The knowledge of G-d will fill the earth as waters cover the seas: Cabbie Lectures Religious Jew About Who the Rebbe Is.

Personal Encounter from Shmuel Graybar:

FROM ARAM-NAHARAIM WITH LOVE

I took a cab home from an appointment, and found the driver to be a friendly, talkative Russian-speaking man. I asked him, “Kak tibya zavut?”, or “What’s your name?” Let’s just call him Ivan. Seeing I spoke a little Russian, he asked me where I was from. I told him I was born in America, and had lived all over. I added that my grandparents had been socialists, but now I am a Lubavitcher Chassid.

Well that excited him. He said he was a Russian Orthodox Christian, whose people were descended from the ancient Arameans of the Bible (my language is sister language to your Hebrew!) He compared expressions in both languages, and it was fun to see the similarities. He shared his knowledge of the ancient world, and spoke of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, of Syria and Babylon, of his proud people, now living in Chicago and Detroit and New York, yet tracing their ancestry back 4000 years as if it were yesterday.

Then came the kicker: Ivan had heard a lot of, and seen photos of the Rebbe of Lubavitch, and had said to himself, “This may just be the Messiah!” I smiled and said yes the Rebbe is a great man. He became agitated! “No! Not just great man! The Rebbe is prorok!” I asked him what that meant and he said “Like Daniel in Bible! Like Abraham and Isaac and Yakob!” I said “You mean a prophet?” and he said yes, yes, a prophet!

Before he dropped me off at my home, we exchanged numbers on our cell phones (still a miracle to me…right out of Star Trek and Dick Tracy comics). He told me he was going back to Russia for two months, but agreed he would call me on his return, and we would go to a shiur in the Seven Mitzvahs Bnei Noach. I look forward to learning with him, but that taxi driver had just taught me two important lessons:

First, that the world is certainly ready for Moshiach and second, that as Chassidim of the Rebbe we need not understate what we believe to be true. On the contrary, as the Rebbe repeatedly said, people not only respect you more the more firmly you state your case, but in fact people are starving for true leadership, and someone to look up to!

The most important thing I learned, however, was this: All the old jealousies and competition between nations, between brothers, between Lavan and Esov and our father Yakov, that brought our people so much pain, are melting away. People just have no time or energy for them anymore. People are saying “What are we fighting for?” If a Chassidic Jew and an Orthodox Christian can sit and reminisce about life 40 centuries ago and still agree on so much today, in such a loving manner, then certainly the words of all the prophets, including our Rebbe, are coming true before our very eyes.