1315 - Elul 15 – Chabad history

00:00 Speaker 1 Yemei Chabad for the fifteenth day of the month of Elul. Uh, today is the day that they founded the first formal, uh, Chabad yeshiva, which is known as Tomchei Tmimim, uh, in the year Taf Reish Nun Zayin, uh, which, um, which is in the, um, late, uh, 1800s, uh, towards the end of the late 1800s. Um, the idea of a yeshiva is something that came about in the 1800s. The yeshiva meaning where a gathering of students get together with a, with a Rosh Yeshiva, with a person that leads the, the yeshiva, and they study. In the olden days, mostly people would study on theirselves in a bes medrash, in a study hall, in a, uh, a cheder or-- Well, a cheder was mostly for, for younger children, for younger kids. But once they get older, it wasn't a formal, organized way, uh, that the students would get together. But later on, the yeshiva started, uh, coming together. Now, uh, Chabad, particularly Tomchei Tmimim, they did not have a yeshiva at the time, uh, in which, uh, they would have students get together. And then on top of that, there was also you had to provide for their needs. You know, you had to provide for them a place to eat, you had to provide a place to sleep, because if you're gonna get people together, you have to provide for all those things. Now, there were these things amongst, but as far as formal, uh, Chabad place, there wasn't a formal yeshiva. The name of

01:44 Speaker 1 the yeshivas we'll see was given as Tomchei Tmimim. That is the formal name of the yeshiva. Um, we'll see in a minute, uh, when they got the name and how the name was given to them. But the-- This was announced, as we had read earlier, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchak, he got married on the thirteenth day of Elul. That was a Friday, we learned. That is on the fifteenth day of Elul, on Friday, he got married. During his marriage, uh, he was seventeen basically at the time. He was seventeen years old when he got married. Uh, he go-- he was born in Taf Reish Mem, and, uh, this was in Taf Reish Nun Zayin. And, um, the alter-- the-- his father, the Rebbe Rashab, Rav Shalom Dovber, the father of the previous Rebbe, Shalom Dovber, uh, he announced that he's founding this yeshiva in which this study of Hasidus will be intertwined with the study of the revealed part of the Torah. Because in most yeshivas in that time, they studied the revealed part of the Torah. What does the revealed part of the Torah consist of? It basically means the Talmud, it means the Torah, the Mishnah, the law, the code of law, the Shulchan Aruch. They did not have a set time to study within the framework of the yeshiva to study the subject known as Hasidus. That's the Hasidic philosophy. But the Rebbe Rashab announced at that time, he said that he was thinking about the founding of such a yeshiva,

03:30 Speaker 1 uh, for ten years he had in, in, in mind, uh, to see, um, to combine a yeshiva that will have both the revealed and the Hasidic part of Torah. Uh, during those years, he said, "I had visited many times on the holy resting places of my father," of his father, his grandfather, Rebbe Maharash, "and of my grandfather, the Tzemach Tzedek," which were all, uh, in the, uh, city of Lubavitch. Uh, that's where they're interned, and that's where he would pray for them. But the purpose of this yeshiva, the Rebbe said, was not just to study Torah, because thank God, there is many yeshivas in which the Torah of study is, uh, very strong and very, very powerful. But what I want is to illuminate light. I want to-- The students, they should learn the regular, the ordinary, the revealed part of Torah, that that should be combined, and it should be intertwined with the Hasidic teaching, so that when you go in the street, you should have something to go with. You're going with that. He says like this: "The yeshiva that I am founding," he says, uh, "I ask, and I'm praying to Hashem, that it should be blessed with fear of heaven. It should be a spirit of one's service and one working with himself. It should be a spirit of pleasant, uh, pleasantness of people treating with kind to be, uh, good middos. It should be a spirit of accepting the yoke of, of Hashem." Um, sometimes in yeshivas, the focus is

05:33 Speaker 1 only on academics. You know, they just want people to succeed and achieve how much knowledge or how brilliant or how, uh, ideas. That's all what it is. They don't care so much to see that that which they're studying should actually be implemented, should come down in a way that it should refine you, make you a better person, change your character, have you, uh, become a better person. And this is what the Rebbe Rashab wanted. He wanted that the people that studied Torah, it should be intertwined with the teaching of Hasidim so that they should know that any part that they learn in Torah should not just be an intellectual exercise. It shouldn't be just a greatness of ideas, but rather to bring those ideas out in practical sense, in refinement, in fear of heaven, to doing a mitzvah properly with enthusiasm, helping somebody else, to taking that which you learn and bringing it out in a, uh, in an actuality. He says after approximately two years, and this took place on the night of Simchas Torah in the year Taf Reish Nun Tes, during the time that they made hakafos. Now, I'm a little bit, um, confused here. I'm just reading aloud. I don't understand if the yeshiva was founded in the end of the month of Elul Reish Nun Zayin, in Taf Reish Nun Zayin, that's the Hebrew date. Um, so that would make, uh, Elul Taf Reish Nun Ches one year later, that would make it one year. And the hakafos, which is

07:21 Speaker 1 the beginning of Taf Reish Nun Tes, would just make it one year later. I don't understand why he says this is like two... I gotta find out or something. I don't understand why this is two years later. It seems to me almost that it was just a year and a few days. But here it says that this was after two years he gave the name. You know, in the, uh, hakafot, the circling that we circle around the Bima, so there are certain verses that we say, and it's based on the Aleph Bet. You know, so it has one letter beginning with the Aleph, then with the Bet. The letter Taf over there that says, it's talking about Hashem. It says, "Tomeich temimim," God who supports, who supports those who are, uh, go with righteousness, with simplicity, with innocence, with Hashem. Hashem supports them. So he paraphrased the word of tomeich temimim to tomchei temimim. The students that will study over there, they call them temimim, basically wholesomeness, because they're sort of wholesome because they don't only study the revealed part, they also taught Hasidim, they're wholesome. Tomchei temimim means those who support the support of the temimim. And, uh, he says that the yeshiva is called Tomchei Temimim. The students that learn and they conduct themselves in the spirit are called temimim. And he prays that Hashem, who gives the Torah, should bless those who study there and those that support. So tomchei is those who support the temimim. That's also an allusion to the

09:01 Speaker 1 people who financially carry part of the burden to support and help these yeshiva students grow. That's been the name of all the general yeshiva, Tomchei Temimim. Now, when the Rebbe came to this country, there was also a lot of Yeshivat Tomchei Temimim, but the yeshivas that, that were instituted outside as, for example, the yeshiva in Boston, they were known as Achei Temimim, the brothers of the Temimim. They were like, uh, second to the Tomchei Temimim. They were known as Achei Temimim. Like all the yeshivas in the surrounding, in Pittsburgh, they made a yeshiva, in Springfield, they made a yeshiva, in Worcester, in Boston, and in various other communities. The previous Rebbe, when he came here, they instituted yeshivas to provide for education for the students, but they called them Achei Temimim. That's like the brothers of the Temimim, and as a reference to the Tomchei Temimim. But the general name is the Tomchei Temimim. I mean, today, Baruch Hashem, thank God, there are thousands upon thousands of students that are being educated in these yeshivas, uh, which is the Yeshivat Tomchei Temimim. One of the most beautiful things about these yeshivas was, and we hope that we can continue that tradition. It's changed a little bit in the last few years, I think. But one of the, one of the things, and maybe that's why it's called Tomchei Temimim. Tomchei Temimim has right always the support of the Temimim. It's right always within the name. Uh, one of the things that was unique with the

10:38 Speaker 1 Lubavitch yeshivas, with the Tomchei Temimim yeshivas at the time is, you know, especially when people came from Europe, we're talking about right after the Holocaust and during that period of time, people were very, very, uh, poor. They didn't have any financial means to send kids to yeshivas. And, you know, it was a easier option, I mean, to send kids to public school. It doesn't cost anything to educate. And a lot of people wouldn't send their kids to yeshivas for that reason. And, um, but the Lubavitch yeshivas were unique. They took in kids. It didn't matter whether you could afford to pay or you couldn't afford to pay, or if you could afford to pay very little, they still took in those kids. Many generations of today's Hasidim, the Lubavitch people of the Chabad community, are a result of those children that were taken in for less than the regular amount. And their struggles, mind you, wasn't any less than today. I mean, um, teachers had to get paid, the mortgage had to get paid, the electricity, and nobody gave anything for free. So they had the bills to pay, and they were under tremendous amount of pressure all the time, the people that led the yeshivas. But yet their policy was not to turn away any child because of a lack of funds. That wasn't the criteria. But, you know, I'm saying I'm hoping if you go through today, it's changed a little bit. The mood has changed. The people that are running the yeshivas

12:14 Speaker 1 lately don't have, I guess, uh, that level of dedication, or the people that are sending to the yeshivas have funds, but they don't wanna share-- separate themselves from the funds. I mean, it probably is a little bit of everything, but, uh, today it's a little bit different. But they used to literally accept, you know... And I know personally, even though my wife's family, uh, who came to Chabad, I think the reason they came to Chabad was because the Lubavitch Yeshiva was the affordable yeshiva. They came, they were Holocaust survivors. They didn't have any money, and they couldn't send anywhere. So the option was either public school or send to yeshiva, which accepted them for what they could pay. And that's where my wife was educated in the equivalent to the, uh, Chabad, you know. They were educated, and the whole family was, is a Chabad family. But it's just to say they ran their yeshivas with, you know, with big deficits. And the rabbi would always say the, uh, sign of a viable company is by the size of the deficit, you know. If you don't have... If you have a big deficit, that means that you're doing a lot of things, that you're, you're doing a lot of good work, you know, and, uh-

13:30 Speaker 2 You still manage to raise the funds to cover the deficits.

13:33 Speaker 1 Somehow, somewhere.

13:34 Speaker 2 Somewhere.

13:34 Speaker 1 Nobody... Some ways, they had to do it, or somebody got sto-- I'm not sure exactly how it happened at the end of the day, but again, it's, it's really-- we can't really criticize anyone.

13:44 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

13:44 Speaker 1 People are trying to do, you know-

13:46 Speaker 2 You do right

13:46 Speaker 1 ... as you know, you do right. I mean, the people that are running the, the institution, they have a very difficult and a very, uh, awesome responsibility, and they gotta make sure that they get the best teachers possible, so they gotta pay the bills. And if you're not gonna pay, you're not gonna get the teachers. And if you're not gonna pay... So they're trying to get the funds, you know. So it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a-

14:07 Speaker 2 It's a point to-

14:09 Speaker 1 Yeah. And it's a problem which doesn't have a very, uh-

14:12 Speaker 2 It's never solved

14:12 Speaker 1 ... easy answer. And I don't know, but I'm just saying. But on the other hand, um, you know, we also learn in the Pirkei Avot, and we learn in other places, our sages tell us that you must be very careful with children that come from poor homes because the Torah sometimes comes out of these people. Sometimes there is a special, uh, brilliance, there's a special, uh, level of achievement that can be achieved sometimes from these poor kids, you don't know. And you know, there's, there's even stories of, um, certain sit- certain situations and, uh, you remember it used to be that the radio broadcaster used to have the rest of the story, you know. I'll tell you.

14:57 Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

14:58 Speaker 1 So you-

14:59 Speaker 2 You made a comment.

14:59 Speaker 1 Huh? What? Paul Harvey.

15:01 Speaker 2 Paul Harvey.

15:01 Speaker 1 Paul Harvey, yeah, used to have a-

15:03 Speaker 2 Yes

15:03 Speaker 1 ... used to always tell you the rest of the story. So-

15:05 Speaker 2 Right

15:05 Speaker 1 ... so one of the, one of the, one of... You know, there's some, some, some other stories like that that came out of the end or as the other guy said, like the chicken soup for the soul, you know, different. So one of, one of the stories goes that the, um, um, there was a simple person that helped out, uh, another kid who, who got stuck in the swamp, and he saved his life and, and he was a son of a very wealthy person. And the wealthy person, I, I don't remember the names, but the very wealthy person, it has to do with medicine. That very wealthy person-

15:38 Speaker 2 His people that came from poverty.

15:43 Speaker 1 Came from poverty.

15:44 Speaker 2 The, the top, the fifth wealthiest man in America. I think it's the fifth.

15:48 Speaker 1 Well, here we're talking about education. Not only about money, but we're talking about education.

15:52 Speaker 2 Education. Came out of Roxbury.

15:53 Speaker 1 Came out of Roxbury.

15:53 Speaker 2 His father was a cab driver, and now he owns a Sands Hotel in Las Vegas.

15:58 Speaker 1 Uh-huh.

15:59 Speaker 2 And he's worth, like, twenty-five billion dollars.

16:02 Speaker 1 Wow.

16:02 Speaker 2 Actually, that was the one I was talking about this morning, when I talked to Adelson.

16:05 Speaker 1 Adelson.

16:06 Speaker 2 When he builds, you know, when he gives, he doesn't give money. He gives stock.

16:10 Speaker 1 Ah.

16:11 Speaker 2 But he gave the money to Hebrew-

16:12 Speaker 1 But the end of this story-

16:13 Speaker 2 There's really a handful of people-

16:13 Speaker 1 But the end of the story that I was telling you was that he saved-- drives up a nobleman, the father of the kid who was saved. He comes over to him with a stack of gold or coins. He says, "I wanna pay you. You saved my son's life. I wanna pay you for it." He says, "I'm not gonna take money for, for saving a life."

16:30 Speaker 2 Yeah.

16:30 Speaker 1 "That was my duty. You know, I'm not gonna take money for that." So he says, "But you know, you saved a life. I need to do something for you." He says, "One thing I'm going to do." He says, "I am going to offer you to give an education to your son you can't afford." But this was in Scotland. He says, "I'm going to give your son the, uh, to go to the medical school together with my son." That he didn't refuse, and he accepted that. And then that poor man's son grew up. He founded penicillin.

17:02 Speaker 2 Oh.

17:03 Speaker 1 And eventually, that kid that he saved got sick.

17:06 Speaker 2 Sick.

17:07 Speaker 1 His life was saved by the discovery of the penicillin of the kid that he helped put through college. So you see? So to put through medical school. So what comes around goes around. This, in this case, is open that you can actually see. You can put your finger on it, and you can say, "Well, I helped you, and then you ended up helping-

17:29 Speaker 2 Fleming. Fleming.

17:30 Speaker 1 Fleming. That's right. That's... Yes, exactly. You know, the name is Fleming.

17:33 Speaker 2 Fleming.

17:33 Speaker 1 Yeah. But that was, that was the... That's a true story.

17:37 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

17:38 Speaker 1 That's a very true story. But the true story happens all the time.

17:42 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

17:42 Speaker 1 When you help, you help a kid go to school, you don't know what's gonna happen in a few years down the road, how things are going to turn out. That person that you helped, and that's an old statement saying-

17:56 Speaker 2 Oh, yeah

17:56 Speaker 1 ... written thousands of years ago in the Tanakh, which says, "Sh'lach lach b'chol pnei ha-mayim ki b'rev ha-yamim timtzeh-nu." Cast your water, bread on the water because in days to come you are going to find it. You know, in other words, when you do something, that's not really the reason why you should do it. That's not the reason. That's an ulterior motive. This fellow did it because that was his obligation. He didn't want any reward. He didn't want any payment for it. But he did it because that was the right thing, and that was the, uh, good thing to do. That was his heart told him to do. But at the end of the day, when you do what's right, at the end of the day-

18:37 Speaker 3 Works out

18:37 Speaker 1 ... it works out. Now, the bottom line is, even if you have an ulterior motive, as long as you do good. And matter of fact, in the Torah, we know that one shouldn't really do things for ulterior motives. Uh, one should do it for the right thing. You know, if you wanna serve Hashem, you wanna do it because God-- it's a privilege to serve God, and we wanna do this just because of the privilege. We don't want-- We're not asking for God to give us anything in return just because we're doing service for Him. That's the right way to do it. But there is an exception to that. One is allowed to test God. You're never allowed to test God and say, "God, okay, you know..." Like, you know that story about the fellow, uh, he's looking for a parking space, and he's-- a very important meeting for him, and there's no parking space, and it's, it's like a million-dollar deal that he has to make. So in desperation, this gentleman, he makes a prayer to God. He says, "God, if you get me a parking space, I promise I'm gonna start putting on the tefillin every day." Now, no sooner can he finish to make the promise in his heart, in front of him, the guy pulls out. He says, "Never mind, God, I already got the space." So-- But we don't do things-- We don't put on tefillin, so God to give us a parking space. We don't do things like that. But

20:05 Speaker 1 there's an exception to that. The exception is giving charity. One who gives charity, and he makes a condition with Hashem. He says, "I'm gonna give charity on the condition that my son is healthy, that my son will get well," because his son is sick. And the like, the Talmud says that fellow would be considered a Tzadik Gamur, a complete righteous act, even though his act is in what seems like ulterior motive. Because-- And that's why when you cast your bread on the water, it says, "send it." Even though your motives may be ulterior, you may have something in mind, but as long as you're doing something positive right now, you're helping the guy, you're helping the person, you are giving him tzedakah, so you can-- and you can actually test Hashem with that. So not only is it okay to do that, but you can test. Hashem says, "If you test me, test me with this. If you wanna test me, give tzedakah, see if I'm not gonna come through for you." Now-

21:04 Speaker 3 He did.

21:04 Speaker 1 You did, and it didn't?

21:05 Speaker 3 He did.

21:06 Speaker 1 And-- What? He did.

21:06 Speaker 3 Remember that? With the-- You said to me that morning when I had that problem with the guy with the money.

21:12 Speaker 1 Oh, that's right.

21:12 Speaker 3 It worked.

21:13 Speaker 1 It worked. He had a personal experience. That's right, a personal experience.

21:17 Speaker 3 I told you about a situation I had.

21:18 Speaker 1 Yeah.

21:19 Speaker 3 He says, "If you give tzedakah." So I put some money in, and that day, I got the phone call.

21:22 Speaker 1 And they got it. That's amazing. That's right.

21:24 Speaker 3 Yeah.

21:25 Speaker 1 Hey, attribute that miracle to me. All right. Anyways.

21:30 Speaker 3 Yeah.

21:30 Speaker 1 Please don't pass around the word. You know, please-- pretty soon people will start, uh... No, but the, the point over here is that sometimes when your act that you're doing is righteous, so motives-

21:42 Speaker 3 Okay. Maybe he paid me for ten dollars.

21:44 Speaker 1 No. Motives, motives. No, come on. You wanna, you want-- You don't wanna, you don't wanna win the, the lottery for fifty bucks. You wanna win something substantial.

21:54 Speaker 3 Well, you got-

21:54 Speaker 1 You gotta, you gotta... It's gotta be-

21:58 Speaker 3 I already have it

21:58 Speaker 1 ... some-- Yeah, okay. All right. Anyways. No, hold the blessing over there. No, but the point here is that-- No, I just wanted to conclude with that, that the, um, Yeshivat Tomchei Temimim, I think, this is just an idea that I have, it's put in the word the support of the Temimim. The Rebbe made the people that support these yeshivas, the people that support their, you know, outreach, and by extension, the Chabad House, the general Chabad movement outreach, the Rebbe has made them a part of the name of the yeshiva, which means it's a partnership. It's a partnership which the supporters and the Temimim, which is the name of the students and the supporters, are all intertwined into one name. Meaning to say that you are actually equal partners, that you are people that are combined. Just like the Rebbe said, "I want the Hasidists and the, uh, revealed part of Torah, the two parts, to be intertwined." He also, I think, meant, not so articulated, but he also meant that the supporters and the Temimim should also be intertwined together, which means that the part that they all have should be sort of a combined partnership, so that the person who has more time to study, uh, would-- part of his Torah will be to the merit of the person who's supporting him. And the person who's doing business, part of his, uh, finances will be to finance and to help them study. So this has been a partnership, though, that's been going on

23:35 Speaker 1 since, uh, time immemorial. This is going on from back in Sodom and Zoar. We ru-- we read that they made a partnership, and this was also between, uh, the people that Dovid would study Torah so that Yoav could go on the war. This has been a partnership between the different parts of the Jewish people, and I think that this is additional thing that the Rebbe wanted to support. We just gotta figure out the ways. Uh, I mean, thank God, the, uh... a lot of influential Jewish people, there's a lot of people that have a lot of money. We just gotta figure out ways to have them direct their money in the right ways instead of spending fifty million dollars on a piece of art or something which nobody can benefit. We should try to find ways for them to channel, to get them to channel the monies to help kids get a good education, to help parents that need those help. You know, that's, that's the challenge for us, to get people to invest in what's really, uh, meaningful, that is lasts for generations, generations to come. As I said, you know, if you help a kid and you, you, you give them an education, uh, you never know what kind of a chance you gave them, what, what opportunities you, you, you provided for them, and how this is going to change the world in the future. So these are all very important things, and I think this is all has to do with

24:55 Speaker 1 the Tomchei Temimim that the Rebbe Rashab founded then, and it's still going on today, till Biat Gvul Tzedek, till Mashiach will come.