לעודד חילול שבת

00:00 Speaker 1 All right. This is Iggers. Uh, I've heard this phrase a lot growing up, visiting Chabad houses. Maybe you've heard it too. Uh, someone drives to shul on Shabbos, , they shouldn't do that, and then they ask the shliach if it's okay, or the shliach invites someone for Shabbos, and he says, "Uh, but can I come? I drive." And the shliach benevolently, with love for his fellow Jew, always responds more or less the same way in these stories. The shliach says back, "If you're going to drive anyway, you may as well drive to me," or, "You may as well do a mitzvah," which is, of course, beautiful, at least in theory. Uh, there's actually a short video clip right now circulating that our group has been discussing about a story with the Seret Vizhnitzer Rebbe, which may or may not be true, but the story either way is at least o-on the surface inspiring. It goes something like this. There's a broken Jew who comes to the Seret Vizhnitzer Rebbe, and he wants to leave Yiddishkeit, and he's looking for any excuse, and he says, "I drove. It's Shabbos." "Nu?" And the Seret Vizhnitzer Rebbe says back, uh, "You should come to shul, uh, , whenever you want and however you want." Now, this is lovely. This seems to be the way that we, uh, approach Jews who are not ready yet to take on Shabbos in its full form. You're driving anyway, you may as well drive to me. Come however you are. Uh, come

01:03 Speaker 1 however you want. Uh, as we're about to see, that is, as far as I can tell, not at all in accordance with the Rebbe Shlita, and as far as I can tell, not necessarily accordance with Halakha. So, uh, let's dive right in. I have a letter here that I want you to see. This is our main letter for today. Uh, with God's help, at the end of this, we'll have time for a full Halakhic discussion or at least a beginning of a Halakhic discussion of this topic. We wanna first look at all of the letters. These were all the letters I could find. I strongly suspect that there are more. This letter is labeled . Um, it is from the year Tuf Shin Yud Zayin and is written to Yankov Eliezer Herzog, who was in Melbourne, Australia at the time. The top line up there, the Rebbe sort of, um-- Let me turn off that volume. Uh, the Rebbe sort of complains that he hasn't heard from him for a while, especially since he's starting a bunch of new things, and he expected more news. We're gonna skip that and go right to regarding your questions. You asked me how to fix the thing that happened on Simchat Torah. So I assumed when I started reading this that they, like, dropped a Torah or something, . That's not what happened, although it's also a . That among the people who came to participate in the Hakafas on Simchat Torah at the shul, there were some

02:09 Speaker 1 people who came in a car, and you wanted to know, "What should I do about this? Is there a Tikkun for this? How do I fix this? What should I do?" So the Rebbe writes back, . The repair for this is simple. And as a matter of fact, I'm surprised you didn't already do this this year. So the Rebbe is saying, "I'm gonna give you advice moving forward, but I'm surprised you didn't do this already." This is obvious to the Rebbe. The Rebbe doesn't feel that he needs to make this a Chidush. The Rebbe said, "I'm surprised you didn't do it in the first place." And that is, a couple days before the holiday you should put an announcement in the newspapers. It can go along. It'd be wonderful to put that along with your general announcement that you're going to have an event. So before this event that happens on Yom Tov or on Shabbos, put in the newspapers the following announcement. that it is certainly simple, and well known, that it is forbidden to drive in a car on Shabbos and Yom Tov. You should let them know that there is an automatic self-contradiction in driving to shul on Shabbos or driving to shul on Yom Tov to do a Jewish thing. It is self-contradictory to participate in a Torah event in a way that is contradictory to the Torah. So the Rebbe says, not only this is-- this is not, like, an in-house discussion. The Rebbe wants this in the newspaper. He

03:20 Speaker 1 says, "I'm surprised you didn't put this in the newspaper initially along with your announcement for the event. Certainly, you should moving forward." The, uh, rest of the letter I don't think we need right now, but this begins our idea. It looks like the Rebbe is saying that, uh, contrary to the notion that we tell Jews, you know, "Come however you want," or, uh, or, "Drive-- If you're driving anyway, drive to me." The Rebbe says here, "Make an announcement ahead of time that driving to shul on Shabbos is self-contradictory. Why do a Torah thing in a non-Torah way?" And that you should make this announcement very publicly. The Rebbe even wants it in a newspaper. So, uh, although this could be a for that particular time and place, it is certainly not a for just one person. It was a for the entire Melbourne in the year Tuf Shin Yud Zayin, which would be nineteen sixty-seven, give or take. Maybe nineteen sixty-six because it was March then. We have a- Fifty-seven. Fifty-seven. Fifty-seven. You know, you know me and dates. Fifty-seven. Thank you very much. We have a continuation of that letter that happened just a month later. Uh, the year was... Sorry, I keep making noises on my end. Okay. We have a continuation of that letter, uh, same year, just a month later. The letter is labeled where another member of that community, uh, Yehoshua Schneur Zalman... Where's the last name? Uh- Serebranski. Serebranski. Yes. Serebranski. He wrote to the Rebbe asking for some

04:31 Speaker 1 clarification about this, and the Rebbe added another line that's important for us to see. Um, you wrote to me about this Hakafas business. Uh, the Rebbe says, "I assume you already saw the letter that I sent to, uh, Rabbi Yankov Eliezer," the one that we just read. But the Rebbe adds, "I think it's understood." The Rebbe says, "It should be understood that even the thought that maybe in the future you would not make the Kiddush or shorten the Hakafas or change the event at all," the Rebbe says, "that's entirely, uh, entirely rejected. N-no way you should do that." So the Rebbe is saying, "Absolutely hold the event. Absolutely tell people before they come to the event that they are not allowed to come if they're driving on Shabbos. That's forbidden. But certainly don't change the event. You make the event. People are gonna do what they're gonna do, but you have an obligation to tell people the truth about this, that it is forbidden for them to come." Uh, where does the Rebbe's Tekefos on this matter come from? He seems somewhat strict. If he seems somewhat strict to you, wait till you see the Friediker Rebbe. The Rebbe is significantly more, uh, gentle about this than the Friediker Rebbe in one of the, I don't know, harshest letters I think I've ever read in my entire life. So let me show it to you. Uh, this letter is labeled . Excuse me. It's labeled . I'm gonna say it one more time. . There

05:42 Speaker 1 we go. It was written in the end of the days of ER of Tuf Shin Beyz, which would be nineteen forty-two, I believe, but please feel free to correct me. You know I'm always off by a decade. the Friediker Rebbe writes. This is the Friediker Rebbe, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe. I'm responding to your letter. First of all, the Jewish people, they have good hearts. As Chazal say, "Even though I'm sleeping from mitzvahs, my heart is awake." The pintel Yid is ga-is gantz. The pintel Yid is complete, is, is full, is entire. But the simpletons and the impact of the reform of the reformed Jews, they have, uh, disgraced them, uh, d-degraded them, and so they don't always act the way that they really are. So he says the Jews are good, but the influence of reform and the ignoramuses out there, uh, def-definitely the Haskalah in general, they're, uh, they're, they're, they're, they're disgracing the Jewish people, they're degrading the Jewish people. And then he says, "Those who come to shul," the Beth Knesset, "who come to the shul in an automobile on Shabbos," you have to translate for them the following, the following pasuk. I think it's a... So the pasuk goes, it's in Yeshaya, that, "When you will come to see my face, uh, who asked from you to come and trample all over my courtyard?" So the Rebbe says if you meet somebody who is driving to shul on Shabbos, you should read this verse to them and translate it for them

06:59 Speaker 1 if they don't understand it fully. That is, say right to them, "Hey, there's a verse about you in Isaiah. Isaiah has a message for you. Isaiah's message is, 'Who asked you to come to my home and then stomp all over my stuff?'" Implying that it would be better if you didn't come to shul than to drive to shul, of course. And you should let them know. The Friediker Rebbe says tell these people. That you should tell people that their prayers uttered in this way, driving to shul and then praying, it creates a, uh, a kitrug, a negative, uh, a negative force, a negative impression, a, uh, prosecution on themselves and on their entire families. I added the word... And everything that they say, all of their davening is considered curses. It's like going into God's house and disgracing Him in His very home. It's forbidden to join a minyan with them. And certainly, if you explain this to them, they will understand, and they will not keep doing this incredible abom-this incredible abomination. So that's the way the Friediker Rebbe sees driving on Shabbos. Now, it definitely has been toned down between the Friediker Rebbe and the Rebbe. Um, the Rebbe has a couple letters that we don't have time to look at today where he says that it really depends on the time and the place and the context of every Jew to figure out whether you can daven in a minyan or whether you can count for a minyan people who drove there

08:10 Speaker 1 on Shabbos. That's not entirely clear-cut nowadays. It depends on what's going on in the area. It depends on what's going on with the Jews. There's a bunch of variables. Uh, but the general idea that we need to turn to people who are violating Shabbos and let them know. I believe that the Friediker Rebbe's words in nineteen forty-two landed perfectly. I believe the Rebbe's words are the ones that land better in the year nineteen fifty-seven, and there obviously are words we should be using nowadays that are even better. You have to use the right words, the gentle words, all the ways of the Torah, the ways of peace, et cetera, et cetera. That said, what you see as a consistent shifta in these three letters is you need to tell people when they drive to your shul on Shabbos that they shouldn't have. You certainly don't say how you-- "Come however you want," and you certainly don't say, uh, you certainly don't make announcements or make phone calls saying, "Come to me." "Oh, I'm gonna drive, Rebbe." "Well, you know, may as well drive to me." That does not seem to be the shifta so far. We have a couple other letters like this, though. That's not enough. Let me show you a few more. Um, this is a ma'ana. I don't believe it's been published anywhere official yet, but it's in and we have the Rebbe's handwriting, so it is quite reliable. It's just not in any of our official books yet as far as

09:05 Speaker 1 I can tell. They were putting together a youth group for children, and they asked the Rebbe three questions. Number one, they asked, uh, "Is it okay to have religious children with the children who are less religious in the same youth group? Because maybe the less religious ones will have a negative impact on the religious ones." Number two, they said some of these events are on Shabbos, and they wanna know, uh, they know that some of them are going to drive to the event on Shabbos, and so they wanna know, um, if there's a concern about this, uh, if they should do something about it. Number three, um, regarding the older children, they're worried that there might be some kind of inappropriate mixing. You know, you have children like thirteen, fourteen, boys and girls mixing together. They're not sure about that. And number four, uh, because of all of these concerns I just listed, would it make sense for us not to have anything to do with this youth group? Because this youth group has created three shailas, we think maybe we should, uh, we should wash our hands of them entirely. So the Rebbe writes-- You can probably guess what the Rebbe's gonna say for number four, right? Wash your hands of them entirely? Never. But, uh, the first three, let's see what he has to say. The Rebbe says, uh, if the counselors, the people running the youth group are Yirei Shamayim, they fear Heaven, and they emphasize this in their Adraga, in their

10:02 Speaker 1 ways, I wouldn't worry about the concern. Says that regarding the first question, can we mix the religious and the less religious together? He goes, "If the people in charge are Yirei Shamayim and their entire approach is one of fear of God, if their entire approach is one of Orthodox Judaism, then I'm not really worried," says the Rebbe, "about any, uh, negative impacts that the less religious kids might have on the more religious ones because of the incredible teheles, because of all the good that will come out of it." And it should be God's will that the mitzvah will protect you from any undesirable outcomes. So first question, easy. Regarding the question that has to do with us, which is the one having to do with driving for a Shabbos event, the Rebbe writes, "It is understood that it is on the counselors, the people running this program, to emphasize and to do so several times," to emphasize not once but multiple times, "that it is forbidden to drive in a car or a train or anything like that on Shabbos. And you should let them know that only people who are coming on foot should participate." The Rebbe does not say to make this as one announcement. The Rebbe says, "To emphasize it and to repeat it again and again that you are not to come to this event by car or by train or by anything else. You are to come by foot, and only those coming by foot should participate." Now, if they

11:14 Speaker 1 come anyway, the Rebbe is not saying, God forbid, to throw them away or to even treat them negatively. This is not how we act. When somebody come-- When somebody does something forbidden, we, uh, we embrace them and bring them closer to Judaism. But to even slightly encourage this, the Rebbe says, "Not only are you not encouraging this, you need to make an announcement saying this is not what you are to do," and they have to say it several times. Uh, regarding the other two points, just very quickly, uh, the Rebbe said regarding the, um, separation, the lack of snios that there might be with the older kids, the Rebbe says, "Certainly, they need to have separate groups from age twelve and up," and the Rebbe says, "I would like it if they could even separate the groups when they're younger, but at least from age twelve and up, you're right." And as for the final note, since there are all these shailas, should I separate myself from this entire organization? The Rebbe says, "It is my strong hope that if you do points one through three with enthusiasm and with energy, you will, uh, succeed to run the organization the way that it's supposed to, and therefore, uh, you certainly should continue and grow within this organization." And then the merit of the many-- merit of-- the merit of the masses will assist you. So the Rebbe says, yeah, have them do one through three and then continue participating. We're seeing again and again, I

12:12 Speaker 1 think, a sort of recurring idea here, which is that the thought that somebody would be even slightly okay with a Jew driving to shul on Shabbos, encouraging of it, or even not openly saying, "You shouldn't do this," is something that doesn't seem to be in our shita at all. The Rebbe not only has sort of closed the door on telling a Jew, "Drive to me on Shabbos," which, I mean, makes sense, shouldn't be allowed, but the Rebbe has closed the door on having an event where Jews drive to you on Shabbos and you not saying anything. The Rebbe's telling people, "I want you making announcements. I want it in the newspaper. I want it repeated multiple times. I want you to tell people who drive to you on Shabbos that they shouldn't, and I want you to tell people before they drive to you on Shabbos not to come if they're going to drive." That doesn't sound to many people like a Chabad shita, but, uh, I'm not reading my own words, I'm reading the Rebbe's words. In the Rebbe's words, th- I think the Rebbe's the Chabad shita. Uh, this is our shita. Uh, this is one more, just an interesting one that's a little bit on the side, sort of like this. There was a, uh, sort of parade. They'd written to the Rebbe a doch saying they had a parade and a police escort on Shabbos, and the Rebbe write back, um, that he's very surprised and he's dismayed that they did

13:05 Speaker 1 not ask ahead of time whether the police escort had any Jews in it, because through, through, through doing this, they might have caused some of the police in the escort to violate Shabbos. And the Rebbe says, "I wanted you to even look into that." So now we have a sort of even deeper level. We have number one, we're not inviting people to come to us on Shabbos, uh, who might drive. That's obviously too dangerous. Uh, number two, we have the concern unless there's a way for them to walk. We're certainly not saying, "Come to me on Shabbos and drive." Number two, uh, we're not telling-- w-we're telling them before the event, uh, "Don't come if you're going to drive. Driving's forbidden." We're telling them at the event, emphasizing again and again, "This is not appropriate. Don't do this again." And, uh, we do an event with non-Jewish police escorts. We're supposed to be double-checking the escorts to make sure that we didn't actually get a Jew to work on Shabbos. The Rebbe has a letter here written to Kfar Chabad. It's labeled Dalet Taf Taf Samech, also from the year Taf Shin Yud Zion, big day for Taf Shin Yud Zion, where the Rebbe says, I'm just summarizing 'cause I wanna keep on moving quickly, but the letter's in front of you, that, uh, they're going to put together a Yut Tes Kis Lev HaBrengin in Kfar Chabad, and the Rebbe says that since you're going to have a lot of guests from ar- all

14:00 Speaker 1 sorts of different places in the Holy Land, also from places where traveling-- where they'll be traveling to Kfar Chabad, and it'll take several hours, the Rebbe says, "Yesh ladun v'ret zinas," you should have a serious consideration, "im gedailah la'asot ha'hagigah murah m'etzat Shabbos kodesh," whether it makes sense to make this event on Saturday night. "G'veish la'higih ulam v'chul," because you would not wanna cause et cetera, which means you don't wanna cause people who are far away to start driving on Shabbos to get to your event on time. "U'frachim, mafil l'taskil ha'hagigah eizeh sh'ah yitla'ilah, harataman yesh l'mat din lavav v'ka halachah," and the Rebbe goes, "Even if you say you're gonna push this event very late at night, we're gonna have the Yut Tes Kis Lev HaBrengin at eleven PM, there are always people who wanna come early to things." There are people in our community, there's a couple people in our community who come early to everything. Most of us late, but you know the guys who come early, right? Uh, some people, they wanna come early. So you'll make this event eleven, they'll go, "Yeah, but I really wanna be there by four," and they'll leave on Shabbos, and it's gonna be a problem. So the Rebbe says, "Im yesh l'chashash zem makaf mafilim safek bedavar." If there's any room for this concern, even a doubt, uh, that this might happen, if there's any chance that your event might cause people to drive on Shabbos, "gedailit ve'achet ha'gigah beyom alef," then make the

14:57 Speaker 1 event on Sunday. So the Rebbe's adding, I think, even a deeper layer here, which is that if there's any chance the way that I'm styling my event might lead to somebody violating Shabbos to come to it, that you should make sure to do the event on a different day, on Thursday before, on Sunday after, so you don't, God forbid, even slightly in- unintentionally encourage, cause a Jew to drive on Shabbos. Moving to tzara of the parasha, maldei rof zeh. "Ve'ed, v'ed me'id ufirsam matim," you certainly let everybody know about this. The Rebbe says publicize it, and in that way, I have absolutely fulfilled the Rebbe's halo. We are publicizing it. Okay. What comes to-- What comes out from all these letters is that this general idea that keeps on getting told in stories, I thank-- thank God I don't know these stories are true. I, I assume these stories are not true the way they're told. I assume they've been changed over time. But these stories that we keep on hearing about the classic shliach who brought Jews closer to Judaism by saying to them, "If you're going to drive anyway, you may as well drive to me," or, uh, going over to a Jew, or the second vision of the Rebbe, who apparently, according to this story that I don't think is true, because I don't, I don't have that kind of chashash, uh, went over to a Jew and said to them, "You can come however you like," knowing that that meant driving

15:53 Speaker 1 on Shabbos. Uh, even if this is a shita that is out there, it certainly is not the Rebbe's shita. To that effect, we have a couple minutes. I'd like to give you sort of a halachic discussion where we can see whether this is a shita, 'cause it certainly isn't the Rebbe's. Does the shita even exist? Is there any opinion that would allow this sort of behavior? So, uh, to that effect, uh, it is asur to cause or help another Yid to do any avera of any kind, any sin of any kind. Uh, if the Jew couldn't do it without your help, it's generally considered lifnei iver. That means placing a stumbling block in front of the blind, and that is a Torah prohibition. If he could do the sin without your help, but you provide some sort of assistance to sort of help him do the sin, then it's a rabbinic prohibition known as mesaya. So there are two possible sins on the table for helping a Jew violate Shabbos or encouraging it, either lifnei iver or mesaya, depending on whether they could do it without you. I will add that if you say things that encourage the behavior and strengthen their ability to do the sin, then you get a bonus sin, which is known as hanufa, the very grave sin of flattery, which the Talmud says is one of the reasons for the destruction of the temple. Anything that p- kinda clarifies as machzikidei avera, that strengthens the hands of those who would

16:51 Speaker 1 sin, falls under that one as well. So based on this, most poskim agree that inviting somebody to your house on Shabbos, if you know they're going to drive and they have no realistic way of getting there without driving, is either lifnei iver or mesaya. So number one, if somebody-- If you wanna invite somebody to your house for Shabbos lunch, it's lunch and you're not giving them a place to stay, you're not offering them a room in your house, and you know they live ten miles away or, yeah, I know, twenty, thirty miles away, there's just no way they're going to walk, I think, uh, ju-- and I think, I know, I'm telling you, poskim across the board are not allowing this. Uh, Rav Moshe Feinstein has a tshuva that is quite extreme, where he says that a person who does that has the din of a maasis, which is very interesting. That is somebody who convinces another person to worship an idol, inciting somebody to do a sin, uh, which is a very extreme position, but it gives you an idea of just how serious this is. I don't think that generally speaking we consider someone who does this a maasis, but, uh, that is quite a category. Uh, the only real grounds for allowing such an invitation, uh, is printed in a fantastic sefer, the most recent edition of Divrei Tovya. I don't know if any of you have gotten a chance to pick it up. I've been going through it. It's a shailas

17:46 Speaker 1 and tshuva safer put out by Rav Tovya Kisimov of Crown Heights. Uh, he's my teacher. Uh, many of you know, uh, he's somebody who I consider to be one of the greatest gifts to Lubavitch and world Jewry. Uh, fantastic person, fa- fantastic posek. So, uh, obviously, I'm excited about his book. In his new, uh, set, it's, it's volume two of his shailas and tshuvas, he has a tshuva on this, on inviting people to, uh, your house on Shabbos, and he does describe what a lenient opinion would look like before immediately rejecting that lenient opinion. But in case you're curious, this is what the lenient opinion would look like. There's a Piske Tshuva Yoreh Deah one sixty. There it discusses a lender who's going to be lending with interest anyway. He's announced, "I'm giving out a loan in the next, I don't know, ten hours to somebody, doesn't matter who it is, and it's going to have interest." As you know, we're not allowed to b- borrow or lend on interest. There's an opinion from the Pnei Moshe cited there that you could borrow from him, and that would be allowed because he's going to do the sin anyway, so you're not meaningfully helping, and this follows the general principle that a sin does not leave neiva unless it's impossible for him to do the sin without your help. So based on this, we could imagine a leniency, uh, where you say, "I'm not helping him drive on Shabbos, uh, by inviting him or scheduling my

18:46 Speaker 1 event or saying, 'Come however you want.' Uh, he can do it without me. He doesn't need my-- I'm not, I'm not turning the steering wheel. I'm not helping him drive. I'm not providing gas." Uh, but Rabbi Kasimov in his Sefer, uh, does not think this can be applied to Shabbos for very obvious reasons. I think you'll think that too. Uh, he says, "Who says that he was going to drive this week?" You know, people don't drive every single day of the week. Maybe this week he was gonna sleep on his couch, and now he's waking up special and getting in this car for you. And, uh, also, who says he was going to drive that much? Might be he was going to go down the block, but, uh, now that he was gonna drive to a store at the corner, and now he's going to end up driving an extra two miles to get to your house, you've now significantly added to the amount of hilul Shabbos through the invitation, so it doesn't really match the, uh, case of a loan. With, with a loan, it's a, it's a solid thing. He's gonna give the loan, receive the loan. It's not really the same case. So it seems that even the lenient opinions on lifnei iver that are cited in that Pesach Chovah wouldn't allow this. They wouldn't be lenient on Shabbos. And then there's still mesaya, which is the rabbinic law. You're obligated to prevent him from driving on Shabbos, and here you are

19:36 Speaker 1 inviting him. Uh, Rabbi Kasimov does bring in that Chovah a Shach Yoreh Deah one fifty-one that says that there is no rabbinic law of mesaya by a Jew who is classified as a momer. A momer is somebody who's a consistent sinner who has that classification. But as Rabbi Kasimov points out in his Tshuva, first of all, that's not universal. The Dagme of Avva disagrees. And second of all, nowadays, we don't classify Shabbos violators as a momer. We instead generally classify them as tinekes hanishba, children who were captured in their youth, raised with alien values, and don't know enough to be held accountable for their sins in a regular way. Uh, so based on all of that, Rabbi Kasimov feels that even the Shach would agree that there would be an issur mesaya inviting the Jew for Shabbos, which means that the lenient opinions that could exist, I think it's pretty easy to shut them down and say they wouldn't apply to this scenario. So what comes out in practical Halakha is that it's forbidden for many reasons to invite a Jew to your home or shul for Shabbos, unless there's a realistic way for the Jew to get there without driving. And it's certainly forbidden to encourage them to drive with phrases like, "If you're going to drive anyway, you may as well come to me," and, uh, "Come however you want." I don't really see room for that anywhere. I'm unable, I'm unable to find lenient opinions that stand up to real scrutiny. And

20:36 Speaker 1 even if you happen to find one, uh, it's very clear from the letters that we saw today that that would not be the Rebbe's opinion. So even if you were to find a lenient opinion that does stand up to scrutiny, it certainly is not the derech of the Rebbe and by extension, not the derech of Chabad. Now, uh, as we've discussed previously in our class on heter kieruv, uh, our job is not to, God forbid, bring Judaism to Jews. It's to bring Jews to Judaism. Uh, we keep the standards of Jewish law, and we work within those. You may recall from that class on heter kieruv that the Rebbe, when asked what separates Chabad from other outreach organizations, and specifically, they seem to have been referring to Reform and organizations that also have a real open-door policy and real big tent. Chabad loves everybody. Reform loves everybody. What's the difference? The Rebbe pointed out the big difference that makes Chabad Chabad is that we are accepting and loving and take care of everyone, and we have standards that don't move. We don't move the needle to accommodate other people. What we do is we make the standard of Jewish law Jewish law, and everybody is welcome with love and bedarkah nevah bedarkah shalom, in ways of pleasantness and in ways of peace. So what makes us unique is that we don't violate Shabbos, and what makes us unique is that we don't say things like, "If you're going to drive anyway, drive to me." That's

21:35 Speaker 1 actually the calling card of Chabad. Uh, we're not involved in Shabbos violation. We're not involved in lifnei iver. We're not involved in mesaya or anything else like that. Uh, to use the Rebbe's expression that is often repeated in these contexts, although not in these particular letters, but in the context of, uh, lowering our standards in order to increase the size of our tent, the Rebbe often quotes the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos in BeKarvin LaTorah that one of the great things that a Jew is supposed to do, one of the most special things a Jew can do, is bring Jews close to Torah. But the expression there is in BeKarvin LaTorah, we bring Jews close to Torah. We do not bring the Torah close to Jews. That is, the Torah is the Torah. It does not change, and it's our job to help Jews connect to the Torah, each in their own level, each in their own time, in a process that grows over time. However, there are some red lines, and I think we saw some of these red lines today. The big red line is that if we're going to have an event where we know people are going to drive there on Shabbos, the Rebbe wants open announcements regularly to the people before, after, and during, that they should not be driving on Shabbos to that event. If we're going to have an event that could cause people to drive on Shabbos, we might want to change the way that we do that

22:30 Speaker 1 event. Not, God forbid, to cancel the event entirely, but to change it to another date. For example, to move a farbrengen that's gonna be matzoh Shabbos to a different day that works just as well. We can see even moving around our schedule to adapt to this. The idea that when we had this youth group letter, this youth group minor, where the Rebbe says that, uh, we have to make sure that the madrichim ladgish vekam apam, that they should emphasize multiple times that it is forbidden to do this and people should only participate if they are going to walk. Which means the proper answer to the question, "Rabbi, should I come to your house on Shabbos? I'm going to drive," is, "No, you should walk." And, uh, I, I don't know how many people are saying it that way. I'm sure there's a nicer way to say it, but, uh, that is absolutely the message that we are supposed to be saying. That's what I get from the Rebbe's letters. It's what I get from Halakha, and, uh, that is the share.

23:09 Speaker 2 What about the classic? There's a classic, uh, thing that people use a lot of times when they'll invite a person that they know drives on Shabbos, and they'll invite them and say, "I have a place for you to sleep." So I'm inviting them to my house for Friday night dinner, and I, I have a, have a spot for you to sleep. And the person says, "Nah, it's okay. I'm just gonna come. I'm gonna drive." So you're basically, from your side, you're, you're giving them an opportunity to either-- you're giving them, if, again, if they're close enough to walk, even if you know that they drive on Shabbos, they're close enough to walk, you're gonna invite them. And if you're-- I'm, I'm assuming that you can, if they can walk, like let's say Muncie area, and then you have, uh, the concept of telling somebody, "Listen, um, I'm inviting you. I know you live far away, therefore I have a place for you to sleep." How would that fit into this?

23:48 Speaker 1 I think we mentioned it a little earlier in the Halakha analysis, but I probably skimmed over it too quickly, so let's emphasize. Um, if a, i-if you have a place for that person to stay and you tell them that, "I have a place for you to stay," you make it possible for them not to violate Shabbos, then it's completely permitted to invite them. If they then say back to you, "I'm driving anyway," we have from the Rebbe's letters that then you should say, "Then you shouldn't," right? You have there, you have here definitely from the Rebbe's letters, the Rebbe saying, "If people tell you that they're going to be driving on Shabbos, it is your job to remind them that they're not supposed to do that." Um, I don't see anywhere the Rebbe says to withdraw the invitation, uh, except for down here where the Rebbe says that, uh, uh-

24:20 Speaker 2 On foot

24:21 Speaker 1 ...right? That only those coming on foot should participate. But, uh, I don't know that that's directly how we're supposed to be reading that. Definitely the case is that what you mentioned is allowed. If you invite somebody on Shabbos, offer them a place to stay, and there's a way for them to get there, you can make that invitation al pi halakha. But if they then say, "I'm gonna drive anyway," it is not at all clear to me the Rebbe wants you not to say anything else, to go like, "Oh, fine."

24:40 Speaker 2 Is there a possibility that the Rebbe's shiur could change from taf shin yud zayin to taf shin mem hei? Like, you know, over the years that as Chabad houses grew, because, you know, in taf shin yud zayin, the whole Chabad house movement-

24:49 Speaker 1 Yeah

24:49 Speaker 2 ...had really not begun. Didn't really begin until the '60s in any serious earnestness until like the

24:54 Speaker 1 It is possible. It is possible. But, uh, hametz lechavera alav harayah. There's, uh, there's two points to keep in mind. Number one, the Rebbe's shiur here is based very much in Halakha. It's hard to imagine that changing. Um, he would have to adopt an opinion that as far as I can tell doesn't exist in Halakha. So, uh, number one, I doubt it changed because it's a Halakhic opinion. Um, number two, uh, having done the research for this and looked through, I was to find anything from that period suggesting any kind of change. I didn't find any lenient opinions. I didn't find any footnotes in any of the Halakhic works that are on this. Um, I didn't find anything to the contrary. What I did find is, uh, a letter that I didn't get to show you today, but it's a beautiful letter where the Rebbe talks to a, a about davening in a shul where everybody's Shabbos, and where he tells them that, uh, you're able to influence them positively by davening there, and that absolutely you should take the amud, and, uh, if you take the amud, you can rely on a whole bunch of leniencies regarding their Shabbos observance, and bit by bit you'll bring them closer to Judaism. Uh, allowing the model where you're the leader of their Judaism and you know they're violating Shabbos, that without a doubt. Uh, that's not even something that changed. I think that was something that was already allowed. I don't think the Rebbe's on that

25:54 Speaker 1 ever was a-- was that that would be a problem. But here we're talking about people saying, "I'm gonna drive to you on Shabbos." And, uh, it seems very clear to me, the Rebbe halakhically, that if somebody says to you, "I'm going to violate Shabbos," you as a Jew are obligated to say back, "You shouldn't." Um-

26:08 Speaker 3 Right.

26:09 Speaker 1 Yeah. And I-

26:09 Speaker 3 And I mean, so the other thing is also you have people sometimes that, that are almost celebrated. I was once in a Chabad house where, you know, right before Kerias Hatorah, a roaring motorcycle roars into the parking lot, and a gentleman gets off the motorcycle, comes into the shul, puts on a tallis, and he's the gabbai. You know? So doesn't seem, doesn't seem to fit with this, uh, with this-- with, with the Rebbe's on this. It shouldn't be celebrated, or at least the person should be told, "Listen," you know what I mean? Like, I mean, it doesn't say anything to be with the person, but, um, so it's like a fine line. Doesn't seem like it's very much adhered to.

26:45 Speaker 1 I don't think it's very much adhered to. Certainly, this comes with, in case it wasn't already expressed very clearly in the She'ar Darkei Noam, Darkei Shlom, and a lot of Agas Yisroel, these things need to be said in ways of love, in ways of gentleness, in ways that bring people closer, not push them away, God forbid. But, uh, these things do need to be said. I don't see a heter for not saying them, and I certainly see a serious problem with saying the opposite.