The Visionary

No one in documented history has ever thought of mining for precious gems in the Holy Land, especially in light of the geological information that was known about the area.

The amazing discovery was made in 1988, in Brooklyn New York, were the Lubavitcher Rabbi, in a meeting with the then mayor of Haifa Israel, chose to mention in passing something that have escaped the attention of those present in the meeting:

“The uniqueness of Haifa is that… it has a valley,

and in the valley are precious stones and gems”

On the basis of this determination of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Shefa in Israel Company was established for the purpose of performing the impossible.

In order to understand why did we choose to invest so much money and resources on the basis of the Rebbe’s statement (which seemingly contradicted the claims of science) – you need to understand who is this phenomenal man.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson was born in April 5, 1902, known to many as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or simply as THE REBBE, was a Russian Empire-born American Orthodox Jewish rabbi.

He is considered one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century.

As leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, he took an insular Hasidic group that almost came to an end with the Holocaust and transformed it into one of the most influential movements in religious world Jewry, with an international network of over 4,000 educational and social centers. The institutions he established include kindergartens, schools, drug-rehabilitation centers, care-homes for the disabled and synagogues.

The Rebbe was known for his intelligence and strong memory. Many testimonies attribute the performance of miracles to the Rebbe. The Rebbe’s published teachings fill more than 300 volumes, and he is noted for his contributions to Jewish continuity and religious thought, as well as his wide-ranging contributions to traditional Torah scholarship. He is recognized as the pioneer of Jewish outreach. 

In 1978, the U.S. Congress, by President Jimmy Carter designated the Rebbe’s birthday as the National Education and Sharing Day, which calls for increased focus on education, and recognizes the lifelong efforts of the Rebbe for education. In 1994, he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his “outstanding and lasting contributions toward improvements in world education, morality, and acts of charity.

The Rebbe spoke of the position of the United States as a world superpower, and would praise its foundational values of ‘”E pluribus unum’—from many one”, and “In God We Trust”. He called on the government to develop independent energy, and not need to rely on totalitarian regimes whose countries national interests greatly differed from the U.S. The Rebbe also called for the U.S. Government to use its influence on countries who were receiving its foreign aid to do more for the educational and cultural needs of their deprived citizens.

The Rebbe had great influence on numerous political leaders from across the world, many of whom would seek his advice. He was visited by Presidents, Prime Ministers, Governors, Senators, Congressmen and Mayors.

Below are some of their testimonies and impressions of the Rebbe and his legacy:

None of these respectable people, whose level of intelligence is unquestionable, would not claim that the Rebbe has phenomenal abilities without actual proof – and here are some of those evidence of the Rebbe’s prophetic abilities:

1967 - The Six Day War

Egypt, Syria and Jordan were preparing to attack the State of Israel with the help of eight other Arab states and all predictions of the young state’s fate were catastrophic.

About two weeks before the outbreak of the war, a huge gathering was held in Brooklyn, attended by an audience of thousands of parents and children. Contrary to the opinion of the experts who thought that the chances of success of the Israeli army were very slim – the Rebbe, in front of the huge crowd, predicted that there was nothing to worry about, that Gd protects the people of Israel and sends them his blessings and salvation to a great extent, and later said that “the Western Wall will soon be in our hands.”

As the Rebbe predicted: contrary to all fears, not only did the small state of Israel defeat the vast armies that attacked it from all directions, but within six days it also tripled in size and achieved the desired control of Jerusalem and the Western Wall

1973 - Yom Kippur War

The victory in the Six Day War created complacency and an excessive sense of self-confidence among the leaders of the State of Israel.

From the beginning of the 1970s, the Rebbe constantly warned of the imminent danger from Egypt. Days before the start of the war, and before Israel awoke to the situation – the Rebbe called for a conference of Jewish children for prayer that would prevent the impending disaster.

Immediately after the outbreak of hostilities, when Israel spoke of the “destruction of the Third Temple”, the Rebbe promised that the victory in this war would be greater and more glorious than its predecessor but urged Israeli leaders to occupy Damascus, the Syrian capital, for a short time. When his calls were not answered, the Rebbe predicted to his sorrow that the State of Israel may still regret and suffer from Syria and its affiliates in the future.

1990 - The fall of the Soviet Union

In the mid-1980s, the Rebbe predicted that very soon the Soviet regime would fall and Jews would be given the long-awaited permission to leave the Soviet Union.

Despite the pessimism in the world in the face of voices rising from Moscow, the Rebbe repeatedly urged the Israeli government to prepare the ground for the absorption of hundreds of thousands of new immigrants.

As the Rebbe predicted: The fall of the union that toppled hundreds of millions of people around the world was “without a single bullet shot”…

1991 - The Gulf War

As is well known, in the run-up to the outbreak of the Gulf War, the threshold of anxiety among Israeli citizens was very high in the face of the Iraqi ruler’s threats to bomb Israel with chemical weapons.

The Rebbe predicted, above every possible stage and unlike all the experts, that no gas bombs would fall on the land of Israel and that the Land of Israel is the safest place in the world!

As the Rebbe predicted: The results of the war blended miraculously with the Rebbe’s words when 39 Scuds who fell on the land of Israel caused damage to property only and no casualties and none of them contained chemical weapons.

In addition, the Rebbe predicted that the war would end on the holiday of Purim (March), and his words are known to have been fully fulfilled when on the holiday of Purim of 1991 a ceasefire was signed in the victory of the Allies.

The Upcoming redemption

From the day he took office as president of the Chabad Chassidic movement in 1951, the Rebbe announced that our generation was “the last generation of exile and the first generation of redemption.”

The Rebbe said that this means that we will be privileged to see, already in our generation, the beginning of the fulfillment of the biblical prophecies that speak of the redemption – the new and better world order in all areas of human life.

Over the years, the Rebbe has pointed out that global upheavals in governments around the world, economic prosperity, technological progress, advancing the status of women, improving the treatment of minorities and people with disabilities, the immigration of Jews from around the world to the Land of Israel – all these and more, symbolize the real and complete redemption that the world has been waiting for thousands of years.

The Rebbe also said that the straightforward way to expedite the process of the coming of the Messiah (which many believers see in the Rebbe as the most suitable candidate for the position) – is that everyone will add good deeds based on the faith in One Creator and thus we can “polish” the world and transform it into the beautiful Gem it can be!