A Picture Always Remains | Rabbi Aharon Weinberg

There was a Yid, his name was R’ Moshe Schvitzy. He was a photographer. He came from Baranovich. He was actually the one who took pictures at my Bar Mitzvah. When World War II broke out, there was a yunger Slonimer Rebbe. And they call him the young Rebbe, because he was murdered when he was 33 years old. His name was R’ Shloimele. He had a wife and one and only daughter, and he had Chasidim in the entire world, that worked very hard, they put down a lot of money and they arranged a way for the Rebbe to escape. They arranged a visa, they arranged passes, and they prepared a passport for the Rebbe. And the story is told, When everything was ready and the Rebbe was walking out, there was a woman there, watching the Rebbe and his family leaving, and she started to cry and she said, Rebbe, you’re leaving us over? And the Rebbe decided to turn back and he said: I'm not leaving. And he wrote a letter and he wrote, Maybe I'm doing a mistake, but there's no way for me, I don't have a go-ahead to leave. I cannot leave my Chasidim. And he was murdered. But when they were preparing the passport, it was Moshe, who was already a photographer then, who was ordered to the Rebbe’s home to take the picture. And the old-fashioned way of photography was that the one that they took a picture from had to go under a black cover, a black blanket, he should be totally in the dark, and the photographer would push in his hand with the camera, with the flash, and he would take a snapshot and that's the only way you were able to take a picture. So when the Rebbe came out of that black blanket, he turned to Moshe and he told him, forever and always, Which means anything we do, there’s always a picture that remains from that action. Moshe said, By the war, when it broke out, he had to run to Siberia. He was there for 40 years with no connection whatsoever to Yiddishkeit. He was totally disconnected and he had Nisyonos and he was tempted but it always came into his mind the echo of the Rebbe's words, אַ בילד בלייבט a picture always remains. Which is a message for all of us. Sometimes there's weak moments. Remember, whatever you do, there's a picture that remains up in Shomayim. But let's take this to the positive. How many times are we challenged and we're battling and we guard ourselves, we lower our eyes, we look away. And sometimes we feel, Who remembers from this? We ourselves forget from it. Remember אַ בילד בלייבט there’s always a snapshot of a picture taken of that Mesirus Nefesh of you, of that Avodas Hashem that you just did, and it's kept up in Shomayim. And that's a merit for the moment that you need it, you or your children. אַ בילד בלייבט There's always a picture that remains.