The Rebbe’s Line, “Be Like a Bee, Not a Spider”

Welcome to our weekly Motzei Shabbos program.

This week, Tuesday is Yud Beis Tammuz, the yahrzeit of Rabbi Nissan Mindel, the secretary of the Rebbe. He was born on Beis Nissan, the day of the histalkus of the Rebbe Rashab, and he passed away on Yud Beis Tammuz — meaning his entire life was given over [to the Rebbe]. He was very modest.

Rabbi Mindel was a modest person, no fuss, emes. He was very talented. He knew Nigleh, he translated the Tanya into English, and the Rebbe wanted him — only him — to do it. And if you look in the English edition, in the introduction, the Rebbe writes that he remembers that for hundreds of years people tried to translate it and they couldn't, until Rabbi Nissan Mindel came and did it. That's what the Rebbe writes in the introduction to the English edition — I think it's in the last two paragraphs, there you see it. So you see what kind of person Rabbi Mindel was.

So Yud Beis Tammuz is his yahrzeit. Now, as I mentioned many times, he wrote notes throughout the years of his time with the Rebbe — he was a baal [?] [unclear]. Every time he came home, he wrote notes. So I found two notes that he wrote, and I want to share these with you.

Somebody asked the Rebbe why the Rebbe sometimes writes letters to vatikin. So the Rebbe writes that it refers to people who go to shul early, like a vatik, really, and he should go out like the shul-goers go. Now, by the way, this person who wrote this had asked — I'm not sure, but he mentioned — why is a shul called a "stibel"? Why? Because in Poland "stibel" means a home. A person should have two homes: one is his regular home, and one is the shul, the second home. He comes home from work, he eats, he learns with his children, and then he goes to his second house. I'm not sure, but that's the answer given about it.

Another thing he wrote about: there was a person who always asked him — he had written to the Rebbe many times and the Rebbe hadn't answered. He said, "When you go in for dictation, do me a favor, ask the Rebbe why he doesn't answer me." Now, Rabbi Mindel never, ever used the dictation time for personal matters. When he came in, he did his work, that's it. If he had something personal to write, he always wrote a letter, but he never raised it during dictation. But this person asked him so much, he begged him. He said, "Do me a favor, I'm waiting for an answer and the Rebbe doesn't answer." So Rabbi Mindel asked the Rebbe that this person had written many times and the Rebbe hadn't answered. The Rebbe said to him, "You're a secretary — why didn't you remind me?" The next day, this person got an answer. So Rabbi Mindel saw that he should remind the Rebbe, but since the Rebbe had said that, something always bothered him, and he always wanted to know what it was that bothered him. He always used to say — it bothered him — why did the Rebbe use that word? It bothered him, because of all the many letters the Rebbe writes. So he asked the Rebbe, "It bothered me — why did the Rebbe use that word?" So the Rebbe gave a big smile. That's what he told me, and that's it — he didn't answer him.

I wanted to share this. Now I want to share a very essential letter about learning — why we have to learn Chassidus. This is all from the Rebbe.

Now, talking about that, I want to mention something. Lately I saw online, and people have called me about it — people who follow my Tehillim literature — regarding a debate among some lecturers, some speakers: does Hashem need our mitzvos, or are the mitzvos good for us? This one says like this, this one says like this. The truth is they're both right. But there's a whole debate, and they go into philosophy about it.

Now I want to say something here. The Rebbe says that yeshivos have to be careful what they say. Now I have a question: the truth is, who cares whether Hashem benefits from the mitzvah, or whether the mitzvah benefits us? Who cares? And why discuss these things? Why should we talk about it? If this brings a weakening of emunah — which people tell me it does — if you're speaking to an intellectual group, fine, that's okay. But when you speak to the world — and I'm not knocking it, they do the mitzvah, and because of that they now learn, that's good, no problem. But when a person states his own opinion, that's the problem. Who says he's right? And when you state your own opinion, you bring about this weakening of emunah.

The Rebbe said: "Do a mitzvah. Automatically you'll understand. Do the mitzvah — that's what we have to speak about." We remember they asked the Rebbe, when he was sitting there at the interrogation, "Are you convinced, or are you doing this for some other reason?" The Rebbe said, "I'm convinced." They said, "So convince us also." So the Rebbe said, "Do the mitzvah first — put on tefillin — automatically you'll learn, you'll know, and then you'll understand." But as far as speaking about it — who cares if that brings about weakened emunah? I don't know if that's a good thing.

And besides, the Rebbe answers this question: if we learn the letters, and if we learn all the sources we have inside — I once mentioned this from the Rebbe — the Rebbe said to Rabbi [?] once, "You should be like a bee, not like a spider." Why? What does a spider do? A spider makes a web. The web comes from inside the spider. What does a web do? A web traps and kills — it harms, it kills flies. A web doesn't accomplish anything, it makes things even worse.

A bee — honey doesn't come from inside the bee itself. The bee goes around collecting nectar, and it makes honey. If honey came purely from the bee itself, it wouldn't be the same.

So the Rebbe says: be like a bee. Whatever you talk about, go and collect it — go look in Mussar, look in Mayim [?], look in Nigleh, look in all kinds of sources, and then you'll be able to talk and say what it says — not like a spider, not things that come from yourself. Sometimes people state their own philosophy, and it becomes as if that's what it says, and I don't know if it's right. There's so much to learn that the Rebbe gave us — we can draw from letters, from everything. So we should be like a bee, not like a spider.

So the same thing I say here. Why am I saying this? Even the Rebbe — even the Alter Rebbe, when he wrote the Tanya, says in the preface that it's not from himself — he gathered it from different sources. It's not his own. But people should know that lately it has become common for people to state their own ideas with no source for it. Everything we say must be: "I saw this, here and here." That's why I'm saying this today — because there is a letter from the Rebbe where they spoke also about learning. Each speaker has their own reason why you have to learn, so let's see what the Rebbe actually says — this is why I ask, should we go and speak about our own philosophy?

Now let me go into this letter — that's why I want to bring this letter today, to show you what the Rebbe says about why we have to learn. It's a must.

A person asks why he has to learn, and he writes to the Rebbe: "I have the Shulchan Aruch — if I need to know what to do, I look there. Why do I have to know what's happening in Olam Haba, or what's happening in the other world? Why do I need to know that?"

Some speakers give their own explanations for why we have to learn — the Rebbe doesn't say that. I'm telling you what the Rebbe says, and I think if this bothers this person, I'm sure other people want to know too: why do we have to learn? So here is the answer — I'm going to read it to you.

Even in science, if a person wants to know if something works, he has to try every angle to see if it works, and whichever angle works and fits, that's the angle he will use. The same thing applies here — we have to see that it works, and then we can talk about why we have to learn, why it's important, and why we shouldn't neglect it.

And then the Rebbe continues — all from the Rebbe — we see Jews who lived in Russia under terrible conditions, under the Russian regime, and when the Iron Curtain fell and many Jews left Russia, it became clear that the only Jews who kept the mitzvos properly were those who had learned — they remained faithful, they practiced. So that establishes that Chassidus works — that's answer number one. You have to learn, because those are the people who remained faithful, from having learned.

Then the Rebbe addresses: where does it say that there is an obligation to learn Chassidus? The Rebbe writes: there are 613 mitzvos. Not every mitzvah can a person keep — of the 613 mitzvos, for example, Shemittah applies only once every seven years. There's Pidyon HaBen — not every child requires it, only if the child is a bechor. Some mitzvos are for men, some for women, and many mitzvos are once a year, like Pesach; Shabbos is once a week. Of all 613 mitzvos, we don't have to keep them all, all the time — not everybody, not always. Some are for men, some for women, some are for daytime, some for nighttime.

But there are six mitzvos that a person has to fulfill 24 hours a day — men, women, young, old, day, night, every single day of his or her life. And how does a person know how to fulfill them? Only by learning. There's no other way. Without Chassidus, you cannot know how to fulfill these six mitzvos. The Torah tells you that you should do them, and it tells you when and what, but how — only [Chassidus] can tell you.

So what are they? We all know the six mitzvos: to believe in Hashem — only Chassidus explains to you how to believe in Hashem. Learn, but learn it properly, and don't bring your own thoughts — learn what the Rebbes say, bring a source. Not to believe in any other gods (avodah zarah); to affirm His Oneness (yichud Hashem); to love Hashem; to fear Hashem; not to go astray after the temptations of your heart and your eyes.

How do you know how to fulfill the mitzvah? Only by learning, it says. And these six mitzvos require intellectual preparation — through learning. Learning will show you this, and it's not enough just to learn — you have to perform the mitzvah too, and then it becomes internalized, and you can't find this anywhere else.

But a person might ask: "I'll try to find it myself. I'll try to learn all these things on my own — why do I need to learn from a source? I'll find it myself." So the Rebbe answers: why struggle? Maybe you won't be able to find it in Mussar, maybe you won't be able to find it on your own. And besides, why struggle to find something that's already there, ready for you — take it from the Tanya, it's already included. Why work so hard?

Then the Rebbe explains what it means to believe in G-d. He says: even a child believes in G-d, but an adult believes differently than a child does. A child imagines G-d — the Rebbe writes here — like a big person: "What's G-d? Like a big, strong person, he has a big hand, he's taller than my father. If he wants to destroy the world, he takes a match and destroys the world." A person looks at the moon much differently as he learns more. How do we come to know more? As he gets older, he doesn't want to stay on the same level — he wants to grow. How? By learning.

And he gives a mashal: let's say Reuven tells somebody his particular philosophy, and wants it to be understood better, and the other person says, "No, I don't want to listen, I know mine doesn't make sense." So you see — he learns, and that will show him how. By learning. And when people speak, they should bring a source for whatever they say. It's very important — how to fear G-d, how to love G-d, the six mitzvos, and not going astray after temptation. It doesn't mean you shouldn't look at things that aren't permitted — everybody knows that — but you have to train yourself through learning, as it says, you train yourself in how to do it. I don't want to elaborate further, I think the point is clear.

So when you look at the world, you look at it differently. When you put on green glasses, the world looks green; when you put on blue glasses, the world looks blue. The world itself is not green, the world is not blue — it depends how you look at it. And when a person learns the way he's supposed to, it will strengthen his emunah, and that's the only way to overcome what we see now, openly, right now — where people question everything, ask about everything. That's what [learning does] in this world. Even the Alter Rebbe writes that you have to learn Kabbalah, so that the whole world looks different to you.

There's a story — I'll tell this and finish with it. Somebody once came from Russia, and some people wanted to show him Manhattan — how beautiful the buildings are, the offices, how impressive Manhattan is. This person from Russia had never seen anything like it, and they wanted to impress him. So they took him to Manhattan and showed him the big buildings: "Look, look at the beautiful buildings, look at this beautiful thing, look at this office, look at this." And he didn't seem impressed at all. So he said, "Oh, these are buildings that the angels made." So he saw the beautiful building, but he perceived it completely differently — depending on whether or how you've learned, you look at the world differently.

Anyway, there's much more here, there's more to the letter, but we're out of time, and with Hashem's help, we'll continue next week. This gives us a little glimpse that people should understand — the Rebbe has all the answers for everything, and we shouldn't debate, because there are answers.

Thank you.