“All Problems in the World Are Related”

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America - the Mindel Archives. I hope everyone had a kosher and happy Pesach.

Today I originally wanted to share with you a very interesting letter that the Rebbe wrote to [a Rabbi [?]], and the same [sicha] discusses something very interesting, with a beautiful story. But since we are in the situation which everybody knows we are in today, and also - b'sorah tova - yesterday I found a letter that was written to someone who often listens to our program, dated with today's date. So I thought that because of these two things, I'm going to speak about something else today.

First I want to read this - this letter has three pages, but I'm just going to read one paragraph from the Rebbe's letter. The Rebbe also wrote to [a Rabbi [?]] more or less the same idea, to be practical, in even stronger words. So first I want to read this one paragraph, and then we'll explain, we'll go into the lesson.

"It is indisputable that when one has an opportunity to help a hundred individuals, it is one's duty to do so rather than helping a single individual. Similarly, on a global level, when one can accomplish something for humanity at large, it would be one's duty to direct his effort accordingly, instead of narrowing it down to one nation. However, considering the limitations of human effort and resources - however extraordinary these may be - one cannot lightly ignore such a handicap, especially at a time when the needs are great and growing, and one must carefully match capacity and potential with the challenges and crisis at hand. However ambitious a person may be, it is obvious that one cannot concentrate with the same effectiveness on many problems simultaneously, even if the problems are related - and ultimately, of course, all problems in the world are related. Thus, willy-nilly, one must submit to a system of priorities, in order to utilize one's resources - in terms of attention, time, energy, knowledge, as well as financial resources - in the most productive way."

This is the letter - this is a paragraph in a very important letter, but I'm not going to read the whole letter. And to show this to those [involved], he wrote years ago, and he added that when a shliach goes to a city, of course when he goes his aspirations are the highest, and he wants to take over - he wants [to reach] the whole city, and he wants to make everybody do the whole [service of Yiddishkeit]. But it's not practical - a person is only a human being, and he's handicapped, and he has to start with a prat (a particular, a detail), not to try to be mesaken (fix) the whole world in the beginning. Whatever a person does, he has to do it b'frat - not all at once, not to try to be mesaken everything right away.

In other words, in theory it makes sense to fix the entire world, to try to help everyone, but practically it doesn't work. And [just like] [unclear] - [he] will only accept if he speaks to him [directly], but if he wants to take on everything at once, that's not going to work - a person is limited. This is basically what this is talking about.

And the Rebbe gives an example in another place: when there is a fire, chas v'shalom, in a house, and the person wants to save things, he's not going to take all the furniture, everything at once - he needs everything, but he's going to choose the most [important] thing that he needs, the most valuable things, one thing at a time. The same thing here: when there's a fire burning, a person has to try to save whatever he can - one thing, but not everything. And this is practical.

Now, let's apply this. We find ourselves now in a great tzara - a tzara for Klal Yisroel. Jews, friends, relatives have been niftar, in the entire world. The entire world needs a refuah sheleimah - people are in hospitals, people need a refuah sheleimah; they're at home. And I don't know - excuse me - if it ever happened that in the entire world all shuls are closed, all Talmud Torahs are closed, all the yeshivos are closed - yes, they can learn Torah, but the yeshivos are closed, the shuls are closed. This is a tzara - a story - and this is like a fire burning.

We are all trying to reason why this is happening. People are lecturing and trying to philosophize for hours and hours and hours, trying to find out what to do. Of course, if the Rebbe were here today, there would be no sh'eilah - we would know what to do, b'li ayin hara there is nothing we couldn't do - there are doctors, [unclear] - but the Rebbe would tell the entire world what we can do now.

When the Rebbe was here, when things happened - the Six Day War - the Rebbe spoke then about Tefillin, so we knew what to do, we knew what the Rebbe wants us to do. When there was the hijacking in Entebbe, I remember the Rebbe spoke then about mezuzah. There was a tragedy in [?], but the Rebbe spoke then - the Yom Kippur War - about Mivtza Neshek (Ner Shel Shabbos Kodesh), and a lot of things that the Rebbe spoke about. But today we don't know, and everybody's trying to figure out - one says we have to focus on mezuzah, one says we have to focus on tefillin, one says we all have to give tzedakah - yet we all know that, but what specifically does the Rebbe want? We don't know, we're trying to find out.

So I want to say something. I found, in a sicha of the Rebbe - the sicha was said [date unclear] - this sicha has nothing to do with our situation, but I'll come to that soon. And the Rebbe says over here that there are people, there are speakers and lecturers who [unclear] speak about taking over the world, [unclear], how to fix the whole world. They want to fix the whole world, and they speak in general, lofty terms - but [this is not practical]. [The Rebbe says it is] like telling people, you have to be [unclear] - this is not for them, this is done to impress people - they are looking to impress people, it's beneath them, and it shows that they want to display that they can fix the world. And the Rebbe says that this is against logic - [unclear Hebrew/Yiddish passage, unclear]. And in another place I saw that the Rebbe writes in a letter that there are some lecturers, some speakers, who want to show that their English is so perfect, that they're more interested in knowing how to say a beautiful, fancy English word, so that people should be impressed. This is what the Rebbe is saying over here. Why am I bringing this? We are all trying to find ways [to deal with the situation].

Many, many times the Rebbe quoted the Rambam, and the Rebbe brought down from the Ramban: when there is a tzara, chas v'shalom, when there is a problem, "yefashpesh b'ma'asav" - everyone has to search their own deeds - not to want to take over the whole world, not to try to be mesaken the whole world, but [to work] in their own deeds.

Now there are two explanations in "yefashpesh b'ma'asav." Everyone knows what they're lacking - everyone knows. I know what I need to fix; my friend knows what he needs to fix. Some people are lacking, let's say, lashon hara - they speak lashon hara and they know it - they should work on themselves to stop the lashon hara; this is your avodah - fix yourself. Some people, because they always get angry, they should know to work on that. Some people speak in shul in the middle of davening, and the Frierdiker Rebbe writes in a letter that if somebody speaks [during davening], certain things happen - [a teaching] which I don't want to mention here - because they speak during krias haTorah. Some people need to know that they have to give more of themselves to their children - that's lacking, they don't give enough attention to the children. Some people, [careless] fathers, they have to be careful with [chinuch] - each one, if yefashpesh b'ma'asav, you have to look into your own ma'asim, and each one knows. For the whole world, everyone knows - this is something practical, and this is something that we know for sure that the Rebbe spoke many times about, and this is something everybody should do.

Another explanation of "yefashpesh b'ma'asav" is positive - a quality found in all tzadikim: everybody has good qualities in them. Some people are good in learning Torah - if yefashpesh, if you search into yourself and you're good in Torah, grow in that. It's not something else - something that you are good in - don't look for something else. If someone is good in tefillah, and this is his thing, he does it two hours, three hours - let him add mitzvos within what he's good at. If somebody is good in chesed, let him serve [others] in that, that he should grow in it, like it says, "chanoch lana'ar al pi darko" - train a child according to his way - not something else. If his tendency is in a certain direction, grow in that, and that is [the idea of] "tafasta merubah lo tafasta" - if you grasp too much, you haven't grasped anything.

So there we have it - everybody knows the famous teaching that after 120 years, they're not going to ask him, "were you like Rabbi Akiva," or "were you like [Reb Zushe [?]]" in poverty - they're going to ask him, "were you, you?" Each one, if yefashpesh, they will ask: did you grow in this, are you who you are - not trying to take over the world. Then we can be sure that the world will be different.

And when a person does everything because of himself - when a person thinks about his own mind, only about his own mind - then [it is not good]. But when a person works on himself - the real avodah of mesaken starts with the person himself. B'frat, now we are in the month of Iyar - this is a month where there's a lot of illness, a lot of need for refuos, but the Rebbe always mentions that Iyar is an acronym for "Ani Hashem Rofecha" - I am Hashem, your Healer.

So when people will look into these simple, basic matters - not to try to be mesaken the whole world, but positively to work on themselves - maybe this will help that everybody will have a refuah, and we should have a good year - geulah is one thing, but we should also merit techiyas hameisim - and it should be good years, happy years, b'karov mamash, and we should merit to see the coming of Moshiach, teikef u'miyad mamash.

Next week we will continue our weekly program. Thank you.