ארגון למדענים יהודים

00:00 Okay, so the letter is-- it actually starts on page Pe Zayin, but it's in Russian over there. So if you just look at the title, it's to Mara Elchanan Battal Schiff. Uh, Elchanan Battal Schiff was the-- if you look at the bottom, the Mazkir Agudas Academim Shamir. He was the head of the Agudas, of the academics called Shamir, which we're gonna talk about at length. That's the whole background. There's a long letter in Russian here and Baruch Hashem at the bottom, we have a, uh, on the following page, Pe Ches, we have a translation in Hebrew. A little bit of background. Uh, the Rebbe, uh, I guess I wanna start with, uh, by, by jumping in time. In Mem Zayin, which is going to be, what? Almost more than ten years after this letter is written, the Rebbe talked at length about the importance of having a organization for Anshei Mada, he called it, men of science. That science people should be, uh, should be-- should have an Igud, they should have a central organization. And the Rebbe said in the Sicha Mem Zayin that the reason why we needed to have this is because it says in the Zohar that in the Alef Hashishi, in the sixth millennium, the Arivos Hashemayim Niftachu, the storehouses in heaven are going to-- I guess the, the storehouses, the reservoirs in heaven are going to open up, and Pnim Yesod Torah, which is Chochmah Kedusha, and science, Chochmah Chitzonis, will both open. So there's a prediction in the

01:07 Zohar that in the sixth millennia, the one that we're living in right now, we're going to have this incredible, uh, bursting forth of Pnim Yesod Torah and also bursting forth of science. And the Rebbe says it's our job to ensure that when that science, Chochmah Chitzonis reservoir does open, we do Is haktsa on it. We completely convert it to the service of Hashem. So we need people who are standing at the vanguard in the scientific community ready to convert the Chochmah Chitzonis that's going to be revealed in this generation into Kedushah. And that's the main reason it is, at least according to the Sicha Mem Zayin, that the Rebbe wants organizations of scientists who are frum to get together. Uh, the Rebbe was already thinking about this in nineteen seventy-two, a year before our letter is written, when he established the Agudas Academim Shimrei Torah Yetzim Mizrach Europa. That is a cl-- a, a, what's an Aguda? A, uh, a conference, a collective, a collective of academics who are going to keep Torah, who are people who have left Eastern Europe. This is very specific. The Rebbe wanted Russians who were leaving Eastern Europe, who were scientists, who were somewhat frum or frum, to come to Eretz Yisrael and not to become less frum and ad rabba to be involved in science and spreading of Torah. So the idea was to grab the Russian scientists as they were arriving in Eretz Yisrael. Rebbe Hadakov convenes a meeting of academics in New York in nineteen seventy-two

02:18 right after the Rebbe asks him to. And they, uh, they have a meeting one day without the Rebbe, and then they write to the Rebbe saying, "We'd really like you to come and give us a private Sicha." The Rebbe ends up giving a private Sicha to this group in nineteen seventy-two, and that Sicha was in Yiddish and was only circulated among that group for a long time, but it was relatively recently released, and we now have a version of it. I have some of it here. I, I would love to read all of it to you. I just don't think we have time. But I'm gonna read some passages that are from it as an introduction to this letter. He says-- And that's all in the background reading that I put in the WhatsApp group. The Rebbe wants them to have a lot of hatzlacha when they're setting up this group of academics. those who have incredible intellect. when you turn, return to Eretz Yisrael, I expect you to build up this Igud and make it stronger with more members. And the Rebbe says, "I don't just want Lubavitchers in this group. I also want people who are a what I really want is for these scientists to take upon themselves that they're going to keep Torah and mitzvahs. And the Rebbe says that although other organizations like this already sort of exists, they don't do a few things they should be doing. He says, it's true that they have meetings of frum scientists all

03:30 the time. sometimes they put out a journal. The Rebbe says, "In my opinion, what they should be doing is ." Says, "I think these academic organizations, a lot of times frum scientists get together, but the goal, for some reason, is not to make sure the scientists stay frum." And the Rebbe wants that to be the goal of this organization, that it really is more of a support group for frum scientists than anything else. He adds one more paragraph that I think is very important going into this letter. There's going to be a time soon, the Rebbe says, where people are going to say that an academic that has a that there's-- that such a person cannot be frum because people are going to one day say that it is, that it is a contradiction to be a frum person who believes in Torah and also somebody who's a deep intellectual. So the Rebbe says since those times are coming, and we certainly are living in them now, I think the Rebbe was probably living in them then too. the goal of this organization that the group-- that the goal of this group is that we should get a bunch of intellectuals together, academics together, who are able to say proudly that, uh, that it's quite the opposite, that an intellectual believes in God, an intellectual is dedicated to Yiddishkeit. So that's the Rebbe's goal in establishing this organization. A year later, the Rebbe is not satisfied with it one bit, and that's the letter that

04:55 we're looking at today. So looking down here in the Targum Chafshi, in the free translation. it's already been, the Rebbe says, a long time since I got a letter from you. It's been a year. I haven't heard anything about this Aguda that you apparently founded. They had a meeting last year. The Rebbe comes out- B'suras toivas, no? Um, oh, yes. B'suras toivas. That's better. thanks, Paritz. I, I have-- the Rebbe says it's been a year, and I haven't heard anything from you, uh, since I gave that Sicha to you guys. it is self-understood. it's understood that the important thing isn't the receiving of letters. the Rebbe says, "I'm not so concerned you haven't sent me letters. What I'm concerned is that I believe that the fact that you haven't been sending me letters shows that you haven't been doing very much with it, and that's very frustrating." I added the word it's very frustrating. The Rebbe doesn't say that. as we talked many times, that this is very, very important to me, collecting these academics and doing what we just talked about. the most important thing is it's very important to me that the moment they arrive from Russia in Eretz Yisrael, these academics, these doctors, these engineers, that they should be-- that you should meet them immediately and get them involved in this group immediately. before they get involved in the concerns of daily life, which, which will, which will. which will surround them. I want you to get them involved very quickly. but

06:24 because if you don't, then those, those troubles will, will grab onto them. they will make it impossible for them to take part in the activities and they won't be able to use proper energy when being involved in these activities. even without proper, even without proper enthusiasm. So the Rebbe saying in this paragraph is that, first of all, I, I want to-- I want you to make sure the moment that people arrive from the former Soviet Union And show up in Eretz Yisrael, or maybe then it was the current Soviet Union, and show up in Eretz Yisrael that they are grabbed by you immediately because if you don't grab these people the moment they come, life gets them down, and they just don't have time to be involved in these activities, uh, even a little bit. So, uh, there's, there's also, of course, every time we do this, we try to find more general lessons. The Rebbe is telling us here that we have to grab people when they're available because after a little while they get bogged down. Then the second paragraph, the Rebbe says, "Asiba Yeshira lemichtav zeh," he said, "The direct reason why I'm writing to you, "Yeidea, idis kinos," I believe, "Akademishe Tziyon beyuzme chama." Now, chama, which is an organization also that was more or less under the Rebbe. That's-- That was Hilloz Otzman's organization that's mentioned at length in Samarkand. So this organization, which was involved in helping resettle the Russian Jews, they held a big conference of Russian academics,

07:33 um, "Veem es read lefi ideyas and lefi eten," and based on what I've read in the newspapers and what I've heard from people, "Hay ze kinos motlach." I, I hear that this was a very successful kinos, that they got academics together and acade-- From Russian academics were enthusiastic about this idea. "Hey hach and es avsheshes havs ves fulani," but this shows me that my idea would work if you would just implement it. We know people are interested, they just had a conference. "Velechen kol yom bilti menutzel, yom shalaaveda sheyav shel achzirah." This is a powerful sentence. I think you could hang this on your wall. I might hang this on my wall. He says, "Therefore, every day that is not used properly is a day that is completely lost, and you can never get it back." And the Rebbe says this specifically when it comes to collecting the academics, but I, I, I think obviously there's a, there's an eternal message in that sentence. The Rebbe continues, "Eni ey v'laseis moser lehi, lehi chia chas v'shalom." I'm not somebody who likes to give moser or to, uh, or to, um, admonish people, chas v'shalom. "Matan mechtav zeh," what's the point of me writing you this letter then? I'm not just trying to, to tell you you did something wrong. "Hilaskesh shuv pame," I would just wanna repeat. "Ama shdur ve'esa pigisha, ey my demim in New York." I wanna repeat the things that I said to you when we met in New York. This is

08:37 the, this is the bit of the, bit of the sicha we were reading earlier. "Bekesher. Nech necha pilas aakava." There, I explained to you the importance of making sure we expand this sort of work. "She hashuve meid." It's very, very important. "Gamar ve'eis tadus agash ves tevesh akedemim." This is not just for the good, the spiritual welfare of these academics, it's also for their physical welfare. So the Rebbe says, "We talked about this last year. I wanna remind you what we talked about, and I want to remind you that it was very important to me, and it's very important to their spirituality and physicality." "Akava," the Rebbe says, "I hope." "She shimas hasicha beineinu nishmara." I hope you guys still have that sicha, and you remember what I said. "Ve ein tzadik lafzeil ashuv." I hope I don't have to repeat it to you. I hope you understood it the first time. "Yiten es hanis bola." The Rebbe says that God should give you. "Sheechta besuras teves." This time spelled out properly, so I don't get stumbled. This time, "Sheechta besuras teves bechola meril." That I hope that I'll hear good news from you about all the aforementioned. "Mishe dubar itim kupes veshuas achrenim. Beis mesed heilech ver." As I've spoken about a bunch in recent weeks, and the Rebbe has in a lot of his previous letters here, talked about this. "Lechoyer" that a lot of these Russian letters that are surrounding this section, peh fes and peh vuv and a little bit after

09:42 on peh tes, these Russian letters, if you look in the translations, almost all of them have a line or-- I know, so a good number of them, two or three, have a line where the Rebbe says, "I hope you'll get involved in this, in this Russian academic program I'm starting." So the Rebbe is talking about it a lot right now. So the Rebbe says, "Since I've been talking about it a lot, I hope I, I hope I'll hear besuras teves from you soon." "Vebracha atzlacha rab bechola melasuras teves." I'm giving you a bracha that you should have success. And then excuse me. And then this last sentence down here, this last sentence down here, they didn't put it as a PS, but if you look in the Russian, it comes after the bracha of atzlacha, so I believe it's a PS, but it also is a heara that is very practical. "Ein hach lefli sharal al kol krap in New York." You don't have to ask me every detail of how you're gonna run this organization. This is something you see in a lot of letters from the Rebbe, that, uh, a lot of times people weren't comfortable doing anything. A lot of the reasons why I think a lot of these early Chabad organizations never got off the ground or got off the ground slowly was because they felt they needed to ask the Rebbe for everything, and they also didn't want to bother the Rebbe constantly, so they just did nothing. So the

10:38 Rebbe pushes this away in several letters. This is one of them. "Ein hach lefli sharal al kol krap in New York." You don't have to ask me about all the details of running your organization here in New York. "V'ridev amikrim" in most cases, "Maspiki is yatzos han halas agudas akedemim." In most cases, it's going to be perfectly fine for you to just take the advice of the people who are in charge of this agudas you put together. "Min hastam ach akach yishl ach lakanes adoch ve'astoch asifa." I would like you to send what you do to me afterwards so that I know what you've done, but you certainly don't have to ask me before you make every minor decision. You can feel free to take matters into your own hands. So in, uh, in summary, what we have here is the, uh, the Rebbe is talking to somebody who he spoke to a year ago about starting this academic organization. It doesn't sound like they did, or if they did, the Rebbe didn't hear much about it and wasn't happy with their progress. The Rebbe reviews once again why it's so important to him that this happen quickly because people are coming off the plane from Russia right now, and we need to grab them and get them involved in Yiddishkeit before they get involved in other things. And also that the Rebbe considers this very important because it'll help them in ruchnius and gashmius. And finally, the Rebbe explains that-- Or the Rebbe mentions

11:39 that every moment that we don't use is a day that's lost. And at the end, the Rebbe tells us that we have to be very careful not to, uh, not to become delayed because we don't have specific haraos from the Rebbe on every little thing, but to take matters into our own hands and send him adoch when it comes to running the krap of an organization. And in some of what we talked about before, there was the sicha in Mem Zein where the Rebbe says that this whole reason for being so involved with this, the Rebbe is now looking back ten years after this letter, fifteen years after this letter, looking back and saying the reason why he was so involved in this project was because it's a sign that Mashiach is coming. Right before Mashiach comes, chachmas ksenis is going to flow from heaven, and it's our job to grab it, and we have to do it quickly so that it doesn't get, uh, it doesn't fall to the other side, that it ends up used for kedusha, just like the revelation of Pinimus Hateira. As far-- The- there's no, there's no coda to this. As far as I know, this organization does not exist. I, I found a GuideStar, um, entry, uh, suggesting you can still donate to it, but I, I haven't heard of this organization. If I- Did it run ever? Like, did it-- Was it ever a- fully active or- I'm really not sure it ever was. The fact that

12:37 the Rebbe continues talking about it for a few years and the fact that the Rebbe sort of mentions it in Mem Zein suggests that it might have gotten off the ground a little bit. Um, if anybody has more information on whether this organization ever happened, how long it lasted, uh, whether it's still going on in some form or another, whether it influenced something else, uh, please, please do toss that in the WhatsApp group throughout the day. I don't know anything about the future of this, only that, uh, the Rebbe took-- Put, put particular energy into this. For the Rebbe to show up to a meeting, I mean, they had a meeting in seven-seven, and the Rebbe comes down and gives them a sicha. And, uh, and the Rebbe to then follow up a year later and say, "I gave you a sicha, I expected you to do something with it. Where's the stuff?" And to still not see anything, it's kind of shocking. If it doesn't exist, then I think the letters are heida. I know we have a lot of people involved in science and academics that, that are, that are either here right now or listen to this afterwards. Um, and if you happen to be one of those people, self-included, maybe, may-maybe we should, maybe we should open it, maybe we should do it, right? If it, uh, if it doesn't exist, perhaps it should, um, 'cause this- this is something the Rebbe cares very much about. Okay, I think that's it

13:35 for now. Everybody good? Everybody have a great day? Yeah. Skoyach. Thank you all very, very much. Thank you. Skoyach.