Rabbi Shmaryahu Gurary ("Rashag") was born in 1898; his father, a wealthy businessman and erudite scholar, was a leading chassid of the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom DovBer Schneersohn (1860-1920). In 1921, Rabbi Shmaryahu married Chanah Schneersohn (1899-1991), the oldest daughter of the 6th Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (1880-1950). When Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak passed away in 1950, there were those who saw Rabbi Shmaryahu -- an accomplished Chassidic scholar and elder of the Rebbe's two surviving sons-in-law -- as the natural candidate to head the movement; but when the younger son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, was chosen as rebbe, Rabbi Shmaryahu became his devoted chassid. Rabbi Shmaryahu served as the executive director of Tomchei Temimim, the world-wide Lubavitch yeshiva system -- a task entrusted to him by his father-in-law -- until his passing on the 6th of Adar I in 1989.
Thoughts can give life. Thoughts can kill.
For example, a soldier. The Torah commands a soldier at war, “Do not allow your heart to weaken. Do not fear. Do not panic.”
Imagine this: An army is racing towards you. Your eyes have witnessed their savagery. How can you command your heart not to fear?
Maimonides explains: Don't think those thoughts and you will not fear. Dodge them as you dodge a flying arrow.
Because such thoughts threaten not only your life, they endanger the entire nation.
A soldier must think only one thought: What must I do right now?
Today, we are all soldiers.