Ep. 34: Every Yid is an Influencer with Rabbi Levi New

00:00 Speaker 1 My relationship with this guy is So I gotta compromise on that so I can be a shliach and, and, and reach out to somebody else. No. You are a shliach because it's your job to do-- to take responsibility for Yiddishkeit. Right now, your responsibility is to daven, then go daven. Now your responsibility is to fix that midah rah, go fix it. So it's the same with the previous-- of the previous generations, but the previous generation, you're fixing it because I gotta get closer to the Hamishter. The only way to get closer to the Hamishter is if I fix this problem that I have, and now I'm fixing it because that's my shlichus.

00:31 Speaker 2 I'm Yossi Kamen. Welcome to Among Chasidim by Der Her, an ongoing farbrengen about life as a Chasid, our vibrant connection with the Rebbe, and inspired living shaped by the way he teaches us each and every day. This episode has been graciously sponsored by Mendel and Devorah Tridel and family. Good afternoon, Rabbi Levi. How you doing?

00:57 Speaker 1 Shalom aleichem. We're doing very well, Baruch Hashem. How are you?

01:01 Speaker 2 Baruch Hashem, I'm doing well, and thank you for being here.

01:04 Speaker 1 You're welcome. Thank you for the opportunity, and I'm gonna take the opportunity to thank you for all you do in the Der Her. Myself, my family, and many in our community enjoy the warmkeit that the Der Her brings, so Shakira for your work, and thank you for having me on.

01:17 Speaker 2 Okay, you're welcome. And, uh, it's a zechus, and I hope to, uh, be able to do more for, for a long time. Um, so I-- but I think we should start off, and I wanna ask you, you're a shliach in Montreal-

01:31 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

01:31 Speaker 2 In, uh, the MTC. For those who are not familiar, you should be, Montreal Torah Center. It's a famous Chabad house. Um, and you're in an existing Chabad house. Your, your father's the shliach and your uncle. Um, maybe you could start off with, with, with describing a little bit, uh, about your shlichus.

01:53 Speaker 1 Okay. So as you mentioned, my wife and I are shluchim here in Montreal, in a small municipality called Hampstead, and the Chabad house here is Montreal Torah Center, the MTC. Baruch Hashem, there's-- it's a high-functioning mosad with strong leadership. My father, my parents, and my uncle, Itchy, and his wife, and, uh, it's, it's a very high-functioning mosad with strong leadership, both spiritually and physically, administratively. And there's six shluchim and shluchos that work here full-time, plus other staff. So there's a lot going on, and every one of us have our role and our place within the mosad, within the shlichus. And I can share a little bit what's about my shlichus. So first of all, my wife and I do all the Bar and Bat Mitzvah here. And then m-me specifically, I do a lot of shiurim, chavruses. Uh, and along with that comes the larger hashpa'ah work, farbrengens, and so on. And then there is a unique project that we have. We're actually coming onto the tenth anniversary of having launched this project, uh, called the L'Chaim Project. And essentially, it's a platform by which members of our community, makarovim, just bal teshuva or just general people in the community, to get involved in mitzvoyim, to find a place where they can contribute to the community, to the work, and be part of the, uh, shlichus. So that's how I would say probably the unique component of, uh, of the shlichus that we have here in Hampstead.

03:25 Speaker 2 Okay. Um, so I wanna, I wanna focus on one of the things you mentioned.

03:32 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

03:32 Speaker 2 A few of them, but, um, this L'Chaim... What's it called? L'chaim-

03:35 Speaker 1 L'Chaim Project. It's called L'Chaim Project-

03:37 Speaker 2 L'Chaim

03:37 Speaker 1 ...actually because it's named after, uh, my uncle who passed away ten years ago, his yahrzeit's coming up, uh, in Shevat. He's my father's brother, Chaim Al Havshalom. Was not an official shliach. He was a businessman, but his entire life was dedicated to the cause. He was the executive director of the Yeshiva in Melbourne, which is a central Chabad institution that has all the schools and everything else that goes on there. He was executive secretary of that and involved many other communal issues. So he kind of exemplified this idea of someone who's not officially a shliach. He's a balabat, he's got a business, and a successful business, um, but dedicated his life to the shlichus. So we named the whole project after him, L'Chaim Project, uh, where people can get involved. Just like he was a balabat but involved in shlichus, people in the community can get involved in, in, um, in shlichus. That's the idea. That's where it came from.

04:28 Speaker 2 Okay. So I've never been to MTC, but I've seen the, I guess, the spirit of MTC over the years, uh, whether it's coming Shabbats into the aisle, you know, often, and, uh, I've noticed that there's a whole group. It's not just a Chabad house that people come. There's people that are totally-- their, their lives, lives have been totally transformed by being part of MTC. And, uh, you know, you see a guy, uh, one year, then five years later, he has a full beard. You know, that, that, that type of-

05:01 Speaker 1 Baruch Hashem.

05:02 Speaker 2 That type of thing. I've seen that with my, with my own eyes. So, so it's very interesting to me that basically one of the important things that you're doing is to ensure that someone is taking those steps that I guess this is a fundamental part of being a Chasid, is you yourself being a balabat and a chassidus, a yadas and a chassidus and yadas, and that's what you're trying to, to, to, you know, infuse into, in-in-into the makarovim. So, so maybe, maybe you can focus a little bit on, like, what the reasoning behind this, why this is so important.

05:35 Speaker 1 Okay.

05:35 Speaker 2 And, uh, you know, and obviously, this is a big, big project that you're involved in.

05:39 Speaker 1 Yeah. So, so two things to say about what you just said, and, uh, then I'll back up and answer your question directly. So the first thing to be said is, is that that's one of the beauties of working in a high-functioning mosad with six shluchim, and when it operates properly, you can service the full gamut of Jewish life. You have to, like, just understand that Hampstead, the neighborhood we're in, is a square mile, and it's ninety something percent Jewish. I think outside of Israel, maybe Kiryas Joel more. I think this is the high-highest, uh, what's the word? Uh, per capita densely populated number of Jews. It's like ninety something percent Jewish. So, you know, inevitably we're gonna be servicing all kinds and all types. So-- And Taka, you come into shul on Shabbos here, and you'll have people who at the-- at least for now are still driving on Shabbos and others wearing hats, beards because they just put them on or for years, and we have Shein Machtu. Like Mamish, the full gamut of Jewish life that, that exists in MDC, and that's, you know, Baruch Hashem, a testament to my father, my uncle for building this Moise that can operate in that way. That's the first thing. The second thing, in terms of like, um, people's development as they deepen their connection with the Rebbe and Chassidus and the role that this project plays, you know, I think about it-- you could think about it in this way. So Rebbe made us into

06:49 Speaker 1 Chassidim. What did he do? Well, first of all, he taught us Chassidus. Okay, so you wanna make Chassidus, Chassidim, go teach Chassidus. And the second thing that Rebbe did is, Rebbe empowered us to reach out to our fellow Jew to do Moshiach. It's not as if like you're a Chassid, and then you're gracious enough to share your Chassidus with others by, via Moshiach. But the Moshiach itself, the hafots itself, is part and parcel of your identity as a Chassid. So if you wanna make it to them, then you gotta provide these things too. If you teach Chassidus, and you have to pr-provide them with the opportunities and the empowerment to, uh, to be able to go into Moshiach. So that, that, that's the first two things I want to share. But if you wanna back up a little bit more, and I'm not sure how broad we can go in terms of the philosophy behind, uh, the L'chaim project and, and, and, and what it does. Okay, look, I'll go-- I'll back up a bit, and you'll tell me how far back I should go and whether I'm going too far back.

07:42 Speaker 2 Reishis bara Elokim. We'll start-

07:44 Speaker 1 Yeah. So it starts from there. That's right. You know, uh, for people who ask, Chassidus came around three hundred years ago. Matan Torah was three and a half thousand years ago. So Baruch Hashem, like, what, what, uh, what, what, what, what was wrong with Yiddishkeit until Chassidus came around-- came along, right? And the answer is obviously very straightforward. I mean, what was wrong with Yiddishkeit until the Mishnah was written, right? But at what some point the Mishnah had to be written, right? Because Torah is eternal. Rebbe speaks about this in many circles. Torah is eternal, and at the same time, uh, Torah is also new in the sense that Torah is constantly being adapted to language and, uh, to meet the needs of the generation that is living out that Torah, right? It, it's not just because, you know, nabach, we're in a generation that's so downtrodden, we have to ge-- you know, dumb down Yiddishkeit. Nabach, we have to write the Mishnah for people who are gonna forget it because we no longer have a Sanhedrin, so we have... But as Chassidus explains for us that this is a progression towards Mashiach coming. And as generations go, Torah itself goes through adaptations, not in its essence, its essence remains one truth, but it-- in its language and its application, the adaptation happens in gen-- generationally. In every generation, it's the job of the Rebbe of that generation to bring Torah and Eibishter to the generation in a language that addresses what they're dealing with

09:02 Speaker 1 and addresses the challenges and the opportunities that that, that that generation in particular pres-- uh, uh, faces. This is true of every generation. Uh, but some-- in some generations, the, the shift is more radical than others. Like when you're going from Eretz Yisroel with a Sanhedrin, and now you're gonna be the diaspora, that's a radical shift. So radical change has to be made. We're writing a Mishnah down, right? Right? And as time goes on, you know, obviously, we're not gonna go through the whole history of Yiddishkeit, but you come down to the Baal Shem Tov's time, and they were facing their challenges, and the Baal Shem Tov is a radical new change. Yiddishkeit is taking on a whole new form. We're looking at Neshamah. Uh, we're looking at Tzimtzum, uh, all the, all the various different things that the Baal Shem Tov brings to deal with the challenges that the Yiddishkeit is facing at the time. Of course, the Alter Rebbe is another schlav in the radical shift that happens in Yiddishkeit's language. Chabad, and so on and so forth. Now, like this in every generation, all the Rebbeim are, are dealing with this, looking at the generation, looking at what people are dealing with and what are the struggles, what are the opportunities, and providing them with the language and the tools to be able to meet those challenges and those opportunities. In, in a way, um, in the Rebbe generation, just the world at large is going through radical changes. We still are

10:17 Speaker 1 as we watch technology evolve faster than we can possibly imagine, right? So the challenges that we're facing are radical. So the shift in focus and language also goes radical to meet those challenges. You could, you could use one very, uh, mamish a poshet de-dogma, a very simple, simple, uh, uh, sample. I think it's the first, if not mis-- You'll tell me if I'm wrong, but I think it's one of the first things that Rebbe did after accepting the Nasius was the Sheva Chabad, right? First in Eretz Yisroel, and then in America, I think it's Yad Al Hatedah, right? Yeah, I think so. That was a radical change. In, in Torah and in Yiddishkeit, Chassiduskeit, Chassid-- Rebbe, uh, successor to Baal Shem Tov is sitting and having farbrengens for, for women. Rebbe did, right? And creating these opportunities, and you fast-forward to... Well, before we get there, right? The, the idea of women being involved bechal in public life was a new thing in the world, and Rebbe created a platform to meet those challenges. And now you have women who are Hasidim, who are public, who are doing the shlichus, and so on and so forth. Right? This is just one small sample of where Rebbe was meeting the challenges of gen-generation and radical steps. Bringing Yiddishkeit to, to women's town. This is just a, a funny thing. And you go to the next schlav, like later, Rebbe pushed for women to learn, right? Which is a, it's a radical shift. The Gemara says people

11:41 Speaker 1 learn b'tipus, right? It's a radical shift that Rebbe's going, that Rebbe says women should learn Torah, right? So there's a, um, there's a yechidus with the Belzer Rebbe, I think it is, right? And Rebbe's pushing him on, on... It's a matter of public record. Uh, he-- Rebbe's pushing him on women learning, and he's kind of, you know, responding with the classic old, you know, conservative, "This is not the way we did it," you know, that kind of thing. But you fast-forward to today, I mean, the Belzer Rebbetzin is, is a recognized force. But it's just a funny thing. And, uh-

12:10 Speaker 2 Right

12:10 Speaker 1 ... the, uh, the, the girl schools in Belz used to say Takas HaNasius of the Belzer Rebbe, now it's the Takas of the Belzer Rebbetzin. It's something I noticed. But she-she said it, I'm like, "Wait, what?"

12:20 Speaker 2 I, I didn't know that. Okay.

12:22 Speaker 1 I-I'll tell you why I did this, because I, I once gave a, a, a lecture series on, on women in Torah scholarship and history.

12:27 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

12:28 Speaker 1 So I began with the Rebbe's radical change, and then I backed up to see if any other examples, 'cause Rebbe puts in the footnotes of the Sicha, Rebbe puts footnotes of examples of women who are learning. So I had to use that as like a, as a basis for research. Um, so I was looking up the cheders, so I started to look up, "Okay, where's Bais today?" Anyway, I just saw that and noticed that little shift. It's just a funny little thing. Um, but so taking that as an example, right? Where women are learning Torah, right? And, and Rebbe explains that the Gemara says that someone who teaches his daughter Torah is gonna have a negative impact. Today, that negative impact will happen if you don't teach your daughter Torah. Why? Because if you don't teach them, they're gonna find it from somewhere else. Rebbe said this in the eighties. If that was true in the eighties, how much more true is that in the internet age? It, it's a generation where-

13:12 Speaker 2 Or they're, or they're being fed infor- other information which is negates Torah-

13:16 Speaker 1 Correct

13:18 Speaker 2 ...and then tools to combat it.

13:18 Speaker 1 You know, it's, it's true. They're engaging with all kinds of information. We're in the information age, 10X, and people are consuming all kinds of content, and unless you have-- provide them with the To- proper Torah grounding, they're not gonna know how to deal with that. Rebbe preempted that like twenty years in advance, right? By, by-

13:32 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm

13:32 Speaker 1 ...making this radical change, like writing the Mishneh down, but prevented a generation of young girls who grow up who are very confident in their Yiddishkeit and confident in their sodaskeit, and they can be-- they can see all kinds of things and hear all kinds of information, but they have their grounding strong, which would have never happened if they didn't have that grounding. And we see the Frum world coming on board. I mean, the Frum world now has Torah learning for women everywhere across the board. So that's just one example of where as the Rebbe looked at the challenges of the generations and, and, and makes this, these, uh... It's, it's wrong to use the word change, but these, like, revolutionary, uh... Sorry?

14:07 Speaker 2 But, but I th- and I think that's the, the, the crux of the issue. I don't think the Rebbe, in the Rebbe's view, we're looking to change Yiddishkeit.

14:15 Speaker 1 Right. It's revealing the deeper truth within Yiddishkeit that matches the new challenge.

14:18 Speaker 2 Yeah. Exactly.

14:19 Speaker 1 Yeah. But if I'm learning-

14:20 Speaker 2 But there are, there are some, there are some other forces that also said women should learn. That's because they were, you know, they were throwing away an old-

14:26 Speaker 1 Right

14:26 Speaker 2 ...you know, world.

14:27 Speaker 1 The Rebbe isn't saying women should learn because of progressive ideas. Yes, correct.

14:29 Speaker 2 Right.

14:29 Speaker 1 Because of a deeper truth within Yiddishkeit as we're progressing towards Mashiach coming, as Rebbe mentions in that Sicha as well. Actually, that Sicha is a good example because there, over there, the Rebbe talks about meeting the challenges, while at the same time talking about how it's a preparation for Mashiach coming. It's the same Sicha addresses both of those, right? Which is true of all the, uh, I don't wanna say change, but all the revolutionary adaptations of Yiddishkeit. Mishneh is a downgrade, but it's also a step towards Mashiach coming, right? The same, the, the Sicha is about Yiddishkeit because they say the same thing. They get to limit, uh, to a generation that was feeling down. You have to ways... You have to, you have to, uh, inspire them, and it's also a preparation toward Mashiach coming, like both at the same time. both at the same time. This is a theme that goes throughout, uh, the Rebbe's this, this like, this, um, this dance between, uh, you know, it's, it's, we have to, we have to meet the challenges versus we're progressing better towards Mashiach coming. Anyway. So all of that just a broad context to this idea of, of what we're doing here in terms of inspiring and providing platforms and opportunities for to go on, to be involved in the study. So o-one of the ways perhaps in which the Rebbe created this little radical language in what it means to live as a, as a Yid, and Rebbe himself said this actually,

15:47 Speaker 1 was the idea that every Yid's a shliach. Rebbe himself said this in, in, I think it's in those years certainly. Um, Rebbe spoke about this idea that the of the generation, you know, the accomplishment and the unique characteristic of our generation is that every Yid's a shliach. So, so what does, what does that mean? What does that mean every Yid's a shliach?

16:04 Speaker 2 In fa- in fact, if you, if you look at the Sichas that address the shluchim, let's say the Kinus Hashluchim, if you read them, learn them, or listen to them, it's very interesting that usually what the Rebbe does is the Rebbe st- speaks about shlichas in the context of every Jew is a shliach.

16:23 Speaker 1 Yeah.

16:23 Speaker 2 And the Rebbe's ma- ma'aseh in it and speaks about it at length.

16:26 Speaker 1 Yep.

16:27 Speaker 2 And then at the end, the Rebbe says, "Especially those that are officially appointed shluchim, you know, full-time as shluchim of, of, of ." Okay.

16:35 Speaker 1 Mm.

16:35 Speaker 2 That's like the, the height of it, but, but in, in its essence, the idea of shlicha is that every, every Yid is a sh- is a, is a shliach.

16:42 Speaker 1 Yeah.

16:42 Speaker 2 And it's a hayom yom, right? It's a hayom yom. Every Yid is a shliach for Rebbe, for, for Alter Rebbe it says over there.

16:47 Speaker 1 Yeah.

16:48 Speaker 2 Okay.

16:48 Speaker 1 So that caveat actually should be made at the outset, that it, it's not as if the, the distinction of the unique class of being a shliach was something the Rebbe made. That's not something that, that, that... I mean, the Rebbe gave out a kuntrus only for shluchim. That's not a secret. Right? But at the same time, what you're saying, in its essence, the Rebbe was speaking to all Yidden, and the Rebbe spoke about this multiple times. Uh, every Yid is a shliach, and that's the uftu, that's the uniqueness of the generation, every Yid's a shliach. So what does that mean? What is it... What's being accomplished here? What, what's the Rebbe doing? Is the Rebbe simply saying that now everybody has to do nefesh atzmus amanus? And if everybody's doing nefesh atzmus amanus, then who are they doing nefesh atzmus amanus to? Everybody doing nefesh atzmus amanus, right? Stam, just a on a sidebar here from a good friend of mine, Avert, when Rebbe says that every Yid's a mashpia, which is a similar, similar sort of thing, like, uh, when it comes to hakalah certainly, the Rebbe talks about how every Yid's a mashpia, right? Right. Today language, talk about meeting the language of the generation. Everybody's an influencer, everybody's a mashpia. The Rebbe said this before the, before the influencer generation, the Rebbe said every Yid's an influencer. The Rebbe already used in, in a very similar regard.

17:49 Speaker 2 So these are one of the futuristic things that the Rebbe spoke about that now we actually understand.

17:53 Speaker 1 That's correct. Rebbe said every Yid's a mashpia. Di-direct quote, right?

17:56 Speaker 2 Yeah.

17:57 Speaker 1 Translate mashpia in English, that's an influencer. It's a-

18:00 Speaker 2 That way we-

18:01 Speaker 1 Pretty much the direct translation

18:02 Speaker 2 ...you can, you can go on and on and on about things that the Rebbe spoke about that we're only understanding now. I don't, I don't wanna de- detract here-

18:09 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm

18:10 Speaker 2 ...but I'll just throw it in there.

18:12 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

18:12 Speaker 2 I was watching, I was watching the Sicha of Hanukkah Live tav shvanu bais.

18:15 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

18:16 Speaker 2 The Rebbe spoke about, about the satellite.

18:18 Speaker 1 Staka.

18:19 Speaker 2 So, uh, no, the second. So the first sicha is about tzedakah. Yeah, tzedakah, exactly. The second sicha, Rebbe goes on a whole long that through the satellite we're connecting. Rebbe mentions Calcutta. We're connecting with Calcutta. And the Rebbe says in one instant, you can have tzedakah through the, through the satellite. You can have that tzedakah and, and, and the bank in Calcutta could write... Your bank here could right away give a wire in the bank-

18:44 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

18:44 Speaker 2 -in Calcutta. Then Rebbe goes further and says that, um, not only that, but you can have, if you have, the Rebbe uses a like a grocery store in Calcutta, through this, through the technology right away, you can get the food in that grocery store to someone in Calcutta within, within seconds, within minutes.

19:02 Speaker 1 Yeah.

19:03 Speaker 2 So I remember when I watched this the first time, I don't know, fifteen years ago, I was like, "Oh, the Rebbe was talking about not only the satellite. The Rebbe was probably talking about the internet." And now all of a sudden with AI- -I was like, "No, no, the Rebbe was talking about AI." Like that now it all makes sense.

19:15 Speaker 1 Right.

19:15 Speaker 2 Even the internet, like, you know, uh, Amazon Prime, like what, what does it, what does it, uh, what does it mean exactly?

19:20 Speaker 1 Yeah.

19:20 Speaker 2 But oh, AI, one second you could do... So it's like one of those other-

19:25 Speaker 1 Yeah.

19:25 Speaker 2 Yeah, like you were saying. A mashpia, okay, influencer, so.

19:28 Speaker 1 Yeah.

19:28 Speaker 2 Go ahead.

19:30 Speaker 1 Yeah. So, oh, so i-just on the part I was, I was sharing before. A friend of mine tells me, so when Rebbe says everybody's a mashpia, so you can have two reactions. Either everybody's a mashpia, so now I gotta go be a mashpia on everybody, or everybody's a mashpia, so I go to everybody and say, "Teach me, teach me, teach me," you know? 'Cause everybody's a mashpia, right? So everybody has something to offer.

19:48 Speaker 2 Yeah.

19:48 Speaker 1 Now, both, both are definitely, are definitely true. It's just an interesting way to think about it. Um, so, so what's the Rebbe-- perhaps what the Rebbe's trying to achieve with this idea that everybody's a shliach. I, I think, I think that beyond, um, the idea of reaching out to another Jew, the Rebbe's really teaching us how to think about Yiddishkeit, how to think about our own Yiddishkeit. Until this language of everybody being a shliach, the way you thought about Yiddishkeit is like this: I'm, I'm a person, I'm a imperfect human, and the is absolute perfection, and the in his great kindness provided us a Torah where an imperfect little human can connect to him, and therefore I have to do, uh, Torah mitzvahs to help me connect to him. Even if it's, even if dirah b'tachtonim, even if it's about making a home for Hashem in this world, it's, it's these opportunities by which I can, uh, become a you know, l- uh, partner with Hashem and become clo-- in close with Hashem. And in that sense, Avodat Primis of Chabad is a central component. This is the ultimate way of getting closer to Hashem. The ultimate dirah b'tachtonim, right, is within the person himself. That's what the Rebbe writes in Tanya, and the Rebbe speaks about this quite a t- quite a bit. Lot of says in Tanya when they get to, um, simcha, when a person is buoyant about Hashem, that dirah b'tachtonim in his own mind, right? It's, it's in the person

21:07 Speaker 1 himself bringing Godliness into his life. He looks inside and says, "Okay, here it's not perfect. I gotta fix that so I could bring God, Hashem there. This is not perfect. Fix that, so I could bring Hashem there." Right? But what happens is, in that model, Yiddishkeit is the mashpia, Torah is the mashpia, and I'm the mekabel. I'm the recipient. I'm the receiving end of Yiddishkeit. Right? If you want to make that simply, a person goes to schul because schul's inspiring, it's gonna inspire me. That's how people show up. That's the idea. You go to farbrengen because a farbrengen's gonna be inspiring, and I'm getting inspired. You show up to Yom Tov. Yom Tov is inspiring. It raises me up, and I'm gonna go receive from Yom Tov. You're a mash-- You're a mekabel of Yiddishkeit. And every part of Yiddishkeit contributes to something else that you, that, that you are and that you become. And Rebbe said every Yiddish shliach after changing it around, says, "No, no, hold on a second. You are responsible for Yiddishkeit. You're, you're the giver of Yiddishkeit. You're the bestower of Yiddishkeit, not, not the receiver, recipient of it. You're the bestower of it." So you come to Yom Tov, the question is not how does Yom Tov inspire me. The question is, okay, so how can I make Yom Tov better for those around me, for even first myself? But it's the, the shlichus that I have to make Yiddishkeit, to make, to make, uh, Rosh Hashana the best

22:16 Speaker 1 Rosh Hashana possible. Right? So it's not that, uh, you know, everybody talks about where Avodat Primis exists in Derech Hashem. So I, I think perhaps it's not that hafotzer somehow i-is we have to, um, like compromise a little bit on the, on Avodat Primis because we have to do hafotzer. I don't think that's the vort. I think it's mistaken, mistaken thinking. That, that, that separates me being a shliach from my relationship with Yiddishkeit. My relationship with Yiddishkeit is Avodat Primis. So I gotta compromise on that so I can be a shliach and, and, and reach out to somebody else. No. You are a shliach because it's your job to do-- take responsibility for Yiddishkeit. Right now, your responsibility is to daven, then go daven. Now your responsibility is to fix that midvarah, go fix it. So it's the same Avodat Primis of the previous generations, but in the previous generation, you're fixing it because I gotta get closer to the . And the only way to get closer to the is if I fix this problem that I have. And now I'm fixing it because of my shlichus.

23:12 Speaker 2 So in the previous generation, it was all about a personal, you know, let's use the modern words, journey. And, and in Derech Hashem it's all about a, a, a cause.

23:23 Speaker 1 That's correct.

23:24 Speaker 2 All around.

23:24 Speaker 1 It's your responsibility. That's right. And that's what being a shliach means. That's correct. It's just the, the moshol. Um, in, in, in Tanya the Rebbe writes that, uh... When the Rebbe describes a, a tzadik, tomorrow's Tanya is today's Tanya, right? That when, wh-when a, um, a tzadik serves the because this is what the mission is. It says out there, but you pipe down. Don't, don't do that. You do it because , you do it because you want-- you're thirsty for God, and you wanna be connected. That's, that's a true and honest desire that you might have, and work with that. The tzadik's on a level where his own desire to get close to Hashem is not really relevant. What's relevant is, is Hashem's mission. And Rebbe took that and made that for everybody. Everybody's serving the because this is mission. You're a shliach. Your job is mission. In, in, um, I think it's Kinus Hashluchim days, the Rebbe spoke about becoming a shliach before even doing the shlichus. Becoming a shliach as a, as like a crucial, even more important stage in some ways than even doing the shlichus. Because the first thing is to accept that you've been enlisted, to accept that you have a responsibility for Yiddishkeit. What your responsibility is gonna be, you know, find out. Talk to your mashpia, speak to your friends, and find out exactly which way you're gonna, uh, take responsibility for Yiddishkeit, whether it's gonna be, uh, supporting or here or, or becoming a shliach somewhere actually

24:47 Speaker 1 or taking care of your family. What's the difference? These are all your responsibilities as a shliach, right? But the first step is you gotta become a shliach. You have to accept that role, right? So the, the, the, the essence really of this whole project we did here is to inculcate that thinking, that when Yom Tov comes, it's not just, "Okay, the rabbi gonna farbrengen well. Is the rabbi gonna give a good sermon?" But no, there's someone in the community who's responsible for distributing, you know, divvying up the streets. Everybody's gonna go to lulav and esrog, and make sure you get your streets, make sure you get your neighbors. And now that's, now it's a part of Yom Tov. Part of Yom Tov is how are you gonna contribute to the Yom Tov, not just be a recipient of it, right? 'Cause that's really what they ever did for us, right? It's, it's like, like I said, you know, Lubavitch, we feel uncomfortable if we don't like... It's another yud then we're not offering to put on tefillin. We feel that responsibility, right? That's what it means to be a shliach. They feel that responsibility. Yeah.

25:40 Speaker 3 We actually had a interview with your father in the Der Her recently.

25:45 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

25:46 Speaker 3 He was talking about himself with, it was about mitzvah tefillin. And he was talking about even him himself as a shliach. He had, you know-

25:54 Speaker 1 I was there.

25:55 Speaker 3 How he, oh.

25:57 Speaker 1 The story. He said, he mentioned the story, right?

25:59 Speaker 3 Oh, you were there when, yeah. That when he mentioned the story that he was, it was in Eretz Yisrael and-

26:03 Speaker 1 He was coming to visit my brother and I, and we were both in yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael at the time.

26:06 Speaker 3 And you were, you were with Chayalim, right?

26:08 Speaker 1 Yeah.

26:08 Speaker 3 With soldiers.

26:08 Speaker 1 We were, yeah, we were walking around somewhere, bumped into Chayalim.

26:11 Speaker 3 And they asked-- But it was soldiers, right?

26:13 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

26:13 Speaker 3 And someone asked you, "You're a Lubavitcher, so let's put on tefillin," and your father didn't have them.

26:18 Speaker 1 Yeah.

26:18 Speaker 3 And that was a r- that was, that was the, the rock bottom, uh, story.

26:22 Speaker 1 He said, "Thanks to those Chayalim, I can't tell you how many hundreds of yiden put on tefillin." 'Cause-

26:26 Speaker 3 Right

26:26 Speaker 1 ... my father carries a tefillin wherever he goes. My uncle, Itchy, carries a tefillin wherever he goes, and it trickles down to the whole Moshiach. I can't go anywhere without my tefillin. What does this mean? Uh, I can't. How do I not? So I go wherever I go, I have my tefillin.

26:38 Speaker 3 Among Chassidim is brought to you by Chassidus Der Her. We live in a chaotic world, a world where for us Chassidim, as they say, "Nu, lo ra'inu," we do not have the ability to hear and see the Rebbe on a daily basis. Yet we know that the Rebbe is very much with us, and Chassidus Chabad is alive and thriving more than ever before. One needs to only tap into it. Chassidus Der Her provides you and your family with the tools necessary to tap into all of this, whether it's the monthly magazine, the way it all began, whether it's Der Her books, Der Her online content, and so much more. Men, women, and children throughout the world benefit and use these tools on a daily basis. Whether it's children enjoying the children's magazine that comes along with the regular Der Her or enjoying the children's podcast, whether it's bachurim in yeshivas receiving the Der Her, whether it's girls in high schools enjoying Der Her Club in their local high school. People all over the world and from all walks of life enjoy and utilize these tools and take advantage of it. If you're not already subscribed to Der Her monthly magazine, do so today at derher.org. That's D-E-R-H-E-R.org. Der Her is a dynamic organization which is committed to continue providing these tools, grow on a constant basis, and do all that we can to help this effort. Baruch Hashem, it takes a lot of resources and finances to make this all happen. You can be part

28:31 Speaker 3 of Der Her through your financial support as well through visiting our website, derher.org, or through contacting us to setting up a meeting. Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of the podcast.

28:41 Speaker 1 Now I'll share with you a Yiddishe thing that I heard recently at the, uh, Kinus Hashlachim farbrengen on Sunday night after the banquet. So we're sitting in seven seventy, and I'm sitting with a good chaver, a good friend of mine, um, Rabbi Mendy Motchkin. He's a mashpia in Ohel Torah, and I think he also has a shlichus. In the summer, he has a shlichus somewhere in Upstate New York. Anyways, I'm asking him, "What are you farbrengen with the bachurim about?" So he tells me like this. He says that, uh, here is-- there's a story from his alter zeide, I think, Peretz Motchkin, and the story goes like this. There was a, a bachur during the hard days in Russia, and, uh, you know, just to elaborate on the hard days, there's no food, there's nowhere to go. They're constantly being chased from place to place. There's always a risk of being caught and put-- sent to Siberia and so on. So one bachur decides that he wants out. He decides he's going to the communist university, and not because he lost faith in Yiddishkeit, but because he didn't see any end. Like, like, "What's gonna become of me? What, what am I gonna do here? I'm just gonna do this for another couple of days and get thrown out, go to somewhere else, go to somewhere else, and then go to Siberia and die. Like, what am I, what am I doing this for? Like, what's-- Like, I'm not gonna-- Nothing's gonna become of me."

29:45 Speaker 1 So he decided he wants to leave. So there's a one-night farbrengen. It's a farbrengen one night, and the agenda is to get this bachur to stay. So everybody's speaking and trying to tell him this and inspire him, and hein and her, and s'hot geit nisht. And, uh, nothing's happening. He's not responding. Whole night goes, and Rebbe Peretz decides he wants to speak, and Rebbe Peretz tells him like this: "You wanna go out into the world 'cause you wanna become something. You wanna become something. I'm telling you that a something in the world out there is a garnish for us." And that spoke to him, and the bachur stayed. So my friend, Mendy Motchkin, explains. He says, "What, what, what was, uh, Rebbe Peretz saying?" Rebbe Peretz is saying like this: "You wanna be something? What, what, what is a something? Making a living and, and, and, and, uh, and having nice, nice stuff. That, that's becoming something. That's a nothing for us. We have real being something. A real being something is serving the Hamish there. Like, achas b'chol yom she'omech hamedekuch mehem. That's real life. You wanna be something? Stick around here." Right? So Motchkin, Mendy Motchkin, my friend, says, tells the bachurim, "That's good to Derashvi-- Derashishi. Derashvi is mechart. Derashvi is all around. What we think is of a nothing over here is everything out in the world." So what we need, uh, in, in Lubavitch, in yeshiva, we think, "Ah, okay." Not the best learner, not the best davener, okay. So,

31:06 Speaker 1 uh, but when he go out there in the world, when he takes responsibility for Yiddishkeit, he's everything.

31:11 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

31:11 Speaker 1 He's everything. A garnish by ones is by their out. Not what's by theirs, the garnish is by ones. By theirs out from gar- by ones garnish. Other way around. It's a very tip of word. It's a very deep word that in, in, in... There's a word from the Rebbe that, uh, Chassid every now and again should think about what he would look like without Tanya and what it look like now that he learned Tanya, which is, you know, tr- applicable to Chassidus Bachlal and his connections to Rebbe BeFrat. Um, a person thinks about what, what, you know, what would you be if you didn't have the Rebbe and what do you look like now? 'Cause we sometimes take for granted things that we, that, you know, just exist in our culture, exist in our milieu, and you just pick up by osmosis, and we take them for granted because they exist. You don't realize that what you're thinking is a nothing is what the whole world is starving for. The whole world is starving for what you have here. Taking responsibility for something meaningful, the whole un- the whole world's looking for, for that, right? You want to get, uh, into the essence of it, right? Our generation is the generation of Malchus. It's the spirit of Malchus. Yeah. Spirit of Malchus. The spirit of Malchus is left in Megam Hakol, but it doesn't have anything of its own.

32:14 Speaker 3 And this is based on what the Rebbe says, each Rebbe-

32:16 Speaker 1 That's correct

32:16 Speaker 3 ...has a, has a different spirit.

32:17 Speaker 1 That's right. And our generation is, is Malchus. So what's the, what's the, what's the nature of Malchus? In the benefit of Adam, right? In the person's experience, is the ability-- the desire and ability to project. Communication, to speak. So what you're gonna project, what comes next, right? The lesson of Megam Hakol, it doesn't have anything of its own. It just wants to be heard. It wants to project. It wants to share. What you're gonna share? Okay, so you'll share your Chochma, you'll share your Binah, you'll share your Chesed, and so on and so forth. It's just this desire to want to share. If it's ener-- if it's every generation with the idea of I wanna be heard is, is, uh, is what people want, it's our generation. Everybody has to be heard. What they're gonna say? We'll find out after, but everybody wants to be heard, right? And Rebbe like pre-empted that by so, like decades in advance. Said, "Of course, you need to be heard 'cause you're responsible for Yiddishkeit. And if you don't do it, Yiddishkeit doesn't exist." There, there was a Shliach here who came to Montreal to fundraise. Uh, he's a local boy, so he came back to visit. So he's speaking in, uh, a child service in FTC. And, um, he's a Shliach out in Russia somewhere in some small little town. There's a lot to say about how he Fabrengen and the, the bitl with which he Fabrengen. It was very beautiful. Anyway, so he says that one of

33:30 Speaker 1 his first years being there, they were-- him and his wife were discussing whether they should have services for, I don't know, Tisha B'Av, whatever. So like on the one hand, he's like, "Uh, the services for Tisha B'Av, who's coming for Tisha B'Av services? It's just gonna be me. Maybe, maybe one other guy. Like, what am I gonna make myself crazy for?" But he decided he's doing it. Why? Because if he doesn't do Tisha B'Av, in that city, it doesn't exist. It doesn't exist, you know? And I, and I, and I took that very like, it's true for everybody. You're responsible for the Yiddishkeit in your own personal life, in your family life, in your community around you, and if you don't do it, it doesn't exist. There's no such thing as someone else is gonna do it. What someone else is gonna do, they're gonna do. But what you're gonna do, it doesn't exist unless you do it. So you are the Shliach, the only Shliach in this regard, and you have to take responsibility for it. It's the, it's the ultimate, uh, it's the ultimate truth, which is like the, the antidote to the ultimate sheker of, of our generation, where everybody thinks they're like self-important and everybody has to be self-expressed. You have to be ab-- that the ultimate antidote to that is, yes, you have to be self-expressed because unless you take responsibility for the Yiddishkeit in your Dalamos, nobody is.

34:38 Speaker 3 There's the, there's the famous Sikha, um, Chaf Ches Van, Taf Shin Mem He. Fa- famous Fabrengen, where the Rebbe explains at length that, you know, the Rebbe speaks about that the whole concept is the Rebbe Rashab's Imiladus Chaf Ches. And Rebbe speaks about the whole concept that Temimit is Neidus Lahayil.

34:59 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

35:00 Speaker 3 Or the Lamptanshnikt, the lamplighters. Um, and, um, what the Rebbe says there is that in the times of the Rebbe Rashab, this was specifically and only for those that were the Temimin that learned in Lubavitch. And if you think about it, you know, who were the, the... You talked, you talked about Russia before, Mesiras Nefesh, Pardes Machshakin. All of these figures, they all learned in Lubavitch. These were, you know, these were the selected group of people that held up Yiddishkeit. Then the Rebbe explains in that Sikha that in this generation, it changed, and now every single person, whether they learned in Temimit or not, are now have that obligation to be the Neidus Lahayil. And I mean, it's such a foundational concept, and this is basically what you're saying. And it's, it's interesting the way you're framing it that, of course, the Rebbe is saying that because this is the generation where everyone has a podcast- ...and everyone, and everyone is, uh, you know, it's all about... I gue- I guess, um, I, I, I discussed this on-- with one of the other guests in the-- towards the beginning when we started this, that there's a certain self-absorption that people have today.

36:15 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

36:15 Speaker 3 Everything's about the "I" and how do I feel. And I guess that's the reality that people are doing this, whether it's a good thing or not, but that's the reality. So how we-- like you said, the, the Mishnah, was it a good thing? It was needed. Obviously, it's a good thing 'cause it's more Torah, right? So now we, we are able to take this, um, sta-- whatever the, the way, the way the world is, uh, the way, the way people are living today, and, you know, people are thirsting for the, the, the, the I. It's like, no problem. We have a Hashlachas for you. Go take over your, your family, your community, your Dalamos, your, your work, your workplace, or become a Shliach Kipshuta, whatever, whatever it is, you know. This is-- So it's, it's, uh, fascinating that this is, this is-- Okay. Malchus. This is Malchus.

36:57 Speaker 1 Yeah. There, there's a lot of different ways you can come at this. Just to... Remind me afterwards, I wanna share something about, uh, everybody's thirsty for an "I." I'm gonna share something about that. But before, I wanna share something else that's related to this. You know, for example- You have, um, Achdas Hashem is a, a Sugya of Siddhis, right? It's a Sugya of Siddhis to understand what that means, Hashem's oneness. It's also a Sugya of Avodah. So what does Achdas Hashem and Avodah look like? It means that every-- as, as much as you can, whatever you're doing is Hashem Shamayim, is to serve the Aibishter. That's Achdas Hashem, right? Otherwise, there's a plurality. Here I'm serving God, and here I'm serving my hunger, and here I'm serving my desire for money, and here I'm desiring my-- serving my tire-- my desire for attention. I've got multiple gods going on, right? Instead of one. But Achdas Hashem means whatever I'm doing, it's all, it's all for the Aibishter, right? It's, it's very difficult to get mamash every, every, everything. Everything is all Achdas Hashem. When, when I'm feeding my children, it's also like-- and sometimes feeding my children is taking off my time from learning. Go away with what's going on now, you know. But when, when you're a Shliach, there's only one question. What does the Aibishter need from me now? That's the question. So now the Aibishter needs for you to take care of your kids, then that's your Shlichus. It's the same Achdas

38:16 Speaker 1 Hashem. Now the Aibishter needs you to daven, then that's your Shlichus. There's another yid you're responsible for, then that's your Shlichus. Whatever you're doing, you're always a Shliach. It's, it's the ultimate Achdas Hashem. It's the ultimate oneness in your, in your entire reality, right? Um, there's a, there's a, there's a fabric and I don't remember when the fabric that speaks about, about, uh, sleeping. If now I'm alive, when a person sleeps, like if he sleeps with the Kavanah, that he has to have energy to-tomorrow to serve the Aibishter, then it's also part of his service of Hashem, right? The Rebbe says that that's like, it's like two steps. It's like this is like a necessary evil to get to the point that I really wanna get to. What I, what I really wanna get to is serving Hashem the Aibisht- uh, tomorrow. It would be much more Gishmak, says the Rebbe, if in the moment of the sleeping itself, you're not serving the Aibishter. So the Rebbe, so-

39:02 Speaker 3 That's what the Rebbe explains all the time, the difference between doing something with Hashem Shamayim-

39:06 Speaker 1 Oh, and Chabad-

39:07 Speaker 3 At some lower level.

39:08 Speaker 1 -Chabad.

39:09 Speaker 3 Then anything in Hashem is a much higher level, right?

39:12 Speaker 1 Also, sleep is the hardest one because you're not conscious, you're not aware.

39:16 Speaker 3 Yeah. Okay.

39:16 Speaker 1 You're not, you're not aware. So what, what... How do you, how do you get it there?

39:19 Speaker 3 I see.

39:19 Speaker 1 You know, something like this.

39:20 Speaker 3 How is it De'eychu?

39:22 Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. So the Rebbe says like this, and I-- he doesn't fear always the, the Nimshal, just gives the Mashal. He says, uh, you imagine a soldier. So a soldier is at his post, and he could be sleeping at his post. But as far as the enemy is concerned, he doesn't know if the person is sleeping or not. The very fact that there's a post with a soldier already holds off the enemy. So the soldier is at the post now. Even in his sleep, he's serving the cause because the very fact that he's there already wards off the enemy. Okay? That's the Rebbe ends. What's the Nimshal? Rebbe didn't give a Nimshal, right? So the theme is part of the same thinking, that the very fact that you are a Shliach, that's a-- you, you've accepted that this is my role in life. Take responsibility for my Yiddishkeit. I'm not a recipient of Yiddishkeit. I'm a Mashpia of Yiddishkeit. It doesn't matter where you are and what you're doing or what you're not doing, you're always in a Shlichus mode. Just question is, what do you have to do? Okay, so now the Shlichus is this, do that. Now it's something else, do something else. It's the ultimate, uh, you know, Shivisi Hashem Lenegdi Samid, right? It's more than the Bal Shem Tov, that no matter what happens, it's always Shovav, it's always equal because the Aibish-- if you know, if you remember that the Aibishter did it to you, then it doesn't matter what

40:25 Speaker 1 happens. So there's another way to think about that in this kind of Signun. That no matter what happens, it's always Shovav. It's always the exact same question. What does the Aibishter want me to do now? Something good happens in life, okay, what does the Aibishter want me to do ha- now? Something Chas Veshalom the opposite happens, same question. What does the Aibishter want me to do now? It's always one question if you're a Shliach. It doesn't matter what the circumstances of the situation happens to be. The, the, the accepting the achrayus and being a Shliach remains across the board.

40:53 Speaker 3 I just wanna, I just wanna throw in there that while we're talking about how every Yid is a Shliach, but if you think about the, the, the philosophy behind it, the way you're so eloquently explaining it, now we can understand the Chiddush of the Rebbe with actually making official Shluchim.

41:11 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

41:12 Speaker 3 Taking regular people and saying, "Your whole being, including your job, including your home, including your family, including your where you live, every single part of you is in order to fill the Shlichus." And the, the moment that you're-- the minute that you're fundraising, and then when you're davening, and when you're with your family, that it's mamash scripturally twenty-four hours to-- that's, that's the ultimate manifestation of it, uh, you know, being an official Shliach.

41:39 Speaker 1 Yeah.

41:39 Speaker 3 But I, I got-- 'Cause, 'cause it's harder. It's harder when, when you're not an official Shliach, you have to work at it more. You know, how do I make-

41:44 Speaker 1 Right.

41:44 Speaker 3 -my business? How do I make my, uh, you know, my family a Shlichus?

41:49 Speaker 1 Right.

41:49 Speaker 3 But, but, uh, okay.

41:53 Speaker 1 Now-

41:53 Speaker 3 So how do you, do you teach this to the, to, to your, to your constituents in, in MTC?

42:00 Speaker 1 So this is a big notion of Farbrengens, first of all. It's part of the-

42:04 Speaker 3 By the way, I still have to remind you about the I.

42:06 Speaker 1 Oh, okay. Yeah. So that's a big notion of Farbrengens, first of all. We, we talk about this a lot. I Farbreng about it a lot. But at this point, it means peop- we've been doing it for ten years now, Baruch Hashem, and it's really become like a indistinguishable part of the fabric of the community. So as Farbrengens, well, you know, well, members in the community who have been involved in doing the things will share what they did. And what happened today, I met a Yid, and I did this, and it becomes part of the, the, the, the culture and the sprach within the community is your involvement in one way or another. Certainly, when it comes around Yom Tov, or if there's like... Uh, uh, I mentioned before that we're-- it's ninety-five percent Jewish here. So if there's ever a fair in the park, in the local Hampstead Park, right? So Baruch Hashem, the mayor of our municipality, Hampstead, is a full member of our shul. With a yarmulke, learns Chassidus. There's an article written about him on Chabad.org. You can have a look at Jeremy Levy. So we have a beautiful partnership with the, with the local municipality. So at these fairs, we'll have a, a tefillin booth set up. So the only Shliach there is me or my father, my uncle as, as it may be. Um, but otherwise, it's manned by members of our community. And what ends up happening is it's so beautiful because half the people in the, in the--

43:15 Speaker 1 at the fair are their friends. They're bringing their friends over, their neighbors, "Oh, come check out the booth for my shul. Come." You know, and then, and, and it creates this kind of, uh, culture in the community where everybody's talking about it. So then I don't have to preach it anymore. You know, I don't have to, I don't have to like preach it. It's part of the, it's part of the fabric of the community. It's a very beautiful thing, Baruch Hashem. Certainly around Yom Kippur and around these fairs, it, it's a big part of our, our culture here.

43:37 Speaker 3 By the way, that's a dynamic that specifically a non-official shliach has-

43:42 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

43:42 Speaker 3 -and an advantage that they have over a regular shliach. That's-

43:45 Speaker 1 Yeah.

43:45 Speaker 3 -you finishing off your business meeting and asking the guy to put on tefillin or starting that way.

43:50 Speaker 1 Right.

43:50 Speaker 3 Or let's say we're gonna miss it, before we do a business deal, we're gonna do a gift tzedakah or that type of thing.

43:54 Speaker 1 Okay. 100%.

43:55 Speaker 3 It's a lot more of, uh... It's a lot more real 'cause like, "Oh, we ne-we, we need to do..." I-

44:02 Speaker 1 Yeah.

44:02 Speaker 3 There's a someone that I'm friends with in Crown Heights, he was a business person, and he was telling me how his business partner, so a few years ago, his business partner was a Persian Jew. I said, "What do you mean?" Be- he told his partner, "We are going to the oil before we sign the contract." Fact. Okay? And, and now it became a, an occurrence that happens again and again. Okay, well, we have to go to the oil, like, you know, like-

44:29 Speaker 1 Yeah.

44:29 Speaker 3 It's, it's not, you know, a shliach come, come to the... It's like, "Oh, we're doing business. This is how we do business. You know, we're gonna go to the oil first."

44:35 Speaker 1 Yes.

44:35 Speaker 3 It's a much deeper, much deeper effect.

44:38 Speaker 1 It all has to do with the confidence. The way, the way this yungerman said it, this is a fact. You-

44:42 Speaker 3 Yeah.

44:42 Speaker 1 You say it with confidence, okay, there's a, there's a siddur in like Aleph Beis, Gimel Daled, one of those four lachem, where the Rebbe like gives like a, almost like, uh, a checklist of how you do, how you do mitzvah. And one of the things the Rebbe says there is that if

44:58 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

45:15 Speaker 1 Okay. So I was teaching this, uh, the siddur to Rebbe with a couple of, of, uh, bal teshuva bochurim here. And, uh, one of the bochurim tells me, he's a student at the Concordia here, and there's like two Jews in his class that he knows. And after this, uh, siddur, they put like... You know, he's tried before, it didn't really work. Uh, they were all, you know, heckling, beckoning. And he says, "Okay, you know what? Saying the kripah tefillin." He says the kripah tefillin, and, uh, the guy takes his coat off and he puts on tefillin. This is what he tells me. So I, I got inspired by that. And, uh, so I said, "Okay, I'm gonna do that." Someone tells me no, or, uh, or from the, you know, lacking a little confidence in asking given the circumstances, I'm not sure what the person's gonna say. I'll say kripah tefillin first. Right? And I did that. And what happens, ends up happening is, is that while you're saying the tefillin, you end up like thinking to yourself, this is, this is my own little experience. It's like, "What am I doing here and who do I represent?" This is not the little lady you asked someone to put on tefillin. This is a shliach. This is a shliach of, of Nisui Dereinu. A shliach of the Rebbe, asking someone to host in Subbar Cum, right? This is my responsibility here. The Rebbe sent me to make, put on tefillin with this Yid. I'm gonna

46:25 Speaker 1 ask him like this shy way. In fact, we're putting on tefillin. Roll up your sleeve. Let's do it. So the next time it happened was, was, uh, I went to someone in the hospital. It was a very, very bad situation. The gosh 미스 бронкsis was in a very, very dire situation. And he's a self-proclaimed agnostic, so every, every time I asked him to put on tefillin, he would kind of like, you know, push me off. I, I taught his kid bar mitzvah, so he would come sometimes with his son. I would try to put on tefillin with him. Finished. He did put on tefillin at his son's bar mitzvah that, yes. Anyway, so he's in the hospital because of whatever's going on. So I go to visit him, and I like, I has... I have... He has to put on tefillin today. Agnostic, should be agnostic. He has to put on tefillin today. There's no choice about it. So I get there, and I tell him, I say tefillin. I said, "Okay, you gotta, you gotta put on tefillin today." "No, Rabbi, you know already I'm an agnostic. If I, if I put it on, I'd be lying. And I don't wanna be, I don't wanna be a liar." So his sister's sitting there, and his sister says, "No, no, one second. You, you like the Rabbi, right? You wanna make the Rabbi feel good. So put on tefillin for the Rabbi. That wouldn't be a lie. You're doing it for the Rabbi 'cause you

47:29 Speaker 1 like him."

47:30 Speaker 3 Right.

47:30 Speaker 1 And I said, "No, no, that's not gonna work for me." I said, "Listen, you have a neshama, and you care about Yiddishkeit. And you made your son bar mitzvah because you care about Yiddishkeit. Tefillin is a Yiddishkeit thing. You want tefillin." He says, "Rabbi, you're right." Roll the sleeve Rolls the sleeve up, and we, and we put on tefillin with him. It was a very emotional scene. His mother walked in the middle. She was crying. I was crying. He was crying. It's gonna... We said Modanity, explained what Modanity is. Um, anyway, so just this, this idea that the co- the confidence, you remember who you are and what you are, that you are a shliach, right? Before doing your shlichus is being a shliach, and you have that confidence, kol ha'olam is b'fanacha. The whole world is open for you. Nobody's waiting for you. The whole world, everybody's waiting for you. Everybody's waiting for you to take your responsibility and play your role.

48:13 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm. Okay. So, um, it's, it's interesting because it's not only... It's also the... It's like the, the same concept of shlichus is you, but also wherever you are.

48:32 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

48:33 Speaker 3 It's the same idea. So for example, the Rebbe told many people that were... Used to mention the hospital, that were in a hospital, say, for their own medical needs.

48:41 Speaker 1 Melaveh Malka.

48:41 Speaker 3 And their-

48:42 Speaker 1 Melaveh Malka, yeah.

48:43 Speaker 3 But, no, there's many people. Uh, uh, the, the people that the Rebbe told them, "If you're there, it's baash kahapratis in order for you to do m- in the mitzvah.

48:52 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm. Yep.

48:53 Speaker 3 So it's the same idea that like, "What do you mean? I'm, I'm going to the hospital because I need a procedure."

48:59 Speaker 1 Right.

49:00 Speaker 3 No. You need a procedure is because that's your shlichus.

49:04 Speaker 1 Yeah.

49:05 Speaker 3 That's, that's why, that's why you're going to meet this Jewish doctor who you would have never met.

49:09 Speaker 1 Yeah.

49:10 Speaker 3 So obviously, you have to, you have to put on tefillin. You have to do mitzvah. Actually, recently, I was in the hospital. My son had a procedure, and, uh, someone... I was texting someone, so someone said-

49:19 Speaker 1 After today, you see him?

49:20 Speaker 3 Yeah, it was, um, Baruch Hashem. And, um, someone text... I was texting someone. Some, somebody wrote, "Okay, by the way, show him the kind the Rebbe said, ah, the mitzvah." I had my tefillin with me. I was all geared up, you know, you know. I, I, I had to read the Machshiru article to be inspired, you know, to, to, to... And I was all geared up, and the doctor had a nice Jewish name. Turns out he wasn't Jewish, so it, it didn't work out in that, that scenario.

49:47 Speaker 1 But how could that be shlichus? Your shlichus then was to inspire yourself in that minute. That was your shlichus.

49:52 Speaker 3 Exactly. Yeah.

49:54 Speaker 1 Whatever the circumstances are, there's always your shlichus. If no such thing is n- If no such thing is not, you're not on your shlichus now.

49:58 Speaker 3 And there's, and the seven mitzvahs also, right?

50:01 Speaker 1 Right. I mean, even if it's not, uh, reaching out to somebody else, even if it's your own, that's your shlichus now, right? Even, even if you're the penimses, you're shlichus. If you're-

50:08 Speaker 3 By the way-

50:09 Speaker 1 It-

50:09 Speaker 3 This, this also has to do with the whole idea of shlichus. Um, I mean, for-- I've seen so many letters from the Rebbe, people wanted to move places.

50:20 Speaker 1 Mm.

50:21 Speaker 3 They wanted to leave, they wanted to mo-- or, or give up their job or, you know, looking for something, you know, the grass is greener, some type of other opportunity. And the Rebbe very often... I mean, obviously, this is a and the Rebbe did let people move, but, but as, as a, as a rule, Rebbe's discouraging people from, from just picking up and, and, and moving. And usually the Rebbe says, "What do you mean? You're influential in your community. You have hasgacha." For sure, if you're a rabbi or you're in a or something like that, that's for sure. But even if not, it's, you know, like the whole concept that people wanna make aliyah.

50:55 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

50:56 Speaker 3 Uh, so usually the Rebbe's telling people that when you-- there's something to do here, and that's why you're here. So it's all part of the same concept that there's a about this, and a about this is that you-- and you're a shliach to, to, to, to your place. And it's just I, I, I, I think, I think-

51:14 Speaker 1 Now we have the

51:17 Speaker 3 Right. Right. And it's a very foreign concept to people that they're not exposed to the Rebbe's point of view.

51:22 Speaker 1 Right.

51:23 Speaker 3 Because-

51:23 Speaker 1 If otherwise you're the shliach you meant to receive from. You receive from your rabbi, you s-

51:27 Speaker 3 Right.

51:27 Speaker 1 It's your rabbi.

51:28 Speaker 3 My contract is, my contract is done, and, um, I'm going to make aliyah or-

51:33 Speaker 1 Right

51:33 Speaker 3 ... whatever, have a better business opportunity, you know, uh, moving to, to, to somewhere else, like next. Like, w-w... The community? What, what, what do I owe the community?

51:42 Speaker 1 Yeah.

51:42 Speaker 3 What do you mean? Do you know what you do in the community? Do you know how influential you are? Do you know how good a positive influence you have on your friends? Do you know what your role is? People are not even thinking that way.

51:49 Speaker 1 Yeah.

51:50 Speaker 3 They're not, they're not even realizing their, their own worth. It's a-

51:52 Speaker 1 So the, the mayor I was talking about, the mayor of Hampstead, had a story like that. It's in the Chabad.org article. You can have a look at it. He, um, was thinking of moving for whatever reason, and he went to the oil with my father, and there they met with a certain person and had a farbrengen about this idea that if you're somewhere, it's because you have an influence and you have an impact. And lo and behold, the impact he had af-after that is not just in Hampstead, where we live, the major, I mean, incredible partnership we have with the city and being able to do a lot of the hafatzah that we do. Uh, just a small example, every Rosh Hashanah, uh, we have a shofar in the park, in every single park in this, in the, in the square mile. It's 11 parks. Every park has a shofar blowing, and the people who do the shofar are our Mekubalim as part of the Slichim project. So we learnt the halachas, we learnt how to do shofar. 11 guys go out, and 2,000 people hear the shofar on Rosh Hashanah. I mean, it's . It's not, it's, it's, it's, it's wild. But for that, you need a partnership with the city, right? So this is one example, but many of the examples of things we do in the city that we have this partnership, and all thanks to the fact that he went to the oil and had this farbrengen and was inspired by

52:56 Speaker 1 this idea that if you're in somewhere, this is your shluchus to stay there. And after, um, some over the attack in Eretz Yisrael, and especially in Canada with all kinds of antisemitism that was going on, our municipality, through this mayor, became like a, a voice for pro-Yiddishkite, unabarrased, unabashed, and he was, like, quoted in the newspapers all over the country. Not because he decided to stay and take the achrayus of... You know, accept that, that role of just lay out here in, in, in, in Hampstead and not go off to another city which he thought would be more comfortable for him. This mamash happened to us.

53:27 Speaker 3 It's beautiful. It's beautiful.

53:28 Speaker 1 Yeah. So yeah, I encourage you to read the article.

53:31 Speaker 3 And it's also... And I, I... Over the years, and I speak to Anash, and there's a certain sentiment. So first of all, the Rebbe is very clear that mitzvos ha-asah, the Rebbe uses that terminology, is everyone should go on shluchus.

53:45 Speaker 1 Okay.

53:45 Speaker 3 So obviously, that's the ideal thing that the Rebbe wants, to actually do shluchus.

53:49 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

53:51 Speaker 3 Yeah. and developing Yiddishkite, right?

53:53 Speaker 1 Yeah.

53:54 Speaker 3 Um, on the other hand, we're talking about this idea that someone that's not is also a shliach. So I, I, I realized that as I've been speaking to people, and I notice a little bit of a trend, es-especially with older people, you know, people that are probably sitting in their late fifties, sixties, there's almost like a regret. And they look around, and they see this huge shliach, this famous guy. "Hey, they're all my friends, and I was supposed to go here, and I was supp- I was gonna go there, and I was gonna go here." You know, like they, they were about to go there. They wanted to go. They-- But it's almost like, "And I, and then I didn't, and so now, you know, he's the big shliach, and I'm the, the, the, this guy. You know, I'm making money, I'm not making money, whatever." And it's like, it's like a regret. They're like, "Okay, fine. Uh, done. Over." But ultimately, that's not the right attitude. Yeah, maybe you should have gone or-

54:40 Speaker 1 Right. It's an opportunity

54:41 Speaker 3 ... and, and, and could you, could you if you, if you could do it today, I don't think you can, but if you could, you know, go do it. But, but when you say you're not done, what do you-- how are you involved in the Rebbe's mission? How, how, how are you a shliach, a shliach today? Like, h-how are you spreading Yiddishkite? How are you spreading chassidus? Uh, like-

54:55 Speaker 1 Right. One of the biggest-

54:55 Speaker 3 What are you doing?

54:56 Speaker 1 ... positive changes of the last fifteen years is this.

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56:33 Speaker 1 First of all, all those people you're talking about have children or nephews or cousins in Ashlakees.

56:37 Speaker 3 Right.

56:38 Speaker 1 Children themselves, they have, they have their own children in Ashlakees, and that becomes a big part of their own, uh, like being committed to the Rebbe's yanim is the supporting of their own children or their, or their brother that went Ashlakees or their, their, you know, their, their nephew. It's a big part of being a Lubavitcher today, even no matter where you're living and if you're not technically in Ashlakees. And especially, especially specifically Crown Heights, which spend its time hosting shluchim and their makarovim what, ten times a year?

57:02 Speaker 3 Yeah, it's like every other Shabbos, you know.

57:03 Speaker 1 It's not normal.

57:05 Speaker 3 Yeah.

57:05 Speaker 1 It's actually crazy. It's, it's literally the Hachnasat Orchim capital of the world. Like, hands down, it's not even a shaylach. Your shalom can boast until tomorrow. It doesn't have anything on Crown Heights. No, seriously. Between, between Tishrei, Yehudi Shvat, Chof Beshvat, Keneses Shluchim, uh, then this Shabbaton, that Shabbaton, that Shabbaton, and the Gilat Amas, and then Yafas. It's not-- it's, it's nonstop. I mean, I know for my own siblings who live there constantly have, you know, ask my siblings if I can stay there for a night. I have this one come, this one come. Okay, this room is available, you know? Totally normal on a random Shabbos. It, it's the contribution that, uh... It's one of the beautiful shifts over the last fifteen years is, like, the universality of the contribution that Lubavitch is doing to the Rebbe's mission, including these people you're talking about in Crown Heights, either through their support or pushing, opening their homes up to their shluchim in an amazing way.

57:48 Speaker 3 Well, we, we know it's a, it's a, it's a-- this is an old thing. It's not a chiddush the last fifteen years.

57:53 Speaker 1 It is not.

57:53 Speaker 3 When the Rebbe started the Miftzoyim, who do you think half the people doing the Miftzoyim? You know how many Baal Batim in Crown Heights were going on Sundays-

58:01 Speaker 1 Yeah.

58:01 Speaker 3 -to do mitzvotillon?

58:02 Speaker 1 Yeah.

58:03 Speaker 3 Who do you think hosted all the, all the, all the, all the college campus, uh, the pig- for the pigisha? What do you think they said? This, this-

58:09 Speaker 1 Yeah.

58:10 Speaker 3 There are many, many families-

58:11 Speaker 1 I think the level they're at today is, like, way, way higher than it was. The level-

58:15 Speaker 3 Oh, for sure. No.

58:16 Speaker 1 Crazy.

58:16 Speaker 3 I know what I'm saying.

58:17 Speaker 1 Yeah, certainly started then. Yes, certainly. Certainly started then.

58:19 Speaker 3 I'm saying this, this is the way it was supposed to be from the beginning. This is not-- this, this, this is what it is. This is, this is the idea.

58:25 Speaker 1 Yeah.

58:26 Speaker 3 Okay.

58:26 Speaker 1 No, for a lot of these cultures changing, it started once and then grew, right? I was talking to someone, an older person who is talking about a shliach moving to a small town and like, "Oh, you know, you know." How many even live there already? They know the Rebbe's Tisha think. Know the Rebbe's Tisha think. You know, our, our vision for what the Rebbe saw forty years ago, sixty, seventy years ago, it's, it's radically shifted. Like, it, it took us time to catch up. You know, saying the Rebbe's saying things ahead of time. You know, it's like the Rebbe's speaking, you know, now we can say twenty years in event. We're, we're trying to catch up and trying to see how, how broad the vision is and how big it is and how, how really it's all-encompassing. Really, really he means it when he says everybody's needed. He really means it. He really means it when he says that everybody has to contribute. He wasn't joking. He wasn't trying to make you feel good about yourself. He meant that he actually needs it. That's really what's needed to happen now. Everybody has to be a shliach. He wasn't just making you feel good 'cause you don't have a badge at the Kinus. You know, that wasn't the point. He, he really meant it. Everybody has to be a shliach. Anyway.

59:26 Speaker 3 Okay. So, um, so obviously the way you underappreciate all of this, I think, is... I mean, you have to be plugged into the Rebbe in order to, to, to appreciate this and understand this, and that's gonna happen through learning Torah, learning Chassidus, learning the Rebbe's sichas. Which maybe I could-- maybe I should focus a little bit on that a little bit, because I know a lot of what you do in MTC is mamish teaching.

59:51 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

59:53 Speaker 3 Um, I think that's like a, a-- and you said that already, but that, that's a huge part of, of, of, of what you're doing. So how does that, how does the, the Limud Torah and the Limud Chassidus, like, how do you see that affecting people's minds? And by-- a-and I'm assuming your own might be learning more now than in, uh, than in yeshiva.

1:00:15 Speaker 1 I think-

1:00:15 Speaker 3 You know, 'cause you, 'cause you actually have to understand it 'cause you have to be able to teach it to someone else.

1:00:20 Speaker 1 Yeah. My father has the college boy rule. If you wanna demonstrate if you act to yourself, if you actually understand what you're learning is if you can explain it to an intelligent college student, then you know you understood it.

1:00:30 Speaker 3 I don't know how intelligent the college students are today.

1:00:32 Speaker 1 No. I mean, uh, you take this one talk to an educated person, and you... Educated person who has no, has no background in Yiddishkeit, and you can explain it to that person, then you know you understood it.

1:00:41 Speaker 3 Right.

1:00:41 Speaker 1 Except they ought to, uh, which is not my side thing, just the importance of finding language that, that, that, that, uh, that talks to you. And learning Chassidus in such a way that it actually talks to you. Right? Simon Jacobson, Rabbi Simon Jacobson shares a story. He said it at one-- I, I didn't hear it from him directly. I heard it in one of his classes he was giving, where he was a chozer, and at the same time, he was also teaching Tanya and Beshivkah in Crown Heights. And, uh, I, I guess as a result, he had, uh, access to the Rebbe in a way that maybe some others didn't. So he asked the Rebbe if he can translate ki korov elochei davka moed, the word korov in the front, in, in the daf haShar Tanya, which is u-usually translated as close or near. He wanted to know if he can translate it as relevant. And if I remember the story correctly, if you ever speak to him, you can ask him directly, the Rebbe made a check on the word-

1:01:34 Speaker 3 It's relevant.

1:01:35 Speaker 1 Relevant. So now, lavar heit dit, explained very well, echu korov moed, how it is exceedingly relevant to serve Hashem with your mind and heart. So it's a small change, but changes everything, right? So, you know, like whenever I'm teaching, it's like, okay, it's not the Rebbe said that everybody has a nefesh elokis, a nefesh behamis. Do you feel like you have two people inside you? If you don't, then you didn't understand what Tanya said, 'cause it's talking about you, not... It's not a theoretical thing about people who have... About some mythical creature who has two nefishes. No, you have two nefishes. So unless you, unless you understand how that applies to what you're feeling and thinking, then- You're not reading it correctly, right? Tanya's, uh, Yechidas. So unless he's talking to some issue that you have, then you're not, you know, we're not learning it correctly. So just push to find language that actually talks to you in the way you... Not language as in English versus Yiddish, it could be in any language you want. Language in the sense of, um, the, the way the message is received and the way the message is communicated in such a way that it actually is relevant to what you're, to what you're, to what you're living with and what you're dealing with, right? Um, so ha-having, having said that, and I have to give, you know, full credit to Berish, Berish is my, my father's my teacher for, you know, before I went to yeshiva, I

1:02:45 Speaker 1 was learning from this, my father. So that's really my first, uh, first, uh, primary teacher and, and specifically in this regard, to be able to find language that is relevant. Not, not, you know, not, not hide behind the Maimonides language to say that you understood it, you know. You repeat back to him, hide behind the word-

1:03:00 Speaker 3 I just wanna-

1:03:01 Speaker 1 Sorry?

1:03:01 Speaker 3 I wanna throw in mix of , but, uh, I happened to bump into you Sunday morning of the or maybe it's Friday morning of this year at seven seventy, and we ended up learning a Maimonides together.

1:03:17 Speaker 1 Oh, that's right. The . yeah.

1:03:21 Speaker 3 You were looking for me to continue. And I was actually very amazed how you learned the Maimonides. That first of all, you translated every word, and you made sure that not just, you know, people like rattle off like a, a concept, and they, they, like you're saying, hide behind Maim- the Maimonides words. The, the-- you're explaining it in the same thing that is said in the Maimonides without actually understanding what it, what that word, what, what, what it's saying to you.

1:03:46 Speaker 1 Right.

1:03:46 Speaker 3 I, I, I saw this, I saw... I never wa- you know, watched or attended your shiurim, and so I'm learning with you that you embody this.

1:03:53 Speaker 1 Yeah, it's definitely something I, I learned from my father for sure. Uh, try to do as best I can. But even what I've learned myself, in my own mind, I try to translate everything into English. In-- The language I speak, that's how I speak, right? I speak and think in English. Okay, so then, then translate it into that language, that you can actually understand what you're saying. In that regard, learning with somebody else compels you to do that because, again, you can't hide behind the words. The person needs to understand what you're saying, so you have to actually use words that the person, that the person understands, right? So it, it kinda compels you to, to dig deeper and make sure you're understanding it more correctly and more properly, so that you can communicate it, uh, in such a way. And certainly, uh, preparation is like, is key. Again, something I learned from my father who told me that if you don't prepare for your shiurim, it's like, it means you're not respecting your crowd. They came and took off time to listen to you, then the least you can do is prepare to say something that's meaningful to them, right? So which means you have to push up, learn on your own. Sit and learn, right? And then, uh, be-beyond that, I mean, everybody, everybody has to throw around word a lot, you know. Every chassid has to X. Everybody likes to throw that word a lot. But as they state in the holy

1:05:00 Speaker 1 books, everybody has to have a creeds of learning chassidis, right? Being a Shliach or big balabos doesn't exempt you from that. Being a busy father doesn't exempt you.

1:05:08 Speaker 3 This was the

1:05:09 Speaker 1 yeah. Just learn on your own.

1:05:10 Speaker 3 Not, not, not, not to prepare for the shiur.

1:05:11 Speaker 1 Not to prepare for shiur, correct. Learn because you have a state of limudus. A state of limudus. You learn the same wayfen. Learn the same way where you're translating the words to English in yourself, to yourself, and making sure you're understanding what you're saying. But everybody, if they, if, uh, uh, uh, uh, a state of limud, that's a that's relevant. Using that word is relevant to you. Um, and even if it, even if you don't use it in a shiur, it ends up, it ends up c-uh, contributing. I think it was, uh, I think it was there by in Detroit. Rebbe told him, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's memory. Rebbe told him before went on shlichus that he should learn a few more to this, right?

1:05:46 Speaker 3 I'm not fa-- I don't... I'm not, not familiar.

1:05:48 Speaker 1 I-I could be left asked by his grandkids, they'll, they'll know better for sure. But I'm quite sure that Rebbe told him something to the effect of each as a preparation for shlichus, he should learn more chassidus and Nigla. First of all, you'll learn, you'll have more to say. You'll, you'll know more. And then Rebbe said something to the effect of, "Give a lamb in this ." I think that was the lotion, something along those lines. Which means if you yourself are a person that's quote unquote, "A lamb," which means you're involved in the world of learning and you're absorbing Torah, then whatever you're teaching, even if you're not teaching that what you learned, but what you're teaching gets heard better because you're not just a person who's, you know, regurgitating something you read that morning. You're a person that's a person living in chassidus and living in Torah, living in them. And when you speak, it comes out.

1:06:26 Speaker 3 I mean, a lamb is from the Rebbe, I think, I think it's from the Rebbe Rashab. A lamb is Yeah. It's not some... A lamb is not someone that knows how to learn, someone that learns.

1:06:36 Speaker 1 Yeah, correct. That's right. And it, it, it has, it definitely has its impact in all regards that when, you know, you're communicating with people, your own learning comes through even without, even without trying, even without specifically teaching that thing. But it comes through because, because it becomes part of who you are, right? That's the idea. And that's part of the chassidus, right? That's part of the chassidus is to-

1:06:57 Speaker 3 How do... What, what do you see the, the, the... in the people that are learning, that you're learning with, how do you see it affecting them?

1:07:07 Speaker 1 Right. So-

1:07:07 Speaker 3 Changing them.

1:07:08 Speaker 1 Yeah. There's definitely times when you can see as you're learning with someone, like they slowly start to like, their eyes start to slowly open up, and they start to think diff- They start to... You can see the wheels turning. You know, you just have to like pause what you're saying 'cause their wheels are turning, and if you talk, talk more, they're not even hearing what you're saying because they're still trying to process something that's so radical and so different to what they, to what they, uh, have thought previously. I'll give you an example, okay? So I, I'll use the example of the, the eye that we've mentioned before, right? So if this new modern, uh, moda, everybody has to love themselves. It's a very, it's a very, it's a thing nowadays. I'm sure people like you and me are not aware of this, but it exists out there in the world. Present com- present company excluded, but it exists. This thing exists out there in the world. People are very busy with loving themselves. And okay, so what does that mean, and how does, how does Torah chassidus respond to that? Yeah. So Torah says, "love your fellow as you love yourself." So Torah assumes you love yourself.

1:08:07 Speaker 3 Yeah. So that, that's part of the line that this school of thought likes to say that-

1:08:13 Speaker 1 Of course

1:08:13 Speaker 3 ... you can't love, you can't love your s-- anyone else if you don't love yourself. Okay.

1:08:16 Speaker 1 Of course. I don't know how many purushim were written about loving yourself Since that posuk was written

1:08:19 Speaker 3 Usually avis atsam is a negative thing when it's talked about in a negative-

1:08:23 Speaker 1 Exactly. But that, but that-- Isn't that funny? So loving yourself... And, and the truth is, again, present company included, but it-- when, when people that exist in the ether are very busy loving themselves, it's very difficult to lo- to like get love from them because it's-- there's like a compromise that has to be made, and that is part of the whole, part of the whole shita. You know, you're taking care of the whole world, so you gotta compromise a little bit and love your fellow so you can love yourself a little bit more.

1:08:46 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:08:46 Speaker 1 That's the, that's the whole shita. Which is the opposite of the posuk said. The posuk said, "Love thyself." I'm gonna love my-

1:08:51 Speaker 3 Like you don't have what to contribute to others if your bucket's empty. You know, that, that type of thing.

1:08:56 Speaker 1 Right. Exactly. So stop taking care of everybody, stop loving everybody else, and make sure you love yourself a little bit. Right? Which, which is like the opposite of the posuk. The posuk is love your fellow just like you love yourself, and somehow the love of myself is supposed to be an extension and bleed into loving the other, when in reality it seems, at least the way it's projected today, that it's a contradiction. Loving myself versus loving somebody else. It's gonna-- one's gonna have to give, right?

1:09:17 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:09:17 Speaker 1 Anyways, I w- I was thinking about this, and the truth is that if you look in, uh, in Tanya and Pe'er HaBais, right? The Alter Rebbe talks about ahavat Yisroel. Pe'er HaBais, which is a standalone perek really, right? In theory, you can skip Lamed Aleph, Lamed Gimel, and, uh, in Madonna Kamar Tanya it actually does.

1:09:36 Speaker 3 It was added.

1:09:37 Speaker 1 It was added after. It was added after.

1:09:39 Speaker 3 And by the way, I, I also noticed in the new Tanya Hashelim-

1:09:43 Speaker 1 Yeah

1:09:43 Speaker 3 ... that almost all the Perushim in that perek is only from the Rebbe.

1:09:47 Speaker 1 Like it's incredible. It's mamash incredible.

1:09:50 Speaker 3 Usually it's like the Rebbe and other Rebbe, and that perek is like o- it's like only the Rebbe. Like, and, and how many times did the Rebbe mention this perek?

1:09:56 Speaker 1 Oh, he had a conversation with, uh, something about, about Rebbe's Maftirchis. The Rebbe has Maftirchis Tanya, but how the Rebbe qualified that perek also. It's Achdus. It's, it's, it's very interesting. Anyway, it meaning Pe'er HaBais is, is part of-- is under the Achdus, uh, entry in Mat-- in the Mateah.

1:10:12 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:10:12 Speaker 1 As opposed to Ahavah.

1:10:14 Speaker 3 Okay.

1:10:14 Speaker 1 Which is interesting. Like that's... All there is the Yorum in, in Pe'er HaBais.

1:10:17 Speaker 3 That's, that's what it is, that, you know-

1:10:18 Speaker 1 Right. Achdus-

1:10:19 Speaker 3 Achdus HaBavon

1:10:20 Speaker 1 ... of course Pe'er HaBais comes to Achdus Yisroel, not to Ahavas Yisroel, but that's, uh... Anyway, so Pe'er HaBais comes in the he-heels of Lamed Aleph, right? Where-

1:10:27 Speaker 3 Are you s- Is that, is that... You're saying Achdus... Not Achdus Yisroel.

1:10:31 Speaker 1 Entry Achdus, Pe'er HaBais. Well, Achdus Yisroel is there too, actually, in the same entry. In Achdus, it lists all the various different forms of Achdus, including Pe- including Pe'er HaBais amongst few. Anyway, if I remember correctly. Someone, someone will correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, so Lamed Beis comes after Lamed Aleph, right? Now, in, in Lamed Aleph, the Alter Rebbe says like this, which comes after Chaf Tes Lamed, where the person went through a whole process of like, uh, critical self-analysis. Right? The person looks in the mirror and says, "Okay, this is hideous. I'm self-absorbed here. I'm-- This, this-- I'm, I'm fault-- I'm lying about that," and then all these different things you're supposed to tell yourself about, about yourself. Like very, very critical that Alter Rebbe is. Really. Then at the end of Lamed Aleph, the Rebbe said-- the Alter Rebbe says, "Okay, so you can't serve God like that. You can't serve God beating yourself up. You have to, you have to come out of that, come to a Simcha." Right? That's the transition in Pe'er HaLamed Aleph between being self-critical versus having a joy. And then he says Rebbe work like this, "Everything you said to yourself about how hideous and terrible you are, all true. They're all true of my ego. All true of my ego. But beneath that, there's a neshamah which is one with the Aibishter and never got corrupted. It's perfect, pure, and not self-absorbed. It's only committed to the cause, and I'm gonna make my mission to

1:11:50 Speaker 1 express that." And from there he goes to Pe'er HaBais. Now, basically what you're focused on is that pure neshamah, then you can love everybody else 'cause everybody else also has a neshamah. So love your fellow as you love yourself. Question is, which of your self are you loving? If you're loving the egotistical self, yes, that's gonna be a contradiction to love your fellow. You're not gonna be able to do it. You have to love-

1:12:12 Speaker 3 And, and there might not be so much to love. You know, there might be some faults.

1:12:16 Speaker 1 Sorry?

1:12:17 Speaker 3 There might be some, some negative things that you don't really-

1:12:19 Speaker 1 Exactly

1:12:19 Speaker 3 ... you don't really love. Not everything, not everything that you possess is lovable.

1:12:23 Speaker 1 Yeah. There's a lot to deal with, right? That was the last few chapters. But now understand that the love yourself is not the ego. It's not take care of yourself, love yourself. It's love yourself because you have a perfect, pure neshamah that's on a mission from the Aibishter. And if that's what you're loving, then you see that everybody else, not a contradiction anymore. Not a contradiction anymore, right? So this is like just an example. Just recently where we had, I had a shiur like this and, you know, at the beginning when I'm kind of jo-- half-jokingly, half-seriously ex- describing what it means to love yourself, you know, everybody's smirking 'cause they all know what that's like, you know. And then you say something like, "Oh, and the person who's busy loving themselves, they're very hard to hang out with because they don't have a lot of time to love you back." And you can see them smirking 'cause everybody knows you know, everybody knows someone like that. And then when you introduce this idea that, uh, who's the true you? Who is the real you that you're accentuating here? If the you you're accentuating is self-advancement, then of course everybody in life is gonna be in compit- competition with you. It's gonna be miserable 'cause you're constantly trying to compete with everybody else that's also trying to advance themselves. But the moment you start to realize the real, the real you is the part of you that never got corrupted, right? The then everything becomes

1:13:31 Speaker 1 beautiful 'cause everybody is like that, right? Or like, uh, you know, you, you start to see people's eyes open up and they, you know... This is a small example of like, it's not just a shift in Ahavas Yisroel, it's a shift of like, "Okay, what do I think of myself in the world? Who, who am I in this world? What's my objective here? What am I doing? Just self-advancement, get more stuff, make a bigger house? Like what's, what's, what's, where's the goal? Where am I going? What am I doing? Who am I?" Right? So these are small things that we take for granted as Lubavitchers 'cause we grew up learning Chabad, but they're monumental shifts in people thinking-

1:14:01 Speaker 3 Yeah

1:14:01 Speaker 1 ... when they introduce them to each other for the first time.

1:14:03 Speaker 3 I had that experience... A-another example that I had learning with someone, um, I learn every Thursday night with a few people. I basically learn the Kos Der Sechas, Chelek Aleph through Daled, you know, depending. I actually read it in, in Yiddish.

1:14:18 Speaker 1 Rebbe Shimon Bar.

1:14:19 Speaker 3 Yeah. I read it in Yiddish and I translate it. Doesn't happen every Thursday night, but it's consistent over many years. It happens, you know, often. Um, I just re-- I read it and translate, kiftzete. And like you're saying, when you translate it, you have to be able to under-- say it for every single concept in English, so you end up learning it well and teaching it well. So one of the people I once had a conversation like, "What would you think about like tzedakah, like cont- contributing?" And the person said, "I have a different philosophy about tzedakah and what charity means. It's a different thing, you know?" And I'm like, "Okay. No problem." I left it where, where it was. Then one, uh, many-- uh, one, one, one Thursday night, we're learning a sicha about... The Rebbe started speaking about tzedakah. It's a famous sicha. The Rebbe says that tzedakah, the word, is not translated properly in English. It's as charity, and that's the wrong translation 'cause it's not charity, it's righteousness. Right. It's, it's the right thing to do. Tzedakah means tzedek. It's the right thing to do, and therefore why is it the right thing to do? Because if you look at the world and the, and, you know, the Aibishter is here, and you're there, and it's, you made the money, therefore it's your money, and therefore why would I part with my money, give it to somebody else? Okay, so obviously tzedakah doesn't really make sense unless you're particularly generous or

1:15:40 Speaker 3 you like doing this. But if, if you know what tzedakah actually means, and this, and that all comes from the Aibishter, and you're the, the gizbar, the one that Hashem has entrusted to hold the money in order to give the tzedakah, and that, then it's tzedek. That's the right thing to do. As I remember that moment where that same person that I had that conversation with that told me it's a different philosophy about charity, which, which I didn't even attempt to change his philosophy. When he learned, when he learned the f- in the chidush, he learned it from the Rebbe, I just, I saw like the, the, the light bulbs go off- Yeah ... like in his mind. Like, "Oh my gosh," like, "I never thought about that." Like, uh, "That's crazy." Like, like, and that's how like you can see radical shifts in people's mindset, Pasha, from lear- from, from, from, from, from, from limud haTorah. A- a- and- I'll share a good story in that regard. Go, go ahead. No, I'm saying but this is, this is, this is... We're talking about we're, we're picking on the guy that doesn't know so much because, you know- Right ... g- g- because they take you more seriously maybe. But, um, or was that- No, it's also for you not to take for granted. Right. When you- When you see it ... compare to someone that doesn't have what you have, you start to see what you have. Right. But so I'm saying the same

1:16:40 Speaker 3 thing for us. All these things that you talked about earlier, I mean, the shliach and everything and, and many other concepts, you need to constantly pump yourself up- Mm-hmm ... with- Like a pickle Dylan. The- Remind yourself. No, yeah, you know, and I'm saying with, with learning. Yeah. And- Oh, on that one. Yeah ... do you know what i- it, it... What do you think you get the, the, the... Where do you think you get this from? Yeah, you get this from learning Torah and learning chidush and the Rebbe's teaching. I'm saying, flat, I'm saying this is going, how you're gonna, mind's gonna be shaped, and if you can't rely on, on what you did 10 years ago because you probably didn't understand 10 years ago. W- what were you saying? You had an example. Uh, so just first, but it's not just that you don't, didn't understand 10 years ago, but you're a different person 10 years ago. Right. And, and if you're talking about chidush being relevant, what was relevant to you 10 years ago is not necessarily relevant to you now, right? Just from the stories that Rebbe in Yechidus, you can kind of see that, where like problems that a 13-year-old have, they were took with the same seriousness as, you know, the Prime Minister of Israel coming with his problems because in this kid's world, that's a real thing, right? So whatever's relevant to that person at that time, that's what they have to learn for. So you're, you're 10

1:17:45 Speaker 3 years, you're 10 years advanced in your life, so you're, you have... The relevancy is 10 years more advanced than it was then. Yeah. You know, so you have to learn it again to talk to your, to talk to who you are now today. Mm-hmm. Anyway, the example I was gonna give you about tzedakah, a real world example of this, you know, links back to that be- idea of being a shliach is... So my, my father's father, alav ha-gezont, um, is a businessman. Wasn't a... Was- wasn't, isn't a card-carrying, uh, Lubavitcher per se. He doesn't wear a bentam. His clean-shaven beard. Um, whatever, I'm not gonna get the whole story now of his connection to Lubavitch and how it all happened, but the bottom line is that he married a Lubavitch woman, and he was involved in Lubavitch ever since then. Um, so he was the secretary of the yeshiva, the executive secretary of the yeshiva from its inception till he retired, and my uncle Chaim, alav ha-shalom, we mentioned before, he took over from my grandfather's position. Now, in his capacity as the secretary, he ended up giving exorbitant amounts of tzedakah to the, to the, to the school. In Melbourne. And in Melbourne. And not always, or most times not, a campaign where his name was gonna go onto the billboard. It was more, and I'm gonna tell you that my grandfather told me these stories. He, you know, Rabbi Groner would call him up and say, "Max, payroll's coming next week, and we're

1:18:57 Speaker 3 short 40. 40,000." Beautifully, my grandfather would write a check, give it to him, and that was the end of it. And a couple months later, the same thing happens. "Max, we're coming up to the payroll. We're short 20." You know, my grandfather was telling me these stories. You know, when I was in shlichus in Melbourne there, he's telling me these stories. And, um, and he's telling me all these different stories about circumstances that happened and why someone messed up, and because that person messed up, they were short the payroll, and now he had to pay for it. And at the end of this whole thing, I'm like, "Zayde, I don't understand. Like, you just give away money like that? Like, my highs, like what's going on?" Um, so he told me something. He said it so nonchalantly, and I don't even think he'll have remembered even s- even being... Even having said it, 10 minutes later, he probably forgot he said it. You know, it was so mamish casual. He said to me, he's like, "L'hai, you gotta understand something." He said, "Because I'm not talented enough to be a teacher, therefore I get to be rich." I'm like, "What are you talking about?" Not that like Max knew he was a rich guy 'cause he's very smart and very clever, did a lot of good business. And in his graciousness, he decides he's gonna bequeath some of his hard-earned money to yeshiva because he thinks yeshiva's a good cause. That's not what he said.

1:19:59 Speaker 3 It's like, oh, like, like since when am I supposed to have the money more than somebody else? It was like such, it was such a paskas. Like I, uh, you know... It's one of those like moments that I hope to, you know, never forget that 'cause it doesn't matter what... Like I said, for him it was money, and for somebody else it's something else. But the, it's the same with the being a shliach. It's y- what you are and what you have is not the, uh, yours, your ego. "I, these are my things." No, no. You're the, you're a shliach, and you're being given tools for your shlichus, and that's what, that's what, that's why they exist. That's why all these things exist. Tools for your shlichus. And everybody in their, everybody in their oyfn, in their way. I guess we have to take this seriously. Take the shlichus seriously. Take the shlichus seriously. Take limud haTorah seriously, definitely. Okay. Take yirat shamayim. So thank you for inspiring me and, uh, others, and, uh, I hope that, uh, there'll be an... One more person will be plugged in from, uh, from our conversation. Thank you for the opportunity, and again, thank you for your shlichus that you're doing. Everybody contributes in their way, and we're all, we're all the same mission. It's all to bring the Geulah, to bring the Geulah to the world, to bring the Geulah Rebbe in the world, and everybody plays their part in their place. Okay. All right. Hatzlacha rabba.

1:21:17 Speaker 3 Lehagezont. Thank you.