Following their dramatic showdown, Yaakov tells Eisav that he will meet him at Mt. Seir, but never shows up there. Based on this story, the Gemara says that if a non-Jew asks a Jew where he is going the Jew should name a point beyond his immediate destination lest the non-Jew lie in wait for him at his true destination and ambush him. Being that the commentaries on the Talmud ruled long ago that this concern no longer applies, the Rebbe asks what relevance this teaching has for us today.

Rabbi Shais Taub explains by way of a story that took place in 1991 when Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch’s Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky arranged for the European Regional Kinus HaShluchim to take place in the then USSR.

Based on Likkutei Sichos vol. 20, p. 164.