Cable to Jewish Life

[Alan S. Broner]

In Loving Memory

In the middle of producing this show about the Rebbe and "his" paintings I
suffered the terrible loss of the passing of my father, Rabbi Yehoshua Zelig
Katzman, o.b.m., after suffering a massive stroke and then falling into a coma
for 19 days, first in London and then in New York.

Your prayers for his recovery were very much appreciated and although we
ultimately suffered this great tragedy, perhaps G-d will grant us the wisdom
to see how your prayers were also answered.

Finally you offered your condolences to me and my family for which we are very
grateful. It was an outpouring of love and sympathy from thousands of people
all over the world, which truly warmed our hearts. For this we say thank you;
may you all be blessed with only good and happy days for the rest of time, and
may G-d pay attention to your kind deeds and send us the Moshiach at once when
we will once again be reunited with our loved ones for everlasting peace and
tranquility in our Holy Land in the third Temple, where my late father will
serve as a honored Kohen very soon.

My father was a true Chasid in the full sense of the word, a man of few words
and many deeds, a great scholar and a very humble man. Those who knew him will
very much miss him and those who did not know him may certainly learn about
him and learn to emulate his ways and bring honor to his soul, and to help
turn this world into a better place, which will ultimately welcome Moshiach.
(I hope to share some of his life with you on our show on future programs.)

Just another reason why we need Moshiach Now!

Rabbi Yosef Katzman
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The Rebbe and "His" Painting

Cameras--shmameras. They got their places. But art--O that glorious art that
gives you the vision to make invisible things visible!--it has made even one
artist and his wife look back 2,500 years in their Persian history and
suddenly decide to become observant Jews--something Rafael Nouril never
thought was in his paint brushes, living a completely secular life first in
Iran and then in London.

Like most stories that begin small and get blown out of proportion, such is
the story about classical portrait painter Rafael Nouril's saga with opening
his eyes and seeing things he never saw before. It began with a little mute
girl whom the Nourils felt very close to. She wanted to speak so badly that,
in trying to, she developed a hernia, which meant she had to have an
operation.

So touched by their little friend, the Nourils turned to their neighbors, who,
the night before the operation, contacted the Lubavitcher Rebbe for a
blessing. The word came--"You shall have good news"--and altered the history
of the little girl. Not only was the hernia operation a success, but--Praise
G-d!--the little girl spoke for the first time, and has been singing joyful
songs since.

Which also left Rafael Nouril in awe! Who was this Rebbe who grants such
blessings that come true? Right away, Nouril knew he had to paint this holy
man. But how would he do that? It was one thing to paint Henry Kissinger, the
Shah of Iran or even actress and book author Joan Collins. But that was not
the same as capturing a spiritual being on canvas.

What to do? Again the answer quickly came. He must live the life style of an
Observant Jew. He must put on tefillin, and pray three times a day, and study
many photographs of the Rebbe, who was still at the time 3,000 miles away from
him. In gratitude toward the Rebbe, he did all that, and more, and out of that
came the two most famous paintings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the "Portrait
of the Two Rebbes," Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and his father-in- law
and previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn.

As anyone who has seen these paintings knows, they are powerful, charismatic
paintings, and, indeed, many Jews around the world have started on the path of
teshuvah in their merit. Even the Rebbe, upon first seeing these paintings,
was deeply moved to say, "They are even better than the original photographs."

This week, "A Cable to Jewish Life" proudly brings you a fascinating and
irrefutable proof that if one brings his body to Judaism, his mind is sure to
follow.

"Yes," says Nouril, "the Rebbe blessed this little girl and later my wife and
I to spreadYiddishkeit through my paintings, but only now do I understand what
the Rebbe meant by 'Blessing and success, and a complete recovery in all other
matters--even more than may be expected.' It wasn't just the physical
recovery of this little girl that was intended, but the spiritual recovery of
my entire family. For the Rebbe's blessing caused the mute to speak, and those
who slumber to awake to the light of truth."

So, cameras--shmameras. They got their places. But not on this Sunday's "A
Cable to Jewish Life" show, where art is the big thing, where the Rebbe, in a
sense, "painted" a famous painter in deep Jewish colors. The date is March 29,
1998, at 9:30 a.m. (Eastern time, 8:30/Central; 7:30/ Mountain; 6:30/ Pacific)
on more than 450 stations over the "International Channel" in the USA, Canada,
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Until we meet again...this time with Moshiach, we wish you a bracha and
hatzlacha, and all the best.