He CRITICIZED the Rebbe | Letter #20 of 30 Letters in 30 Days

All right, we're gonna give a little stucker first as is our custom. We use the We like to use the Kabad Pushka app because it's fun and it's a good cause. Remember, we're learning in order to prepare a birthday gift for birthday and we also give Stucka. It's also part of the gift. There you go. [Music] Awesome. Okay. Fine. Let me silence the phone. Great. Won't hear anything over here. Um, yeah, silence. All right. We have a very interesting letter tonight. I want to thank Zan Bendit, who's a member of our 30 letters in 30 days team, who found this letter, not just the letter, but found the background. Um because it's you know very when you read anytime you read a letter the letter itself is enjoyable but then when you have background to fill it in it's like a whole other level of gishmach and this happens to be one of those cases where you have the background and I actually have archival uh materials to share with you. Fun fun. Okay so little background. The background is um well you know I'm not going to give back. I'm going to start reading the letter and as it comes up I'm going to mention the background. Okay. This is a letter from the eth volume letter 2249. Um the day is um which by the way is um site Brooklyn New York. And here are the titles. Ask Nimro Aldi Drud which is Steinberg. Okay. Who is this person who gets all these titles? This Dr. Steinberg Yitzk Nakman or Isaac Isaac Steinberg. A very interesting colorful character. And I would I would call him a character. He was originally from Dinsk, which I think now is Latia. I know Dinsk because that's where the Rachel was from. Um he was a Soviet era politician. He was involved in Soviet politics under Lenin. But here's the like really weird thing. He was a fyid. He kept chabas. Like that's extremely unusual. Yes. Unfortunately, there were Jews who were aligned with the communists, but those were like the irreligious and anti-religious. This was a very unusual type of thing. Um, anyways, he he left the Soviet Union. Uh, then he was uh where did he go? I I think he was in Germany and then in the 30s when the Nazis came to power power then he moved to England. He started this movement called the uh Freelanders. I think that's what it was called. Freeland league. The freeland league. And they were looking for a to create a Jewish state of some type, but not in Erisro. They were looking in random places like Surinom. Uh then they had like a prospect in Australia. And then there's a letter actually from the premier of Australia to him saying that no, they're not going to do it. And then eventually he moved to New York. Well, then he was in Canada, I think. Anyways, he ended up in New York. That's where he was when this story happened in the 1950s. And um and he passed away in New York in uh 1957. So that's like three years after this letter. Okay. And what's really interesting is even after 1948 he persisted in this plan to set up a Jewish state somewhere random some random place like not inro and he and he kept up with it like even after 1948. Um and he was a Yiddishist meaning he was into like the I would call it linguistic nationalism of Yiddish. And that's by the way what the letter is about. And you know You know, there are people have certain things that they're passionate about like onetrack mind and that any opportunity they have to like speak about that thing. It's like that's their excuse to like go into their stump speech. I'm making up a lot about somebody right now. But that's when I saw this, that's what I thought. And you're going to see what I mean and you'll decide if you agree or disagree. Basically, here's a guy who's like very into a certain idea of Jewish identity and he got triggered and he actually let's let's I don't want to give away the whole story because the letter itself takes us through the story. Okay. Um all right. Shalom of greetings and blessings. Kirusi the secretariat conveyed to me the content of your conversation on the telephone. He called Masirus. Okay. Guy picked up a phone and called uh what is it? Hiasin whatever. By the way, every should know that phone number because it's on the stationary. Hiasin. What? You know what? Hold on a second. I probably have it here because I'm gonna pull up. Yeah. Okay. Ah, right here. I'm pulling it up. I'm pulling it up because this is about to come. Hi 39250. People who are really old know I mean this is before my time but at least like I knew people who were still alive when I was a kid who used to use the uh alphabet exchanges. You know that on a phone number, kids, do you know on a phone number that like every number corresponds to certain letters like gamatria kind of um but the the the used to use exchanges uh I think this is even before like area codes could be they would use local exchanges. This is definitely when Brooklyn was a seven was was was 212. There's no question this was before uh uh 718 existed. Um anyways, hi was like the exchange for Crown Heights or for that part of Crown Heights. Anyways, so this guy picks up the phone and he called Mascudus. Why did he call Mus? So you're looking at this, right? I'm sharing this I'm sharing this image with you. Okay, this is a letter that he got and you see it's on the stationary u by the grace of God. Roshashana 5714 meaning it was like a Roshashana greeting. Okay. Now, when is this letter Yudgish? So, this is like couple weeks later. Dr. Steinberg, care of Freeland League. Oh, that Yeah, that's what I was referring to. Freeland League. Okay. 1819 Broadway, New York, New York. So, he's in Manhattan. Greeting and blessing on the threshold of the new year. It's basically a New Year's card. Uh, may it bring blessings to us all. I send you my prayerful wishes for a good and pleasant year materially and spiritually. I take this opportunity to thank you for your thoughtfulness in sending your books from my library with the traditional blessing of cordially the holy signature in English. Okay. So apparently this guy sent some books to the by the way the deba was always expanding the library. Anyone who knows the whole history of the library and the story of Havis, you know that this was something that the was nephor for the library of Labavich and the Reba continued that. So yes, the Reba would have been very very appreciative if someone sent in books for the library and it didn't necessarily have to be books that the Reba himself wanted to study. uh there was this concept of labavich having just a real uh academic library where I mean they have all types of books in the debas library it not necessarily doesn't mean something that the deba wanted to learn or wanted to to incorporate into into the sas there was a concept of just expanding the library having a large library um so the rabbis sent basically a a lash tova card and a thank you card to this guy I don't know if had any dealings before that. Okay, the guy gets this letter and he's triggered. I'm making this up, but this is what it really seems to me. And he's triggered. He looks at this this thing and he's like, "Are you talking? How's how how is this possible?" Okay. Well, you're going to see what triggered him. All right, let's go back to the letter. So, the Masqueras the Secretariat conveyed to me your telephone conversation with them. specifically this that you you were like uh you complained like you called me out for using the local language meaning English. that you are concerned that there is a uh very like there's a there's a there's a possibility here for assimilation that this could be this could lead to assimilation. I I shouldn't laugh but it's funny to me. It's funny to me. I'm just imagining the emails that I get from random people that I have never met who have random comments and and I'm just thinking how I would take it if like someone who works for me comes over and says, "By the way, this random guy calls and he's like upset that you send him a card in English cuz he says you're leading to assimilation." like like personally I'm like really really like to to to to say I would be um I don't know if the word is annoyed but like I I'm just being very very transparent with you. I I I would have a hard time taking that seriously, especially if you're the labe like, "Oh, I'm I'm promoting assimilation, right? I'm promoting assimilation over here, right?" Like, it's so far off the mark and it's so to me so clearly just his obsession that he wants to think that because he's a linguistic nationalist. So for him, Jewish identity is language. Yiddish specifically was a Yiddishist. So he sees something in English. Bing bing bing bing bing. He's like super triggered. He's calling my SKB is sending out English. He's leading to assimilation. Like personally I would just so ignore that. Or if I had to was a force to ignore with if I was forced to engage with it, it would probably be in some type of passive aggressive way. Am I being too transparent? I don't know. I'm just telling you the truth. I'm telling you the truth not so that you know that I'm a flawed human being because I think everybody knows that. I'm telling you this because it for me makes it so amazing how the deba responds. Obviously the deba responds respectfully but how the deb is able to take essentially which is like like like an obnoxious comment. I'm sorry to say that but to me that's what it is and to turn it into an opportunity to connect and to educate. The deba doesn't give in. The eb stands his ground. So there's that there's that strength of opinion but at the same time it's like respectful it's warm uh that encourages him that demands from him like and to me in my little little sha brain to me that's what an ashama clawless is that you know shamac is the concept of an aggregate soul a soul that's connect the head of the Jewish people like a body has a head that connects to all the different limbs and organs and parts that um basically a Reba has to have a relationship with every single Yid. And so someone's reaching out even if it's like reaching out in what I would consider a very unpleasant and weird way. Okay, fine. But that's not the main thing. The EB is a shepherd and this is one of his sheep and there's an opportunity for interaction. So to me it just blows me away because I I this is the kind of comment that I would just totally not appreciate getting like someone who's so off the mark just mischaracterizing me because he's obsessed with the certain like uh single-minded issue that he has about Yiddish and instead of ignoring it or or or blasting the guy for his rude comment, it ever turns it into a connection. I mean, to me, that's beautiful. It's beautiful. Okay. Let's Let's keep going. All right. First of all, the Reb like I love how the Reb like agrees with the guy like to the point where the Reba can't agree. The Reb is not going to agree that he shouldn't have sent the letter in English. Okay. But the Reb agrees with him where he can agree. He finds the common ground. He's like, "By the way, I love that you have a sharp, you know, means like sharp. I I love that you have a sharp uh like a very strong I love that you're passionate about fighting assimilation." Totally cool. I love it. If that's something that in all times it's necessary to be careful about how much more so in our days where boundaries are being blurred. Wow. How much more so in 2025? We live in a day and age where boundaries are being blurred. Especially you have today people who don't just blur the boundaries, they they blur to the blur blur them to the point of completely flipping everything and they call um darkness light and they call light darkness. So you're right totally. We have to be so careful about assimilation now when so many things are blurred and there's so much confusion. I hope that you have a good eye on others. Having a good eye on others doesn't mean here I don't think looking at people favorably. It it means looking at people generously meaning being willing to give of your own. That's why I think it because it continues and says regarding this and your influence on others. In other words, it's so interesting that I was saying I'm glad that you are passionate about standing up against assimilation and I'm sure that you generously share that hashkafa with others that if you can influence people to also be passionate about that cause that you do that. And it's interesting because that's kind of what the guy's doing right now. He's passionately sharing that hashkuffa. But you know, first of all, it could be just, you know, when somebody engages him or when he has an opportunity for critique, he talks about it. But the Reb is encouraging him, you know, speak to everyone about it. Speak to the people who are actually assimilating. Um, also could be something he's already doing and that I was just giving encouragement and it and and really it's it's a braha as well. You know when the rebba encourages a behavior it's also giving giving uh for the person or revealing for the person to engage in that behavior. All right. Okay. But now let's get down to actuality. this that we publish stuff not just in the holy tongue or Yiddish that our office puts out stuff in uh in other languages we we we use English and I love in the parenthesis also in French something that I was saying like you think I'm only writing in English. I'll tell you even more. I'm also writing in French. You thought it was just one goes language. It's also we got another one we also are using over here. Okay. So, why are we using why is our office dealing with these non-Jewish languages? So, we know what our sages say that the main thing is not study but deed. Okay, let's get down to practicality. And when it comes to actual deed, we cannot wait until all of our brothers, all of the Jewish people in every place learn the holy tongue or Yiddish. because we need to save them and bring them close to our father in heaven and to his in actuality because a loss of time is a lost uh is a loss that is irretrievable. So yeah, assimilation we got to fight assimilation, right? So you want to wait around until people can read Hebrew and Yiddish messages. Uh we don't have that time. We don't have that time. The deb says it in the most cordial and respectful possible way. But basically the deb is saying if you really care about assimilation then you have to understand. Yeah. That's exactly why our office sends out letters in English and sends out letters in French and and why we publish books in those languages because we cannot wait for people to know those languages. we have to reach out to them and and and to and and to save their namas. Okay. Now, another point and aside for that, aside for the point that we don't have time to wait around right now interesting point that makes here in America, language is not so tied in with assimilation. It's a very interesting point that Eb is making. very interesting that Eban makes an observation that in America language is not tied in with assimilation. I used the term before a linguistic nationalist. I don't know if Dr. Steinberg would refer to himself as such but you know the term linguistic nationalist means somebody who sees the language the spoken language of a people as an intrinsic important part of their identity. Okay, there are definitely those today in 2025 who see the language that they speak as a very important part of their Jewish identity. Um, the Reb is saying that in America it's not really true. You do not actually see a correlation between people speaking English and automatically becoming less religious and conversely what I was about to say people speaking the mentions Hebrew and being more Jewish. Let let's let's read this to our great lament. We find here that there are youth who speak who speak Hebrew especially those who speak in the spartic pronunciation. Okay. God willing they will do chuva but right now they're not observant of Torah and mitzvah. So yeah. Yeah. You're saying let's like write in Hebrew to make sure that we don't fall prey to assimilation. But that I was saying here in America actually doesn't work that way. There are people who are into Hebrew. They're into it and they're not pra observant. So like I hear your argument, but we don't actually see that that's what's going on over here. Very interesting. I don't know if now is the time to reveal my conversation with Nam Chsky. Probably not. But I he should have a rama. I believe he he's in need of one. But uh I I I spoke with him not about politics. I spoke to him about uh this spoke to him about the Isus what it says in a sec about the Isus being from Kadma and whether that is is uh connected to linguistic uh nivism. Yeah. Anyways, that's another discussion for another time. But he was telling me that when he was growing up in Philadelphia, you know, like in the in the 30s, that it was very fashionable for the young people to go to a department store and insist, they're talking about Americans, but they would insist we only speak Hebrew, we need an interpreter. They would insist that the department store would provide an interpreter, a Hebrew interpreter. Okay? I never heard about about that before. I heard it from him. Um, anyways, but those were not observant people. In fact, they may even have been anti-religious. So, the deb saying like the whole linguistic nationalism thing doesn't actually correlate with. Now, interesting point that makes I'm not, you know, correlation and causation are two different things. I'm not saying that they're speaking Hebrew brings them to a lack of Torah observance, but rather but rather they they flip light to dark and dark to light. That's but rather what I'm saying is the fact that they've sold out their uh their their observance of of they've sold out their father in heaven and their observance of his Torah for a uh pot of lentils. This is the famous story of Yakov, right? So you're selling out your relationship with your father, right? The the firstborn status. For what? For a pot of lentils. So they're selling out their relationship with their father in heaven. For what? For a pot of lentils. What's the pot of lentils here? Metaphorically? Nationalism. So they traded their connection to their father in heaven for this nationalistic identity. And and and and that's why they're speaking Hebrew. So, I'm not saying that Hebrew caused them to become non-observant, but I'm saying that their whole nationalism thing um where they replaced religious observance with a nationalistic identity. So then that brings with it the the speaking Hebrew. I'm not going to elaborate on a painful subject and like our how true are our the words of our prophets. In this case, I think it's a puzz from Yeshu that from within you will come those who destroy you, right? And and the Reb says something very, you know, you can't read this sentence without it's a punch in the gut. Those ideologies, the false ideologies that have a spark of of of holiness are the ones that bring the most destruction. The Reb is speaking about this nationalistic identity. And it may even be a very like polite way of pushing back against this guy and basically saying to him, although he himself was Torah observant, which is probably why, you know, he might be more sympathetic to the Deb's line of reasoning, but the Deb is basically saying all this nationalism because remember this guy wanted to start a Jewish state, but not in the saying, look at it. What does it bring to it? It it it has a spark of kadusha in it because it's like about Jewish identity and maybe even they're using Hebrew which originates in in lashes which is which is holy. So it has a spark of kadusha but that doesn't make it better. It actually makes it more destructive because the spark of of kadusha little spark of holiness actually gives the the the the lie more power to do harm. So, like I said, that I was giving push back in the most polite, cordial, respectful possible way to a guy that frankly, like I said, I would be very put off that I found out this guy called Mosquito to complain. All right, let's keep going. Now set aside all the discussion about other people and about the culture and about current trends with youth and assimilation and nationalism. Let's talk about you. Okay, let's talk about you as an individual. This that you got sent a card in English which I'm sorry was very triggering. The doesn't say that but I'm I'm inserting that. Sorry you got triggered by my English card. Okay. The intent the intent was if that if you find it of value then you could bring it to the attention of a of a wider audience including people who don't speak Hebrew or Yiddish. Okay? Like it it wasn't just for you. Like if you wanted to show this to somebody else, like now I'm giving you that ability. Sorry for laughing. At any rate, enclosed is some material in Hebrew and Yiddish. Like you want your Hebrew and Yiddish here. Here you go. Here's your Hebrew and Yiddish. Rebikas or something. I'm not not sure exactly. Okay. So may it be very speedily fulfilled the prophecy u that they should all meaning the Jewish people should all become one bunch to serve Hashem one Hashem by fulfilling this this one Tyra meaning uniting under Torah observance lulano for all of us av It should happen now. Meaning in any language that they understand. I'm not waiting until people learn languages. I want everyone to become Torah observant now in whatever language they currently understand. Then afterwards, then we can come together under one language. Yeah. Obviously ultimately the goal is one language but that's a later phase. It's a very very interesting argument and there by the way there are a lot of implications about this. I don't I didn't want to get into it but there there are letters from the Reb about education about the writes very strongly do not waste the time of students educating them in a language that they do not speak fluently. There's so much Tyra to learn. You should learn Tyra in whatever language you can learn the fastest. Okay, that's a related point. I'm not getting off into that side point, but the the the main point here in this letter is we speak to people in the language they understand. Now, we're not going to wait for them to learn a language so we can start to be mikat of them to ash. Such a powerful concept. And you see how much the deba did. This is in the 50s. But then how much over the decades as time went by the reb was spreading out the wellsp springsings of in in all different languages. Whatever language people speak that's the language we're going to teach them in galdic with with uh respect and blessings. And that's the letter really special letter. Again, thank you to Zam Bendett for digging that one up and the backstory behind that. very very gushmack. Okay, have a great week.