Book Review
This review was meant to have been done months ago after I received this book during the summer. Everything, however, is Divinely ordained and due to causes beyond my control it had to be delayed until now.
However, King Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes: “He [G-d] made everything beautifully in its time and again in Proverbs: “How goodly is a thing in its proper time.” It turns out that as you are reading this, upwards of 6,000 Chabad emissaries have descended upon the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn for a weekend of empowerment, education, and camaraderie in what has been known as the Kinus Hasheluchim Ha’Olami, the worldwide gathering of Chabad Emissaries.
The Oracle is a beautiful coffee-table-sized book published by Redux Pictures, 380 pages filled with pictures taken throughout the early 1990s by New York Times photojournalist Marc Asnin in concert with a series of 40+ interviews conducted by the talented Chasidic writer and researcher Dovid Zaklikowski featuring life-defining encounters of Joe Lieberman, Newt Gingrich, Yehuda Krinsky, Devorah Halberstam, the late Vice Chairman of Merkos L’inyanei Chinuch, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, and many more.
The book’s name was taken from an article that appeared for the first time by Michael Specter in The New York Times Magazine together with Asnin’s photography as well as a reflection from the author and photojournalist on the Rebbe and the endurance of the Chabad organization over thirty years out from their first seeing the light of day. From the moment that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson ascended to the helm of Lubavitcher Rebbe in the year 1951, he was laser focused on creating a dwelling place for G-d’s glory in the lowest realms, an initiative which he spearheaded and rolled out from his office on Eastern Parkway with the help and self-sacrifice of countless men, women, and children who would sit in his private company or pass by him in the narrow corridor where he’d distribute dollars, blessings, and a mandate to spread G-dliness throughout the far flung corners of the world.
To be sure, despite the fact that Specter and Asnin were sent by dint of their expertise on a job to do a story that was largely outside of the area that they normally reported on, while they may have initially entered the iconic 770 as journalists sent to report, from the moment they entered the Rebbe’s line of vision they too represented pivotal players in the Rebbe’s arsenal to vanquish darkness and fill the world with the light of G-d. In Asnin’s own words: “It was a moment that changed me, when I stepped through the doors at 770 Eastern Parkway. Some people say that life is predestined—that’s above my pay grade—but with this assignment to photograph the Rebbe, I was led toward what I had been looking for my entire life.”
There is something contradictory or oxymoronic about this book. Asnin captured iconic photos of the Rebbe that are featured throughout this impressive volume. Many of the people interviewed throughout this book would be put through situations that they never thought they would have the wherewithal to endure or to accomplish things that they never would have imagined that they’d achieve. The Rebbe, however, believed in them more than they believed in themselves. Through the power of the Talmudic dictum of shlichus wherein the messenger assumes the persona of the sender, the Rebbe would spend decades conferring his spirit upon those he’d come in contact with, acting vicariously through them. On the one hand the pictures within this book suggest that the Rebbe was a personality who would fit within the lens of the camera while the interview section of the book, both of which are artfully paginated, describes the ubiquitousness of this one figure who but for a few solitary times would never leave the confines of his office at 770 yet was capable of creating revolution, which continues to break new ground thirty years since his physical demise.
The Oracle is a depiction of a transition in time between leaders and followers to one in which every person lives with the consciousness that they are critical components in fulfilling the objective of creation. I don’t know if it was Asnin, but I am reminded of a video clip of a farbrengen where the Rebbe was scanning the expansive crowd gathered in 770, toasting l’chaim to each one as he was known to do. At one moment the Rebbe turned around looking up at the photographer on set, motioning to him with the shot glass in his hand to also grab a shot and wish l’chaim. The Rebbe’s secret to success was that he lived in a realm of consciousness wherein every person and situation was a rendezvous with G-d and he literally treated it as such.
This book was titled The Oracle, describing the Rebbe as a prescient, visionary religious leader which he certainly was. But what I think it is suggesting or perhaps anticipating is the future era described by the prophets as a time when your sons and daughters will be prophets. As Moshe Rabbeinu answered Yehoshua after he complained about Eldad and Meidad prophesizing about Moshe’s impending passing, “What would I give for all the Jewish nation to be prophets?”
This book is a must have. But it’s not meant to be tucked away in a bookshelf in one’s study, rather it is meant to sit upon a coffee table in one’s family room calling attention, in Rebbe-esque fashion to passersby to remember that they are here first and foremost to make this world into a dwelling place for G-d and that there was a Rebbe in the world that believed in your ability to get it done. n
Yochanan Gordon can be reached at ygordon5t@gmail.com. Read more of Yochanan’s articles at 5TJT.com.
