23 of Iyar - Pervious Rebbe moves to Leningrad from Rostov - כג אייר תרפא - 5.27.1927 עבר אדמור ריי"צ ללינגרד מרוסטוב

00:00 Speaker 1 Let's go and we'll do Yemei Chabad for the twenty-third day of Iyar. Chaf Gimel Iyar, and this is in the year Taf Resh Peh Dalet. This is basically nineteen twenty-four. Uh, as you know, the, uh, Lubavitch, uh, moved from, uh, the city of Lubavitch in the years of the Rebbe Rashab, they moved to Rostov. Uh, but, uh, at that point, this was the-- What's the English date for the twenty-third day of Iyar in Taf Resh Peh Dalet in six eighty, um, no, six eighty-four. It's nineteen twenty- Wait, wait. Twenty-third Iyar? Twenty-third of Iyar, yeah. What year? In, uh, six eighty-four. That's nineteen twenty-four. So ninety years ago. May twenty-seventh. That's May twenty-seventh, nineteen twenty-four. Uh, that was when the previous Rebbe moved, uh, to Leningrad. Okay? That's when he moved to Leningrad. The communist terr-terror was, uh, in full force in that year, in the year nineteen twenty-four, and the goal was to detach the Jewish people from the Torah and the Mitzvahs. The previous Rebbe, who lived at that time in the city of Rostov, uh, he was single-handedly the only one who interfered with their activities and waged war against them without any fear and without any worries. He just stood up to them. Within his activities, the previous Rebbe traveled to Moscow with the goal to organize and to strengthen these activities. The leaders of the GePOUD or the NKVD, the KGB, it's-- at that time, it's the-- called them the GePOUD. That was the, uh, name for the secret, uh, police

02:13 Speaker 1 of their, um, of Rostov. They made a decision that they need to, once and for all, make an end to the activities of the Rebbe, and they had decided to, uh, imprison the Rebbe as soon as he comes back to Rostov. That thing was somehow found out by the Hasidim, what they're intending to do. So after a, um, a debate with the head of the, uh-- They had a discussion with the head of the KGB or the GePOUD. They agreed that if the previous Rebbe is willingly going to leave on his own the city of Rostov, they're not gonna arrest him. So two weeks before Shavuot, uh, the previous Rebbe was forced basically to leave Rostov and to go over to Leningrad, which is now Petersburg, of course. Um, it's, uh, Petersburg. It got the name back. It changed from Petersburg to Leningrad, and now it's back to Petersburg. Uh, while in Leningrad, the previous Rebbe increased his activities, uh, that eventually in nineteen twenty-seven brought to his arrest and then eventually, uh, which led him out of, uh, of that country. Now, um, we know that a lot of times things happen, and we, we-- uh, when they're happening, we don't see sort of the benefit or it seems all bad. But in reality, a lot of times the thing that take place, even though on the surface it seems bad for you, but it has, uh, a better cause. Now, there's two ways, as the Rebbe brings down in one of his talks.

04:08 Speaker 1 Like, we find in this case, like with the previous Rebbe, you know, they terrorized him. They caused him so much, uh, aggravation. But that led to his departure from that country eventually, and eventually transplanting him to the United States. It's kinda hard to imagine or to figure out what would have happened, you know, what would have been. It's almost like the story with Yosef and his, uh, and his, uh, and his brothers, and they sold him and eventually that led to the Jewish people establishing in Mitzrayim and then eventually becoming a people from there. So history, you know, when you're living at a certain time in history, I mean, things seem to be really bad or seems to be the bad. But sometimes we-- you are fortunate to see later on in the big picture that things are, are well, you know, turn out to be good for you. So there, there is-- The Rebbe brings us an analogy. It's an interesting analogy that, um, there-- in the Gemara, in the Talmud, we find two types of approaches, that there were rabbis who, who would always try to see the good in the situation that they were facing. So one of the stories is about, uh, uh, a rabbi who, who would always say, uh, Rabbi Akiva. He, um, um, um, he would say... He would always say, uh, "Whatever God does is for the good. Whatever God does is for the good." So even when something bad happened to him, he would say, "Kol

05:44 Speaker 1 ma d'Oved rachmon l'tav ovid." Whatever God does is for good. And then there was another rabbi. He used to have a different language. Whenever something would happen, he would say, "Gam zu l'tovah." This is also for the good. His name was-- fellow was named Nachum. Actually, they called him Nachum ish gam zu. Nachum, the man who says gam zu. This too. So they would always say, "This is also for the good." Now, the Rebbe explains there's a little bit of a difference between these two approaches, even though they seem very similar. One would say, "Whatever God does is for the good," and the other one would say, "This is gam zu l'tov, this is for the good." Other one said it in Aramaic, this one said it in Hebrew. So the Rebbe makes a note of it. The Rebbe relates this story. What happened was with Rabbi Akiva, that he one time, uh, as he was going on a journey, so he took along with him, uh, his donkey that he would have it to, uh, carry his, his baggage with, with his load. He also took along a rooster with him to wake him up in the morning. That was his alarm clock, right? And, uh, and then, um, and then he went on his, on his way. That was what he, what he went on his way. And when he came to the city where he was going to stay, he realized that he came, um, late, and the gates were closed already.

07:08 Speaker 1 And over there, once it's closed, it's closed. You can't get in. So he had to stay in the field. So he made his-- he set himself up to sleep in the field. And-- but in the field, there was no co-c- there was no shade, no cover. He put on, he put on the little light that he had, the fire that he had, the lamp. He brought along a candle with him. And the candle was also so he can study at nighttime. So basically, he had three things. He had the rooster, he had the donkey, and he had his, uh, he had a candle to have some light. And then, you know, whatever bags of personal thing, items he had or maybe some food, so that he, that he brought along. So-- but now that he was open, there was no shelter. So there was a windy day, so the wind blew out his, his, his candle. And because it was dark already, so, you know, some-- one of the animals of there got hold of his rooster and ate that up.

08:03 Speaker 2 Oh.

08:03 Speaker 1 And then, you know, then somebody-- another was in the field, and somebody, uh, another animal took care of his donkey. So at the end of the day-

08:10 Speaker 2 He had nothing

08:11 Speaker 1 ... he was left. He's left with nothing. He was, uh-

08:13 Speaker 2 Baggage

08:13 Speaker 1 What? So-

08:15 Speaker 2 Baggage.

08:15 Speaker 1 But he said, he said, "Whatever God has done is for the good."

08:21 Speaker 2 It's like Job.

08:22 Speaker 1 Yeah, for Job. Okay. Well, wait, but Job, okay, Job complained at the end, but good. So he said, "Whatever that God does is for the good." So the Rebbe points out in this story over here-- So what happened at the end of the story? The end of story goes that there were bandits that came to the city at that night. They broke in, and they, you know, devastated that city. The fact that he was outside saved his life. And the fact that there was no light there, there was no rooster making noises, and there was no donkey making noises, he ended up benefiting from it, and that was good. But it's interesting, Rebbe points out, but the interesting idea over here is, but there was a loss, but the loss was for a-

09:00 Speaker 2 Good cause

09:01 Speaker 1 ... for a better purpose. So in other words, sometimes you feel a loss. It is a loss. He lost his donkey, he lost his rooster, he lost his lamp, yes. But what would have happened? He may have had it, but it would have been, uh-

09:13 Speaker 2 He could have lost his life

09:14 Speaker 1 ... he could have lost his life. So he got better, and that's, that's one way. Yeah, go ahead.

09:18 Speaker 2 No, but I think it-- you have to be at a very high spiritual level to say that because, I mean, you know, like the Holocaust or something like that, you, you can't-- that'd be a hard thing to say, you know.

09:28 Speaker 1 Yeah, okay. No, we're not trying to justify. Okay. But he's saying that what he, what he felt in his, in his heart, it's like saying somebody... Okay.

09:35 Speaker 2 Do you believe that? Just asking, do you believe that?

09:38 Speaker 1 That what?

09:39 Speaker 2 Uh, kol ze l'tov or...

09:41 Speaker 1 Do I believe that?

09:42 Speaker 2 Yeah.

09:42 Speaker 1 I mean, I, I hope so. I, I know, I know that the Abyssinian, everything that comes from Hashem is, is good. But I know that sometimes we don't, we don't see it, sometimes we don't understand it.

09:51 Speaker 2 Right.

09:51 Speaker 1 But, you know, from the Abyssinian, the, the verse says that everything comes from Hashem is good, is positive. The only thing is that, you know, we, we, we, we are looking for open goodness and open kindness. Listen to the next story, then you'll see. Then we can, uh, discuss a little further. Uh, the next story was with Nachum Ish Gamzu. But in this case, the point I'm trying to point out is he lost something, but it was for a better purpose. So in other words, you can't say he didn't lose anything. He lost his, his some things, but it was for a better cause. But in the other case is the story of Nachum Ish Gamzu, in which there was a decree. The Romans made a decree, the king or the emperor over there, and they were looking for someone to go along to try to change the emperor's mind, you know, to, uh, change the decree. So they picked Nachum Ish Gamzu. He was a righteous man. They picked him. And-- But he was a very innocent, a very, uh, he was a very believing person. So when he was-- stayed overnight in a certain place, the, the people sent along with him, you know, a ba- a ba- a box of, uh, of jewels and, you know, some expensive, uh, uh, stuff to give as a gift to the king. Hopefully-- to the emperor, so hopefully he would, uh, you know, uh, accommodate the, his request. But when he came to sleep over

11:08 Speaker 1 in the, in the inn, you know, he placed down. The people were asking him what it is. So he said, "Well, I'm bringing a gift to the, uh..." He told the people instantly. But those guys weren't, uh, upright people, and they saw there was a treasure in there. So at nighttime, when he was sleeping, they emptied out the treasure. But they didn't just empty out the treasure. They, they filled it up with sand. They took from there, they filled it up with sand. Filled up the box with sand, and they... Next morning, he gets up. He sees it's, it's heavy. It's not the same then. He opens it up. He sees it's sand. It's not anymore the, the, the jewelry, the, the jewels, the, the, the, the, the, the diamonds, the whatever, the expensive stuff that he brought is not there anymore. But what does he say? He says, "Gam zu l'tov." He said, "This is for the good." You know, he says, "This is for the good." He goes on, he goes to the king, uh, and, uh, he says, "The Jews are asked-- sent me to ask to the emperor." He says, "The Jews asked me to ask you to change your mind, and then here's a gift that they're sending you." And they opened it up And they see that there's sand in there. Now would you come to make fun of the emperor? You're bringing him sand as a gift? What is going on over here? In the meantime, it says,

12:22 Speaker 1 the Talmud says that God had Elijah the prophet, who a lot of times comes in as, uh, dressed up and as a human being. He appeared to be like one of the officers of the king, of the emperor over there, of the court. And he says to the emperor, you know, he says, "We have a tradition that, uh, Abraham waged war." It says in the, in the Chumash that he waged war against all those mighty, uh, kings, and he was able to be victorious. How, how did he win the-- How was he able to win that war? So he said they had, he had like a magical sand, that when he would throw that sand, that sand turned into arrows. And by throwing and turning into arrows, you know, they killed all the enemies. So he says to the king, "The Jews wouldn't just send you, uh, a gift to make fun of you. It must be... Let's try it out. Maybe, maybe this has some, some hidden powers in it as well." You know, the emperor, they always had wars, so they didn't have any shortage of places to, to try it out on. So he was waging a war, and lo and behold, throws it out, it turns into arrows. So now the king, the emperor is no longer angry. He's on the contrary. This is like the greatest gift you can give. And he says to him, "What could I do for you?" And they-- And all, and all the, uh, decree,

13:42 Speaker 1 and the Jews were saved. And not only that, he sent them along back a whole treasure with gifts from the king to bring back. So now, on the way back, he's going back to that inn where he stayed the last time around.

13:57 Speaker 2 Oh, I see.

13:58 Speaker 1 And the guys are seeing him over there. They see, he says, "What happened?" He says, you know, he tells them innocently. He says, "You know, you won't believe it." He says, "You know what? Somebody put sand into my, uh, into my box, and, um, it's miracle, uh... It was a miraculous." And they said, "Oh, wow." Now they thought, uh, because... So they quickly, they didn't tell him anything, and they quickly went to the backyard, filled up a whole ten boxes with all the sand, and they're bringing it to the king. Now they figure, to the emperor, now they're gonna become rich because they're gonna bring him all the sand. And he says, uh, to the, to the-- He comes to the king, to the emperor, he says, "Look, we have all this miraculous sand." And the emperor says, "Yeah, how? Wow." He goes out and tries it out. All the people almost got killed. It didn't work. There's no arrows. There's nothing. Nothing is happening. So the emperor says, "Hey, what's going on here? What did you get?" So they had to confess the whole story. So the king gave them their punishment that they deserved, because not only they came, so they got their punishment. And Nachum Ish Gamzu, of course, was the hero because he came out safe. So in this story, the Rebbe says, over here, it wasn't only that, uh, something good came out, but actually the fact that they changed, and they took the jewels out, and they put in

15:27 Speaker 1 the sand was to his benefit. Because it turns out, had he brought the king just the jewels, well, we don't know. The king has plenty of jewels. So, you know, it could have helped, it could have not helped. But in this case, it definitely helped. So the exchange that took place wasn't a loss. It was actually a lot better. And Rebbe explains because Rebbe Akiva, uh, he was a student. He was later on. This was already when the exile started to... It was a little bit more disguised. Sometimes Gods, in the time of Nachum Ish Gamzu, they can see God's goodness in a more clear way. It's said in Hebrew, it's in a more clear way. He can see that what happened to him was actually good, not bad. That was very open. In the other case, it's not as open. It's a more disguised, it's more hidden because you can't see it, but still it's the hand of Hashem. Now, to go back to the question that you bring before, do I, do, do people see? Uh, of course, we all, if we open our eyes, we can all find in our lives situations. That doesn't mean that every situation you can explain, and that doesn't mean that when the situation, you're confronted with certain situations, uh, it's upsetting, and it's hard, and it's depressing, and it becomes very difficult. That's a given. But in your own life, you can certainly find cases and situations in which you thought that this was like the

16:57 Speaker 1 end, and this is the terrible-

16:59 Speaker 2 Sure, sure

16:59 Speaker 1 ... and this is bad. And then you see there's actually not only sometimes you can see it, well, it was for a better purpose, but sometimes you can see, like in Nachum Ish Gamzu, it was actually to your benefit. And I can see it. You ask me, do I see it? I don't see it all the time. A lot of times when you're facing challenges, uh, you say, "Oh, you know, how it is." And what I try to tell myself, to answer your question more, a little bit more, what I try to tell myself sometimes when, you know, when I face challenges, you know, whatever challenges, I tell myself, "Hey, last year, how did you think? You think you wouldn't survive? You're here. You're better. You're..." So you know what? Be smart and know, look beyond your, your challenge. Now-

17:43 Speaker 2 Is there-

17:43 Speaker 1 Is there sometimes things bad that we perceive that do happen, we have no explanation? Yeah, but over there, of course, we always have to go back to the point that we can't understand. That doesn't mean that we, we could understand, we should not understand, just because, uh, you know, you, you say there's a lot of certain situations that I can't explain, especially you as a doctor. Sometimes you see-

18:08 Speaker 2 Kids suffering

18:09 Speaker 1 ... kids suffering, and you see kids with illnesses, and you, you don't see any purpose in that. You know, I understand. So- You know, I'm not, we're not, w-we're not God. We don't-- We, we can't understand those things, and we're not, we're not even trying to attempt to explain all the situations. In general, the principle is, I just want to say this also, and we'll continue on to the next, um, next topic of the Shelanu a little bit. But I wanna just say this. For oneself, if a person has difficulties in their lives or something happens, that's should be a wake-up call for that person individually. So in other words, uh, things go in your routine and something happens to your life. So what does that mean? Is that a message? Of course, you should-- a person should say that if something happens to, in my life, something which is upsetting, it may be somebody's calling to me, Hashem is calling me, that we gotta do better, that we gotta do something to become. Now, you say by yourself, you know, we talked about it in the shul. Well, why me? Well, I'm trying to be better. Why am I getting all of a sudden this call? Well, you know what? Whoever God loves, a parent will rebuke his own son. He won't rebuke somebody else's son. Why? Because he loves his son, so therefore, sometimes he'll, he'll be have to discipline him. He won't discipline somebody else's son. Sometimes when God sort of sends

19:32 Speaker 1 you a message, it doesn't mean because He hates you, it means because He loves you. It only means that, uh, you are-- because you're closer to Hashem, you are sensitive enough that Hashem will give you a message. Another person is wasted on maybe because they don't even recognize messages, and they won't hear it. So that's, that's one possibility. But that's when you're looking at your own self and you try to examine. The same thing is we as a collective, when things happen to the Jewish people, when things happen in Israel, when things happen. You're talking about a Holocaust, you're talking... Of course, that-- what is the message to us as people that we gotta do something about it, not just say, "Well, it just happened."

20:09 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

20:09 Speaker 1 And we're gonna say it's just like that. We gotta say, "Well, is there something to do to improve? Can we find ways to better ourselves, do something to remedy or try to change a bad decree, try to change?"

20:23 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

20:23 Speaker 1 That is our obligation. On the other hand, if you see another person having a problem, it's not your place to say, "Well, the guy's having a problem. He must have done something wrong," you know. Or, or the Jewish people had a Holocaust because they did something wrong. That's-

20:41 Speaker 2 He deserves it.

20:42 Speaker 1 Absolutely, he deserves it. That's absolutely-- No, no, you can't. You're not allowed to. That, that's a terrible-

20:48 Speaker 2 Especially if-

20:48 Speaker 1 Avera to say that

20:50 Speaker 2 ... a bad person.

20:50 Speaker 1 Yeah.

20:50 Speaker 2 There's a problem.

20:51 Speaker 1 But no, no, we're not, we, we're not-- We can't thank God. We don't know what God does, why He does what He does, and we can't pass judgment on anyone.

20:58 Speaker 2 But somebody knows.

20:58 Speaker 1 On any person, it's not our job, yeah? And it's not our-- We're all hosts.

21:02 Speaker 2 Someone who cheats, and you know they cheat, and then they get cancer.

21:06 Speaker 1 Well, and usually we don't see the direct correlation.

21:10 Speaker 2 Right.

21:10 Speaker 1 You know, in the time that the temple was standing in the Beis Hamikdash, there were miracles more open. People can see. Part of being in exile, part of being outside of, is, is exactly that, is precisely this, that we don't see the connection. We don't see. We have-- It's, it's like, it is like a dream in which conflicting, you know, realities can coexist together in a dream which don't make really rational sense when you're up. So a person who's rational is looking at the world, and he says, "Well, I don't understand it." Now, what you're saying is if you can see directly a person who's cheating gets sick, that would be a different story. But, uh, a, uh-- We don't, we don't usually see that in most cases.

21:55 Speaker 2 Oh.

21:55 Speaker 1 In most cases.

21:56 Speaker 2 Why?

21:56 Speaker 1 Sometimes you'll see somebody who's righteous gets sick, and then you'll say, "Well, why is he getting sick?"

22:01 Speaker 2 Okay.

22:01 Speaker 1 And the answer is we don't know the ways. But-

22:03 Speaker 2 Bad things happening to good people.

22:05 Speaker 1 Yeah. But it's not-- Yeah, but the, the, the-- We, we do know that there is accountability. Hashem takes, has the accounting. It's not for us. We don't know what it is. We don't really know what is bad, what is suffering, and everything else. You know, we, we just have a very finite, a very limited look at things. So again, uh, we ask, and we pray, and we hope, and we deserve, I could say, that everything should be open on a, on a, on a good level. But if we ever do have to face challenges ourselves, we have to say to ourselves is, "Well, what is there that we can do to, to do a little bit better so that we can sort of better ourselves and hopefully get rid of those challenges?" That's, that's our obligation. Uh, the, the, the Pasuk talks about in the verses, he says that, you know, Hashem says that the punishment will come if you don't do the right thing, and that you-- Rabbe says if you think things that are just happening because nature, there's no, no such a thing. That makes God even more angry or upset if people don't get the message, don't take the message, don't take it to heart. Uh-

23:09 Speaker 2 Like Jonah.

23:10 Speaker 1 The, uh-- Like Jonah, yeah. The, uh, the-- He realized that he needs to, uh, he-

23:14 Speaker 2 Listen

23:14 Speaker 1 ... listen.

23:14 Speaker 2 Isn't that like the second verse of the Shema?

23:17 Speaker 1 Yeah.

23:18 Speaker 2 You know, if you don't listen, all these bad things are gonna happen to you.

23:21 Speaker 1 Yeah, well, uh, uh, yeah, it doesn't, uh, it doesn't talk so much about bad. It talks if you do listen, the good things are gonna happen to you.

23:27 Speaker 2 I thought the second verse-

23:28 Speaker 1 Yeah. Over there it says- Yeah.

23:31 Speaker 2 You know, but- You won't-

23:36 Speaker 1 And then the Torah adds later on, and it will stop the rain and then... But it's mainly, Torah wants to tell you the positive. If not, it says, you know, what's, what happens.

23:51 Speaker 2 I think that also is when someone dies, you know, they say Baruch dayan emes. Yeah. It seem like he-

23:57 Speaker 1 That's accepting

23:58 Speaker 2 ... that, you know-

23:59 Speaker 1 Accepting God's judgment

24:00 Speaker 2 That you're the true judge. You can be angry- Yeah ... that a loved one died or, you know, or even if they weren't old or whatever, but you accept that God had a purpose for that.

24:10 Speaker 1 Yeah. And God is the judge, and it's not that things are not just happening. You're admitting that's why. That's, that's actually another special prayer that people do at the time, you know, of the burial. There is what's called the Sidur HaDin. That is the accepting Hashem's judgment, you know. Uh, dayan emes is basically saying that whatever God just does, He's the true judge, and He knows. And we do that at the, uh, most, uh, I guess, emotional moment, you know, when we do the rendering of the garments, you know, when, when, when we do, uh, Kriyah. Uh, and we still accept, we still recognize that, uh, Hashem is... And, you know, that's-- it's a balance between, um, accepting-

24:49 Speaker 2 Right

24:49 Speaker 1 ... and praying for good, and that's it.

24:51 Speaker 2 It's, it's tough, especially if it's, you know, a parent or-

24:54 Speaker 1 Yep, absolutely

24:56 Speaker 2 ... you know, you're, you're hurting so bad, and then you go-

24:58 Speaker 1 Absolutely

24:59 Speaker 2 ... Baruch dayan emes, you know.

25:00 Speaker 1 Right. Yep, that's-- but that's the power of, um-

25:03 Speaker 2 It's hard

25:03 Speaker 1 ... that's the power of the, um, of the people. You know, I just wanna le-leave you with one more thought on this, on this subject. Um, Elie Wiesel once, um, said to the rabbi, so I heard, uh, "How could you, uh, uh, after such a devastation, how could you continue believing in God after the Holocaust?" And the Rebbe expects to-- answered him, "After such a Holocaust, who do you expect me to believe in, man?"

25:28 Speaker 2 Yeah. Right.

25:29 Speaker 1 I mean, so who, who we gonna-- So it's basically the only one we can believe is in God, because other than that, all humanity doesn't, you know, doesn't make, doesn't make sense.

25:38 Speaker 2 Right.