0486 - The Issur of Lifnei Iver (Stumbling Block)

00:01 The Kute Sichas, Chelek Yud Aleph, page one forty-nine, the Rebbe talks about lifnei iver lasit mirshol. There's a posek that says, in front of a blind person, you're not allowed to put a stumbling block. And from there, the Gemara learns out that you're not allowed to cause somebody else to do an aveira. And if you cause somebody else to do an aveira, you're aveira on the lav of lifnei iver lasit mirshol. And the Rebbe discusses there whether this lav is a issur klali or issur prati. That means, is this a general aveira that no matter which aveira you cause somebody to do, you're aveira on the same lav? Whether you cause somebody to mechaleh Shabbos, chas v'shalom, or to eat chametz on Pesach, chas v'shalom, you're aveira on the same lav, the lav of not causing somebody to do an aveira. Or is lifnei iver a prat in every aveira? If you cause somebody to mechaleh Shabbos, you're aveira on lifnei iver of Shabbos. If you cause somebody, chas v'shalom, to eat chametz on Pesach, you're aveira on the issur of lifnei iver of chametz. And the Rebbe quotes this chkira from the Ragatchover. And then the Rebbe says in the Orah sixty-five that you could say that this depends on the two opinions that we have, whether if you actually physically put a stumbling block in front of a blind person, as the simple words mean, are you also aveira on the lav of lifnei iver? And the Rebbe makes it clear that if

01:17 you say that it is k'pshuta that you are aveira, then we would assume, and the Rebbe explains why, that this is a prat in every aveira. But if you hold you're not aveira, then this is a issur klali. But in the middle of this Orah, it says, "ey ashlem al ha'ipach," or you could say the opposite. That if, uh, the Torah means k'pshuta, then it's a issur klali. But if the Torah doesn't mean k'pshuta, you're not aveira k'pshuta, then it's issur prati, and the Rebbe explains why. Now this, the fact that you could say the opposite, is in brackets. So obviously, it means that the main svara that the Rebbe has is the other way, that if it's a issur also not to put physically a stumbling block, then it's a issur prati. And if you're not aveira when you do it k'pshuta, putting a stumbling block for a blind person, it's a issur klali. But I wanna say the background behind this. The same Orah is printed in Chelek Lamed Tes, page one eighty-four, on the Biurim of Igeres HaShuvah in the hisafus of that Chelek. And there it says at the end of this Orah, it says, "Mimichtav kved kedushas Admor shlita." This comes from a letter, and this is what happened. This whole thing was written in a letter by the Rebbe once. Tov Shin Chof Tes, when the Rebbe every Shabbos spoke on Igeres HaShuvah, many, many of the Sichas the Rebbe was magiya, and then they were printed in kuntresim

02:37 called Biurim L'Igeres HaShuvah. So on Peirui Beis of Igeres HaShuvah, the Rebbe spoke and it came to talk about this inyan. So when they gave the Rebbe the Sicha, it was magiya. So since this is a letter from the Rebbe that has to do with that inyan, that this was added as a Orah because this is connected to that inyan, and the Rebbe had written about this. But in that letter that the Rebbe wrote, it didn't say the opposite. It just said the first way. It didn't say the ashlem al ha'ipach. But when this Orah was given into the Rebbe as a hemsha to the Sicha, the question was asked of the Rebbe, "Why can't you say the opposite?" And it was explained to the Rebbe that l'baamas there's a svara that you could say the opposite. So the Rebbe, what he did was, he said, "Okay, you could put that in too." And he put it into brackets, b'kitzeva ashlem gam l'haipach, and that's put into brackets. That's when it came in. The original letter, it didn't say that. And it came in later on when the question was asked to the Rebbe, "Why you can't say this?" He says, "Yes, okay, you can say that too if you want to, b-basically, but it's left in brackets." So in other words, the real pshat, the way the Rebbe had l'chatchila, and this is the way the ikar is, that it's the other way. And when we say l'haipach, that's something that the Rebbe said,

03:42 "Okay, you, you... There's a svara to say that too." He accepted the svara, and he left it in brackets. And this is how it was printed in the kuntresim of Biurim L'Igeres HaShuvah then, Tov Shin Chof Tes. Then this Sicha from the Biurim L'Igeres HaShuvah went to the Sefer of Likutey Biurim of Reb Moshe Korach on Tanya, where the second Chelek was a copy of all the mugdicia, even not mugdicia Sichas of the Rebbe on the Igeres HaShuvah, so it went in. And there it said already ashlem gam l'haipach because when the Rebbe was magiya the Sichas to Igeres HaShuvah, that's when it was added. From there, it came to the Likutey Sichas Chelek Yud Aleph that I started with, because that Orah that's there was taken from the Biurim L'Igeres HaShuvah. But since it's the same inyan, so the Orah was added here too. And then later on, when Chelek Lamed Tes was printed, and they added in the hisafus the Biurim L'Igeres HaShuvah, so it went in there too, the same thing, the way it was originally printed in the Biurim L'Igeres HaShuvah. That's why here it says in Chelek Lamed Tes, it adds mimichtav kved kedushas Admor shlita, because that's what it said in the Biurim L'Igeres HaShuvah. When it was put into Chelek Yud Aleph, it doesn't say mimichtav. It is put in as a Orah, and it's connected mamash to that inyan. And the Rebbe was magiya, and the Rebbe left it in there because this is the Rebbe's letter,

04:56 but it didn't say michtav kved kedushas Admor shlita. But in the Biurim it did say, so therefore, when they reprinted the Biurim L'Igeres HaShuvah in the hisafus of Chelek Lamed Tes, it stayed with the words mimichtav kved kedushas Admor shlita.