בנדיקטין

00:03 Speaker 1 This is Igress. In our last Igress share, we focused on the gezeira or takana, to use the Rebbe's own words, uh, to not drink so much. We saw that the Rebbe completely forbids getting drunk with the possible exception of Purim, uh, completely forbids making kiddish on mashke, with the very likely exception of Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, but even then only if you're over forty. And I felt bad that we canceled mashke, uh, for so many of you last time. I probably ruined your Shabbos. So I thought we'd do something a bit lighter today that brings a little bit of mashke back and, uh, I've been collecting sources on that for a while. It's the story of Benedictine. I very recently found some letters that flesh this out and let the story be a complete story, so we're finally ready to do it. Um, some of you are nodding because you know what Benedictine is. I know that some of you don't. So, uh, I wanna clarify what Benedictine is. Um, Benedictine is an herbal liqueur, I believe, produced, produced in France. I have some notes here. It's developed in the mid-- It was developed in the mid-eighteen hundreds. It's flavored with se-- uh, twenty-seven flowers, berries, herbs, roots, and spices. Uh, it seems the story of it being developed and, uh, continuously, I don't know, brewed, are these things brewed, by non-Jewish monks is not exactly true. Uh, it was more of a marketing ploy. Uh, but the story stuck. The recipe is very

01:09 Speaker 1 closely, a very closely guarded secret. Apparently, it has never changed even in like what, a hundred years, more than a hundred years. Although the real secret of the balance of these herbs isn't particularly well known, there are lists online of what herbs are in it. At least some of them, I think something like twenty-one of the twenty-seven herbs have been discovered. It's got cinnamon and nutmeg and clove and lemon and orange peel and honey and berries and saffron. It's a-- If, if you've tried it before, you know that it's a, it's a mess in-- it, it's a mess to taste. It's a, it's a very confusing flavor, a complex flavor. Um, that's the story of Benedictine. It's not our story today. Obviously, uh, as we'll see in a moment, Benedictine made its way into Lubavitch. It is a kind of mashke that is, uh, celebrated in Lubavitch and remains to this day at the center of, I guess, Hasidic life and Hasidic controversy. So, uh, let's start with the letter. I have a letter for you. And this letter just makes reference to Benedictine, and the beauty of that is that we can learn a letter that has nothing to do with Benedictine and then launch our discussions. This letter is labeled Taf Taf Kuf Peh Heh, Kuf Peh Alef. Excuse me, Taf Taf Kuf Peh Alef. It is a relatively early letter from Yod Gimmel Nissan of Tav Shin Yod Alef, and the Rebbe writes to Rav Schneur Zalman Gorevich, it looks like. "Shalom

02:15 Speaker 1 Ubraha. Tranquility, if you like. Inner peace. Inner peace. Okay. We're allowing, we're allowing all takers today. "Your body should be rested too." "And you should also be able to increase in the area of tzedakah." So the Rebbe gives him a bunch of berakhahs as he's settling into his new home in Canada. Then the Rebbe writes, "However, don't wait until you're done setting yourself up to start establishing fixed times for Torah study." "Because the Torah," "Torah itself, and specifically learning Torah in a consistent way." "That is the very vessel of bringing down, uh, any kind of good in gashmius and in rukhnius." "The earlier you can make this keli," "the earlier you can make this vessel," "that will, uh, the ear- the earlier you can make, the sooner you can make this vessel for blessing, the sooner the blessing will come." "And the larger you make this keli, the more berakhah you'll get." I do wanna pause here for a moment, although this isn't the topic of the shiur today. I don't remember if we ever did a full deep dive into the Rebbe's, uh, discussions of krias itim. I feel like we at least touched on it, but it is worth noting what the Rebbe is saying here is that krias itim, specifically setting aside fixed times for Torah study and sticking with them is, "That is the vessel for bringing down good in gashmius and rukhnius into your life." There are a million segulas out there and a million ways that people establish kelim,

04:40 Speaker 1 and I say kelim with, uh, scare quotes around it. But the keli, the Rebbe says the very keli for bringing, the very vessel for bringing good in gashmius and rukhnius into your life is setting aside fixed times for Torah study. And the Rebbe adds, "The earlier you bring this new resolution into your life, the faster the blessing's going to come. And the bigger you make the keli, that is, the more you do fixed times for Torah study, either the more fixed times or the longer your fixed time is, the more kaba-- the more hamshakhah berakhah you're going to get." So it's an incredible letter about krias itim and the importance of not letting life get in the way. This is an individual who's trying to establish himself in Canada, and the Rebbe's saying, "Even before you're fully established, don't let life get in the way. Krias itim immediately set aside fixed times for Torah study." And then we have our note. "I did receive your shalach manos," the Rebbe says. "Thank you for the shalach manos, and it was a kan kan maleh Benedictine." The Rebbe says, "I received a full bottle of Benedictine, and thank you very much for that." So this is as far as I can tell in Igress itself. In Igress, the only direct reference to Benedictine. We have sikhos, we have stories, we have so much to look at today, but this-- we even have English letters, Mindell files letters. But in published Igress, this was the only time I

05:46 Speaker 1 could find the word Benedictine used in a letter. Maybe I missed one, but this is what I found, and, uh, that launches our discussion today. So the Rebbe received Benedictine as shalach manos. Uh, where does this idea of Benedictine come from? Benedictine is an old story. We have to go back to, I believe, nineteen oh six, give or take Uh, this is printed in a bunch of places, but I brought you the Reish Hisayuman, uh, from Tafresh Tzadikeches because-- excuse me, Tzadike, because there they were kind enough to, uh, put in notes when things are not clear. Uh, this is also published in the Friedik Rebbe Sichas that were published by the Rebbe with the Rebbe's notes. And we have a story about Benedictine, Benedictine that goes all the way back to the Rebbe Rashab. The story goes, it's on your screen, that eleven Maimarum, the eleven Maimarum that are from Devarim until Hashem Amar Hamachase in Samachvav. So the legendary series of Maimarum, Tafresh Samachvav, that were, that were begun on nineteen oh six, so I guess this would have been later than nineteen oh six. This story must have been in, I don't know, nineteen oh eight or something. Uh, the series of Maimarum, the, the final ten-- the final eleven Maimarum of this series, like Hasaveh Hanesh was saying in Bagaz of Lubavitch. He did not write them while the Fried-- the Rebbe Rashab did not write these while he was in the town of Lubavitch. Um, the Samachvav was delivered orally,

06:51 Speaker 1 but then was written down almost entirely in Lubavitch. It looks like the last eleven Maimarum were not written in the town of Lubavitch. They were instead written in, good luck to me, uh, Würzburg, which is some place in Germany. It sounds like a place in Germany. Würzburg, Würzburg, it was written there. Uh, the reason why is because they were-- they left Lubavitch to go there to, uh, to, uh, the, the, uh, Rebbe Rashab was frequently not well. It was an area where he went to relax, and by relax, I mean to recover, to get better, to get healthier. And while they were there, the Rebbe Rashab wrote down those last eleven Maimarum. So during, uh, their time in this town in Ashkelaz, where he was finishing these Maimarum, the following story happens. Says when he finally finished them, it was late. It was significantly after Hanukkah. Uh, it was significantly after Hanukkah, and Karani Vitzigan de Lavi, Benedictine, and the Friedik Rebbe says, "The Rebbe Rashab called me, and he commanded me to bring him a bottle of Benedictine." Upon the completion of Samachvav, writing down the series of Maimarum, the legendary series of Maimarum, Tafsam-- Tafresh Samachvav. The Amirle, the Amirle, and he said to me, "Asepel Hamair," I'm gonna tell you a story. In the year Tafresh Lamed Ches, in eighteen seventy-eight, the Rebbe MaharaSH, when he finished the classic Hem Shech Vakacha, a very serious moment in his development of Chassidus, Karani, he called me, says the Rebbe Rashab. "Tziva LemeShares Lavi

08:02 Speaker 1 yin-" How do you pronounce this in normal English? Tokayer? Tokay?

08:06 Speaker 2 Tokay.

08:07 Speaker 1 Tokay. He told-- I mean, I need a lot of help today. He told the MeShares to bring him a Tokay wine, and he called me in as well. Tzivan elisger adeles, and he told me to close the door. Vameli, vamenismach ani ve'ata. He said, "Let's me and you rejoice." Vedibireiti, one and three-fourths of an hour in Yonai Dach, and we spoke in, in Yonov of Chassidus for almost two hours. And the Rebbe then writes in his own note, you can see the Rebbe's, uh, signature sort of at the end of that note, Mem, Mem, and Shin. So the Rebbe writes as a note, "Kanira, it seems that the intent of the Rebbe Rashab in say-- the intent is that the Rebbe Rashab said-- did the same thing with the Friedik Rebbe." It seems that that's the story here. So it sounds like the story goes that the Rebbe MaharaSH, when he completed the Maimra Vakacha, the Hem Shech Vakacha, he, uh, took a sweet wine, Tokay, uh, I'm, I'm made to know. I've never had it before. I, I'm, I'm-- I, I understand it to be a sweet wine, a wine that probably tastes something like Benedictine as far as I can tell from reading online. I'm seeing people shaking their heads no, but can we agree that it is a sweet wine that doesn't taste like normal beverages? Well, there you go. So it's a sort of a, a regal royal sweet wine. I think they call that one the wine of kings, uh,

09:08 Speaker 1 based on what I was able to Google. So it's a regal wine that is, uh, flavored with all sorts of yummy flavors or sweet flavors. And, uh, they had this sweet wine together, this dessert-ish wine together, uh, as a celebration for completing the series of Maimarum. And over that cup of wine, they discussed Chassidus at length. And the Rebbe says it seems the same thing happened a generation later, that the Rebbe Rashab, upon completing Samachvav, took out the equivalent, which was Benedictine, a similarly sweet-ish liquor that is supposed to be somewhat regal, uh, sat down with his son, the Friedik Rebbe, upon completing the series of Maimarum, Tafresh Samachvav, and did the same thing, talked with him for about two hours in Chassidus while, uh, saying l'chaim over this kind of wine. So we have some, uh, Chabad history regarding Benedictine. It certainly has been around for a while. We saw that the Rebbe received Shalach Manas, and we saw that the Friedik Rebbe, and I would argue really the Rebbe MaharaSH, this sort of tradition of a kind of sweet wine being something for us is a Rebbe MaharaSH idea that sort of turns into a Rebbe Rashab idea that becomes a Friedik Rebbe idea and ends up in the Rebbe Shalach Manas. It's not just in the Rebbe Shalach Manas, it was also a Shalach Manas that he would send out on Purim. When the Rebbe sent out Shalach Manas, he seems to have regularly sent out Benedictine as his Shalach Manas. We

10:14 Speaker 1 have here in, uh, what is this? This is, um, the-- this is printed in Megillas Estherim Sharim Megillah, but this is, uh, this is, um, Minhagim, the Minhagim of Chabad, written down the way the Rebbe did things. Uh, so we have here the Rebbe would send a Shalach Manas by way of certain Temimim, and he would send it to the Rebbe of Boyan, the Rebbe of Kopitzhnitz, the Rebbe of Amshinov, and to Rav Moshe Schneersohn Twerski, and to Rav Shlomo Horenstein. These are the people who the, uh, who the Rebbe would send his Shalach Manas to. And when he sent the Shalach Manas, B'derach lal, hayah ze bat bok Benedictine vishnei peris. And the Rebbe Shalach Manas was typically a bottle of Benedictine and two pieces of fruit. So this is the Rebbe Shalach Manas. You send Shalach Manas to the Rebbe's Benedictine. I guess that happened. Somebody sent the Rebbe's Benedictine as Shalach Manas. They were copying the Rebbe. The Rebbe would send out Benedictine as his Shalach Manas. We have at least one Sicha where the Rebbe asks for more Benedictine. That's a sort of a, sort of funny way to put it. This is from the year Taf Shin Yud Ches. That would be nineteen fifty-eight And we have a note here that on Purim, the Rebbe asked if there was anybody who could find some more Benedictine. I guess they'd run out. Uh, and he said, uh, "Can anybody get some Benedictine?" And afterwards, he said, "Maybe somebody will, uh, volunteer

11:21 Speaker 1 to fulfill ad leyada." This is actually a fun sefer to read, so let's read it inside a little bit. He says, "I'm looking for some more Benedictine. Can anybody bring some more Benedictine?" The kan makam leha, this is the point to point out that, uh, we have a tradition that I don't know firsthand, but it's all over the books, that for many, many years until-- I'll show you where it stopped, until about, uh, fifteen years after this, ten, fifteen years after this, Benedictine was the bottle on the table at the fabregin. It wasn't Smirnoff, it wasn't vodka, it was Benedictine. Uh, so the Rebbe says here, "Maybe somebody can fulfill ad leyada, uh, drinking excessively until they don't know the basic characters of the Purim story to a very high level on Purim, uh, for everybody else." And then he writes to Emela, "If they do that, yaftik le shael vakesh v'negeh li nam shal parnasa. Maybe once they do that, they'll stop asking me about parnasa. They'll stop asking me about their work. Ei nishayah le, uh, economia. This is something that has to do with economics and social sciences. Uh, they're gonna stop asking me things about economics and social sciences. They want parnasa advice. Kakala medaye fabra, that's what that is in Hebrew. V'keyetz vaza. Prias aguf, they'll stop asking me about their physical health. Edis vat hechelim v'reuch, v'reuch, v'reuch. They're gonna stop asking me about hospitals and about doctors. V'lei shalafila edis v'deyas neshama. They won't even ask me about

12:23 Speaker 1 the health of their neshama. They'll, you know, do Purim properly. Eli yihyu mo-- Eli, eli yihya munak makach. Shetarat hafel va'atzmes indim l'kim k'kibla hilnat lehem v'al zat amash kilmat and tera. And instead, they'll focus on what people are supposed to focus on on Purim. Not getting berakhahs for parnasa, not getting berakhahs for refuah, not even getting berakhahs for prias ha'neshama, for the health of the neshama, but instead focusing on accepting the Torah fully, because that's what happened during the Purim story, that in Purim, we fully accepted the Torah that was originally received at Mount Sinai. So the Rebbe says, "Bring a little more Benedictine, and, uh, somebody should get drunk to ad leyada, and maybe when he's there, he'll be able to start focusing on Purim the way that he's supposed to." So we see Benedictine cast in a very positive light. We have, uh, we have the Rebbe receiving it as shalach manot. We have the Rebbe Rashab using it to celebrate the completion of some chov. We have the Rebbe sending it to other Rebbes as shalach manot. Uh, we have the Rebbe, um, we have the Rebbe mentioning it at fabregin, calling for more, and using it as a vehicle for, uh, inspiration. We also have a, uh, really funny Rebbetsin story. I posted this in the private Igris chat, which people are welcome to join, of course. It's not that private. But I posted this in the chat just because I thought it was so funny. But now we're actually

13:23 Speaker 1 using it in the shiur, I will bring it up. I don't know about the reliability of any of these sorts of stories. This is from Rav Chessed Haberstam, um, and it's printed in a book that is called-- It's all the way at the bottom, so I can't see it. Hang on. It's printed in a book that's called Sipura Mechedar HaRebbe, and it says this, "Shmini Atzeret Tav Shen Mem Zayin." Uh, this would be nineteen eighty-seven or eighty-six, depending on the time of year, well after the Gezeirah, well after the Takana, where the Rebbe did not want people drinking so much. And, uh, he says, "I walked in with my friend, Rav Binyamin Altox, into the library, and I wanted to say good Yom Tov to the Rebbetsin. The Rebbetsin said to me, 'Nu mach kiddush.' Go make kiddush. And on the table, I looked, there was a, uh, there was a bottle of Benedictine. And I said, 'Well, I'm not gonna make kiddush on that.' So I went out of the room to go, to go look around and get some wine. And before I could leave, the Rebbetsin says back to me, 'Chassidim on Shmini Atzeret make kiddush on mashke.' They don't make kiddush on wine." So it's a little bit of a, uh, stir with our last shiur. Mishtamah, they were forty years old. I don't know for sure that they were, but I assume they were. Maybe somebody can do the math for me. Were they?

14:17 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah.

14:18 Speaker 1 Okay. I have testimony that they were forty years old. So Shmini Atzeret, chassidim make kiddush only on mashke. And, uh, And I don't know exactly how to read this, but I'll tell you what I think he's saying. He's saying here, "I believe that nonetheless, had it not been for the fact that in my father's house, the custom was this for many generations." I don't know if he means his own father. It might be sort of like in the Rabbeim's house, but he says-- it says here in the-- it looks here it says, "V'bes abba." Ad de-yeshtam b'davar shen kaman kaman. There's a reason for this, which is not the place now for me to elaborate on. Had it not been for that, the fact that I saw-- the fact that it has been the custom for many generations in our family and al-- and maybe even in his own home. So maybe this is a hint that Reb Leivic was drinking it too. I don't know. Uh, de-yeshtam b'davar shen kaman kaman. Had it not been for the fact that there is some secret reason for this, that Rabbeim drink Benedictine that I'm not going to go into right now, la'as is m'chanish ne'egze. I would not have renewed this custom. So the Rebbe says, I, I, I guess he's sort of admitting that he would have been a little uncomfortable with it had it not already been a custom for many generations, and had there not been a very good reason to do so.

18:19 Speaker 1 Nonetheless, v'ini sameach sh'hashme dakni mitzvos k'meilà. I am, however, very happy to hear that there are people who are so careful about mitzvahs, uh, v'ini k'meilà mashkim. Ume-yaten v'dakdigul ken v'chal mitzvos asei v'lo ta'asei. If only people would be so-- if only you would be so careful with all mitzvos asei and all mitzvos lo ta'asei, that seems to be a direct, uh, a direct dig that, you know, thanks for your note on the mashgiach. I, w-I-- and it made, you know, if only you would be so careful when it came to all things. So the Rebbe does not seem, I guess, uh, from my-- i-it's hard to read a tone, especially in something that it looks like was, uh, there were-- there are, there are things crossed out. I certainly don't think the Rebbe had a final edit on this. It's hard to read tone, but from the tone, the Rebbe does not sound pleased, at least near the end of this, by the suggestion that this could be a problem. We have an English letter that is, uh, published in a Tsura that is through, uh, the Rebbe Responsa app. We have one, and it actually has the word Benedictine in it. I found it by mistake the other day, and it reminded me that I wanted to give the Benedictine share. So here we are. This is from twenty Mar Chesvan of Chaf Hey. Uh, we're getting near the end, near the end of the year, but more precisely near the end of

19:17 Speaker 1 the Rebbe putting Benedictine on the table. Somebody writes a similar question. Uh, they seem to have written, it says down here, the let-re-the letter is in reply to a bachur that learned in the Gateshead Yeshiva, raising concerns regarding the kashrus of Benedictine, a liquor that was very frequen-frequently used by the Rebbe's chabad-brengens. Now, the Rebbe writes, "Greeting and blessing. I'm directed to acknowledge receipt of your letter in which you inquire as to the kashruth of a certain liquor. May we state in reply, firstly, that your question should be directed to a rav whose fun-function is to pasken shailas of this nature." Talk to a rav about kashrus. "Secondly, there is no basis for the assumption that any particular liquor has any particular significance to a particular movement in regard to its use or abstention." The Rebbe goes, "We are not-- Chabad does not-- you don't-- in order to join Chabad, you don't have to like Benedictine. It's, it's ridiculous to say that a particular genre of liquor, Benedictine, has a significance to Chabad, uh, using it, not using it." The Rebbe continues, "Even where a thing is permissible for consumption, um, it-- this would not be the case. Yet anyone who desires to take a stricter view and abstain from it, one can certainly do so, and it will no way affect his relationship to the particular movement." So the Rebbe's saying, uh, this thing is allowed, uh, even when th-this thing is permissible for consumption. But if you wanna take a stricter view than

20:21 Speaker 1 I guess permissible and not have it, you can do that, and it's not gonna make you, like, not Chabad. The Rebbe then continues in classic Rebbe fashion, "Judging by the tenor of your letter, the opportunity is taken to express the hope that you have regular appointed times for study of Torah, both nigla as well as the inner aspects of the Torah, namely chasidus, bearing in mind that all matters of holiness should be on the ascendancy." So the Rebbe then adds at the end, "I'm sensing from your letter that you need to work on your Torah, right? The opportunity is taken to hope that you have regular kfias itim for Torah, established times for Torah study," as we saw in our first letter, "nigla as well as chasidus, and obviously everything in holy should go up, which means you should do more and more." There is a note at the bottom of this letter that was published in the Tsura in which the letter was published, saying that it is interesting to note that upon receiving the letter, the recipient, as he had then related, was more astonished by the Rebbe's request to set times for Torah study than the actual reply itself, for at that time, he had not learned Torah for already three years. So the Rebbe sensed a weakness, uh, in the letter itself that he was able to fix outside of the discussion of Benedictine. We're seeing people are starting to, uh, around the, around the sixties raise the concern that maybe

21:19 Speaker 1 Benedictine doesn't belong on the Rebbe's table, which leads us to the sifra that many of you are familiar with. This sifra is from the year Taf Shin Chaf Zayin. That should be sixty-seven, give or take. It was from, uh, Mar Chesvan, so I don't know exactly, maybe a little bit earlier than that, right? Maybe it was sixty-six. Um, yeah. Sixty, sixty-six. Sixty-six because the year wouldn't have changed yet, uh, usually, depending, I guess, the calendar. Chesvan, right? Okay. The Rebbe writes, "Ka'anas zman vemakom lehavir beis din yonim." In this time and place, it is appropriate to bring up two things. Im yin alef, the first thing. Behemshech lechalukas hamashkim simchas Torah. Following handing out mashkiyim simchas Torah. Hini yesh nam ke'eilu shreitzim lishtei sas manayach hedim ve'ani sfatam asher duve kamar pam. Some people wanna say that they think that they are-- that, uh, that the idea that I said earlier that we shouldn't be drinking so much has been canceled. Eidesh shiyas mashki beis hayis rav. It's the things I've told you about not drinking too much at the farbrengens, that people wanna think that this is not in effect anymore. Shetzrich niye sag balas dal ukeses v'chulu. I told you to only drink three cups, et cetera. Eish hechsru she'eini tzarach amnram le'emin hasidivanim hav av emis ein tzarach l'tzayes. The Rebbe says people think that, uh, that I need to say these things, but I'm not-- I don't really care about them that much. So the Rebbe goes, "People are coming up

22:25 Speaker 1 with all kinds of excuses." The Rebbe needs to make a mashgiach announcement, but he doesn't mean it. The Rebbe's old mashgiach announcement has been canceled. They have all these reasons why this does and why this is not in effect. So the Rebbe says, first of all, v'chen yesh tzarach la'aser lavia. Therefore, there is now a need to review and to clarify. She'ein yin hu b'takva le'olam vaed. That this thing stands in its full form, le'olam vaed, forever. My rules about mashgiach are permanent. V'ad haraba, to the contrary. V'yesh es heys v'yeser oz. Not only that, they're likely to get stronger. Sh'leidis sheys yesam mikom ukeses tsanis. Uh, that, uh, sh'leidis sheys yesam mikom ukeses tsanis. That is, the people should not be drinking more than three small cups. So the Rebbe, as we saw in the last year, says if anything, this will become a stronger takanah, not a weaker one. There's no way the Rebbe's changing his mind on this, on this, uh, limiting how much we drink. Im ydu'omer. She'gam be'even gezei yachan lisvai kamach shais. Om uftacham hu heim shali deizel yachsev avid asim. The Rebbe says that I'm guaranteeing you that with three small cups, you'll be able to farbrengen for many hours, and I'm also guaranteeing you that you won't lose anything from your holy work, from your avoda, because I'm limiting your amount of drinking. V'chol oifen. In any event. Mi kan alaba yishlach bedal zeh. The Rebbe says, in any event, uh, be careful about this from now

23:25 Speaker 1 on. Hevinigei la'atzmeve, hevinigei le'zulus. Regarding yourself and regarding others, to stop people from drinking too much. Gam im bishvil yesh zeh yesh tzarach b'nin chal iskafya v'kabalas ol, uh, brechen zeh. Even if it gets to the point where you might need to have a little bit of kabalas ol, iskafya, you're going to have to work on yourself significantly. Um, even if it takes that, you're going to have to do it. We're not gonna drink so much. And then the Rebbe says, "Ve'inyan habeis." There's a second point, and that's our point. Yesh lam baalei marashera. They're marashereniks. There are people who are bitter by nature, uh, marashereniks. That is, uh, that's, uh, the best translation I can come up with on the, off the top of my head. Marashereniks. They're, uh, they're in a bad, they're, they're in a bad mood. They're moody, they're bitter, they're always looking on-- they're maybe pessimists. I don't know. She'natzm teva ze, and they are using this particular nature of theirs. Leilach bishvil ihesevas madrash kir v'limuda Torah. Not just to increase in their hasmada, in their dedication, uh, to learning Torah. Ela le'erev b'ksav vaba'al peh. But instead, they're using that marashera nature that they have, that bitter nature they have, the pessimism that they have. Instead of channeling it toward Torah learning, they're using it to either mention to me in writing or verbally. B'neige la mashgia nikla Benedictine. To complain about, I'm adding the word complain, to bring up the topic of the mashgiach Benedictine. She'yesh bazeh

24:33 Speaker 1 shailes v'sfekas, and to say that there are questions and doubts about this. The Rebbe says that there are marashereniks, and instead of channeling that toward the learning of Torah, they are using that energy to come against Benedictine in writing and verbally saying that there are shailes and sfekas about its kashrus. And the Rebbe says, "V'lochein," therefore, "lei sata," at this time, "yafsiku lishtamash mashgia zeh." We're gonna stop using this mashgia. "Lishtamshi mashgia roy gam baalei marashera." We'll find a mashgia that's okay also for the baalei marashera, and I will note for the maali- marashera. So the Rebbe says I'm gonna stop using this mashgia. I'll bring in a mashgia that works also for bitter, pessimistic people. And I believe that's when he started using Smirnoff with checks out, as far as I'm concerned. That, that makes perfect sense. But I, I think that's when they started using Smir-Smirnoff. Ovade leiti at harabos v'tzidam shor avbeisin v'seinom. Certainly, they're not going to be on their end about our Rebbeim who drank this stuff, right? We can all agree they drank this in Lubavitch, so certainly they're not gonna come against us, these Marei Sh'Kearniks, and say that, uh, the Rebbe in Lubavitch were doing something wrong. So, so we're gonna have to wait until, uh, until they, uh, until our Rebbeim themselves, I think is the implication here. Until the Rebbeim themselves who drank it arrive to testify it was fine with the coming of Mashiach, with Moshe and Aharon along with them. So we'll have

25:41 Speaker 1 a three as a mason. And then we'll have all of the tzaddikim coming back, and they will all tell us that B-Benedictine is fine. And then everybody can drink this mashke. As the people ate meat, the people who ate dairy, uh, they'll all be able to bench together in a way that they'll all be able to sit together and bench together, which is a reference to actually something he'd mentioned earlier on in the sicha and a general din that we're not gonna go into right now. Point is, the Rebbe says, "Marei Sh'Kearniks, they, uh, because of you guys, I'm k-- I'm, I'm going to temporarily put away the Benedictine." And he says, uh, "I, I know it's fine, and our Rebbeim drank it, and they're going to come back and tell us it's fine." It's gonna be clarified by. You're gonna have all the tzaddikim come back and testify together. Is gonna tell you Benedictine is fine. But in the meantime, we'll do something. We'll drink something that's more matim for Marei Sh'Kearniks, that's more fit for people who are bitter and cranky, and that will be, uh, that will be vodka from this point forward, and that's when Benedictine more or less disappeared from the Rebbe's table. I have some things to tell you outside that are not in text. Let me give you a bit, uh, a bit more information than what we saw today, but we're just about done. Uh, there are many other stories of the Rebbe with Benedictine. The Beis

26:45 Speaker 1 Moshiach Magazine, they did a whole feature on it once. Uh, it had some additional stories in there. I wasn't able to find primary sources to back up those stories, so I can't show them to you, uh, 'cause that's our rule. But I will tell them to you outside and blame Beis Moshiach Magazine if they're wrong about them. Uh, there is a famous story of Rav Moshe Groner, uh, bringing a bottle of Benedictine as Shalomanus to the Amshinover Rebbe. And in that story, one of the Amshinover Rebbe's attendants sort of whispered in his ear, "There's a shaila about this. I don't know if you wanna drink it." And the Amshinover, knowing it came from our Rebbe, immediately popped the bottle open and drank it right there to demonstrate that he was not going to have any shailas about something that the Rebbe had handed him. And I don't know, and maybe in addition to that, that he had no shailas about Benedictine. Hard to know. Uh, apparently, the Rebbe sent a bottle of Benedictine to Shazar on more than one occasion. Uh, in one occasion, he sent it to a farbrengen in Kfar Chabad, and they have questions about this kashrus, uh, about its kashrus, uh, in Kfar Chabad. The Rebbe responded at the time, very similarly to what we saw earlier, the Rebbe Rashab had sent emissaries to check in, and it was fine, and, uh, don't worry about it. We know that wine was not mixed in. Uh, this did not put the arguments

27:42 Speaker 1 to rest, not the Amshinover, not the Rebbe, not anybody. Uh, so people have continued looking into it. Rav Moshe Dovid Gutnick of Melbourne apparently decided to try to fix the problem once and for all by writing to Benedictine, claiming that he had a grape and grape derivative a-allergy. That was his plan, is to tell them, "I'm allergic," and then, you know, they have to tell me if it's in it. They responded that it contains no wine or any grape ingredients at all, uh, but at risk of being a Marei Sh'Kearnik myself, I'm gonna tell you I'm not sure that's how kashrus works. I don't think you can verify kashrus by pretending you're allergic to things, calling the company, and listening to their answers. I j- I just don't think that's kashrus. Uh, more recently, Rav Landau in Bnei Brak, uh, finally looked into it and clarified the Benedictine is indeed kosher at the highest level. They designate it now on their list, approved under his hechsher in the category of mehadrin and lechatchilah. So it is now, uh, affirmed to be by people who, you know, know kashrus and really looked into it, who actually, you know, went to the factory to check things out, that it's completely fine as the Rebbe, uh, as the Rebbe always said. Uh, as for the concerns that did arise in the nineteen sixties, there's been some people who've looked-- some people have looked into this, tried to figure out what people were so worried about. Uh, one possibility

28:45 Speaker 1 is that already in the nineteen thirties, they had a form of Benedictine known as the B&B Benedictine, and I will note, I probably should've said it at the beginning of the shiur. I hope people don't stop listening at the end and go out and buy a treif bottle. The, uh, B&B Benedictine, it's noted on the bottle, B&B. That second B is for brandy. They mix brandy into that particular form of Benedictine. That is not kosher, so it might be people were confused. The original Dom Benedictine, the D-O-M, does not have any wine ingredients in it, but the B&B does, so maybe they were worried about that. The CRC put out a story. They looked into it, and they think it's from a different source entirely that this problem came up. They think that it's somebody named Rav Shlomo Ms-Msika, uh, from Paris. Maybe some of you know him. Uh, he's considered an expert in the kashrus of liqueur. Uh, he reported, he told the CRC that in nineteen seventy-eight, he visited the Benedictine factory to investigate whether it was kosher, and he found out then that the company was starting to add a little cognac into the Benedictine. They were gonna put in, like, uh, something like, uh, less than five percent. They were gonna just put a drop in in order to mess with the flavor a little bit. Uh, so he reached out to everybody. He reached out to the Rebbe. According to him, he reached out to the Rebbe. He reached out

29:45 Speaker 1 to everybody to say there's a problem with this. They're adding the cognac. Um, but a few years ago, he went back to the factory, and when he went back to the factory, he asked, "Did they ever do it?" And everybody there testified that it was never done. It was an idea that was floated that they never actually did, and they actually let him go into their, uh, go into their computers and see the, uh, original, see the recipe as it has been year after year after year to confirm that there never was any cognac in it. So it's possible the rumor started because he overheard that they were going to do something they never did. It's hard to know. I-I'll remind you in conclusion, Hashem does not allow a tzadik or even a tzadik's donkey to eat non-kosher food, and really that should be enough. The, uh, Rebbe Rashab was drinking it. The Friediker Rebbe was drinking it. The Rebbe had it on his table. I don't really understand how the question could occur to anybody that a tzadik would be allowed by God Almighty to make a mistake in kashrus, given that the Gemara is very clear that tzadikim are incapable of making those kinds of mistakes. Uh, I, I, I have on my shelf a bottle of Benedictine that I basically don't drink because I just don't drink that much the previous year. But, uh, I absolutely have brought it to, uh, farbrengens before. We've enjoyed it together. And, uh, I think you

30:44 Speaker 1 can, uh, I don't think, I'm sure based on Rav Landau's hechsher, uh, even based on before that, based on the Rebbe's multiple statements about it, I'm quite certain and quite confident saying in a podcast that is not a kashrus podcast that, uh, you can feel comfortable having some Benedictine. So I hope that after hearing this shiur, you'll, uh, say a l'chaim, think of the shiur, review some of the letters in the sichas and maybe the tefim that was between the letters in the sichas that we studied today, and enjoy a legitimately Hasidish beverage. L'chaim, l'chaim.