ניסיון התנקשות

00:01 This is Igris, and today we're going to address the attempted assassination of former President Trump and presumptive Republican nominee on July 13th. That was earlier this week. As we discussed very briefly in a recent share on the Rebbe's position on public schools, the Rebbe wrote a letter to President Reagan after John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate him in nineteen eighty-one, and the Rebbe went on to give a lengthy sicha explaining why these sorts of things happen and how to prevent them from happening in the future. Unfortunately, now the subject is much more timely than we would like. So today, I wanna go back and do a deep dive into the Rebbe's response to the attempted assassination of a president and see what we can learn about that regarding the terrible things that are happening today. So just to take you back there, the Reagan story begins in nineteen eighty-one when the president delivered a speech at the Washington Hilton Hotel. He normally wore a bulletproof vest, but he wasn't wearing one that day, and as he entered his limo, John Hinckley Jr. fired six shots. Five of them missed Reagan, but a sixth one, uh, it ricocheted off of something. It, uh, ricocheted off the limo. It hit Reagan. It punctured his lung. It almost got his heart, and he made a complete recovery. Uh, he sent the Rebbe a telegram honoring the Rebbe's seventy-ninth birthday. What's interesting about this story to me that I didn't know until now is I thought the Rebbe reached

01:10 out to him after he got injured. That's not what happened. Um, Re- President Reagan reached out to the Rebbe in honor of the Rebbe's seventy-ninth birthday, and in the Rebbe's response, he wrote a letter back that also mentioned that he was wishing him a speedy recovery. So the Rebbe sends a letter wishing Reagan a speedy recovery, and we're going to look at that interaction first. Afterwards, we're gonna spend most of our time today on a very long sicha where the Rebbe really breaks down the societal causes of attempted assassinations on the president and what we can do to fix that, what the world needs to do if it doesn't want things like this to happen again and again. And, uh, I, I know I'm gonna keep on saying this throughout, but may as well start now. If you're gonna repeat yourself, start early. Um, in nineteen eighty-one, the Rebbe told us how to make sure that no one would ever try to shoot a president again. I went on, uh, Wikipedia earlier today just to see how often this happens, and I think there were, like, nine attempts on Obama's life. There were a bunch, uh, on Trump's in his past term. There were a bun-- there've been a bunch on Biden's life. People are constantly trying to attack presidents, and the Rebbe told us in nineteen eighty-one how to prevent this from happening, and we haven't listened. So perhaps this time we'll listen. In any event, I have this on the screen in front

02:09 of us. This is the letter that Ronald Reagan sent the Rebbe on April fifteenth of nineteen eighty-one in honor of the Rebbe's birthday. We almost never see the letters to the Rebbe, so I thought that'd be a little bit interesting. This is from the president. This is one of the first letters that a president sent our Rebbe in honor of his birthday. Uh, the Reb-- the, uh, Ronald Reagan writes to the Rebbe, "Dear Rabbi Schneerson, I am delighted to join with your many friends and followers in wishing you a very happy, a very happy seventy-ninth birthday." Those words are underlined. "Your dedication and devotion to the spiritual and intellectual well-being of the Jewish people are an inspiration to all Americans. For more than two centuries, the Chabad Lubavitch movement has been a vital force in Jewish life and culture and a source of hope and sustenance during many difficult and tragic moments in Jewish history. With your emphasis on moral and ethical values and your interest in education, you have contributed greatly to both the intellectual and spiritual development of our nation. You have my deep-felt respect and admiration. With best wishes, sincerely, The President." Okay. So that's from the president. The Rebbe writes back. Now, this is the Rebbe writing back right after the attempted assassination. I have the-- I, I put the typewritten letter on your screen because I think that feels more authentic. Although, at the same time, it is twice as difficult to read because it's a scratchy old typewritten letter.

03:15 In any event, the letter says, "By the grace of God," on the top. I think that says it's from the twelfth of Nisan. That would be April sixteenth, one day after the Rebbe received the telegram in honor of his birthday from Ronald Reagan, and the Rebbe writes, "Greeting and blessing." These are the Rebbe's words. "Thank you very much, dear Mr. President, for your good wishes on the occasion of my birthday. As I noted in my remarks at the annual celebration last night, your kind and thoughtful congratulatory message is doubly reassuring. While all of us are still under impact of the recent trying days for you and the nation in connection with the demented attempt on your life, heaven forefend, it is remarkable and most gratifying that the president has been able to give personal atten-attention also to matters which, under the circumstances, might have been justifiably postponed or overlooked." So the Rebbe in this paragraph is saying that first of all, um, it's very reassuring to get a message from you. We were worried about you, so we're glad you're sending a letter. And second of all, we're excited, I guess we're honored, that in a time where you could have set things like writing to the Rebbe about his birthday as sort of, uh, something we'll get to once fully recovered, you jumped right back into work and focused on us, which, uh, the Rebbe is thanking him for. Also, the Rebbe uses very strong words to describe an attempt on the president's life.

04:20 The Rebbe's words here, uh, they-- I, I don't know how well they work in, in the English usage the way that it's used in twenty twenty-four, but in nineteen eighty-one, I assume that this was pretty typical usage. In any event, the Rebbe's saying that, uh, this was a demented attempt on your life, heaven forefend. So the, uh, Rebbe calls this a, a national, a national trial, a national tribulation, and something that everybody was very worried about. Continuing the Rebbe's letter, the Rebbe says, "Your message, particularly in reference to the importance of emphasizing moral and ethical values in education, is as meaningful as it is timely. It is heartening to know that you, Mr. President, and your administration are committed to upgrading the education of all the citizens of this country." So the Rebbe is now saying that the message in the letter that you are dedicated to education and thanking me for my role in education tells me that you're going to push your role in education, which is something that is very important to the Rebbe, as we have discussed in many of our prior shiurim. The Rebbe continues, "Please be assured that we in the Chabad Lubavitch movement, along with all good citizens of this country, continue to pray for your rapid and complete recovery and for your robust health consistently thereafter, so that you can carry out the awesome responsibilities of the president of this great and leading nation in the world. In keeping with our basic belief that everything is by

05:24 divine providence, and how much more so being elected to the highest office in the land, we are convinced that God has endowed you with the capabilities and strength to carry out your God-given responsibilities in the fullest measure, with joy and gladness of heart." I think this paragraph is just so interesting because the Rebbe's speaking about al pi chasidus what a president is, that a president of a nation, of a non-Jewish nation, one of the leading nations of the world, the president of the United States is given by divine providence, given be-hashgacha protis the ability to carry out his tasks and is given all sorts of powers, and the Rebbe is really sort of glorifying the office of president. As it's understood, al pi chasidus and al pi nigla. The Rebbe continues and concludes, "There is no better way in which I can reciprocate your good wishes than by reiterating the divine promise to our patriarch, Abraham, quote, 'I will bless them that bless thee,' Genesis twelve three. May you and the First Lady and all your family, uh, and all your family be blessed with all good from the source of all blessings with utmost esteem and blessing. Cordially, the Rebbe's holy signature." So this is the letter that the Rebbe sent Ronald Reagan very shortly after the assassination. But where the Rebbe really discusses the assassination, that's the Rebbe's message to the president. The me-- the Rebbe's message to the entire world is a very long and, uh, very harsh in a lot of

06:28 places. Sicha, where the Rebbe breaks down the causes of, uh, the attempted assassination and the reason why people in America and some Amer-- some people, some people in America feel that they can take matters into their own hands, uh, carry out whatever justice they see fit, hurt people who aren't doing what they want. Uh, this entire ideology of causing pain to other people is something that the Rebbe says is entirely preventable, and that if we were to live differently and do things a little bit differently and structure our social system a little differently, it wouldn't happen at all. So this Sicha is from Yud Aleph Nisan of that same year, Taf Shin Mem Aleph. And, uh, although last time we read like a paragraph from it, this time we're gonna read almost all of it. At least I cut out a bunch of pages. We're gonna read a lot of it. We're gonna read a lot of the Sicha this time. Let me just make sure I have everything on the screen that I want. There, I want that box and this box. I put things in boxes so we wouldn't forget the main parts. Okay. The Sicha's on your screen. Let me make it a little bit bigger, and we're going to spend the rest of our time on this Sicha, where the Rebbe drills down into the problems and offers solutions. Uh, because I do know that some people leave early, I, I shouldn't just tell you there's a problem with the solution.

07:28 I should tell you the solution. I'll tell you right now, and then you can leave if you don't wanna hear the whole shiur. The solution is prayer in public schools. The Rebbe wants public schools praying. But let's see how he gets there. Uh, entry vav of the Sicha. "Lechol haresh," the Rebbe says, "First and foremost, livarchah ubirchas rifuah complete recovery." We're going to wish a blessing of a complete recovery. And afterwards, and immediately afterwards, there should be a bracha that he should use all of his energy, and all of his abilities, and all of his strengths that were given to him by Hashem, that, uh, th-by the fact that he was chosen by the masses through a democratic system. "Ufrat midid shamsayim ba'amim ravim," especially here in a nation where there are many different kinds of people. "Sheim beichim biachad," they all choose together. "Ve'al pi daas harev lachem mikanam mi yet maskim." The majority chooses the president, and then afterwards the minority gives in. "Vemicalem es haitoran nassi," and then everybody agrees to accept him as president. "Uvakecham venegei l'chol inyanayim." And this gives him the power over all of their, uh, all of their inyanim. "Hein kal bechutze hein kal bepnim behadagah medinah atzmah," regarding running this country. "She'nasan b'shlemus leteva klal ufrat." That, that he will be able to use all of these skills, all of these abilities that are given to him in general and specifically. So first of all, the Rebbe gives a bracha that he should recover, and he

08:31 should then use his abilities properly. And then the Rebbe notes that his abilities that, uh, he's given as president come from the fact that the majority elected him. And it's especially noteworthy in a nation full of so many different people, such a diverse nation, that the majority of people, not just of people of one group, of people of one region, but people of all sorts of different backgrounds would all by majority at least elect a president. Anyway, the Rebbe goes on. I'm gonna skip a lot actually. That's on page five of the Sicha. I'm skipping a whole page and going to page zayin of the Sicha the way that I have it here. And this is entry ches. The Rebbe now says, "Yedua teras habal shem." So the Rebbe's wished him a refuah shleima and given him a bracha that he should be able to use his powers properly. Now we get down to the meat and potatoes. It is known from the Torah of the Baal Shem Tov, "Shekasah peich shemeizeh inyan shihia," that when I encounter anything, "Tzaruch lilmod mimenu harav meisa," I need to find a way, I need to find a practical lesson. "Va'ad harav meisa u'ikar." And not just that I need to, I need to find a practical lesson as sort of a, a nod to the divine providence in my life. "Ha'meisa u'ikar." The action is the most important thing. So anything that happens, if I read the news, " Rachmanu la'tzlan," God forbid, I accidentally open a

09:28 newspaper. I don't know, I fall into a newsstand and accidentally take a look at the news. Uh, if I do see the news, then I should be immediately thinking not just what does this mean for me spiritually, but what can I practically do better based on the thing that I'm seeing. "Ve'zeh hakuda." And this is the point. "Shekasah chei shaah meisa mafiel." When you think about this astounding thing that happened, that someone tried to kill a president. "S'vich li sfad nos laaschil mikach, uh, shemispaden kfi yacheles ba'nasa sheyada plenim and plenim, b'achad me'anshei medini yada shelo cheida zeh davar shehu neged ha'sechel." We've gotta really have a hispadanus on this. We gotta think about this very carefully. A certain person tried to shoot somebody, and not just anybody, they tried to shoot the president. And not just anybody tried to shoot the president, but a citizen of the country under that president tried to shoot the president. The Rebbe says the whole thing is just, it's mafiel, it's astounding. We unfortunately are so desensitized, we don't think about it that way. But the Rebbe's saying, th-this is your leader. Somebody just shot their own leader. It's neged ha'sechel. It makes no sense that someone would try to do this. "B'gez yachliyas la'atchilah shadam yaseh kazeh davar shehu legamre del'umaven." It's, uh, impossible to understand or difficult to understand, or we need to understand how a person could do something so un-understandable. "V'hu neged ha'sechel ve'hergesh." This is against intellect, this is against emotion, et cetera.

10:33 And the Rebbe has here an exclamation point and a question mark. I will note that, uh, that this Sicha was edited in Yiddish and then also the English edition. The Rebbe edited an English edition of this Sicha to be widely publicized afterwards. So, uh, this is something the Rebbe, the Rebbe said and then afterwards took a lot of care to make sure that it got out and got out in a form that he was comfortable with. Uh, anyway, "V'neisef ha'smiya," we're going to add to the shock, "Guf hamara lach li sfades ba'amor shevadi tzaruch leheredes meshineh ve'esav hamayis hapel." We need to take all of this energy that we're having, all of this shock that we have, and turn it into a practical action. "Le'dach biz dazeah mechesed vetach lasamaysa." This is so important. We can't just be shaken. We can't just say that this is a horrible thing and be shaken by it. We need to find a practical outcome from it. So of course, I mean, I, I don't have to draw the parallels because the parallels are too direct. We are going through this right now as a country, another attempt on a former president's l-- this time a former president's life and, uh, the question is not just am I shaken by it, the question is am I going to do anything different because of it? And here the Rebbe begins. "Ki li azbir ketzi ditacham shikara davar kazem la'atchilah." In order to explain how something like this could happen in

11:33 the first place. "Yedua tainas shesharash maisabilti detsuyam ha'nehon neyos." Everybody knows that the first place we go when we're trying to blame society is we say poverty is the problem. "Meshum shekash yesh nah neyos," when there's poverty, "Zemavira de'mnidos." Poverty brings to sadness. "Uveshash yesh nah mnidos." And when people are sad 'cause they're poor, "Zemavira de'geishal nechamum kids vizeh." It makes them wanna take revenge against the system that made them poor. "Vemizeh bakil lamaysa bilti detsuyam." And therefore, poor people commit crimes. The Rebbe says this is the go-to sociological response to crime, and by the way, that has not changed. We generally still assume that at the end of the day, poverty is what causes crimes. But we see practically, “Zeshe asah samei'ah,” the one who did this thing, “einah oni.” It wasn't a poor person. “Elad Raba,” the person who shot, who shot Ronald Reagan, who “gadol b'tur ben asher” was raised as the son of a rich person. “Le'asot av yamav,” his father never disciplined him. “V'nir sh'le ma nav menu menu shum davar,” his father never withheld anything from him. He had everything he needed. And although we don't know much about the shooter in the Trump case, and they're still trying to figure out what was going on there exactly, the ev-ev- the evidence that's available now is, again, that he was not a poor person. He was raised middle class, upper middle class, and by the way, across the board. Um, although, although crimes, crimes in cer-certain kinds of crimes

12:41 are definitely committed, um, mostly by people who are of lower socioeconomic status, that is true. When it comes to trying to shoot world leaders, that is als- shooting the president or attempts on the president's life does seem to be something. By the way, school shootings too. Shootings are, are very broadly, especially when they're done for some sort of political gain, they're not really done by poor people so much. They're done by people who have money, and the Rebbe is going to emphasize this now. “Kashe cheshbon shamayim biltz dim sum shmer niggas,” when we think that bad things are tied to poverty, “Madgi sh'mer ezesh es asher sh'on haga biltz dat tziter achaf ezum akam acheh legam levanias.” So if we're going to try to blame this on poverty, it's not gonna work here, says the Rebbe. This kid who shot, uh, this person who shot Ronald Reagan, he was, uh, he was not poor. So it must be there's some other cause here, so we can't blame poverty. “Neis v'lezeh,” the Rebbe now adds. We're in Yod. “Neis v'lezeh. Sh'kasha em sh'sheresh shamayim biltz dim sum hoanias.” When we say-- The Rebbe adds, “When we say w- that, uh, that the, that the root of all these improper things, of all these bad behaviors is poverty,” “Zehu hefikul ma sh'mara Torah. V'ad Raba Torah mara meres sh'zar bi-vnei aniyim sh'mem teitz et Torah dafke biglashim bnei aniyim.” The Rebbe says, "I'd also like to add that this is against the Torah." The Torah itself says

13:43 that poverty does not cause bad behavior, that you should be careful about the children of poor people because they are the ones who bring Torah to the world. Torah comes out of the world, according to the Gemara, from poor people. “Dafke biglashim bnei aniyim,” specifically because they're poor. So poverty, according to Torah, is an advantage, not a disadvantage when it comes to being a moral force in this world. So the Rebbe is very uncomfortable with blaming poverty, not only because, in this case, the guy wasn't poor, but also because the Torah, uh, says that poor people tend to produce wonderful things. “Vechehen gan nishtal sh'be'elim sh'bashash bnei aniyim b'chazum chinuch matim.” Therefore, it also exists in the world at large, not just among the Jews, but among non-Jewish poor people as well. If the people-- If poor people receive a good education, the Rebbe says, “Adiraba, heim am nam nimtzayim matziv yarim b'shakal, meychadim sh'nimtzayim svivam, b'eisa azman. Aval zem edim sh'yes amtziv ishtadli v'yes yagiya, v'adiraba yamdu v'mayim rimatziv yesiv v'aim mikol yonet tei v'chesed shel eilush einim nimtzayim mayim rimatziv shel aniyas, v'mayim rimatziv shel ashiris.” The Rebbe says we see this in the world at large. This isn't just true of Yidden, of course. Poor Jews, they make better Torah. That's what the Gemara says. But this applies in the world at large. When poor people, non-Jews, go to get a good education, an appropriate education, they then push themselves to show that they are just as good, if not better, than

14:50 people who had middle-level income or high-level income. And then they end up very frequently distinguishing themselves above their peers who had better, uh, education in the past. So the Rebbe says, "I simply don't buy it that Jews or non-Jews, when they're poor, are more likely to be failures or more likely to be sad or more likely to commit crimes." "I don't buy it," says the Rebbe. So let's go on to Yud Aleph. “Tamur in sifteh.” As I said earlier, “Achshli reizeh b'pail.” We can see this practically. “Sheyesh samei'ah b'lehaven oni.” And we see this practically. The person who tried to-- The person who shot Ronald Reagan was not poor. “Elad Raba hu gadol k'minashi,” he was raised as a rich kid. “V'shash sh'cheish v'sheresh shamayis shamayis mahagah biltz dim tzu yokash im aniyas.” When we think that these things are tied to poverty, “Madgish sh'sheresh shamayis elo makom acheh,” we see here that we need to look somewhere else for the cause. “Umah hu sheresh,” what is the cause? What causes somebody to try to shoot a president, or in our cases, a former president? “L'chol haresh. Le'asot av yamav.” Step one, his father doesn't discipline him. “Ve'adevesheni,” the second thing. So first of all, the Rebbe's gonna say this a couple times in the sicha. It's definitely not the thrust of the sicha, but it's an exciting part of it. The Rebbe does very frequently push back against the idea of sort of a free-range parenting, where you let your kids do whatever they

15:52 want. So he does say that every now and then, but he doesn't make that the big point. But I, I will point it out when I see it. So first of all, the Rebbe says his parents didn't discipline him. And second of all, “adevesheni.” Second thing, “Keyvan shechinuchah lehi hakader moni k'debai.” But the second thing, and this is definitely the case now because we haven't fixed this problem at all, is that his education in the public school system had no faith in it. It was not “kader moni k'debai.” It did not have faith instilled in it properly. “Emunah pshutas yeshna b-beireh elo mah hego sh'mistakal kol acheh v'acheh.” That is, he did not have the simple faith that there is a creator of the world and somebody running the world who looks at every single person. The Rebbe's gonna say this a bunch in the sicha, but let me say it outside right now. One of the Rebbe's central claims is that people will not be good unless they have a simple belief that there is a God who is present right now, who's watching them, and who can punish them for doing the wrong thing, even if they don't get caught. And without that basic belief, which is a very fundamental, a very fundamental, very low-level morality, right? Without that very low-level morality of, "I believe I'll get caught even if no mortal catches me," a person just doesn't turn out moral. That's something that must be instilled in children at a very young

16:52 age. Continuing. “Zeshe ela sanacha shel ish ki yash kol yesh bein aviasa.” This idea that God is going to stop me or punish me or get in my way if I try to do the wrong thing pushes back against the feeling of everybody doing exactly what they want. “Ish kol yesh bein aviasa.” Everybody will do what is fitting in their eyes. “Anacha sheutarach liyes ma'asfik sheyes smart chacham.” And it also pushes back against the assumption that a person simply needs to be smart. And the Rebbe says, "I'm not using the word ‘chacham’ or ‘klug.’ ‘Keyvan sheze tipshus,’ because this act that this person did was just stupidity." But a person could say that they're trying to be smart. “Anacha sheyachlanatav sharish yesh lebechdei lehares la'azik hasheni.” This idea that somebody might be able to-- that somebody might try to get what they want by hurting or by damaging, uh, by destroying another person, “Shezehu mazik latme yesh ma'asheh lesheni.” This entire ideology says the Rebbe, that a person can do whatever they want, and if someone's in my way, I'm going to move them out of the-- my way forcibly and hurt them, is something that you could come to the conclusion of if you are somebody who is just trying to be smart enough to make it, although it wouldn't make you any kind of wise. That's what that whole sentence means. And now the Rebbe says, “Shezehu mazik latme yesh ma'asheh lesheni.” The Rebbe just adds in parenthesis, "You should know that when

17:54 you hurt somebody else, you always hurt yourself more than you hurt them." It's impossible to physically harm somebody and not do more damage to yourself. Why? “Lesheni hu mazik raku, raku gufei.” Because the only thing you can do to that other person is damage their body. You can't damage someone's soul. I guess you probably can. But when you damage somebody, when you hurt somebody, you're only damaging their body. That doesn't hurt their soul. So when you damage another person, you damage their body. “Ve'las mehu mazik,” when it comes to you, “heim b'guf heim b'nishma.” So you end up damaging your body and also your neshamah. “Heim be'olam hazeh heim be'olam haba.” In this world and in the next world. So violence never makes any sense. Violence is fundamentally foolish because a violent person ends up hurting that person physically and damaging themselves physically and spiritually in this world and in the next world. Now the Rebbe continues. I, I, I, I like this because I don't like violence very much and, uh, the Rebbe doesn't like violence very much. And I like it that every now and then in letters and in sichas, you'll have the Rebbe take a big step back and remind you that in addition to all these other lofty ideas we have, that very simply, it is disgusting for a Jew to be involved in hurting somebody or for a non-Jew to be involved in hurting somebody. That if somebody is punching somebody else, something is broken. And, uh, I like

18:55 when we find this in sichas and letters because I think sometimes in our pursuit of the loftier ideas of the Rebbe, we forget our most basic principles, which are that we are anti-violence. I mean, obviously, we've talked about letters about war, where we have to defend our people. But the-- i-ideally a person, i-- unless they're trying to, uh, protect themselves a-- or their country, a, a person should be avoiding hurting people. This is just-- The Rebbe says it, although it's so simple. So I just wanna point out, don't hurt anybody. Continue. The way that the Chinuch, the way that education is done in our country, that the job of education is to collect knowledge, to collect knowledge. And if you collect enough knowledge in enough areas, you are called educated. This is how we define education in America. It's the collection of information, and when you have collected enough, you're an educated person. The reason why people collect this knowledge, if you ask a student, "Why are you trying to collect all this knowledge?" You'll find that it's not because they want true good or because they're trying to make the world around them better. It's in order to demonstrate, that there's just me and I can do things myself. It's in order to create a sense of independence, and independence comes with a complete lack of Bitul. When this is the way that ed-education is done, and it is still done this way, that the whole point is to create independent people. Which it

20:19 doesn't mean that exactly. Just hol-hold your horses, conservatives. That is that you grab onto liberalism. The principles of liberalism are you're not allowed to mix up in a-- in the life of a child. You gotta let him do what he wants. That a person is born a wild donkey. Because pe-- because Hashem made him that way. So the mother and father shouldn't be interfering. And therefore, he should be allowed to damage, uh, others or himself as much as he wants. Okay, so what we're saying in this paragraph here is that the-- if the education is entirely about independence, then we're going to attach ourselves to the value of liberalism, and the value of liberalism is... And he means-- the Rebbe means here the entire idea of liberalism as a philosophy. That the entire liberalism philosophy, this is not American political liberalism. This is the idea of, of laissez-faire, of keeping your hands off things in general, laissez-faire economics, in this case, laissez-faire education. The idea of taking a big step back and letting things develop on their own says that since we all agree that everybody begins their life as a wild donkey, that they should be allowed to continue their lives as wild donkeys, and nobody should be allowed to direct them or shape them because that's impin-- that, that, that's infringing on their personal liberties. So people have this assumption that, uh, education is about giving them a lot of knowledge, and I can't really change who they are or try to work

21:38 on their personalities, their yeteirs, because that would be a violation of liberalism. Even though there is a coun-- a national law, uh, a federal law, they say that, that children have to go to school. And all these schools are founded on the principle that schools are only supposed to be conveying information. So the Rebbe says here, there is an obligation that everybody must go to school in this country. It's required by law. And these schools, the public schools, are not allowed to do anything but give you information on how to, uh, on how to, how to collect information and, uh, become independent, but aren't allowed to shape your personality. And, uh, this obviously contributes to that problem. So the Rebbe here says that there is, of course, some degree of discipline in these schools, but the discipline that you receive in a school is that if you get caught, you will get in trouble. So children learn two things in school. One, they collect a whole lot of information, and their entire moral education is, as the Rebbe's gonna say a little bit later, their entire moral education is, "How can I get better at doing the wrong thing without getting caught?" Which means they never really receive a moral education in doing the right thing for the right reason and not doing the wrong thing for the right reason. They're taught morality in the form of, "If the teacher catches you, you're in trouble, so learn not to get caught." This kind of education

23:09 is the root of all bad behaviors, including trying to shoot the president. But the Rebbe says this is the root of all bad behaviors. This is where-- this is, this is why we have crime. This is why we have, this is why we have societal ills. Everything that-- everything-- every bad thing in the world that comes from people, every bad thing in America, at least, or in the Western world, that comes from people, the Rebbe puts it squarely at the feet of the public school system, uh, educating the child in a way that is the collection of knowledge and not the fun-- and not the, uh, development of their middos, not the development of their character. This all happens because the whole point of these educational systems that we have now is to collect knowledge. And then when he collects knowledge, he succeeds or he doesn't succeed. He decides, "I'm going to learn something else. Let me add something to my knowledge base." I think I'll learn how to fire a gun. And once again, he's collecting information to demonstrate his independence. So the Rebbe here says, this guy was taught, whenever you want to get something done, collect information on how to do it, and then carry out exactly what makes you feel good. So this child who was taught that way decided he wanted to hurt somebody, decided to learn how to use a gun because that's how you collect information, and then you put it in whatever direction fulfills your personal goals

24:23 without any concern for the morality of what you're about to do. Of course, he doesn't have to sit and talk to somebody else and try to get to the bottom of things using his words. Certainly, he doesn't have to collaborate with somebody else. No. As soon as he sees somebody else in his way, he can blow them away. But he's been taught in a way that education shouldn't ever get in the way of his life and what he wants. And even though a person is born a wild donkey, we're going to let him continue to be a wild donkey, to damage people as he wishes. As we said earlier, for this begins when he goes to school, which is the law. So the Rebbe's really kinda throwing this back on the system. He's saying, "You're making a law they must go to school and get educated to be the kind of people who shoot people." This is why all of these bad things happen. When they put fear of punishment in the schools, this is the thing I hinted to earlier, when he doesn't they don't catch him before he does a bad thing, they punish him after the bad thing. So the edu-- the, the system of, uh, discipline in a school is that you try to get away with it. First of all, they tell everybody, "You're the most important thing. Everything that you-- they, they put you at the center." They give everybody a big self-esteem boost, and then . So what

25:45 is the school, what is the school implicitly teaching? Meaning, let me take a step back here and explain. The Rebbe's saying that first of all, the school tells you that you're all that matters and your self-esteem is what's most important, and they teach you how to collect knowledge so that you can get exactly what you want, and they teach you that you will only get in trouble if you get caught. Then what is the natural outcome for a child with even moderate intellect? An even moderately intelligent child will conclude from this that part of their job is to learn how to do bad things and not get in trouble. He becomes a big man. He shows what a big man he is when he damages somebody or causes pain to somebody. And when he demonstrates that he doesn't care about the people around him. This is how you make yourself big. This is the reward system. Now, of course, public schools don't literally stand up in front of the students, put on the chalkboard, "The award system for you is try to get away with doing bad things and showing you're a big man and hurting people." But the Rebbe's saying that how can you not draw this conclusion from a system that is entirely about collecting knowledge, entirely about putting you at the center, and has nothing to do with shaping you as a person? Uh, that sys-- and, and that only punishes you when you get caught. If you put all those things

26:48 together, you don't have to put anything on a chalkboard. The natural conclusion of a child is, "If I don't like the way this guy's acting, I think I'll shoot him." I know we're gonna go over a little bit today, so if people do have to leave 'cause their, their lunch break is over, please feel free to go, but I'm gonna finish this any event. This brings us to the second point. Which is that the educational system does not have faith in it properly, not enough faith. That is, that we need to be emphasizing in the schools that there is an eye that sees and an ear that hears, that God's watching. He, uh, this child who-- this, this person, this person who shot, who shot the president, and anybody who commits violent crimes, anybody who commits crimes in general, they did not hear growing up that there was an eye in the sky and an ear in the sky that, uh, an eye that sees and an ear that hears, that God is watching them. They didn't hear that. And if they heard it, says the Rebbe, they didn't hear it as . They heard it as, uh-- They, they, they didn't hear it sincerely. Whoever said it to them didn't mean it. Perhaps they went somewhere where someone taught them some moral message as a way of paying lip service to morality, but it wasn't from somebody who really believed in the morality. So yeah, there are some, there are some moments in public

27:55 schools and some moments in people who don't have necessarily religious educations or religious, um, run-ins. They, they, they're not involved in their religions or in their morality. You can have people occasionally encounter someone who will tell them, you know, "Do the right thing," or to always try to be better, you know. You got these inspirational posters on walls. Says the Rebbe, i-if you don't mean it, then it doesn't land in the child at all. The child knows what you do mean is collect knowledge and make yourself big. I-if you don't mean it when you tell a kid that there's accountability, then they're not going to believe you. So the Rebbe says he might have heard once or twice in his life that there's such a thing as moral accountability, societal accountability, religious accountability, but they didn't mean it when they said it to him, so it didn't become part of his life. And specifically, in addition to that, when he was in school, he felt what is this one? This is English. Let's try it. Uh, character. Got it. Character. That, uh, the school was not supposed to be involved in developing his character. Knowledge. Says that this-- the child has been told over and over again that the school's job is to teach him information, so even if somebody did one time try to give him moral messaging, maybe he had a guidance counselor or somebody in his life in the public school who was trying to tell him how to be a better

29:08 person, also says the Rebbe, the child, even if they do have somebody in the school trying to push this, the child will dismiss it. And the reason why th-- why they'll dismiss it is because the child has been told over and over again that that's overstepping, that the school has no right to be teaching him how to be a better person. So if somebody does come into the school and try to teach him morals, he's going to reject it, going to dismiss it, because the system itself is against that. So even if you do have one or two good people in the school who are teaching morality, until the entire system, the school itself announces, "We are here as moral messengers," the children aren't going to take the moral message seriously, certainly not when it's done insincerely. But even if it's done sincerely, if it's not part of the structure. This is because he's missing-- the, the, the, the faith is missing. Emunah is missing. This is one and the same. You can't tell somebody that God's watching you if they don't have complete belief in God. The only way to push back against everybody should do whatever they want is belief in God. We're gonna skip a b-- lot now, and we're gonna go all the way down to right before Tess Zion. Now the Rebbe continues. If a bunch of hours go by, hours and hours go by of your education, and you keep on teaching about the greatness of people and the

30:21 greatness of their powers and the greatness of their intellect. I'm adding words now, but I'm-- I already read it, so I can translate however I want. When you keep on educating people and y- we have a whole day, and the whole day's curriculum, hours and hours and hours of the greatness of people and the greatness of science and the greatness of your abilities and the greatness of-- and you, you build up what the person can be. And you never once mentioned the greatness of God, let alone the existence of God, or maybe the existence of God, let alone the greatness of God. When you spend the whole day on that, on how great you are, and you never mention anything about God, what do you expect to happen? You get things like this, says the Rebbe. Due to, uh-- it is, it is to our great, it is to our great, um, is to our great dismay. They think all kinds of things. Symptoms. The Rebbe says it is terribly painful to watch people scrambling after an event like this, trying to make sure it doesn't happen again, looking for ways to prevent it from happening, and they're treating the symptoms. They're missing the point. They're saying that they-- they're saying that, uh, I don't know, we need to-- I, I, I'm hearing right now that we need to lower the temp-- with the, with the current assassination attempts, we need to lower the temperature of politics. People need to speak differently on social media.

31:30 I'm sure there's somebody calling for gun restrictions. All symptoms of a bigger problem. The bigger problem is that we have people in the world who think that they can get whatever they want, or they've been told they can get whatever they want and don't have to worry about the morality of the situation or about God in this world. So the Rebbe says, "I find it so frustrating," says the Rebbe. "I find it painful that every time when something like this happens, we run around looking for solutions, and all the solutions we land on are symptoms but not the actual root problem, which is the complete lack of faith in the public school system." That if you really wanna fix this problem, you gotta put God in public schools. And if you don't put God in public schools, you can keep on treating the symptoms, people are gonna keep on shooting presidents. And the Rebbe said this in 1981, and let me tell you, I told you, I looked this up on Wikipedia. There've been like 15 since then. What does it take to listen? I know that I sound frustrated right now, but as I've told many of you in confidence, and I've even said sometimes on this podcast, I think, uh, I think you've heard this from me before, is that, uh, there's this-- there's a saying called which means I, "I call out and no one, and no one, and no one answers." It means I, I say-- I talk and no one

32:25 listens to me. And, uh, that's the-- that, that's what they called, that's what they called the book that was a collection of the Rebbe's letters and on, on, on, uh, on the land of Israel because he told Israel how to be a successful country and how to, uh, how to make sure their enemies didn't attack them, and nobody ever listened. I have often joked that I feel like sometimes the entire body of work from the Rebbe should be called . The Rebbe has given us solutions to all of societal's ills, and people just don't listen. As we see, this is what happens. A person's not-- a person who's not missing any money, if he doesn't have any lack of money, he can afford to buy a gun. And since he has a messed up education, it's messed up his education in that it is based on the idea that I should be able to do whatever I want and with my own strength. When you give them the ability to do whatever they want, and they're taught how to strengthen their bodies in gym class and the like, and they're taught how to use the things in their surrounding to get what they want. So what's school do? It's-- School teaches kids how to use the things around them to get what they want. If they have money, it teaches them then that they can use a gun to get what they want, and it energizes their bodies, that their bodies are good and strong,

33:36 so they can go get what they want. So basically, the entire school system without morality, it's not that these things are bad. It's not that there shouldn't be gym classes, that school shouldn't be teaching how to use what's in your environment. It's that if you-- It's, it, it's the most, the most terrifying thing in the world is a graduate of the public school system. Why is that so terrifying? Because we've given them, we've given them this incred-- We've given them a lot of information. They know a lot. They're smart. They're healthy. They know how to work the world around them and bend the world around them toward their will, and we didn't give them any morality. So we end up giving-- What we end up creating is a bunch of, is a bunch of killer robots. I'm, I'm obviously adding the words killer robots. That's not in the . But this is what the Rebbe is saying. You end up, you end up creating sort of these, these perfect machines of destruction with no morality, and that's what the school system is setting up, and now you're surprised they're shooting people. A person remains the way they were born. Everybody's born a wild donkey. This person remains a wild donkey, except now he's a wild donkey with a gun and a good education. And what do you think a wild donkey with a gun and a good education is going to do? I'm gonna skip all the way to the bottom of the just to

34:38 give you the Rebbe's solution. The Rebbe ends the by saying, let's talk practically. We gotta make sure that every one of these public schools has proper and what that looks like is that before they start the school day, they need to pray. the Rebbe says. It should be a kind of prayer that is to everybody. Not God forbid, to bring in things that have to do with That's why the Rebbe says, "I don't want any denomina-- I don't want a denominational prayer." Nothing that has to do with, uh, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, any of the religions. Don't bring anything denominational in. But the basic idea that every student in the public school needs to start their day with the recognition that there is one God, and that that one God is watching over them and is going to hold them accountable, the faith and the prayer that should start off the day is what the Rebbe wants. Now, as we've talked about before, uh, we did-- we by a long shot did not get this. The idea of, of, of religious prayer in public schools, uh, was, uh, was something the Rebbe pushed for a very long time and just never looked like it was going to happen. So the Rebbe made it a little bit easier. The Rebbe says in many subsequent that even a moment of silence before the school day starts where people can just sit and think about the fact that their society around them holds them accountable and how they need

35:43 to be better, just moments of, uh, introspection and self-reflection is already enough to head off a lot of these dis- these disasters. But that is, uh, that's a The Rebbe absolutely wants in every single public school for there to be prayer before the school day starts, and that that prayer should instill them with the knowledge of God and with the knowledge of God's, uh, holding people accountable for the things they do. Otherwise, we're, uh, otherwise, we're arming a bunch of godless people with, uh-- and, and amoral people with incredible abilities. The school system, the Rebbe understands the power of education, especially public education. We had a whole share on this. The Rebbe believes it's very valuable and that, uh, not for Jews obviously, but in the way of educating the, the non-Jews of the world, the public education system, the Rebbe really does support, and the Rebbe supports money being sent toward it as we learned in one of our prior at the same time. This education system is so good that it can teach somebody to do horrible things if they do not have a moral compass. And the only way to instill a moral compass in someone, says the Rebbe, is to instill in them a faith in God and an understanding that God is watching them at all times. The Rebbe said this in 1981, and he said that this was the solution to make sure that no one ever tried to shoot a president again. Uh, we're now standing only a

36:50 few days after someone tried to shoot a former president and a, uh, a Republican nominee again. And, uh, it doesn't have to happen again, but we would need to start pushing this. We would need to start pushing the Rebbe's vision, I think not just for a moment of silence, but for prayer, for actual God in public schools. Because without morality in a public school, you just have very, very smart and very, very capable people ready to do exactly what they want. Okay. Thank you all very much.