Between Eretz Yisroel and the State of Israel

Welcome to our weekly Shabbos program.

Today is a week before — so here I want to mention, since we are in the Three Weeks, a time to remind us of the churban.

I want to tell you what people have written to me. I have it here. I thought maybe I would show it, but anyway — people wrote to me, some people from years ago, [about] when I used to give a class that the Medina should be called the beginning of redemption. So I have here a letter from the Rebbe, and I want to answer them. People who are listening should know this is not mine — it's the Rebbe's — and I want to share this letter with you.

What is the rashit [the source/basis]? Because many people still think that the Medina is important — the Medina is very important. So the Rebbe answers in many different ways, but one letter — we do not celebrate. The Rebbe writes: Israel is not like every country. It's called a holy land. People want Israel to be like any other country, but the Rebbe writes — and the Rebbe was very strong about this in the early years — I remember that one year some people sang in yeshiva an Israeli song, and the Rebbe took it off. There is no "Medinas Yisroel" that's so important. Now, in all the fifty, sixty years of the Rebbe's leadership, even before the nesius, never, never, never did he mention the word "Medina." I don't think it ever came out of his mouth. And by the way, you know, people think that by them the "kano" [zealots] of Medina — I think they mention "Medina" a million times, every word is "Medina," against "Medina." The Rebbe never mentioned once the word "Medina." And the Rebbe feels about the Medina more than them. That's why the Rebbe never mentions the word "Medina" — because when you mention "Medina," you give it a mashma'us [significance] — there is no "Medina." Don't mention it, don't dwell on it, don't say it, because then you're giving it that significance. There is no "Israel is very important" — we see that the Rebbe did not behave that way. We see the Rebbe spoke to the Israeli government.

I have many letters, many Hebrew letters — Rabbi Mindel took dictation — that the Rebbe wrote to Ben-Gurion. The Rebbe wrote to Begin. The Rebbe wrote to others from the army. The Rebbe spoke to [Nano?] and the Rebbe [cared] for them.

So the answer is — it has nothing to do with it. Ben-Gurion was a Yid. You have to talk to him as a Yid. Eretz Yisroel is holy — it's holy because it was given to the Yidden. It has nothing to do with "Israel," and we have to protect the Yidden. That's why he said not to give back land, and he spoke so much about this — he says move to Israel. The Rebbe was for Israel, not "Medina," but Eretz Yisroel.

Just like with a reform rabbi — you know, these letters, the Rebbe writes to a reform rabbi. He doesn't use the word "rabbi," but he writes to him, and he talks to him, and he cares about him. Reform, of course, is no good — he is against it. But that doesn't mean the Yid is not a Yid. The people that go to the temple or whatever — we have to take them out of there. We have to show them, because they have an issue.

I heard this from Rabbi Gutnik [?] years ago. The Rebbe told him — I heard from him — whoever is a mufkar [lax/non-observant] is [still a Yid] for fifty years, and whoever is [observant] is [also the same] for fifty years. In other words, the Rebbe was the same way — didn't change. The Rebbe didn't change. What changed was that there were Yidden there, and you have to protect them. That's why we have to work with them. A Yid is a Yid — but not "Medina."

And not once — one time, when the Medina was created, he [the Frierdiker Rebbe] went in and was crying, and [someone] said to him, "Why, why are you crying?" So he said, "Mashiach was born today, but it was a miscarriage." That meant the Medina's role is the same — but, chas v'shalom, you have to build — you have to live there, why not, if it's a holy land — but not "Medina."

Once Ben-Gurion asked [him] — the [Rebbe] is a holy man — "Why don't you say Halacha?" So the Rebbe said to him, "Okay, when you say Halacha, I'll say Halacha" — he never did say it. "You'll say it, I'll say it" — [he never changed].

So people have to know this, people that ask about Israel. Now, since it's before Tisha B'Av, I want to go to another topic, and I'll finish with that — the Rebbe said you have to know the fifth — you know there are four [senses mentioned in the Torah], but now there's a fifth: common sense needs to be a fifth.

This reminds me, and I mentioned it once — it's before Tisha B'Av — Rabbi Mindel, when he was in school, was together with [Rabikov?]. He was a bocher. He got beaten up so badly that he had to be in the hospital. His ear was affected — not that he couldn't hear, but he had to eat every three hours, otherwise he would faint. He had a condition, and that's what they did to him years and years ago. I spoke about it once.

So Rabbi Mindel didn't know what to do. Yom Kippur, of course, he fasts — he goes to shul, half the time he lies down, but it's difficult, but no problem. But Tisha B'Av — he didn't know what to do. He has to eat every three hours. So he didn't know what to do, so he asked the Rebbe what he should do. The Rebbe said, "Ask [a rov]." Then, when he walked out — you know, you walk out backwards — when he walked out, the Rebbe called him back, and he smiled, and he said, "Don't forget to ask a smart rov."

So he went and told the rov what the Rebbe said. The rov said, "When the Rebbe says to ask a smart rov, you can eat half the day" — if he had asked another rov, maybe he wouldn't have been allowed to eat at all. "If you can't sleep, you have to [unclear] — it's very important."

Now another incident that happened — my daughter, my youngest daughter, got married. That day, we go to the Ohel on the day of a child's wedding. So I drove — my wife and I drove to the Ohel that night, the night of my daughter's wedding. In the middle, I was on Linda Boulevard, and I got a call that my mother had passed away that day. Imagine — I turned back and went back. My mother passed away, I mean — anyway, they made the levaya very fast so that there wouldn't be a question [about missing the wedding]. I'm not allowed to go to the wedding — but there was already a levaya, so I didn't know what to do. Can I go to the wedding? Can I not go to the wedding? What should I do? All these she'eilos.

So I asked a rov. One rov told me, "You're not allowed to go — you're in shiva, and today you're not allowed to go. Finished." Now, what I did was I asked another rov — I shouldn't really have done it, because when you ask one rov you should keep [to his answer], but I didn't, and I'm telling you a fact, that's what happened. So I went to another rov, and he said, "You can only go to [part of] it, not to [all of] it." I was not satisfied, so I went to a third — a big rov — and he said, "Let me ask you a question: will your daughter be upset if you don't go to the wedding?" I said, "Let me ask her." I asked her, she said, "Of course." And he said, "It says that to make a bride happy is a big inyan." So what's better — to be [in shiva the whole time] or to go to the wedding? He said, "You can go to the wedding." He told me that. I mean, I used his heter — I shouldn't have, but this is what happened. I called him a rov who has that "fifth" [sense] — he understood how important it was that the daughter should be happy. So that's what he answered me. I think this is a kugel... [unclear].

Now one more thing — every rov, and the Frierdiker Rebbe said this, has to have semicha. It shouldn't become that a rov is a rov without having semicha from other [rabbonim]. My father had semicha from Harav [Dubski?], who was Rabbi Dworkin's father-in-law — a big rov. He was a [dayan?] in Russia.

So a woman came with a chicken — nowadays there are no she'eilos, I don't know why, all chickens are kosher, I never saw a woman go to shul [with a question]. My wife did, thirty, forty years ago — she saw something on a chicken, and I went to a rav then, and he said it's not good. Anyway, that's another story. But now nobody brings chickens to a rav to check — I don't know why, every chicken is [considered] kosher.

So she came to a shul with a chicken, she came to Rabbi/Harav Dworkin — my father was there. So Harav Dworkin said to my father, "You answer." He was busy. So my father looked at the chicken — there's a certain place, the bone, it was red — for sure, I mean, everybody knows — so he told her, "It's not good." Before she left, she asked my father, "What did you say?" He told her. So he [Harav Dworkin] said, "Come here, show me the chicken." He looked at it. My father was shocked. He put on his glasses, took a little knife, and then he opened up a sefer, looked something up, and said, "Here, go home, it's kosher." My father was shocked — this is a case where everybody knows [what the answer should be]. So he said, "You were right, it's not good on the surface, but there's something hidden you didn't see. If you look into it, you can make it kosher for her." This is [how] a rov [must be] — but if you want to look [deeper], you have to know how. Maybe this, maybe that — the whole [question of] the chicken, I don't know why, but...

So now we are almost — I mean, [a rov] should become a rov because of [proper semicha], and so now our [focus] is to love. And as we spoke, the last thing that the Rebbe left us — the last time I heard the Rebbe, I was there — he spoke about Israel, and this is what we should do now: to have Israel and Geulah. And we want Mashiach to come now.

Next week we're not going to have a program because it's Tisha B'Av. Thank you.