Letters of the Rebbe: "Healthy in Body & Soul" (Class 16)

Shalom and welcome back to another evening of 30 letters in 30 days. We are now [snorts] on letter number 16, more than halfway through our 30-day hakon preparation to Yalef Nissan's birthday. And we want to remind women that space is filling up fast for the summ of this study that we're doing together. and Yud Alf Nissen Fabangan which will take place near the oil in Queens on Alfiss that's the evening of April 11th there is limited space baram we've secured a private space one block from the oil for the women to have a gathering but uh we need you to RSVP it is by RSVP only at 30 letters 30 days.com. Uh, speaking of 30letters, 30days.com, I wanted to share some of the feedback that [snorts] we've been getting, tremendous feedback. Uh, the global initiative of groups of women all over the world studying these letters and having conversations and and study groups about the content of the letters is continuing and growing. There's an event right now in my backyard. Not literally my backyard, but [laughter] in my neighborhood uh of Five Towns, New York out here in Nassau County, Long Island. There's an event right now. So, hello to uh the Five Towns people. There's also a meeting tonight. I believe it's tonight in Houston, Texas, getting together to study the letters and to discuss them. Um, if you want to be part of a group, again, contact the website. If you want to lead a group, contact the website. And remember to sign the duk the report where we're going to include the names of all of the participants in the shar. Um, you can also share feedback and I'm going to share with you some of the feedback we've been receiving. Just really nice stuff and uh wanted to share it. Okay. I'm really enjoying I especially like learning the nuances of what the Reba meant when he used certain terminology. I've really enjoyed incorporating more perspectives from the Reb into my daily life. Thank you so much for doing this project. Okay, here's another one. Listening to the Reba's letters made me feel like the Reb was speaking to me through the letters. This was such a very nice. Okay, another one. I'm 48 years old. It's the first time I'm ever learning these letters. Rabbi Shay is doing a great job teaching them with lots of background information and insight. Love the project. Thank you so much. And by the way, thank you for the compliment about the background information. There's a team of researchers behind me. You think I'm doing this by myself. It's a whole team. I am I just uh you know show up on camera, but uh there's a lot of people have been working on this project to make it what it is. Uh good morning. I'm halfway through the third letter and please let Rabbi Taub know I guess this is how they're letting me know that this project is absolutely amazing. It's one thing to read the Debb's letters but it's another to actually understand them. I know this is a lot of work. I hope he does this again. Thank you again. Uh let's get through the 30 days and then we'll talk about doing it again. Uh phenomenal program. Look forward to 10 p.m. each night. Rabbi Tab gle gleaned lessons and teachings from the Reb's letters over 50 years ago, showing how they're relevant and pertinent to each of us today. Why is one second I'm getting a thing here that my internet connection is unstable? Maybe because I'm touching the cord. I don't know. Everything looks good. Okay. I don't know. Got a little announcement here. Your internet connection is unstable. Okay. I'm going to have to be careful not to touch the court. Says live, so lots of stuff happens. Okay. Uh let's learn tonight's letter. Anyways, thank you for the feedback. Keep the feedback coming. And um yeah, what can I say? It's been uh tremendous. Shem should give strength that we should be able to continue until uh till yall nissen. Okay, here we go. Letter number 16. This is from the igus yud like all of our letters are. Um this is letter Gimal which means 3,214 Brooklyn shalom. This letter is from the 22nd day of the month of Tavis. Um, which as we know from our studying the Reb's letters means the Reb is speaking to a man. Oh, I just want to read this because this just came on the YouTube. I've got a bunch of live streams. We got Zoom, we got YouTube, got a lot of stuff going on. I just want to read this uh comment here. So happy to be here learning in the of my dad who needs a rama and all the claim z benga. Thank you for this rabbi. So z ben vega should have a lma. Okay. Glad I was able to see that and read that. So the reb is writing to a man. All right. in of so it's Yiddish in answer to your letter from the fourth day of the week parasmiss and you see there's dot dot dot here so something was removed and we've mentioned that before Rabbi Simpson from the rabbi secretariat was entrusted with the task of redacting letters to remove any private information so That's what the dot dot dot the ellipsus means there regarding your son may he be well you want to you're thinking or you're considering putting him in a in a school where there's less shamay where the level of fear of heaven is lower. So why would they even consider it? But however, the loft is abass the loft means the air literally the air. There's better air over there. Okay. So this father wrote to the Reb and said, "My wife and I are considering taking our son out of the where he's studying right now and transferring him to another apparently in a different location. The spiritual standards are lower, but we're interested because the air is better over there." And apparently the son as is clear from context has some type of health issue that the parents are concerned about and feel that moving to an area with with better with better air quality will be helpful for this boy. Okay. So that's the question that the person put to the rabbit. Okay. Um vets. Oh, so this is all part of the premise. I'm sorry. Continuing the the premise that his health is going to improve or his health is going to become stronger. That's your premise. Okay? And that after you do this is still all part of the premise that the parents are saying [snorts] that later after you do that after some time goes by you'll bring him back to the school where he's currently studying. meaning you don't really want to take him out of his current school. Ideally, you'd like to leave him there, but for health reasons, you might switch him and then after a while when he gets stronger, you'll move him back to his present school, which is your your preference. Okay? So, that's the premise that the parents or the father the deb is writing to the father here uh proposed to the debt. Okay? It's a it's a it's a reasonable question. Yeah. Okay. Anyone can guess. You want to hazard a guess what direction the deb is going to go? I think sometimes it's helpful to think about hm how do you think the deb is going to answer? So uh for or against? Good idea, not a good idea, none of the above. Let's see. [sighs] [laughter] I don't like it. The says very clearly doesn't keep them guessing. I don't like it. I don't like this idea because here's the reason I don't like it. That you're going to rip him out where he is now. You're going to cause him an upheaval. You're going to destabilize him. That's for sure. That's that's without a doubt because you're taking him out of his current situation and it's going to cause a disruption to him. So that's that's 100%. There's no not a question of if that's going to happen. That's for sure going to happen is a sophicic. But whether or not you'll even be able to bring him back to the older and even if you do bring him back to the older, will he be able to catch up what he missed? That's a doubt. So we have one thing that's certain. It's going to be disruptive to move him. And then we have another thing that's a doubt. Whether you're going to ever be able to bring him back like you want. And even if you do bring him back, will he be able to make up for lost time? [snorts] And the Reb adds and it's not just a regular doubt. It's a big doubt. It's a big doubt. So now the Reb has reframed the question. The way it was posed is I want to choose between a place where it's a better spiritual situation, but maybe it doesn't do everything for him regarding physical health to a place where I am I'm admitting it's on a lower spiritual level, but it'll it'll be good for him as far as his physical health. So, the Reb changes the the the way the whole question is presented and says, "Okay, let actually let's look at it like this. Let's look at it as what's for sure and what's a doubt. What's for sure is the very act of picking him up and moving him is going to be disruptive. No question. That's not a question. What's a doubt whether in the end your plan's going to actually work out and you'll be able to put him back where he was. And even if you do put him back, who who says that that's he he'll ever be able to transition back and that he'll be able to uh to come back to where he was? And and maybe you won't even be able to successfully do that because it'll be by that time it'll be so disruptive and your your whole plan that you're you're relying on is going to be for not. Okay. So when you phrase it like that, it's like, okay, doesn't sound like such a good idea. Really doesn't sound like such a good idea to take the boy out. The problem is that there's still an issue here that remains to be resolved and that is presumably I mean I don't think the parents are making it up that the child has some type of health challenges. that issue hasn't been resolved. Okay. So the way that EBA presents it now it's con it's very convincing. I don't want to mess with the kid's situation. But in other words, there was a reason in the first place why the parents were even considering taking the kid and putting him into a school with lower spiritual standards. The reason was because they felt that the air would be good for the kid. So that issue still hasn't really been resolved. I'm just queuing you in on at least where my mind goes as I'm I'm I'm reading the letter. Okay. in Jewish books and especially in that what does that mean that fear of heaven is condu conducive to life meaning not just spiritual life but physical life in gaz that from fear of heaven It actually improves somebody's health, physical health. is. So even if the air is better in that other you want to switch the boy to is the additional that that they have in the present that will fulfill or lead to the fulfillment of even the physical bodily health of your son. Watch what happened here. First, the Reb reframed the the whole proposition and said, "You think it's a good idea? Doesn't sound like such a good idea. Think about what's certain. Think about what's a doubt." Okay, fine. You convinced me. But it still left the unresolved issue of well, what about his health? What about the initial reason why we even considered this other? So the Eb says here, let's talk about the physical health of the boy, what's going to be good for his physical health? I'll tell you what's good for physical health. Shayim, fear of heaven is good for your physical health. So even if you're going to bring him to another where they have fresher air but they have lowerim who says that that that's better for his physical health than the benefit that his actual physical body is going to receive from being in an environment on a higher spiritual standard. I think that this idea is central to the Reb's worldview as I understand it. The idea that we do not have to choose between spirituality and materiality. We can have our cake and eat it too. I I really do believe that that's one of the the the fundamental ideas in the Reb's worldview. And look, ultimately in the messianic perfect ideal world where this physical world becomes holier than heaven and therefore all the souls that are in the highest heavens are going to make a U-turn from all their aliyah and they're going to come back down to the physical plane because the physical plane is going to be so refined that it's going to be holier and and more godly than any level of of spiritual paradise. Okay. So we know in the end that spirituality, materiality do become completely harmonized, right? That is the endgame. Well, the way the Reb describes the world, it's not just something that's going to happen in the end. It's really the truth all along. And in fact, this is the way the world was set up from the beginning. doesn't say it here explicitly, but I just want to add something that I think is unfortunately not as well known as it should be. Um, why do I say not as well known as it should be? Because there's a lot of things that are not known, but most labavichers at least know the 12kim. I would say almost all labaviches know the 12 pukim. The rebed that there should be 12kim and my razal uh scriptural passages and sayings of the sages that children should be well-versed in. and the Reb taught what the content what the meaning of each of these 12 Torah passages passages are. Um I think people know about the 12 sukim but I don't think it's so well known what the Reb said about each of the 12 sukim. I want to just tell you about one of those 12 sukim which is pik seven. And uh if you know anything about the history of the 12 sukim, the reb came out with the first six of the 12 ones spring of uh 1976 and it was a part of the year of education. And the said, see, contrary to popular misconception, uh the was not a campaign to educate children, but to turn children into educators. And one of the tools that Eb gave children in order to aid them in being educators is the 12 sukim. The 12 sukim are supposed to be ideas. See, why were these sukim chosen? like they like the yudim these are the most fundamental ideas in Judaism that never said why these 12 were were chosen they're ideas that children can understand and teach understand and teach the whole emphasis was on and teach not just to memorize it and say it bel the rallies but that the children should understand the meaning of these verses and be able to teach them to each other. So the first six were rolled out after the second uh six of the 12 were rolled out at the lag blamer rally and the first of the second six meaning the first pik that was uh announced at the lag rally of was you know we all know okay what is the meaning of that verse and why is it an important idea that every child should understand and be able to teach the idea of braces doesn't just mean that Hashem made the world is a statement about the nature of the world you understand it's not just the origins of reality it's the nature of reality even at the present moment which is you look at the world and if you don't know audits, you could be deluded. You could fool yourself into thinking that there are uh there are no rules and that people can get away with not being nice to each other and that maybe even not only they get away with it, they prosper. And maybe the best way to live is take care of yourself and don't worry about your scruples. You could think that if you [sighs] gather the the wrong impression of this world. That's why it's super important to know that Hashem made the world. The same Hashem who gave us the Tory made the world. And therefore, by following Hashem's Tyra, you will succeed in Hashem's world. That it's not a contradiction. It's not as if there's a world and the world has its rules. There's the the the rules of the world. And you want to succeed in the world, you got to play by the rules of the world. And then there's a you know, if you see you care about that stuff, okay, you can also keep Yeah. Yeah. If you want, but then you're going to suffer. You're not going to succeed in the world. No. Hashem made the world. So when you keep Hashem's rules, you're not sacrificing sacrificing success in Hashem's world. That is actually the entire secret to success within Hashem's world. And this is the Reb's worldview. You'll see so many letters where the Reb will tell somebody for instance I I I can think of a a number of letters where someone's writing about Shabas someone who doesn't yet keep Shabas and and and their argument will be para I got to make a living and the Reb's answer won't be I'm sorry you're going to have to starve but that's the price of being an's answer is completely the opposite which is Shabis will open the pipeline for Parnosa how do You think that keeping Hashem's Shabas is going to hold you back from receiving Hashem's fora to the contrary you'll keep Shabas that'll bring down the the blessings for making a livelihood or another letter I I remember actually there were a couple of them young men who wrote to the Reb um about about a beard and they said that uh it would hurt their chances for Shidim and the Reb told them what are you talking is a from right matches are made in heaven. So for that you have to be okay. So having a beard isn't going to you're thinking it all all completely opposite upside down. Having a beard isn't going to make it harder to be blessed with finding your bash. No to the contrary that you have a beard that will help you to be that you should merit. Hashem should send you the blessing of the right. So I'm giving these as examples but this is the idea here. The parents are writing out of out of concern for their child a very valid concern. What about my child's health and the deb is saying like this yes your child's health your child's health 100%. Shayim [snorts] is the path to improving his health. So I'm not asking you to be to feel like you're forced to choose one or the other. No, no, no, no. You can have your cake and eat it too. In fact, [laughter] you have to have your cake and eat it too. You I'm going to force you to have good spirituality and good materiality. I want you to have both types of health. [snorts] Why? Because ultimately one Hashem who made the world and gave the Tyra gives us both. There cannot be a contradiction between the two. There cannot be a contradiction between the two. One helps the other. Okay, let's continue here. Um [clears throat] yeah. So this is going to help his therefore the Reb concludes you want my advice he should continue learning in his present school in good health and happiness and and I I hope that when you read this part of this letter to your wife, may she be well. I hope that she will and 100% with a full heart agree with this. I'm not trying to force anybody to do something that doesn't make sense to them. I'm trying to explain to you why this is good for you, for your child, and should make sense to you. And I want that when you explain this part to your wife, it should make sense to her that your wife should know. She should be she should be able to accept this advice with a with a whole heart knowing that health and livelihood and success depend only on Hashem, the giver of the Tyra. So the same Hashem who gave us the Tory is the one who gives health and livelihood and success. Okay. Now a completely different subject regarding your question what you should give your what you should allocate your your charitable giving for. I was happy to read that you help your brother who lives in. [snorts] So you should take half of your charitable gings and allocate them to the institutions of my father law myel you can give it to my secretariat and they will aortion it. They will send it around to the different institutions of my father-in-law. That's with half of your charitable gings [snorts] and then the other half of your giving you can use them at your discretion however you want and also according to your wife's discretion. Interesting that told him that it should be a partnership with his wife, that they should both approve. And included in that half, you should include the the funds that you're sending to your brother. Y with blessings for success and good livelihood, material sustenance and from your kids together with your wife. And uh that's the letter. There you go. Okay. A short letter. We're able to finish on time. Almost feels like uh [laughter] maybe we should go back and say some of the stuff from last week uh that I left out. No. Okay. I'll see you tomorrow night 10 p.m. for letter number 17.