"Don't Speak Badly About Jews!" The Rebbe's Outcry That I Can't Forget

00:00 In these extraordinary days, as we enter the month of Nissan, we are all reminded of the words of our Sages in the Gemara, Tractate Rosh Hashanah: “In Nissan our ancestors were redeemed from Egypt, and in Nissan they are destined to be redeemed.” We wait and hope that this year we will truly merit to see that promise fulfilled, that this Nissan will be a Nissan of Geulah. We see how the world is moving toward the Geulah. We see the wicked forces in the world, the darkness, gradually dissipating, and the light taking its place. All of us together, in prayer, supplication, confidence and hope, pray that we will truly merit an absolute victory. “May our eyes behold Your return to Zion in mercy”; may we merit true peace in the Land of Israel, “you shall lie down and none shall make you afraid,” and “I will lead you upright”—with the complete Geulah through Moshiach, our righteous redeemer. At a time like this, it is fitting to recall things from the past, things I merited to hear from the Rebbe during this period. When a person returns in thought and memory to certain moments, you see how the words of tzaddikim remain alive and enduring forever. Although thirty-six years have passed since the sicha, the farbrengen, that I am going to tell you about, it is still before my eyes. It echoes within me and simply gives us life, gives us vitality, gives us a perspective, an outlook and a way of life—how a Jew should relate to the entire situation. This was in 5750. The month of Nissan 5750 was a special month. On the one hand, as the Rebbe said at the time, 5750 was a “year of miracles”: the Hebrew letters of its year form the initials of “It will be a year of miracles.” And indeed, there were many miracles that year, in many ways and in many events around the world, as those who remember will know. On the other hand, Nissan of 5750 was a difficult time. A great deal was happening in the Land of Israel politically and in the government, with disagreements and all kinds of things that perhaps are best forgotten. And if we recall that period,

02:29 it was in those very days, in that same month of Nissan, that the first talk began about what later developed into the whole story of the Gulf War. Nobody knew anything yet. But those who remember—and I remember, because I was there—will recall that at the end of Nissan the Rebbe, unexpectedly and suddenly, made an announcement. No one knew where it had come from. The Rebbe said that information had now come in that, rachmana litzlan, enemies of the Jewish people were considering doing things to the Jewish people, rachmana litzlan, but that this certainly would not come to pass. “Behold, the Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” The Rebbe asked us not to undertake fasts and acts of self-denial to ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu to annul the decrees, but to follow the path of Chassidus—the path of joy and confidence—and to increase in Torah study, prayer and tzedakah. That was at the end of Nissan. But now I want to go back to the beginning of Nissan, to Shabbos Parshas Vayikra. Usually, Shabbos Vayikra is not a special Shabbos. Looking at the Shabbosim around it, we have Shabbos Zachor, Shabbos Parah and Shabbos HaChodesh, and soon we will have Shabbos HaGadol. And then there is a Shabbos that is, so to speak, an ordinary Shabbos: Shabbos Parshas Vayikra. Of course, there is no such thing as an ordinary Shabbos. But to give a little background before we get into the heart of it: in the Land of Israel, it was a rather turbulent period politically, which also led to turmoil and all kinds of disagreements between different groups and communities. A certain rabbinic figure made some harsh remarks about a particular group of Jews who did not observe Torah and mitzvos. He used harsh, hurtful words about that group within the Jewish people. I was then a young man in 770, studying by the Rebbe. I merited to be there on those

04:43 Shabbosim. At that time, it was generally not so easy to hear the Rebbe’s sichos, to hear what he was saying. The Rebbe spoke on Shabbos without a microphone or loudspeaker, and his voice was relatively soft in those days. You had to be very, very close to hear. On that Shabbos, Shabbos Parshas Vayikra, the Rebbe came in for the farbrengen as usual at one-thirty in the afternoon. The Rebbe made Kiddush and began the farbrengen, and right away we noticed that he started in a loud voice, at a high pitch. The entire farbrengen was delivered in a tone that could be heard throughout the large, spacious hall of 770. You could hear the Rebbe’s words. The Rebbe simply spoke from the depths of his heart, if I may put it that way. He cried out through that farbrengen. The Rebbe began with the verse from the haftorah. Nothing less—he went straight to that week’s haftorah. Parshas Vayikra has its haftorah. What is the first verse of the haftorah of Parshas Vayikra? “This people I formed for Myself; they shall recount My praise.” The prophet comes and tells us a very simple message: Hakadosh Boruch Hu speaks about the Jewish people and says, “This people I formed for Myself; they shall recount My praise.” I formed this people for Myself, and they recount My praises. What does this verse come to tell us? The question is, we know that the haftorah reflects the parsha. That is, when the haftorah readings were instituted—we know the story. Why were they instituted? There was a time when it was not possible to read from the Torah, so the haftorah was instituted in place of the Torah reading. Later, the practice remained to read the Torah along with the haftorah. When we look at this week’s haftorah, it is a little hard to understand its connection to the parsha. What is this verse telling us? But when we consider the essence of Parshas Vayikra, we see something

07:01 remarkable. It speaks about offerings: “When a person among you brings an offering to Hashem,” from the animals, from the cattle and from the sheep. And nearly all the offerings are connected with Jews whose situation is specifically not at its best: a Jew who has sinned, a Jew who must bring a sin offering, a Jew who must bring a guilt offering. Sometimes it speaks of a leader who sins, or a kohen who sins, the Kohen Gadol and the people, and so on. It speaks about various cases of “a soul that sins.” That is the subject of the weekly parsha: most of the offerings are connected with sins and transgressions, and that is where the passage about offerings comes in. Yet what does the haftorah of this very parsha say? “This people I formed for Myself; they shall recount My praise.” What is the message here? The message, the Rebbe said, is about the inner essence of a Jew—the essential, fundamental strength, the inner strength that a Jew possesses. Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as it were, tells the prophet Yeshayahu, tells the prophet, what the Jewish people are to Him: “This people I formed for Myself.” It is wonderful to reflect on the meaning of these words. Hakadosh Boruch Hu speaks about the Jewish people, not as they are in their finest state, but as a people. We know that a people is made up of all kinds of individuals, but primarily it consists of ordinary people. Of course, a people has leaders, important people and important positions, but in essence, the people are what we call the common folk. The majority are the ordinary people among them. So when Hakadosh Boruch Hu speaks of the distinguished members of the Jewish people, there are “the elders of Israel” and “the children of Israel.” There are all kinds of expressions in Tanach. But when Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants to speak about the Jewish people as a people, without distinctions of importance, levels or ranks, without asking who is higher and who is lower, He says: I am speaking of the Jewish people as a people. More than that, Chassidus explains—the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya—that, interestingly, the word am, “people,” has at its root

09:24 It comes from the word for smoldering coals. “Am,” a people, is like something dim, something dark, something that has gone still. Imagine coals that are about to go out, with almost nothing left of them. Those are called smoldering coals: no light, no flame, no warmth. Applied to the Jewish people, it means the Jewish people at their lowest point. “This people I formed for Myself.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu speaks in praise of the Jewish people: This is My people. I formed this people for Myself. They are My people; they are the ones I desire and the ones I want. “They shall tell of My praise.” This people as you know them, as you see them in this world—souls in physical bodies, in whom you see nothing particularly special—precisely this people is the people “I formed for Myself,” and “they shall tell of My praise.” What does “they shall tell of My praise” mean? One meaning is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants the Jewish people to recount His praises. A Jew prays, praises Hashem, observes mitzvos and does things. But the Rebbe says no, there is something deeper here. “They shall tell of My praise” means that the Jewish people, simply by being who they are, even if they do nothing at all, tell of His praise just by being here in the world. The Jewish people—the people “I formed for Myself”—tell of Hashem’s praises by their very existence in the world. As the prophet says elsewhere: “For I, Hashem, have not changed, and you, children of Yaakov, have not perished.” The fact that the Jewish people still exist is the greatest praise of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The very existence of the Jewish people—a single sheep among seventy wolves. As the Midrash says, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya said: How great is the shepherd! You have one sheep among seventy wolves. Today we see it before

11:47 our very eyes, and that sheep still exists. How great is the shepherd who protects the sheep from all seventy wolves! Could there be a greater “they shall tell of My praise” than that? Even if a Jew does nothing, his very existence tells of the praise of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The very fact that a Jew walks down the street, that a Jew walks with the pride of Yaakov—the presence of a Jew in the world today is “they shall tell of My praise.” And the Rebbe adds something more: This was always true, but in our generation, the generation after the Holocaust, the generation that went through the worst torments imaginable, when we look at our generation, we see a brand plucked from the fire. Look at what remains today of the Jewish people after all that the enemies of the Jews wanted to do—to destroy, kill and annihilate every Jew—and yet there are Jews still walking the earth today. The very presence of a Jew in the world today tells of His praise in the most remarkable way possible. So how can anyone say a harsh word about a Jew? That is what the Rebbe cried out at that farbrengen. How can a person even think of saying a harsh word about a Jew? On the contrary: a Jew is part of “this people I formed for Myself.” Our task is the opposite: to reveal the beauty of the Jewish people, to reveal their inner being, to speak about... “This people I formed for Myself; they shall tell of My praise.” The very presence of a Jew in the world today, as he is—whatever he does or does not do—tells of Hashem’s praises. Of course, once you reveal that beauty and that strength in a Jew, you can then bring him to observe mitzvos and study Torah as well. But that must be the language we use. We must speak in praise of the Jewish people, speak of how precious and beloved they are. And that is the connection

14:04 between the haftorah and the weekly parsha. We see something remarkable. As we said, the parsha discusses offerings, many of which are sin-offerings and guilt-offerings. How does the weekly parsha begin? With the first verse: “And He called to Moshe.” Rashi comes along, at the very start of the parsha, in his first comment on “And He called to Moshe,” and tells us: “‘And He called’ is an expression of affection,” the kind of language Hakadosh Boruch Hu uses with the ministering angels. That is how Hakadosh Boruch Hu speaks to the Jewish people. With the nations of the world, Rashi says, the verse describing their prophets says “vayikar,” without the alef, an expression suggesting a chance encounter. There, the relationship is just a relationship, not a warm one, not one of preciousness and affection. But with the Jewish people it says “vayikra,” an expression of affection: Hakadosh Boruch Hu cherishes every single Jew. Which parsha are we—Rashi tells us that “vayikra” actually happened all along. Every statement was preceded by a call, Rashi tells us. In other words, “And He called to Moshe” did not happen only now. Whenever Hashem spoke to Moshe, He first called to him with affection and love, and then gave him the words, the command. But where did the Torah choose to tell us this? As it begins discussing offerings in Parshas Vayikra. Precisely in the parsha that speaks of a Jew who may have stumbled and needs a sin-offering or guilt-offering—“when a soul sins”—it says, “And He called to Moshe.” Because a Jew wants to turn back. A Jew does not remain somewhere in a state of—when he sins, he immediately regrets it. A Jew seeks to do teshuvah. Even when he sins, a Jew does not truly want to sin. As the Rambam tells us in connection with offerings, a Jew always wants to fulfill Hashem’s will. And that is why it says, “And He called to Moshe.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s affection for the Jewish people, expressed through Moshe Rabbeinu, bursts forth precisely in the weekly parsha we are reading now. Here we

16:22 see the strength of a Jew. And that is also why it says, “When a person among you brings an offering to Hashem.” What does the verse go on to say? What is the first word in the section on offerings? “Adam”—a person—“when he brings an offering from among you.” You know, the word “adam” is a very significant word. There is adam, ish, gever and enosh—four words for a human being. As is well known and explained at length in Chassidus, adam is a term of distinction and importance. Adam is related to “adameh la’Elyon”—“I will resemble the One Above.” True, the Chumash says that adam comes from adamah, the earth. That too expresses the significance of a person’s power: he can refine the earth, refine the dust. Chassidus discusses this at great length, but essentially, adam is a term of distinction and importance. Kabbalah explains that adam has the numerical value of forty-five. What about Hashem’s name, the four-letter name? When its letters are spelled out—not just the letters themselves—its numerical value is forty-five, the same as adam. There are other names for a person as well. Which one did the Torah choose here, when speaking about offerings? “Adam, when he brings an offering.” A Jew is adam, one who can resemble the One Above. A Jew has a soul that is literally a part of G-d Above. Every Jew, righteous or wicked, as the Alter Rebbe tells us in Tanya. That is why he has the strength to bring offerings. He has the strength to make the world a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He has the strength to do teshuvah and be part of it, even if he has been distant until now. And so the verse in the prophet comes and tells us, “This people I formed for Myself; they shall tell of My praise.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, takes pride in the Jewish people. “The branch of My planting, the work of My hands, in whom I take pride.” And what is the lesson for us? A Jew should see only the good in another Jew, take pride in another Jew, love a Jew without scrutinizing his tzitzis, without checking what level he has reached in Torah and mitzvos. We need to cherish a Jew for the very fact that he is part of “this people I formed for Myself,” because a Jew

18:30 By its very existence, it will tell of My praise. If that was true thirty-six years ago, what do we see today with our own eyes? “They will tell of My praise” in the most extraordinary sense of the words. We look at what is happening in the world today, at the very existence of the Jewish people after everything that has happened in recent years. We have seen people rise against us—not in theory, but in reality. We have seen how they want to swallow up the Jewish people, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu constantly stands by us, saves us from their hands, and protects us through open miracles that happen every moment, every day. We can see clearly that the very existence of the Jewish people today, before the whole world, tells of His praise. Every nation in the world knows that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with the Jewish people in Eretz Yisroel; otherwise, there is no explanation for the miracles and wonders happening now. And we need to channel this strength into serving Hashem with confidence, with joy, with a sense of Geulah. Especially in the month of Nissan, the time when Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose the Jewish people. The Midrash says, “When Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose Yaakov and his children, He established the month of Nissan for them as a month of Geulah.” A month of Geulah is a gift that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave the Jewish people. It began with the redemption from Egypt, and, with Hashem’s help, it will happen now as well with the Geulah through Moshiach. Let us all strengthen ourselves in Ahavas Yisroel, resolve to speak only good of the Jewish people, to reveal their goodness and speak about it. That itself will bring about the good: that we truly merit to reach the complete Geulah this month of Nissan, and that on Pesach we can all be in Jerusalem. As we say in the Pesach Haggadah, “And there we will eat of the offerings and of the Pesach sacrifices.” Blessed are You, Hashem, Who redeemed Israel.