כיצד כותבים לרבי?

00:03 Okay. Okay, this is the Igros here. We are again going back fifty years. Right now, moved forward in time a little bit. We're back into Adar. I'm jumping all over the place. As I said in the last shiur, what we're doing now is fi-- is filling in all the gaps of the stuff, the great letters we didn't get to cover leading up to Nissan. And when the Shmini Shevet hits, we're gonna get back on regular schedule doing Nissan letters. So this one is taken from Chaf Adar Rishon of Tav Shin Lamed Gimel from fifty years ago. That's the one that I want. Yeah, this one in the middle. Yud Tav Shin Gimel. And here the Rebbe gives advice on how to write letters, which makes this automatically a pretty meta shiur 'cause we're gonna read a Rebbe letter about how to write a letter for a Rebbe letter. Um, and he does this all over the place. The Rebbe has a lot of hadracha on writing letters. This is not a shiur that is going to survey all of the Rebbe's hadracha. We're gonna look into this particular piece of advice, and then I, I pulled up some other ones that I thought were a little bit similar. One that isn't similar at all, that just tickled me so much I had to mention it, and hopefully this will become one of our mini-series where we do multiple shiurim on how the Rebbe wants us to write letters to him. Uh, so let's start with

01:03 this one. Yud Tav Shin Gimel. It is Chaf Adar Rishon Tav Shin Lamed Gimel, and the Rebbe says, , which as Peretz pointed out to us a while ago, is how the Rebbe always addresses women, and I found it to be true. So, uh, cool. The, the trend holds. The Rebbe says, . Actually, it's my hard, but that's okay. I'm sorry. I would like to set it-- the record straight that this was Sruli Saharon, not Peretz's. Peretz can stay in this meeting as long as we have Sruli to tell us that it's is for women. The Rebbe says, "I've received your letter," and also the pan. And I'm gonna read it by the aisle of the Frieda Rebbe with all of the Frieda Rebbe's, um, honorifics after his name. Regarding the question that you asked, this is of course the meat of the letter for us. is self-understood. When you're writing to me, I want you to continue writing in the way, in the style, et cetera. your own style. Don't write in other people's styles. Don't write in other people's words. You write to me the way that you write, your . We don't know exactly what the means. It means your style, et cetera. But whatever your style is of writing, however you've been doing it up until now, I'd like you to continue doing things your way. Don't borrow other people's ways of doing things when writing to me. There we go. God should give you a-- And, uh, God should make

02:34 it s-- make you successful so that all of the content of what you write to me will, going forward, always be good for all of the days of your life. The Rebbe's signature. So what do we have here? We have the Rebbe telling a woman that-- who thinks maybe she should be writing in a different style, maybe adopting the style of some of the mashpiyim around her. I don't-- Obviously, we don't know the context. Well, it's up for guesswork. But certainly, there's a temptation to try to fit a certain mode or fit a certain model, mold when it comes to writing to the Rebbe. You want things to sound a certain way, to keep certain traditions. I don't know. Um, I don't know exactly what the question was, but I can tell from the answer, the Rebbe wants us to write the way that we write, to write to him using our own personality and, uh, and using our own words, and probably using our own language, and, uh, using our own handwriting if possible, or our own typing style. Whatever it is, the Rebbe doesn't want us to borrow stuff from other people when it comes to writing to him. I, I can think of a bunch of reasons why this might be the case. We obviously don't know why, but there are reasons that show up in other letters that are somewhat similar that might point us to what the Rebbe's talking about. Um, one possible reason is that the Rebbe always reads

03:33 between the lines in letters, and he writes in several letters that he is reading between the lines, that he's looking into the style, noticing from the style of the way that the writer wrote. He's noticing things that they didn't say. And the Rebbe points this out frequently in letters. I have one example here on the screen, although it's very tiny, so let me make it a little bigger. This is a letter from volume twenty-one, kaf alef. If you look down here at note vav, trying to make it even bigger if I can because it's so tiny on the screen. Down here in note vav, the Rebbe says, here I'm highlighting it, "I was very happy from what I read between the lines of your letter. It was obvious to me based on the way that you wrote it," the Rebbe says. "Based on your style of writing was obvious to me that also people like you and you seem to be successful also in how other people are treating you and how you're treating other people." The guy never wrote this to the Rebbe. The Rebbe figured it out based on the things that he was writing. And the Rebbe points this out. I, I, I searched the word "ben ashitim" a couple times throughout the Rebbe's letters, and I found it all over the place. I just pulled one example. The, the Rebbe likes to point out to people that he's read between the lines of their letters. And of course, if you're writing

04:35 in someone else's style and being very careful what you say and how you say it, that might not be as implied. So the one reason the Rebbe's giving this hadracha might be that he wants to be able to read what's not read, because if you can't-- you can't read what's not read if somebody else is doing the writing for you. There is a yechidas that I found. It's in his kashrus, volume five-sixteen. It's a yechidas from Lamed Dalet where somebody came to the Rebbe trying to pass along a message from one of their relatives to the Rebbe. They were going into yechidas. This relative wasn't. So they tried to relay the content of the-- of this asker's question. And the Rebbe said, "You don't relay somebody else's information in yechidas. This guy's gotta come in personally or write to me personally. I need a letter from him." And apparently, according to the way that this yechidas is recorded, the individual who the Rebbe said this to looked a little crestfallen, like the, "I don't understand. Why can't I just relay a message? He told me, I'm telling you." And the Rebbe then explained a little bit further, and his explanation was that when a person writes something down in their own words, they don't leave as much out as when they're telling another person. When you're relaying things to another person, you always leave things out because you're always worried about what the other person thinks. Of course, people are worried about the Rebbe-- what

05:35 the Rebbe thinks. They're more careful about how they write, but not as careful as when they're telling someone to tell the Rebbe. That's two layers of careful. So another reason the Rebbe might want, might want us to write in our own words is because we don't hide as much. We write the truth when we write in our own words. Uh, we may even reveal some truths to ourselves as we're writing things down. Which brings me to a third possible conclusion. Third possible conclusion is something that come-- Maybe one of you can fill in the gap 'cause I don't remember the details of this story, but it's, uh, one of Yossi Paltiel's favorite stories. He tells it all the time. There was some chasid came to some Rebbe. Don't remember the people, but it's one of our Rebbeim. And, uh, he'd written an avera that he did on a note, and he handed the note to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe looked at it and asked him to-- asked him, "What did you do?" And the Hasid doesn't read-- He said, "It's, it's, it's on the paper. What I did is on the paper." The Rebbe goes, "No, I, I-- What, what, what did you do?" "It's written there." "Say what you did." And the Hasid said what he did and fainted. And that was the beginning of the teshuva for the avera that he did. You don't really feel the-- You don't really feel a lot of things until you've, uh, until you've committed them

06:33 to words. Now, in this case, this person had written it down and hadn't spoken it. But I think by extension, it's the case that when you don't write something down, you don't fully feel it until you've put it into writing or spoken. So it's possible that, uh, that you don't really feel the message of what you're saying until you write it down. These are all guesses. We don't know why the Rebbe wants us to write in our own style. What we do know for sure is that the Rebbe does want us to write in our own style. Uh, so I went looking for other hadracha that reminded me of this hadracha in other letters, and along the way, I found something that has nothing to do with anything. It has nothing to do with what we're talking about, but I couldn't resist. Let me show you something that is a cool hadracha about letter-writing that isn't about this. I'm gonna just move this away. Take a look at this one. Maybe you've seen this before. I feel like I saw it somewhere, but it's, it's rattling in the back of my head. You know the Rebbe always wants us to write him good news, right? Not just the, not just the bad news and the challenges. He wants good news. Have you ever seen this reason before? Look at this reason. The Rebbe says, "Kvar kasavti la'achadim meha'anash," already written to some people in Anash. "Shehim hayu mesansim et," they would just work really hard.

07:25 "Mesach azman mesadagalim," they would make themselves a rou-- make it a routine. "Lechtavev mechtavim b'soros tevah," so they, they, they would make a routine out of writing good news to me in letters. All right. "Betach," it would be for sure. "She'izman lizman hayu petimim samach kam ha'inyanim meshunim shemesavim hehm uksivas mechtav." It would exempt them over time from bad things happening to them that would cause them to have to write me a letter. Why? "Ki areh ein yitanam yedeya al mah." We don't know the reasons for things. "Ve'ashri kal inyan hu bishvil sheshnei Yahudim yevarech bikish re'u pam." Maybe God's just trying to make two Jews connect again. So what's the Rebbe saying here? The Rebbe's saying that sometimes if some-- if, uh, if we don't write to the Rebbe, sometimes God will send us a challenge that forces us to write to the Rebbe because we haven't spoken, we haven't, we haven't made that connection often enough. And if we make that connection often enough, there'll be no reason to force us to write. So if we get into the habit of writing to the Rebbe when good things happen and God wants us to connect to the Rebbe, he'll make a good thing happen so that we'll write. If we only write when bad things happen and Hashem wants us to connect to the Rebbe, what's God's choice? God's choice is to send us a bad thing because it's the only time we write. It's a, it's a strong point. Uh, I had

08:25 never seen this before. So another piece of hadracha, write good news, uh, for more than one-- more than the traditional reason. Also write good news because it might be that it will get you out of bad news. Maybe bad news won't happen to you if you keep on writing good news. Going back to more regular stuff, though, uh, a point that the Rebbe makes all the time that is sort of aldereth, the idea of writing in your own style, is the Rebbe wants people to write regularly and to send details because when they write regularly and send details, they're inspired to do their work better. The reason why I think this is connected to what we're talking about in our letter is because it's at least my best guess that the reason why the Rebbe wants a person to write in their own style is also for that reason. Because when you write in your own style, the ideas come out more thoroughly, and you also feel more accountable to yourself. You feel what you're writing. So, uh, aldereth. We know for sure this, what I'm about to say, this is not a guess, this is for sure. We know from these letters why the Rebbe wants us to write regularly and send details. It's to inspire us to do more. I have a couple examples here. They're handily highlighted. The Rebbe says, "I've received your letter, Opella. Shemesach kazman lahem meno kam mechtavim." It's a, Opella, it's a shock that I haven't heard from

09:26 you. I haven't gotten a lot of letters from you lately. "Ha'yedu psak tera sen ha'kedesha," you know the psak of our tera. "Shekol yom v'yom tzadik liya zeh v'ta v'ta." You have to work every single day because "She'ydim shetzdreich lemidi'a lemi aldereth leh." If you know that you have to tell somebody about the work you're doing, if you know you have to clock in and clock out and report what you've been doing, "Mei ziv merets lekayach la'agdalah sapulasa aldereth meimar azal," this will make you do more work based on the Meimar azal, "Il haye yedea Reuven fulu." Based on the Meimar azal about Reuven not knowing stuff. We'll get to it. "Vargam mechtav izeke zeh b'kitzur nimrat," and also you write very briefly, and the Rebbe says in many other letters that the brief writing and the not writing, these are ways of not having accountability. When a person knows they're going to have to report to the Rebbe regularly, it makes them do their job better. Um, anybody know offhand what this, uh, what "Ilu haye yedea Reuven" is? It's, uh, it's one of my favorite Midrash. "Ilu haye yedea Reuven" is a Midrash in Ruth that says that if Reuven had known that he'd be written into the Torah, Reuven didn't know he was gonna be a character in the Torah. Nobody knows that. Sruli right now doesn't know that they're writing a Torah where he's a main character, and they're gonna be writing all the details. That's what they used to tell

10:25 us in yeshiva. They used to quote this Midrash and tell us, "You know, you never know. There could be, there could one day be a book of Yechiel. You'd better shape up, and we don't, we don't want to say he did mostly rotten stuff all his life," you know? Everybody in the, uh, everybody in Tanakh, there's like, uh, for all the kings, there's like one sentence about whether they were more or less good or bad. Can you imagine your life being summed up like that? That's a Mosher Shmuel, it's not a Negun Hashir. But anyway, uh, there's a Midrash Ruth that says that if Reuven had known that he was going to be written into the Torah, he'd have carried Yosef on his shoulders, not just tried to save him from the pit. He'd have done things way over the top if he knew he'd be written down, but he didn't know. That same Midrash says that what would Aaron have done if he knew that he would be written in the Torah when Moshe came to meet him before liberating the Jews from Mitzrayim? Aaron would have greeted Moshe with musical instruments if he just-- if he'd known that he was gonna be written about. Boaz, that's why it's in Midrash Ruth. He would have given Ruth these fat calves instead of roasted grain. He'd have given her a steak. He wouldn't have given her, you know, oatmeal. Um, so the Rashba actually uses this, um, and people who are familiar with my Tzedakah

11:18 share 'cause we have some of those people here. Um, the Rashba uses this to prove that you're not allowed to give-- that you shouldn't give charity anonymously. You shouldn't give Tzedakah anonymously. 'Cause we see from here that even the great Tzadikim would have given more had it not been anonymous. So he's-- see that when you don't make-- When you don't give anonymously, you're forced to give more. The Rebbe's using this proof in this letter. He's saying, "Ilu haye yedea Reuven," uh, the same way that when somebody knows that they're going to be written about or that they're going to have to do some writing, that, uh, that they're going to do more work. So two, a person who knows they have to write to the Rebbe is going to be better at what they do. So another reason to write-- a reason to write to the Rebbe regularly and with details is because this forces us to do better. There's another letter very similar to this over here, just put slightly differently. "U'lvadam isasa k'tivah yasher," certainly, you're doing all your hard work. "Lepeleh," the Rebbe says at the end of the first line. "Sheein medi'ah klal mefullas kmehelus," I'm shocked you're not telling me more about the stuff you're doing. "Ha'yom muachaseh asher asah dedat sneh alechas." We see clearly that when people are humble about what they've done, and in this case, don't write to me, maybe "l'matah lesapulas," we see the people stop doing their good work. When people don't, when people

12:18 don't show off a little bit, they stop doing things. Even if you're going to tell me, "Im titzlemesh shetevi hibaved es habem laatzmi," even though, even if you're gonna tell me that it makes you a better Jew if you're a little bit more humble, uh, if by doing that , You put that on the other side of the and he's saying that even if you're gonna tell me that you might be a better person if you're not bragging, if that makes you not do your hafats as well, then who's really losing out? The entire world so that you can be a tzadik, not worth it. So, uh, the Rebbe wants regular reports of, uh, even if those reports sound a little braggy when you're putting them in your own words. And when you write to the Rebbe, you should tell him all of the amazing things that you've been up to. Uh, this final letter that I wanna show you strikes me very close to home, should strike all of us very close to home because the Rebbe says the same thing he said in the last two letters here, but he says something that is to us in our generation. He says, I don't really need to know what's going on. The context of the letter is that the Rebbe already knew everything this guy was doing. The reports had already been sent in. The Rebbe knew, and this was not an act of informing. So the Rebbe goes, "I, I don't need to

13:21 be told. I know what's happening." The point is the doing. I don't need to be told. So why are you writing? Nonetheless, I know the nature of people. When they know initially that they're going to have to inform other people of the stuff they've done, this inspires them to do things with greater energy and more enthusiasm, and more strength. And then he goes on and says the rest of the thing. But also he says it also is an But this first line up here-- So right now when we write to the Rebbe, I don't think anybody has any guess that if they don't write to the Rebbe, the Rebbe's not gonna know what they're up to. The Rebbe knows what we're up to, especially now in a post Gimmel Tammuz world. The Rebbe knows what everybody's up to, absolutely. And yet, nonetheless, there's a value to writing. So people-- I think some people feel a little silly writing to the Rebbe about the stuff that they've done when at this point the Rebbe very much knows. There might have been a point where you could have made a claim prior to Gimmel Tammuz that you have to inform the Rebbe . I don't even think you did then, but there was at least a feeling like that, that you're writing to somebody who doesn't know. Right now, the Rebbe's completely aware, so what's the point in informing him of the details? Just ask for the big things. Talk more like you're not dealing with a,

14:27 a person and more like you're dealing with a, you know, idea. And the Rebbe's saying here that even then, before Gimmel Tammuz, he goes, "I don't need to know the details, and I'm not telling you to write because I need your reports. I'm telling you to write because you need to write. I'm telling you to write because you won't be-- If you're not accountable, you're not gonna do your job as well." So that is-- that's a universal message. That message should, uh, that message should be just as binding even now. Uh, so I hope that this inspires us to do exactly that. We have an oil trip this, uh, mitzvah Shabbos, as we do once a month. Many opportunities to write to the Rebbe regularly, and especially under this last letter's terms. Uh, the point isn't necessarily the Rebbe doesn't know. The point is that even though the Rebbe knows, we have to keep on writing.