Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a guest on the podcast "Ben Ben-Baruch's Mojo" and reenacted his meeting with the Lubavitcher Rebbe on Simchat Torah - about 42 years ago.
""It was on Simchat Torah in 1984 when I was serving as Israel's ambassador to the United Nations. One day a Hasid arrived who claimed to know me. He was a military man who had repented and become a Hasid of the Rebbe and asked me to come to him," Netanyahu recalled.
He said: "We go out there and there is a hall with thousands of Hasidim waiting for the Rebbe. Suddenly the door opens and the Rebbe comes up on stage. Then Shmaria says to me, 'Now go to the Rebbe.' I answer him, 'But he is busy,' but he insists.".
The Prime Minister describes how he approached the stage. "I approached him with a sense of shame and pity and gently patted him on the shoulder. I said to him in English, 'Rabbi, I came to see you.' He looked at me and wondered: 'Just to see? Not to talk?'.
""That's how a conversation in Hebrew began between us that lasted 40 minutes. Over time, I hear a murmur from the audience because I'm robbing them of the Rebbe. At the end, he turns to the audience, I get off the stage, and the Rebbe gets off and dances with the Torah scroll. I was very moved, I saw Netzach Israel.".
Video: Ben Ben-Baruch's Mojo
He returned to the conversation that took place between the two. "The Rebbe told me, 'You are going to the 'eternal house of lies' - that's what he called the UN. 'Remember that even in the darkest world, if you light one candle of truth, it will be visible from afar.'".
He added: "After four years at the UN, I finished my job and he asked me to stay there. I told him I would run for a seat in the Knesset. He told me, 'There's a lot of work to do here' - and I replied, 'There too.' The Rebbe said, 'Well, go and you'll have great support. But you'll have to deal with 119 people. There are days when I think he was right - and there's no doubt he was right about a lot of things.".
