0053 - Red String for Ayin Hora

00:02 The first year we opened the Yeshiva Miami, which was the year Tov Shem Lamedaled. We had only the shluchim that the Rebbe sent plus one more bocher, but very soon there was another bocher that joined the yeshiva. He was not from a Lubavitch yeshiva. He actually learned in the Mir Yeshiva, but he was a sickly bocher and he needed the weather. So an uncle of mine, my wife's uncle, who was mashgiach ruchni in the Mir Yeshiva, sent him to our yeshiva to learn. His name was Rabbi Feldman, so he knew, knew me, so he sent that bocher to learn. And the bocher was a weak, weak bocher. Actually, a few years later, he actually passed away because he was a sickly bocher. But when he was in yeshiva, I arranged for him to have a yechidas. And he didn't tell me what he's gonna ask, but like any bocher, I think it was his yom haledet, and I got him to go into yechidas. When he came out of yechidas, he told me that one of the things he asked the Rebbe was, I think he says his mother pushed him to ask the Rebbe, that, uh, we know that many people wear a red string against the ein horah. So he asked the Rebbe if it's okay, if it's the right thing to do. So he says that I feel the Rebbe didn't answer him. Seems like the Rebbe liked to try to avoid answering him. But then he asked again. I don't know

01:11 how many times he asked, but eventually the Rebbe answered him. But the Rebbe answered him, he said pretty sharp, and he said to him that to do that is midarkei haMeiri, and you're not allowed to do it. And he said very clear that this is asur to do. This was a chidush because many people think that this is the right thing to do according to Yiddishkeit, to wear a red bendel, a red bendel against, against ein horah. But the Rebbe said to him, it's darkei haMeiri, and then you're not allowed to do it. It was a chidush. But the truth is that later on we found that there's a tesefta in Mesichta Shabbos. The tesefta is pei-- beginning of pei degezayen. And the tesefta, it says like this, the beginning of pei degezayen in Shabbos, "Elo dvorei midarkei haMeiri." And he mentions things which are from darkei haMeiri that you're not allowed to do. And he mentions a few things, and then he says, "Vechut odoyim al etzboei." To wear on your finger a red string, those guys at least wear on the finger, that is midarkei haMeiri, and that is asur. So we see what the Rebbe said is not a chidush of the Rebbe, but this is often a tesefta.