The King Is Waiting Just for You – Farbrengen for the Month of Elul | Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Chitrik #001

00:00 Speaker 1 Welcome. I’m happy to launch a new program on “On Chabad Education.” This is the first episode of a chassidic farbrengen. My plan—and I’ll try to be consistent—is to bring mashpi’im from all over the country here to the studio throughout the chassidic dates and occasions of the year. We’ll take a chassidic date, talk about it, farbreng about it, and see how best to prepare for it, because these days are significant in the life of a chossid. The idea is that no matter who you are—a shliach in Zimbabwe, a father of young children, or a mashpia in a yeshivah—if you want to come to a chassidic date prepared, you can turn on the farbrengen wherever you are, whenever you like, listen, and arrive prepared. I’d also like to invite anyone who wants to dedicate an episode of the chassidic farbrengen in memory of a loved one to contact us privately. This farbrengen is in memory of Reb Meir, son of Reb Avraham Meir, a"h, and Inda [unclear], daughter of Reb Oz Yitzchak [unclear], a"h. We’re beginning the program’s first farbrengen together with Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Chitrik. I’m Meir Vishnapsky, and you’re listening to “On Chabad Education.” Rabbi Chitrik, welcome. L’chaim, l’chaim.

01:08 Speaker 2 Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, by Whose word everything came into being.

01:12 Speaker 1 Amen.

01:15 Speaker 2 L’chaim. L’chaim.

01:16 Speaker 1 L’chaim. First of all, thank you for coming. You’ll be the first guest on this program—specifically, on the farbrengen. So thank you again, and let’s begin with Rosh Chodesh Elul. Let’s come to that day a little more prepared.

01:31 Speaker 2 They say that Av is an acronym for “Elul is coming.” So although we’re still in the month of Av, preparation for Elul begins in Av.

01:40 Speaker 1 Yes.

01:41 Speaker 2 [unclear]. Among chassidim, the Rebbe speaks about beginning to think about Elul already on Pesach. In a particular sicha, the Rebbe discusses why the Frierdiker Rebbe describes Elul in a Pesach sicha. So already at the end of Pesach, we begin thinking about it. A Jew lives with Elul all year round.

02:05 Speaker 1 Why? What makes Elul such a big event?

02:11 Speaker 2 The truth is that, in Chassidus, the famous analogy in Likkutei Torah gives us an entirely different perspective on Elul—and on life. Let’s really think about it. First, though, l’chaim, l’chaim.

02:29 Speaker 1 L’chaim.

02:36 Speaker 2 People think of Elul as something depressing, when a person says, “Oy vey, what am I going to do?” “The king is in the field”—frightening, right? He inspires awe and fear. But when the Rebbe explained the maamar in Likkutei Torah about Elul, it was entirely different. It was another world altogether. And you should know: you can check this—in every farbrengen during Elul, the Rebbe mentions the analogy of the—

03:12 Speaker 1 King in the field.

03:13 Speaker 2 The king in the field. And each time, there’s a new angle, a new twist, a new insight. It’s remarkable, really remarkable. I have a friend who even put together a collection of the Rebbe’s explanations of “the king in the field.” The depth the Rebbe revealed in this analogy is something special. What is its message for us? On the one hand, a day in Elul is an ordinary day, a workday. Schools start, yeshivos start, people go to work. It’s a weekday. It’s a day when we don’t feel a revelation of G-dliness. On the other hand, all the books of Kabbalah and Chassidus describe something that stirs the entire camp of the Jewish people. Sephardic Jews already get up before dawn throughout Elul and hurry to say Selichos. This is the revelation of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy—a revelation invoked even during Ne’ilah. How do these two completely opposite aspects fit together? On the one hand, it’s an ordinary weekday. But why, seemingly, is work forbidden on Shabbos? Because there’s a revelation of G-dliness. I may not feel it, but the revelation is there. Work is forbidden because the greater the revelation of G-dliness, the greater the restriction on work. Right? It’s less on Yom Tov than on Shabbos, and on Shabbos than on Yom Kippur. Each has a greater revelation of G-dliness. You’re standing before the King, so work is forbidden. Yet when the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy shine during Elul, suddenly it’s a weekday. The Alter Rebbe’s answer, through this analogy, gives us, I think, an entirely different perspective on what Elul is. What does the analogy say? I’d like to read it so we have the actual words: “To illustrate: Before a king enters a city, the people of the city go out to greet him and welcome him in the field. And then everyone is permitted…”

05:32 Speaker 2 “Everyone is permitted—anyone who wishes—to go out and greet him, and he receives everyone graciously.” There are volumes to say about every word here, but what—

05:40 Speaker 3 The Rebbe’s precise readings.

05:41 Speaker 2 Yes. But simply put, what is the Alter Rebbe telling us? How do we reconcile the two? On the one hand, there’s a revelation of G-dliness, but Elul is still an awakening from below. Elul is “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” There’s also a verse that goes the other way around: “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” But Elul is “I am my beloved’s”—I have to awaken myself. If the King is here and His presence draws me, and that’s why I’m drawn to Him, then it isn’t “I am my beloved’s.” How does it become my initiative? On the one hand, “I am my beloved’s”: I’m dealing with my own struggles on an ordinary weekday. On the other hand, the King is here. What is the deeper answer? Simply put, the Rebbe says this: The King is indeed here. He has come and given you the opportunity to approach Him. But His appearance doesn’t draw you in automatically. It has to be your decision. The King gives you the opportunity: if you want to, you can come. So you decide to come. In other words, it’s a kind of revelation that doesn’t pull you in. The reason I come is that I want to. That’s why the Alter Rebbe says, “anyone who wishes.” You have to want to.

07:08 Speaker 3 Want to.

07:08 Speaker 2 That’s the point: to awaken the desire. The desire awakens in my heart. The King simply gives me the opportunity to want to approach Him. Why? Because I know He’s there. I see that He’s there. I want to meet Him. I want to meet Him.

07:26 Speaker 3 So I feel this during Elul. Truly, as you said, these are ordinary days. Yeshivos have started; schools are starting. So what makes it different from any other day? Just that if I want to—

07:38 Speaker 2 The King receives me. He receives me. But you’ll see in a moment.

07:42 Speaker 3 Let’s get into the finer points.

07:43 Speaker 2 It goes further. In any case, the first thing we need to know is that we have to want to. I think the main point I always emphasize to my students is that Elul is a time when a person has to awaken the desire. I’ll tell a story. I once heard a chossid tell it like this: A man was driving a car with twelve people crammed into it. A police officer stopped him, looked inside, and saw twelve people in the car. “What are you, crazy?” He immediately gave him a ticket and took away his driver’s license. The man went to court; he wasn’t going to accept it just like that. He said, “Your Honor, think about it. That couldn’t have happened. My car is outside. Let’s see if you can fit twelve people into it.” They went outside. “You there, could you come over? Do me a favor and get in.” One, two, six—and no one else could fit. He turned to the judge. “Well? You can’t get twelve people in here!” They went back into the courtroom, and he was found not guilty, because it couldn’t have been true.

09:05 Speaker 4 The ticket was canceled.

09:07 Speaker 2 Outside, the police officer met him. “Tell me the truth. How did you get twelve people in there?” He answered, “Don’t you understand? They wanted to go. They wanted to go.” That’s how it has to be: you have to want to. If you want to, you can. There’s a saying [unclear]: “Nothing stands in the way except the will.” Except the will. You have to want to. The desire—the decision that I want to—has to be mine. It must be my decision. They wanted to go; I have to say, “I want to.” If I don’t want to, it won’t work. It won’t happen. I have to want to. I think that’s the point of Elul: it has to be mine. My own decision, not something imagined, as though I want to see the King. I want to. I know that because the King loves me so much, He came all the way here. He only wants me to decide that I want to be there.

10:08 Speaker 4 Everyone, another episode of “On Chabad Education” is beginning. If you connect with what’s happening here, click “Follow” on one of the platforms. The more our community grows, the more we’ll be able to bring in special guests and produce the highest-quality content. Join us on this journey. Let’s continue.

10:26 Speaker 2 In one of the maamarim, the Rebbe gives some truly beautiful analogies. The Rebbe says that the Alter Rebbe’s innovation is not how we’ve understood this analogy for two hundred years. The Rebbe says, “And anyone who wants to...” [unclear]. The Alter Rebbe says: Anyone who comes—who wants to come. You just have to want to. You just decide that you want to, and the king receives you.

10:54 Speaker 4 It doesn’t matter what the—

10:56 Speaker 2 The Rebbe’s innovation goes even further. What did we generally learn from this maamar for two hundred years? For whom does the king come? For whom does the king come? For whom? There are people of the city, people of the field, and people of the desert. He doesn’t need to come for the people of the city. They know the king, love the king, identify with the king. So for whom does he come? For whom does he come? He comes for the people of the field, the people of kabbolas ol. They don’t identify with the king, don’t love the king, don’t understand the king. They are people of kabbolas ol. The king wants to draw them into the city. That’s how we always learned the analogy. Right?

11:35 Speaker 4 Right.

11:36 Speaker 2 The Rebbe says no: “And anyone who wants to.” You’re in the desert; you’re not even there yet. You’re still [unclear] in thought, speech, and action, far from [unclear]—you don’t even have kabbolas ol. But in Elul you awaken and you want to. You just want to. The Rebbe says in the maamar: You just decide, “I want to,” and the king embraces you. Only the Rebbe could say something like that. The Rebbe says, what does “anyone who wants to” mean? You just want to. You just want to. Say, “I want to, I want to, I want to,” and the king embraces you.

12:14 Speaker 4 But in our lives as chassidim, as a Chabad chossid, what does it mean to want? What does it mean to see the king? What do these ideas mean? These are concepts we learn about in serving Hashem.

12:26 Speaker 2 A Jew wants to be a chossid, wants to be a chossid. But you know, in day-to-day life there are difficulties. Things come up; there are other things.

12:36 Speaker 4 And what does that mean?

12:37 Speaker 2 Elul is a time when a Jew awakens. I want to be the Rebbe’s chossid in thought, speech, and action—in thought, speech, and action. So, yes, here and there there are things that we... I need to... I start wearing different clothes. I start thinking differently. I want to be—I want to be a chossid. I want to. During the year we don’t have time to think about it. You know, it’s a slightly different angle. But we also have 15 Elul, which, with Hashem’s help, is the day of the yechidus that you [unclear]. I want to tell a story about the yechidus. It’s very important to this point. The Frierdiker Rebbe writes this story. The Frierdiker Rebbe writes: “I received a note from my father, the Rebbe Rashab.” The Frierdiker Rebbe was the director in Lubavitch. He received a note from his father, the Rebbe Rashab, and this is what it said. I’m trying to remember—two lines. “Since I happened to meet him today, I am inclined to accept him.” “Since I happened to meet him today, I am inclined to accept him.”

14:03 Speaker 4 What was this about—a particular boy?

14:05 Speaker 2 And it had two more words: “Burn this note.”

14:12 Speaker 4 That’s how he wrote it?

14:12 Speaker 2 Yes, that’s what it says, and we have this note. I don’t have an answer to that. It’s on the other side of the note. We have a photograph of it.

14:20 Speaker 4 Wow.

14:22 Speaker 2 On the other side of the note it says the following. The Frierdiker Rebbe writes at length. A widow came to Lubavitch with two children, two children. One was fourteen and the other thirteen. You might think the students at the Lubavitch yeshiva were seventeen or eighteen years old, as we tend to imagine. My grandfather, Yehuda Chitrik, a"h—and my other grandfather too—they were thirteen. My grandfather arrived at twelve.

14:56 Speaker 4 And he studied at Tomchei Temimim.

14:57 Speaker 2 A Tomim. He didn’t even travel home for his bar mitzvah, though in those days it wasn’t a two- or three-hour drive home like it is for us. Anyway.

15:07 Speaker 4 Which Tomchei Temimim?

15:08 Speaker 2 Lubavitch.

15:09 Speaker 4 Lubavitch.

15:10 Speaker 2 Lubavitch, in Lubavitch. A great many people used to come. My grandfather said that when he arrived to apply to Lubavitch, four hundred boys came. No, they weren’t all accepted. There wasn’t room for everyone. There wasn’t money to support everyone. Anyway, the Frierdiker Rebbe tells what led him to receive this note. He writes that a widow came with her two children, two orphans, to Lubavitch to apply. And the Frierdiker Rebbe describes the requirements for admission to the second class and to the first class: a solid grasp of Gemara. Then he describes the abilities of the older boy and the younger one. So he writes that the administration decided to accept the older boy, the firstborn, for the time being, while the younger boy was not accepted.

16:15 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

16:18 Speaker 2 The younger boy tells the Rebbe—it’s all on the other side of the note—the younger boy...

16:24 Speaker 4 So the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote this on the Rebbe Rashab’s note.

16:27 Speaker 2 On one side, the Rebbe Rashab writes to him, “Since I happened to meet him today, I am inclined to accept him.” And: “Burn this note.”

16:35 Speaker 4 On the other side?

16:35 Speaker 2 On the other side he writes. And so this younger boy decided that he wasn’t leaving Lubavitch. He stayed. He found himself somewhere to stay there.

16:47 Speaker 4 The younger one hadn’t been accepted.

16:48 Speaker 2 The younger one hadn’t been accepted.

16:49 Speaker 4 And he stayed in Lubavitch.

16:50 Speaker 2 And he stayed in Lubavitch. He stayed in Lubavitch—he was a Lubavitch Jew, after all. He found himself some kind of storage room and stayed there. Well, one day the aforementioned—my father, the Rebbe Rashab—passed by the house and saw a boy crying. So my father asked what had happened, why the boy was crying. He went in, and the boy turned to my father and said—and I’m quoting here—“I am an orphan. I want to be a Jew. I have a place in a storage room. Accept me.”

17:36 Speaker 4 Wow.

17:37 Speaker 2 So the Frierdiker Rebbe concludes: A short while later, I received this note. And what did it say? Again: “Since I happened to meet him today, I am inclined to accept him. Burn this note.”

17:51 Speaker 4 But the note wasn’t burned.

17:53 Speaker 2 There’s a photograph of it, a photograph.

17:55 Speaker 4 Wow.

17:56 Speaker 2 I make copies of it for my students every year.

17:58 Speaker 4 Oh, you show it to your students at...

17:59 Speaker 2 I’m—let’s read it. So what does the story mean? What does the story mean? If he wasn’t accepted because his test results showed that the class wasn’t right for him, what did his crying change? Is that why he came to the Rebbe Rashab’s attention? This wasn’t a game.

18:15 Speaker 4 Right.

18:18 Speaker 2 The fact that he awakened, that he cried out, “I want to, I want to”—that’s what... that counted in his favor. That’s it. He cried out, “I want to,” and that was the sign that he needed to be there. I want to.

18:35 Speaker 4 Good.

18:36 Speaker 2 This is really the test of Elul. You want to, but not because of reasons. It has to be because I want to; it matters to me. I want to. Recently, a book by one of the Temimim from that time came out. This is a story I read forty or fifty years ago.

18:58 Speaker 4 Wow.

19:00 Speaker 2 Moshe Slonim printed it in a book—the photograph of the handwritten note.

19:05 Speaker 4 Of the story.

19:06 Speaker 2 The photograph of the handwritten note.

19:07 Speaker 4 Wow.

19:07 Speaker 2 It’s a photograph of the handwriting. [unclear] Recently, a book by one of the Temimim came out. He tells this story. He said that the older boy didn’t last in Lubavitch.

19:27 Speaker 4 And the younger one?

19:27 Speaker 2 The younger one stayed, and from him grew a large branch of a distinguished chassidic family. No, I won’t say the name.

19:35 Speaker 4 Right.

19:37 Speaker 2 I think that’s the test of Elul. The test is that we want to see, to discover, “I want to.” That desire has to be my own.

19:45 Speaker 4 Right.

19:46 Speaker 2 To make the decision that I want to be... What does that mean in life? We have to take stock of ourselves. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is waiting for me and giving me every opportunity in life. So decide what you want. I’ll have something to drink too.

20:03 Speaker 4 L’chaim, l’chaim.

20:03 Speaker 2 L’chaim, l’chaim. I’m [unclear]. L’chaim. L’chaim. Or that one.

20:15 Speaker 4 L’chaim.

20:19 Speaker 2 In life, sometimes everyone has difficulties. Everyone has some kind of baggage, things that... How do you free yourself? How do you free yourself? I once heard a mashpia ask: What’s the difference between a cat and a rooster? They both get dirty in the mud. But a cat starts licking itself, twisting around to reach every part. Twenty-four hours later, it—

20:59 Speaker 4 It gets clean.

20:59 Speaker 2 It gives itself a bath with its tongue. A rooster shakes itself off. It shakes itself off—get up! There’s no time for all that. There’s no time for all that. You have to shake yourself off. It gives itself a shake, a jolt. I decide: I want to. And that’s what... [unclear]. The whole idea of Elul is these two movements. You know the king is there, there for you, but he’s waiting for you to decide that this is my decision. Now I’ll tell you the truth. There are several sichos. There’s a sicha of the Rebbe’s, [unclear], at the end of volume 34 of Likkutei Sichos. The Rebbe says: Let’s understand the analogy. The analogy doesn’t sound like the way we’ve always learned it. The analogy speaks of the king—

21:56 Speaker 4 Coming to the field.

21:57 Speaker 2 He comes. What does it mean that he comes to the field? So where is the king? The king comes to the field. And who comes out to meet him? The parable says that when a king is about to enter a city, the people of the city go out to meet him. Hold on a moment. Is the point to bring the people of the city out to the field?

22:16 Speaker 4 They already know him, presumably. No.

22:20 Speaker 2 According to the parable, when a king is about to enter a city, the people of the city go out to meet him and welcome him. Why do they leave the city? That turns the whole thing around. The Rebbe says: Why would the people of the field, the people of the desert, come? The Rebbe adds something new here: What makes the people of the desert decide, “I want to”? What suddenly awakens that desire in them?

22:53 Speaker 4 As we said, the desert represents the people who are furthest away.

22:56 Speaker 2 The desert is the lowest level. It is a desolate place, a place opposed to the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Heaven forbid. The people of the field are people of kabbolas ol, people who work on themselves, while the people of the city identify with the tzaddikim. So we always learned that he goes out to give the people of the field a chance to greet him.

23:20 Speaker 4 That was always how we understood the parable.

23:21 Speaker 2 The Rebbe comes and says that even [unclear] wants to. Why would they want to? The people of the city, fine: they know him, identify with him, understand him and love him. They want to be together with him. But why would the people of the field, or the people of the desert, suddenly want to see the king? What brings them there? The Rebbe says: Because at their source, they are people of the city. In the parable, the people of the city go out to meet the king because, at their source, they belong to the city—

23:55 Speaker 4 They belong to the king.

23:57 Speaker 2 They have a G-dly soul. “My G-d, the soul You have given me is pure.” What is the difference between them and a chossid? A chossid... I remember a sicha of the Rebbe in which the Rebbe said: “You have chosen us from all the nations, loved us and desired us... You have sanctified us with Your mitzvos, and You have called Your great and holy name upon us.” The Rebbe says: “You have chosen us”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose us. “Loved us”—that is the love that connects me to Him. “And desired us” [unclear]. “You have sanctified us with Your mitzvos.” “And Your great and holy name”—that is the greatest thing. We know. A person remembers that he is a Jew. He breaks down at Ne’ilah and cries [unclear]. But with a chossid, [unclear]. The Rebbe, the Rebbe, the Rebbe. Everyone looks at us. Wow. Yes, but it has to be my decision. If it is not my decision, it is a contrived thing. It is make-believe, and make-believe is nothing. There is a saying of the Rebbe—l’chaim, l’chaim. L’chaim and blessings. There is a well-known saying that the Rebbe explains: A chossid came to the Tzemach Tzedek and asked for a blessing for his grandson. Why? He wanted to bring his grandson closer and closer, so he asked the Tzemach Tzedek to bless him with a good memory. If he had a good memory, he would learn everything and remember everything, and then he would automatically become a chossid. That was how it went. The Rebbe tells this story and says: For half a century, my father, my grandfather and my father-in-law have worked to ensure that no one becomes a chossid “automatically.” There is no such thing as automatically becoming a chossid. Chassidus takes work, and that work has to come from your own efforts. That is what he works on through his own efforts. [unclear]. Yes. But what brings him to that point? I know that the king is there, waiting—

26:17 Speaker 2 for me. Mm. That does not draw me in. I am one of the people of the field. I do not identify with the king; or I am one of the people of the desert, which is even worse. But I know that the king loves me so much that he has left his royal crown behind. He has come without his royal garments. I do not even recognize him as a king. What does the parable mean? He comes to the field in ordinary clothes, with a simple hat and [unclear]. In other words, I do not identify with a king; I do not see a king. So why would I...? But I know that he is the king. Mm. There is another thought from the Rebbe Maharash: Where is the king’s place, really? In his palace, or...? Obviously, in his palace. That is his natural place. Everyone knows him there. He is at ease there. The Rebbe says that this is a matter of revelations. What is the palace? Everyone bows and acknowledges him. The setting is grand and beautiful. The king is where people want him, where a person himself... The minister sees the king and loves him. Why does he love the king? Because he sees him and understands him. That is not bittul. Why does he love the king? If someone explains to him tomorrow morning, “Listen, the king is corrupt through and through,” what will happen to that love? It comes from him, from his own understanding. Where is Hakadosh Boruch Hu? Wherever you decide. Not because your intellect dictates it, not because your feelings do, and not because everyone else does. This is not a herd you simply follow.

28:20 Speaker 2 I decide: I want to see the king. Let me ask a question. I think that often, in my own life, I see a desire to advance in serving Hashem, to be better, to improve—but the desire remains a desire. It feels far away. Like you said, there is the race of life, friends, making a living, and all of it pursues us. Now we are in Menachem Av. Does that mean that in Elul, if I reflect on this or farbreng about it, something different will happen? That this desire will be able to find expression more quickly, to be brought into practice? Is there something different about this time? That is exactly it. Experience it. Try it. Try it—you’ll like it. Yes. If you do not try, you will not know. If you do not try, you will never get there. I remember Reb Shmuel Dovidov. When I arrived at 770 in Elul ’29, he was already elderly, one of the oldest. When my father, a"h, studied at 770 in 5716–5717, he was already elderly. By the time I arrived, some thirty years later, he was... Anyway, what year did he pass away? He passed away in 5734, on Chai Elul 5734. I remember sitting there. I was then on a two-year shlichus in Australia. I remember listening to the live broadcast—it was audio only, not video. It was the middle of the day. How many people came to listen besides the bochurim? Not many; it was the middle of a workday in Australia. Yes, the Rebbe’s farbrengen was during the daytime there. Anyway, I remember the Rebbe beginning to speak about someone who had passed away that week: Reb Shmuel Dovidov. I knew him. Rabbi [unclear] was a great admirer of Reb Shmuel Dovidov. All those Americans who studied there—

30:44 Speaker 2 with Reb Shmuel included my father, my father-in-law, Rabbi Lieberman, the rabbi of [unclear]. Reb Shmuel Dovidov, incidentally, was the mashpia. In those days they did not have access to the Rebbe as they later did, so he was the one who connected them. And I remember Rabbi Yitzchak Rudin [?] sitting there listening to the farbrengen. Suddenly the Rebbe began speaking about Shmuel Dovidov. That is why I remember it. It was Chai Elul 5734. He got up, ran to the platform and enthusiastically told everyone, “Listen, listen!” The Rebbe said, “He was with me in yechidus”—and in yechidus, people speak frankly; I do not remember the exact words. He told me that when he was in prison, he had no siddurim, and everything was confused. He was unsure whether it was Nissan, and whether one should say this or not say it. That is what the Rebbe said he had heard from him in yechidus. And the Rebbe told it at the farbrengen on Chai Elul. The Rebbe’s point was: Where did he get the strength for that to be what troubled him while he was in prison? The Rebbe also mentioned “my father-in-law, the Rebbe, the leader of our generation” in connection with this thought. Anyway, let us return to our subject. The Rebbe asks: Where does his desire to see the king come from? You are a person of the field. You have never seen a king; you have never left your garden. Why do you suddenly come? All the more so for the people of the desert—where does that desire come from? His soul presses him from within; it troubles him and pushes him: “I want to see the king. I want the king.”

32:51 Speaker 5 That is precisely where it comes from.

32:54 Speaker 2 And therefore Hakadosh Boruch Hu really gives us the opportunity: He is there. He is waiting for us. Why do the people of the desert go out? Why do the people of the city go out? He is not there for the people of the city. Rather—

33:10 Speaker 5 for the people of the desert and the people of the field, really.

33:12 Speaker 2 They’re actually townspeople. That’s it. I’ll tell you another thought about how the Rebbe explains the parable. The Rebbe says something very interesting. Then, “As he goes into the city, they follow him. And afterward, when he comes to his royal palace, no one may enter without permission—and even then, only the select few among the people, the exceptional individuals.” In parentheses, the Rebbe once said that by choosing to want to see the king, you become one of those select few, one of those exceptional individuals. That’s the decision: I want this. But the Rebbe asks why, and this is a very important point, I think. You said, fine, he wanted it—what happens next? This is what happens next. It’s not just about not staying where you are. You have to— The king wants you to come with him to the palace, so you follow him. Why? The king doesn’t want you to remain at the level of kabbolas ol. He wants you to identify with him. That’s part of making a dwelling for Hashem in the lower realms. The Rebbe says a dwelling in the lower realms means that the king is there, but that his presence is revealed there. Where do you feel that? In the king’s palace. There you see royalty. In the field, you don’t see royalty. You see a man in a sun hat walking through the field, through the garden. Where do you see royalty? Seeing it means revelation. Why do they need revelation? It says, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” That’s kabbolas ol. That’s the beginning of the path. That’s the beginning.

35:20 Speaker 5 The beginning and the foundation.

35:22 Speaker 2 But they followed him. The king wants you to follow him. The king wants you to identify with him, to love him: “You shall love Hashem your G-d.” Don’t go on mivtzoim only out of kabbolas ol. Have a geshmak in mivtzoim. Identify with it. Come home and tell everyone, “Wow, what an experience! I had the privilege of going on mivtzoim today!” Not, “Oh, it was hard today, but I went. I went on mivtzoim.” Boruch Hashem, I have the privilege of doing it. We forget the second part of the parable: they follow him into the city, to identify with the king. That comes after the foundation. The foundation is wanting to get there. And this is where I started telling you about Reb Shmuel Levitin. I forgot. We began talking about Reb Shmuel Levitin’s passing. Reb Shmuel Levitin once told us—during the Nine Days he would always tell us—two people are on a ladder, one on the third rung and one on the fifth. Who’s higher? The one on the fifth rung is higher. True, from one perspective. But from another perspective, if the one on the third rung is climbing and the other is going down—or even if he’s just standing still—the one on the third rung is higher, because he’ll reach the top of the ladder. Because he wants to be there. “I want to be there.” It’s the desire. Do you want to be there? You came to yeshivah—do you want to be here? Let’s go back to that story. Do you, the student, want to be here, or did your father bring you here? “I’m here because my father brought me here.” Am I in Lubavitch because my father is here, because my grandfather was here, or because I want to be? I want to be here. That’s Elul: awakening the desire, not just being here, standing still. “I’m here, I’m here, everything’s fine.” The donkey is there too, and everything’s fine. They tell a joke—

37:33 Speaker 2 A Jew once said enthusiastically, “Wow, the goats in Lubavitch see the Rebbe Rashab every day, while I only come on Rosh Hashanah! They see the Rebbe Rashab!” But they remained goats.

37:50 Speaker 6 Yes, they see him, but they remain what they are.

37:51 Speaker 2 They remain goats. A donkey remains a donkey.

37:55 Speaker 6 You have to want it.

37:56 Speaker 2 That’s “as he goes into the city”—you have to go into the city. Why? Does the king want you to stay out there in the wilderness? Certainly not. That’s not the goal. The goal is to begin living it. How did he put it? He said, “L’chaim—to life, not merely to avoid death.” What does “not to die” mean? You could say “l’chaim,” but not dying isn’t the same thing as living. You may not be dead, but you aren’t alive. I want to live. I want to live, not just avoid dying.

38:43 Speaker 6 You want to live.

38:44 Speaker 2 To live, to live.

38:45 Speaker 6 It’s interesting, because when yeshivah begins—I remember this from all the yeshivos—there’s always that first farbrengen. Right? In Elul, the students arrive at yeshivah, whether it’s yeshivah ketanah or yeshivah gedolah, and then there’s the farbrengen. I finished with the yeshivos, with Group B, so the month of Elul kind of falls between the cracks. It isn’t a particular Chassidic date. There isn’t something that personally wakes me up. I work in a yeshivah—I have that privilege—so it’s a little different. But there’s no date saying, “Wake up, it’s 19 Kislev! Wake up, it’s 18 Elul!” It really could be just another ordinary day: I go to work and come home. You have to blow the shofar. On the practical level, that’s the only difference. So what I’m saying is, you’re raising this point about desire, about wanting to want. Yes.

39:37 Speaker 2 What I’m saying is, I’ve also been working with students for fifty years. I see students who come from our homes, but they haven’t internalized that they made a decision. They came along with everyone else, with everyone.

40:06 Speaker 6 With the herd.

40:06 Speaker 2 With the herd. I remember Rabbi Melech Schentow [unclear], zol gezunt zayn, telling me this at camp, perhaps sixty-five years ago. It stayed in my mind. He said to me, “You know that in New York, on the secular New Year—”

40:24 Speaker 6 Yes.

40:25 Speaker 2 “Everyone goes to Times Square, and at exactly midnight they all throw their hats in the air: ‘Yeah! Happy New Year!’”

40:33 Speaker 6 Yes.

40:35 Speaker 2 So he told me that once a journalist went around there asking people, “Why did you come? Why are you here?” Of the million people there in Times Square, New York, ninety-five percent said, “I came to see the crowd.” I came to see the crowd. Everyone’s here.

40:59 Speaker 6 Yes.

41:00 Speaker 2 Everyone’s here.

41:01 Speaker 6 Exactly.

41:01 Speaker 2 Why are you [unclear]? Because that’s the way it goes. That’s the routine. I finished cheder, came to yeshivah ketanah, went on to yeshivah, to a group, and so on. You may even have gone on shlichus. Why? Because everyone else does, or because it’s your own inner desire? Did you decide? We’ve become so accustomed to doing everything automatically. Everything just happens as a matter of course.

41:36 Speaker 6 Everyone does it.

41:37 Speaker 2 Everyone, everyone does it that way. Where am I in all this? Where is my own self? Where does it become my decision? Not my grandfather’s decision, or my friends’, or just what everyone does. My decision. I think that’s the point of Elul: making a decision. What’s the wording? “And everyone who wants...” As a chossid once put it, there was once a sign in a shop—

42:17 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

42:18 Speaker 2 “Everyone who wants one can get a new suit here, completely free.” Well, a man came in, tried on a suit, and it looked good and fit him. He said, “No, thank you,” and started to leave. “Hey! Pay up!” “What? It says it’s free!” “Yes, it says ‘everyone who wants one.’ How do I know you want it? Pay up. If you don’t pay, how do I know you want it?”

42:52 Speaker 6 Pay up.

42:53 Speaker 2 Pay up. How do I know you want it? You have to pay for it.

42:56 Speaker 6 Pay with actions, with decisions.

42:58 Speaker 2 First of all, a decision. The Rebbe says that even when Jews are out in the wilderness, it’s enough for them to decide: “I want this.” The king is waiting for him. But the decision has to be genuine and inward. I think that studying the Rebbe’s maamar together with the Rebbe’s explanations—it’s still Elul. I think this is the point we need to work on in ourselves and with our students, with our children: that it should be real, real, real. Inward means inward. It’s not just because [unclear], or because we have the privilege of being the Rebbe’s chassidim. I want to tell you something. This is an explanation, an idea, and there’s also a sicha of the Rebbe about it. Why does the maamar begin with a reish?

43:55 Speaker 6 A reish, and it isn’t written.

43:56 Speaker 2 And why the lamed and mem-beis? There’s also a sicha of the Rebbe about that. The Rebbe has two explanations about the lamed-beis. There’s something about every detail, something.

44:07 Speaker 6 It’s as though Elul, in the Rebbe’s farbrengens and maamarim, is all about the king in the field. That’s the point.

44:13 Speaker 2 But he mentioned this at every farbrengen, throughout Elul.

44:22 Speaker 6 You started to say something about Re’eh, Parshas Re’eh.

44:24 Speaker 2 There’s a particularly special sicha of the Rebbe’s. I don’t know if there’s another sicha of the Rebbe on this subject, and it connects to what we’re discussing. It’s Parshas Re’eh, which is exactly where we are today. In Likkutei Torah, it’s Re’eh, Parshas Re’eh. The Rebbe says: “Re’eh”—look. At what? Picture the Rebbe. When the Rebbe spoke about this at a farbrengen, he was, of course, speaking about the Frierdiker Rebbe. The Rebbe says: You went out on mivtzoim—why? Because you were told to? Because it’s an obligation? Did you picture the Rebbe’s face in your mind? I’m talking about the Frierdiker Rebbe. Yes. Picturing the Rebbe is something. “Re’eh”—to see the Rebbe. And the Rebbe says the same thing there, even though you’ve seen it in Likkutei Sichos.

45:37 Speaker 6 Ah, yes.

45:38 Speaker 2 Yes, yes. But what does it mean? To live it, to connect with the Rebbe. Simply connecting with the Rebbe—that’s “Re’eh.” “Re’eh” means connecting with the Rebbe by seeing him. Before you start learning the Rebbe’s sicha, imagine the Rebbe standing beside you, standing there and teaching you the sicha. Living with the Rebbe—that’s a very special sicha. You have to connect with the Rebbe. It’s not just because everyone else does it, or because it’s a commandment, but in order to connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Connecting with the Rebbe connects them with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. I think that’s the point. If we really start learning the Rebbe’s sichos and maamarim about these things, I think it will give us the... How does the Frierdiker Rebbe put it in a letter printed at the end of Tehillim? He says it in the name of the Rebbe, in the name of the Maggid, in the name of the Baal Shem Tov: “Had we not delayed, we could have returned twice.”

46:56 Speaker 6 Wait, what was that?

46:56 Speaker 2 “Had we not delayed, we could have returned twice.” The verse in Bereishis says, “Had we not delayed...” If we delay and put effort into Elul, then “we could have returned twice”—our teshuvah on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Two levels of teshuvah: accepting it in thought on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur, and accepting the mitzvos. “Had we not delayed”—we need to spend time on Elul. The letters of “lulei” are the letters of “Elul”: “Had we not delayed...” What our Rosh Hashanah is like depends on what our Elul is like. Our Yom Kippur will be like our Elul. And that starts now, in Menachem Av. Elul is coming next month. If we realize that we’re entering a period that truly is the time when, as the Rebbe explains—there’s a sicha where the Rebbe explains that they blow the shofar to practice, more and more and more...

47:59 Speaker 6 Even earlier.

47:59 Speaker 2 Even earlier, they blow it [unclear].

48:02 Speaker 6 But you’ve been involved in education for decades already. How many years has it been?

48:06 Speaker 2 Fifty years.

48:07 Speaker 6 Wow. And you’re still there today, and you know our young people, the younger generation. Where would you say, “I think this is the right place to start”? Obviously, everyone is different, and everyone is at a different place in their service of Hashem. We talked about people of the desert and people of the field. But let’s try to pick one thing you’d say, “Let’s try this; let’s start here.”

48:29 Speaker 2 I want to talk about the positive side.

48:31 Speaker 6 Okay.

48:31 Speaker 2 Yes?

48:32 Speaker 6 Of course, go ahead.

48:33 Speaker 2 Yes. I want to tell you: I’ve been at this for fifty years. If you’d asked me after Gimmel Tammuz about our generation, I was very pessimistic. Very pessimistic. Today I see my students and their desire to connect with the Rebbe. That desire wasn’t there thirty years ago. It wasn’t.

48:59 Speaker 6 Wow.

49:00 Speaker 2 It wasn’t, it wasn’t, it wasn’t. Today, a young couple decides to look for a place to go on shlichus. They open a map and search for somewhere at the end of the world, with no Jewish education, no kosher food, no mikveh, no place to daven—nothing. Why? What are they looking for there? What draws them there?

49:26 Speaker 6 Yes.

49:27 Speaker 2 I was invited to lead a farbrengen. Every year they sometimes have a farbrengen for shluchim who don’t have a community. I went one year. First of all, I learned geography.

49:40 Speaker 6 Where was it?

49:40 Speaker 2 It’s in a different place every year. I was invited when it was in Spain, but people came from all sorts of far-flung places—the Caribbean islands and places I didn’t even know existed. And I cried. I simply cried. You know, I was born into Chabad. The Rebbe was my sandek. I grew up near the Rebbe. So what have I done? What am I? Who am I, really? These people never had yechidus, never received a directive or encouragement, nothing. They decide to give up the life they know, to put their lives on the line. Why? What are they looking for? Do you know what they’re looking for?

50:32 Speaker 6 No.

50:32 Speaker 2 The Rebbe. Because they feel that’s where the King is. The King is there, in the field. That’s the Rebbe’s point. The King isn’t found in revelations; that’s where the King is. That’s where the Rebbe is, that’s where the Rebbe is. This wasn’t there thirty years ago. What makes a young couple open a map and search until they say, “Oh, I found a place where I can be. No minyan, no kosher food, nothing”? They want the King. They’re not doing it for revelations or looking for headlines. They want the King. That’s it.

51:11 Speaker 6 Wow.

51:11 Speaker 2 So that’s it. Listen, we all have a yetzer hara, and as you get older, your yetzer hara gets stronger, right? So I’ve been with mine for seventy-four years now. That’s how it is. The Rebbe writes, explaining Tanya, chapter 13: “On the contrary, a beinoni shouldn’t think that the animal soul has grown weaker. On the contrary, he has to strengthen himself even more and increase his Torah study.”

51:36 Speaker 6 It takes on different forms, but it still has that...

51:39 Speaker 2 But they—what? What yetzer hara would make someone give up being near family and friends, give up comfort? For what? They want the Rebbe. And that’s where he is. That’s what the Rebbe says: Where is the King?

51:56 Speaker 6 Precisely in the...

51:58 Speaker 2 In the field. There, among those people with kabbolas ol who come without any clever calculations. The King wants you to go with him, and afterward to do it with joy, with—

52:08 Speaker 6 Willingness.

52:08 Speaker 2 I remember when Reb Binyamin Klein called us that day, on the fifteenth of [unclear], in 5737, and told us that the Rebbe had chosen my wife and me to go on shlichus. There were three conditions. The first condition was that we do it with joy.

52:25 Speaker 6 Oh, he said that was a condition?

52:27 Speaker 2 Three conditions, yes. To do it with joy. What does that mean? Joy that the Rebbe made the decision and chose me? Of course. No—it means doing the work with joy. Not, “Oh, I’m doing this, and everyone praises me for it.” Joy means identifying with it. [unclear] You identify with what you’re doing. I think that’s important, and they do it with joy. That’s our generation—the new generation, who didn’t see the King. They’re people of the field; they didn’t see the King. They didn’t see him, didn’t have yechidus or hear sichos from him, but they want the King. They’re a generation—

53:13 Speaker 6 A generation with tremendous strength.

53:14 Speaker 2 That’s what I keep thinking. I can understand my friends who went on shlichus—they saw the Rebbe, they saw the Rebbe’s strength. But here, I think, is something extraordinary. It’s a wonder of the generations, a wonder of creation. L’chaim, l’chaim.

53:37 Speaker 6 L’chaim, l’chaim. Thank you so much, Rabbi Chitrik. Thank you very much. L’chaim, l’chaim. Be well.