How the Rebbe Saw the World Differently

How the Rebbe Saw the World Differently

Welcome to our weekly program, The Story of Chabad in America through the Mindel Archives. Today's program will discuss why it's a must to learn Chassidus, and this is based on a letter of the Rebbe.

A person asked the Rebbe, "Why do I have to learn Chassidus? If I want to know what to do, I look in the Shulchan Aruch, and I learn Gemara. Why do I have to know what's doing in Atzilus?" he says to the Rebbe. "What's doing in the other world?" That's one letter.

Another letter — somebody asked the Rebbe: we say every morning, "Eilu devarim she'ein lahem shiur," there are mitzvos that can't be measured, and you get rewarded in the other world. What are they? So it says: kibud av va'em, honoring your parents; gemilus chassadim, kindness; hashkamas beis hamedrash shacharis v'arvis, to get up in the morning to daven, to meditate in davening; hachnasas orchim, to take in guests; bikur cholim, to visit the sick; to help brides; and to bring peace between people, and between husband and wife. These things have no measure, no limit. The last thing is v'talmud torah k'neged kulam — learning Torah equals all of them.

So he said to the Rebbe, "I know you speak about Torah all the time, but shouldn't that be the most important thing, more than all the mitzvos that you're talking about? It says v'talmud torah k'neged kulam." So the Rebbe answered him: you're right, Talmud Torah is k'neged kulam — but when? When the things before that are done properly. When you have kibud av va'em properly, when you get up in the morning properly, when you treat your guests properly, when you do all these things properly — then the learning that you learned reaches the highest level. And soon we will explain what "properly" means.

Now we'll go back to the first letter, and this is a fascinating letter. He wants to know why he has to learn Chassidus, why he has to learn about Atzilus. So the Rebbe makes an introduction. The Rebbe says: even in science, when a person wants to test a certain theory to see if it works, he has to try it from every angle, and when it fits from every angle, then that's the theory he's going to use. The same thing goes with Chassidus — first we have to establish that Chassidus works, and then we can talk about learning Chassidus.

And the Rebbe writes: we see Jews that lived in Russia under the terrible conditions of the Russian regime, and how it affected their Jewish observance. When the Iron Curtain fell and many Jews managed to leave Russia, it became clear that the only Jews who kept the Torah and mitzvos properly were the Jews who had learned Chassidus and came from Chassidic homes. They remained faithful and practiced Yiddishkeit. So that established, number one, that Chassidus works.

But the Rebbe writes: the question is, where do you have to learn Chassidus? Where does it say that in the Shulchan Aruch? Here the Rebbe goes into something very interesting in that letter — it's an English letter. The Rebbe says: there are 613 mitzvos in the Torah. Not everybody is able to keep all 613 mitzvos. For example, Shemitah — if you live in Eretz Yisroel, you have to do it, but if you don't live in Eretz Yisroel, you don't. Pidyon HaBen, to redeem the firstborn son — you have to do it, but if the firstborn is a girl, you're patur, you don't have to do Pidyon HaBen. Some mitzvos are for men, some mitzvos are for women. A lot of the time, a mitzvah is part of the 613, but it's not for you. Sometimes a mitzvah you only have to do once a year — Pesach once a year, Sukkos once a year, Shabbos once a week. Tefillin — in the daytime, not at night. So mitzvos come in all different kinds.

But there are six mitzvos that are called mitzvos temidiyos. Every person — man, woman, young, old, day, night, every single day of the year — has to do them. And how do you know how to do them? By learning Chassidus. Without Chassidus, you can never find anywhere how to do these six mitzvos. And the Rebbe brings down the six mitzvos from Sefer HaChinuch. The Rebbe says: to believe in God is the first mitzvah. Not to believe in any other gods is the second mitzvah. To affirm His unity, the achdus Hashem, is the third mitzvah. To love God is the fourth mitzvah. To fear God is the fifth mitzvah. Not to go astray after the temptation of your heart and your eyes is the sixth mitzvah.

How do you know how to do these mitzvos? Only by learning Chassidus. And these six mitzvos, the Rebbe writes, need an intellectual preparation — only by learning Chassidus will you be able to know. And it's not a hiddur, an enhancement — you have to do it. This is every day; you can't find it anywhere else.

The Rebbe writes: you might say, "I will try myself — I'm going to learn Zohar, I'm going to learn Kabbalah, I'm going to learn the Arizal, and I'll try to find out myself how I should be able to keep these six mitzvos." So the first thing the Rebbe says is: why do you have to go and struggle yourself when Tanya is here? The Alter Rebbe got it ready for you. And even if you look at the rest of Chassidus, most of it is included in Tanya also. So why do you have to go look for yourself? And secondly, even if you do find it, you might not fully understand it. So Chassidus got it ready for you — Chassidus is like a Shulchan Aruch.

So the Rebbe then explains: what does it mean to believe in God? A child also believes in God, an adult believes in God, but a child believes in God differently. A child imagines God like a big person with a big hand, like his father, a tall man — but it's God, that's how he imagines it. If you ask a child, "If God wants to destroy the world, what will He do?" he'll say, "He'll take a match and make a fire and destroy the world." Is that the real emunah that you want to have? That's a childish way of believing in God. A person has to grow. "Eino guf v'ein lo demus haguf," as the Rambam says — God has no body and no form of a body. You have to learn what God really is, not in a superficial, childish way.

The Rebbe says it's written in the Siddur: "Atah hu ad shelo nivra ha'olam, atah hu mishenivra ha'olam" — God is [the same] before the creation and after the creation. The only way you'll realize this is by learning Chassidus.

And then the Rebbe gives a mashal: if Reuven comes to Shimon and offers him a better understanding of the subject Shimon is involved in, and Shimon says, "No, I'm satisfied with what I know, I don't want to know more" — this is not the way people act. If a person comes to you and says, "You want to know? I'll give you a better, deeper idea," the right thing is to listen. But if a person says he doesn't want to listen... In other words, Chassidus gives you an understanding of what the world is — "ein od milvado," there is nothing else besides Him — and this is only achieved by learning Chassidus. The same applies to fear of God, and the same applies to love of God.

The sixth mitzvah — do not go astray after the temptation of your heart and your eyes — the Rebbe writes here, and I'm going to read it. It's very interesting. The Rebbe writes: it doesn't mean simply "don't look at things that are not good" — even Lahavdil, a person knows not to look where the heart desires, but that's not what it means. One should have his heart and his eyes only for that which is true and good, to see the world in real truth and to think true and good thoughts. And the Rebbe writes: to cultivate such a vision, to see the world and to train your heart to dwell only in good and truth, is difficult without learning Chassidus.

Chassidus trains a person, trains a Yid, to give the world the opportunity — to know how to look at the world. For example, there was a time of hippies, so people thought, "Stay away from them, we have nothing to do with them." The Rebbe said: since there are hippies, you have to work with them, this is your job. Look at a Yid — look at his neshama, not at the way he looks.

Nowadays we have technology. Some would say to stay away from it — I don't know if you could even do that. [Instead,] take that same technology, work with it, and turn it into kedusha. And the same thing applies to your learning — as we said before with all these mitzvos — if you learn them plainly, fine, but if you learn them through Chassidus, you understand more what it means to be a Yid. Now, that's not a chiyuv for everyone — there it's a kiyum ha'avodah — but these six mitzvos, one is chayuv in.

And even the Vilna Gaon said you cannot know nigleh d'Torah without learning pnimiyus haTorah. A person who looks at the world — if he puts on green glasses, the world looks green; if he puts on blue glasses, the world looks blue. The world is not green, the world is not blue — that's just the way you're looking at it.

The Alter Rebbe, it is told, once walked by a tree and bumped into it — he didn't see the tree, he saw the spark within the tree, the G-dliness. Now, we're not on that level, but we do have to learn to look at the world differently. By learning Chassidus, you see the world differently.

This reminds me: once an old chossid came from Russia to New York, and someone wanted to impress him, wanted to show him the gashmiyus, how beautiful Manhattan is. He took him to Manhattan and showed him the buildings, the tall buildings. "Look," he said, "look at the buildings, look at the offices, look how beautiful it is," and he explained to him and showed him all these beautiful things. And the chossid looked and looked and looked, and the chossid said, "Oh, these are malachim, angels, that made this." That's what he saw — he didn't see the buildings the way they really are, because he's a chossid, he sees more, he sees differently.

When a person goes up to the hundredth floor, or a person is on an airplane, the higher you go, the more the gashmiyus shrinks. You look down and the gashmiyus becomes nothing. The higher you are, the less gashmiyus you see — it depends on how you look.

Once the Frierdiker Rebbe was asked by someone, "Why is the sun red in the morning?" You go to the country and you see red in the morning. So the Frierdiker Rebbe said: the sun makes the day, makes light, and the sun looks down here and says, "I made light — look at the people, they're going here, they're going there." He called it hevel, vanity. This one runs here, that one runs there, this one goes here, that one goes there — they don't even know what they're running for. So the sun says to himself, "Is this why I made the day — for this hevel?" And so the sun becomes embarrassed, red in the face, to see such a world.

By learning Chassidus, you realize how to deal with the world. You open your eyes and see the world differently. And this is the yesod — the foundation. We should all learn Chassidus, and those who don't yet learn Chassidus should at least start a little, and this will bring Moshiach closer. We should do it with ahavas chinam — look at another Jew in a different light, look at his neshama — and in this merit Hashem will be mekarev the geulah, bimeheira b'yameinu.

With Hashem we will continue next week our program. Thank you.