Faith and EMOTIONAL stability | Letter #30 of 30 Letters in 30 Days

Okay, we're good? You said we're good? Okay, thank you. All right, we're live. Okay. Baruch Hashem. Um This is our first event in the new SoulWords House. Literally, we um you might you may even hear some Oh, there's our contractor. Shaya Cohen standing in the back. And he uh you want you can get it you can you can come up here. You want to You want to make a little You want to have your moment of fame? Just Just Get on camera for a second. Just Right here. Get next to me. Get next to me. Okay, you can do a little advertiser Well, Universal Contracting. Go ahead. Say your thing. I think just look at the place. Okay, you're right. Yeah, the work speaks for itself. And my wife And your wife, Maria, was the designer who made everything perfect. Yeah. So, they were they were the dynamic duo duo. We had a a uh a contractor and interior designer who would stay up and sit sit over tea and talk about nothing but my project. So, that was to my advantage. Baruch Hashem, and it worked out beautifully. Um Yisrael, can you get a wide shot and try to show a little bit of the house? A little bit. You don't really see Maybe pan it around a little bit. People get some type of a feel. Okay. Now, we want to mention that Oh, yeah, there you go. Yeah. Okay. All right. You're getting a little bit of a Does the glass reflect? Yeah, the glass reflects. We'll keep that in mind. Not to shoot in front of that. Okay. So, this is the main event space. Downstairs in the basement is our offices, SoulWords offices, and state-of-the-art podcast facility. Yeah, a fully dedicated video production facility instead of the current Solowords studios which is in half of my garage in Cedarhurst. Which you don't realize when you watch it on video, but that's what it is. Um and God willing that'll be uh up and running soon as well. Um you want to hear something very cool about the house is that Shaya can attest to that we custom made the bookshelf, right Shaya? Are you still here or did you run away? We've custom made the bookshelf, right? That's custom. That's not a Kia. Custom. Custom design. In fact, it was only installed yesterday, right? It still needs touch-ups. It still needs some touch-ups. And when we finished installing it, I took a set of Igros, a com- perfect fit. Like like the Luh Ice in the Arin. Exactly exactly a fit. You see, except I took out uh Chelek Dalet cuz that's what we're going to be learning from tonight, but exactly the complete set of Igros. Yeah, yeah, you can okay. You got it? Yeah? All right. All right. Here's some. Okay, that's a photographer that's floating over there. Um so Baruch Hashem, a perfect Get the set of Igros there, okay? Um a perfect set of Igros fitting on the on the shelf of the custom made bookshelf. That was not planned. That was Hashgacha Protis. Now, you may have seen a girl, a young lady handing out raffle tickets as you entered. And you were wondering, why am I getting a raffle ticket? We are raffling off Does everyone know the raffle tonight? Yes? A set of Igros, a complete set of Igros. Please um make sure you have space in your car. It is two boxes. It's a full set of uh 30 volumes. And we'll raffle it off. So, everyone who's here in attendance By the way, Yisrael, could you get the white chest so they can see this cool this cool thing here cuz this is part of the fun. Can you see it? Oh, you you can see it. Okay. So, what? I'm just mixing it. I'm just mixing it. Okay, I'm just mixing it. So, if you are here tonight, you should have gotten a raffle ticket. If you did not get one, please ask one. But, if you did get one and you asked for one, then you're actually getting two and as you could figure out for yourself, that would not be fair. So, everyone one man, one vote. Everybody is entered or one woman, one raffle ticket. Everyone is entered into the raffle one time. In the end, we will draw to see who uh chosen to receive a complete set of Okay. Um if you've been watching every night online, you probably know by now you're habituated to the ritual that about this time, what do I usually do? What? Yeah, it's a very good. Very good. So, what I did this time is I got the real I just decided cuz it's real, there's real people here. I know there are people watching on YouTube. For the people watching on YouTube, it's no different. Your experience is essentially the same as if I were in my home studio. But, for the people who are here, the 40, 50 people who are here on on an Pesach a group of women at a Pesach which by the way, that is the definition of the Kadosha. Um we have a real pushka, the real So, we're doing the fake. I can also do the Should I do it cuz it's part of our ritual now? Okay. Um I'm going to have to remember to turn on the sound. Okay. And it's asking me to update the app, which I don't want to do right now. See that? That's the See that? Okay. And I'll do it right into the mic. Oh, it wasn't loud enough. You heard it, but I want to turn up the Why is it so quiet? Oh, here. Okay. But That's real. Okay. And Let's I hope I have small bills. I didn't I wasn't planning ahead. It's a hundred. Don't look at it. Okay. All right. At any rate, okay. Um So, we're going to learn the 30th letter, 30 letters in 30 days. I made a bracha earlier. You know who I learned that from? To say I made a bracha earlier? Josh Gordon, alav hashalom. He always says I made a bracha earlier. Yeah, so It's good enough. Yeah, Rabbi Gordon. Okay. Um we're learning the 30th letter, and we have because this is real physical space, again, for the people watching online, it's really not too different for you than uh any other night. But for the people who made it here in person, look at this. We have This is din of bitul d'eino. We have physical paper, actual paper. Okay? And by the way, the PDFs, we want to thank uh Racheli Edelcup from Pedal Marketing who was involved in getting together the PDFs for us day after day after day after day. Any errors in the PDFs are actually my fault, not her fault. Uh she just used what I gave her and made it uh appear on my phone ready to upload in time every single night for 30 nights. Uh there are a lot of errors here. I just should mention Levi Shemtov told me not to mention him, so I'm not going to. But about 3 days before uh Yud Aleph Adar we were talking about the fact that we did 30 letters in 30 days for 2 years. We did We did it We did it 3 years ago and 2 years ago, and then we didn't do it a year ago cuz it's just too much work. And it was 3 days before what would be 30 days before Yud Aleph Nissan. And we were talking about should we try to do it again this year? And we just didn't have the support, we didn't have the staff that we needed. And I said, "You know what? Let's see what Chat GPT can do or what Grok can do." And I want to tell you something. I I mean, there's no shame in it. I'm going to admit it to you. Um there's a lot of errors in these PDFs. The The nikudis have like tonight's a Yiddish letter. It The It's so much worse with nikudis than without, but okay. But we would not have been able to pull this off without um artificial intelligence. Like We couldn't do this last year. A year ago we couldn't do this. We literally we did not have the tools. The tools did not exist. So, that's the Yad Avot Tein as well. A year ago the the physical tools, the technology did not exist to be able to pull this off with the small team that we had. And then Baruch Hashem, um so in addition to Levi and I, also we were joined by Zalman Bendet who was incredibly instrumental in choosing letters, preparing and refining the English translation, and just being a sounding board, and uh really rounding off our team in a really special way a way as well as um another Levi Shemtov, not the original Levi Shemtov, but by the way, in my phone, I think I have 10 Levi Shemtovs, by the way. They're the most common name in my my in my phone. But uh Levi ben Casriel from West Bloomfield was also part of the team and um an incredible asset to the to the project. Okay. Um we're going to learn the letter tonight. Let's do it like we normally do. Um like I told you the the nikudus are terrible, so I'm going to I'm reading from an actual igrus. First of all, for the, you know, did I put up the name element of it, the physicality, a nice hefty safer, and the authenticity. Um but also because I'm going to get messed up if I read from uh these nikudus here. Okay. So, baruch Hashem, this is chelek daled of uh the igrus. Letter taf taf kuf ayin zayin, that's 977. Baruch Hashem, yud aleph nisan tafshin yud aleph. Brooklyn, baruch Hashem. Okay. So, what's special about this letter? Yud aleph nisan Well, it's written to a woman, and that's correct. How do you know it's written to a woman? Brocha's first before shalom, very good. Did you learn that from our shear? Or Okay, I'm proud. All right. All right. Uh it is written to a woman. It was also I could tell so far it was written in Brooklyn. Uh it was written on what date? The Rebbe's birthday. Right. So, actually, this letter was written on yud aleph nisan on the Rebbe's birthday. And what year? Tafshin yud aleph, meaning to say, the first year of the nesius. So, the Rebbe was mekabel the nesius, the Rebbe accepted leadership, yud shvat tafshin yud aleph, the first yahrtzeit of the fifth Rebbe, the fifth Rebbe Histalkus was Yud Shvat 5700. So, this is a year later, Yud Shvat 5701. And then, um a couple of months later is the Rebbe's birthday. How old did the Rebbe turn that year? 49. 49. Yeah. The Rebbe was 48 and uh when it was Mekabel the Nisius, it was 49, turned 49. Um there was no Farbrengen that in any not that we know of, not any public Sichah or anything like that. But, the Rebbe went to the Ohel. It was a Tuesday. The Rebbe went to the Ohel and right now we are I I have this tagline. I got I'm going to try it out on you, but I I call the Soul Words House I've been playing around with this uh tagline. Uh half a block away from just a few blocks away. Do you get the reference? There's a story after Yud Shvat, a Chassid asked the Rebbe, could he go to the Ohel, meaning to the Frierdiker Rebbe's Ohel on Chol HaMoed? Uh cuz you're not supposed to go to a cemetery on Chol HaMoed. So, the Rebbe said to him, "If you're asking whether or not you're allowed to visit a cemetery on Chol HaMoed, on the intermediate days of the festival, I'm afraid you already know the answer, which is we don't do that. However, if what you're asking is you would like to have Yechidus with my father-in-law just like you did right here, meaning in 770 where they were standing and talking, and the only difference is it will take place a few blocks away." A few blocks away. Meaning to say from 770 to the Ohel, just a few blocks away. And it's the same experience. You're talking to a Chassid who had Yechidus with the Frierdiker Rebbe. And the Rebbe's saying, "Same experience. It's Yechidus. It's just happening just a venue change. That's it." So, the Rebbe referred to the Ohel as a few blocks away. So, now we're a half a block away from a few blocks away. Did you see the picture when you walked in, by the way? Yes. No. Okay. Well, I don't want to like disturb the whole crowd and make your whole row stand up for you to get out and go see it, but if you want to go see it, you could go see it right now. Um there's a picture of the Rebbe at the Ohel and in the background, if you look carefully, you can see the street. No, not that picture. That pic That picture is the Rebbe in front of 770. On the other side of the wall, when you first enter the Soul Words House, the picture of the Rebbe is the Rebbe at the Ohel and in the background, you can see the corner of uh Francis Lewis Boulevard and 228th Street. Meaning you can see the corner of the of the block that we're on. Wow. So, it just reminds you we are really we are in the epicenter, which is when people ask like why why is the Soul Words House at the Ohel? Why? Because I would say second only to or perhaps along with or in some respects more so than the Kosel, the Ohel is the epicenter of Jewry. You just You'll find all Jews of all walks of life at all times. Um and this is really this is a This is a focal point for the whole universe. So, we're here. We're in the in the hub of it. At any rate, so it was Tuesday, Yud Alef Nissan, the Rebbe's 49th birthday, first birthday birthday after the Rebbe officially accepted leadership, and the Rebbe went to the Ohel. And on his way to the Ohel or before the Rebbe went to the Ohel, the Rebbe transmitted a message through uh one of his secretaries, who was actually Label Groner, alav hashalom, and he came out and he said he's conveying in the name of the Rebbe that the Rebbe says that anybody who wants to devote himself without asking questions, who's ready to to be committed, should sign his name and his mother's name. Meaning to say that everyone is asking for aksov hiskashrus, which is a formal documentation or declaration that a chossid writes to a rebbe that states his intention to be mekushar, to be connected to the rebbe. And whereas people had written aksov hiskashrus already, many even before Yud Shvat, Yud Shvat Yud Aleph, the rebbe made a glass for a new aksov hiskashrus. And the bochrim immediately signed and turned in their paper with their names and their mothers' names. And we should just mention also that tonight we'll be signing upon klolly or duch, a report for all those who attended tonight, all those who are crazy enough on Erev Pesach to attend this event. So, you'll sign up, a a paper will go around. I'm not sure if it's going around or we'll have it available after uh this year, but and then afterwards we're half a block away from just a few blocks away. So, either one of us will be the shlucha to bring the pon into the oil or we can all go or it's it's right there. I mean, it's we're we're right here. Um yeah, so the rebbe said regarding this request or invitation for a new aksov hiskashrus that I believe the loshon in Yiddish was dos is a ernste zach, nisht kein gelechter. This is a serious matter, um not a joke. And then the rebbe gave a sort of disclaimer clarification, but it doesn't mean la alays hashamayima. It does not mean that you have to climb up into heaven. Meaning to say, I'm not asking anything impossible or unreasonable, but I am making a serious uh request that you devote yourself to whatever it is that's going to be asked of you. So, and the Rebbe repeated it after uh the Rebbe received the names to remind the the bachrum that this this is a serious matter. Okay. So, that happened on the day that this letter was written. This letter that we're learning tonight. Brocha v'sholom, as you said, it's written to a woman. What do I know about this woman? I read the letter already. Um I know she has a family. I know she's concerned about one of her family members, it seems. I don't know a whole lot more about her. I chabakumen either brief. I received your letter. Ainer fun chof dalid ader base under tzveiter on a datum. One letter was from chof dalid ader base, and the other one was undated. Light eyer bakasha hobech zeindik ofen zien fun kveit kedushas mayrev chomi admer zecher tzadik vekodesh lebrocha lechayo oilam habo nishmaso begins emes emes zchus yagen aleinu maske geven letova lechol hamitztoich. In accordance with your request, when I was at the Fiddler Rebbe's oil, I mentioned doesn't say you, but I mentioned all those who are in need, meaning the names that she submitted in her in her letter. Bitte schreibt mir sein mutters namen. Please write to me his mother's name. Who is he? I don't know. It seems this is somebody who has a health issue. It seems from the context. We seem to also be a relative. I'm going to use my Sherlock Holmes power of deduction and I'm going to rule out that it is not her son. How did I figure that out? She would know her name. Cuz the Rebbe said, "Please write this person's uh mother's name." It's a It's a male person. Zain means his. So, p- please write his mother's name. So, I maybe it's her husband. Could be her husband. Sometimes my answer is delayed. It just means that the answer is late. But the request I fulfill at the first possible opportunity. The writing, however, putting it into writing, that is subject to the limitations of my time. It's an incredible thing the Rebbe just said, which is that if you write to me, you should know even if the answer is delayed, I took care of it. I immediately take care of it. I might not write back immediately, but I take care of it immediately, which is an incredible concept. And the Rebbe didn't say for you. The Rebbe just said that in general, this is this is how this is how it works over here. And by the way, I was curious when I saw the Rebbe basically I don't know if the word is apologize, but addressed the fact that his response was late or delayed, how late was it? Can you do the math? Two and a half weeks, I think. It was nothing. Her letter was Chof Dalet Adar Bais and the Rebbe was writing back on Yud Alef Nissan. So you're talking about two two and a half weeks. It's not a big delay. And by the way, she wrote it Daled Adar. It doesn't mean it arrived to the Rebbe that day. Okay, so it was pretty quick and the Rebbe was still addressing the fact that it wasn't as quick as maybe it could be. But the fulfillment of the request happens immediately. That's just an amazing thing. And I also want to just comment on the fact that not only does the Rebbe say that he takes care of the requests immediately, even if the answers in writing come later, but let's just contemplate the fact for a second that the Rebbe is writing this on his personal Rosh Hashanah, on a very very busy day, on on his birthday. Now, we know that a birthday is a special day. We know it from the of Yud Alef Nissan, which is the Rebbe's safer. And it says that on a birthday, it's a one-liner. I mean, it's maybe two lines in the but it's it's a it's a short like one sentence. A person should isolate A person should isolate himself, seclude himself, um and recall memories and think about his past and his life and what needs to be rectified. That's it. It's a one-liner, basically. You know that all of the entries of are taken is the Rebbe took them from the previous Rebbe's writings. Yes, correct? Everyone knows that? Um that's actually encoded in the the title of the Rebbe's writings, which is if you look at it visually, it's easier to understand it, but Yom Yom is Yud Vav Mem Yud Vav Mem, so it's Yud Yud, which is the previous Rebbe's name, and Mem Mem, which is the Rebbe's name with the vav ha chiber with the vav in between. So it's yud yud and mem mem meaning it's the Rebbe's safer but it's it's all the Friediker Rebbe's material and the Rebbe arranged it. So where did the Rebbe get this al odem l'hisboded these birthday instructions? So the Rebbe put it on Yud Aleph Nissan which is the Rebbe's birthday but it's originally from a letter of the Friediker Rebbe. From a letter. So the original letter is actually from not the Friediker Rebbe's birthday but interestingly enough like a week after the Friediker Rebbe's birthday and the year is taf shin. You know what taf shin is? Aside from my name. Yeah, shin taf is my name my first name. So I was like safer is my middle taf shin. Taf shin is the year that the Friediker Rebbe came to America tes adar taf shin. So the Friediker Rebbe's first American birthday is first birthday after bringing Lubavitch to the real yeridas hatzi hatzi kadur hatachton in the lower hemisphere. Um So the Friediker Rebbe writes to someone and says I received your letter it was a week after the Friediker Rebbe's birthday Yud Beis Tammuz. I received your letter on my birthday and I was looking at your letter on my birthday and I was remembering when you came to Lubavitch. Apparently this person that the Friediker Rebbe was writing to had learned he was a tamim he learned in Lubavitch he had some connection to the Rebbe Rashab and so the Friediker Rebbe is saying and I remember when you came to Lubavitch and I remember your your connection with my father and it's interesting so the Friediker Rebbe says this this loshon of I was sitting and doing my hisbodedus al odem l'hisboded it's a time to be alone and I was reading your letter and I was remembering when we met and I was remembering our old um experiences in Lubavitch. And it's So, that's where the original line is from. It's from that letter of the Frierdiker Rebbe to this Hasid. And then the Rebbe takes it out and puts it as the entry for his birthday Hayom Yom. But, what's interesting to me is there's a little bit of a contradiction here, which is lehisboyded I don't want to translate it as to isolate cuz I think that has inherited inherently negative connotations, but to seclude oneself. Lehisboyded means to be by yourself. And what is the Frierdiker Rebbe doing? He's reading someone's letter and thinking about that person. And like, hold on, is this introspection or is this think about your friends? And what is the Rebbe doing here in this letter that we're learning right now? It's Yud Aleph Nissan, it's the day of the Rebbe's hisboydedus. And he's answering mail. By the way, this is not the only letter in the Igros I mean, there may be other letters the Rebbe wrote also on Yud Aleph Nissan, Tav-Shin-Yud-Aleph, but there's at least I I count I think I counted four or five. So, I'll tell you something interesting. You may have heard that Hey guys, it's a small house we can hear you over here in the main room. Okay. If you go inside the kitchen and close the door, we probably won't be able to hear you. Okay. We're just learning how to use this house. It's a new experience. Okay. By the way, did everyone see this the the sign on the kitchen door? No. It says kitchen staff only. Very serious. My son Yisrael was the one who uh basically set up the kitchen and insisted on the industrial kitchen. And this is not a big eating event, but God willing, at some point we'll have a fully catered event and you'll see that he was right to put in the the heavy duty kitchen. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, selling this whole place for Pesach, by the way. JFYI. So, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, enjoy the rugelach that my daughters made cuz I'm I'm going to sell the place for Pesach. Okay. And anyway, um So, think about this. This is the Rebbe's birthday. The Rebbe says a birthday is a time to be misboded, to to seclude yourself. And yet the Rebbe is answering mail. And if you think about also, especially in the later years, how the Rebbe spent his birthday fabrengens and giving out tanyas. Like, is that seclusion or is that I mean I mean, I can tell you as a painfully introverted person, to me I would definitely count that as social interaction. That would be I would definitely say I've done my social interaction for for the month for the month, right? So, then what what's what's p'shat? Like, how do we understand this? And I'll tell you something that the the Rebbe once received a phone call from uh the president of the United States on his birthday. It was President Carter. And the Rebbe didn't take the call. And the Rebbe said And but it wasn't a slight. It wasn't the Rebbe told the secretaries to tell the president that on one's birthday hayom yom al odem lisboded, it's a time for it to be to be alone, to be by yourself. And the Rebbe would not say it as a blow off type of thing. The Rebbe meant it. It was 100% emes. Birthday's are for introspection and seclusion and being being with yourself. So, I can't talk to the president. I mean, that's like pretty much the definition of like the most important phone call, right? Who's the most important? The president. I'm sorry, but I'm not This is not a day for phone calls, not a day for communication, not a day for interaction. This is a day for self. So, why is there ever answering mail? Why is there ever And and he's following the Friediker's footsteps who says to this chossid, which is the source for the original the original source for the Hayom Yomem entry, that I was reading your mail and thinking about you on my birthday. And then the and then Boba Shaw like at the very same moment the Friediker is saying, I'll I'll do this by it. Do you not see the inherent contradiction? Are you being misbaited or not? And yet, if you understand what is a neshama klolis, a neshama klolis literally means an aggregate soul or a general soul. Means a neshama that's connected to all Jews. Or the concept of a rebbe being rosh bnei Yisroel, the head of the Jewish people. So, the Jewish people are a body, a single organism, one entity, a living being. And the rebbe like it says in perek beis of Tanya, I should ask you which perek of Tanya. You would have known, right? Like one of my Oh, I have two Tanya students here. You're in the corner. Three. So, we have three of the Five Towns Monday uh We'll put in a little uh advertisement for the Five Towns Monday Tanya shiur. What what chapter we're starting after Pesach? Chapter 18? Starting 18, yeah. Okay. Um so, like it says in chapter two of Tanya, the idea of of a rebbe is is the head and we're all parts of a body, different limbs and organs of one body. But, the rebbe is not a separate person from us. The First of all, achdus Yisroel, the oneness of the Jewish people, none of us are really separate from each other. But, uh a rebbe is an individual within whom the entire Jewish people find their true selves. One of my favorite Yechidus stories is Freddy Hager, uh Ephraim Hager, alav hashalom, when he was, I think, 23 years old, he was not from a Lubavitch background, and he came to Yechidus his first time, 3:00 in the morning Yechidus. He comes out and he says, "I was totally ill-prepared for Yechidus. I didn't understand what it was. I went in thinking that I was going to meet a great man, and I left realizing that I had just met my true self." I just met my true self, because that is his kashrus. His kashrus is when you find yourself, your true self, your Yechida, Yechidus lashon Yechida, the core essence of who you are in your relationship with the Neshamah Klalis. So, for a rebbe to be by himself, means to be with Klal Yisrael. So, for a rebbe to think about different Yidden, different Jews, different people who have reached out to them, that's that is his bittul atzmus. Now, if it's the president, that's a different matter, cuz that's that's outside of this entity called Klal Yisrael. So, then, it's a very important person, and uh you know, I'll have to talk to you some other day, cuz today is a day just to be by myself. But, if you're talking about a Yid, so, then, that's that is being by myself. So, the rebbe's answering mail to this woman, I don't know who she was. Not a famous person, probably not. Not She's not writing about what we would call earth-shattering major issues. She's writing about her personal issues. But, for the rebbe, that is his personal life. His personal life is this this Jewish woman's personal life. So, So, the Rebbe says Yeah. Even if you don't get answered right away, I take care of the requests immediately. The writing The writing part is what takes longer. You frag vegen a segulah. You ask about a segulah. How are you going to translate a segulah? How do they translate it here in the spiritual remedy. You ask about a segulah. Some people are very into segulahs. So, the Rebbe says, "You ask about a segulah. And I And I And it seems that it's for this same person that the Rebbe is asking this woman to get me his mother's name, this person that she's concerned for. So, the Rebbe says, "You ask about a segulah. Um is bechlal nit mein derech zu geben segulahs. It's not my thing to give segulahs. But, at This is not a segulah, but I'll tell you something you can do which will be helpful is like in any Jewish house, make sure to check the mezuzahs. Well, we just got the mezuzahs up here like 2 hours before you came. Baruch Hashem. Okay. Um to make sure that the mezuzahs are checked and also that the person that we're talking about here, the person who's having this issue, that he should say Tehillim every day. Okay? You are certainly correct what you write in the letter. That we have endured already enough pain. And it's already high time that everyone should just be helped already in everything that is important to them, everything they need. Especially good health. And I hope that you'll be able to report good news in this matter. The woman expressed some type of a a sentiment of, "You know what? We've had enough problems already. It's time to put the problems behind us. We should have good things, especially health." And and the Rebbe is saying, "You know, I agree with you. Now, it could be, I don't know how this woman meant it, that she was talking about her family. Or she could have meant Klaal Yisrael. But in the Rebbe's answer, the Rebbe for sure means Klaal Yisrael, meaning collectively, we, the Jewish people, have had enough problems. We don't need any more problems. Time to move on. And only good times from now on. Now, the comment that I want to make here. Although I'm not 100% sure that it's appropriate to this situation. Rebbe says, "I want to make a comment. I don't know for sure that it is relevant here to the present conversation, but I want to share it with you." Oyster and higher than him. A person's feeling of certainty, of security. In most cases depends on something that is beyond him and higher than him. More simply stated. A person's feeling of security is based on let me say it in general terms, on their dependence on something greater than them, beyond them. But the Rebbe spells it out, on their feeling of emunah and bitachon in Hashem who is the creator of the macrocosm and the microcosm. Let's unpack that for a second. It's a very interesting phrase. So a person's security, meaning their feeling of being all right. Largely depends on something beyond them. And specifically what are we talking we're talking about their emunah and bitachon in he is the creator of the universe. Means Hashem as he is the creator of your personal private universe. Which is a very interesting concept that you know there's a an idea that a person is a small world and the world is a big person. So when we think of Hashem is the Olam, the creator of the world, we mean that yes in the awe-inspiring sense of the one who moves the planets and all that grandiose stuff, but we also mean the creator of our personal universe, your life, your life story, all the things that you've been through. Like your your your your autobiography. That didn't just happen. Hashem is the creator of that world that is your that is your story. So, a person's feeling of security And and let me speak about emotional security here. Your feeling of being all right, being okay is dependent on your feelings of faith and trust in Hashem as the creator of the universe at large and also as the creator of your specific personal story. Wow. I had a really good Yiddish there. After the upheavals This is 1951. So, we're talking about World War II and the Holocaust. After the upheavals of our generation which upended which shook various spiritual foundations and tore away people from deeply rooted family traditions and national traditions. So, there was this tumultuous crisis in our generation and it it had the effect of shaking certain spiritual foundations, tearing people away from their traditions, both family traditions and Jewish people's traditions. It affected a lot of people. So, the Rebbe is now describing a common condition of that time, of that era. They feel like they're hanging in the air. They don't have firm footing. They don't feel solid. They don't feel embodied. They feel like life is on hold. Like they they someone hit the pause button. I don't know. I'm just giving you different synonyms for this. Which we could understand after something so traumatizing on such a grand scale, and people were destabilized in a very deep way. And they feel like they're just sort of floating. And I'm talking about even the believers, the firm people, people who believe in God. The Rebbe describes it practical life. For them, I'm going to become something that's not connected to their practical life. It's a religious thing. The Rebbe says, you think about Amona, sure. You say May Daani. Of Takya with the fact maybe even you think about what the words mean when you say Shma, sure. As me is a line. And then, you go through your whole day feeling alone. And yet there the mask on is their phone with the feet to buy with our look at snatching and everyone from there draws whatever conclusion is fitting his his personality. In other words, how does that make you feel that you're going through life completely isolated and all that? I don't know. Like depending on your personality, you'll take that to some conclusion or another, but it's not neces- it's necessarily not an inspiring thought to have. So, the Rebbe was saying, we have people who are from they say shma every day and they think about what it means and they believe in an in an abstract way, but when it comes to their practical day-to-day life, they're going through life and they feel like they're alone. They don't feel that God is with them. They're not feeling that palpable presence. They feel alone. They feel disconnected. They feel isolated, which is I mean, it's hard for me to not think about the fact that the Rebbe on his day of his blade of us is reaching out to other Yidden. The Rebbe now the the hayamin that says that before this the teacher was lonely and the students were lonely, but after this the altar Rebbe accomplished the Rebbe is not alone and the Rebbe is not alone. The Rebbe is not alone. The Rebbe is not alone. So, the Rebbe is describing it's so interesting that like what happened from this crisis of faith because as a religious leader, you could just say, well, it's very sad. People are not religious anymore. A lot of people stopped being religious or they lost their religious conviction. The Rebbe is going so much deeper than that. He's saying, no, people are in pain. People are destabilized emotionally. They they don't feel grounded and they go through their day-to-day life even though they believe in God and they feel terribly alone. So, remember how the Rebbe started this paragraph. He says, I don't know if this applies. I'm not 100% sure this applies. Now, if anyone knows if it applies or not, if the Rebbe knows, but it's interesting that the Rebbe said, "I don't know if it applies, but let me just the Rebbe does go ahead and and and and say it. Okay. So, the Rebbe describes this situation of people going through life feeling disconnected, feeling alone. K'dei tzurik bringen di mention tzu zehr Um this is an interesting word. I had to actually look it up. Yeah. Uh gleichgewicht means balance. How do they translate that? Equilibrium. Okay, that's even fancier. Equilibrium. Okay. To bring people back to their balance. It's interesting they're hanging in the air. They need to be brought back to their balance. Talking about people who are who are feeling off-kilter. They're feeling like like like like emotional vertigo, almost. And it suggests that people had it once. They once had this sense of groundedness. Right. Yeah, yeah. Something happened to them. Correct. Something happened They didn't always feel like this. Something happened collectively and it destabilized them. It shocked them and they lost that firm footing. Yes. Yes. Is der realster weg as mesol bei zeh megadol sein die mesirus meschpacha und mesirus awes, was es itzt euch behalten bei zeh in der neschama. The most realistic way, the most realistic approach here is to reveal in them the traditions of their family and of their ancestors, which even right now is hidden in their soul. Meaning to say, it's interesting. They seem like they've lost something, but the truth is what they need is within them right now. They didn't lose it. They lost touch with it. They lost their awareness of it. Maybe they lost access to it, but it's right there. It's in them. Zay vel und doch der zen. As a mensch is nit allent. And they need to see that a person is not alone. Like this is the bottom line with that ever saying, like you're not alone. Un noch mer. As der mensch is der balabos fun zein goyrel. Nor bis a beshtimte mass. Another thing to know. A person is the balabos, the controller, in charge of his fate only to a very limited degree. Und der iker, but the main part of his life hang gor up fun dem aybershtin, is dependent totally on God. So, you should know you're not really as in charge of your life as you think you are. Now, you'll see why the Rebbe says that. Again, this letter is very emotional. It's very Yes, it's speaking about spiritual concepts, but it's a talking about the emotional applications of those spiritual concepts. Bemayle darfer nit So, so if you understand that there's very little of your life that you're actually in control of, you learn Tanya, so you're in control of your machshava, dibur, and maaseh. That's it. Other than that, hakol bidei Shamayim chutz miyirei Shamayim, you can control your own yirei Shamayim. Everything else bidei Shamayim, Hashem runs the show. So, if you'll know that, what's the emotional takeaway? If you'll know that, bemayle darfer nit shleppen alts auf zeine eigene platzes. You don't have to put everything on your own shoulders. I don't know if the woman said anything to imply that she was feeling burdened with certain responsibilities, but like the Rebbe says, I don't know if it applies. I don't know if this is your situation, but let me just float this out there. You control so little of what's going on in your life. That's just the reality. Hashem is in charge. So listen, please stop taking it on your shoulders. Feeling a gavaldeke achrayis for alts. Feeling this this terrible responsibility for everything. Und wer red noch zu haben a gefil von yush zu bestimmte Sachen oder bestimmte Zustanden. And to even go as far as to feel despair about certain things and certain situations. Cuz the person feels like they should be able to control it. And they've been trying to control it. And they haven't been able to control and they feel like it's their fault and they're internalizing this this this this self-blame. And the Rebbe is saying, "Stop blaming yourself. You're not in control of any of that stuff. It's not It does not belong on your shoulders. Stop making up these responsibilities." Which is so interesting because I don't think there's anyone in history, literally from other religions, in history, there's no one who highlighted the personal responsibilities of every individual he met more than the Lubavitcher Rebbe. And yet, here the Rebbe is saying, "Will you stop making up things that you're not responsible for? Will you stop torturing yourself with with these things that you cannot control?" Bashas mit farb when we connect these people to the feeling which doubtless, without a doubt, is deeply rooted within them. This is the second time that I was saying it was it's deeply it's there already. You have it. It's chapter 18 of Tanya by the Again, you keep seeing how the Rebbi takes the spiritual concepts, but then takes it to an emotional conclusion. So, it's always like and then what? And if they'll believe this, if they'll have more and then what? And then what? Let let let So, the Rebbi spells it out. It'll calm them it'll bring them calm. It'll bring them calm. Calm is an important thing. It's important to be calm. You're not helping anyone by being stressed. And then when you're calm because you know Hashem's in charge, then you'll better be able to endure the in quotes, against your will you live. It's a mission of a Pirkei Avot. It means the soul doesn't want embodiment. The soul is afraid of being contained and limited and tested. It wants to stay in heaven. But when you have more faith and trust that you're really not in charge of your life, Hashem is in charge then that makes it much easier to accept the embodiment. To go along with it and to do it in a healthy way cuz don't hate healthy healthy. And to carry out the mission which every person was given in his life. So you want to talk about the personal responsibility? Here it is. We didn't get out of the personal responsibility. To the contrary, the Rebbe is not telling you lighten up and relax so that you don't do your tafkid. The Rebbe is saying lighten up and relax so that you can do your tafkid. Stop neurotically trying to control the uncontrollable. Relax a little and then you'll actually be able to do what you were sent here for. Very profound. Selbstverständlich. It is self-understood. As to jeder zach umbefragt in inyanim velche zeinen farbunden mit pnimius hanefesh. It's self-understood that everything, especially things connected with pnimius hanefesh. What is pnimius hanefesh? Th- This subject matter is pnimius hanefesh. The Rebbe is not talking about things, about objects. The Rebbe is talking about people, and not just people, but emotions. About the inner life, the inner experience of a human being. So when we speak about pnimius hanefesh, about feelings, darf men hoben es yatte d'shmaya. For sure you have to have divine assistance. Un do help shoin's zchus ovos. And for that, one of the ways to have a special divine assistance is if you have zchus ovos. Now, I'm assuming this woman has some type of zchus ovos and that she's aware of it, meaning she has some Well, you'll see from the next line, some relatives or parents or grandparents who distinguished themselves in a particular way, which which will be apparent in the next line. Dos vos mishtamt fun a zamishpacha un a zeine eltern, velche zeinen geven that you are descended from such a family and such parents who were permeated through and through with faith and trust. What's that safe of the children which ultimately will have to come out in the children? Summon the children maybe more accurately translated. As they are coming the children will also live up to this. I hope as you tell me on second time is on for ending with the wish for a I and all of you. I hope that you're going to report good news and I end with a wish for a kosher and happy Passover for you and yours. With the blessing that you should report good news very soon. And then the last line here which to me I mean I'll tell you after I read it how I took it. I interested to listen again to listen to all of your family again. It would be interesting to me to hear about the makeup of your family. Which I suppose means like how many boys, how many girls, like ages. That's the last line. And that blew me away because you know this expression means when you speak about a day there are things that a day knows that we can't even imagine what they are. But then there's das halten, meaning just from what we can understand, what we can grasp, setting aside all the stuff that we have no idea in. But that's halten, um the Rebbe doesn't know this person well enough. Like again, I said das halten because the Rebbe doesn't know this person. Um the Rebbe is spending his time with himself by spending his time with this person, like I said earlier. So, as in close, the Rebbe knows this person. But but that's halten, the Rebbe doesn't even know this woman well enough to know who's in her family and is devoting so much time and care to write such a letter on his birthday, that's remarkable. That blew me away. And then there was another thing which blew me away, which is maybe simpler, but even in a way more mind-blowing, which is the Rebbe would be interested to know about the makeup of her family. I would like to hear. Like, tell me about your family. Tell me about your personal life. I You're talking about a person responsible for world jewelry and he's telling this woman Yeah, if you you know, you want to send me letters and tell me about your personal life, tell me about your family, just give me some updates. Well, that's like what what what what your grandfather would tell you, right? If you ever feel like you want to just, you know, tell me what's going on in your life. Yeah, just pick up the phone, just call me. I would love to hear. And and to me, that's what's so amazing about it. It's it's this since that was personal Rosh Hashanah. It's the first year after the Rebbe accepted being Rebbe. The Rebbe has just informed them he wants them to choose whether or not they're ready to rededicate themselves to being his Hasidim and and the Rebbe reminds them this is an ernste Sache nicht gelacht, that this is a serious thing, it's not funny. And and with all that like seriousness and that we're on a mission and oh, I should mention by the way, speaking of we're on a mission, that day, Yud Aleph Nissan, was the first time that the um the maamar of Basi Legani taf shin yud aleph was was printed and the Rebbe uh approved of the shaar blatt, the um title page that referred to him as the Rebbe. So, that that's was the first that when that happened. So, on one hand, it's like we're on this mission, we're the seventh generation, we're bringing Mashiach, we have to bring the Shechinah back. And at the same time, it's like some random woman, yeah, write to me about your family, I would be interested. I'd be interested in that. And to me, that's like the what the Rebbe says, that the Eibishter's Beis Olam, the creator of the world, and also the Beis Olam Katan zeh Adam. And really, from the perspective of infinity, what's the difference? Infinity is not just that for which there's nothing too big. Infinity is also that for which nothing is too small. And every person is a world. And every every person's story and whatever is going on in their life has infinite significance. And from a godly infinite perspective, yeah, so even if you're the leader of world Jewry, you have all the time in the world to hear about somebody's personal life. It's not trivial, it's not small. It's it's massive, it's it's cosmic. Okay, so that's that's our letter. That's our siyum, baruch Hashem. Um what we're going to do now, did everyone get a chance to enter the raffle? No. No? Okay, we're on the honor system. If you did not enter the raffle, please do so. Yeah, we're raffling off a complete set of Igros Kodesh. Yeah. Yeah, I mean what we know is what the Rebbe said. You're asking You know what you're saying. You're saying, "What's the distinction between the things that are not my problem and the things that are my tafkid?" Right, so essentially the Serenity Prayer. Right? God grant me the wisdom to the courage to change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I can't, the wisdom to know the difference. Okay, so what is the Rebbe saying here? That if you'll increase your emunah and bitachon, you will start to intuitively know the difference. Okay. Right, and they have to tap into it. Okay. You have to learn chapter 18 of Tanya. Okay. All right, ladies, we're raffling off a whole set. Wait, I shouldn't pick it. Somebody else should pick it. Um What? Who else Who wants to Should we Should I pick it? Okay, fine. Okay. All right. Let's see. All right, let me just open it. All right, we're winning We're win- winning we're reading the winning ticket number for the complete set of Igros Moshe, all 30 volumes. Three. Very good. I wanted to see if anyone would do that. Three. Two. Zero. One. Seven. Who won it? 332017. Who won it? What? You won it? Okay. All right. Um I would say come up and get it, but it's not it's in my it's in the trunk of my car. Okay, you'll tell me where to bring it tonight. We will deliver it to anywhere in Cambria Heights that you want. Okay. Now, Yisroel, are you you're ready? I'm done. Oh, yeah, we're going to Okay. Yeah, we can Thank you very much for joining us our first uh event in Soul Wars House. Okay, cut the the live feed, and now we're going to have a very a very special treat for you. Yeah, we're ready? Special treat. Mhm.