Can a tzaddik's wish still be fulfilled after he is gone?

Rabbi Landau answers with a story about the Rivnitzer Rebbe. The Rebbe always loved bochurim; he cared for them and embraced them to bring them closer to Hashem, and he always said, “I want to have a yeshiva after me.”

Rabbi Landau says it took many years for that wish to come about. About half a year after the yeshiva and kollel were opened, he was with one of the great mekubalim, who said to him, “You just opened up a yeshiva and a kollel for the Rebbe.” When Rabbi Landau said yes, the tzaddik told him, “The Rebbe says that he told you to do it.” Asked why the Rebbe had told them, he answered: because the Rebbe knew that they were going to do it.

Today, Rabbi Landau says, the yeshiva and kollel have grown to include many talmidim and families, and he can say that the Rebbe is proud of them. He describes what the Rebbe wanted for his talmidim in these words: “He gives them a neshama, the heart of every bochur.”

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

The Rivnitzer Rebbe wanted a yeshiva after him, and when it was finally opened, a great tzaddik told Rabbi Landau that the Rebbe had told them to do it.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

How can it be called the Rebbe's yeshiva if it was built after him?

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau raises this exact question: is calling it his school only a sentimental way of honoring his memory, or is it something real?

What may be behind it

He writes that “I knew that they would do this” does not mean the Rebbe only foresaw the future. By truly knowing his students and seeing the strength hidden in them, he gave them the power to do it.

Deepest human truth

Rabbi Landau writes that someone carrying out his master's will is not acting alone: the master has already seen him, and that knowing becomes his strength.