The Rebbe's energy is so instrumental in helping us serve G-d properly, how is it possible that we still have free will?

The following is a unique private audience of the Rebbe that took place in the winter of 1969.Question: The Rebbe's energy is so instrumental in helping us serve G-d properly, how is it possible that we still have free will?
The Rebbe: The Torah says, regarding Moses: "I stand between G-d and the Jewish people," because connecting directly with G-d is a challenge. The Jews pleaded with G-d to place an intermediary between the Jews and G-d. Each generation has its own Moses.
To understand this from a worldly perspective: when a regular person has an appointment to speak with the king, it is such a momentous occasion that in preparation for even a brief audience, the person dons brand new clothes and buys new shoes. He will need to know in advance what to speak about and, more importantly, how to speak to a king.
How does such a person prepare himself? He contacts an official or a lawmaker who is intricately familiar with the laws and customs of speaking to a king, and who will advise him on how to get a message across to a king.
The same applies spiritually: G-d intended for you to get involved in a specific type of business through which you became, thank G-d, very wealthy. Now your avodah (task) is also to give tzedakah (charity). There are times during the year, like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when it is relatively easy for a Jew to communicate directly with G-d. However, reaching G-d on your own on a regular basis is a very difficult task. You go to a tzadik (righteous person), who knows how to speak to G-d, and this tzadik communicates on your behalf.
Regarding your question of free will: A wealthy and respectable person who wants to build a house still needs to find a contractor who will actually do the work, an architect to make the blueprints etc.; he will have to find someone specific for each detail of the house. In building a house it is impossible for one person to do everything.
It is true that there may be some people who are wealthy and they are also contractors themselves and this person can build a house on his own, but only a select few individuals can do all things involved in building a house.
When this wealthy person builds a house, the fact that he relies on various different people, with different professions, doesn't mean that his image as a wealthy and respectful person is diminished. Rather, he needs money to pay other professionals to do the various tasks, and without money, he indeed would not get anywhere.
The same in spirituality: a Jew who is occupied with business and with giving charity still needs a tzadik for help. On his own, a Jew does not have sufficient merits; he therefore needs the tzadik to elevate him closer to G-d.
For example: how do you connect a Jew here in Brooklyn who gives money in order to help free a Jew in Russia? How can a Jew in Russia give someone a part in a mitzvah (commandment)? The same thing regarding a Jew from here who gives money, enabling a Jew in Tel Aviv to don tefillin - how are those two people connected?
The fact that the Jew from here is connected to me and the Jew who is in Russia is also connected to me, and I know how to speak to the Above, I connect both of these Jews together. I am a physical human being like you. It is just that G-d gave me the strength to help out Jew.

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