לדבר עם עמיתים לעבודה על יהדות

00:00 This is Igris, and today we're looking at letters from exactly sixty years ago. We're going back to our, uh, to our Chaf Dalets. This is Zayin Other of Tav Shin Chaf Dalet. So about exactly, you know, close enough. This letter is labeled Hes Tav Shin Hey Alef, and it has a nekuda in it that we're gonna dive into in the Shir at large. Uh, I don't wanna read the whole letter, the top part is Shamla Bracha, and, uh, the Rebbe give his Brachas and says he'll mention them by the Tzion, and then go down to B'vadai, uh, or really L'chassdim. B'chassdi b'Tzion m'chtav v'chuli l'vav el tvei v'chiyus poel v'chulum. So apparently, at the end of this letter that this person had sent to the Rebbe, they had asked for a Bracha, for a Bracha that they should have a positive effect on their surroundings, that they should be an influencer rather than somebody who's influenced. And the Rebbe writes back at length to this request. V'vadai shenachan v'nachatz adam b'meid. This is certainly a correct thing to want and a pressing thing to want, to make sure that you are the influencer and not someone who is influenced. Shimiza gam muvan shel chol echad mincha yichales b'efsharos lamalos tafkid gam b'ter mashpia b'siva. It should be understood, says the Rebbe, that everybody has the ability and, uh, the possibility to fulfill their task of being a mashpia, an influencer on their surroundings. Be'et lefel, how exactly to do that? Harat el zemem ben b'neim

01:07 b'siva, v'tet nes nafsh-- nefash yisa nashimal leam beitzim mashpia. How exactly to do that depends on the people in your area. I remember hearing growing up, and I don't know what the mukkah for this is, but it's like an old Jewish expression that, uh, that if a rodf wants to have an effect on a town where everyone plays chess, he better figure out how to play chess. That's not exactly what the Rebbe is saying here, but, uh, but what he is saying is that exactly how to have a positive effect on your surroundings depends on the people in your surroundings. There's not a one-shoe-fits-all approach. U'malashpia, but when it comes to what exactly you should be, um, impacting them, in what area you should be impacting other people, that one does have a one-shoe-fits-all. Arim mevor, b'siyam megilas Tehilles, it's probably the end of Tehilles. Es Elokim yar'ev es mitzvos v'shomar ki za kal adam. God should be feared and mitzvahs should be kept because that is the point of all humanity. V'signen chazal maaseh oeker, the most important thing is getting the job done. Now, maaseh oeker, action, is what matters most. Chai yom yom matim b'p'hilaz teras einu teras chaiim, ensuring that daily life will be lived according to the halachas, according to the teachings of the Torah, which is the Torah of life. So what the Rebbe is saying here is that while there are multiple different ways to have an impact on your surroundings, depending on the unique situation, when it

02:09 comes to what your impact should be, your impact is always going to be the same no matter where you go. The job of a Jew is to have the impact that more people will fear God, keep mitzvahs, live their daily lives as Jews according to teras einu teras chaiim. And then the Rebbe links it to Purim. He says, "Har yam meilu y'mei Por- Erev Purim maskil merim al kol hal." The days of Purim, the days leading up to Purim, they, uh, emphasize this entire point. K'mashkal zeh b'ravim m'ami ha'aretz v'siha hadim. At the end of the Purim story, it says many of the people of the land became Jewish. They became involved in Yiddishkeit. Shebetch m'rumaz b'zeh gam ami ha'aretz yesh bimitoch kolech v'echad. This also applies to the ami ha'aretz, the, uh, ignoramus that is within every single person, that is the nefsh habehamis, that is their animalistic soul. Ruach behemah yerez lamata, the spirit of the animal which goes downwards. What this means here is that in the Purim story, the end of the Purim story is that the ami ha'aretz, the ignoramuses or the regular people, the dwellers of the land, they became Yidden. And what that means for us practically is that we find people whose ami ha'aretz, or their own internal ignoramus, is currently ruling their bodies and leading them to inappropriate behaviors and rear that animal in the right direction. So what we do have here is, uh, a letter from the Rebbe where he stresses the importance of

03:11 everyone having an impact on their surroundings, saying that this is, uh, that this is-- What's the lashon? Nachon v'nachatz adam b'meid. It is appropriate and also incredibly pressing that everybody have an influence-- have an impact on their surroundings in a positive way, and that although there are unique ways they might do that, there is, uh, always the tafkid of making sure that that influence is in a way of Torah and mitzvahs and spreading Torah and mitzvahs and i-impacting people's daily lives, and that Purim is part of that theme. Now, this is of course an enormous topic. One of the main areas in the Rebbe's Torah is that we need to be mashpia on the siva, the idea that goes all the way back to Hayom Yom, and of course much further than that, but at least in Hayom Yom is where it's enshrined in my mind that a chassid macht a siva, that a chassid makes a surrounding around himself, that the idea is that we should be influencing our environment. That's a big topic. Nonetheless, and I, uh, went through, uh, went through Igris and a couple of sifas to pull out a few examples of how the Rebbe asks us to implement this, uh, with the keen understanding that thirty, twenty minutes on impacting your surroundings is kind of an impossibly tall order. But I did wanna point out some highlights from this theme in the Rebbe's Torah, one of the biggest themes in the Rebbe's Torah, impact on your environment. First of

04:14 all, just a small piece of a letter that's in Yiddish. I just wanna read this one paragraph here. Excuse me. Here the Rebbe says, that, uh-- Sorry, let me read the le-- This is Ches Peh Dalet, it's from Tav Shin Tes Zayin, and the Rebbe says in this paragraph that the avoda in general for our generation, uh, is not necessarily looking at only at the fact that we need to invest in a deep understanding of Torah specifically and Torah Chassidus, uh, Torah in generally and Torah Chassidus specifically. So it's not just about in our generation, it's not just about delving into the depths of Torah and the depths of mitzvahs on our end. There is also an additional job, which is the iquer arbit besheita tzu tan mit zikh un mashpia zayn. The main avoda that we have to do nowadays is to have a mashpi-- is to be mashpia, to have an impact on the siva, on the surroundings. In gar pashtes zachen, even when it comes to very simple things. Uh, un tag-taglich leben, even when it comes to daily living. So what the Rebbe is saying here is that, uh, although in general, maybe in the past, the main focus had been to delve into the depths of Torah and delve into the depths of Torah Chassidus, the job of our generation is unique in that our main job, or at least our addit-in addition to that job and, and, uh, an equally important, perhaps more important part of our job, is

05:25 to have an impact in our environment, uh, in so far that we take gar pashtes zachen, we take very simple things and instill them in people's lives on a day-to-day basis. That is instructing people in very practical, simple things like putting on tefillin and keeping Shabbos. Uh, the fact-- I, I pointed this out 'cause I wanted you to see this part, uh, that the avoda fun undzer dor, that when it comes to our generation, the mashpia on the siva is even more important than it was in prior generations. Now, uh, where I'd like to limit that, uh, where I'd like to limit that, that Hashpa'ah and the Svivah, if we're just talking about my own, my own biases and insecurities, I would like to limit that to Mivtzim and, uh, attendance in Shul, right? So in, in Shul and in my-- among my Chevrah, I can have a positive impact on them. And if I go to Mivtzim, I'm now, uh, armed with sort of the identity of somebody, uh, asking people, "Excuse me, are you Jewish? Would you like to put on Tefillin?" Uh, but in all other settings, it makes me deeply uncomfortable, as it does most people. Uh, the Rebbe does not accept that at all. The Rebbe, uh, in the letter-- letters that we're about to look at, and the Seforim we're about to look at, is going to say that this, uh, this imperative of the-- of our generation to have a Hashpa'ah and the Svivah when it comes even

06:24 to the Gar Pasht DaZachen, he's going to say applies just about everywhere, even in deeply uncomfortable scenarios, and I would love to show some of them to you. So one of the deeply uncomfortable scenarios is a letter labeled Tav Shin Nun Vav. It's one of the earliest letters we have from the Rebbes from the year, uh, from the year Tav Shin, I believe. Uh, Tav Shin Yud, excuse me. Tav Shin Yud, nineteen fifty. Uh, and here the Rebbe writes, "Shalom U'vracham," the letter's labeled, I think I said this right, Tav Shin Nun Vav. And somebody writes to the Rebbe saying that they wanna send their kids to a non-Chabad school because they are members of the Agudah and also Bishvil HaTachlis. I, I don't know what Bishvil HaTachlis means, but from the context of the letter, it means he also thought that they'd get better education at the Agudah school. So he wants to send his kids to an Agudah school, uh, first of all, because he's a member of Agudah, and second of all, because he thinks it'll be a better education there. Nonetheless, he is a Lubavitcher, and the Rebbe writes to him and says, "I don't agree with either of your reasons." "I disagree with both of your reasons, not sending your kid to a Chabad school." And number one, the fact that you tell me that you are in the Agudah, you're a member of the Agudah, everybody needs to-- it's well known that everybody needs to make an effort, that

07:28 they will have an impact on their environment and not that their environment will have an impact on them. Now remember, Agudah is an organization of a very firm Yidden, uh, who are doing the right thing. They're just not necessarily Lubavitcher Chassidim. But here the Rebbe is telling him, "You need to make sure that when you're in the environment of the Agudah, you are impacting the Agudah, not that the Agudah is impacting you." since you have a connection to Chabad, something like that. Well, th-- because it was in the first year, so it must have been, must have been-- it was Tav Shin Yud, but, like, after, after Yud Shvat, I guess. In any event, uh, since you have a Shaius to Chabad, and since you also have a Mekushim to my father-in-law, the Friediker Rebbe, and you find yourself in the environment of the Agudah, certainly this is . So you have to the Agudahnix, Chabadniks. See that, Lashon? He wants you to turn the Agudahnix into Chabadniks. This is the Rebbe's order to him, is that even when you're around firm Yidden, good Yidden who are doing their job properly, if they're not Lubavitchers, you-- uh, your job, since you have a, since you have a Shaius to Lubavitch and a connection to the Rebbe, this makes it your priority to have the Agudahnix, Chabadniks, to turn the Agudahnix into Chabadniks. And, uh, certainly, uh, not to let them influence you. So he says, "Certainly not that you or your wife or your children

08:39 should-- who are Chabadniks should become Agudahnix. That should certainly not happen." So to your-- in answer to your first question, to your first, uh, proof that you're-- that you should send your kid to the school that's run by Agudah because you're a member of the Agudah, the Rebbe says the opposite. First of all, you should be having an impact on them and making them more Lubavitch. And second of all, you certainly shouldn't let them impact you and make you, your wife, and your children into Agudah sort of Yidden. and there is between them two hundred manah and not the opposite. What that almost certainly means in this context is that if you go to Chabad, you get both the advantages of Agudah and the advantages of a Chabad, whereas when you go to Agudah, you only get the advantages of Agudah. And I'm not gonna expand upon this as the Rebbe because it's simple. would be unnecessary. And as for his second reason, just interesting, not really for our topic, but, uh, but interesting. Says, "As for your second point, do you think you'll get a better education at Agudah?" Uh, Chazal say a person never knows how they're gonna become rich, and this doesn't just apply to Gashmiyus, it also applies to Ruchniyus. So it's difficult to know exactly which kind of Chinuch will be best for your kids. Says, "If you're so sure you know exactly what place to send your kids to school, I have a surprise for you. It's the same

09:40 rule as, uh, as, as getting rich. Nobody knows exactly what will make them wealthy." In any event, what we have from this letter for our purposes is that even when we're dealing with other firm Yidden, we have a, uh, we have es-- i-if anybody who has, the Lashon here is a Shaius to Chabad, and he's Kashrus to a Rebbe, gives them an obligation to have an impact on that group to make them more Chabad-like, to turn the-- from the Agudahnix into Chabadniks. Another place where this is deeply uncomfortable is, of course, in the workplace, where a lot of us are right now, where I am right now. Uh, this is a Sicha, not a letter, but I needed it, so it ca-- so to wherever you get the information from, right? This one's a Sicha. Uh, this is Yut Tes Kislev, Tav Shin Lamed Gimel. It's in Tames Genachim, volume seventy on page two forty, and it's a really fun Sicha. Here, the, uh, the Rebbe talks to somebody, talks hypothetically to somebody who is a boss at work who has employees and doesn't want to talk to them about Yiddishkeit. So the Rebbe says, when you tell a Yid who is a boss, and he has a, he has, um, Jewish employees working for him, that he should spend some of his time trying to talk to his Jewish employees about strengthening their Yiddishkeit because they're going to listen to him more since he's their boss. Of course, they're used to receiving things from

10:44 him in general, so of course, they're going to be willing to receive the things that he's telling them about Yiddishkeit. A person can't answer-- a person an-answers and says that they can't do this, uh, and this, that, that, that this isn't their job. Uh, he'll say, he'll say, "I hired this certain person to do a certain job, and because of that, I need to pay him for the effort he puts into his job. But how can I talk to him about putting on Tefillin or reading Parsha or Shmiras Shabbos or Talis or Tzitzit and things like that?" This boss will say, "I'm not a Rav. I'm not a Magid Meshars. I'm not somebody who's, uh, who's trained to give Mosser, Shemer Mosser, and my Shaius to him is only that Hakadosh Baruch Hu made me the Shliach to give him Parnassa, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu didn't designate me as his rabbi." So this is the answer that a hypothetical boss might give the Rebbe when the Rebbe tells him you should be influencing your Jewish employees in a positive direction. He will say back, uh, "My job, the job that God gave me, was to be this person's boss and to be the vehicle for their Parnassa, not to be the one who is their Rav and their Magid, Magid Meshars. And then, as a matter of fact, I'm not their Rav, and I'm by no means a Magid." I wanna jump down a little bit, although all, all, all of this is gold. You

11:43 have this all in the WhatsApp group. You should read it. It's just every, every word of this Sicha is, uh, is fun But then go down to Yagimal. Midreva Tanisha Yehuda Rav beginning in regarding the claim that he's not a Rav and not a Magamei Sharim who can give Musar. So why should he be the one influencing his colleagues or his coworkers or his employees? Pare lemedu bakan adis piske dimar mes Musar. The job here, nobody's telling you to pasken and nobody's telling you to give Musar. We're to medu bakan adis ez vasil hudivin ninachayas. We're talking about saving a Jewish person's life. She yahai yudi hai, that a Jew should live a Jewish way. As she says, that's the idea is that ninachayas are to increase their level of chayis, vevin shal erch yam in a way that they would live longer, meaning that, uh, for us, mitzvahs are life. The more of it we have, the longer we spiritually and physically live. Kamora shyam hu yam ashbil ashbi akal sivir shalev et peil gam sham in ninachim. Your job is just be peil chaim, to be mashbi achaim. And as a matter of fact, as he says a little bit higher up in the section that we skipped, that's kind of what you do already. If you're, if you're his boss and you're giving him money, you're used to giving him what he needs to stay alive. Well, what he needs to stay alive is not just geld. What he needs to stay

12:43 alive is also ruchnius. So the Rebbe is talking to somebody who's uncomfortable discussing Yiddishkeit with his coworkers and telling him, "I don't understand where you're coming from. You're telling me that you're not qualified. Uh, I, I don't understand. You're not qualified to give people life? That's exactly what you do." And, uh, he, the Rebbe adds in this paragraph down here that, uh, the mitzvah of he-he-he-hecher techer chazamisecha, which is to correct people when they're doing the wrong thing, is not something that only applies to a Rav and a Magid or somebody who knows how to do Musar. It's one of the six hundred and thirteen mitzvahs, and certainly anybody who is interested in keeping all six hundred and thirteen mitzvahs will also be interested in this. So we now have two places where the Rebbe specifically wants a Hashpa on the Sefirah that we might not have expected. Place number one is among Frum people. Uh, if you are a shayecht to Chabad and mekushé to the Rebbe, then you have to have a Hashpa on even the Agudah. And we now have also in the workplace, one of the places where nobody wants to do it , and the Rebbe pushing and saying, "I don't understand your claim. Of course, this needs to happen in the workplace." Here's another one that's pretty surprising. Uh, when we talk about having Hashpa on the Sefirah, we usually don't talk about small children. Uh, they do it automatically, which is wonderful. But as for children doing, uh,

13:43 be-being, being-- and, and of course, children of Shluchim are Shluchim themselves. But at the same time, uh, we definitely see a, a line drawn in a lot of places and letters and in Sechas, where a child's job is really to be a mekabel, that we put them in good environments where they receive Hashpa from others, and as they get older, they become capable of having a Hashpa, having an impact on other people. But in this Sefer, this is from a Yud Tes Nisn that was said to Tzivas Hashem. You'll find it in volume, uh, no volume 'cause this is his Savas. So you'll find this from the year nineteen eighty-nine. Tofshin Mem Tes, the third volume on page thirty-two. The Rebbe speaks to Tzivas Hashem, and he tells them that they have both jobs, that their job is to mainly be a mekabel, to be a recipient, but at the same time, he expects them to have a Hashpa. Uh, we'll read starting here. "Im sish yel yuri yesh netafkid kafol." When it comes to a Jewish child, he has a dual purpose. On one hand, he has the job of being a mekabel, memarev mechanichav. He has to receive from his teachers and from the people who give him chinuch. Leisi diyas peteres lecha learn more Torah. Le dachis, but on the other hand, he's expected liyes mashbi al chaver v'al kol sivir shale. He's expected to be, to be a mashbia and have an impact on his friends and also on his entire

14:43 environment, and specifically vaad gashem. Shein elu shnei tafkidim shanim, the Rebbe says, "I want to point out these are not two separate tafkids. Ela tafkid echad yesh be shnei yanum." There's really just one task that has two aspects to it. B'tokos efan arasa shel shnei meirim delem, the way that, uh, there can be two great, two great lights. Shemeason baal etet nafchiyot, hashemesh mashpia v'lavanah mekabel, even though the, uh, the two great lights being the sun and the moon, even though the sun is a mashpia and the lavanah is a mekabel, nonetheless, uh, shnei v'shnat Ibrahim v'sachem nas mitziyas achas. This was, uh, this was shayecht to that particular year. Uh, in any event, I wanted to read this paragraph. L'cheim. Kach shnei yeladim hashechem l'tzivas Hashem nifgashim, when two children who both are in Tzivas Hashem, in Hashem's army, they meet. Am nach shish esrehu ya'azer, so that they can strengthen each other in avodas Hashem. Azai kolech v'achim nem tzadak lishkabel lashpia lasis l'chaver b'achim gezera. L'ka'al meru v'efin sh'shnei kavanat nu'a mashpia mekabel nas li davar echad she'efshir l'chalkel l'chalakim shanim. He says here that when two Jewish children meet, they should be trying to both be mashpia on each other and both be mekabel from each other because the unique tafkid of a child is to be both a mashpia and a mekabel. Nonetheless, what we get from here for our purpose is that the idea of having Hashpa on the Sefirah is not something limited to adults. It is something

15:49 that is even, that even extends to children. One major advantage of having a Hashpa on the Sefirah is that it gives a person a sense of purpose, and a sense of purpose is exactly what a person needs to combat any sorts of, uh, any sort of negative feelings, any sort of negative emotions. We have a letter, uh, this letter is labeled, Hey, Kuf, Ayin, Hey. This is your Tuv Shin Yud Zayin. And here the Rebbe says, "I'm responding to your letter where you write about the fact that you have keseh shalva napishes, that your soul is just, uh, not calm." I, I assume this is some sort of an inner emotional turmoil. They're experiencing some degree of emotional turmoil. And the Rebbe effectively tells them that if you have an impact, impact on your environment and meditate on the idea that it is important to have an impact on your environment, that you have something to offer the world at large, you're not going to have these sorts of negative emotions anymore. Let's read some of it. Tzaidin v'vor v'kam l'chem istra, nirei l'boim b'tzad ha'lumasa. First of all, it should be understood that it's brought in many places that negative emotions come from the other side, come from the side of impurity. Zeis ameraz gam kin she'ein ham nefesh ahad im ha'pnimah. That is, that your actual nefesh Elokis doesn't have those feelings. Your nefesh Elokis is always happy and always in a good mood. So if you're feeling down, it's coming from the

16:49 outside. El boim m'chutza, it comes from outside. Shem izem bovin sheb'chel asat li patim hem batim l'kalal kalil. Therefore, it should be understood that since I am my nefesh Elokis, I should be able to get rid of these outside factors 'cause these are not native to me. Uh, any negative emotions are not native to a person. So I should be able to kick them out 'cause they come from outside. Ach she'ein kol ishin v'ein kol matzav m'shav. But of course, not all people, not all situations are the same. She'lachein ein shava gam kin azman nitzra shaza. And certainly, the time that we are discussing this is not always the same either. So of course, situations matter, but in the gen-general, there is a overarching principle, which is that if I have a negative feeling, it's coming from outside of me, and since it comes from outside of me, I can conquer it. V'aderach vatima v'atad shav b'chad darach im elu hi sfadnos sh'kol ech v'ech mitanu chelek hu m'achevrei v'sivir shale. One way to get around these negative feelings is to have a sfadnos, to think very carefully about the fact that every single one of us is one part of a great organization, one, uh, one, one, one member of the environment that we're in, one, uh, I don't know Niche in the ecosystem. There we go, biology. «U'mokrach sheyei lo levrach mikabel el gam mashpia.» And therefore, it is imperative that we don't just receive from our environment, but also have an effect

17:50 on our environment. «Eyeh se nachan sheyei ikar mashpia mikabel v'ach m'chinat stavo.» Or better said, that they should mainly be mashpia, mainly have an impact on their environment, and only occasionally receive from their environment. «Kim chey ikar adam hu nevush v'hatzot veshelo v'lo k'bochomer.» And since the main thing that is me is my neshamah and not my physical body, «Mu ven gam ken she'ikar hashpah hu b'negeh l'ruchniyut hasivah,» it should be understood then that my main hashpah should be on the spiritual aspects of my surroundings. We're gonna jump to this last paragraph. The Rebbe says, «Ki shte'keim hachashavah b'chezek.» If you plant this idea firmly in your mind, you're part of something bigger, you're part of an ecosystem, and your job is to have a spiritual impact on every place you are, and that you have, you, you have the unique tools and the unique ability to do that. When I think about this, «Mi l'tafkid zeh miskalim lefanav efakim rachav m'shafula na'ales niskalot b'hi kama sipukei nafshi, nafshi sh'lei b'riyah, b'riyosi, b'reisi», sorry, «b'reisi matara kai niskal b'chai v'al a'adam.» Poetic. What he says here, when a person focuses on these things, they will find in themselves incredible reservoirs of internal strength and, uh, and, um, emotional clarity, and this will allow them to live a more productive life. So in addition to all the other things we talked about, which is that this is an imperative, you don't really have a way around it, the Rebbe is demanding that we have hashpah on

19:00 our svivah. He's also saying it's gonna make you happier. It's going to make you feel more calm. One thing I do wanna note before we finish is that there is a footnote to all of this, which is that there's always a danger when a person is interacting with their environment, that instead of interacting with their environment, their environment will have an impact on them. In the of this letter from the Agudah, that the Agudahniks will turn, will turn the Chabadniks into Agudahniks, right? There's always a chance that, uh, the environment will negatively impact you. How do we combat that threat? And the answer is with one thing and one thing only, and without it, maybe don't even try. I'm not, I'm not willing to say that straight up, but I am willing to read a sicha to you. The sicha, the sicha is, uh, from Tuv Shin Yud Tes, from, uh, Mevarkhe Tzedek Yiar Tuv Shin Yud Tes, and it is in Erez Manaha volume twenty-two. I'm in Sif Yud Beis on page two ninety-five. And here the Rebbe says, "When Moshiach comes, all, also all those who have been pushed away to Eretz Ashur and pushed away to Eretz Mitzrayim, they will also get to return." «Ki kemin shebi'at Moshiach tal va'afatz et ha'mayanos», since we know that the way to bring Moshiach is to spread the wellsprings of Chasidis, and l'achen, b-b-b, of course, from the Ba'al Shem Tov when he went to meet Moshiach, and Moshiach told him that I'm only going

20:04 to come when your wellsprings are, are everywhere. «L'achen shelacham shluchim b'chol makom», this is why we send shluchim to all places. «Ad Ashur and Mitzrayim,» all the way to Ashur and all the way to Mitzrayim, to the far reaches of the world, «k'dei sheyefotz et shaom ha'mayanos», so that there they will spread Chasidis. «Veyichinu es hayidim nimtzem sham l'geulah», and prepare the Yidden that are found there for the redemption. I will note before I say the part that I actually want us to read, just this paragraph is, uh, is so important and so misunderstood in Chabad at large. I have, uh, yet to go to a farbrengen where I wasn't able to catch people on this particular one. This is a, it, it's a, it's a trick question. If you ask people why the Rebbe made shlicha, so why the Rebbe sent shluchim, they will very frequently answer because he wanted an increase in Torah and mitzvahs or one more Jew or making people Frum or I don't know, or setting up, setting up mini hotels in vacation areas. I don't mean that. Nobody ever answers that. But people give the strangest answers. The Rebbe says in that sicha exactly why he did this. He sent shluchim to bring Moshiach. That's the-- Now, of course, the way to bring Moshiach is to take the Yidden who are in those locations and, uh, prepare them for Geulah by adding one more mitzvah to their lives. But the goal of Shlichus is Moshiach. So the Rebbe says

21:03 here very clearly, the whole reason I'm sending shluchim in all of these areas is in order to bring Moshiach and to prepare the world for Moshiach. «Omna, mataim shuli shliach es a shliach?» The Rebbe says, when am I comfortable sending a shliach? When can I send a shliach to an area where they might be influenced by their surroundings and where they're supposed to be influencing their surroundings? «Dafka, kashe m'kosh y'bemis,» this is only when he has real hiskashrus, when they are truly connected to the Rebbe. «Avak shemaskil li s'yashah b'datka,» when a person tries to start doing their own planning, thinking their own way and going, "You know, I'm a shliach. I have some pretty good ideas, and I'm not going to do it with hiskashrus to the Rebbe. I'm going to do it as a community organizer or as somebody who is an expert in nonprofits." I don't know. When a person goes out with that, with that attitude, not the attitude of a shliach of the Rebbe who is mekusar, but somebody who thinks they're going to use their own da'as, their own intellect to figure this out, «Hinagam kashe maskil limsaya, hari yishuv ha'da'as k'shlatzo m'chiyach sh'chatzet libino nisgashrus, v'lachen yiyshev l'shlach esay.» Even if he decides to go, if he's missing hiskashrus, I can't send him. «Ki kashe chasr et hiskashrus m'Meshiach avdi,» if he's not connected to Meshiach, the servant of Hashem, «ay zeh gam ba, az ay iyshev l'da'as im hu yashpia al savivah eshama ha'chas rushal n'hipech.» It

22:04 will then be impossible for me to know if I send somebody out who's not mekusar to the Rebbe, then it's impossible to know whether he will have an impact on his environment, «eshama chass rushal n'hipech,» or God forbid, maybe the opposite. «Sh'lo yivavach shlihi mashpia,» won't just be that he won't have a hashpah, «ela af hu yiamushpa,» he will be influenced. So when it comes to making sure that a person is safe in their hashpah and their svivah, and that they're going to have an impact on their environment, and their environment is not going to have an impact on them, this is «ach v'rach» when there's hiskashrus, when they're connected to Meshiach Habeinu, the Meshiach of the generation, the Rebbe, and therefore are-- have the power to make sure that they are going to have an impact on their environment, not the other way around, which, uh, means that a person can't use their own da'as for these things. They have to use the Rebbe's da'as. And as the Rebbe concludes, «Kashe m'kusha kidbai,» when somebody does have proper hiskashrus, «az ay ein kashash,» then there's no concern whatsoever. «Sh'lo yikashar l'maila,» because then he's tied on high. If you're connected to the Rebbe, you're connected «l'maila, kipiskah ma yidua,» as the expression goes, that when somebody is connected on high, they will not fall down below. So this last bit is just kind of a warning that, uh, that it is our job to go out and have a hashpah on the, on the,

23:01 on the environment at large, but it's also a risk, and that risk is mitigated through hiskashrus. Somebody who is out there as a shliach right now and finds their hiskashrus faltering needs to take a real close look and strengthen that hiskashrus in order to protect themselves from the negative influences of their environment and also ensure their success. So if we had to summarize everything we've discussed today, we, uh, said in the first letter that one of the main themes of Purim is having a s-- positive spiritual impact on your environment, and, uh, we said that this is actually not just one of the main themes of Purim, but in our second letter, we said that this is really the calling of the generation. This is the, uh, the «aved» for «unser dor.» This is our generation's main job. Uh, we said that this applies even in awkward situations. This applies when it comes to having an impact, uh, even on other Frum Yidden. That's what we saw in our third letter when it came to the Agudah. This implies even in the workplace, uh, whether it's an impact on employees or bosses or coworkers. And to the claim that this isn't your job and this isn't your place, the Rebbe has some pretty strong answers in that fourth letter that we saw. In the, uh, fifth entry, which was a sicha, we saw that this also applies even to children, that although children have the main job of being a «mekabel,» they also expect to

24:02 be «mashpia» on other children, and that they need to simultaneously be receiving and giving when it comes to, uh, when it comes to strengthening their environment. We did say that there are some serious advantages to this, and one of the biggest advantages, besides fulfilling your purpose in life, is that it will bring you joy. We saw a letter, this was the letter, uh, this was letter hei kuf ayin hei, that told, uh, in response to somebody who was feeling, uh, feeling down or feeling spiritually confused or emotionally confused, the Rebbe said, "I can solve that for you. Uh, think about the fact that you are in charge of influencing your environment and that your role here is important, and that will take away those feelings." And, uh, as a final note, we said that there is a warning to all of this. This is all very important. This is all central to our task of Hasidim, and this also will practically, positively impact our lives. But it comes with a rule, and that is that there must be hiskashrus, because without hiskashrus, without connecting to the Rebbe before doing it, while doing it, throughout the entire process, having a state of hiskashrus, the person opens them-- themselves up to the very real risk that instead of impacting their environment, they might, God forbid, be impacted. Okay, that's it. Thank you very much.