0560 - Mesiras Nefesh for Learning Torah - Sandy Koufax in the World Series

00:00 In the fabrengen of Yom Simchas Torah, Tov Shin Chavov, the Rebbe spoke about a certain baseball player who made a Kidush Hashem. His name was Sandy Koufax, and he played in the World Series that year. And he was a pitcher in the World Series, which obviously is something that's a very choshava position or something. But because one of the games was supposed to be on Yom Kippur, he said that he's not playing Yom Kippur, and he didn't play on Yom Kippur, but made a Kidush Hashem. And the Rebbe spoke about it by the fabrengen. And the hemsha, the way the Rebbe came to speak about it was at first the Rebbe told the story of the Tzemach Tzedek that the Friediker Rebbe told that when he was a child of about eight years old, he wanted to hear a maimar from the Alter Rebbe, which he couldn't get in. So he went into the oven that was by the room of the Alter Rebbe, and then the goy heated up the oven, and he fainted there, and they found him there. So the Rebbe said this is Mesirus Nefesh, that he went for Torah. And from that we have to learn that all children should be like that. You have to teach them, chanech them, that they should go on Mesirus Nefesh for learning Torah. And the Rebbe said the first condition how you could pale by a child that he should go on Mesirus Nefesh if you are a living example that you learn

01:09 Torah. And even though had you at that same time that you're learning Torah done more business, you would have made more money, and now you're giving up that money, and you still do it. And you're giving up the fact that if you make more money, you would be famous as a big businessman, and you go on Mesirus Nefesh and give it up. And that will be an example for the children what to do. And the Rebbe went on to go into more details that you're-- he-- this person, if you give up a half hour from watching television and a half hour from reading the paper and from speaking politics, which the Rebbe said, by the way, you can't accomplish anything anyway if you're speaking. It's only a bittul zman. It's only a waste of time. He might think that he has an opinion of what Johnson should do, should do in Vietnam. And if Johnson would ask him what to do, he would tell him what to do. He even has an opinion how to lower taxes, not just two percent, two billion dollars, but eight billion dollars. And if he lowers it, he'll make money too. He'll gain out of it too. So he has an opinion on this. The truth is, Bemchilah, the Rebbe said he doesn't know what's going on in Vietnam, and he can't run the policies of the White House. And the Rebbe used many English words when he said this. The White House does what it wants and makes

02:17 no difference what he thinks. And if a person is mevatel, gives up all this, and he doesn't care that people will say that he's old-fashioned and he's from an old age home, and this is the way to show the children that he has Mesirus Nefesh for Torah. And even though that means that he's not, he's gonna show that he doesn't know what's going on in the world, he doesn't even know what the World Series is. And the Rebbe started telling the story of this pitcher who didn't play on Yom Kippur. And when in the middle of what the Rebbe was saying this, the Rebbe stopped for a second and smiled, and he said, "Those that don't know what the World Series is, tov ye'aleim brocha. Let a brocha come upon them. Halavai v'lo titchech nisgevust. Halavai I would know myself." And this is what the Rebbe said, that there was a yungerman, and this yungerman happened to be Rav Moshe Feller. The Rebbe didn't mention his name. There was a yungerman, has a beard, that went to this pitcher that didn't want to pitch in the World Series on Yom Kippur. And when he spoke to him, he said to him, he was excited, and he said, "You know, I didn't play Rosh Hashanah either." So the yungerman said to him, "You know what? I have a present for you." And he gave him a pair of tefillin. So he said, "Yes, I remember. I know what tefillin is." But he nevertheless didn't want to

03:28 put on the tefillin. And actually, the Rebbe said that day he lost the game. Then he came to him a second time, and he spoke to him again. And the end was that he did win the World Series. And he didn't put on the tefillin then, but he left the tefillin on the table. So the tefillin is laying on his table. And sof kosov, the Rebbe said, "V'al yidach u'men and nidach, he will be zecher to put on tefillin, and another Yid will be in the category of putting on tefillin." And the Rebbe said, "This yungerman didn't ask me whether he should do it or not. He did it on his own." And actually, the pitcher, the Rebbe obviously didn't mention his name, asked him not to tell the manager about this visit. But lo pei'oh, this made a big impression on this person. And the Rebbe spoke about it in a positive way, in a positive of what this yungerman did by trying to, to give him the pair of tefillin. And from the Rebbe, it also seemed that he was very happy about what he did, that he made this Kiddush Hashem. The Rebbe didn't say it, but from the tone of the words, you could see, you, you could have heard then that the Rebbe was happy that he made this Kiddush Hashem. And then the Rebbe went back to discuss what he said before, that you have to give up on all these things, and you have to have Mesirus Nefesh.

04:42 So the person has to know that there's no reason for him to speak and make-- get involved in the policy of the United States. It makes no difference. You should know that the world won't be destroyed. The world-- the velt vet nisht khoreven if you do not mix yourself into politics. So if the child sees that this is how you behave, he'll also do the same thing. He will also go Mesirus Nefesh for Torah. And then the Rebbe continued with another point of Mesirus Nefesh that people should do. He said when the child brings friends home to do homework, and the Rebbe used the word homework, and even if they do the homework of Limudei Kodesh, but when the friend comes to the house and he sees that the kitchen is not a Hollywood kitchen, and he's gonna come home and tell his mother, it's gonna be an embarrassment. So the mother, the wife, wants the husband should make more money. So first they borrow money, and they pay a lot of interest, and then she pushes him to b-- uh, make more money in order to get a Hollywood kitchen. So a person, instead of that, would instead of making a hell of a kitchen, would make-- use the money for, for chinukh. And if you do have an extra dollar, the Rebbe said, in New York, there's a lot in yonim of Torah and mitzvahs that you could do with extra money. So the mother, the wife, should go Mesirus Nefesh too and

05:57 not care about not having the Hollywood kitchen and care more about the yonim of Torah. And the Rebbe said that everybody's able to do this, to be a duk machay to the children, that the children should know that Torah is important, that when he cha-- goes after his friend and calls his friend, so he shouldn't call him, "Let's go play a little bit more ball." He would call him to learn more. Let's learn another piece of Chumash, another omud Gemara that we didn't learn in school yet, in cheder yet, that I'll be ready more when I come tomorrow to school. I'll be able to, to, to know that already. So by the child, this is Mesirus Nefesh, even though sometimes it's small things, but it's a Mesirus Nefesh. And how will the child get this Mesirus Nefesh? When he sees what his father does, so he's ready to learn Torah instead of doing the other things, even though he's gonna learn Torah about alter Yidden, old Yidden, about Yidden who were in the desert that never read the pa- never read papers. But nevertheless, this is what is gonna be his, his she'eifa. What he's gonna wanna do is learn more Torah. And then you will have real nachas ruchni and gashmi from the children, and you'll have a generation, vas kol reiem yakiru sh'zeh rebbe de-chava yahemu, that everyone will recognize that these are special children.