ספקות באמונה (חלק 2: הרבי)

00:00 Okay, this is Igris. We are not looking at letters from fifty years ago. We're continuing with what we started yesterday. We looked at a letter from The Friar Crepe and honored Shvat, which dealt with Sfeikas and Emunah. We saw The Friar Crepe's approach to someone with doubts about the existence of God, which we're calling Sfeikas and Emunah. And, uh, most importantly for us, we saw the basis behind The Friar Crepe's advice. Unlike a lot of these letters where we get the advice, and we kind of have to guess at the Haskalah, The Friar Crepe showed us the Haskalah. I don't know if people liked hearing it. It might have-- It's not our normal structure of the Igris share, but we did actually go through the Haskalah behind the letter. The Friar Crepe explained that Machshava, which is thought, is, uh, at the service of the intellect and emotions, the Sechel and the Midas. And that when it's busy, it's channeled toward useful ends, sometimes ridiculous ends, but at least useful ones. But when the mind is left idle, when Machshava is left idle, it devolves into its nature. And The Friar Crepe explained, what is the nature of Machshava when it's not doing the job of channeling your Sechel or your Midas? Machshava's nature is that it is chaotic, and it's foolish. It's chaotic, and it's foolish. The Friar Crepe emphasizes that a question so ridiculous as to whether there is a God or godliness in the world at all is so foolish and so

01:04 chaotic that it could only come from a mind that's not busy. So contrary to those who believe that someone can arrive at atheism through some sort of deep contemplation, The Friar Crepe says that the conclusion that there's no God at all, God forbid, is the product of not a full mind or a rich intellect but the product of an empty mind. Obviously, there's more to this world than a corporeal reality. And while God is and, uh-- excuse me. What God is and, and how God acts is, uh, maybe debatable, and this is something that we can discuss in Hasidus, and this is the work of a lifetime, and this is intellectual. Uh, to not be sure that there is a God at all is what The Friar Crepe calls empty-mindedness. It's empty-minded to not to believe that there's not a God at all. Uh, The Friar Crepe then added that an empty, chaotic, and f-- and foolish mind will usually revert to the direction of the people that it hangs out with. So he places part of the blame on the writer's Chevre. He says they have their, uh-- he pr- they probably have their own heretical beliefs and that they're sort of influencing him. So the-- The Friar Crepe is worried about his idle mind and about this person's choice in friends. Uh, so The Friar Crepe, based on this, advises that this student fill his mind with terror, fill his schedule with the study of practical Halakha, and choose his friends more carefully.

02:10 Now we're gonna look at some letters from the Rebbe which say very similar things. We're gonna see very similar pieces of advice from the Rebbe. Sometimes even sort of-- Now that we know The Friar Crepe's letter, I think if we read between the lines of some of these letters, we'll see the Rebbe sort of referring to that letter. Even though he doesn't dive into it quite as deeply as, uh, as we saw previously, the Rebbe's gonna give very similar advice and actually, uh, actually sort of hint at some of these ideas that are sort of, uh, sort of deeper Haskalah. I said sort of a lot of times. We're gonna stop that. In any event, we have a letter right here. This letter is from Chaf Teshvat of Tov Shin Yud Zion, and the Rebbe writes, "Shalom Ubrava." Do I have the letter label here? I don't 'cause I pulled this particular one out of a collection of Igris, uh, B'nesim Shenim. So this is under the entry Eitzha Lasvekas V'emunah. Easy enough to find on page Quf Peh Dalet. The Rebbe writes, "V'maina mechtava," "I'm responding to your letter by case of Eida Zashinei Shiralif Nemis Per Chadashim Ashinaf Ula Lefesa Pitaim Shailis, uh, Srak V'sefas-- V-v-v-v-vsefas V'lailu Ha-hakozuki Mikol Min Raius." The Rebbe says, "I'm responding to your letter. You wrote to me there's been a change over the past couple of months. Suddenly, out of nowhere, you're getting these, uh, you're getting these doubts. And no matter how much you try to,

03:17 uh, bring proofs to try to resolve these doubts, it doesn't get any better." I would like to comment on my own that, uh, that it never gets any better when you do it that way. Um, what people usually do when they-- when they encounter Sfeikas and Emunahs, the first thing they do is they go out and buy some of these-- some of these well-intentioned but frankly ridiculous books that, uh, try to empirically or logically prove the existence of God. And all it does is make things worse. In the best-case scenario, it doesn't make things better. I've never met a single person who was, uh, snapped out of their faith problems by being talked into it intellectually through various proofs. So this is what this person tried. It didn't work, and I'm adding, of course, it didn't work. "V'nei, Reim Mochach." We see, uh, explicitly, "Abinion Kigen Zed," in all these sorts of cases, "She'eitza Yeseteve B'kegendo." What is the best advice in these situations where someone has doubts about their faith in God? "Hi Lasich Daitam Es Herzman Mikol Inyan V'lelekanes V'machamim Machshavas B'teilus Eilu." That is, remove your mind from this entirely and don't get into a fight with these idle thoughts. "Uv'rupa D'rupa Nachlesh Al Yadei Zem Pikbuk Asfekas Vashailis." And usually, if you just stop thinking about it for a while, it goes away. Avoidance is the best technique here. We actually have a whole share. This is from more than a year ago on Chesed Hadas. The Rebbe gives Chesed Hadas

04:24 as advice for almost every Yetzharah. It's the Rebbe's go-to advice when somebody has an internal struggle is stop thinking about it because the more you try to battle it and the more that you try to win through bringing various proofs and arguments, the more you're engaging it in the first place. The best thing to do with a, uh, with a tantruming child is to ignore it. And our Yetzharah is a tantruming child, so ignore, ignore the tantruming child inside of you. "Vavir Al Zah. Hu, Ki Asfekas Vashailis Ke'eilu Ba'im Michutz." The explanation is that these Sfeikas, these doubts you're having, these questions, I know they come from outside of you. They can't come from you. How do I know this? "Ki Areh Al Kolech Ad Ve'achen Misot Nemar She'ma Minim Bin Emaminim." You have a neshamah. You are a Yidden, so fundamentally, you're somebody who believes, which means that if you're having Sfeikas, they're not coming from you. They're coming from something that is not you 'cause a Yid believes. "V'davar Habab Yerusha Meshech Asiri Asteris Psichish Chazaku V'esan." Certainly, this faith is not new. It's something we've had for tens of generations. I mean, probably more. I don't know why the Rebbe says only tens, really hundreds probably of generations, right? It's hard to explain why the Rebbe says tens of generations. In any event, this faith that you've had for many, many generations, by now it is strong, it's powerful. Uh, and cert-- And it's not going to just roll over and disappear

05:27 one day. This is the faith that you inherited that is, uh, that is complete belief in Hashem. So where is this doubt coming from? "Mine Kamasivas Tadivas," for side reasons. "Mikhtomit Pe'ez Epulas V'gili." Sometimes you don't feel what you know. You know that, uh-- you know in your heart, you know in your neshamah that there is a h-- that, that, that Hashem is there and Hashem is one and all of that stuff. But You don't always feel. Sometimes things that are opposing this or the opposite of this can cover over this and hide this truth. And then when you fight with these things, . Says the Rebbe that when you fight with these things that are getting in your way, usually what happens is you just give strength to those things. However, if you remove your mind from the discussion entirely, you remove your mind from it, you don't pay attention to it, you don't get involved in the back and forth over what the truth of the matter is, when you focus instead, you instead focus your mind on something else entirely, this weakens the hold of these alien forces on your mind. these things that oppose you. So what we have here is the Rebbe is telling him, but he's also not saying think about nothing. Notice what the Rebbe is being very careful to tell him. Stop thinking about this and shift your mind to some other . You have to switch over entirely to some other kind of thinking. Now why

06:50 is the Rebbe telling him not just to clear his mind or meditate or to not think about the bad thing, but specifically to think about a positive thing? Because beneath this is what we already know from the which is that if he stops thinking entirely, he's gonna default to because that's something he's already been exposed to. Since he's been exposed to it through, through some outside source, if his mind is left idle, it's just going to go in the worst direction also. So the Rebbe's advice is not to have an idle mind, it's to not think about this and specifically to think about something else. doesn't mean an empty mind. It means switch what you're thinking about. But God forbid to go to an empty mind, 'cause an empty mind, as we learned from the will get him right back into trouble. Here the Rebbe says exactly what I just said, except in slightly different words. That is, it is understood that when it comes to , when it comes to these alien thoughts you don't want in your mind, and the like, you cannot get rid of them except by thinking about a positive thing instead. You can't get rid of them by pushing it out of your mind. You have to change what you're thinking about. This is, by the way, just good advice in general, is that if somebody wants to remove a from their mind, what a lot of times people do is they try to stop thinking about it. And

07:51 of course, the more you stop thinking about something-- try to stop thinking about something, the more you think about something. But if instead you focus your mind on something else entirely, most minds can't hold two things in them, and they'll focus on the thing you're focusing on. So anytime you wanna focus your mind, the best way to focus it is actually not to remove things from your mind, it's to focus on something different that is the point of focus. Since the mind is always-- since the thought is always floating around, bopping from thing to thing, and you can't really empty it, when you dive into, when you delve into with your mind, which is the terror of life-- terror of light, excuse me, it will push away a whole lot of darkness. So again, the Rebbe is really pushing here that there should be a from the negative thing, but not a entirely where doesn't show up. That should be channeled toward a positive thought. As the Rebbe here says, the mind is always working and, uh, it can't be completely empty. And if you are not working on something positive, it's working on something negative, which is very similar to what the said in our letter. A little different, 'cause the did suggest the existence of an empty mind. The Rebbe is recognizing your mind's never truly empty. It's always thinking about something. But where does it default when you're not telling it what to think? And the answer is, it'll default to something

08:58 negative if that's what's around you. So wh-- and that's clearly what this person's been exposed to, so he can't allow idle thoughts at this point. What he can allow is, uh, is focused thoughts on something positive. Now you also need to figure out how this happened. Now what does he mean how this happened? The fr-- the, the Rebbe already explained how this happened. You have an and clearly some outside factor has influenced you. But what he's doing once again, I think at least, at least the way I'm reading it now, having known the letter, is he's referencing the second half of what the said. The said that if your mind is left completely idle, it is going to be chaotic and it's going to be stupid, but not necessarily what brand of chaotic and stupid, right? There's all sorts of things that are chaotic and stupid, and chaotic and foolish does not always mean that you're going to land in . So the Rebbe is now asking, what exactly did you do that meant that when your brain goes on autopilot and acts chaotic and foolish, that it's gonna land on rejection of the existence of God as opposed to anything else? There's a bunch of places the mind can wander. Why did your mind wander there? And what we had from the is that that usually happens because of bad friends. We have another explanation here of why an empty mind would wander in that direction. You need to have he says, how this

09:59 happened to you, how this opposite thing got hel-- got hold on your soul. This is explained in that in a lot of cases it comes from . It comes from youthful sins, uh, which is a, uh, which is a word that means something else. But I think everybody understands, and if they don't, they can send me a message. And from not being careful about not engaging in things that don't matter, in . And, uh, that might mean words that don't matter, speaking empty things, but I think it probably means all around engagement in stuff that is inconsequential. So in addition to the is that? Or ? Probably . I don't know. So he says, "I want you to start taking on ," which is obviously a good solution for and to remove your mind from anything having to do with , even from fixing it. Don't even think about fixing the . Just stop thinking about it entirely. And to increase in letters of Torah, of the tefillah, and in davening, tzedakah, and in giving tzedakah, at least small amounts. And to have a on young people to bring them close to Torah and mitzvos. As Chazal say, anybody who teaches his friend Torah, it's as though he's given birth to him. And of course, you have to do all of this first and foremost with joy. This is the Rebbe's derech of joy. As explained in Tanya in many places. If your yetzer hara does tell you, how can you be so happy given

11:42 that you are in such a sorry state? Drag your yetzer hara over to Tanya Kadisha, to the Sefer Tanya, and show it the part that says you're not allowed to mix the joy of the soul with the sadness of the body. It's true, my body's not doing great, but my soul's on fire. And explain to him, explain to your yetzer hara that everything has its time and place and . And when you do this, when you stand at the very tekef of ratzon and you ex-exercise your will as much as possible, and you grab onto the avodas of Hashem, avodas Hashem with great joy, you will have success. You'll also get help from on high. as is explained in the Zohar. The Rebbe says, "I'm awaiting good news from you with good joy." So what happens in this last paragraph is very similar again to what the Frieda Kereba does. That is that he says in addition to this hesachadas, which is that I don't want your mind to empty anymore. I want it focused on something productive, not on something negative or on nothing. I want it focused in a productive way. He also says to him, I think that there are some averas that are getting in your way. And he tells him, I want you to get rid of those averas. In the case of the Frieda Kereba's letter, the boy was hanging out with a bad crowd. So the Rebbe told him to change his crowd. In this case, it looks

12:44 like this particular person's problem was chates nortem. So the Rebbe suggests that he do tefilas ezra and focus on not a tikkun for it right now, but you know, a non-thinking tikkun for this avera, which involves going to mikvah regularly. And of course, to fill his time with the words of Torah and tefila, which is again the advice from the Frieda Kereba, and to just get involved in Yiddishkeit in such a way that his time is full and his mind is full. An additional thing we see here from the Rebbe that we don't see from the Frieda Kereba, and this really does, I think, emphasize a major difference between the Rebbe's open approach and the Frieda Kereba's open approach. The Frieda Kereba, all of our Rabbeim talk about simcha. Simcha is a big thing for Chassidim, but it was definitely not a priority. That's safe to say. It was not a priority among Chassidim prior to the Rebbe making it a priority. We talked about simcha and there was this sort of deep internal joy, but the idea that an aveida cannot begin without being mitet simcha, the Rebbe's emphasis on simcha even in chova is something that is well-sourced throughout all of Chassidus, but I am told was not a major emphasis. I'm told that prior to the Rebbe, I'm told that when the Rebbe introduced the idea of simcha being the primary way that we're doing avid in this generation, mashpiyim from the prior generation literally didn't know what a fabrang about it

13:48 because fabrang about simcha just hadn't been done before. So we are seeing the Rebbe's introducing a new dimension here. He is very careful to tell us it's not a new dimension, that you'll find it in Tanya, but I'm telling you it really is a relatively new dimension and we didn't see that in the Frieda Kereba. The Frieda Kereba did not tell this boy who was having sex and wanted to make sure he did everything to simcha, but the Rebbe is not going to let us off without that. The Rebbe is always going to tell us to do everything to simcha. So we have here one very thorough letter that really does capture, I think, the entire approach done in the Rebbe's sign. And I want to show you pieces of other letters. We just see bits and pieces of other things from the Frieda Kereba. That's the only one I want to read beginning to end. There's another letter down here, which is from Chaf Beis Kislev of Tufshin Chaf Aleph. This person is also writing about this fake Asenimona, but the part I really want to show you is just this paragraph right here. The Rebbe says there's other ways to solve fake Asenimona and this is the best one of all. I think maybe I've already told you about this and that is that is removing your mind from when your yetzahar comes with its seductions. You should answer yetzahar. I have no time for you right now because I need to learn

14:50 Torah. I need to do mitzvahs. I need to daven. I'm too busy to think about this. I'm thinking about other things. Now that is, of course, exactly what the Frieda Kereba told this boy to do in our letter that we saw yesterday. The Frieda Kereba was telling him that your mind can't be empty and you don't have time for empty thoughts, certainly not for negative thoughts. I want you to take your mind and focus it and all of its energy and all of its time on Torah mitzvahs and on davening, which is exactly the advice the Rebbe is giving here, but the Rebbe's lushin is a little different. The Rebbe likes the lushin of but he's really, I believe, saying the same thing. He also tells him to give tzedakah. I don't remember if the Frieda Kereba told him to give tzedakah. I don't remember. We'd have to look at the letter again. I don't have it on my screen right now. He tells him to be careful about chitas, which is again filling his mind with positive things. What's the main thing? Really to throw yourself into your yeshiva studies. That is very much the advice the Frieda Kereba gave. You should know how refreshing this is. I'm not sure you know how refreshing this is because a lot of us who listen to this year have only ever heard the Rebbe chita on these things and don't know the world's chita, but you should know that outside of the Rebbe chita, this is

15:52 not the advice anybody gives on sveikas enimona. The go-to advice on sveikas enimona is to delve into the topic and make sure that you totally get those out of your head. To read the books that, to read the books, some of the books by Reshanim that prove the existence of God, to have long talks with rabbis and mashpiyim who are supposed to be able to explain to you how there is a God, to surround yourself with this idea until you completely embrace it. This is completely novel what the Rebbe is saying here, although it's, I think hopefully it's already become pervasive in Lubavitch, which is that the Rebbe's approach to somebody with sveikas enimona is to have them throw themselves into everything positive. And the Rebbe has already explained, and we explained a little bit outside why functionally this works with the neshamah. The Rebbe really explains it over here in the middle part of this letter where he talks about the neshamah and maminim b'nei maminim, which is that yidden fundamentally already believe. So they don't need to be convinced of everything. We just need to get the yetzahar out of our way. And the best way to get the yetzahar out of the way, for that we have Gemara, drag it to the base medrash. That's already a very old idea. A lot of people don't understand that sveikas enimona is just another yetzahar. You want to do the right thing and you already believe and your yetzahar is telling you not to.

16:47 So you treat it like any other yetzahar. And the best solution for a yetzahar is from the yetzahar, throw yourself into Torah study and keep yourself busy with something else. That's the advice we give for all yetzahars. And for some reason, people frequently treat sveikas enimona a little differently. I can't tell you exactly why. This letter is just, I don't know if I'll read it inside, but I do want to tell you some of the things that happen in it. This is a letter from Tesvav Elof Tufshin Yud Ches Tufshin Chai. And here the Rebbe relates the classic story of the Frieda Kereba where somebody came to the Frieda Kereba and told him that he had sveikas enimona, he had doubts in his faith. And that, I'm sorry, not the Frieda Kereba, the Temach Tzedek. The Frieda Kereba tells the story about the Temach Tzedek. So he came to the Temach Tzedek with sveikas enimona and the Temach Tzedek asked him, why do you care that you don't believe in God? What do you care? And the Chasad said back with incredibly sadakshus, he was very concerned and very upset by this comment. He said, what do you mean? How can you ask me why do I care? Of course I care. It's everything to me. And the Temach Tzedek says back to him, that proves at the very least that you do believe. Now this didn't, it's a cute story, but it doesn't solve his problem, which is what the Rebbe goes into in

17:44 this letter. It's on one hand, it's a cute story. On the other hand, yeah, he cares. That's why he came to you, but he still has sveikas enimona and he's still broken. The Rebbe says that wasn't the point of the Temach Tzedek at all. The point of the Temach Tzedek was to prove to him that deep down he had emunah, even if he wasn't feeling it. And if you can prove to somebody that their reality is faith in God, even though their yetzahar is shouting something else, you can start tackling this problem as a yetzahar problem, not as a me problem. What a lot of people do when they get sveikas enimona is they decide that either they're broken or God's broken without realizing that this is just a run-of-the-mill yetzahar. And the only way to really bring somebody to that realization is to first point out that they do deep down believe when their yetzahar is not in the way. So the Temach Tzedek showed him that when his yetzahar wasn't in the way, he believed and then gave him advice on how to work on his yetzahar, which is of course the same advice we keep on seeing, hesachadas and throwing yourself into Other things. There's a super long letter here that we're not gonna read. This letter is from Tes Vav Tavis of Tuv Shin Yud Alef. I want you to see just one paragraph from it, and it's this one over here. "Yes, Al Zeh," the Rebbe says. In addition, this

18:45 person wrote to the Rebbe about Sfeikas Ananona. The Rebbe has a lot of things to say to him, including a long introduction where he says to him that it's just so horrible that someone who knows so much Chassidus and has been so involved in Yiddishkeit could have these sorts of problems. So, uh, I think that part of the letter is a little comforting for a lot of people. You should recognize this isn't just the realm of people who are uninitiated. You have here in these ear-early paragraphs of this letter, the Rebbe saying, uh, that-- saying he's writing to somebody who's incredibly knowledgeable, who's incredibly deep, probably a Mashpia of some kind because it sounds like he has influence over students, and he's struggling. So the Rebbe says-- Uh, the Rebbe starts off by explaining that in the letter. But here, the part we need is: "Yes, Al Zeh. Im Esher Chezesh Shvuos Yasiach Daas Min Hachshav Eidas Matzav B'ruchnius." The Rebbe says, "For a couple of weeks, I want you to stop thinking about your matzav in ruchnius." This person had written to the Rebbe that they had all these ideas about how maybe they could get their Emunah back. Maybe they could write a Kamea. Maybe they could write an amulet. Maybe they could give themselves Malkus. They had all these ideas on how to get their faith back now that their faith was lost. And the Rebbe says, um, "Look, you're a deep person, clearly." This is clearly a deep person who knows

19:40 a lot of Chassidus and is str-- and really wants to get his Emunah back and doesn't know where it went. So the Rebbe says, "First of all, you're working on it too hard, and that's the problem. I want you, Yasiach Daas. I want you to remove your mind from it entirely. Don't think about this at all for at least several weeks." "SheYesh Sfeikas BeEmunah V'ade Gam Zeh. Ein Ki Mamim BeGam Mamim." The truth is, the Rebbe says, "You don't have Sfeikas Ananona. The truth is that you're a believer, the child of a believer, the son of a believer." "SheEin Likei Achad UChoz Min Hachshavah. VeEin Hai Ela Atlas Nefesh Habhamas SheNirtze LeHagiah Satzmi." This is not something that is, uh, moved into your mind. This is the laziness of the Nefesh Habhamas that-- coming from the Nefesh Habhamas, that it does-- that, uh, you don't wanna work. It doesn't wanna do any work. So what are we seeing here? Very similar to what the Friediker Rebbe said. You don't actually have Sfeikas Ananona. It's just that your mind has-- you've, you've gotten lazy. Your mind is not actively working, and so Sfeikas have been taking over. "Asher Reiku Mitorah." That is the exact lashon of the Friediker Rebbe. It's hard to imagine the Rebbe isn't literally quoting the Friediker Rebbe here, that the reason why this is happening is that your Machshavah is empty from Torah. "BeEzaz Zeh Talmud Torah." And what's the solution? Learn more Torah. "V'lo Atlas V'harbeh Machshavos Batelis." Certainly, the result--

20:40 Certainly, the answer is not sadness, nor is it thinking all sorts of idle thoughts. "ShTarchu Tikunim," uh, and these ideas that you would need certain Tikunim, "SheAm Chassidus Nas Zalul DeTshuva, Tefila, Torah V'tzedakah." Chassidus explains at length that the way that we make Tikunim is through Tshuva, Tefila, and Torah. That is through throwing yourself into Torah and mitzvahs, through Hasidut. "V'lo Heide Kameas U'malkus." We certainly don't fix ourselves using amulets or using whipping and corporeal punishment, and corporal punishment and the like. Not corporeal. That would mean that it's mamashis. Corporal punishment and the like. So again, we have this idea from the Rebbe, I think very closely affecting the Friediker Rebbe's letter. I just wanna end off by showing you two things that are only loosely related but worth having in the backs of your heads. And that is that we talked about, uh, what we've seen in a lot of the Rebbe's letters and hinted to in the Friediker Rebbe's letter is that since everybody fundamentally believes, uh, the only thing that can make them stop believing is, A, their mind is allowed to go idle for a while, and B, some sort of Aveira that puts an idle mind in that direction. So you need two ingredients to make Sfeikas Ananona. Number one, an idle mind, and number two, some sort of Aveira that would nudge the mind in that direction. So in the Friediker Rebbe's letter, that Aveira was hanging out with a bad Chevrah. In some of the letters we saw

21:44 here, we saw one of the Aveiras that, that can possibly do this is Chatas Nurim, is the sins of youth. Um, uh, we're gonna see two more here. One of them is similar. This is from a letter from, uh, Chof Zaim Nach Mam Tuv Shin Yud Daled. The Rebbe says, "I'm very, uh-- I'm, I'm entirely rejecting this idea. I'm not happy at all to hear that you only go to Mikveh on Erev Yom Kippur." "HaAreh Zeh Negeia Lo Rak Belimah DeChassidus Ella Gam BeTahras Haguf Ve'asev B'chelav B'chizuk HaEmunah." Says that this isn't just Negeia to Limud Chassidus. It's, uh, also Negeia to Tahras Haguf, and it's also Negeia to Chizuk HaEmunah, that it strengthens the faith and that lack of going to Mikveh. Someone who doesn't go to Mikveh every single day or doesn't go to Mikveh very often, someone who only goes to Mikveh once a year. If you are somebody who's struggling with their Emunah and you also have recently stopped going to Mikveh regularly, the Rebbe says these two things are connected. Um, this is probably connected because of the Chatas Nurim thing we talked about earlier. That's the truth. But even beyond that, the Rebbe says beyond Tefillas Ezra, there's a need of Tesefas Torah, of increasing Torah. And when somebody doesn't do that regularly, Tesefas Torah, increasing their purity through going to Mikveh, they can lean in the direction of Sfeikas BeEmunah. I, I read this as being another one of the things that when you combine it with an

22:47 empty mind, take empty mind plus haven't been to Mikveh in a while, that can certainly cause Sfeikas Ananona. Another thing which is probably the most common one that we talk about 'cause there's a whole story surrounding it is Chalav Akum. This is a short letter from the Rebbe. This is from Tuv Shin Yud Ches, Chof Ches Tavis of Tuv Shin Yud Ches. And the Rebbe writes, "You wrote about a certain Avrech. Uh, Hineh Ma SheAmarti L'vini Geir Chalav Akum. What I told him about Chalav Akum, Hu Af Hi Sipur Yedui HaMakavod L'mericha U'mer," which is already printed. "SheChalav Akum Eres Sfeikas BeEmunah." There's a whole story that someone was fine in their Emunah. They ate something that was, uh, Chalav Akum. They didn't even know they had Chalav Akum, milk that was not properly watched over for its kashrus. And because of that, they got Sfeikas Ananona. So the Rebbe says, "This is not just a story. This is very practical." Chalav Akum, uh, non-kosher foods or less than kosher foods, lenient foods. Um, not being careful enough about things like cholov Yisroel. These are certainly things that can be MeEres Sfeikas Ananona and can cause somebody to have doubts in their Emunah. Once again, what we're doing is we're taking an empty mind plus some Aveira, and sometimes it's not an Aveira. It sounds like sometimes it's a lack of Minhag. Uh, not being careful enough about the Minhag to go to Mikveh, not being careful enough about the Minhag to be very strict

23:45 about our milk. Uh, if you combine an empty mind with a lack of Minhag practice, this seems to be all it takes to send somebody down the road to Sfeikas Ananona. And of course, the solution is Tshuva for the things that were done wrong, removing that Aveira and deciding you're not gonna do it again, throwing yourself into Torah and mitzvahs, and not thinking too much about these Sfeikas Ananona. Chesed Chadas, which is similar to what the Friediker Rebbe says, which is focusing your mind on something else 'cause the Rebbe's Chesed Chadas is not thinking about nothing. It's thinking about something else. In any event, I think we've seen, uh, very clearly across several letters that the Rebbe really is spinning off that one letter from the Friediker Rebbe. I see this Shiur less as the Rebbe's approach versus the Friediker Rebbe's approach and more as a Bier on the Friediker Rebbe's approach. So if you wanna think about it that way, I think class one, we sort of looked at how the Friediker Rebbe handles Sfeikas Ananona. And today, I hope we've done what I would call a Bier from the Rebbe on how the Friediker Rebbe handles Sfeikas Ananona. Thank you very much.