ספרים לחיילי צה״ל

00:01 This is Ygress, and we are coming on the heel, on the heels of Hey Teves. And because of that, I wanted to do a letter that is timely because this letter was from almost exactly fifty years ago, Tes Zion Teves of Teshrin Lamed Dalet, but also a letter that has to do with Sefarim, and specifically Sefarim as they will be sent to soldiers who are fighting in Eretz Yisrael. This is timely across several fronts. We have soldiers. We have books heading to them. Uh, sp-some, some members of our community have been specifically involved in that. We have Hey Teves, which is the celebration of the books. It's all around the right time for this letter. In this letter, we're gonna read it together, of course, the Rebbe is going to say that it is his bakashat nafshis. I want you to notice the word when you see it. He d-- very infrequently uses that phrase. A, uh, a, a soul-level request that people ensure that soldiers have access to Sefarim, that soldiers have access to holy books, that they can learn, tefillin, and, uh, and a, and a tzedakah pushka. We're going to see that this is actually a earlier initiative the Rebbe had started several years earlier, but one that really kicked in, in Teshrin Lamed Dalet, which is the year of the mitzvah Bayis Malei Sefarim. So the Rebbe introduces Bayis Malei Sefarim, the mitzvah of having a house full of books in the year Teshrin Lamed Dalet. Fun fact about Teshrin Lamed

01:04 Dalet that's gonna make this year a lot of fun for us is the Rebbe introduced almost all of the mitzvot in the year Teshrin Lamed Dalet. The major mitzvot almost all came out exactly fifty years ago now, so, uh, we're gonna be going through them. This is our first installment in Bayis Malei Sefarim, uh, and this is specifically about the soldiers. The letter is from the year Teshrin Lamed Dalet, and it is to, uh, somebody, Rav Pauli or Rav Mordechai Shechia. I, I don't know who it's to. It's, uh, Mordechai Piron, who was Rosh Tzvai-- Rav Tzvai Rashi. This is the chief rabbi of the military at the time. Anybody know him, who he was? Piron, Piron? And the reason why I ask is that sometimes they become rather famous. Um, some of the biggest rabbanim in Israel started off as, uh, as chief rabbi of the army. So, uh, I guess I, I don't recognize his name. But in any event, okay. Oh, there's a note down here I hadn't noticed before. We have to look at it later. Okay, here's the letter. "Shalom u'bracha. " That first line more or less means that, "I've received the-- I've received notice that you handed over what I wanted you to hand over, that you related the information I wanted you to relate, and, uh, I hear that since you-- that, uh, all of my various requests have been forwarded to their proper locations." says the Rebbe. "It should be God's will. That should be-- That

02:27 it should be, uh, God's desire in the hands of the Rabbi Yitzchak that you should succeed in," he's giving a beracha, "that you should succeed in spreading Torah and mitzvot has been spreading Torah and mitzvot among the soldiers, the Israeli soldiers. In a way that comes to action," this is always the Rebbe's emphasis, not just that the soldiers learn Torah, but that they should act, um, in a-- that they should act with, act with more Torah and mitzvot. They should fulfill mitzvot, and by doing one mitzvah, this will lead to another mitzvah. The Rebbe continues. "We see specifically now is the perfect time." This is a time like no other right now to be having these effects. He's writing to the chief rabbi of the military and telling him now in a time of war, remember, this is during the Yom Kippur War, this is shortly after, but the soldiers are still fairly active. Right after the Yom Kippur War was the time in particular for those who have religious influence over the soldiers to be exercising that influence. In the of Chazal, when a when there's a small inspiration from on high, this can inspire many, many more drops that will come to meet it from below. That there's been a little bit of help from Hashem, and now there can be a enormous response down here. Uh, we had miracles during the Yom Kippur where they're a little bit inspired, and only a little bit of inspiration is necessary to really excite people

03:48 about Yiddishkeit. So now is the time to talk to the soldiers more than ever before. Here's the part. We need . Certainly the Rav knows, the Rav who's the head of the, the, the chief rabbi of the, uh, military in Is-in Israel. Certainly you're aware of my bakashi-- bakashasi nafshis, my, my personal soul-level request. that every unit of Tahal-- I'm translating yechida poorly, I'm sure. I don't know how units work. Um, uh, does anybody know the difference between yechida and the other ones? Is that a very small unit, a large unit? I, I don't know. But in every yechida of Tahal, whatever that means, some sort of unit, base, maybe it could be a base. There should be available publicly. There should be publicly available that anybody can use, supplied by the congregation, supplied by everybody, the following. I wanna make sure all of these are in all of the bases. There should be, says the Rebbe, a pair of tefillin that anybody can use. they can daven out of. There should be a Tanakh and specifically a Sefer Tehillim, which is of course in of Tanakh. So if you have a Tanakh, you have a Tehillim, but if you can't get a Tanakh, at the very least a Tehillim. And at least one Sefer of Torah Shebeal Peh. Ideally, more would be great, but at least one Sefer of Torah Shebeal Peh. That could be a Gemara, that could be Mishnayot. I also want a tzedakah pushke, says the Rebbe. So the Rebbe calls

05:01 this a bakashat nafshis that every single army base, every single yechida, every single, um, battalion, platoon, I again don't know what a yechida is. What's important for us is that soldiers should have access to Sefarim. This is very important to the Rebbe at the level of bakashat nafshis. is understood and most important. I want this publicized to all of the various army divisions. Uh, when s- when they do this, you will certainly see fulfilled the mitzvot that have to do with tefillin, the sukka that have to do with tefillin, that they will see the tefillin and then they will remember. They'll see the tzitzit and they'll remember. When they get involved in these things, they'll remember God. And in a lot of cases, remembering brings them to action. So we're hoping they'll see the books, they'll remember what's in the books, and they'll ultimately, ultimately begin acting in a way that the books tell them to act. Certainly, uh, regarding you, a Rav and a chief rabbi of the military, there is, uh, and there is no need to go into-- there is no need to go into depth on this topic. That would be excessive. You know what I'm talking about, says the Rebbe. The Rebbe gives a beracha with honor and with blessing for incredible success and good news. And then he puts a PS that he's going to mention by the Tz add everything that was written to him, and the Rebbe gives him a berakhah that he should hear good news

06:19 in a, in a air, in an environment of peace and tranquility. So we have here the Rebbe asking as a bekashah nafshis, at a very deep level, the Rebbe saying that it's very, very important to him that all soldiers have access to Jewish books. And just by having access to the Jewish books, they'll see the books, they'll remember what's in the books, and they'll come to act accordingly. Now, this request from the Rebbe that soldiers should have access to Sefarim actually goes way back to before Tishrei lamed dalet. I found this in a Derech article. It's a great Derech article. By the way, Derech is great in general. If you don't get it, you should consider it. This is on page twenty-two, but I wanna just scroll up so I don't lose it and show you what article it is. This is a enormous article they put out, um, in Tishrei of peh beis. They put out an article just between the Rebbe and the IDF, fourteen pages of, uh, of things. A lot of these things were not published before. Very interesting, the Rebbe and the IDF. So in there, on page twenty-two of this, there is a, uh, there's a-- one of these sort of my story things. This has been published before by Jem. And in there, this is a yechidus from the year Tes Zayins. This is what? This is, uh, this is si-sixty-six-- fifty-six. Fifty-six. Tes Zayin. This would be fifty-six, nineteen fifty-six. This is twenty years before the letter

07:26 that we just read, give or take. And this person, Rabbi Aron Eichen Bas Balge, who was the-- on the board of directors of Palei Agudas Yisroel for twenty-five years, he brought a bunch of high-ranking soldiers to the Rebbe for a yechidus. He brought a, uh, a major in the Israeli army, uh, tall, uniformed people. Um, it's all on your screen if you wanna read it in English, but I'm just skimming so we can get to the part I need. The Rebbe began focusing primarily on the IDF major about life in the IDF for what seemed to me like more than two hours. So it sounds like the Rebbe in this yechidut, a bunch of important people walked into the room, the Rebbe zeroes in on the major in the IDF and talks to him for about two hours about things going on in the IDF. Um, and the, uh-- he says the Rebbe began to focus on the major. He questioned about life in the IDF. I think that's got printed twice. It did. Okay. The Rebbe said to the major, "Soldiers have a spare time. What do they read?" This is the part we need. The Rebbe says to the major, "The soldiers have spare time. What do they read?" The major answered that there's a kiosk on every base where newspapers and magazines are available practically for free, so they can read newspapers and magazines. Think the Rebbe's gonna be happy with that? He will not. The Rebbe says, "Are there any religious

08:25 newspapers available?" The Rebbe wanted to know. It turned out that Hatzofer was the only one. I don't know much about Hatzofer, but it is not a safer. "What about religious books?" the Rebbe pressed on. You wanna know about the Sefarim. When he heard they were not available, he said, "They must be made available. Maybe you can make it happen," and then he switched topics. So already, this is twenty years before our letter, the Rebbe's saying very strong words about the need for books on these bases, saying he must make it available. Can you make it happen? I'm not sure it did happen. But twenty years later, the Rebbe really starts pushing him. We have a sicha from chaf kislev of taf shin lamed dalet. That's our year, chaf kislev fifty years ago. Near the end of that sicha, the Rebbe sort of introduces Bayis Maaleh Sefarim, but he does it in a roundabout way, and in that roundabout way, specifically says how much he wants to make sure that all the soldiers have their books. Now remember, our letter was written only about a month after this sicha, and our letter has a lot of the same words and ideas and feelings of the sicha. So this sicha is definitely the basis of this letter. In this sicha, the Rebbe told everybody, uh, I, I love-- You're gonna love the words here. You're gonna love the word usage. Uh, we should, uh-- When it comes to the Neturei Karta, now we in popular culture, unfortunately

09:28 know Neturei Karta as, uh, as something other than the way it's being described here. Uh, no need to go into details in this year. But Neturei Karta is an old phrase. It comes from a Gemara where I, where I can't remember who, but one of the Amoraim, he walks around the town, he asks, "Does anybody know who the defenders of the city are? Bring me to the defenders of the city." And they bring guards who are involved in weapons and guarding with, uh, by brawn rather than brains. And they keep on saying, "No, no, no, show me the real defenders of the city." And it turns out the real defenders of the city are the Torah scholars. The Rebbe uses this phrase, Neturei Karta, which traditionally means defenders of the city who are Torah scholars, and applies it to soldiers who defend the city with guns, which is a very intentional and very interesting twist in the sicha. But anyway, we should continue. When it comes to the defenders of the city, that is the people in the IDF, the Israeli soldiers, look at the lashon the Rebbe's using for Israeli soldiers. These are the shluchim of Klal Yisroel, the shluchim of the entire Jewish people. Shazaku who merited those who merited to defend the Jewish people with their bodies and with their spirits. I, I know that right now there's, there's news floating around that some Haredi Rabbis have said some negative things about soldiers. I really think it's important to emphasize how the

10:34 Rebbe talks about Israeli soldiers. He calls them Neturei Karta. He calls them the shluchim of the Jewish people. He calls them those who defend the Jewish people with their bodies and with their souls. This is, uh, this is unusual. Even nowadays, it's unusual, and then it was even more unusual. Not for the Rebbe, I'm saying in general. the Rebbe wants to make sure that they all have a menorah for Hanukkah. even in a base where there's only one soldier, he wants a menorah there. certainly in areas that have a lot of soldiers, lots of menorahs. actually just one menorah, but you know, lots of soldiers. a different person should light the menorah every night. so that more Yidden will get a chance to share in the merit. also when it comes to gelt, Hanukkah gelt, he wants to hand out Hanukkah gelt to all of the soldiers. I'm gonna skip down to here. I want in every base, I want there to be a tzedakah pushka. should either be on the table or attached to the wall. so that the chayalim, so that the soldiers can give tzedakah. some of the ma'oz Hanukkah. They can give some of the Hanukkah gelt as tzedakah. also, I want the soldiers to have more capabilities in Torah and tefilah. that they will have all three pillars upon which the world stand. The world stands on Torah, Avoda and Gemilus Chasadim. They've already done Gemilus Chasadim because they have a pushka, so the Rebbe also wants them to have

11:57 Torah and tefilah. First of all, the Rebbe wants them to have a siddur they can daven out of. He wants them to have Tehillim, which he says is actually also Torah because it's one of the twenty-four books of the Torah. It should be in a place that is revealed to everybody, that should not be locked up, hidden away. The soldiers should be able to very easily get these books. They should be ready and available for anybody who wants to use them. Sometimes a soldier shows up, he doesn't have his own siddur, and then he feels like he can't daven, so there should be publicly available siddurim in all the army bases. And we should know, we should be aware that the yesivos for this comes from them. The soldiers are asking for spiritual encouragement. And then he writes, and this is really where Bayis Maaleh Sefarim got introduced for the first time. There you go. When regarding every Jewish home, every Jewish home should have a tzedakah pushka, a siddur, and a tehillim. Those who are Chassidim, Chassidim Chabad, who follow the ways of the Alt Rebbe, they should also have at least a Sefer Chassidus, Tanya, Torah Oral, Likutey Torah, He says that those who follow the Alt Rebbe should also have Sifrei Chassidus. And then he goes on to say that the widows and the orphans of the soldiers who died in the war need to be helped specifically on Hanukkah and should be sent words of cover-- words of comfort and also

13:19 Hanukkah materials. And, uh, he goes on to say that, uh, this also applies to the injured soldiers, Okay. So we have here the Rebbe introducing only twen- only about ten days before our letter, the idea that he wants to make sure that every so- that every soldier has access to these sefarim. Now our letter makes a little bit more sense. The Rebbe is writing to the chief rabbi of the Israeli army saying that it is my bakashat hanafshut, and I've spoken about it before. Certainly, you heard me speak about it. When did you speak about it? In that sicha. Certainly, you heard that I spoke about this recently, that I specifically want to make sure that there is tefillin, a siddur, a Tanakh, at least Sefer Tehillim, uh, at least Sefer Tehillim, and, uh, maybe at least one Sefer of available along with a available to every soldier. There is actually another letter where the Rebbe says something very similar. I hope-- We do. We have time to read the whole thing. It's a beautiful letter to some-- to a, uh, to a high-ranking officer in the Israeli army that mentions how much the Rebbe cares about them all having sefarim, but also says a lot of other very nice things. So I think we'll have time to read this whole letter. This is also from our year, taf shin lamed daled. This is tes vav teveth taf shin lamed daled. This letter is labeled yud alef lamed he. I didn't mention before, but the

14:22 previous letter, I like to say the letter designators. The letter we started with is yud alef lamed tes. So we're looking at letters yud alef lamed he and yud alef lamed tes. This one, yud alef lamed he, from tes vav teveth taf shin lamed daled, has a similar theme. The Rebbe writes, "Shalom u'bracha." The Rebbe says, "I received your letter. I was happy to hear that you're involved in all sorts of positive effects, of positive things going on with Chabad and positive things going on in the military, and I hope to hear more about your important work." "You write about my time," says the Rebbe. I-- We don't have a footnote here, but we can assume from context that he wrote something like, "I'm sorry to bother the Rebbe. I'm sorry to take up so much of the Rebbe's time." And the Rebbe's response, a beautiful response. The Rebbe says, "What you write about my time," "I-- It should be God's will that I'm able to set aside my time for good news," "for things that are good and revealed good for everybody." "Certainly, I should merit to be able to spend my time helping out with the soldiers who are protecting the holy people in the holy land." Again, look at how the Rebbe talks about soldiers. The Rebbe says, "If I could choose how to spend my time, I ask for a bracha from Hashem that my time," says the Rebbe, "will be used." Not that I'll have more time to learn Torah,

15:42 not that I'll have more time to do mitzvahs. The Rebbe says, "I'm asking Hashem for a bracha that I will have more time, that will allow me to partic-- that, that, that I'll be able to," excuse me, "that I'll be able to have conversations, dialogue, interactions with those who were given the great merit of defending the Jewish land and the Jewish people." "Until the promise is fulfilled and with their help," "that I'll have the merit to spend time with these soldiers until the, uh, until the promise is fulfilled that God says He will give peace in the land and there will be no fear." "And ultimately, Mashiach will come, and there will be no sword passing over their lands." "Even a sword of peace." So the Rebbe says in this paragraph, "Regarding you wasting my time or using up my time, to the contrary, as long as we still have wars and this Mashiach has not yet come and there are soldiers who have merited to defend the holy land and the holy people with their bodies and with their souls," says the Rebbe, "I want God to make me more time so I can spend time with them. Those are the people I want to spend time with." "Since the person I'm writing to," says the Rebbe, "since you, this, uh, high-ranking officer in the military," "God decided that he was going to have a great area of responsibility in the military." He's gonna be the I don't know who that is. Is that

16:58 a commander or is that maybe a communicator? I have no idea. Anyway, he's high-ranking. Probably a communicator. Maybe he's the communications officer of the IDF. He's high-ranking. "You should merit to say peace to the entire people." "You should have the merit," says the Rebbe, "to always announce good things about, uh, to the, to the soldiers in all details." "And you should also have the merit to get to announce positive changes in the army in their spiritual status." "Because this will cause your enemies to run away and flee and be scared. If you have-- If you're greater spiritually, your enemies will be afraid of you." "Not just to enter into war, uh, but also to, uh, but also to seek out and to make actual peace." So the Rebbe in this paragraph says a bracha to the communications officer in the IDF, who I guess this was a communications officer, that he should have the merit to talk about peace, to talk about good things, to talk about a spiritual advancement in the military, and to keep in mind that spiritual advancement among the soldiers will bring them greater successes. The Rebbe is The Rebbe gives him a bra-- writes with honor and with blessing for success. Then there's a PS, and the PS is our section. But really, this first section is just so interesting. The way-- Again, the way the Rebbe talks about soldiers. Soldiers are not like a necessary evil that the Rebbe is willing to be nice to because we have to

18:18 deal with them. The Rebbe is saying, "I hope God clears my schedule to spend more time with you. I, I ho-- I-- You are the vehicles of peace, the vehicles of Mashiach coming and bringing peace." This is the way the Rebbe sees soldiers. Noon days, so we have a PS, and the PS is about our topic, and with that, we will conclude for today. Certainly, you know when it comes to strengthening the morale of the soul-- of the Jewish people in general and the soldiers in particular, it has been my request. Once again, he uses the bakashas nafshis lashon. It's not just been my request, it has been my soul-level request, my bakasha nafshis. That every single unit of the Israeli army should have available for public use a pair of tefillin, a siddur tefila, a siddur for davening out of, Tanakh, a Tanakh. That is Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim. Certainly, this should include a Sefer Tehillim. At least one Sefer of Torah Shebe'al Peh. Notice he's saying the exact same thing he said in the sadly letter as far as what he wants in the, uh, in the base. I also want a pushka. We've already spoken about many times about the great effect that these things can have in Lashon Hakasm, but that they will see and then they will remember. The Rebbe says what he said in the previous letter, just in shorter words, that they will see the books, they'll remember what's in the books, and then it would be even

19:37 better if they actually acted according to what's in the books, and that's all possible when books are made available. "I don't know," says the Rebbe, "if this is directly under your area of influence, communications officer in the IDF, unclear if this is your job." "Certainly, you'll be able to help me accomplish this in a major way, either directly or sort of in a roundabout way. And the merits of the masses will be on you." So we have here a very, uh, consistent message from the Rebbe going all the way back to the year nineteen fifty-six, give or take, uh, that the Rebbe wants soldiers and-- the soldiers' bases to have access to Jewish books. We have a sicha where the Rebbe introduces the idea and says that this will, uh, that says that this will, um, this will strengthen their-- stre-strengthen the soldiers spiritually. He wants them to have access to all of these books in the sicha over here. They need to be public. They need to be available. So the Rebbe introduces the idea in a sicha from Klal Kislev. We have two letters, both that say more or less the same thing. That is that the Rebbe specifically wants the soldiers to have access to a siddur, a tehillim, a Tanakh, at least one book of Torah Shebe'al Peh, a pair of tefillin, and a pushka. And the Rebbe, in both cases, calls it, calls it a bakasha nafshis, something that he cares about more than just about anything else. The only

20:53 level that, uh-- obviously, we made up these levels, people who talk about the Rebbe. But the Rebbe says bakasha nafshis sometimes, and sometimes he says bakasha atzmus. The only level I know of higher than a bakasha nafshis is a bakasha a-atzmus, and there's only, like, two of those. So this is one of the Rebbe's deepest requests, and, uh, that means that it's something we all can practically get involved in. I know there are people in our community and in other communities who are involved in sending the soldiers in addition to the materials they need and the money they need, also sending them, uh, sefarim and tefillin and the like. It sounds like this is something that matters a lot to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe thinks has to do with their material and spiritual success. So perhaps something to invest in. In any event, that's the shiur. Thank you very much. Questions or comments?