What Rumor Did He Hear That Made Him Come? | Why Does One Need to Travel to the Rebbe?

00:00 The Rebbe cites the words of the Frierdiker Rebbe in his sichos and speaks about the custom among chassidim of traveling to the Rebbe, and the extensive preparations they would make for the trip. It was a whole avodah: preparing for many months, even years. As an example, the Rebbe cites the account in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s writings about the chossid Rashbatz, Reb Shmuel Betzalel, who was among the great chassidim of the Tzemach Tzedek. He was the teacher of the Rebbe Rashab and the Frierdiker Rebbe, and a mashpia in Lubavitch. The Frierdiker Rebbe tells at length the entire story of how Reb Shmuel Betzalel, the Rashbatz, came close to Chassidus: how he came from a Lithuanian family, a family of misnagdim, and the entire path he traveled before reaching the Tzemach Tzedek. Among other things, he gives all the details of the guidance he received: what lengthy preparation was needed to come to the Rebbe and enter yechidus. He also recounts a saying he heard after

01:38 he had already completed all those lengthy preparations. He heard something the Alter Rebbe once said about Megillas Esther, concerning what it tells us about Achashverosh. Before coming to Achashverosh, one had to prepare to enter his presence, as the Megillah says: “Six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes,” and “With this, the young woman came to the king.” The Alter Rebbe explained that Achashverosh refers to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as the Midrash says: “Achashverosh is Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” And “the young woman” refers to the souls, as the Alter Rebbe explains at length in Torah Or: “the young woman” is the souls of the Jewish people, and every soul prepares to come to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “With this, the young woman came to the king”—for a soul to draw close to G-dliness, preparation is needed. That preparation is “six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes.” He explained that “oil of myrrh” alludes to bitterness: on the one hand, the avodah comes from a sense of bitterness and teshuvah. The perfumes, with their fragrance, represent the inner dimension of Torah and the study of Chassidus. These are the preparations one must make to come to the king. He applied this to himself as well, in a similar way: when a chossid travels to the Rebbe, a whole avodah of preparation is required, of getting ready

03:13 for the journey to the Rebbe. Among chassidim, there was a whole order of avodah involved in preparing for the trip and in the trip itself. Traveling to the Rebbe was an experience in its own right. The sichos describe the details: how the journey went, how they arrived at the Rebbe, and their entire stay with the Rebbe—it was all one complete experience in the avodah of Chassidus. I once heard from Reb Leibel Groner, the Rebbe’s secretary, about a farbrengen that took place around 5733 or 5734, something like that. It was a farbrengen at 770 with Reb Nissan Nemenov, a”h. Reb Nissan Nemenov was one of the great mashpi’im of the last generation. He was a mashpia at Tomchei Temimim in Brunoy, France. He was one of the great chassidim, someone who truly served Hashem. When Reb Nissan was visiting the Rebbe, he held a farbrengen. Reb Leibel Groner, the Rebbe’s secretary, was there too. It seems the Rebbe himself had asked him to attend and to report back what Reb Nissan said at the farbrengen with the bochurim. Among other things, Reb Nissan spoke about traveling to the Rebbe. He said: “Notice how, for chassidim, the entire journey and the preparations for traveling to the Rebbe were part of getting ready. And

04:51 that was how people traveled to the Rebbe in earlier generations.” Reb Nissan said: “Even today, we see a great difference in the physical journey. In earlier times, people traveling would go on foot. It was a great effort. Or they would travel by horse and wagon. The journey itself took a long time physically. Today, boruch Hashem, people usually travel by car or plane and arrive much faster. What happens in the physical realm should not remain separate from the spiritual realm. Just as the journey to the Rebbe is much faster physically today, so too can a chossid prepare for the trip to the Rebbe more quickly. In earlier times, all the preparation took months, even years, as needed. Today, the spiritual preparation for traveling to the Rebbe can also happen much faster.” Reb Nissan said that what we learn from the plane and the car is that we rise above. Yes, when you rise to a greater height, you arrive much faster. When you fly higher, you travel much faster, get here much sooner, and save time. In the same way, a chossid rises above, puts himself on a higher level, and that enables him

06:28 to arrive and save time, so that he can collect himself, be ready, and come to the Rebbe. Now, when we look at today’s portion, Parshas Yisro, we have the passage that tells how Yisro came to Moshe Rabbeinu: “Yisro, priest of Midian and father-in-law of Moshe, heard all that G-d had done for Moshe and for His people Israel, that Hashem had brought Israel out of Egypt.” That is the first verse in today’s portion. On the words “Yisro heard,” Rashi says: “What did he hear that made him come?” What report led Yisro to come to Moshe Rabbeinu, to come to the desert? Rashi answers: “The splitting of the sea and the war with Amalek.” In other words, what he heard about was the splitting of the sea and the war with Amalek. This raises a simple question, which many commentators ask. First, what is Rashi’s question, “What did he hear that made him come?” What is Rashi asking? After all, the Chumash itself states explicitly: “Yisro, priest of Midian and father-in-law of Moshe, heard all that Hashem had done for His people Israel.” It clearly says what he heard: he heard about everything that had happened in Egypt, about the Exodus from Egypt, about the miracles and wonders. So what is Rashi’s question in the first place? And second, what is Rashi’s answer? “The splitting of the sea and the war with Amalek.” Seemingly, when we look at the verse, it speaks of many things. It says “all that He had done,” and “all that He had done” means everything that took place. It was not only

08:10 the Exodus from Egypt. There were the plagues, the Exodus from Egypt, the splitting of the sea, the descent of the manna, and the war with Amalek. Many things happened that Yisro heard about. Why does Rashi choose these two specifically, the splitting of the sea and the war with Amalek? Neither Rashi’s question nor his answer is understood. That is the question everyone asks. The Rebbe explains: First, on the level of the plain meaning, the question really is, “What did he hear that made him come?” Rashi is not asking why Yisro decided to convert. Yisro decided to convert because he understood, saw, and heard about all these things. Yisro had worshiped idols; he was a priest of idol worship. Not only that, he had [unclear] worshiped every form of idolatry in the world. So it is understandable that when Yisro saw all the miracles and wonders that happened in Egypt, and the Exodus from Egypt, this led him to decide to convert. But to convert, he did not have to come to Moshe Rabbeinu, to go into the desert. He could have stayed where he was in Midian, in peace, and there abandoned idol worship and served Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And how could he learn how to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu and all the details of what he could do as a convert? Rashi’s question is about this central point.

09:43 The precise wording of the question is: “What did he hear that made him come?” What caused Yisro not to stay where he was, but to decide that he had to leave Midian and come to the desert? After all, he did not know what awaited him. To leave Midian, go into the desert, and settle among the Jews, to be there in the desert—what drove him to go all that way? “What did he hear that made him come?” And the answer is: What did he hear that caused him to come? The splitting of the sea and the war with Amalek. Those are what brought about the “and came”—rather than remaining where he was, he came. What does this mean? How do we explain it? In other words, he understood that he had to go into the desert, meet Moshe Rabbeinu, and be together with the Jews. His “heard and came” was because of these two things, the splitting of the sea and the war with Amalek. What is the explanation? The Rebbe spoke about this several times, in letters, maamarim, and talks on Parshas Yisro, and gave several explanations. I will mention only a few of them, two or three explanations the Rebbe gave. From all of them we can learn lessons in serving Hashem for ourselves, especially concerning a chossid’s connection to his Rebbe: why he must

11:12 To travel to the Rebbe, to go to the Rebbe? That is exactly what we are talking about—Yisro went to Moshe Rabbeinu. One explanation is this: What does it mean that he heard about the splitting of the sea and the war with Amalek? Yisro understood that the splitting of the sea was a great revelation of G-dliness. It was a wondrous miracle that made an impression on the entire world. That is understandable for the Jews, but it was not only the Jews; it affected the entire world. In Parshas Beshalach, in the song we recite, it says: “Dread and fear will fall upon them; by the greatness of Your arm they will be still as stone.” Dread and awe fell upon all the nations, all the peoples. They saw the revelation of G-dliness there, and it aroused tremendous fear among all the nations around them. And yet Amalek came. After the splitting of the sea, after such a revelation, when the whole world had become aware of Hashem’s presence, Amalek came nonetheless. He was unmoved by everything that had happened. “Who cooled you off on the way”—he comes and introduces doubts, cooling a Jew’s faith. What did Yisro understand from this? “What did he hear that prompted him to come?” That even after the splitting of the sea, after such a great revelation of G-dliness, after such a great Divine miracle, Amalek can still come and cool a person off,

12:47 with doubts about faith. Yisro understood that he had to come to Moshe Rabbeinu. Because if he did not receive from Moshe Rabbeinu and join the Jewish people, but instead remained in Midian—sorry—if he remained in Midian, there was no guarantee that he could withstand the test when Amalek, who cools a person off, came along. And here, of course, there is a lesson in serving Hashem for each and every person. A person may be on his own, learning and davening, and feel very good. There may even be revelations of G-dliness. He learns and davens, he experiences a splitting of the sea, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu shows him infinite things; there are revelations of G-dliness. And yet he is not safe: Amalek might come. Chassidus says that the numerical value of Amalek is the same as that of safek, “doubt.” Amalek is “who cooled you off on the way”—cooling a person off in the face of great signs and wonders. Chassidus teaches us that Amalek takes on all sorts of guises. Amalek comes to a person and says: Yes, it was a great miracle, a great revelation of G-dliness; the sea split. But, Amalek argues, what did you see? Hakadosh Boruch Hu—He can do that. For Him, performing a miracle, doing something like that, is only a small thing. So then,

14:14 what does a person gain from it? And along these lines, that is Amalek’s argument as it enters a person: coldness, even at a time when there is a revelation of G-dliness. How can a person overcome this Amalek? For that, he needs to come to Moshe Rabbeinu. “Moshe said to Yehoshua: Choose men for us and go out to fight Amalek.” To contend with Amalek’s coldness and doubt, he needs to come to Moshe Rabbeinu, the ra’aya mehemna, the faithful shepherd. As explained in Chassidus, ra’aya mehemna means that he nourishes the Jewish people with faith, making faith something alive, something internal, something so strong that through it one can overcome all of Amalek’s doubts and coldness. That is one point. In greater detail and depth, as Rabbi Farkash once discussed, there is the matter of intellect: serving Hashem according to reason and understanding, and serving Hashem in a way that transcends reason and understanding, stepping beyond one’s own limits and boundaries. There is a way of serving Hashem in which a person learns and davens and serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but his service follows reason and understanding. What does that mean? He serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu through intellect, through comprehension. “For it is your wisdom and your understanding in the eyes of the nations.” The Torah is profound wisdom; the Torah

15:46 is wondrous wisdom. He understands the wisdom of the Torah, and that gives him pleasure. He understands a mitzvah, its reason, its beauty, its sweetness, the richness, understanding, and meaning found in Torah and mitzvos, and that inspires him to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu in this way. That is one approach. But there is also a form of service that transcends boundaries and limits, that takes a person beyond his own boundaries and limits. And that is the significance of the splitting of the sea. At the splitting of the sea, the [unclear] were broken. Not only in that the splitting of the sea occurred in a [unclear] manner, but also in that the splitting of the sea is, as the Rebbe says, the concept of “He turned the sea into dry land.” What does “He turned the sea into dry land” mean? Chassidus explains: The sea represents the creatures of the sea. Sea creatures, fish, are always connected to their source of life. Likewise, in the world of serving Hashem, in the spiritual world, when a person learns Torah and davens, he is like a fish in the sea. He is connected to his source of life, connected to G-dliness. And so, as cited in the Gemara in Rabbi Akiva’s parable, the Jewish people with the Torah are like a fish in water: if you take it out of the water, it has no

17:11 life left. In serving Hashem generally, the sea represents a world of spirituality, a world of holiness, a world of G-dliness, where a person is connected to his source of life. Dry land alludes to the physical world. What does dry land mean? It is a separate world, a separate existence, like the creatures of the land. As he says, [unclear], but they are not situated in the same way. They can be disconnected from it. In serving Hashem, this means that a person finds enjoyment in the fact that he [unclear], and there he needs to eat and sleep and attend to earning a living. And what pleasure is there in that? This brings us to the point that [unclear]: in serving Hashem, as already mentioned, there is a great difference between the spiritual and the physical. In the spiritual, one sees G-dliness. In the spiritual world, when he learns, when he davens, when he sits in shul or in the beis midrash—there he sees G-dliness. When he leaves the beis midrash and goes about his business, there he is like the [unclear]. He walks down the street, goes about his business, enjoys eating, enjoys—it is his, it is with—there he is a person like everyone else. That does not sit well, does it? And—

18:34 It is very hard to be in both of these worlds at once. When I, thank G-d, as we said, sit in the beis midrash and learn, I have no connection to the world. As we said, then I am connected to G-dliness. But the moment I am out in the world, eating, there I am on my own. There I am connected to the world, and I have to look at things as they are physically. What the world says, how things work—that is the [unclear] needed to earn a living. What does this one say, and what does that one say, and what does she understand about it? I think about these things, but I do not know exactly. “He turned the sea into dry land”—[unclear] the idea of going beyond the limits of one’s own nature. That is why we find that Nachshon ben Aminadav, as is well known—the Gemara relates—jumped into the sea. He was from the tribe of Yehudah. “When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Yaakov from a people of foreign speech, Yehudah became His holy one.” What was Yehudah’s role? How does Yehudah enter the picture? The Gemara says that when they reached the sea, Hakadosh Boruch Hu said: “Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Jewish people to travel, and you, lift your staff.” You see the sea, you see the Egyptians coming from behind, and according to nature you do not know where to go. The Jews are standing at the edge of the sea. There is going to be a great commotion here. They do not know what is expected of them. Moshe Rabbeinu says: “Tell the Jewish people to travel, and you, lift your staff.” What does Nachshon ben Aminadav do? He does not ask questions. He jumps into the waters of the sea, with mesirus nefesh,

21:04 going beyond all limits. “Yehudah became His holy one, Israel His dominion.” That is why he was the king. That is the whole idea of the kings of the line of David, from the tribe of Yehudah, and of the path of mesirus nefesh. This is the essence of the splitting of the sea: going beyond limits. It is the preparation for receiving the Torah. That is the splitting of the sea. And likewise, the war with Amalek. As is well known, the numerical value of Amalek is the same as that of safek, “doubt.” Amalek is a particular force that stands in the way. How does Amalek approach a person? As is known among chassidim, Amalek is not the yetzer hara that tells a person, “Come, sin; come, commit a transgression.” Amalek is a kind of yetzer hara that comes to a person and says: Well, you need to serve Hashem, but do it rationally. You need to understand it, and everything should be done coolly. When something is accompanied by doubt—should I do it or not?—why should there be any vitality in it? Why should anything burn within you? Why should there be any energy? Why do you need to shout? Why get excited? Why make a commotion? You can do it, but quietly and calmly, coolly and calmly, with composure and calm. Rationally. Intellect is indeed part of serving Hashem, but if one remains only with intellect, Amalek’s doubt can slip in. To defeat Amalek, there is the concept of “Choose men for us”—Moshe’s men. As explained among chassidim, who are Moshe’s men? Moshe Rabbeinu says: “And what are we?” Moshe Rabbeinu, with all his intellect and all his understanding and all his wisdom, when he stood before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, said: “And what are we?”

22:36 “What?” I am nothing before You. He feels utterly nullified before Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “What am I? What am I?” This is the same kind of bittul with which Moshe was “very humble, more than any person on the face of the earth.” And this bittul, this devotion, this self-sacrifice for Hashem—[unclear]—is the only way to stand in the battle against Amalek. Accordingly, this is what Rashi is saying here: “What did he hear that made him come?” What did Yisro hear that led him to decide he could not remain in Midian and convert there? He had to come—to leave his boundaries. If he stayed where he was, he would remain within his own sense of self and his own limits. He could convert, serve Hashem in his own way, and do all sorts of good things. But as long as he stayed in his own place, in his own home, and served Hashem from within his own sense of self and his own limits, that service of Hashem would not be something certain. To be truly connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he had to leave those limits. “What did he hear that made him come?” What moved Yisro to decide that he had to leave his own sense of self and his own limits? It was these two things: At the Splitting of the Sea, he saw that he had to leave his own sense of self and his own limits in order to connect the physical and the spiritual through Torah and mitzvos. And in the battle with Amalek, he saw that for the intellect

24:12 not to bring coldness and doubts into a person, one must go beyond all measures and limitations. This is what brought him to leave his limitations, to make his own “lech lecha”—to leave himself and his place, go into the desert, and meet Moshe Rabbeinu there in the wilderness. That is the second point. And the third point the Rebbe brought concerns “What did he hear that made him come?”—answering it at a deeper level: What brought Yisro into this world? At the Splitting of the Sea, there was a revelation of G-dliness. As we said, it was a wondrous revelation of G-dliness that all the nations of the world saw. And yet Amalek came afterward. Yisro understood that the world had still not been fully refined. There had been a revelation of G-dliness, the Splitting of the Sea, which broke through the limits of nature. Even the nations saw that there had been a great revelation of G-dliness that broke through every boundary of nature, but darkness still remained. The world still remained in darkness, and that is why Amalek came. And Amalek brought coldness. Yisro saw that even after the revelation at the Splitting of the Sea, the reality of darkness had not entirely disappeared. Darkness still existed, and so Amalek could

25:45 come with force, come and cool things down. That is why, the Zohar says, the revelation of the Giving of the Torah took place only when Yisro came. Only when Yisro came and declared, “Hashem is greater than all the gods.” He knew every form of idolatry in the world. As explained in Chassidus, idolatry is not just worshipping wood and stone. Idolatry includes the whole philosophy, its reasoning, and all its details and subtleties. According to Chassidus, idolatry includes all the intellectual calculations, however subtle, and everything that is not G-dliness. And he understood that “Hashem is greater than all the gods”: the Name Havayah, the Infinite, the Boundless, above all the measures and limits of nature. What Yisro did was reveal that nothing can stand in opposition to G-dliness. The truth concerning Amalek and Midian is that even the deepest darkness, with everything it contains, is G-dliness. And this is the meaning of “What did he hear that made him come?”—the Splitting of the Sea and the battle with Amalek. He saw that even after the Splitting of the Sea, Amalek remained, and he understood that there was still darkness in which the truth of G-dliness had not been revealed. So he came and brought this recognition that “Hashem is greater than all the gods,” through which he dispelled the deepest darkness,

27:15 the last remnant of darkness. As the Zohar says, when Yisro declared, “Hashem is greater than all the gods,” “the glory of Hakadosh Boruch Hu was revealed”—there was a revelation; the word used there means revelation. This was the greatest revelation, and it was the preparation for the Giving of the Torah. The Zohar says that until then, no one had known and revealed G-dliness as Yisro did. So, returning to our subject, this is what Rashi’s first comment in the weekly parsha is saying. And it follows on from the previous parsha, the end of Parshas Beshalach. At the end of Parshas Beshalach, we learned about the battle with Amalek. Even if we take the verse said at the time of victory in that battle, it says, “Write this as a remembrance in the book and place it in Yehoshua’s ears.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu to write about the battle with Amalek in the Torah: “And place it in Yehoshua’s ears, for I will utterly erase the memory of Amalek.” “Place it in Yehoshua’s ears”—a teaching is cited in the name of the Baal Shem Tov. What does “place it in Yehoshua’s ears” mean? The holy Baal Shem Tov says that the verse means it is not enough for something to be written in a book; it must also be “in Yehoshua’s ears.” One must hear it, hear it from the teacher one can see with one’s own eyes. This means that a chossid must travel to the Rebbe. It is not enough; a person might say: I can study Chassidus in the Rebbe’s sichos, I can

28:38 study the maamar, I can study the sicha, I can receive all of this without being physically present with the Rebbe. But does one have to go to the Rebbe? The answer is: If so, it is written in the book—very good, wonderful; the book was written and the teachings are there. But along with that comes “place it in Yehoshua’s ears.” A person needs to travel to the tzaddik, or hear from the tzaddik, or be in his presence... to travel to the Rebbe. There is where the Rebbe’s truth is found, where the truth shines differently, and where one receives it. This is the meaning of “What did he hear that made him come?” It continues Rashi’s discussion of the previous parsha: Yisro accepted that if he truly wanted to be a vessel for greatness, a vessel for Torah, he had to leave his limits and travel to the truth. There Yisro is with Moshe Rabbeinu, and there he will receive the truth of Torah, the truth of Chassidus, the perspective on G-dliness: that one can learn about His greatness in the world, and at the same time learn that “there is nothing else besides Him,” that apart from this truth there is no other reality. And that is why this is the preparation for the Giving of the Torah. Parshas Yisro, the parsha of the Giving of the Torah, tells us that before the Giving of the Torah there must be a clear understanding: to be a vessel for Torah, one must leave one’s limits; and to rid oneself of Amalek,

29:55 of the familiar falsehood and deception, one also needs a connection to Moshe Rabbeinu and to the extension of Moshe in every generation—a connection to the leader of the chassidim, to study and internalize Chassidus, and to travel to the Rebbe. Through this, one receives genuine vitality in G-dliness, and the Rebbe sets [unclear] from him, who [unclear], and may we all travel together to the complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu, speedily in our days, amen.