י׳ בשבט (שיעור משנת תשפ״ג)

00:00 The Freidiker Rebbe. There's a Freidiker Rebbe letter, and the reason why we're doing it today is 'cause today is Yud Shvat, uh, which is a good day to talk about the Freidiker Rebbe. But also it's a letter that the Rebbe himself quotes in a sicha on Yud Shvat as an explanation of how we're supposed to understand these talkas of a Rebbe. So I think the letter is shayach to the Freidiker Rebbe, it's shayach to the Rebbe, it's shayach to Yud Shvat, and it's shayach to Gemara Tammuz. It's really a-- it's a letter that, that spans the boundaries, and it's got a, it's got a very powerful story behind it. After Yud Beis Tammuz, as I'm sure a lot of us know, the Freidiker Rebbe was not really welcome in Russia anymore. The OSEFKA was still coming after him, and it was pretty clear that if he didn't get out of town, that they were going to find some pretext to bring him back. Uh, Yud, Yud Beis Tammuz had been a, um, had been a terrible embarrassment for the Russian government, and they wanted to get him, and it was clear he wouldn't be able to stay. So he went to Rostov. The Freidiker Rebbe went to Rostov that Elul to be at the of the Rebbe Rashab, and after going to the Elul, he spent Tishrei in Leningrad. After spending Tishrei in Leningrad, uh, sometime in between that, sometime before that, he got permission to leave Russia, uh, mainly by cousin Mordechai Dubnov, who

00:59 we mentioned last time, who was the, uh, statesman over in Latvia who was able to help pull some of those strings. He got permission to go to Riga. It was clear to the Chassidim that he couldn't stay, and it was also clear that this would be his last Tishrei among the Chassidim in Russia. So it was a very, it was a very emotional, um, very emotional Tishrei. On Isru Chag, he had decided he was gonna leave. So on Isru Chag, he had a train ticket. Isru Chag, thousands of people gathered at the train station to see him off. Uh, there's stories about this. He gives a little sicha at the train station. People showed up knowing that there were spies there who were going to report on them for seeing the Freidiker Rebbe go, but they just, they, they knew this was the la-- for many of them, this would be the last time that they would see the Rebbe in a physical body. So it was very painful, that moment at the train station. When the Freidiker Rebbe got on the train to leave, a couple Chassidim jumped on the train with him. You can't stop Chassidim. They're the worst. They jumped on the train with the Freidiker Rebbe, and among them was Rabbi Moshe Guerari. Rabbi Moshe Guerari's on the train with a few other Chassidim, and they decided they were going to accompany the train all the way to the border. While the Freidiker Rebbe was on the train, he writes a

01:54 letter to the, to the Chassidim that he left behind at the train station. He gives it to the Rashag, the Rashag gives it to Rabbi Moshe Guerari, Rabbi Moshe Guerari brings it back and reads it to the Chassidim. He held on to this letter. That's the letter that we're gonna read today, the letter that the Freidiker Rebbe wrote on the train describing to his Chassidim what it was, uh, what, what was going to be with their relationship now that he wouldn't be in the country anymore. But Rabbi Moshe Guerari held onto this letter for years and he treasured it. It was his most treasured possession. When he finally left Russia and went to , he brought it with him. Rabbi Yael has a, has a story that he remembers when he was in Tel Aviv as a, as a young-- as, as a child, as a young man. He's in Tel Aviv. He remembers... I guess as even a child. Rabbi Yael remembers in Tel Aviv on Purim that one year that the Chassidim all got together, they were farbrengen, they were singing, they were-- this is the way he tells it. They were singing, they were, uh, they were saying l'chaim, but they weren't, they weren't telling stories or sharing Torah. It was one of those kind... It was basically a Seuda Haneggonim. Um, there are some people not on the Zoom right-- there are some people in our community who would really appreciate it if we would just do that. Just a Seuda

02:47 Haneggonim. They were singing and saying l'chaim, and nobody was talking. At some point in the middle of the night, Rabbi Moshe Guerari stood on the table and with tears streaming down his face, read out this letter. So it meant the world to him. On , he came to the Rebbe for Pesach and he gave the Rebbe the letter as a gift, the original as a gift. And two years later in the sicha on Yud Shvat , the Rebbe mentions the letter in a sicha which we'll talk about at the end. So, uh, that's the letter that we have in front of us. It made it into the Igres. It's also printed, as you can see on the bottom there. It's printed in several other books too. It's all over the place. It's a very important letter. Uh, and it's written in very classic Freidiker Rebbe, very flowery writing. So there's a lot of words here that I'm going to butcher or poorly translate, but that's the, uh, that's the buyer beware of the letter. Okay. We're at, uh, Shin Lamed Gimel is the letter, and the letter is on page Taf Reish Daled of the Freidiker Rebbe's Igres, Volume One. And of course, tomorrow we'll go back to the Rebbe's Igres. This is just a, a special edition. He writes, "To our dear ones, the Anash, God should give them life. Like water... Like a face facing water." You know the expression. Like a person looks in a body of water and sees themselves and

03:51 therefore feels love. Love. "My heart's awake. You see what I mean? I feel in pleasantness, in pure pleasantness, the power of the strength . I feel a lot of. That's a lot of. an internal connection. And beyond, um, and, and beyond barriers, a fundamental, a unconditional between the Anash, they should live long, and the tree of life..." Gotta turn the page. Next. I'm also reading it on a screen today. And the tree of life, that's where it goes, right? We're still in the right place? Yes. "God should help them. Excuse me. They should have in their hearts a , a revelation of the internal light. And with this power of the connection between us, they should be able to establish they should establish they should establish times to learn Chassidus in public. They should love each other like actual brothers. They should strengthen each other and help each other go toward the light which is good. And it's not just good, it's Torah. They should help each other in Torah. the pure Torah, the complete Torah, which is the Torah that is only lit up through our davening. and this should cause their heart to beat into an so they should then keep Torah and mitzvahs, and they should have a strength and overpowering of midas tovias. with light and a li- and an internal light, that the s- the ray of that, the spark of that, the shine of that will be recognizable in the way that their household goes and the way that

05:44 their children are, their sons and daughters, to help put them on the path of life. " In that paragraph, the Freidiker Rebbe does the entire Sefer HaAvodah. It's really very cool. He puts the whole thing in one place. He says that, "I think what you should be doing, because you're connected to me and you have this power, I expect you to use these special powers I'm talking about to set aside times to learn Torah, to learn Chassidus." And that that will lead to life, which is good, which is Torah. So should lead to Torah itself. The Torah should be lit up by by your davening, and then the davening and through the power of should then cause you to learn Torah, keep Torah, and do mitzvahs and have . So what's the process here? Torah, mitzvahs, , and then that shouldn't just affect you, but because you're doing well, you're going to affect your entire family, and it'll affect your children and your sons and your daughters. And that'll put them on the path of life, which is . Did somebody have a comment or it was just background noise? Okay. So he has the entire here for them. Ah, Mendel's coming on. Says every single one of you, your sons, your daughters, your grandchildren, their physical health, their physical health and their and the way that they're going to be acting and their it's . It's It's, it, it impacts the very fundamental point of my heart. So in the first paragraph, he gave

07:26 him a . In the second paragraph, he said, "Everything about you and your family and your grandchildren, everything you're worried about matters to me more than anything." It's my deepest hope. And it's also my comfort. Distance, physical space between us will not separate between us. The Friediker Rebbe promises. He says, "It's my deepest hope, and it's my comfort that the distance between us now that I'm leaving you," the Friediker Rebbe says, "physically, it will not cause any separation between us." This I want you to remember 'cause this is what the Rebbe discusses in his sicha, that line. And in the merit of the I should merit, he says, in the merits of our forefathers, to see every single one of you and your families and that we should focus on strengthening the, the rope that connects us. And what is the rope that connects us to our Rebbe? That's . We've farbrenged about this before. It's not the things you think it is. The thing that connects us to our Rebbe is . With actual-- with learning, practical learning, teaching your families how to live as Jews, how to live as Hasidim. Everything we've mentioned earlier. through this you'll merit to be a a pure vessel You merit to get all of these . Everybody will have success in their parnasah. with an extensive amount of money and also in a kosher way and in a relaxed way. Because then they'll be able to fulfill everything I've talked about earlier, the davening and the learning

09:04 and the mitzvahs. It's easier to fulfill them when you've got money and you've got calmness. So be able to-- "I'm giving them a beracha," says the Friediker Rebbe, "That they'll be able to-- that they'll be able-- that they'll have a parnasah that allows them to have this sort of that allows the in a way of ." And that you should see children and grandchildren involved in and also incredible expansiveness in the . God should raise up the . What is that one? Uh, uh, hmm, that's an abbreviation, I don't know. Anybody have it? It's an ends off in the last paragraph. I would like to hear from you. I wanna hear about you. I wanna hear about your family. Send me letters. I wanna know the details of your lives. I want you to know that all of your they are They reach the They matter to me, and they don't just matter to me on a surface level. They matter to my very essence. I'm entirely given over to your-- to good things for you in . That's what I care about. Be strong. You should go on the proper path. Good for you and your families all of their days. We should see each other in good times and in filled times. And the Friediker Rebbe signs his name. That's a powerful letter that has a lot of things in it. I wanna just draw your attention to the line that is on the second page. I told you to remember it. Second

10:54 page, third paragraph, top line. is my deepest hope. and also my comfort that the distance and space between us, the Friediker Rebbe says, "I'm leaving you physically. We're gonna be in different countries." And that should It will not separate, it should not separate, it will not separate between us. So I told you that Rabbi Meshulam Gurary brought this to the Rebbe in Tosh"ch and two years later on Tov the Rebbe has a sicha on Yud Shvat where he makes this letter sort of a turning point of a, of an entire discussion about what it means to have a Rebbe who's, uh, who's not physically with you anymore in a country and not physically with you in a body. And he says, the same way the Friediker Rebbe could control physical barriers, he was forced to leave his-- he was forced to leave a country that he didn't wanna leave. He said that he was exiled from that land. He was forced to leave Russia, so it was against his will that he was kicked out. Nonetheless, that physical barrier, he had the, he had the authority to say that physical barrier is not gonna divide between us. I'm not going-- Even though a physical barrier was imposed on me and I was pushed into another country and now I'm far away, I have the right to say that's not going to separate between us, and it won't. When the Rebbe says that the Friediker Rebbe can say that when he's forced out of a physical

11:58 country to not allow the physical barrier to separate between them, then certainly when he's forced out of his physical barriers, because the Rebbe doesn't finish that line. I'm finishing it for you. A person lives and dies not according to their own will. When a-- He says when the Friediker Rebbe was forced to be nostalgic, when he was forced to leave his body behind and to, uh, and to, and to pass and not be with us, he is able to declare with the same tekif, and he does declare with the same tekif, that I'm not allowing this forced barrier between us to have any, to have any, to have any impact, to have any teeth. That there's a barrier between us and the Rebbe says that the barrier between us and the Friediker Rebbe after Yud Shvat is significant, but the Friediker Rebbe announces it's not going to make a difference. And if somebody, even when confined to a physical body, he could determine the boundaries have no relevance, then all the more so now he's able to determine now that he is not confined to a physical body, he can determine that bound- the boundaries have no relevance. They switched countries, and it made no difference, and his passing made no difference at all. I think the, uh, the message is-- the message to us that ties into us and our relationship and our discussions, I think is quite obvious, is that we see from this letter is the Friediker Rebbe was able to declare

13:00 that a physical barrier wouldn't stop us from having our connection to him. And the Rebbe says this applied not just to him physically leaving Russia, but even to him physically leaving his body on this we-- physically leaving his body. And that the same exact thing applies in our case, that a Rebbe is able to declare that no matter what the heleg mesasteria might be and whatever the divisions might be post-Gimel Tammuz, in our case, post-Yud Shvat, in the case of the Rebbe discussing the sicha, a Rebbe has the ability to declare that those barriers will mean nothing. And that's what the Rebbe's saying. That's what the Friediker Rebbe is saying in this letter, what the Rebbe is saying in the sicha and, uh, and what we say as Hasidim every single day. Okay.