Maamar Vata Titzave 1981 #5 - What does a Rebbe do for a Chasid? Is it necessary? RC Dalfin

So good day. We're learning this that he said in 1981 and it was published in 1992. The last mime that we got from the Reba before he had a stroke. And he discusses here um the idea of Mosher Abenu. What what is Mosher Raenu? How does he function? What does he do for us for himself? And this is the reason for this discussion is because it says in the para You shall command, Hashem says to Mosh, command the Eden to bring for the pure refined oil to light the mo for the illuminary and the Reb asked many questions I believe six questions in the first chapter of the mimer and as we go on he's answering them slowly but surely. So the last thing that we learned in chapter 5 was that there that the idea of nephesh the self-sacrifice idea and the idea of this the extension of who feeds faith he's the he's the and the loyal shepherd and he explained two ways of understanding loyal shepherd concept and um this So mishenu is the one who who who sustains and builds and develops the faith within a a ye and primarily it's it's manifested through that's what we learned until now let's go to chapter six the concept is that The ultimate faith of a yeid is that he's ready and willing to have self-sacrifice for Hashem. It is primarily he mentioned earlier in the there's two types of faith. One is a faith that's based on based on perception and more than perception even the the sensation that a person's nama above every one of us has a part of our nisha that doesn't come into our body and then we have the part that comes into our body so brings and the and the brings it here in the mimer too from Mishari with the story with the that they saw something and they and and the other the people around them got frightened and they ran away. So they the question is they didn't actually see it. So how is it why is it they got frightened? So he said it says because they themselves didn't see it. their masle and and the Reb explained in the mimer based on what it says in other m what the idea of a masle is mas and we spoke about that that level of the soul of the sees it. It saw it. So subconsciously the body was frightened and moved and ran away. Yet that that powerful experience is coming because of perception seeing. It's not who you are. It's imposed on you. There is a law that's brought in in the Gmor. A witness who witnesses something with his eyes cannot be a judge. A judge is not allowed to see what took place for him to be a judge. A judge is supposed to hear and only hear the arguments of the of the two sides. If a judge if a dion actually saw what happened, he's im invalidated. He's disqualified from being a judge in this case. Only in this case. Why? Because once you see something, you're impartial. You can't be fair. I always say that people ask me, you know, when I when I when I I I travel to certain places and I want to be there myself or they say, "Why do you need to be there yourself? Go online and you can see the actual I'll give you an example. Just uh I think last week the Geridum um dedicated The base medish and house of the ger rebes the emis in gur happens to be some relatives of mine were there my wife's side so I spoke to one of them who was there and and and the historic thing is that the actual house that They now made into a hnosis with beds and a kitchen and even a small mikvah for when groups will come. The first floor is where the wrote his. It's like amazing. This is where he wrote it in this house. There's no Eden that we know of. You know what I'm saying? In that area. So people will come, you know, like in groups. That's what I was told. But I'm here's the question. So I said that would be nice if I got to to Warso. It's 35 minutes from Warso to go there and to shoot some film. And why why do you need to do that? Here's the building. Here's the picture. I'm sure they'll have, you know, inside shots soon. Why do you have to stand there? Because when you're there, you see it yourself. You're there. No denial. You know, I'm there. Again, I there's there's no remnant. Unfortunately, they it took a long time to to do this. They I was told because they dug deep deep down in under the house to see if there any writings and manuscripts of the Swas of the Im. They found nothing but there aid NASA. If you want to be a judge, if you see it with your own eyes, you're impartial. It's impossible. And that so so it put in the twist in the opposite if you see something how powerful it is standing there and being there and seeing it. You're there. So whatever argument someone's going to say uh a professor of history from from from Colombia and from Yale and from Oxford can argue till their face is blue. I was there. So have a nice day. So the here he doesn't bring it. It it's taler in the footnotes brings it but it's important that when we talk about the faith the the amuna that the nishama has in Hashem and subsequently which we espouse and and and manifest. There are two kinds levels of amuna and one is deeper than the other. One is a perception and a seeing. So it's VERY POWERFUL BUT IT'S NOT WHO YOU ARE. Who you are is you don't it's as though you don't need TO GO TO TO GORE. YOU'RE THERE. YOU ARE GORE. And that's a very lofty experience that you've refined yourself and come to a place this is who I am. the faith in Hashem and Muna is who I am. That's even a higher experience than seeing and perceiving something. Because as great and as powerful as seeing and hearing something is, it's imposed on you from the outside. the outside being what you saw comes into you. the level of amuna that's that moher abenu feeds and and and gives and why moherenu is so important in the in in the in the overall makeup of aid why do we need a MOHENU THAT THAT'S THE question right the the the litf SAY YOU DON'T NEED AENU you can av is fine a dian is fine I mean, you don't need a reb. And it's a good question. It's not a silly question. It's a good question. And there are those that argue, WHY DO YOU NEED A DIAN? OPEN the learn the code of Jewish law and you'll know what to do. Well, we all know that there's so many intricacies and and questions on simple on the simple code of Jewish law that it requires someone to clarify what is really saying. Just like when it says it should be for frontlets between your eyes. What does mean? What is this? So the gorus explains tat and it's from a different language and it means according to kazal. So we see that from the there's everything is written kind of in code is code the oral tradition unravels the code AND WITHOUT YOU don't know many times what the code is saying what it really means it says what should I put on here strings matches. WHAT SHOULD I PUT ON? So just as it is with and go now further you have the Mishna and the Gar without the gum. The Mishna is summ it's closed. We don't know the G comes along and look what the Gumra DID. IT OPENED UP THE entire Mishna. No go further. So we have then you come to you have the you have the before that you have the the so obviously and the obviously they're all learning the same words and they're all coming to different interpretations and different nuances. So, so I'm I'm saying all this to to explain better the idea why is necessary because ultimately when it comes to Hashem and it comes to what path should I choose the beginning of Pikov we said last week not this shabas two weeks ago Rabi says what is the path which is the path that man should choose. So there's an interpretation a shows a person their path and that's a soul thing that's not academic it's not taludic it's deep inside and you know yesterday just there's someone I know here who married a Ukrainian girl. He's an American, a babichabadnik, very fine person. And he had this strong desire to have a bakery cuz he was for a while he was doing as a bucker. He was doing work in in Ukraine. Not Ukraine actually, sorry. Hungary over there. No, we're next to Misha. Not far is um no. Yes, Gimlier last week was the yard of Shila Kenned. So he he got he got into that whole thing came back to America and he opened such a thing and it was a flop. Not because his food was delicious. I tasted his food. It was it was called car Carpathian but it was in the wrong location location and location that that thing never changes. Once in a blue moon there'll be an exception and there's a reason for it. But overall, so when you have this great product, but you park it, you put it in a neighborhood that is uh not exactly too Jewish to put it mildly near us. There's a neighborhood called Kensington. It's the most mixed neighborhood I believe in the world. That's what I was told. Okay. That's where Muhammad Ata was found. Uh that's where he lived. uh when he uh hijacked the plane and caused 911 he lived on Ditmist in East Third which is borders burough park and it's called Kensington so it's that type of a neighborhood and then you have to boys coming from Cortellu in East 9inth up and down right and it's a very mixed neighborhood but the vibes don't feel real Jewish and and and and and maybe safe, you know, on and on and on. And I had the same experience, by the way, in California. I've told you that I in 1994, I made a hidden clandestine kabat house. It was called Cafe Schmoo on Beverly Boulevard and Gardener in the Hollywood section. Not Yeah. West Hollywood. And across me, across the street was a large building. And I would always see people auditioning to, you know, for Hollywood. Down the road was the CBS station with the farmers market. So, it's that right. Um, I'm sure uh our old student would know who what I'm talking about. U forget he's from LA. Anyway, so I rented,00 foot storefront. In one year, we had 6,000 unit people walk through the doors. They could Hill and his wife, they want to come out for a coffee or a tea or to hear some kosher Jewish music or Hill would perform. IT WAS AT OUR CAFE, MATZA SHABAS. It was really, really a wonderful thing. I still have this dream of of of opening another one. I'm just still trying to find the right location. Anyway, so then somehow I got wind of a of a a professional um studio uh a stage, what do they call club like? It went out of business. I happened to see it. IT WAS FOUR TIMES THE SIZE OF MY PLACE. It had a professional studio with stage with lighting. So I said to myself, THIS IS A NO-BRAINER. AND IT WAS THE SAME PRICE, maybe a few dollars more. I said, "What's the big deal?" So, I moved away from the ground floor there. This was on the second floor and it was on a street called Melrose. If you know what Melrose represents in California, uh you would probably not you wouldn't walk there. And we lived on one side. The yeshiva the kabad yeshiva or kabad was on one side and mero separated. THEN YOU WENT TO THE OTHER SIDE AND ON BOTH SIDES all from yeden lived still live but you had to cross meros. It was on the second floor. It was a flop. I mean I had I had Rabbi Yeitz Ginsburg there once or twice and I thought I would you know there would be a thousand people. IT WAS A FLOP. A FEW, YOU KNOW, SOME PEOPLE CAME. I had uh I don't know, Peter Him and Bob Dylan's son-in-law performed for me, but I think that was at the old location. But I I I had good good quality people. Why? Cuz people didn't want to have they felt uh dirty, ugly, disgusted just walking in that area. Right? So why am I sharing all this is because the the the the the nishama the nishama is so powerful that we don't know we make decisions based on rationale based on perception based on understanding A and B is C and one and one is two it's all limited to our perception and muna has also faith. You say faith is faith. Yeah, faith is faith. THE QUESTION IS WHAT CAUSES THE FAITH? What is the content of your faith? So the Reban this mimemer takes apart this idea and he says that the first level of faith is based on perception and even seeing ria the soul sees the soul above sees sends a message INTO YOUR SOUL HERE below and tells you you know what instead of driving on this route 443 today drive on another route another way and later you hear that there was trouble on Route 443. What made what made you make that change? You can't always explain it. You don't know, right? And sometimes you see clearly. So this first person that who made this cafe, so he he he wanted to now, you know, um do a job that involves, you know, law enforcement as a front Jew. and he he filled all fulfill all the papers and he found out that he'll be able to keep Shabas. He was down in Miami for Pesak and he spoke to someone from uh from the ALF Institute that deals with the prisons and knows the the right people and the person says let me talk to the commissioner. I I know who he is and he picks up the phone and he says so everything's set for this guy for for for shopping. He says no. says when you come into the to the academy the first year you're going to have Saturday duty so you won't be able to give shots so overnight he's he and this was a dream because he's struggling with parasa and this is a dream it'll be a good good salary and a good pension the same day as he quits someone offers him a position to do something else in Manhattan it's not you know his dream job but he's getting paid nicely he told me. So what's going on over here? The nom is playing. The nish is acting. So you have to pay attention to the nish. But the rebba says all that is a superimposed nish experience. Then there is THE NISH ITSELF ON ITS own generates its faith in God. who helps a ye find their own faith in God without it being superimposed on the Jewish. So in other words, what we're learning here is that a reb is basically a pointer for you to explore and find your mission, your faith, your your connection. You have to do it. A Reb CAN POINT YOU TO THE RIGHT WAY. And believe me, there are people he pointed the right way, but they did whatever they they they decided. The famous example that my wife and I were discussing the other day is Dr. Velv, who was uh most recent at Ber University, a Nassau scientist. He's out there in Minneapolis and he was a strong Zionist. Strong Zionist from his youth. He wants to go down. A Jew wants to go to Jesus. Who am I talking to? All of you who've gone to. So he wants to go to and he writes to the Reb. He had a strong relationship with the Reb. So he was a very I I knew Velv. I I knew him. I brought him twice to Marin County to speak to my congregants in my community and and I and I drove around with him. I I knew him. I knew him. He was a very special person. But he was a he was he was an opinionated person. HE DIDN'T GET TO THE TOP JUST BEING, you know, a little mellow sheep. This was a man with a backbone. And he was a Zionist and he had certain feelings and he was a Yiddishist. He could read THE OLD STYLE YIDDISH cuz he grew up in Brooklyn with Yiddishist parents. So you're talking about a very quality person. He becomes in 1964 Rabbi Feller of Minnesota, you know, comes to see him one day and in the middle of meeting and he didn't want to give him a meeting. He wasn't religious at the time and finally he gives him the meeting and it's 4:30, the sun's down. Feller says to to to Green, "Excuse me, Professor Green, um, I need to pray the afternoon service." He he was boiling inside. I DIDN'T WANT TO GIVE YOU AN AN APPOINTMENT. I HAVE TIME. I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS RABBIS and I I I agreed to give you an appointment to meet and now you're taking more time cuz you got to pray and that turned him around. That changed him because he saw that this Jew means it. So you can be president and you can be Velv Green and A NASA SCIENTIST. GOD COMES BEFORE all of this. And that was the beginning. So he had a strong relation. He introduced him to the Reb and he had correspondence. So he says writes to the Reb, he wants to be make aliyah. He wants to go to and the Reb says to him, "It's a wonderful idea except you have students and and people who rely on you at the university because he was a professor as well. How could you forsake them? Who can reach them? I can't reach them." The says the can't reach them. You're at the university. They need you. Years went by, he pushed it off. It came to a point as he was getting older. He didn't write to the reb ask him for permission. He notified the rebba that he's making aliyah. He gets in his post box whatever there's a letter congratulate from congratulations on your making. What do we see? did and anduhenuab who was his rabbenu at the time advises him now it's up to him to bite to doesn't take away your free will so I I say that because sometimes you'll hear the argument well having a reba is like you're losing your independence and free will it's nonsense you don't you don't ab shows you and teaches you the best way how to use your free will but at the end of the day could you rebel and reject and say no I don't want it of course so this is all we went off on a tangent a little bit but just to explain the importance of what he's saying here in the so let's go back to the text the second line towards the end on page the mit The first level of faith b is that's based on seeing that his his masle sees although it's very powerful and the reba writes in the in the in the brackets as is known the word is comes from the root word ms right you see it histo one experiences because he sees something he said it's tremendous truth that's the that's that's the idea of A I SAW IT myself this is what I was elaborating on nevertheless since that faith is because of a certain outside stimuli i.e. some reason the Reb writes in the in the pre because he sees something and it's not bound to his very essence who he is there's above missing here I think page 363 top line it's not 100% necessary that'll haven't seen a snfish. You hear that? You could even see something and say, "I saw it in my own eyes, but it won't necessarily lead you to jump into the fire for Hashem because it's imposed. It's not you." And that this answers issues that you know we've hear and seen and maybe experienced. people who see things, right? You all saw us October 7th. No, you know, we had a pandemic before that. I remember there was all this discussion about minimizing, you know, and wedding expense, especially the way they do it out here in in New York and all that. No, I promise you today we're back to square one. We're back to square one. But what happened? Pandemic people died. Desire was a constant zas bubben. It's real, right? It says we saw it with our own eyes. I heard it with my own ears. I I myself was very ill. So we so what happened over here that uh six years later or so the histo doesn't express itself in in in a poish in an actuality that you change your behavior. The answer is because it's not you and if it's not you it wears off. That's what he says. Let's continue. But the second level where it causes the Jew to have it's because his faith in God is who he is. YOU YOU CAN'T SEPARATE THE TWO. And therefore, IF YOU SEPARATE THE TWO, YOU'RE NOT HERE. It's impossible. And look at the last words. These are powerful. It is impossible for him to deny the existence of God. Now I'll just finish with this concept. There's a difference between saying I believe in God or I cannot deny God. What's the difference? When you say I believe in God proactive, it's still not you. WHEN YOU SAY I CAN'T DENY GOD, that's you. I CAN'T. WHY CAN'T YOU? BECAUSE IF I EXIST, I CAN'T. This is who I am. A a human BEING HAS A FACE OF a human being. He He can't have a He can't have A FACE OF AN ANIMAL. HE CAN act like an animal. He can appreciate animals, but he But HE'S A HUMAN FACE. IMPOSSIBLE. So when we say faith in God, the first level is what will I do based on who I am and my training and my training and outside stimuli and my teachers and my family and my community and the surroundings around me and the world occurrences. All of that leads me to have I see God. I believe in God. I have faith in God. No. Are you ready to jump into the fire? No. Not necessarily. But the second idea of faith that why we need au that's what the Reb's point is. The real reason we need a mohenu is so that we should find our faith inside us without any outside stimul stimuli. And when we do that, we cannot deny God because then we're denying ourself. Can a person deny himself? Yeah. A person who's not well, self-destructive. But that means that the person isn't balanced, harmonized. The person is ill, sick, and and and needs treatment. But a person who's well can't go against themselves. This is who you are. So the says teaches us to find out how we are one with God. Hence the faith in God. I hope you understood it's it's a deep concept. Tomorrow we'll continue uh on the next page. Have a great day everyone. Zoom. Thank you. Byebye. You're welcome. Byebye. Byebye. Thank you.