״היתר קירוב״: להקריב את ההלכה למען קירוב יהודים?

00:01 This is Igris, and a while ago, we did a mini-series on Shalom Bayis. Uh, we addressed an unfortunately common problem where one spouse is more dedicated to Halakha or Minhagim Chabad than the other. And we saw that the Rebbe's general advice is that we can't move the needle very much when it comes to Halakha itself, that if a family is suffering because of Jewish law, first of all, that's not why they're suffering, there's some other problem. And second of all, we're not prepared to sacrifice the Shulchan Aruch, generally speaking, or maybe at all. I mean, maybe at all. The Shulchan Aruch, this basic din, and we're not willing to sacrifice Halakha in order to bring a family closer together. Uh, this, uh... I have one letter on the screen from that series just to remind you of sort of the Rebbe's tone about this. Somebody wrote to the Rebbe saying that they were having Shalom Bayis problems, and they felt that if they gave an inch when it came to Halakha, when it came to Jewish law, that might be enough to save their marriage. And the Rebbe writes, "Im zois, bor gam cave in sha'atera hi etzem hachaim shel Yehudi," the Torah is the fundamental life of every single Jew. "Ein shum makam l'chakam ves ha'tera fi ru l'man shumer mishpacha." There is no room whatsoever to sacrifice Torah, even to save a family. "Misum shechayei shalom ve, ve, ve, ve harmonya," because a life of peace and harmony, "mishpacha Yehudis, is kano rak

01:05 im hehem misbasim al kimat Torah u'mitzvos," because you really can only have Shalom Bayis if it's based on Torah and mitzvos. So part of the reason here is that the Rebbe says it just doesn't work. "V'ikar na zeh kayam gam b'yach z'tar d'archerd, d'archinam v'cham l'siv v'se'shalom." Your marriage can't work if you're gonna take Halakha out of it, so don't tell me that's going to be a solution. And obviously, we're not willing to sacrifice any of it to save-- to-- in the name of Shalom Bayis because it, first of all, because it won't work, and second of all, because it's asur. So when we studied that, uh, I was curious at the time, didn't have the material until now to really put together something comprehensive on it. I, I wanted to discuss, uh, a broader question, which is whether we can bend or sacrifice parts of Halakha to help a Yid become frum. Uh, I don't know whether any actual pose can lend weight to this idea, but it's certainly something that is circulated very often. Uh, one could argue that it's the reason why the conservative movement started. One could argue it's the reason why the reform movement started. This, uh, this overall idea that somehow if we sacrifice Halakha and make it a little bit more accessible or a lot more accessible or take it away entirely, that if we were to do that, we'd be able to bring more Jews into the fold. And, uh, this ideology exists in Orthodox circles as

02:07 well. It has a name. People call it the, uh, the Heter Kiruv, the, uh, the overall you can do whatever you want or you can do a lot of things normally that you couldn't do in the name of bringing Jews closer to Judaism. Uh, and this notion of Heter Kiruv, again, I, I don't know if it's brought anywhere legitimate, but it certainly is something that circulates often. Uh, the idea of relaxing certain dinim in the hopes of helping someone come close to Yiddishkeit who might have otherwise been turned off by the whole thing had they been exposed to the real deal. So the Rebbe, perhaps needless to say, is not a fan of this approach at all. And much like his Shalom Bayis responses, we have letters and sichas where he addresses this and tells people, uh, "Don't you dare sacrifice any of Torah or Shulchan Aruch in the name of bringing Jews closer to Judaism, uh, first of all, because it's asur, and second of all, because it cannot work, and third of all, because it causes long-term damage." Uh, so we're going to look at that today, letters where the Rebbe explains why we do not sacrifice Halakha, why we do not sacrifice Yiddishkeit in the name of bringing Yidden closer to it. Our first letter is a real short one that just, I think, kind of sets the tone nicely. The letter is labeled dalet ch- dalet kuf chaf. Excuse me, that's dalet kuf chaf, and it's in the year Taf Shin

03:06 Tes Zayin, and it's a short letter. We're just gonna look at the second paragraph and make it even shorter. Um, says the whole idea of the Baal HaYumula, the entire idea of the Frieda Kadava, his whole thesis was, "Oyei ves haBriyos mekarbin l'Torah," that the entire thesis of the Frieda Kadava is that he loved all people, Briyos means all people, not just good people, even people who aren't so good, "mekarbin l'Torah," and brought all of them closer to Torah. "V'afili she'nikraim beshem Briyos ba'alma," this applies even to people who are only called Briyos, mere creations. Uh, these are people who are not necessarily, uh, moral or not necessarily ethical, not necessarily frum, and the Frieda Kadava loved them very much, "mekarbin l'Torah," and always brought them close to Torah. "V'lo lekarv l'hatim haTorah aleihem," but he was very careful never to bring the Torah or modify the Torah and make it closer to them. He brings people close to Torah. He doesn't bring the Torah close to people. This lashon that's in the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos in the first perek, that Ara Navuchadenezzar's job was that he loved all people, and he brought them closer to Torah is bedavka, that he brings people closer to Torah, not that he brings the Torah closer to people. This is, uh, as we're going to see in a second, the Rebbe's going to, uh, going to compare what we do to every other ideology that tried to make Torah accessible to Yidden, uh, as this being the

04:11 major difference between them, that there's two ways to make Torah accessible. One way is to bring Yidden close to it and raise Yidden up to a level where the Torah is accessible. Another way is, God forbid, to whittle the Torah down into something that is easy to-- easier to access. And the, the former is what the Mishnah is talking about, the karv l'Torah, and the latter is something that is, uh, so against our shitah and also asur. Uh, a longer letter here with this letter labeled dalet taf kuf tzadik gimel. It's also the year Taf Shin Tes Zayin, and we're looking only in the PS, which I've told you guys this before, a lot of the action in Igris happens in PSs. If you see a PS at the bottom of a letter, that's usually where the fun is. Uh, not that the fun's not everywhere, but you know what I mean. There's a lot of fun in PSs. So, uh, this letter, we're looking down at the PS near the bottom, and the letter says, "Mashkitz al derech haTainis al tsidir guras Chabad v'kiyatz izef." You're telling me people are complaining about what Chabad does. You're complaining about Chabad as an organization. You can tell from the context that people were comparing what we were doing probably to the reformer conservative movements. That, that seems like the comparison. The Rebbe uses the hulu, as you'll see in a moment, so it's not clear who we've been, uh, unfavorably compared to. But there was an

05:13 argument that, you know, we're, uh, we're making Torah more accessible to Yidden or making Yidden more accessible to Torah. This looks a lot like those movements that have gone off the derech of Yiddishkeit, and people are worried about it. So he writes saying, uh, based on these Tainis, he writes me about the Tainis, people are making claims against Chabad. "Kol ha-misha- kalkha," excuse me, "mishaklu v'tarei v'zef," you should not have any back and forth about this anymore. D-d-don't engage in the debate. Why? "Ki chelek hateirim hayitaim b'lo afachi." There's a group of them who would be complaining about us no matter what we did. So there's a group that you're never gonna make happy. Part of the complaints, there's two camps of people complaining about Chabad, and this applies nowadays as well as back then, that there's two groups of people complaining about Chabad. There's a group that would have complained about us regardless of what we did. We could sit on our hands, and they'd find a reason to be angry. "V'achar," and the rest of them, "einei mafchinin b'chin li-yesodish v'enshitah skirah v'Chabad l'shita shel chulu." They don't seem to understand a fundamental difference between the way that we reach out to other Yidden and the way that other groups have done things, l'shita shel chulu and the shita of somebody else, I assume Reform or Conservative. "Chabad nehegem k'tziva d'Chazal." We keep the commandments of Chazal. "Hu b'binyan zeh al yedei admeha zaka b'Tanya perek lama beis." What, what the Alter Rebbe

06:14 told us in Tanya lama beis about the command of Chazal. "Ohevei haBriyos mekarvin es haBriyos l'Torah," that we love all people, and we bring them closer to Torah. "V'hashita shel ha'nahafchis," and the shita of these other people that they're unfavorably comparing us to have the opposite position. They are "l'karv es haTorah al haBriyos." They bring the Torah close to people. That is, that they reduce the Torah or sacrifice the Torah in order to make it more accessible to people. "Mi she'einei mafchim ben shotei tafsafchis," and somebody who can't understand the difference between these two fundamentally different approaches, the approach of Chabad, where we raise people up, and the approach of the other camps, where they pull people down, "im yuys ha-dmizah?" How can he possibly make a decision, a psak din, about Chabad if he can't understand the difference, the, this fundamental difference? Now, those who make claims against our position, Chabad's position regarding this, they are not paying attention to the basic command of Chazal in this issue, which is, they need to have a little more. The Rebbe says they also lack certain, uh, certain love for other people. If you think very carefully or look very carefully into the idea of pulling something precious out of something worthless, then you will have no trouble accepting the people who are put-- who are pulling-- who are putting you down. What that means here is the that says that anybody who teaches, I have it on your screen, anybody who teaches, uh, the child

07:33 of somebody who is ignorant of Torah and teaches them Torah. So you took somebody who's ignorant, and you take their child, and you teach them Torah, Hashem says you're somebody who has pulled something precious out of something worthless. And, uh, this-- there's incredible rewards for such a person. Uh, if Hashem has a harsh decree, he'll nullify it on behalf of somebody who does such a thing. So the Rebbe's saying, uh, as a last line, as a last line of this, of this, uh, exchange, if you really are upset about the way that people are talking about Chabad, and you're worried, uh, and it's, it's, it's weighing on you heavily, you should think about the fact that every time you make a or every time you bring somebody close to Yiddishkeit, you are fulfilling this idea of Chazal of, and, uh, you get all sorts of rewards for that. And that'll help you, uh, that'll help you, um, I guess, uh, that'll help you, um, tolerate, tolerate the and tolerate the disgraces that are being thrown upon you for the things that you do. What we get from this letter, I think really is the most important you say maybe in the entire Shir, which is that maybe in this entire discussion, which is that the main thing that differentiates Chabad from everybody else who is doing our kind of stuff is our strict adherence to Halakha and our strict adherence to keeping the Torah the way it is and raising people up to match the

08:34 Torah rather than whittling the Torah down or simplifying the Torah for people. And, uh, this is what makes us, us. And when you take that away, we are just another-- If you, if you have a Chabad house and that isn't keeping Halakha, God forbid, then it's just another outreach organization, and it's just another form of conservative reform or any other group of people who have tried to make more people join the Torah project. That's not what we're doing here. Uh, what makes us unique is the fact that we have such a strong adherence to Halakha and that we don't sacrifice anything for the sake of bringing people closer to Yiddishkeit, as we'll see in a moment, partially because it doesn't work. I have one more letter I wanna show you, then we're gonna look at a couple of sifhas. This letter I cut off the top of it, but it is in volume Yud Tes Yigris, uh, and it is on page two thirteen, and I don't think I have the letter label here because I cut off the top. So I apologize, but you'll find this in volume nineteen on page two thirteen, and I just wanna look at entry Tes. This is a long list, a long letter. The Rebbe responds to many different points a person asked him about. And I don't know for sure that the Rebbe here is talking about Shlomo Carbach. I'm not sure who he's talking about, but the timing and the context to me suggests that it

09:34 could be him or somebody similar to him, somebody who in the name of reaching out to Yidden had been, had been doing joint concerts and things involving women singing. I, I can't, I can't really think of who else that might have been, but clearly, it's somebody who in the name of bringing Yidden close to Yiddishkeit was, was being lenient when it came to Kol Isha, when it came to women singing, and when it came to inappropriate mixtures between the genders. So the Rebbe writes, "You say that you're not-- You write to me that you're unclear," says the Rebbe, "on what my personal relationship is with the, uh, or what my position is on the behavior of this individual who is gathering people together, et cetera." And again, no details. "The Rebbe says, 'I'm shocked and, uh, and I'm pained. I'm shocked and I'm pained. You would suspect me of supporting this sort of behavior.' My intent is that there is a very clear Halakha brought in Shulchan Aruch, Kol Isha, which is that you're not allowed to hear a woman sing or, that you're not allowed to mix, men and women cannot mix inappropriately. So I'm surprised you would, you would accuse me or suspect me of supporting something that could go against Shulchan Aruch, obviously not. What makes me even more surprised, that I wrote and I've emphasized on many occasions, that one of the main points of the Torah of Hashem and his Mitzvahs, one of the main points of Yiddishkeit, one of

10:52 the main points of Torah, the thesis of Torah itself, and something that is explained very specifically in Tzemach Tzedek, that we need to love all creations and bring them close to Torah, and not God forbid, to bring, to bring the Torah close to them and change the Torah, change the Torah so that it fits what they need. That's not what we do. Furthermore, that's against the Torah itself, Mitzvahs itself, and Chassidus itself. Furthermore, I've added on this. I've made it very clear on many occasions, the position of Chassidus, and the Rebbe said it again and again, that a Psak Din in the Torah, that Halakha is the Ratson of Hashem. Halakha is the will of Hashem. This is explained, uh, this is explained explicitly in the Torah and also explicitly in Tzemach Tzedek. So it should be understood and also simple. A person's not allowed to do dealings or make deals or do, uh, a person's not allowed to, uh, to, to have a, a, a back and forth, a business back and forth, an exchange when it comes to a-- when it comes to the will of God. So given that the Mitzvahs or given that Halakha is the will of Hashem, it's obvious that a person can't say, "Well, you know, the will of Hashem can, can be put on the back burner because I think maybe he wants-- he also wants this, and since he wants that, I'll move things around." You can't make Mesira. You can't make, uh, you can't, you

12:06 can't make business with, uh, business transactions with God's will. So obviously, I wouldn't support something like this. This is very similar to what we said earlier, but I think here in a more specific case, the Rebbe's pointing out that ideas that maybe if you were to make a, a, a mixed concert Or to have women singing or to do all sorts of things that people think, uh, would bring people close to Yiddishkeit, that this would be something that is far outside the realm of something that the Rebbe finds acceptable. And he is surprised that somebody would even suspect that he would be okay with what people conventionally call the heter kido. Uh, the Rebbe says that he's pained and surprised anybody would think that it would be something that he would support. I wanna look at, uh, two sifras. Um, we're not gonna look at the whole sifra. They're long, but I did send them to you, uh, sent the whole passages to you, so you can read them in the WhatsApp group. I have them on the screen, though, the parts I want you to see. This first one is from, uh, and, uh, here the Rebbe explains a little bit more what his-- what the reasons, uh, why we're not willing to sacrifice any halakha whatsoever, any Jewish law whatsoever in order to bring people closer to Torah. I mean, the real reason, the main reason is everything we've said up until now, because it's asur, it's not allowed, and, uh, and it's

13:05 the will of God, and you can't mess with the will of God. And, uh, and what makes us, us, what makes us so special, the thing, our, our calling card in Chabad is that we do everything w-we-- is that everybody likes us, and everybody wants to spend time with us, and we're very, very popular, and we don't sacrifice what we believe. That's really what makes us special. And that everybody else had to, uh, had to water down what they are, and we haven't had to water down what we are. So that, that, that's the main reason. But in this sif-- in these two sifras, the Rebbe gives some practical reasons why you might not want to engage in the sort of heter kido behavior where you sacrifice parts of, uh, authentic Yiddishkeit. That's really the word here. We, we present authentic Yiddishkeit. Um, the reasons why you wouldn't wanna sacrifice any authentic Yiddishkeit to bring people closer to Judaism, the Rebbe's gonna explain practically in this-- in these two sifras why it doesn't make much sense. So we have here in entry Zion, in this, uh, sifra from . The Rebbe writes, regarding the claim, what would be so bad if we give up a little bit of halakha, because then we'll get way more out of it? So what if I bend a little bit here, I break a little bit here, and I do just a little bit wrong, but I end up bringing in thousands and thousands of people, and now they're

14:06 close to Yiddishkeit, and their children are frum, and they're raising Jewish families. And you're gonna tell me that I shouldn't sacrifice a little bit of halakha in order to bring a lot of people in? That doesn't make any sense. So in order-- in response to that claim, the Rebbe says, "I have two answers to that claim," which sounds reasonable on the surface, right? If you're going to guarantee you're gonna get generations of, uh, frum Yidden out of a small sacrifice of halakha, maybe You should know that, uh, one of the, uh, if, if you look, I mean, I-I would advise you not look, but, uh, if you ever are in the bathroom and you would like to... I really shouldn't put these things up on recordings. It's fine. If you're ever in the bathroom and wanna read a teshuvah from the conservative movement where they, uh, where they write how they, how they sa-- the reasons why they change halakha for the needs of the people, they very frequently will quote a passuk, that because of the needs of the moment, in order to bring more Yidden in, it's time for us to abandon a piece of halakha. So the Rebbe says, "I'm responding to the shitah. I'm responding to the shitah of those who think in the Orthodox world that they should be, uh, that they should be engaging in outreach behaviors with more leniencies. And I'm responding to the conservative and reform world who, uh, who in very shit-in shitah, that their founding

15:07 ideologies were that we need to take away some of the hard and, uh, and, uh, unfriendly parts of the Torah in order to make it more accessible." But Rebbe says, "I have two answers to this claim. Number one, Alef: Even if this was for sure, even if you knew one hundred percent that if we take away a piece of Shulchan Aruch, we'll be able to bring thousands of people close to the Yiddishkeit, even if you knew that for sure." And the Rebbe's gonna say in a minute, it's not for sure. But even if you knew it for sure, you could get the best outcome possible. People would become frum, and they would change their lives. When it comes to things like this, we say, don't be too much of a tzadik, don't be too much of a tzadik, or as some people say, don't be frumer than God. What does he mean here? You don't have to fear Hashem more than the Torah itself fears Hashem. Once something is asur according to Shulchan Aruch, once the Shulchan Aruch forbids something, you never need to be a bigger Yirash Mayim than Shulchan Aruch itself. The Rebbe spells out what he means here. You don't have to worry about bringing people closer to Yiddishkeit more than the Torah itself worries about peop- bringing people closer to Yiddishkeit. So what the Rebbe means here is that, uh, is that if I would need to violate halakha in order to bring a Yid close to the Yiddishkeit, that's the

16:19 Torah saying, "Don't bring this Yid close to the Yiddishkeit." And I don't need to care more than the Torah does. And then the Rebbe adds, but you might claim back, fine, I know that I don't have to worry more than Shulchan Aruch does, but I do. I love Jews even more than the Torah does. What's the problem with me actually deciding to worry even more than God? Why, why can't I be frumer than God? Why can't I be more of a tzadik than, than the Shulchan Aruch? But that's not the case. You actually aren't allowed to. You are not allowed to violate Torah because of your fear of Heaven. It doesn't work that way. You can't say, "I'm such a big Yirash Mayim, I'm gonna violate Torah." You can't make that claim. You can't say that I love Yidden so much that I'm willing to burn in order to bring them close to the Yiddishkeit. That's not allowed. Uh, omio, it's not just that it's, it's not just that it's not something you have to do, it's not something you're allowed to do. And who are you to say that bringing Yidden close to the Yiddishkeit is more important than a Yidden in Shulchan Aruch? Who gave you that power to make that decision? Maybe this one thing that you're sacrificing is to God more important than a thousand Yidden being frum. I, I, I don't know, says the Rebbe, but you certainly don't know either. So you can't make that decision. You gotta keep

17:26 Shulchan Aruch. And the second reason the Rebbe gives, all of these things that I just said would be true, even if we knew for sure that this violation of Shulchan Aruch or this easing of halakha would indeed bring people closer to Yiddishkeit. But the truth is, that's not the case at all. Since this is not via the Torah, it, it is-- it's for sure that there will be no positive outcomes out of this. There will only be destructive outcomes. The Rebbe saying here is that the Torah is the only vehicle of success that exists in the world, and especially when it comes to Yiddishkeit, especially when it comes to bringing Yidden closer to Yiddishkeit, you can't hope to accomplish this goal if you're going to violate Torah, because any violation of Torah is going to automatically, uh, automatically implode or explode. It's not gonna work. Uh, so things cannot work when not done al pi Torah anyway. So the Rebbe adds here that, uh, everything I just told you applies if you could tell me for sure that this would bring Yidden close to the Yiddishkeit, I'd still tell you that it's wrong and you can't do it. But I'm telling you that it can't bring Yidden close to the Yiddishkeit 'cause you will never bring a Yid close to the Yiddishkeit using a method that's against the Torah. It simply is impossible. It's clear that it won't come to any good gain, it'll only come to a destructive, to a destructive end. The second

18:35 sifra I wanna show you, a paragraph from the second sifra, you also have the full version of it in the WhatsApp. Um, this is over here, uh, Yud Tes Kis Lev Taf Shin Lamed He. So this is much later. Yud Tes Kis Lev Taf Shin Lamed He, and we're in entry Yud Alef. And the Rebbe says, "Sh'lo kidasa tayan, I'm not like, not like those who make the following mistake. El shechashem Hashem yeridu et hatteira v'ya'aseh bashinuk katon," these people think that they can lower the Torah, that they can make the Torah come down, and they'll make a small change in it. And, uh, "Uvach tagiya lev lavriyus tiyaz u'teva avrai, kemin she'aydezeh yeil ach tach tiflam l'sushia," they hope that if they water down the Torah, they'll be able to get, uh, double in gains back, that they can, you know, uh, reduce a little halacha here and thereby get a lot more out of it. That doesn't work. And the reason why it doesn't work, the Rebbe has two reasons, one up here in this box and one a little bit lower in the next box. I put boxes. For those of you who are listening, not looking, I started putting boxes around the text so that I would find things easier and not spend twenty minutes looking through to find my place. And we'll see if that helps. "Emesei," the Rebbe says the truth is, "kemuben gam et besechel hapashut," as is understood also in "sechel hapashut". The average person understands this.

19:35 "Sh'lo ya'aseh uvach ein zeh asi atave," you're not doing anybody any favors. "Im ei lo misvad mikacha avas Yisroel, you can't even call it avas Yisroel." People say, "I love the Jewish people so much that I'm willing to sacrifice the Shulchan Aruch in order to bring them closer to Yiddishkeit." The Rebbe says, "You don't, that, that's not called loving people. That's, that's the opposite, "la'agra." You hate people. You're showing that you hate people. "Zehu hefefech ateive," you're doing the opposite of good for them. You're not doing anybody any good by, uh, by, by, by sacrificing Shulchan Aruch. "Kemin shelevlani mifar zeh zeh ve'even bilti rotzei," you've, uh, explained this in a way that is inappropriate. "Im yechel levata aldiktuk kal shel dibrei sefir," because they're going to understand then that if you are allowed to sacrifice a small, a small change, "aldiktuk kal shel dibrei sefir," a small halacha, a rabbinic law, "lamah le ya'achu levata yachal diktuk kafama shel dibrei sefir?" The person's gonna ask you back, and they're gonna be right. You know, you could go to somebody who's not yet frum and you say, "We're going to sacrifice a small derabanan in order to bring you closer," they will have every right to turn around and say to you, "Okay, if you can sacrifice a small piece of the Torah, why can't you sacrifice a bigger one? Why can't I eat whatever I want or marry whoever I want or do whatever I want on Saturdays?" I mean, what, right? If you,

20:32 if you're able to bend some of it, you can bend all of it, right? "Lamah le ya'achu levata yachal diktuk kafama shel dibrei sefir? Kemin shezesh bedavar imach. Maamin shekol hateira tirish bal peh ve'shevish u'savi teira achas." And since you are going to be presenting this as someone who believes that the Torah is completely one, that it's all equally important, "hini keshem sheyechu levata yinin shuma dibrei sefir, kach lichem levata alafas p'sak veshal-- v'terish p'sak." So the Rebbe's saying here, you're going to present yourself because you're a Yid, you're going to present a frum Yid, you're gonna present yourself as someone who believes that the Torah is completely one, "terish u'savi, terish bal peh," are all equally important, part of a package we received at Sinai, and then you're going to sacrifice a small piece of it, whatever that small piece might be. Now, call it, uh, chalica, as we mentioned in the previous case, or a, or a forbidden mixture between the genders. And, uh, and you're gonna say, "We're gonna sacrifice this small piece in the name of outreach." They have every right to turn around and say to you, "Wait a second, you can sacrifice that part. Why can't we sacrifice the parts that I want to sacrifice?" And they're right to ask that question, so you're really misleading them. "L'chein asur le'aseh s'deveshi yochelis panim shel hakapanav b'dei talmidim braim k'mei chas meshiachum levata aldiktuk kal shel dibrei sefir." You can't do anything. It's also for you to do anything that

21:30 might be interpreted, even if it's only by people who have poor intent, "talmidim harai," even if people with bad intent, you're not allowed to do anything that people might interpret as being a, uh, a implicit allowance for us to give in on other things. "V'tish maspin inin sh'nir lei d'vakatan," you begin by sacrificing things, compromising on things that, uh, appear to you to be small. He says, "nir lei d'vakatan," you think they're small. As we saw before, they really might not be. "Cheveli ashav, cheveli ashav, avam mizeh yachol havei inin shel kavei sagola k'mevor ba'ruch vesifrei moser." You start off with very small things, and you end up causing really big problems, a slippery slope, as we would say. So the first issue the Rebbe raises here is that, uh, you're not doing anybody any favors because when you tell them that you can sacrifice a small part of the Torah, you are implicitly telling them that they can sacrifice the parts they want as well, and you're breaking down their essential attachment to Yiddishkeit that might be able to be built in the future. And that's really what the Rebbe says down here in Yud Beis. We're gonna jump to entry Yud Beis. That's the last thing we're gonna read today in the Sefas. "V'yesh le'ez v'la'agish," the Rebbe said, "I'd like to add, and I want to emphasize that this is not just negeah what I'm talking to you about. This isn't just negeah to what happens to them after a hundred and

22:29 twenty years. This isn't just about their Olam Haba, or there's place in heaven. It's not about that, uh, and place in Gan Eden. "Az ain yushigeh ham ba'olam haze," this matters right now in this world because the Rebbe says here, the Rebbe is very optimistic. "Tzei kol tzei yachol yesh upleini v'gashmi hudui she'ar meleini b'tedek meishu." It's possible that after you've, uh, watered down Torah for this person, they are going to encounter some Yid who is not as, uh, not as spineless as you are. The Rebbe doesn't say spineless, but I'm saying it. Not as spineless as some, as this person, and this person's gonna tell him the Torah the way it is. "Lech shar svidilgul." This person's gonna give it to him straight. He's gonna tell him the Torah with no com-with no compromises. "Leh filuf klal," he's not gonna sub anything out. "Afir liye diktuk kal shel dibrei sefir," and he's gonna tell him every custom, every rabbinic law, it's all true, and he's gonna tell it to him with a earnestness. "V'keminch shedevarim yitzimim eleiv nechvasim eleiv v'pailin hulasm." And since when you speak to somebody earnestly, it ends up penetrating their hearts and does its job. "Yeir beh vinikunas hayyadus," you're going to wake up their pintel Yid, and this Yid is going to now become frum. "Yeaveh chesem mikatzeil, katzeil," change his life completely. "Sh'lo yezbu vach shuv leyi avef kenes futza, oy futza, eli yel, ef nai v'lushnim metachlis." They won't be an outsider, they'll be an insider. "Va'azevei

23:29 elav ha'taina," and now. So somebody's gonna come to this Yid who you sacrificed Torah in order to bring close, and they're going to tell him the truth, and they're going to give him the pure, unadulterated Torah. And because it's done sincerely, it's gonna work, and this Yid's gonna become frum. And now he's gonna turn around and say, "Az yavei lev ha'taina." He's gonna come back to you, and he's going to have a taina. He's gonna have a claim, and a legitimate one. He's gonna say, "La manah manashuvua lien shah afir li ami achar. Sh'lo zeh sapar lei emes Torah diz Torah sa'emes." Why did you keep this from me? How could you have kept the truth from me for a month, uh, for a week, uh, an hour, even a second? You deprived me of something that I would have accepted had someone said it to me legitimately. So the Rebbe's saying here, a lot of these people who you think need a watered-down version of the Torah, somebody's gonna s- one day encounter, uh, meet them and going to tell them the truth, and they're gonna accept it. And their big question is going to be why they were robbed of this, why they were deprived of this, and why they were cheated by all of the other rabbis they knew and all of the other, uh, talmidei chacham that they knew, all of the other Yidden that they knew. Why did everybody cheat me out of this and not tell me the truth?

24:22 So this person's gonna have taina against you, and those will be good tainas. "Az zeh mavas v'lehi fal takin." Furthermore, it's a sin that you can never fix because you can never get that time back that's lost. So they're going to make the claim that had you told me this ten years earlier, the truth, I would have started changing my life now, and I would have been able to collect mitzvahs and stop doing averot, and I can't go back in time, so you really, you cheated me. And they have every right to make that claim. So, uh, to review everything we've seen today, the letters and the Sefas, the, uh, first letter that we saw was a review of our Shalom Bayis thing. We, we noted that the Rebbe doesn't allow the sacrifice and the bending of Halacha even for Shalom Bayis, which is a very important thing, one of the most important things in the world, keeping families together. But the Rebbe says, uh, Halacha is so important, basic Dinim. Halacha is so important that we are not willing to, uh, sacrifice, uh, even a little bit of it, even to save a marriage. Uh, based on this, we transitioned into a discussion of whether we're allowed to sacrifice Halacha in order to bring people closer to Yiddishkeit. We saw this letter over here where we invoked Pirkei Avos, something we're going to continue invoking, uh, invoking throughout thisthat, uh, based on Pirkei Avot, we have a rule that Mekarv et haTorah, we

25:18 bring Yidden closer to Torah. We do not bring the Torah closer to Yidden. We don't water down the Torah for people. We raise people up to meet the Torah where it is. We saw a letter over here, the next letter, uh, we discussed that what makes the Chabad Shita different than every other organization is specifically this point, that we reach out to Yidden, uh, like other gor-- like other groups do. We, we have a big tent like other groups do. But the thing that makes our big tent special is that we never sacrifice Shulchan Aruch. We never, uh, we never make any pshat. We have a big tent that welcomes everybody while at the same time not lowering the standard and keeping Judaism authentic, which is what makes us so special. And once we sacrifice Halakha or even bend it, we're just another outreach organization and, uh, and the world that's wor-- and those who are worried about us are right to be worried about us if we start to sacrifice, God forbid, uh, Judaism itself. We saw a piece of a letter, uh, just this entry tes, in this, in this third and I believe the final letter of our letters, uh, saying that obviously the Rebbe has no shai'os whatsoever to, uh, an ideology that would allow, uh, any sort of weakening of Halakha, whether it's singing, inappropriate mingling between the genders in the name of outreach. This is against the Torah itself and Torah Chabad, and there's no even room for the

26:18 discussion that the Rebbe might be in favor of such a thing. The Rebbe says, "I'm pained you would even suspect that I would find this a worthwhile idea." So, uh, so obviously, no shai'os whatsoever to the Rebbe's Shita, and therefore, no shai-- no shai'os whatsoever to our Shita. Then at the end, we looked at two Sefas. This first Sefa told us that, uh, you have no right to be frumer than God. You're not allowed to be more of a Yiras Shamayim than Shulchan Aruch. If a Yid cannot be reached without violating Shulchan Aruch, and Hasvei Hakadosh that that's the case, obviously they can be. Uh, but if you really do believe that you cannot reach this Yid without violating Shulchan Aruch, that is a sign that Shulchan Aruch doesn't want you to reach him, and you have no right to say... And first of all, you're not supposed to. You're not-- You don't have to. And second of all, you're not allowed to say that I think that reaching this Yid is more important than that Halakha, 'cause the Rebbe says, "How do you know?" "Mi odem sh'teh lecha shetirah ve'yadas chushuv yeisemei din b'Shulchan Aruch?" Who told you that, uh, that bringing a Yid closer is more important than a din in Shulchan Aruch? Maybe the din in Shulchan Aruch is more impo-- was more important than bringing that Yid closer right now. This just isn't something people are allowed to do. And second of all, we saw in the Sefa, that's the Rebbe's

27:12 second point, that it also won't work because anything that is done without the, without the haskamah of Torah, without the stamp of approval, of appro-approval of Torah, simply cannot be effective in the first place. So it's also not going to be something that works. The final thing that we saw was the second Sefa. We said that, uh, we're also doing a great disservice to people when we water down the Torah for them. First of all, because it teaches them that the Torah is flexible when in fact it is not, and it will make them ask questions like, "Well, if you're willing to sacrifice this piece of Torah for your goal, which is more, uh, which is a bigger, you know, a fuller house on Yom Kippur than a, uh, a longer mailing list, if you're willing to sacrifice Torah for the things that matter to you, why can't I sacrifice Torah for the things that matter to me?" And it creates a slippery slope and a very unhealthy dynamic between a Yid and Torah. And furthermore, a lot of these Yidden are gonna become frum. A lot of these Yidden are gonna finally meet somebody who's gonna give it to them straight. And when they do, they're gonna come back to you with ta'anos and say, "Why didn't you tell me earlier what the truth was? Why didn't you give me the authentic version earlier? I would have accepted it, and now these are lost hours, weeks, months, years, j-- uh, because you were unwilling

28:07 to accept that the Torah is the Torah and tell it to me straight. I would have appreciated that." So for all of these reasons, I think it's very clear across the Rebbe's Torah that the idea of watering down Yiddishkeit, of sacrificing Halakha in the name of bringing Yidden closer to Yiddishkeit, is something that is contrary to our Shita, something that is straight up asur, and something that fundamentally doesn't work and cheats people out of the authentic, uh, out of the authentic Judaism that is their birthright. Okay. Thank you all very much.