Episode 279 - A Person's Success Depends on Positive Thinking.

00:01 I’ll tell two more stories connected with the Rebbe Rashab—stories that show us the atmosphere of those days and the challenges he faced. In the town of Pochep, in the Chernigov province, lived a man named Chazanov. He was a man of means, with a large contracting business building railways. He also bought estates and forests, and his business grew tremendously. He opened branches of his firm in Kiev, Kharkov and Petersburg. This wealthy man, Chazanov, was a chossid. Every year he would come to Lubavitch with his son and his two sons-in-law and stay for several days. He would hear words of Torah, absorb the atmosphere and ways of Chassidus, visit my father, the holy Rebbe Rashab, and ask his advice about his business. He would also visit the resting places of our holy Rebbeim. He got to know the older chassidim and the young men who were staying in Lubavitch to study Chassidus, and then he would return home. This went on for many years. Mr. Chazanov had grown old, and his son and his son-in-law, Mr. Kisin, began managing the business. Everything went well until 5664—that is, 1904—a year of general crisis in the contracting trade. For about a year, Chazanov’s firm struggled with the situation. Despite its heavy losses, it fulfilled its contracts with the railway administrations until it had no strength left. Then the elderly Mr. Chazanov came to Lubavitch with his son-in-law, Mr. Kisin, and the firm’s general manager to consult the Rebbe Rashab about how to get out of their predicament. An exact accounting showed that if Mr. Chazanov sold his forests, his estates, and his houses in Kiev and Kharkov, he could pay only forty percent of his debts. So they disagreed and argued. Mr. Chazanov said they should sell everything and pay their creditors as much as possible. Mr. Kisin and the general manager said they should pay only fifteen percent and use the remaining money to trade and buy goods. When

02:53 they presented their views to my father, the Frierdiker Rebbe relates, Mr. Chazanov wept and said, “For twenty years I was a successful contractor, and many dozens of Jewish families earned their living through my businesses. And now, in the end, I must go bankrupt. Better to die than to live, for I despair of ever seeing good again in my life.” My father, the Rebbe Rashab, said to him, “In a park in Vienna there are several remarkable things. Among them is a great, tall wheel, with carriages hanging around its sides in which people sit. The carriages are made of glass set in iron frames, so that those sitting in them can look in any direction they wish. When the wheel begins to turn, the carriages rise from the ground. When they reach a certain height, you can see a great distance. Then the wheel keeps turning and the carriages descend. So the wheel turns, and the carriages rise and fall. Our Sages, of blessed memory, said, ‘The wheel turns in this world.’ The wheel turns, and its carriages and their passengers rise and fall. It is human nature that when a person is high up in his carriage on the wheel, he is in good spirits and everything else seems worthless to him. He laughs and feels pleased with himself. But really he is a fool, because his carriage hangs from a turning wheel. And the person whose carriage is descending weeps. But really he too is a fool, because his carriage is attached to a turning wheel.” The Rebbe Rashab told Mr. Chazanov, “With Hashem’s help, the good day will come when your carriage rises again.” My father, the Rebbe Rashab, then said to Mr. Chazanov, “Put all sadness out of your heart. Strengthen your faith and your trust in Hashem.” And to Mr. Kisin and Mr. Boss he said, “Drive away despair and turn your minds to business calculations. How can you take on more contracting work? Hashem will help you and send you good business.” Mr. Kisin and Mr. Boss did as my father, the Rebbe Rashab, had said. Before a year had passed, Mr. Chazanov’s firm was once again on a firm business footing. And now, another story, somewhat different in character and content. In the year

06:01 5666, 1906, there were pogroms in Russia. They were the wicked government’s response to a kind of rebellion that had taken place in 5665. What was that rebellion? At a rabbinical conference held in Vilna in 5665, the government demanded that the assembled rabbis decide that rabbis and teachers must have a certain level of secular education. The Rebbe Rashab said, “Whatever happens, this will not happen.” The chairman of that conference was the gaon Rabbi Teva Katzenboigen [unclear], and the gaon Rabbi David of Karlin was also there. In the middle of the conference, they asked the Rebbe Rashab whether he wished to say anything, and he said, “Not yet.” They also asked the gaon Rabbi Chaim of Brisk whether he wished to say anything, and he too said, “Not yet.” The Rebbe Rashab then asked the gaon Rabbi Chaim of Brisk that the elder rabbis write on the semichah they granted that the person being ordained was truly G-d-fearing. The gaon Rabbi Chaim of Brisk then wrote to the gaon Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, urging care in granting semichah to young rabbis with regard to their fear of Heaven. Before the conference closed, they again asked the Rebbe Rashab to speak, but he did not want to. They also asked the gaon Rabbi Chaim of Brisk again whether he wanted to speak, and he did not want to either. The gaon Rabbi Chaim was not particular about that sort of procedure. Though he was orderly in his own affairs, he paid no attention to keeping to the conference’s schedule: if he wanted to speak, he would speak at any time. When the Rebbe Rashab saw that the gaon Rabbi Chaim was also refraining from speaking, he said, “Since the rabbi from Brisk does not wish to speak, I will speak.” The Rebbe Rashab stood up and said, “It was not of our own will that we left Eretz Yisroel, and it will not be by our own strength that we return to Eretz Yisroel. Our Father, our King, blessed be He, exiled us, and He will redeem us, gather our scattered people from the four corners of the earth, and bring us upright, through Moshiach, the righteous redeemer, to our Holy Land

08:39 speedily in our days, amen. But all the peoples of the earth must know this: only our bodies were handed over to exile and subjugation under the kingdoms. Our souls were not handed over to exile or subjugation under the kingdoms. We must say openly, for all to hear, that in everything concerning our religion, the Torah and mitzvos, and Jewish customs, no one has authority over us, the Jewish people, and no coercive power may be used for that purpose. We must proclaim, with the full strength of Jewish steadfastness and the Jewish self-sacrifice of a thousand years: ‘Do not touch My anointed ones, and do not harm My prophets.’” The Rebbe Rashab’s forceful words made a deep impression. Two government representatives were at the conference. One was an apostate, and the other was a professor of Eastern languages at the academy who understood Yiddish. They wrote down everything the Rebbe Rashab said. When the Rebbe Rashab finished speaking, he fainted. An order for his arrest was immediately issued, and it was only thanks to the guarantees of the chossid Reb Shmuel Gurary, who provided a bond for ten thousand rubles; the chossid Reb Shmuel Michoel Treinin, who also provided ten thousand rubles; and Mr. Levin, a very wealthy man who offered himself, his household and all his property as security, that the Rebbe Rashab was not taken into custody. Even so, a soldier stood by the door of his room all night. Later, in the year 5670 [unclear], the Russian government wanted to renew that decree concerning teachers and rabbis. It was willing to dispense with the need for government-appointed rabbis, on condition that the rabbis themselves be educated in secular studies. Nearly all the rabbis wanted to agree, saying in despair, “What can we do?” But the Rebbe Rashab said, “This will not happen.” Although some of the government-appointed rabbis knew how to learn, and a few of them were even G-d-fearing, the Rebbe Rashab held that when it came to dealing with the government or handling registration, those matters belonged to a government-appointed rabbi. But for a question of Shulchan Aruch, one had to go to a real rabbi. There is

11:21 The Shulchan Aruch is essential, but there must also be a living Shulchan Aruch—and that is the rabbi. The minister responsible for these matters at the time was Stolypin. He was a great evildoer. When a delegation of rabbis came to him, his arrogance kept him from even looking at them. Nevertheless, considering his wickedness, he did not do all that much harm to the Jews. A committee of seven rabbis was chosen. Stolypin asked the provincial governor to ensure that the Rebbe Rashab and the gaon Rabbi Chaim of Brisk were not chosen for it, but the governor answered that this was impossible, and both were elected to the committee of seven. In addition to this smaller committee, there was a larger one with many rabbis. The Rebbe Rashab said then that although Haman no longer exists, Haman’s way of thinking remains—may their names be erased[?]. Later, government representatives threatened that if the rabbis did not give in, they had already prepared 102 pogroms in Jewish towns. The Rebbe Rashab answered, “We are not at all afraid of that, because, G-d forbid, there is no decree from Above for it.” Committees were then organized in many Jewish towns to keep watch, intervene in the appropriate places, and inform those who needed to know about the situation. They called them fire brigades so the government would not suspect them. Let us continue with the Rebbe Rashab’s conduct. His son, the Frierdiker Rebbe, relates: In 5668—that is, 1908 by the secular calendar—there were changes in the conduct of the Rebbe Rashab, of blessed memory. Every Rosh Hashanah, the Frierdiker Rebbe relates, my father, the Rebbe Rashab, would arrange the shofars before the blowing. Three shofars lay on the Torah-reading table. One of them was exceptionally long and had belonged to the Maharal of Prague. Although it had been shortened several times because cracks were found in it, it was still long. This was the procedure: My father, the Rebbe Rashab, would lay down a white handkerchief, place a red handkerchief on it, and set the shofars on them. He would cover them with a white handkerchief. In earlier years, he would cover them with the corners of the red and white handkerchiefs underneath, but in Rostov he did not do so. Perhaps this was because of the weakness he felt in his hands: if he had had to do it, he could not have done it with the necessary speed, and outsiders would have noticed. So he did not do it at all. Before the blessing, he would turn the wide end of the shofar to the right so that, immediately upon saying the blessing, he would be ready to blow. But on that Rosh Hashanah of 5668, on the first day, he did not arrange the shofars. There is certainly no reason to say that he forgot. As for the second change I saw, I cannot tell you about it now. After some time, I asked my father about that second change. He smiled and said, “You have nothing more to ask.” I asked why he had not arranged the shofars, and he told me, “It is difficult to rely on dreams. Prophecy is also called a vision, but that is different. Yet a dream as clear as this...” My father, the Rebbe Rashab, told me, “On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, he is not there.” We understand “he” to mean Satan. One must know that we are about to blow the shofar with a blessing; we are about to fulfill a positive mitzvah, and that Satan has respect in the presence of a mitzvah. But when things ease up—that is, on the second day of Rosh Hashanah—he is confused by the shofar blasts and the prayers, so he may be allowed to know. From then on, my father would arrange the shofars not on the first day, but on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. I would venture to explain that what the Rebbe Rashab means here is that his father, the Rebbe Maharash, came and told him these things. In addition, in 5669—a year later, after Chanukah—the Rebbe Rashab wrote a letter to the Jewish Colonization Association, demanding that it establish factories in the Pale of Settlement to provide

13:59 work for Jewish laborers. He also sent the letter to Rabbi David of Karlin, Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim of Lodz, Rabbi Chaim of Brisk, and Rabbi Chaim Ozer of Vilna. After they had all signed it, he sent it to the association. He also urged the brothers Yaakov and Eliezer Poliakov to provide livelihoods for Jews. The Rebbe Rashab’s proposal and demand were accepted, and weaving and dyeing factories were built in Dubrovna, in the Mogilev province. About 2,000 Jewish laborers worked there.

16:43 Work for Jewish laborers. He also sent the letter to Rabbi David of Karlin, Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim of Lodz, Rabbi Chaim of Brisk, and Rabbi Chaim Ozer of Vilna. After they had all signed it, he sent it to the Jewish Colonization Association. He also urged the brothers Yaakov and Eliezer Polyakov to provide livelihoods for Jews. The Rebbe Rashab’s proposal and request were accepted, and weaving and dyeing factories were built in Dubrovna, in the Mogilev province. About two thousand Jewish laborers worked there.