What Brought a Huge Smile to the Rebbe’s Face

Welcome to our weekly program.

We are now in the beginning of the month of Iyar. Iyar is a roshei teivos, an abbreviation: "Ani Hashem rofecha" - I am God, your healer.

Also, last week we began with Pirkei Avos, which begins in the month of Nissan and continues through Iyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Av, Elul, till the last Shabbos before the Yom Hadin.

When the Yidden came out of Mitzrayim, they were weak. They had no koach. Imagine being in galus, in exile, for so many years. So they needed healing, they needed koach, they needed strength. And this is the "Ani Hashem rofecha" right after Yetzias Mitzrayim.

The Rebbe explains that Hashem nitan reshus l'rofei l'rapeis - our Sages say the Eibershter gave permission for a doctor to cure. So what's the difference between "Ani Hashem rofecha," I am the Eibershter, your healer, and "Hashem nitan reshus l'rofei l'rapeis"? When a doctor cures, it's not the doctor - the doctor is only a messenger from the Eibershter. He's a shliach. So what's the difference between "Ani Hashem," I am the Eibershter, your healer, or if a doctor does it? And why davka in Iyar?

The Eibershter is a healer every month, every second. So the nekudah is this: Nissan is a month of l'maalah mi derech hateva. "V'havati be'eretz Mitzrayim," we say in the Haggadah - the Eibershter says "Ani v'lo malach," I am not an angel; "Ani v'lo saraf"; "Ani v'lo hashliach"; "Ani hu v'lo acher." Not Moshe, not Mashiach - the Eibershter alone. The nes of Mitzrayim was such a big miracle that the Eibershter himself - "Ani."

The month of Iyar comes right after the month of Nissan. And since the Yidden needed koach, needed strength after galus Mitzrayim, they needed that refuah, that healing, that the Eibershter right away made such a big miracle, just like He did in Mitzrayim, that this should continue "al kol hashanah kulah," beginning from the month of Iyar.

So what's the difference between that and "Hashem nitan reshus l'rofei l'rapeis"? The Eibershter is a healer all the time. But when we say "Hashem nitan reshus l'rofei l'rapeis," a doctor gives medicine. What is the doctor giving? And the person becomes cured - is it the doctor that made it, or the Eibershter that made it? The Eibershter made it so that the person should become well through the doctor.

Or a doctor does an operation - he takes a knife. What does he say before he does it? Before he cuts the patient, he says, "God, please help me," because he knows that his hand is just a hand, but it is God who decides if the patient will live or not, if it will be successful. The same thing - the patient is not well, and through the operation he becomes well.

But when we say "Ani Hashem rofecha," the person doesn't need an operation. There is no sickness, there is nothing - the Eibershter himself is the means, in such a way that the person doesn't even get sick in the first place. That is the difference. And this is a very auspicious time, the time of Iyar, which is right after the month of Nissan.

Now, this reminds me - I think it was, I know it's in Iyar, but I think it was after Lag Ba'omer. My father-in-law, Rabbi Nissan Mindel, worked with the Rebbe for fifty years, from 1941 until the Rebbe had a stroke. Working at one table - letters, igros, Hebrew, English, Talks and Tales, my Prayer Books, the Rebbe made notations. And he worked with the Rebbe mamesh. Can you imagine two people working?

And at one point the Rebbe didn't feel well. Rabbi Mindel didn't feel right to go in to the Rebbe. He didn't want to go in - he couldn't see the Rebbe, it was a feeling, he couldn't. So he asked Rabbi Groner, "When the Rebbe becomes a little better, when he feels better, please call me," and he would go to the Rebbe.

This happened in Iyar davka - I think it was after Lag Ba'omer, but it was this month. Rabbi Groner called Rabbi Mindel, and Rabbi Mindel went in to the Rebbe. And he said to the Rebbe, "Rebbe, I am an oireach, I am a guest." He used to see the Rebbe almost every day; now he hadn't seen him for a couple of months. "I'm an oireach" - oireach is ohr-ches. Ohr means light, ches is eight - the eighth brocha should light on you. What's the eighth brocha in Shmoneh Esrei? Refa'einu Hashem - the Eibershter should give you a refuah shleimah.

Rabbi Mindel told me that the smile the Rebbe had when he told him that - he said in fifty years he did not see such a smile. That means that this koach, davka in Iyar, happened - the smile means an oireach has the koach to give a brocha. So since today is in Iyar, I want to give a brocha to Dovid Ber Nachman ben Dov Ber, Necha Raizel Leah bas Baila, Simcha Yosef Yitzchak ben Nachman, Yosef Yitzchak Dovid ben Leib - she'yihyu lahem refuah shleimah besoch kol Yisrael, zollen zei hoben refuah shleimah bekorov mamesh.

Now, since I mentioned Pirkei Avos before, I want to say a vort - this is also a vort from the Rebbe.

We read Pirkei Avos until the Shabbos before Rosh Hashanah. Pirkei Avos is called Ethics of the Fathers, and there are many, many reasons why it's called Pirkei Avos, and why we say it davka in the summertime. One of them: the meforshim say that since the weather in summer is warm, and it's conducive to physical pleasure, it could, chas v'shalom, bring a person to sin. The weather is warm, people need help with tznius - it could bring to hefkeirus, tznius chas v'shalom. "V'lo sasuru acharei levavchem v'acharei eineichem" - we say this every single day, a few times a day. So therefore, by studying Pirkei Avos in the summer, this will strengthen a person so that he should overcome all the temptations of the physical world. That's the reason we learn Pirkei Avos davka in the summer - that helps.

The Rebbe writes that Pirkei Avos is called "milsa d'chasiduso." It speaks to a chassid who seeks to go beyond the letter of the law, lifnim mishuras hadin - meaning a person not only should do a mitzvah, but he should run to do a mitzvah, lifnim mishuras hadin. In other words, when a person's standards are higher than merely being sure that he's not going to do an aveirah, that he's not going to sin - that's a hiddur.

And this is the lesson of Pirkei Avos. In other words, lighting candles for women is important - that's a mitzvah. But a person could light candles "hop-lap" - the Rebbe uses the words "hop-lap" - make a bracha, put the hands, and then hop-lap. No - she knows when she lights candles, she stands there, the children stand next to her, and she thinks about brochos, about people who need a refuah or people who need parnosa or people who need nachas. That's the moment, that's the hiddur. According to halacha, a brocha is enough - no, she does it lifnim mishuras hadin.

Or a person davens - doesn't just say words, he thinks before davening, he gets ready. You check your pockets before Shabbos - I remember my father, before we went to shul Friday night, all of us would stand by the door and he'd say, "Check your pockets." So we used to take things out of our pockets - you shouldn't carry, maybe you have something in your pocket. You don't have to, but that's what brings the whole chinuch, the Yiddishe chinuch. That's lifnim mishuras hadin.

Or sitting at a Shabbos tish, or benching - there are certain things that are halacha, but you do more, lifnim mishuras hadin. And regarding the churban of Yerushalayim, the Gemara says, "al she amdu al divrei Torah v'lo asu lifnim mishuras hadin" - Yerushalayim was destroyed because people did not do lifnim mishuras hadin, not because they didn't keep halacha. That's why Yerushalayim was destroyed. So it's very, very important, and this is what Pirkei Avos teaches you - it speaks to a chossid.

Also, "milsa d'chasiduso" can mean something else: humble. The Gemara says that a chossid is humble - it's also about doing something with humility. Nishkan gaiva - because "ein ani v'hu yecholim l'dur" - the Eibershter cannot dwell with a haughty person, with a baal gaavah.

When the Frierdiker Rebbe came to America in 1929, and then came again, he spoke, and there are letters here from the Frierdiker Rebbe. He was very sharp - you know, the Frierdiker Rebbe used to call certain rabbonim "verimdike rabbonim" - this expression comes from the Frierdiker Rebbe, "verimdike rabbonim."

Or when he spoke to mechanchim, to lecturers - if a lecturer speaks, he can be the best lecturer in the world, but if he speaks because he wants to show off, "what are people going to say about how I spoke" - he thinks about himself - it will never be poel on people. "Yotzei min halev nichnas el halev" - if he speaks, or if a teacher teaches, because he feels for the child, then it's yotzei min halev. Otherwise it will never have a poel.

And I want to share with you a letter from the Rebbe - I have the letter. The Rebbe wrote this in the early years, to a rabbi in Chicago. The rabbi wrote to the Rebbe, "I'm a rabbi. I learn daf yomi, I give a shiur in daf yomi, I give a shiur in mussar, I give a shiur for ladies on Tuesday night. But on Shabbos I say a drasha, I say a speech - what should I say? What should I speak about? Should I speak about mussar? Should I speak about the parsha shavua? Should I speak stories? Should I speak chassidus? What should be my thing?"

So you know what the Rebbe answers him? You can speak whatever you want - mussar is Torah, a story of tzaddikim is Torah, chassidus is Torah, parsha shavua is Torah. It has to be yotzei min halev - then it's nichnas el halev. If the people who listen to you come home, sit by the table with their children, and say over what you said, and they live with this a whole week - the Rebbe says that's what counts. When? When it's yotzei min halev. But if a person thinks about himself - "ein ani v'hu yecholim l'dur," I cannot dwell with a baal gaavah - it will never enter somebody's mind, and that's why a lot of times speakers can be beautiful speakers, but they think they want to show that they're the best speakers, and that's the problem.

So going back to the question - why Pirkei Avos? If Pirkei Avos speaks to a chossid, why does it say things in there about matters that a chossid shouldn't be shayach to? And also, why Pirkei Avos - what does "Avos" have to do with this? It should be called Pirkei Chassidus, it should be called Pirkei Mussar, it should be called Pirkei Middos Tovos. Why Pirkei Avos?

So the Rebbe says a dikduk, and I think it's an interesting point. Avos means parents. Parents are supposed to be a dugma chaya, an example to the children. If parents do what it says in Pirkei Avos, they won't have any problems with the children.

As I've mentioned already a few times in this program, "kabeid es avicha v'es imecha" doesn't only mean that a child should honor his parents - it means honor the father that is within you, and honor the mother that is within you. Behave like a mother or father twenty-four hours a day. You go to sleep like a mother or father, you wake up like a mother or father, you go to work like a mother or father, you eat like a mother or father, you drive a car like a mother or father, you go to shul like a mother or father. The Eibershter gave you children - you are a parent, honor that. Then "l'ma'an ya'arichun yamecha."

That's "kabeid es avicha" - the same thing in Pirkei Avos. This is a perek for parents and teachers. If a teacher teaches only in the classroom, and then the child sees him in shul speaking during davening while telling the child not to speak, the child will never be able to have respect for him. He has to be a dugma chaya. And this is the lesson of why it's called Pirkei Avos - this is a perek for parents.

Now I want to finish off with one short story that I heard - maybe some people know it, and this is a true story.

There was a chossid, and the rov came to the chasunah to write the kesuba. The chossid writing the kesuba started to cry, b'chiyus mamash - he couldn't stop. The rov asked him, "Why are you crying?" He couldn't answer. So the rov called him over to a corner and said, "You have to tell me what's bothering you. What happened?"

So the chossid said to him: "Years ago, when I was in fifth or sixth grade, a parent gave his son a beautiful present, something that cost a lot of money. The son put it on the table, and I stole the present - and nobody saw. The boy looked for his present - 'Where's my present?' He doesn't know who took it. He starts to cry.

"I had stolen it. He goes over to the teacher and tells the teacher. So the teacher says to everybody, 'Everybody get up, all the children get up, everybody please stand up - who stole this thing from this boy?' Nobody got up. Everyone said, 'Not me.' So he says, 'How is it possible? How did it fly away? Somebody saw. Who took it?' Nobody admitted stealing it.

"So the teacher says, 'You know what? Stand up, I'm going to check each and every pocket.' So what did I do? I put the present into my friend's pocket - nobody saw, my friend didn't even know. The teacher went around checking the pockets - he looked in one pocket, nothing; he looked in the other pocket, the one I'd put it in, and he found it. 'Oh, you're the one. You're a thief, you're a ganef.' The boy says, 'No, I didn't do it.' 'Not only are you a ganef, you're also a liar, because you did it - look, I found it in your pocket.'

"What should he do? The teacher said, 'Are you going to argue with the teacher? Go home.' He sent him home - he embarrassed him and sent him home.

"He came home, his father said, 'How come you're home so early?' He told him what happened, what the teacher said. So the father gave the son a punch and said, 'You're a thief - not only are you a thief, you're also a liar. If the teacher says that's the way it is, listen to the teacher.'

"And this boy - because of what happened, the embarrassment - went away from the derech hayashar. He went to another school and became nothing. Tonight he is getting married - to a shiksa, to a non-Jewish woman - the same night that I am getting married, and that's why I'm crying. How can I go to the chuppah when I did this?"

So the rov told him, "It's not your fault. You shouldn't have stolen - yes, okay, you were a child, you shouldn't have done it, for sure. But it's the teacher who embarrassed him, that's what happened. It's not you, don't cry - the Eibershter will forgive you."

What I'm trying to bring out from this story is that it always comes back to Pirkei Avos - the parents, the teacher. My father always used to say, when a father gives a punch to a child, "Why didn't you say Amein Yehei Shmei Rabba first?" My father always said, you can certainly punch the child, but why not say Amein Yehei Shmei Rabba?

So this is the lesson now in the summertime, Pirkei Avos - that the parents have to know, have to know that they have to be a dugma chaya. And this is the lesson of today's program.

Im yirtzeh Hashem, next week we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.