נשים בחב״ד

00:00 Speaker 1 Okay, let's start. I don't, uh, I don't see the throngs-- I don't see the throngs coming. Well, I'll listen afterwards, I guess. What do you say, Surly? Should we go? That means go, I think.

00:16 Speaker 2 Time, a time is a time. We gotta go.

00:20 Speaker 1 A time is a time and we gotta go.

00:21 Speaker 2 I'm sure everybody else is busy and stuff, but let's keep to his mind. Let's do it.

00:25 Speaker 1 You got it. That sound harsh. Okay. Let me get the letter up. You guys all have the letter. The letter that we're looking at today is on page Tadek Zion, and it's a Yud Shvat letter. It's written to the organization of Nishei Ubonei Chabad in Yerushalayim or the Yerushalayim branch. And of course, it's from exactly fifty years ago. This time, I wanna read the letter first and then spend all of our time doing the background after the letter. Every time the background shows up in a different place, it keeps you on your toes. So we have I don't know why it's Sometimes it's but today it's

01:04 Speaker 2 I can actually tell you that I've-- before you go further-

01:06 Speaker 1 Yeah, please.

01:06 Speaker 2 -that I've heard that when the Rebbe-- that when the Rebbe addresses women, he would say not

01:12 Speaker 1 Really? Do you have any idea why?

01:15 Speaker 2 you don't greet shalom to a, to, to a woman.

01:18 Speaker 1 I-- That, that's so cool. I had no idea. Thank you so much.

01:21 Speaker 2 I heard about that once, and I hope that's accurate.

01:24 Speaker 1 Whether or not it's accurate, it certainly explains something. That's cool. Never knew. We're gonna have to see if we find that as a consistent thing throughout. Cool. So the Rebbe's received their letters, and he has received the reports of their things that they've been up to, this group of women in Yerushalayim because he hopes that all of these good things will keep on happening in a way of and not just keep happening, but that they're going to be more of them, they're going to get better, and that they should be in the spirit of the Shitas Chabad, that Chabad specifically demands that there should be and that there should be and also that Shitas Chabad, and this is an interesting sentence. We generally think of Shitas Chabad as being and of the and the feely people down the street as being, uh, the and the . That's not what the Rebbe is saying here. He says Shitas Chabad is that there should be a feeling in the mind, that there should be a that our Shita is that there should be both. So I expect to see both moving forward. Uh, these particular things, uh, he says, fall on women specifically, that women are particularly good at this kind of stuff. As Chazal say, "Women have an extra amount of binah." specifically when it comes to feelings of the heart, and of course, binah is an intellectual feeling, but it's an intellectual feeling that is it's a feminine attribute of intellect, and it, uh, and

02:49 Speaker 1 they also are specifically good at , feelings. he says we're now standing on . We're not quite on we are on Tes, but we're close enough. Now would be a good time to mention and I'd like to mention here as we're getting close to Yud Shvat that the Friediker Rebbe took a particular interest in in general and the Jewish women in general and, uh, specifically on the . And the Rebbe says this is well known and it's famous, that the Friediker Rebbe took particular care with, uh, with women. Says, "I hope that," it's my hope, says the Rebbe, that women would-- that these women that I'm writing to will continue to be... It's not continue to be, he says that they will be, that they will be a a good example for that which the wisest men ever said. That's that a-- that the wisdom of women builds houses. along with all the commentaries on that, which I believe the Rebbe means not just that they literally will use their wisdom to make homes, that they'll use their wi-- they'll use their wisdom to build an edifice. and everything that they're doing and, um, I hope I hear-- uh, and I hope to hear good news about all the things we've talked about, the Rebbe's signature. So the Rebbe here tells, just to review the letter, the Rebbe tells women he wants to see more of their activities. He wants to see an increase, and that should have specifically a Chabad direction to it, which

04:20 Speaker 1 means that there's a seichel and also midas, that there's an intellect, but there's also emotions. He mentions that the Friediker Rebbe takes particular interest in in general and specifically. And the Rebbe adds at the very bottom, So I just-- I noticed here before we get into our background that we, we were talking, uh-- we, we discussed this in the chat, and I'm sure this comes up often in other corners too, the somewhat disparaging comment, that women are not known according to the Gemara, they're not known for their daas. You could say it's disparaging, you say it's not. Women don't seem to appreciate hearing it, um, that they're not known for their daas. However, we do have two quotes in this letter that they're known for their chacham and their binah. So I guess two out of three is not bad. Um, the, uh, we have, we have that they're, that they're-- and then we have a Tanakh. It says in Tanakh that they're particularly good with chacham and particularly good with binah. So, uh, at least for two other parts of the seichel, there's no question. As for daas, The thing that I wanna talk about is this part in the middle, though, which is that he says that it's, uh, that the Friediker Rebbe paid particular attention to The Rebbe says that this is very well known and it's famous. Uh, uh, it wasn't very well known and famous to me, so I went looking to find out more about it. Uh, my main

05:27 Speaker 1 resource for this is not the one I put in the chat 'cause I can't find a way to copy it over. I had to take it from In the Friediker Rebbe's Igris, volume four, there's an introduction, and the introduction has the entire story of the Friediker Rebbe interacting with So what I'm about to tell you, a lot of it comes from there. A little bit of it is in the background links that I sent you. So, uh, in Tav Res Tadek, which is nineteen thirty, when the Friediker Rebbe was visiting the United States Uh, the first time, this is not when he stayed. He visited sort of to make a, a thank you tour and a celebration tour, and then he comes back to Riga, and then he ends up in America for the long term. So when he's first in America in nineteen thirty, he starts pushing for this Agudas Nashim. He wants there to be an Agudas Nashim, an organization of women, and it has exactly one goal, that is to strengthen Taharas Hamishpacha. He gets to America, and the women are not keeping Taharas Hamishpacha, so he asks the From women to get together. It's not a Chabad thing. It's a, it's, it's a, it's a Jewish women thing. He wants an Agudas Nashim to strengthen Taharas Hamishpacha. When he comes back to Riga, he can't stop talking about it, and you have it all over the Likutei Debarim. My-- one of my favorite of all the sifes Likutei Debarim because it's

06:25 Speaker 1 incredibly harsh, and it works. It was just that generation you could be harsh, and people wanted to hear it. The Friediker Rebbe in, um... You'll find this in volume five of Likutei Debarim. It's a Simchas Torah talk. It's number thirty-nine, the second talk. It says here-- I, I grabbed some of the English 'cause it was easier to pull off the internet. Says, "The Friediker Rebbe turns to address the great multitude that has assembled, and he talks to them. He says here, 'Let it be known that if there are people present who, Chas v'Shalom, do not put on tefillin and do not observe Taharas Hamishpacha, I don't want them in my Hakafos.' Says, 'Admor Hasham was driven out of Gan Eden because he did an Aveira, and, uh, when two... Because Gan Eden's a special place, and they can't handle Aveiras. And when ten Yidden sit together and learn Torah, the Shekhinah's here. So, so too, we're in Gan Eden right now. We're about to do Hakafos. We're in my Gan Eden, and I-- we're in my Makaf, and I don't want anybody who's, uh, who's in-- who's doing Aveiras to be sitting here with me.' The Friediker Rebbe kicks people out who do Aveiras. Says, 'People who do not observe Taharas Hamishpacha and do not put on tefillin are not to participate in my Hakafos. They cannot share my Makaf unless right now they make a Havlata that they're going to keep these mitzvahs from now on.' Now, that, that is harsh. There was quite

07:25 Speaker 1 a crowd there. And the Friediker Rebbe tells them, "You're not welcome to participate. You're not welcome to stay here if you're not going to take on Taharas Hamishpacha and tefillin." The men immediately agreed that those who weren't wearing tefillin already were going to, and the men who were there, uh, presumably all were, were either agreeing to wear tefillin or wearing tefillin. The Friediker Rebbe continues talking for a while, says a lot of very interesting things in the sif. He says, "Think for a minute, young men. You're gonna be old one day. What's gonna happen to you? What's gonna happen to your children? You don't know any Torah. You're ignorant of basic Halakha. Your wives don't know what to do. You're, you're so engrossed in your everyday life, you're forgetting about your Neshama." He really hits them hard. This is a, this is Simchas Torah. This is supposed to be a happy day. Um, he once again repeats that everybody has to make the Havlata or they have to leave, and then the farbrengen goes on for quite a while. At the end of the farbrengen, Rav Mordechai Gefen, who's a Sheychet, he, he walks in and he tells the, he tells the Friediker Rebbe that he just went upstairs and checked with the women who are waiting for Hakafos. They heard everything that was said, they heard the warnings and they heard the conditions, and they all wanted to send down that they were testifying that they were all-- all of them either kept Taharas

08:22 Speaker 1 Hamishpacha or were going to start from now on. And with that, the Friediker Rebbe is very happy. This news comes from the women's section, that they're all staying because they've agreed to start keeping Taharas Hamishpacha. So he says back that, uh, "I'm very glad to hear this. They should have a lot of berakhos, and the women should organize a society of Agudas Nashim to strengthen Taharas Hamishpacha." So he continues to do things like this. The farbrengens are full of it, of him demanding and the women saying, "Yeah, I'm starting these sorts of things." A-as of nineteen ninety-- nineteen thirty-three, however, three years later, nothing had happened really, and the Friediker Rebbe is not happy about it. This is a, a familiar story. We've seen this in a lot of our letters with Admor Rav. Some things are recurring themes. The Rebbe asks for something very loudly, cares about it a lot, and then three years later checks in and no one's done anything. So Friediker Rebbe writes in a letter from nineteen thirty-three, uh, "I told you that it was very important to set up an Agudas Nashim this only have to work for. I do expect you to occasionally print materials that inspire people things that are inspiring people to do this but I am very pained to hear everything you've done, you've written down, you've made, you've made these big announcements, you've put together wonderful flyers, but you've done nothing. He says, "This is now stuck in the mystery of the good thought,"

09:31 Speaker 1 says the Friediker Rebbe. "You're, um, you, you've, you've been working. I-- clearly you've all been working very hard, but no one's done anything He says, "Moving forward, I'd really like to say mokhak. Not really like to see, you have to He wants to see it happening. It doesn't really happen till nineteen thirty-seven. We don't know when Achei-- when Achei Tmenim starts. Uh, that's unknown. It was sometime between nineteen thirty-seven and nineteen thirty-eight 'cause that's our earliest, our earliest historical documents that have Achei Tmenim. Uh, a group of Lubavitcher women get together and start Achei Tmenim, uh, with the help of three shepherds. Um, I have some notes here. This is from the Friediker Rebbe. That's what this note is. Says that he writes what they should be doing. He has a focus for them. He says he wants them to strengthen all darkei chassidus and that they should be in the first in line and strengthening religion and And once again, he's really pushing that they take the lead on Taharat Hamishpacha. That's what he wants to see them in charge of. Um, this is a fun side point that I wanna mention before I go on, is that, uh, right around this era, the Friediker Rebbe tells Mordechai Dubin that he should be teaching his daughter-in-law Chassidus. And Mordechai Dubin writes back to the Friediker Rebbe and says, "Are, are you, you sure about that? This isn't something we've really done before." At the time, people were not teaching women Chassidus on a s--

10:52 Speaker 1 in, at least not in a serious way. Maybe, you know, a little bit of Tanya here and there, but they weren't learning by Maram and Sechas. This is the famous Mordechai Dubin, by the way, who, uh, was a member of parliament in Latvia who helped free the Friediker Rebbe. But I have a note here from this same introduction. It's just really cool. Says that he wants him to learn He wants him to learn Chassidus with his daughter-in-law. So he writes back to the Rebbe saying, "We don't really do that." And the Friediker Rebbe clarifies, "I very strongly expect you to be learning Chassidus with your daughters He brings from the Rebbe Maharash's sicha that when it comes to Geshak Chassidim when it comes to Gesh people specifically, when the Geshak Chassidim never differentiated between teaching their sons and daughters, says the Rebbe Maharash. The Rebbe Maharash says the Geshak Chassidim always taught the men and women the same things and in Chassidus. He goes on to say they should be taught a little differently in ways that are mattim to their intellects, but certainly they need to, uh, they need to be learning a lot of Chassidus, not just, you know, sparks. Uh, so the Friediker Rebbe pushes for this very hard. As for our Rebbe, he establishes something very similar. He establishes Nashei Chabad in Eretz Israel in Sivan of Yud Aleph Which is one of the first major moves of the Rebbe's nasius. Uh, we have a, we have a letter about him

11:59 Speaker 1 establishing this, and he says, "Aperushi beshtaim," I have two in-- I have two intents in establishing N shei Chabad. First of all is, "Argensis N shei Chasidi Chabad pescal asher el ruach Chabad yakah lilavan venafshan, liliban venafshan." First, I just wanna gather all the women together. Everybody who's interested in Chabad stuff, I want them in a room. And second of all, "Bishvil avoda venashim bechalal." He wants them to do work. Later on in the letter in Yud Beis, the Rebbe lines out-- outlines what work he would like these women to do, and it's extensive. What he wants them in the N shei Chabad in Eretz Yisrael to do as of his letter in Taf Shin Yud Beis is first to organize times to learn weekly Parsha in yane chag before the chag and dinim. He wants them learning Halakha and Parsha. Uh, two, he wants them to learn appropriate ma'amar and sichas. He calls them ma'amar matim, just appropriate ones. I don't know exactly what he means. He specifies a little bit, says they should be ma'amar and sichas that speak about Ikrei Toras Hachasidus and Darkei Chassidus. I assume he means a vedek ma'amar so they can strengthen the or and ruach of Chasidus in their homes. So he wants them learning Parsha, uh, Halakhas about the chag, regular dinim that are shayach to them, ma'amarim and sichas. Their, their, their, their, their dance card is quite full. He wants them to strengthen the chinuch of their children and other Jewish children outside of

13:02 Speaker 1 Chabad. He wants them to strengthen Toras Mishpacha, so here's where he's kind of inheriting the Frieda Kadavah's ideas and spinning off of them. He also wants them to work on kashrus and, and chinuch. He wants them studying the Halakhas that are, that are shayach to them in their day-to-day lives, Toras Mishpacha, kashrus, and chinuch. And he wants them to strengthen kosher-- um, strengthen good mestes. Good mest-good mestes chinuch. If there's schools that are doing the right thing, that they're doing things in a kosher way, he wants them to get involved with the PTA. He wants them to help them arrange the food and, uh, the cleaning if necessary, the clothes if necessary. He wants them involved in, in building these, in building these edifices. So when the Rebbe says in our letter that you do them aforsum, how interested the Frieda Kadavah and by extension, of course, our Rebbe is in, in N shei ubenos Yisrael bechalal, N shei ubenos Chabad befrat, you see a written-- you see an incredible amount of focus on what they-- on who they are and what they should be doing. And specifically, what I'm finding most interesting, in how much Chasidus they should be learning. There should ideally be, uh, there should ideally be multiple opportunities for women to learn Chasidus seriously according to the Frieda Kadavah, according to the Admor Hash and according to our Rebbe too, and that's one of the points of establishing a N shei Chabad in Eretz Yisrael, and by extension, which then establishing

14:05 Speaker 1 a N shei Chabad everywhere. So that's it for our letter. I, of course, uh, I, I can't help but connect this to in yon nediyem that I know that we're having women at our Chavreingan and I think that's, uh, obviously upstairs in its USA, and I think that's very much in the spirit of what the letter's saying here, that they need to be participating. Perhaps they should have their own one, but-- and perhaps we should be starting some programs for them so that they can learn Chasidus. But, uh, that seems to be the point of this letter to me. Questions, comments, or complaints?

14:30 Speaker 2 Was the program last night, uh-

14:34 Speaker 1 What'd you say, Ruby?

14:36 Speaker 2 No, last night. Zami said it.

14:38 Speaker 1 Oh, what'd Zami say? There was a program last night. Yeah, things like that. I don't know. Was it a good program?

14:44 Speaker 3 Question. Do, do we know, do we know if the Fried-- if the Frieda Kadavah's Hagudas Nation ever took off? Was there ever an established organization before N shei Chabad?

14:51 Speaker 1 A little bit. So the Hagudas Nation kind of took off in America. There was an Hagudas Na-- Hagudas Nation of New York for, like, a year, and then Agudas Chassidim got real big in Riga, and the New York women took on the title Agudas Chassidim and kinda dropped the Hagudas Nation. Uh, it doesn't seem that the Frieda Kadavah cared. He, he was very excited about, uh, about, about Agudas Chassidim, but it, it sort of moved into Agudas Chassidim, which, uh, which more or less stopped existing when the Rebbe started N shei ubenos Chabad, although there actually is a branch I looked up there. There is a branch that calls itself Agudas Chassidim that's in Eretz Yisrael. Uh, it was more or less subsumed by the, by the Rebbe's, um, by the Rebbe's program.

15:23 Speaker 3 When, when was N shei Chabad, shei ubenos Chabad established and, and who established it?

15:28 Speaker 1 That was the Rebbe in Taf Shin Yud Aleph, Sivan. It was at the very beginning. Uh, it was one of the first things he did in the s-- in his, in, in his nasius was call up Eretz Yisrael and say, "I want a N shei ubenos Chabad in the tradition of the Frieda Kadavah." But he added a lot to it. He made it very clear that he didn't just want them to do Toras Mishpacha, he wanted them involved in Hapazeh, in teaching each other Chasidus and in teaching the world Chasidus. So you, you know what the Rebbe's like in Taf Shin Yud Aleph. This is very much a Yutzfat discussion, but, uh, you see it already in the Basse LeGaani. The Rebbe hits the ground running, and he wants to, uh, he wants to keep what the Frieda Kadavah has going, but he wants to make one big change, that everything should be more outward. So he takes this idea of Agudas Chassidim and says, "It's great. I love you guys are learning sichas together, but I want you to go make sure everybody in Eretz Yisrael is keeping Toras Mishpacha," which is totally, um, very much what the Frieda Kadavah was saying in nineteen thirty. Uh, and, uh, the Rebbe spins it, makes it stronger, and pushes it outward, which is very much his style.