Let’s say it the way it is.
The Rebbe gave us explicit instructions on how to live our lives after Gimmel Tamuz.
In hindsight, in the years before Gimmel Tamuz, the Rebbe was preparing the world for life after.
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Motzoei Shabbos, Parshas Teruma, Beis Adar 5748
It is a few days after Shiva for the Rebbetzin. Maariv and Havdola had just concluded, and all eyes are on the Rebbe as the crowd parts, assuming the Rebbe will head up the stairs. But He doesn’t.
Instead, the Rebbe begins a Sicha which shook up not only those gathered, but all who heard the whispers about it.
That night, the Rebbe addressed a topic so far removed from anyone’s worst nightmare.
For the first time, the Rebbe instructed Chassidim how we are to conduct ourselves after the time of (as the Rebbe referred to it, quoting Shloima Hamelech) “the way the world works” (חשבונו של עולם).
“It should be clear that regarding the Moisdos in each individual town, matters should be decided by a majority vote of three local Chassidishe Rabonim”.
Unbeknownst to almost anybody at that time, was the fact that the Rebbe had also just made a צוואה, detailing how the three Moisdos of מל”ח, מחנה ישראל and אגו”ח should be run, and who should run them.
But it didn’t start there;
Three weeks prior to this the Rebbe addressed a concept, not at all foreign to the Seder of things prior, nor unique to Dor Hashvi’i.
But at this time, on Shabbos י”א שבט תשמ”ח, eleven days before the Histalkus of the Rebbetzin, the Rebbe had made it the official method of asking advice.
For ענינים רוחניים, the Rebbe said: speak to your Mashpia. (Leaning on a central ingredient in the life of a Chossid – since the time of the Alter Rebbe – was that he have a Mashpia to guide him, answer his spiritual dilemmas, and catch him if he ever R”L falls).
For medical questions, the Rebbe continued: speak to two expert doctors, and in a case of no consensus ask a third. Ask a doctor that has your best interest at heart (רופא ידיד)
And for questions regarding worldly matters: speak to ידידים מבינים – a number of friends knowledgeable in the field of your specific question.
As mentioned above this wasn’t new, the Rebbe had been answering people more and more in recent years to seek counsel in the above manner. But this time it was different, because this time the Rebbe explicitly told people not to expect a response to their questions.
Sending Chassidim to ask the above people in the first instance.
Chassidim began to write for a Brocha that one should receive the correct guidance and succeed in whatever the challenge was. But no longer were Chassidim to expect answers or acknowledgment to their letters.
This point was further expounded upon in the following two Sichos.
And then the Rebbitzen was Nistalek, and a new ‘Tekufa’ formally began.
כיתומים היינו ואין אב. True. Yet we are not left to wander in the darkness with no guide.
Chas Vesholom!
For in addition to the Rebbe being with us יתיר מבחייוהי, the Rebbe also gave us each explicit instructions to ensure that we continue to have certainty and clarity as we are מהפך חשוכא לנהורא;
Listen to the local Rabonim and to the collective voice of the Rabonim, confer with a Mashpia for all spiritual matters, discuss financial and other worldly questions with a few knowledgeable friends, and for medical questions, ask the opinion of a second medical expert.
And of course, as the Rebbe guided the Chassidim in France regarding the Friediker Rebbe: always write to the Rebbe; Ask for Siatta Dishemaya in the guidance.
If there is anything we want more than anything else in the world, it is זיך זען מיט’ן רבי’ן, and that will most certainly be hastened by doing our עבודה to bring עיקר שכינה למטה in the manner the Rebbe told us. שיהי’ במהרה בימינו ממש!