The Rebbe’s Letter in Defense of a Shliach

The Inside Story of Chabad in America — Through the Mindel Archives

Welcome to our weekly program, "The Inside Story of Chabad in America," through the Mindel Archives. I hope everybody had a good Yom Tov.

Now, I want to say today that in the coming weeks — around Gimmel Tammuz, I think, for a few weeks, a few programs — I want to share with you some documents from the early years, when the Rebbe started sending out shluchim. I gathered some very beautiful documents: what the shluchim wrote to the Rebbe, and what the Rebbe answered. In the early years, different than today, they went through hardships — baruch Hashem, not everybody, but many shluchim [unclear] are well off, many, many — but then not everybody was; it was different times. This was in the early '50s. So I gathered so much, baruch Hashem, and around Gimmel Tammuz I hope to share some with you — amazing letters which the shluchim wrote to the Rebbe, and what the Rebbe answered.

Also, as we once spoke, the Rebbe wore three crowns — he wore the crown of [unclear] of Chabad, of all Yidden, and also [unclear] — and that's why he worried about the shluchim, and the Rebbe worried about everybody. And the Rebbe wrote letters to different people that helped different people — let's say the Young Israel movement that developed [unclear]. This is something very important. Although [unclear] — I mean, this was after Talks and Tales, and [unclear] — but we had Talks and Tales by Merkos still. If somebody wants to come out with something good, the Rebbe helped him with literature. So sometimes that was constructive criticism — but he criticized Chabad, and he also criticized others for not doing enough. The Rebbe always wanted more and more and more.

But today I just want to give, as a taste, a glimpse of something about the shliach — what the Rebbe said about him. This is not what I mainly want to share with you — but I do want to read to you today something about how the Rebbe felt we have to treat shluchim.

But before that, I want to read to you a letter — to me, a shocking telegram — that the Rebbe wrote. This was in the early years — he wrote it in the early '50s. Apparently I don't know if he was a shliach or not, but he was definitely spreading Yiddishkeit, so I guess he was religious, I don't know. And he wrote — this is an answer; I'm not going to tell you what he wrote, but you'll understand after I read you this short telegram. He writes like this:

"It is absolutely forbidden, chas v'sholom, to travel Yom Tov to blow shofar, or read Torah, or conduct any congregational service, therefore, unless you can spend Rosh Hashanah near [your] congregation. To desecrate Yom Tov by traveling, even for the above purposes — may Hashem grant you fulfillment in His ways and in spreading Yiddishkeit, but not chas v'sholom in a wrong and contrary way. With blessing for a truly good and sweet year." And the Rebbe signs his name.

This telegram was shocking to me. I mean, okay, he wouldn't ask about [unclear] — but [the person] asks, "How can he?" — and he was spreading Yiddishkeit, according to what the Rebbe says. So here is a lesson, and the Rebbe writes in another place — and this I'll share with you after Gimmel Tammuz — that we have to be frum people going out into the world, into deserts, as [unclear] is spoiled. Shluchim go out with their families; they have to know that the end does not justify the means. The means — probably this person saw that it was Yom Tov, I don't know how — and maybe he knew that he would bring close so many Yidden by having them listen to shofar, or by going to [unclear], or whatever it is that he wanted to do so much, and he thought maybe — maybe you could somehow travel with that, I don't know, a car or a bicycle, I don't know, maybe it was a bicycle, I'm not sure. I'm shocked, I don't know what that means, but this is what this telegram is. So you have to know that, at the end, the means — the end does not justify the means.

There are also letters which I'm not going to share with you today, where the Rebbe — they have Shabbos, the boys and girls come together, girls sing at the Shabbos table — you're not allowed to, you can't sit at a table where girls are singing, because that's against [halacha].

Once there was a story I heard from [Isaiah? — unclear] — I think that on Shabbos the Rebbe was reading, and somebody came in with a pidyon, and he was waiting for the answer. The Rebbe was reading and reading and reading, and didn't answer him, didn't say a word — until he saw that he had to go out. I mean, he didn't answer — he went out. You see, he had been learning a long time, then he went out. So [the person] spoke to the gabbai — I don't know who the gabbai was — and he told him he didn't know himself. So he actually found out — maybe he had the note, maybe he didn't, I don't know — he [the Rebbe] says, "Where did you get that paper from?" He had the paper — he was in somebody's house, apparently, that's what happened, and he took a piece of paper and wrote a pidyon. The Rebbe, I guess, saw that this was a pidyon, but it was not his paper — he had taken it from somebody's house. He couldn't answer him. I mean, you want a brocha, but you have to get a brocha in a correct way, not through geneva — if it was geneva, I don't know, or stealing, or whatever it is — you can't do that. Even if [you want] the same [brocha], you can go and be given a brocha from the Rebbe, but at the same time you're embarrassing somebody else, because somebody else doesn't feel it, doesn't hold the way you hold, and at the same time it doesn't click. So you have to be very careful that when you do something, the ends do not justify the means. You can't drive a car on Shabbos or Yom Tov, even though — who knows — you could become, you could become a hundred percent [observant] because of it — you're not allowed to do it. This is a very important point which I will share with you, baruch Hashem, after Gimmel Tammuz.

Here I have a letter that I want to share with you. I'm not going to say the city, and I'm not going to tell you the name of the shliach — I'm just going to read the letter without saying where it is. This is to give a glimpse of how the Rebbe protected him. The Rebbe writes like this:

"5741. I was surprised to receive your letter, and painfully astonished at its content from beginning to end. It is difficult to reconcile your seemingly deep concern for Yiddishkeit in that city, and for living in harmony, with the abrasive tenor of your letter. Particularly puzzling is your statement: do you honestly think and feel it is right for us to be subjected to Lubavitch thinking? Anyone who knows Lubavitch thinking knows that subjecting others is alien to it, as it is alien to the Torah, whose ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace.

"As for your reference to Rabbi [name withheld by the presenter], and your charges that after so many years in the city nothing has been accomplished except a Chabad House — this is completely at variance with my information. According to the reports I have received through the years, Rabbi [name withheld] was instrumental, highly instrumental, in many communal endeavors, including leading educational institutions such as [names withheld], and in organizing various activities, such as Torah classes for adults, work with Russian immigrants — to mention but some of the work which has helped to improve substantially the whole complexion of Yiddishkeit in that city [name withheld]. I use the past tense only because he started doing these things many years ago, but he is still very actively involved in many activities, and understood to be active also in the administration of leading Torah institutions in your city.

"However, since you so categorically deny any such activities, I must ask you to be good enough to send in writing specific data refuting any and all claims that this shliach may have achievements in the area of strengthening and spreading Yiddishkeit in the city, so that I could confront with this document all those who have been misinforming me on this issue all these years. Needless to say, since you were so outspoken in your critical remarks, finding not one good word for Lubavitch in that city, I trust you will be just as outspoken in documenting your charges, or recanting them, in the event that you find" — and here the words are erased — "that the charges were without foundation."

And then he writes about other things which are not important to mention. I just wanted to show how much the Rebbe protected the shliach — he couldn't bear it when somebody wrote against the shliach.

Here is another letter I just want to show you — a glimpse of how [the Rebbe responded]. This is a letter to the National Council of Young Israel — somebody had written [against the shluchim]. So I'm going to start in the middle of the letter, because before that it was private:

"The Chabad emissaries who are sent to various parts of the country to revitalize Yiddishkeit are, generally, capable and energetic young men, all of whom, perhaps with very few exceptions, could have obtained easier and better positions elsewhere — better not only in pay, but also, and more importantly, in terms of a Jewish environment with fewer problems about keeping it straight with all the things they are used to, and about the chinuch of their children. Nevertheless, they forgo all these advantages in the hope that they can accomplish something in bringing new life into Yiddishkeit in places where this has been neglected.

"In some places it has been the case that there had been askonim and spiritual leaders, but these had abandoned their flock, removing themselves to larger Jewish centers in order to make their own circumstances easier Jewishly, or also out of other considerations. Deprived of their leadership and encouragement, those left behind quickly moved away from Yiddishkeit. I am not speaking of askonim and balabatim who do not appreciate the importance of Yiddishkeit, but of such [people] who are well aware of it, and aware also that he who saves a single Jewish life is deemed to have saved the whole world."