Why a Chossid Wouldn’t Welcome Shabbos Early

Episode 97: "Why a Chossid Wouldn't Welcome Shabbos Early" (י"א באלול תשפ"א)

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

Last week we mentioned that this week we're going to continue with the answers of the Rebbe. There are many, many more answers of the Rebbe on the class in Manhattan. The Rebbe and [unclear] were very interested, and they sent Rabbi Mindel there every week to get a report on what had been answered. But I will leave this for another time, because now we're in the month of Elul, and there's a lot to say in Elul, and we're before Rosh Hashanah, so b'siyata d'shmaya we'll leave it for another time.

Also, I had a call last week, on Thursday, from a talmid of mine, a student of Yeshiva of Brooklyn. I mentioned once that I used to teach in Yeshiva of Brooklyn - that's a well-known yeshiva - but they asked me to be there, and baruch Hashem we accomplished a lot there. He is a rabbi now in a large school here in America, and he tells me that he listens to my program regularly. So he called me and he said, since he is a rabbi in a large [school], and now it's the time of year when rabbis give droshos - that's before Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkos - so he speaks every year, but he wants to hear something [new]. He told me that he speaks every year, and some of them like the drosho and some of them don't like the drosho, but he wants to hear something. So I asked him, "Why are you asking me? There are so many other people you can ask." So he said, "Because I noticed that you mentioned a few times that whatever I say, which is true, I always say something from the Rebbe, or the Frierdiker Rebbe, or Rabbi Mindel, or my father, or from some other source - I never say anything of my own," which I mentioned once, the difference between a bee and a spider.

So he said to me that he wants to hear if I have anything he could use - the shul that he has, he says, has people who are mechallel Shabbos, and also people who come mechallel Shabbos with cars on Shabbos. So he wants to find a way to be mezakeh the people who come with cars on Shabbos, some of whom only come once a year, on Rosh Hashanah. So I want to share with you what I said to him, and I think this is important. It's not mine - it's something I heard from Rabbi Mindel, that he heard from his father-in-law - this is from Harav Avraham Sender Nemtzov [?]. He was a chossid of the Rebbe Rashab, he was a chossid of the Frierdiker Rebbe, and he was a chossid of the Rebbe. We once mentioned that he's the one who got up on the table at the first Yud Shvat [farbrengen], and the Rebbe said to him, "You searched for the truth, you were given [unclear] in the Chassidus, you found the truth, and until you left me - the Chassidus - you lived with the truth." He wasn't a politician, he was a [unclear].

So before I tell you the vort that I told my talmid, and it's important for people to know this vort, I want to first tell a story about Harav Avraham Sender [unclear]. He lived in Long Beach, New York, in the '50s. He passed away in 1962.

He lived in Long Beach, and he was always mekpid to daven Friday night, and not to be mekabel Shabbos early. You know, many people are mekabel Shabbos early - seven o'clock, 7:30 - and you're allowed to, but he was very, very much against doing that himself, and he was always looking to find a minyan to daven Shabbos Friday night at the regular, late time. He couldn't find a minyan, because in Long Beach every shul davened early, and there is a halacha that if every shul in a neighborhood or in a city is mekabel Shabbos early, then everyone in the city or the neighborhood has to keep Shabbos [early] as well. But he was insistent - he couldn't find a minyan, because nobody wanted to daven late. So from Sunday until Friday, it was literally calling people - people did him favors, he had a minyan, but it was very difficult; nobody wanted to go. But he went through great effort to have a minyan later.

So one person came over to him and said, "Rabbi [Avraham] Sender, you know the Alter Rebbe says that you can bring in Shabbos early - why don't you? If it's easy, fine, but if it's so hard, if you're going through so much to daven, you're allowed to." So he said to them, "The reason is that if every shul is mekabel Shabbos early, then everyone in the city has to be mekabel Shabbos early. Maybe there's a Yid, a mechallel Shabbos, who travels on Shabbos here this evening - if there will be one minyan that's going to daven late, it won't be chilul Shabbos for him. So I'm preventing an hour or less of chilul Shabbos for him." This is Avraham Sender - he had real mesirus nefesh. I just want to let you know what kind of person he was.

Now let's go back to what I wanted to tell you, what I told my talmid - the vort that he said. He asked a question: why, in the machzor, when we start davening Shacharis in the morning, we say "Hamelech," and in this prayer the word - the Yud is a large Yud, the Tzadik is a large Tzadik, the Koof - the kaf of Kedoshim - is a large Koof, and the Hey is a large Hey. Why is it different? In the siddur, every Shabbos, if you open it, the letters are the same, but only on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur does it spell out Yitzchak and Rivka. What does Yisroel have to do with the beginning of davening on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? This is the question that he asked.

He said: it says in the Torah that Yitzchak loved Eisav and Rivka loved Yaakov. What did [Yitzchak] do? He called over his son Eisav and said, "My son, before I die, I want to bentch you, I want to give you a brocha, I want to bless you. So go prepare food and bring it to me, and I will bless you." So Eisav went to prepare food. Rivka, the mother, overheard what Yitzchak had told him. She went and called over Yaakov, her other son, and said, "I heard what your father wants - to bentch Eisav. I am going to prepare food; I want you to go and take the blessing before Eisav comes." But Yaakov Avinu said, "But that's not right - I'll be like a liar." So she said, "Don't worry about it, that's on me."

Anyways, by the way, there is a whole discussion - which I think I'll speak about another time, I should tell this - between a Reform rabbi and Rabbi Mindel, ten pages long, where the rabbi says that Jews are tricksters, because our mother Rivka tricked [Yitzchak], and Rabbi Mindel proves otherwise, and it was very interesting, but I can't get into it today.

Anyways, Rivka took the clothing of Eisav - Eisav used to hunt, and he was a murderer, and he would put those clothes on when he killed - and she put them on Yaakov Avinu, and said, "Take the food and go to my father before Eisav comes." Yaakov went, and [Yitzchak], who was blind, asked him, "Who are you?" He answered whatever it says in the Torah - it says that. And by the way, someone once asked the Rebbe - this was a college student - in a letter: when Yitzchak gives the brachos, why does he have to drink wine and eat cake? Let him sit down, speak to [Yaakov], stop, and speak again - why does he need the wine and the cake? So the Rebbe answered that it says there that when it's a time of giving brachos, one has to be in a good, satisfied state - that's why.

Anyways, so he bentched him. So the question Harav Avraham Sender Nemtzov asked: there was definitely a difference in understanding between Yitzchak and Rivka. Yitzchak was blind, he was on another plane, he was holy, he perhaps didn't fully know what was happening in this world. But Rivka knew - Rivka was a mother, she was down to earth, she knew she had two children, Yaakov and Eisav, and she knew each one. She could have simply told [Yitzchak], "You're my husband, I know who Eisav is - why don't you bentch Yaakov?" But what did she do? She didn't do it that way. She went about it in a roundabout way, and said, "Go and put on the clothes of Eisav and go get the blessing." Why did she do it that way?

So Rabbi [Avraham] Sender answered: she knew that the brocha of Yitzchak was not only for Yaakov, but that the brocha Yitzchak gave to Yaakov was meant for all the generations throughout golus, until Moshiach - it's the brocha for the whole of Klal Yisroel. She wanted that even a Yid who is not observant should also be blessed. So she was willing to do it in such a way that every single Yid, every year, has within them - whether he is mechallel Shabbos or observant - every Yid is a child, and the brocha should come to every Yid. That's why she put the clothes of Eisav [on Yaakov] - because even if a Yid does something like Eisav did, Eisav was not ashamed of what he did, he didn't hide it - even if he carries some kind of blemish, some kind of baggage, he should also be blessed. This is how Rivka had mesirus nefesh.

Therefore, [the message is that] these Yidden who come to shul with cars, or these Yidden who come to shul once a year, on Rosh Hashanah - the brocha should also go to them. That's why in the machzor it begins with Yitzchak and Rivka, because they established the brachos that go out to every single one, even to them. This is his answer, and this is what I told my talmid, and I think people can speak about these words every year.

Even if a Yid doesn't have [full observance] - the Gemara always says, "Ein adam over aveira ela im kein nichnas bo ruach shtus" - a person doesn't want to do an aveira; he doesn't want to, and if he does it, it's as if a spirit of folly enters him. Every Yid, just like everybody, has within them - if they have a Jewish mother - the middos of Avraham, and therefore every Yid has that neshama. So therefore, when these people see that this concerns them, that this is for them - they're not second class, they are the same as everybody else, they just maybe didn't learn, or nobody taught them. When they will know that, they will appreciate it, and this is something they will always remember.

And that's why it's always said, even if you see a person who has something of Eisav in them, you still have to love them - hate the deed, but love the person. But we also always have to remember that a Yisroel is also a Yisroel. Sometimes we go away and we make distinctions among people, which is very important, but the people that are far, we don't take care of them enough. Sometimes you see - and I saw it myself - you go to a shul [or event], and a person walks in with a small yarmulke, and everybody crowds around him, but a person walks in with a beard, [with peyos], and he doesn't get that same attention. It shouldn't be that way - a Yisroel is also a Yisroel.

And when we prepare ourselves in the month of Elul, which leads into Rosh Hashanah, we know that we're all united, but the ahavas Yisroel reminds us that we're all one, that we're all together.

And [we remain] hopeful. Next week we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.