requests from people around the world, placing letters and personal notes at the Ohel on behalf of those who could not make the trip themselves.
As they stood in line, emissaries recited tehillim (Psalms) and studied the Rebbe’s teachings. The visit culminated in the reading of the pan klali, a general letter signed by all the emissaries, containing prayers for the Land of Israel, the Jewish people and all of humanity.
For Roth, the group visit to the Rebbe’s resting place is the reason for everything that follows.
“The source of an emissary’s strength comes from the Rebbe, who is at the Ohel,” he said. “Without the Rebbe, we don’t have the mission we have dedicated ourselves to, which is to spread Judaism throughout the world.
“When asked for blessings, the Rebbe would often say he’d mention it at the resting place of his father-in-law and predecessor (the Sixth Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory). This place is where we draw our strength and our energy. It’s being with the Rebbe.”
Back home, that strength goes a long way. Jerusalem today is home to more than 40 Chabad centers, staffed by over 60 emissaries. Tzeirei Agudas Chabad Jerusalem runs the citywide programming that ties them together, including a well-known parade at Kikar Shabbat, the city’s central public menorahs, and campaigns bringing sukkahs and the Four Kinds to Jerusalem residents.
The organization also operates a department devoted to Jewish education, which hosts an annual national conference for educators that draws more than 800 participants. This year it will hold its milestone 40th year.
“Our mission in Jerusalem is to prepare the Holy City for the coming of Moshiach,” said Roth.
Rabbi Yisroel New, an emissary from Atlanta, came to the Kinus as a child many times, and now returns as an emissary in his own right. His community recently welcomed a new emissary couple dedicated to young professionals, Rabbi Mendel and Itty Wuench, who arrived just two months ago. They joined him in New York this week.
“This visit to the Ohel is about coming back to the source and getting inspiration to keep going for the whole year,” he said. “It’s knowing where you come from that gives you the strength to give to others.”
The rabbis are in New York for a packed program of workshops, inspirational talks and a communal Shabbat. The conference continues with the iconic group photo at Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters on Sunday morning and concludes with a gala banquet that evening.
Join the thousands of Chabad emissaries at the banquet, and the many more watching live, at Chabad.org/Kinus from 1:00 PM on Sunday.
Photos by Yisroel Teitelbaum / Chabad.org
