The Rebbe’s Point to the Jewish Braille Institute

The Inside Story of Chabad in America — Episode 147

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, from the Mindel Archives. I hope all those on electronic media will listen to today's program. I will share with you something very special — the letter of the Rebbe that I will be sharing with you today reflects the Rebbe's general emphasis, and what the Rebbe worked for, before the coming of Moshiach. Some of us remember the joy, the simcha, that the Rebbe had at a farbrengen when he was presented with the Tanya in Braille, because now it's reaching more people — even blind people.

So today I want to share with you a short letter from the Rebbe, written as a preparation before Rosh Hashanah, before Yom Kippur, before Sukkos — before all the Yomim Tovim — about something the Rebbe suggested should be done. He suggested this to Mr. Herman Wouk. After reading the letter I will share with you something more.

So first let me just read this short letter. This letter the Rebbe addressed to the Jewish Braille Institute of America. The Rebbe writes like this:

"Greeting and blessing. Thank you very much for your letter of the 29th of [the month]. I was highly gratified with your prompt and favorable response to my suggestion, through our esteemed mutual friend Mr. Herman Wouk..."

Mr. Wouk was a very famous author — he wrote many books, and he was very close to the Rebbe. We have many letters between them. I think maybe afterward we'll have to do a few programs about the correspondence between Mr. Wouk and the Rebbe, who was very close to him. The Rebbe had also written to him to make available for the blind and visually impaired the section of the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch in English that deals with the month of Tishrei, with the preparations for it in the latter part of Elul.

Continuing the letter: "...and that you are in the process of recording this material and making it available in Hebrew and English in the form of audio cassettes. I hastened to call your attention to the fact that while these cassettes are very useful on weekdays, the use of such cassettes on Shabbos and Yom Tov is prohibited" — the Rebbe underlined this — "the prohibition does not apply, of course, to transcripts in Braille and magnified print. Indeed, since users of cassettes may not be aware of the said prohibition" — and here again the Rebbe underlined — "it would be right and proper that all such cassettes should be accompanied by an appropriate announcement that the cassettes may be used during weekdays only" — underlined — "and not on Shabbos and Yom Tov."

Again the Rebbe underlined: "It is the media of Braille and large print that I had primarily in mind when I made my suggestion to make the material available before the coming High Holidays. I am sending this letter via special delivery, in the hope that the above measures can be implemented in time before the High Holidays, in both the Hebrew and English editions. I take this opportunity of extending to you, and to all who are associated with the Jewish Braille Institute of America, the traditional blessing to be inscribed for a good and sweet year in all respects, particularly for a growing measure of success in your activities on behalf of the visually handicapped. With esteem and blessing," and the Rebbe signed his name.

There is another letter, also written to the Jewish Braille Institute of America, written two weeks later. I'm just going to read one paragraph. The Rebbe writes: "The same applies, of course, also to cassettes on Chumash, where the commandment to keep the Shabbos holy is repeated many times, and it will be a breach of this commandment to play the cassettes on Shabbos and Yom Tov." And then the Rebbe signs — he gives a [unclear] — but I'm not going to read that now. So this is the letter to the Jewish Braille Institute.

Now, why am I reading this letter today? First of all, we see how the Rebbe was concerned about the blind. He wanted it sent by special delivery, and the reason he wanted special delivery was to make sure it should say on the cassettes that they should not be used on Shabbos. And number two — and this is what I want to bring out today —

A couple of months ago, this was in June or July, I was sitting in a waiting room in a doctor's office. There were many people there, and a couple was sitting there, and I saw they were staring at me. I didn't know whether they recognized me or wanted to ask me something, so I felt I should come over to them. I came over and said to them, "Do I look familiar? I never saw you." They said, "Yeah, you look familiar, but we don't know where we saw you." So first I asked them, "Are you Jewish?" They said yes, they are Jewish. So I said to them, "You probably saw me at Har Sinai, when G-d gave the Torah, the Ten Commandments, at Mount Sinai — all the Jews that ever lived were there." They said, "Yeah, but we're Reform, so we probably weren't there — only Orthodox Jews were there." That's what they told me.

So — I'm telling you how the conversation went — I told them, "A Jew is a Jew. Anyone who has a Jewish mother is Jewish." And I explained to them [unclear] — all these labels, Reform, Conservative, Orthodox — are not from the Torah, they're mistaken divisions. Everyone who has a Jewish mother comes from Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov — everybody comes from the same source, we are all one, since they said they were Reform.

So I was trying to figure out how I should approach them — I mean, they never saw me — and in the middle of talking, the wife says to me, "Oh, I think I saw you — I saw you on COLlive." She tells me she remembers me and she admires the Rebbe. She tells me she watches other Jewish programs too, and when does she watch? On Saturday, because the whole week they work, so most of the time it's on Saturdays. She and her friends all come together, and they open up the internet and watch. That's how she saw me there.

So I told them that on Shabbos I would prefer that they not watch. They said, "We didn't know." I said, "You cannot open a computer, you cannot open the internet" — it's like turning on a light, it's a violation of Shabbos — and I explained it to them, and they accepted it very well, and they said they will not do it anymore.

So after reading this letter, and after what I spoke to them about, I would suggest that whether it's COLlive, or JEM, or other programs or speakers — they should say, before they begin, "Please do not watch this on Shabbos." I think that would be very good, and people are going to listen. I think this is something that should be done.

I remember when I was in Long Island — we gave out candles, it was Friday, so we gave out candles to the mothers of 600 kids, and afterward we started to develop a card [to go with them]. So right away I said we should put in [a reminder] that we should be careful about Shabbos, because since Friday is [unclear], they might end up carrying afterward. So we always have to remind people, "Please don't carry on Shabbos." This is the same hanhagah of the Rebbe.

So I think all this media — the internet, especially the Jewish programs and speakers — whenever they begin speaking, they should right away say, "Please do not use this on Shabbos and Yom Tov." You will prevent many people from desecrating Shabbos, and I think it's very important to speak about this now.

Related to this, I want to mention — when I was in Long Island I had an adult education class, and they asked if they could come to my house — I live in Crown Heights — to stay for Shabbos there. So I asked a Rov — he was a big Rov — what I should do. The Rov told me, this is the halacha: if you have, let's say, twenty people, you have to have twenty beds ready, then you can tell them they can come — otherwise they should not come for Shabbos. He gave me an analogy: it's like going to the mikvah — you wouldn't tell someone to drive there to become tahor; similarly, you can't invite people for Shabbos if it means they'll have to drive. So the Rov told me I should try to see to it, and if I can't, I can't help it.

I think a few months ago on my program I mentioned a telegram — someone asked the Rebbe, before Rosh Hashanah, about inviting people to come to an event, but they were going to come by car. The Rebbe answered — I already did a program about this telegram — and the Rebbe was very upset even by the asking, that people should come by car. He said it's better not to come at all than to come by car.

The Rov also mentioned to me about parking lots — places that have parking lots open on Shabbos and Yom Tov — and he said that's something that shouldn't be done.

Now, someone told me that years ago, Rav [?] from Toronto spoke right before Kol Nidrei, and there were people coming by car on Yom Tov. So the first thing he said was, "I would appreciate it if you don't come by car, but if you did come by car, leave the car here and try to walk back. And if you get a ticket, or if your car gets towed, it's my responsibility — I will pay for it." This is what he said. And believe it or not, many, many people walked back, because they felt how much he meant it. And I think many people, when they come to shul or to the Chabad houses or wherever, don't even know — the gabbai or the Rov, they don't say a word about coming by car, and it's something that is not allowed.

So you see from this letter how very, very much the Rebbe was concerned that the cassettes should not be used on Shabbos. And I'm sure that by doing the right thing, just as the Rebbe worked for this, people will have even more merit by doing the right thing.

And that's why — I wasn't supposed to speak today. I said last week that it would be a while before the next program, but something happened, and I found this letter, and we're here before Rosh Hashanah, so I used this program to share this with you. And I wish everybody that we should do the right thing for the right reason.

And now — the last thing the Rebbe spoke about, with Shabbos and Yom Tov — he never spoke about this before — we are [concluding] a year of Shmita, and the harvest year is over, and that will speed up the coming of Moshiach, speedily in our days, bimheira b'yameinu. And we should all have a gezunte, a good and sweet year.