The Rebbe’s Request to Sources on What’s a Chossid

Historic Treasures — Episode 191 Transcript

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

A few weeks ago we mentioned about Rashag [?], with the bochurim — when he used to sit down with the bochurim, he would learn with them and also speak to them; he cared about them. And while speaking to the bochurim in those days, they started Release Time — you know, Wednesday Hour, we already had a program about Wednesday Hour — every Wednesday they go for an hour to teach public school children, which I don't want to go into today. But the bochurim went, so they knew what the situation in the world was there in America — the parents, ignorant people, didn't know. So they are the ones who actually suggested to the Rebbe, while the Rebbe was there, that they should make a kitzur. And the kitzur — I don't think it came from the Rebbe; the way I understand it, it came from them. And then the Rebbe told Rabbi Mindel, and he told other people.

You know, then there was a problem, which was that Rashag's [?] kitzur was too hard for them. And the Rebbe wrote about this, which I already mentioned; now, later on, I found more things on this. This is the whole pekel — the whole kitzur that was written, a kitzur. And the Rebbe wrote on this — it goes on. I'll tell you the hakdama: this is a copy of the Rebbe's — I don't know if you've seen the old stencils [?], they don't have them anymore — where the Rebbe marked a line about exactly how the layout should be, exactly where things should be, and the Rebbe wrote this. There were a few things here that someone was so careful how to do.

Here there are also notes — notes from the Rebbe; it wasn't yet finalized. Now here there is [unclear] — somebody wrote. So, after they told the Rebbe about the kitzur, a week later, or two weeks later, they started to do it and showed it to the Rebbe. They had these papers on the table, so the Rebbe took these papers and wrote on the back of the paper — he wrote hagahos, he wrote notations about the kitzur. So here are the notations — I mean, this is all numbered, here are notations. And then the Rebbe also wrote with tzetlach — you know, this is the Rebbe's handwriting, a different slip — it wasn't in order yet; I guess he did it for the bochurim. But the way the Rebbe did it is unbelievable, exactly where to look things up — this is a study in itself, and this should be printed. And I think whoever has the means should get the schools to sponsor this [unclear] — it would be a beautiful thing.

And these are the hagahos that the Rebbe wrote. I'm not going to show you the whole thing; this goes on from the morning — I'm just going to read you what the Rebbe wrote, starting from the morning, and I'll continue another time. So, here we see the greatness of the Rebbe — it's amazing. The Rebbe wrote the deepest things on this, truly mamash, and he didn't despair for a moment. The Rebbe, being a Nasi — not only a Nasi for Chabad, for the world — he was even for that; that's why he wanted that they should have his hagahos. You can see it's unbelievable — this approach he takes right away, without even looking much, he starts writing and brings things down from different places. You have to see it.

But the Frierdiker Rebbe — when the Rebbe came in '41 — told, I think, Rabbi Shmuel [?], about Rabbi Jacobson [?]: go and meet my son-in-law. I think he mentioned then — the way I understand it from my father-in-law — that his son-in-law, he says, would go [dressed] with a hat like that, with a [coat] like that, and with [bearing] like that, before such a person [arrived]. So you can see the humility — how he got up and knew who this was, and everything was done with humility.

We see the way that he sat for hours and hours, and the Rebbe — this is something I once mentioned in a program, that somebody wrote that the Rebbe could sit six hours, seven hours, and the wonder was that he never leaned back once. And you can see in the videos that he never leaned back, to show that it came from the brain, not the stomach — a person sitting and talking. And you hear, these nights, him answering all types of people — lawyers, doctors, [unclear], politicians, business people, everything — and then he had time to sit down and make hagahos, to sit down and make notations. If you think into this — I don't know if there was ever such a person. I mean, to make hagahos even on Talks and Tales, the children's magazine, children's things that Rabbi Mindel wrote; a speech that he went to deliver at a college — that he made hagahos on that too. And he was busy with — I mean, which person, and what?

He wrote also in English — letters in English. The only other one, I think, who wrote in other languages was the Rambam. Besides the Rambam, which other Rebbe wrote in other languages? The Rebbe himself wrote so much; we hear that the Rebbe also wrote in English. So here they did, and here he took the Shulchan Aruch which they made — I mean, they worked, my father-in-law worked, and then the Rebbe wrote.

So what I want to do is show you a few of the hagahos that the Rebbe wrote on the kitzur. First of all, a different page — I found the page here, I made a copy of it, that the Rebbe wrote on the kitzur. It starts with the regular kitzur — this is how it starts: "I'll get up in the morning" — the Rebbe started here: "Rising in the Morning" — from the Code of Jewish Law, "Rising in the Morning." So he made a kitzur on the Shulchan Aruch, but he wrote it on a separate paper here.

Let's see what it says: in the Shulchan Aruch it says that every person is obligated — it's a must to do the six mitzvos. That's how the kitzur starts, and only through learning Chassidus, by the way, do you really know how to fulfill these six. And he underlines "Shivisi Hashem l'negdi tamid." What are they? One is to believe in G-d. After that, fear of G-d. And "lo sasuru" — don't stray and turn after your heart and your eyes — only see this; you can understand these six things, he says. I don't know what's in the [unclear], but this was in there, and he brought this down.

Then he says, on the second paragraph — it's interesting, this goes on — here's one of the slips: the Rebbe wrote like this — when it says in the Shulchan Aruch, that's how it begins, but the kitzur — he didn't mention it, but he wrote on it, and gave it another heading, I guess: "az kanamer" — bold like a leopard, that's what it says. And then it says he shouldn't be intimidated by the scoffers — "kal kanesher" — light as an eagle — not to look on bad things; "ratz katzvi" — swift like a deer, to run quickly after good things; and "gibor ka'ari" — mighty as a lion.

Then there's a teaching that the body is made up of four elements. He brings this down here — oh, here, okay, the Rebbe, in his own handwriting: the four elements — fire, water, air, and earth — that's what the body is made of. We learned in Tanya also, a couple of weeks ago, this notion of the essence — arba, meaning four elements. The Rebbe brings down there: "az kanamer" — when the fire is burning [strongly in a person], that's called az kanamer, bold like a leopard. "Kal kanesher" — he writes here, when the element of air — when bad thoughts come to his mind. "Ratz katzvi" — when the element of earth overpowers him. "Gibor ka'ari" — when the power of water becomes strong, it's like a [unclear] — this is like a lion. So each animal he writes here with these characteristics. This is how he puts together a teaching here.

Now, in another place he wrote — and this is also, probably, I think it's also from the neshamos [discussion] that I saw — it's mentioned: "az kanamer" starts with a certain letter, "kal kanesher" starts with kuf, "ratz katzvi" starts with reish, "gibor ka'ari" — to give himself over — but his base is his gevurah, that's "akrav" — akrav means a scorpion. When the yetzer hara comes, let's say, from apathy, you have to work fast, he says, to get rid of it. So all these things here, he puts together.

So this is the beginning — right, daas means yedia, means acknowledgment, and to get rid of it is by nullification, by bittul, when you acknowledge something. Anyway, he goes into this whole thing here, which I myself am not exactly clear what the number is, but here are the notations that he wrote around this paper. This is the paper that the Rebbe was holding — I don't think you can see it all, it's written all around, it's almost falling apart.

Anyway, this is the kitzur Shulchan Aruch that I wanted to mention to you today. And this inyan — when we have time, another time, we'll continue about this. But we need a few programs about the Rebbe here. We can see how, at the same time that he was a Nasi HaDor, he sat down and wrote, and without thinking much, probably that whole page that he wrote was probably written within a few minutes. And that's how the Rebbe spoke — and this was the amazing thing — I saw once somebody write that he speaks for so many hours, never looks in a paper, brings things down from all over, from every page, from all over, from all over.

This is — and this is something that is a sign of a true Nasi. But the ikar is — he is great not because of his miracles, not because he was so smart — because he ran after a sheep. The Rebbe cared about every single person, and this is what made him, and this is what the Rebbe was, truly. Next week we will continue our weekly program. Thank you.