Ep. 68: I Couldn’t Tell You What The Rebbe Had Just Said with Rabbi Manis Friedman

00:00 Speaker 1 Anyway, so then I find out that the Rebbe listened to the sicha. So I asked Krinsky again, if the Rebbe was worried about my translation, why didn't he listen after the first? And he didn't say anything after the second. Rabbi Krinsky said, "You don't know the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He didn't check to see if you were doing a good job. He checked to see what he could do to make it easier."

00:28 Speaker 2 If you've been enjoying this podcast, please like and subscribe so that others can enjoy it as well. In addition, if you've benefited in any way from Among Chassidim podcast and would like to give something back, you can do so today at derher.org/donate. I'm Yossi Kamen. Welcome to Among Chassidim by Derher, an ongoing fabrengen about life as a Chassid, our vibrant connection with the Rebbe, and inspired living shaped by the way he teaches us each and every day. Shalom Aleichem, Rabbi Friedman. How are you?

01:11 Speaker 1 Baruch Hashem. Thanks for the invitation.

01:14 Speaker 2 Thank you for being here. It is my honor and pleasure. And I would like to ask you and begin with, you had a brother, famous brother on this podcast, Avraham Fried. We spoke a little bit about the family background, but not in depth or at length. So maybe you can tell me where does the Friedman family come from and how they eventually came into Lubavitch. You could start a generation or two ago, if you don't mind.

01:44 Speaker 1 Well, like most, uh, European families who went through the difficult war, we weren't told much. It was not a subject. It was like the past was gone, leave it alone, don't wanna go there anymore. So we really don't know much. We're still finding out. I had an uncle I never knew about, a cousin I never knew about. So we, we don't know that much. So Avraham wasn't being mysterious. He just... The family, as far as we know, started off in a little town in Poland called Kranitza. It was like a resort. And my grandfather's, uh, relative, he was-- had a hotel. And there was no yeshiva there other than the Bobova yeshiva. So my father ended up going to a Bobova yeshiva.

02:45 Speaker 2 So your grandfather wasn't necessarily a Bobo-

02:47 Speaker 1 Grandfather was a Bluzhova, Bluzhova. And, um, they were very Chashuva Mishpacha, Kohen, a Mi Yuchasan. There were some Rebbes who would send people who already had their, their Pidyon HaBen to go again to the Friedman, uh, Kohen, 'cause they're Mi Yuchasam. And, uh, one of my brothers was in Yechidas, and the Rebbe said, "Kohen Mi Yuchas."

03:15 Speaker 2 Mm.

03:15 Speaker 1 So I guess it's true.

03:18 Speaker 2 Yeah.

03:21 Speaker 1 And my grandfather was a big Talmid Chaham. We didn't know until after he passed away. He wrote a whole Sefer of Gematrias. Limoz in Gematrias, brilliant mathematician. Anyway, uh, when the Nazis came to Poland, of course, like everybody-- other, other Polish citizens, they ran into Russia. The Russians invited them to-

03:45 Speaker 2 Where is it geographically?

03:47 Speaker 1 Not far. Not far from the border.

03:48 Speaker 2 I don't know. Kr-Kr-Kr-Kranitz, it's like, uh... It's near Warsaw? Like, where is it? We'll look at the map afterwards, okay?

03:57 Speaker 1 Yeah. But it was not, it was not far from the border. So they crossed the border, and they were invited for a vacation in Siberia.

04:05 Speaker 2 Beautiful.

04:06 Speaker 1 Like most Polish. Um, after a while, they made their way down to the other extreme, the hottest part of Russia into Uzbekistan. And they settled in, uh, Tashkent. In Tashkent, of course, they, they met Lubavitchers. And, uh, that was where the relationship began.

04:39 Speaker 2 Okay.

04:40 Speaker 1 He-- My grandfather was impressed with Chassidim, and the Chassidim were impressed with him for different reasons, but-

04:48 Speaker 2 Mm.

04:52 Speaker 1 That's basically how it started.

04:54 Speaker 2 So your father was single at that time?

04:59 Speaker 1 He got married in Tashkent.

05:01 Speaker 2 In Tashkent. And your mother is from where? Not from Lubavitcher family also.

05:06 Speaker 1 No. She was from Ukraine, from, uh, Kharkiv. And they also ran into Tashkent. Her, she, her, her father, her brother, that's where they met, and that's where the shidduch happened. They got married.

05:28 Speaker 2 In Tashkent?

05:28 Speaker 1 In Tashkent. The same week that Mendel Morozov and his wife got married, and they shared the same jacket.

05:36 Speaker 2 Same jacket? Ah. The only one to go around.

05:40 Speaker 1 Yeah. So the Sheva Brachos, Mendel and f- Mendel Morozov Sheva Brachos were at my, at my father's wedding.

05:49 Speaker 2 Uh-huh. So their mamish, like, intertwined with the Lubavitchers over there in Tashkent.

05:54 Speaker 1 Mendel lived to be a hundred and one, and my mother lived to be a hundred and one.

05:57 Speaker 2 Mm. Um, so there's-- I heard a lot of stories And I haven't much, um... Well, it's actually in the head of this month, we have a little bit, uh, an article about the letters from the Leba, the new, uh, English letters that are coming out, and there's an article about Dr. Yakov Griffel. And there's a whole account there about your father's as... And your, your parents, I think, Askonus. There was a lot of things that they were involved with in Europe. What, what was that all about?

06:34 Speaker 1 Dr. Yakov Griffel had an organization that helped people get out of communist countries, among other things. They had an office in Paris, they had an office in New York, had an office in Prague. My father was living in Prague at the time.

06:52 Speaker 2 So how did he get out-

06:54 Speaker 1 In Tashkent.

06:55 Speaker 2 He went on the Shalom like everyone else? How, how'd he get out?

06:58 Speaker 1 He was a Polish citizen. He-

06:59 Speaker 2 Oh, right. Legal. He legally left.

07:02 Speaker 1 Yeah, he walked right across the border.

07:06 Speaker 2 Yeah.

07:06 Speaker 1 He sent his father out first to America.

07:10 Speaker 2 So the historical context is that whoever was a Polish citizen was granted permission to leave temporarily, you know, all the refugees and all the Labashers came with false passports.

07:21 Speaker 1 If I'm not mistaken, they actually went back to Lodz.

07:25 Speaker 2 Your parents?

07:25 Speaker 1 Yeah. And then-

07:27 Speaker 2 Why did they, why did they do that?

07:28 Speaker 1 It was easier to leave from Poland.

07:30 Speaker 2 Not to settle there.

07:31 Speaker 1 No, no.

07:32 Speaker 2 Yeah. Okay.

07:32 Speaker 1 On their way out.

07:33 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

07:34 Speaker 1 So as Polish citizens, they didn't have a problem with that. So my grandfather and my aunt were already here when we left Tashkent, and we came to Prague.

07:49 Speaker 2 We-- You were born there?

07:51 Speaker 1 I was born in Prague.

07:52 Speaker 2 In Prague, okay.

07:55 Speaker 1 I am a landsman with the Goylim.

07:57 Speaker 2 Yeah. Beautiful.

07:58 Speaker 1 Yeah. We're very tight.

08:00 Speaker 2 At least you're not the inik of the Goylim.

08:02 Speaker 1 We're very close. Um, so in Prague, Dr. Griffel, Dr. Griffel he was called, asked my father to work in his Prague office. And so for three years, my father was smuggling people out of-

08:20 Speaker 2 Out of where?

08:22 Speaker 1 Whatever communist country, whoever made it to Prague, he helped them get out, 'cause Prague was also closed already. So they needed passports, they needed visas, they needed birth certificates. He made them all fake, and he got them out. Thousands of people.

08:47 Speaker 2 I think I heard-

08:47 Speaker 1 A Gerari asked to one project that my father worked on.

08:52 Speaker 2 A shot.

08:52 Speaker 1 So, yeah.

08:54 Speaker 2 He asked him what?

08:56 Speaker 1 To help a group of, uh, Bachram to get out.

09:00 Speaker 2 So was there interaction with-- Did your father have any interaction with the Frieda Kedaba at that time?

09:06 Speaker 1 No.

09:09 Speaker 2 There's no interaction.

09:10 Speaker 1 No. When he got arrested, my father was arrested, some Bacher that he helped. When they asked him at the border, he said, uh, you-- A guy named Friedman gave him. Anyway, so they came, they arrested him.

09:28 Speaker 2 Where?

09:29 Speaker 1 In Prague.

09:29 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

09:31 Speaker 1 Actually, in all the official documents, he went by the name Fried.

09:36 Speaker 2 Ah.

09:36 Speaker 1 And we didn't know this. Ravramo changed his name to Fried.

09:39 Speaker 2 You had no idea.

09:40 Speaker 1 No. So he was in, he was in prison for six months. Uh, they wanted information, of course, and so on. So my grandfather was already in New York, so he went to the Frieda Kedaba, and he asked for a bracha for his son to get out of jail. So the Frieda Kedaba said, um, "Had et imitzion baavuld. A health doch Yidden. Stama ze alai, alai slazen." When they needed some money to bring-

10:23 Speaker 2 Which means?

10:26 Speaker 1 He didn't do anything illegal.

10:28 Speaker 2 As the Frieda Kedaba said.

10:29 Speaker 1 Yeah. He didn't do anything bad. He's helping people.

10:31 Speaker 2 Mm.

10:32 Speaker 1 They'll probably let him go. Which in some way is a compliment to the Czech people, because if it was Poland-

10:43 Speaker 2 They didn't care

10:44 Speaker 1 ... they wouldn't let him go. If it was Russia. The Czech people were not, not so terrible. Antisemitism was not as bad. Anyway, so saying he's a good man and the people will let him go, it's a big compliment to the, to the Czech government. It's also a nes. So we needed some money to bribe an official, but Griffel didn't have that kind of money. He was a small organization, and he was in competition with The Joint, and they didn't get along at all. But beles beda, they went to The Joint and asked. And the guy, the head of The Joint said, "Friedman? What, did he hurt somebody? He only helps people. We'll give you the money."

11:35 Speaker 2 Huh.

11:36 Speaker 1 Exactly the same words the Rebbe said. I heard this from some guy who was there in Postville. I was in Postville for Yom Kippur. Postville, Iowa, in the good days.

11:52 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

11:53 Speaker 1 And this guy was there, Nebuchad, uh, for the hospital. Not Postville, I'm sorry. Rochester. Uh, I would go down there for Yom Kippur, Chabad of Rochester. So he was there for the hospital, this guy from Paris. And he told me this, Micha. He didn't know the Prague. Yeah. He didn't know what the Friedike Rebbe said.

12:19 Speaker 2 Oh.

12:20 Speaker 1 He was just quoting what the guy said.

12:21 Speaker 2 And you knew the story.

12:22 Speaker 1 Yeah.

12:24 Speaker 2 And your grandfather was asking the Friedike Rebbe a bracha. He wasn't a Lubavitcher.

12:30 Speaker 1 No, but the Rebbe, Friedike Rebbe was everybody's, everybody's Rebbe.

12:33 Speaker 2 Okay.

12:34 Speaker 1 When, when you needed a Rebbe.

12:37 Speaker 2 So there's one question that I have for you. I think I remember when your father passed away, hearing some stories that he was involved with orphanages and saving kids.

12:46 Speaker 1 One of the projects was that there was an orphanage at five hundred kids. He got them all out.

12:56 Speaker 2 He saved them from-

12:56 Speaker 1 Yep

12:57 Speaker 2 ... a non-Jewish orphanage.

12:58 Speaker 1 Yeah.

12:58 Speaker 2 That was also connected to Dr. Griffel?

13:01 Speaker 1 That was part of, yeah.

13:01 Speaker 2 Part, part of that work.

13:03 Speaker 1 All in a day's work.

13:04 Speaker 2 Yeah. There's a lot of stories about it that I've heard.

13:10 Speaker 1 Yeah, it was pretty-

13:10 Speaker 2 It's the same Shma Yisroel, is that, is that-

13:12 Speaker 1 No, no

13:13 Speaker 2 ... that's Babmeister?

13:14 Speaker 1 No, no, it's a different story.

13:15 Speaker 2 It's a different story.

13:16 Speaker 1 That was that thing with the Ponovezhier.

13:17 Speaker 2 Ah, okay. Some, someone... I remember when your father passed away, people were talking, I guess, when they made association. So eventually they got to the United States with you.

13:28 Speaker 1 Around three years old.

13:29 Speaker 2 You're three years old. And where did they settle?

13:36 Speaker 1 In East Flatbush, in a cellar.

13:40 Speaker 2 In a cellar?

13:41 Speaker 1 A cellar.

13:43 Speaker 2 Okay.

13:43 Speaker 1 Not a basement. Uh, I woke up every morning to the sound of the, uh, balabos, the owner, shoveling coal into the furnace.

13:55 Speaker 2 Wow. In the cellar.

13:57 Speaker 1 In the cellar. Good old days. Yeah, Mamish had a little window at the top by the ceiling. We saw feet.

14:06 Speaker 2 Was that normal for immigrants?

14:08 Speaker 1 I guess.

14:11 Speaker 2 Okay. So-

14:14 Speaker 1 From there, we moved to Bedford and Dean. My father got a job at the Yeshiva.

14:22 Speaker 2 Yeah.

14:22 Speaker 1 And on the fifth floor of the building, there was, uh, one apartment, like a caretaker apartment there.

14:28 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

14:29 Speaker 1 And we lived there for a number of years.

14:30 Speaker 2 Oh. So you lived in Bedford and Dean.

14:33 Speaker 1 I lived in Bedford and Dean. And the dormitory, there was Moshe Harrison and, uh, all the other Brazilians. It was dominated by Brazilians. The Beguns.

14:44 Speaker 2 Right.

14:46 Speaker 1 Yeah. So I grew up-- The Shahaks were there.

14:51 Speaker 2 So this is like the Yuts that we're talking.

14:55 Speaker 1 Became, became in Tosher Yuts.

14:58 Speaker 2 So how did your father get involved in getting a job at Lubavitch? Like, how'd that, how'd that happen? Because he worked with, with Rosh Yeshiva in, in Prague?

15:07 Speaker 1 And because of the other student that they met in Prague. When-- Nobody trusted anybody in Russian, especially a foreigner. I mean, they didn't trust their own brothers. Remember, the, the Zaltzman tells a story that he met the Rogatchover, and the Rogatchover wanted to know about the Yeshiva, and he wouldn't tell him. Just out of habit, not that he didn't trust the Rogatchover.

15:31 Speaker 2 Right.

15:32 Speaker 1 But it was so ingrained that you-- nothing, nothing secret. So, uh, at first, they didn't trust my grandfather and the family. They didn't trust him. Uh, not for any particular reason, just you tell him something, and the g- if the government comes after them, and they'll spill the beans. So better people shouldn't know so that they don't... But, uh, Peretz Muchkin, who was there, who was a mashpia already, uh, he noticed that my grandfather wore a woolen tallis cotton. It was impossibly hot over there, miserably hot. And he wore the tallis cotton all the time. He said, "No, this guy's for real." And he was mekarev him.

16:25 Speaker 2 Peretz.

16:26 Speaker 1 Yeah. My grandfather was very impressed.

16:32 Speaker 2 With the Peretz.

16:34 Speaker 1 Who else was there? Um... I mean, the holy, the holy, the Yeshiva was there. Um, so my uncle, Ben Zion, was literally a yeshivabucha in the Lubavitch Yeshiva in Tashkent.

16:57 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

16:58 Speaker 1 But my father was working already, supporting the family.

17:02 Speaker 2 So your uncle Ben Zion-- So my next question was, was on, in this theme. So then your uncle Ben Zion basically was a Lubavitcher.

17:09 Speaker 1 Yeah.

17:10 Speaker 2 But your father was already, I guess, you're married, you left an impression of-

17:14 Speaker 1 Got married there, but-

17:16 Speaker 2 But he, he didn't, like, make that transition to become Lubavitch like your, like your uncle did.

17:20 Speaker 1 No. Never went to Yeshiva.

17:22 Speaker 2 He's never mitzvah to him or anything.

17:23 Speaker 1 No. And he was very loyal to my father. Very, very loyal.

17:30 Speaker 2 To us.

17:30 Speaker 1 To his father.

17:31 Speaker 2 To his father.

17:32 Speaker 1 Yeah. So he kept the levush, he kept, uh, everything, the menhugen. Yisroel Nevliner was the melamed there. There were some good names there. Anyway, um, so when he came to America, Lubavitch was a known, a known reality-

17:56 Speaker 2 To him

17:58 Speaker 1 ... and, uh, he was offered a job.

18:01 Speaker 2 To take care of him.

18:01 Speaker 1 To take care of the building.

18:04 Speaker 2 So he was involved with the guy, and he did that for years, for, for-

18:06 Speaker 1 Many years

18:07 Speaker 2 ... for decades. So eventually you moved out of Bedford and Dean, I'm assuming?

18:15 Speaker 1 Eventually, we moved out of Bedford and Dean. We moved into 1414 President Street.

18:20 Speaker 2 Oh

18:21 Speaker 1 Which is now the dormitory.

18:24 Speaker 2 So this your brother did speak about the singing and the-

18:28 Speaker 1 Rebbetzin.

18:29 Speaker 2 Rebbetzin, the Reb, Rebbetzin Chana.

18:31 Speaker 1 Yeah.

18:32 Speaker 2 Do you-- what do you remember from that time with the Rebbe's mother, Rebbetzin Chana?

18:36 Speaker 1 She was an amazing woman. A little intimidating. The Rebbe's mother, s-such a history of what she went through. Smart and, and a-and a huge personality. Very friendly, but also very regal. I was afraid of her. Think how we would talk to her.

19:06 Speaker 2 It seems like your brother was less. Maybe he was younger.

19:08 Speaker 1 He was younger.

19:09 Speaker 2 Mm. Did you ever interact with her? No.

19:16 Speaker 1 No. One time I came home, she was walking in front of the building, and she was on Kingston Avenue, and there was this you-woman, sleeveless, with a loud voice, was talking to the Rebbetzin. So I went over to see what's going on. I'm standing behind the woman, and I hear her say, "I would love to meet this famous rabbi. I mean, I wouldn't dress like this." She had no idea she was talking to the Rebbe's mother.

19:51 Speaker 2 Wow.

19:52 Speaker 1 And the Rebbetzin is listening, smiling, and she saw me come up from behind. She gave me this look like, "Stay out of this." Eh. I-I have a lot of such encounters that she heard a conversation between two Bais Yaakov girls. Did Rav ever tell you this?

20:14 Speaker 2 No.

20:16 Speaker 1 Two girls were walking down King-President Street, and they're saying, "You think it's gonna rain tomorrow?" The other one said, "No, the Lubavitcher Rebbe sends people out with a rule of nesik. It's not gonna rain." The Rebbetzin enjoyed that. She was a very, very smart.

20:33 Speaker 2 You saw, you saw this?

20:35 Speaker 1 No, she told my mother.

20:36 Speaker 2 Oh, she told your mother. Oh, she-- so you-- she interacted with your mother.

20:38 Speaker 1 A little bit.

20:41 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm. Okay.

20:44 Speaker 1 My father eventually put a bench on the lawn in front of the house.

20:50 Speaker 2 In front of the apartment building.

20:52 Speaker 1 Front of the apartment building. Nobody used that lawn. It was, it was closed, fenced in. Nobody used it. But he got permission to put a bench there for the Rebbetzin. One time, the Rebbetzin was sitting on the bench, and the car pulls up, and the Rebbe comes out. Goes over to the Rebbetzin, and the Rebbetzin says, "Geh heim." The Rebbe said, "Why?" Said, "Das nokh nisht yetsu." How do you know? "Komst doch van a vil." Said, "How do you know?" "Krinsky is driving." So they all had a good laugh.

21:33 Speaker 2 The Rebbetzin-

21:35 Speaker 1 The Rebbe and Krinsky and Rabbi Zyl-Zylingold was there as a bocher. He happened to be standing there and saw this little conversation.

21:42 Speaker 2 Hmm.

21:43 Speaker 1 Can't fool your mother.

21:51 Speaker 2 Um, okay. So back to the Friedman family. So Crown Heights at that time-- So you're obviously not a regular family, and Crown Heights was full of non-Lubavitchers at the time. But your father worked in, in Tem-in Temim Cheder. On the other hand, it doesn't sound like he never made the, the, the, the transition, you know, officially as a Lubavitcher.

22:14 Speaker 1 No, he, he didn't really. He stayed loyal to his father.

22:17 Speaker 2 Right. So how did the Friedman family... I guess you're the oldest in the family?

22:24 Speaker 1 I'm the oldest boy.

22:25 Speaker 2 The oldest boy, okay. So how does the Friedman family-- I mean, there are many people that came through Crown Heights and then went to all these shivers and moved on.

22:33 Speaker 1 Well, because at that time, Crown Heights was everything.

22:35 Speaker 2 Right.

22:36 Speaker 1 It wasn't a Lubavitcher neighborhood.

22:37 Speaker 2 Right.

22:38 Speaker 1 They had everything here.

22:39 Speaker 2 So what happened to you guys?

22:41 Speaker 1 Why we got stuck here?

22:42 Speaker 2 Yeah.

22:46 Speaker 1 Yeah, when everybody else moved, the Rebbe said we're not moving, so. So, um, I just-- I realized what I'm, what I'm missing. The only thing I remember from Bedford is Yutras Kislev Habringin.

23:06 Speaker 2 You went to Bedford?

23:07 Speaker 1 I lived there.

23:08 Speaker 2 Oh, so you weren't a student there.

23:09 Speaker 1 I was.

23:11 Speaker 2 So your father sent you-

23:11 Speaker 1 Naturally, I, I, it was for free.

23:13 Speaker 2 If you lived there and you... Ah, yeah, again. How many people became Lubavitchers because Bedford and, Bedford indeed didn't charge tuition? We have to make a study on that.

23:22 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I met a guy in the parking lot of a, of a Home Depot. We were getting into the car. He was getting out of the car. He was an electrician with a truck. He says, "You're Lubavitcher? I gotta tell you, when we came to America, my mother wanted to send me to Yeshiva, and then couldn't afford it. Until finally, she called the Lubavitch Yeshiva." They lived in Flatbush, and the mother calls and says, "I have a son who needs to go to Yeshiva." And, uh, Schrage, I think it was, said, "Where do we pick him up?" She said, "How much is it gonna cost?" He says, "Tell me where to pick him up." They were so grateful that every Friday, she would go upstairs to the third floor where the office was and bring a dime.

24:18 Speaker 2 Wow.

24:19 Speaker 1 A dime was money-

24:21 Speaker 2 Yeah

24:21 Speaker 1 ... those days. But yeah, it was, it was... So I didn't realize what was going on around me. The Yeshiva, we were, we were all, we were all frum, we were all Chassidish, Chassidish. But I didn't realize what Chabad was and what the Rebbe was. But when I did, all my siblings, eight of us, we all became Lubavitchers. We all were shluchim. And, uh, my father had no berachah.

24:56 Speaker 2 So how did you realize?

24:59 Speaker 1 How did I realize?

25:00 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

25:01 Speaker 1 I had some very good friends. Zalman Deitch, Oliver Shalon. In, in Bais Medrash, we became chavrusa. And I, I discovered what a, what a Lubavitcher Chassid is. We were, we were kids. I tell you a story about Zalman. After yeshiva, we come back to Crown Heights, we went into the, uh, little shul on Montgomery and Albany. It was Ungar's shul at a mikveh.

25:39 Speaker 2 Montgomery and Albany?

25:42 Speaker 1 Montgomery and Albany.

25:43 Speaker 2 Okay.

25:44 Speaker 1 Yeah. I think it's still a shul.

25:47 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

25:49 Speaker 1 Uh, it was called Ungar's shul. At night, the lights were on. He lived upstairs, and the place was quiet, so we went there, and we sat and learned, uh, whatever. Then we would w-walk home to his house, and I would go to my house. It was, it was a very good friendship. One night, we sat all night. When the sun came up, we decided to go home. We're sitting on his porch on Crown Street, I think it was. Anyway, the next morning, when I met him at yeshiva, I said, "Uh, Zalman, did you daven ma'ariv?" We both forgot. Amazingly, that night Reb Yael was teaching us in, uh, in Bedford, and he tells a story about a Chassid who had a great power of concentration, Reb Gershon Ber, Chassid maybe of the Rebbe Maharash, whatever. Who had a minhag that after hearing a ma'amar he would go, on Shabbos, he would go out into the garden and sit down, close his eyes, and review the ma'amar. And he would get so lost that he would go for hours and hours. One time, he sat through the entire night, and the next morning realized that he hadn't davened ma'ariv. He was a bocher. Many years later, the Friediker Rebbe was traveling with the Rebbe Rashab, and they came to his house. And the Friediker Rebbe ended up sleeping in the bedroom with the Chassid, 'cause the, the real bedroom he gave to the Rebbe Rashab. So the next morning, the Friediker Rebbe said to the Rebbe

27:59 Speaker 1 Rashab that this guy stayed up hours, kashmis halamita, crying bitter, bitter tears. Fierce. Rebbe Rashab told him, "He's crying because of the ma'ariv that he missed that night." This is the story that Reb Yael decides to tell us. Zalman was sitting behind me. I turn around to see if he's... His, he has his hat pulled over his eyes and tears gushing out of him.

28:37 Speaker 2 Wow.

28:37 Speaker 1 And he was 15. Maybe 16. It was, it was quite an education for me, just from Chassidishe bochurim.

28:52 Speaker 2 Right.

28:55 Speaker 1 Uh, but I wasn't, I wasn't-- I was behind on everything. I didn't know what chitas was. I didn't know you say Tehillim every day.

29:06 Speaker 2 One second. You're going to Bedford and Dean. Basica- uh, the way it worked then is if you didn't have it from home, you didn't get it in school either.

29:14 Speaker 1 Lubavitcher customs, no.

29:16 Speaker 2 They weren't teaching you about Tzedakah, or things like that.

29:23 Speaker 1 So these kids, these boys, I mean, Zalman and Gershon Schusterman, Leibel Kaplan, alav ha-shalom, they were way ahead of me in everything, everything. So I, I, I'm just trying to catch up like, uh... So one day this bocher, older bocher, very tall bocher, comes over to me and says, uh, "What are you doing?" It's seven seventy. I was just hanging around. "What are you doing?" Uh, "You wanna learn?" I said, "I have no time." He says, "What, you have no time?"

30:11 Speaker 2 Bochurim are very busy, by the way.

30:12 Speaker 1 "You have no time? What do you do on Thursday? What do you do Thursday night?" Nah, nah. "What do you do Friday?" About Friday. Uh, anyway, he caught me that, that Friday I, I have to have free time. So we started learning. His name was Na- Yankiv Nayach Krantz. He wrote to the Rebbe that he doesn't have a koach hasbola. He's very, very smart in everything. He went to the English department. I, I never went to English.

30:51 Speaker 2 You didn't go to English?

30:52 Speaker 1 No.

30:53 Speaker 2 Why?

30:55 Speaker 1 It's boring.

30:57 Speaker 2 By your own choice?

30:58 Speaker 1 Yeah.

30:59 Speaker 2 Okay.

31:00 Speaker 1 There was a group

31:02 Speaker 2 Your pa- your parents went with that?

31:04 Speaker 1 Yeah. There was a group that didn't go. So in the afternoon, Rabbi Tennenbaum was our melamed. He was the principal during the day, and then in the afternoon and late in the evening. But, uh, Yankel did go to English. The professor who taught him tried very, very hard to convince him to go to college 'cause he was very, very smart in mathematics. So you could be, uh... Anyway, he understood Chassidus, you know, nigleh. He was-- He davened. He was a real Chassidishe bachur. So he started learning.

31:45 Speaker 2 You said he asked the Rebbe about Kayach HaChaim.

31:47 Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. So he asked the Rebbe. He knows a lot of... But he ca- he, he can't explain that. Doesn't have a... So the Rebbe said to him, "Teach younger boys."

31:57 Speaker 2 So he was looking for it to-

31:59 Speaker 1 Yes

31:59 Speaker 2 ... for time to-

31:59 Speaker 1 I think I was his first garben.

32:01 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

32:03 Speaker 1 Eventually, he had a lot of, a lot of boys, like a little Pied Piper, you know, teaching. Courage to one bachur to finish Shas. Yeah, it was good. Anyway, so I discovered what it was all about.

32:25 Speaker 2 Because, uh, through him-

32:27 Speaker 1 Yeah.

32:28 Speaker 2 And then he became your brother-in-law.

32:30 Speaker 1 And then he married my sister.

32:31 Speaker 2 Later on.

32:33 Speaker 1 Zechor l'b'tzidneh.

32:34 Speaker 2 Yeah.

32:36 Speaker 1 Immediate reward.

32:37 Speaker 2 Right. Um, so, so you ne- so you never went to another institution besides Lubavitch?

32:47 Speaker 1 No.

32:47 Speaker 2 So what was the interactions, the relationship? Like, you we- you, you went to the Rebbe to the farbrengens or, like, your father also on your own? Like, how, how, how did that work?

33:00 Speaker 1 Yeah, I went off on my own, which was a little confusing.

33:05 Speaker 2 When you were a kid or when you were like a bachur?

33:08 Speaker 1 Ri- right after bar mitzvah.

33:09 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

33:09 Speaker 1 'Cause I was hanging around with my friends.

33:11 Speaker 2 Right.

33:13 Speaker 1 So we would play in the backyard of 770 where the sukkah eventually was, side yard. And, uh, during, uh, uh, Lebe Dikin Nigun, we would run into the farbrengen and join the nigun and go back out. I think the first farbrengen that I actually started to listen was Chaf Daled.

33:40 Speaker 2 Sixty-four?

33:40 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

33:49 Speaker 2 So you said it was confusing.

33:56 Speaker 1 Going to the Rebbe's Seder instead of my father's Seder was not welcomed, not appreciated. And other things, staying up late farbrengens, going on talmudos. It was like, "What is this?" It's Yontif, you know. This is how you prepare Yontif. So the clash of cultures was a little... But, uh, my father, my father was convinced that it's good. But, but again, he was very loyal to his father, and his father was a very devoted Chassid in his own style. He wouldn't budge, and he wouldn't compromise for the communists. He, he wasn't gonna compromise for Chabad either.

34:50 Speaker 2 I heard some story that he did come to farbrengens, then he stopped. Is there some-- Is there truth to that story?

34:54 Speaker 1 When he first came to America, yes. And he was, he was treated very, uh, as seated right behind the Rebbe. But some of the ideas and some of the style wasn't good enough for him.

35:21 Speaker 2 Is there anything worth sharing? 'Cause I heard some stories, but I don't know, I don't know if they're true, if they're verified. Anything worth sharing about that?

35:32 Speaker 1 We heard, not, not, not firsthand, that, uh, the Rebbe said to somebody a-about the, my grandfather who stopped coming to farbrengens, said, "If he knew that the Ba'al Shem Tov was here by the farbrengen, would he come?" It's an amazing statement. Yeah, it was, it was too modern for him. He couldn't make that adjustment. Outreach. Somebody said to him that he saw me at a, in a mif TSA.

36:20 Speaker 2 Same.

36:21 Speaker 1 Yeah. In, uh, Washington Square with a, with a big gathering of hippies, and somebody said to my grandfather, "Eh, ight sah med the hippes." My fa- my grandfather was horrified, hanging around in such places with the hippies. My grandfather always, all throughout the years, tried to get me to go to another yeshiva.

36:53 Speaker 2 Didn't work.

36:54 Speaker 1 He was strong.

36:55 Speaker 2 He was what?

36:56 Speaker 1 He was very strong.

36:57 Speaker 2 Right.

36:58 Speaker 1 Never compromised. Uh, he was in the hospital, and somebody brought him, uh, for Friday, brought him a cup to make Kiddush. He said, "No. Where is my Shabbos becher?" He didn't compro... Not, nothing.

37:13 Speaker 2 Yeah.

37:14 Speaker 1 Which is, you know, very im- is impressive. He never... The day he passed away, he was in a lot of pain, and he was davening Ma'ariv, and his grandson said to him, "Maybe, uh, re- take a rest?" In the middle of Ma'ariv. "Maybe we'll take a rest and finish later." He said, "Why? Later it'll be cheaper?"

37:38 Speaker 2 Hmm.

37:40 Speaker 1 He finished davening, they went to the doctor and died in the doctor's office.

37:46 Speaker 2 Yeah.

37:49 Speaker 1 So he, no, he would not budge, he would not compromise, he would not... That's very-

37:56 Speaker 2 So your family was... Was your family-- Like, what was the... I'm just trying to understand the relationship. Like, was your family Yehidus or not necessarily? Like, your, your, your relationship with, with Reb Avraham and with the Rebbe was on your own.

38:12 Speaker 1 Yeah, but we went into the-- My father took me into Yehidus for my bar mitzvah. Uh, we went in by my wedding.

38:22 Speaker 2 Okay. Your wedding's already on your, on your own.

38:24 Speaker 1 No, no, but the family came.

38:25 Speaker 2 Oh, the family came.

38:27 Speaker 1 Um, once in a while, my father would go to the Rebbe's house to fix something or install something. Rav Remu was sick as a baby, a mamish newborn. And, uh, the Rebbe called the Rebbetzin because the Rebbe was home. It was a Erev Shabbos.

38:52 Speaker 2 Who called the Rebbetzin?

38:53 Speaker 1 My father.

38:54 Speaker 2 Your father called the Rebbetzin.

38:56 Speaker 1 For a bracha. It was like they... It w- He wasn't a stranger there.

39:02 Speaker 2 Right.

39:02 Speaker 1 But not as a Hasid, as a, a hopeful-

39:06 Speaker 2 A Yid.

39:07 Speaker 1 A hopeful guy. Um.

39:13 Speaker 2 So, um, you mentioned a biel. So it sounds like he had, uh, a po- a big impression on you. Is that the case?

39:24 Speaker 1 Yeah.

39:25 Speaker 2 Maybe you could talk about that a little bit.

39:29 Speaker 1 We had the biel for a year in Bedford when we were fifteen, sixteen. Usually, after Bedford, bochurim would either go to Chabad, New Jersey, or Montreal. This group, a biel convinced us that we should come straight to Seven seventy, and that he would teach us every day chasidus. It, it was, it was a, it was a good group.

40:07 Speaker 2 I've been talking a lot over the, uh, many episodes about the book that the herd came out with, Our Days. And Our Days is a very special book because it really helps you to live with all of the Yamim Tovim. So we're just coming off the heels of Tishrei, which is the month, which is Merubeh B'mayah Dees, there's so many Yamim Tovim, calms down Achashverosh, but we know that BeChasidim, Kislev is again the month. That's Merubeh B'mayah Dees. You have Rosh Chodesh Kislev, the Rebbe recovering from the heart attack, and then we have Tes Kislev, Yud Kislev of the Mitteler Rebbe. We have Edad Kislev, the wedding of the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin. We have Yud Tes Kislev, Chaf Kislev. I mean, there's so... It's, it's a month, and I'm missing a few, but that's-- it-it's a month that's full, full with Yamim Tovim. So I wanna encourage everybody to set Our Days, beautiful two-volume set. If you haven't yet purchased it, many thousands of people have already, but if you have not yet purchased it, it's a very good time to purchase Our Days. It's a beautiful, beautiful set. If you open up to the month of Kislev, I mean, here's your Chodesh Kislev, just stunning. A-a-and each, you know, each yamim in the pagra, first of all, gives you the whole story of the Yamim Tov, and then it tells you what happened by the Rebbe on that particular Yamim Tov. And then, in addition, each Yamim Tov has a section called the

41:29 Speaker 2 Takeaways, the Skadi Menasem. Like, how do we actualize? What does the Rebbe explain what the day means? And what should, what should we do with it? What should we do on that day? What are we trying to accomplish on that day? And many people have told me that this has become like a, a staple. They take it out, they read it before the Yamim Tov, or they do it with their family. And I really, really think that if you have not yet purchased it, you can get this two-volume set at theherd.or.org/ourdays and write-- And if you order it now, you'll get it in time for Kislev, for the Chodesh HaChagim, the month of s- full of Chasidus Yamim Tovim, Yamim DePagra, which is why we made this set in the first place, to help people live with that. So order it today.

42:14 Speaker 1 So that year, instead of going out, out of town, we went to Seven... We're the youngest group that ever... The biel showed up in the morning for class about two weeks, and then-

42:28 Speaker 2 You're on your own.

42:28 Speaker 1 Never happened again. But the influence that he had was... One time he saw two bochurim play fighting, huh? He said, "Di yadayim." That's it. Never again. He was bigger than life. He said no is no. He didn't have to raise his voice, he didn't have to repeat himself, he didn't have to-

43:06 Speaker 2 I saw him one-- I was once outside Seven seventy, two balabatim sitting on the big steps of Seven seventy Two months they were sitting on the steps talking, Yom Tov. He walk, he walks by. He's like, "What are you guys doing? You're sitting on a step?" These guys, uh, got up right away. They're like... He didn't even say anything. He was like, "What are you doing?" So was there a moment with, um... You're talking about this I'm try- starting to understand what the Rebbe is like. Was there like a certain point or something or, or a moment where you started to use the word the her? The, the you- the, the her-

43:48 Speaker 1 Good word, good word.

43:49 Speaker 2 Yeah. What, what, what's going on here?

43:56 Speaker 1 It grows. First you have a childish impression, and then you have a more mature impression. But my first time that I went to Davening seven seventy was Ma'ariv. It was a very small crowd. Uh, it's, it's, it's hard to imagine that the big Farbrengens were upstairs in seven seventy. That was the whole crowd. The whole Chabad-

44:27 Speaker 2 You remember those Farbrengens upstairs?

44:28 Speaker 1 Yes. With the window behind the Rebbe. Uh. It, it was... I mean, the growth of it. Anyway, so I went into the Ma'ariv, and I, I was completely out of it. I was a big baseball fan. That, that was my passion. There was the Dodgers and the Yankees right there in, in, in the neighborhood.

44:59 Speaker 2 The Dodgers were still in Crown Heights?

45:01 Speaker 1 Yeah. So, could Davening Ma'ariv. I'm standing right next to the Rebbe because why not? I was small. Uh, there was room. Anyway, when the Rebbe bowed at Meiddim, I, I was like, "Who is-- Who humbles him? To who is he...? He's the Rebbe." And I realized there's really a

45:47 Speaker 2 It's the only time.

45:50 Speaker 1 That one time.

45:51 Speaker 2 You had that Hakara.

45:54 Speaker 1 And then later, I, I learned that the Rebbe, like every Tzadik, is really a Tzadik Nistar. Especially the Rebbe. That whatever greatness we saw was the tip of the iceberg. So it turns out that the Rebbe allowed me that insight. Not everybody in the room noticed, and after that, I never noticed again. The Rebbe allowed me a little, "That shouldn't be a total Epicus."

46:34 Speaker 2 Mm.

46:37 Speaker 1 So from then on, I started coming to-

46:40 Speaker 2 So that was a moment.

46:42 Speaker 1 Oh, yeah.

46:44 Speaker 2 And you were very young then. Wow. So-

46:51 Speaker 1 Eventually, Reb Yael became, uh, I think the most influential. Ep- Yankel Kranz was devoted. When I went to camp, he wrote me letters. It was, it was a real full time. He was a-- When he did something, he did it.

47:10 Speaker 2 From what I know about him, it seems that he took his Hashpa seriously.

47:15 Speaker 1 Very seriously. In fact, he once told me that he discussed my progress with Moshe Harrison, who was then the Mashpia in, in Newark. He's like, "Should I-- Should he, should, should he tell me to learn Mishnah Bal Peh or Tanya or..." They were discussing my Chinuch.

47:34 Speaker 2 Mm.

47:36 Speaker 1 Yes, I am. And he was still a Bochur. Anyway, but, but Reb Yael's impact , the whole style of learning, of thinking, of... I think is, is from Reb Yael.

47:53 Speaker 2 So you s- you, you attribute the way you approach Chassidus and a lot of it to Reb Yael.

48:00 Speaker 1 Completely. Only.

48:04 Speaker 2 Only.

48:04 Speaker 1 Nobody else. Rabbi Isaac Shwey-

48:10 Speaker 2 So, yeah, yeah.

48:12 Speaker 1 In Montreal.

48:13 Speaker 2 So you so far you mentioned that you were in Newark.

48:16 Speaker 1 I was never in Newark.

48:17 Speaker 2 Oh, he discussed it with, with, with, with Moshe.

48:20 Speaker 1 Yeah.

48:20 Speaker 2 You went to Montreal.

48:20 Speaker 1 But the year after Reb Yael didn't show up-

48:24 Speaker 2 Right

48:24 Speaker 1 ... a group of us, we went to Montreal. And there, Rabbi Isaac Shwey had a big effect on me. Also an interesting style of Pashtus. Everything was simple. No, no pulpo, no... But genius. Genius and simplicity. Tell you one quick story. He sat down with a Bochur, a younger Bochur than me. Randomly just walked into the Beis Medrash. He sat down, he said, "What are you learning?" He said, "This, this Taysfas." He said, "Yeah, but, uh, I have a kashya, a question about what the Taysfas says." And he asked him the question, and the Bochur sat quietly. Rabbi Isaac said to him, "Chabadige gefakht epes." Why aren't you answering me? He said, "I'm thinking." Rabbi Isaac said, "Thinking what? You don't know the answer. You already know the question. What are you thinking?" This was so, uh, I mean... He should have, he should have made the curriculum for all yeshivas. He was pushy telling the guy, "What does it mean to think? What are you doing? You're thinking. You have a question, so you think." "Uh, I'm thinking of an answer." "What do you mean you're thinking? You don't know an answer. What are you doing?" This is such fundamental... So what the Bochur remembered Rabbi Isaac telling him, he said: "What do you mean you're looking for an answer?" You look for an answer means you're trying to determine where is the answer hiding. Where? You're not thinking an answer. You're thinking, where is the answer? If you have a straight head, you

50:35 Speaker 1 look where you're supposed to look. If you have a little bit of a complex, you look here, you look there, in all the wrong places, and you end up with a pilpul.

50:44 Speaker 3 Mm.

50:46 Speaker 1 If this is this, and according to that is this, and this is this, that, that, that, then I'll come up with an answer. Kruma kup. A gleiche kup is not someone who can think well. He knows where to look. Where is the answer? Reb Yael did this to me the first time I asked him a question. We were learning a Maimon in Luketa, in Luketa Yitaga, and I went over to him and I said, "It says that this is the plinius of that. What's the connection between this and that?"

51:22 Speaker 3 Good question.

51:24 Speaker 1 And Yael looked at me for a minute and said, "What's main plinius?" The question was not this and that. You don't understand what it means to be the plinius of something. I thought for a second, I said, "Oh."

51:40 Speaker 3 Makes sense.

51:40 Speaker 1 Yeah, everything made sense. In other words, where are you looking? So Rabbi Isaac always had a very big impact.

51:52 Speaker 3 It's interesting that he's, I think he's under discussed, Rabbi Isaac. Rabbi Isaac Shway.

52:00 Speaker 1 Underappreciated.

52:01 Speaker 3 Underappreciated, and the Rebbe said to print his, his, uh, his writings, like it's very... I remember as a kid, I thought it looks like it's the volume of Shulhan Aruch HaMazak. No, it says, it says the Kisvei Rabbi Isaac. I thought like Isaac Hamler. I, I, I didn't realize what it was till I opened it. Kisvei Rabbi Isaac. Um, were you in Yechidas during those years? What can you share from those Yechidas and as a Bachar?

52:33 Speaker 1 One year, I was sitting and writing my note, my, my... And I had three questions that I've been thinking about for a long time. As I'm sitting there, and the hour is getting later and later, waiting for my turn, I thought of another thing to ask. So I rewrote the title. I wrote the four questions. The Rebbe answered me on the first three, he didn't answer this fourth.

53:03 Speaker 3 So what does that mean?

53:05 Speaker 1 It means a real question gets answered. Oh, by the way, I can also ask that. That's not Yechidas. The next year, the exact opposite happened. I was sitting and thinking what to write, and I was thinking of asking something, and I decided, "Eh, maybe I shouldn't ask that." The Rebbe answered it. I didn't ask it, and the Rebbe answered it.

53:34 Speaker 3 Not das und frechts.

53:36 Speaker 1 Yeah.

53:37 Speaker 3 The Rebbe didn't say das und frechts.

53:39 Speaker 1 No.

53:40 Speaker 3 The Rebbe addressed an issue. What are the type of things that Bachar are asking the Rebbe?

53:51 Speaker 1 I mean, there's a word that Hasidim say in Yechidas, there's no question and there's no answer. You don't ask, and the Rebbe doesn't answer. Es frekt ze on ze emfetze. What comes out of your mouth is not what you're asking. It's what you need to ask. And the Rebbe's answer is not the Rebbe's idea. It's the answer to your question. There's some other dynamic going on. Somebody wanted to go back and ask the Rebbe again 'cause he forgot a detail, I think by the Friediker Rebbe. And Rabbi Simpson went back and asked the Rebbe if he can come back in. He forgot a detail. The Rebbe said, "Tell him, you don't ask and you don't answer." A Yechidas is a, a soulful connection that says what needs to be said. So the details really don't matter.

54:57 Speaker 3 And that's the answer to my question about what was asked?

55:03 Speaker 1 What I asked?

55:04 Speaker 3 Yeah.

55:04 Speaker 1 Uh, Bachar stuff. Um, it's embarrassing, by the way. Looking back, I don't know. The Rebbe stopped Yechidas, and I wasn't surprised.

55:18 Speaker 3 Ah. The Rebbe said that people are not utilizing it properly.

55:23 Speaker 1 Yeah.

55:28 Speaker 3 What do you mean you weren't surprised?

55:30 Speaker 1 I felt like I just took up the Rebbe's time for nothing. Well, the big questions I have already.

55:39 Speaker 3 So you didn't think you had earth-shattering dilemmas at the time?

55:41 Speaker 1 No. So you have to go in, you have to ask. It's a mitzvah.

55:49 Speaker 3 There's someone that I spoke to that told me he, because of that, he didn't go. He said, "What?" He says, "I don't know if it was the right thing." He was more of like a, like a posh of a Bachar. Like, felt like it wasn't really to go.

56:05 Speaker 1 Yeah, there's something to that Past generations, see, they would prepare five years before going into-- and then three years just to live up to what it, what was told or was said. Yeah.

56:36 Speaker 3 Okay.

56:36 Speaker 1 Anyway, what really, really inspired me the most is the Rebbe's global ambition.

56:44 Speaker 3 The Challah, you say, the, of the Rebbe.

56:49 Speaker 1 Change the world.

56:52 Speaker 3 Tell me, so I want, I wanna get into that.

56:55 Speaker 1 One farbrengen upstairs. And it wasn't a Yemei D'pagre, so it was half full. The upstairs was half full. The zal-

57:07 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

57:08 Speaker 1 Farbrengen. And the Rebbe was talking about

57:15 Speaker 3 Change the world.

57:17 Speaker 1 Conquer.

57:18 Speaker 3 Conquer the world-

57:19 Speaker 1 With goodness.

57:19 Speaker 3 Yeah.

57:21 Speaker 1 And I looked around. Who? Nobody speaks English. They're all, they're all recovering from their, from their suffering in Russia. They're all immigrants. They're-- What were they thinking? The Rebbe's telling them, "Let's change the world," and they're thinking, "I got my own problems." Who is he talking-- Who is the Rebbe talking to? But the young people, the few, wow. Everybody else was depressed and miserable, especially outside of Chabad. The Frum world was very depressed.

58:03 Speaker 3 I was about to say the whole Frum world was basically that attitude. Like, "Leave me alone. We have to build, build up, take, take, take care of our own problems."

58:14 Speaker 1 A lot of crying. By weddings, people cried and cried. So it's a wedding. Yeah, but he's not here, he's not here, grandfather didn't make it. Everything brought back bad memories. And the younger crowd was like, "Uh, can we get a word in?" Like, all you hear is krechtzing and moaning and groaning and... And then the Rebbe wouldn't tolerate sadness. Singing in the streets. I mean, this is like, wow. And then the Rebbe's view to change the world. That was, that was... I think, I think that was what the Rebbe was, was targeting, the younger generation.

59:15 Speaker 3 It's idea of this Chabad.

59:17 Speaker 1 The Rebbe told somebody from Israel, "Do what I did. Make an army out of young people. Forget the old guys."

59:25 Speaker 3 Yeah.

59:25 Speaker 1 Experience with young people.

59:31 Speaker 3 So you started getting involved in this changing the world-

59:36 Speaker 1 Yeah.

59:36 Speaker 3 When you were a bachur.

59:37 Speaker 1 Yeah.

59:37 Speaker 3 The pagishas.

59:38 Speaker 1 Yeah.

59:39 Speaker 3 What was going on then?

59:40 Speaker 1 It started with the pagishas.

59:41 Speaker 3 What was, what was going on? What was the situation? What, what was going on from the outset?

59:44 Speaker 1 This was the beginning of the sixties.

59:46 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

59:47 Speaker 1 The hippie movement, a revolution, so-called, in America, and the Baali Teshuvah began appearing on the scene. So the puahs, the outreach was all campus. College students. That was like, if you get the college students, get the whole... In those days, a college student was a serious student.

1:00:19 Speaker 3 Ne.

1:00:21 Speaker 1 With, with some serious ambitions and future leaders, v'cholam. So all the emphasis was on college students. And the Hasidim used to go to different colleges for Shabbosim, for Yom Tovim. Then finally, they brought students to Crown Heights.

1:00:42 Speaker 3 Pagisha.

1:00:43 Speaker 1 That became known as Pagisha Im Chabad.

1:00:45 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:00:48 Speaker 1 And they had some speakers who explained Hasidus to them. Zalman Posner also had a big influence on me, just his style.

1:00:59 Speaker 3 He was the first.

1:01:01 Speaker 1 He was the first. Uh, Yitzchak Bloch, Professor Bloch, amazing. Um, Shmuelu was very young at the time, but he was starting. Anyway, listening to them explain Hasidus in English blew my mind. First of all: you can say it in English? You're allowed to?

1:01:29 Speaker 3 Yeah.

1:01:30 Speaker 1 Secondly, it made so much more sense.

1:01:34 Speaker 3 Yeah.

1:01:37 Speaker 1 And then watching these-

1:01:38 Speaker 3 One second, I have a question. The Rebbe saying he just didn't say it in English, that's not the same thing. I'm trying to understand-

1:01:47 Speaker 1 Yeah

1:01:47 Speaker 3 What's the Chidduš over here.

1:01:48 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:01:50 Speaker 3 So the fact of tran-- because you speak English or because then you have to-- when you're forced to translate, it comes out differently. What, what is it?

1:01:57 Speaker 1 No, because English is really the reality language-

1:02:03 Speaker 3 Your life

1:02:04 Speaker 1 ...for Americans.

1:02:05 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:02:06 Speaker 1 Even if you speak Yiddish, that's for in-house.

1:02:11 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:02:13 Speaker 1 But your language is English. So when you say something in English, it's like, "Okay, but this is real." Not a theory, it's not a quote. It becomes real. I'll tell you a story in a second. But anyway, listening-- seeing the, the students' reaction with their mouth open, with... It was, it was stunning. I said, "I, I gotta do this." This is, this is the only, the only way to live. So for a while, I, I mimicked Zalman Boazar.

1:02:54 Speaker 3 You had- You had experience speaking? Like, what, what was your speaking career like?

1:02:59 Speaker 1 Eventually, Ka Tzach offered a program for synagogues and youth groups.

1:03:04 Speaker 3 How'd you know you were able to speak?

1:03:06 Speaker 1 All right. So I went a few times with a speaker. I was the accompanying, uh, couple of bachurim, we would sing. I heard the speaker speak, and I said, "It's not so scary." And again, the effect of Chassidus on... So eventually I said, "I'll speak." They didn't have anybo- they didn't really have anybody, you know, who's available in the middle of the week to go. So while I was still in yeshiva, I started going-

1:03:46 Speaker 3 So you started mimicking them.

1:03:49 Speaker 1 Mamish. I mean, the same tone of voice with the same words, with the same... Zalman's sister was once sitting and, when, uh, somebody was speaking, and she said, "I closed my eyes and pretended you were Zalman." Which is a compliment. But Rabbi Zylingold, the Rav in Minnesota, he was-- had many kiruva from the Rebbe. He was sitting one day by, by, uh, Shabbos in Shul, telling stories about the Rebbe told him this, the Rebbe told him that, he wrote this. He had answers on everything. One time-- And he said, "One time, the Rebbe said to me, 'From now on, you can have only good news.'" And everybody, "What? That doesn't sound like the Rebbe." And everybody, "The Rebbe said that to you?" He says, "Yeah." "Are you sure?" "Absolutely." And we were like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa." Somebody said, "When, when did the Rebbe say that?" He said, "When I benched Gimel by the Rebbe's minyan." And everybody said, "Oh, okay. That's why." Yeah. Oh, it was in Hebrew. You say it in English, it's a completely different-

1:05:21 Speaker 3 So that's how it began.

1:05:22 Speaker 1 That's how it began.

1:05:25 Speaker 3 So you're a bachur, and then you get married at a certain point.

1:05:30 Speaker 1 Yep. In order to get out of yeshiva so I could go on shlichus.

1:05:34 Speaker 3 That's your ticket to shlichus, is to get married.

1:05:36 Speaker 1 That's the ticket to shlichus.

1:05:37 Speaker 3 We had an interview Rabbi Grunblatt did, and he needed to go on shlichus and get married at the same time in order to go on shlichus because they needed a pl- they needed it in-- to go to Argentina, and the Rebbe wrote, "You find a shidduch and go on shlichus." Find a shidduch and go on shlichus. So you got married. Is there any particular story with your marriage that you wanna share?

1:06:02 Speaker 1 I, I was the youngest in the group. Everybody was, like, totally surprised, like, "What? A shidduch?"

1:06:10 Speaker 3 From your parents, yeah.

1:06:11 Speaker 1 Y-yeah.

1:06:11 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:06:14 Speaker 1 But, uh, I think Rabbi Viedrasky said, "Shveg bimrim." That's it. So we went out to shlichus.

1:06:30 Speaker 3 So you went yechidus before your marriage.

1:06:32 Speaker 1 Yeah. And the Rebbe said, "Then Benny made a song out of it."

1:06:47 Speaker 3 Right. So if you make-

1:06:50 Speaker 1 If you spread warmth and light-

1:06:52 Speaker 3 Spread warmth

1:06:53 Speaker 1 ... then you'll have warmth and light in your house.

1:06:57 Speaker 3 The Rebbe told similar things to other people, right? Yeah.

1:06:59 Speaker 1 Many. I believe so.

1:07:02 Speaker 3 I think in English also.

1:07:04 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm. Mm.

1:07:06 Speaker 3 Um, at my parents' yechidus was in English. My father wrote a transcript. It's not that, but a similar thing about spreading Yiddishkeit, that type of thing. It's a message for the Chassan and Kallah. So-

1:07:21 Speaker 1 So Rabbi Feller came to New York-

1:07:23 Speaker 3 No, so yeah

1:07:23 Speaker 1 ... looking for somebody.

1:07:24 Speaker 3 You were in Kollel? You were post-marriage.

1:07:29 Speaker 1 I was supposed to be in Kollel, but I was running around speaking.

1:07:34 Speaker 3 Ah, so you, you, you... You had-- You couldn't, uh... You, you were-- You got a relationship that would be involved in this.

1:07:41 Speaker 1 Yeah. First with, um, Leib Alepsky, who's in charge of Tzach, and then Mordy Buttman. So Rabbi Feller comes to town. He's looking for somebody. He asks me to meet him at the restaurant. There was the one milchige restaurant, Spitz's. Didn't last very long. Uh, we're sitting there. He takes out pictures, shows me his Chabad house that burned down.

1:08:14 Speaker 3 He showed you the burned down one?

1:08:16 Speaker 1 Yeah. Before and after.

1:08:18 Speaker 3 Mm.

1:08:20 Speaker 1 And it looked beautiful because they were taken in the summer.

1:08:25 Speaker 3 Uh.

1:08:26 Speaker 1 Anyway, he says, "Come." So I wrote into the Rebbe, the Rebbe gave a brocha, and that's it.

1:08:36 Speaker 3 In Minnesota.

1:08:37 Speaker 1 Nine, uh, Teshrin Lamid.

1:08:40 Speaker 3 So what did you do there?

1:08:41 Speaker 1 So at first, there was really not much to do. We had Shabbatons, and I went and hung around on campus a little bit, and then I made contact with teenagers. Every synagogue has a teenage group. So I made contact with the teenagers, invited them for Shabbos, and then we came up with this idea that maybe we should do something for women.

1:09:06 Speaker 3 So this is Beis Chana. So what's, what's this idea to do for women? What's the, what's the story? What's the need?

1:09:14 Speaker 1 So this was Lamed Alef, maybe Lamed Beis. Six, uh, seventy-two. At that time, there were two yeshivas for Baalei Teshuva. There was Hadar Talya and there was Kvach Habab. Daphne, there was nothing for women.

1:09:41 Speaker 3 Was it in the world? Anywhere. There's no such thing, is it?

1:09:44 Speaker 1 No. So we have this big Chabad house, which we bought after I, after I arrived there. Thirty rooms, and in the summer it's empty. People are away. So we're sitting, thinking, joking, say, "You know, maybe we should do something for women because who are these m-men gonna marry?"

1:10:07 Speaker 3 No point.

1:10:09 Speaker 1 It was a joke, right? But somehow we sent out a little invitation to s-six campuses. Not expecting anything. Eighteen women showed up.

1:10:23 Speaker 3 They showed up.

1:10:27 Speaker 1 With a little backpack, and they're ready. They wanna learn. I had no plan of teaching women. We had a day camp that I was running, and I brought out some Beis Rivkah girls to be the camp, the counselors with these little kids. So we thought if anybody shows up, the counselors after camp will, uh, learn with these girls. Summer, their vacation. Uh, can sleep late, go shopping, sightseeing. These women showed up, and there no shopping and no sightseeing. They want answers. And the girls were intimidated. And they're sixteen-year-old girls. College women with demands. "What do you know? What do you do for the war in Vietnam?" Anyway, I ended up teaching literally around the clock. We started in the morning, and we ended in the morning. Questions and this. We learned Tanya. They, they didn't know Alef from a Beis. We learned Tanya. That was the beginning of everything. Anyway, fifteen out of the eighteen became observant. So we thought, "Whoa, we've gotta do this seriously." So the next summer, forty-two women show up. And again, the same thing, around the clock. So we brought out some girl teachers, and it became the thing for women. Like Minnesota was on the map. Girls were coming from Israel to Saint Paul, Minnesota, to learn Yiddishkeit. Frum girls started coming. The next day we had a hundred and two. It was all a quick turn. Maximum was two months. All ages, not just college students. So in a class of sixty women, we had teenagers and grandmothers

1:12:55 Speaker 1 in the same class.

1:12:56 Speaker 3 Mm.

1:12:57 Speaker 1 It was, it was, it was real. A class with all twenty-year-olds, it's not natural. Life is not made up of twenty-year-olds. But when you had the fourteen-year-old and the grandmothers in the same class, now you're talking life. We had one, one girl said that she scandalized everybody because at fifteen she wanted to get married.

1:13:32 Speaker 3 Mm.

1:13:33 Speaker 1 And this woman from Morocco who, who was a grandmother said, "So? What's wrong with that?" "I had my first child at fifteen."

1:13:42 Speaker 3 Okay.

1:13:43 Speaker 1 She was, she was-

1:13:45 Speaker 3 Yeah.

1:13:46 Speaker 1 Anyway, the uh-

1:13:48 Speaker 3 So there's a few things I don't understand about this. Number one, how do people know about this? Where do people coming from?

1:13:56 Speaker 1 Word of mouth.

1:13:58 Speaker 3 So what, what is it? It-it's the time? It's the era? Like, wh-what's going on?

1:14:02 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:14:02 Speaker 3 Like, if you do that today, I don't think people are showing up. Like, h-how does that work? Wh-what's happening?

1:14:07 Speaker 1 People won't show up because they have obligations. The hippie world, they was-- they were free.

1:14:14 Speaker 3 So that's, that's what it is? That's, that's-

1:14:17 Speaker 1 They could come and stayed. They, they could change their lives. They could... There was an openness to change. Some bad changes, but a lot of good changes.

1:14:29 Speaker 3 So this is Mamish utilizing a negative thing, let's say, in the world, Yakadosha. That-that's basically what happened.

1:14:37 Speaker 1 In Mamish, it was wild.

1:14:39 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:14:41 Speaker 1 People got into relationships, out of relationships. It was-- there were no rules. No rules. Life was a big experiment. Try it, you'll like it.

1:14:55 Speaker 3 Right.

1:14:56 Speaker 1 Anyway.

1:14:58 Speaker 3 One second. So then, you... Is there more to say about this?

1:15:01 Speaker 1 About?

1:15:02 Speaker 3 I have more questions. Okay. The next thing I don't understand, and maybe it's related to this, it's a few week program. How do people become Frum because from, from a few week program? Today we have Chabad houses, people are engaged week in and week out, and over here we have this transformation that happens in people. What is that about?

1:15:31 Speaker 1 It was partly the time. The Rebbe stirred up the world. The Maimon, Purim Taf Shin Chaf. Where the Rebbe says, "They show Yodeim Menachor." It says in, in the Song of Songs that the Aibishter when we're not responding, he reaches out and stirs up a desire that we don't even know what it's for. That's basically the sixties. People were looking for something, they didn't know what they were looking for. And the Rebbe eventually said that those Baalei Teshuva were Heichal Mishamas.

1:16:13 Speaker 3 The Rebbe said that?

1:16:14 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:16:21 Speaker 3 So, so now, now I'm, I'm, I'm just trying to understand the whole thing. So now it's a different time now, now it's a different Aveda. Like, or it was especially for the sixties.

1:16:31 Speaker 1 Now it's a different world. People become observant gradually, orderly because they have a life to live.

1:16:41 Speaker 3 Exactly.

1:16:42 Speaker 1 They can't just get up and go.

1:16:42 Speaker 3 Right. So when you have these people on the room, and I guess at a certain point you realized the, what you can accomplish, how do you give them Yiddishkeit on one foot?

1:16:59 Speaker 1 You go straight to the essence. You go to the core of everything. I'm gonna start off by saying, "You wanna keep Shabbos? You wanna huh?" Go right to the Tanya and find out what a Jew is, and find out you have a neshama, and find out that God is real, and then handle it. What are you gonna do with this information?

1:17:26 Speaker 3 You'll deal with the repercussions later.

1:17:27 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, you're going home? Good. Go home.

1:17:34 Speaker 3 Mm.

1:17:34 Speaker 1 Because now you know. The Beis Chana project is still going strong. It's not in Minnesota. The events are, are not in Minnesota anymore. People don't come to Minnesota. Certainly not in the winters. But the, the program goes on. We take the program different places. Now we're a little more, uh, specific, uh, age-wise. We have a session for teenagers separately, a session for college students, a session for older women. So there are about fifteen events during the year in different places. We, we rent out places and nice venues, and it's going, going strong.

1:18:23 Speaker 3 For sure. Okay.

1:18:26 Speaker 1 But now it's not coming out of Minnesota, and it's not being held in Minnesota, but it's the same Beis Chana.

1:18:34 Speaker 3 Beautiful. Okay. To continue. You have to seize the eyes. The power of enthusiasm.

1:18:44 Speaker 1 Yes. Abial once asked me, "Why, why are you learning siddurs with them?"

1:18:48 Speaker 3 Abial asked you that?

1:18:49 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:18:50 Speaker 3 Why are you learning siddur? What do you want to do? Halacha? What do you think you should do with them?

1:18:54 Speaker 1 Yeah. Chumash or, you know, the basic... They don't-- It doesn't move them. They like it, the information is interesting. It doesn't, it doesn't shake the-

1:19:09 Speaker 3 How did you know how to do, to do that?

1:19:11 Speaker 1 Huh?

1:19:11 Speaker 3 How did you know to do that?

1:19:13 Speaker 1 I did what I enjoyed. I have no patience with details. What's the Tachlis Hakavannah? Get straight to the point and then fill in the details. That's, that's Abial's style and Isaac's style.

1:19:32 Speaker 3 So you took their teachings and translated to ...

1:19:36 Speaker 1 It's just the way I-

1:19:37 Speaker 3 Right

1:19:37 Speaker 1 ... the way I learned, the way I f- So that's the way I teach.

1:19:42 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:19:48 Speaker 1 And it doesn't seem right. You learn a couple of masechtas, you learn the whole Chumash, you learn Shulchan Aruch, and then you ask, "So, so what's the kavannah?" You did all that without knowing the kavannah? How does that work? People are Frum their whole life, and you ask them, "So what's the kavannah?" "You, you, you do, you do." You do what? Where, where you going? What-

1:20:20 Speaker 3 Someone was once saying that he asked a Frum Yid. Frum Yid was asking him, "Why you learn Chassidus, Tanya?" So he said, "What do you mean? How do you know who you are? How do you know what the Aibishter? How do you know what a Yid is?" He's like, "I know what a Yid is." So the Baal HaTanya asked him, "What's a Yid? What's the difference between a Yid and a, and a Goy? What's the difference?" Good question. Never thought about that. It's how ein mazal bisro. A Yid, doesn't have mazal. To open a page Beis Tanya, it's important.

1:20:49 Speaker 1 Yeah. How, how do you start without... How do you first build a building and then put in a foundation?

1:20:57 Speaker 3 Right.

1:20:59 Speaker 1 I asked a guy who's a big Talmid Chaham. He sits in Kollel all his life, literally. I said, "What does it mean Yivdu es Hashem? What do you do for Hashem?" He says, "I never understood that." I said, "So what do you do?"

1:21:18 Speaker 3 So you say the found-- so when people have these fundamental, these foundations, that's-- that everything comes afterwards with it. Okay, I wanna get back to this.

1:21:31 Speaker 1 One more word on that.

1:21:32 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:21:32 Speaker 1 You ask somebody, what is a mitzvah? A mitzvah is something that you do that Hashem asks you to do, and it, uh, it's very good for you. I say, "And what does it do for him, for Hashem?" Never thought of that. You never thought of that? That is so embarrassing. The gives you a Torah and you never thought what's in it for Him? You're not a good husband. You don't have a good relationship. All these years, you never thought what's in it for Him? Oh, no, He, uh, He likes when we listen to Him. What's in it for Him? Why'd He create the world? Nobody cares. Once you've put down that foundation, you can't ignore it. I said to this guy who tells me he's a big atheist, "Gunsan believes in absolutely nothing." I said, "That's really a shame. It's very sad 'cause is waiting for you to put on tefillin." He says, "Really?" This Mr. Atheist. Of course, a God who sits in heaven and watches us struggle, I wouldn't believe in that either. He's waiting for me. How come nobody told me?

1:23:17 Speaker 3 Okay. I wanna get back some, um, afterwards to some more questions along these lines that I have and ideas. There's another area. So Beis Chana went on for many years. Um, also by the way, some of them ended up, you know, eventually they o-opened up institutions in New York, like full-- more full-time. Machaneh Chana, it was also-- it became a feeder from that.

1:23:40 Speaker 1 Machaneh Chana is a full-time.

1:23:41 Speaker 3 Right. And that the pe-people came from Beis Chana ended up going to Machaneh Chana afterwards.

1:23:45 Speaker 1 That, that's where Machaneh Sa- Chana started.

1:23:46 Speaker 3 What did he do with it?

1:23:47 Speaker 1 All these coming into Crown Heights and they'd have no place to learn.

1:23:51 Speaker 3 Right.

1:23:52 Speaker 1 So some of them sat in on Beis Rivkah with the nine-year-olds.

1:23:56 Speaker 3 Amazing.

1:23:58 Speaker 1 But Rabbi Feller's, uh, godless. We were overwhelmed with women from all over the world. The who paid for this, some of them said, "Hey, wh-why, why are we taking care of everybody else's girls? We're the local. What are we doing for Minnesota?" The who s- who bankrolled this whole thing were as idealistic as Rabbi Feller. It's good for the world. It's good, it's good for Jews. Has to be local. It's a, it's an exceptional thing. It doesn't happen anyplace else. Every Chabad house has to cater to, to their community or they're gonna lose interest. Here we're catering to everyone but the community.

1:25:03 Speaker 3 Right.

1:25:06 Speaker 1 And General Rabbi Feller as a is a, a mo- a role model for . He was very innovative. He was the first one to put on tefillin with two hundred, uh, um, BBYO boys. Gave the Rebbe a lot of . Where do you get fifty pair of tefillin? He called, he called Crown Heights. "I need fifty pair of tefillin."

1:25:49 Speaker 3 Right.

1:25:50 Speaker 1 And that was right at the beginning of m- of the whole project of tefillin.

1:25:53 Speaker 3 Mr. Tefillin.

1:25:56 Speaker 1 So he was very innovative. He was the first one to have live and learn Shabbos programs. I think he may have started the matzah bakery.

1:26:10 Speaker 3 Malamat Zah bakery.

1:26:14 Speaker 1 Anyway, so he was very creative and very idealistic and extremely supportive of the shul that he brought.

1:26:27 Speaker 3 Okay. So I'm gonna fast-forward about ten years. This is something interesting you always-- Um, we don't see it as much today because, uh, the way the Farbrengens are produced, that the subtitles. But before subtitles and live when the Rebbe was on cable TV by the Farbrengens, there was a voice over the Rebbe translating. That's, I think it's probably als- I don't know if it was the same one on the transmission. Maybe that was different. But the one on cable was, um, was you translating and how did that begin? What was that about? And then I'll follow up with some other questions

1:27:12 Speaker 1 I, I'm not sure how it began because Hill Dov, it creates-

1:27:15 Speaker 3 Oh, we... I had him. He, he, we-- he was on the podcast. He-- I'm, I'm talking about he spoke about the whole satellite farbrengers. I'm talking about your part of the translation.

1:27:24 Speaker 1 So first of all, it was satellite. It was not cable television.

1:27:27 Speaker 3 The satellite, okay.

1:27:28 Speaker 1 Yeah. Which was cutting-edge sophistication. Two years later, President Reagan used it, and it was a big news story. How it works then with the, with the satellites, with the... The Rebbe clipped it out of, uh, Time Magazine and told, told Rabbi Krinsky to show it to his son. He should know that he was two years ahead of the president. So how it started, I'm not sure exactly where, where Hill Dov would get this information from. But anyway, they put this huge dish on top of Seven Seventy. And then for the farbrengens, this eighteen-wheeler would pull up full of electronic equipment. And I sat in the building next door with a conference room, watching a monitor of the Rebbe translating. They also had a number on the screen, a telephone number that you could call to ask for more information of what's going on. And they had about eight telephones, Bochurim answering the telephones. So the first farbrengen, three-- I, if I remember, remember exactly, three or four, um, individuals were asked to come, and each one would do a sicha. Uh, Zalman Posner was there, I know for sure. I think maybe Greenberg from, uh-

1:29:08 Speaker 3 Oh

1:29:09 Speaker 1 ... from Buffalo. Somebody else also. Anyway, the first farbrengen, we each took a sicha. Second farbrengen, none of them showed up. Couldn't do it. So I ended up being the only one. So for about eight years until Mem Ches, uh, I was the only one. Six times a year, I think it is. Yeah.

1:29:45 Speaker 3 I think it's every two months, about.

1:29:50 Speaker 1 When it's a week day farbrengen at night, which means it's a celebration that is a Chassid- a Chassidic occasion, like when the Alter Rebbe came out of jail, when, when, um, the Skverer Rebbe came out of jail. Chaf Ov, Rebbe's father's yarzheit. Vav Tishrei, Rebbe's mother's yarzheit. It was such a, an amazing effect. The Rebbe was able to have an effect on people over the satellite transmission as if it was Yefes. There's one famous guy in Flor-- in, uh, California, called up Rabbi Kunin and said, "I was listening to the farbrengen. The Rebbe was talking to me. Tell him I'll do whatever he wants." How do you do that over, over... So the Rebbe didn't change a thing. The farbrengen was exactly the farbrengen in Yiddish, and there was a-

1:31:04 Speaker 3 I think the messaging of the farbrengens, the Rebbe was addressing a, a broader audience, right?

1:31:08 Speaker 1 First two sichas.

1:31:09 Speaker 3 Right. The beginning, yeah.

1:31:10 Speaker 1 Prime time. It's just brilliant. Eight, eight to ten is prime time.

1:31:16 Speaker 3 So you also see the Rebbe's language is different. The Rebbe's using more-- less Hebrew. I mean, the Rebbe's saying in Yiddish, but the Rebbe's talking about the Menschheit. The Rebbe's talking about, you know, general ideas, Bashert mitzvot benei Ach. Yeah.

1:31:28 Speaker 1 But it was a sicha, it was a maimer, it was a hadlan, it was a regular farbrengen after the first two sichas.

1:31:37 Speaker 3 Right.

1:31:38 Speaker 1 The first two sichas were about prayer in public school and what's going on in the morality of the world, which was really... Now it is so necessary to have those, those talks and that on f- on, on, on film. The passion that the Rebbe had for children in public school. They're not his children. They don't go to public school. Why was he so passionate about it? 'Cause the Rebbe was concerned with the world. Really not always an activist. It was, it was a divine mission. You have to change the world. So today, it seems like the Sheva Mitzvas project, which never really took off. The Rebbe spoke about it. The Rebbe screamed about it. Now, I think is the time. We have the world's attention 'cause everybody's an anti-Semite.

1:33:00 Speaker 3 Yeah.

1:33:00 Speaker 1 Now is, now is the time.

1:33:02 Speaker 3 But I spoke to someone else who does videos on YouTube besides you, and with AI, you can translate to various other languages So he said he piloted a bunch of languages and he stuck with the ones that are-- that were getting clicks, that were popular. Which one is the most popular? Arabic. He's talking to you. That's kind of what you were saying.

1:33:31 Speaker 1 It's time.

1:33:35 Speaker 3 Yeah. So I have a question about the translations themselves. So when I spoke... I had a few people that I had conversations with that did Chazzara, they wrote Hanachas, I spoke to them about that and they go, "So when I watch the Farbrengen, sometimes I feel like, so can I do this? Could I, could I, could I write it down? Could I... " So in your-- sometimes I think, "Can I translate what the Rebbe is saying that, and it's going to not sound like gibberish, it'll make sense?" How do you do such a thing?

1:34:03 Speaker 1 I think that the difficulty that the others had is that they tried to understand and then translate. Can't. You fall behind. You sound clumsy.

1:34:17 Speaker 3 Right.

1:34:17 Speaker 1 'Cause, 'cause you wanna say it quickly so you can listen. You can't listen. The words have to go in one ear and out your mouth.

1:34:30 Speaker 3 But you do not-- you're not comprehending what you're saying.

1:34:32 Speaker 1 I have no idea what I'm saying.

1:34:33 Speaker 3 So you're joking. So you, you couldn't tell, you couldn't tell me after that the Rebbe said at Farbrengen.

1:34:38 Speaker 1 No. I tried. They said, "You know, during the singing, give a summary." I don't know.

1:34:51 Speaker 3 Wow. Did you like study or ask somebody that, you know, 'cause there are other-- this is a profession to do these dub translations. Did you ask anyone?

1:34:59 Speaker 1 I thought so. So I went to the library and I took out books on simultaneous translation.

1:35:04 Speaker 3 Right.

1:35:07 Speaker 1 The only ones who really do it are the UN. So the book on translating simultaneous said things like, "Look over the notes carefully."

1:35:20 Speaker 3 Yeah. Okay. X.

1:35:22 Speaker 1 'Cause every speaker gives his speech written.

1:35:25 Speaker 3 Right.

1:35:27 Speaker 1 And don't hesitate to use the button. The translator has a button, he pushes it, a little light goes on by the speaker telling him to slow down . Thank you very much and-

1:35:39 Speaker 3 You return the book to the library.

1:35:41 Speaker 1 Let's move it on. Move on to something better. No, there was no-- there was nothing. All I know is that in-- according in the Gemara, an, a tour guide man shouldn't speak louder than the Rav.

1:35:56 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:35:59 Speaker 1 I thought the whole pur-purpose of a tour guide man was because people couldn't hear the Rav, so he has to speak louder.

1:36:05 Speaker 3 Right.

1:36:07 Speaker 1 No. The tour guide man shouldn't have a voice. He doesn't exist. Which was a, an interesting part of the whole process of if the Rebbe got angry, my voice can't get angry. I don't exist. I'm a translation.

1:36:31 Speaker 3 You need the people to-- you want the people to feel the Rebbe.

1:36:34 Speaker 1 Yes.

1:36:35 Speaker 3 Hmm.

1:36:35 Speaker 1 The Rebbe made a joke or something, I can't smile and laugh. I don't exist. I'm just a voice. It was hard 'cause you're, you're, you're just flowing. You know, you're not thinking. On the other hand, the Rebbe needed to know that he can speak freely and not have to worry about the translation. So the mashal when the Rebbe would say, "For a shul a goy can understand." How do you say that in English?

1:37:18 Speaker 3 Let me hear.

1:37:19 Speaker 1 Even a non-Jew can understand or even women.

1:37:25 Speaker 3 Right. That everyone can understand.

1:37:31 Speaker 1 So and it translate, and you don't have to be Jewish to appreciate this idea. So on the one hand, you do have the-

1:37:42 Speaker 3 Right

1:37:42 Speaker 1 ... be conscious of what you're saying.

1:37:46 Speaker 3 What about like a maimer or like a hadan? How do you do that?

1:37:51 Speaker 1 The maimer was the easiest of all. The hadan was difficult because it went back and forth. You ask your Sicha. We've all get can't have fun.

1:38:08 Speaker 3 Right.

1:38:08 Speaker 1 But that's not a good answer. So why'd you say it? To the English-speaking mind, what are you giving me an answer and then telling me it's not a good answer? So skip it. It's, it's a very scholarly... People are not used to this. So the Rebbe gives an answer, and I said, "But that's not an answer." I sounded like I just finished the Sicha 'cause I gave you the answer.

1:38:35 Speaker 3 Yeah.

1:38:37 Speaker 1 So there was the maimer, smooth. Like it was like a, a break, like a vacation.

1:38:49 Speaker 3 Why is that?

1:38:50 Speaker 1 Because it's, it's straight. There's no Chava min there. There's no... And you don't have to translate every Kabbalistic term. I have to say Atzilus and what it is and, and try to f- to the highest of levels. You gotta speak English.

1:39:28 Speaker 3 Weird. Very interesting.

1:39:33 Speaker 1 So after the second Farbrengen, the Rebbe asked to hear a Sicha or agreed to hear a Sicha. Hill David brought in. He told you.

1:39:47 Speaker 3 This is on, yeah.

1:39:50 Speaker 1 So afterwards, I asked Rabbi Krinsky, "Why not after the first Farbrengen?"

1:39:57 Speaker 3 Why did he only bring it to the Rebbe after the second one? Okay.

1:40:03 Speaker 1 He didn't know. I said, "Well, looking back at it, who approved my doing the Farbrengen?" Rebbe didn't... As far as I knew, I didn't know that Rebbe had listened to a sicha.

1:40:22 Speaker 3 But did the Rebbe lis- did the Rebbe listen to it with the translation?

1:40:25 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:40:25 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:40:28 Speaker 1 So I didn't know that. I said, "The Rebbe never listened, and, and he, he-- Rebbe was okay with my translation?" I said to Rabbi Krinsky, "The Rebbe just trusted you, and you said it was good." He says, "I never said it was good." I said, "So the Rebbe trusted Yisroel Dovid?" "So how is it that I was allowed to do this?" He says, "The Rebbe always lets people use their talent." I said, "But this is a little personal. It's like his voice." Anyway, so then I find out that the Rebbe listened to the sicha. So I asked Krinsky again, "If the Rebbe was worried about my translation, why didn't he listen after the first? And he didn't say anything after the second." Rabbi Krinsky said, "You don't know the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He didn't check to see if you were doing a good job. He checked to see what he could do to make it easier." Yeah. And the farbrengen after that, looking back at it, I translated, "B'eser eis, b'eser keyach u'b'eser eis," which was a very often repeated... I translated with more power, with more strength. After the second farbrengen, the Rebbe said, "B'eser keyach u'b'eser eis, med keser shtarkheit un mer enthusiasm." Thank you.

1:42:11 Speaker 3 That's how you understood it then. Rebbe was training you.

1:42:16 Speaker 1 That one word. That's it.

1:42:19 Speaker 3 Enthusiasm. So I think we went through a lot of the story part, and i-in between, we discussed different, uh, inyanim. But I wanna ask you a few questions. I mean, what you're most well-known for is being ab- being able to articulate ideas in ways that others don't necessarily do. So I wanna ask you a few questions in that along those lines. So I guess we can start off with the most fundamental question that Hasidim should understand and people should understand in general, which is why do you need a Rebbe? And what does it mean to understand a Rebbe and a teacher and a mashpia and someone that shaped your life? What did it-- What's, what, what is that?

1:43:16 Speaker 1 I think the most practical need is to see godliness in reality. God can be very mysterious. What is He? Oh, we don't know. Where is He? Everywhere. What are you, what are you talking about? The whole point of Hasidus is to make godliness real and the world manufactured, not the other way around.

1:43:49 Speaker 3 So, uh, I'll say... I'll do the Hebrew. Elul nis-

1:43:52 Speaker 1 B'pashutus.

1:43:53 Speaker 3 B'pashutus.

1:43:53 Speaker 1 Yeah. Elul-

1:43:55 Speaker 3 Elul b'pashutus v'elul b'sachutus.

1:43:57 Speaker 1 Yeah. That is so fundamental. Why, for example, uh, Hashem says to Adam, "Of all the trees you may eat, but not the tree of knowledge." Why did He say, "Of all the trees you can eat"? It was like kind of an introduction to the one you can't eat. Not really. If God never said you can eat from all the trees, Adam would never eat from a tree. Why? It's not his. What is the, the default position? If you're hungry, what do you do?

1:44:55 Speaker 3 Eat.

1:44:55 Speaker 1 You eat. Whose food are you eating? Who gave you permission? If Hashem had not said you can eat from all the trees, Adam would never eat. What would he do when he got hungry? He would be hungry. But you can die from hunger, so he'll die. He's not gonna eat something that isn't his. In other words, godliness is real. Your existence, who says it has to be? The exact opposite of our default position today. "Hey, I was hungry. Of course, I'm gonna eat." Of course, I'm gonna eat. But it's not yours. Well, too bad. Ask a religious Jew, is pikuach nefesh d'orai Shabbos? If he says, "Of course," uh, you're not pikuach. What do you mean, of course? Why? 'Cause your life is more important than Shabbos? It's not. What do you mean, of course?

1:46:12 Speaker 3 No one has a hard time with that halacha.

1:46:16 Speaker 1 The problem is that we don't have a hard time.

1:46:17 Speaker 3 I said people do not have a hard time with that halacha.

1:46:19 Speaker 1 Right. Of course, of course. Why of course? On the contrary, Torah says that if you're hungry, you should eat on Yom Kippur if your f- if your health depends on it. Wow, that's weird. Why? Yom Kippur is not more important than your life? What Hashem wants is not more important than what you want? Hashem doesn't really want. Oh, you really want. Without a Rebbe, God is not real. He's a very holy concept. The whole point is to bring Elokut down to earth, to bring God into the world, that God becomes real like the world used to be. Not that the world isn't real, but it's not true. So that's the first thing.

1:47:33 Speaker 3 Why is that the Rebbe?

1:47:35 Speaker 1 'Cause the Rebbe is l- literally a, a living godliness.

1:47:41 Speaker 3 What does that mean?

1:47:44 Speaker 1 It means the Rebbe represents the truth of God on Earth.

1:47:48 Speaker 3 So how do you, how do you see that?

1:47:50 Speaker 1 Not as a prophet, not the voice of God, the reality of God.

1:47:55 Speaker 3 How do you see that in the Rebbe?

1:47:57 Speaker 1 When the Rebbe says, "Oh, you're feeling not well and you... Check your mezuzah." What? Well, you know, you do a good deed, maybe you'll get... No, not a good deed. Check your mezuzah because your health depends on the health of the mezuzah. Who else says that? Who else believes that?

1:48:21 Speaker 3 Jim just gave out for a, a trip, for letting some Yechid Ha'am very interesting clips. So one of the, the couple asked about the Shondais how they're not getting along. The Rebbe first said, "You are getting along, it just needs to be revealed." They're like, "No, we're not." But there's also... And what does the Rebbe tell them? They should have a share together. Should learn together, Torah.

1:48:48 Speaker 1 That, that could be practical. If you're gonna fight, argue about, argue about Arashi. Um, but the Rebbe's, the Rebbe's ap- approach to Mashiach: strengthen your faith in Mashiach. No, stop your faith in Mashiach and bring him. I can bring Mashiach. Uh, he, he's really coming. Most people who believe in Mashiach believe in him. They don't expect him. The Rebbe expected him because godliness is real. There's a famous story about-

1:49:42 Speaker 3 I saw a, I saw a clip that someone, not Lubavitch, was translating, the Munda Pruta. He says, like, you believe like Munda Pruta, Pruta, like, like believing in aliens.

1:49:53 Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, I actually heard a Lubavitcher say online, "We do mitzvahs for no reason." Yeah, that's Chabad. We are Chabad. Chochma, binah, daas. We do mitzvahs for no reason. Ridiculous. We do mitzvahs for the ultimate reason, not for no reason.

1:50:22 Speaker 3 So what are some other things in the Rebbe that embody this idea?

1:50:31 Speaker 1 Every Jew really wants to be a better Jew. Do you believe that? There's a chelek elokam yimao. I know that, but come on. Nobody wants to be good. The Rebbe says, "Get a one-way ticket to a town where nobody wants you and nobody invited you, and stay there until the people around you start becoming." They're not going to. Yes, they will. Stop a guy in the street, ask him to put on tefillin. They're not gonna wanna put on tefillin. Yes, they will. You're talking about a Jew, what do you mean he won't? Rabbi Feller once wrote to the Rebbe asking... There was a couple who were moving along, becoming more observant, and, uh, Rabbi Feller mentioned that he's afraid to mention mikveh to her because he's not sure she's ready. Know the Rebbe's answer?

1:51:33 Speaker 3 She's very m-much, muspa, mushpa meha'sinai, right? That was the lashon. Something like that. But, but you can say what it is.

1:51:41 Speaker 1 Muchan ve'ein mitmen.

1:51:42 Speaker 3 Muchan ve'ein mitmen.

1:51:44 Speaker 1 She has been ready since God gave the Torah. What do you mean a Jew is not ready? You have to find the right approach. Don't blame the Jew. The Jew wants. Who belie- who believes that? I don't even believe. To whom is that the reality So without a Rebbe, it's hard. Maybe, maybe not humanly possible. With Hasidus, and with a Rebbe to embody the Hasidus... Like, what is the story? There's a mitzvah of Yediya Hashem, where you have to get to know Hashem. Rambam, he said, how you say this, "The foundation of all wisdom is to know, not to believe." Yes. So on the one hand, the first mitzvah is to get to know Hashem. But you ask anybody, "You know Hashem?" Says, "You can't know Hashem. «Les machshava tivza bei» He's unknowable." So what, what are we saying? You know, whatever you... Stop, stop fudging. What is the answer? If Hashem is unknowable, what is the mitzvah to know Him? Well, you're not really gonna know Him. Oh, so Torah is not real. You have to love every Jew. Not every Jew. I mean, come on. The same thing. I ask a, from a guy, "You have abba seso?" "Avada." "Avada? Let me introduce you to a couple of Jews and tell me avada." Everything is fuzzy. In Hasidus, everything is real. So what's the story? God is knowable or unknowable? This is so important to any kid who's learning Hasidus. Les machshava tivza bei, no thought can comprehend Him, is never the end

1:54:26 Speaker 1 of the sentence. What we're saying is, an unknowable God wants to be known, so He makes himself known in the Torah. But don't stop with unknowable, 'cause that's the end of the story. Hashem is infinite. Infinite what? Oh, no, He's just infinite. Infinite what? Speak English. Otherwise, what, what are-- You can't claim to have learned anything. Well, ultimately, «af ha'teveh feflet min ish kinkashik». Oh, so you could have told me that the first day of yeshiva and we can all go home. That was the ultimate cop-out. Who's a teveh? And why don't you ask a kasha on a teveh, on a desire? It's a state. Because the desire shouldn't be there in the first place. So here are a couple of interesting... Number one, God created the world because He wants a dwelling place in the lowest world. A dwelling place. A dwelling place is where a person can be himself.

1:55:57 Speaker 3 Okay, man, I'm comfortable. You're talking too much English. You're talking too much English.

1:56:06 Speaker 1 Um, so what does it mean? He wants us to make Him a dwelling place, and then He'll pay us for our services, and He'll be happy, and we'll be happy. That's like a man saying to a woman, "Let's make a house." So she goes and buys lumber from Home Depot. He says, "What are you doing?" She said, "You, you said you wanna make a house." He says, "I meant marry me." Become a carpenter. God wants a «dira b'tachtainu». He doesn't mean become a carpenter, so that He can live by himself in his apartment. Dira b'tachtainu means when will we finally be living together. We also «vimigdash v'shachanti b'seicham». I ask you to be a carpenter, and you're gonna make me an apartment where I can live separately from you? We talk, dira b'tachtainu is everything. We, we're devoted, we're committed full-time. You think the Aibishter wants to be by himself? That's not a dira, that's a prison. Isolation. The other thing is, all the concepts in Hasidus, if you can't say it in English, you're not learning. You're just memorizing. Af ha'teveh is kinkashinisht. You can't ask why He desires it. It's a desire. We make Him sound like a immature... What does it mean you can't ask a question on a desire It doesn't say you can't ask. Be careful with... It says there is no question. Very different. The desire, the taavah, doesn't mean an irrational for no reason instinct. A desire doesn't have an objective. Most things we do is in order

1:58:49 Speaker 1 to have something else. You get a job 'cause you want money. You want money 'cause you wanna buy stuff. You wanna buy the stuff because it'll make you feel proud. Everything has a, a what for. A taavah doesn't have a what for. You have a taavah for chocolate. Yeah, why? For chocolate. Yeah, but so what's gonna-- So I'll have chocolate. A taavah is the goal, not a means to an end. So when you say God has a taavah for adir betachtenu, you can't ask for what. There is no for what. It is the end. Eventually, we get to an end, right? We're not on a treadmill. It's not gonna go on forever like this with golus and geulah, and golus and geulah. There is an end. When the desire is satisfied, we've gotten there. And then what? And then we're there. That's what it means you-- there's no question on a passion. Not that there's no reason for the passion, but the passion is the goal, not a means to an end.

2:00:05 Speaker 3 So y- everything you're telling me now is basically how Chassidus and the Rebbeim who taught Chassidus, and hopefully Chassidun that are actually understanding the Chassidus, are now understanding who they are, what the world is, what we're supposed to do here, fun- fundamentals about actually being a Yid. So what's the, what's the, the contribution and the Chassidus of our Rebbe and the Derech Hashem? What is, what is that?

2:00:48 Speaker 1 It's always been bring God down to earth. Chabad specializes in bringing God down to human intelligence. Chochma bina daas. That's what it meant when, uh, the Baditch ever said when the Tanya came out is, "How did you put such a big God into such a small book?" He wasn't talking about the size of the, of, of the, uh-

2:01:19 Speaker 3 Of the Eitz Chaim or the Tanya?

2:01:20 Speaker 1 Of, of the Tanya.

2:01:21 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

2:01:21 Speaker 1 'Cause it was a little book, not a big book. It was a... What he meant was, how did you capture God in human intelligence? That's bringing God down to earth. But the human intelligence is not the lowest part of the world. In fact, it's the highest part.

2:01:43 Speaker 3 Chassidus always gives a mashal for a taavah, uh, a taavah muskalus. Like, like, uh, someone has a taavah that isn't sichli, like very, very refined taavahs.

2:01:54 Speaker 1 Yeah. The pleasure of knowing is the deepest and strongest pleasure we have.

2:01:59 Speaker 3 But it's also higher, a high, a high pleasure.

2:02:01 Speaker 1 It happens to be the best.

2:02:03 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

2:02:03 Speaker 1 But it is also the strongest. When people are in pain, sick and dying, and you engage their mind, they feel better.

2:02:16 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

2:02:19 Speaker 1 Anyway, so the, the difference with the seventh generation is that enough of bringing God down to your highest part, bring God down to the lowest, your action. And not just you, but everybody. That's hamayse hu ha'ikar. Another thing that we misunderstand. Hamayse hu ha'ikar, that action is the essential thing. The essence of what? It doesn't say action is the only thing or action is everything. No. Action is the essence of it. Of what? Of bringing God down to the world. The essential bringing down, the ultimate bringing down is in action, for which everyone is capable. Everyone, eight billion people.

2:03:20 Speaker 3 So the Chassidus of, of the Rebbe is mayse?

2:03:24 Speaker 1 God in action. By the Alter Rebbe was God in human understanding. And by the Rebbe Rashab was God in human emotion. By the Rebbe, God in action.

2:03:41 Speaker 3 So what, what's that-- what is it-- Can you, uh, bring it down a little lower level? What does that mean? Or how do we see that in, in, in, in the Rebbe's mussar and what the Rebbe taught us?

2:03:52 Speaker 1 Every mitzvah. Do it. It's what God wants, so you do it.

2:04:00 Speaker 3 So you're saying this is the correlation between Chabad, the chochma bina daas and hafatsat hamayanot and hafatsat haazot.

2:04:08 Speaker 1 Yeah.

2:04:09 Speaker 3 And mitzvot.

2:04:10 Speaker 1 Yeah.

2:04:11 Speaker 3 The actualization of it.

2:04:14 Speaker 1 Not like some people think that the act, the outreach is because there's an emergency, and once the emergency is over, we'll stop. It's Chassidus. It's the core and essence of Chassidus. You stop a guy and ask him to put on tefillin. Why only Chabad? If it's an emergency, nobody else knows the emergency. Everybody else says, "Right, it's an emergency, so get them all into yeshiva and re-educate them and make them all into lamdanim, and then they'll all observe mitzvahs." But just doing a mitzvah? What's that? What's that? That's the ultimate desire that God has. Is that good enough reason?

2:05:08 Speaker 3 How does this tie into... I'm assuming this is w- how it ties into the Rebbe's focus on Mashiach. How does that connect?

2:05:18 Speaker 1 The Rebbe's focus on outreach, Mashiach, and America.

2:05:22 Speaker 3 Okay, go ahead.

2:05:22 Speaker 1 Why are we in America?

2:05:25 Speaker 3 Chatzi Kadur Atachtit.

2:05:26 Speaker 1 Yes. Because in America, you can do that. There are very oth- very few other places where you could do that. The guarantee of freedom of expression, freedom of speech, freedom of religion.

2:05:47 Speaker 3 So where does the Mashiach-

2:05:50 Speaker 1 So in order to reach out to the world, you have to do it from New York.

2:05:54 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

2:05:54 Speaker 1 'Cause New York reaches out to the whole world. In fact, the deci-

2:06:00 Speaker 3 There's no better place for a mitzvah thing than in Manhattan.

2:06:03 Speaker 1 Yes. The decision to come to America in nineteen forty, I think the thing the Rebbe said, that the American mentality is very, uh, ripe for, for Torah. What is the mentality? Cosmopolitan. We're not ju- we're not, we're not just America. We're, we're the whole world. We're everything. We go everywhere. We do every... That attitude we needed to regain, 'cause in Europe, it was kinda beaten out of us. Stay in your ghetto, mind your own business, and you'll be safe. Come outside, you're not safe. And here we have to come outside completely. So we came to America. But let's sum it up this way for, for the inside crowd. What did the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, and the Tzemach Tzedek, what did they want Hasidim to be? They wanted Hasidim to be pnimin. They want the Hasidim to be inspired internally, not externally. The difference is external inspiration is overwhelming. You see a miracle. You see a holy man perform a miracle, wow, you're inspired. But it overwhelms your senses. You can't perform a miracle. You don't understand the miracle. So whenever you're overwhelmed with excitement, it doesn't last, 'cause it's not you. You didn't absorb it. You were overwhelmed by it. Like this very profound expression, "Don't confuse intense with deep." Something is intense, don't confuse that with deep. They're very different. Intense usually does not last, 'cause it's not you. Deep is the real you that will last. So there's a difference between excitement and inspiration. Or in, in Hebrew, there's hispalus and

2:08:44 Speaker 1 there's hisedutus. Hispalus is never a good thing. Because it comes from the outside, it's an exciting stimulus or catalyst. It doesn't become you. So if you are excited by something external, you'll start doing mitzvahs, but it won't last more than a year. Deep is the opposite. Deep means that which is your true nature, which you didn't bother digging out. Once you get that, that's the real you. It's gonna last forever. So the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, and the Tzemach Tzedek wanted Hasidim to find inspiration that comes internally. How do you inspire, inspire yourself internally? Through the mind. When the mind is, is inspired, when the mind gets excited about an understanding of godliness, that's, that's real. And they succeeded. Hasidim of the Tzemach Tzedek would not be impressed if you could perform a miracle. Well, the Mitteler Rebbe's Hasidim said, "If I saw a holy person stop a funeral and open the casket and bring the dead body back to life, I would say, 'If you can teach me Hasidus, I would be your Hasid. And if not, you can keep your miracles.'" I don't want external excitation. It's false. And that's true in life in general. You get stimulated by a movie. Nah. By a ride, a rollercoaster. If it's external, then it's superficial. So Hasidim became true Pnimim. They lived what they meant, and they meant what they lived. They were really an actualized people. The Rebbe Marash started something different, which came as a shock. The Rebbe Marash, the Rebbe Rashab,

2:11:33 Speaker 1 and the, and the Friediker Rebbe, they wanted Hasidim to be essential. Get to the core. Get to the essence. So by the first three generations, it was Pnimius versus Chitzonius. Reject the Chitzonius, go for the Pnimius. In the second three generations, it was Etzem versus Galus. Things that are revealed and things that are essential. Essential means no wiggle room. Essence doesn't change. Essence can't be watered down. The essence of Torah, that leads to Mesirus Nefesh. If there's no li-- wiggle room, if no means no, and yes means yes, even the most talented communist interrogator can't shake you. 'Cause no is no. It's essential. It took three generations, and by the Friediker Rebbe, the Mesirus Nefesh was natural. Everyone had Mesirus Nefesh. 'Cause there's no other way. Now comes the seventh generation. The opposite of internal is external. The opposite of essential is non-essential. Expression. What is the seventh generation? The truth. What is the opposite of the truth? There is none. There's no opposite. There's the absence of truth. That's not the opposite. So in Torah and in Judaism, there is the external and the internal. The Ba'al Shem Tov used miracles to inspire people. It's not internal, but it's a wake-up call. It's an ins-- it's a, it's an excitement that is good. The difference between essence and expression, well, expression is important. But it's the opposite of essence. Emes doesn't have an opposite. You can be non-emes, but there's nothing to pair it with. That's the seventh generation. That's the generation of Mashiach,

2:14:45 Speaker 1 when the ultimate truth becomes the obvious fact.

2:14:52 Speaker 3 So you brought this out by the Friediker Rebbe, and the Chassidim having Mesirus Nefesh, and the Friediker Rebbe having Mesirus Nefesh. How does this express itself in day to day, this emes?

2:15:04 Speaker 1 In this generation?

2:15:05 Speaker 3 Yeah. By the Rebbe, by what the Rebbe told us to do, what does that-

2:15:10 Speaker 1 Everything. First of all, in every ma'amar, the Rebbe says, "It's written that this affects even the hea- highest of heavens, but really it affects God Himself." Atzmus. Every ma'amar. It's not high. It's the whole thing. Emes. Mif'tayam. It is, it is true. A Jew puts on tefillin. True or false?

2:15:47 Speaker 3 Think so.

2:15:50 Speaker 1 So another way of saying it is like this: There are facts, and there is truth, and they're not the same thing. Facts are real, but they're not true. The difference is a fact is reality as it happens to be. Truth is reality as it must be.

2:16:13 Speaker 3 So you have the saying many times that a Yid and Galus are the opposites because it's the opposite of the truth of a Yid. That's why we need Moshiach, because we need, we need, we need to be in, in, in true mode.

2:16:39 Speaker 1 The fact is that in Russia, under communism, you could not, you could not teach Yiddishkeit. You could not practice Yiddishkeit. You couldn't. The truth is, in Russia, under communism, you practice Yiddishkeit. The fact eventually surrenders to the truth. A world after Mashiach means a world in which every truth is the fact. So Jews don't eat pork: true or false? True. But I know a lot of Jews who eat pork.

2:17:30 Speaker 3 Don't confuse me with the facts.

2:17:32 Speaker 1 That's right. That's right. The fact is Jews eat pork. But what's the truth? The truth is a Jew doesn't eat pork. You could even say Mashiach is coming: true or false? True, but it's not a fact.

2:17:54 Speaker 3 What do you mean?

2:17:55 Speaker 1 I told you this yesterday, he didn't come. So Mashiach is not a fact, Mashiach is true. How do we make the truth become the fact? That's Mashiach.

2:18:14 Speaker 3 Does this tie in-- We also have a unique in, in Der Hashari is that we had a G'matamos. Is this connected to what you're talking about?

2:18:29 Speaker 1 In a s-- In a way it's connected because everybody predicted that without the Rebbe present on earth, Chabad would fall apart. Everyone predicted it. Didn't happen, did it? The opposite happened. What's the explanation? The Rebbe's message was: live the truth. You don't think Jews wanna be more observant? Go into a community, spend a-- stay there ten years and tell me what the results are. The results are in. The world wants to be better. So if that's the truth, why would it disappear without the Rebbe? If it was the Rebbe's creation, why you gotta be here to keep your creation going? But it's not the Rebbe's creation, it's the truth. So what do you mean people are gonna quit? That's what we, um, misunderstood. The Rebbe didn't have an exciting new project. The Rebbe's project was Emes. There's a beautiful story about a group of Jews who were at a wedding in Williamsburg in the early years, the '50s. A Beyel went to the wedding. On the way back, they were all waiting for a bus. It was raining, so they were huddled in the doorway of a store, like a little, uh, indent in the... One guy was very impatient. He would run to the curb to look down the street to see if the bus was coming. I remember going to Yeshiva on a bus. They always do that. "Uh, it's coming." Anyway, the guy comes and comes back. The third time he comes back, he says, in Yiddish, he says, "Oh, that bus

2:20:51 Speaker 1 is gonna come with Mashiach." A Beyel said to him, "Excuse me, but what's the comparison? The bus may never come. Mashiach is definitely coming." He gives him the stare. He says to him, "Lubavitcher?" That's Lubavitch. Mashiach is real. A bus is not real. A bus is a fact. It's real enough to get on and, and get to your destination. So they're both real, but a fact is only a fact, and the truth is the truth. The way to change the world is by making every fact surrender to the truth. Make every truth become a fact. Jews don't eat pork. True. Okay, now make it a fact. Jews don't work on Shabbos. It's absolutely true. Jews don't work on Shabbos. Is it a fact? Not yet. But once it becomes a fact, it's not gonna go away 'cause it's the truth. That's called bringing heaven down to earth.

2:22:13 Speaker 3 Um, so, so if the Rebbe is the truth, Chassidus is the truth, Torah is the truth. Every once in a while, there seems to be various trends that people-- that creep in somehow, that people are advocating. Yeah, yeah, you know, Chassidus we know, but for this and this issue, for this and this and that, or to, to find yourself, to express yourself, we need this, and every five years is a new what it is. But, uh, you know, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not gonna elaborate because someone will listen to this in five years and it'll be something else. But there's always something new that, you know, okay, Chassidus goes to this point, and then we need this in order to, to get to the next point. What, what do you say about that?

2:23:00 Speaker 1 It's totally misleading. All the psychology and the, and the sociology and... It's all, it's all factual But if you live in the world of fact, you'll never get anywhere. You'll change it to a new fact, but it'll still be a fact. It still won't be the truth. Hasidut says, "Look for the truth." That never changes. You'll never go back. True is true. When the Alter Rebbe came out of jail, which was a huge victory because nobody gets out of jail in Russia. It was a miracle without a question, and the government actually encouraged the Rebbe to continue his teachings. Unbelievable. There were thousands of Jews who wanted to become Chabad because of that miracle. The Alter Rebbe said, "No excitement, no external, uh, stimulus. If it's not true, then you're not a Hasid." He could have had fifty thousand more Hasidim if he had allowed them to become Hasidim out of that excitement. Now, the truth. Most of our emotional mental problems comes from not know- knowing the truth. So exchanging one problem for another fact, that's never gonna be the solution.

2:24:57 Speaker 3 So you're saying the, the solution for an- anxiety, depression, marriage, what- whatever people are dealing with, it's all Hasidut, it's all Torah.

2:25:08 Speaker 1 It's like the Rebbe once said to somebody, "How can you be anxious in God's world?" It's like, uh, it, it puzzles. A child gets frightened from a bug, from a... Runs into his father's lap, "And I'm so scared." You're sitting in your father's lap. You can't be scared now. What do you see? Why'd you come to your father's lap? To stop being scared, so knock it off. You can't be scared while holding God's hand. You certainly can't be anxious. But you don't know that you're holding God's hand. You don't know you're in God's world. So what you're missing is the truth. Work on your bitachon. Oh, come on. You gotta trust God more. Why would I not trust God? 'Cause He's not real to you. If He was real, you wouldn't have to learn to trust. It's, it's insulting when you're afraid, 'cause God is thinking, "What? You don't know that I'm in charge here? After all these years we've been together, you still don't trust Me?" It's insulting.

2:26:57 Speaker 3 Okay. Do you feel like, um, people need to be more in tuned with this in, in, in the community?

2:27:05 Speaker 1 Look, we need to be more sympathetic. Person is in pain, he's in pain. You don't just walk over and say, "Well, knock it off. You don't have to be." But if we really wanna help each other, don't exchange one problem for another. Help the person realize God runs the world, you've got nothing to worry about.

2:27:34 Speaker 3 Okay. So after everything you've seen, experienced from your parents with in Russia, translating the what is, um, what is the most important thing you would want a, a young Hasid to understand about, about the Rebbe, about Hasidut? Like, what, what's, what's the one most important thing?

2:28:12 Speaker 1 The most important thing is make sense. Really? I thought we're supposed to have blind faith. You have blind faith in that which you are told. Don't have blind faith in something you just thought up. Emunah is not an open field that you can believe anything. In fact, you're not allowed to believe many things. Emunah has its parameters. This is what you can believe, this is you can't belie- can't believe. You can't just make up stuff and say, "No, that's what I believe." Even belief has to have common sense. You can believe Mashiach is coming even though there is no evidence. Okay. But you know what you believe, you know why you're believing it, and you know that you're supposed to believe it. Belief means trust something bigger than yourself. Not trust your own feelings, instincts, and, and, and theories. And secondly, don't think just about yourself. You're excited about something? That doesn't mean anything. What can you excite the world about? Right now we have to excite the world about Mashiach. Not the Jewish world. The Jewish world has a serious problem because they've believed in Mashiach for so long, they don't know how to stop. But it'll come as a shock to the system. When Mashiach arrives, you won't believe in him anymore. It will be only because that's gone. Some people dread that. What do you mean I'm not gonna believe in Mashiach? It's a mitzvah to believe in Mashiach. Bring him. I actually said to a non-Jewish guy, I said, "What are

2:30:35 Speaker 1 you doing to bring Mashiach?" He says, "Which Mashiach?" I said, "What, you want, you wanna have a theological or theoretical discussion? Bring him." "Well, well, no." Stop the debate. Bring Mashiach. That's what the Rebbe was telling us. Not have stronger Emunah. The Rebbe stopped singing Ani Maamin befarbrengens. Don't tell me what you believe. Where is Mashiach? "Oh, I believe in Mashiach." I didn't ask you to believe. And as long as you're not thinking only about yourself, don't think only about Jews. Every non-Jew in the jungles of Africa has to know about Mashiach and has to do something to bring him. What are we gonna do about that? What are we gonna do about that?

2:31:40 Speaker 4 And you're saying the environment of antisemitism makes them more ripe to do that?

2:31:46 Speaker 1 Yes.

2:31:49 Speaker 4 Because th- they're thinking about us. Okay, but in the past when the antisemitism that prevented Shabbos mitzvahs 'cause we would get killed for it. You think as long as we're not getting killed for it, then they're, then, then we can do it?

2:32:04 Speaker 1 That the focus is on Israel, that's, that's a, that's an absolute divine intervention. 'Cause we need to talk to the world, so God gives us the microphone over and over, and we don't say what we're supposed to say. And just recently, Netanyahu spoke at the UN. He didn't say what he's supposed to say. He didn't say a word about the miracles that are happening in Israel. He didn't say a word about God. So God said, "Okay, we try it again." He made the miracle of the airplane, and Netanyahu said, "Wow, that was Siyata Dishmaya, Bishmaya." Habersha's not giving up. So now the, the final frontier is the non-Jewish world. Rebbe used to say, "Why do people cry by Unetaneh Tokef?" There's this prayer on the Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, where it says that God decides who's gonna live and who's gonna die, and everybody cries. Rebbe says, "What are you crying? 'Cause you might die? What are you, paranoid? If you die, you die. What you should cry over is "Veyeda kol po olo ke'ata paalta."

2:33:41 Speaker 4 There's a whole sicha in the Kotzker Sichos where the Rebbe is like melamed zchus, like, that a Yid's life is the, is, is, is that. So that's what-- even though the p- even though it looks like a, a chasada, never mind Unetaneh Tokef, but a Yid is-- the truth is a Yid's life is that. So it's, so it's, so it's okay.

2:34:02 Speaker 1 The Rebbe is such a gentleman. So what should we cry about? There is a human being in the world who does not know his Creator. How can you tolerate that? If He's really the Creator and He is your God, how can you tolerate having a person not even know that He exists or not know how to serve Him? And the biggest miracle of all, of the seventh generation, are the hostages who came out of the tunnels. This one is keeping Shabbos. This one's keeping kosher. This one is making kiddush. This one is fasting Yom Kippur.

2:34:49 Speaker 4 One of them is reading Vayikra.

2:34:51 Speaker 1 Yeah.

2:34:52 Speaker 4 One of them is reading Vayikra. And that's it.

2:34:58 Speaker 1 So it's not like they found God. They found the Emes. So when you ask them, "Oh, now you believe in God?" They say, "Oh, He was there in the tunnel." He was there in the tunnel. Now we're talking. "Yes, now I believe in God." Sure, you believe in God. You were scared. They don't believe in God. They wanna serve God.

2:35:31 Speaker 4 They what?

2:35:32 Speaker 1 They want to serve Him.

2:35:33 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

2:35:35 Speaker 1 And they're running around the world telling people, "Serve God," not, "Believe in God." We're past that. It's the Deah Rashbi.

2:35:48 Speaker 4 That wasn't the reaction to other calamities that Jewish people had, Amal.

2:35:53 Speaker 1 Yeah. So people say that was the worst thing that happened since the Holocaust. Don't compare it to the Holocaust. After the Holocaust, everybody stopped believing in God.

2:36:02 Speaker 4 Right.

2:36:03 Speaker 1 And after October 7th, not just the hostages, even before. From October 8th, people started to serve God. Opposite.

2:36:17 Speaker 4 So maybe it's a new era, like it was in the hippies times.

2:36:19 Speaker 1 It's definitely a new era. It's the Deah Rashbi.

2:36:25 Speaker 4 Amazing. Okay. Yashakécha Rabbi Freeman. He's amazing. Thank you so much.

2:36:36 Speaker 1 Amen. Thank you.