Shoftim: 5784 - "And to the judge who will be in those days": Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld on the question the Tzemach Tzedek sent to the Rav of Lubavitch, and a story about his father-in-law, Rabbi…

00:00 Speaker 1 Please.

00:02 Speaker 2 The weekly parsha. The Torah says, “If a matter of judgment is too difficult for you”—a question of purity or lineage. In other words, you don’t know how to rule “between blood and blood, between judgment and judgment, and between affliction and affliction.” So what should you do? “You shall arise and go up to the place that Hashem your G-d will choose, and come to the kohanim, the Levites, and to the judge who will be in those days.” What does “the judge who will be in those days” mean? Rashi says that even if he is not like the judges who came before him—even if he is not quite like the judges of earlier times—you must listen to him. You have only the judge of your own day. Yiftach in his generation is like Shmuel in his generation. People tend to think that once there were truly great and important rabbis. Once there were chassidim who were really chassidim. Once there were people who truly served Hashem. Today, it’s not quite the same. But the Torah says, “the judge who will be in those days”—you must listen to him. In this connection, there is a story about the town of Lubavitch. There were residents there who were not Chabad chassidim. People think of the town of Lubavitch as the cradle of Chabad Chassidus, but there were also people there who were not chassidim. And the town’s rabbi was not a Chabad chossid. He was—

01:38 Speaker 1 The rabbi.

01:39 Speaker 2 He was the rabbi, but he was not a Chabad chossid. This was in the time of the Tzemach Tzedek. The Tzemach Tzedek instructed his household that if a question came up requiring a rabbi’s ruling, they should go and ask the town’s rabbi. As we said, “to the judge who will be in those days.” Your own opinion?

02:01 Speaker 1 You have to ask.

02:02 Speaker 2 You have to ask the rabbi. So if there’s a question, go and ask him. But what else did the Tzemach Tzedek say? “First bring the question to me and show me what it is, and afterward come back and tell me what his ruling was.” Once, a question arose in the Rebbe’s household about a chicken: they didn’t know whether it was kosher. They showed the question to the Tzemach Tzedek and then went to the rabbi. The rabbi examined it and said it was not kosher. They returned to the Tzemach Tzedek and told him the rabbi’s ruling. The Tzemach Tzedek asked whether the rabbi could be invited to come see him. They told the rabbi, “The Rebbe is calling for you.” Of course, he came. The Tzemach Tzedek asked him, “Why did you rule that this chicken is not kosher?” He cited the halachah on which he had based his ruling. The Tzemach Tzedek brought a proof from another source that seemed to indicate it was kosher. The rabbi then brought a different proof from yet another source to support his ruling, and the Tzemach Tzedek refuted that proof too. This happened several times: the rabbi brought sources, and the Tzemach Tzedek refuted them, until the rabbi had nothing left to answer. Then the rabbi stood up, banged on the table and said to the Tzemach Tzedek, “I am the rabbi here. This is my ruling,” and left. After the rabbi had gone, the Tzemach Tzedek said to his family, “Do you think he’s wrong? He’s right. Even though he had no answer, he’s right, because the Be’er Heitev says exactly what he said. He hadn’t seen that Be’er Heitev, but because he is the rabbi, he had help from Heaven.” In other words, he was guided from Heaven to rule according to halachah, even though he apparently had no answer. But for a rabbi, it doesn’t

04:06 Speaker 2 matter who he is: he has help from Heaven, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu guides him. That is why “the judge who will be in those days” has help from Heaven. Even if he is apparently not like the judges of earlier times, he has help from Heaven. There’s another story connected to this, about my father-in-law, may he live and be well for many good years. He was among the first students to study at Tomchei Temimim when the Frierdiker Rebbe came to the United States and established the yeshivah. His parents were on shlichus; the Frierdiker Rebbe had sent them to Chicago. So his parents lived in Chicago, while my father-in-law and his brother, who were still young, would travel to the yeshivah in New York. Back then, the trip from Chicago took an entire night. It’s a two-hour flight now, so in those days they made the trip once per term. If they went after Sukkos for the winter term, they wouldn’t be home until Pesach. They spent that whole half-year in the yeshivah. When it was time to go home, they went into yechidus with the Frierdiker Rebbe. Their trip to see the Frierdiker Rebbe has many details too. They went in to the Frierdiker Rebbe, and this is what he told them. Yes, it was a yechidus with the Frierdiker Rebbe. He told my father-in-law and his brother, “By today’s standards, we are pleased with you. But you must know that in earlier times it was entirely different.” In other words, considering the yeshivah as it had been established in those years, and how they were doing there, he was pleased with them—with their study of Chassidus and their niggunim. But one must always remember that in earlier times, what a yeshivah and its students looked like was completely different. That was how it was. In other words, even though we go by the judge who will be

06:27 Speaker 2 in those days, things are not like they were in earlier times. As the saying goes, “If the earlier generations were like angels, we are like human beings.” So yes, we must listen to “the judge who will be in those days,” but we must remember that the earlier generations were like angels. May we have a good Shabbos and hear good news.