The Meaning of Being a Chossid

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel archives. Again, this program is a continuation of the last two programs, in which I showed you the Rebbe's handwriting and what is a chossid. You have to listen to those before you listen to this program.

The point is that his whole intention, he does it in order to bring [unclear] — that's all he cares about. No, no arrogance, no yeshus — just for the sake of it. That's his whole intention: to bring [unclear]. This is what we spoke about, and to do a favor.

We left off last week with this: the Rebbe writes that one does not have to be a chossid — in other words, you don't have to be a chossid to learn Torah. Everyone learns Torah, but there's a difference in how you learn.

First of all, you learn, and you learn in order to bring down — to make — you have to be a chossid. Just by learning, something is missing; something of the highest is missing in this world. That's why, when it says you have to learn — and as I once mentioned, I heard from Reb [unclear] the difference between a person learning and a chossid learning.

When a person learns, of course he learns, he learns, he learns — he starts off saying he is learning only for the Aibeshter's sake, and learning this way he brings down [something]. So when a chossid learns nigleh, you can see this is a chossid learning nigleh, and when a chossid learns Chassidus, you can see this is a chossid learning Chassidus. His whole behavior, his whole conduct, becomes [elevated], and he makes a home for his children and his grandchildren. This is a chossid: he brings this down, and this is how a chossid lives, and should live — living like that.

I once heard from a mashpia — he didn't say it quite this way, I'm paraphrasing — he means it doesn't mean that it says a child rebels; it never happened, okay, that's the saying — but it says, but it means that something is there. So he says that when a Yid lives like a Yid, his whole conduct has no yeshus, no — he learns because the Torah said so, and the child sees that the father davens with kavana, and he davens with every word, he never misses a minyan, and he davens.

And he says, when a child sees that the mother, who is a chossid's wife, lights candles and covers her eyes — and that is the moment that you can daven for everything, this is a very holy time — and she cries when she benches licht, she has in her mind everything — and whoever, and the child stands and watches — it's impossible that the child should grow up [unaffected]. It's impossible, it depends, but it's impossible to do that. This is what — so that a child learns by seeing this.

And then, so when it says: because you can't bring Moshiach [without this], so a person who's not a chossid has a problem. We need Moshiach, you have to learn also.

And here I want to mention — speaking about a chossid, I once heard from my father: all he spoke about was this — by a Bar Mitzvah, he says the Rebbe says in the Bar Mitzvah letter to a boy, he should grow up to be a chossid. And so my father asked whether it should have said [tefillin, or a similar instruction] first. And by the way, I think — I think that the letter was [worded] that way first, in the early years; I think I found a letter also. But later on, the Rebbe said why it said "chossid" first: because in order to be a chossid, a child, when he becomes Bar Mitzvah and starts putting on tefillin, he should know that the reason he does it is because the Torah said so — he's doing it for the Aibeshter, and that will make his [service meaningful]. And when he learns, he learns knowing that this is so — but he still has to learn.

And my father mentioned: so whatever a chossid does, a child should know the reason for it. What does it say in our tefillin? How much we love — how much everything is Hashem, we love Him, that's it. What does it say — on the hand, and on the head? And what is the difference between this and a Baal Teshuva? They learn too, but they are more [sincere] — no arrogance, no yeshus, everything is for Hashem. Everybody wants to do for Hashem, but they have no other motives, only this.

What is the difference then? It's that people have more knowledge — not that the others don't do it for Hashem, but they have more knowledge; that's what makes theirs more complete. And when we take off the tefillin, the shel rosh comes off first; the shel yad always remains. You begin with the shel yad and you end with the shel yad. This is what — I remember my father mentioning it.

So we see from here, in this day and age, you see Baalei Teshuva becoming chassidim. Why? Why does someone become a chossid? Does he know about Chassidus? That's why he becomes one — first of all, there's no such thing calling him simply a Baal Teshuva; this is not just called a Baal Teshuva. They didn't learn Chassidus, they never knew anything, they didn't learn Chassidus. A Baal Teshuva means — you know — they were in this gashmius world, and they realized — what did they realize after everything — that the whole [materialistic] life is not worth anything, there is only Hashem in the world. So they become — their level is even higher, because of what they can reach; they reached the level from nothing — from nothing to become something. And they do things — why? Why are they in this world? They realize that they are in this world because God put them into this world to serve God, to make [a dwelling place for Him] — this is it, and they can reach that now.

So, because many people ask, "he became a chossid, he became a chossid" — this is what he lives for, and that's why he's called a chossid. And this is how we see a chossid — first in his learning. And as the Alter Rebbe writes, whatever he does: he sings like a Yid, he walks like a Yid, he eats like a Yid, he sleeps like a Yid.

I once heard from Reb [unclear]: when you go to sleep, you have to have a yarmulka — you don't sleep without a yarmulka. And what wakes him up? If the yarmulka falls off his head, automatically he wakes up — he's sleeping, he's deep in his sleep, but he'll wake up because his yarmulka fell off his head. This is a chossid, and this is how a person should live.

This is part of the topic — next week we are going to continue with the other part of what is a chossid. Thank you.