השלמה: אמונה ברבי

00:00 Hello, this is a version of Igress. In our most recent episode of the Igress podcast, we discussed whether it is okay to quote, believe in a Rebbe. We looked at a letter in which the Rebbe strongly condemns those who trust in him to deliver a miracle. He's a person of flesh and blood. He's not Hashem. Hashem is the source of all blessings. He derides this idea very strongly. We then looked at a very famous sicha in which the Rebbe makes a similar case against staring at him during davening. Why are you looking at flesh and blood, the Rebbe asks, and not thinking about Hashem? It's a halakhic problem. The Rebbe explains that you may not need to daven min hateirah, but since you did choose to daven, thinking of anything else, even a very holy man, is completely forbidden. And since you can't keep two thoughts in your mind at the same time, when you look at the Rebbe during davening, you're doing a sin because obviously you're thinking about him and not about Hashem. We, based on this idea, asked how to reconcile all of these things that the Rebbe is telling us with other sources that describe a Rebbe as a much more spiritual thing, not as flesh and blood, as very definitively holy, very definitively godly. Uh, we saw some sichas that say that it's very hard to imagine calling a Rebbe flesh and blood. We looked at a very famous sicha, a very controversial sicha, in which the Rebbe describes a

01:05 Rebbe as being essentially div-- es-es-essential divinity. Divinity in essence. Atzmus V'mehus, uh, melubush b'guf. Although we did note at the time that we can't find the term melubush b'guf anywhere in the sichas, ayin sham. Uh, finally, we saw a farbrengen from Reb Mendel Futerfas, who was, uh, arguably the greatest modern interpreter of the Rebbe's approach to everything in Chassidus. And we saw that Reb Mendel explained that the difference between these two ideas, on one hand, recognizing that the Rebbe is flesh and blood and cannot be confused, God forbid, with Hashem, and also venerating a Rebbe as being something special that is higher than flesh and blood. We saw Mendel Futerfas sort of reconcile this and explain that the difference is in how one views a Rebbe. If you see a Rebbe as flesh and blood, you see a Rebbe as just a very special person, then he has no place in your prayers, and trusting him is ridiculous. We trust in Hashem and nobody else. But if you see a Rebbe as a literal piece of godliness, as a literal part of the spiritual self, the spiritual sense, the spiritual world, then these issues do not arise. That was more or less the prior shiur. The, the fact is that this subtle point from Reb Mendel is prime farbrengen material. This sort of thing is something that Chassidim traditionally discuss and debate and internalize after hours and hours and hours of concerted work, and it does not fit neatly into the model of our brief

02:17 Igress shiur. Nor is it really the right topic for a podcast where I speak to you and you, the listener, listens and can't easily ask clarifying questions. Because of that, many of our regular listeners have reached out asking for a more thorough discussion of this subject and some clarification. I'm doing that right now. That's what this is. Uh, so that's why I say it's kind of Igress. And I'll begin that discussion by saying that it's a subject so subtle and so central to Chassidus that it really should be discussed in person with a mashpia. Uh, and nonetheless, we're going to try to do this on a podcast again, uh, which might be, might be adding, might be adding one mistake to another mistake. But I think that, uh, we at least need to make an attempt to clarify. So the shiur today is a, uh, is a clarification of the prior shiur, where we explain an approach in how to understand Reb Mendel more formally, uh, more thoroughly. Uh, what follows is one clarifying approach. Can I use my mouth to talk to Hashem? Can I use my mouth to talk to God? And then the answer is, of course, yes, I do it all the time. That's how I pray. This is a hashkafic problem. This is a philosophical problem that I can use my mouth to talk to Hashem, because I am not my mouth. If God forbid I didn't have a mouth, I would still be me. So my mouth is part

03:27 of me, but it's not me. I'm not my mouth. So my mouth is an intermediary that I use to talk to Hashem. And why am I allowed to use an intermediary that is separate from me to connect to Hashem? Intermediaries are forbidden. We call it shituf. If I use any intermediary, if I use my mouth, I use a Rebbe, I use l'havdil an idol or the sun, uh, to talk to God, I would violate shituf, which is a form of idolatry. So why am I allowed to use my mouth to talk to Hashem? And the answer is that there are really two kinds of intermediates. There is an intermediate that divides and an intermediate that connects. We call them memutza mechaber and a memutza mafsik. An intermediary that divides, I think a good example of this is that I tell Reuven to tell Shimon something. I want information to get to Shimon. I don't want to talk to Shimon personally, so I talk to Reuven, his buddy, and I tell Reuven, "You go tell Shimon." That's a memutza mafsik. That's an intermediary that is dividing. The line, the thing that is separating me from Shimon is Reuven. There's also a memutza mechaber, a kind of intermediary that connects two things. For example, if I pick up a telephone to call Shimon personally. Now the telephone is a memutza, it's an intermediary. I'm not talking to Shimon face to face, but at the same time, my intermediary here, its job is not to separate between me

04:30 and Shimon. That's Reuven's job. The job of the phone is to connect me to Shimon. So sometimes something gets in the way of my direct relationship with something in a way that connects, and sometimes in a way that disconnects. The subtle difference between whether I'm employing a memutza hamafsik, a memutza mechaber, one that divides or one that connects, comes down to whether I'm using a means to create a degree of separation or because I'm using that means because it simply is the most efficient way to make that connection. Am I trying to create a degree of separation, or am I trying to increase the efficiency of my call? Now, if, if I ask a Rebbe to talk to God for me or give me God's blessings, uh, and I put the Rebbe in that place, in that Reuven slot between me and Hashem, I'm not gonna go to God. I'm gonna ask the Rebbe for blessings. I'm gonna ask the Rebbe to chat with God on my behalf and make my case. That's a forbidden intermediary. That's a memutza mafsik. I need to go to God personally, myself, and I don't need any intermediary. A Jew does not need to go to a tzadik and ask the tzadik to chat to God on their behalf. A Jew at any time and in any place can talk to God directly. There is another approach, though. If I understand the entire Jewish people to exist as one spiritual body, of which I'm a limb, in my case

05:37 like a toenail, maybe a big toenail, I don't know, a toenail, a toe near the bottom. I'm a minor limb on the Jewish body that is the com-- that comprises every single soul of every single Jew alive, uh, every single Jew at all times, and the Rebbe is the head of that body. Then when I go to the Rebbe and ask for a bracha in that mode, I'm not asking the Rebbe to get me a bracha from Hashem. I'm simply using the part of our collective body that talks to do the talking. I'm using the mouth to pray. I'm using the head to do the talking. And that's not because I'm employing an intermediary that's getting in the way of my relationship. It's because once I've united with the entire spiritual body of the Jewish people, I am praying with my lips and not, I'm not gonna be praying with my toes. I'm using a telephone to make a direct call. I am connecting to Hashem using the best means of connection, which is the best thing that I have at my, at my disposal. I have my hands to hold a siddur. I have my lips to daven. I have my Rebbe for brachos. And it's because that's part of me, not a separate thing from me. It's one of the, one of the tools that I use, the same way I use my mouth, the same way I use my hands, the same way I use my feet. I use my Rebbe, that

06:38 I'm part of that spiritual body, and therefore I connect in that direction. That would be a memutza hamechaber, a connecting intermediary, and that would not be forbidden at all. As a matter of fact, that's a very good idea. What I believe Reb Mendel was getting at is this very point. The rebbe is upset that people are using him as an intermediary, uh, as an intermediary that separates, as a motza masik, as a degree of separation. They're thinking of him during davening, or they're thinking of him when they request for, when they request blessings, and they're not thinking of Hashem. If you can get yourself into mamotza mechaber mindset, where a rebbe is not an intermediary, but part of the same spiritual body as me, then he's not flesh and blood. He's just, he's me. He's part of my, my neshamah and his neshamah are united, and we are talking to Hashem together. I think this is what Reb Mendel means. Reb Mendel means, I think, that if you can't do this, if you can't look at the rebbe during davening, uh, and think of yourself, the rebbe, and all Yidden as being one neshamah that is talking to Hashem collectively in the best way possible, then you shouldn't be looking at the rebbe during davening. I think this probably applies to writing to the rebbe at the oil as well and asking for a bracha when you're at the oil. If you're asking the rebbe to chat with God on your behalf and get you

07:45 some blessings, that's, that's problematic hashkafically, that is for sure. If you're approaching the oil, however, as a place where you connect to the rest of your spiritual self and as a united spiritual force, including the head and the mouth, which is the rebbe, and including the feet and the arms and all of the other limbs, which is the whole Jewish people, and together you are crying out to Hashem, then there's no hashkafic issue with writing to the rebbe because the foot's talking to the head and packaging things for export to God. This is one version of the approach, and again, it's a very subtle difference. This subtle difference lies at the heart of Hasidus, and it actually lies at the heart of Yiddishkeit itself. Uh, we say every single day in davening, "Veyamino Bashem Avimeisha Avdei," that at the sea, when we saw the sea split, the Yidden believed in God, and they also believed in Moshe, his servant, both. "Veyamino Bashem Avimeisha Avdei," the Yidden believed in God, and they believed in Moshe. How exactly veneration of a tzadik, which is a fundamental concept of authentic Judaism, works vis-a-vis our utter devotion to one God without any intermediaries is complex and exciting, but it's a topic, it's a subject, and it's not one that, uh, in any podcast we'll be able to get into in any real depth besides what we've done right now, I think. I, I do hope, however, that this brief discussion does what I intended it to do, which is

08:54 to offer one approach explained clearly and succinctly and very quickly, and, uh, one that opens the door for other deeper approaches to be fabrenged about in person. In any event, as always, thank you all very much, and the next Igrot Hasheer is coming right up.