Rebbe’s Answer to the Manhattan Study Group

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

This program is a continuation of the last few programs about the class in Manhattan that the Frierdiker Rebbe put kishrei [connections] with, and he was very interested in that particular class. We already spoke about it. He sends Rabbi Mindel every week to give a report, and Rabbi Mindel wrote and reported, and sometimes the Frierdiker Rebbe said he should tell the same report to his son-in-law, the Ramash, who was the Rebbe.

And then we spoke about the answer — excuse me — that the Frierdiker Rebbe answered back, that they should read in the class about the story that he told about himself. And we also, last week, in our program, we read the she'eilos, the questions that the people asked, and the Rebbe wrote down with his own handwriting the answer, and he gave it to Rabbi Mindel, that they should discuss what we spoke about last week.

And this week we are going to discuss another question that they had, and the Rebbe wrote down with this sevara what they should discuss. This is the sevara of the Rebbe — the sevara of the Rebbe that the Rebbe wrote. This is quite a few pages over here that the Rebbe wrote — the answers.

So what I'm going to do today, I'm going to read the subject and I'm going to translate it into English. I'll read what the Rebbe wrote word for word and I'll try to translate that into English.

This is a question that the people had, and the Rebbe answered. What is the question, what is the meaning of that? It says by the creation, and Hashem saw that it was good. So there's a question: what is the lesson from that — that Hashem saw it was good? Everything has a lesson. And number two, it's obvious, it's understood that whatever Hashem does, Hashem's actions are good. So why does the Torah have to say — and each time it says — why everything is good?

There are answers, and before the answer, the Rebbe gives three introductions.

Number one: what's the introduction? The entire creation, the Rebbe says, is divided into four levels, four kingdoms. Number one is inanimate — like, for example, stones, earth, water, metal — this is one. Number two, growing species — like trees, plants, and so on, grass. The third one, chai, living species — animals, fish, birds, insects. The fourth one is medaber, speaking — which is man, people. And people have seichel, they have the intellect. So these are the four.

Now there is a fundamental difference between the first three and man. What's the difference? The first three are only mekabel — they are passive. They cannot be mashpia, they can't give, they're not effective. They can do things — we'll see what that means — but they cannot mashpia. They are created with their nature, that's natural. Whatever it is, a stone is a stone. Things that grow, grow — you want to grow potatoes, you put in a seed of potatoes and it grows potatoes, but that's all it does. It can't grow anything else, and when it finishes, it finishes.

So the three are passive, but the fourth one is active — they are mashpia. Then the Rebbe says, you might think that only the domem [inanimate] is passive — so he says not only the inanimate, the domem and the growing, the tzomei'ach, cannot affect and have a certain nature — as seen from the fact that they cannot even move to other places. But even the chai, the living, who does many things and changes the surroundings, is also the same, because seemingly it does have power to affect — contrary to what we said before.

How do we see that? The Rebbe gives an example — how do we see that the chai is different than the domem and tzomei'ach? The Rebbe writes here: haneimalah egras bakayitz — let's say an ant gathers its food in the summer for the winter, because then it'll naturally have food. So with chochmah we see that it does do more than... it gathers food for example. Or, the Rebbe says, another example: the silkworm weaves clothing for itself, which is very appropriate for its survival. So we see that the chai does act, seemingly.

Then the Rebbe gives a third example: the bee — it builds its honeycomb like an expert architect, and many like it. So we would see that they do things. But the Rebbe says also these actions, which — the example that we just said — it is the laws of nature which Hashem has commanded and told it to do so, and it's really not adding anything to the creation. It's not creating anything; it's created for this. A bee is created to do this, a worm is created — that's nature, that's what they can do, but it's not adding anything, it's not creating anything new.

This is what is being said here — let me translate it. However, man, in addition to the fact that his actions are not forced, and because of his free choice he's also able to oppose his natural will — moreover, it is in his power to create and build in the world, meaning that if his actions are done properly, he's able to fix the world, he's able to purify the world, he's able to improve the world and illuminate the world, and, as Chazal say, he becomes a partner with Hashem in the creation.

So that's the difference between the other three and a person. A person is active in the world, he can change things, he has options. And this is the difference between the three and the person.

Now, I want to say another thought here — I think the Rebbe says it in another place — it says Hashem is compared to a shemesh, a sun. The sun — the rays of the sun are always the same; the sun does not change. The sun is mashpia; the difference is in the mekabel, how we accept it. For example, the sun can harden an egg, can make an egg hard, and the sun can also melt wax — does that have any change in the sun? No, the sun's the same, but it depends how we... Also, for example, the sun can make a face dark, a suntan, and it can make curtains white when it shines on them, or other things.

So the same thing is with Hashem — Hashem is like the sun, does one thing; Hashem is mashpia, but we, the mekablim, we have free choice, we can do what we want. And this is what a person is — it depends on the person. Only a medaber can do that, not a chai, and of course not a tzomei'ach or domem.

So that is introduction number one. Before the Rebbe gives the answer, he gives another example — I mean, the introduction. I'm going to read his words.

Let me read that in English: an expert engineer who makes a machine, a car — just as there will be nothing missing in the professional machine from what it needs to do to do its job, so too there will be no part and thing in it that does not bring any usefulness to the job, and that it can be without — if this is not the case, then it is a lack in the one who made this machine, this car.

That means, when a person makes a car, a machine, or builds an airplane or a bridge or a ship, every screw is important. If one screw is missing, then he's not doing the job — certainly the whole job, everything has to be a hundred percent; he's not doing his job. That's when a person makes a car, or a person makes an airplane. How much more so that the Creator of the world did not create anything for nothing in the world in general, and in particular in people — that means everything that's in the world is a hundred percent, and especially in people, every part of a human being is a hundred percent, nothing missing.

Therefore, the Rebbe says, since the person was given this power to purify the world and to improve the world, this shows that this is his mission here on earth, and this is what is expected of him, and this is not a choice — it's an obligation. The Rebbe says, because everything is exact, this is introduction number two to the answer.

Introduction number three: v'hainyan b'amitas hatoiva — what does that mean? I'll tell you in English now: the true meaning of the word "good" — it only applies to something which is completely perfect. When you say "good," it means perfect, because if you are able to improve it and perfect it more, then the thing that is holding back that perfection is bad. So it's as if there is bad in the perfect, and you cannot say on the thing that has bad in it that it is truly good. So when the Torah says the word tov, it means a hundred percent, lichaim — because if it's a little bit not good, then it's already lacking, so it's not good, so it's bad.

So this is the three introductions that the Rebbe gave before he goes into the answer, why does Hashem have to say that — that the Torah has to state at that stage where it's obvious that whatever Hashem does is good.

Now, here I want to say — I don't know if we'll be able to say the answer today, but maybe we'll leave it for next week — but I do want to say something here. Since I showed you last week, or two weeks ago, about a new book, The Gallery of the Greats, that this is being sold now on Amazon and it's being sold now in the stores — this is mamash a wrap, this is part of the Talks and Tales that the Rebbe made, many, many haga'os, many, many notations — this is mamash the Rebbe's. That's number one.

Number two, which I want to mention today, is also being sold on Amazon: The Letter and the Spirit. The Letter and the Spirit — we immediately, I think, in a few weeks, maybe in a month, we're going to have the sixth volume of The Letter and the Spirit coming out, and this is now being sold — it is in Amazon and also you can get it in the stores, and you can get the first five volumes for sure.

And also soon, I guess — I didn't — this is how to print, the memoirs, the Frierdiker Rebbe's memoirs that we printed. Now, two of them were translated in English — the Frierdiker Rebbe's memoirs, Rabbi Mindel translated them in English, and he translated two, and it should be three, not two — three. So the Hebrew is two, and the English now is three. So this was already printed, but it's out of print right now, and I hope — I don't know when — but I hope soon we'll be able to do this. This is a very important book, the third volume of the Zichronos of the Frierdiker Rebbe.

And also the Hayom Yom, from day to day — everybody knows that it's been sold in the stores also, and I hope it'll be on Amazon as well, as everybody knows. We already spoke the story.

So, since I guess we don't have much time right now — right, what do you say? So I think that we're going to leave the answer for next week, and the Mashpia will continue next week, the answer. Thank you. Hello.