The Rebbe’s Defense of Using Benedictine Liqueur

Transcript

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

I mentioned the last few weeks that I'm just reading letters that certain things show the principles the Rebbe holds. Today I want to share with you another letter, or maybe two letters, of the Rebbe on certain things.

So first of all, I want to read one paragraph here, and then I'll have another, because I also want to read about the Rebbe's response about mashke. But here I wanted something else — somebody has, the Rebbe writes about, they have two girls, an older one and a younger one. The younger one wants to get married before the older one — is that okay, what should we do?

So I'll read you what the Rebbe says: "There is a custom in some circles, which is also our custom, that in a case where a younger daughter becomes engaged to be married before an older sister, it is a good thing that she should put aside some of her money towards the wedding expenses of her older sister, and that the parents should do likewise, for obvious reasons."

And then the Rebbe goes on — this is a personal letter that I can read, but this paragraph is important — that the Rebbe feels that if a younger girl gets married earlier, the sister should put money towards her wedding. That's one thing the Rebbe feels about this.

Another thing is about drinking mashke. Now let me read this paragraph: "You refer to what you have heard about my disapproval of drinking mashke, except during Yom Tov and the like. Needless to say, this does not refer to drinking wine for Kiddush and Havdalah. Among the reservations which I mentioned is also the situation where an objective party considers it advisable to make an exception under certain conditions. Furthermore, the restriction applies to people up to the age of forty, and the limit is up to three l'chaim cups."

So the Rebbe feels that about drinking, a person that is under forty should not drink. I mean, I just want to say, unfortunately some people drink before forty, and this is [unclear] — I'm not going to use other letters about that — but the Rebbe was very, very sharp about people under forty not to drink mashke. Very, very important.

Here I wanted a letter talking about mashke — I want to read to you a letter about Benedictine. You know that the Rebbe used to use Benedictine on his table in the early years, and then he stopped — and the reason that the Rebbe stopped was not because of kashrus, but because somebody had mentioned that on the bottle there's a little tzelem, looks like a — the Rebbe heard the word, and from there on the Rebbe stopped using Benedictine. But Benedictine is fine, and I'll read to you about that.

This was written by Rabbi M[?]. There was a question — there are those who ask why did the Rebbe send Benedictine in particular, that this liquor is produced, as is well known, by monks, and the recipe is a well-kept secret by them, and how are we to be sure that it is kosher? This was a question.

Now the Rebbe answered: "It is already a custom of many years by my father-in-law [the Frierdiker Rebbe], and also by his father the Rebbe Rashab, to use Benedictine, and they were a number of times in the country location where this liquor is produced, and they did not have any doubt as to it being mixed with wine, and it is also clear that the method of production has never been changed. And furthermore, and even more strongly, there was an investigation in the matter again a few years ago, and this was again confirmed to be so. However, if not for the fact that this was the custom in my father's house, like his father's house, over the generations — for which there is a reason that I will not go into now — I would not have renewed this custom."

So the Rebbe says — so I guess it was no problem then. Now he writes to this person: "And I am happy that there are those who are careful in the performance of the mitzvah" — like the ones who are questioning this — "if only they would be as careful in all the positive and negative mitzvos."

So the Rebbe was very sharp about that — in other words, you're asking about this, but you should be careful in other mitzvos too. You know, sometimes I guess people make a [unclear] — you want to know about Benedictine, but are you up to doing other mitzvos? Do you do other mitzvos?

Whoever wrote this letter is not important, but here I want to mention — I think I once mentioned a few years ago, and I heard it from my father-in-law — that on Pesach, by the table, there was a man they served borscht, beet soup, red, and there was somebody there who was not Chabad. You know, Chabad is very careful about not dipping matzah in liquid on Pesach, very, very careful. But this person didn't know — it's not his custom — so he took a piece of matzah and he dipped it into the borscht.

I mentioned that once — so the Rebbe was standing there, there was a whole tish there, and they — they didn't want to embarrass him, but he felt he didn't feel right. So the Rebbe heard the commotion, and he turns and says, "What's the commotion here?" So they told him that this person dipped matzah in borscht. So the Rebbe turned and he said: "With the Pesach, it's better to make the matzah red than to make the face red."

So the same idea — sometimes a person makes somebody's face red, embarrassed — matzah, of course, is important, but it's not as important as embarrassing somebody. The same also — people are very particular about Benedictine, but they have to know that the other things matter too. I guess this person had to be told that.

Now here's one more thing, on the same page — I have here a question that somebody has — why it's on the same page, I don't know, has nothing to do with that. A question: in some circles, in the places that are close to Lubavitch, they are speaking about the increase and strengthening of the activities of Chabad, as they are called — are there plans for the future to continue to increase in this? That's what they asked the Rebbe.

So the Rebbe answered: "It is an essential rule in this matter that in matters of holiness and goodness, ma'alin bakodesh — we only increase in holiness." So it is certain that the people of Chabad are putting in great effort to increase this, of course.

"But now is an opportunity and the right place for me to make an objection against the use of the word 'yard' in connection with Lubavitch." The Rebbe didn't like the use of this word — you know, by other chassidic courts they use the word "the court" — the Rebbe doesn't like that, and he explains why, in connection with chassidus in general and Lubavitch in particular: there is a situation where a yard is used as a passageway from the outside to the house, but this is not the case with Lubavitch, which is compared to a house full of light and warmth — and not a yard, which is an expression that the maskilim use — that's what they use to support it.

Not only that, but Beis Lubavitch, the house of Lubavitch, is open wide to all who want to get warm from the light of Torah, with the fire of ahava. And this is what the Rebbe felt. So we see how the Rebbe was meticulous about every word — that they shouldn't use the word "yard."

Why it's on that same page, I don't know, but this is what I see here. So here we have, as I told you a few weeks ago, that there are certain rules that the Rebbe feels, and I think we should hold by these rules in them.

We will continue our weekly program next week. Thank you.