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00:01 Okay, we're starting. The letter that we're looking at today is on page one fifty-seven. So it's Kuf Nun Zayin. It's the bottom letter. It's a little one. I wanna give some background, uh, this time before the letter, which is always a, a pleasant diversion when the background comes beforehand, not somewhere in the middle or afterwards. The, uh, the letter today, it captures one of the Rebbe's, at least one of the main approaches of the Rebbe to missionaries or to, uh, or to Peter, to Jews who are Jews for Yashka, people interested in converting to Christianity. Uh, and the Rebbe addresses this in this letter. I want to give some background on the Rebbe's approach in general to missionaries and to this sort of problem. Uh, there is a letter that's from Schlom-- Rav Shalom Rifkin. He wrote to the Rebbe in-- Do I have the year here? It's printed in the Igeres in Yud Beis. So it must have been in Yud Beis. It's in volume six, page one thirty-five. Now, he writes to the Rebbe, "How do I handle missionaries? People are coming, they're trying to convince Jews not to be Jewish anymore. How do I handle people targeting Jews and trying to convert them to Christianity?" And the Rebbe says, "Don't enter into any intellectual debates with them," which is classic. Not just the Rebbe's shtiel, really, on this, but just about everybody's. It's not healthy to be debating them on the street. The Rebbe says, "Instead, find ways to reveal in public

01:06 the fact that they're not good people." The Rebbe's lesson is, "Reveal their trickery, reveal their, their perversions in public." And the Rebbe gives some examples. He goes, "First of all, make sure everybody knows that they're tricking people, they're sneaking around. They don't always say who they are. They pretend to be somebody that they're not, but they pretend to be Jewish. Show that they're sneaking around because honest people don't sneak around. And also show very publicly that they're making money off of it. Make it clear that this is a financial thing." So the Rebbe's first approach to the missionaries that we have in the Igeres is that we should try to make it very clear that these are not good people. Rather than try to make it clear that they're wrong, point out the fact that they're in it for the money, that they're in it for the, uh-- that they're, that they're tricking people, that it's all, et cetera. The other thing that I put in the chat was that very famous link to the, uh, to the video where a missionary visits the Rebbe by dollars and tells the Rebbe that he's very happy and that he has no problems. And the Rebbe tells him, "You're sick." And he says, "I'm not sick. I feel fine." And the Rebbe says, "That's proof that you're doubly sick." So this is another example of the Rebbe's approach to missionaries. Uh, the Rebbe also takes that guy's book. The guy has a book, he gives it to

02:02 the Rebbe, the Rebbe takes it and says in the video that he's taking it so others can't be poisoned by it. So what I have on background as far as the Rebbe's approach to missionaries is, number one, don't debate them. Number two, if it's a Jew, you're allowed to tell them that they're very sick and that they need help. Number three, if they have this-- if they have reading materials, it seems that the Rebbe at least was willing to take these reading materials and throw them away. I'm not sure if that's Halakha l'Maaseh, just observing what the Rebbe does. And finally, that, uh, when there's an opportunity to demonstrate that people who are trying to trick Yidden into becoming Goyim, uh, there's an opportunity to demonstrate that they're dishonest, demonstrate it loud and proud. Now, as far as this particular letter is concerned, uh, I don't know for sure that I'm right about the background on this, on this letter. The letter says some of the background. I think there might be slightly more to the story. I'm gonna tell you what I think, and I'm gonna leave it open for interpretation. I do know for a fact that on Yud Aleph Shevat of that same year, which was two months before this letter, one of the directors of the youth movement of Jew, Jews for Yashka, they, uh, they entered Yechidus with the Rebbe, this individual, and he stayed there for an hour and fifteen minutes. How do I know? It's printed in the

03:02 Hisoreros at the back of Sefer HaSichos from the year that we're studying right now in Igeres. So in the back, I know that this happened the same year on Yud Aleph Shevat, and I know that one of these guys who was a, a Jew, who was interested in Yashka, uh, entered a Yechidus and stayed there for an hour and fifteen minutes because one of the students who was watching the room at the time, watching the hallway, he wrote down the encounter, and then he walked outside, and he stared through the window. So he writes in his notes, this particular student, we don't know who it was, writes in his diary that you could see from the window that the Rebbe is speaking very forcely-- forcefully. He's raising his voice. He's waving his hand. The student there says that he's waving his hands even more than he waves his hands during the Sichos of Mil Yehudi. So we're seeing the Rebbe be very forceful with this person in Yechidus. When that bocher leaves Yechidus, the boys, um, this-- when this young man leaves Yechidus, the boys kind of surround him and ask what happened. And he-- the boy says that he was expected to go-- he had expected to go to Florida the following day. He was supposed to the following morning, be traveling to Florida to be appointed a priest. Uh, so he was actually ready to get his priesthood. Uh, they say kohen. I don't know if it's a priest or it's some other

04:01 sect, whatever. He was going to become a leader among this religion. And after that Yechidus, he's not gonna go. That he would-- that the Rebbe convinced him, and he's not leaving. I don't know if this is the same boy, but I do know that our letter is Yud Zayin Adar Beis, and it's with a boy who has very sim-- who has a very similar story. It's a boy who is planning on becoming a priest, who spent a little bit of time with the Rebbe, and now tells the Rebbe that he's ready to leave and that he's done with this, and he's ready to go become a priest. And the Rebbe is doing-- is continuing to try to talk him out of it. I don't know if it's the same boy, but it would make sense that it'd be the same boy. This is only, uh, two months later. So what would have happened in this case is that two months after this Yechidus, the boy stays in seven seventy, and, uh, the Rebbe tries to have an impression on him. And it seems that by Yud Zayin Adar Beis, he hasn't had an impression on him. The end of this story, we don't know. We don't know the end, end of this story. We do know what happened after the letter because three days after the letter was written, in a Sicha, the Rebbe speaks to this boy in the Sicha, and according to the footnotes and according to the case we're going to build,

04:53 I believe it's possible that the Rebbe healed this boy at the Sicha itself with a miracle. So with all of that long introduction, let's actually do the legwork, and you'll see it all happen in real-time. Where's my letter? Here it is. Look at the bottom of the letter, the footnote at the bottom, which explains the background. It says this letter is from a, from a, uh, from a-- It was written on top of a letter that was sent to the Rebbe on the seventeenth of Adar Beis, Tav Shin Lamed Gimel, exactly fifty years ago. It was written by a Yid who the fr-- who the Rebbe had been trying very hard to prevent from leaving the faith and becoming a priest, which is why I think this might be the same guy from two months previously, who the Rebbe had had a Yechidus about this over. It said in that letter that this boy writes to the Rebbe, he thanks the Rebbe very much for teaching him so much, but he says nonetheless, he can't stay anymore in the Rebbe's shadow. Um, he's too in-- he's too, uh, attached to Yashka, and he can't stay in, he can't stay in seven seven anymore. He wants to be involved with Yashka and with, and with that Goyishkeit. Uh, it says there at the end of that note that when this boy arrived out of HaBrengin the following week, the Rebbe dedicated a Sicha to him. That's what sent me looking for that Sicha. Let's read the

05:55 letter the Rebbe writes to him. So this boy's writing to the Rebbe saying, "I appreciate all you've done for me, but I'm, I'm done with this. I love Yashka too much. I'm leaving and becoming a priest." The Rebbe says, This is definitely not right. Definitely the wrong thing to do. I can guarantee you, says the Rebbe, that this is not the will of God. Remember, the Rebbe's talking to a very religious boy. He's talking to a boy who believes he's following his heart and following a religion, just the wrong religion. So he says to him, this is not what God wants. The Rebbe begs him, "Please stay at the very least until the end of Tishrei in this area." I want us to be able to celebrate, says the Rebbe. I want us to be able to celebrate all three of the holidays together. And also my birthday. And also Simchas Torah. Says in the meantime, I want you to use the time you have here to learn Torah to really delve into it with life. With such a life that you're able to give life to others. The Rebbe wants him to be . The Rebbe wants him to be wet enough that he can wet other people. God's gonna give you success in your learning if you follow this path because that's . God's not gonna give you success if you pursue things that are not His will, but this is His will. So that's and the Rebbe then writes, I'll mention you

07:13 by the Tzion. So this is the Rebbe talking to this boy. Uh, what do we get from the letter? A couple of things. I think one of the thing-- big things we get from the letter is the Rebbe's not afraid to tell him very directly that this is definitely wrong. There's no, there's no, uh, there's no, there's no discussion here. There's no, "I understand where you're coming from." This is not what God wants. You're not gonna succeed where God doesn't want you to succeed and if you put your efforts where God wants you to succeed, you'll be successful. The other thing here is that the Rebbe seems to put a particular significance on this boy spending all three with him and his birthday and Simchas Torah. I don't know what the Rebbe means by that, but I assume that the Rebbe assumed and hoped that he'd be able to accomplish things over the course of the that he wasn't able to accomplish regularly. I do wanna draw your attention to the . So it's said at the bottom of the letter that the Rebbe dedicated a section of the to him later. The plot is thicker than that as it turns out. The boy was not at the farbrengen. The boy was not at the farbrengen. The Rebbe is giving a farbrengen, it's in the middle. It's near the end of the farbrengen. It's from Parshas Parah. You can find it in volume ayin alef seventy-one, volume seventy-one, page three hundred and six. The Rebbe

08:08 is speaking for a long time. It's late in the, it's late in the farbrengen. It's after the Meimar. And the Rebbe is talking and talking, and the Rebbe starts talking about his father. He gives a section from Likutei D'Yitzchak and in there, the boy is not at the farbrengen. The boy has not shown up to the farbrengen. The Rebbe wrote him a letter saying, "Stay with me," and as far as we know, the boy has disappeared. The Rebbe then starts a story on page three hundred and six. I'm gonna read it to you. It's a fairly well-known story. The Rebbe says th-this reminds me of a story which is already printed in Likutei Dibburim from the Alter Rebbe about the Maggid of Mezritch. That there was once a young man who . There was once a young man who had doubts about his faith that sons of the entrapped him and he started to have doubts. And when his father came to the Maggid and cried out to him that he should save his child from becoming not Jewish, from Shemad, or becoming, you know, leaving the faith. the Maggid entered into an incredible dveikus. The Rebbe's telling this story, the boy is not in the room. The Maggid entered into an incredible dveikus. and he said a Dvar Torah on the following that gets confused. What does a nefesh have to-- what does a, what, what does a nefesh have to do with ? What does a nefesh even have to do with a

09:18 ? What's the k-- what, what does a nefesh have to do with lacking anything? There's no between a nefesh and a sin, not even between a nefesh and lacking. When the Maggid said those words of Torah, a great wind started blowing outside, and it brought the boy into the room of the Maggid, and he stayed there with the Maggid and his students, and it changed him over completely, and he ultimately became Shomer Torah Umitzvos. There is a note here that as the Rebbe said that, the boy stumbled into the farbrengen. The Rebbe said the Torah of the Maggid and a wind came outside, just like in the times of the Maggid, and dragged that boy in to hear this particular Dvar Torah. The Rebbe then can-- Now, now the boy has arrived and the Rebbe continues talking. When we reveal the fire of the neshamah, that it is his own fire a gra-- a, a strong wind grabs the person and drags him in in front of me. So the Rebbe's clearly talking to this boy who's just arrived. And when that happens, it removes and destroys this klipa that was never really him in the first place. It reveals that it was only a dimyon, that it was only an imaginary thing. And since that does-- and since his interest in these, in this other faith was only imaginary, it doesn't matter that he doesn't understand why he's leaving. It doesn't matter whether he wants to stay or not, he's going to be able

10:38 to conquer his yetzer hara and is going to be able to stay within, within, within our, within our religion. And with that, the Rebbe finishes the . We don't know what happened to the boy, but I thought it was a pretty wild story that happens after the letter, where the Rebbe appears to review a story from the Maggid, and with that, drag this same child back in or same boy back in and explain to him that whether he understands it or not, he's staying with the faith. We need to hire a PI. This is, this is too, uh- Really would like to know what happened next. I mean, i-i-- based on the Rebbe I think if we, if we trust the Rebbe and we do, it worked. The Rebbe announced in the I have, like, the Maggid drag this guy in on the wind and his yetzer hara- It's crazy ... So I, I assume- Wildest story I've ever heard. It's like a wildest story I've ever heard. It's amazing. It's like a Bashevis Yeah, yeah. It's a live Bashevis story. It really is. It really is