Ears to Hear 2 | Beis Rabbeinu in Babylonia - Part I

00:00 Speaker 1 “And Hashem has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, or ears to hear.”

00:08 Speaker 2 Ears to Hear. An audio program for the students of the Temimim, from the World Atah organization.

00:15 Speaker 3 Grapple with [unclear], grapple with what’s written, grapple with Rashi, grapple with the Aruch, grapple with Metzudos, g-g-grapple with Targum Yonasan ben Uziel, grapple with [unclear], grapple with Mesillas Yesharim, grapple with [unclear]. Grapple with them. That’s not the innovation of Novardok. It’s the greatest innovation here, but it’s not the innovation of Novardok.

00:41 Speaker 4 Shalom aleichem to all the students of the Temimim in Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch yeshivos throughout the Holy Land and the entire world. We are now beginning a special edition of Ears to Hear, a program steeped in a spirit of steadfast hiskashrus to the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach shlita, and to his central mission of bringing Moshiach, our redeemer. This time our program focuses on the special kuntres Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, which was published on 28 Cheshvan 5752. The Rebbe’s particular affection for the kuntres could be seen in several ways. One was that, after its publication, the Rebbe placed it in his siddur, and it remained there the entire time. Thus, as can be seen in the well-known photograph, when the Rebbe left [unclear] for the Ohel, he held the kuntres in his holy hand. It went with him wherever he went and traveled with him wherever he traveled. The Rebbe’s particular affection for this special kuntres was apparent in these and other ways. Later, in his sichos, the Rebbe referred to Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel several times. In the diaries of the Temimim, you can see the atmosphere that prevailed when the kuntres came out. One of the Temimim wrote a diary entry at the time of its publication. This is what he wrote: “We began eagerly devouring the new kuntres, trying to find its distinctive features. Before long, they shone forth brilliantly. The feeling was lofty and extraordinary. Davening with the Rebbe that day felt entirely different. All at once, we felt that the Rebbe was lifting us a handbreadth above the ground and raising us to other worlds, enabling us to understand the tremendous stature of Beis Chayeinu, which from today will presumably also be called Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, or Beis Moshiach. We understood clearly that we had entered a new and loftier period. The Rebbe had opened a new channel in the work of hiskashrus.” Word of Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel reaches every place where the word

02:40 Speaker 4 and decree of the King are heard. Chassidim understand that a new period of revelation has begun. The kuntres was another tangible expression of the fact that we had reached the stage of Moshiach revealed. The Rebbe is revealing lofty matters that had been hidden in the King’s treasuries, and now he is going to publicize them to the entire world in a manner of “your Teacher will no longer be concealed,” without concealments or veils. So now, in this special edition of Ears to Hear about Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, we want to discuss the greatness of the kuntres and what makes it unique from a Torah and historical perspective, with Rabbi Moshe Kornweiss. We are now beginning the special program with Rabbi Kornweiss. Shalom aleichem, Rabbi Kornweiss.

03:26 Speaker 1 Aleichem shalom.

03:27 Speaker 4 Boruch Hashem. We’re sitting together now for a special farbrengen, an Ears to Hear program about what is distinctive and unique about Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel. When we think about this kuntres, as every student is learning it now, at this time, the first point—the first question about the nature of the kuntres—is: What actually makes it unique? After all, if we’re talking about Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, we can look back to the time of “Shaf veyasiv in Nehardea,” to the days of [unclear], to times when there was always a Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, and later, too, throughout the history of our Rebbeim. Chassidim, throughout the generations, always knew that there was the home of our Rebbe, of [unclear]. Yet from all the great excitement surrounding this kuntres, it seems there is something uniquely significant about its publication on 28 Cheshvan 5752. What, in fact, is unique about this kuntres?

04:19 Speaker 3 Well, first of all, if we’re talking about ears to hear, we should make sure we also have a heart to know.

04:23 Speaker 4 Amen.

04:23 Speaker 3 Ears to hear, so that these matters will be inscribed in the heart to know—that, ultimately, is the main thing. When we talk about Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, we first need to look at the period in which it was published. It came out in 5752, on 18 Shvat, at a time—years and a period—of extraordinary abundance in Lubavitch. A weekly sicha was being published in an edited version every week, and a Likkutei Sichos selection was coming out every week. Edited maamarim were being published regularly, and, of course, there was also the transcript of the conversation with Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, which was published as well. We were perhaps in the most abundant period of all, with more revelations and [unclear] from the Rebbe than ever. And with all that, I think Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel was the cherry on top. If I were to put it in yeshivah language, it’s like the Rebbe’s most comprehensive general shiur on everything that concerns the Rebbe. The most comprehensive. Anyone who looks will see that toward the end of the kuntres, the Rebbe himself references his first maamar. Near the end, the Rebbe refers to the maamar Basi Legani—to Basi Legani of 5710 and 5711 and subsequent years—concerning the work of our Rebbe, the leader of the seventh generation, to bring the Shechinah down to earth. I call it the Rebbe’s most comprehensive general shiur because this kuntres also has a distinctive style. It’s not only that the content is unique, or that the words are unique; the structure of the kuntres is unique as well. I want to pause on that for a moment. We know the style of the sichos—the edited sichos the Rebbe delivered on Shabbos and edited, beginning in 5747, each and every Shabbos. The Rebbe edited the weekly sicha in a very particular style, which those who study Dvar Malchus certainly know. It is complex, and people often find it very difficult to understand, because it is a style that speaks very much

06:21 Speaker 3 from above downward. The Rebbe brings revelations and draws them down to us, not in the style of explanations of a subject. It isn’t a back-and-forth discussion of some Torah topic. Rather, it is as though something descends from above each Shabbos, and the Rebbe draws it down into the familiar sections of Dvar Malchus, from aleph to beis. Then we have the style of a likkut. What is a likkut, a Likkutei Sichos selection? They took the Rebbe’s sichos on a topic, gathered them, and constructed a likkut on that topic. Then we come to Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, which is neither one nor the other. It certainly isn’t in the style of the Dvar Malchus sichos, or the sichos of 5747, 5748, 5749, 5750, 5751, and 5752. It isn’t a series of revelations. It is a very, very orderly kuntres—unusually so, I would even say. Its internal organization, the structure of Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, is clear and orderly, carefully built level upon level, somewhat like Likkutei Sichos, but also different from Likkutei Sichos. If you pay attention to its style, there is no back-and-forth discussion, no back-and-forth discussion. There are no complications, no running back and forth, no “you could say it this way, and you could say it that way.” None of that is here. On the one hand, it is a direct light descending from above downward. On the other hand, it is not a direct light descending from above downward without regard for our capacity to receive it. It is a direct light descending from above downward that is clothed in the simplest Torah sections, in a structured, orderly, systematic way. That is a distinctive style. I think that, of all the Rebbe’s kuntresim, the one that bears some resemblance to it is the kuntres of the twelve-section sicha. That may be the only kuntres similar in its structure—and I’m speaking now about its Torah style—to Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, although

08:02 Speaker 3 even the kuntres of the twelve-section sicha on Chassidus, whose purpose is also to present a G-dly concept from above downward, begins with questions and a back-and-forth discussion, which our kuntres does not have. That is utterly distinctive: there is no back-and-forth discussion. It doesn’t call for probing questions. It doesn’t arise from doubt or from a question or a lack of clarity. It comes from a desire to explain a subject completely.

08:22 Speaker 4 So that’s regarding the structure of the kuntres.

08:24 Speaker 3 Yes.

08:24 Speaker 4 And what about its innovation?

08:26 Speaker 3 One second. Come on, come on, the structure here is very important to understand, okay? As I mentioned earlier, in footnote 97, toward the end of the kuntres, the Rebbe speaks explicitly about “all sevenths are cherished,” the seventh generation, how it began in 5711, and so on. Now, when I talk about the distinctive Torah structure of this kuntres, there’s something else too. It also puts the finishing touch on, and seals, the Rebbe’s entire Torah. It isn’t just a local discussion explaining a particular topic called Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel. In the kuntres, the Rebbe discusses what the seventh generation is altogether, what the avodah of the seventh generation is: the purpose of making a dwelling place in the lower realms, transforming the world itself into a place of Geulah. What is the Rebbe of—what is the leader of our generation? What is the leader of a generation, and what is that generation’s avodah? In a certain sense, this kuntres opens and closes what began with Basi Legani. In other words, the fact that this kuntres came out in 5752 is certainly not incidental. It’s a general, central kuntres. We do study it in preparation for traveling to the Rebbe, and specifically it deals with Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel. But when you study it, particularly its second half, which we’ll discuss in a moment, it explains the overall avodah of the seventh generation: bringing the Shechinah down to this earth. How does that happen? In Basi Legani, the Rebbe says this is the avodah of our generation, the avodah of the generation and its leader. Here the Rebbe says it happens from a particular place. The overall avodah of the seventh generation, bringing the Shechinah down to this earth, is connected to the home of the leader of the generation. So even as I’m speaking now, I can already see that this kuntres doesn’t just explain what Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel is. It brings me to understand what is unique about the seventh generation, and consequently what is unique

10:09 Speaker 3 about Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel in the seventh generation. And that also explains why the kuntres says that Beis Moshiach has the simple numerical value of 770, “and examine this carefully,” as the Rebbe puts it in the kuntres. Why? Because Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel is where we come to understand the nature of the generation, the nature of our generation’s mission. As the Rebbe explains, 770 relates to the seven middos and the seventy nations of the world, and to the Jewish people’s redemption from seven lands; it’s connected to the previous Rebbe’s seventy years, and so on and so forth. So, again, it’s not just about the specific subject of the Rebbe’s house, seven seventy, 770. It’s connected to the fact that what we’re coming to understand here is something much more general and much greater.

10:56 Speaker 4 This kuntres is really a cornerstone in the life of a chossid in the seventh generation, even apart from traveling to the Rebbe.

11:01 Speaker 3 Right. I want to point out another very important thing in connection with what you said. When we look for Torah sources for the idea that the leader of the generation is the Moshiach of the generation—which sichos did the Rebbe give where he says plainly that the leader of our generation is the Moshiach of the generation? One of the fundamental sichos explaining this subject is the kuntres Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel. There, the Rebbe cites the Chasam Sofer and the tzaddik emes, for whom it was an established tradition in every generation who their Rebbe was, and then there’s the wording with which the Rebbe concludes. “And all this is obvious!” That the leader of the generation is Moshiach, that every chossid says of his Rebbe that he is Moshiach—all this is obvious. Where is that written? It’s written in the kuntres Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel in the plainest, clearest terms. So we have the sicha of [unclear] and several other sichos, but where is it written clearly—not as a question for back-and-forth discussion, not as a possibility, and not in the way the Rebbe said in the sicha of [unclear], “I don’t mind if they interpret Moshiach literally”—but quite literally? That the leader of our generation is the Moshiach of the generation. It says “Moshiach of the generation” in straightforward, clear terms.

12:01 Speaker 4 And the novelty here isn’t only that it’s set out in a sicha, but that it’s presented in an unusual way.

12:05 Speaker 3 It lays out the points. This is how it is; these are the facts. And I want to add something wonderful about this, which also relates to what I mentioned earlier about studying this kuntres. It’s an amazing kuntres. Why? Because, so to speak, the Rebbe isn’t saying anything new here. He begins the first four sections of the kuntres without, so to speak, saying anything new. Nothing new. Anyone who has studied it in depth knows that the Rebbe simply quotes Rashi, the Maharsha, the Aruch, the Metzudos, and Targum Yonasan word for word. The Rebbe doesn’t add anything. Study the Gemara properly with those commentaries. You’ll have a few points that need further examination, but overall it will make sense. And the Rebbe puts his finger on it and tells you: Understand the Gemara, that’s all. It’s not that, so to speak, the Rebbe came up with a new idea for you, and that’s the great innovation. The great thing is that it’s written explicitly: there is a place in Bavel, in exile; there is the principal beis midrash during the exile; there is every important beis midrash, and there is the principal beis midrash, which is the main place where the Shechinah rests. That’s written in the Maharsha. The Rebbe quotes those words, “the place of the Sanctuary itself, which moved and settled there,” in the text of the sicha. Those aren’t the Rebbe’s words; they’re the Maharsha’s words. It’s not, so to speak, “I said this. I’ve introduced something new here.” There are facts. Let’s put the reality on the table. There is a reality, and that is the wonderful innovation of this sicha: it lays the facts before us. The Rebbe says, “Know that what I’m telling you has a factual foundation.” It’s not a back-and-forth discussion, not presented as a possibility, not an allusion, not a “perhaps one might say,” and not hinted at. It’s an explanation, an explanation of the matter.

13:36 Speaker 5 The point that the Beis Hamikdash will be revealed in 770 is also a step in this.

13:42 Speaker 3 Actually, that very point comes up twice in the sicha, so to speak. Yes, if we pay attention, the specific point you asked about appears twice. First, in section 4, the Rebbe says [unclear]. The Beis Hamikdash will first be revealed at the place where it moved and settled, and there the Rebbe brings the plain meaning of the Gemara. After all, the Gemara explicitly says that even when they go into exile, the Shechinah goes with them. Where does it go? It returns with them. Where is it between one exile and another? The Rebbe says this in section 4. The Rebbe doesn’t present it as a possibility or as a new idea. It’s straightforward. The Rebbe states it plainly: if it’s there, that’s where it returns from. It’s not just introduced once as a new idea. Notice that the Rebbe says this is a reality. And then, in section 5, when the Rebbe begins his explanation—it is an explanation, an explanation of the matter—he brings the point that the central aspect of the Geulah, with the coming of, and so on. We’ll come back to that in a moment. It’s an explanation. But why is this so important here? Because when something is presented as a back-and-forth discussion, as a possibility, you can raise questions about it. You can start thinking it over, considering it, having doubts: Maybe I understood it correctly; maybe I didn’t. But if we’re talking about facts grounded in halachah and Torah, in Gemaras and Rishonim, that’s different. The fact that it will be revealed where it was revealed at first—the Rebbe doesn’t present that as some new idea. The Rebbe says something simple: if that’s where the Shechinah is, as the Gemara says several times, and it returns with them from among the exiles, then it returns with them from among the exiles. So where is it? From where will it return with them? From where will it return? From where it

15:07 Speaker 3 is. And that is something truly wonderful.

15:11 Speaker 5 Maybe that also explains why many Torah scholars, [unclear], see this sicha and, in effect, see the Torah before their eyes. It’s as if the Rebbe opens their eyes to see it clearly, and there’s nothing to dispute here. People simply accept it in that way. It’s all built on foundations in Torah and halachah.

15:26 Speaker 3 Right. Since you’ve brought that up, it’s known that for a number of scholars outside Lubavitch, this is one of the sichos they find hardest to deal with, in the plainest sense. Why is it hard for them? Because here the Rebbe is saying, so to speak, don’t grapple with me; grapple with the Maharsha. Grapple with what’s written. Grapple with Rashi, grapple with the Aruch, grapple with the Metzudos, grapple with the Targum of Yonasan ben Uziel, grapple with the Chasam Sofer, grapple with the Tosafos Yom Tov, grapple with the Ibn Ezra. Grapple with them. This isn’t an innovation of Lubavitch. That’s the greatest innovation here: that, so to speak, it isn’t an innovation of Lubavitch. Chabad isn’t a party; it belongs to the entire Jewish people. Moshiach, too, belongs to the entire Jewish people, and Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel belongs to the entire Jewish people. That’s why it has to come from the Gemara, from the commentators, from the straightforward sources on which these things are founded. And that is a truly wonderful innovation of this kuntres. And that’s it.

16:19 Speaker 5 By the way, if this is so simple, why did it have to be revealed in 5752? It could have been revealed earlier—just write down the Maharsha and give the date. What is distinctive about 5752 that the Rebbe brings this up then?

16:30 Speaker 3 As you know, there are two possible answers to that. But in general, there’s a story told in a sicha of the Frierdiker Rebbe: when the Rebbe Rashab got married, he received an instruction from the Rebbe Maharash to have the kiddush meal and the Shabbos meal at a special table. He didn’t know why. Years later, he said, he saw it written that way in the Arizal’s writings, in Pri Eitz Chaim. He told the Frierdiker Rebbe: “It’s not that I hadn’t seen it written there until now, or hadn’t studied it. This was the first time I saw it written there. I knew Eitz Chaim; I’d read that part of Eitz Chaim many times, and I hadn’t seen it written there.” In other words, there is a time when even simple things need to be revealed in the world. On the contrary, when something true is revealed in the world, it is revealed in its simplicity. It isn’t revealed through complications and complexities; it is revealed in its simplicity. And if you ask, why specifically in 5752? Of course, anyone can offer answers, reasons and explanations. But seemingly the simple answer is, first of all, that Moshiach had already begun to be revealed in the world. It’s that simple. It had already begun to be revealed; it had already begun to happen. What is written here is not only—as the Rebbe concludes—that the time is right, in the year of the tzaddik, with “Hashem, You have been our dwelling place in every generation.” In other words, this is the year of the tzaddik, and since it is the year of the tzaddik, a year in which the Rebbe was revealed and all these things took place, this is already the time to reveal all of this. Especially when you look at the sichos printed at the end of 20 Menachem Av 5751, about a newborn baby—the sicha everyone knows—where the Rebbe practically cried out. You could almost say that one simply needs to recognize that the Geulah is here; that a Jew should agree, agree, agree that the Geulah is here, quite literally. In other words, everything is already here. What is missing now is for us to recognize it,

18:09 Speaker 3 connect with it, and see it before our eyes. So it is clear that the sicha was said this way, and laid out on the table so clearly, precisely because this is a time when Moshiach is being revealed in the world. That is one simple explanation. Of course, what I’m saying now is only a possible explanation, but it is certainly possible. And of course, this sicha also prepares us for the entire period that followed—for the whole period after 27 Adar 5752 and after Gimmel Tammuz. This sicha is certainly one of the clearest foundations for the questions most relevant to our time and our generation. In the most straightforward sense, it helps us understand the whole concept of 770: what is this place, and how do we relate to it in a period of such shock and concealment? Such a difficult period, a period of so much shock and concealment—how do we relate to the place? Here, although the body of the sicha has two approaches, in at least one of them the Rebbe speaks about the place itself, not only about the person associated with the place. There is also the personal aspect: this is the place of the Nasi Hador. Of course, that is eternal and certainly remains true at all times, right now and until the Rebbe is revealed in the holy city of Jerusalem. But first, understanding the concept of 770 means understanding the place itself, precisely when these things are seemingly so hard to grasp, so spiritual, so subtle and delicate. What does it mean for 770 to be holy? What does it mean for the ten [unclear]? Yes. It is known that the Rebbe Rashab marked as a special day the day he arrived in Lubavitch—not his first day [unclear]. The records say he arrived several days later, but he celebrated the day he arrived in Lubavitch. So these used to be subtle spiritual concepts

19:54 Speaker 3 that weren’t exactly understood. What is this concept of the Rebbe’s house? We can still understand what a tzaddik is. Yes, you cannot cleave to the Shechinah directly; you must cleave to tzaddikim. That is halachah. It is established as law among the 613 mitzvos. One of the Torah’s mitzvos is to cleave to tzaddikim, to Torah scholars. But the idea that there is also a physical place, that a place has a particular halachic status—those sound like novel terms. And the Rebbe takes those terms, novel as they sound, even though they appear in the well-known letter that we will look at shortly, which the Rebbe quotes here in the sicha: “Since the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, the Holy One, blessed be He, has had [unclear] until Hashem our G-d has mercy on us and brings the righteous redeemer, and brings us to Jerusalem and the Beis Hamikdash. Meanwhile, in our Jerusalem, the shul where my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe, prays is our Beis Hamikdash.” But even there, you could still say that perhaps this is about spiritual matters rather than the physical place. And there, too, it comes across as a feeling.

20:45 Speaker 6 There it seems more like a feeling than—

20:47 Speaker 3 I could have understood it as a feeling, but in the end it is a law in the Gemara. There is a Rebbe, so I go to the Rebbe. I don’t want to get into all the philosophical questions surrounding this now.

20:56 Speaker 6 But even then there was an obligation to go before one’s teacher, and there were such quotations.

21:00 Speaker 3 No, the law that one has a Rebbe—the concept of a tzaddik who is the Nasi Hador and one’s teacher according to Torah—is something the Rebbe spoke about many times in sichos. By the way, it is not specifically a matter of Chassidus at all. It is a matter of Shulchan Aruch, one of the Torah’s mitzvos. One of the interpretations of “and cleave to Him” is specifically to cleave to a Torah scholar.

21:16 Speaker 6 Tanya, chapter 2, at the very least.

21:18 Speaker 3 You don’t even need Tanya. This applies to a Torah-observant Jew. It is one of the 613 mitzvos. The Rebbe explained this at great length on Yud Shvat—I think it was 5712; I don’t remember the exact year. The Rebbe explained at great length that this is a mitzvah from the Torah. This is the matter of [unclear] and chassidim. It is a mitzvah from the Torah, one of the Torah’s 613 mitzvos, and that is still something we can understand. But to introduce the idea that the place itself has a halachic status—that is a major innovation. Not as a feeling, but as an understanding, as a definition, a halachic definition. I just want to point something out here. I have something else to say about the innovation that pertains to our generation, but I want to raise a Torah point first. In footnote 31, the Rebbe speaks—sorry. In footnote 31 of the kuntres, the Rebbe speaks about the Shechinah’s return: from the place where the Beis Hamikdash stood, while during the exile it is at the place where [unclear] resides. In that footnote, the Rebbe does not really explain it. But there are unedited sichos of the Rebbe from Parshas Chukas 5723 and elsewhere that offer a tremendous and remarkable insight into this. I’ll read the footnote and explain it briefly. This subject is connected to the enduring presence of the Nasi Hador. It is directly connected to the situation called Gimmel Tammuz—directly. What does it say? The footnote says that the parallel is the Sanhedrin, whose place was the Chamber of Hewn Stone in the Beis Hamikdash. But the Sanhedrin went through ten exiles and eventually reached Tverya. In Tverya, the last place the Sanhedrin occupied, they are destined to return first, and from there they will move to the Beis Hamikdash. Here the Rebbe does not explain the nature of the parallel. Why exactly does the Rebbe want to compare this to the return being discussed here? When I

23:16 Speaker 3 study the kuntres without knowing the background to this footnote from other sources, I don’t understand it at all. The Sanhedrin reached Tverya, and they are destined to return there first and from there move to Jerusalem. What does it mean that the Sanhedrin will return there first? Seemingly, the Sanhedrin is not like the Beis Hamikdash; it is not a particular physical object. It is not a place, not a building of stones and walls, and not one of the vessels of the Beis Hamikdash. It is a group of people. So what difference does it make whether they are in Tverya or in Jerusalem? True, there is a halachic difference: when they are in Tverya, they cannot adjudicate certain cases. They do not have the authority of a court for [unclear], they do not judge certain types of cases, and the law of a rebellious elder does not apply. But in Tverya, that is a matter of their halachic status. How can you compare it to the Beis Hamikdash, which is a physical structure? The building has to be in Jerusalem—it has an address. What does that have to do with Tverya? What does it have to do with 770? How is this “similar to,” as it expressly says here? Rather, what is the point?

24:13 Speaker 6 That the definition of the place itself was made into something significant.

24:16 Speaker 3 Yes. What does that mean? There is a remarkable insight from the Alter Rebbe that the Rebbe mentioned, as I said earlier, in Bechukosai 5623 and on other occasions. How will the Sanhedrin reappear? The Alter Rebbe says something astonishing, something truly novel. The Rebbe explained it further in a sicha. The Alter Rebbe says this: The last place the Sanhedrin was located was Tiberias. Now, the Sanhedrin is something eternal. “There is no death in a community”—the Sanhedrin did not die. Oh, you don’t see a Sanhedrin now? I went to Tiberias, walked around, looked for the Sanhedrin, looked for Eliyahu Hanavi, who presides over the Sanhedrin, as the Rebbe says, and didn’t find them. I didn’t see them. Maybe I have trouble hearing and trouble seeing. So what’s going on? The Alter Rebbe says: Listen carefully. The Sanhedrin is in Tiberias to this day. It’s just that your eyes can’t see it, right? So when the sages of the Sanhedrin come to Tiberias today, in 5783, and reach the place of that Sanhedrin, they will not need an unbroken chain of ordination going back to Moshe Rabbeinu. They won’t need ordination. Simply by coming to the place of the Sanhedrin, the Sanhedrin’s enduring status will rest upon them.

25:23 Speaker 6 So it’s a status attached to the place, as it were.

25:25 Speaker 3 Yes, it’s a matter of permanence. This is a remarkable insight: there is a concept of permanence in Torah, in the realm of Atzilus, in the realm of G-dliness, as the Alter Rebbe says. The Sanhedrin—there is no death in a community. The Sanhedrin did not die. There is no need for an unbroken chain of ordination back to Moshe Rabbeinu, because those righteous people who come to Tiberias will connect to that eternal continuity and will not need new ordination. The Rebbe mentioned this in a sicha. I know this isn’t the place to explain it, but on this basis one can explain a remarkable Rambam in Sefer Hamitzvos. The Rebbe points out in that same sicha that he connected this to the permanence of Moshe Rabbeinu: Moshe Rabbeinu, too, has the same kind of permanence as the Sanhedrin. “There is no death in a community”; death does not apply here. It is an enduring reality—in the realm of Atzilus, in G-dliness, and in halachah. And the Rebbe connects this to your kuntres here. Here, in the kuntres, the Rebbe makes that connection. The Rebbe mentions it by way of analogy: holiness has its own definitions even when we cannot perceive it through our ordinary senses. I don’t see a menorah here; I don’t see the golden altar. I don’t see a table. What do you want from me? I don’t see any of it here. What are you telling me? True, there is an abstraction of the physical object. It’s a deep Torah concept and a major insight of the Alter Rebbe. But as a source in Torah for the idea of permanence when we speak of the nasi of the generation as something eternal, this may be the strongest there is.

26:42 Speaker 6 And the same applies to 770.

26:44 Speaker 3 Yes. That’s one point that I think is very critical here in the kuntres, in how the Rebbe defines things through the seventh generation.

26:51 Speaker 6 Specifically before the period of the histalkus, the Rebbe simply established a permanence attached to the place.

26:55 Speaker 3 We should start defining that, yes, to understand what’s going on here.

26:57 Speaker 6 Of course, the permanence attached to the place depends entirely on the person—on the Rebbe.

27:00 Speaker 3 And of course this is also written in our kuntres. Indeed, the kuntres goes on to speak about the unique role of the seventh generation, which it explains as we noted at the beginning: the Shechinah must descend to earth. The Shechinah must descend to earth, so it has to reach the lower hemisphere. It has to reach the lowest possible place, and specifically there build Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel. Then we will have 770, with its significance for the entire world. This is a tremendously profound and wonderful insight that simply gives us the strength for our work. I think the kuntres Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel really is the key for a Tamim, a young man, or a chossid in 5783 who thinks to himself, “So many years have passed,” and so on. It is one of the strongest, simplest, clearest keys: just to understand the Rebbe’s permanence, and to understand that the seventh generation will bring our actions and our service to completion, achieve that completion, and bring forth the generation of Moshiach. It’s all in the kuntres Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel. You could say that, in a sense, the kuntres is like a complete work by the Rebbe, like a summation telling us: “Friends, understand what I’ve been talking to you about all these years. Where do we stand? What is happening here? What is this place you see?” Right. So presumably, when people read the words “Talpiyos—a hill toward which all mouths turn” in 5752, they didn’t need much help understanding them. They understood: the whole world comes here. Look, everyone comes here. But when the Rebbe writes it in this kuntres, it doesn’t become merely a description of what was happening then, in 5752. It means that this is the defining character of the place. This is what defines it. So whether you see it more clearly or less clearly,

28:54 Speaker 3 you have to understand that this is how it is. And it is so because there is a nasi of the generation, a nasi who leads in Torah, and this nasi is the Moshiach of the generation, who brings about these things here. He brings about the revelation here, the true and complete Geulah. That is why this kuntres provides such strength. That is a central point and the greatest source of encouragement in it. And of course there was also the straightforward matter of what happened—the widening of the alleyway—which is connected to this too. But the main emphasis is how the Rebbe brings these ideas down and makes them accessible to us. Friends, these are the facts; this is the reality. In general, you could say that sometimes it’s easier to speak in terms of the revealed part of Torah than in terms of Chassidus. Let me explain. When you want to express things that are very complex, very lofty, very subtle, and you present them as a matter of chassidic avodah or some aspect of G-dliness, someone might say, “Perhaps it could also be otherwise. Who says?” But when it’s a matter of Torah, a matter of halachah—that’s how it is. That’s what it says. Deal with it. Take the subject of hashgachah pratis, for example. In works of philosophy and inquiry, and among great Torah scholars, hashgachah pratis is the subject of philosophies, discussions, debates, and all sorts of questions. What is hashgachah pratis? Is there hashgachah pratis? How does it work? What do we make of it? But when the Rebbe wants to bring proof that there is hashgachah pratis in practice over every single thing, he cites Tractate Chullin, which says that even the shalach bird is subject to judgment. It’s a Gemara. With a Gemara, there’s no debate. With philosophical arguments, you can say this or that; you can say many things. But when something is grounded in the revealed part of Torah, it’s a fact. In the revealed part of Torah, you can state such things more absolutely and clearly than you can in Chassidus.

30:46 Speaker 7 So perhaps, based on this, we can say that the innovation in all the Rebbe’s sichos of 5751–5752 about the revelation of Moshiach—especially the sicha on the Friday before this kuntres came out, Shabbos Parshas Va’eira, in which the Rebbe said that not only is Moshiach present, but Moshiach has also been revealed—was all expressed in the language of Chassidus as well. Here the Rebbe comes and gives it a firm foundation in the revealed part of Torah, a very, very strong Torah foundation. This carries forward the idea of Moshiach’s revelation in the world in a full and fundamental way, with all that it entails.

31:15 Speaker 3 Yes, exactly. And we can sharpen what you’re saying: if you look at that sicha of 18 Cheshvan—Shabbos, 18 Cheshvan—anyone who understands the halachic criteria, and I’m speaking specifically about criteria that even the Ritva wouldn’t understand, will see that the strongest sicha said in 5752 was on 18 Cheshvan 5752. Why? Because on 18 Cheshvan 5752, the Rebbe based it on the very sources he cites in the kuntres: in every generation there is a figure of Moshiach, and he is the Moshiach of that generation. Then the Rebbe asks a question. When discussing this, the Rebbe asks: Let’s try to understand what happened in all the previous generations. The question in the sicha of 18 Cheshvan 5752 isn’t a side question. It’s a question everyone asks deep down: Who says our seventh generation is different? What’s new? There were always great tzaddikim; there was always a Moshiach. All the Rebbes were great. So what was missing? Is our Rebbe just greater than all of them? No. I don’t want to bring up certain expressions here, but regarding Zionism and various statements of that sort, the Rebbe cited the Rambam’s description of a Moshiach who did not succeed. The Rebbe himself cited that Rambam, and [unclear]. Those who remember when the Rebbe cited the Rambam’s criteria for someone presumed to be Moshiach in the 5730s know that he did so not as an affirmation, but in the negative. So a person has this knot in his stomach, and the Rebbe says in that sicha: Friends, understand that in all the previous generations, it didn’t succeed. Now I’m explaining the inner dimension of this, the deeper meaning. The reason it didn’t happen and take effect in all those generations was not a shortcoming in the person. It wasn’t a shortcoming in the Rebbes or in the tzaddikim. The shortcoming was in the world—a shortcoming that has been remedied in our generation. Since

32:52 Speaker 3 now, in the Rebbe’s words in that sicha, there is no reason, nothing holding back the Geulah, it follows that not only is there a Moshiach, but there is a revelation of Moshiach. Plain and simple. The Rebbe also explains that the revelation of Moshiach is not merely a matter of reasoning or of seeing. It isn’t a matter of factual or circumstantial proof; it is proof from the Torah. According to the Torah’s criteria, there is a Moshiach in every generation, unequivocally. In previous generations he was not revealed because of the state of the world. And the Rebbe establishes that the world is now completely ready. So there is a Moshiach here today, revealed, and accordingly he can move about freely, as I said. These things go together completely, right through to the end. It cannot be otherwise.

33:30 Speaker 8 The kuntres was indeed printed on Monday, 18 Cheshvan, but it came out of the Rebbe’s room on Motzaei Shabbos Parshas Vaeira.

33:36 Speaker 3 Ah, wonderful. That’s very powerful. The kuntres containing the sicha itself came out afterward.

33:42 Speaker 8 Yes.

33:42 Speaker 3 It hadn’t come out yet, but the sicha had been said. It reached people afterward, during those days. Yes, it came out on Wednesday; presumably that was the schedule for most of the sichos. But when you look at this, and at the whole context of these sichos, you understand that, however hard it is for us to grasp this reality, however hard it is for us to look at the world around us and take in what is happening, the Rebbe has already defined these things in Torah terms—in their halachic framework and in the framework of Kabbalah and Chassidus. The reality is that the seventh generation is a generation of salvation, a generation of Geulah. Yes. In footnote 106, which contains an entire sicha of the Rebbe, he says that we are already past “with which they have taunted the footsteps of Your Moshiach,” after the siyum and so on, in Psalm 89. So there really is something very, very significant here: seeing the reality that the Rebbe sees. And the Rebbe doesn’t just see it because of something he once said. You know, after the war—the Rebbe expressed himself this way several times, but this was after the Six-Day War. The Rebbe then said that well-known, puzzling sicha: “Be silent; so it arose in My thought.” The Rebbe said that people asked him why he spoke about such things. I’m referring to what the Rebbe said in the sicha of Shabbos Bereishis 5728. The Rebbe said, “I see it. I see it. This is what I see—so should I not say what I see?” Certainly the Rebbe sees, and the Rebbe sees spiritual things. The Rebbe sees distinctions that we don’t see at all. And when the Rebbe spoke about the children of Maalot, he said, “What can I do? I see it.” It’s not—there were several times, once during Tishrei, when the Rebbe used that expression: “I see.” The Rebbe

35:36 Speaker 3 himself put it that way. Maybe there were other occasions I don’t remember. The Rebbe said, “I see, I see.” But that the Rebbe sees is obvious, and that we need to believe it is obvious too. Yes. If you think back to the Rebbe during Sukkos in Tishrei, you’ll remember what the Rebbe mentioned: the Frierdiker Rebbe said, “Here sits the Baal Shem Tov, here sits the Maggid, here sits the Alter Rebbe, here sits the Alter Rebbe, here sits the Tzemach Tzedek, here sits the Rebbe Maharash, and here sits the Rebbe Rashab.” And the Rebbe asked, “Why are we being told this? We don’t see them.” The Rebbe answered, “It’s a pleasure to know.” It’s comforting to know that someone sees. That’s a wonderful thing.

36:11 Speaker 8 Perhaps that really is the question every Tomim asks after hearing this program. He understands the definition and the importance of Beis Rabbeinu, of “Beis Rabbeinu ShebeBavel,” the House of Moshiach, and the new insight in the kuntres Beis Rabbeinu ShebeBavel. But in practice, when you actually come to the Rebbe, to Beis Rabbeinu, how do you feel and sense it all the time, every moment? We’re talking about students who come for a whole month, and students who are regularly at the Tomchei Temimim yeshivah. And beyond that, how can we keep reminding ourselves of this even then?

36:37 Speaker 3 First of all, Chabad demands inwardness. Chabad requires a person to do inner work on himself. Of course, everyone has moments when he feels the essence of his soul shining while he is near the Rebbe—during the shofar blowing, at Kiddush in... each person in his own way. But apart from those feelings, from the flashes of revelation the Rebbe gives us, which surely everyone knows, Chabad and the Rebbe demand inner work. What does that mean? First, I think, the simple things: a Tomim should preserve the bearing of a Tomim. He should preserve the sense that he is in the Rebbe’s daled amos. Being in the Rebbe’s daled amos demands that I look different and behave differently. If it’s clear to me that when I’m with the Rebbe, I need to behave more properly, to be better—because I’m standing before the Rebbe, I’m in the Rebbe’s daled amos, and I need to behave much more properly—then that thought and that inner decision are already a start. I’m traveling for Tishrei; I’m traveling to the Rebbe in order to become much better, and I keep reminding myself of that. Just as chassidim—the Frierdiker Rebbe says that chassidim would set aside time to awaken their love for and connection to the Rebbe. There’s a letter in which the Frierdiker Rebbe tells a chossid, “Is it hard for you to picture the Rebbe? Picture him in your heart.” But from time to time we have to contemplate this. I’m not saying every day, or once a week, or how often. But when we’re with the Rebbe for Tishrei, at least once a week, if not more, we should really sit down and contemplate it—perhaps before davening, before a farbrengen. Each person should take a little time to think about this, to ask

38:13 Speaker 3 himself what it means that I am with the Rebbe. How do I want to be? How do I want to appear here? Then it becomes, “Just as one comes to see, so one comes to be seen.” And that contemplation itself truly gives us a great deal of vitality. Then everything shines in an entirely different way. L’chaim, l’chaim.

38:30 Speaker 8 Thank you. Thank you, Rabbi Koren [unclear], for the new insight into the kuntres and for this special farbrengen. May these words have their effect, and may we immediately merit the complete revelation of the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, now, literally.

38:40 Speaker 3 L’chaim, l’chaim.

38:40 Speaker 8 Many thanks.

38:43 Speaker 9 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the students of Tomchei Temimim from Atah Haolami. For more programs, dial *6358. Long live our master, our teacher, and our Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, forever and ever.