As a child, I took it all for granted. I knew it was a great privilege to see the Rebbe and to receive coins and dollars for charity, but that was something he always did. Only recently did I realize how unusual it was.
Think about it:
The Rebbe, a leader of a massive movement with branches all around the world, a Torah scholar whose teachings are still being edited and published 30 years after his passing—takes time from his hectic schedule to give a little eight-year-old a dollar for charity.
And this was happening again and again.
We estimated how many coins and dollars the Rebbe gave out—but what about his time? Every Sunday, he'd stand for hours, often 7 or 8 hours (in his late 80s!), to receive people and give them dollars for charity. The door was wide open, no appointment was necessary, and no one was turned away. If you wanted, you were able to go and receive a dollar.
Isn't that incredible?
Typically, world leaders choose to spend time only with the most important or influential people.
Yet for the Rebbe, taking a moment to give a dollar or coin to an eight-year-old was time well spent.
Here is a related family story:
Reb Nosson “Bobby” Vogel, Rishi’s grandfather, played an instrumental role in establishing the London Chabad-Lubavitch boys’ high school. During a private audience with the Rebbe, he shared a burden that weighed heavily on him. The financial responsibility of sustaining the high-school they had built had fallen almost entirely on his shoulders, and he felt it was becoming too much for one person to bear.
The Rebbe smiled warmly and said, “I will speak to you in the language of a businessman. Imagine you are dealing in diamonds. If you had a bag full of diamonds, and I placed some additional blue-white diamonds in there, would you complain?”
The Rebbe smiled again and added, “You are carrying diamonds. Never put them down; carry on.”
From that moment forward, Nosson continued to carry the merit of supporting Jewish education for more than forty years. When asked how he managed to do so, he would often say he couldn’t really explain how it all added up—it was all with the help of G‑d.
It seems to me that the best way to honor the Rebbe's legacy is by following his example in 4 'simple' steps:
3) Make room and time for your 'inner diamond' and help all the other 'diamonds' you encounter.