“Would you like a blessing to be able to begin again?” Though his mind was clouded by all the vodka he had consumed, Elie Wiesel nodded. “Yes,” he said, even in his half-drunk state he appreciated the Rebbe’s wisdom. It was Simchat Torah, a time when the theological questions he usually posed to the Rebbe were put aside. “Say L’Chaim,” the Rebbe encouraged him. “Isn’t that the way you were brought up too, in Vishnitz?” But this Simchat Torah, the Rebbe didn’t allow him to suffice with but one L’Chaim, “In Vishnitz they go all the way, just like by us in Lubavitch. Say another L’Chaim.” Handing him a third L’Chaim, the Rebbe called out, “You deserve a blessing, name it!” Confused and slightly drunk, Elie Wiesel just looked blankly back at the Rebbe. “Would you like a blessing to be able to begin again?” The Rebbe gently asked. On many occasions, while meeting with him in person and in letters, the Rebbe would invariably turn the subject to his personal life, “When will you get married?” Elie knew better than to express to the Rebbe what he was really thinking, namely that it was not a worthwhile investment, especially in such a volatile world that could produce a Holocaust. When Elie Wiesel was getting married, the Rebbe sent him a large bouquet; when his son was born the Rebbe sent an even larger bouquet. The most important part of remembering the Holocaust is not actually the remembering part; it's the building of the future that is most critical. If all we do is make sure the next generation remembers the Holocaust, but we fail in building an engaged, educated and observant Jewish future, we hand the Nazis a posthumous victory from the jaws of their defeat. If we bring Jewish children into this world and educate them as proud, engaged and informed Jews, only then can we ensure that the military victory over the Nazis translates into a permanent victory.
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