Here is an article we came across that Zalman wrote.
The Rebbe said that upheavals in the world for the good are a result of the shluchim’s work.
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.
