President Javier Milei of Argentina is a busy man.
Despite the obligations of state, for the past two years Milei has attended Chabad-Lubavitch of Argentina’s annual tribute to the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. The president has come quietly, sitting in the balcony and requesting that organizers not announce his presence. The anniversary of the Rebbe’s passing on 3 Tammuz is a time of personal reflection for the president, who has not been shy about his admiration for the Rebbe, and he wanted to keep it that way.
But this year, stepping onto the stage at the 3 Tammuz tribute in Buenos Aires, marking 32 years since the Rebbe’s passing—the yahrtzeit corresponds this year with June 18—the president embraced Rabbi Tzvi Grunblatt, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Argentina, before turning to the hall packed with 2,000 people gathered to honor the most influential rabbi in modern history. He said it was an honor to take part in the tribute to the Rebbe.
“I’m used to coming to this event, but I’m usually hidden somewhere up there,” Milei said with a smile in his opening remarks, indicating the back rows on the upper level of the hall. “But since I couldn’t go unnoticed, I said, ‘Well, let’s talk directly from the stage.’”
Milei’s admiration for the Rebbe predates his time in office. His first trip abroad as president-elect was to the Ohel, the Rebbe's resting place in Queens, N.Y. In fact, he told the audience that his remarks would be drawn from his forthcoming book, which itself had been inspired by past 3 Tammuz gatherings in Buenos Aires and his engagement with the Rebbe’s teachings. “This has had a real impact on my way of thinking,” he explained.
“There is a teaching I once heard at a conference like this commemorating the Rebbe, and it has stayed with me ever since,” the president said. “The Rebbe’s mission was not to guide his people to the Promised Land, but to bring heaven down to Earth …. G‑d desires to have a dwelling in the physical world, in the lower realms. It is not we who strive to reach Heaven. It is the Creator who wishes to dwell on Earth. G‑d’s total eternal and final sovereignty is not confined to the heavens. It is on Earth.
“This teaching has its roots in the Torah,” Milei continued. “In the book of Leviticus, the Creator promises ‘If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments and perform them,’ then I will give you reigns in their season and the land shall yield its produce and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Material prosperity is a natural consequence of spiritual obedience. Paradise is not attained. It is brought about and it is brought about by fulfilling G‑d’s law here on this earth, [the Torah]. … It is a program. It is about bringing paradise to earth, and to bring it, man must fulfill G‑d’s law.”
Living according to the Torah, he told the audience, quoting directly from the text, is the only way to lead a life of real meaning and spiritual connection.
The president drew a parallel from last week’s Torah portion of Shelach, connecting it to the story of the spies who, rather than commit themselves to settling the Land of Israel, preferred to remain in the desert under G‑d’s direct care, free to devote themselves to Torah study alone. Echoing the Rebbe’s teaching that G‑d placed humanity in the physical world not for them to hide from challenges and temptations that surrounds us but to elevate this physical realm, Milei said that this was the mission of all people.
‘Our Shepherd and Father Figure’
The 3 Tammuz tribute is organized each year by Chabad’s Tzach of Argentina, under the leadership of Rabbi Levi and Etty Silberstein, and is a joint project of Chabad emissaries across the country.
Among this year’s program was an address from Rabbi Grunblatt on the Rebbe’s enduring legacy and continuously growing impact, and a video telling the story of the Scharf brothers of New York, whom the Rebbe took under his wing after their father passed away tragically young, receiving the Rebbe’s personal attention and care.
The evening’s most personal testimony came from Yosef Chaim Ohana, 25, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival by Hamas during the Palestinian terror attack on Oct. 7. Known among friends for his courage, Yosef Chaim had stayed behind that morning to help others escape, even as rockets and gunfire fell across the festival grounds, and was last seen aiding the wounded before he was taken hostage. He spent 736 days in captivity before his release this past October, among the last living hostages to come home. Addressing the hall in Spanish, he spoke of how his faith carried him through nearly two years in captivity.
His father, Avraham, spoke as well, of the relationship with the Rebbe that sustained him through the search for his son. A month after Yosef Chaim was taken, Avraham traveled with 170 family members of hostages to the Ohel, the resting place of the Rebbe, to pray for their loved ones safe return.
Ahead of Sukkot this past fall, Avraham held onto his belief that his son would come home before the holiday ended, and bought a lulav and etrog in the hope that Yosef Chaim would be able to perform the mitzvah himself. Yosef Chaim was freed on Hoshana Rabbah, the last day “The Four Kinds” are blessed and shaken, among 19 other hostages released alive that day.
Hours after returning home, he recited the blessing over the lulav and etrog that his father had bought for him months before. Just weeks later, Yosef Chaim visited the Ohel himself to thank G‑d for his salvation, and the Rebbe for his blessings.
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