The Rebbe's Tefilin Campaign | Mivtza Tefilin

When we think of the Lubavitcher Rebbe's mitzvah campaigns, which have changed the face of world Jewry. Obviously, all of the campaigns have their own value strategically, in a spiritual sense, and we've spoken about that all year long. This is part of a series. By the way, if you want to see the previous classes, you can go to soulwords.org, and under the series, there's the mitzvah campaign series, and you could watch all the the back classes that we did throughout the year on the on the other mitzvah campaigns. But, uh mitzvah mivtza tefillin has a very special place. And we're going to talk about that tonight. The uniqueness of mivtza tefillin. The campaign began in the days leading up to the Six-Day War. We're talking about the spring of 1967. It was a time of great tension for Jews all over the world. Remember, we're talking about 20 years after the Holocaust. And here we are in a situation where millions of Jews are being surrounded by their mortal enemies, who are making very vocal promises to wipe Israel off the map. They're mobilizing their forces, and it is a time of fear. It is a time of confusion. And one lone voice was able to send forth a message of courage at that time. The Lubavitcher Rebbe spoke unwaveringly that Hashem will miraculously protect his people and that we have nothing to fear. And although we have nothing to fear, obviously also we for our part have to contribute. We have to help. It's a it's a partnership with Hashem. Hashem will protect us, but there are things that we can do to increase our merits and specifically in a manner that brings on divine protection. And the Rebbe spoke about specifically the mitzvah of tefillin as this way of invoking divine merit for protection. There's a verse in the Torah which tells us the role call ameiha aretz, all of the nations of the world will see ki shem Hashem, that the name of the Lord nikra alecha is called upon you. V'yaru mimcha and they will be afraid of you. What does this mean that the name of Hashem is called upon you, you the Jewish people? So, the Gemara in Brachot, the Talmud tells us that this is referring to tefillin. First, it tells us that tefillin is strength, is uzai, is Hashem's strength. And Hashem gave us his strength like like it says Hashem oiz l'amo yitein, Hashem will give his people strength. And the Gemara says, how do we know, u minayin, from whence do we know, what is our source, she had tefillin oiz heim l'Yisrael, that tefillin are this oiz, this strength. They receive because it says this verse which we read, v'ra'u kol amei ha'aretz ki shem Hashem nikra alecha, that all of the nations of the world will see that the name of Hashem is called upon you, v'yare'u mimcha, and they will be in fear of you, they will be in awe of you. The Tanna, Rabbi Eliezer Hagadol Omer, and the Tanna, Rabbi Eliezer the Great, says, eilu tefillin sheb'rosh, this is referring to the head tefillin. So, the Rebbe spoke about this in the days leading up to the Six-Day War and said, if Jewish people in the Holy Land, as well as everywhere in the entire world, will increase in putting on tefillin, this will bring about the fulfillment of this scriptural promise, that the nations of the world, meaning the non-Jewish nations, will see the Jewish people, they will perceive that the name of God is proclaimed upon the Jewish people, and they will be in awe, they will not be able to do battle. As we all know, the war broke out and at a time when the the superpower of the Soviet Union was providing military aid and armaments to the Arab world. And the United States decidedly said they remained neutral. So, the other superpower One superpower was backing the Arab countries, and the other superpower, the United States, remained neutral. And by all calculations, there was going to be I don't even want to finish the sentence. And we all know the history that not only did the Jewish people not get wiped out at that time, but the Jewish people were victorious in that war, and not only were the Jewish people victorious, but in a miraculous way. In a miraculous way. In In six days, this small nation was able to turn back all of its enemies. And then not only was there uh a military victory, but then parts of the land of Israel, including Yerushalayim Ir Hakodesh, the holy city of Jerusalem, that had been inaccessible, were now open and liberated and accessible to Jews. So, obviously, goes without saying that this time, I'm talking about May and June of 1967, was a time of incredible elation in the Jewish world. And the the the feeling that the Jewish people had, even amongst the most secular, that God had done miracles for the Jewish people, was undeniable. Now, if you if you know the history a little bit, so uh Shavuos, Shavuos is the sixth day of Sivan, was about a week after the army, the the IDF, came into Jerusalem and liberated the Old City, including the Kotel Hama'aravi, the the Western Wall of the Beis Hamikdash, the Holy Temple. On Shavuos, on the first night of Shavuos, in 770, Zalman Jaffe, who was present, he had come in from Manchester, England, he was at the meal at the Rebbe's meal, and he conveyed the news that the IDF had opened up the Kotel to all citizens, that it wasn't just now accessible by the military, but that regular citizens could also So, be be present at the wall. And that was the first time that the the wall was open after its liberation was was on Shavuos. The second day of Shavuos, second day of Yom Tov of Shavuos, at the daytime meal, there was a discussion. And in fact, it was that a Shag, the the Rebbe's brother-in-law, who mentioned that he had heard that it was confirmed by journalists that since the Rebbe started storming, since the Rebbe started making a push for tefillin, that we should put tefillin on, put tefillin on others, and everyone should be encouraged to put on tefillin, that 100,000 Jews had put on tefillin during that push. We're talking about in the matter of a month. So, the Rebbe Shag said, "I heard it's 100,000." And the Rebbe reacted and said, "Only 100,000?" So, clearly, the Rebbe's vision was much, much bigger than just 100,000 in a month. You can see already at the very beginning, although it seemed like something that was specific to a time, that was connected to the build-up to the Six-Day War and its miraculous outcome. But, it began to take on a a a more permanent uh space in the consciousness, certainly of of Lubavitcher Chassidim, and by extension then of the entire world. It wasn't something that just remained um a measure to deal with invoking spiritual protection for for the Six-Day War. Um the day after Yom Tov, Lubavitchers started putting on tefillin with strangers at the wall. Obviously, Jews were flocking to the wall. It was newly accessible. And so, Lubavitchers you have to remember, in all of the weeks leading up to the Six-Day War, Lubavitchers were putting on tefillin with anyone that they could. So, now that the wall was accessible, so the Lubavitchers started putting on tefillin with Jews at the wall. And this started immediately uh after Yom Tov, as soon as uh you know, the first day that tefillin could be put on after the the wall became accessible to the public. This went on for a couple of weeks. And it's very interesting. If I would ask you, I mean, everybody knows about the Lubavitcher tefillin stand at the Kotel. So, if I were to ask you, who set that up? Who established the tefillin stand at the Kotel? So, you want to know the answer? I told you, the the Lubavitchers spontaneously were putting tefillin on people at the wall right after Shavuot, the first possible day that they could at the wall. After a couple of weeks, they received a telegram from Rabbi Chadakov, the Rebbe's chief secretary, saying that the Rebbe would like them to make it official and to make a stand. It was It was spontaneous before. It was like an ad hoc type of thing. They would just bring their tefillin and put tefillin on with people there. The Rebbe said, "You should set up a stand there." And the Rebbe gave very specific uh instructions in this telegram. The Rebbe said that they should have Shema Yisrael cards they should give out. The Rebbe said they should have tefillin for sale there for an affordable price. And uh it was it was the Rebbe's instruction that there should be this what has become this iconic presence, the the Chabad tefillin booth at the wall. Now, a- a- as we're saying, the the the campaign started off seemingly as a as a a reaction to what was happening as far as as as the war. But then it became clear that the Rebbe wanted to extend it and and to keep it going. So, in addition to uh to continuing to talk about the tefillin campaign repeatedly even after the Six-Day War, uh there was a sicha about 6 months after the war, Yud Tes Kislev Tavshin Chof Ches. Okay, we're talking about the winter following the Six-Day War. And at this fabrengen, Yud Tes Kislev is the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus, it was always a day of a big fabrengen. So, at this at this fabrengen, at this gathering, the Rebbe spoke more about the importance of continuing Mivtza Tefillin, the tefillin campaign. So, the Rebbe asked, seemingly it was something that we were doing in in in connection to the war, "Why are we continuing it?" So, the Rebbe said two answers. One answer, the Rebbe said, "Unfortunately, not to scare anyone." And when the Rebbe said not to scare anyone, obviously, as I mentioned before, the Rebbe's entire um the the the Rebbe's entire message in the days leading up to the Six-Day War was was the most calming and most encouraging in the entire Jewish world. So, the Rebbe was always giving uh a message of strength. But, at this particular forbrengen, the the Rebbe mentioned and said, "Not to to scare anyone, but the threats that we miraculously were delivered from, it's not like they vanished." Meaning to say, our enemies, if they could, they would still try again. So, you should understand that thank God we we were miraculously saved, but um it's not like the danger has completely passed. We need to continue to invoke this merit and and specifically the the merit that fillin brings of the nations seeing the Jewish people, knowing that the name of God is called upon them, and and and fearing them, so that they shouldn't want to attack us. They shouldn't have the the the chutzpah to attack. So, that was one answer the Rebbe said. That's one reason why we have to continue the campaign. A second reason the Rebbe said, very interesting, the Rebbe said that at the time of the Holocaust, and this is this is a it's it's a difficult thing to to hear and and to think about. The Rebbe said that the Jewish world's reaction to the Holocaust was it left it left much to be desired. And it seems the Rebbe is speaking both materially, as far as efforts made to to save Jews from Europe, but also spiritually that it didn't create a huge wave of teshuvah of Jews returning to Judaism. And the Rebbe pointed out in contrast that we saw that in the days leading up to the Six-Day War, there was what the Rebbe called a his'orerus. His'orerus means an arousal. That the entire Jewish world, even very secular people were in a state of spiritual arousal. And they were great they had greater sensitivity and a greater willingness to to do Jewish things and to and to and to be openly Jewish. And even those who were even secular people wanted to do it in a spiritual way, which was evidenced primarily by the incredible success and the the numbers uh involved in the film campaign. So, the Rebbe said actually and and and the Rebbe tied this in to uh verses from the prophets that we entered a new era. The lack of response in the time of the Holocaust, that was one era. Now we've entered a new era where people are receptive. People are open. And since and and and we see the evidence of it because of the incredible response that people had to the film campaign. And being that we're in such an era we have to use it out. We have to capitalize upon it. And we have to keep on pushing. People are open, they're receptive. So, it's not a time to stop just cuz the war is over. In fact, to the contrary, we have to continue to build, to push, to uh to do more and more in this area. Now, the Rebbe mentioned certain criticisms that people had. I don't want to pretend that the tefillin camp- campaign was without its detractors. To the contrary, there were people who attacked the tefillin campaign. In fact, I mentioned uh earlier that uh on the second day of Shavuos, at the meal, that the Roshag had told the Rebbe that 100,000 people had put on tefillin because of the campaign. The Rebbe said, "Only 100,000?" At that same meal, one of the people at the meal mentioned No, the Rebbe mentioned to those who were sitting at the meal that um the Rebbe had received a letter from someone challenging the validity of the approach of using the mitzvah of tefillin to invoke divine protection. And then one of the people at the meal said, "What a chutzpah." And the Rebbe actually said, "No, it's not a chutzpah. It's a valid question, and the letter was written respectfully, and I will address it." So, the the There were different detractors, but this particular letter that came in, that the Rebbe spoke about on Shavuos, that the Rebbe said had a valid point, and I will deal with it. What was the valid point? The letter brought up a halacha in the Rambam, where the Rambam says not to use a mezuzah like an amulet. What's an amulet? You know, like uh a good luck charm. A lucky charm. A rabbit's foot, you know. So, uh that's a pagan practice. So, the Rambam says, "Don't If a person uses a mezuzah like a Havdalah, like a lucky rabbit's foot, then this is a misappropriation of of the mitzvah. You're not allowed to do that." So, somebody wrote to the Rebbe and said, "Basically, isn't this the same thing? You're saying that the tefillin will keep you safe. The tefillin is like your you know, your your amulet, your you know, good luck charm." So, uh the Rebbe's response was also from the Rambam. And it's interesting, you know, it's hashgacha pratit because um we've been doing these series of classes on the mitzvot all year, and I'm not sure why we scheduled different mitzvot at different times, especially mitzvah tefillin, which was the first of the mitzvot, why we why we're doing it towards the end of of our series. But, here's a little hashgacha pratit. This The Rebbe's answer to this question was in yesterday's Rambam for those who are learning three prakim every day. So, it was in yesterday's Rambam. Um The Rambam in in Hilchot Avodah Zarah, the laws of idol worship, mentions that um a person should not whisper uh Torah verses as like an incantation, like uh like a like a lucky spell, you know, like a magic spell. That's like a misuse of of Torah. However, if they do use Torah or mitzvot as a way of invoking zechut, merit, and that merit should be for their protection, then it's permissible. So, the Rebbe said, "Look, we're not saying that the tefillin are an amulet or a lucky charm. What we're saying is the tefillin are a mitzvah. And when you do the the it brings a it brings upon well, the person doing the mitzvah, but really by extension because all Jews are guarantors for each other, call you so Ravens all is there or Ravens all buzzer according to different uh versions, but because of guarantor-ship, so the mitzvah has a merit, a schluss, which it brings upon the one who does it and and and actually upon all Jewish people, and that merit can serve to provide protection. So, it's all in the intent. If you're doing it as a lucky charm, obviously that's a misappropriation of a mitzvah. But, to do it specifically to have a merit and that that merit should stand us in good stead and provide protection, that the Rambam explicitly says is permissible. And uh and furthermore, in uh in Hilchos Teshuvah, which I think we're starting Hilchos Teshuvah today. I believe we finished Hilchos Avodah Zarah yesterday. We're going to Hilchos Teshuvah. So, in Hilchos Teshuvah not in today's Rambam, but in a in a few more days, so it says over there something that the Rebbe says in in this reply not only makes it okay, but makes it um an obligation to put on tefillin even if you're only doing it for protection. What does it say in in in the Rambam Hilchos Teshuvah in Perek Yud? Uh Halacha Hey, chapter 10, fifth Halacha. It says the well-known dictum of our sages, but the Rambam codifies it as a ruling in Halacha that even if you do mitzvahs not for their own sake, you should do them not for their own sake, and you'll come to do them for their own sake. In other words, even if you put on tefillin because of the divine protection that it affords, not only is it okay, but you are obligated you should you should put on tefillin even for that reason. So that was the Rebbe's response to those criticisms. There but there were there were other criti- criticisms as well. Um and and we'll talk about those. We mentioned the fabrengen of Yud Tes Kislev taf shin kuf ches, winter of '68. Not sure if it was secular secular year '68 yet or if it was still the end of '67, but it was you know, like I said, half a year after the Six-Day War. So the Rebbe addressed other um criticisms about the tefillin campaign. And and it's a it's a complex argument and counterargument, but I'll simplify the the main crux of the of the argument against Mivtza Tefillin. The Rebbe said that the criticism is people are saying well, what's the point if somebody is going to be approached at a train stop or uh on a street corner or in a store and they're going to be asked, "Excuse me, sir, are you Jewish? Would like to put on tefillin." Okay, so they put on tefillin. Big deal. Like what's what's the the value in that? It's not like you're making them religious. It's not like you have any way to follow through. Um not like they know necessarily even what they're doing. And then maybe even there are certain arguments that, you know, that that in the state that they're in they're not ready yet to to put on tefillin. So the Rebbe addressed all of these concerns. And I'll And I'll give you the crux of the counterargument. The way the Rebbe explained it. Um First of all, again quoting the Rambam. the The Rambam tells us that a person should always view the entire world the whole universe as equally balanced between sin and merit. And that every mitzvah whatever it may be may be the one that can tip the scales for the entire world in the in the favor of of judgment and salvation for the entire world. So, the first thing is don't ever say what's the point of a one-time mitzvah because even a one-time mitzvah can be the one that tips the scales and bring salvation to the entire world. That's first of all. Second of all who's begrudging anyone if they want to follow up and uh put tefillin on with somebody repeatedly and even eventually teach them how to put tefillin on for themselves and then it won't be a one-time thing. Right? So, first of all, even if it is a one-time thing, it could be the mitzvah to bring salvation to the whole world. Second of all, who's telling you that you can't follow up? Who's telling you that you can't actually uh help this person to put on tefillin repeatedly? Okay. But then there's another idea. And the idea is that putting on tefillin with somebody in all likelihood will not be a one-time thing because the Torah itself tells us, our our sages tell us that the nature of a mitzvah is that it brings a momentum with it. That mitzvah, to quote the wording of our sages, mitzvah geyrares mitzvah, that one mitzvah brings in its wake another mitzvah. So, by putting on filling with somebody, it's not just that they're going to put on filling. It's going It's going to lead to a greater spiritual sensitivity, which will which will in turn lead to the performance of still other mitzvahs and initiate a virtuous circle where the person will just continue to do more and more and more. But then there's another answer. Another answer is let's go back to the original premise of the argument that it's only going to be a one-time thing. It's only going to It's only going to happen once. Okay, fine. Let's talk about Let's pretend in theory, for the sake of argument, that it only happened once. There's a Gemara Rosh Hashanah, daf yomi zayin amud aleph, that says there's a category called poshei Yisrael begufan. Jews who rebel with their bodies. And it's a very harsh category to be placed in. I don't even want to describe what it says about being in this category. And the Gemara says, "What is this category? I mean, what constitutes someone who is in the category of poshei Yisrael begufan?" Amarav says Rav, the Amora Rav, k'kafta d'lo monach tefillin. K'kafta means a skull d'lo monach upon which was not laid or who did not put upon himself tefillin. That means a person who never put on tefillin. He never did it. Now, if he ever did it, even once, then he's not karkafta de lei manach. He's done it, even if he did it once. What does that mean? That means, of course, we want this to be a repeated thing. Of course, we believe in mitzvah goreret mitzvah, and it probably will become a repeated thing. But even for the sake of argument, if it wouldn't be anything more than a one-time thing, that one time is enough to bring the person out of this terrible category called karkafta de lei manach and bring them into someone who has put on tefillin. Okay, only once, but that doesn't matter. They've put on tefillin, and now they're no longer in that terrible category. So, wouldn't you do that for somebody? You wouldn't you attempt to bring them out of that category? If all it would take for you is is a little, you know, couple of minutes of effort? To go up to a stranger, "Excuse me, sir, are you Jewish? You'd like to put on tefillin?" The whole thing is 90 seconds, it's over, and you're bringing them out of this this this category. But there's another argument. Tell you one more argument. And that is the mitzvah of tochechah, of rebuke. What does rebuke mean? Rebuke doesn't mean to harass somebody for not doing mitzvahs. Rebuke means to help somebody to do the right thing. And if they don't know the right thing, you go tell them about the right thing. So, we know by experience, that I've been saying this 6 months after the tefillin campaign has already been been initiated, we know from experience that when people are approached to put on tefillin, most do. So, since we know you're not going to be able to tell me, "Ah, they won't even listen." But, we know that most people do listen. So, you, my friend, have a mitzvah of tochacha, of true rebuke, which means that if you know that there's a possibility that going up to a Jewish stranger and asking, "Would you like to put on tefillin?" may result in them saying, "Okay, what the heck, why not?" Then, you are obligated to do it. So, it's not just a question of permissibility, is it okay to do it? You, as an individual, are obligated to go do it. And, you know, this is really if I can editorialize for a moment, I I feel like this is really a culture war that the Rebbe won. And, that is shifting the mentality of tefillin from a personal religious observance to a an act of being a good neighbor. What do I mean? I mean, once upon a time, a religious Jew puts on tefillin, and after he's finished putting on tefillin, he puts his tefillin away, and he doesn't touch them again till the next day. Cuz he put on tefillin once a day, and that's it. After you put on you put on you take you finish davening Shacharis, finish the morning prayer, you put your tefillin back in the bag, and you're done. And, you don't think about tefillin again until the next morning when it's time to put them on again. Why? Because tefillin is something that that I have a personal obligation to do. So, once I've done it, I've discharged my obligation. Okay, I don't think about I don't think about tefillin again that day. The Rebbe really changed that mentality that tefillin is something that we think about until shkiah. Until the until the moment of sunset when we're no longer supposed to put on tefillin, a a Jew thinks about tefillin. Why? Because yeah, I know I put on filling. I put on filling, but I'm going to meet Jews today. And what if they didn't put on filling? So, we we don't put our filling away until shkia, until the last moment before sunset. And that means like uh Maisha Feller always says don't leave home without it. I don't know if people get that reference cuz there used to be a big advertising campaign in the '70s and the '80s from American Express. They used to say, "American Express, don't leave home without it." So, Maisha Feller always said, he still says, I don't know if people get the original reference, the pop culture reference, but Maisha Feller always says, "Filling, don't leave home without it." You don't go to a business meeting, you don't go shopping, you don't take your kids to the park without bringing filling. Why would you not bring your filling? If it's if the sun is shining, it's still time for filling. Oh, but you put on filling? Yeah, but what does that have to do with the fact that you may meet a Jew who hasn't put on filling, and you're going to ask them, "Would you like to put on filling?" And the fact that you have them there makes it possible to put on filling with them. So, this attitude that filling is not just this personal uh religious ritual, it's just something that I do because of my own religious obligations, but it actually it it's part of being a good citizen in the Jewish sense. Filling is part of good Jewish citizenship. If you don't bring your filling around with you, what kind of Jewish citizen are you? It's like you know, don't you care about others? Kol Yisrael are even zeh lazeh, like we said before, that we're all guarantors. I mentioned this two versions of it, are even zeh lazeh and are even zeh bazeh. Because there there's a double meaning for that word. It could mean a a guarantor, like a legal guarantor, cosigner on a loan. But it also can mean mixed up. Like an is a mixture of property. It becomes a co-owned property. Part part owned in partnership. So it means the Jews are all mixed up with each other. Meaning to say it's not possible for you to say, "Well, I've discharged my personal religious obligations and I'm good." But you have you put on the the that you're obligated to put on your arm and on your head. But what about the that you're obligated to help put on your friend's arm and your friend's head? So that ever really really shifted that perception to the point that um you see even a little teenager, a little you know, 13-year-old Bar Mitzvah boy it's such a beautiful thing to see. When when a Bar Mitzvah boy gets his Tefillin what is he excited about? I'm not sure what he's more excited about. The fact that he's going to start putting on Tefillin or that he has his own Tefillin now to go on and to put Tefillin on others. And I'm going to tell you a lot of boys they learned how to put on Tefillin on other people before they knew how to even put on Tefillin on themselves cuz they they started putting Tefillin on other people when they were when they were pre-Bar Mitzvah. But at the very least a Bar Mitzvah has his own Tefillin and uh and he realizes it's not just for him. You know, uh Reb Mendel Futerfas was a was a Jew who spent years in prison in Gulag cuz he was helping Jews get out of the Soviet Union. So, uh he he once said at a farbrengen that Reb Zusha Reb Zusha was one of the talmidim of the Maggid. He has a saying, in fact, it's it's in Hayom Yom in the in the in the daily thoughts that the Rebbe put together. That uh you can learn uh seven things from a thief. So, uh Reb Mendel said, "It's clear that Reb Zusha never went to prison." Why? Cuz if Reb Zusha went to prison, he would know you can learn much more than seven things from a thief. But when Reb Mendel was in prison he was Not everyone there was like a political prisoner like he was. A lot of people there were common crooks. And you know, prisoners get together and they tell their stories. So Reb Mendel used to learn like the Baal Shem Tov says, from everything you see and hear, you have to take it as a message from Hashem and that it's to teach you a lesson. So, Reb Mendel said, you know, everything that these guys would talk about, I would try to learn a lesson in how to serve Hashem. So, there was a particular guy in in the in the uh prison camp who uh he was some type of a criminal, but uh before he uh was in prison, he also had a uh a legitimate job. He had a day job. He was a deep sea diver in the Tsar's navy before the revolution. So, he was talking about uh what they would do is when a when a ship would sink so ships are worth a lot. Even just the the metal that the ship is made out of is worth a lot of money. And then if there's cargo, the cargo's worth money. So, they would get the deep deep sea divers to go and to uh pull up the sunken vessels. And they would use these big heavy ropes with hooks on the end. And that was his job. This guy This guy was in prison with with Reb Mendel. He was a deep sea diver for the Navy. He would go dive into the ocean or to the sea, and he would take these big ropes with the big hooks, and he would hook into the into the ship and pull it up, and then they would recover it. So, uh this guy told Reb Mendel, he says, "But that only works if the ship has only been submerged for like a month or less. If the ship has been submerged for too long, like more than a month, then it starts to rot. And if you hook it, and then you pull on the on the rope, a piece a piece of the ship will break off, but you won't you won't be able to lift the whole thing." So, he says, "What did we do in that case when we found uh a long sunken vessel? We had this contraption. It was sort of like a big flat mat, and it had lots and lots of little hooks hanging from it. And uh we'd basically go down underwater with this mat, and we'd cover the the sunken vessel, and then we would hook in all these little hooks, like the these hooks with with with with short ropes, and we'd hook it in all over lots of different spots all over the ship. And then we'd raise the mat, and um he said like they would pump air under the mat to like make a bubble, so it would like lift. And then these hooks with these ropes all over the ship would pull up the ship, and then even though it was a more of a decayed ship, they would be able to safely get it out of the water and recover whatever was of value in the ship. So, uh So, the man says, "You know, that's the filling campaign. How's that the filling campaign? Because uh the Jewish people have been in a in been the Jewish people have been in exile for 2,000 years. So, we're like a ship that's been sunken for a long time. And Hashem needs to pull us out of our exile. But, if you go and you take a ship that that that's that uh decayed from having been submerged that long and you try to pull it, it's going to break off. A piece of it will break off. You can't get the whole thing. So, what do you got to do? You got to send out lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of these ropes with these hooks all over the ship. Millions of little hooks that Mendel was describing. You you you you you wrap up a Jew here, you wrap up a Jew there, you wrap a Jew and all these millions of acts of filling are like these individual hooks. And then when you have that set in, you can lift up the whole vessel. You can bring the entire Jewish people out of exile. So, we see we see that you know, the Rebbe was not impressed by the 100,000 who put on filling in the month in the first month of the campaign. At this point, how many millions of filling were put on because of the Rebbe's mitzvah campaign? I don't think it's possible to even know the number at this point. But, if we can visualize, these are the millions of little hooks that are lifting up the entire Jewish people to bring us out of our exile. I think that's a that's a very powerful image. Uh uh uh I'll tell you another uh if you want to uh visualize, if you want to have a meditation in mind. Um there was once an Israeli general who was in Yechidus and asked the Rebbe, "Why is it not enough to say Shema?" "Why can't you just say Shema? Why do you have to say Shema and put on tefillin?" So the Rebbe said, "I'm surprised you as a general are asking me that." He says, "Why?" He says, uh "Do you run drills? Do soldiers have to execute drills?" He says, "Of course, that's you know, that's the whole training." The Rebbe says, "So why don't they just learn the battle plans and not run the drills?" And the general said, "Because one is an idea, the other is practice, actual deed. If you if you don't run the drills in actual deed, doesn't help." The Rebbe said, "Well, that's why. You can't just say Shema. You have to put on tefillin. You can say that God is one. But when you put on tefillin, you are actually running the drill. You are showing you you're exhibiting that God is one. You think about how many millions of Jews, because of this campaign, have been able with their bodies to proclaim God's oneness. Not just to say it, but to be it. To be a living embodiment of it. It's incredibly powerful when we think about it. So, uh oh, I want to add one more thing. Before I forget, Vov Tishrei is the Rebbe's mother's Yahrzeit. Rebbetzin Chana. So, Vov Tishrei Tav Shin Chof Ches, meaning about 4 months after the campaign began. The Rebbe said at the Farbrengen that a woman asked me, "Women need protection also. What are they supposed to do? They can't put on tefillin. And it would be hard for them to put tefillin on others. So, what are women supposed to do?" So, the Rebbe said that the answer came to me today. He said, "I was learning Mishnayos for my mother. You know, there's a Jewish custom to study Mishna according to the uh chapters which begin with the name of the of the departed." So, the Rebbe said, "I came to the letter Nun. Rebbe's mother's name is Chana, Ches Nun Hey. So, I came to the letter Nun in one of the the Mishnas under the letter Nun is a Mishna from Sanhedrin. And over there, it's talking about the Shechinah is in pain. Hashem's presence is in pain. It says that its its its head is ashamed. Its its its arm is ashamed. And what does this mean? Because Jewish people don't put on tefillin. So, the Rebbe said, "If there could be a negative thing that affects all of Klal Yisrael, even though it's only individuals who are lacking. How much more so that a positive thing can come about for all of Klal Yisrael, even though it's only individuals who do it. So, we know from the Arizal that when a man puts on tefillin, the other half of his soul, his his his wife, is also putting it on. You should take a good fight. His wife and and him are sort of two halves of a soul really halves of a body, the truth is. Um but even more than that, collectively, when Jewish men are putting on tefillin, this benefits all of Klal Yisrael, including the women. But if the women want to have a connection in a over way, in a in a in a way of of actual deed, then they should contribute money to buy tefillin for this purpose. Either to provide tefillin to somebody who is agreeing to put it on, or to provide tefillin to somebody who goes out and puts tefillin on with others. So, I want to encourage everybody that the the inspiration that we've gathered from tonight should not remain in theory. It shouldn't just be like studying battle plans. It should be in practice. It should be like running the drills. And if you're a man, you know what to do. Not enough to put on your own tefillin. It's called bring your tefillin to work day. Bring your tefillin to the park. Bring your tefillin to the store. If you're a woman, you can contribute to the tefillin campaign monetarily and have have a piece in that mitzvah. But the main point is that uh we should continue in the path that the Rebbe laid out. The Rebbe said that this is a way to shake up the hearts and the minds of the Jewish people. Tefillin has a special power, special uh special place in our in our strategy for bringing Geulah, peace, safety, harmony to the entire world, and it should be now already. Okay.