"...I was active in the Poalei Aguda Yosrael here, we got a request from Tel Aviv' from the headquarters, to go to the Lubavitcher Rebbe for advice and for a request... it had to do with elections there. The first time, we were there almost three hours .. In the delegation there was a guy who was a major in the Haganah, the Israeli Army - a tall guy, he came in military uniform, with an Israeli beret . . when we came it, he [the Rebbe] told us to sit down. The Rebbe started talking, he started asking question, before we even could ask about what we came for... And he focused on that major, Rolly Greisman was his name - a German Jew, tall, 6'3". The conversation with him took probably to and a half hours. It all centered . . only about the Army. He interrogated him about life in the IDF.
"In the beginning, the Rebbe asked him about cultural activities in the Army. But then, the Rebbe switched subjects, he started talking about military matters. "Which machine gun do they use?" They had the Thompson machine gun at that time, American surplus from the Second World War. "Why don’t you buy the machine gun from Sweden?". "Why, what's wrong with this one?" "The Thompson gun shoots x bullets per minute and the Swedish one shoots more bullets per minute... and it has a greater velocity also." "Alright".
Then the Rebbe asked about the tanks, the armored cars, how heavy were the protective steel plates on the sides. So he explained it to him, that the light ones are, let's say and inch; the others are two inches... "Are they straight or are they curved? Are they bent inwards or upwards?" He himself didn't remember. He said, "The curves I didn't see." "Why don't they use heavier steel plates?" "I don't know either." The Rebbe said, "I don't understand it!"...
For two hours, he went through all the armaments, the infantry, the armored troops, the paratroopers... - every single detail, and he [the Rebbe] had questions on everything. When we walked out Rolley said, "I've never seed such a thing! We don't even have in the IDF anybody who knows everything. Certain people know their part . . but never one who knows everything." He couldn't believe it."
The Lubavitcher Rebbe goes into great detail about every aspect of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and gives ideas of how to improve many things
