Rabbi Mindel’s Speech to YU Students

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel archives. We are now in special days, getting ready for Yom Kippur, a time of teshuva. So I want to ask everybody — if I offended anyone this year, I want to ask forgiveness. We should all have a good chasima tova, and all the brachos that we heard, from aleph to tav, and all the brachos that we say, Hashem should fulfill them, and we should be sealed this year for a good year, a gmar chasima tova.

At the end of this program I want to mention a very interesting vort that I heard from Rabbi Mindel, about "the mother," which he heard from Rabbi [Nemsu? — name unclear], but I'll leave that for the end of the program.

Concerning these days of teshuva: years ago Rabbi Mindel was asked to speak to a group of YU (Yeshiva University) students. I think it was Rabbi Lam [?], olov hasholom, who asked him to say a few words. I wrote down some points of what he said years ago, and later on I heard that a few people repeated this same thing, so I probably heard it from him, because I heard it years and years ago. So this is what I want to mention now.

He says: regarding the sin of the Golden Calf, Hashem said to Moshe Rabbeinu [recites — unclear] — meaning the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy — Hashem will forgive them. But this is when a person actually does [teshuva], not when a person just says it. Some people just say the words — they say the words and don't even know what they're saying — but they have to really do it, and then Hashem will forgive them.

What are the Thirteen Attributes? It's written: "Hashem, Hashem, Kel rachum v'chanun" — G-d, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in kindness and truth; He preserves kindness for two thousand generations, forgiving sin, and He cleanses us. So when people follow the same way — that we are merciful just as Hashem is merciful — then Hashem will forgive everybody.

[Reads/sings Hebrew — unclear]

And I heard many people afterward mention this gemara, but I'm going to say what I remember: that there was a man — it's a famous story in the gemara — who was a great baal taiva; there wasn't a single zonah that he hadn't visited. He had no morals at all. He heard that there was a woman far away whom he hadn't visited, so he spent a lot of money to travel to see her. He came to her, and even this woman rejected him — because he had traveled so many miles just to see her, she saw what kind of low life he was, so even she rejected him. At that point he became broken.

He realized that even she had rejected him for being a low life. The gemara says that after this he started to cry — he saw how low he had sunk, that even this woman rejected him — and he became completely broken. So he went and began a conversation with the mountains and hills: "Please, beg mercy for me, help me." They answered him, "We cannot do it for you — we have to ask mercy for ourselves." So he was turned away.

Then he went to the heavens and the earth — they also turned him away. Then he went to the sun and the moon — they also turned him down. Then he went to the stars and the planets — they also turned him down. Finally he realized the only answer depended on him alone — nobody could help him, it was totally up to him. Then he started to cry, and he cried until his soul left his body from the agony of his teshuva. And a heavenly voice came from heaven and called him to the World to Come. And when the Sages heard this story they cried, and they said: yes — you can achieve in one moment, in one turn — even though he had done all these things, the teshuva helped, until they called him "Rebbi."

This is what I heard, that Rabbi Mindel was saying over the story, and I think the lesson for us is that everybody has what to do. Now it's a time of teshuva, and now it's the special time of Yom Kippur. We should realize — the whole year maybe people don't think about it — but now is the time that Hashem reminds us that teshuva is a chance, a favor, to be forgiven for our sins — that's a favor for us. So everybody has to remember — it affects the person who spoke, the person you speak to, and the person you speak about. People get embarrassed — other people — people should start thinking this is the time to do teshuva between husband and wife, people should fix other things. Yes, show it — now is the time, and everybody knows within himself what is missing and what he has to do.

Now, the discussion with the mountains and the hills and all the rest — some people, I heard, blame others; they say, "I am no good because of other reasons." Let's say the mountains and the hills — [name unclear] mentioned that the mountains are called [harim], and the hills — these represent the parents, the mother and father. Sometimes a person blames his parents — he says, "It's not my fault, I did this because of my parents, I come from such a family," or "my parents raised me" — whatever the reason, and this is why he does it. Or he blames the heavens and earth, meaning the environment — he blames friends, he blames his teachers, maybe the school wasn't good, or whatever it is, and that's why he turned out this way. Or the sun and the moon — sometimes a person is born in a certain month, and every month has a mazal, so let's say the person was born in a month with not such a good mazal, so he blames that mazal — or whatever other excuses he has.

But then he realizes, after he was rejected, "That's me — that's only me, I cannot blame anybody, I have to blame myself and do the truth." And this is the main point we can learn from this. He himself came and did teshuva, and they called him "Rebbi."

Afterward, as I remember — I wrote this down — there was [an elder/father figure — unclear] who had a good son, and all of a sudden the father saw that he was reading books that were not the way he was supposed to, and then another book, and another book — this was the time of the Haskalah, I guess. So he turned away, until eventually he left town. He became an apikores — he wrote books, a genius, he wrote books about everything. One time, after a few years, he wanted to pass by and see his father. On the way he stopped by [the father/elder — unclear], took one book, opened to a page, and proved to him that he was wrong. Then [the father] gave him another book that he had written, and proved to him that he was wrong. And then he went away somewhere — I don't know where he went, I don't know exactly, the people didn't know where he was. Anyway, [the elder] said of him [words unclear].

So this is what I heard from my father. Since now is the time of Elul-Tishrei, I thought I would mention the story that my father mentioned.

Now I will tell you the vort that I heard, that Rabbi Mindel mentioned from his father-in-law, Rabbi [name unclear, possibly same as "Nemsu" above] — we all know he was learned, he was the one who began the practice of the farbrengen, the first farbrengen, when he became Rebbe — he's the one who announced about [unclear]. And he said — I think I'll mention this — that [Yitzchok] became blind, so he called over his son Eisav, and said to him: "Since I am going to die soon, I want to eat, and I want to bless you — give you a brocha now before [I die]." Why did he think he was going to die soon? Because usually, five years before a parent passes away, the son should start thinking about death. So [as the calculation goes]: Yitzchok was [a certain age], Eisav and Yaakov were only 120-something at the time, but he thought he didn't know whether it was five years before the mother or the father — Sarah, his mother, passed away when she was 127, so he thought maybe it meant five years before the mother. So he said, "Go and bring food."

Anyway, Rivka heard this, and Rivka told Yaakov: "I heard your father tell your brother Eisav, 'Go, I'll prepare food, go and get the blessing before Eisav comes.'" Yaakov didn't want to — Yaakov said, "But it's not true, I'm not ready." So Rivka said, "Don't worry, it'll be on my head."

And by the way — there are, I think, five pages — maybe I'll speak about it another time — where someone wrote to the Rebbe a whole discussion about why the Jews are called "Yehudim," and [the questioner asked] why, "because our mother Rivka wasn't honest" — and the Rebbe proved to him, in the [sicha/letter], how wrong he was. But that's another discussion, not for now.

Anyway, so what did Rivka do? She went and took out the clothing — the clothes of Eisav, the clothes that he used to wear to hunt, to kill, like a [hunter] — and she put that on Yaakov, and gave him food — "go with the clothes of Eisav and go get the brocha right away." So Yaakov went — and you know the rest of the story, I'm not going to go into that, you can always look it up.

So the question is raised: there was certainly a close relationship between Yitzchok and Rivka — couldn't she just go over to Yitzchok, instead of going all around and telling Yaakov to put on the clothes of Eisav and doing all this? Just go over to Yitzchok — "You're blind, that's right, you're blind, but I am the mother, I know my children. I know the character of Eisav, I know Yaakov" — why did she have to do it this long way, spend so much time doing this? Why did she do it this way?

So he mentioned the reason — he said, maybe — I don't know the actual reason why she did it this way, but she was the mother of the Jewish people until the End of Days, and she wanted that even the one who is dressed in the clothes of Eisav should also be blessed — meaning that even if a Jew has the outward appearance of Eisav, he's still a Jew; even if he's not shomer Shabbos, even if he doesn't keep kosher, still he has a neshama, he's a Jew, and he should be blessed. This is what she wanted to accomplish by putting on the clothes of Eisav and getting the blessing.

And then there is [a proof brought] — this, I don't know — it's [said as a lesson] — the proof is brought in the machzor: if you open up the machzor, right at the beginning — not in the regular siddur, only in the machzor — before Kol Nidrei, before the shofar — it says that it is permitted to pray with the transgressors. This is for the people who come once a year, people who don't go to shul, who don't learn, people who don't do mitzvos — but at least, right away, in the beginning of the machzor, this is mentioned — the accomplishment of how much we have to love them, and they will come, and they will do teshuva, and that's why it's put in the machzor.

I thought I would mention this interesting vort. One more thing I want to say: also on Yom Kippur, we are like angels, we put on a kittel, we daven all day, twenty-four hours, and we dive into the holiest day of the year. What do we read by Mincha? We read, before Ne'ilah, before Hashem closes the gates and gives everybody a gmar chasima tova — we read about forbidden relationships, the Arayos. Why? At the best time, when we are closest to Hashem, diving in all day — all of a sudden the Torah reminds us about immoral relationships — why?

So he said: we are now in the time of Tishrei, a very holy time, but we have to know that in a couple of hours, after Ne'ilah, we go out into the world, and we have to know that the world is a false world. We are holy now, we are connected, but don't forget — soon you're going to go into the world. You should take Yom Kippur — not only should Yom Kippur stay with you, but it should go with you into the world — and the holy days of Elul too — because all these things that we see in the world, the immorality that happens, we should know, and this reminds us, even on Yom Kippur.

So now, before Yom Kippur, I want to wish everybody a gmar chasima tova, a good year, and a happy New Year, and with all the brachos — and for people who need a refuah, they should all have a refuah shleima — because this year should be a better year than last year. This year should be the year of the geulah.