0360 - Instructions from the Rebbe Regarding Yeshiva Gedola of Miami Part 3

00:01 At one point, the first years of the yeshiva, there were some of the bochurim that got schlepped in into certain politics that was going on between people here in Miami, and this got to the Rebbe. So the Rebbe sent a letter saying these words, and I'm gonna read the words. "Sof, sof, talk, al dwar habachurim sheyich yesha. Sof, sof, there should be a seder. You should take care concerning the bochurim that are there. Lahasbirom shenisch lechu shom al um hateura, to explain to them that they were sent there to learn Torah. Ube'im eyski bepolitiki kajaitse beze, and if they're involved in politics, things like that, eini muchon lekachas al atzmi bital Torah shelohem bet shulchim." So I'm not ready, the Rebbe says, to take upon myself the wasting time of learning Torah. They're wasting time of learning Torah as shulchim. "Veyachzeru behedim lamokom shenimshom nishlocha." Let them go as soon as possible back to the place they were sent from. "Vekal vedal." Vekal means vekal hovind, kala hovind. It's easy to understand. Vedal means vedal lemavin. It's enough to tell somebody who understands. It means there's more to it. And this obviously made a big difference. And from then on, obviously, the bochurim stopped getting involved at all, had a big kayeles, a great influence on the bochurim, and they learned very well after that. But besides that, this letter, as much as it's a very sharp letter to the bochurim, and it shook them up, but it also brought out something very interesting. Because

01:26 sometimes a bochur is sent away on shlichus, he doesn't remember, doesn't think if the Rebbe remembers him, if the Rebbe cares. He's a shliach. They only say it's a shliach, really. Did the Rebbe send him? Did the Rebbe not send him? All kinds of things that come up, bochurim shulchim. So as much as here the Rebbe said something very sharp, but in the meantime, the Rebbe said clearly that he takes himself achrayus of the shulchim. Therefore, he said, "If you're not doing the shlichus, I don't... I'm not ready to take the achrayus of you bital Torah up- upon me." But in the meantime, the Rebbe said, brought out clearly here that it's his achrayus. So the shulchim are under the achrayus of the Rebbe, so you could imagine what the shulchim are. So even though it came through something like negative, and the Rebbe gave mussar, but the Rebbe in the meantime was telling him, "I'm taking achrayus." And obviously, self-understood that after that, things changed very much and all the politics were forgot. Another thing, at one point, there was one father who felt that he didn't want his son to come back on shlichus. His son did wanna come back, and he didn't want, so he wrote to the Rebbe that he thinks he shouldn't go back. And the Rebbe answered like this. We're talking here about somebody who's many, many years after bar mitzvah. In other words, your son is many years after bar mitzvah. But the one that's asking is somebody

02:35 else. That you're somebody else. You're not just... It's you, the father, not the son. And you do have sak dina Rambam. We know the Rambam paskens, "The odom yelmad bemakom shel ibe chafetz." A person should learn where his heart wants. And halacha zu nichve ba hilchas kibbud av. And this halacha is written in the halachas of kibbud av. That means that it's not just that we overlook kibbud av for the sake of learning Torah. It's part of kibbud av to learn where he wants. So the Rebbe basically was telling him, "If your son wants to come back, and that's where he wants to learn, then why are you mixing in?" In other words, you're asking for him. He's a big boy, and he could ask himself, and he wants to go. So the Rebbe said he should go. A similar thing that the Rebbe once said was somebody who was here, a shliach, and he got sick, and he had to go through surgery. So his father wrote to the Rebbe that he wants to bring him back to New York to do the surgery there. And I don't remember the lashon, but the Rebbe wrote that, "Why are you asking? Why isn't your son himself asking?" And when his son asked, he wrote to the Rebbe, "Should I come back?" So the Rebbe answered, "Vichi ein rofeim beMiami. There are no doctors in Miami. Why do you have to come back?" Which shows how much by the Rebbe the shlichus was so important, that

03:46 even to have surgery, it wasn't minor sur-- uh, major surgery. It was a minor sur- but just to have a surgery, which would make sense he should go back to his hometown with his parents. The Rebbe said, "Vichi ein rofeim beMiami. There are no doctors in Miami." That's how much the Rebbe showed how the shlichus of the bochurim is important.