למה צעירים עוברים על הכללים (ומשחיתים רכוש)?

00:00 This is Iggros. We are still not looking at letters from exactly fifty years ago. We are, uh, we are looking at letters from anywhere right now for the next couple days, and the letter that I have in front of you today is a letter from volume twenty-six, page seventy-two. The letter is labeled Tes, Tov, Reish, Lamed, Vav, and it's a let-- it's a letter that the Rebbe wrote to the, uh, Temimim dinner, to the annual dinner. And in the middle of this letter, it's one of the only times the Rebbe says something somewhat negative about the youth. This is not typical for the Rebbe. I have a, I have a letter over here in English that I have up on your screen about the power of youth, but really this is just one of a million letters. One of the things the Rebbe loves talking about, speaks about at length, is the unique powers that young people have. In this letter in front of you in English, it says that the youth have special qualities and untapped reserves of energy and, and enthusiasm. They have a greater measure of goodness and purity. They haven't had much contact with the negative aspects of life. The Rebbe talks all the time about the real power and the real value of younger people. This is a rare letter in that here the Rebbe talks about the fact that sometimes young people have problems. Sometimes there's a negative side to being young. There's such a thing as youthful rebellion,

01:01 and there's such a thing as youthful, uh, property damage, youthful damage of others. Sometimes the youth get a little too excited, and they destroy things. They hurt themselves and hurt others. And in this letter, the Rebbe discusses that and why it happens a little bit. That's what we're going to talk about today, the Rebbe's approach to why, uh, young people misbehave and the Rebbe's specific answers to Bachrim in seven-seventy who were misbehaving on various occasions as we have them in Sikhas and in letters. The first letter we're looking at, once again, is this letter Tes, Tov, Reish, Lamed, Vav. I'm gonna skip the first couple paragraphs in the interest of time. He says, "Shalom Alechem," and talks about the day. We're going down here. "Borur," says the Rebbe. "It is very clear." That there is a, uh, there is a, um, a-- Man, there's a lot of, a lot of adjectives here. The amazing confusion and lack of, uh, security that is ruling over young people nowadays, the great confusion and insecurities that young people have nowadays. This expresses itself, the great confusion and the great insecurities of young people often expresses itself in rebellion against the most basic laws of n- of normal humans, the most basic laws that normal humans follow, laws of morality, uh, laws of basic humans getting along with one another. This is a, uh, this is a consequence of a disharmony between the, uh, between, between feelings and the mind. And this can cause, uh, this can cause, uh,

02:35 activities that don't make any sense. Uh, feelings that, uh, feelings that lack, um, feelings that lack, uh... What's a good translation here? Heavy words. Is he wrestling like- Huh? Like reins of a horse? Yeah, like, uh- Like, like unhinged? Like right? Feelings that are, um, I think like unrestrained. Yeah. Like feelings Unrestrained, yeah, that's good. Yeah, I think. Unrestrained is probably the word. The great, the great, uh, um, the great disappointment of all of this, the great pain of all of this, is that this doesn't just affect the disaffected youth of the secular world. This affects the disaffected youth of the Jew-- of, of Jew-- of Jewish, Jewish youth and also Jewish youth from some of the very best families. And he says here, in this critical time, in this time we have to strengthen the ruchnius of these children. The only way to get around this is a strengthening of Torah and mitzvahs. With an achdus and a harmony between the mind and the feelings, the mind being able to rule over the heart. So what we have here is the Rebbe saying that there's an overarching problem, that the youth of today, and I'm cert-- this absolutely still applies, are, uh, are insecure and are confused, and their insecurities and their confusions can make them rebel against things that normal people look at and say, "This isn't something you rebel against." This isn't, you know, this isn't a bunch of people sitting down and saying they're not gonna go and fight the Vietnam

04:09 War. This is them rebelling against normal human things that everybody agrees are things that we should have, them acting in ways that are completely inappropriate. Why would they do that? It comes from their insecurities. It comes from their confusions, and it ultimately comes from the fact that there's a lack of which is exactly what Torah and mitzvahs is supposed to supply and it's exactly what a Chabad education is supposed to supply. And nonetheless, the Rebbe notes it seems to be something that is affecting even our youth. This is a problem the Rebbe raises already in a letter to the dinner about Temimim, that we have, um, we have sometimes a lack of even where you would expect not to have these problems in Chabad circles. He has a solution. The solution is to double down on Torah and mitzvahs and to, uh, stress that we're The letter goes on to say essentially that if we double down in chasidus and double down in Torah and mitzvahs, these things won't happen. But the fact that it is a phenomenon is something that the Rebbe is pointing out, that it can happen even to people who assumedly are tapped in. In other words, even Bachrim can end up doing some pretty strange things. On that note, there are two sikhas I found of Bachrim doing pretty strange things. Uh, and I wanna do them in the right order. Let me see. I labeled them one and two, but I think I wanna do them in the other

05:15 order. Let's do them two and one. This sikha's from Taf Shin Chaf Tes. This you'll find this in Toiras Menachem, and, uh, it's from Yud Beis Tammuz of Taf Shin Chaf Tes. And the Rebbe speaks here about Bachrim who are making recordings during the farbrengens. The Rebbe was not happy about this at all, and he says why Bachrim are doing this. He's-- he talks about them. It apparently was causing some degree of property damage as well, apparently was messing with the electrical system and also, uh, bothering other people at the farbrengen. So the Rebbe speaks at some length about this in this sikha in front of us. The Rebbe says we've been speaking up until now about the Nachash Hakdamoni, about the primordial serpent, the snake. So . Now we should explain what it means that the snake, that the Yetzer Hara can be very clever, and that means that the Yetzer Hara will sometimes do different ca- do, do different tasks in order to mislead us. That today the Yetzer Hara will tell you to do one thing, and tomorrow and then tomorrow will tell you to do something worse and worse, and eventually the Yetzer Hara will convince you to serve idolatry. The Yetzer Hara takes us from small mistakes all the way to bigger . And the Rebbe says by way of introduction, There are some . There are some, uh, young men learning in seven seventy. They don't want to, to be praised for the fact that they know a lot

06:30 of, uh, Gemara or a lot of Magidim by heart. That's not what, that's not what they wanna be known for. So they don't inform me about it. They don't tell me about this thing. They say that in Lubavitch it's important to have bitul. You're supposed to be humble. We can't have, uh, we can't have gaava, we can't have egotism. This is what a misnaged would do. A Hasid doesn't learn Magidim bepeh, certainly doesn't learn Gemara bepeh 'cause he doesn't wanna be a show-off. Obviously, they're wrong about this, but this is what they say. The truth is . The truth is, given the situation that we're in right now, uh, it's not like in Lubavitch where they didn't have newspapers, we need to learn Torah even in a way that will bring a person to yeshus, uh, even if it causes a ego problem. As is the psak din in the Shulchan Aruch of the Alter Rebbe that, uh, who-- Shehayah chasid, he says, the Alter Rebbe. Who was a chasid, not a misnaged? That a person should learn Torah even la shem al. The word always always learn Torah she lo lishma The Rebbe says for some people, maybe for everybody nowadays, it's not possible to reach the level of lo lishma unless you first-- Excuse me, of lishma, unless you first learn Torah she lo lishma. When a person does not learn Torah for the wrong reasons and then ultimately for the right reasons, somebody who is, uh, relatively, uh, bitter, they will continue

07:54 in their learning. If he's not somebody who's ready to put his head down and be grumpy about it and learn, even though he's not yet at the level of lishma and has to do it she lo lishma, here's our part. If a person does not buckle down and learn, a bachur doesn't buckle down and learn, he'll try to find other ways to prove that he's a Hasid, right? Because a Ha-- One way that he's not allowed, culturally, Hasidim are not allowed to show off. The Rebbe's saying, "I don't see why not." The Alter Rebbe says, "Go ahead, learn, learn in a way of yeshus." But you've convinced yourself you can't, uh, you can't be complimented, you can't show off because you're a great lamdan. And since you've convinced yourself you can't show off as a great lamdan, you have two choices. Choice number one, be a great lamdan and don't show off, and that's marasheref and no one wants to do that. So what's the only o-- only other option left on the table? Is that they have to find ways to prove that they are real Hasidim that have nothing to do with Torah. for example, to steal Magidim, or to listen from the other side of the door, as we've spoken about many times at length, and we're going to discuss that in the next sicha. That's not his to-- that's not his topic today. Now, he says there is a new problem, the Rebbe says. tape. People put together these tapes. The

09:04 Rebbe's not talking about people taping farbrengens on Shabbos, which would be an issur derech of hilul Shabbos. Not talking about that at all. but certain, but certain of the young bachurim have gotten involved in taping the farbrengens. They're doing it in a way of hefkedus. There's no organization to it. It's not like they went to the anheler, went to the gabbaim, and said, "We're going to set up tapes in certain places." They just sort of tape without-- with, with reckless abandon. With no order and with no, um, no responsibility taken. And when they do this, they damage the electrical wiring. I don't understand how electricity used to work. Nowadays, everything's, uh, like these, uh, Wi-Fi. I, I don't know. But when-- apparently, they damaged the electrical systems when they did this. They don't even think about the fact that they are wasting things and that they are damaging, they're stealing from the public, et cetera. And there are footnotes down here where the Rebbe says, uh-- We should read some of these footnotes. when it comes to stealing from the masses, it's unclear from Poskim how exactly to return something that you've stolen from the masses, so if you damage the masses in a way that steals from them, you might not be able to do teshuvah 'cause it's not clear in Poskim how to make a return, how to do teshuvah for that. The Al-- The Rebbe also adds, the Rebbe says, "Generally speaking, I shouldn't be speaking about this." The Rebbe says that,

10:22 "I'm going against my nature, talking about something negative. My nature is to talk about positive things." It's also not his job. Uh, he says-- the Rebbe said apparently in the sicha according to some of these ushimas here, the Rebbe said in the sicha that a person has a limited amount of days on this earth, and every moment that you spend not for the things that are your tafkid are wasting your days, and I'm wasting my days talking about these things. But then the Rebbe also says, "I don't really have a choice." Um, the reason why I have the-- the reason why I put together, the reason why there is a Vaad HaMesader, and the reason why there's Rosh Yeshiva, and Mashpiyim, and Madrichim, and the older Talmidim is to handle these things for me. But, uh, since it's gotten to my-- since it's become something that I'm aware of, I have to be clean with Hashem and Yisrael. I have to say something, so I'm forced to mention this myself. But the Rebbe is saying, "I really shouldn't have, shouldn't have to be talking about this at all." Let's say somebody has found a way to do these recordings, um, without, uh, without dam-- without annoying anybody and without damaging anybody, they still are not able to focus on what's going on at the farbrengen. They have to spend a lot of time making sure their tape is working correctly, so that their tape won't be any less good than the tape of their friend.

11:37 And then they're able to finally show off about something, right? Because they can't show off about the Torah they've learned, that'd be misnagsha. They can't learn Torah without showing off, that would make them sad. So they found something to show off about, and it's the fact that they have a better recording than everybody else. They're able to send a copy of it. They mention their name and their father's name, and they send it to Yerushalayim, and to Ottawa, and to Melbourne to show them all that they're the big shot who got the Rebbe's farbrengen on tape. And the Rebbe says down here, sometimes when they put their father's name on the tape Um, maybe he's, uh-- They, they, they, they think that it'll-- They, they think their fathers will be happy about that. So he says here, "Makov she'ab yad keshechatzeve dese sheaben yasom limin ha'teiro shelchemeve aben beise yivchan ese aviv amashlo be yeshiva chulu elinkein avat nimtzem vaim vat sheyesh toro shivchan osei." Says sometimes the fathers are going to say, "Why weren't you learning in yeshiva and give them a paher and not be happy about it?" Unless that father himself is not worthy and thinks that this is a good thing. In that case, the father probably should be tested. But in any event, they put their names, their father's names on these things. They send them out to the other yeshivas 'cause they've gotta show off about something. So what, what we're getting from here is the Rebbe is explaining

12:35 a motivation. It's not a valid motivation, but he's explaining a motivation. He says that young people, especially young people, they feel the need to, to show off. They feel the need to express themselves. And, uh, in Torah, you're allowed to express yourself. You're allowed to have yeshes and show off that you're such a big lamdan. And as a matter of fact, the Rebbe says, "I heartily encourage it." But for some reason, Hasidim convince themselves they're not allowed to show off about the things they're doing that are good. So now what are they doing? They're showing off about the things they're doing that are considered Hasidish, that are in fact not so good. Omash trecht ze in in shamash negeiv ben afshe. And what they say, that is negeiv ben afshe, that they absolutely must have these recordings. Lachein, afshul cheili yesh veze iser ashel ba tashlis al api din ba tashlis de gufa. Ad if, uh, they'll say back to me, says the Rebbe, that I need these recordings. It's negeiv ben afshe, and I don't care if I'm wasting things or destroying things because this is more important than those esotem. Hini im haya eseve limin ha'teira fil sh-lishma ze la hayai negeiv ben afshe shikulam yada sheyesh prushot al tal de tevi ese. The Rebbe says, "If you were learning Torah, even not lishma, then you-- wouldn't matter to you so much that everybody knows you have these recordings." So again, the Rebbe is really cutting, really, uh, tapping into the, the, um,

13:35 the insecurities of young people. He's saying the reason why you're doing this is because you're not distinguishing yourself in Torah. And since you're not distinguishing yourself in Torah, you feel the need to distinguish yourself in something else. You wouldn't feel that need if you would just double down and limud haTorah, which is not unlike the letter that we saw at first, where the Rebbe says that if they just learned Torah, they wouldn't have these problems. These problems come from them not having an outlet. And, uh, they have an outlet, but they feel they can't use that outlet or convince themselves that outlet isn't for them, so they find a different outlet. Uvachein, bachar tzaraf ladash. Enzein yanad lisasekim at tape be'esa'is bav. So bachar needs to know that his job is not to be dealing with tapes at the time of a farbrengen. El mai, what should he be doing? Maiiai matape shuf tzuf leishlechem kemeshenim. Yesh nemei leshekesmekach. There are people who take care of this. Eini yanisha bachar. So s-second point, second point. The bachar might say, "Somebody needs to make these recordings," or I don't know, hypothetically, "Somebody needs to take on construction of a building," hypothetically. The answer is there are people for that. It's not a bachar's job. A bachar has no place doing these sorts of things. So in answer to the claim that maybe somebody needs to make these recordings, maybe you are right, but it doesn't need to be you. Enzein yanisha bachar. That's not the job

14:30 of a bachar. Da be'kachshi tirus klalus inisha klata petape. It's enough that we've-- that I've allowed them to make recordings in the first place. That was already a step. Aveilim am nam yesh torach kol bach yele tape. Every bachar needs his own tape. Eini yanisha bachar. What is a bachar's job? It's not to take on these big, uh, these big social functions and to take care of Lubavitch at large. That's not the job of a bachar. A bachar's job is lasik belimud haTorah, to spend his time learning Torah. If something is wrong in Lubavitch and needs to be fixed, or the whole world needs help, it's not a bachar's job. That's the job of all the other people in Lubavitch. A bachar should be learning Torah. Franu bacharim shegi lekan me'Eretz Yisrael. Specifically, the bacharim who are coming from Eretz Yisrael. Harbevad dale gil bifshvil yanan ma now. They certainly were not brought here to take care of communal affairs. Ki im bifshvil limud haTorah. If you're here from Eretz Yisrael, you absolutely have no place in communal affairs. Your job is to be learning Torah. Ve'ad shelimudim yehe evan kaze shebecha zaros neshama yuch kisre min yanu. They should be learning here in such a way that when they come back from here to Eretz Yisrael, they bring with them the crown of Torah. Be'emi kol ana lemor le'il. Uh, what comes out of all the things we've been talking about, im be'keili tishmeu, if you'll listen to my voice, heim nekanu laba leyamdu

15:31 oyd tapes afilu be'efen sheeinem iz-mazik la'echad. If the bacharim are listening to me and they wanna listen to my voice, says the Rebbe, they won't get involved in this anymore. They won't make any more tapes, even in a way that doesn't damage anybody, only the official channels. Ve'elushas, ve'elushas zeis, those who did this, yachzer ba'peh meah dapay Gemara. And those who did it, there's a teshuvah for them. The Rebbe offers them a kapara. They should learn ba'peh one hundred dapay Gemara, ve'chol hegeresa teshuvah, and the entire hegeresa teshuvah. Ve'kol hahavu la yifalu devarim, maybe that'll have an effect on them. I don't know if this is a kapara or a teshuvah or it's, or it's meant to be-- I mean, I'm sure that it sort of is, but what it also is, is it's preventing damage in the future. Remember, the Rebbe said the whole problem here is that they're not comfortable knowing Gemara and Hasidism ba'peh 'cause they think that'll give them a sense of yeshes. The Rebbe wants them to have that sense of yeshes, that their energies are channeled in a positive direction. So while this is a kapara for them, that because they did this, they need to learn a hundred dapay Gemara and also the hegeresa teshuvah, the Rebbe is also saying once they learn a hundred dapay Gemara and, and the entire hegeresa teshuvah, they're going to be the kind of people who don't feel the need to show off by breaking the rules anymore. So we have here

16:27 a real insight from the Rebbe into why young people do the things they do, and also that it's still wrong, and a specific insight into the fact that even if a bachar is doing the right thing and they're not doing something wrong, they're not damaging anybody, and they're taking care of a real need for a community, even if you wanna make the claim that they're doing something wonderful, a bachar shouldn't be doing it, and especially not a bachar from Eretz Yisrael. These are people here to learn Torah. That's not their job. A much harsher sicha is from Taf Shin Chaf Tes, Erev Rosh Chodesh Sivan, uh, from Parashat Bamidbar, and it starts in, uh, entry Yud Tes in Toras Menachem. And here the Rebbe talks about one specific bachar, and the Rebbe speaks about him at such length that I imagine that people who know, know who this was. I, uh, I sometimes will try to find this out for you before the Shiur, call a couple Mashpi'im and ask if they can give me the inside scoop, but this is just straight lashon hara. There's no reason to figure out who this bachar is. The Rebbe is going to spend three pages, uh, saying that one particular bachar is doing something horrible. If you know who it is, don't tell me. I don't wanna know. Yud Tes. The Rebbe talks about the greatness of Torah, and then there is a bracket. Vehem shechla zeh hizke kavod yoshvat meshlitah sheyeshnu keili shonisharim kan ve'em shiysu

17:29 benei mei'ayim. There are some people who come to the farbrengen and say, "Sisu benei mei'ayim," "Let my belly rejoice." Vimi svada li svada sadaka dei leme chaza de'asi. They come to the farbrengen just to say that they saw and that they were there. Va'azi chen fa li shein, and then finally they can go to sleep. They make a showing at the farbrengen, and then they fall asleep. Ve'lemi vaysh lam la'gahek la'heh neged panov hepecha nushias. They're not afraid to, uh, to, uh, to, to, to criticize and, uh, la'gahek la'pahek can mean to criticize, can also mean to, like, literally spit. So I, I don't know. Um, hepecha nushias, whatever, they're not polite at all. I think it means things like yawn. Ven mispar nim neha- I think it means like- Huh? I think it means to, like, yawn and spit, like yawn and spit and- Yawn and spit? Yeah, okay. Ven- Sorry ... it's probably literally. Ven mispar nim nifneha ben ve'anecha shama si-ha masiras nefesh shalom lei shebe svadas lamnes et sfiha tzve dehek shefiha lam li shein . The Rebbe says, "Then they go home, they show off to their son and their grandson about their incredible masiras nefesh that they had to come to the farbrengen and then to sleep, even though there are people who are talking, so they can't sleep, and there's people at the farbrengen who are not using the farbrengens correctly." Then the Rebbe mentions, uh, uh, something that we've actually had a whole shiur on before, which

18:30 is his constant complaint that people stare at him the entire time during davening, and, uh, it's not polite at all. And he also says it's asur to look at the face of a nasi, and they don't say Amen, Yehai Shmei Rabah, Baruch Haba b'Shem Mei. They make the claim that somehow it's Chassidisha of them to not be answering in tefillah 'cause they wanna look at the Rebbe. And he again complains about the Rebbe really-- and he says this on a lot of sifras. He doesn't want them looking at him, and they don't listen to me. I've said it many times, and, uh, this line is particularly cutting. Says at this point, "Kmo lechaches." At this point, I think they're doing it just to upset me. "Ki nira k'dei shetza'ak le'daber azah et apam." Maybe because they want me to speak about it again, of mei li teifu ei kama mudim be ha stensil shel reshimas ha devarim. They're hoping to have more things to add to their journals. They're, they're, they're hoping they can have more notes to put down. So the Rebbe says, "At this point, I'm not sure you're not doing this just to upset me." "Eikein, di ber eidus bachur mesuyim." Now here's our part. There is one bachur I wanna talk about. "She'makam li sanak k'mei bachur Chassidim." Rather than acting like a Chassidisha bachur, "Li'asid ya'agid," believe in a Torah, "Nigla v'chsidas, ve'even she'gam, belim u'da nigla, nikra alav shu bachur Chassidish lemitehech achayis." And rather than doing what a

19:25 Chassidisha bachur does, which is learn Torah and learn Torah with such a chayis that it shows on his face and it shows on him that he's a Chassidisha boy. "Eiz ikbi gneivas Maimarim." What's he doing? He's stealing Maimarim. "Umechapes derachim." Then he finds creative ways by using all sorts of devices to look in or to listen onto what's going on on the other side, uh, on the other side of the room-- of the door of the room. I assume the cheder yechidas. I assume he's listening in on yechidas. He's, he's spying. "She'azaz shein kemei," there is no greater, uh, no greater chutzpah than this. "Heipech haShulchan Aruch v'heipech darkei haChassidim." This is against the Shulchan Aruch and against the ways of Chassidim. So there's a certain boy who was doing two things. He was stealing Maimarim, and he was using listening and visual devices to peek in on, uh, on yechidas. "Umashe'tein sh'yesh nesiba." Now some people claim that there is a story about-- and maybe he's claiming, that there's a story about the Alter Rebbe, that the Al- Alter Rebbe says, "Mayim genuvim mataku," that stolen water tastes sweeter. And there's also a story with the Friediker Rebbe, that he would do all sorts of strange things to try to sneak into his father, the Rebbe Rashab's room, so that he could hear, uh, w- I'm sorry, period, into his grand-- into the Rebbe Rashab's room. "Ve'kamu chasham azes bash kah apratis" and says this boy, "Since I heard these stories bash kah apratis,

20:29 kah azah herah v'rai." That must be a herah for me that I also should do these things. This is a mistake that a lot of young people, and unfortunately, a lot of old people make 'cause then on one hand, the Rebbe tells us to see everything bash kah apratis. So if I hear about something in Chassidus or hear about a story, that's kind of a message that, that, that, that that was meant for me. That doesn't necessarily mean I should go do it, though. So this boy says, "I heard these stories bash kah apratis. That means I should be doing these things." The Rebbe now says, this part's going to be more applicable than to just one student. "V'd'geleh Rebbeinu haZaken," when it comes to the Alter Rebbe, "Par tzil lamed es kol haShas tes zayin pamim." Before the Alter Rebbe did any of these things, stealing things to get, uh, sneaking around to get more Maimarim or whatever he was involved in, he learned the entire Shas sixteen times, as is mentioned in the Hakdama of Shulchan Aruch. He also didn't have a yetzer hara because he killed it by fasting. And when it comes to the Friediker Rebbe, he was first a bucki in all of the Maimarim that he had at that point. And after he learned and really delved into every single one of those Maimarim as best as he was able to, he wanted another Maimer, so he would, uh, he would, he would sneak in to try to find

21:26 more Maimarim. And furthermore, "Ki emes kol hanhagos aglu ishu rah atza'aliv." He kept all of the hanhagos that he saw by his father. And after all of that, he wanted to also hear how his father davened because he was already keeping all of the customs of his father. "K'dei sheyaide ze," he says, "va'ednos, lemida Torah, va'avidus kafiyah, ve'et tefillah, va'richos u'v'chiyus." He wanted to learn how to learn Torah better, how to have more iskafiyah, how to daven with length, and how to daven with tears, et cetera, et cetera. He was maxing out his capabilities on his own, and he basically maxed out what he could do, so he started sneaking around to get more. "Aval atah," that's not what's going on with you. "Im hanhagos oheise etzlach hametzad hakdusha." If what you were doing, if your, uh, if your youthful rebellion was coming from the side of holiness, "Az ad lechol ha'dei she'eis v'chai madish ruach mimcha." You would first be doing everything that is asked of you. "Limud nigleh v'chsidus." You'd be learning the revealed parts of the Torah and Chassidus. You would learn also in the times that are outside of the yeshiva. You would learn in the summers over the times when yeshiva is not in session. But practically, that's not what you do, the Rebbe's saying to this particular bachur. You're lazy. You don't take-- You don't, you don't throw yourself into learning Torah. Even during the times that yeshiva is in session, you don't learn. You don't learn Shas, not

22:27 even once. You don't even learn Kitzur Shulchan Aruch. You don't learn Tan. You don't know Maimar Chassidus. So you don't tell me that you feel a, a soul-level need to be breaking the rules in order to fulfill what the Rebbe wants from you. You're not doing the basics of what the Rebbe wants from you. You're only allowed to-- What the Rebbe, the Rebbe is saying here is a, is a second thing, not like our first sicha. The Rebbe is saying here, in a, in answer to the youthful urge to break the rules for the right reasons, ask yourself first, are you keeping the rules for the right reasons? If you're somebody who kept all of the rules and maxed out what they can do as a good Jew, and now you're just grappling for something new and you might have to break some rules to get to the next level, we can talk. But what usually happens is your yetzer hara has convinced you to break the rules, and you're not even keeping the things that are not breaking the rules. "Kaash atah nichnas l'yechidas." When you come into yechidas, this boy would come into yechidas. You would, uh, you would te-- I'm just gonna skim over this part. The Rebbe says, "You come to be in yechidas. You, uh, tell me what you're up to. I tell you to do better the next year, and then you come back to yechidas again and say you didn't do anything differently, but you feel like you

23:17 need to come anyway." "Keim shekein," since that is the case, "Ha'nahagos chaveini na'ah limetzad hakdusha elimetad geias v'yeishos." This is coming not from kedusha, although you've convinced yourself you're doing the holy thing by stealing and by damaging and by causing trouble. It's coming from geias and yeishos. It's coming from ego. It's coming from, uh, yeishos. "K'dei shetokh li skas l'tzabir" because you wanna be able to show off and tell everybody and also write to Australia and write to Eretz Yisrael, "She'ati yechidas yesh l'cham meizah." You wanna be able to say, "I'm the only guy who has this Maimon." "V'rach ati haAdam adiv apanim," . You're the only one who knows what this person and that person said on this or that day. "Rak l'chayisht meonesh ein lemishua'ach." You're the only one who has pictures that no one else has. You wanna be-- The Rebbe really does understand teenagers. Don't tell me this is coming from kedusha. You wanna be the big man. You wanna be the one who knows things people don't know, who has things other people don't have because, "Harabe shash yesh meah bachurim yesh im bazal v'lem l'nekes mitfilsei." When you're just one of a hundred bachurim in yeshiva, you're not-- you're, you're, you're nothing. You need to be something. And so you decide you're going to be shpitz Chabad, shpitz Talmid, and the only way to do that for you is, uh, is to, is to do things that are not allowed. Says, "Mesubah es Rebbe Isaac Kamel." Isaac Kamler has

24:21 a story about this, that, um, he wrote a petek. He wrote a letter. He wrote a note to the, uh, Alter Rebbe that he needs him to say a Maimar Chassidus because it's "Nege'a mamash b'nefesh." It's nege'a b'nefesh that he needs the Maimar. "Aval atah v'yu, aim nege'a l'cha b'nefesh Maimar shebigan avtah?" Is the Maimar that you stole nege'a b'nefesh? Do you need it that badly? You're, uh-- Did, did it even occur to you that you were going to learn this Maimar or do what it says inside of it, or that you would daven better or learn Torah or learn nigleh Chassidus better because of it? Uh, "Ze lo meiniyes-- lo meiniyanasach." This is not something you're interested in. You have no time for this. All you're interested in is breaking the rules. The Rebbe's pointing out the hypocrisy of this entire thing. Says, "Tzain l'damas l'Avraham Pa'riz." You wanna, you wanna compare yourself to Avraham Pa'riz? Avraham Pa'riz learned Chassidus and was an emes Chassidus Talmid. When he stole Maimarim, the Rebbe knew that he was stealing Maimarim and said, "Taveh l'bracha," that it should be a blessing for him, and he added, "Halavai hayu eretz Chassidim ve'eizen ken." I wish other Chassidim would do that. "Aval atah bachur," but you, little boy, "Hinecha efrech shelo nifchah einav.""you are a chick that has not yet opened his eyes." Meaning, we have from a lot of our Rebbeim and a lot of Chabad history, uh, it's, it's, it's really part of the lifeblood of

25:21 Chabad history that we break rules. Breaking rules is definitely part of our culture, is that this Hasid was mes and nefesh to find this Mimer, and, you know, this, this extends to the government, this extends to breaking rules, you know, i-i-in, in, in Russia, getting sent to prison is kind of a badge of honor, going to Siberia for breaking the rules. And within Chabad itself, breaking the rules for the right reasons. Bachurim get it in their heads that they should also be breaking the rules 'cause it's Hasidish to break the rules. The Rebbe says, "It's Hasidish to break the rules when you are a Hasid who has maxed out their capabilities as a Hasid. It's not Hasidish to break the rules when you're not doing anything else right." So we have kind of two sort of warring things here. I don't wanna say warring, but they're kind of almost opposite messages in these two sichas. In the first sicha, we have the Rebbe saying that, uh, "I understand why bachurim are doing this. They're doing this because they don't have any other way to express themselves that they feel is healthy, so they, they're expressing themselves in an unhealthy way." And here what the Rebbe is saying is he's cutting right to the Yetzer Hara, that, uh... And, um, of, of course, in that first sicha that we read, the Rebbe also says that a bachur shouldn't be doing these things anyway, even for the right reasons, 'cause their job is to learn Torah. Over

26:17 here, the Rebbe is saying that, "In theory, I could imagine a situation where a bachur might be able to get involved in some things that are a little bit unsavory, but only if that was the best bachur." And you know what? I'm sa-- I'm adding this part, but you know what? It's, it's, it's never the best bachur . The best bachur is never involved in these things. When they are, you get stories like Aven Pari is stealing a Mimer. There's one more point we need to see here before we finish. I know we're over time, um, but I need to find this other piece. "Umi ish ashem bechol zeh?" "And who is to blame for all of this? Who is to blame for all this inappropriate behavior?" says the Rebbe. "Hine, lo haba'ach bar a ganav ela kura ganav." This is a Gemara in Masechet Gittin. A mouse doesn't steal, a hole steals. You don't blame the thing that stole, you blame the thing that let it in in the first place. "Asham muteles al rosh yeshiva mashpia, mashgiach, um, madrichim." The real guilt, although I'm complaining about this bachur and I'm complaining about bachurim who are doing the wrong thing, at the end of the day, the real guilt should fall on the people who are in charge, the rosh yeshivas, the mashpiyim, the mashgiach, and the madrichim. "Shein kel v'einen." There's nobody calling out and saying they can't do this. "Ve'en petzef hamtzapetz." Nobody is protesting. "Mishtakei aidu lei." By the fact that

27:21 they're silent, they are, uh, consenting to it. "V'gam im mashpia mer li bachur hanhagah zot," even if you'll tell me that there was one or two mashpiyim, that a certain mashpia pointed out to this bachur that he was acting inappropriately, the bachur says back, "I'm already an older bachur. I don't have to listen to what you-- I don't have to listen to you." And, uh, and he tells him a joke. He says, "Uh, don't you like that I'm delivering you a Mimer? Don't, don't make trouble. I won't give you the Mimer next time." And so the mashpia ends up being quiet about it. And once it becomes public that at a certain yeshiva, a certain rosh yeshiva, a certain mashpia was okay with it or at least didn't speak out strongly against it, now that becomes a Chassidishe minhag. Now this becomes a Chassidishe minhag to do the wrong thing. So although the Rebbe complains a lot about this particular bachur, he does end up laying the guilt at the, uh, at the feet of the hole, not of the mouse, to use the lashon in the Gemara in Masechet Gittin. He also spoke about other shpitzlach. I'm gonna cut through this part because we're running out of time. See him, the f-- the Rebbe finishes off. "Ve'emes la, yetzlichim ledavar al inam keil bi yom Shabbos Kodesh." Once again, like the Rebbe said last time, I really shouldn't be talking about these things, especially not on Shabbos. "Ve'apii yom Shabbos Kodesh kashe mechana lech

28:19 mattan Torah." Certainly not on Shabbos that is connected to a chanah for Mattan Torah. This was close to Shavuot. "Ve'esh lavosh lehitarkach ledavar al zeh ad pam." I'm hoping very much that I will not have to speak about this again. "Ki sh'amar pam kavedu shmeira cham, mer, mer, cham, mer, eides indim mesuyim." The Rebbe once said about a certain thing that he'll speak about it only twice, but he won't speak about it three times because that would be a chazakah and that would not be good for the listener or for the speaker. And with that, the Rebbe ends off with, um, a sign with Dvar Torah, and he says a little bit of Chassidis at the very end of this discussion. What we have from, uh, this letter, I think, and from these two sichas, to sum everything up, is, uh, in the-- we, we talked at the very beginning about how the Rebbe really does value the strength of youth, the power of youth, the passion of youth, and recognizes they can do things no one else can do because they are uniquely, uh, uniquely imbalanced. The imbalance of youth is actually something that is very positive, that can be used positively. At the same time, because of a lack of meich shalit al halev, that's what we saw in our letter today, because of a lack of meich shalit al halev, they can end up being disillusioned, they can end up being confused, they can end up being insecure, and these insecurities and

29:15 these confusions can lead them to rebel, not just against negative systems, but against systems that everybody agrees are positive simply because they're so imbalanced. We really saw a lot of that play out in the sicha about the tapes, where the Rebbe says that it's because of their inability to find-- to distinguish themselves in their Limud HaTorah that they try to distinguish themselves in other ways. But the Rebbe points out that the most important thing, and I think the big takeaway from this first sicha had been, that a bachur has no place getting involved in these sorts of things, even for the right reasons, because it simply is not the job of a bachur, especially not a bachur who's, uh, who's from Eretz Yisrael, who's coming here specifically to learn. This just isn't what bachurim do. A bachur, uh, even for the best reasons in the world, doesn't get involved in these things. A bachur learns Torah, and if they do learn Torah, um, specifically the Rebbe says a hundred topic Gemara in the entire Yoreh De'ah, they will have new ways to distinguish themselves that are healthy, and they won't feel the need to act out to distinguish themselves. In this other letter, the Rebbe really, uh, leaned into one bachur specifically, but also a bit of a trend that we have some bachurim who are having trouble distinguishing themselves in the Limud HaTorah, and instead they decide to do-- show off by, uh, by being able to show that they're able to steal my

30:14 Marom or be able to get involved in things that Chassidisha stories would tell us are sometimes positive. And the Rebbe's answer is, in Chassidisha ma'aysis, you gotta remember the characters. If a big Hasid does something, that doesn't mean that it's something that we have to do. And if a very special Hasid who learned the-- who learned all of the Marom and took all of the hagahs of a Rebbe very seriously then steals a Mimer or does something a little bit illegal, a little bit breaking the rules, we can talk. Maybe there's room for that, but there really is no room for that unless you have first maxed out your own capabilities. And of course, the ultimate responsibility of helping bachurim navigate this, these tricky waters, helping bachurim who naturally have a problem with meich shalit al halev and naturally have insecurities and naturally have difficulty distinguishing themselves, whose job is that really? It's not supposed to be the Rebbe's job. The Rebbe laments in our first sicha that he has to get involved in this. This is of course the job of an hala mashgiachim, rosh yeshiva, rabbanim, to, uh, adults in their lives, responsible adults in their lives, good people, older people, to remind them that this isn't what is, uh, what, what, what a bachur should be up to. I think that, uh, through this letter and these two sichas, we get a pretty good idea of the Rebbe's overall approach to, uh, to when bachurim act out, when bachurim cause damage, uh,

31:15 when bachurim go a little bit beyond the chayas of youth and into the area of, uh, destructive tendencies, and an explanation of why they do it, and a little bit of advice on how we can prevent them from doing it, giving them healthy outlets and being good role models. Thank you all very much.