הרבי ובעל המסעדה

00:01 Speaker 1 This is Iggros. We are looking at letters from almost exactly fifty years ago. The letter we're looking at today is from Kaf Adar. A problem that I see brewing here is that we only have one Adar in our Iggros from this year, and we have two Adars in our real life that we're living right now fifty years later. So I think we're gonna be jumping around, but at this point we're in the middle of Adar, at least in Iggros, and we're looking at Kaf Adar Taf Shin Lamed Dalet, a tiny little letter that ends up packing a real punch. I had no idea that there would be this much information out there on the subject of this letter, but the letter is labeled Yud Alef Peh Zayin, and the Rebbe opens with, "Azkar Al Hatzion Leha'na'oh." I'm gonna mention it at the Tzion. And then he says, "Mezuzos Bedukas Vatalas Es Hamisada." Make sure that you have checked Mezuzahs on the doors of your restaurant. Now, just as, as an aside, um, I'm not completely su-- I, I'm really not sure. I, I looked, I poked around. I'm not sure that a restaurant literally needs Mezuzahs, uh, and I'm almost sure that you don't make a beracha on Mezuzahs that are put up in a restaurant. Uh, I think most Poskim like to see them on any storefront that you're using during the day regularly that's not just a pop-up. Uh, pop-ups in a, a pop-up store, like a marketplace booth, Shulchan Aruch already says

01:02 Speaker 1 doesn't need Mezuzahs, but anything else that's like a regular place of work, you probably want a Mezuzah. But the idea that they should be Mezuzos Bedukas, I, I don't know. I think it's a, it's a somewhat unique sentence to me because the Rebbe seems to be emphasizing the importance of a Mezuzah in a place that I wouldn't have necessarily guessed needs the best Mezuzahs in the world. In any event, maybe all Mezuzahs need to be good. That's not the point for today. The point for today is that he's talking to him about how to keep his restaurant running. "Kedai Shemezun Lehareitzim Sidur, Tehillim, Chumash, Tzedakah Pushke." He says, "Make sure in your restaurant you have available for people who come to eat there, that there should be a Sidur, a Tehillim, a Chumash, and Tzedakah-- and a Tzedakah Pushke, a place to give Tzedakah." So the Rebbe wants him to transform his restaurant into a Makom Kodesh. Uh, the Rebbe's involvement in restaurants and kosher restaurants, uh, of course, uh, is far more significant than I would have known. So I went looking to find when else the Rebbe spoke to restaurateurs, owners of restaurants, people opening kosher establishments, and encouraged them or told them to make it a place where there would be a Sidur, Tehillim, Chumash, Tzedakah Pushke. And the answer is that he does this in a lot of places. The Rebbe really supported many, uh, helped open many of the kosher restaurants that were the only sources for kosher food in

02:06 Speaker 1 certain countries. The Rebbe constantly pushes kosher establishments to make themselves not just kosher, but Jewish, to, uh, invest in things like Sidur, Tehillim, Chumash, and Tzedakah Pushke. And this is a, uh, this s- letter is emblematic of a shita from the Rebbe about how people should run restaurants and whether people should be opening them. In order to understand this, I wanted to take us back in time to-- it's not really back in time because it's from Taf Shin Tes Vav, but the Rebbe here in the Sicha talks about something that the Friediker Rebbe did years earlier. So this is the Sicha that is in Tzeres Menachem. It is in volume fourteen. It's on page one sixty-six. It is a Yud Beis Tammuz Sicha from Taf Shin Tes Vav, and the Rebbe writes this. "I want to give an example for something," says the Rebbe. "Yedida Meforsom, it's well known that the Friediker Rebbe did not like, uh, when people learned secular studies." Where is this going? He didn't like when people learned secular studies. This is something that the Friediker-- that the, excuse me, that the Alter Rebbe writes is, "Metamed Bechinas Chabad Shebanafshe," that secular studies, that sciences and the things like that, they, uh, they defile the Chabad of the soul, the intellectual capabilities of the soul. And therefore, the Friediker Rebbe pushed back against this when it came to all the Jewish people, and especially when it came to Timim, to Chassidim, really pushed back against secular subjects. "Ve'einz Hevestira," and this

03:14 Speaker 1 is not a contradiction with what I'm about to tell you, says the Rebbe, despite the fact that the Friediker Rebbe really didn't like colleges. Nonetheless, the Friediker Rebbe sent money to groups of students, uh, who were Jewish, who were learning in a college, that they would be, uh, that they would be able to set up a Mitbach Kosher. They'd be able to set up a kosher kitchen and things like that. Uh, "Sharred Boreh Shekasher Ve'yehudis Shechiga Beshtei Raggav," and the reason why is a little bit insulting, but here you go . The reason why is that when it's clear that a, a Jew who is, uh, maimed in both of his legs, "Ve'achshav Sheyechiga Be'raglav Achas Vav," and you can have an effect on him that will only be maimed in one of his legs, then we should do that. So, uh, what he's saying here is that the efforts that the Friediker Rebbe had, the Friediker Rebbe was involved at length in sending money to help colleges open kosher kitchens, which might look to the outsider like the Friediker Rebbe supports college. The Rebbe says he doesn't support college. He just-- he says, you know, there's two horrible things happening here. One, that they're studying secular subjects, and the other that they're eating treif, and if I can fix one of their broken legs better than, uh, better than leaving them with two broken legs. In any event, what we do see from the Sicha, though it's a funny line about college, what we

04:14 Speaker 1 see from the Sicha is the Friediker Rebbe himself was very invested in opening kosher establishments for people, uh, in places, even in places that he didn't necessarily want them to go, to make sure that there was a kosher kitchen, a kosher restaurant in those areas. The Rebbe's investment in these sorts of initiatives goes way back, and we're gonna explore some of them. They go all the way back, I think the first time we have it is, uh, probably this Madrid case from Taf Shin Yud Beis. Why don't I show you the Madrid one first? I think the earliest one we have is Madrid. Madrid has a whole story behind it. Uh, Rav, uh, Binyamin Gardetsky was traveling on his way to Morocco. He stopped in Madrid, and he found there while he was setting some things up, uh, in Madrid, he, uh, found that there was no place for people to eat. There were a bunch of Jewish students in the academic institutions there, and they were, they were eating treif, or they just weren't eating, I guess. They were probably eating treif. That's the truth. And, uh, he saw that as an enormous problem. He found a rich Jew there named Moshe, what is it, Levenda? Le-Levenda? I don't know how to pronounce his name. He found a rich Jew then named Moshe Levenda, who was very generous, and he had already established an informal tiny shul in Madrid. And, um, they brought in a shechitah who had been, who had been shechting, I

05:18 Speaker 1 think, in, uh, in Hungary somewhere. And, uh, basically Rav, Rav Binyamin Gardetsky put together kosher dining in Madrid for these students and sent messages about it to the Rebbe. They ended up having a three-story building. I have some notes here. They ended up having a three-story building. The top floor was for Torah study. The lower floor was a kosher restaurant, and I don't know what happened to the middle floor. It doesn't say in my notes, so I, I guess maybe they lived there. In any event, uh, we have a letter about that. This is a letter Alef Tav. It's an early letter. It's in volume five, I believe. An early letter. In any event, this is from Gimel Shvat of Taf Shin Yud Beis. It's in, yeah, it's in the Prach five Amud Reish. The letter is labeled Alef Tav. And the Rebbe writes with very effusive words to Levenda, who's just a rich guy, but not just a rich guy, a rich guy who opened, uh, the first kosher dining hall for the students in Madrid. Says, "Anichmed Menalah Ish Yireh Lekim Askan Rav Pal," and these are the honorifics he gives to someone who opened a kosher restaurant. "Hanadiv," the great, uh, the generous giver, um, who is Moshe Sheikhiel Levenda, "Shomu Bracha." And the Rebbe writes to him that he was very happy to receive a duch that, uh, said that he was, um, from, uh, from the Could it be, could it be Rabat, Morocco? Mor- Could be Rabat, Morocco. I

07:57 Speaker 1 have no idea. Is there a place called Rabat in Morocco? Morocco has a city called Rabat. Why not Morocco then? Let's make it Morocco for now. Uh, so in response to the, uh, in response to- I believe there is Rabat. Yeah, I believe you. Uh, in response to the financial difficulties that this- Morocco ... kosher restaurant in Morocco, Mar- in Rabat, which might be Morocco, is experiencing- It's actually the capital. It's the capital of Morocco. No way, it's the capital? I would never have guessed that. See how ignorant we are? This is a problem. Okay. So yeah, that would probably be Morocco. That's what my Google says. Okay, I believe you. So there's this restaurant in Morocco. They're apparently having financial difficulties, and that they sounds like they have loan, they have, uh, they have debts too. The Rebbe writes, I believe Surely you know that, uh, you are not the only person suffering right now. I have Meistus Chabad all over the world, and all of them are also having financial problems, too. This is not the place for me to explain this to you, but, uh, you are not my only financial concern. Nonetheless, because this is something very important, a kosher restaurant in Morocco is very important. and I recognize that that you wrote about this to me because Now, this took me forever. Do you guys all know that can mean multiple things? I didn't know that it could also mean like a remittance payment. Did you know this? It means

09:14 Speaker 1 that he's attaching a payment, but I thought that he was also attaching a clap. I, I don't know. But, uh, this means that he's paying for it. Nonetheless, it's going to be a one-time payment. What, you didn't know this? I didn't know this either. I had to look this up everywhere. It's an I'm gonna help you at least one time. It should be God's will, essentially, that everything should go well for you from this point forward. The God should expand all of the Meistus that are including, of course, a kosher restaurant. which should then have their effect. And what is the effect that he's hoping from all these Meistus? And the Rebbe includes in this a kosher restaurant in Morocco, uh, that they will light, that they will light up the darkness of the world with the flame of a mitzvah and the Torah of light, and the source of light that's within the Torah The Rebbe is saying all of this not just about Meistus Chabad, but specifically about a kosher restaurant, to give you an idea of how significant the Rebbe sees kosher restaurants. I feel like there was one more letter here I wanted to show you, but I don't know where I put it. But I will note that, uh, I have some notes over here, that I, I had small letters or bits of sichas or sometimes footnotes in sichas that suggested the Rebbe was also very involved in establishing the kosher restaurant in Milan, a kosher restaurant in Bologna,

10:27 Speaker 1 uh, both of them in Italy. And he also really pushed Zalman Rifkin very, very hard to maintain a kosher restaurant in Tel Aviv. There are multiple, like, little snippets of correspondences, sometimes at the ends of sichas where they'll say that he handed him a bottle of mashke and said, "Put this toward the restaurant," that he was maybe considering closing at the time. There's, like, a real, uh, a real push from the Rebbe constantly, like every Yachid is to make the restaurant work and, uh, so the Rebbe was also deeply involved in the restaurant in Tel Aviv. The last two letters that I wanna show you are what, what potential the Rebbe sees in kosher restaurants beyond the obvious. We've already talked about the obvious. That is that, uh, these are places, uh, where people who were eating treif can now start eating kosher, and the Rebbe considers this one of his own, one of the Meistus of Chabad that has all of the normal berachahs of spreading Torah and Mitzvahs within the Meistus. But the Rebbe also talks about in these last two letters we have on our screen, the very unique advantage of a restaurant over other Meistus, over other organizations. That maybe a restaurant or a kosher restaurant can sometimes accomplish something that, uh, perhaps a shul or a Beis Midrash simply cannot. This letter is Tav Shin Yod Zayin. The letter is labeled Hey Quf Pe Dalet, and we're gonna go all the way to this middle paragraph. The Rebbe says, I

11:31 Speaker 1 was very happy to hear that you succeeded in opening a kosher restaurant. I mean, he doesn't say kosher, but I, I sure assume it was one. And it sounds like you were also able to increase the meals. I don't know if that means that it's now open more days a week or if there's just more stuff on the menu, but the restaurant has grown. the Rebbe says, "I'm waiting. I'm eagerly waiting to hear more good news about this." Even if we stop right there, this is already incredible. It gives you an idea again, of how much the Rebbe values a kosher restaurant, and then he says that he is, he is waiting, eagerly waiting to hear more good news about a business. Uh, swallowing is great because it brings people close. It's all-- it's an expression. What it means is that people, uh, people unite over food. I think there's an American idiom like this too, but I don't remember what it is. Um, there are American id-- there are English idioms that go like this too, that people get together and, uh, and, and unite over food. Of course, this is something that we recognize in Halacha. One of the reasons for official Akum and past Akum and things like that is specifically to prevent that, uh, Legim Mecherem, to prevent the fact that food can, uh, can cause you to make, um, relationships with inappropriate parties. And specifically, what do I mean that swallowing brings people close together, that food brings people close?

12:39 Speaker 1 That means you can bring people close to Hashem. That in these situations, the time of eating is a great time for you to use for Chinuch, for educating people about the Minhagin, the customs, and the Din Yisrael, the laws of the Jewish people, uh, all the things that they should be doing in their daily lives. So the Rebbe is telling this restaurant owner, "I'm very excited about your progress, and I'm also very excited about the potential of your restaurant, which you've used as a vehicle for educating people about Yiddishkeit." One more letter along this line to show you. This is a letter that is labeled Tes Tav kuf Samech. It is from chaf vav elul. Av tav shin chaf tes. I hope. Yes, here it is. And it is written to three partners, Avraham Yitzchak, Elazar Kalman, and Yosef Kornland. Do we have anything about them? I don't think we know anything about them. I don't know.

13:25 Speaker 2 Yeah. Avraham Yitzchak is Rick from, uh, England, and Elazar Kalman is Steven Brun, also from England. They were artists. And the third one is who? The other one, I guess, must have been a partner with them.

13:40 Speaker 1 Man, we have an all-star team here.

13:42 Speaker 2 They had a restaurant, uh, called Gershon's in England for a number of years.

13:49 Speaker 1 Where was it?

13:50 Speaker 2 Gershon's.

13:52 Speaker 1 Yeah. Where-- It was, it was located where, Gershon's?

13:55 Speaker 2 In, uh, in Golden Street in, in, in London.

13:58 Speaker 1 Oh, that's awesome. This is information I would not have known at all. Thank you very much.

14:03 Speaker 3 I think he said it was called Jasmine's.

14:05 Speaker 1 Jasmine's?

14:06 Speaker 2 Gershon, Gershon's.

14:07 Speaker 1 Gershon's.

14:08 Speaker 2 Named, named for the son.

14:10 Speaker 3 Gershon's. Wow.

14:12 Speaker 1 It sounds a little more like a kosher restaurant that way, right? Shalom Ubracha, the Rebbe writes. Shalom Ubracha. the restaurant. I heard you opened the restaurant, and it should be in a goodly and successful hour. these are days of merit. These are days of segula. When it comes to Yidden, who are the am segula, the, the segula nation, uh, everything when it comes to gashmius and ruchnius is connected. If you wanna have success in the gashmius of your business, I hope you will-- you will all, uh, you will all increase the mazon ruchni shel atzmi. Um, it's a business where you're feeding people in gashmius. You're also going to need to feed yourselves in ruchnius. And that means that you should increase in your Torah study and in your mitzvot behitah. And of course, when it comes to these three people who do know a thing or two about Torah and mitzvot, expanding upon this is unnecessary. So he gives a berakhah and he gives them a berakhah for a happy new year. What we get out of this letter is I like this phrase, mazon ruchni, that, uh, that what a restaurant is able to offer a person is not just mazon in gashmius, but hopefully mazon in ruchnius. Although in this letter, he's really telling the restaurant owners that if they're going to be feeding people in gashmius, they should be-- and they wanna see success in it, they will need to feed themselves in ruchnius. We can obviously extend this to what

15:37 Speaker 1 we saw in the previous letter, that a restaurant is a good place to feed people ruchnius as well, to accustom them to the laws and customs of the Jewish people. So we see across several letters here and a bit of our-- and some stories that we popped in throughout is that, uh, the Rebbe was, the Rebbe was incredibly invested in kosher restaurants, um, opening them in different countries, ensuring that there's kosher food available, both for the practical reason that we need people to have kosher food, otherwise they might, chas v'Shalom, eat food that's not kosher, but also because there are actual advantages. The Rebbe considers it like one of his meistes, talks about it like one of his meistes, and considers it a, uh, a vehicle that might be able to accomplish some things that other vehicles cannot. Perhaps in the setting of a restaurant, a person can discuss Torah and mitzvot in a way that they can't in a conventional Chabad house. Okay, that's it.

16:28 Speaker 3 Can you imagine if one time-- Can you imagine if one time in one of these meetings, and I don't, and I don't have a comment? Could you imagine? The only thing I wanted to say was that, that I found interesting was that nowhere does the Rebbe say that they should actually serve good food or the quality of the food, which is very interesting because the Rebbe in so many other Inyanim when it came to meistes and stuff, he talks about the quality of things, that things have to look nice. I forgot what it was. We were-- Was it about shuls or mikvahs and stuff? I forgot what-- We had, we've had shiurim on this in the past, where the Rebbe was very into, like, the aesthetics, and it should be pleasing, and it should have the right, you know, physical setup. Yet in none of these letters did the Rebbe address that the food should be tasty, and they should double down the quality of the food. Like, the guy's saying he's having a problem with his business, and he-- his business is gonna close down. And the Rebbe says, "Listen, I'll, I'll give you a one-time bailout." But the Rebbe doesn't tell him, "Maybe you should revisit your menu and get a better chef and maybe up the quality of your food." I found it very interesting.

17:18 Speaker 1 It is a very interesting point because, uh, there, there were, like, six or seven letters I didn't show you that I just didn't think we needed to make our point. And in those six or seven letters, he also does not at any point suggest that the place should be nice, that the food should be nice. I, I didn't find a single case where the Rebbe advises the gashmius of a restaurant, which is very interesting. You're right. That's, that, that's really out of the ordinary.

17:37 Speaker 3 It's out of character because in so many other things, in so many other things, the Rebbe does advise on the gashmius specifically.

17:43 Speaker 1 Yeah, you're right. I have no idea. What a good question.