Why We Say the Word L’chaim on Wine

Episode 233: "Why We Say the Word L'chaim on Wine"

Welcome to our weekly program, Insights into the Story of Chabad in America through the Mindel Archives. In the past few years I have been sharing with you, most of the time in this program, from the archives of Rabbi Nissan Mindel, the Frierdiker Rebbe's personal secretary.

Rabbi Mindel has an amazing, fascinating collection, having worked with the Frierdiker Rebbe from 1940 — he came with him on the ship — and then when the Rebbe came in 1941, he worked with the Rebbe, he worked with the Rebbe on the same table, and he worked for the Rebbe for over fifty years. He worked on letters — he took dictation: English letters, Hebrew letters, Yiddish letters, Russian letters.

You heard stories from the Rebbe here and there that he wrote down. He was a writer — he used to write down every day certain things he heard from the Rebbe. Some things are known, some things are not known. He would show it to the Rebbe, as we've spoken about a few times already, and the Rebbe looked over everything that he wrote.

He wrote "My Prayer," he wrote "The Philosophy of Chabad," "The Commandments" for children, Tanya in English, and "Talks and Tales" — the Rebbe had notations on everything he wrote. Not only that — when he went to speak, they asked him to speak in colleges, in the '60s, in the '70s, he spoke at NYU. The Rebbe said, "I'm sure you wrote down the speech," and he showed it to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe even made notations on his speeches — he mentioned, for example, when he reads "The Wonder of Nature." So this was his job — this was what he did, besides other things.

So the last few years, a substantial part of the program was on Thursday night, and from today on we're going to have our program on Shabbos. So today is the first time we're having it on Shabbos.

There's a custom to say a story, but since now it's [Tishrei], I should really start with that story. But it's after we just celebrated Yom Tov — the four days between Yom Kippur and Sukkos — and now we are in a month full of Yom Tov. This is the seventh month, the month that [is the source of blessing] for the whole year. So first of all, it's time to say l'chaim.

Especially since I am a guest, and a guest usually has the [honor] to give a l'chaim — and I'll tell you soon why I didn't have this program for a few weeks already, because I have a hoarse voice, as you can hear — now it's a little better. It reminds me, once the Rebbe had a hoarse voice, so somebody said the Rebbe should rest — maybe he shouldn't say the Rashi [shiur], he should do less. So the Rebbe said, "Because my voice is hoarse, I should lighten [other things] — Rashi should [not] suffer." Anyway, so I would say a few things over here, some letters from the Rebbe.

Now, before I go on, I'll tell you a letter — mentioning the word "guest." When the Rebbe had a stroke, Rabbi Mindel, working with the Rebbe for so many years, he just didn't feel he could go in to the Rebbe. He was working with the Rebbe together on one table — his relationship with the Rebbe was something we can't understand, from 1941. So he couldn't bring himself to go in to the Rebbe when the Rebbe wasn't feeling well — he just couldn't. So Rabbi Groner said when the Rebbe will feel better, he should call him up, and he'll see him. He wanted to come to the Rebbe.

Anyway, after a few months, the Rebbe was feeling better, so he called him up and said the Rebbe's feeling better. He went in to the Rebbe, and he says to the Rebbe, "I am a guest" — oreach — which means light, [the word] "ohr" is in it — "the light should shine on you." What brocha should he give the Rebbe? So he told me the smile that the Rebbe had when he heard that — he said, "In fifty years I didn't see such a smile." So here we see that a guest can give a brocha. So I want to give a brocha to everybody now — it's time to give a brocha, and you give a full brocha.

This always reminds me of something — there was a president of the Young Israel, I knew him very well. He once told me, he says, "I need from the Rebbe, for other people, a big brocha, a long brocha." He made yechidus, and he says to the Rebbe, "I need a long brocha, a big brocha, but I don't want to bother you to give me a big brocha, because you're a busy man and it'll take a long time, so just give me [a short one]." So the Rebbe smiles and says, "When I give a brocha, I give a full one." So when you give a brocha, you give a full one.

First of all, I want to say — which you have to say today — about this month. By the way, talking about the secretary, I just want to mention that I have here a letter that Rabbi Hodakov wrote about every mazkir. There were a few mazkirim — Rabbi Hodakov and Rabbi Mindel — they were the founders, they came with the Rebbe, and then later they needed more mazkirim, so Rabbi Hodakov wrote down the job of every mazkir.

So I just want to say, talking about the mazkirim, I have to give them credit — that even according to Rabbi Hodakov, he appreciated that they all served the Rebbe with devotion and humility. He wrote that Rabbi Simpson was a devoted mazkir, Rabbi Groner was a devoted mazkir, Rabbi Klein was a devoted mazkir, and Rabbi Krinsky was a devoted mazkir, and he appreciated every mazkir — they did the job, but they did even more than they were supposed to. So this is what he wrote. But the relationship that Rabbi Hodakov and Rabbi Mindel had with the Rebbe — that's different than the other mazkirim. They started [the secretariat] and with them this is how it all started, but they needed more [mazkirim] later because Chabad grew.

So I just want to mention, as a matter of fact, I have here a document, and I don't know why, after a certain page, this page was taken out. I think [Rabbi Hodakov] wanted to have it [in the file], and wanted that it should be in the back. It says over here in the back, it says "Merkos," then it says [unclear] — that's it. This is how it started — these are the mazkirim; later on they had more mazkirim because they needed help, but these [original ones] were in a different category.

Since we say l'chaim now, I want to share with you what Rabbi Mindel wrote on this question: why do we say l'chaim when we drink wine, and not on food, and not on water — why wine? So he wrote this down, and I want to share it with you. He wrote like this:

"We learn in our parsha that [Adam] sinned by eating from the Tree of Death, while we stress that we drink the wine of the Tree of Life — so by saying l'chaim we make a separation between the Tree of Death and the Tree of Life."

Also here he writes — and also from the Rebbe — he writes that wine was the cause of the curse that came over the world in the time of Noach — Noach became drunk, and we know what happened after he became drunk, as it says in the Torah. So when we have wine, we say to the people, in writing, that when we drink wine we only want its strength, and not its damaging power — and he underlines "strength."

Then he brings down that it says, regarding the procedure of an execution of someone condemned to death, that on the way to the execution we give the convict a cup of wine as an act of grace — Rabbi Mindel wrote the word "grace" in English — so that he will become slightly intoxicated, so that he will not be fully aware of the fate facing him. That is to make a difference between the cup of death and the cup of life — that's why we say l'chaim on wine.

Also he says here that for a mourner we give wine, in order to make a difference between the sad occasion and the happier moment — when we drink wine, we say l'chaim.

So he ends off: there are many more reasons given. The idea that is expressed in all these explanations is that in wine is both the power of good and the power of bad, life and death. When we say l'chaim, we tell ourselves and others that we only wish to consume the good, not the harmful, in wine. And we say it together — when two are together it becomes warm, and this is the greatest pleasure by wine. That's the idea of l'chaim — each one wishes the other l'chaim.

So now it's time to say that we should — whatever everyone needs, they should ask for it, the whole month.

Now there's another letter here, talking about wine. Somebody asked the Rebbe — I have here what he wrote, and the Rebbe answered. He says to the Rebbe, "I don't understand farbrengens, anything, but I see that you speak for so many hours — sometimes a half an hour, sometimes an hour — and in between you're also busy [saying l'chaim]. Why do you have to say l'chaim in the middle? Why can't you speak for a half hour, rest, let the people sing, and then speak again — but why do you have to say l'chaim?" That's what he asked.

And each one, as we know, at a farbrengen, the Rebbe never leaned back once — if you remember, the Rebbe never leaned back, he didn't relax, at a farbrengen. So [the questioner asked], why do you have to, what's the reason for that?

So the Rebbe answered like this: a farbrengen is a time of brachos, to give brachos. And the Rebbe says, we say l'chaim — this was the blessing that [Yitzchak] gave to Yaakov — but before the blessing, in order that the blessing should be a [real] blessing, he had to eat and he drank — it says he brought wine, and then he blessed them. That means the blessings can come down only when you drink wine. That's why — so we see here that a farbrengen is not just talking — a farbrengen is a time of giving brachos, and that's why the world needed farbrengens, and we know how many thousands of hours in the Rebbe's lifetime were devoted to farbrengens. So if a farbrengen is [about] wine, and wine is like that, he had to say l'chaim, but he had to first drink wine.

So since it's now after Tishrei, we're coming to the month of Cheshvan, which has no holidays in it — but coming from Tishrei, I want to end off with one more point, because we just had, last week, the Rebbe mentions here: why do we read about Arayos at Mincha [of Yom Kippur]? Is that the time to read about Arayos? He says, here we're like malachim, like angels, and we are ready by the end, by Ne'ilah, before the gates close — that is the time to mention Arayos. We could have read it in the morning, but why at Yom Kippur Mincha?

So the Rebbe says something very interesting here: he says, on Yom Kippur you're holy, you feel holy today, but you have to know that in a few hours it's going to be after Yom Kippur, and you're going into this physical world, the world of Arayos. So this reminds you — it's good to be holy now, fine, but you have to take this holiness into the weekdays, into every single day. So you should know that it reminds you — it's not just your holiness, that's it — but it reminds you that now it's going to be soon the weekday, so you shouldn't forget that you're going into a physical world. Something like that — an answer, something very, very interesting.

So that's all for today, and Shabbos brocha — we just read this today, next week we'll continue our Shabbos program. Thank you.