What Is a Chabad Custom? - Rabbi Tuvia Blau shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to the “Lema’an Yishme’u” podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 So today we want to talk about Chabad customs. I had the privilege of writing a book on the subject a few years ago, and now a second, expanded edition is about to come out. It contains some very important things, including some that aren’t so popular. But we have to tell the truth. This is what I’ve come to understand and receive from the Rebbe’s holy, direct influence on many different occasions—from letters I had the privilege of receiving, insights I had the privilege of hearing, and the Rebbe’s sichos and the many farbrengens I had the privilege of attending. In any case, let me begin this way. If we’re talking about customs, what is a custom? What does the word mean? In Torah, and simply in the way people generally think—quite apart from Chabad customs or anything else—a custom is understood to be on a lower level, as though it were something in a third category. There are Torah laws, which are considered more stringent, so to speak, and so on. Then there are rabbinic laws. Granted, it says that “the words of the Sages are beloved” and that “the words of the Sages are more stringent than the words of the Torah.” But when it comes to a doubt, for example, the accepted rule is that a doubt concerning a rabbinic law is treated leniently. The same applies to various other aspects of the law. So rabbinic law is regarded as a little less stringent, even though it says that, in terms of its inner spiritual weight, it is actually greater. That is derived from the verse, “Your love is better than wine.” Still, that is the generally accepted view: it is a lower level. The third level is custom. It’s not this, not that, not the other. That’s how people generally think and speak, and that’s the order they follow. When they say, “The custom is to do such-and-such,” they mean it’s a custom: if you don’t do it, it’s not such a big deal. And there is some truth to that. Say, for example, that it’s a Chabad custom to sit by the candles for fifty minutes. Everyone knows—and I certainly don’t want to make light of it, G-d forbid—

02:34 Speaker 2 but if something urgent comes up, or I need to travel somewhere, I sit there for less time. The same place in Sefer Haminhagim that says fifty minutes explicitly mentions Erev Shabbos. So that is the seemingly lighter attitude people have toward a custom. But in truth, that isn’t right—not only with regard to Chabad customs, but with regard to customs in general. Why? We spoke about what a custom means. It has even greater force than what is called rabbinic law, and so on. For example, there is an entire chapter in Tractate Pesachim—I think it’s chapter four—that begins, “In a place where the custom is…” It discusses a place where the custom is to do work. That chapter explains the matter, and its rulings determine whether one may do work on Erev Pesach, when one may do so, and so forth. It depends on the custom of the place. It explicitly gives various laws about someone who comes from one place to another and how he should conduct himself with respect to the custom of the place he left. There are the stringencies of the place he came from and the stringencies of the place he has come to. That’s just one example; there are many such things in the Gemara. And more than that, we know that the Shulchan Aruch we have consists of two parts. I mean the text of the Shulchan Aruch itself, not its commentaries. Two parts: the Mechaber, also known as the Beis Yosef, and the Rema. Everyone knows this. Generally, when the Beis Yosef presents one view and there is a disagreement—even when there isn’t a disagreement, it works the same way. The general rule is that where the Rema does not take issue with him—that is, he does not write that he disagrees with the Mechaber, with the Shulchan Aruch... Let me mention their names, in case anyone doesn’t recall. Rabbi Yosef Karo wrote the Shulchan Aruch, and the Rema was in Krakow. Rabbi Yosef Karo lived in Tzfas at almost exactly the same time—no, at exactly the same time—that the Rema lived in Krakow. So what’s happening? From one point of view, there is a disagreement between them, a difference of opinion. The Rema takes issue with the Mechaber, apparently disagreeing with him, and in some cases these are differences in the law itself, in pure halacha. But generally speaking, the approach of the Shulchan Aruch is that the Mechaber presents the Sephardic custom, the custom in Tzfas—at the time, the people there had come from Sephardic and other Eastern communities—while the Rema presents the Ashkenazic custom. In fact, this continues two different schools of thought. On the one hand, there is Rashi in Ashkenaz, Rashi and the Maharam of Rothenburg; on the other, there are the Rif and the Rambam. There are many matters on which they disagree, and you can see that each follows his own path. The Beis Yosef, too, continues the approach of those early Sephardic sages from centuries before him—the Rif, the Rambam, as we said, and so on. They were all Sephardic, so to speak, while the Rema follows the Ashkenazic authorities.

04:52 Speaker 2 But in any case, for some reason, this is where Chassidus comes in. What did I want to begin with? I meant to point out how the Rema phrases the difference, his apparently opposing view. How does he put it? “The custom in our countries is…” They had a different custom. “That is not our custom.” That’s one example. I could give dozens—no, hundreds or thousands—of examples, but here is a simple one. The Beis Yosef wrote that on the first night of Pesach, after Maariv, Hallel is recited with a blessing. After Maariv on the first night of Pesach. It’s the only night of the year when Hallel is recited at night, with a blessing. The Rema says, “That is not the custom in our countries.” Full stop. So what does that mean in practice? That really was the case: in Europe, people generally did not recite Hallel on the first night of Pesach. In Tzfas, and throughout the Sephardic communities, Eretz Yisroel, and nearly all of Asia, the custom was to recite Hallel with a blessing.

07:36 Speaker 2 A certain change took place when Chassidus began. Why? There are various reasons, apparently. Some Sephardic customs have their source in Kabbalah. There is Kabbalah and there is the revealed dimension of Torah, and both are the words of the living G-d, though they are, so to speak, two different paths in the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Both are the words of the living G-d. It’s like the earlier disagreements, going back to the time of the Mishnah, between Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel. G-d forbid that we should say one is holier than the other, or less holy. This is what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants; you will merit, you... perhaps that’s a way of putting it. So here, too, because some Sephardic customs are based on Kabbalah, the Baal Shem Tov and his chassidim, his disciples, made the inner dimension of Torah central to their Torah study. As a result, in many cases where the Beis Yosef and the Rema disagree over customs, Chassidus—the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe—adopted the custom of the Beis Yosef, even though they lived in Europe, in the Ashkenazic heartland. One example is the one I mentioned earlier: Hallel on the first night of Pesach. How do we know the Alter Rebbe’s view? From his siddur. You know, the Alter Rebbe’s siddur is interesting. In his Shulchan Aruch, the Alter Rebbe had not yet ruled as he did on other practices that became distinctive to chassidim; there he generally ruled like the Rema. On this matter, too, he ruled like the Rema: that Hallel is not recited. But the siddur came later. The Rebbe writes that one should always follow the siddur because it came last. [unclear] So there, the Alter Rebbe also included Hallel. Therefore, Hallel should be recited.

09:47 Speaker 2 The siddur, as is well known, is one of the most central sources for Chabad customs and so on. Now, why have I brought all this up? The concept of customs, as the Rambam says, is not just “this is a custom.” This is how one must conduct oneself; it is part of halachah. A custom effectively becomes part of halachah. That is in terms of the inner meaning of... Now we have customs, Chabad customs. Why, in the first place? Why does every movement or every group have different customs? There are many things involved, though most practices are the same. Yes, but why is it this way? It is. We must always know this important point, because it is the foundation for everything we are about to say, for everything that follows, for the entire content of this book. One of the greatest obligations according to the Torah—even the Written Torah—is to accept the guidance of “you shall do according to all that they instruct you.” Every school of thought, as is known, has its customs, its head and leader, its teacher. And once that teacher and guide has understood, with his ruach hakodesh and through halachah, that this is how one should conduct oneself—whether it is a new practice that must now be begun, a decision between earlier customs, or something else—then, since you belong to his school, you are obligated to follow it. It is part of your obligation. The Rebbe puts it clearly: for someone connected to our Rebbeim, a Chabad custom becomes, as it were, like a Torah obligation. That is an extraordinarily strong statement, and it calls for the full stringency appropriate to it in every matter. We must always strive to observe it at that level. A Chabad custom is, in fact, a very lofty, very holy and exalted thing. That must be said.

11:56 Speaker 2 Why? Because you see a certain disregard. And how does that disregard show itself? Not by failing to observe the customs; on the contrary, by creating new things when you are not the rabbi. As though everyone can act as the rabbi. The rabbi looks different, as it were... In any case, let’s not get into that. Who was the first to begin collecting the customs? The Rebbe. Before that, Chabad customs had not really been collected. What was ruled in the siddur became a Chabad custom. What was ruled in the siddur naturally became a Chabad custom—the wording of the prayers, and so on. I’ll give a simple example. There is the matter of food dipped in a liquid. According to the straightforward reading of the Gemara, of course, someone eating food dipped in a liquid must wash his hands, even during a meal with bread. That is written in the Shulchan Aruch, and the Alter Rebbe wrote it in his Shulchan Aruch as well. Nowadays people are not particular about it. We won’t go into the details of why; it is not pressing. But in the siddur, in the Alter Rebbe’s instructions for washing the hands, it says to wash before eating food dipped in a liquid. So washing the hands before eating such food is, as it were, a Chabad custom. That, among other things, is called a Chabad custom. Yes, as I said earlier, we say Hallel on Pesach; that is a Chabad custom. A Chabad custom has halachic force, and it is a custom established by our Rebbeim. Each of our Rebbeim was the leader of his generation, a soul of Atzilus, a general soul, and so on, so they established customs; they have the authority to do so. Someone else cannot. I want to note this wording—I have to tell you about it. We said that the Rebbe was the first to bring the customs together and published them for the first time in Hayom Yom. Before that, the story was as follows. In 5710—5710—the month of Pesach 5710. The Frierdiker Rebbe had arrived in the United States on 9 Adar 5700—that is, 1940, let’s say.

14:13 Speaker 2 Now our Rebbe was still in Europe then. Europe was already occupied by the Nazis, but he was still there. By miracles upon miracles, with Hashem’s help—Hakadosh Boruch Hu did a great kindness for our generation—he was saved. On 21 Sivan 5701, in 1941, a year and several months later, he merited to join the Frierdiker Rebbe and the Rebbetzin. The Frierdiker Rebbe spoke about the Rebbe in 5700, when the Rebbe was still in Europe. The Frierdiker Rebbe spoke in the United States. Yes. The translation of his Sefer Hasichos is not exactly the same as what he said in Yiddish. It was published in Yiddish as he said it. Here is what he says. I quote, among other things: “In truth, all the customs of our revered forebears, our holy Rebbeim, may their merit protect us, ought to be collected, and a book of customs established that would be suited to daily life—a sort of code for Chabad chassidim, containing Chabad customs.” He goes on to say, “Only this can be put in order by a pnimi.” Look at the word pnimi that the Frierdiker Rebbe used about the Rebbe, the Rebbe shlita. But not just a pnimi: “a deep-thinking pnimi, orderly, thorough.” Look at these descriptions: “a person of broad understanding, broad understanding.” That is no small thing—broad and deep understanding. Now, this is how I understand what he is saying: I rely, as it were, on the Divine success He has always granted me. Whenever I say that I must do something for the public good, Hakadosh Boruch Hu grants me the merit to do it. So I hope that this, too, will be accomplished. Thus it is also my hope that this orderly compilation will, with Hashem’s help, ultimately pass from potential into reality. In other words, the Frierdiker Rebbe was already hinting then: since such a thing needs to be done, such an important thing concerning Chabad customs, I am here.

17:07 Speaker 2 In my book on customs, I include various statements by our Rebbeim, by the Rebbe and by his predecessors about Chabad customs—their importance, their authority and the power of their holiness. And the Frierdiker Rebbe says this is such a great undertaking. I’ll give you an analogy, though I don’t know whether it is exact. There are various stories about why the Beis Yosef merited to compose the Shulchan Aruch. It was a great merit. There are stories, but I won’t go into the details. The Rebbe addressed this several times, but I want to emphasize one point. It is as though Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose the Beis Yosef, the author, for this great merit: to write a code for the Jewish people, the book of law and guide for their daily lives. That is a special merit. And perhaps even more so, it is like Hakadosh Boruch Hu choosing His servant Moshe, choosing Moshe Rabbeinu to give the Torah, and not someone else. Out of six hundred thousand people, Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose him. In the same way, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and the Frierdiker Rebbe as His emissary, chose the person who would compile the customs—who would gather, collect and formulate Chabad customs. It would be someone who could formulate them as a deep-thinking pnimi, in the Chabad way, thoroughly, and so on. Those are words that, perhaps, were not obvious at the time. The people who heard them then may not have known who could be such a person, with that combination of qualities and virtues. Of course, the Frierdiker Rebbe meant the Rebbe. In hindsight we know that now. Not many years later—a year or two later—the Rebbe arrived in the United States. There was a great deal of upheaval... including in matters of custom. As for the Chabad customs that existed then, it seems that at first people did not know these things. There were many things they had not practiced before.

19:17 Speaker 2 So this is what is included in Chabad custom. The fact that Chabad chassidim do this or that is not binding. What is binding is the authentic source, the inner foundation, which only the Rebbe can provide. Just as, in the Torah, only Moshe Rabbeinu could convey Hashem’s mitzvah of putting on tefillin to us, so too here. These are the Chabad customs the Rebbe selected, and that is what gives them their importance. What is not included among these things does not necessarily have to be a Chabad custom. Chabad chassidim may do something for some reason, even a good reason, even one that was good in the past. But since it was not included, we have to think about it. Now, an important point. The Rebbe often phrases it as writing down what he saw the Frierdiker Rebbe do. One might learn from that that you, too, can write down what you saw the Rebbe do. But if it were simply a matter of “I wrote what I saw the Frierdiker Rebbe do,” as the Rebbe phrases it, anyone could write things down. What makes this something inner, fundamental and profound? We see what the Rebbe does, and I do it. Sometimes you see something without knowing what you are seeing. Or the Rebbe may not want you to do exactly as he does. Or the Rebbe may have a good reason for what he is doing, or that practice may have applied at one time and changed later. We have seen all sorts of apparent contradictions and exceptions. You cannot establish a custom just from what the Gemara says someone did. Only when it says to do it—when the sage tells people to do it. That is a formulation Leibel Groner also repeated all the time, a formulation from the Gemara: one should act only when one is told to do so, even if a halachic ruling is stated—

21:14 Speaker 2 A halachic ruling is not binding in that sense. They have to tell you to do it. There has to be a clear instruction from the Rebbe. Now, people build arguments on various expressions the Rebbe used, and I addressed all those expressions, including formulations by the Rebbe that point in the opposite direction. Some people cite formulations suggesting that we should do what the Rebbe did, and I brought even stronger formulations against that, as well as the formulations from which one might supposedly learn that we should. Now, let me return to the original source. That is the Hayom Yom calendar. I certainly did not bring every custom today. The Rebbe subsequently did several other things in this connection. Unfortunately, I cannot use this book to read the various quotations the subject calls for. For a simple reason: with my eyesight, I cannot currently read from this book with the light facing me. Anyone who wants to can look in the book. I will continue to explain its content clearly from memory. So, as we said, Hayom Yom does not include every single custom, only certain ones. I want to return, if I may, to a point we made about the Rebbe writing down what he saw the Frierdiker Rebbe do. I will mention two customs of the Frierdiker Rebbe that the Rebbe saw or knew about but did not write down. Although he wrote about many things he saw our Rebbeim do, he made a selection here. We have to consider what that means. One example appears in the Rebbe’s Reshimos, in his journal: the Frierdiker Rebbe told him that on Shabbos the Rebbe Rashab ate the compote, the final fruit course, with his eyes closed. Why with his eyes closed? There is a question of borer, selecting, involved. We all eat compote without any difficulty. Why? Because selecting food from what you do not want is permitted. What does selecting food from what you do not want mean? You do not want to eat

23:27 Speaker 2 that particular piece of fruit, and if there is a mixture of fruits, you take the one you want and eat it. You put your fork into that piece of fruit and eat it. Sometimes you also remove something you do not want, or take off the peel, and so on. The Rebbe Rashab ate with his eyes closed: he stuck his fork into the compote and ate what it picked up, so as not to transgress the prohibition of borer. Now, the Rebbe certainly knew this. He recorded in his journal what the Frierdiker Rebbe had told him. But he did not include it. Had the journal not been published, we would not know about it to this day. In other words, not everything the Rebbe saw the Frierdiker Rebbe do, or heard about, was included. There is something else I know because I heard it myself, on one of the occasions when I was at the Rebbe’s. Until the passing of Rebbetzin Nechama Dina Schneersohn, the Rebbe continued to eat the Yom Tov meal at the Frierdiker Rebbe’s home, as he had done before. The Rebbe invited those close to him to eat the Yom Tov meal with him. What was it like there on Sukkos? There was a small sukkah, not a large one. It stood on the balcony off the room now called Gan Eden HaElyon—the large room where the Frierdiker Rebbe received people for yechidus and where he davened. That was where he would receive people for yechidus. The balcony led off that room, which people generally never entered. It was the only place in the entire apartment where they could make a sukkah. The balcony was not very large. They built the sukkah there, and the Yom Tov meal was held there. The Rebbe ate there with those who had been invited. I was not invited, but I always came without an invitation. So on Sukkos, the arrangement

25:30 Speaker 2 was different. At all the other meals, people sat down at the table first, and then the Rebbe arrived. The Rebbe came last; everyone stood up, and the Rebbe went to his place—not at the head of the table, which was the Frierdiker Rebbe’s place. On Sukkos there was a problem. The balcony was rather narrow. If everyone sat down at the table in the sukkah, the Rebbe could not reach his place, which was at the side, near the beginning of the table, rather than at its head. So on Sukkos they did things differently. Everyone stood outside the sukkah; the Rebbe entered, and only afterward did we go in. Now, where was I standing outside? What was this “outside”? It was the Frierdiker Rebbe’s room. The room itself was a holy room, truly the Holy of Holies. That was where we stood. One time when I was there, I spoke with Reb Avraham Pariz. Reb Avraham Pariz was devoted to the Rebbe, a model of hiskashrus in every aspect of his life, a model of devotion to our Rebbe. He was devoted to the Rebbe of this generation from the very first moment. He was among the first—perhaps the very first. Right from 5710, when some people were uncertain and had their doubts—there were all sorts of questions—he was devoted. But that is an aside; it is not relevant to what I am discussing now. He had also been close to the Frierdiker Rebbe for several years in America. He told me that the Frierdiker Rebbe davened there alone. As is well known, in his later years the Frierdiker Rebbe was ill. Walking was very difficult for him; much of his body was paralyzed. Reb Avraham told me that the Frierdiker Rebbe wrapped himself in his tallis. This is how he described it: the Frierdiker Rebbe wrapped himself in his tallis. It says in the Shulchan Aruch, and this is the practice, that after putting on a tallis one should walk four amos while fully wrapped in it. How long do you have to remain fully wrapped? Four amos. I do not know how far that is. That’s what

28:09 Speaker 2 He relates it, and all this information is passed down to us. We say the verses that tell our story there. Four verses—I no longer remember—from a parsha, [unclear], Tehillim, and then it takes a minute or two, that’s all. The Frierdiker Rebbe says: “[unclear].” He walked four amos after wrapping himself in his tallis, so as not to—supposedly, no, there’s no need to check whether it counts, whether that is the time or the distance of four amos or not. They told him that it means the distance of four amos, not the time it takes to walk them. But he simply walked four amos. That’s how the story is told. [Unclear] is also reliable; it is all very reliable. You cannot cast even the slightest doubt on his words. Well, he certainly knew about that custom of the household. Surely, just as Rabbi [unclear] knew about [unclear], he still did not include it among Chabad customs. Again, this is not a matter of what one sees the Rebbe do. Someone may have a custom with deep, fundamental roots and broad significance and so on. He sees what the Rebbe does; the Rebbe knows what belongs among the customs and what does not. Only he decides, no one else. As we said, the Hayom Yom calendar was not enough. Later, lists written by the Rebbe began to appear alongside the booklets. As is known, from time to time booklets and maamarim of the Frierdiker Rebbe were published. The Rebbe edited those maamarim and added notes, sources, an introduction, and so on. Often, at the end of those maamarim, there was a list of distinctive customs that the Rebbe had written down. These concerned various festivals, quite a few festivals

30:17 Speaker 2 and holidays. Well, those were included among the customs we have already seen. The Rebbe recorded the customs of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the customs of Purim, and other customs. For Pesach, they are in the Haggadah. Yes, the Pesach Haggadah. It contains Pesach customs, among other things. That is another very important source: the Rebbe’s Pesach Haggadah, where our customs are recorded. In any case, afterward the Rebbe instructed that there be a Sefer Haminhagim. The Rebbe entrusted Sefer Haminhagim to two people who were seemingly the most suited to the task. Not just seemingly; there was much thought behind it. One was Rabbi Menachem Zev Greenglass. He was a truly righteous man, a mashpia in Montreal, at the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva there. He was one of the outstanding students; he had studied at Tomchei Temimim in Volozhin[?]. He actually came from a Polish background, not from Russia. He was descended from Chabad chassidim. I don’t know which Chassidic group exactly, but he was a chossid who loved Hashem and was also a kabbalist. He studied Kabbalah, and he and the Rebbe exchanged many letters even before the Rebbe’s nesius. He was very close to the Rebbe, including before 5710. The nasi of the generation was the Frierdiker Rebbe, and everyone was connected to the Frierdiker Rebbe. But there were a select few who already had a connection with the Rebbe. Among them were at least two from Jerusalem: Rabbi Zev and Rabbi [unclear], author of Noam Eliezer. We’ll speak about him shortly. They, too, corresponded back and forth with the Rebbe. They were connected to the Rebbe and exchanged letters with him. They really were among the first to conclude, as we said earlier about [unclear], that the Rebbe was the Rebbe. In any case, as for Sefer Haminhagim, its principal basis was, of course, the Hayom Yom calendar and the Rebbe’s lists, as well as what they had heard and seen from day to day. And the Rebbe reviewed the entire Sefer Haminhagim. There are people who deal

32:28 Speaker 2 with this, and I heard it somewhere from the two of them. The other person was, of course, Rabbi Leibel Groner, the Rebbe’s secretary. The Rebbe went over every page, every single word in it. The Rebbe also gave the book its framework. Now, as I said earlier about the mementos, this is simply the Rebbe’s book. Sefer Haminhagim is the Rebbe’s book of instructions. I say all this because some people start raising questions about it, since they saw the Rebbe conduct himself differently. As for what the Rebbe did—I don’t know. First of all, you don’t know whether you know exactly what the Rebbe did. As I said earlier, that is something else; it is not relevant. His instruction to me is here, in Sefer Haminhagim. I was privileged—let me tell you a story. In 5723, I was privileged to be with the Rebbe for the first of the many times I had that privilege. That was close to seventy years ago, right? And that means... seventy-eight years, right? So that was my first time with the Rebbe. At that time, we merited two yechidus appointments: one before, before the beginning of Tishrei—we arrived before then, or during the Ten Days of Repentance—and one after the holidays. The first time, I was privileged to be there for forty-five minutes, and the second time for twenty-five minutes. I was privileged to have much more altogether, as is known, more than others and so on. Never mind; that is not relevant to our subject. In any case, that year I was about to establish a shul in the Pagi neighborhood of Zion, where I lived at the time. I was privileged to establish it at the beginning of 5723. The Rebbe was behind it. He mentioned it and asked me about every stage leading up to it. On one occasion, the Rebbe asked, “What is happening with the Pagi shul back there?”

34:41 Speaker 2 In any case, that was earlier. At that point, after the holidays, I was already deeply involved in preparing to return to Eretz Yisroel, begin the work, and daven in the shul. Now, I understood what a shul would be like. Even today, in a Chabad shul like ours in Bnei Brak, because we begin the latest, all kinds of people join us: Litvaks, other chassidim, Sephardim, and so on. Why? Anyone who wants a little more sleep comes to daven with us. That is still how it is today in Chabad shuls in mixed neighborhoods—at ours and elsewhere. So I understood that this would happen then, too, and that is how it turned out. Of course, from time to time one of them would send someone up to him, and so on. So I drafted something—Sefer Haminhagim did not yet exist then—a kind of notice setting out not all Chabad customs, but the customs relevant to the shul: how we daven, what we do, how things begin, what we do here and what we do there. People do not always know exactly what is meant. There are all sorts of differences. I’ll give you an example of how necessary this is. We say Kesser; chassidim say Kesser. Chassidim and Sephardim say Kesser during the Shabbos Musaf prayer. Now, what is Kesser? It says: “A crown will be given to You, Hashem our G-d, by the multitudes of angels above, together with Your people Israel gathered below—all of them together.” The word “together” comes afterward: “all of them together.” So other chassidim, not Chabad, stand together at “gathered below,” pause, and then say “all of them together,” and everyone joins in. We say it together, as one continuous phrase. Now, sometimes there are other chassidim with us who say Kesser. If one of them starts calling out “together,” people think we have stopped there. That is an example.

37:07 Speaker 2 ...how much people coming from outside need to know the customs of the shul. Not all the customs—many are different—so that is how these notices came about. I took most of the customs from books and so on, and from customs I had seen observed in the shul. So I wrote them down. I continued working on it, and that was everything we wrote. I also wrote memoirs—a diary of my visits—and a great deal of that was included too, though it was not relevant to these matters. I did not receive comments on it. This was at the second yechidus, after I had already submitted it. The Rebbe himself said to me: “No, no, I didn’t send comments on what you wrote. Why? I’ll explain.” This is how he put it—I’m translating his words freely, not word for word: Chabad customs come from three sources. There is Hayom Yom; there are the Reshimos—the notes I mentioned, which are collected in the booklets; and there is the Luach Kollel Chabad. There is a Luach Kollel Chabad in Eretz Yisroel, written by the chossid Reb Avraham Chaim Naeh. The Rebbe called him our halachic authority on many occasions. I mentioned earlier that he corresponded with the Frierdiker Rebbe, and the Rebbe also reviewed it. The Luach Kollel Chabad [unclear]. What does that mean? What people do here is not a source for a custom. He told me a story about Rabbi [unclear]. I had not asked about anything different. He said that when I first printed this machzor in the Chabad nusach here in Eretz Yisroel, there had not really been a Chabad machzor

39:21 Speaker 2 but apparently it was included in this siddur then. The Rebbe told me to include a certain piyyut in it. I told the Rebbe that those who had been with [unclear]—that is, the Rebbe’s father, he explained to me—said it had not been recited in Lubavitch. The Rebbe told me [unclear]. In other words, the Rebbe did not intervene in the content—what was written here, both in theory and in practice, about what people do here. The Rebbe did not intervene. That is to say, what people do here is not, in itself, a source. Perhaps [unclear]; one should not think otherwise. But for whatever reason, he did not intervene in things that were happening when they were not very important or critical. Whether you do this or that, or put something earlier—these are various practices. Let me give you an example. At Kabbalas Shabbos, after Lecha Dodi, we say “A psalm, a song for the Shabbos day,” and also “Hashem has reigned; He has donned majesty”—those two chapters. Throughout the world, the practice is like in Pesukei Dezimra: you finish the first chapter, and then you have to stand for “Hashem has reigned.” [unclear]. I saw that here too, and that is generally how it is done in most of Eretz Yisroel. This was among the customs you wrote down. I can give it as an example; the Rebbe did not give me that example then. So what? The Rebbe was not going to impose it on us. It is not a Chabad custom. Whoever wants to do it that way can, and whoever does not want to can do otherwise. It has nothing to do

41:33 Speaker 2 with Chabad customs, because it is not found in those sources. Why those sources? Because, as I said at the beginning, in this entire matter, the Rebbeim are the ones who establish Chabad customs. They determine them even where others think they can establish a custom based on their understanding of the Rambam. Even an instruction the Rebbe gave someone—or a story about an instruction: there are stories in which someone heard something from the Rebbe and did not understand it, and people build customs on that. I do not want to give examples here. In my book I gave various examples of this. So customs have sources, and only those with such sources can merit the holy and exalted title “Chabad custom.” For us, that is like the Shulchan Aruch: we are obligated to follow it, and someone who does not has a problem—a problem with his hiskashrus. Hiskashrus means, as the Frierdiker Rebbe always said, listening to his instructions and studying his Torah. An instruction from him means what he said and instructed in writing, not what you heard he said to someone else. Not what you understood—or thought he meant you should say—and not something heard in a sicha that the Rebbe did not edit and place his seal of approval on. We must be faithful to what is holy. That is true hiskashrus with the Rebbe, not a connection based on a mood, an atmosphere, something in the air. True hiskashrus is serious: it means being connected with the Rebbe’s soul. These are among the things I merited to hear from the Rebbe, and this is what I always say. I repeat it. I will stop here for now, because I am getting a little tired, but perhaps we will speak more about this another time. I am sorry there are not many quotations in this book about customs and their sources—from the Rebbe’s sichos, clear sichos, or the Rebbe’s letters. I myself

43:28 Speaker 2 merited to receive quite a few letters from the Rebbe about customs, apart from what you have heard about the Rebbe speaking on the subject. In any case, that is the story of customs and their sources. I will conclude with a wish for everyone—for all of you and all of us. As the Rebbe said, and as I wrote here too, spreading the wellsprings outward also includes spreading the customs. But again, the Rebbe’s genuine, holy customs. Spreading the wellsprings is what will bring the complete Geulah soon, with the revelation of Moshiach immediately. Of course, we must work with all our strength to spread the wellsprings, and first study Chassidus so that we know what to spread. Not spread atmosphere, empty air, and nonsense—spread real substance: as I said, the beautiful wisdom of Torah, both its revealed dimension and Chassidus, the Rebbe’s maamarim, and so on. The holy sichos, the holy maamarim, and the holy customs that the Rebbe established clearly and made known to the public—all this will bring the complete Geulah very soon, immediately, with the revelation of Moshiach.