משלוח מנות

00:02 Speaker 1 It is kind of Esther, and we are doing Yigris again from fifty years ago, give or take. And this is our, this is our big Purim letter. I've been saving this one for the Purim season. Uh, we're not gonna have this shiur tomorrow. We will have it the day after, but by then Purim will be over. This is our big going into Purim one. I wanna talk about Shalach Manot. The Rebbe has a long letter on Shalach Manot, and the truth is, the Rebbe has, like, several letters every year on Shalach Manot. Each of them have a completely different take. I tried to do a, a survey like we do sometimes of the Rebbe's position on something, and it's just-- it's everywhere. The Rebbe has so much to say on Mishloach Manot. So we're not gonna do everything. We're gonna do a small piece of it. But here, this is-- but this is what we have our year. Our year is, uh, Tav Shin Lamed Gimel. And this is written to the Chayalei Yechida of thirteen thirty-one. I don't know how divisions work in the Israeli army, but, uh, if your, if your son was on here, surely he'd be able to tell us. I don't know how these work, but in any case, he's writing to soldiers. He says, "Shalom Uvracha. I've received the letter that you wrote on ." And the Rebbe's thanking them for informing him that they received Shalach Manot from Sderot Chabad. That's what it says at the bottom there.

01:12 Speaker 1 So Chabad had sent their division or their unit or something like that Shalach Manot on honor of Purim, and they were clever enough to, instead of writing back a thank you note to, uh, Sderot Chabad, they wrote it back to the Rebbe himself, and the Rebbe wrote them a response to their thank you note. Says, Says, "Since you are Am Yisrael, you're Yidden. " Says, "I know you're smart people. How do I know you're smart? Because you're Jewish." The Jewish people are called Am Chakam Venavin. So since you're Jews, I know that you're insightful people. So it must be that you sat around in your barracks thinking about the inner meaning of Shalach Manot. It can't be that you just got a package and thought it was nice to receive food. Jews don't do that. Jews don't get packages and think it's nice to receive food. They think about the inner meaning. The Rebbe says, "Let me tell you what it means. One of the reasons for this mitzvah, is the emphasis even though our nation is spread out and dispersed around all of the other nations, we're not all in one place. We're in different countries, and that's also somewhat of a spiritual we're, uh, we're at different places and different stations. Nonetheless, we're one nation. And we are specifically united through our love for our fellows, for our fellow Jews. This isn't just a nice idea or a feeling. It's something you have to act on. If you don't act on it, then

02:33 Speaker 1 it's a theory. So in theory, you could say, "I theoretically love every Jew," but I don't show it very often. Matter of fact, sometimes we show quite the opposite. So we have this theoretical love for every Jew, and it's a rayan and it's a regesh, it's a feeling, it's a thought, but I don't do anything about it. Once a year, we do something about it and send manot ish l're'ehu, and send gifts to other people, to other, to other Yidden. The Rebbe says, "You do not fulfill Mishloach Manot by sending berachots to other Jews, or even by sending them words of Torah and wisdom. Theoretical stuff doesn't work. You have to specifically send mishloach manot, physical stuff, to your friend. So they will have a na by their soda, they'll benefit from it, they'll eat it. A physical thing you send your friend to show that this is not a theoretical love we have for each other, but a practical, physical love that we have for each other. And furthermore, the word manah, the Rebbe says, it means manah yafet, or at least kaav v'ba, a worthy portion you're giving somebody. Uh, the-- there's no source for this below the line. I don't know what the source is. I know that the idea of manah in Gemara usually means manah yafet or at least kaav v'ba, so I think the Rebbe's using that. This does call into question the Shalach Manot that are full of, like, little candies, but that's not our discussion for today.

03:44 Speaker 1 Point is that we send people substantial gifts of food to show that our connection to them is not a theoretical one, but a practical one. The Rebbe says, "I have another point about this. as emphasized in the Megillah, even a goy, and even the worst goy, is mamlek, uh, a melech- He recognizes the truth, that there is one nation. He says, Haman says there's this one nation and they're the worst. But he says we're one nation. He recognizes that we exist as an Am Echad. Even though we are spread out everywhere, and he says the way you can tell that they're one nation is that their religions are different from every other nation. He says this disparagingly, but he's also admitting something. He's admitting that despite the fact that we're spread out everywhere, we have common ground and a common religion, and that makes us an Am Echad. And the meaning of which is plural, their religions, this is that not just that we have a deep-seated religious belief that's different than everybody else, that we're the only monotheists in the world, or we're the only ones who believe in the Torah, it's also that our minhagim and our mannerisms and our way that we live our daily lives, they're different from everybody else in action. And even Esther, when Esther tries to undo the gezeira of Haman, she doesn't contradict this point. She says it's true. So he's saying there is that even when Esther comes and tries to convince Achashverosh not to destroy

05:14 Speaker 1 us, she doesn't say, "No, no, he was wrong. We actually are totally good Persians." That's not her approach at all. She says, "No, the truth is we are completely different than everybody else, and I'd like you not to kill us." But she doesn't try to go-- Even when she's trying to convince someone not to kill us, she doesn't contradict this because it's so obvious. It's, uh, it's completely clear to even a Rasha, and certainly to everybody else, that we are Am Echad. Letter continues on the next page. The rest of the letter is very much, um, not on this topic, and I know we lost a little bit of time in the middle, so I wanna keep on going. So this is the Rebbe's approach to Shalach Manot then. Let's just do the first half of the letter, if you don't mind. So what we have here is that the Rebbe's saying Shalach Manot proves to us that we really care about other people, that, uh, that our relationship, our ahavas Yisroel, is not something that's theoretical, it's not something intellectual, it's something deeply practical, and that it also emphasizes that we're one nation united by this

06:11 Speaker 2 I have another letter on the screen. I lost my notes 'cause I moved everything around. Okay, so there's a, there's a sicha that I don't have on the screen, but I'm gonna tell you about it anyway. It's in Toras Menachem volume nineteen, page one eighty-eight. Uh, there's a sicha there where the Rebbe says that shala-- that shalach manos is, uh, is revealing. It's expressing what true joy looks like on the day of Purim, and he explains why. He says, "Normally, who do you look out for? You look out for yourself and your family, right?" Everybody looks out for number one. They care about themselves. They care about their kids. They care about their family, maybe their very closest friends, and that's about it. When a person is very, very happy, they step outside of themselves, and they start reaching a little bit further. What that looks like practically is sending gifts to other people and throwing a big seudah. This expresses the joy of the day, and, uh, and that's why Rambam, when he mentions the simcha of Purim, he includes all of this in one sif. In Rambam, he says, "There's shalach manos. There's a big seudah. There's simcha." You step outside of yourself to give other people things. Then the Rebbe adds in the sicha that the Rambam has a separate halacha just for matanos l'evyonim, and he says that somebody who does matanos l'evyonim is damei l'Shechinah. Somebody who gives charity to the poor is similar to God Himself. And he says

07:12 Speaker 2 that however much you're going to spend on your shalach manos and your seudah, you have to spend significantly more on matanos l'evyonim, which is a very important point, by the way, going into Purim, is that I, I said this in chakras. I, I do think everybody should make a calculation of how much they spent on shalach manos and seudah and give more of that to, give more to matanos l'evyonim. I think it's a din in Rambam. He says, "However much you are ribi in that, you have to be more ribi in the other." That seems to be, me to be a me- a, a monetary measurement. So, uh, at the very least, matanos l'evyonim should be at least equal to, if not greater than, the cost of shalach manos and the seudah. Why is it so much more special? And the Rebbe says that this shows a far higher level of simcha. It's the kind of joy that breaks boundaries completely because it causes you to give money to people you have no connection with at all. Shalach manos is stepping outside of your immediate family and going to help your neighbor, but giving to a poor person is helping somebody who l'chara has nothing in common with you at all. There's that, uh, the lashon there in the sicha I have down here in tiny print. I want to read just a line of it to you. He says, "Am nama dayan ein simcha zot amitis v'sheleima." The simcha of shalach manos is not

08:10 Speaker 2 complete. "She'en emeit yetzer hagvut d'derech atzmo." You haven't completely left your boundaries behind when you're giving shalach manos. "She'ashere sh'lecha manos l'reihu," you're giving it to your friend. "Leilu sh'ayach melov l'ish l'kesher imamo," at least people you have some kind of connection to. "L'chen yiskadag hamitzvah matanos l'evyonim." That's why they, that's why there was established also mitzvah matanos l'evyonim, 'cause it really pulls you outside of your boundaries. "Sh'nissen la'nashim she'kla lein lein mem kesher," you're giving to people you have no connection to at all. "Ne'anim u'malalim," these, these unfortunate poor people. "B'zeman hispatus yetsiyach l'chalu limitzavo hagashios v'pratim." This shows that you've completely left behind your own limitations, your feelings, your private matters, and this is the ultimate simcha of the day. A sicha that I actually wasn't planning on mentioning, but now it actually fits very nicely, is one that I was showing Sruly earlier, is that the Rebbe has a separate sicha where he adds that the reason why the Purim mitzvahs happen in order is that they're slowly taking you out of your hagbalos. They're taking you out of your limitations. You start off with the mitzvah of, uh, of taking care of your own family, and then you move on to a mitzvah of shalach manos, where you're helping your friend. After that, you move on to a mitzvah that's even more outside your boundaries, where you're reaching out to somebody who's poor, who you don't even know. And then there's the mitzvah ad d'lo yada, which literally has no measurement

09:15 Speaker 2 to it whatsoever, which is supposed to occur during the seudah. But as we said, l- lamaza seems to occur throughout the entire day for reasons that are, that are, that are perhaps obvious. Um, so what we have from the letter is the importance of shalach manos as showing that we love our neighbor. But what we have from the sicha is that there's actually a higher level of that. The higher level of that is matanos l'evyonim. Even above the shalach manos, there's a way of really showing how deep our l-- how much our love transcends all boundaries and how much our connection to our fellow Jews transcends all boundaries through the mitzvah of matanos l'evyonim. There is a cool letter in the second volume of Igres on page kuf zayin. It's letter number two hundred and fifteen, and the Rebbe explains both of these mitzvahs al pi chasidus. Maybe we'll end with that. The Rebbe's explanation al pi chasidus. There we go. "Veshul hanabi'ir al derech hachasidus bazeh." So the Rebbe asked the question, or maybe he doesn't ask the question, he makes the statement that the mitzvah of Purim and shalach manos, there's a, the rule for mishloach manos is you have to give two manos to one person. You don't have to give to two friends. This is a halacha review randomly. But you don't have to give even two shalach manos. I can give my shalach manos just to Sruly as long as there's two things in it. Give him a banana and

10:18 Speaker 2 give him a, and give him a piece of cake, and he's good. That's all Sruly wants, right? He wants to take a banana and a piece of cake. Uh, parrots won't take a banana 'cause he already got one for lunch. So, "V'yesh sheim manos ish, uh, l'ish echad matanos l'evyonim sh'matanos shnei bnei adim." The din bei matanos l'evyonim, the din bei matanos l'evyonim, when it comes to a poor person, is that you have to give two gifts to two people. So there's two individuals needed for matanos l'evyonim. You only need one friend for shalach manos. The Rebbe says that the explanation of this al pi chasidus, "V'yesh lanu habiya beza derech hachasidus. Yodua shebePurim haya nes va'atzalos haguf venefesh gam yachad." On Purim, what was the miracle? They s-- that Hashem saved our bodies and also our souls. He says this is not like Hanukkah, 'cause on Hanukkah, only our bodies, only our souls were saved. They weren't trying to kill us. They were just trying to make us not practice our religion. So on Purim, we're celebrating that both our bodies and our souls were saved, so both our bodies and our souls need to celebrate. They wanted to destroy our religion. They also wanted to practically kill us on Purim, not so on Hanukkah. He says, "Hatachlis nitzivas nishpalel sh'ashbiach chai yamim." The point of mesirus nefesh, that we stood up on Purim and said, "We're not going to give up our religion, and we're going to stand strong even if it means

11:20 Speaker 2 that we die," that's about living our daily lives as Jews. And that means that it's not just that the nefesh elokis is in charge. It also means the nefesh elokis is going to control the body and the nefesh behamis. And also the classic memutza, the intermediary between our godly soul and our animalistic soul and our body is the nefesh hachichlis, the intellectual soul. It means everybody getting involved. It means the nefesh elokis getting involved, the nefesh hachichlis getting involved. This is a mitzvah, this is a day for the nefesh behamis, a day for the guf. Purim is a day for every part of what makes us us. So he says that when we're told to give matanos l'evyonim, so matanos l'evyonim is to shnei evyonim, is to two poor people. Who are the two, two poor people we give gifts to? We give gifts to our nef-- our nefesh behamis, and we give gifts to our guf. Our guf and our nefesh behamis are the two evyonim. They're less spiritually inclined than we are. They're less intelligent than we are. So we have a mat-- we have matanos l'evyonim is showing that we have to give a gift, and he'll explain in a second what that gift is. We give a gift on Purim to our nefesh behamis and our guf. And as for the manos that we give to reihu, as for the gift that we give to our friend who's a little bit more of our equal, that's just one friend. That's the

12:23 Speaker 2 nefesh hachichlis, our intellectual soul. The Rebbe says, "What does that look like then? How do you give a gift to your nefesh behamis? How do you give a gift to your guf? And how do you give a gift to your nefesh hachichlis?" He says, "Heim heim sichas kaved kedushas ad maran hakolelim." These are the sichas of the Rebbes which include the following: sicha lamukim. In every sicha you have deep seichel, base. You have practical advice on how to live your life and feelings and how to have your feelings. And you have sipurei ma'agios u'maaseh apoel, and you have stories and customs about how to act practically. These are things that feed the body. They feed the animalistic soul. They feed the nefesh hachichlis. And, uh, the next line, I have to turn the page 'cause we have to see that line at the top. If it ever loads. Here we go. "Veashrei haish asher zach l'kayem mishloach manos u'matanos ka'ana l'rabim." Ashrei haish, happy is the person who is, merits to fulfill mishloach manos u'matanos l'evyonim in that way in public, meaning happy is the person who understands that in addition to the absolute halakhic obligation of giving shalach manos b'gashmiyus, and we already talked about the advantage of that. Shalach manos b'gashmiyus shows that I love my fellow Jew b'gashmiyus, and matanos l'evyonim b'gashmiyus shows that I've completely transcended my boundaries, and I've stepped outside of my neighborhood and my buddies. But in addition to that, there's an inyan of mishloach manos u'matanos l'evyonim

13:33 Speaker 2 b'ruchniyus, and that is sharing the Rebbe's Torah with people on Purim, which the Rebbe adds as a, as a ashey haish zerach lakayem. Happy is the person who merits to get the opportunity over the course of Purim not just to give shalach manos and not just to do matanos l'evyonim, but also to share the Rebbe's Torah with other people, thereby igniting their bodies, their souls, and their nefesh hachichlis.