0110 - R' Berel Rivkin Lighting by the Window

00:01 In the year Tov Shin Lamed, 1969, there was a farbrengen the night of the fifth lichtl, the fifth lichtl of Hanukkah. In that farbrengen, the Rebbe spoke about the minhag Chabad that we light the menorah by the door, not by the window to the street. And the reason the Rebbe spoke about it at that farbrengen was known because that year, Rabbi Rivkin, Rebbe Rivkin, who was one of the elder Chassidim, just moved into the corner building on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn. And Friday night when the Rebbe went home, he saw that his menorah was in the window. And that's why the Rebbe spoke about it on the fifth lichtl. And the Rebbe explained that even though the Gemara says that you have to write it, light the menorah of Pesach Beis Semivachutz, by the door towards the outside. And then it says in the Braisa, in the Gemara, brought down in Shechronu, that if you can't do it there, then you should do it by the window. Nevertheless, the minhag of the Rabbeim was, and so too the minhag of all Chassidim who follow the Rabbeim, to light it not by the window, not by the door to the outside, but the door between one room and another, or between the room and a hallway, et cetera, and they would light it there. And the Rebbe said he saw that by the Friediker Rebbe, sai when he was in America, sai earlier when he lived in Poland, lived in Lita, in Riga. And there you

01:21 can't say the reason was because it was dangerous. Mainly in Russia, you could say the reason he didn't light it by the window to the outside because it was dangerous from the communists. But in these places, certainly America, it wasn't dangerous. So therefore, it must be because there's a reason for it. And since the Rabbeim did it, therefore Chassidim do the same way. But the Rebbe said we have to understand why they did it that way. And the Rebbe said that there is a reason, al pi remez, al pi sod, but also al pi nigla. He says because many times when you light it by the window, it, the place where the window is, is more than 20 amos from the floor of the outside. And a menorah that's more than 20 amos high is possul. So therefore, if you want to do it for the sake of the people from the outside should see it, it's more than 20 amos, it's possul. Even if the window is lower than 20 amos, but many, many menorahs have a back. So therefore, how are you going to light it? If you're going to light it with the candles facing the outside, so then the back of the menorah will block it that the people from inside, the family members won't be able to see it. Not only that, when you light the menorah, you'll have to bend over and light the menorah over the back to the outside, which is not so easy, and you got

02:37 to be careful your beard shouldn't catch fire. The Rebbe said, "Elama, you should turn it around the other way. It should face the people inside the house, and the back will be to the outside." So what's the purpose of lighting it by the window? To light it towards the people inside and then turn it around is also not right the way the Rebbe brought out. So therefore, the best way to do it is to light it by the door inside the house, even though it's a door between one room and another or between the room and a hallway. And the Rebbe said this is all the discussion about the inyan, and there's more inyanim about it, but lepel mamash maasara that Rabbeim did it that way, and we even find in Seforim that not only the, our Rabbeim, but other Talmidei HaHashem did it that way, so therefore you have to do it. And the Rebbe said, therefore it's a pele on anybody who would do differently. And we assume that the Rebbe meant when he saw this in the window of Rabbi Rivkin on the corner house, Eastern Park in Brooklyn. After farbrengen, the Rebbe gave over that the nekuda of this sicha should be written up in short and given into the Rebbe to be magiya. And the taka was written up and given into the Rebbe to be magiya. And what the Rebbe did was he added this as a hesoffer to a letter that he wrote. That year, Zais Chanukah, the

03:49 Rebbe wrote a klali prati. Klali prati are these letters that the Rebbe would write the same loshon to many people, but in every one, to each individual, he would add some detail that was negaya to that person. But the general loshon was for everybody the same. That's called a klali prati. And that was Zais Chanukah Tov Shin Lamed. So in that letter, there is a hesoffer called hesoffer l'ach hazman, a hesoffer that's added later, and there's a nekuda of this sicha. And this letter, this sicha I mean, that's hemsher to this letter, is printed in Likutey Sichos Chelek Heh, page 456, and later on in the igris of the year Tov Shin Lamed, page reish samach daled. That's where you have this hesoffer l'ach hazman that the Rebbe added here. But it all came from this farbrengen of Ner Chei de Chanukah Tov Shin Lamed.