Some time after his release, the Previous Rebbe asked one of his Chassidim if he remembered seeing him behind bars.
Our Rebbe says we need to explain why a Prince –a Nasi of Yisrael-- who had been imprisoned [although temporarily] needed to point out later that had been behind bars. The explanation is that when the Previous Rebbe was behind bars, for a short time, he could not spatially connect to his Chassidim.
This was not the case between the Previous Rebbe and our heavenly Father as its written, “Even an iron curtain can not separate a Jew from his heavenly Father.”
Nevertheless, even in jail the Previous Rebbe could be seen behind those bars. Seeing reflects a bond of essence to essence. That essential bond nullifies the separation caused by the bars. So too, this bond allows us to nullify the separation between the essence of our soul and its revealed powers--intellect and emotions.
Everyone who hears this account has an intrinsic bond to it. He must remember how the Previous Rebbe was behind bars. How he stood with mesiras nefesh for Torah and Mitzvos. And how, really, the whole time he was Rebbe, he stood with actual mesiras nefesh. This memory will arouse our own power of mesiras nefesh which comes through a revelation of the Yechida of our soul.
