Ushpizin #6 Yosef Hatzaddik and the Rebbe Maharash: Going "Lechatchila Ariber" | Rabbi Chaim Zilber

00:00 Speaker 1 Rabbi Chaim, Gut Moed.

00:01 Speaker 2 Gut Moed, for the sixth time.

00:03 Speaker 1 Our sixth time, yes.

00:04 Speaker 2 With Hashem’s help.

00:05 Speaker 1 So who are our guests today?

00:07 Speaker 2 Oh, we have important guests: Yosef Hatzaddik and the Rebbe Maharash.

00:14 Speaker 1 What’s the connection between them? What do they have in common?

00:18 Speaker 2 Well, first of all, what the rabbi emphasized most today is that the Rebbe Maharash’s motto was “L’chatchila ariber”—go over the top from the outset. It means not going down into the pits and then looking for a way out, but moving forward. We are above the world; we go out into the street with a sense of dignity. You can see this in the Rebbe Maharash’s conduct. He traveled in a gold-plated carriage and carried a gold-plated cane. When people asked him, “What’s this?”

00:53 Speaker 1 “What sort of conduct is that?”

00:54 Speaker 2 “What sort of conduct is that?” he answered, “For whom else was gold created? Was gold created for the non-Jews?” It’s a kind of Jewish pride: you feel elevated. You go out into the street, but you’re above the world. How does this relate to Yosef Hatzaddik? It says of Yosef Hatzaddik, “From prison he went out to reign.” That’s a verse in Koheles. Incidentally, the word “prison” is spelled there without an alef. Rashi writes that this refers to Yosef Hatzaddik, who was in the deepest pit in Egypt, “the nakedness of the land.” He really was there, in Egypt, in the pit, and from there he came out—not to some kind of house arrest. He came out to reign. He became second to the king. And king of what? Of Egypt, when Pharaoh ruled over the whole world—

01:43 Speaker 1 An empire.

01:44 Speaker 2 The world’s empire, and he became second to the king. That is l’chatchila ariber in its fullest possible expression. Yosef was a symbol of l’chatchila ariber. He came out and strode along the top of the wall. There was that Jewish pride, even in material things: “And the gold chain was placed around his neck,” just as we mentioned the Rebbe Maharash’s gold. Yosef was the proud Jew in Egypt. He had arrived as a persecuted slave, utterly humiliated, and emerged as a king.

02:25 Speaker 1 So what do we learn from this?

02:27 Speaker 2 A Jewish chossid knows that the street has no power over him. After all, one of the challenges a Chabad chossid faces is that he has to go out into the street. The Rebbe asks us to go out. The Rebbe spoke of going out to Times Square—or here in Israel, to Dizengoff—with a lulav and esrog. And Jews and others ask, “How can you do that? You call yourselves chassidim? How can you go out into the street?” As is well known, the Rebbe said about this that one who is busy expelling does not absorb. It’s a concept in halachah, in the laws of salting meat: when you salt a chicken, it expels the blood, but seemingly it could absorb blood as well. So there’s a rule in halachah that as long as it is busy expelling, it does not absorb. The Rebbe applied this to the shluchim—and really to all chassidim when they’re on shlichus. When you’re busy giving out, illuminating and spreading the light of Torah and mitzvos, you don’t absorb, because you’re busy giving out. You see this with shluchim: even when they’re in Tel Aviv and places like that, they’re busy giving out. Nevertheless, the Rebbe said, of course, that there must be boundaries. The Rebbe used the acronym Tanak: taharah, nekiyus and kedushah—purity, cleanliness and holiness. You have to come from a place of holiness, dressed as a chossid, and genuinely stay within the bounds of halachah. But you also have to know that this really is l’chatchila ariber: you know from the outset that you’re above the world. Then the mitzvah campaigns are much more successful, and you know you have to reach another Jew. You don’t settle for what you’ve already done, because that’s why you’re here.

04:07 Speaker 1 You often see this with students from a yeshivah ketanah. Hundreds of students go out, and you might have a thirteen-year-old speaking to an entire army unit. Think about it: a thirteen-year-old boy speaks to a whole unit of soldiers and starts telling them about Chanukah. He lights the candles with them. That’s our strength, the strength the Rebbe gave us.

04:26 Speaker 2 Absolutely.

04:27 Speaker 1 Not to be intimidated.

04:28 Speaker 2 It’s something that amazes anyone who sees the work up close. When I came to Lubavitch from the Skver and Karlin yeshivos, one of the things I couldn’t understand was how young men could put tefillin on an older man. Why would he listen to them? Why would he do what they wanted him to do? In fact, the first time I went out was with Atom Levi Willem[?], who later became a shliach in Costa Rica. Today he’s a chassidic Jew and a prominent mashpia. He took me with him to Queens, and he helped twenty Jews put on tefillin. He was a seventeen-year-old bochur, and in an hour and a half he put tefillin on twenty Jews. I stood there stunned. Here was this young fellow wrapping tefillin on a grown man. I mean, what? Who are you? You’re just a kid. That was when I saw this sense of Jewish pride, of l’chatchila ariber, and the strength the Rebbe gave us. “A king’s servant is like a king”: you receive something of the Rebbe’s kingship, of his leadership, because you’re on the Rebbe’s shlichus. So you’re like a Rebbe. You have to know, to feel, that you’re the king of the street—and you really do have the strength to make an impact.

05:45 Speaker 1 L’chaim, l’chaim.

05:46 Speaker 2 L’chaim and blessings. May we merit it.