Why Every Yid is Really a Shliach

Welcome to our weekly Motzei Shabbos program.

Today we read by Mincha Parshas Lech Lecha. And the Frierdiker Rebbe said that Parshas Noach, or the week of Noach — I'm not sure of the exact lashon — is a kalamutne sedra, or the beginning of the sedra is kalamutne. Kalamutne means moody, it's not such a happy time. First of all, we have to know that Parshas Noach is always in the beginning of Cheshvan, and the whole beginning of Cheshvan is called Mar Cheshvan. Cheshvan is a month that comes after Tishrei, which is full of Yom Tovim, and now there are mamish no Yom Tovim, so that makes people feel a little bit down. And also, Noach speaks about the Mabul, it speaks about Noach getting drunk. But the end of Noach becomes a bit freilach — the Rebbe calls it the "celebrity kid" — it starts speaking about Avraham Avinu. And that continues into this week. So this week is Parshas Lech Lecha.

Parshas Lech Lecha begins with shlichus. Even though many things happened before that with Avraham, the Torah doesn't tell you — which we will mention soon — but it begins with shlichus. The Aibershter says to Avraham Avinu: "Lech lecha me'artzecha u'mimoladetcha u'mibeis avicha el ha'aretz asher ar'eka" — go out of your land, from your birthplace, from your father's home. And the Meforshim speak about what this means, a deeper meaning. And if you learn the Rebbe's sichos, especially in Likutei Sichos Chelek Aleph, he speaks about what it means — "me'artzecha, u'mimoladetcha, mibeis avicha." The Rebbe says this tells Avraham Avinu to go out on shlichus.

Torah is milashon hora'ah. Torah is not a history book, the Rebbe says, that just tells a story that happened with Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov. Torah is hora'ah — Torah is a teacher. Torah teaches us: every story in Torah, every story b'chlal in Torah, is a hora'ah of how we today should live in our everyday life. And the Rebbe always says a similar teaching: whatever our forefathers did is a siman, is a sign for us. Because when the Torah speaks to Avraham, it doesn't speak just to Avraham, it speaks to us. Because we have Avraham in us. And we have Yitzchak and Yaakov and Sarah and Rivka and Rachel and Leah. As we mentioned a few weeks ago, we are called Yisrael, Yidden. And Yisrael — Yud is Yitzchak and Yaakov, Sin is Sarah, Reish is Rachel and Rivka, Aleph is Avraham, Lamed is Leah. Every single Yid who has a Jewish mother has within them the Avos and the Imahos.

So the Torah speaks to us. So what happened to Avraham, we can learn how we should be. And just like with Avraham — "Lech lecha me'artzecha," he went, vayeired, right away he went down to Mitzrayim — this is a yerida for us. The yerida, the whole going down, is tzorech aliya. And that is also true of the month of Cheshvan: even though there's no Yom Tov in it, we have to know that the yerida is tzorech aliya. And this is the lesson for us: when people are born into this world, we are all shluchim of the Aibershter. The Aibershter sends us down into this world for a purpose. And that's why the Torah begins with shlichus.

Now, this applies to young and old. Until the last day of a person's life — the Torah says here Avraham was seventy-five years old, he's not a young man, and the Aibershter says, "Go on shlichus." Now, Avraham Avinu was born in the year 1948 — nineteen hundred and forty-eight years after the creation of the world. Meaning, at Lech Lecha, Avraham Avinu was already seventy-five years old. Now, in his lifetime before that, nothing else is mentioned — the beginning is shlichus. But the Torah doesn't tell you, because Torah is hora'ah — there's nothing we can learn from Avraham Avinu before he was seventy-five years old.

And the same thing goes for the parshios before — Bereishis and Noach happened within a period of almost two thousand years, 1,948 years. What is it? Two parshios speak about the creation, which happens within a week — it happens in this one period — Cain and Abel, and then it speaks about Noach with the Mabul. In almost two thousand years, nothing else happened. But the Torah doesn't tell you why, because there's nothing we can learn out as far as we are concerned in our everyday life. That's why the Torah doesn't tell you — otherwise the Torah would tell you, because Torah comes from the word "hora'ah" — Torah is a teacher. And we can learn out more from Avraham than we can learn out from the world, from Cain and Abel, and from everything the Torah mentions before.

So here we see two parshios within a period of 1,948 years, and three parshios happened within a period of one hundred years — Lech Lecha, Vayeira, and Chayei Sarah. In Lech Lecha, Avraham was seventy-five; the Torah speaks about Avraham in Lech Lecha, Vayeira, and Chayei Sarah, and then tells us already about Yitzchak. That means three parshios within a period of one hundred years, and two parshios within almost two thousand years. What does this show? It shows that we can learn more from Avraham Avinu than from anything else. The Rebbe always says a similar teaching about him, because we have Avraham Avinu as part of our life within us. So we should learn — this is our shlichus — the way Avraham Avinu was.

Now, every Yid is called a shliach of the Aibershter. I mentioned a few weeks ago that once a Satmarer chossid asked the Rebbe — the Rebbe speaks about mitzvos, about everything, he also speaks about kashrus, but Chabad is not so much into kashrus the way Satmar is. So the Satmarer said to the Rebbe, "Satmar is more into kashrus — why isn't Lubavitch involved in kashrus?" So the Rebbe answered him: every Yid in this world has a shlichus. As you said, Satmar is in kashrus — and we know what it says about kosher, that when you eat kosher it becomes dam u'basar k'ivsurei, your flesh, your blood, the holiest thing — a kosher person is kosher. You give kashrus — that's your shlichus in this world. The shlichus of a Chabadnik is to make sure the customer — I mean, the person — keeps the kashrus. So everyone has a shlichus in this world.

By the way, I also mentioned once — somebody's mother was in a vegetative state, and she was in a nursing home for a couple of years. So the son asked the Rebbe, "Since you always say everybody is created for a purpose, what's her purpose in life? She's in a vegetative state." And he also wrote to the Rebbe that his children and grandchildren visit her all the time, twenty-four hours a day, they take turns — "so what's her purpose in life? She doesn't even know." So the Rebbe said: her purpose in life is what you yourself said — that your children visit her, people come there to visit her — they learn, keep with awe, how children and grandchildren take care of the parents and the grandparents. This is why she's living. In other words, everything has a purpose.

So we see that everybody is created with a shlichus in this world. So the question is: if the Rebbe tells a Yid what his shlichus is, how does he know? There's a Shulchan Aruch. The Shulchan Aruch, the code of laws, tells you what a person should do every day — wakes up in the morning, what to say, goes to daven, goes to work, does everything the way the Shulchan Aruch says. So what does it mean that the Rebbe once said that whoever walks out from my yechidus room is called a shliach? There is a Shulchan Aruch, the Shulchan Aruch tells a person what to do every day, and we have to follow the Shulchan Aruch — this is our shlichus. So what does it mean that as soon as you walk out you become a shliach?

So the answer to this is as follows. There is a Shulchan Aruch — there's the volume for city life, the volume for Moshe — but what the Rebbe gives you is, for example — a person makes challah, makes a cake. So he has a brush, he has eggs, he has dough, and oil, and he prepares everything — the challah is prepared, everything is ready. But if it's not put into the oven, it doesn't mean anything. You can have a Shulchan Aruch and you can learn everything, but who makes it actually come alive, who gives it its chiyus? That is the Rebbe. And that's what it means when you walk out from the yechidus room: first of all, the Rebbe gives you a push, practical guidance of what to do, the Rebbe gives you koiches, and you become a shliach. The Rebbe gives you the chiyus in this world. So this is what the Rebbe means when he says that when you walk out from the yechidus room, you are a shliach.

You can live in this world and you can do everything, but the end is the chiyus. This goes for anything — you can write and get ready something, you write a letter, and you have everything ready, you have an envelope, but if you don't actually go to the post office and mail it, the whole letter means nothing. This is what the Rebbe gives — the chiyus.

And the Rebbe is, I think, one of the only ones who demands from everybody. You know, people walk in to see the Rebbe — rabbanim, roshei yeshiva, chief rabbis, elected politicians, leaders of people — what does the Rebbe demand? Even after they go, the Rebbe gives them instructions as to what they should do for the Jews. I remember the Belzer Rebbe walked in years ago — the Rebbe told him about certain things he has to do with talmidim, whatever it was. The Rebbe gives koiches, and the Rebbe gives this chiyus to everybody.

So now comes the big question, and I'm going to end with this today, because next week will be a special program about shlichus, for which I have a message from Rabbi Kotlarsky that I'm going to share with you. But now comes the big question: if we are all shluchim, and people walk out from yechidus as shluchim, what does it mean, Kinus Hashluchim? What does it mean that people go to Kinus Hashluchim, and some people do not go to Kinus Hashluchim? Why? Look — [even] the Alter Rebbe [said?] one should go to Kinus Hashluchim [unclear]. What's the difference between people who go and people who don't go to Kinus Hashluchim? This we will discuss next week.

But before I finish, I would like to remind you again not to forget — this new book came out, "Chabad in America." This is book one, about Julius Stulman — there are five more books to come. And I just want to read one small paragraph of what the Rebbe writes about Julius Stulman, and that's why I chose to make this the first book. I have the sicha of the Rebbe in English. He writes to Julius: "Your last interview with him, which I was privileged to witness so soon before his ascent to higher worlds, should be considered in the nature of a last will and testament to you and me, and as a guiding light to illuminate your path in life and direct your principal endeavors into the right channels." And that's why I chose to make this one of the reasons to make this book first. The next book will be about the Previous Rebbe.

So I think it's very important for people to buy the book — it's in all bookstores, and they can learn a lot from it about the early years of Chabad in America. And G-d willing, next week we will continue our weekly program. Thank you.