20 Mar-Cheshvan 5773 Conference

00:00 Speaker 1 The same is true here. Some said that after Gimmel Tammuz, there was no way Chabad chassidim could go on as before. There would have to be some loss, some decline. How could it be otherwise, without the Rebbe before our eyes today? But we see that the Rebbe’s strength is so great that he not only made disciples; he made disciples who could, in turn, raise disciples. He created something living, something that endures and continues from generation to generation. It is a wonder. And it is the greatest thing. The Rebbe’s great miracle is not the miracles in which he changed the course of nature, or said things that seemed contradictory. There are such things too, but that is not the main thing. The main thing, I think, is that he created something that continues from generation to generation, from father to son and from son to grandson. That is the main thing. This was the foundation of the entire Jewish people. And, thank G-d, the Jewish people have continued for three thousand years. We say that what the Rebbe established will continue until the redeemer comes, speedily in our days, and redeems us.

02:08 Speaker 2 Thank you! That is what a chossid sounds like. That is what a shliach of the Rebbe sounds like. Words that come from the heart, words that reach us and convey the message to every one of us. And after those wonderful words, thank you to the Rebbe’s head shliach in Baltimore, Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan. May he live long and continue his shlichus. Now we invite the Chabad chassidim’s choir to sing some of the Alter Rebbe’s niggunim. Please.

03:21 Speaker 3 [unclear] Kol dodi, dodi dofek, dodi dofek, pesachi li. The voice of my beloved, my beloved knocks, my beloved knocks: Open for me. Kol dodi, dodi dofek, dodi dofek, pesachi li. The voice of my beloved, my beloved knocks, my beloved knocks: Open for me.

06:01 Speaker 4 Open for me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one. Open for me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one. [wordless singing]

08:45 Speaker 5 Thank you very much. The Chabad chassidim’s choir, with the chassidic cantor Reb Nemuel Harush, accompanied by musician Ahar’le Lipsker. Thank you very much. We will hear more from them later. And as we listen to the niggunim, it is important to recall the Alter Rebbe’s saying: “The tongue is the pen of the heart. Song is the pen of the soul.” How many tens of thousands of Jews were drawn close to Chassidus through the power of a niggun! It began with the Alter Rebbe, when he was in Shklov and people tried to trouble him with difficult questions. His answer was the niggun “All Those Who Have Song Go Out With Song.” Another time, chassidim came to the Alter Rebbe and complained that they did not understand a chapter in Tanya. The Alter Rebbe’s answer was: “You are lacking in chassidic song.” Yes, the power of a niggun. As it is related, the early chassidim used to say: The Jewish people did not believe in Moshe Rabbeinu because of the signs he performed, for one who believes on the basis of signs has doubt in his heart. What did they believe because of? The revelation at Mount Sinai: “Our eyes saw, and not a stranger’s; our ears”—excuse me—“our ears heard, and no one else’s.” The voices, the fire and the flames. That was Moshe Rabbeinu. Then one of the elder chassidim continues: “Chassidim saw with their eyes and heard with their ears the fire, the voices and the flames when the Alter Rebbe delivered Torah, and through this they became bound to him in a holy bond, spirit to spirit.” It is related there that the chassidim actually suffered as they struggled to understand a teaching of the Rebbe amid the fire, but they received it all not only with awe, but with joy. Two hundred years since the Alter Rebbe’s passing—and now, on the Alter Rebbe’s teachings, I have the honor of inviting the local rabbinic authority, the gaon and chossid Rabbi Shmuel Ashkenazi shlita. Please.

11:34 Speaker 6 L’chaim, l’chaim. So, l’chaim. This is a chassidic farbrengen in honor of the two-hundredth year since the Alter Rebbe’s passing. L’chaim, l’chaim. On a number of occasions, the Rebbe spoke about the words “May his merit protect us”: It does not mean that he needs something from us. He does not need our merit, but we need his. That is why, at a chassidic farbrengen, it is customary for chassidim to wish one another, “May his merit protect us”—may the merit of the one whose yahrzeit we are marking protect us in everything we need: children, life and sustenance, materially and spiritually. L’chaim, l’chaim. Once, when it was a hundred and fifty years since the Alter Rebbe’s passing, the Rebbe held a farbrengen in its honor. At that farbrengen, the Rebbe said [unclear]. I was not present at that farbrengen, but I remember people repeating what the Rebbe had said. From this we can understand that a jubilee—whether a hundred and fifty years or, as now, two hundred years—is not just an occasion to sit and reminisce or tell stories about things that happened two hundred years ago. These things are alive and present now, even though two hundred years have passed. Still, for the Rebbe, a jubilee was something special. On a number of occasions, he cited sources showing that this is a special time, when we are together with the one whose yahrzeit it is, and he bestows on each person what that person needs. So when we gather now for a farbrengen honoring two hundred years, we must see it as though the Alter Rebbe is standing here with us at the farbrengen and bestowing on us everything we need, as it says in Tanya, Igeres Hakodesh, chapter 27: “Even more than during his lifetime.” This week we read the weekly parsha, Parshas Vayeira, which ends with the passage of the Akeidah, the Binding of Yitzchak. We recite the passage of the Akeidah every morning before davening. We invoke the merit of the Akeidah, so that by virtue of it,

14:29 Speaker 6 by virtue of Avraham Avinu’s love, his bond and his self-sacrifice, Hashem will remember us with salvation and mercy. The merit of the Akeidah. The Rebbe cites the Alter Rebbe, who asks a question and answers it. Seemingly, the Akeidah was Avraham Avinu’s tenth test. His first test was in Ur Kasdim. At the time of Ur Kasdim, Avraham Avinu was either three years old or as old as forty-eight, according to the differing opinions. By the Akeidah, his tenth test, he was a hundred and thirty-seven. Seemingly, the Alter Rebbe asked, we should specifically commemorate the test of Ur Kasdim. Avraham Avinu was the first. No one yet knew that Hakadosh Boruch Hu was in the world, after the generation of the Dispersion, the generation of Enosh and everything that had happened in the world. Avraham Avinu came along, a child of three—or a man of forty-eight—and proclaimed that there is a G-d of the world, the G-d of the universe. Because of that, Nimrod wanted to burn him, and he entered the fiery furnace with self-sacrifice. So seemingly that was a greater and harder test than the Akeidah, by which time Avraham had already experienced all the revelations of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and had seen everything He promised come to pass. At a hundred and thirty-seven, Avraham showed self-sacrifice in the Akeidah. So why do we specifically mention the passage of the Akeidah and not the test of Ur Kasdim? The Alter Rebbe said something along these lines: There are many kinds of self-sacrifice. We find self-sacrifice even among the nations of the world, but it is self-sacrifice for the sake of some result. Avraham Avinu undertook the mission of publicizing the name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and he pursued it even to the point of actual self-sacrifice. But that was for a particular purpose. There is such a thing

16:37 Speaker 6 A person, in order to carry out his will and fulfill his aspirations, can go so far as to give up his life. That was what happened in Ur Kasdim. But in the account of the Akeidah, there was no apparent purpose. No one knew about it. Hakadosh Boruch Hu quietly told Avraham Avinu, “Take your son, take him.” Even the two young men who were with him—he left them behind on the way, went up Mount Moriah, and bound his son Yitzchak. For whom? Who was this for? What would have been added to the world if, G-d forbid, Avraham Avinu had bound his son Yitzchak? Who would have benefited? Would Hakadosh Boruch Hu have gained anything? Would Avraham Avinu? Certainly not. Would Yitzchak have gained anything? What was it for? There was no purpose to it. No one stood to gain anything. The Alter Rebbe says that this is why we specifically mention the Akeidah. This self-sacrifice had no practical outcome, no purpose, and therefore the test of the Akeidah was far greater than the test of Ur Kasdim. We are now in this generation, a generation that is dark, entirely dark. One of the main things we need to know is that “Hashem your G-d is testing you.” We face all kinds of tests and difficulties. And certainly, certainly, it is only a test, until we reach the true and complete Geulah. That is the main point, and that is what is especially difficult in our generation. Why? The Alter Rebbe went to Petersburg and risked his life there, to the point of mortal danger, all for the dissemination of the teachings of Chassidus. That resembled the self-sacrifice of the founding fathers of Chassidus. But the tests we face now seem to have no purpose and no practical result at all. This is the hardest test. And so, especially now, at this farbrengen, two years

18:50 Speaker 6 close to the Alter Rebbe’s yahrzeit, we need to strengthen ourselves more and more, and know that we face even the hardest tests. But “For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you.” To mention a Torah insight from the Alter Rebbe: as we know, the Alter Rebbe’s name was Schneur—two lights, the light of the revealed Torah and the light of Chassidus. He joined the revealed Torah and the inner dimension of Torah together. One of the striking places where we can see this is in the Alter Rebbe’s teachings. There is a Shabbos labor called kindling, one of the 39 prohibited labors: one may not light a fire on Shabbos. The Mishnah lists kindling among the primary categories of labor. Likewise, on Yom Tov one may not create a new fire. One may light a fire from an existing flame, but one may not kindle a new one—that is, produce a spark with a stone. There is a dispute, including Rashi’s view, over the reason for this prohibition. The Alter Rebbe discusses it in Kuntres Acharon, and many later authorities cite him; he is a source for this question. What is the labor of kindling? When a person lights a wick, two things happen: he creates a flame and he burns the wick. The wick burns, and that produces the flame. What we see is the flame, but we also see the wick being consumed. The Alter Rebbe asks: what constitutes the prohibited labor on Shabbos? And the same question applies on Yom Tov. Is the labor the consumption of the wick, or is it making the flame? Is the labor the consumption of the wick, with the flame needed to burn it? Or is the labor making the flame, for which the wick has to be consumed?

21:17 Speaker 6 The practical difference is what a person intends when he wants the flame or wants the wick to be consumed. We won’t go into this at length, but there is a concept called “a labor not needed for its own sake.” On Shabbos, liability applies only when a person intends the labor itself—when he needs that labor. But if you say the labor is consuming the wick, then when he lights a candle for its light, what he needs is the light. He doesn’t need the wick to be consumed. On the contrary, he would prefer the wick to remain, but he has no choice: it has to burn for the flame to be lit. The Alter Rebbe discusses this, and later authorities debate his words. His conclusion is that the labor of kindling is producing the flame—not consuming the wick, but producing the flame. A chossid once remarked to me in conversation, “Here you see what the Alter Rebbe wanted in the world.” The Alter Rebbe had studied mussar—not today’s mussar, but the mussar of [unclear]. What was the focus of mussar? What did they work on? Consuming the wick: breaking the body through fasts and other practices, so that the body would be subdued and would no longer interfere with serving Hashem. Then the Alter Rebbe came and revealed the teachings of Chassidus, continuing the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. What was its focus? What did Chassidus reveal? On the contrary, as explained in Tanya, one should not focus so much on wearing down the body. One should focus on the soul, on the light. And we see this in the Rebbe’s teachings, in the way the Rebbe taught us to work with light rather than to focus on breaking the darkness. A little light dispels a great deal of darkness. And here we see

23:24 Speaker 6 both things together. On the one hand, even in the revealed dimension of Torah, the Alter Rebbe explained what the labor of kindling is.