According to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his visit to the United Nations General Assembly is not just political, it is also spiritual. In 1984, when PM Netanyahu was appointed Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations he had a meeting with the late, great, Jewish leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson z”l, in which he was given a special mission that PM Netanyahu says “I have tried to do ever since.”
Rabbi Schneerson, also known as the ‘Lubavitcher Rebbe’, was the spiritual leader of the Lubavitch community of Chasidic Jewry. Still thriving today, the Lubavitch community practices the philosophy of ‘Ahavat Israel’, the love of Israel, and are famous for traveling all over the world and establishing Jewish life-centers known as ‘Chabad Houses.’ There are currently more than 2,400 Chabad institutions in 35 different countries on six continents.
Rabbi Schneerson was also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his “outstanding and lasting contributions toward improvements in world education, morality, and acts of charity.”
Rabbi Schneerson said to then UN Ambassador Netanyahu, “You are going to the UN, there is an assembly there that has eternal falsehood and utter darkness. Remember that in a hall of perfect darkness, totally dark, if you light one small candle, its light will be seen from afar. Its precious light will be seen by everyone. Your mission is to light a candle for truth and the Jewish people.”
To watch Prime Minister Netanyahu tell the story of this fateful encounter see the video below:
Author: Eitan Press, staff writer for United with Israel
Date: Sept 30, 2013