A Lesson From a December 25th Encounter

Episode 242: "A Lesson From a December 25th Encounter"

Welcome to our weekly Motzei Shabbos program. Now it's Chanukah and Shabbos, the night is long, and we are sitting now after [Shabbos], looking at the candles and listening to what the candles are telling us. These days should be remembered. It's dark outside, and this teaches us that we have to light up the outside — we have to light up the world with mitzvos.

And the candles are on the outside, by the door, on the doorpost from the outside. That means the mezuzah has to be on the right side, and the candles on the left side. That means that the house should be surrounded with mitzvos, and that light has to light up the world, until people will realize and become [good, observant Jews] — I guess. But don't forget about your own children — the house itself has to be lit up inside, in the house, it should be lit inside, but it should also be lit outside.

Now, since this week was December 25th, it reminds me of a story — I think it was the Rizhiner [?], or maybe the Besht [?] — and the story goes that once the students were by them, and the Rebbe told them that whatever you hear and you see, you should learn out from it how to serve Hashem. So they heard this, and they went outside, and on December 25th that night, the gentiles in Russia, in Poland, had a custom — it was very cold, the ice had frozen — and they made a tzelem, a cross, on the ice, and they cut around the tzelem and picked up the ice with the cut-out tzelem, and they carried the tzelem all night and sang.

The students of the Rizhiner, or the Besht, heard [about this]. Their Rebbe had told them that whatever you see and you hear, you should learn out from it how to serve G-d. The first thing they saw was a cross — what can we learn from this? So they ran back to the Rebbe and told him what they had seen. He said: from here we can learn that when somebody, or something, becomes cold to a mitzvah, the end result, G-d forbid, is that they may become completely cold to it — and that is the worst thing. When a person becomes cold to something, G-d forbid, that is the worst thing.

As the Rebbe mentioned, it says in the Mishnah that when a person is standing [in prayer] and a snake comes around his feet, he can continue — don't worry. But when a scorpion comes around him, he has to stop — that's much worse. What's the difference? They're both poisonous. A snake, when it bites a person, makes the person hot, and the person, G-d forbid, can die from that heat. A scorpion bite makes a person cold. If heat befalls a person in the middle of davening, [the sages] made it easier — don't worry, continue davening, and you'll change that heat [of the bite] into the heat [of serving Hashem]. But when a cold [bite] befalls a person, that's much worse — that, you have to attend to right away.

So [the Rebbe] told them — you know, in America today they say, "he's a cool guy." Cool is cold — that's the opposite of warmth. Cool is cold, and this is what the Rebbe told them.

Now, since we are sitting by the candles and eating latkes and looking at the candles, [thinking about] what the candles are telling us, everybody has questions and we need answers, and we're waiting for answers. I mean, if it says that the candles are telling you something, maybe — maybe there are answers [to be found]. So I want to share with you today a question that Rabbi Mindel asked the Rebbe in 1949. You know, they were working together, translating books, they had discussions — they were talking about Freud, and they had discussions. Rabbi Mindel wrote questions to the Rebbe — before the Rebbe was the Rebbe, he was the Ramash then — and the Rebbe answered him many times. I have a lot of answers, and I think I spoke about this in my program a while ago, and there may be more questions written in Rabbi Mindel's handwriting.

So here I have a question that Rabbi Mindel asked the Rebbe. The question is in Hebrew — I'll translate it into English, I'll show it to you, what he asked — and I misplaced the answer. Now, you know, sometimes if people look [into it], they come to the answer. So I want to show you the question — maybe those sitting here will know the answer. I regret that I should have shown this to Rabbi [Groner? — unclear], because he would probably be able to answer what the answer was. I cannot find the answer — I saw it, I cannot find it now, and maybe if I find it I will let you know. And if anybody thinks they know the answer, please let me know. For now, I'm going to read this question, and I'll show it to you in Hebrew, and I'll read what it says here — maybe it will give you the answer.

He writes like this — greetings and blessings. On the subject of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud — he was a big psychologist, one of the biggest, best known of the past hundred years. He introduced the idea that a person has a natural inclination to kill himself, what he calls the "death instinct." Rabbi Mindel writes: I will not elaborate on this — [reading from the Hebrew] — and at the same time, a person has an opposite inclination, a desire to live, which he calls the "life instinct." Because of the strength of the inclination to kill oneself, and the fact that it is somewhat limited by the inclination to live, there is born in a person an inclination to hurt another, such as to display anger at another. So Freud therefore comes to the conclusion that, as a result of the death instinct, there comes about in a person an inclination to destroy. According to him, this inclination is one of the basic powers of the soul; thus cruelty brings satisfaction and pleasure to a person. This inclination is a constant presence in the person, ready to pounce, to express itself at any moment, without any external initiative.

Now, you're right, there are those later psychologists who dispute this idea and say that even though hatred, cruelty, and destruction exist in the world, it is not necessary to say that these are natural, inborn inclinations in a person, but rather that the environment and education cause this — that's what some psychologists say. But Freud argues [otherwise]. Then Rabbi Mindel writes: apparently it seems from Freud that a baby is born with the instinct to be cruel to living creatures, as in the story in the Frierdiker Rebbe's Memoirs — you know, in the Memoirs, if you read it, there was somebody — I'm not going to go into the story, you can read it — he hurt a chicken, and his father was angry at him about it, a whole episode — you can read it there, that's what he means, and you should read the Memoirs.

And also, according to Tanya, which explains that the nefesh habehamis, the animal soul, which dwells in the left side of the heart that is full of blood — it seems that the evil inclination, the yetzer hara, is sunk in the animal soul. But in every Jew, the animal soul is derived from kelipas nogah, and it can be not only controlled but also changed, converted — unlike in Freud's theory. And according to what Tanya writes about the souls of the nations, the idol worshippers, whose source is from the kelipos themselves, which have absolutely no good in them — this correlates exactly with Freud's theory.

So he's asking the Rebbe the question: (a) What is the opinion of the honored [Rebbe] about the above, according to the teachings of Chabad? (b) Does the philosophy of Chabad have a novel take on psychology in general, as compared to [other] Jewish philosophers — and who among them dealt with these questions? And [could the Rebbe] show sources in Chabad teachings that deal with questions of psychology — the topic is broad, and includes the relationship between the intellect and emotions, feelings, joy and sadness, pride and humility, lust and self-control. With thanks in advance — and Rabbi Mindel signs this.

So this is the Hebrew I wanted to show you. This question has always been on my mind — we need answers. I can't find the Rebbe's answer, I hope I will. In the meantime, maybe people who are sitting by [the candles] can study this and find the answer. Next week we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.