ל״ג בעומר בלי הרבי

00:00 Our Igros here, we're getting close to Lag BaOmer, so we're going to do a Lag BaOmer letter. I have, uh, I have one of at least a thousand possible hakdamas to this letter and this year. The hakdama that I'd like to give most, I think, is that I'm not sure that I should be giving this one. Um, I'm not sure we should be discussing this letter at all or this Inyan. The reason why I'm not sure we should be discussing it is because as Tarek pointed out before this year started, if something's printed, in theory, you can teach it. I did see a letter from the Rebbe where, uh, where somebody taught something that was a controversial topic that was from the Rebbe, and the Rebbe wrote to him in a letter. The Rebbe wrote to him saying, "Not just 'cause everything's printed, do you have to teach everything that is printed." That you still are allowed to use some, uh, some sechel to decide what gets taught in public and what gets taught in what settings. So I don't think the fact that this exists is a, is a reason why we have to teach it. Um, but I do think the fact that it's in the year of Tav Shin Lamed Gimel kind of ties our hands because we decided, without knowing we would be getting into any sorts of controversies, we decided all by ourselves that, uh, that we were going to learn Tav Shin Lamed Gimel from exactly fifty years ago,

00:59 and the Lag BaOmer letters from this year are all about this one big thing that happened. So, uh, with that, with that awkward introduction and with my, uh, with my, with my reservations, with my reservations on the record, I do want to give a little bit of a hakdama before we look at the letter together. The letter's on your screen if you wanna sneak ahead, but I wanna give you a little hakdama. So we're gonna talk about the Lag BaOmer parade. This letter was written in response to the Rebbe's announcement that he would not be attending the Lag BaOmer parade one year. Let's talk about the lead-up to it. The first Lag BaOmer rally is way earlier than you thought it was. Way earlier. The first Lag BaOmer rally, now not a, not a parade, they just rallied in front of seven/seventy, that was in nineteen forty-three, Tav Shin Gimel. The Rebbe was not Rebbe yet. The previous Rebbe was the Rebbe. Uh, our Rebbe spoke to the children at this, at this rally. So our Rebbe actually has a long history of speaking at Lag BaOmer, at Lag BaOmer rallies. He spoke at one in nineteen forty-three. Uh, it was after a successful rally that had taken place on Chol Hamoed Pesach. There wasn't necessarily an idea yet that it would be a Lag BaOmer thing. It was actually part of the previous Rebbe's Mesibah Shabbos initiative, which was also by way of NCFJE, so that's maybe a, a slight Mumsey connection, uh, about

02:03 which the Rebbe said in nineteen forty-two. Nineteen forty-two, the Rebbe was farbrengen with the Hasidim, and he said that the Rebbe, referring to the previous Rebbe, has begun with Mesibah Shabbos, and from here, he's gonna conquer the entire world. So there was this NCFJE Mesibah Shabbos initiative, which culminated in rallies in front of seven/seventy on special days. The first Lag BaOmer, one of these rallies was nineteen forty-three, and our Rebbe participated and felt that this was going to be the b- be the beginning of conquering the world, conquering America for Torah. The rallies continued, uh, but the Rebbe didn't participate as Rebbe until Tav Shin Yud Gimel. That was the first year of the nesius that the Rebbe participated in a Lag BaOmer rally. Still no parades, just rallies in front of seven/seventy. At this rally, the Rebbe asked the children to sing Ani Maamin. This was Tav Shin Yud Gimel, and that was the first year they sang Ani Maamin at the rally. Anybody who-- at the rally. Anybody who knows their Lag BaOmer parades knows that Ani Maamin is one of the go-to songs in the parade. That is because the first time the Rebbe participated as Rebbe, that was what he asked the children to sing. He also said a sicha there, and that sicha was the first sicha that the Rebbe ever delivered to children. This would start a regular tradition of the Rebbe giving a sicha to the children at the Lag BaOmer parade, and then somebody translating it for

03:07 them, usually a Hecht, uh, maybe always a Hecht. This is where the, uh-- So this is where the minhag of the Ani Maamin comes from and also where the minhag of the sicha at the rally comes from th- from this year, Tav Shin Yud Gimel. The first real parade, though-- Now, these-- this was a rally also. The first real parade that is children marching down the street was on-- was in, uh, Tav Shin Tes Zion. Tes Zion. Uh, two thousand kids arrived for this one. That's the report that I have from a Der Ha'ar article. I don't know how they counted, but they say two thousand kids were at this one, and they marched from seven/seventy to Nostrand Avenue carrying signs about keeping Shabbos and enrolling children in yeshivas. They then boarded buses to Prospect Park, and I don't know if I'm reading the Yumanim correctly, but I think I am. I believe the Yumanim are telling me that the Rebbe actually went to Prospect Park to spend more time with the children, that he was so, uh, he was so inspired or impressed by the parade that Rebbe ended up visiting them also in the park. After that parade, it was decided, given the enormous turnout and the interest from children who weren't just in Jewish schools but were also in public schools, that it was decided at that point that the Lag BaOmer parade, every year that it fell out on Sunday, there'd be a big parade, that the parade would be on

04:05 Sundays to allow the public school kids to participate as well on the days when they were off from school. The next year that happened was Tav Shin Yud Zion, just the following year, and that was the first one where they officially invited the public school children. They, uh, bussed in groups from, uh, from New Haven, Connecticut, from, from Boston, from all sorts of places. I don't have numbers for that rally, but it was thousands. Once again, the Rebbe asked them to sing Ani Maamin, solidifying the tradition. He also asked them to sing Im Yitzam Gel Tano. I don't know if that's really become a tradition, but just FYI, that one was also sung at that, at that rally. Once again, the Rebbe gave a sicha. Tav Shin Chaf Vav. Tav Shin Chaf, there was a Fab-- there was a, uh, there was another Sunday, um, another Sunday Lag BaOmer parade. I don't have much to tell you about it besides that it happened. There are some cool pictures of it that were recently, uh, recently released, but I didn't see a real milestone there. I'm pulling out only the milestones. In Tav Shin Chaf Vav, five thousand children participated. That's the number that we have floating around, five thousand children. And a lot of them were from public schools, a lot of them were from our schools, and a lot of them were from non-Chabad Jewish day schools. This was the first time that a lot of the modern Orthodox Jewish day schools in the

05:03 tri-state area bussed in to participate in the parade. Once again, the Rebbe said a sicha. Uh, there was a big bimah for the Rebbe already by this point. Tav Shin Chaf Zion, the Rebbe gave a impassioned sicha, and this is the year. Tav Shin Chaf Zion Lag BaOmer parade is probably the year if you know Lag BaOmer parade history or you like Lag BaOmer parade history, this is the year that you know the most about because in Tav Shin Chaf Zion, the Lag BaOmer parade was a couple days before the Six-Day War. It was clear that the Six-Day War was going to break out. It was clear that a war of some kind was going to break out, and the Rebbe gave an impassioned sicha, uh, right before saying that everybody was going to be safe. Y-- This was recorded. Uh, the audio was recorded and sent to Eretz Yisrael. It was put on the radio in New York, and this was the first time the Rebbe's voice was ever heard on the radio. This is also, uh, this also became a, uh-- I don't know how to say this. How do I say this? This became something that newspapers picked up later to call it a prophecy. All these newspapers in America and in Eretz Yisrael later looked back at this sicha and said that the Rebbe prophesied. Prophesied is the actual word in English, believe it or not. Prophesied. That the, the, that this was, this was Nevuah mamash, where the Rebbe said

06:03 that there was going to be a war and everything was going to be okay. I believe I read somewhere in one of the Yumanim, I can't remember where I saw it, that the Uh, before the parade was even finished, the Rebbe had already turned to the maskiras and asked if they'd written up a anacha. The Rebbe wanted to edit the sicha very quickly. This was urgent to the Rebbe. So Tuv Shin Chaf Zayin was a very special year. Tuv Shin Lamed, uh, just wanna note that was another landmark year. That was the first year there were floats. That was the first year that there were the big flatbed trucks and the floats and the displays of mitzvahs, and that was also the first year that the United States Army sent someone to participate. There were, uh, several dignitaries, and as we'll see later, the dignitaries might have been something that bothered the Rebbe. Um, which brings us to Tuv Shin Lamed Gimel. Tuv Shin Lamed Gimel was the first year, and the only year, I believe, that the Rebbe did not participate in the Lag BaOmer parade. And it looked like he was going to participate right until the Shabbos before. The Shabbos before Lag BaOmer, this is, um, I believe Erev Lag BaOmer was Shabbos, right? 'Cause it was Sunday, a Sunday parade. So this is the Shabbos before. There was an announcement made in seven seventy, and when they announced in seven seventy, they announced that there would be after Shabbos that they,

07:01 they did not announce times for Mincha. For those in the know about seven seventy history, if they didn't announce the time for Mincha, that meant there would be a fabrengen. No one was expecting one. They came for the fabrengen. After the Rebbe gave a, uh, a Rashi sicha, a, a sicha, he transitioned to singing, and throughout the sicha kept singing Hinei Ma Tov Uma-naim. Kept singing the nigun Hinei Ma Tov Uma-naim. He then transitions and, uh, I actually-- I wish I could give you the text of this to look at, but they haven't put it online yet. This is one of the newer editions of Teres Menachem, has this last sicha that the Rebbe gave on the Shabbos before the Lag BaOmer, uh, parade of Tuv Shin Lamed Gimel. And in that sicha, he explains that he's not going to attend, and he doesn't give the details really. He says that there was, uh-- He says, "I'll read some things to you." Uh, the reason why I'm doing this all before the letter is because the letter is in response to the fabrengen. It's somebody writing to the Rebbe saying, "Hey, Talchan, we can't do this without you." Um, and the Rebbe responding, "You absolutely can." So just some, some lines from the sicha. If you're interested in the sicha, you'll find it in Teres Menachem volume Ayin Beis. You can find it on page one ninety-one. The Rebbe says, this is the last sicha that he said before the end of the fabrengen. there's

08:06 something we need to talk about regarding the parade And he said, uh, despite the fact even though it's all already set up, the parade, everything that's related to the parade is already set up, something totally unnatural has occurred within these something terrible has happened in our immediate vicinity, and it makes it impossible for me to participate in the parade. And he doesn't give a lot of details. He says in the sicha that this is why I rushed to make a fabrengen this Shabbos because I had terror to say at the parade, and I'm saying it now because I won't be saying it at the parade, so I'm delivering the sicha that I would have delivered at the parade. I'm delivering it now instead. Um, and he said, uh-- I'm, I'm just jumping- Sorry, Rafael, where were you reading again? I'm reading a-- it's not on the screen. I told you I can't get it on the screen 'cause it's not- Oh, sorry. Okay. I'm, I'm reading a sicha from Teres Menachem. Okay. Uh-huh. Volume seventy-two, page one ninety. I see. Yeah. Um, the Rebbe says, the Rebbe goes, "I wanna let you know in advance you can't talk me out of this. You give me tynus and mynus, I will not respond." "I am cer-- I'm sure you have a good intent, but you have nothing to ask from me." "However much you want me to participate, the Rebbe says, "However much you want me to participate, even more, I want to participate in Kidush

09:30 Shem Shamyim Berabim by not participating." And, and there, there's footnotes here saying that there was an something horrible happened, something that really upset the Rebbe, and I've gotta tell you, it's not, it's not known. It's not known. Um, I checked all of the yumanim from the time, and people keep writing about a me'ir they won't tell me about. I sent a message to a couple mashpiyim and historians. I will say on the record, uh, I, I, I will say on the record that Rabbi Yossi Paltiel responded to me saying, "It's loshon hora, and and telling you would be mamash loshon hora," and, uh, and I let it lie at that. So I, I guess he knows, so hit him up. I don't know what to tell you. He knows it. I don't know what happened. I don't know. The Rebbe hints that it's an implying maybe there was some sort of, uh, some sort of physical damage that happened. The Rebbe uses a loshon of mesira, implying maybe somebody turned somebody over to the government. I, I, it-- I literally don't know. The Rebbe says what date it happened on. He said, The Rebbe says it happened on the nineteenth day of the Omer. So, um, the Rebbe gives us a lot of details, but he doesn't say exactly what's going on. What he does say is that he's not participating in the parade, and we can't talk him out of it. And that's what we have in the sicha. After this sicha, people lost

10:42 their minds. I mean, I told you, I was looking through the yumanim trying to figure out, uh... By the way, if you ever wanna look through yumanim on your own, the Mafteach app sorted all yumanim by date, or at least four or five good yumanim by date, journals that were written at the time by date. If you open the Mafteach app and you click any date, you can flip through all of the journals of people that they have from that date. So I was flipping through yumanim trying to figure out if anybody wrote down what happened. They didn't, but what they did write down is that people were losing their minds. I mean, they said that it was-- the language used in the-- in these contexts is that people were, people were crying, people were begging, people were doing what-- Pe-pe-people were very, very upset. The idea that the Rebbe wouldn't come to a Lag BaOmer parade absolutely crushed people, especially the day before the parade. The Rebbe said that he could not come because he had to be I will add that Rabbi Paltiel did say to me that in addition to whatever had upset the Rebbe, there was another reason the Rebbe might not have shown up to the parade, and this one is more widely known, and that is in the previous year, they'd invited a whole bunch of dignitaries, politicians, and the like to the parade, and the Rebbe had expressed that he was not happy about this. Um, one of

11:37 the historians that Moshe Rubin reached out to on my behalf said that, uh, one of the possible-- that the Rebbe said in a, maybe in a anach of the sicha that's not printed in the Sicha Mamash, that the Rebbe had said that maybe it's an whatever, this, this reason for him not attending, because really, he wasn't so interested in attending since they invited so many politicians. So it's-- we know that in addition to whatever this is, that the Rebbe was also upset about the dignitaries who were invited, um, and wished that they weren't all invited. I-- Somebody asked, "Should we withdraw the invitations?" And the Rebbe said no. Um, so the truth is we don't know exactly what the reason is. Uh, and I believe some people know. Clearly, some people know and don't wanna tell me, but it is certainly not widely known. Uh, and- I, I can't tell you without names Huh? You can tell me without names? I don't-- Don't say it on the recording. Say it after because- No, no, no. Not me. I said, why, why can't Rabbi Paltiel ever tell you without names? I, I, I don't, I don't know. But I do know that if, uh, if, if Rabbi Paltiel says this Lashon Hara, it doesn't belong in a public shiur. So if we ever do find out, we'll have to say it to each other privately 'cause certainly not on a recording if it's if it's an Inyan of Lashon Hara. And I guess it probably shouldn't

12:36 say Lashon Hara privately either. That, that would be- I don't think it becomes less of an Issur, maybe less of a spring case. The reason why we're talking about all of this is because we are in the year Tav Shin Lamed Gimel, and there are only two letters from Lag BaOmer that year, and both of them are about this. And I wanna look at this one together because here we have a Yesod from the Rebbe that is very interesting. So I have here on the screen, somebody wrote to the Rebbe. If you look below the line that, uh, it says here, this is written, it's a minor to somebody from Anash who asked the Rebbe please participate in Lag BaOmer parade Shabbos Kodesh after he had told them on Shabbos that he would not be able to participate. So this is in response to that letter. All those sources you see below the line you think might have the story in them, I gotta tell you, I read them all, they do not. Okay. I, I, I, I really tried, guys. I I did my best investigative work. I don't think it's in print. Whatever it is, I don't think it's been written down. And if it is in print, I didn't find it. Okay. So the Rebbe says . The Rebbe says that, "I said sincerely, sincerely and simply ." I'm sorry, I need to tell you one more thing 'cause it's a Hakdama to the letter. It's necessary. The Rebbe says at the

13:41 end of the Sikha that he wants everybody to participate as they were. The Rebbe says that it is a Rachmanus on people who don't participate in this parade because he's not participating. The Rebbe says that he has to make a stand, but that he wants everybody to continue participating in the parade. Okay. The Rebbe said that, "I said in my own simplicity, my own innocence that those who are involved in the parade because this is the Hilula of the Rashbi, this is the Yahrtzeit of the Rashbi ." That at this time, at the parade, a lot of children should be saying Brachos, that's the idea of the parade, and that when they do this, this will pierce the heavens. when you explain to them, when you explain to these children at the parade what the Inyan is of Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai and Rebbe Akiva you will cause Nachas Ruach to Rebbe Akiva and to Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai. the Rebbe goes, "That is also enough and more than enough." What's the Rebbe saying? He's saying, "I believe that the context of the letter must have been that they said something like, 'What are we gonna tell the children? And, uh, how will the children, um, what, what's the point in having this parade if there's no Rebbe there for the children to look at?'" And the Rebbe is saying back here that the parade is worth it and more than worth it if it's for the Rashbi and Rebbe Akiva, it doesn't have to

14:51 be for the-- it doesn't have to be for me. This is the Rebbe saying that when they, when they do the Inyanim of Rashbi and Rebbe Akiva, when they speak about the Inyanim of Rashbi and Rebbe Akiva, this will cause Nachas Ruach to Rashbi and Rebbe Akiva, and that's . I don't need to be there. It's enough if you just give Nachas Ruach to Rebbe Akiva and Rebbe Shimon Bar Yochai. Uh, you'll see in a second why I'm reading this way for the next sentence. the Rebbe goes, "Look, we do Lag BaOmer parades in places where I'm not present, and they go fine." The Rebbe says, "I'm not at the parade in Eretz Yisrael, and they do fine every year because they're giving Nachas Ruach to the Rashbi and Rebbe Akiva and because they're talking to the children about Rashbi and Rebbe Akiva." The Rebbe says, "You don't need me." The Rebbe continues, . And there's those three dots, and I don't know. I, I have a suspicion those three dots are there because something's missing from the letter, but it's possible that's just the style it was written in. that I will cause suffering to thousands of children, um, through the, through, through, through, uh, through not being there because it is my sincere hope. I just hope you'll find somebody else who can do this, who can explain this to them. I'm sure you'll put somebody else in the bimah, the Rebbe says, who will explain to the children that when they mention

16:03 or when they think of Rebbe Akiva and the Rashbi, that then this will certainly succeed and it's a waste of time for us to go back and forth on these Inyanas. What he's saying over here is that, "I don't believe that me not attending will cause thousands of children to suffer." I assume that was the implication of the letter written to him. And he says, "It is my sincere hope that somebody else will get up on the bimah and talk to the children about Rebbe Akiva and Rashbi, and that will be enough." If the children will just make Brachos and they'll hear words of Hisoreros, hear inspiring words, not just for Rashbi and Rebbe Akiva, the Rebbe says, "You wanna give me Nachas Ruach, I will get Nachas Ruach from hearing that the children made Brachos and that they also heard Divrei Hisoreros. That they heard Divrei Hisoreros, that will give me Nachas Ruach." Um, so the Rebbe's telling him how to do the parade without him, and the Rebbe stuck to his guns. He did not attend this parade, and as far as I know, it was the only Sunday Lag BaOmer parade that the Rebbe ever did not attend. I think that there is a, uh, besides being an interesting piece of history and just something that we kind of stumbled onto because we're learning Tav Shin Lamed Gimel, I do wanna point out this last line down here for a couple reasons, and the entire letter for a couple reasons. First of

17:14 all, um, I don't believe for a moment that the Rebbe is not deeply, actively involved right now in our Lag BaOmer parades, but it certainly is the case that the children and the adults don't see him there. And the Rebbe is explaining in this letter how to have a Lag BaOmer parade when you don't see the Rebbe and saying it works. It absolutely works. Uh, and that it doesn't necessarily even have to be all about the Rebbe, that it's about Rebbe Akiva and the Rashbi, and that that is . But then at the end, he tells us, "If you really wanna give me Nachas Ruach, I can be part of your parade too," but there's a Tanai. And the Tanai is that it-- I'm, I'm not there for the floats. I'm not there for the music. I'm not there for the, for the, for the colorful T-shirts. Although those things, I'm-- he's not saying they're bad. I'm not saying they're bad either. The Rebbe is saying, "What brings me to the parade?" And the answer is, "What brings me to the parade, what gives me Nachas Ruach at the parade, whether you can see me there or not, what brings me Nachas Ruach at the parade," says the Rebbe, "is that the children should make Brachos at the parade, and they should hear Divrei Hisoreros." I'm willing, uh, I'm very willing to expand this liberally to any time that we do programs with children, especially since, as we said historically, Mesibah Shabbos itself was originally

18:12 invented, um, the parade was originally invented as an outgrowth of Mesibah Shabbos. If we wanna give Re-- Nachas Ruach to the Rebbe when we gather children, um, giving them candies is great, but not enough. It's what brings them in the room. Uh, and the other things that we do to get children involved are wonderful, but they're not enough. What brings the Rebbe into the room? What brings-- What gives him Nachas Ruach at the parade, and I think at any of the events where we have children involved that they should make Brachos and that they should and that they should hear things that inspire them . This is how to give the Rebbe real Nachas Ruach, whether he's present at our events or not.