The Hidden Message in the Machzor

The Inside Story of Chabad in America — Episode 57: "The Hidden Message in the Machzor"

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel archives.

Last week we mentioned how the Rebbe was careful about other people's feelings, not to show favoritism, and that we should follow the way the Rebbe felt about other Yidden. My father [Rabbi Mindel] always used to say: it's very easy to be happy for another Yid's simcha; it's harder to ask for mechila. Between you and the [unclear] is one thing — that's private. But whatever it is, don't hurt other people. If you know that by saying something you might embarrass somebody, don't do it. This is a very, very important thing, and my father always used to say it.

Now, why am I saying this now? A few weeks ago we had programs about [unclear], and I'm not going to go into it — you can always click back and see it. As Rabbi Hodakov wrote, thousands and thousands of letters came in to the Rebbe from people — what are they going to do, this one will be in this, this one might be in mitzvos entirely, in everything, whatever it is — and I mentioned that the Rebbe made comments on certain names, and I said that I would mention some of the names he had commented on.

Now I was thinking about that, and I went and asked the mashpia about it. The mashpia told me he doesn't think it's kedai to do that — I should go over to the person privately and show them what the Rebbe answered, let's say the Rebbe said such-and-such, fine, I can do that — but to speak about it in public, you might hurt somebody's feelings. It's very important not to hurt people's feelings. Maybe somebody did the same thing — somebody wrote that he made a shiur in Torah, and the Rebbe answered him, but another person — the Rebbe did not answer him — so maybe that person might feel bad. So just don't do it in public, do it privately, and I'll even show the person what the Rebbe wrote about him. That's why I'm not going to say in public the comments the Rebbe made — that's number one.

Also, it's written from the Navi — very important, and this is before Elul — how careful you have to be about somebody's feelings. He says there is a difference: for example, if a person says to a shoemaker, "You are an am ha'aretz, you don't know how to learn," and that shoemaker does know how to learn — that is lashon hara, and lashon hara kills three: it kills the one who says it, the one who listens, and the one who is spoken about. Or you tell the shoemaker or somebody else, "You're not a [unclear] and he is a [unclear]" — so you're hurting his feelings, and it's not true, whatever it is. Or you tell a lamdan, "You don't know how to learn Torah," and he does — you say something else, whatever it is, it's one thing. But he writes: when you tell a lamdan he doesn't know how to learn, when you tell a rav he doesn't know how to pasken — that's worse than when you tell a shoemaker he doesn't know how to learn and he does — that's no good, you shouldn't do it. But when you tell him he doesn't know how to fix shoes — which is his whole mesirus nefesh, his whole life, in fixing shoes — and you embarrass him for that, that's [unclear — implied to be even worse].

And he writes that when the Navi says: you can keep your Shulchan Aruch, and you can [unclear], and be the biggest tzaddik — but when you embarrass somebody, when you make somebody not feel the way he should, you hurt somebody's feelings — even because the person becomes embarrassed, a person becomes ashamed — this is a problem, [where] the Eibeshter will close His eyes. That's how important it is to know this before the time of Selichos, before [the Yomim Noraim].

Now I want to say something very interesting. [unclear] Reb Avraham Sender Nemtzov said a vort, and I was always wondering why, and now I know the answer — I found the word, and I think everybody should use it, and we can all remember this word. He was a chossid of the Rebbe Rashab, and so forth, he was a chossid of the Frierdiker Rebbe. He's the one who [unclear] — he stood up on the table and said about him — I mentioned once — he was an ish emes: he searched for the truth, he found the truth, and he lived with the truth. This is Reb Avraham Sender [Nemtzov].

So he would ask a she'eilah like this. He says: on Erev Shabbos, and we say Rosh Hashanah — in the beginning, every Shabbos, it's regularly printed, regular in the machzor — before him is a big Yud. He showed him [it] going down — that's a stroke on the other side, [like] his feet. He showed him — excuse me — this is a big Reish; this is a big Beis; this is a big Koof; and the [last letter] is a big Hey — that's Rivka, Yitzchak, and Rivka.

So he says, I was wondering why — what do Yitzchak and Rivka have to do with the beginning of the tefillos of Rosh Hashanah, in capital letters? What's the idea? So he explained something very, very important, and this is for us to all remember.

The Torah says that before Yitzchak called over Eisav, he said to himself: "Before I die I want to bentsh you, I want to bless you — bring me food and I will bless you." So Eisav went to bring food, to get it ready. Rivka, the wife, the mother, heard what Yitzchak was telling Eisav. So what did she do? She called over Yaakov Avinu and said: "Yaakov, I heard your father wants to bless Eisav. I'm going to prepare food — go and get the brachos before Eisav comes." And she put on him — this is the important word — the clothes of Eisav, the clothes he used to hunt and to murder with — she put those clothes on him. "Go and get the brachos right away." Of course Yaakov said — excuse me — "it's like a trick, or whatever" — and she said, "don't worry, that's on me."

So the question is: she's his wife, she's a mother, and Yitzchak is blind — she knows that Yaakov needs the brachos — why didn't she just do it directly? Why did she go about it this way? And by the way, which we will [discuss] when we get to Parshas Toldos — there are English letters between the Rebbe and a Reform rabbi, and Rabbi Mindel — a whole discussion — because the Reform rabbi said that Jews are tricksters, because Rivka tricked Yitzchak out of the brachos, and the Rebbe was saying the opposite — that he doesn't understand the pshat in the Chumash, it doesn't make sense — but I don't want to go into this now, I just want to bring out this vort.

So why couldn't she go over and tell her husband? Reb Avraham Sender Nemtzov said like this: she, a Jewish mother, the mother of Klal Yisroel, knew that the brachos of Yitzchak were not only to Yaakov Avinu but to all Yidden until the end of days. She, as a mother, wanted that even if a Jew wears the clothes of Eisav, he should also be blessed. And that's why she went with mesirus nefesh, she went about it in this way — specifically so that the brachos should come down even on someone dressed in the clothes of Eisav — even Yidden who are far [from Yiddishkeit], even Yidden who don't call themselves Yidden — their children, in the end, should be blessed.

And that's why, when it comes to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur — those Yidden who never step into shul, who never go to shul, those Yidden who go to shul once a year — so who accomplished this? Yitzchak and Rivka accomplished that these Yidden should also be blessed, they should also have a cheilek. That's why Yitzchak and Rivka are written right at the beginning of the tefillos of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

I think it's an amazing vort. "Yisroel choteh" — we always say, even though he sinned, he's still a Yisroel. But one thing he says, we have to remember that a frum Yisroel is also a Yisroel. Sometimes you walk into a shul, you walk into somebody's house, even on Shabbos — a person walks in who is already a frum Yid, with a beard, with peyos — okay, that's fine for me — but when a person walks in with a little yarmulke, like a bottle cap, or not even a yarmulke, everybody goes around inviting him, "Come over to me for Shabbos" — and what about the other Y