כישרון וכיצד להשתמש בו

00:01 Speaker 1 This is Igus, and we are looking at the letter Yod Tav Shin Tes Vav. It's up on the screen. It's this little guy in the middle, tiny little letter. But it got me thinking because it has a word in it the Rebbe uses in so many letters. So I went on a bit of a survey. I went on an adventure today. I, I went through Etz HaChayim, put in the word ksharonot, talents. I wanted to see everything the Rebbe's ever said on talents, and I think, I think we put together a, a very nice, um, compilation of the Rebbe's view on how talent works, how best to use it, uh, how important it is to know about it, how to find yours. I, I'm, I'm quite, I'm quite proud of this particular setup. This could be part one of a multi-part series on talent 'cause there-- when I searched in Etz HaChayim, the Rebbe mentions the word ksharonot alone in almost every volume of Igros. So this could be part one of multi-parts, but at the very least, here comes the basis, and this all starts from a letter that happened almost exactly fifty years ago. Uh, what is today? Is today Beis Adar? It's Beis, right? Today's Beis. This is from Gimel-- Gimel Adar, fifty Tav Shin Lamed Gimel. We are now almost exactly fifty years off. You know, we, we flip to and fro. Reading the letter, "Tikvasi chazakah," the Rebbe says, "It is my very strong hope." The Rebbe cares about this

01:04 Speaker 1 a lot. The word chazakah is bolded. I very strongly hope that you will use your talents. I'm translating ksharonot as talents. Um, before I continue to do an entire share on this, is anybody going to take issue with this translation? Anybody furious? I think ksharonot is talents. What do you think, Sarali? Problems? Okay.

01:25 Speaker 2 Talents, capabilities.

01:27 Speaker 1 Talents, capabilities. Okay, I'm gonna go with talents for this one as long as, as long as we're comfortable with it. I expect to use your talents that God has given you, that you've been graced with, uh, to spread Yiddishkeit, the true Yiddishkeit. You succeeded in this when you were outside of Eretz Yisrael. And now that you're in Eretz Yisrael, we don't know exactly why this individual is in Eretz Yisrael. Now, that's not context from the letter. But now that you're there, um, I expect you'll find similar success 'cause the land of Israel will assist you. The part that, uh, got me very excited about this letter is, of course, the use of the term ksharonot. So the Rebbe wants her to use-- I think it's her, wants her to use her particular talents in order to spread Yiddishkeit. So what is the Rebbe's view in general on talents? Um, my first thought would have been, going into the letter, that we don't put a lot of emphasis on talent because we're all about hard work, diligence, you know. It doesn't really matter if I'm naturally good at something. It doesn't matter if I'm naturally a lamdan or naturally a, uh, naturally a good speaker, naturally a good writer. I need to, I need to just put my head down and do my work. There's a certain Kabbalah's ill to not caring about natural abilities. But the Rebbe cares deeply about natural abilities, and, um, I have a survey of letters here to illustrate it. So

02:40 Speaker 1 I have over here this letter. I really should have put the dates in here. Uh, in the document, I attached a document with background, and later on, I'll fill in dates and letters. These are all from Igros in various places. I have a new letter up on the screen. This letter says, I'm starting from the line, in the middle. So the Rebbe's trying to convince somebody to do a different kind of writing than he's been doing in the past. It has something to do with the Holocaust. The letter has-- It's a long letter, but I found this in the middle of the letter that I thought was very interesting. It says that certainly everybody is expected to do their job in this world, but certainly people who were given talent, . So it is the decision to give us certain skills and abilities, and it's that gave us the natural abilities that we have. So these are indeed natural. They're not necessarily ksharonot. They're not necessarily talents we developed over time, although certainly we develop our talents. There is a certain degree of that from the moment each of us is born, we're given specific talents that we'll be able to unmask that other people won't be able to unmask, and those talents are specific to us, and they're done . God places them in us, then places us in a certain time and place to be able to use those talents. You go into the next letter I have on the screen. Those talents

03:56 Speaker 1 therefore exist hidden in me, but am I obligated to find them? The answer is absolutely. The Rebbe says it's well known. My, my father-in-law, the previous Rebbe's, uh, phrase he used to say about this, his word on this subject is every person needs to know their own weaknesses. Only when somebody knows their own weaknesses are they able to fix those weaknesses and live a worthwhile life. The same way that you have to know your weaknesses, that you can address them, you have to actually know your talents. You're It's not optional to figure out what you're good at. It's something that's obligatory. The same way it's obligatory to figure out what you're bad at, so you can fix the things you're bad at, you have to be aware of what you're good at, so you can you need to know the abilities and the specific that are specific to you, your individual talents, presumably also so that you can use them. Although he doesn't finish the idea there, right? Says you need to know your flaws so that you can fix your flaws. You need to know your talents, so you can use your talents. Uh, not all talents are immediately apparent, though, and when our talents are not immediately apparent, there are ways to bring them to the surface and ways to find them if we don't know about them. This letter over here, the Rebbe writes about a way to bring talent to the surface and also what to do if you can't find

05:13 Speaker 1 your talents. I'm reading again from the top here. Somebody writes to the Rebbe saying that they're not seeing a siman bracha. They're not doing very well in their studies. They're thinking maybe they'll leave Yeshiva. The Rebbe says, "Don't forget the Chazal," and of course, one of the Sukkim that we say with the children and that we say as adults too. If you work very hard, you'll succeed. This imply-- This, this applies to your personal effort. That if somebody uses their-- learns according to their abilities, they will succeed. He's gonna spell it out a little better, and then I'll say it outside. Says if somebody who puts in regular amount of effort in an area in which they are exceptional, they will not notice that they're exceptional. It's a very interesting point, is that if somebody takes- If somebody puts in a regular person's amount of effort and says, "Look, I'm doing the same thing everybody else is doing. I'm working as hard as everybody else. I don't see talent shining through." If that person had a unique talent in that area, they wouldn't see it shining through by putting in an average amount of effort. In the areas in which we have talent, we only notice that talent when we put in Herculean effort in that particular area. So in the case of somebody learning, if a person-- if everybody in the yeshiva that they're talking about is learning Torah, I don't know, just pick a time, five hours a day, and this person is

06:35 Speaker 1 a particular-- naturally was given the ability to be an incredible lamdan and learn a lot more and a lot better. Through learning five hours a day, he'll never find that out. He'll only find that out when he pushes to the sixth hour and suddenly realizes he's above average. The only way to know that if you're above average in a certain area, the Rebbe says, is to put incredible effort into that area first to discover it. This is the exact opposite of what the world thinks talent is. The world thinks the way talent works, and I think, I think the way talent works up until now, is that, uh, the thing that you're naturally good at without trying very hard is the thing that you're talented in. That's not what the Rebbe's saying. That's not how we understand . It's not the Rebbe's understanding of talent. The Rebbe's understanding of talent is that you find your talent by looking at what you work hardest in and succeed in more than the average person. So what you're more than average good at, but only something you would discover by way of putting in more than average effort into it. So it's not that somebody picks up a violin and is instantly good at violin. It's that two people who both put in an entire life's work in the violin, one better than the other, that's talent. Talent is when you put in the maximum effort and you still shine. because otherwise you're not really putting in the

07:34 Speaker 1 effort that would reveal that talent. Second part of the letter is also crucial. Since a person can't really testify about themselves, says that the truth is we don't always know our talents, and we're not necessarily trusted to say what we're good at. Everybody thinks they're-- a lot of people think they're good at a lot of things they're not terribly good at. This is a, a recurring problem in society in general. People not sure what they're good at, people who are overconfident or underconfident. So getting outside advice, getting outside help on figuring out what your personal are is recommended. The Rebbe says that you should ask a Mashpia or a Rav or somebody who knows you well and knows your abilities and knows how hard you work. And through looking at your abilities, how hard you work, what sort of outcomes you've seen, a-- an outside person can help you figure out what you are best at. So somebody isn't necessarily going to know on their own what their are. But if they wanna bring them to the surface, especially in a particular area, the Rebbe says to work very hard in that area and to ask for outside help in figuring out whether that's an area in which we're most likely to succeed. This is not just about us. The next letter I have here says that we can bring out particular talents, in our children and in our students also through pressing upon them the-- impressing upon them the importance of hard work in

08:43 Speaker 1 particular areas. This is a letter written to a teacher who was teaching poor students. I, I know that from the end of the letter, which I believe is cut off in this printing. But, um, she was teaching in a poor neighborhood, and she wasn't seeing a lot of success from her teaching. The Rebbe says . You might have some students who seem to be very simple-minded at first glance. They could eventually, however, develop into people who have very unique talents. They could end up being very hardworking. They might end up succeeding in their studies later on. They might end up doing a lot better than people who have average talent. And the only way they would figure this out they're going to get, uh, because they have a good education. They're at, they're at your school. They're being taught by good . That means good mentors, good teachers, a good school environment, a good home environment is the kinda thing that can bring a child's out to the surface. So it's not just something that we affect in ourselves. It's also something that we can impress upon somebody else. We can bring out hidden talents in our children and our students. Uh, what happens when we don't use them? So we're-- become aware of our talents. Well, maybe we're never aware of our talents, and we just let them rot. We end up going into some other field or doing some other thing or, uh, trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

09:55 Speaker 1 The Rebbe has pretty strong words about people who waste their natural abilities. The Rebbe says in this letter here, that this rotting, not rotting in the way that something grows 'cause sometimes, of course, a seed needs to rot in order for a plant to grow. The Rebbe says wasting your talents is, uh, is, is like rotting in-- is like when something rots on the ground. He says . This causes damage to the individual, and of course, it automatically causes damage to the general public. The whole world deserves to benefit from what you're good at. And if you're not shining, that's a problem for the world. It's also a problem for you, of course. You're wasting your life. When you don't use your natural abilities, it shows you're not knowing God in all of his ways, and more than anything else, it's a literal waste. Rebbe says . That means it is , right? The opposite of not-- the opposite of is that it-- is that I am, I am wasting, right? The opposite of not wasting is wasting. There we go. So the Rebbe says it violates . You're not allowed to waste food. You're not allowed to waste things, throw away items that are potentially useful. And your talents are your items that are potentially useful, and not using them is a . Um, the Rebbe has some practical advice for people who have identified talents in how to use them best, and this one is, uh, is, is very interesting. Here, the Rebbe

11:10 Speaker 1 writes to a board. He's writing to a board, I believe it was for I think. I think this is . But any case, they're putting together a new board. They're putting together a and, uh, they, they're trying to figure out what people would be best to fit each of the roles there. They're splitting up the work that needs to be done between the members of . They ask the Rebbe for advice, who of these people, they gave the Rebbe a list of leaders and said, "Who of these people would be best to run this department or that department, or this job or that job on a or on a board?" And the Rebbe says, "I, I can't know without really knowing the talents of each of these people. However, I would suggest that you're doing it in the opposite way. That you're figuring out roles that need to be filled and then trying to squeeze people into them, rather than looking at the people you have in front of you, figuring out what they're good at, and then creating roles around them." And this is the Rebbe's advice for a board, and this is very much advice that can be applied to any situation where we have any sort of influence over the people around us and what they do, that, uh, rather than creating jobs, then trying to find people who fit those roles, the Rebbe says it's much more effective to look at the people you have in front of you, look at

12:12 Speaker 1 your team, or look at your friends, or look at your children, figure out what they're good at, and then craft roles around them where their most shines. I think this is, uh, an interesting and opposite from the way that we usually build companies. Although I do have a, a, uh, an HR representative here on the on the call who can tell me if perhaps this is how he does things. Uh, generally speaking, I don't think this is the way the world does, does, uh, does recruitment, and the Rebbe's suggesting, uh, suggesting a revolution in how we create jobs and spaces and put people into those spaces. This last letter down here that I wanted to point out is a very interesting letter written to somebody who was applying to be on the board of Tzedek, and it didn't look like he was gonna make it in there. The, the odds just didn't look good for him. And he writes to the Rebbe that he wants to have a leadership role in Lubavitch, and, uh, the problem is that the people don't seem to want him very badly. He wants a leadership role. He has to win a vote. The vote's not going well. And he writes to the Rebbe that he's worried that if he doesn't get this role, he won't be able to do his hafatsa properly. He won't be able to do his aveida. And the Rebbe writes to him in fairly strong words that your particular talents being used is something that

13:14 Speaker 1 has to happen, whether or not you have an official role, uh, that, that reflects those talents. And even if nobody ever wants to hear anything from you, you're gonna have to teach. And if-- even if nobody wants you to spread Chassidus, you're gonna have to spread Chassidus. I'm gonna go down toward the second half of the letter. This is, um... Let me see if I've a good line to start at. Here we are. In the-- how about in the middle. I'm at that line. The Rebbe says .

13:47 Speaker 2 I think, I think, I think you should go up to where it says-

13:49 Speaker 1 Yeah, a little higher up? Thanks. There we go.

13:56 Speaker 2 Yeah. From there.

14:03 Speaker 1 Perfect. Well, I'll just read the-- I'll just read the whole excerpt I put on the thing. We have enough time to read this. It's short. The Rebbe says we have to examine this, uh, based on the location. Obviously, you're writing to me about elections and things I'm not getting into the details about. I think this is the part that you liked, Sruli, right? It's probably the part I liked too, or I wouldn't have copied the letter. Every single person is obligated in hafatsa. There we go. Certainly, your obligation to be fulfilling your mission in this world and to be using your kishrones, as the Rebbe's going to say later, is not based on whether you make it on a certain vad, a van halaplenis. It doesn't matter whether you're-- Everybody needs to participate in making the shul great, whether or not they're on the shul board, is what the Rebbe's saying. And everybody has to participate in making a community great, whether or not they are the community rov. And, uh, the role that a person plays in a particular community doesn't exempt them from the fact that everybody's obligated to put in one hundred percent all of the time. And halaplenis, doesn't matter if you're in charge, it doesn't matter if you, uh, if you have a role. What matters is the . Your obligation to be using your talents for the betterment of the community does not come through elections. or by people appointing you. It is the job of the soul to

15:30 Speaker 1 light up its place in this world. And then he goes on to say the things that I was reading before, which you're right, was not the part of the letter I actually wanted. That's the part that I wanted, right there in the middle. Um, so the Rebbe, in conclusion, when it comes to particular talents, says that they're not, uh, that it's not-- The situation is not that I have talents, and therefore if I get a job in that area that fits my talent, I get to use my talent. The answer is that God gave me particular kishrones. I'm obligated to use them. That obligation is from the moment I'm born, and if that ends up turning into-- if that ends up turning-- If you parlay that into a career, that's wonderful. But also, that's an obligation that stands regardless of whether a person wins an election or has a seat on a board or a role, or a, or, or a role, um, on a vad. So going through the list here of-- I, I have seven letters we've gone through together. Just a quick summary of everything we've done, and then we'll open the floor and, or call it a day. The Rebbe in our letter, which is the one we're looking at, says that it's his strong hope that the individual that he's talking to will use their particular talents for spreading Yiddishkeit. We talked about the fact that person gets their talents through Hashgaha Pratis specifically to fulfill the specific roles that

16:30 Speaker 1 are assigned to them. We mentioned the Friddlecher Rebbe who says that everybody's obligated to know their shortcomings. In the same way you're obligated to-- obligated to know your shortcomings, you're obligated to know what you're particularly good at. That's an obligation. It's not something you can let lie and just, "Eh, whatever, I'll do my best." You have to know what you're good at. How do you figure out what you're good at? We said that hard work in any area will bring to the surface what you're best at because where you put the most effort and suddenly shine, that's what your talent is. If you have trouble finding it, ask HaMashpia, the Rebbe says. We can bring out hidden talents in our students and children by giving them ideal learning environments and by nurturing their talents through focusing them on the same idea, on working hard in a particular area until they shine. Not by telling them you're naturally good at something, but by focusing their energies, um, and seeing if, if, uh, particular fruits come from those labors. We mentioned that not using our talents causes damage to the individual and also damage to the public and to probably begin about passion. We said, uh, we had some advice for using other people's talents, is that when we're creating a vad or a board of people who are going to get things done, rather than creating roles for people to squeeze people into or to try to find people who are best for the roles, we

17:27 Speaker 1 need to instead figure out who we have, who's on our team, and where their roles would be-- where their talents would best fit together into roles that would move the organization forward. And finally, we had a letter that says that even if you don't have a particular role, your talents are your talents and you're obligated to use them, and that that can't be bound by whether you are hired or fired into something, into an area in which you are talented. So this is, uh, yeah, probably, hopefully only a part one of the Rebbe's take on kishrones, but that's all I have for now. Uh, please comment.

17:57 Speaker 2 I have several comments. First of all, you are correct. This is right up my alley, this type of letter, as for your, your, your text. So a few, a few things-

18:03 Speaker 1 For the record, for those listening, I messaged Sruli ahead of time and said, "You, you, you, you gotta hear this one." This one, I, I thought of Sruli while preparing this one.

18:11 Speaker 2 I was actually in another meeting and I told them I have a hard stop at twelve thirty and I have to jump into something else. So-

18:15 Speaker 1 Nice.

18:15 Speaker 2 Um, I have another meeting at twelve thirty. So anyways, a few things. Just the three, three, three things I wanted to comment on. Number one Is that the rabbi talks there about, and I think that's something that we need to-- that, that we didn't express over here, is the concept of someone who doesn't know how to identify their talents and how they go about it. So someone who doesn't know how to identify their talents, how to go about it, the rabbi specifically mentions it, the concept of a mashpia, of sitting down with a mashpia, and a mashpia saying basically, you know, like in this letter, correct, . So somebody who can't find their talents, and it's, it's, it's, it's something that a person needs to go and speak to their mashpia to find kind of, "Okay, you know me, what do you think I'm good at? And what do you think I'm-- You know, I'm not being successful because I'm not being good at." And in the same letter, my second comment is, it's interesting on the, the, the, um, the fourth line where he talks about . Basically, what he's saying here is, he's not saying-- The way I read it is that what the rabbi is saying over here is that if you are about kashrut and you're not using your kashrus, you're basically not fulfilling your guide to matzoh. He's not saying you're not fulfilling your kashrus. He's saying you're not fulfilling yegia. If the concept is yegia matzoh, the reason why

19:24 Speaker 2 you're not being matzoh is 'cause you're not using-- you're not getting yegia. And the reason why you're not getting yegia is because you're not using your kashrus. And if you use your kashrus, then you would have the yegia. And who helps you get that? That's the mashpia. That's my second comment. I'm gonna go through all. My third, my third comment was what you mentioned about talent and, you know, kinda squeezing a round peg into a square hole or whatever you wanna call it. So the way I, in my practice, I was actually just talking to somebody about it this morning in a meeting, is you hire people for roles, right? I need an accountant, I hire an accountant. And then the accountant turns out he's not working out so well. So yes, I hired the person for the role that I needed and the role that I had. However, when it doesn't work out, and it seems like there's issues, so my go-to always is when people come to me and say, "Okay, we wanna terminate this person, they're not performing well." My act-- My, my go-to answer for these, for these, to these managers or directors is, "Can you tell me what this employee is good at?" If a manager cannot identify what this employee is good at, I will tell them, "You are not being a good manager because you don't know what this person's good at. Let's see what this person's good at. If they're good at X, Y, or Z, do

20:27 Speaker 2 we have a role that now this person can pivot into to fulfill, to be able to do it based on the talents that they have? If the company doesn't have that role available, okay, maybe we do have to terminate." But before we ever terminate somebody for poor performance in the area or not living up to expectations, the que-- my question always is, what are they good at? So it's kind of a combination of what the rabbi is saying here in this letter of identifying roles versus identifying the talent first and then giving them a role. It depends on what stage is the way I look at it. I'm not Kasher Shalem disagreeing with the, with the rabbi's assessment on it. It depends on what stage. You have certain roles you need to hire for, and you hire for those roles. But then at the same time, when something is not working out, then whatever. I said my piece. Thank you for listening.

21:05 Speaker 1 Thank you very much. All excellent honors. I agree with all of them.