‘Who Was the Greatest Rebbe’

Episode 85: "Who Was the Greatest Rebbe" — Transcript

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

Since today is about two and a half weeks away from Gimmel Tammuz — the holy day, twenty-seven years already since Gimmel Tammuz — I thought I would prepare something special. With Hashem's help I will speak about something very special that happened in the Rebbe's room while Rabbi Mindel was there — letters also that Rabbi Hodakov wrote, which we haven't shared with you yet. B'ezras Hashem, next week, in two weeks, it will be a continuation. But today I want to say something else, since people called me this week, and last week, about Chabad.

Mostly, as you know, I used to be a teacher in a yeshiva in Brooklyn for many years. And now these children are out there grown up — some of them are Roshei Yeshiva in Lakewood, some of them in Baltimore, in Chaim Berlin — and we're in touch from time to time. Now, before Gimmel Tammuz, they got together and called me, and they wanted to know what Rabbi Mindel and Rabbi Hodakov would feel today about Lubavitch, about Moshiach, and about the other things that are happening — how would they react toward the whole situation that is growing, Hashem yerachem. And they wanted to know — did they ever say anything about whether the Rebbe is alive or the Rebbe is not alive? You know, some people say this, some say that. So they wanted to know if there are any notes about this.

I answered them that I don't have any information. I never spoke to Rabbi Mindel about this, and I was trying to find notes that Rabbi Mindel wrote, and I couldn't really find any. But since you're asking, maybe I will share my thoughts about it. I didn't tell them that directly — I said, if you listen to my program, I will discuss it there, because they listen almost every week. They also told me it's not only them, but many people want answers, and the one who has no doubts, who isn't fooling himself, wants to know straight what is the shitah of the Rebbe. And who can I ask? Rabbi Hodakov and Rabbi Mindel came with the Rebbe in 1940, and they were here the whole time, so they would know — but I have no notes about that.

So I asked them, tell me specifically what questions you have, what would you like to know. They told me they heard from mashpiim that "the Rebbe is Nasi HaDor" — I said yes, I know, that's the halacha. They heard from mashpiim that "Nasi" is an abbreviation meaning he never died — that this is the same idea as saying the Rebbe did not die and the Rebbe is alive b'gashmius. This is what they asked me. I did not give them the answer, and I told them this is one of the things we'll discuss on the program.

They also asked me — they heard, which I never heard, but maybe it's true — that the Mezritcher Maggid, after his histalkus, his place was passed on; he was sitting at the table, people saw him sitting at the table. So they asked me, is that why, when davening in 770, the Rebbe's chair is kept ready — they see the Rebbe's chair ready for the Rebbe to come in — maybe we think we might see the Rebbe? This is what they asked me. These are learned people, and they're interested — they learn sichos. There are certain questions that they want to know, and I'm sure many other people would also like to know.

Now, who am I to say? I'm not a spokesman for Chabad. I can only say my opinion — that's all I can say. I didn't hear it from anybody — not from Rabbi Hodakov, not from Rabbi Mindel. Now, I usually don't say my own opinion — whatever I say, I say because I heard it from Rabbi Hodakov, Rabbi Mindel, or from older chassidim, real chassidim, or my father. Otherwise I don't say my own opinion. But this time I will, since people are asking, and I told them I would discuss it. So this is only what I think this is what Rabbi Hodakov and Rabbi Mindel would say — only my opinion.

First of all, we spoke a few times — I heard from Rabbi Mindel that he told somebody: you should be like a bee, not like a spider. A spider makes a web, and the web comes from inside the spider. A bee makes honey, but the honey does not come from the bee itself — the bee goes around and collects it. So whatever you say, you have to know that it comes from somewhere. And even the Alter Rebbe says [Hebrew — unclear] when he wrote the Tanya. So usually we don't like to say our own opinion, and I never do — but here I do want to say something, because people are asking, and I told them I would discuss it.

The Gemara says, "Yaakov Avinu lo meis" — our father Yaakov did not die. But we see that Yaakov Avinu was buried — when you go to Me'aras HaMachpeilah, you see Yaakov Avinu is there, together with Odom and Chavah, Avraham and Sarah. So Yaakov did die — so what does "lo meis" mean? The Gemara explains: if his children are alive, then he is alive — meaning that Yaakov Avinu's children are alive, they follow in the path of their father, so the father is alive. You can also answer this with any father, any parent who raises children — when the father, the grandfather, passes away, he is always alive because the children are alive. Avraham Avinu was not less of a tzaddik than Yaakov — not because they were less of a tzaddik, but because their children were not like Yaakov's children. Avraham Avinu had a son, Yishmael, and Yitzchak had a son, Eisav. That's why by them it doesn't say [lo meis], but by Yaakov all his children were tzaddikim. So "lo meis" doesn't mean physical — that's number one.

Also, we do see that the Torah does use the word "vayamos" — "he died" — regarding Yaakov, and Rashi says, right there, in Parshas Vayechi, that there is no break in the text — the parsha is "stumah," closed — because of what happened when they went down into Mitzrayim. Rashi uses the word "niftar" — that Yaakov was niftar. So that's number one, and I think this is what they would say — only my opinion — to explain what "the Rebbe is alive," or what "alive" means.

Number two: it says, when a tzaddik passes away, he is called "chai" — "chai" means life, not physical life. Every tzaddik, when he passes away — the Zohar says that his presence afterward is even greater than when he was alive. B'ezras Hashem, in the coming weeks, we will explain that, but in short: when a tzaddik is alive, the neshamah is in the guf, so it's more limited. Afterward, it's unlimited — it's more — we'll go into it later. So this is the answer, as far as whether the Rebbe is alive, what "alive" means.

Now, if I had heard from the Rebbe saying that the Alter Rebbe is alive, and it's all the same — but I never heard the Rebbe say that the previous Rebbeim are alive b'gashmius. The Rebbe did say, when he sat shivah for the Frierdiker Rebbe, that week he said the word, he could have said it one time — and that is a different thing, because within shivah, when the person is being consoled within shivah, it's the same idea as [consoling for] the Frierdiker Rebbe.

Another question I was asked: who is greater, the Alter Rebbe or the Rebbe? Who can answer that? We are not on that level to say who is greater. But I'll tell you what I think: if the Alter Rebbe would have lived in the year Tof-Shin-Pei-Alef — today — he could not have been a Nasi. If the Rebbe would have lived in the time of the Alter Rebbe, he could not have been a Nasi. Every Nasi, in his generation, is the Nasi — just like Moshe Rabbeinu was the Nasi of the dor hamidbar, the generation of the desert, but Moshe Rabbeinu could not have been the Nasi of a generation that needed a different kind of yeshua. So everyone is a Nasi in his generation — not that one is bigger or smaller, but he is what he is in that generation. The Rebbe is the Nasi today; in the Alter Rebbe's time, when the Alter Rebbe was here, the Rebbe was not the Nasi — the Alter Rebbe was the Nasi. So it's not a matter of who is greater. This is the answer to the people who are asking these questions.

Now, when we learn Chassidus, or when we learn anything in Torah, you can't take things literally the way it sounds — you always need a mashal to explain it. I will share with you something I personally experienced. In the eighties, there was a Rabbi [Ten Obama? — unclear name], he was the principal of a yeshiva on Ocean Parkway, and as he got older he asked me if I could help him as assistant principal. So for a couple of years I helped him. There was a class of thirteen-year-old boys who learned Chassidus in the morning, and davened, and afterward the mashpia left and they were davening. I walked into the room in the middle of davening, and I saw, on the mizrach wall, a picture of the Rebbe. You're not supposed to daven in front of a picture on the mizrach wall. So of course, after that, I called some of the children over and said, you're not allowed to have that. He said, well, we learned that "the Rebbe is Elokus dressed in a guf" — G-d dressed in a body. Okay — if the mashpia told him that, which is true, but if they told him that, he should have explained it — apparently it was not explained. So I called the mashpia and said, what does that mean — you have to explain, you cannot say it literally.

The Rebbe did say that — every Yid has an Elokus within them, every Yid has a chelek in the Rebbe, and the Nasi HaDor is probably greater — he has a different, higher neshamah. That's what it means, "Elokus dressed in a body." But children — when you say that literally, they don't understand it. Of course it's true in the body, but you have to know how to explain. Everything has to be explained.

And here, in passing, I want to mention — a few weeks ago I mentioned a word from Rabbi Hodakov that also needs to be explained. He said: a Rebbe's brocha is beloved, but a person has a lot of thoughts, and whatever the Rebbe thinks, that's the way it's going to be. It doesn't mean that if a person has certain thoughts — a person thinks he's going to go, he's going to take a trip here or there, or he doesn't know where, and thinks "this is what's going to happen" — or a person thinks he's going to get this job or that job, and whatever the Rebbe thinks is something else entirely — that's not what it means. A person has, let's say, five or ten thoughts about something, and one of these thoughts the Rebbe is going to choose, not something else. Why? Because the ratzon of a Yid is one — so the thought of a Yid that is rooted in kedushah, the Rebbe doesn't ignore — if the Yid thinks about certain things, the Rebbe will choose that thought. But that's something else. So this is what I wanted to explain, what I mentioned a few weeks ago.

So, going back to what we spoke about: it's not important to say whether the Rebbe is alive or whether the Rebbe is not alive — the main thing is Gimmel Tammuz is coming up, and it's already twenty-seven years, so people should think: what would the Rebbe want us to do? And in my opinion, we have to learn the hadrachah — do mitzvos, do favors. What was the Rebbe's mesiras nefesh in this world? What did the Rebbe do? He helped other people. Everything else is not important, because we're not going to get anywhere with those debates.

Now, the last thing I want to say: there is a sicha from the Rebbe — I have the sicha — where somebody asked the Rebbe whether he is Moshiach or not, because this was a question I was asked as well. The Rebbe answers: there is no need to say who is Moshiach, but there is Am Yisrael — and he underlined the words "Am Yisrael." So we see from here that the most important thing is to learn Torah, do what Hashem wants, and that will be a preparation for Gimmel Tammuz.

B'ezras Hashem, next week we will continue with the second part, on the hadranos of Gimmel Tammuz. Thank you.