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Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry

Motzaei Shabbos Parshas Vayeitzei 5724: On Erev Shabbos afternoon, the 6th of Kislev 5724, word reached 770 of the assassination of the President of the United States, Mr. John F. Kennedy. When the Rebbe shlita heard about this, he was astounded how Kennedy went out in an open car in such a way that someone could harm him.

On Shabbos, there was no farbrengen.

In preparation for Tes Kislev, the Mitteler Rebbe’s kuntres ‘Bahd Kodesh’ was published, with a preface dated Chof Marcheshvan. The kuntres is a letter that the Mitteler Rebbe wrote to the Russian minister for the Vitebsk region in connection with his imprisonment.

On Motzaei Shabbos, Rabbi Yosef HaLevi Weinberg asked the Rebbe shlita if he should speak about the assassination of President Kennedy on the radio. The Rebbe instructed him that if the other stations were relating to the incident, he should do so as well. The Rebbe then added that he should speak about the recently published kuntres ‘Bahd Kodesh’. He also asked him to give a special emphasis to the footnote that the Rebbe included in the new printing, in which he writes that the Alter Rebbe did not think that one should make a bracha using G-d’s Name upon seeing a minister from the Gentile nations. The Rebbe added that he should mention the fact that every country has a ministering angel, and this surely applies to a great power such as the United States.

It’s interesting to note that at the recent Shabbos T’shuva farbrengen (a continuation from Rosh Hashanah), the Rebbe spoke about how all the year’s events were alluded to in the ma’amarim of the Rebbe’im, and among the things the Rebbe mentioned was the kuntres ‘Bahd Kodesh’…

(excerpt from Issue #812, pgs. 55-56)

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