תמים או שליח?

00:00 Speaker 1 This is Igris, and we have a letter today from Gimmel, Mar Chesvan. And this letter from Gimmel, Mar Chesvan actually made the rounds last week on, uh, on various-- I thought-- I think it was on anash.org, a version of it. I think I saw it in the weekly Chabad newsletter. And, uh, actually, I already had it in our list of things we were going to do. It's right here in our year. It's Gimmel Chesvan. I'm guessing, my guess is the reason why this letter made the rounds now is because people are opening Tuv Shin Lamed Dalet to find connections to the Yom Kippur War, and they stumbled across this letter. That's my guess. Because the letter is not a new letter. It's been published for, for many years. It was in Mikdash Melech before this, but it's, uh, making the rounds now, and it is fantastic. It's very, very special. It's a letter to Reb Mendel Futerfas. Um, I'm sure there are a lot of those, but I don't think there are a lot of those in Igris. I don't think a lot of them ended up published. Uh, so this is a relatively rare letter to Reb Mendel. When I say relatively rare, I'm sure there are tens of them, but I haven't seen one yet in our entire-- the entire last volume we did, we didn't see a single one. So we have a letter to Reb Mendel, and there's a backstory to this letter. The backstory is that Reb Mendel had come

00:55 Speaker 1 to, to seven-seventy. Reb Mendel was in seven-seventy, and, uh, he was at the time a mashpia in Kfar Chabad. So he was visiting the Rebbe over Tishrei. He's visiting there for the year Tuv Shin Lamed Dalet, and he went to some bachurim. He went over to some bachurim who were learning in seven-seventy who were from Eretz Yisrael. So he talks to some Israeli bachurim. Can you imagine such a thing, Israeli bachurim in seven-seventy? He found some Israeli bachurim in seven-seventy in Tishrei Tuv Shin Lamed Dalet, and he told them, "It'd be great if you would stop learning in seven-seventy right now and come back to Eretz Yisrael with me after Tishrei because I need some help with the yeshiva. I think that if you come, you can sort of be..." Talmidi shluchim was a thing then, but it wasn't as firmly established as, as it is nowadays. Nowadays, they like put out lists every year of which talmidi shluchim go to which places. At the time, it was a more rare arrangement, uh, to have shluchim go from one place to another. There had been, of course, the very famous group that went to Kfar Chabad to strengthen after the terrorist attack years earlier. There was a group that went to Melbourne, a group that went to South Africa ten years later, give or take. So there were groups going, but it wasn't as established a practice. But Reb Mendel felt for whatever reason that Kfar Chabad could use some strengthening, possibly because it was

01:54 Speaker 1 the middle or shortly after the Yom Kippur War. Uh, but in any event, Reb Mendel felt that the yeshivas in Eretz Yisrael could use some strengthening. So he went to some bachurim who were Israelis who were learning in seven-seventy and said, "Why don't you come back with me?" The bachurim said, uh, "We'd rather stay by the Rebbe. We don't really want-- We, we don't wanna come back. We're excited to be here by the Rebbe." But they, they said that they would come under one condition. They made a tanai. They made a condition with Reb Mendel. They said that they want the Rebbe to make them formally shluchim. If the Rebbe makes them shluchim to return with him to Eretz Yisrael, they'd be very happy to come. But if they're not coming as shluchim, they would rather stay by the Rebbe. So they make a deal with Reb Mendel. Reb Mendel, uh, goes to the Rebbe and says, "I found some boys who can help strengthen the yeshiva. I wanna bring them back, but they have a condition. The condition is that you have to make them your shluchim." The Rebbe gives a very harsh response to this. Uh, and the thing that is strange about this that I have to introduce you to because it's a question that I think hangs over the entire year is why the Rebbe responds so strongly to this, given that there certainly was before this and after this letter a concept of shluchim, a concept of talmidi shluchim. There's

02:52 Speaker 1 such a concept exists. It existed by the Rebbe. I checked in sichas. The Rebbe does use the word shluchim. He used the word shluchim in letters to describe students from Temim Chederim who he's sending to learn in other places. These boys were not coming up with something completely new. The Rebbe was at the time, at least sometimes, sending bachurim who were learning in yeshiva to go be shluchim k'viachol, not literal shluchim. They were supposed to be learning over there but be shluchim, bachurim shluchim, talmidi shluchim in those other yeshivas and using the lashon. But here in our letter, the Rebbe is very upset about this lashon, and I simply do not know why. I have some suggestions, but I, I really don't have an answer. So we're gonna talk about this after. In any event, we're gonna read the letter. In the letter, the Rebbe is matzaya into a sicha. We're gonna look at the sicha, and then we're gonna talk. That's our plan for today. Here's the letter that, uh, came in response to Reb Mendel's request that the Rebbe deputize talmidi shluchim to strengthen his yeshiva. The Rebbe writes, "Ki shetalmid temim chederim bimalei harai samei mashpia sheleichim beforush besichas kav haDush zad menish mesaden." When a student in Temim Chederim fulfills the, uh, guides, the teachings of his mashpia as is explicit in a sicha from the Rebbe Rashab, "Haribchalki yitzbei leishayach inin shlichus leklal," there is no such thing as shlichus by him. He has no shaychus to shlichus. If he's

03:56 Speaker 1 fulfilling the harai of his mashpia, there is no reason why he should be a shliach. "Uiman afshach," because it is a man afshach. A man afshach is best translated as you lose either way. It's a man afshach. "Imu talmid temim chederim kedatsan admar ein azaku l'shlichus." If he is a true student of Temim Chederim in the-- according to the will of the Rebbe Rashab, he is not fit for shlichus. And if, chas v'shalom, he is not kedatsan, chas v'shalom, ein haKatsan. Let's say he's not such a good bachur. "V'eilu ein latzein nishama sh-shama lavs m'shlichusashan k'meisi." Then they're not people who I want to say shlichusashan k'meisi. I'm not willing to send them as my shluchim and say that they're just like me. So basically, if you're a good enough student to be a shliach, then you're not qualified to be a shliach. And if you're a bad enough student to qualify for a shliach, you're not good enough to be a shliach. So the Rebbe says there's no such concept as a good bachur in Temim Chederim also being a shliach. Now, as I said, a little shocking. A little shocking given that the Rebbe did choose bachurim in Temim Chederim, good bachurim, and send them on shlichus at various times, initially to Kfar Chabad and later on to, to Morocco, to, uh, to, uh, to Melbourne, to, um, to South Africa. I mean, I have a whole list here of the places that the Rebbe sent bachurim shluchim.

05:00 Speaker 2 Venezuela.

05:02 Speaker 1 Then, right, tons of places. And the Rebbe sent them specifically and called them shluchim. After they came back from Kfar Chabad, he held a huge farbrengen where he said that, uh, until Tuesday the following week, they would still be called his shluchim. Um, he-- the Freidiker Rebbe sent shluchim. I, I don't, I don't understand, uh, the-- I don't understand that level of this letter, and it's open for discussion. What I do wanna go into before we discuss that aspe- that aspect of it is, is this, that the Rebbe's matzaya into k'meforush besichas kav haDush zad menish mesaden. He says this principle of a, of a student, of a, of a talmid being somebody who always fulfills the will of his mashpia is meforush in a sicha from the Rebbe Rashab. Now, I went on Eitz HaChochma. I searched. I couldn't find the sicha. And, uh, so I turned-- I-- so I got help. I got help. I reached out to a bunch of mashpiyim. I reached out to, like, twelve of them, and one of them responded. I will tell you, uh, M-Rab-Rabbi Seligson. Rabbi Seligson responded to me. He knew exactly where it was immediately because he is absolutely an encyclopedia of Chassidus. He told me the page. He told me the page number. He knew what that it took him three seconds. He goes, "Of course, it's here in Tarshish." So I do have the sicha for us to look at. We'll look at the sicha that the Rebbe's talking about here. And

06:02 Speaker 1 it actually-- the sicha has some real interesting side points in it that I think make the shiur worthwhile, even if we don't figure out the muskana, because there are some really interesting detours the Rebbe Rashab takes in this sicha. Let me just make this a little bigger. It doesn't seem to wanna get bigger. Oh, no, now I made it too big. Two seconds, technical difficulties. Okay. Why is it moving so slowly? Sorry. Okay, I have here. This is a and, uh, it was on and it's in . He says down here that, uh, the concerns of trying to fit in with the world and make the world work for you are not concerns that Tumim have. And maybe that's the beginning of part of our answer to what the Rebbe is saying, is that part of a sh- part of what a Shliach does is they engage with the world and try to make the world bend to their will and to, uh, and to wo- you know, work within, I don't know, what we would call . They're involved in the nitty-gritty, and that's just not . Maybe that's part of what the Rebbe is saying. But in any event, he says this, then he says, When it comes to , when it comes to Tumim, we don't tell-- we don't deal with such difficulties. Here's the harsh part. So he said there are some people for this reason, and then the Rebbe Rashab puts his fingers up and motions like he's cutting his

07:20 Speaker 1 beard off. He doesn't say they're those who cut their beards for this, but he says they make like this. They cut their beards. And they claim this is the will of God. You know, I, I grew up in such an environment. Uh, at, uh, at, at Yeshiva University, at least there was a rule that you had to shave Erev Shabbat. It was done, it was done obviously not during Sefirah, but it was done to make yourself look nice. You had to look nice. You had to trim your beard. Because they think that they're doing this according to it is certain that they are mistaken. This next one, look, take it or leave it, guys. I know that I'm hitting a lot of people in the room, but once again, this is the Rebbe Rashab, not me. Take it up with him. This also applies to rolling the beard up under. saying that that's for God. He's fooling himself. Such a thing is against godliness. Okay. After those words, he started leaving. The Rebbe Rashab began to leave. And then he said, The two things I've mentioned, folding up the beard, rolling up the beard, and cutting it, This has nothing to do with and it is very distant from the This isn't the way to talk to Tumim. This is the way to talk to Baal Batim. I shouldn't be talking to Tumim about this 'cause it has nothing to do with you. The point of is entirely different from such things. Why am I

08:36 Speaker 1 having this conversation with you? So the Rebbe Rashab at that point turns around, comes back, and sits down again. And he smiles. And he says the following. "I wanna speak just with the Tumim." All the Tumim come and surround him. And after a, a considerable silence, the Rebbe Rashab begins to talk. He says, So now the Rebbe Rashab is alone with the Tumim. He wants to talk to them about things that matter to them 'cause he doesn't wanna talk about beards and things. That's for the Baal Batim. He wants to talk to the Tumim. He says, If we wanna understand anything going on down here, we really need to think deeply about what is going on . You can tell this is very much a related talk. He's not talking of-- Now he's talking but telling them that if you ever wanna understand you gotta know the . He says there's two levels in life. So then he goes on to explain that there's the and he clarifies the point. I'm just gonna read this outside so we can keep moving. He clarifies the point that a lot of people think that the is the light and that the is the but he says that's not really the case. The is complete darkness. It's not really, uh-- It doesn't have any light in it at all. It certainly is not a The ultimate is actually a different kind of light, that there's two kinds of . There's an and an . Anyway, he doesn't get

09:43 Speaker 1 to finish his idea. At this point, the Rebbe Rashab stopped feeling well. He was sickly. He didn't feel well. At some point, I think they brought him some cold water, maybe is that what this is saying? I'm not sure. In any event, he wasn't feeling well, and he ended up having to go home. But then after he wrote out what he wanted to say to these students. And part of that was that they need to submit themselves to the and to and that is what follows. What follows is actually, um, a very reliable source. This is from the Rebbe Rashab's about what he wants people to do regarding . And we're gonna skip the beginning, even though the Rebbe Rashab would not appreciate that because he specifically said that we need to understand the in order to get to the . But we, in our fashion, are gonna jump right through the and scroll down to where the, uh, the, the Rebbe Rashab says the . But I copied it over for you, and if you are indeed a Tumim, you should probably read the as well. In any event, we're gonna go right to the . The is down here. Says, "In addition to everything I just told you," which was a long Kabbalistic explanation of and how two can work, What you really need to know is not so much how a works. You need to know how a works. So he says, "I'm gonna explain to you how a works," and this

10:59 Speaker 1 is not terribly, uh, . He's gonna explain in, uh, in what a Kabbalah is, what a is. If you wanna know what it means to receive, to be a it means you give yourself over completely. That's complete complete surrender. When he receives, when a receives a certain, uh, worthwhile message, uh, a concrete message, he's going to at least need to use his brain in order to record, in order to understand and internalize the message. So you can't say, "I'm turning off my brain." You won't understand your . But if you-- when you're listening to the talk, you need to, you need to, uh, use your brain at the very least to understand what he's saying. But at that point, after you understand what he says, turn off the sense of self. In other words, That is, in other words, the person who is the should be using his mind only to understand the material. Without adding on with any of his own understanding. By the way, this is not just a relationship. Anybody who has, uh, anybody who's ever listened to a or listened to somebody else talking and done it effectively knows that this is necessary. A complaint you have in the secular world is that there are certain people, many people, who the whole time you're talking, they're trying to think of their response and what they're going to add on to what you're talking. He's saying here, what is a brain of a for? A brain is to understand the information coming

12:19 Speaker 1 in, not to begin putting frills on it. Putting frills on it is only for much later after you've had time to sit over the information. This is the best way to receive information. Also, I recall hearing from, uh, people who were, um- From various of the Rebbe, that this was the only way to absorb anything the Rebbe was saying, that if they o-- they tried to insert their own thoughts, it didn't work. They had to sort of sit and make their minds blank and use their brains to understand the Rebbe, but not to think too deeply about what he was saying, or they simply couldn't contain all the information that he was putting out. So this is certainly good advice in general for receiving any information. It's true, over time, once you've collected that information, you might go over it again, you might get a deeper understanding of it. But this will first of all need to be based on the original words of the Mashpia, can't be a complete Chiddush. And only after it's had time to cook, it's had time to develop inside your mind. But before that, but before that, there needs to be complete surrender, complete surrender when it comes to understanding the concept, to, uh, fully absorb it and to understand it. Only then can he put his own spin on it and become an OHR-MAY-EHR, a source of light himself. When it comes to our generation, our most of our neshamas are considered . We don't have a lot

13:28 Speaker 1 of Mashpia-dik neshamas nowadays. Even in the earlier generations, there weren't a whole lot of them. Sorry, it's freezing while I'm scrolling up to the next column. There we go. I think I went way too high up 'cause this doesn't seem right. Yep. I don't know, it keeps freezing on me. There we go. That makes more sense. That is, there weren't a lot of people who were-- even in the previous generations, there were not a lot of people who were at the status of the OHR-MASHPIYAH. There is such a situation where a Mekabel will receive incredible help from on high and become a Mashpia. There's like a Gemara that says that even the, even the guy who's not too bright, not too impressive, who's in charge of the people who dig wells, even that person is appointed by God. That is, that every leader is appointed by God, even the leaders over relatively silly little things. So ultimately, even very small people can become Mashpiyim, and that will only happen when God makes them Mashpiyim. Uh, this is speaking to me specifically, I'm sure to other people too, but I-- this one sure hits me right in the gut. He says, "Therefore, there are a lot of students who think or claim that, uh, they don't really get much out of listening to a Shiur. They prefer to learn on their own." I was just like this in yeshiva. I didn't-- I, I went to Shiur, but I didn't appreciate it. I preferred to learn on

14:55 Speaker 1 my own. It's poss-- it's, it's true that they are not enjoying learning by themselves. They're not satisfied by it. And in fact, going to a Shiur and hearing from a Mashpia bothers them. So they found a result-- they found a solution, which is learning on their own. But now, however, uh, because, uh, since they don't know, they don't understand for the following reasons, possibly 'cause they love themselves, possibly 'cause they're 'cause they're very coarse, and possibly because they are looking for a relaxing way of doing things. They're looking for the easy way out. They don't really, they don't really understand. Because of these reasons, they don't really understand or don't really seek out the real reason why they don't enjoy listening to a Mashpia. What's the real reason they don't enjoy listening to a Mashpia? They haven't found the real reason. says, "Here's the reason why they really don't enjoy listening to the Mashpia." They don't have a s-- they don't have enough surrender. They simply are bad Mekabel. That is, that if a person is always trying to put their own spin on the information they have incoming, they're gonna miss the incoming information. If they're gonna miss the incoming information, they're not gonna enjoy the incoming information. If a person has these and they turn themselves into a blank slate to listen to what somebody else is saying, they will enjoy listening to what other people are saying, especially when it's somebody who knows more than them, somebody who's Mashpia. And, uh, if

16:08 Speaker 1 they're a good Mekabel, they're gonna enjoy the experience. Why do some people not enjoy the experience of being a Mekabel? 'Cause they're not a good Mekabel. If he was good at it, he'd like it. And therefore, there's less satisfaction because he's not doing his job right. Since the Mekabel is not a Mekabel, the Mashpia is not a Mashpia, and he's not doing his job right. If he would give himself over completely during the time that he's receiving from his Mashpia, as explained earlier, he would not only be satisfied, he would be getting from it. He would really enjoy the experience. Any Mekabel who's-- What he's saying here is that any good Mekabel who's doing the Mekabel job right will enjoy a Hashpa. If it's not enjoyable, it's because we're not good Mekabel. I think this is probably very, very broadly reaching. This certainly applies to listening to the Rebbe talk. This probably also applies to reading what the Rebbe says, to learning something like Part of the reason why some people simply don't enjoy learning Torah, I think, is because they're thinking too much or they're thinking, they're thinking in the wrong way. I, uh, I've definitely learned with people, um, I've definitely been in Shiurim with people, they're the most annoying people in Shiurim, who the entire time that somebody's teaching them, they keep on saying, "Well, how does that work with this, and how does that work with that?" And the truth is, they're not having fun. They're not having fun. The reason

17:12 Speaker 1 why they're not having fun is 'cause they're missing these so they're not getting they're not getting they don't stick with such things. Somebody who really enjoys this, what they're doing is when they're listening, they're blank. Um, actually, I took this to such an extreme at some points in my life that, uh, that I didn't have relationships with teachers. I always had the policy that I listened and didn't talk, and therefore, most of them didn't know me. But the truth is, this is the best way to receive information. If you really wanna absorb something, you gotta keep your brain on just enough to understand, but otherwise, turn it off. Otherwise, it just doesn't work. That's what he's saying here. And so this per-- these people who decided that because they're bad Mekabelim, that they shouldn't be Mekabel, they're now learning on their own, and they're messing everything up. And eventually, if they keep on doing this, they're not gonna be fixable. It is much harder to fix a broken Kli than it is to make a new Kli. So if they keep on doing this, they're gonna break their, they're gonna break their sense of a Mekabel. They're not gonna be good at being a Mekabel. They're gonna break their personal Kli kaviachol, and it's gonna be very hard to fix. They might cause permanent damage to their absorption of information by not, uh, by, by disregarding the rules of absorbing information. You will not very quickly get to the level where you are able to

18:19 Speaker 1 succeed in learning on your own. Therefore, there has to be incredible effort put into understanding the things that you're receiving. Also be very careful not to add in your own ideas. This doesn't mean don't make chidushim. This means don't make chidushim while you're listening to someone else talk. When the Mekabel does properly understand the things and they, they, they imbue his soul, shake his soul, at some point, he will hopefully rise to the level where he can indeed learn on his own, and he can be at Mar Meir himself. He can be a Mashpia b'koach atme on his own efforts. So according to Rabbi Seligson, it certainly does match. This is what the Rebbe's talking about here when he says that when a Talmid of Temchei Temim is fulfilling the Horaz of his Mashpia, he has his masos and bittel to his Mashpia. There's no room for his masos and bittel to anybody else in any other cause. He's completely given over. So there's no room for Shlichas. I wonder, and this is a total guess, if the Rebbe's saying that since this initiative came from the students, it shows that they're not necessarily in the right place, right? Because the, if the story goes, the students came to Rabbi Mendel and said, "We're only gonna listen to you, our Mashpia, if the Rebbe tells us that we're Shlichim." Uh, the Rebbe's saying here, "Why don't you look in Torah Shalom? You're not a Mekabel if you're not listening to your Mashpia without, with, with

19:27 Speaker 1 complete dismasos. You put your own ideas in this, making your own idea, inventing a Shlichas. That's not the way that a Talmid acts." So I'm wondering if maybe what he's saying in this letter is that a Talmid cannot be the initiator of a Shlichas because that proves he's not a Talmid and therefore not fit to be a Shliah, whereas the Rebbe can send a Talmid as a Shliah because the Rebbe has control over all of the Chassidim. I don't know, um, but I will note right before we end, and then I'll open the floor, that I was looking in the Sefer Ha'Teretz HaShlichas, and I was looking in the back. They have a list of letters the Rebbe wrote to se- when he was sending out Talmidi Mashaluchim. And I'm noticing that in a lot of these letters, the Rebbe sort of emphasizes that the role of Talmidi Mashaluchim is not to be Shlichim, but to just be Talmidim somewhere else. He says this very clearly in a couple places. He says here, this is one that was sent to the Temchei Temim in Kfar Chabad, that we're going from Kfar Chabad to Migdal Emek, my yeshiva, to Migdal Emek. is as happy as the portion of the students who are going from Kfar Chabad to Migdal Emek. They should go there with a chayis and with strength, as we spoke about. And it should be fulfilled through them that God will open up the eyes of them and their students. So what's the, what's

20:31 Speaker 1 the Shlichas here? The Shlichas is, "I want you to go learn there and hopefully open up other people's eyes through your learning." There's another one that was sent in and that's the last one I'm gonna tell you. I didn't get a chance to put it on the screen. I'm sorry. Uh, he responded, "We're not gonna send students to you right now," to somebody who wanted them. Uh, and in the future, if we do send Talmidi HaShlichim to you, if we do eventually send people to you, says the Rebbe, it will be people who will be there, it will be going there to learn and will act with Yirei Shamayim, will fulfill all the Horaz of your own Halah. So don't expect to get Shlichim. I'm just gonna give you good Bachrim. So it's possible that, uh, a second possibility or maybe sort of a dual possibility, in addition to the first guess that Talmidim simply don't suggest their own Shlichim 'cause there's this masos, it also seems to me that the Shlichas that the Rebbe gives to Ta- to Talmidi HaShlichim is very specific. I mean, you might call it Shlichas, but formally what it is, it's taking good Bachrim and having them do the Temchei Temim thing in a different Temchei Temim, which, uh, would not really be a Sira to this letter. Okay, that's it. Please offer suggestions.

21:34 Speaker 3 Yeah, I definitely agree with you that, um, I think the point is initiation, meaning the Rebbe's like, "I need you here, so go there, then you become a Shliah." If you're like, "No, I, I don't wanna go there," but 'cause Mash- first of all, the disregard for the Mashpia, I mean, the Mashpia's saying, "I think you should be here," and you're disregarding him, such a person can't be a Shliah. I think that's what the Rebbe's saying. Shlichas, yeah, can't be initiated by the, by the, by the, by the sendee. And again, it's, it's, it's almost just a status thing, not a, not, not a-- Shlichas means given over to the cause, whereas if a person wants a title Shliah, then he's not given over to the cause, he's given over to the title.