How Does One Become a Shliach? The Secret the Rebbe Revealed at a Special Farbrengen

00:00 I want to share with you today a special farbrengen that I was privileged to attend thirty-seven years ago, in 5748, on Shabbos Parshas Toldos. The calendar fell exactly as it does this year: Shabbos Parshas Toldos was on the eve of Rosh Chodesh, Shabbos Mevorchim Kislev, and that Shabbos was the Kinus Hashluchim. As you know, it is still this way today: on Shabbos Mevorchim Kislev, thousands of the Rebbe’s shluchim gather from countries all over the world. They come to headquarters, to 770 in Brooklyn, New York, and farbreng there throughout Shabbos, after Shabbos, and before Shabbos. It is something very, very, very special. That Shabbos, too, thousands of guests arrived from around the world. It was a very, very special Shabbos. We should also bear in mind that it was Rosh Chodesh Kislev. That year, 5748, marked ten years since Rosh Chodesh Kislev 5738, the day the Rebbe was out of danger. In 5738, the Rebbe had faced a life-threatening health crisis, and thank G-d, he recovered and returned home on that Rosh Chodesh Kislev. For chassidim, that day became, for all time and all generations, a day of thanksgiving, joy, and rejoicing. So that year, 5748, marked ten years, and of course that added to the joy. Also, that week there was great news about the books of the Frierdiker Rebbe, which had been the subject of a dispute and a court case: there had been a victory, and the books were due to return in those days to their place in the Rebbe’s library. So all of this, of course, brought joy, and each thing added to the great joy of those days. There was tremendous excitement in general whenever it was the Shabbos of the Kinus Hashluchim. It was always an especially uplifting Shabbos, seeing thousands of chassidim arriving from the ends of the earth, from all over the world—the Rebbe’s shluchim, in whom the Rebbe had invested so much energy, and who are the ones who

02:39 spend the entire year in all sorts of remote and distant places, carrying out their mission to bring the light of Yiddishkeit everywhere, to spread the wellsprings of Chassidus throughout the world, to make the world a purer, holier place, and to prepare the world for the coming of Moshiach. So of course this Shabbos was very special. I especially remember seeing the joy on the Rebbe’s face. Anyone who paid attention could see that the Rebbe’s face looked completely different in those days. His face was radiant; there was great joy, great excitement. On Shabbos afternoon, as was his holy custom on Shabbos Mevorchim, the Rebbe held a farbrengen. That farbrengen was one of a kind, and I want to share with you some points—at least a few points—from what the Rebbe said there. I think they are just as important, and even more so, for us in these days, not only for the shluchim but for each and every one of us. As we recount what the Rebbe said, we’ll see that the message is profoundly important and precious—an uplifting, empowering message that gives strength to every one of us. The Rebbe began with the weekly parsha, Parshas Toldos. When we speak about shlichus, the first time we find a Jew sending another Jew on a mission is in Parshas Toldos, in the verse that says explicitly at the end of the parsha, “And Yitzchak sent Yaakov.” Our forefather Yitzchak sends his son, our forefather Yaakov, to Charan, and the verse says, “And Yitzchak sent Yaakov.” Yitzchak sends Yaakov, and he sends him not only to flee, as we read in the story—Eisav is pursuing Yaakov, and Yitzchak, on Rivkah’s advice, tells him to leave home, to go from Be’er Sheva to Charan. Rather, the true, inner, deeper purpose, as the verses say, is for him to find his match within the family, Lavan’s family, which was Rivkah’s family. Then comes the rest of the story that we all know: how our forefather Yaakov arrives in Charan and builds his home there, builds the House of Yaakov, and builds that special home with Rachel and Leah and the tribes, followed by everything else we will learn in the coming parshiyos. So here we have the first shlichus in the Torah. It is true that the previous parsha, Chayei Sarah, also speaks about a mission. Our forefather Avraham sends Eliezer. But there we see two details. First, Eliezer was not Jewish. Eliezer was Avraham’s servant, but he was not considered Jewish, as Rashi says: “You are cursed and I am blessed, and one who is cursed cannot cleave to one who is blessed.” This was said of Eliezer, despite his being a devoted servant and everything we know about him; he was not Jewish. Second, he is not actually described as a shliach either. Eliezer is a servant: “I am Avraham’s servant.” Throughout the verses in Parshas Chayei Sarah, when they speak of Eliezer’s task of going to find a wife for Yitzchak, he is called a servant: “And the servant said,” and so on. It is always “servant.” The Rebbe then went into a very interesting explanation, one that also sheds light on the shluchim’s special role and why they are specifically called shluchim. What is the depth, the meaning, the substance of that word? If we think about it, we’ll see that there is a very great difference between a servant and a shliach. On the one hand, both a servant and a shliach work on behalf of a master. There is a master, the one in charge, who has a servant working for him, doing things for him, serving him. The same is true of a shliach. According to halachah, a person can appoint someone else as his agent and tell him, “I am sending

05:11 you to perform a certain action for me.” It may be a mitzvah; it may be a purchase. There are all kinds of laws concerning acquisitions, betrothal, and divorce. The subject of shlichus is very broad in halachah—in Tractate Kiddushin, Tractate Gittin, and many other places in halachah and the Talmud that discuss it. There is the well-known saying of our Sages, found in Tractate Kiddushin and elsewhere: “A person’s shliach is like the person himself.” A person’s shliach is, in effect, like the one who sent him. He has the sender’s authority and the ability to act on his behalf—to do many things, carry out actions and mitzvos, and get things done. There are many aspects of this to discuss, but that is the general point. So there is a very strong similarity between a servant and a shliach. But when we look deeper, there is a very great difference. The essence of a servant is his self-effacement. The essence of a servant is that he is, in the Torah’s words, property acquired with his master’s money. He is considered part of his master’s possessions, and therefore the servant’s actions are considered the master’s actions. In the words of the Gemara: “What a servant acquires, his master acquires.” Anything that enters the servant’s possession is automatically considered to be in the master’s possession. Since the servant is wholly subordinate to the master—his entire existence is subsumed within the master’s property—something placed in the servant’s hand is as though it were placed in the master’s hand. What a servant acquires, his master acquires. Now, regarding a shliach, we see something interesting. We say that a person’s shliach is like the person himself. The shliach, too, makes acquisitions for the one who sent him and acts on his behalf, and sometimes it is considered as though the sender himself had done it, and so on. But when it comes to a shliach, we say he must be a person of sound judgment. Not everyone can be a shliach. There is an entire body of laws concerning a shliach. A shliach must be a person of sound judgment. A shliach must be Jewish.

07:19 “You, so that you’ll perform a certain action for me.” It might be a mitzvah, or it might be a purchase. There are all kinds of laws concerning acquisitions, betrothal, and divorce. The subject of agency is very broad in halachah. It is discussed in Tractate Kiddushin, Tractate Gittin, and many other places in halachah and the Talmud. There is the well-known saying of our Sages, found in Tractate Kiddushin and elsewhere: “A person’s agent is like the person himself.” The agent is, in effect, like the one who appointed him. He has the authority of the person who sent him, and he can act on that person’s behalf—carrying out all sorts of actions, mitzvos, and other activities. There is much to discuss here, but that is the basic point. So there is a great similarity between a servant and an agent. But when we look more deeply, there is also a great difference. The very essence of a servant is his self-nullification. As the Torah puts it, he is his master’s “acquired property.” He is considered one of his master’s possessions, and therefore the servant’s action is considered the master’s action. In the language of the Gemara: “What a servant acquires, his master acquires.” Something that comes into the servant’s possession is automatically considered to have entered the master’s possession. Because the servant is entirely nullified—his whole existence is subordinate to his master, like the master’s other property—something that comes into the servant’s hands is as though it came into the master’s hands. “What a servant acquires, his master acquires.” But with an agent, we see something interesting. We say that “a person’s agent is like the person himself.” The agent, too, makes acquisitions for the person who appointed him and performs actions on his behalf. Sometimes it is considered as though that person himself did them, and so on and so forth. Yet an agent must be a person of understanding. Not just anyone can be an agent. There are whole sets of laws governing agency: the agent must be a person of understanding, and the agent must be Jewish.

09:41 That means there are special rules about who can be a shliach. What do we learn from this? When we say, “A person’s shliach is like himself,” it is not so much an expression of self-nullification. Am I the master’s property? No, just the opposite. We are talking about a person with understanding, an independent person, someone of standing. Because he has that standing, he has value. The master can therefore rely on him and authorize him to do things on his behalf. He trusts him, and the shliach’s actions count as significant actions for the master. So if we look closely, in a certain sense the shliach’s power to act is the opposite of a servant’s. With a servant, the emphasis is on negation, self-nullification, the absence of an independent identity: there is a master. With a shliach, it is the opposite. He is given the ability to act precisely because he is a person of standing, with value and understanding. This gives us a very deep and wonderful insight into Parshas Toldos in relation to Parshas Chayei Sarah. Eliezer performed the act of kiddushin and betrothal and brought Rivkah to Yitzchak—but he did so as a servant. As we said, Eliezer was a servant utterly devoted to Avraham Avinu. “Damesek Eliezer,” as Rashi says: he “drew out and gave others to drink.” He was completely self-nullified before Avraham Avinu. Because he was his property—his possession, however we call it—Eliezer’s actions accomplished everything Avraham Avinu needed done. But when we speak about Yitzchak and Yaakov, we are speaking about a father and son. This is Yaakov Avinu. So when Yitzchak sent Yaakov, that was the power of a shliach: “A person’s shliach is like himself.” It gave him the authority, as a person with understanding, who had

12:02 the ability, the means, and all the important qualities needed to carry out the task before him. And what was that task? As we said, to go to a place of darkness, to Charan—a place of the world’s anger, as Rashi says—and there build the house of Israel. There he would begin that entire wonderful undertaking: raising the tribes, establishing the tribes, bringing forth the Jewish people, building the Jewish people and their future. Also, as explained in Chassidus, all of Yaakov’s work in Lavan’s house was connected with refining the sparks: taking the sparks of holiness found in that place of darkness, lifting them up and bringing them back to where they belong. This, then, is a message for each of us as well. Just as Yaakov Avinu was in his time, every Jew is considered a shliach. Every Jew has the power of a shliach. When we say a Jew is a shliach, as we have said, we do not mean that a Jew is only a servant. True, there are verses that call the Jewish people servants of Hashem. But here the emphasis is not on being a servant; it is specifically on being a shliach. Why specifically a shliach? Because that expresses this special power. It expresses the point that the shluchim—that every Jew, in fact, is a shliach of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and every Jew is a shliach of the Nasi Hador, the leader of the generation. Just as Yitzchak Avinu, in his time, was the Nasi Hador, the tzaddik and leader of the Jewish people in that period, so every Jew is also, in a sense, a shliach of the Nasi Hador. As it is written, in every generation there is someone in the role of Moshe Rabbeinu. Every generation has its Nasi Hador, who sends the shluchim. He sends people with their particular task. So that is what

14:10 we want to emphasize here: the power of a shliach. On the contrary, you are expected to use your own special strengths, to bring out your particular talents and abilities, and to work with your own strengths and abilities in your own way. Bring all of that into this task, this shlichus: bringing the light of Judaism, the light of Torah, and the light of Chassidus to every place in the world. The Rebbe then refers to the well-known teaching of our Sages: “A person prefers one kav of his own to nine kav of someone else’s.” The Gemara says that a person prefers a little that is his own to a great deal that belongs to someone else. His own kav. We are saying the same thing here. If we said that we are servants, carrying out the task as servitude, the emphasis would be that it is not yours; it belongs to the master. You were not consulted or anything. You are nullified; you are nothing. But when we say “shliach,” we mean to emphasize the very opposite: your own kav. You have special strengths, special abilities, things that only you have. You have a particular task, and you need to develop and reveal your unique abilities in your work, in the particular task you have come to carry out in that particular place—to make it a place of Judaism and Torah. On the other hand, at the same time, we must also pay attention to the halachah. There are laws governing a shliach. True, “a person’s shliach is like himself”—but when? When he acts in accordance with the sender’s wishes. Halachah also says that if the shliach did not act as the sender wished, but spoiled things—he did it differently, in another way, when the sender had told him to do it a certain way—then the sender can say to the shliach: “I sent you to improve things, not to spoil them.” So the moment he acts

16:24 contrary to those wishes, in the opposite way, or in an undesirable way, not in accordance with what the sender wants, he certainly ceases to be a shliach. So it is interesting that two sides are emphasized here. On the one hand, certainly, “a person’s shliach is like himself.” The shliach must know that he comes on behalf of the sender, with the sender’s power and to fulfill the sender’s wishes. He must therefore always remain closely connected, asking: What does the sender want of me? What is my task? What do I want to do, and does it fit the wishes and the task for which the sender sent me here? Only then does my shlichus have value. But at the same time, a person must know that this is the wonderful thing about it: he must be someone with understanding. He must be a person with strengths and talents who thinks for himself. He should not say about everything, “I don’t know what to do; I want someone else to tell me,” turning to the sender to ask, “Tell me exactly what to do at every step.” On the contrary, he must use his own independent strengths to act in line with the sender’s wishes. And here the Rebbe came to another extremely important point that we learn from the particular shlichus on which Yitzchak sent Yaakov. When we look at this week’s parsha and next week’s parsha, we see something truly wonderful: when Yitzchak sends Yaakov on his mission, he simply fills him, surrounds him, with the most wonderful blessings—Yitzchak’s blessings. We find the special blessings that Yaakov Avinu, the shliach, receives in three places. First is “May G-d give you,” even before he sets out on his mission. In the account of Yitzchak’s blessings—the familiar story the Torah tells us, in which Eisav wanted to receive the blessings, Yitzchak initially intended to give them to Eisav, and then gave them to Yaakov, as is well known and explained at length—the blessings come to Yaakov. These are the great and wonderful blessings: “May G-d give you of the dew of heaven, of the richness of the earth, and an abundance of grain”

18:33 “And wine; may peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you, and blessed be those who bless you,” and so on. The most wonderful blessings. As the sefarim say, the greatest blessings in the Torah are the blessings our father Yitzchak gave. There are no greater blessings than those. But that wasn’t enough. Those were the blessings before setting out on the journey. When Yitzchak actually sends him off—“And Yitzchak sent Yaakov away”—the Torah ends Parshas Toldos with blessings once again. Yitzchak tells Yaakov that all the blessings our father Avraham gave, he is giving to him as well. And he again showers him with extraordinary blessings: that he should find his match and be blessed with abundance. All those blessings are there at the end of the parsha. And if that weren’t enough, after Yaakov has set out and is already in the middle of the road, as they say, in the middle of his journey, he reaches Mount Moriah, and then there is the whole story at Beis El. As the Torah tells us in the next parsha, Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself appears to him again in the dream of the ladder. We’ll learn that whole story in Parshas Vayeitzei. And He, too, blesses him again with tremendous blessings: “Behold, I am with you, and I will accompany you wherever you go”; “You shall spread out westward, eastward, northward and southward”; “All the families of the earth shall be blessed through you and through your descendants”—blessings upon blessings upon blessings, which we will learn about in the next parsha. The Rebbe says—and I remember it as though it were today—how, at that farbrengen, the Rebbe poured out blessings on each and every person who took on this role: to be part of the army of shluchim, to go out into the world, to conquer the world, to prepare the world for the days of Moshiach, to make it a world of justice and integrity, a world of Torah and mitzvos, a world of Yiddishkeit, a world where the light of Chassidus shines in every corner. The Rebbe said that, just as we saw with the first shliach, who

20:44 received such an abundance of blessings at three stages—before he left, as he was leaving, and when he was already on his way—the same is true of each and every person who takes on this role of being a shliach, going out to conquer the world and prepare it. He should know that he has blessings even before he begins his shlichus; he has already received blessings. Anyone who opens his eyes can notice them. He can see in his own life how many blessings have already come to pass: in matters of livelihood, health, peace in the home, children—in material matters and in spiritual matters as well, success in Torah study and in serving Hashem. In so many areas, you can see an extraordinary blessing. Just open your eyes, pay attention, and see how much blessing there is. Sometimes, the Rebbe says, a blessing isn’t only about how much money you have in your pocket. It’s also about where the money goes. Sometimes a person earns a great deal of money, but unfortunately it doesn’t go to a blessed place, chas v’shalom. And sometimes a person earns a little, but there is blessing—blessing in his dough, blessing in his livelihood, and all sorts of other blessings. Then, when he decides to go out on shlichus, he receives another abundance of blessings; and when he is on his way, he sees still more blessings. Here again the Rebbe showered blessings upon blessings on every one of the shluchim. And the Rebbe concluded at that farbrengen: When we speak about shluchim, it’s true that there is the group of shluchei kodesh, the shluchim officially chosen to travel and establish Chabad Houses, build educational institutions, and work in all sorts of places around the world, even the most remote. But the truth is, the Rebbe says, that in our generation, in these days, in this period, every person of this generation

22:48 is really a shliach. Every person in our generation who has some ability to influence others—and who doesn’t? Every Jew has the ability to influence others. If you have something to offer, you need to know that you are the shliach of the Nasi of the generation. You are the shliach of the Moshe Rabbeinu of the generation, of the Yitzchak Avinu of the generation. Go out, act, and get things done. You don’t have to finish learning everything from A to Z before you go out and teach, as the Rebbe said many times. If you know A, you can already teach A. When you learn B, you’ll teach B as well. Shlichus belongs to each and every person. Today all of us, all the people of this generation, are really shluchim. That is one point from the farbrengen I was privileged to attend and witness. I’m trying, as much as I can, to convey the feeling of the Rebbe’s beaming expression, the great joy, the tremendous encouragement. At that farbrengen, the Rebbe also promised that he would contribute in a special way, with financial support, because one of the greatest difficulties shluchim face is how to cover their expenses and their personal needs. So the Rebbe said he would make an actual financial contribution to each of the shluchim, and spoke about percentages. Along the same lines, the Rebbe said that besides the financial contribution, he also wanted to contribute Torah, because a shliach has the task of spreading Torah. So the Rebbe said that, in honor of Rosh Chodesh Kislev, a special maamar of Chassidus had just been printed, explaining our father Yaakov’s entire journey to Charan and his special mission there in a very special way. It was a maamar of Chassidus the Rebbe had delivered in 5738, ten years before that farbrengen in 5748. It was at a farbrengen connected with the Rebbe’s health that the Rebbe delivered this maamar—a wonderful, lengthy maamar explaining

24:48 the entire story of Yaakov’s journey to Charan in terms of the personal, special mission every Jew has in the world: to make a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So the Rebbe announced, in a most wonderful way, that the next day, Sunday, he would give each of the shluchim the kuntres, the booklet containing this maamar, exclusively for the shluchim. I remember being there as a young bochur, standing at that farbrengen, and I remember the tremendous excitement on the faces of all the shluchim. But I also remember the envy I felt—healthy envy, pure envy—and that all my friends felt. We were young bochurim at the time. We weren’t shluchim yet; we were yeshivah students. But being at a farbrengen like that, seeing, hearing, and living those moments, awakened in every one of us a longing, a thirst, a resolve: this is what we want to do with our lives. Each of us, each in his own way, would go out to be the Rebbe’s shliach. We would bring the great message of the light of Yiddishkeit and the light of Torah, and the great message that the world is already ready for the Geulah. Our task is that final task: to prepare the world to greet Moshiach Tzidkeinu, immediately, right now. I remember that after that farbrengen, when the Rebbe left, the chassidim danced with extraordinary joy. Nobody, nobody moved. The large hall at 770 was full of thousands of people. Imagine a farbrengen with the Rebbe at that time, especially when guests had arrived from all over the world. There were thousands in that hall, the large hall at 770. Nobody left his place. The Rebbe left the farbrengen, and they began singing the joyous niggun known among chassidim as the Rosh Chodesh Kislev niggun. They danced and danced and danced and danced for hours without stopping. Nobody wanted to leave, even though they had already been sitting there for hours upon

27:03 hours. It was a long farbrengen. It began on Shabbos afternoon and ended after Shabbos. Even so, nobody left. Everyone danced with tremendous, extraordinary joy, and that was how we entered the great day of Rosh Chodesh Kislev. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu grant that, as we say in the familiar wording of the blessing, “In those days, at this time,” just as it was in those days, we too should merit, at this time, to see all the great and wonderful blessings fulfilled for each and every one of the shluchim. May each of us take on the role of being a shliach, go out into the world, and use the special talents each of us has—to act, to bring light, and to bring the light of Yiddishkeit and Torah into the world, and in this way prepare the world to greet Moshiach Tzidkeinu. Wishing us all a peaceful Shabbos and a good month. The month of Kislev—a month of Geulah, a month of joy, a month of Chanukah, the month of the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus. May we already merit the great light of the true and complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu.