The Condition to Receive Wine From the Rebbe

Welcome to our weekly Motzei Shabbos program. Since it's Motzei Shabbos, and we said a few weeks ago that we would share stories, so since now we're approaching Chanukah, I want to share with you a story about wine.

Remember what I once mentioned — not every story that we hear is true, but it could be true. This is a story that somebody wrote to the Rebbe. The Rebbe looked at this story — the Rebbe answered here with a good answer, but it's private, so I can't say exactly what he answered. But this is a story that somebody wrote and sent to the Rebbe, so I thought I would read it to you.

He says like this — this is written in Yiddish, and I'm translating into English: "Many years ago the Rebbe gave me a bottle of wine, and he said it should be for a refuah [a cure]. I didn't know," he writes, "if the Rebbe meant a cure for the soul or a cure for the body. Many years passed, and the wine was standing by me in my house, and I thought the Rebbe didn't give me wine that should stand in the house — we should give it to other people." So, he writes, it was made known, and they called out that we have wine from the Rebbe for a refuah, and we're going to give out the wine. So people came — more and more people came to get the wine for themselves and also for the wife and children.

Months later a person came to me — he heard that I have wine from the Rebbe. He has a sick wife, and he lives in Boro Park. He said, "I heard that you have wine," and he wanted me to give him the wine for a refuah for his wife. So he gave him the wine. Another one came — he heard, he says, "I'm going through a very difficult operation, so I want the wine of the Rebbe for a brocha."

So I told him, "You're a Yid, but you have your store open — you have a laundry open on Shabbos — so when Shabbos touches the wine, the wine becomes as if a goy had touched it. So when you drink the wine, it's as if you have a problem." He says, "But when you will close your laundry, I'll give you the Rebbe's wine, and then you can drink the wine — you'll become shabbos-observant." So he gave him the wine. This person closed his laundry and he became healthy, but after a while he needed parnassah [livelihood], because he lost a lot of money, since the laundry was closed on Shabbos — there was a lot of business lost there. So he needed help, and he was helped: somebody came with a new washing machine with chemicals, and he got the machine, and it was successful. So this wine became a source of blessing — he became healthy, and it also became a source of parnassah. This is what the person writes to the Rebbe, and he said: this wine — you never know when the Rebbe gives wine, there's always a reason. So this is what I thought I would read to you.

Now, speaking about drinking, since we're in the days leading up to Chanukah, I found a question that people asked, and the Rebbe answered it. It says here the question — this is written again in Hebrew — "There are those who ask why the Rebbe specifically chose to send Benedictine, which, as is well known, is produced by monks, and the secret is held by them — how can we be sure that it is kosher?" You know, the Rebbe used to have Benedictine on his table, but it's made by monks, so how do we know that they don't put wine into it? That's what they asked the Rebbe.

So the Rebbe answered: it was customary already for a number of years by my father-in-law [the Previous Rebbe], and also by his father, the Rebbe Rashab, to use Benedictine, and they had visited a number of times the country where this liqueur is produced, and there was never a doubt or suspicion of it being mixed with wine. Also, it is clear that the method of production has not changed — that's number one. Also, there was, a few years ago, further investigation into the matter, which confirmed the original finding to be true — that Benedictine is kosher, always used. Nevertheless, even though it was customary in the house of my father-in-law, the Rebbe's father, over generations, and there is a reason which I will not go into, I would not renew this custom.

So there was a time that the Rebbe used it, no problem, but the Rebbe stopped all of a sudden. The Rebbe says he's not going to reveal the reason, but I do want to say — maybe there was once, and that was the last time he used Benedictine: somebody gave a bottle of Benedictine, and on the bottle there's a little sign, a little tzelem [cross]. And somebody mentioned, or it was overheard, that there is a tzelem on the bottle. I think that was the last time the Rebbe used that bottle. I don't know if that's the reason, but that's what happened.

This reminds me also — you know, by Pesach, the waiter served soup — we don't use gebrokts — so the waiter, or somebody, mentioned there was a potato dish, made from potatoes, that looked like a kneidel. So somebody mentioned, "Cook, it looks like a kneidel," and the Rebbe pushed away the plate and didn't eat it, even though it merely looked like that. So maybe this is the reason, I don't know, but this is good to know.

"I am pleased," the Rebbe writes, "that there are people who are very careful with mitzvos such as these — if only they would be as careful with all positive and negative mitzvos." I think this is a little mussar — some people are careful that they would not touch Benedictine. Now there's nothing really wrong with it, but since the Rebbe doesn't use it, they are stringent and wouldn't use it. So the Rebbe said they should be as careful with other mitzvos as well.

This reminds me — you know, we learned in the parsha, when Eisav — after Yaakov took the blessing — the descendants of Eisav came to Yaakov and said, "Give us the blessing." So it was said to him, "When they stop doing the mitzvos, then use your sword on them." This is a big matter — the chazal derived from this that if the Yidden don't do the mitzvos, the sword will be used against them.

I heard once a clever phrase: "614" — there are 613 mitzvos — when a person tries to be more frum, tries to add, tries to be more religious — maybe these people tried to be stringent beyond just "kosher," they wanted to be like the Rebbe. I don't know if that's right — I think this is what the Rebbe means over here.

Now, this also reminds me — by the Seder, by the Rebbe upstairs in 770, you know, we don't eat gebrokts. There was a guest standing there, not Chabad, and he eats gebrokts — he doesn't know that we don't eat gebrokts, [though] you are allowed to eat your borscht. So they gave borscht soup — beets, red — so he took a piece of matzah and dipped it in the borscht. There was someone standing there, and it became a whole commotion — imagine, at the Rebbe's table! But he didn't know — they didn't know what the commotion was about. So the Previous Rebbe turned around and said, "It's better to make the matzah red than the face red." I mean, the Yid was maybe a little embarrassed, but to embarrass is worse. To do that [dip matzah in borscht] — we don't do it, it's not our custom — but it's not as bad as embarrassing somebody. So sometimes we take things and do the opposite, and it becomes the opposite of the intent.

This is one question. The same page has another question: "In certain circles here, close to Lubavitch, they speak about spreading the wellsprings" — as they usually describe the activities of Chabad people — "are there any concrete practical plans for this?" This was written in the early years, about when the Rebbe came out with the beginning of the Mivtzoim [campaigns]. So someone wrote to the Rebbe that in certain circles they speak about "the Chatzer of Lubavitch" — are there plans how the Rebbe would carry out the campaigns in the "Chatzer Lubavitch"? Of course, when you mention something, it has to be correct — if it's a "chatzer," it has to be — what chatzer?

So the Rebbe answered: "There is a great principle in all matters of goodness and holiness — increase in holiness. Certainly the people of Chabad are aiming with all their might to live up to this principle. But here I take issue with the use of the term 'chatzer' [courtyard] when it is used in connection with Chassidus in general, and with Chabad in particular. The connotation of the term 'courtyard' is that of a passageway between the street and the house — a yard is a passageway between the street and the house, that's called a yard. But this should not be compared to a courtyard, but rather compared to a house full of the light and warmth and love of a fellow Jew — not a courtyard."

He took issue with the word "courtyard" — every word is very important. This is an expression coined by the early maskilim — that's how the maskilim, the "enlighteners," used to refer to it. And even more so, the house of Chabad is wide open to all who wish to be warmed with the light of Chassidus. So this is called a house — it's not called a yard. The Rebbe took issue with calling it "the yard." You have to be very careful with words.

Now, talking about words — the last point for tonight — I hear speakers say the words "Adam and Eve," and the Rebbe writes in a letter a correction: there is no "Eve" — her name comes from the word "Chava," [meaning] she is the mother of all living. In English she is called "Eve" — but "Eve" comes from the same root as the English word "evil." So it has to be corrected — you can't say "Adam and Eve."

I would say the same thing about the word "funeral" — you accompany the body, but the reason some people say "funeral" is because it comes from "fumes" — used when they used to burn the body. So every word is important. Or you say the word "goy" — we don't say that either. So you have to learn from here, from the Rebbe, how every word matters, how careful people should be with what they say.

This is what I wanted to bring out tonight. Next week we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.