Can a Rebbe and Tzadik Make a Mistake?

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

A few weeks ago I was at — I don't know if it was a farbrengen or a lecture — of a lecturer, a mashpia [unclear name], and the discussion was: can a tzadik, a Rebbe, make a mistake or forget? Also, the discussion was: if the Rebbe says something to somebody, that something is going to happen — does he know that it's going to happen, or not? That's what the lecture was about.

So when I heard the conversation, I mixed in, and I said only the Aibishter cannot forget, only the Aibishter cannot make a mistake. Even though we know — we know Moshe forgot the halacha of Pesach Sheni — we know this because he's a human being. The mashpia, this lecturer, he was saying the Rebbe cannot make a mistake, and this is what I mentioned. But then I said, I don't know who's right, who's wrong — let's see what the Rebbe says. Let's look at the archives of Rabbi Mindel, the Rebbe's answers. I'm sure the Rebbe has a lot of questions like that from different people — can a Rebbe make a mistake, or whatever — or something that I heard from Rabbi Mindel, and then we'll know the answer.

So I found a few letters about that, but I want to share with you one small paragraph of what the Rebbe writes to somebody — just a small paragraph:

"I am in receipt of your letter. Needless to say, I was very sorry to read, at the beginning of your letter, about your broken engagement. As for your question, how is this to be explained after having received a blessing — the answer is simple enough: since the Creator has endowed human beings with free will and choice of action, indeed so much so that it is possible for a person to act in contravention of a Divine imperative, how much more so when it is a matter of advice" — and the Rebbe underlined with his pencil, "advice given by a human being" — and I emphasize "advice" again, he underlined it — "because it is not my way to give anything more than advice, and certainly no imperative. And of course my judgment was based on the writing of both parties, to the extent that I readily gave my blessing."

And then the letter goes on more, but it has nothing to do with this answer.

So in other words, a person has free choice. The potential was there, but they didn't work at it. It could have been a successful marriage or engagement if they would have worked on it, but they didn't. A bracha can only help if we make a keli.

I remember Mrs. Pinson — she should be well, along with her husband, Rabbi Nissan Pinson — that the Rebbe sent them to Morocco. So they went, and they told the Rebbe, they said to the Rebbe, "We're going to a place — how are our children going to be? How are we going to educate our children?" They were very worried. So the Rebbe said, "Your children are on my shoulders, but you should not rely on that — that they are on my shoulders." Rabbi Pinson put a lot of work into the children. You can't just say, "The Rebbe gave me a bracha and that's it" — they have to work on it.

I remember somebody asked the Rebbe that his son should be a masmid, that he should want to learn. The Rebbe said, "I can give a bracha — when he learns, he should learn — but if he doesn't learn, my bracha won't help. We can't rely on that," said the Rebbe. Anyway, so this is the same thing as in this engagement case.

Now, also the answer to somebody's question asked at that farbrengen, or that gathering: does the Rebbe know what's going to happen? So there is a story — I think we once mentioned it — that somebody wanted to go somewhere with a ship or a plane, I'm not sure, and the son asked the Rebbe on behalf of his father. So the Rebbe said he should go with — I don't know what, whatever, a ship or a plane — and something happened. So the son came with his complaints to the Rebbe: "If you would have told us that this was going to happen, I wouldn't have let my father go." So the Rebbe said, "Believe me, I didn't know myself."

But when we say this — like when the Rebbe says something — does the Rebbe know it's going to happen? Probably not. But if the Rebbe says [something], that's [unclear].

I remember that the Prime Minister of Israel, Shon [?], was by the Rebbe, and he told the Rebbe that he's going back to Israel with a plane on a certain date. So the Rebbe said to him, "Why that date?" He was wondering what the Rebbe was talking about — why not? And then in the middle the Rebbe said again, "Excuse me, why that date?" Anyway, he was convinced to listen to the Rebbe, and it so happened that that plane was hijacked. Did the Rebbe know that the plane would be hijacked? I don't know.

But I recall, he knew — when the Rebbe gave dimes to children before, "keep a war," he said, "I guess I didn't know," but he gave [it anyway] — this was after the war. So this is the answer to those people who say that the Rebbe knows exactly — I don't know. According to the way I see it, maybe not.

Now I want to tell you something, a story that I heard from Rabbi Mindel. You know, Rabbi Mindel came in to take dictation of most of the letters — a lot of the Hebrew letters and all the English letters. So he took shorthand. He went in to the Rebbe — the Rebbe opened up every single letter, the Rebbe didn't let anybody open letters, every letter was opened by the Rebbe. You know, [imagine] the time it takes — thousands and thousands of letters — the Rebbe opens up a letter and reads it, then he says to Rabbi Mindel, "You read it." So he read it, and he was ready to give it back. The Rebbe took it, smiled, and says to him, "What do you say about this?" He didn't answer. Then the Rebbe smiles, [and says], "No, you know, Rabbi Mindel, this is for me, he knows" — I mean, he's not going to answer when the Rebbe asks him what he should say; the Rebbe is here, [after all].

By the way, this reminds me — I remember once that the rabbi, [Pki? — unclear name], who was the [gabbai?] of 770, was a big gaon. He married off his einikel [grandchild], and they were standing by, after, near the Rebbe's room. The Rebbe came out and gave dollars. So the Rebbe was about to give a dollar to him, and he turned to the Rebbe and said to him, "Can a Rebbe make a mistake? The Rebbe gives a dollar, you should give" — so he is making [a point], the Rebbe calls himself a [Rebbe?], and he's making [a question out of it]. So he asked his question — he was holding the dollar — and the Rebbe did not answer, and Rabbi Mindel didn't answer either. First of all, the Rebbe calls himself [this], what should he answer? He didn't answer — sometimes he doesn't answer.

Anyway, so Rabbi Mindel here also didn't answer. So the Rebbe says to Rabbi Mindel, "This person wrote to me before that he went out with a girl, you know, for [dating], and he did not have [success]. So he asked me if he should go out [with her] again. So I said yes. So he went out again, then he went out again and again — he wrote [to me] and went out again, three times — and I said he can go out. I did not tell him to get married. He went out, and now he writes to me that he got married — probably he got married because I told him to go out. Now he writes to me that he's getting divorced, so he's having [complaints], he complains on me, why?" So the Rebbe smiles and says to Rabbi Mindel, "What did you say?" Of course he doesn't say [anything].

Then the Rebbe says, "I don't know who it was — a couple got married, and afterwards they divorced, after three months I think. So [the man] came to the Rebbe and said, 'You gave [a bracha] and they divorced.'" So the Rebbe answered — in other words, this was in the time of the Romans, when [Vespasian] said to [Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai], "Tell me what you want, I will do anything you want." So he asked for — he asked for whatever he could have asked, that the Romans shouldn't destroy [the Beis Hamikdash], and we wouldn't have [lost it] — but he didn't. Why? Because sometimes the answer comes from the back, and [it works out in a roundabout way] — the Rebbe says it's crooked. Anyway, stop over here — this is what happened, we don't understand [why].

Now I want to continue this: I happen to know who this couple was. Two years later they got married again, and they have children, and they live in [a certain place]. Why this happened this way, I don't know — maybe he had to go through that, he had to have the mitzvah of [unclear], I don't know.

But if the Rebbe says something, or does something a certain way, it's not for us to understand the Rebbe — whether the Rebbe knows or he doesn't know, the Rebbe [is beyond our comprehension]. So this is what I wanted to mention, after listening to the lecture of this lecturer.

Next week we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.