The Rebbe’s Response to a Conservative Rabbi

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

We are now in the week of Chanukah. As the Rebbe says many times, and he brings it from the Sages, from Chazal, the events that happened in the past are remembered and observed in Jewish life. Not only remembered, but also a lesson which should apply to our everyday life. That means that everything that happened years ago, we have to apply it, a lesson, what we can learn out from that. The Rebbe always speaks about that.

So one of the teachings of Chanukah is that the Chanukah lights have to be lit when the sun is set, when it's dark outside. Chanukah lights symbolize the light of Torah and mitzvos. The light tells us to light the outside, to spread Torah and mitzvos in the outside, to illuminate the home, the outside, everywhere around him. And as Chazal tell us, till every Jew is lit through Torah and mitzvos. That's one thing.

Another lesson that Chanukah teaches us: not to be satisfied with lighting one candle. Even though the first night you have to light one candle, the second night you have to light two, and the third night three, and so on. Never, never to be satisfied when it comes to Torah and mitzvos. We always have to increase, never be satisfied. Yesterday I did this and this, but you always have to add and do more.

Another lesson that is brought from Chazal: the Gemara says that the Chanukah candle is placed by the outside doorpost. That means it has to be at the doorpost, the outside door. *Mezuzah miyamin, ner Chanukah mismol*: the mezuzah has to be on the right side, and the candles have to be on the left side. That we have to know that at the same time as we should light the outside, the dark world, put Torah and mitzvos in it, to light up the outside world, at the same time we have to know that we should protect our own home, our children, our grandchildren, the house. In other words, that nothing from the outside should creep into our home, from the olam [?], from the false world. This is what ner Chanukah represents.

Now, when it says mezuzah miyamin, on the right side, what does that mean, a mezuzah on the right side and ner Chanukah? We know that the mezuzah is holy, and Chanukah is Torah and mitzvos, as we just said. But I saw in a sefer that "mezuzah" comes from three words. Mem is forty. Forty is Torah, because Moshe Rabbeinu, when he went to Har Sinai, was there forty days and forty nights to be mekabel [?] the Torah. That the children, the grandchildren, the parents should know that their house should be a home of Torah, that the walls should absorb the Torah. After 120 years, as it says, the walls will be a witness that this home was a home of Torah and mitzvos. That this home is a home of [unclear], a home of Avraham Avinu, an open home, a Yiddishe house. And when you have Yidden in the house, then the Aibershter is also in this home. And this is what the ner Chanukah [?] means: that all around with [unclear], from the time you walk into the house, we know that this is a house of Yidden, a house of Torah and mitzvos. You see this is a Yiddishe home.

Unfortunately, you see it even in some homes. The Frierdiker Rebbe mentioned the mode, the fashion, creeps into the home. And I'm not talking about people that don't go tznius [?], but they have to have clothes bedavka the latest fashion. And as you can see in the home, everything has to be the latest. This is also from the outside. So it should be the ikar, the main thing, a Yiddishe home.

Another lesson the Rebbe says that we can learn from Chanukah, and this is in another letter of the Rebbe, an English letter. A rabbi wrote to the Rebbe, a Conservative rabbi wrote to the Rebbe. I'm not going to say what he wrote, it's not important, but I'm just going to tell you what the Rebbe answered him. First of all, he was wishy-washy. He tried to make Torah and mitzvos a little bit, you know, wishy-washy. So the Rebbe answered him like this: say the way it is, take off your kid gloves. That's called the [unclear].

In the time of Chanukah there were, unfortunately, Jews who were called Hellenists. They learned and they followed the Greek culture, as we say in V'al Hanissim. They said: these are Yidden, these are Jews; learn Torah, but learn Torah as a culture. Learn Torah like the Greeks, learn Torah because you understand it with your sechel, but don't say that this is from the Aibershter [?]. Forget it. This is the war that the Hellenists had. This is the [unclear]. This is what they learned from the Greek culture.

Later on there were the Maskilim, also the same idea. That's how the Reform movement started: be a Jew in the house, a hundred percent be a Jew; as soon as you walk outside, be like everyone [?]. This is how the Reform and the Conservative movement started, to modernize Yiddishkeit. This was the [unclear]; today this is the Reform movement.

That's why the Rebbe said: say the way it is. It's not the Yid. A Yid is holy. As the Rebbe said, there is no Conservative, there is no Orthodox, there is no Reform. A Yid, a Jew, is a Jew, and we were all at Har Sinai, we all got the Torah the same way. The movement is the problem. And this movement started from Chanukah: the Hellenists, the Maskilim, and this is the Reform movement. And by the way, by the Reform, one of the biggest is Chanukah, and [unclear] is the problem that they made, because this is what they want, this is what they didn't want.

And as the Rebbe mentioned in the letter, there are no three generations of Reform. Did you ever hear a person [unclear] say that he has nachas from his great-grandchild, that he's a Reform Jew? There was never such a thing, because that's not called nachas. Either they do teshuvah and they become frum, they start keeping Torah and mitzvos, or, modern [unclear], G-d forbid, they go and they intermarry, and who knows where they go.

So this is the nes of Chanukah, that we got rid of these Hellenists. And the same thing also, that we have to put a light into the world, into the modern world. And just like in Mitzrayim: one of the reasons we went out of exile is *shelo shinu es shmam*, they didn't change their names. Michael is Michoel [?]; there's no Jack, it's Yaakov. A Jew keeps his name. *Shelo shinu es shmam*: they didn't change their names, they didn't change the language, and they didn't change their clothes. A Yid has to wear clothes the way [unclear].

So Chanukah should, one of the things, put a light into the Yidden, that they should do the Torah and mitzvos. And as Chazal tell us, all holidays will be batel, nullified, except Chanukah and Purim. Why Chanukah and Purim? I don't want to go into that.

So the same thing also, let's hope that this Chanukah [unclear], that we will put a light into the darkness, into the Yidden that need to have a light put into them. And we should be zocheh to the Geulah Shleimah, speedily, the redemption. Next week, im yirtzeh Hashem [?], we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.