Unknown Details About Hei Teves

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel Archives. We are now around the Yom Tov of Hei Teves. Hei Teves is a big Yom Tov of Chassidus - it's a very joyous, a big simcha of Chassidus. Now, most of our listeners of this program know what happened on Hei Teves, the entire story, because we already spoke about it last year, two years ago - the importance of Hei Teves and why it's a personal Yom Tov for the Rebbe - and I don't think I need to say over the story again. But I want to say: an abundance of light from the dark - this is Hei Teves. Before Hei Teves there was a concealment of Chassidus. On Hei Teves the concealment was removed. All the years before, it was very painful for the Rebbe, as we know the whole story of Hei Teves. And baruch Hashem, now we have a Yom Tov, the Yom Tov of Hei Teves - it's a big Yom Tov.

Now, the truth is it didn't have to come to this, but by hashgacha pratis, with Divine Providence, the Eibeshter wanted that it should be this way - He wished that we should have now a Yom Tov of Hei Teves.

But I want to just say something now - I don't know if too many people know this, but I will reveal this to you. The only one that knew this was Rabbi Leibel Groner. All of a sudden - I was lucky, because I spoke to him about it, he spoke to me about it. I remember Hei Teves, the first Hei Teves - I was there, in front of 770. It was like Purim - there was ecstasy. There were thousands and thousands of people who came when they heard the news, and the simcha was unbelievable. You know, they say - Chazal say - whoever did not see that first Hei Teves doesn't know what joy means.

Now, I don't know whether it was in the middle of the dancing outside, right before, or at the end of the dancing - I'm not sure - there was a conversation between the Rebbe and Rabbi Mindel. The Rebbe heard the dancing outside. Rabbi Groner connected a phone call to Rabbi Mindel, then the Rebbe got on the phone. Whatever it was, there was a conversation. One of the things that was mentioned in that conversation, while the dancing was going on, was the pasuk "Binfol oyivcha al tismach" - when your enemy falls, don't be happy. There was other talk there, but this was a pasuk that was mentioned while they were talking.

Now, let's go - people were dancing outside, and then it was time to daven. It was time to daven, the Rebbe was supposed to come out. It was around three o'clock, so the whole zal went downstairs - it was packed, it was full, he couldn't move. And the simcha was a big, big simcha, waiting for the Rebbe to come down.

The Rebbe came down. The simcha was - everybody was singing - and the Rebbe came down very serious. He didn't make a motion with his hand. Usually, when there is a rally with children, or even not a rally, when people sing, the Rebbe makes with his hand, continues singing, or sometimes - that happened when he goes on top of where he sits - he turns around and makes with his hand. Here, with the simcha being such a big simcha, the Rebbe was serious. He walked in, he went to his place, to his stender, and the chazzan started Ashrei, and then - after Shemoneh Esrei - the chazzan started to say Kaddish, and the Rebbe was just gesturing with his hand - in other words, "why don't you say Tachnun?" The Rebbe was wondering why they don't say Tachnun. They didn't know what to do, so Rabbi Groner - I think it was Rabbi Groner - found out, they found out that there was a chosson there. So they told the Rebbe that there's a chosson, that's why they don't say Tachnun. Fine. So, in other words, they did not say Tachnun not because of Hei Teves, but because there was a chosson - and the Rebbe then wanted to say Tachnun.

This was only the one time; afterwards it never happened again. And then the Rebbe was happy, and it became the greatest Yom Tov that ever was. All the years Hei Teves is a big Yom Tov, but that first time was very serious.

Now, I don't know why it was like that. I spoke to a mashpia - a big, big mashpia [name unclear] - and I told him this conversation. I said, "What do you think?" I told him the conversation that Rabbi Mindel had - he already knew about this. And I said to him - I said, "You know, they spoke about the pasuk - that's why it became serious, and of course later on Hei Teves became the biggest Yom Tov." So he says - this is what he tells me - "There is a pasuk: when your enemy falls, don't be happy. You see what it says? But then there is another pasuk" - he told me - "'Ba'avod reshaim rinah' - when a rasha loses, you should be happy." So, he says, "that's a contradiction. Here it says when your enemy falls don't be happy, here it says when the rasha loses, be happy. What does it mean?"

So he explains to me like this: why is a person happy if he's happy because of your enemy? It's a selfish thing - you feel that you are happy not because of the inyan that happened, you are happy because of side reasons. So - "al tismach" - don't be happy if somebody loses, don't be happy - but if he's a rasha, then be happy.

I remember my father once told me - I don't recall how he put it exactly - that when we are happy, the Eibeshter is not happy. So I asked my father, "What does that mean? How can that be - a Yid is happy, why isn't Hashem happy?" So my father says: when we are happy, what are you happy from? Are you happy because you have a nice home? Are you happy because you have a nice car? Are you happy because of gashmiyus? Is that really happiness? If that's really your happiness, Hashem is not happy. It depends what you're happy from.

Could be, he said, the Rebbe at the beginning - this was a chiddush, I believe, and it had a lot to do also with family. So, baruch Hashem - in other words, the dancing was simcha-dik - we hoped, I guess, he said, that really everybody should feel this: there should be no personal inyan in why a person is happy. This is what he thought would happen in the beginning, but in any case, later on, baruch Hashem, Hei Teves became a big Yom Tov - and that is a big Yom Tov.

And just like they say that Yud-Tes Kislev is the - I would say that Hei Teves probably is the same - because this is a personal Yom Tov of the Rebbe, and this is a big simcha.

So, since we're around Hei Teves, I would like to say good Yom Tov, and we should be - that from this point it should come back to where it's supposed to be. And b'ezras Hashem, next week we will continue this program - we have a few programs about the seforim. Thank you.