קיום מצוות יחד

00:00 It is page one hundred and seventy-two, in Igris, we're by Nisan, which is a little bit ahead, but, you know, we'll circle back at some point. fifty years ago, the Rebbe writes to somebody who has recently helped put out some volumes of the on the Parsha, uh, organized by Parshat HaShavua. I don't think it says anywhere here who he wrote to. One of the people involved in organizing them. the Rebbe says, on time and with pleasure, I received the volumes of the that you've published, and the Rebbe's happy. I hope that these things accomplish what they're supposed to. Um, appropriate or in line with what say the point is doing things. What's the point about the ? The are not supposed to be academic. I'm hoping that by the fact that you're printing them and people read them, that people are going to do more mitzvahs, that there'll be a and mitzvahs and in, uh, mitzvahs . So the Rebbe says, "I'm very glad you printed it. I hope it has its effect." The, the Rebbe is not just trying to print words here, he's trying to change people in a positive way. It's, uh, certainly, um, it's certainly extra, it's certainly unnecessary for me to go into length. I certainly don't have to tell you people who are involved in organizing the how important-- how, how much the , how much action is the most important thing, and how, uh, there's an incredible merit that comes to people who do actions specifically regarding Torah

01:37 and Torah and mitzvahs, how important Torah and mitzvahs and promoting them are. I don't have to tell you, he says. And also what is well known is the following . And this is the part of the letter that we're gonna spend some time on. We have here the . Uh, I certainly have heard a couple of the uh, there are a lot. This is one of them that is a slight twist that I haven't seen before done exactly this way. I'm gonna show you a few of them today, but this is the one that I've mentioned in the letter. He says, "Certainly people know ." Uh, for background, this is, uh, this is in Bava Metzia. It's a Mishnah. Says two people are both holding a tallis. One person s-- each one says, "It's entirely mine. I found it. It's entirely mine." And so the Halakha is that each one has to take an oath. Each one takes a shewua that they, uh, that they-- that it's theirs, and then they split the tallis in half. That's the din of in the tallis. So tallis who wear . The tallis represents the , the all-encompassing light of God, who and this is the good, the this is the spark that's found in the physical world. Why is the the spark that's found in the physical world? That's the, uh, that, that, that's the divine spark because wouldn't be comfortable in something that is, uh, that is, uh, a, um... Well, you can tell, you can

02:53 tell what kind of a, you can tell what kind of a porter my had. Uh, only is capable of going into and making uh, and requires a fitting . So you can only have a proper vessel for a light, uh, you can only have a proper vessel for a light that is fit for that vessel, and so there is no vessel in the physical world that can hold divine light. There is no proper vessel. There is no proper for the of God in this world. So the only thing that can fit in this world is our the . is what powers because our doesn't, uh, i-isn't actually present all the way down here very much, uh, only in very select places. In generally speaking, we're powered by the thing that doesn't care whether you're high or low. so this divine spark comes from . It comes from this level of . then two people come, and they do a . They are-- They do a . They, uh, they fix this . They winnow it out. And it is-- it was formerly trapped in . these people doing the mitzvah. So these two people did it together. They're a team. Two people did a mitzvah together, and they redeem it from-- they redeem this divine spark from its exile. And also the thing itself is now saved. So they've redeemed the spark and also the item. So I don't know. Two people decide that they're going to give Tzedakah together. Now, in the action of

04:18 giving Tzedakah, they've taken coins that could have been used for anything, and they have liberated the divine spark in those coins. They also have fixed the coins. The coins themselves, in addition to having now a liberated divine spark, have been used for a proper purpose. So they're also It's not really a physical coin anymore. There's something special about it. Because this coin, this is the example I'm using, was used to fulfill God's intent in creating the entire world. It's not just that the spark gets saved, also the item gets saved. So these two people, they worked together, and they have saved a piece of physicality and a piece of spirituality. They've saved a divine spark, and they've also saved something physical. These two they then come these two they then come to the next world. These people die after a hundred and twenty years, and they go to Shamayim. and they're both holding this . They're both holding the It means, uh, it's the same word as parsha. It's the divine curtain, the curtain of the king, the dress of the king. They're holding this . I have to turn the page. Next. They're holding the in the next world. Loading the next page. Here we go. This is the spark which was in which as we said earlier needs to be in our because our doesn't really fit into 'cause the cl- kelim are not good enough. So these people, they fixed the-- they fixed this coin, and now they hold the they hold

05:49 the Spark this tallis, this makif, and they say to God, "I found it." And each one says that they were responsible for it because indeed they did the mitzvah together. These two people are both holding the tallis. This one says, "I found it. I'm the one who liberated this divine spark." And he with his was able to fix that spark. And the other one says, "Nah, I found it." He worked very hard to make sure that this Each one claims that the entire credit belongs to me. From here we have a . Here we learn and the is eventually they end up splitting it, so we see that everybody gets their just reward. I will note that in the middle of this the Rebbe-- the Rebbe's quoting directly from, uh, from . He's quoting directly from the . I found, I found the original. So he's quoting directly. The, the, the narrative changes in the middle, you might have noticed. Originally, we were talking about two people who are holding onto a mitzvah and each saying that they did it, and in the middle here he says that, uh, it sounds like it wasn't exactly two people doing the mitzvah together, it was that each of them are claiming a different role in the mitzvah. One is claiming that he liberated the divine spark, and the other one's claiming that he fixed the . And the Rebbe's twist here, which is really the twist 'cause this is a direct quote, is that both claims

07:16 are considered valid and both people get their rewards, which is not necessarily how we see this in other places. So this is one of the unique parts of this letter and, uh, and this particular take on that the role of fixing physicality and the role of liberating spirituality from physicality are both considered equal partners in the process of, um, in the process of doing . Anyway, just like the of these days 'cause it's for the Rebbe, although we're a couple of weeks behind. You should have a decision to be done the way of freedom from all things that can confuse you. Certainly, there's no one free except for someone who is keeping So that's the Rebbe's letter. This, um-- See, told you, disconnected me. It's fine, I have notes. This discussion sent me off looking for more and stuff, and especially the I did a search on it just to see how many times the talks about the and it's in almost every year of his there's at least one where the gets into this and he does it a little differently every time. I wanted to show you a few examples so you can get a broader scope of how far takes This one up here is from It is from the from and he does things a little bit differently here. He says, at the second line. They teach this in . They teach-- In heaven, there's also a, uh, there's a heavenly-based Midrash. And in the heavenly-based Midrash, the they teach the

08:49 of this world. Why do they teach our ? What are they doing above ? And the answer is, it's to them at their own level. So here's how they teach it in heaven, if you've ever been curious how it's taught in . The way they teach it in is the tallis is We talked about this. Very similar to our letter. These are the sparks that fell by Two people. This is This is much more the traditional . So I said in the last letter, in the letter that we saw, it looks like each one's claiming a different part of the mitzvah. In this one, the says they're each claiming they did the mitzvah together. They simply worked together to do a mitzvah. Uh, this is especially-- I mean, I, I was thinking we're just coming out of Purim. The way works, everybody donates to causes together. This is very much something that we just came out of. We, uh-- It's collaborative. Purim is collaborative in nature. When two souls are one they both worked on that one spark. See? He uses the examples. They did a mitzvah together, or they redeemed a captive together, or they did tzedakah together. Or maybe they affected another person. They were both involved in helping somebody get closer to Yiddishkeit. Each side claims that they're the ones responsible for it after a hundred and twenty years. They took that spark from Klipa. And each one says, "It's entirely to my credit." The other says, "No, I did it all

10:14 by myself." He says that's the . So what we get out of this that I think adds a little bit on top of what we had from the letter is that we have a couple examples, collaborative tzedakah projects where everybody donates together toward a cause, like tzedakah or a simple mitzvah done together, or multiple people have an effect on an individual and help them get closer to These are all valid cases of . Note that we do not yet in any of these, the letter, the and also in the I'm about to show you in a second, have a on what the is, which is What does that look like? Each one gets half of the Unclear. I'm gonna tell you the answer at the end. Just teaser. Okay. This is also a from the . This is from the And in this he does it in a totally different direction. Really cool. This one he focuses not so much on two people doing a mitzvah together, but on two people making a baal teshuvah. Now, that was hinted to in the previous where he said that they can make somebody feel a little stronger about and mitzvahs, but here the hits the theme of saving a soul and calling the soul the person who was saved, this, uh, this baal teshuvah, calling him the divine spark that they each claim 'cause everybody also has a divine spark in them, that the tallis that they're holding is the baal teshuvah they made. Look at this

11:25 here. So once again, he starts with this introduction in the heavenly-based Midrash. They learn this differently. Okay. Okay. I'm at the second paragraph. They have a question. Both of them when they were down here. They took a sinner, and they made him frum. They made somebody frum. These are two people who both changed someone's life. Was entirely because of their that they strengthened him. They took a and now he keeps Shabbos. And that wasn't because of the effect of one person. Two people worked on taking this and making him a This is a strange one. I feel like the is calling someone out, but I don't know who. Or for example, there was a a teacher. He used to be teaching at a school that he sins and makes other people sin. He used to be teaching at a school where they teach subjects that take people far away from Yiddishkeit. And he taught little children, Jewish children, to not keep to leave the religion. He said, "And let's say two people then coming over to this melamed, this melamed that's an evil melamed who's taking Jewish children and ruining their faith, and they convince him to be a baal teshuva. He does teshuva, and he becomes a melamed at a , a proper yeshiva, And he goes from someone who is a sinner who caused others to sin, and he becomes a meritorious person who gives merits to other people." Doesn't that sound oddly specific? I feel like he's talking about someone. Anyway, in

12:59 any of these cases, So what happens after a hundred and twenty? All three of these souls ascend to heaven. The the two people who made the baal teshuva and the baal teshuva they're all up there. And the two people who inspired him, they come to and they're both holding him. He's the talis. He has They changed the sinner who was making other people sin and made him better. One claims, "I made him a baal teshuva," and the second one, "And I get all this zechus." And the other one says, "I made him a baal teshuva, I get all this zechus." So this is more of a, uh, a shlichus kind of discussion where you have multiple shluchim who have an effect on one person. And, uh, obviously that was hinted to in but it's really spelled out in this ma'amar here. Um, in the Neshingus-- Where's my other screenshot? I think it's over here. Maybe. There it is. Maybe. That's what I want. Yes. So in the Neshingus, we have an entire drush from the Rebbe on Sheini Moksin. It's like thirty pages long. They printed it as an individual book. I haven't read all of it, but I've read pieces of it. And the Rebbe does the entire sugya Al Pi Chassidus. And of c-course, and while doing that sugya Al Pi Chassidus, he addresses our nekuda, which is the actual Sheini Moksin. That's a long sugya. The Rebbe does the whole thing the way it's taught in the heavenly Beis Midrash. But, uh,

14:15 I wanted to look into this inyun to see the Rebbe's twist. He does things a little bit differently here too. So this is the Rebbe's take on Sheini Moksin b'Talis, which is an evolution, I think, of the other things that we've seen up here. This is just a, a line that, that, uh, that does a slightly different twist. See, this is very different. So here, this is the ca-- We have Yis, we have Yisroel Silverstein here today. So Yisroel, your students, one day they're gonna grow up and do a lot of mitzvahs. And after a hundred and twenty or, you know, whatever, a student could come and make the claim that you don't get any credit for their mitzvahs because you taught them Torah, but they of their own volition did Torah and mitzvahs. Whereas you have an equally good claim, a melamed has a claim. What do you mean? This guy would have ended up, you know, mugging people on the streets if I hadn't helped straighten him out. So here the machlikis is not between two people who each claim that they did a mitzvah or two people who each claim they affected another person. This is now between the person and his melamed, that a person and his melamed after a hundred and twenty years come up and say, "Hey." The melamed says, "I made you." And he goes back, "I was fine." And the two of them are trying to argue over who gets the merit for his mitzvahs. In that

15:20 case, the Rebbe elaborates here, Everybody has this in their lives because every person is affected by other people. So literally every human who's ever lived has a claim of Sheini Moksin against those who affected them. In a lot of cases, Very frequently, we do mit-- we do mitzvahs or learn Torah because somebody else inspires us. This happens all the time. Everybody's inspired by somebody, and we all kind of owe our mitzvahs to each other. So every time some-- after a hundred and twenty, like the claim that comes for everybody in the Beis Din Shel Ma'alah, everybody claims it. Everybody says, "I did this myself," and everybody else has a legitimate claim to how they helped them. That's the interconnectedness of a community, is that it's a cla-- it's a c-constant state of Sheini Moksins. This is not a rare shailah. This is a shailah that happens in everybody-- at the end of everybody's life, is how much credit is mine, how much credit is the people who influenced me? Now, what we've noticed, um, just to conclude, what we've noticed up until now throughout all of these ma'amarim and letters and this kuntres in the Neshingus, is that we, we don't have an answer for how the din works. The din is that they each have to take an oath, and they split the talis down the middle. In the Neshingus on Sheini Moksin, the Rebbe explains what that looks like, why each of them is taking a shvua, and why eventually the din is

16:31 . What they go-- they d-- So what he says a shvua is that we have to make sure. A shvua shows seriousness. That's what a shvua's job is. You take an oath, that shows that you're telling the truth. We don't assume people will give-- what people will, what people will, uh, make false oaths. We assume that they would rather lose money than make a false oath in many cases, which is why we have shvuas in the Torah. So the melamed comes before Beis Din Shel Ma'alah, and they say to the melamed, "What'd you do?" And the melamed goes, "I, I contributed all of this. This, this, this boy, this girl, whatever, this person would not have been successful had it not been for my adrach." Or this inspiring person says, "These people, they wouldn't have done Torah and mitzvahs if I hadn't inspired them." This rav says, "I, I lifted up my congregation." They get-- They, they each make the claim. And then the Beis Din says, the Beis Din Shel Ma'alah says to them, "Okay, I want you to take a shvua. I-- The shvua is I want you to show us exactly what you did, and we wanna decide whether you did a good job or not. We wanna see when you gave this person tochacha, when you told this person he was and threw coleslaw at his face, was it effective? Was it done in a way of love, or was it done in a way that actually turned him off more

17:29 and it's a miracle that he got anything done? Were you a melamed who, uh, inspired him, or do you only think you were a melamed who inspired him and in fact the things you were doing turned him off and it's a miracle that he became frum despite you, right? Is the, is the merit because of you or in spite of you?" That's the shvua half for the melamed. If the melamed can-- If they can legitimately show that the melamed can take a shvua, that his methods were effective methods, not ineffective methods, that this rabbi giving the drushas was effective, not putting people to sleep or making them angrier, that this guy who threw coleslaw at someone else's face during a farbrengen changed his life, didn't just cover him in coleslaw, then that's a shvua, and he's now entitled to at least half the talis. Then they turn to the other guy, and they say to the other guy, "Can you show me that despite the fact that this one clearly inspired you, that this was coming from you and that this wasn't just somebody else playing you like a puppet? That this wasn't you being inspired and this had nothing to do with you, but that deep down you really wanted to do this also, that you were also self-motivated and that sure, somebody in your life kicked things off, but that you were also somebody who in your, in your heart was doing the work as well. That you needed maybe somebody to get

18:29 you started, but you also tended your own flame. That you weren't entirely riding on someone else to inspire you." And if that person can also take that shvua in a way of absolute certainty, then the din is that they both get the zechus equally down the middle, if they can both demonstrate that they, that they gave entirely. This is the way the Rebbe describes it in, in Sheini Moksin in the Neshingus.