חב״ד והכותל המערבי

00:00 We're starting by saying that we have a big farbrengen tonight at the shul. Tonight is the farbrengen for Yanky Brooks' birthday, uh, at eight thirty PM. It's gonna be very well-attended with some very impressive people coming. So, um, please make sure to be there. The letter we have today is in Russian, and it's really, it's about the Kotel. It's about the Kosel HaMaaravi. It's about the Western Wall. And, uh, I wanted to talk a little bit about Chabad's approach to the Western Wall and history with the Western Wall before, uh, before we get into the letter. The letter itself is very short, so really the background carries the day. But, uh, I went looking through the Rebbe Sichas to see what I could find about a Kosel, and th-th-there's not much on the Kotel from the Rebbe, which is something that I kind of would've guessed. Uh, you don't hear a lot about the Kotel in Chabad. You don't hear a lot about the Kosel. Uh, we, we, we have other emphases. Obviously, we have a tefillin stand there. The Rebbe wrote a letter to the tefillin stand telling them that he wanted it to be permanent, wanted them to print little cards for saying Kriyas Shema. But you don't see a whole lot of emphasis on that particular feature of Eretz Yisrael, whereas in other, in other streams of Yiddishkeit, the, the, the Kotel is everything. That is the... That is without a doubt the holiest place in the entire world. We don't talk

01:00 about it so much. Um, the only time I've really found in the Sichas the Rebbe talking about it seriously, there's a Sicha mem hei where the Rebbe asks-- It's not a Sicha, it's a conversation. The Rebbe asks the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Shimon Noson Nata Biderman of Lubav, asks him, uh, about a s'yirah in the, in the Mitler Rebbe's work. The Mitler Rebbe says that the tefillahs of the Jewish people go up through Hebron, and the Rebbe says, "But it's, it's abstracted in Shulchan Aruch that our tefillahs don't go up through Hebron, they go up through Yerushalayim. How do we know? Because if I'm outside of Eretz Yisrael, I have to daven toward Eretz Yisrael, and Shulchan Aruch says, if I'm in Eretz Yisrael, I don't daven toward Hebron, I daven toward Yerushalayim. And if I'm in Yerushalayim, I daven toward the Kotel because that's the place where prayers go up." So the Rebbe asks, it seems like it's a s'yirah between the Mitler Rebbe and Shulchan Aruch. The Lubavitcher Rebbe offered a response that the Rebbe did not like, and the Rebbe concluded and said, "Misstama, it goes to Hebron first, and then through Hebron goes up to, to, uh, through Hebron goes to the Kosel, and through the Kosel up to, up to Hashem." Um, and the Rebbe says that's b'dehecht. Other than that, I didn't see a lot from the Rebbe on the Kotel. The most substantive thing we have from our Rebbeim on the Kosel is the fact that one of our Rebbeim

02:01 visited it. At least one. I believe only one. One of our Rebbeim visited it. The Friidiker Rebbe went to the Kotel when he visited Eretz Yisrael, and there's diary entries from him and from others who were there about, about the incredible experience of watching the Friidiker Rebbe daven at the, at the Western Wall. It was a rough year for doing that. He did it in, uh, in, in Tavresh Pay Tes. That was nineteen twenty-eight, nineteen twenty-nine. There would be enormous riots that year. The nineteen twenty-nine riots would culminate in the Hebron massacre, where the Palestinians just butchered Jews everywhere they found them. And as a matter of fact, the thing that-- Well, what kicked it off was antisemitism and the fact that they're not very nice people. But what kicked it off in politics is the fact that the Jewish people had started putting chairs by the Kotel. That they put chairs there so they could have more regular prayer services, so old people could sit down. And, uh, and this, this, the introduction of chairs near the Western Wall, which is not a holy site to them, was enough for them to massacre children in Hebron. So, uh, that was the, that was the political climate of the day. And the Friidiker Rebbe right around that time, I believe before the massacres, I believe, I'm not sure. But right around that time, the Friidiker Rebbe does visit the Western Wall. He davens Mincha there, and then he sits down to say Tehillim in a

03:03 chair, I will note and he records the following incredible words in his, in his diary and in his book. He says, That when I was by the Western Wall, the, uh, the, the streams of, uh, streams of tears of pleas opened up for me. He says that he thought of his followers, his students, the people that he loves, their wives and children who are still stuck in the Iron Curtain, those who are dead and those who have been swept away. And he says that, "I know right here that everybody is being remembered right now at the place of the Beis Hamikdash, and knowing that evoked in me, uh, tears of blood, silent words, lightnings of soul fire." And it is just the Friidiker Rebbe's writing is just incredible. "Rays of hope, um, that Hashem should acce- should accept their, their prayers." When the Rebbe finished davening at the Kotel, he turned to the other people who were around him and he asked them, this is the Friidiker Rebbe, he asked them, "Is the custom here to kiss the stones?" Clearly, he wanted to. They told him, "Yeah, people kiss the stone." So he, he looked upward, he bowed his head, and then he kissed the stones of the, stones of the Kotel. The Rebbe writes in his own diary, the Friidiker Rebbe writes in his own diary in those last few hours, uh, I'm gonna try to give you the-- We'll do the Hebrew properly instead of just my summaries. In those final hours, he

04:10 writes, "I lived. I forgot everything. I was a, I was a tefach taller. And I tasted moments of life." So this is a very powerful experience at the Kotel for the Friidiker Rebbe and for everybody around him. Clearly, it is something that matters to us very deeply. This isn't something that we, that we shove under the rug. The Kotel matters. Um, but I want to, uh, I wanna highlight the Rebbe's approach to the Kotel in a Sicha and finally in this letter. So this Sicha and then we'll read the, the words of the letter, which I think drives home the Rebbe's take on the Kotel. The Rebbe has a nuanced take on the Kotel. It's not, it's not hands down his favorite place. It needs to be used properly, like everything with our Rebbe. I'm looking at Sicha. The Sicha is in Toldos Menachem, volume fifty. The page is fifty-two. You can look it up at home. He says here-- I don't know if I really need to read it. Maybe I'll just tell you what it says. I'll read it. People visit, the Rebbe says, people visit the Kotel all the time as a tourist attraction. Tzurongs come to visit. Jewish people come to visit the Kotel, and, uh, and they're, and they are ostensibly not necessarily all religious. A lot of them are not going because they're having a particular religious moment. They're going because they want to see a historical site. They wanna see a piece of, a piece of Jewish history.

05:24 And they'll tell you. I mean, obviously, a lot of Jews get to the Kotel, and they get excited about it and start davening. But a good number of Jews, the Rebbe says, show up at the Kotel, and they don't really get into the prayer of it. They get into the fact that they're taking their pictures and they're writing down their-- they're writing down where they've been, and it's, it's, it's a historical visit for them So the Rebbe says, "I can prove to you it's not a historical visit even for them. I can prove to you that their kavana is also the Kedushah of Eretz Yisrael, even these people who don't seem particularly tapped in." The Rebbe says, "The proof is the cheire miduber eides kir yashan charam." What are we talking about here? An old broken wall. "Bevade yesh nim binyanim yaafim vestagim yes nim zeh nimenu." There are certainly historically significant buildings, larger buildings, prettier buildings in other places. "Mim ken ha'itzach le'eres esse." What should they do? "Jenum is'falim." What should happen is those who wanna pray would come to the Kotel because obviously it has a religious significance. "Ve'ulu acheirim." What about other people who aren't really interested in praying? They wouldn't go to the Kotel. "Yehi ochel chapis nimsei binyanim atikim sheyeshir ha'girugashikim shibarach la'Africa." They would go to Africa and find some old site there. They're much more-- From a historical perspective, the Kotel is kind of a letdown. It's a, it's a, it's a giant wall of old rock.

06:26 There are-- There's this-- There's the Havdalah of Ellis Island, there's the Sistine Chapel, there's the Roman Colosseum. There are better places to visit. Why do Jews come here? Because it's, because, because it's not about history. If it's about history, all things being equal, the history of the Kotel is not that impressive, and the historical structure of the Kotel is not that exciting. The reason why Jews go in their heart of hearts is because the Kotel is not about history, it's about right now our prayers ascending through it. With that in mind, let's read this letter, and I think, I think that Sicha really frames what the Rebbe's saying to this person in Russian here. So look down at the letter. "I've accepted-- I've, I've received your letter on, uh, on, uh, nineteen seventy-three." What the twenty-- "Niyim twenty-six." Niyim, I don't know how to read that date, but whatever it is, Paritz will tell me. There's a weird date here, but whatever, the Rebbe received the letter. He says, "Atten shoni smibarach klal devarim shkesve de'asami stadu be'efen yes Yisrael." He'd written to the Rebbe about something, this author, and the Rebbe writes back, "I hope that everything works out okay." "Lepim mechtavei." Here's where the Rebbe gets involved. "Lepim mechtavei," based on your letter, "movin me'atsme," it is self-understood. "Sheys stadu stevish al yudit shoni mesagangusev bechaiyim yom yom," that the success of a person depends on his operating according to every single day, "be'chatim leherat Hashem Yisbarach u'Shulchan Aruch." This is something we

07:35 talk about at Babrangens all the time, one of Paritz's favorite topics, is that, uh, and it's mine too, is that at the end of the day, the Rebbe is really just pushing us to keep Shulchan Aruch. So again, he tells somebody, "If you really wanna be successful, if you really want your life to work out appropriately, that means keeping Shulchan Aruch." "Ve'afak kishnim teva'aretz, be'aretz," especially when you're found in "Eretz Yisrael, sh'nikas ayedei kalav, kalav im es ha'kodesh." This is, uh, once again, something we saw in a letter last week, that the Rebbe pushes anybody going to Eretz Yisrael or living in Eretz Yisrael, they should be living up to a significantly higher standard. If you can turn the page, uh, or hit Next on your screen, this is the last section that talks about the Kotel, which is the part I'm most interested in today. "Ve'esav lemichtaveh ma'as ket pilah li'ad kes Amaravi." The Rebbe says, "You mentioned in your letter that you davened by the Western Wall." Oh, Paritz says it's day, month, year? So which one's the month? The month is the first mo-- the-- Yeah, but what's the-- I guess that he sent it on-- he sent it in Tishrei? Is that what one is, or is one January here? I, I, I don't know. Whatever. Paritz is trying to help me with the date for those listening at home, and, uh, I can't tell what the date is exactly. We'll get to it. "Ve'esav lemichtaveh ma'as ket pilah li'ad kes

08:36 Amaravi." Uh, we-- In, in your letter, you mentioned that you davened at the Kotel Amaravi, and a lot of rabbis would be very excited about that. The Rebbe is not necessarily. He says, "Kes uzeh tvish mispata taruch lei u'rach las kir ha'alavar." The Kotel is not a historical building. It's not just there to remind us about the past and inspire us about what was. "Alagan lashpia al ha'evav ha'asidet." Its job is to have an impression upon the way that we live right now and the way we're going to live in the future. The question is not, did you visit an old structure? The question is, am I different now and will I be different later because I visited this old structure? Otherwise, it's just a piece of, it's just a piece of rock. "Shemi is imil eisah avash al hamas kir ha'kesel." A person must live in a place that does honor, that does justice to the history that the Kotel represents. So that is pinging off the history and applying it toward a productive future. So I think that this-- what, what this letter is saying, obviously, is that when a person visits an old-- and this, this does not just apply to the Kotel. When, when we visit any old historical Jewish sites, it's very popular to visit old Jewish cemeteries, it's very popular to visit, uh, vi-visit, uh, historic, old synagogues. Visiting them has no particular-- There is no-- We don't value historical significance of things. The fact that they are old,

09:41 that is not valuable to us. The, the fact that we can look at them and say, "This is the way Jews used to live, and therefore, I need to live this way. This is the way that God used to exist in this world, and therefore, I need to live that way right now. I need to, I need to position my future avodah Hashem after that fashion," that's what we're supposed to do with historical monuments. It's very much what the Rebbe says in the Sicha regarding why people visit the Kotel, that in their heart of hearts, they are really visiting because of its Jewish significance, otherwise they would go to see a coliseum. And it's also what the Rebbe is stressing to this person in the letter. Great job going to the Kotel, but it's, it's not worth much unless you're willing to do something with it, which is very much the Rebbe's lesson about everything, but particularly about history. And I think that's especially important when it comes to history because a lot of people do seem to believe that history itself is an avodah, that there's somehow an avodah in visiting the Kotel, even if you don't do any avodah, even if you don't do anything based on it, that somehow you've honored God and the Jewish people by visiting an old synagogue. And the answer is no, you, you honor God and the Jewish people and bring honor to yourself and serve God by doing and by taking these things as inspirations to

10:39 help your avodah Hashem and to help you help others, but certainly not simply by visiting. Showing up is not enough when it comes to Jewish history. You need to participate in it and be the next chapter in it, I suppose. Okay, I think that's it.