Rabb Shais Taub on the 12 Pesukim

00:00 Hi, I'm Zalman Schner. Welcome to the Everything Chinuch Podcast, brought to you by the Menachem Education Foundation. Here, you'll find fabrangens, workshops, live interviews, and more, all to inspire you, the Chabad educator. We hope you enjoy today's episode. Okay. So the Rebbe's charge to us for chinuch in our time, that's a big topic, a really big topic. Fortunately, the Rebbe organized it for us. The Rebbe gave us talking points. So what I'd like to speak with you about for the next forty-four minutes or so, that's how much time they told me that I have, are the twelve psukim. The twelve psukim and my moreh chazal verses and sayings of the sages and how they outline for us the big ideas with which to raise the generation that will bring Mashiach. So let's start with a little bit of background. The twelve psukim were launched in the midst of Mivtza Chinuch, the launch of the education campaign, and the first six of the twelve psukim were rolled out on Rosh Chodesh Iyar, תשלו. The point of Mivtza Chinuch, as the Rebbe spoke about many times throughout that tekufa, is not, contrary to popular misconception, a campaign for the purpose of educating children, but rather a campaign to promote children as educators. Mivtza Chinuch is to turn our children into educators, teachers, influencers. A proactive approach. In fact, the Rebbe spoke about it at the farbrengen that year, יט Tammuz, that apparently somebody had, uh, voiced some critique that this concept was innovative. This-- Not in a--

02:45 In, in-- He, he didn't mean innovative in a complimentary fashion. He meant that the Rebbe was, uh, too radical, pushing the envelope. And at this farbrengen, the Rebbe said, "I'm surprised that those who criticize this approach are showing their ignorance. Are they not aware that in a time of an educational crisis, the entirety of Torah was revived through the efforts of one sage who recruited the assistance of little children and turned them into teachers?" "How great is the act of Rabbi Hiyya. He took a child to learn Breishes, a child to learn Shemos, a child to learn Vayikra, a child to learn Bamidbar, a child to learn Devarim, five children, each one to specialize on another Chumash. And then with the Mishnah, one child to specialize in each Seder of Mishnah." And says the Rebbe, "What do we learn from this? You might think that when a child reaches an educational milestone, for instance, he finishes the study of Sefer Breishes, that the next order on the agenda is for that child to study Sefer Shemos." Says the Rebbe, "No, not at all. As soon as a child finishes and masters Sefer Breishes, the child immediately becomes the teacher and passes on Sefer Breishes to the next child." In other words, if you know Aleph, teach Aleph. As soon as you have what to give away, start giving it away. So Mivtza Chinuch was all about how to make children into educators, and the יב psukim are the ammunition for children to educate each other.

04:47 The Rebbe describes there the vision of, of, uh-- The, the Rebbe, first of all, he describes the, the nature of children. Children like to tell each other what to do. Children like to wield authority, and we're giving them a healthy outlet how to do that. And the Rebbe describes their scene of little children playing together, and that one of them will mention to the others one of the twelve psukim. But the way the Rebbe describes it, the Rebbe doesn't describe the twelve psukim as slogans. The verbiage is not important. In fact, the Rebbe said something surprising. At least it was surprising to me when I went back and I started to look at the farbrengens. The Rebbe said, "These psukim or other psukim, we can include other psukim as long as they, as long as they have the same content." You could pick other psukim as long as they should have the same content. They should mean the same message. In other words, the Rebbe was saying it's not the words, it's not the, the actual, uh, nusach, it's the ideas. These are twelve ideas. And then the Rebbe ex-expounded and said these are ideas that were chosen specifically for what purpose? I mean, you might ask, well, twelve psukim, they must be big ideas, but big idea is a relative term. What does it mean? These are the most important ideas. These are the most fundamental ideas. So the Rebbe explained, these are ideas that every child can understand and give over. That these

06:14 are the ideas that were chosen because every child can understand them and then give them over. So what the Rebbe was describing, the Rebbe's vision was that children would have these twelve ideas that they could own and master and give over to each other. It's interesting because in actuality, what the Rebbe got was Amirah Psukim Ba'al Peh, which obviously has a great holiness to it and a great value to it, as we see from the fact that the Rebbe himself participated in saying the, the Psukim Ba'al Peh. But that's not what the Rebbe described when he launched the twelve Psukim. The idea was i-- that, that, that these are messages, the-these are themes, these are ideas, and the words are not even all that important. In fact, I could tell you the, the Pasuk, uh, behold, the Rebbe didn't even say that Pasuk in the first Fabrengen. The Rebbe said, "An inyan fun yitziyas mitzrayim." So they were all inyanim. They were concepts. It wasn't supposed to be that we got-- we get so locked into the words. I think that just in general is incredibly instructive. I, I haven't even gotten to the first Pasuk yet, but the idea that it's not just memorization, it's not just information. It's mastery. It's learning how to think. Not being told what to think, being taught how to think. Okay, so these twelve Psukim and my Morei Chazal teach us how to think, and they mold our worldview, and they turn us into educators. Let's go through

08:07 them as quickly as possible, one at a time and in order. And the order, as you'll see, makes a lot of sense. What's the first Pasuk? Torat livolono. Okay, so why is Torat livolono the first Pasuk? Simple explanation is because our sages have said that as soon as a child is able to speak, they, the, they should be taught Torat livolono. But what's the idea behind Torat livolono? Why is this the opening? You ever had somebody disqualify themselves from your message before you even started talking? They've already excused themselves. "You're not, you're not talking to me. Why are you talking to me? You got the wrong guy. I'm the wrong-- You're selling to the wrong customer. I'm not Orthodox." And one time, there was a preacher. He got up Sunday morning, and he was giving a fire and brimstone sermon, and he said, "Don't you know every member of this congregation is gonna die?" And there was a guy in the front row who was laughing. He says, "Every member of this congregation is gonna go before God and be judged." And there was-- the same guy was laughing. The preacher said, "Every member of this congregation is going to suffer the flames of hell." And the front-- guy in the front row, he's laughing. So the preacher says, "What are you laughing about?" The guy says, "I'm not a member of this congregation." Okay, so before he even started speaking, "Uh, you're not talking to me." So the first thing we gotta establish is

09:57 why am I talking to you? Before I even tell you what I wanna tell you, I have to tell you why I'm talking to you. Why am, why, why am I telling it to you? So the first thing you have to know is Torat livolono me'roshech iles yankev. You were born into this. This is an inheritance. It's not something y-that you worked for. It's not even a gift. It's something automatically that was bequeathed to you. Even a one-day-old child is an equal owner in Torah. This is your birthright. That's why I'm talking to you. In other words, we're establishing relevancy. I think, by the way, when we stop people in the street, am ifzoyim, and we say, "Excuse me, are you Jewish?" That that's related to this idea. That even if we don't get any further than the, "Excuse me, are you Jewish?", we've established something. I've established why I'm talking to you, who you are, why my message is for you. Now, once I've established that, you know why I'm talking to you, you're gonna counter, or you could counter, and you could say, "Fine. I accept it. Fine. I'm Jewish. I'm just as Jewish as you. The Torah belongs to me. It's mine to do with whatever I can do." That's a beautiful idea. It's a beautiful concept. So we say to him next, "No, it's not a concept." Shema Yisroel Hashem Elohenu Hashem Echad. Echad means oneness. It means totality. It means everythingness, especially as it's brought out in the Ches and

11:36 in the Daled. The Aleph is the oneness, but it's not just oneness in some philosophical sense. It's the Ches, the eight, which is the seven firmaments and the earth, and then it's the four, which is the four directions. In other words, this is not just a theory, this is practice. Shema Yisroel Hashem Elohenu Hashem Echad means this is real. They tell the story about the Mashpia in Temchetimim, Rabbi Mechol der Alter. He used to daven baAvoda. And one time, he was in the middle of Birkat Shma, where you can't be mafsik. And there was a, a cobbler, a shuster came into the Shul and Reb Mechol started gesticulating to the shoemaker. Mm, uh-uh, uh, uh, uh, mm-mm, mm-mm. And he pointed out there was a bachur whose shoes were torn up and needed to be repaired. So afterwards, some of the talmidim asked Reb Mechol, "You were in the middle of Birkat Shema and you're gesticulating about shoes." And he says, "That's exactly where one's mind should be as one is about to say Shema. You think that Hashem Echad, that Hashem's oneness means that it's up there, that it's in some ether? Hashem Echad means that if a bachur's shoes are torn up, we gotta take care of it. Hashem Echad means this isn't just theory, this is reality." So that's, that's the next step. It can't be abstract, we gotta make it concrete. Okay, so then the person says, "Fine, I got it. It's not just in theory, it's in practice. But I

13:20 gotta tell you something, my situation is different. My situation is different. I'm limited." Jonathan Sacks talks about when he first met the Rebbe, when he had the, the grant to go around America and visit, uh, leaders, Jewish leaders, and he took a bus from LA to New York, and he came to the yechidas, and he interviewed the Rebbe. And then he said after he interviewed the Rebbe, the Rebbe flipped it and started interviewing him. And the Rebbe started asking him, you know, "What's going on at Cambridge, and how many Jews are there, and what are you doing? What's the level of Jewish life?" And, and he was shocked, he was floored because he didn't expect to be interrogated about this, so he ha- he tried to v'zeh chais, he tried to, you know, uh, squea- s- s- squirm out of it. So he says, um, the way he de- he described it, he spoke about it at the Kinus a few years ago. He says that the English have a knack for constructing the most complex excuses for why they're not doing whatever. So he says, "In the situation in which I currently find myself," and he says, "And then the Rebbe did something which I think was quite uncharacteristic for him. He cut me off mid-sentence, and he said, 'You do not find yourself in a situation. You create your situation.'" Behol dor v'dor. Chayav adam lir'os et atzmo kilu yotzim mimitzrayim. You have to know like this, there are no limits. Your situation

14:47 does not define you. You can do it, and there's nothing stopping you. Okay, fine, no problem. Nothing's stopping me. But I don't even know how to do it. I've never done this. I've no experience. You know the paradox. You can't get a job without experience, but you can't get experience without a job. How do you even get started? So let me tell you something. You don't have to get started. You already started. Kol Yisroel yesh lahem chelek leolam haba. Every Yid has a ben olam haba. You're already doing it. You don't even know that you're doing it. You know the old mashal mashpiyim used to tell about the, uh, the farmer in Siberia, the peasant who did well in business, and he became rich in spite of himself. And, uh, he had a business deal in the big city. So he found out that the only way to get to the big city is to take a train. He'd never even seen a train, but he took a horse and wagon to the closest town where they had a train station, and he arrived there and he bought a ticket for the train. And, uh, he puts his money out on the counter, and he has no idea how much money it is, and what he doesn't realize, he's, he's, he's paying enough to buy a first class ticket. So he buys the first class ticket, and he waits, and he waits, and finally he sees people, a few guys jumping quickly onto the train,

16:14 and they run to the back car and they hide under the seats. So he sees that's what you do, and he imitates them, and he runs to the back car of the train, and he hides under the seat. And, uh, he falls asleep. And then after a while he feels somebody's kicking his feet, and he looks up, and it's the conductor. And the conductor says, "How dare you get on this train without a ticket?" He says, "What do you mean without a ticket? I have a ticket." He says, "That's what, th- that's what they all say. Of course you have a ticket. That's why you're stowing away." He says, "No, I have a ticket." "Let me see your ticket." So what he had done is he didn't want anyone to steal his ticket. He was told it's very valuable, so he tied it around his body with a string. So he had to take off all of his furs and all of his coats, and then finally he pulls out the ticket and shows it to the conductor. The conductor says, "I don't understand you. You, you, you have a first class ticket and you're hiding under a seat." What's the idea here? You are already doing this. You're already in the game. It's a ma'aseh about a Rebbe, but you know, the Rebbe always took stories of the nesiyyim and said, "Heroh l'rabim." One time the Friediker Rebbe was traveling in, in first class and somebody asked him, another Yid, not a, not a

17:29 choz. He said, "Labavitcher Rebbe, you fort in, in ersht, in ershtn kklasse? You, you, you travel in the, you know, expensive first class?" And, uh, the Friediker Rebbe says, "Ich bin geborn gevorn in ershtn kklasse." I was born in the first class. But really that's, that's every Yid. That's every Yid. So you're already in the game. You're already doing it. Kol Yisroel. Okay, fine, no problem. Kol Yisroel. Exactly. Every Jew can do this. Any Jew can do this, and therefore let them all do it. Why me? Why are you picking on me? So then we come to v'hinei. V'hinei is no, it's gotta be you. I saw a video, I think it's from this year, looks like a new video, that there was a, uh, a panel of, uh, world leaders, and, uh, Putin's on the panel And he told a joke. Putin told a joke about an Israeli soldier. He says, "There was an Israeli soldier and his, uh, commander asks him, says, 'What would you do if twenty, twenty terrorists are running at you?' So he says, 'I would take out my Uzi and start spraying.' The commander says, 'Okay, good. What would you do if there's a tank coming at you?' He says, 'Then I take out my rocket launcher, and I shoot.' He says, 'Good. What would you do if there's twenty terrorists, a tank, and a helicopter coming at you?' The soldier says, 'Commander, is there anyone else in this army besides for me?'" "Vihini Hashem nitzav alav" is like

19:07 this. The Rebbe explains nitzav alav doesn't mean looming over you ominously. Nitzav alav means He's standing over you. You are standing Him up. You are propping Him up. You're giving support to Hashem. Yes, He fills the whole world with His glory. "Ul'chol ha'aretz kevodi, u'mamet alav," but He is staring at you. He's looking right at you, and He says, "I need your avoda, so take it personally." It's also alderech. Another way to say this is how the Baal Shem Tov, the Baal Shem Tov revealed the precious, preciousness of the Jewish people by explaining that every single Jewish person is like an only child born to his parents in their old age. So it's not just a description of the preciousness. Yes, it's the preciousness, but it's also, um, the, the, the responsibility. "Bishvili nivra ha'olam" in the radical sense. Don't look next to you, don't look to your left, don't look to your right. It's you. It's all about you. The infinite is waiting on you. One of my favorite stories, I can't tell it at length, or then we won't finish all the pesukim, but my f-- one of my favorite stories, a story my friend, Rav Ami Berkowitz, told me when he was on Merkaz Shlichus in Alaska, and the last day of the summer, they find this little girl. They didn't even know they were finding her. They found her mother. She was the only Jewish woman they knew about, who she was a public school teacher. And then they found out

20:48 she had married an Eskimo, and she had a little five-year-old daughter who was there in the school. And the, so then they met the five-year-old daughter because her mother's Jewish, so she, so she's Jewish. So now they found out there's a second Jew in the town, and Rav Ami has two minutes with this girl, and this is the message. This is ha-- you know, this has to be like the thing that she's gonna hear and associate with Judaism for the rest of her life. And so he just, he's carrying the neshek with him, and he takes it out, and he just, he says, I, uh, "Harcho picha v'amaleihu." I just started speaking, and I said, "You know, the Rebbe, you gotta find the words." And so I said to the girl, he said, "You know what these are? Candles. You know what they're for? No. Okay. Every Friday afternoon before sunset, Jewish women and girls all over the entire world, they light Shabbos candles, and the first place where the sun sets in the whole world is Australia. And if you look at the whole world, you see these little dots of light, just a few dots of light. There's Sydney, there's Melbourne, and they start lighting up. And then the sun sets, f-keeps moving further and further, and then there's like this big, huge light, Eretz Yisrael, millions of these lights, Jewish women and girls lighting Shabbos candles. And then the sun sets over Europe, and then you see some lights here and there.

21:58 Oh, then there, there's Paris, there's London, and then it comes over the at-the Atlantic, you get another big, huge light. There, New York, then you get Chicago, then you get LA." He says, "You know the last place in the whole world, the furthest west place where there's a little Jewish girl to light Shabbos candles is right here, you. You're the last Jewish girl in the whole world, the last place where the sun sets every Friday afternoon, and Hashem watches, and He waits for that last light to show up. That's you." By the way, how often do we make sure that our kids, I'm talking about our kids who grow up in the system, know that they are unique and that they're not a number, that they're a name, and they have individuality, and they're indispensable? I know we have rules, and we have a system, and we have a dress code, and we have all these things that-- and I'm not against any of it, but we have all these reminders in place of conformity a-a-and it's necessary. You know, there's nitzavim and there's veyeilech. Nitzavim is standing firm. Veyeilech is gegangen. There has to be fluidity. So just this message of your individuality, your indispensable contribution, that it is as if Hashem is focused completely on you. Okay. Finally, the person says like this, "Okay, fine, no problem. Um, it has to be me, but realistically, it's too hard. No, no, I know already I can do it because you told me that already.

23:48 You told me there are no limitations. Chol v'ared, there's no Mitzrayim. You know, that's a yechoilus. You know, there's the koach and there's the yechoilus. There's a yechoilus. Okay, I can do it in theory. Nothing's stopping me, but then the koach, chamesh can koach, I, I don't have the ability to do it. I don't have the power. I don't have the wherewithal. It's too hard for me." So this we tell him. "Ki korov elecha davar meod bifich levav chalasa asa." You've got it. It's in you. You don't even have to reach out your hand to get it. It's in you already. You know the story about the young man, Elliot Lasky. He grew up in Buffalo. His parents-- He was born in a DP camp in Germany after the war. His parents were Holocaust survivors, so he grew up in a house of sort of the old world style. He spoke a little Yiddish, but he, uh, drifted off, and then he ended up touring with The Rolling Stones, and then he started, uh, getting curious in spirituality, not Judaism at first, but Buddhism. But then he, he thought, "Maybe I'll look, and I'll see what Yiddishkeit has to offer." He started talking to Rabbi Gurary in Buffalo, and finally, his questions were of such a philosophical nature, Rabbi Gurary told him, "You gotta go to, go to the Rebbe." So the whole story happened on a bitter cold day in January 1967. He's standing in front of 770, and, uh, when the Rebbe comes

25:12 out of 770, the Elulim there, they how this guy in a leather jacket, cowboy boots, jeans, long hair, makes a beeline right up to the Rebbe. And they see the Rebbe's engaged. The Rebbe is looking at him, and he's looking at the Rebbe, and there's this conversation going on, and nobody can get close enough to hear. And they just see the Rebbe go like this. And then they see this, this young guy with the long hair, he repeats himself. And then the Rebbe goes like this. Again, the Rebbe repeats the, the, the motion. And then they see this young guy, he, he, he says again, he says something else. And finally, the Rebbe places his holy finger on this young man's chest right above his heart, and the man breaks down weeping. For thirty-five years, nobody knew what the Rebbe told him. Just lately, because of my encounters, because of Jim, he, he talked about his experience. He says basically his big philosophical question was, "Where is God?" And he, he, he said it to the Rebbe in Yiddish. He knew Yiddish from his upbringing. He said, "Vu is Got?" And he said the Rebbe said to him, "Umatum. In a steen, in a boyim, umatum. In alts." God is everywhere, in a stone, in a tree, all around. And I said, "Ich veis, aber vu? Vu is Got?" And the Rebbe said, "In alts, umatum. In everything, all around." And I said, "Ich veis, aber vu?" And the Rebbe said to him, "Oyf dos

27:05 iz vu du fregst. Got iz do, in dayn harts. Ki karveila chadava me'eid" means you don't have to go out and get it. You don't even have to reach out your hand. It is in you. You have it. That which you are searching for is within you. Now we've finished the first six psukim, and we know that we are unstoppable, that we have the mission, we have the charge, and we have the ability and the wherewithal to carry it out. We are ready to go. Why are there another six psukim? How am I doing on time, by the way? What's the time? How much more time do I have? Hmm? Anyone want to tell me honestly? Nobody will tell me. Fifteen minutes. Okay. We gotta speed up. The first six psukim are all messages about self-concept, about how to view myself. The second six psukim are all about how to view the world, and now I have a new set of excuses. Okay, I can do it, but the world will not be receptive to it. It won't actually change the world. It won't actually have an effect. I'll do it. I'll do it, and maybe I'll even earn schar. It'll be good for me, but let's not pretend that we can actually change the world this way. So we come to the second group of six psukim. The Rebbe revealed the first six psukim, Rosh Chodesh, Iyar, and then eighteen days later at the Lag BaOmer rally, the Rebbe revealed the second set of

29:10 six psukim. Second six psukim begin with Bereshit. First rule you need to know is the world was made for this. Bereshit bara Elokim es hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz. The world has a divine design, and everything in the world is made for this purpose. You are not going to find resistance in the world. To the contrary, you will find the world is working with you because that's what it was made for. You know, uh, how the Rebbe's approach, for instance, to technology was different than the rest of the Haredi world. If it exists in the world, it cannot be an obstacle. It's not here to fight us. It exists in the world for us to use it. It's part of the mission. The world was created for this. The next thing you gotta know, Veshinantam l'vanecha. Now, Veshinantam l'vanecha is at, is at first blush is a funny pasuk because Veshinantam l'vanecha is speaking to parents. You should, you should teach your children. But remember what I said earlier, that the twelve psukim and the whole Mivtzo Chinuch is not really for the purpose of educating children, but for turning children into educators. So even Veshinantam l'vanecha is not talking about children being taught so much as it is talking to the child about how to be a teacher, how to be an influencer. Veshinantam l'vanecha means like this. Beshivtechu b'veisacham, v'alachtechu ba'derech, uveshochbacham, uvkumacham. There's no Time. There is no point in your day or your life where this avoda is not number one on the

31:16 agenda. See, it's sort of like this. There's place and there's time. There's makam and there's zman. So Shema is-- So, so Bereshit bara Elokim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz, pasuk seven is talking about place. There's no place where we cannot-- th-there's no place that will not work with us. Ve'she'nadrim l'vanecha is how it spans through time. There's no time that will also not be conducive to this task. And, and, and, and not only just on a, you know, ve'she'nadrim l'vanecha can describe a person's day, getting up, going to sleep. It could also ex-- talk about the generations, you know, the whole timeline of history. Ve'she'nadrim l'vanecha means intergenerational. The point is, there's no time that is not relevant. Or, you know, when the Alter Rebbe was in prison, one of the questions that he asked the minister who was, uh, who came to ask him biblical questions, remember he asked him the famous question, "Why did Hashem ask of the Merishian, 'Ayeka?'" And, and the Alter Rebbe asked him first. He said, "Before I answer, I wanna know, do you believe that the Torah is applicable in every place and at every time?" And the non-Jewish minister said, "Yes, I do believe that." And the Alter Rebbe was relieved because that was one of the tenets of Torah of Baal Shem Tov, and he understood that he was there in defense of Torah of Baal Shem Tov. And after this non-Jewish minister says, "Yes, I believe that, that the Torah is applicable in every place and

32:42 every time," then he told them the Pirush of Ayeka, that it's personal, that Hashem is speaking to you. So there's no place and there's no time that is not conducive to this mission. Okay, now I have another excuse. I got it, fine, no place and no time, but here's the problem. Realistically, the problem is so big it will take an infinity in order to remedy it. It's just-- And, and I have proof for you. My proof is I go out, and I do good things, and I don't see a change. I don't see an effect. So now we're told, "Yegayti u'matzosi taimin." Why does it say taimin, loshon emunah? What's the emunah part here? What's the faith part? The faith part is like this. If I toil and I see cause and effect, I don't need any emunah. Emunah is I toiled, and I didn't see the effect. You must believe that there's no such thing as an effort in vain. Right? Like, uh, the Rebbe said many times that chazaka, that it is established, she'ein ta'amula chozeres reikam, that there's no such thing as an effort in vain, that every ounce of effort has peiros, has fruits, but you need emunah. Remember the Rebbe told the story about the Bachai Merkesh Lichas, who, who, who turned out to be, uh, Rabbi Krinsky, the story about the Bostonian, that he didn't even know the impression that he made on this fellow. He didn't know, but he had an effect. And how many times, you know,

34:39 you go hamiftzo'yim, and you ask somebody, "Do you want, do you want to, do you want to accept Shabbos candles?" And they say no in the most emphatic way. You don't get to hear the end of the story, that two hundred fifty-four people had to ask this woman if she wants Shabbos candles, and you were number one hundred fifty-three, and you were just part of the process to warm it up. And you don't realize that one day-- You know, like the Rebbe said one time about w-how Rabbi Akiva's life was changed by the drips of the stone on the rock. So let's say it took millions of drips of water on the rock. What about all those drips that came before that last one that, that, that was the tipping point, that actually penetrated? You couldn't elimi-eliminate one single drip that came before it, even though that wasn't the drip that actually broke the stone. But you have to have emunah. You have to know that your effort doesn't go into a void. Your effort goes straight into the system and has its effect, and just be patient, and you'll see. Okay, what's the next excuse? Fine, no problem, but here's, here's my objection at this point. People don't like it. They don't like it. I, I understand you're saying if I'll pester a guy enough, eventually he'll put on tefillin. They don't want it. I asked him. He told me to go away. So we say, "Listen to me. Do you have any ahavas

36:25 yisroel? The stuff that you've already agreed is good for you, you gotta agree that it's good for him. You have to lechamecha. We've already come to a point where you're doing all this. Share the wealth." Well, like the, the Baal Shem Tov said, "Im lamarta Torah harbeh, al tachsik tovah le'atsmo." Simple pshat is if you learned a lot of Torah, don't think so highly of yourself. Baal Shem Tov said, "Im lamarta Torah harbeh," if you learned a lot of Torah, "al tachsik tovah," don't hold on to a good thing, "le'atsmo," just for yourself. Spread it around. By the way, it's interesting. We have to lechamecha as a pasuk, but here we don't use it as a pasuk. We use it as a maimar chazal. Am Yisrael Akiva. It's a klal gadol baTorah. Why do we say that extra additional few words, klal gadol baTorah? Because what we're trying to explain is this. It's not just that Avas Yisrael is another nice thing. It's a klal gadol baTorah. In other words, you can't really have everything else before and just, I'll do it, but without the Avas Yisrael part. It'll be all of Yiddishkeit, but without that, okay, you know, like you do all six hundred and thirteen mitzvahs. Okay, so this will be the mitzvah that I don't do. It's a klal gadol baTorah. It's fundamental. You can't do this and not give it away. There's a story I'll tell quickly about a, a Yid who was in, uh, the Sinai Desert in the Israeli

38:06 Air Force. It was Purim. He didn't even know it was Purim, and he got a shalach manos. It's a shalach manos from the Lubavitcher Rebbe. This moved him deeply, and this started his path of teshuva. And it was eventually, like many Israelis, when they leave Eretz Yisrael and they go chutz la'aretz, they become more religious. He ended up in Chicago, and Reb Doniel Maskit, alav ha-shalom, brought him to Machneh Israel, and he met the Rebbe, and the Rebbe asked him a question. How come everything in Yiddishkeit puts the emphasis on the right side? When it comes to the heart, which is such a vital organ, Hashem seemingly put it on the wrong side. He put it on the left side. Let it be like the brain that's in the center. Or if it has to be off-center, to-- off to one side or the other, put it on the right. Why put it on the left? This guy couldn't answer the question. So the Rebbe said, "But the whole purpose of the heart is emotions, and emotions aren't for yourself, they're for others. So when you face another Jew in Avas Yisrael, your heart is on the right, on the other Jew's right." So his whole awakening to Yiddishkeit was when he was a receiver, he got a gift. The Rebbe flipped it. Now you gotta become a giver. Now you have to give the gift. Not just because, you know, one good turn deserves another, and now, now it's, you know, now you gotta

39:28 step up, but because that's how you were designed. You were made, your heart was placed on the other guy's right side. When are we healthy? When are we functioning according to our design? When we're giving. So don't give me this business that I'll do everything else but the Avas Yisrael part. The whole purpose of it is to share it with somebody else. Or perhaps you could say it like this, and I think everyone here knows this, and I think it's something we try to teach our children, and I hope it's something we try to teach every Jew that we meet, that when it comes down to it, the only Yiddishkeit that you really have is whatever Yiddishkeit you are actively giving away. That's what you have. Okay, so Avas Yisrael is a klal gadol baTorah. Fine. No problem. It's a klal gadol baTorah. It's very, very important. We're getting to the home stretch now. V'ze. No, it's not very important. It's not just really important. It's not just majorly important, incredibly important. No, v'ze, this is what it's all about. Tachlis b'riah, say, this is what the whole th-- this is why you were created, this is why the world was created. It's about one thing. It comes down to one thing. There's a story, I won't say which yeshiva it was, but Reb Chaim Gutnick stopped by one of the non-Hasidic yeshivas, and then later on, he was in seven seventy, and, uh, he happened to mention that the yeshivisha world had two questions.

41:16 I don't know if he said tainas or questions, but about Chabad and about the Rebbe. One question was, how come they take one little midrash and turn it into a whole tzimmes? They, they, they make it a whole yesod for the whole Yiddishkeit. And by one little midrash, what did he mean? Midrash Tanchuma, Parshat Nassei, Nesav, Nesav El Yes Lei Diras B'tachteinim. One little midrash. And you know, of course, the, the Rebbe Rashab in Samech Vav goes through all the different reasons through rabbinic literature about why the HaShem created the world, Tavah Teiv Lehaitiv, B'gin Dish Tamaydin Lei, and all the, the different Ein Keich Chaser Poel, and all the different-- but basically, the, the Rebbe Rashab concludes that this Midrash Tanchuma, Diras B'tachteinim, is the only one that really explains the whole Ishtalshtus, right? Okay. So Reb Chaim Gutnick says, "So they were asking one question is, how come the Rebbe, especially, you know, not just Chassidus Chabad, but especially in Dershvi, Basie LeGani, the whole Ikar Shirah B'tachteinim, is all built on this one little midrash, one obscure source?" And then the other question was, how come when the Rebbe comes out with new initiatives and new programs, he doesn't consult with the other gedolim? So the Rebbe smiled and he said that the first question already answers the second question. How can we discuss how to accomplish the goal when we don't even agree on the goal? This isn't one little midrash. It's not an obscure, far-flung source, a quaint idea. V'ze,

42:58 this, this is what it's all about. This is what we're all here for, nothing less. Diras B'tachteinim. Okay, fine. You got me? Diras B'tachteinim, sign me up. I'll do it. No, no, no, no, no. You can't just do it. You gotta be happy about it. Oh, now this also I gotta be happy about it. Yismach. Yes, be happy about it. There's a story. Joe Felig came to, uh, the rebbe for, uh, Tisha b'Av, and at the end of Tisha b'Av, he decided, he was a young businessman, he had some money, not a lot of money, but he knew he's supposed to leave a check. So he went to Maskirus to leave a check, and he thought to himself, he says, "Look, I'm not from Hasidim." Now, yeah, it's a whole long story, but after the war, basically, uh, Lubavitch was the only one who took in the Feligs, so that's how he ended up in Lubavitch. So he says, "Look, I'm not a Hasid, or I'm not from Hasidim, I'm not stam from Hasidim. I don't know exactly how it's done, but I know what they say, that if the rebbe is the rebbe the way they say, then he knows my neshamah, and he knows exactly how much tzedakah I have to give. So that's it. I'm leaving a blank check by Maskirus. Let the rebbe fill it in." So Joe Felig left a blank check. Okay. He doesn't hear anything for a week, for a month, for two months. It's the middle of

44:19 Hanukkah. The phone rings, he answers the phone, Rabbi Chodikov is on the phone. "The rebbe would like to know if it will be all right to fill in the check for $10,000." Now, I think this was 1967. That, that would be, like, half a million dollars today, and he wasn't that wealthy at that point. He was a young guy. He did not have that much money. But that was the whole plan. He's signing the blank check. The rebbe says, "Would it be enough, $10,000? Is that okay?" So basically, he said, "Yes," and he hung up, so he couldn't take it back. And the second he hung up, he starts thinking, "How long does it take for the funds in America to clear in Canada? How much time, basically, do I have to beg or borrow or do whatever I gotta do to get money in that account so the check won't bounce?" And he's thinking, where can he get money? What could he s- what could he sell? What could he liquidate? What could he borrow? And, uh, he's, you know, it's very stressful. And, and he's getting stressed now. How is he gonna even cover it? And the phone rings again. "Hello." It's Rabbi Chodikov again. He says, "The rebbe would like to know if you are doing this besimcha ubetuv levav." It's not enough that I'm doing it, right? Besimcha ubetuv levav. This also it has to be. So he stopped and he thought to himself, "I left by the rebbe a blank

45:46 check because I knew that the rebbe knows what my neshamah came here to this world to do. And I got my answer. I got what I..." How much greater a gift can anybody receive than being told exactly what your soul came to this world to achieve? And then he said to Rabbi Chodikov, "Yes, yes, besimcha ubetuv levav, of course, with a full, glad heart." Yismach Yisrael. Enjoy it. Who wouldn't be thrilled to know not only that your life has meaning, but exactly how to live it out every minute? The gift the rebbe gives us is that we know every moment how to u- not that we always do, but we know how to use out every moment in a way that is directly cause and effect, linked to the entire purpose of the entire creation. And if you think about that, how could you not be happy? Anyways, these are 12 big ideas the rebbe said not only we can say to children, but children can internalize and say to each other. So we have our work cut out for us. Thank you. Thank you for listening. Wishing you much hatzlacha in your vital shlichus.