7 of Sivan - On 6.19. 1761 the Magid accepted the leadership - ז סיון תקכא המגיד ממעזריטש קיבל הנשיאות

00:00 Calendar. This is the seventh day of Sivan, um, which is the second day of the holiday of Shavuos in the year Taf Kuf Chaf Alef. As we learned earlier, um, on the sixth day of Sivan, that the first day of Shavuos, the year before in the year Taf Kuf Chaf was the passing of the Baal Shem Tov. So it took a year and a day for the, uh, Maggid of Mezritch to become Rebbe. You'll listen, very interesting, what happened in that year in between. We'll see in a minute. What date was that, this seventh day of Sivan? What year? In the year five hundred and twenty-one. Wow. That was the day that the Maggid of Mezritch, Reb Dov Ber, accepted the leadership following the Baal Shem Tov. See, it was the Baal Shem Tov, then there was Reb Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch, and then came Chabad and all the other different- Then the Alter Rebbe came. The Alter Rebbe, but it branched off to various different Hasidim. June the ninth, seventeen sixty-one. June ninth, seventeen sixty-one is the day that he became Rebbe. So here, this is what happened. After the Baal Shem Tov passed away- Baal Shem Tov was what, about forty years old when he died? No. The Baal Shem Tov was born... No, the Baal Shem was born in Taf Nun Ches, in Taf Nun Ches. Uh, so that gives him forty, uh, fifty-eight years about. Yeah, it was fifty-eight. It was like fifty-eight. Yeah, we learned about it also,

01:37 about the, uh- I followed. Yeah. Yeah, something like that. Um, so after the Baal Shem Tov passed away, his son, his only son, he had one son, his name was Reb Zvi. He was chosen to be the leader of the Hasidim and the spiritual guide of all the Hasidic community. At that point, it wasn't yet split. It wasn't various different branches. It was only one central organization. But as the year passed by, the, uh, Hasidim, or they called them the Havrei Kadisha, the holy group, the students basically, those who were interested in perpetuating Hasidism, they realized that he is weak. He's, he's just a weak person. He's not, not of the leadership quality. And, um, the Hasidim needed a very strong leader because, uh, somebody who was strong, a strong character, charismatic, and because there were too many enemies of Hasidim out there who were trying to do away with them, and they knew that they needed somebody. It caused a great deal of, uh, pain amongst the Hasidim, the students of the Baal Shem Tov, how are they going to continue? And of course, it doesn't seem like anybody would dare say, "Let's choose somebody else." He was the son of the Baal Shem Tov. W- That doesn't seem, uh, rational that anybody would go ahead and change it. So what do we do? So this was during the second day of Shavuos, following the first yahrtzeit. The yahrtzeit was on the Tav Sivan, which was the s- first day of Shavuos. So Reb

03:25 Zvi, he was sitting at the head of the table. He was wearing the holy garment of his father, the Baal Shem Tov, and the entire group of Hasidim were sitting all around. After he finished saying some of the teachings that he taught for the day, he got up and he said, "My holy father came today to me, and he told me that it was decided in the holy, uh, heavens and in the groupings above that with all their servants..." These were sort of spiritual energies that were assisting a rabbi to, uh, help him be a real rabbi. And we're talking about people that are real. You know, this is not, uh, just a means of, uh, you know, pretending. I mean, this is not imposters. We're talking about the real deals. So he says, "All my spiritual guides and all my spiritual helpers have moved from me." Uh, "That's what my father is telling me, that they've moved from me," from you, he said from his son, "and they passed to the holy and awesome rabbi." They called him Reb Ber in you, Dov Ber. They called him in Yiddish Ber in you, the son of Avraham. "And therefore, my father asked that you should present him with the leadership in the front of all of the whole group, and he should sit in your place." And he's gonna sit in my place at the head of the table, and I will take his spa-spot at the table, "and know that you will be successful.

05:12 This is what my father told me. And double of my, of my abilities will be in his spirit." And while he was saying this, after that, he got up, he turned to the Maggid, to the Reb Dov Ber, with a blessing of Mazel Tov. He removed that upper garment, he gave it over to Reb Dov Ber, and he instead put on the garment of Reb Dov Ber, and they, he sat in his place. And immediately, Reb Dov Ber sat on the head of the table, and the entire holy group, the students, they all got up on their feet to listen to the Torah that the new le-leader was saying. As soon as he was appointed to be the Maggid, the-- he appointed to be the leader There was a new energy sort of in all the Hasidic communities, and during the leadership of the Maguid, the activities of the Hasidna was doubled, and it was expanded. The entire movement, the Hasidic movement, was esp-- uh, was expanded. And actually, I believe the Rabbi Rashab commented, or one of the rabbis commented, that this act, it's brought down, I believe, in Iyyun Yum, I'm not sure where I, where I said or read it, but this act of being able to give up the leadership is greater than a lot of the acts that we find in the Talmud. For example, we find that there were great rabbis that refused to become leaders even though they were worthy. While other great rabbis were around, they said,

07:01 "Well, while the-- this person is leading the yeshiva, I'm not worthy to be a rabbi or not even worthy to be distinguished in any way." They wouldn't do any honor for themselves. So that's one level, but this is a whole different level because already to be the leader, already to have that role, and then to go totally give it up, to give it over to somebody else, that represents an ultimate level of one's humility and one's subjugation and for the cause to really do what is right. Sometimes you think about it is sometimes some of our so-called leadership would do a big favor if they would have a little bit of sense of humility and say, "Look, I'm not good for the job. Let somebody else who knows how to do it better go ahead and, and do the job." But no, that's not going to happen, uh, because they-- everybody thinks that they're the biggest big shot and they're the, they're the only ones that know how to do so. And I think that this story speaks a lot of, uh, the truth, you know, what it means to be a real leader. As we've spoken many, many occasions that leadership is not glory or it's not honor, it is actually a service that you are a servant of the people as we find in the Tanakh and in the Talmud discussing that this is not leadership that I'm giving you, but rather I'm giving you service, hard work to make sure that these

08:37 people took it serious, and they took it serious, and they worked accordingly. Just qualities that we need in a very-- in different people, in different roles. When you have a leader, you need that leader to be a very strong, a forceful so he can do good for the movement. It doesn't mean if somebody who is a great rabbi and very knowledgeable isn't necessarily a great leader. Because if he knows a lot of Torah, but he doesn't know how to communicate, he doesn't know how to lead, he doesn't know how to organize, he doesn't know how to motivate others to do so he may be a nice person. It's a different skill set. It's a whole different skill set. And you see it's interesting that you bring that up. You see that by the children of Yaakov, you see a very similar situation. So we had Reuven. Like, Reuven was the oldest one, but he at the end gets chastised for making some mistakes over there. And on the other hand, his younger brother Judah, Yehuda, he becomes the king. Eventually, we know, uh, David comes from Yehuda, the King Mashiach comes from Yehuda. Yehuda is the kingdom. And why was it taken away from Yehuda? Now, Yehuda made a lot of mistakes himself. Um, Yehuda was the one that advocated to sell Joseph. He's the one that said, uh, "Why are we gonna kill our brother? At least we might make some money on the deal." And they went and they sold him, and they

10:16 bought themselves each one a pair of shoes, it says. The money they brought back, they got themselves a pair of shoes for selling their brother. So who was the one that gave the advice to sell the brother? It was Yehuda. On the other hand, Reuven, he had in mind- To come back ... to br-- to bring him back. The Torah says, he says, "Put him in the pit." And he figures when the brothers leave, he's gonna go and pull him out. Now, Reuven gets chastised. He loses his birthright, sort of his firstborn rights because he was the oldest son. He loses it. Why? Because, you know, uh, he wasn't there at the time, and Yehuda, who offered to sell him, is the one that gets the-- to be the king. So Reuven may have been a very fine guy. Where was Reuven when they sold him? How come he allowed it? He says he was praying. He went to praying. Why, why was he praying? He did something, a mistake before. He moved his father's bed because after his, uh, favorite wife, Rachel, died, he puts his bed, Jacob, in the tent of Rachel's, of Rachel's maidservant versus the other wife, which was Leah, which was Rachel's sister, and he was upset for his mother's honor. R-Reuven was the first son of Leah, the oldest son, so he went and he arranged-- rearranged the bedroom. He wasn't supposed to do that. That wasn't his, his place to get involved. So he was doing Teshuvah, he

11:46 was repenting. So he was using-- The Rashi says he was using his sackcloths and prayer to repent. So when the brothers are going to sell Joseph, he's not there. What is he doing? He's in there praying. So the point here is, you know, Reuven may be praying, that's an excellent... You know, it's an excellent quality. It's a requirement for everything. It's a great quality. But you know what? You gotta be there in the right time. In other words, where are you when you're-- there's something. Now, Yehuda, maybe he wanted to, but at the end of the day, he saved Joseph because they were gonna kill him over there. He sold him. He orchestrated eventually, he brought out. So he may have not always had the intention, but he showed leadership. He's leadership, they listened to him. And the reason that the brothers complained later to Judah was for that same reason. They said, "Well, you told us to sell him. If you would have told us to bring him back, we would have. We listened to you." He had the leadership quality. So it's not always the smartest or the brightest or the best which fits the job. So that's why. And that's a very important thing also. You know, people will complain or they say, "Oh, everybody should do the same thing. Why do women not have to do these mitzvahs? Why do men have to do these mitzvahs? Why are Jews obligated? Why are Gentiles not obligated? Why, why, why?" But we're all

13:09 part, you know, it's like in the army. There's different jobs. Everybody has to do what they're doing. It doesn't mean that one is smarter or one is better. It's like, uh, even in the body itself. The body needs all organs. It needs all part. Any part missing, anybody not functioning, doing, or for that matter, unfortunately, if you have extras in the body, that is also no good. So the body needs to be-- every part needs to do what it needs to do. A lot of the parts, how do we know they need to do is nature tells us because God created people differently. But other parts we know from the Torah because the Torah tells us what the Jew's job is, what the Gentile's job. We have to do the, the mitzvahs, the six hundred and thirty mitzvahs. The Noahide laws are reserved for all mankind. So everybody has their set of rules and guidelines by what they have to go. But doesn't mean that one needs to be dominant over the other or that... But all what it means is we all have to do what our purpose of creation is, and if we do what we are supposed to do, then we're a healthy body, then we're a healthy people. If we start mixing up things and start doing it the wrong way, then it doesn't work. So you're right. This story over here, this rabbi who, Rav Tzvai, the son of the Baal Shem Tov, must have been a, a, a, a

14:36 very special exemplary person as the Rebbe points out that to give up the leadership and everything else, but yet he wasn't the leader. But I would also say this, for whatever reason is he needed to lead for that year because that was meant to be. He was a son, and he needed to lead that. It didn't go straight over. He led for a year, and then later on, he went to the BeIS Din.