Letters of the Rebbe: "Treat Your Spiritual Activities Like a Business" (Class 17)

Good evening, shalom. Welcome back to 30 letters in 30 days. We have a very special Maztov tonight. Yes, we do. Barak Hashem, a young man who is uh someone who I know personally. I got to see him Barashem today at the Oil right after his engagement. Um, of course we're speaking about label Shamto from West Bloomfield, Michigan, who got engaged today to Kaya Abber from Es Diego, California. And we want to wish a Mazletov to his parents to Ley and Basi Shamuv who were more than instrumental. the word instrumental does not do justice to how much uh support and guidance and resources they committed to this project. So if you are enjoying 30 letters in 30 days, please wish Maz to the Shtovs and that will be in lie of my going to the tonight in uh in Crown Heights. In fact, I saw Ley today and after we danced together on Francis Lewis Boulevard, he turned to me and he said, "You're not you're not going to be at the LA tonight. gonna be giving this year tonight. You got to know what's important. I said, "Okay, thank you." Very good. Very much. Very good. and Mazat. Anyways, Maz um regarding the learning that's going on, I mentioned last night that there was a get together here in the five towns where I am on Schlis and uh I spoke with Kani Wallawick today and she told me how well the event went last night and she said, "Could you give us another shout out?" And I said, "Of course, for the local team, of course, we can give another shout out to the nimas of the five towns." And uh congratulations on your successful meeting last night. I think they had uh Deini Greenberg from China who uh led the discussion of the letters. Uh also we should mention in Pittsburgh they're meeting tonight. Yes, Pittsburgh's meeting tonight. The first of three meetings they're going to be having in private homes. So, you see, it's not too late to get started if you want to have a local group discussing the letters. Also, we want to mention in uh New Haven, Connecticut, the you say the name of the school correctly, Basana Academy High School in New Haven. They're having a learnathon and they're getting sponsors for their learning of the 30 letters in 30 days and they're taking the money and sending it to the Schlim in Ukraine to help the Jewish community there. [snorts] So that's wonderful and maybe that's something others can do as well. Okay. Um remember to RSVP for the women's fabin that is oily alfniss. It's uh Monday night, April 11th at the aisle. Uh special venue has been secured one block away from the oil for a women's gathering, but space is extremely limited. So please RSVP at 30 letters 30days.com. All right, tonight's letter, letter number 17, Brooklyn Shalom. This letter is from the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Tavis means the Reb is writing to a man. Okay. Well, after a silence which is still not understood. We've had this before where the Reb tells people, "You got to write more often. Uh, why haven't I been hearing from you? What's going on? Why the delay?" So, the Reba opens the letter saying, "After a silence, which I still don't understand, like why you weren't writing for so long? I don't understand." But after that long silence, I got your letter from Shabas. And in your letter you write you recognize the need to take part in kabad activities. The expression here is kabad, the vineyard of kabad. But that means in kabad activities which means here the outreach activities meaning as distinct from the avoid of kabad the personal work and selfdevelopment but here it's an illusion or a reference to activist type things like uh teaching tyra and helping Jews to do mitzvah and uh to identify Jewishly that kind of stuff. Okay. And just to remind you all, [laughter] you're reading this letter in 2022, but this is written in 1955. So when we talk about kabad activities, and this is pertinent to the content of the letter, you're thinking about it from a perspective of hindsight where so much programming is already known and famous and has a reputation. We know about the activities of Kabad because it's been going on for decades now. But this is in 1955. Okay. So this is in the the very uh early years of rebus and kabad activities as we and the whole world have come to know them. Okay. And that's pertinent to the context of the letter as as you will see. Okay. So you say to me that you know that it's important that you should be involved in activities and you ask how and in what should you get started you don't have a a suggestion you don't have an idea how to go about that okay it's a very nice question somebody's writing to the rebba and saying I know that the rebba has certain things that he wants to accomplish and that these are important things for the Jewish people and I realize that it's important for me to get involved in it. Um, but I don't know what am I supposed to do? I tell me where am I supposed to start? Could you give me some instructions? Like tell me if you want me to get involved. I'm ready to get involved. But like give me give me a list of items that I'm supposed to go uh get get started on. Watch what the Reb says, it's understood that when we're talking about such things, the way that you should get to work and the the nature of the work itself is going to be dependent on the circumstances of the place. It has to fit where you are. I don't know where this person is, where he's writing from. I mean, it's clear from the next line that they're from another country, not from the United States. But the Debb is saying, wherever you're writing from, the way in which you engage in these outreach activities has to be culturally appropriate. It has to make sense for the people that you're working with. It has to you have to look around at what the needs are and assess what would be the right way to go about it. So, the Reb says me therefore automatically consequently pella it's it's unthinkable. It's a wonder. How could you ask me such a thing from overseas? In other words, the Reb says, "I'm not there. You're there. You're asking me how to get started. You're the one to answer that question. You're the ish Alasar. You're the guy in the location. Figure it out. you're the one who's best suited to figure out how to get started in kabadat activities in your place. I think this is a very important concept for a lot of reasons for a lot of reasons. Um maybe I'll start with the most particular and then I'll go to the more general. I think it's important also uh in in the particular regarding the history and the the evolution the development of of kabad activities. Like I said earlier, we're looking at it from a hindsight is 2020 perspective. Um, I think what a lot of people don't realize is while the MIT, the 10 mim, and if you're interested in these 10 mto or 10 mitzvah campaigns, I actually did an entire series on them last year as a part of my work here in uh in the five towns of the five towns. We had a series on the 10 mim and all of those classes are on soulwords.org and I believe they're also on the soulwards YouTube channel and I believe they're also on Torah anytime. So, uh, and on all of our podcast platforms, so they shouldn't be hard to find, but we did a series on each of the 10 mitzvah campaigns. Those were initiated by the Reb and the Reb brought them out at different times at different junctures and explained what the nature of that mitzvah campaign is, what the parameters are and and and the reason why it's important right now. But then you should also understand that there were c certain things that were what we'll call an isusa de las that came from I'll give you some examples and I and I certainly don't think this is an exhaustive list but these are just things that came to mind mitzvah tanks you think about kabad outreach activities you think about those RVs the little Lavicha kids in Crown Heights they don't know they're called RVs they think they're called tanks by the way you ever hear labavicha kid saying oh we should rent the tank. He doesn't mean like a military tank. He means an RV. Um, but you've seen those RVs parked in Manhattan or wherever. [snorts] Um, that's something that came from and the Reb acknowledged and encouraged and uh obviously once it had the Reba's encouragement then the theidum doubled down on it. um kabat houses the idea of a kabad house that that's that's something that came from and then encouraged and gave his blessing to um public manura lightings that was something originally that came from and then was was encouraged by the reb. So there were different things that we think of as like totally enshrined as archetypical kabad activities. Some of them were instituted by the Reb. Some of them were things that figured out on their own were good activities to be involved in and and then the Reb acknowledged it or even um publicly spoke about it, encouraged others to to follow suit. So it's important to understand that when somebody's writing to the in 1955 and saying I want to get involved. Okay, so first of all, this is before the 10. But secondly, um, even in 1955, there's a certain amount of creativity and initiative and ingenuity that the Reb expects his to engage in. Okay. One of my favorite stories of really one of my favorite stories about the Reb of of all of all the stories. Um and it's not a miracle story and it's not a story although there are plenty of such stories. It's I'll I'll tell it to you. um Nakman Sudalam who was uh a in London, England and Schl who I met a few times um I spent some time with him some of my trips to uh England some of my speaking trips to London and uh he was just uh very I would just say uh the type of a a role model aid you you you like to watch and you look at him and you feel inspired like this is the way I'd like to be when I grow up you know he was that kind of person and very humble softspoken um and tremendously devoted to the so the story that I just love about the shalom is when he went on this was he was one of the first and this was in the 1950s okay the 1950s how many already uh had gone out and uh he was learning in 770 and he wanted to go on and he he had expressed his willingness to join the Reb's army. Uh he told Rabbi Khakov the chief secretary and there was sort of like this back and forth sort of like checking in process of like am I ready yet? Is the rabbi going to send me yet? And there would be like this discussion internally and then Rabbi Khanov would inform Rabbi Sudak uh it's not the time yet. I think he would gay lenin you know go back to your your bench in yeshiva in 770 and continue continue studying and then finally it came and there were there's a whole long story. He suggested him different plays like like Turkey and he said okay why not Turkey? Would he know anything about Turkey? No I don't know whatever. He sent me to Turkey I go to Turkey. In the end, in the end, um, the Reb sent Nakman Sodak to London, England, where is also where he he got married as well. Um, so he was going to London for life. Okay. He just signed away his name on the dotted line. That's it. It's it's it's a one-way ticket. Okay. I'm signing up for life. The Reb the Reb is sending me I like I told you the the the one suggestion was go to Turkey. He didn't know what Turkey was. He just said, "Fine, you send me to Turkey. I'll go to Turkey." Okay. The end it was London. Fine. Send me to London. Go to London. Fine. He's ready and I signing up. I'm going one way ticket. Okay. Now, in the Abisc asks the a very sensible question. By the way, when I get to London as as as a schlak, what do I do there? [laughter] [gasps] I love I love that question because you understand that's the real NASA. NASA means I'm ready to commit to doing before I've even heard what it is that I need to do, what I've committed to. He was ready to sign his life away, not knowing what it entailed. He just knew it was something that I wanted, which is so beautiful to me. Now a beautiful question deserves a beautiful answer. And this beautiful question has a beautiful answer. You know what the Reb told young Rabbi Sudak? He told him there are thousands of things to do. Thousands of things to do. Go there. Keep your eyes open. Look around. Write in write your reports to me and keep your eyes open and you will see thousands of things to do. You see, in my humble opinion, if the Reba would have given Rabbi Sodak a list of things to do when he got to London, [snorts] it would have only limited the number of things that Rabbi Sodak would be able to do. Instead of giving a list, the Reb gave Rabbi Sudak eyes. Look around. Keep your eyes open. You will see thousands of things to do. And that's a real educator. And I and I've said this before and I'll say it again, especially when we're learning that EBA didn't tell us what to think. that taught us how to think. That's what it means to give somebody eyes is to teach them how to think. Teaching somebody how to look around and notice what needs to be done. So if I tell you do this, do this. Do this. Okay. So check off the list. I did this. I did this. Now what? Now I'm sitting here. I have nothing to do. Rabbi, give me another job to do. You know what? I can't constantly tell you what to do. Open your eyes, figure it out, and you're going to see thousands of things to do. Now, I said to you on a very general level also, I wanted to remark about why I think this is such an important idea. People talk a lot about uh where the Reb said, uh, I'm giving it over to you. who have done everything I can. And uh I've long thought that if you're really really intellectually honest about what the Reb said at the first official, you can't be that shocked by because the Reb said from day one, yeah, I'll lead. I'll set the tone. I'll encourage. But you guys got to do the work. And not only you got to do the work, but you got to use your head. And I can't be the only one who cares enough to see what needs to be done. You have to care enough that you're going to notice something that needs to be done. The mommies out there know what I'm talking about. When the kids say, "Clean the house. What needs cleaning?" For goodness sake, should I tell you, go pick up the jacket. Go put away the toy. I don't I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO TELL YOU EVERY item that needs to be picked up and cleaned up. If you care about this house, you're going to open your eyes. You're going to see what needs to be done. So, I have to tell you there's a Jew who lives on your block who didn't put on fill in this morning. Come on, open your eyes. Figure it out. There are Jews who are not going to eat matzah the on Pesak night. Figure it out. How to get it to them? I don't know. You'll figure it. Bring it to their house. Bring them to your house. use your brain. And that's what this this letter from the Reb is about to say, that I can't spoon feed you. You want to take part in Kabad activities, then you're going to have to care enough about it to start figuring out what needs to be done. Let's let's jump back inside here. [sighs and gasps] It is astounding to me. It's astounding that I need to mention that I need to invoke the explanation that my father-in-law, the Reb gave about the expression, the turn of phrase often employed by our sages. One who is occupied in tora, one who is occupied in mitzvah. What did the say about this expression? The fact that our sages describe somebody who learns as or someone who's doing a mitzvah, someone who's mitzvah is like the word as which means business. So the says, "Yeah, t that's what my father-in-law said that you got to treat it like a business. It's like a business. A businessman, someone who runs a store, someone who has an an enterprise, an entrepreneur, doesn't sit in some inner room and wait around until someone will come to him and say to him that he's interested in doing business with him. That's not how it works. If you're in business, you don't sit in an inner room and wait for customers to figure out where you are and come find you. If you're in business, you go out and find customers. Either you're networking and you're talking to people. Do you know anyone who needs what I'm selling? Or you're advertising, you you hire a marketing guy. But if you're in business, you're not passive. If you're in business, you go out and you find something to to to to do. Well, that's the same thing with with spiritual activism. You got to treat it like a business. Don't sit around and say, "Well, if somebody mentions to me they didn't put on fillin today, so I'll go get my fillin." Get your fillin, go to the park, stand on a bench, and start asking people. I'm not literally saying that that's the instructions. What I'm saying is if that's what it takes, if that's the place where you are and that's how you're going to be able to help yeden, so that's what you got to figure out how to do. Okay. All right. Let's continue. to the contrary. He goes out and he searches are there people who need what he wants or who what he has to sell. He goes out and he convinces people why what he's selling is good for them. He doesn't wait. He goes out and he says to somebody, "Excuse me, could I interest you in this product? Could I tell you about how it will improve your life?" The same thing has to be with with your Yiddish kite, with your Jewish activism. If you would be as interested, meaning take as much care and concern with your Jewish activism as you would be with a literal business where you're making money. [snorts] In other words, something that only your body benefits from. Think about it. how much care and concern you're going to put into something where the only thing you stand to gain is making money which is a benefit for you physically. Now contrast that with something that's going to be good for you materially and spiritually. How much more so do you should take interest and be a go-getter? [snorts] So if you put in that much work that you put you would put into a material parnosa into your spiritual parnosa I should mention that expression spiritual parnosa is a common expression it's a common expression you should look in the I don't have time right now to learn it inside but uh there's a wrote a say for of collections of daily sayings so talks about going out and finding your parnos it's not just the parnosa the the the the means through which your material livelihood comes to you. There's also such a thing called your spiritual livelihood. So the Reb is saying you got to be a go-getter. You got to go seek it out. So your material livelihood only benefits your body and think how hard you work for that. Now think of how hard you should work for your spiritual parnosa which benefits both your spiritual and material life your soul and your body. Okay? And this is similar to what we spoke about last night by the way that there's no contradiction or division or dichotomy between the spiritual and the material. Okay. Let's continue. Especially we're getting close to the 10th day of the 11th month. That means which is the yard sight of the rabbis. On the day of the yard sight, the nama of the one whose yard sight is that day goes from a high world to an even higher world. or like our sages say that the righteous have no rest in the world to come because they're constantly progressing from one plane to an even higher plane in paradise. So being that the day of is coming and the is about to have an aliyah. Okay, what does this mean? Therefore, everyone who has a relationship with him Gamali is also drawing down this aliyah. In other words, when the Reb that you're connected to has an aliyah on his yard site, it's giving you a spiritual boost as well. So, the Reb is writing to this person who apparently had a connection to the furb and is saying to him, "Guy, you got to get busy." And you want to know something? It's a good time to get busy because you're about to have a spiritual boost and be drawn to a higher level with the when he has his aliyah on But listen, you got to make vessels to be able to contain that spiritual boost. The spiritual boost is coming, but you got to make vessels to hold on to it. And that means you've got to actually put in your effort that that spiritual boost should translate into your thought, speech, and action. In other words, there can be this energy that's in the air, but your antenna, so to speak, isn't picking up on it. You know, there's the Wi-Fi, but uh you know, you you don't know the password, right? So, you've got to do your part that when there's this spiritual ali, when there's this boost of energy, when the tadic has his yardite that you've got to do your forth effort so that it will affect you on a conscious level, meaning thought, speech, and action. And I said thought, speech and action. But the main thing I want to underline is action. The main thing is the action. Is a rabbitic uh turn of phrase meaning um this world or the world as we know it in its pre messianic pre-perfected state. And that before the perfection of the world the main thing is action right now is about being active because we have work to do and after the work is done ah then our main occupation will shift and then like Rambam explains about the messianic era then our work is over and it's more about basking in divine knowledge and where we we'll we'll have a a a a an existence where we're not toiling to perfect the world anymore. We're sort of just enjoying the the the spiritual bliss of a world which is already perfected. So this is what the Reb says here especially because it's coming very soon days of which it is said and the Reb doesn't fill in the words the Reb says etc. Um, it's a reference to a gaming shabas which the says and the gives some other that means of this is not the place. But the rabb told him go look up those sources just because we're short on time. I'll tell you very briefly the the the source in Shabas that the deba truncates and doesn't want to say the full words it's because the words themselves taken alone could be I think that's the way the reason the doesn't say it here could be taken as a negative thing this is speaking in kahelis a lot of kahelis speaks in a sort of I would say a tone that could sound cynical and he refers to the yim or the shaimit that I don't want that I have no desire for and the Goran Shabas we see says that means Msiah what does it mean it means that in the times of Msiah meaning this world after its perfection and refinement there's nothing there's nothing anymore to do there's no way to incur any more merit because everything's done and so the Reb is saying, "Listen, very soon everything's going to be done and you're going to lose out on the opportunity to have taken part in it. So, you know, get to work and and urgently, Hashem should give you the merit to be able to report good tidings in all of the above. In other words, write to me and let me know about some of the creative stuff that you were able to innovate in how to help Jews in your area." basically what the Reb is saying. Yeah. What I'm telling you, so this is by the way very important because sometimes the Reb tells something to somebody and what the Reb is telling them is only for them and you have to be careful about that who says the Reb would tell anybody else to do this. The Reba says here explicitly this what I'm telling you is applicable to all which means men and women. So also not just not just but anyone who has the ability to do to do anything here. Why why is why does this apply to everybody who has the an ability to do something here? Because now more than ever in this generation this kind of work is agrab says specifically meaning it's not only in this generation but especially nowadays it's a it's a we've had that expression before in an earlier letter it means a mitzvah that it's some mitzvah it's a mitzvah that the thing should be done doesn't mean I have to do it okay like gave you an example I think last time we spoke about like a muza the house has to have if there has certain doorways that are muza according to the parameters of so that doorway needs the muza doesn't mean that I need to have a doorway that has a muza it's like if and and what if I live in a car what if I live in a mitzvah tank okay that's a shila actually but uh you know what if I rent a different hotel room every night so I don't have a muza right so it's not agra I don't have to go out and and and get a muza right but putting on that's agra I have to put on I'm I'm the one who has to make sure that filling goes on me. Okay. So being involved in Jewish outreach is agra. In other words, it's not that it's something that has to get done and however gets it get however it gets done by whomever gets it done as long as it gets done. No, you have to be the one or you have to be one of the ones who gets it done. It's you have to do it. It's not enough to say, "Oh, thank God. I showed up and it was already done." No, no, no. And if and if and if that's the case, you showed up and somebody already put filling on the guy. So then you still have a to go find somebody else to put fill on or some other mitzvah. Okay, with blessings for good news in all of the above. And that's our letter for tonight. Masle tub again label.