A Discussion Between the Rebbe’s Secretaries About Shluchim

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel archives.

I think this note Rabbi Mindel wrote was around a Kinus Hashluchim — I don't know, it doesn't say a date, I don't know which Kinus Hashluchim — that he had a meeting with Rabbi Hodakov. And I want to share the conversation that Rabbi Mindel had with Rabbi Hodakov. And Rabbi Mindel, as you know, used to write down everything, so this is from his notes.

Both Rabbi Mindel and Rabbi Hodakov were both part of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, and they had equal authority. Rabbi Hodakov was the Menahel, and Rabbi Mindel was the Mazkir Rashi — as it says in the back of the siddur, the Siddur Tehillat Hashem, there's a page that says the phrase "Mazkir Rashi." So Rabbi Hodakov was the administrator of Merkos, was the head of the Shluchim — that was his task. And Rabbi Mindel had a different task: he worked with the Rebbe translating the Tanya into English, he wrote the Shmuessen, "Talks and Tales," and he was busy writing books — the Code of Jewish Law, the Memoirs, "My Prayer," "The Philosophy of Chabad." And also he took dictation from the Rebbe — all the letters, all the English letters, were in Rabbi Mindel's wording. Most of the Igros Kodesh, not all, were Rabbi Mindel's. And also all the Michtavim Klolim were Rabbi Mindel's — those he used to take dictation for. So this was his task, and Rabbi Hodakov had a different task.

Now, everyone has close friends. Rabbi Hodakov and Rabbi Mindel both, more or less, are from the same upbringing. They're both [unclear] — they both came on the same boat with the Frierdiker Rebbe. They went to the same school, more or less. So if Rabbi Hodakov needed to speak something over, I think Rabbi Mindel was the person. Rabbi Hodakov was much older than Rabbi Mindel; Rabbi Mindel had a lot of respect for him. So, from time to time, they used to discuss certain things. So this is a note that Rabbi Mindel wrote — the discussion.

Rabbi Hodakov said in the meeting: "You remember, with the Frierdiker Rebbe, you and I were sitting — we came to America to make a name." Coming to America, everything — the goal is education, to bring Moshiach — that is what he called it. He said that is the Ikar, that's the primary thing.

And whenever the Rebbe speaks about a farbrengen, and he says whatever happened — whether about Shluchim or learning, whatever the Rebbe says — he speaks to everybody. We are all Shluchim of the Rebbe; everybody is a Shliach. Whoever does the Rebbe's work is called a Shliach. The Rebbe doesn't just speak to Shluchim; he speaks to everybody.

So he writes here: whether you live in Brooklyn, New York, and you are a first-grade teacher, or you live in Africa — he writes Africa, why Africa, I don't know — and you're a fifth-grade teacher, or somewhere in Arizona you're an eighth-grade teacher, or you have a Sefer Torah, or you are in Yeshiva daily, or whatever it is — so what's the difference? I mean, there's a Shliach all around. He says the difference is: if a Shliach is married and has children, and he picks himself up with the family, and he writes, and he goes to a place which he called "midbar shemama" — with nachash akrav, snakes and scorpions, and there's nothing there — and it comes from New York, that's the mesirus [nefesh]. But otherwise, every Shliach — everyone is called a Shliach.

Now, by the way, Rabbi Hodakov did not mention this here, but I want to tell you: the Rebbe didn't send Shluchim — he did, I'm sorry, he did, but maybe a handful, maybe 20 people. The Frierdiker Rebbe picked Rabbi Biaming Garadetsky [?] to Charlotte. However, I think all of us were Shluchim — Nissan Pinson [?] to Morocco, Matusof [?], maybe more — but most of them, the Rebbe didn't pick; it didn't work like that. They wrote to the Rebbe that they wanted to go to this place, and either the Rebbe was maskim [agreed] or the Rebbe was not maskim, or they have answered, or whatever they answered. So they're called Shluchim, but the Rebbe did not actually pick them. Usually you'd call somebody and say, "Here, take this and go there" — that didn't happen that way.

Now, we all were Shluchim, and we all [unclear]. Now, here is a letter — somebody wrote to Rabbi Hodakov that "we are in a higher category, we're in a higher level." Rabbi Hodakov did not like that — Shluchim are not in a higher level; they are doing the Rebbe's work, but nobody is in a higher level — we are all doing the Rebbe's work. The reason is, Rabbi Hodakov said here, that they come together once a year — they should come together. This is for everybody, from all over the world, as well as Israel, so they come together. But everybody is equal — this is what the note says, this is what he told him.

And then he said a Shliach must know two things. Number one — [unclear] — he says a Shliach is a Shliach 24 hours: he sleeps, as he says, he eats, he walks, he teaches — everything that he does, so he has to always think that he is sent by [the Rebbe]. If he fails, then he failed — that's very strict — a Shliach has to know that. That's number one, that he's a Shliach 24 hours, always has to know this.

Another thing he said here: a Shliach has to know what is a Tofel and what is an Ikar, what is primary and what is secondary. They're both important — the primary is important, and the secondary, the Tofel, is also important, but he has to know what's an Ikar and what's a Tofel. And he gave an example here. The example he gave is like this: first of all, he says, when people go to — and you mentioned Washington, because maybe this was also around the time that they had to go to Washington, I'm not sure — public relations is important, you have the public relations, but if you put your whole mind into that — and this is what happens 90 percent of the time — that's only a Tofel. The purpose of public relations is because you have to speak about release time, and they should accomplish something — but that's the key, but the public relations itself is only a Tofel.

Then he says — a wagon, I know you call it a wagon, but it's really a car — needs a car [and a] driver. This is like a car dealer: the car is to travel to do a mitzvah or to learn Torah with people, but the car itself is nothing. A Chabad House — and every home is a Chabad House, he also said — he said the house is a Tofel. What's the Ikar is what's in the Chabad House. People put their minds always into buildings — whether you have one building, two buildings, 20 buildings — some people have one building — is that the Ikar? The Ikar is what you do in the building, what you learn in the building. So a Shliach has to know this. This was the discussion, then, of what's an Ikar and what's a Tofel.

This says that's a time for him to make a Cheshbon. Rabbi Hodakov said, just like Elul, once a year a businessman, as the Rebbe said, makes a Cheshbon Hanefesh — did he make good business this year? If he didn't, how will he be next year? The same thing, also by the Kinus, is a time to make a Cheshbon: how many people did I put on Tefillin this year, and if I didn't do enough, I'll do it next year again; how many people did I put a mezuzah on; how many people did I get to sit and learn, to attend a shiur; how many people did I make their home kosher — these are what he mentioned — and how many children did I send to Yeshivas. This is the Ikar, and the other things are Tofel. This is what a Shliach has to know, and this is the purpose of the Kinus.

Now I want to mention something which he did not say, but I heard from a reliable source: every morning we say "Mah Tovu Ohalecha Yaakov, Mishkenotecha Yisrael" — how goodly are your tents, Yaakov, your dwelling places, Yisrael. Yaakov and Yisrael is one person — he is called Yaakov and sometimes Yisrael. Every soul, every year, has to have in them a Yaakov and a Yisrael. What's the difference? Yaakov is the heel — Akev — that's the lower part, that's the Gashmius of a person — that's the Tofel that a person needs. Yisrael is Li Rosh — that's the Ruchniyus. That's why a tent is temporary — you live in a tent a day, a month, a year, but that's not a home. So a person should know that he needs the Tofel — he needs a home, he needs a car, he has to make Parnasa — a Yid has to have it, he has to have it — but that's only temporary, a Mishkan. The Ikar — the learning, the Torah, the mitzvos that they're doing, what you're supposed to do — that's the "Mishkan Yisrael" — that's a Mishkan, that's a dwelling place — that is the Ikar.

So what I want to say is this is helpful, that we — we're also looking, we should make [unclear]. Thank you.