0278 - Do We Pay Someone to Learn Chassidus

00:00 We know that the Rebbe wanted we should work on hafotza chassidus, to teach chassidus to everybody, get as many people possible involved in learning chassidus. And some places sometimes even would pay money in order for a person to come and learn chassidus. But I want to say that we have to judge each case separately. It's not so poshet because when we were in Cleveland, when my parents moved to Cleveland, we lived not far from Tels. And there were some bochrim of Tels that used to come to my father to learn chassidus with him. Then when Yeshiva Tels moved to Wickliffe, which is about a half hour ride from Cleveland, they would come from there and they would take a taxi and come to my father's house to learn chassidus. But then they came and they said that they have no money and you should pay for the taxi for them to come back and forth. And the truth is some people utilize this, some of the bochrim utilize this to go when they're coming into the city. They would go to the bakery and do other things. They utilize the time also. My father was thinking, is it right that they should pay them, that they should come to learn chassidus, pay their taxi? It happened to one of the elder chassidim happened to be in our house in Cleveland. My father spoke to him about it and said he doesn't think that this is the right thing to do. And he said, no, he's

01:09 not so sure. Maybe you should pay. So he said, you know what? Next time you go into Yechidus, ask the Rebbe. So next time he went into Yechidus, he told the Rebbe the whole story and asked the Rebbe. And this is the lotion that the Rebbe said to him. Did chassidus fall so low that you have to pay money somebody to learn chassidus? So here obviously the Rebbe felt you shouldn't. Now, it doesn't mean that that's a blanket statement because we do know many times you pay for learning. Kehila Yinger man gets paid for learning. And there are other times when you have you pay for somebody to come to learn. So there is such a thing. It doesn't show that it's a bizayon, it's an embarrassment for the Torah. So here also. So obviously depends which case. But I want to say that this was a case that the Rebbe felt that this shows that chassidus is gefal nidderig, that chassidus fell low, that you have to pay for it. So obviously when it comes to do it, you got to look into each case to see is it a case where it shows a degrading of chassidus or is it just a common practice that sometimes you pay for learning Torah?