The Doctor’s Apology From the Frierdiker Rebbe

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel Archives. This program is a continuation of last week. Last week was a very essential program — we spoke about certain letters of the Rebbe's, principles we spoke about: that punishment does not apply, so to speak, to God. Misfortune should not be seen as a punishment but rather as a consequence. We spoke about this last week, and I guess this applies to what's happening now in Israel as well. The same thing also applies to galus — galus is not a punishment. I want to show you a letter here, and based on this I want to tell you — the Rebbe says that galus is not a punishment, and he proves it from the fact that we are now in exile.

So I want to share with you this letter. It's a long letter about the Bris Bein HaBesarim — the covenant between the parts — between God and Avraham. At that covenant they cut animals, and this was like a bris, a covenant — this was the time of the highest level of love.

By the way, there are four types of love: there is a love between a husband and wife — that's one madreigah (level); then there's a love between a parent and a child; then there's a love between two friends; and then there is a love between a person and God — and that's the highest level of love. At the Bris Bein HaBesarim, this was the highest level of love between God and Avraham.

At this covenant, God told Avraham that his children would be in exile for four hundred years. The Torah says that Avraham got scared to hear that his children would be in exile. The Medrash asks: why does the Torah use four different expressions [for fear], when it could have simply said he got scared? The Medrash answers: because at the moment of this covenant, God told him that his children would be in exile first under one kingdom, then a second, then a third, then a fourth — He showed him four exiles. That's why the Torah uses these four expressions.

The Medrash also asks: why did God have to tell Avraham that his children would be in exile? He could have lived his full one hundred and seventy-five years without knowing that his children would suffer. The Medrash answers: look at when He told him — He told him at the very moment of the covenant, at the time when they were at the highest level of love. Is that the time to tell someone something difficult? If somebody is making a simcha, marrying off a child, are you going to tell him something upsetting at that moment, or do you wait until after the wedding? So why did God, specifically at that time of the greatest love, tell Avraham that his children would be in galus?

We see from this — since God specifically chose to tell him at that moment — that galus is not a punishment. God did not want to punish Avraham at that moment; galus is only a means to get to the geulah — you have to go through galus to get there — but it is not a punishment. The Medrash gives a mashal: when a mother changes a diaper, she uses hot water; she has to clean the child, and the child cries — maybe it hurts. Does the mother want to hurt the child? The mother does not want to hurt the child — in order to make him clean she has to use hot water, even though the child doesn't feel right about it. But at that moment she does not want to hurt him. The same is true here — galus is not a punishment.

There's another Medrash that brings a similar example: when a teacher is learning with a student and they are both very engrossed in the learning, and suddenly the teacher turns away from the student, the student doesn't understand why — what did he do wrong? Why did the teacher turn away? The reason is that at that moment, while learning with the student, a certain spark of insight entered the teacher's mind, and he didn't want to lose it, so he turned away to think it through — to bring it to binah, understanding, and then to da'as, knowledge — so that he would be able to explain it properly to the student. But the student, at that moment, thinks that maybe the teacher doesn't like him anymore, or something like that — but that isn't the reason at all. The same is true with God — we may feel that He has "turned away," but that is not a punishment. This is the basis of this letter.

The same applies when people have challenges — there could be different reasons why God wants to test a person, but we should know, as we said last week, that the Medrash says there is no "ra" — there is no punishment. God gives challenges so that we can overcome them. Whatever God does is not to hurt, but — if He does bring a challenge — He also gives us the strength to overcome it.

This reminds me of a story — not the same as October 7th, but similar — about a massacre in which Jews were slaughtered. It was a terrible time. The Frierdiker Rebbe was in Israel; he left a few days before the massacre, so he was on the boat going back when the massacre happened. The Frierdiker Rebbe was told about what happened in Chevron [?], and when he heard such a thing he became very sick — people may not know this, but he became very, very sick.

They had to call a doctor on the boat. There was one doctor there, his name was Dr. Vak [?]. He was an Israeli, from Eretz Yisroel, a religious Jew, a prominent doctor. They told him, "Please come, the Rebbe is not well." He ran to the Rebbe, came to him, and started to cry. He said: since God does not bring a sickness unless there is a cure — if somebody is sick, there is a cure, or there is someone to administer the cure, otherwise He would not let it happen — so he asked forgiveness for being on the boat, because if he had not been on the boat, there would have been no other doctor there, and the Frierdiker Rebbe would not have become sick [without a cure being available]. But God is good, and this is how it was.

So, going back to what we said last week — there is no such thing as punishment. God wants to stress this; there are many, many letters, in English too probably, about punishment — that God does not punish. Next week we will continue with another letter from the Rebbe. Thank you very much.