Farbrengen of 4 Decades Ago Evokes Fresh Passions

After 39 years, a new DVD presents the entire four hour long events of Chof Menachem-Av, 5731. On the 20th of Menachem-Av, 1971, the Rebbe held a historic Farbrengen on the Yahrzeit of the Rebbe’s father and mentor Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, of righteous memory.

In surprisingly sharp picture and sound, the Rebbe addresses diverse themes including when a Shliach may put himself “in direct danger” of absorbing sights which may tempt his eyes, and a broad-ranging explanation of the global difference between the schools of Hillel and Shamai across Shas. The historic Farbrengen is an amazing re-production of an unforgettable experience with the Rebbe. One Shliach who was a Bochur at 770 during the early 1970’s and participated in the Farbrengen, called it, “The greatest single experience of my life.”

After screening the video of the event on Chof Av 5669 for a group of Bochurim at 770, word of the unique recording got out to Bochurim and Shluchim around the world, and many began to plead with JEM for its release. One year later, in time for Chof Av this year, JEM had the Farbrengen cleaned and re-restored, with a large portion of it translated into English, French and Hebrew – produced and released on DVD. This massive project was funded by Lapidus family of Buenos Aires and the Pruss family worldwide.

In a Hashgacha Protis, the Farbrengen also includes a passionate, wide-ranging, and detailed discussion by the Rebbe on the pitfalls of Mihu Yehudi – “Who is a Jew?”, which now in 2010, is once again now evoking emotions across the world.

The DVD is available at www.jemstore.com.

5 Comments

  • boruch Hashem

    Finally JEM decided not to omit Mihu Yehudi from the Rebbe’s farbrengens! I guess it’s never too late to do teshuvah!

  • Chossid

    Wouldn’t it be nice if us poor people who are too young to have seen the Rebbe enough would be able to see these things even without paying.

    I mean I understand they have to make money, but honestly the money is made through fundraising.

    If they care so much about the Rebbe, they should make everything they have available to everyone regardless of ability to pay.

  • JEM Staffer

    1. JEM covers their expenses 50% through sales and 50% through fundraising. I’m sure Rabbi Shmotkin would take you up if you were to offer to cover the 50%, and then give the videos away for free.

    2. From my experience (admittedly not scientific) when we give videos away people watch them LESS rather than more.

  • Chossid

    I don’t believe that 50% of JEMs funding is made through sales. I doubt it’s more than 5-10%.

    I would love to cover the 50% but as I mentioned before I have no money. I think in very bad taste, that when I comment that I am “poor” and would like to see the video anyway, you make a comment that I should offer to pay for everyone’s videos.