Why Does a Good Jew Need a Rebbe? The Surprising Answer from Pirkei Avos • In Light of Chassidus

00:00 There’s a well-known question people ask: Why do we need a Rebbe? Since the Baal Shem Tov, this idea has come to the fore, though it wasn’t really something the Baal Shem Tov introduced. It’s written in the Torah. The whole idea of a Rebbe begins with Moshe Rabbeinu, the first Rebbe: “I stand between Hashem your G-d and you, to tell you the word of Hashem.” But the Baal Shem Tov brought the relationship between a chossid and a Rebbe back to light. And people ask: What exactly do we need a Rebbe for? After all, to be a good Jew, we have the Shulchan Aruch. We can learn Torah, study the Shulchan Aruch, and know exactly what we should and shouldn’t do. A good Jew keeps Torah and mitzvos and conducts himself according to halachah. So why exactly do we need a Rebbe to tell us what to do? What is the purpose of this special connection between a chossid and a Rebbe? We’ll explore one aspect of this today through the second chapter of Pirkei Avos, which, with Hashem’s help, we’ll study this coming Shabbos. The second chapter of Pirkei Avos begins: “Rebbe says: Which is the right path that a person should choose for himself? One that brings honor to the one who takes it, and brings him honor from others.” All the commentators on the Mishnah have addressed this Mishnah. What exactly is Rebbe asking, and what exactly is his answer? The Mishnah opens, “Rebbe says.” We know who “Rebbe” is here: Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi. Pirkei Avos follows the chain of generations. In the previous chapter, we learned about Moshe Rabbeinu: “Moshe received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Yehoshua.” We went from generation to generation, through all the leaders up to Rebbe’s time. Then comes the first Mishnah of the second chapter, which begins, “Rebbe says.” Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi was at the end of the era of the Sages of the Mishnah. He compiled the six

02:12 six orders of the Mishnah, and he says this Mishnah. So the first question here is: What is he really asking? “Which is the right path that a person should choose for himself?” Just take that question. “The precepts of Hashem are upright, gladdening the heart.” The answer is very simple: The right path is the path of Torah and mitzvos, because “the ways of Hashem are upright; the righteous walk in them.” So what’s the question? Apparently, Pirkei Avos is coming to reveal something special to us. The question isn’t clear to begin with, and then what answer does he give? He doesn’t answer “Torah and mitzvos” or “the ways of Hashem.” He gives a more complicated answer. “Which is the right path that a person should choose for himself?” He says: “One that brings honor to the one who takes it, and brings him honor from others.” What does that mean? In simple terms, I need to choose a path I can take pride in, something beautiful and admirable that I, the person taking that path, can be proud of. And not just me: it must also bring me honor from others—both the person who takes the path and the wider world. So I ask a simple question: Is that supposed to be how we measure things? Whether they bring honor to the person doing them and honor from others? Shouldn’t the question simply be what Hashem wants, and that’s it? Who’s talking about honor? Whether it’s beautiful or not, whether people like it or don’t like it—where have we heard of such a thing? So neither the question nor the answer in this Mishnah is clear. And as we said, all the commentators have addressed this—the Bartenura and the Rambam among them—offering different, wonderful explanations. Today we’ll discuss several explanations of this Mishnah, including some wonderful explanations I had the privilege of hearing from the Rebbe at farbrengens I was privileged to attend

04:29 and of hearing from the Rebbe himself—a truly wonderful explanation. I’ll go over several interpretations, but mainly, of course, what we can learn from them. That will also give us a wonderful explanation of a Rebbe’s role. The Mishnah uses the phrase “Rebbe says,” although it could have said “Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi” or used other words. It specifically chose to call him “Rebbe” here. So there’s a message in that choice: what Rebbe says in this Mishnah relates to the idea of a Rebbe. It helps answer our question: What exactly is the purpose of a Rebbe? Why do we need a Rebbe? What do we receive from a Rebbe that we wouldn’t otherwise receive? We all know that Pirkei Avos isn’t here to tell a person the basics. As we’ve discussed, the Gemara calls what we learn in Pirkei Avos “mili dechassidusa”—teachings of piety. In other words, Pirkei Avos is where we learn how to be chassidim. The Gemara says, “One who wishes to be pious should study Pirkei Avos.” Someone who wants not only to serve Hashem in the basic, necessary way, but to be a chossid and go beyond the letter of the law—Pirkei Avos teaches that. So we need to understand that the question here comes from that perspective: it’s the question of someone who wants to serve Hashem in a special way. What, then, is the deeper meaning of the question? The central point of the explanation is this. We’re now in the days of preparation for receiving the Torah. As we’ve discussed, we study Pirkei Avos during these weeks, especially on these Shabbosos, to prepare ourselves for the great days of receiving the Torah, the festival of Shavuos. When the Jewish people received the Torah, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu came

06:44 to Moshe Rabbeinu and asked us whether we wanted to receive the Torah, we know that the Jewish people answered as the Torah relates: “All the people answered and said”—what did the Jewish people say? “Everything Hashem has spoken, we will do and we will hear.” The foundation of receiving the Torah was “we will do and we will hear.” Those two words are the basis of our whole lives as Jews who keep Torah and mitzvos. So much so that, as the Gemara tells us, because the Jewish people said “we will do and we will hear,” putting “we will do” before “we will hear,” the ministering angels came and gave every Jew two crowns, one for “we will do” and one for “we will hear.” Now, “we will do” means just what it says: We will do whatever Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants. But what exactly does “we will hear” mean? Wouldn’t “we will do” be enough? What does “we will hear” add? The question goes deeper. If we look in the Torah, we see that at first the Jewish people said only “we will do.” In Parshas Yisro, only “we will do” appears. “We will hear” doesn’t appear in Parshas Yisro; it appears only in Parshas Mishpatim. There, when the Torah returns to several details it didn’t include in Parshas Yisro, the words “we will do and we will hear” suddenly appear at the end of Parshas Mishpatim. What happened? The Frierdiker Rebbe told an interesting story about this, a story involving the Alter Rebbe and his son, the Mitteler Rebbe. The Mitteler Rebbe was a young child—a very bright young child. He came home from cheder and told his father what they had learned. They had been learning Parshas Yisro and Parshas Mishpatim, the passages about receiving the Torah. The boy asked his father, “Father, what’s going on here? Why, in Parshas Yisro, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu asked the Jewish people whether they wanted to receive the Torah, does it say only ‘we will do’? ‘All the people answered and said, “Everything Hashem has spoken, we will do.”’ It doesn’t say any more than that. But in Parshas

08:49 In Parshas Mishpatim, all of a sudden, it says, “We will do and we will hear.” What happened? Did they change their minds? At first they said only, “We will do,” and afterward they said, “We will do and we will hear.” It’s a child’s question. His father, the Alter Rebbe, author of the Tanya, told him: When the Jewish people left Egypt, they were ready to devote themselves to Hakadosh Boruch Hu with absolute, boundless devotion—to be Hashem’s servants completely. They had seen the miracles and wonders. Hakadosh Boruch Hu had taken us out of Egypt through all those wondrous things that happened. The moment Hakadosh Boruch Hu told the Jewish people, “I want to give you the Torah,” they said, “We will do.” We’re not concerned with understanding, grasping, or knowing. We’re ready to do whatever You say without any explanations. But Moshe Rabbeinu—and here we come to the role of a Rebbe—Moshe Rabbeinu loved the Jewish people, and he knew that Torah is not only about doing. Torah has meaning; Torah has delight. We should not observe the Torah only out of duty, servitude, and compulsion. The beauty of Torah is that a person becomes part of it, that he manages to connect with Torah through his intellect, his sense of delight, his own being. A person receives Torah inwardly, so that he can absorb and understand it, grasp it and become one with it, and rejoice in and love what he does. So Moshe taught the Jewish people that besides “we will do,” there is also “we will hear.” Here, “we will hear” means “I understand”—as in, “Your servant hears”: I understand, I take it in. Torah should be absorbed inwardly. That is why, in Parshas Mishpatim, the Jewish people said, “We will do and we will hear.” Not just the dry action of a servant who acts without meaning, enthusiasm, or delight, but action accompanied by hearing, understanding, taking things in deeply. In other words, and going into greater depth, a Jew can

10:55 be a servant of Hashem, observe Torah and mitzvos, and serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu in every detail, great and small, as it says later in the Mishnah. But this can come from two different places. It can come through a struggle. By “struggle,” I mean: I have no enthusiasm, I don’t want to do it, but I force myself. Through compulsion. Sometimes that compulsion also comes from fear of punishment. You explain to a person how hard things will be if he doesn’t do it, and then he acts out of fear of punishment, or because he has no choice—he has to. Life becomes a constant struggle. But there is also a way of serving Hashem in which a person observes Torah and mitzvos because he loves Hakadosh Boruch Hu, because he understands their meaning and delight, the “Taste and see that Hashem is good.” And that is the idea of not only “we will do,” but also “we will hear.” Here we come to our Mishnah in Pirkei Avos. “Rabbi says”—Rabbi enters the picture. And the wording “Rabbi” matters here. As we said, he is not called Rabbi Yehudah or Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi. He is called simply “Rabbi.” A Rebbe is the head of the Jewish people. That is what the Hebrew letters of the word “Rebbe” stand for: “head of the Jewish people.” The role of a Rebbe, a true Rebbe, is to want the Jewish people to connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu not only out of duty, not only through compulsion, not only because they were taken from Above and compelled, but for their service of Hashem to come from their own desire, enthusiasm, sense of meaning, and delight. So Rabbi says—the Rebbe comes, the head of the Jewish people, and he wants the Jewish people to connect with Torah and mitzvos with delight and joy. You can be a complete Jew even without that, but “Which is the right path that a person should choose for himself?” Those are the words of the Mishnah: the right path should come from the person himself, not only from something given

13:10 from Above, but from the person himself—he himself wants to do what he does, is drawn to it, and loves it. “That a person should choose for himself.” So Rabbi says of this path: “It is beautiful to the one who follows it and brings him admiration from others.” When service of Hashem comes through compulsion, through fear of punishment alone, or through the necessity of servitude, it is service of Hashem, but it lacks beauty. There is no beauty to it. These are dry mitzvos. He observes everything: he follows the Shulchan Aruch, puts on tefillin and tzitzis, davens and learns, and observes every detail, great and small. But the beauty is missing. These are mitzvos without light, mitzvos with no beauty or splendor. When is it truly “the right path that a person should choose for himself,” something that comes from the person himself? When he feels that beauty—“beautiful to the one who follows it and brings him admiration from others.” True beauty, splendor, joy, and delight are not things only the person himself feels. When someone observes mitzvos with joy, love, and delight, the people around him catch it too. We can see the difference. If I observe mitzvos against my will, if I do it under compulsion, if I force myself, if I do it without enthusiasm, then I won’t pass any enthusiasm on. People who see me observing mitzvos and davening like that won’t—no, no, no, that doesn’t do it. It isn’t contagious. It won’t make anyone else want to do it. But when it is “beautiful to the one who follows it,” then it also “brings him admiration from others.” People see and say: Ah, what a delight, what joy, what a geshmak it is to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu! Then the whole service of Hashem is entirely different: “beautiful to the one who follows it and brings him admiration from others.” And Rabbi says: For this, we need a Rebbe.

15:11 You can be a good Jew by following the Shulchan Aruch. But if you want your observance to come from within you—“beautiful to the one who follows it and brings him admiration from others”—that takes a Rebbe. For that, we need a Rebbe who gives us this. Just as Moshe Rabbeinu taught the Jewish people not only “we will do,” but that there should also be “we will hear,” the Rebbe gives us this entire dimension of serving Hashem with love and joy. On this, the Rebbe added something even deeper, connecting it with a teaching of the Midrash. The Midrash says: Two things preceded the world, Torah and the Jewish people. But which came first? The Jewish people preceded the Torah. This is a remarkable Midrash. Both Torah and the Jewish people are above the world. Yet of the two, the Jewish people are on an even higher level than the Torah. A Jew has a connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu through the Torah, but a Jew also has a connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu on a level higher than the Torah. And this is what Rabbi means when he says, “Which is the right path that a person should choose for himself?” If you observe Torah and mitzvos only out of obligation, only because you have to, then you connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu through Torah and mitzvos, but you are missing the essential connection you have as a Jew. A Rebbe, who is the head of the Jewish people, like Moshe in his generation—and likewise every Rebbe in his generation—reveals a Jew’s soul and reveals the intrinsic, essential connection between a Jew’s soul and Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That itself enables a Jew to rise higher in his service of Hashem, so that his service comes from a connection of the soul, which is much deeper even than a Jew’s connection through Torah. In everyday life, this means going beyond the letter of the law. A chossid. If I only observe Torah

17:14 And mitzvos because that’s what the Torah says, so I do what I’m obligated to do, what I have to do. But once we’re talking about doing a mitzvah more beautifully, about a custom, about something that’s no longer obligatory—then why do it? Who says I have to? I can manage without it. But when my connection with the Rebbe shines within me, when the Rebbe reveals that a Jew is much deeper than that—that a Jew’s connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu is a wondrous bond, beyond the Torah, beyond the world, above every limitation—then my service of Hashem, too, will be like that of a chossid, going beyond the letter of the law. I’ll serve Him by making mitzvos more beautiful, with customs and practices that go beyond the basic requirement. And at the same time, it is “a credit to the one who does it and brings him credit from others.” Not because you’re cut off from the world. On the contrary: that splendor, that beauty, the joy and beauty of the mitzvah, also affect the world around me. It’s a beauty and splendor that other people, as we said, learn from, rejoice in, and are inspired to pursue and practice themselves. Here the Rebbe added a wonderful point that we had the privilege of hearing on Shabbos Parshas Tazria-Metzora in 5751. That was a remarkable time, when the Rebbe began speaking to us about how to prepare for the days of Moshiach. In those wonderful sichos, the Rebbe spoke about how our generation, our time, is already at the threshold of the Geulah, and therefore our service of Hashem now needs to prepare us for it—to enter that atmosphere, to begin living in the atmosphere of the days of Moshiach. We had the privilege of hearing wonderful sichos then, and they speak directly to our daily lives now, in these days when we see the world moving in great strides toward the Geulah. Those sichos echo in our eyes and ears and call on us to take action. The Rebbe returned to that same Mishnah: “Rabbi says: Which is the straight path that a person should choose for himself?” We’re reaching the final moments of exile. Of course, Torah and mitzvos are what a Jew must always do. But

19:22 in every period, there is something to emphasize. Now we’re in the time of the Geulah. For thousands of years, Jews have kept Torah and mitzvos, making the world a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Now the time is coming. We need to prepare for a new era. We’re at the threshold of the Geulah. What exactly is our task? “Which is the straight path?” What is the straight path for preparing ourselves for the wonderful days of Moshiach? “Anything that is a credit to the one who does it and brings him credit from others.” It is studying Torah itself—especially the Midrashim, the teachings of our Sages, Chassidus, Kabbalah, and the Torah’s mystical teachings that teach us about Geulah and Moshiach. Torah is associated with tiferes, splendor. The Gemara says, “Tiferes refers to the giving of the Torah.” Torah as a whole is tiferes, and within Torah itself, studying the teachings about Geulah is “a credit to the one who does it and brings him credit from others.” So, in essence, the Rebbe is saying that a special time is approaching, a time to prepare for a particular era, and a Jew needs to know what the moment truly calls for. What should we be occupied with now? Not politics, not other nonsense. We should make use of this precious, wonderful time, when Moshiach is about to come and the door to the Geulah is already before us. We open that door by strengthening our study, especially of the teachings about Geulah. Through Torah study, a person truly begins to live in that atmosphere. It draws you into it and prepares you not only to believe in the Geulah, but to actually live it in your daily life. We’ll live in an atmosphere of Geulah, and in this way may we soon, in our days—in these very days—merit to see the complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu. Amen, may it be Hashem’s will.