Episode 271 - The Rebbe Rashab's Piercing Letter on the State of Judaism.

00:01 Continuing in his diary with the struggle against the maskilim, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak publishes here a letter written by his father, the Rebbe Rashab, to all Jews who are devoted to the word of Hashem. This is what Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak writes in his diary: Monday, 25 Sivan 5662—that is, 1902—Serebryanka [?], the resort we spoke about, eight o’clock in the evening. It has been about an hour since the seventh session of the meeting ended, and the resolutions were recorded. At the final session, it was decided that the holy letter in which my honored father and teacher, the holy Rebbe, graciously wrote at length about those who uphold the faith would be sent out this coming Elul, and even then only to a select few. When certain guests arrive, they will make it public. These are my father’s holy words in the letter: “My dear and beloved friends, G-d-fearing men devoted to the word of Hashem, men of means and standing: The purpose of this letter is to awaken our G-d-fearing brethren to the spiritual situation as a whole in these terribly grave times. A great danger, G-d forbid, threatens all of Judaism if we do not rouse ourselves and take heart to strengthen its pillars. The repeated waves that have battered the G-d-fearing for many years, and continue to do so, come from those who seek to remake Judaism—with their malice and hostility [?], their dreadful literature, their unruly conduct, and their brazen insolence. They are causing great weakness in the G-d-fearing camp. Though the G-d-fearing would never, G-d forbid, consent to their evil deeds, for their hearts are faithful to Hashem and His Torah, they have nevertheless grown weaker in spirit and in practice, and are no longer what they once were. In earlier days, every householder, every businessman, had fixed times for Torah study each day. A businessman devoted the day to his work and the evening to the study hall, where each person studied for several hours according to his ability. Many householders studied Gemara and the halachic authorities in depth, particularly Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim, so they would know what to do regarding the mitzvos that come around at different times of

02:39 the year, such as matzah on Pesach, the four species on Sukkos, and the like. All this created a lively movement and an awakening in the Jewish camp: people were meticulous about the flour for Pesach, thoroughly investigating whether it had been made and prepared properly. They were stringent with themselves in various particulars, carefully determining what to accept and what to reject. With the four species, too, they made sure to choose those handed down to us by our forefathers, rather than being drawn to outward beauty and an imagined hiddur. In any case, they investigated and inquired; it was an important matter that occupied them. The same was true of other mitzvos: tefillin had to come specifically from a G-d-fearing scribe, and talleisim and talleisim ketanim had to be kosher, and so on. Mikvaos, too, were closely supervised. Each person took the matter personally, and if something went wrong, he immediately informed the town’s rabbi so the problem could be corrected. In all these matters there was great activity and awakening, and each matter, when its time came, engaged the minds and hearts of those devoted to the word of Hashem.” “But now,” writes the Rebbe Rashab, “because of our many sins, almost all of this has passed. The study halls are empty; people do not come to study in them. No one is moved to seek out the finer observance of mitzvos, even where questions of prohibition may also be involved. If someone says he has a certificate of kashrus in his pocket, people buy from him and eat without checking whether the certification or its issuer is genuine, and so it is in every area. No one worries or sighs over these things. Why is this? Not because their souls have become corrupted, G-d forbid, but because they have grown weak and weary. Their inner awareness of G-d lies dormant, unawakened, whereas in earlier times they would be stirred by every good thing affecting the life of their souls. Nor are they stirred to stand in the breach against the enemies of Judaism and keep them from forcing their way into the sanctuary. All this stems from their own weakness. They lack the strength and courage to rouse themselves and take a stand. Furthermore, our G-d-fearing brethren have grown accustomed to the relentless waves coming from those who seek to remake Judaism, and so they are no longer stirred by them. Many do not even notice; they do not know

04:50 what is happening around them and pay no attention to what takes place before their eyes. There is also an element of turning one’s mind away from it out of despair, may Hashem save us. All these things are very dangerous in two ways. First, their inner awareness of G-d is gradually being extinguished, and there is grave reason to fear that it may fall into a lasting sleep, G-d forbid, may Hashem save us. Second, they give the enemies of Judaism room to advance and conquer more and more. We are therefore duty-bound to awaken and strengthen our inner awareness of G-d before it is extinguished, and to rid ourselves of this complacency and despair. Just as we were commanded to regard good things as new every day, so too what opposes them must pain us like a thorn and stir our souls to stand in the breach, with firm trust that Hashem will help us. We are not permitted to despair, G-d forbid, of His help. Only a fool, fearful of heart, gives in to despair, may Hashem save us. We must know that ‘Hashem wages war against Amalek from generation to generation,’ and that He has the power and ability to subdue them and break the strength and might of the wicked. Yet when the world weighs on a person’s heart, Hashem desires our self-sacrifice for faith and knowledge: that we awaken and strengthen ourselves, that the might of our iron-hard opponents not loom large in our eyes or frighten us, and that we remain strong and steadfast in Hashem and His Torah. Then He will show us His power and ability to humble the proud and crush the wicked. Experience has shown us that whenever we strengthened our faith and trust in Hashem, upheld the pillars of Torah and mitzvos, and resolved to engage in them firmly, undeterred by any obstacle, Hashem’s hand helped us, strengthening and encouraging us still more, and broke the power of that wicked one so he could do us no harm, G-d forbid. It is also known that our strength is far greater than the strength of those who seek to remake Judaism. They merely bolster themselves; they are not inherently strong. But when we cleave to Hashem and His Torah, we are inherently strong. As it is written, as it is written, ‘Their protection has departed from them, and Hashem is with us.’ As

07:09 as it says in the letter—in the letter—as it says in Rabbi Nachman’s Likkutei Moharan, chapter 34: The Jewish people are called living, as it says, ‘And you who cleave to Hashem your G-d are all alive today.’ By cleaving to Hashem, the G-d of truth, who is the living G-d, and by cleaving to Him through the Torah, which is called life, we are called living: we live and endure eternally. But those who have cast off the yoke of Heaven and the yoke of Torah and mitzvos, and have separated themselves from His unity, are, even in their lifetimes, essentially like the dead. Their strength is not real at all, and a little of our light drives away much of their darkness. We must all know with absolute certainty that it is only our weakness that adds to their strength. The coldness and inertia in the G-d-fearing camp give them the power and confidence to raise their heads so brazenly. They have spread so widely because we have given them room. And who knows what will happen as time goes on? Consider, my brothers, and take to heart the dreadful situation of our time. Most of the young people among them, nearly all of them, have been taken from us. Whereas faith and the obligation to observe Torah and mitzvos were once firmly and unquestionably rooted in the hearts of our brethren, among the young today the reverse is true. In the previous generation, people still engaged in philosophical discussion and investigated man’s obligation to G-d. Now no one investigates or inquires, or even thinks about it. They simply deny and dismiss everything without any intellectual examination, solely because a spirit of freedom has taken root in them through the many books published by heretics and deniers. With cunning, these writers have filled their books with dreadful venom and poison to draw in their readers and sever them from faith and religion—not through any investigation or inquiry, but through assertions that young people readily accept, since these leave them free to do whatever their hearts desire. Some of these heretical writers have come out with insults and blasphemy against the Torah and Judaism, none of it based on reason,

09:20 But only with words of contempt and disgrace to which there is no reply. This is what has led to the terrible licentiousness of this generation. Any soul is truly sickened to see the abominations and repulsive acts committed among the young people of our nation—things that should not be done even by ordinary standards of human decency, and certainly not according to the bounds and limits set for us by the holy Torah. For Hashem desires that we be holy, as it is written, “You shall be holy,” and “You shall sanctify yourselves and be holy.” That means setting bounds and limits so that we do not make ourselves repulsive through material and bodily matters. This includes the things the Torah forbade us and separated us from. It also means setting limits in matters the Torah permitted, so as not to be “a scoundrel within the bounds of the Torah.” There is no one more repulsive than a person who is drawn after bodily pleasures, even when those things are permissible in themselves. The main problem is having no limits, either in quantity or in quality—that is, the soul’s fervor and unrestrained passion for them. This is repulsive and deeply degrades the soul. For this reason, our holy Torah commands us many times to be holy: to keep ourselves within bounds and apart from everything repulsive and abhorrent. And the first thing Hashem our G-d said when He chose us to give us the Torah was, “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Through the Torah given to us, holiness and purity in all matters are to become our defining qualities. But now, in our time, because of our many sins, the opposite is seen among the young people of our nation. They have broken through every boundary and violated every rule, degrading and defiling their souls, even with forbidden things and with the utter lack of restraint described above. Any decent soul would recoil from this, especially since it runs counter to our true defining quality. All this is the result of throwing off the yoke: they accept no yoke of religion or financial responsibility, and they prefer lawlessness. May Hashem protect us. But they are not content with this. They set their sights on the children of our nation, to pluck them away, G-d forbid, while they are still in the cradle, and plant in their hearts a root that bears

11:30 poison and wormwood, until evil becomes second nature to their souls, through wicked teachers who are evil and sinful before Hashem. They strive with all their might to turn the children away from Hashem and His Torah. They disparage before them everything holy to Israel and entice their souls with every impure thing. Even in the sacred subjects they teach them, they do yet more harm, corrupting their souls through twisted and distorted readings of the texts and interpretations they invent to suit the desires of their wicked souls. Such teachers, who incite and lead others astray, are now found, because of our many sins, in every city. They carry out their evil work with great diligence and are clever at doing evil. First, the Satan seeks out people in whom to instill the impurity of permissiveness, so that they run their homes in a spirit of unrestrained freedom and take the guidance and education of their children into their own hands. Their views then prevail over the father’s: they drive the worthy teachers from their homes and hand their sons over to the corrupting teachers described above. The unfortunate father, who knows and understands the anguish of his soul, at first fights with all his strength, until he falls silent from the many torments he suffers at the hands of his household. In the end, some yield to the wishes of their families—beginning under compulsion and ending willingly—for their own fear of Heaven also deteriorates, and they allow their households to continue in this way. Thus things go from bad to worse. May the Merciful One save us, and may Hashem protect us from them and from the masses. After all this, my beloved brothers and friends, I cannot remain silent. We must stand up for ourselves and for our descendants, so that we, our children, and our children’s children will be as Hashem desires us to be, and no stranger will enter our domain, G-d forbid. We must feel the bitterness of all that is being done. We must be deeply distressed that this has come to pass in our day. Anyone in whose days the Beis Hamikdash has not been rebuilt—woe to him! How much more so when, because of our many sins, we see the destruction of the House of our G-d, the destruction of Torah and religious observance, day after day. May Hashem, blessed be He, have mercy and rebuild our House. We must be concerned for those of our brothers who have been lost and brought low through no fault of their own, because of their bad neighbors and the conduct of their homes, which has

13:31 brought coldness into them as well. But the life has not yet gone out of them entirely, and they can be restored. We must feel deep pain in our souls over [unclear]: their children are straying little by little from the good path, while the members of their households look the other way. They watch their children with anguish, may the Merciful One save us, and worry and grieve deeply. In their distress, their souls weep for their sons and daughters. They worry about themselves as well, yet are powerless to help themselves. We must take all this to heart and come to our own aid and to the aid of our brothers. We do not mean to go to war against our opponents, but to fight a defensive battle: to protect ourselves and our children from the torrent of malicious waters, so that it will not come near us, G-d forbid, and so that, with His help, we and our descendants will remain steadfast and whole with Hashem and His holy Torah. The proposed course of action is that we unite, specifically in a single association and fellowship. As is well known, joining together and uniting in any undertaking gives it strength and staying power. One of the opponents’ strengths is their outward unity: for every evil undertaking they form groups and associations, and each strengthens his fellow in his evil, his plans, and his actions against others, may the Merciful One save us. How much more so does unity on the side of holiness—a deep and essential unity through the Torah and mitzvos, which unite us in the innermost depths of our souls, making us all like one person and one body, with the foot receiving from the head and the head from the foot. This unity gives true strength and endurance. With Hashem’s help, no winds in the world will move it from its place, and it brings great benefit and accomplishes much good. For this reason, we must unite in one association and fellowship: an association to uphold religious observance, to strengthen our Torah study and our fulfillment of its mitzvos, and to conduct ourselves well and uprightly according to the precepts of our holy Torah, as set out in the specific regulations established for this purpose. Associations such as these, as I have said, will be established in every city according to the arrangements made for them. Each member of an association will care for his fellow’s welfare—his true welfare,

15:35 the preservation of his soul and the souls of his household—and each will strengthen and help the other. In this we have firm hope that, with His help, we will be saved, and Torah and Jewish life will endure among us, our children, and our children’s children forever. A central point here is that, at the outset, we should not seek to enlarge and expand the associations by recruiting many people and using various inducements to persuade them to join. If we do that, we may lose much, G-d forbid. Rather, we should accept only those whose love has awakened them and who truly desire to belong to this holy fellowship. Our sole intention is to bring together those who fear and revere the word of Hashem in one association, so that they will grow strong, stand like an iron pillar, and not falter, G-d forbid, before the flood of mighty waters. If the associations are small at first, others will gradually gather and join them. Better a little done with proper intention. One thing alone we must strive for with all our might: that each association become firmly established and fortified in its own place, observe its regulations rigorously, follow sound procedures, and maintain careful and precise oversight. Above all, its members must devote their whole hearts and souls to the cause itself: upholding religious observance. Then, with Hashem’s will, there is good reason to hope that each association will grow and expand over time. Like sparks drawn to a flame, those suited to such an association will gather and, out of heartfelt love, join and unite with it. And I pray that Hashem will grant success to our endeavor for the honor of His great name and the sake of His holy Torah, so that we and our descendants will be whole and strong in observing the Torah and mitzvos and will serve Him, blessed be He, in truth and with a whole heart. May the verse be fulfilled in us: “And as for Me, this is My covenant with them: My words that I have placed in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your children, nor from the mouth of your children’s children, says Hashem, from now and forever.” These are the words of their friend, who looks forward to Hashem’s salvation, to raise the standing of Torah, of Jewish life, and of our brothers, the Jewish people, higher and higher, from one elevation to the next. A devoted friend—

17:35 Ah, “a friend closer than a brother”—to those who love Him and keep His mitzvos. And this is the letter of the Rebbe Rashab to the Jewish people, urging them to strengthen themselves in Torah and mitzvos.