The Chabad Response to the Enlightenment - Yud Tes Kislev Lecture at Yale University Jewish Society

the yeshiva.net [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] tonight we have come together to try to give some basic articulation so that we should be able to appreciate some of its fundamental concepts now hebrew university had a very renowned professor of kabbalah of mysticism his name was gershom i think he died in 1982. kersham shalom in one of his books quotes a story that he heard from the famous literary giant in israel whose name was shai egnon joseph agnon he was a great writer he won the israeli prize for literature huh nobel prize nobel prize i stand corrected and he shared a story with professor the story is a telling one it's a characteristic one and it goes like this the baal shem tov the founder of the hasidic movement who was born in 1698 and passed away in the year 1760. rabbi israel balshampton was his name had accustomed when he needed something to happen when he needed a flow from heaven to change something he would go to the forest he would light a fire he would sing a song and say his prayers and he accomplished what he had to accomplish and then the baal shem tov died and his disciple had to accomplish what his master wanted to accomplish he went to the forest and he lit a fire and he said the prayers but he said i cannot sing like my master the balshampton sang but at least we can light the fire we can say the prayers we can come to the forest and he accomplished what he had to accomplish and then when he passed away his disciple had to bring down the heavenly flow upon his brethren so he went to the forest and he lit the fire and he said you know i can't sing like the balshampton of nor can i pray but at least we can light the fire come to the woods and everything was accomplished then he died and his disciple came to the forest and he said i certainly cannot sing like the balshampton i can't even pray or light the fires like my predecessors but at least i can come to the woods i can show up and he accomplished what he had to accomplish and then when he died the story concludes his disciple also had to bring down flow from heaven and he told his students and said you know i cannot sing like the holy balshampton i can't pray like his disciple i can't even light a fire like his disciple i don't even know where to go i don't know the place to go but at least i can tell the story and that will have to do it and this represents the value of telling the story i'm not sure we can light the same fire or sing the same song or pray the same way or we even know where to go in life but we can tell the story and it's a story worth telling because as professor stern pointed out so beautifully it has tremendous relevance to our day and age as well so here i'm going to highlight one aspect of hasidism particularly chabadha citizen in the context of history jewish history and various journeys within jewish history and jewish thought and then demonstrate its applications to our generation and our milieu today whether here in yale university or the world at large the jewish world and also the larger world the 18th century caught many jews by surprise at the end of that century dramatic changes would transform the face of jewish life jewish community the jewish world in western europe as well as in eastern europe i'm going to say a few words about western europe despite the fact that quantitatively you can't compare as professor strim pointed out what was happening in western europe to eastern europe simply as far as numbers are concerned but nonetheless the trends of western europe are extremely important to understand so in the same century when hasidism is revealed and expounded western society is transformed today we define it as as the enlightenment the emancipation the hebrew word for it is the haskalah it's fascinating that thinkers like david hume rousseau volteer thomas payne were all born literally in the same few years the end of the 1600s the beginning of the 1700s the same exact years as the founder of the hasidic movement in a very different country in a different climate the belgentiv is born on the border between ukraine and poland i say ukraine and poland because it depends who won the war on monday or thursday you know and here we're dealing with western europe germany france england but nonetheless the khasidim never saw this as simply coincidental so the very same years that the philosophers of the enlightenment began preaching and teaching a new language a very new language those very same years providence had a new movement and powerful movement developing in the jewish world in eastern europe now you see enlightenment and emancipation although not a jewish event exclusively at all nonetheless it caught the jewish people many segments of jewish society unprepared and by surprise enlightenment created very powerful challenges for jewish faith jewish religion jewish lifestyle jewish education jewish future and jewish destiny the fact that enlightenment removed the power from religion at the center of the world the church it removed power from the monarchy centralized power and suddenly the new vocabulary focused on humanism rationalism nationalism secularism the power of the individual the power of thought the power of reason ultimately romanticism existentialism and all of the various developments similar and different also posed great challenges to the jewish mind to the jewish consciousness both on a political and a communal level as well as what we call on a hashkafik level as an individual level a political level in western europe the great question of the jewish people was once the walls of the ghetto crumbled and they were offered a ticket the portals to larger society were opened the question became who are we are we a separate people under napoleon the famous statement was then made in france to the jews as individuals we will give everything to the jew as a member of a people nothing how can you be a people amidst the people if you're a frenchman you're a frenchman how can you have your own homeland called israel eretz israel judea how can you ask in your prayers and grace after meals we want to go back to a different homeland this was a crisis and then there became individually the question what is god's place as long as all over the world or much of the world focused on centers of power the church the king so the jews had the king of kings but the moment focus was now on reason on liberty on personal expression in one form or another judaism was now challenged to its core now enlightenment would ultimately travel to eastern europe and express itself in different forms but it would soon come from west to east and would become a major powerful movement in eastern europe as well in a very general way we can say that the jewish response to the powers and to the force of enlightenment emancipation generally can be divided into three insulation assimilation compartmentalization insulation there were those groups of jews especially hungarian jury which said the wolves of the ghetto came crumbling down in the 18th century in the 19th century we will rebuild our own artificial walls we will not allow our children to mix we will not integrate and hence we will not assimilate insulation became the new code word we must remain segregated if we are to remain the historical people of israel loyal to the torah its commandments as we have done for thousands of years through thick and thin we must detach we must segregate we must remain isolated insulation became a code and it continues to exist today there is such a segment of thought enduring and powerful its argument is there's a big world out there and we are not part of it we live in our own cycle we have our leaders our communities our lifestyle our philosophy we hatch them we match them we dispatch them all within the kahila then there was another trend this trend was assimilation assimilation meant we were forced to be separate we were forced to be segregated now that the world has finally allowed us entry into the larger civilization that is the call of the hour now of course there were many different forms of assimilation but the phosphate take moses mendelssohn moses mendelssohn is considered the father of enlightenment in germany he himself was a very religious jew he wrote a translation of hummish of the torah into germany he was observant he was brilliant man moshe mendelssohn he had six children four of them converted to four of his six children according to the historian gretz in the eighteen mid eighteen hundreds close to fifty percent of berlin jury converted volitionally to christianity that's what gretz writes he puts the number i think around 50 percent but the number whether he's accurate or he's a little awful it's more or it's less the phenomenon was an extraordinary phenomenon i mean famous jews like henry heine or karl marx or sigmund freud these are all products of the concept of assimilation it's a new world there are new opportunities assimilation then there is compartmentalization compartmentalization itself can be compartmentalized but basically it consists of the idea we're not going to completely insulate ourselves nor are we going to allow ourselves to assimilate we are going to compartmentalize which means we're going to try to integrate the both the best of both worlds we're going to become part of the new culture of the non-jewish culture but we're also going to retain components of judaism of course this philosophy of compartmentalization was subdivided this itself you know with jews i once heard from the late lubavitcher i heard this myself from him at a gathering he said why is it when one drew meets another jew so the greeting is shalam alaikam and the response is aleichem shalom right peace unto you unto you peace and he asked why isn't the response reciprocal and you should say i mean if you greet somebody in yale and you say hey good morning you don't expect them to say hey morning good hey how are you you are how how are you how are you good morning good morning goodbye goodbye why is it that by jews and his response was that when two jews meet even before the conversation begins they have to get into an argument so i say to you shalom alaikum and you say now what are you talking about you got it all wrong it's exactly the other way around it's shalom it's not peace on you it's unto you peace okay now we can begin to schmooze jews have been fighting from beginning of time they say it's just as a sophisticated people they gave their disputes and inner conflicts sophisticated names so we fight with the world and we created a branching university called sociology we fight with god and we gave it a name theology we fight with ourselves and we call it psychology but it's essentially about conflict so certainly compartmentalization also divided into many many different groups of course you have the reform movement as a response to the reform movement the first reforms of synagogue is created in 1810 in hamburg in germany by a rabbi named abraham jacobson my grandfather not just donkey we're all jacob's sins we're all sons of jacob at some point but he was i believe that i think that was the first reformed congregation reform was one form of compartmentalization you had a response you have conservative of course you had modern orthodox you had neo-orthodoxy rabbi professor manchester united the great orthodox luminary of german jewelry the rabbi of frankfurt mine what's the problem with insulation the issue with insulation we all understand we all understand uh the moment your child is exposed and sees the reality outside of his or her inner circle the immune system cannot deal with it if the basis of your religion is based on isolation on lack of information you're very vulnerable because the moment you open your eyes the moment you meet somebody out of your sect out of your group your whole foundation could be crumbled you were never prepared for it the challenge of assimilation well if you believe that judaism has no value whatsoever and the existence of the jewish people has no value then assimilation may be a good thing right i was at a conference about anti-semitism and one guy said the best thing to solve anti-semitism is let all jews assimilate so there won't be any jews left to hate so there won't be any anti-semitism well assimilation basically puts to end the reality of the jewish people the jewish message the jewish life compartmentalization seemed like a very promising idea it also poses two great challenges number one where do you draw the lines where do you draw the lines with compartmentalization what is important what is not important i was a number of years ago in uh in dublin in ireland i'm sitting in the orwell lodge hotel a woman comes to see me she sits on the couch and she tells me i i read in the irish times about you i see you're an orthodox rabbi i have two suggestions you go back to america and tell the jews to replace the chauffeur with the violin the show for the rams owner has given me migraine headaches from childhood in my progressive synagogue in dublin i instituted a violin concerto on rosh hashanah it's magnificent i said that's brilliant what's your second idea second idea is a smoker's boranyam kipper and then she tells me rabbi jacob said if you can explain to me the rationality behind a god who wants to hear a hundred sounds or 30 sounds or nine sounds of a ram's horn on rosh hashanah and enjoys hungry jews fasting you'll keep recretching all day how thirsty and hungry they are i will start doing it but as you and i know these are insane rituals these are insane commandments they have no logic it's ridiculous your rabbis made it up and they should be absolved i listened politely and respectfully which i always try to do and did not respond which really uh you know debates debates where every as you know in yale most debates no one is listening to anybody else you know i'm just waiting for my opponent to finish right so i can continue in life at least i try talking to people rather than debating so what was the point i'll answer she'll answer i listened respectfully an hour later she opens up and she tells me rabbi jacobson last saturday i received a triple stab in my heart triple stab i'm like oh you were right she says emotionally i said what was the stamp i'm quoting now i'm quoting her words she says i went to a wedding of my nephew my nephew married a non-jewish woman in a church on saturday a triple stab he intermarried on sabbath in a church and i had to attend because he's my nephew and i love him i stood up and i said robertson with all due respect i am very perturbed by your lack of respect for pluralism can marry whoever you want but you should respect your nephew's choice of romantic love and the fact that he's doing it on saturday in a church is his choice you don't have to marry a non-jew nor do you have to marry on sabbath in a church but what happened with pluralism what happened with respect for somebody else's emotions why didn't you go to church and celebrate his choice of love why this fanaticism why this parochialism why this isolationism she jumped up on the couch and she said rabbi jacobson you're an observant jewish rabbi speaking like this how do you speak like this i don't understand you you're pro into marriage on a church on shabbat is your wife jewish i said even my mother is jewish but i'm like in all sincerity what's the big deal and she says you forgot deuteronomy 11. i played them i said let's do the road that's in deuteronomy 11. she's like israel okay hero israel the lord is our god the lord is one not trinity but one a church believes in trinity it's against the torah now it was my turn i'm like have you forgotten leviticus seventeen have you forgotten leviticus you should afflict your soul on your kipper the day of rosh hashanah should be a yom teruah on jublium kipper of avartum chauffeur have you forgotten those verses she's like please this is the cake and that's the icing on the cake hashem okay no hashem is the icing on the cake you can get rid of the icing of the cake you can't get rid of the cake i said rebecca with all due respect your nephew says that she's is also the icing on the cake and who is the one to distinguish the moment you say that this verse this mitzvah is irrelevant it doesn't fit into the modern day culture it doesn't fit into my mindset why should your nephew or child grandchild not say the other fifty percent doesn't fit into my mindset and his or her child will say the last ten percent doesn't fit for me so where are the boundaries we are the borders with the world of compartmentalization challenge number one she responded to me and she said i have to think about it okay challenge number two is ambivalence ambivalence it's very confusing when you don't know who you are now we live in a generation where it's hard for many of us to say who we are because we're open to everything compartmentalization and jewish life created tremendous ambivalence ambivalence means who am i am i a jew am i not a jew you know when hender they say that anecdote when henry kissinger became the secretary of state of the us golden mayor was the prime minister of israel he sent she sent kissinger a note i look forward to a close working relationship with you after all kissinger is jewish henry kissinger a german jew responds to golden media and says i have to state my priorities number one i'm an american citizen number two i am secretary of state of the u.s number three i happen to be jewish golda meir responds that is exactly why i look forward to such a close working relationship with you because here in israel we read from right to left but the question of ambivalence is a great question who am i do i read from right to left or left to right i don't mean linguistically i can read two languages i can write two languages i mean existentially who am i you see insulation has the advantage you know who you are but you're insulated assimilation is there's no tension you're assimilated compartmentalization besides the question of boundaries created a tremendous tension in the psyche of the jewish people who are we what is our mission statement what is our essence are we jewish americans are we american jews are we german jews are we jews living in germany and this tension exists on many many levels what is the message to your youth what is the message to your own soul to your own heart what is your identity three general responses insulation a assimilation compartmentalization tonight i postulate to you there was a fourth response but it was not a response and that's its power it was not a response hasidim have an old little tradition and it goes like this why was the baal shem tov born now that's not an academic historical question why somebody was born academically we can ask when was he born where was he born how did he develop why he was born that's a hasidic question if you know what i mean and their answer to this question is very interesting we have an old tradition by jews jewish grandmothers that when somebody's in a faint what do you do well first you tell them there's food okay but besides that you go over to their ear and you whisper their name you whisper their name into their end somehow their name has a mystical power to reinvigorate them so the hasidim say in the late in the late in the late 1600s in the 18th century the jewish people were in a comatose state so god went over to them and whispered their name into their ear their name was israel that whisper was manifested in the birth of a man named israel israel what they were trying to say with this with this symbolic idea is that the hasidic movement came to rescue the jewish people who were in a comatose state in a comatose state not only financially politically economically but also in a comatose state as a result of the tremendous ideological challenges created by the new winds of enlightenment the hasidic movement then is really a fourth response particularly chabad because developed hasidism in a very systematic analytical intellectual fashion we had earlier conversation at the table when professor stern brought out that what's unbelievable is that the chabad masters documented almost everything so we have and i'm not exaggerating hundreds of volumes of chabad literature of hasidism beginning with the first rabbit rabbi zaman of liberation and whose liberation day we celebrate here tonight and it developed the whole hasidic idea in a very elaborate systematic and structured fashion which is what khabad means is a hebrew word with three letters the acronym of three words biblical words which means wisdom understanding knowledge according zalman conception comprehension and application the three necessary steps in developing a cerebral intellectual idea you conceive it you comprehend it fully and then you apply it representing his focus on internalization systematic development elaboration documentation understanding and so forth what was unique however about the hasidic movement is unlike reform unlike conservative unlike even orthodoxy it was never a response to the enlightenment you will never find the discourse of rabbi schneider's who says says so-and-so you say so-and-so you'll never find that samarth said say nietzsche says so-and-so and here is our response kant says so and so get to schiller says so and so shopping out it's not a response at first glance it would seem completely isolated in its own self-contained cocoon not responding to the outside world to the secular world it's not even in western germany yet here lay its power because in a war a military war and a war of ideas the moment you're responding you are already yielding you are already you have already been defeated because if i attack you i define the context of the battle i already have framed you you are now responding to my war based on my terms that's the disadvantage of being in a defensive position i am the one who defines the terms i define the context the moment judaism was responding to enlightenment and emancipation it was already weakened by the very fact that enlightenment has forced it into a position and now it was forced to define itself in context of the enlightenment so what happens here is that the moment i launch an attack of ideas or words or any form of attack i now define the context and you are now responding and the very response that is the weakness the interesting thing about the hasidic movement was not a response rather what it did was and rabbi zalman of lyadi took this and really developed a universe of thought based on it it said we must go and revisit and excavate and discover a depth in judaism a sophistication in judaism a theology of judaism that ultimately would allow it not only to confront but to be able to give the jewish people the intellectual and emotional perspective and stamina to be able to deal with all the new ideas that were introduced into the world of western europe and then eastern europe through the enlightenment and through the emancipation or to put it differently the chabad has message was not hey we have a new reality how do we maintain god or how do we maintain religion in this reality no that was not the question the question was this if the torah is true as hasidism believed if god was true as hasidism believed if the divine god gave the jewish people an eternal torah for all of history what message is there in torah that encompasses the modern age it's not how torah fits into the modern age the question is how does the modern age fit into torah if torah is eternal if torah is the divine blueprint for existence as khasidism and judaism believed over the generations the blueprint must have a perspective for very different times and climates so don't look at judaism in face of the enlightenment study enlightenment from the perspective of judaism the khabad khasirik the khabad hasidic philosophy began articulating ideas that were previously dormant and latent in judaism that allowed i believe adherents disciples and pupils and by extension many of the jewish people affected by it in one way or another to view judaism in a fashion that the great challenges posed by the modern age would not only not undermine judaism but would actually allow judaism to unleash a new vigor a new depth a new sophistication and a new energy and here i want to point out a few of major themes and ideas that rabbi schneider zalman the founder of chabad and his successors articulated and explained which i see as a direct correlation to confronting the new realities of the world but not from a defensive point of view always from an offensive point of view number one and i'm going to say this briefly because really each one of these subjects deserves a semester at least a semester probably a few semesters so i'm going to go through point by point briefly one of the anyone who's even a basic student of chabad has sadism knows one of the greatest ideas of the ball shampoo but rabbi schneider's breathes the idea i would like to say he's infatuated and obsessed with idea but it's not it's not such an appropriate word he breathes it he lives it he does not stop talking about it demonstrating it explaining it in almost every single discourse and we have a lot of discourses is the idea that uh when we say god is one hashem it does not mean as maimonides or other jewish philosophers said god is not comprised of parts or negating polytheism there's no two gods there's one god god is not made up of different units he is one but it means something else god is one means god is the only one in other words god is synonymous with reality the only true substantive reality is divine every other reality is essentially an expression of the divine reality in the famous hasidic words quoting from deuteronomy ain't it there is nothing besides god what does this mean is nothing besides god it means that the term god is not a good word because the term god means god is a being in heaven a guy who has a long white beard if you do a mitzvah he throws you a cotton candy if you do a sin i'll punish you if not in this world in the next world in hasidism you'll never find the word god not even in hebrew you'll find the word insof that's where is zarman's favorite term ain't self means the endless one the infinite one in other words that which encompasses all it's infinite there's no place no person no experience no space conceptually physically that is devoid of its presence the two great examples of chabad for this okay you're all students in university so you all know the great gift god has given mankind it allows us to survive school it's called day dreaming right we sit not in professor stearns classes but in some other classes in your class they daydream really we sit and our daydreaming our daydreams are very interesting right in your daydream you can travel to australia first class in your daydream you can go shopping you can buy your dresses and then return them in your daydream you can you can write your phd in your daydream you can do everything in your daydream you're at a yankees game and there's 30 000 people in the stadium and you're eating your kosher hot dogs of course and potato chips and drinking your beer and you hear the applause in your day room there are people there are emotions there are voices and then the lecture is over and suddenly you're up from your daydream and all the characters are gone and you ask yourself the question and forgive me for this foolish question what happened to all the 30 000 characters in your daydream what happened to them where are they and the answer is well the definition of their existence was you thinking about them they did not have an existence outside of your thought the very definition of their existence is you are actively thinking about them that is what constitutes their substance so the moment you stop thinking of them they are not here well guess what revision of lyadi says that's the world the world is created something from nothing this is already a term used by by nothing from something from nothing means the entire definition of reality is what god thinking god speaking us into existence we uh descartes said that i think therefore i am so rebellious almond says god thinks therefore i am or god speaks therefore i am in other words the very definition of reality is what is divine energy that is reality that is the definition of reality we don't exist outside of the divine creative power this became a major idea in philosophy what did it do what did it try to bring out what it brought out was never feel inferior to the world what it gave the husset was an internal pride not coming from pompous arrogance etc but the understanding that the torah which is the divine blueprint for life essentially constitutes a blueprint for all of existence essentially it allowed the khasid to face the world and not to surrender and say oi what will happen to judaism with so much out there in the big world when khabad hasidis explained that the whole world essentially is a manifestation of divine energy you can find god everywhere there are divine sparks everywhere every true substance in the world is some type of expression of godliness and because of that you don't have to shun it you don't have to run you don't have to be afraid you don't have to develop an inferiority complex because you see the world in a very different way from a very different perspective he took it further and he said the primary role and mission statement of the jew is to reveal the oneness of reality within a fragmented planet he uses those two biblical stories interpreting them very originally why did the spies not you know this though why did the spies not want to go into israel suddenly they backed over they said we can go into israel they saw all these miracles they left egypt to see split and then suddenly we can go into the land of israel and reverse the torah says not we can't they said judaism will be destroyed in a civilized country we belong in a desert we belong in a cocoon we want to be isolated we don't want to go into the real world this is how he explains the argument between joseph and his brothers joseph's brothers despise them why over a colorful tunic go to century 21 and buy yourself a tuna why do they despise it rabbi zalman explains there was a major philosophical question the brothers said for monotheism to survive we have to remain shepherds isolated let's go to our steeple let's live in a cocoon and a spiritual cocoon and that's where monotheism will thrive joseph had a different vision joseph would become the prime minister of egypt he would become one of the great economists of the generation he would speak the egyptian language he would dress an egyptian person they said you are the black sheep of the family if you are the future there is no future ultimately it turned out joseph was right rabbi zalman of lyadi's argument is joseph taught the jewish people for generations a lesson and that is godliness can be found everywhere the oneness of reality includes every segment of society and every aspect of the world there is no such a thing that you can experience spirituality and mysticism in heaven was a mystic par excellence but for him the true mystic is the mystic who integrates heaven and earth the mystic who generates a kiss between soul and body between god and humanity between heaven and earth between the material and the spiritual between the sublime and the imminence between that which we see visually and we touch with our fingers and that which our soul yearns for for him the underlying mission statement of the jewish people is to reveal oneness within diversity to reveal oneness within a fragmented earth his whole book of tanya's magnum opus is based on the fact if i could paraphrase my own words the forces of enlightenment the forces of emancipation the forces of modernity of secularism of egotism they didn't begin in western europe they begin in the very consciousness of man he says we have two souls we operate on two levels of consciousness one is a secular level of consciousness which he calls an animal consciousness it's basically darwin freud model where we are essentially not much different than animals we are essentially developed apes we are essentially developed beasts we're focused on self-preservation self-gratification my ego versus your ego and then we have a godly soul a transcendental soul which yearns for truth and unity and sees the unity in the world where you and i are deeply connected and our function is to create peace between the two souls because there is a battle so what he did was the conflict between modernity and judaism he turned into a conflict in every person's soul if you're not going to deal with that conflict in yourself then you're not beginning to tap into the essence of what judaism is point number three a critical point in chabad religion has often described god as talking to people god is in heaven and he talks to us he gives us commandments in hasidism there is a new language god doesn't speak to you only god speaks through you to put it differently to put it differently as long as the basic structure of civilization was based on rulers kings monarchs humans were comfortable with surrender i have to surrender to the king i'll surrender to god why not suddenly modernity introduced a new language i'm not surrendering to anybody life is about self-expression self-actualization if i would ask any one of you in an intimate conversation who is it that you surrender your life to your mother-in-law your mother your father what do you mean i don't surrender to anybody i surrender to me we are the me generation we are the generation that believes in iphones and ipods and ipads and even we have a game called we it's spelled with two eyes even our wiis are based on i self-expression my mind my heart will dictate my life what's the place for god in such a life so nietzsche said what he said about god for good reason rabbi zalman said he quoted that lovely verse in job but in his hands it became a different verse job says sorry excel okay someone says from my flesh i shall perceive god and he says this you don't look for god outside of you if you go into your own flesh if you dig deep into yourself if you take a good look into the mirror you'll find god god is not above you god is the essence of the you every person has an essential soul which he calls a soul which is a part of god which is divine which is sacred you don't have to become holy you are essentially holy you are part of the divine now you have to reveal that in the external aspects of your life so what he felt was you're looking for self-actualization you're looking for self-expression you will find it in the torah you will find it in a mitzvah in a mitzvah is not translated as commandment you know what a mitzvah is translated as in talmud the word mitzvah is used in the term litzavot which means a link a connection no one wants to be commanded right but everyone wants to be connected torah is not translated as law it's translated as lessons we hate laws but life lessons we love life lessons we love to be connected for him the torah and the mitzvos were not imposed on you for the next world rewards no this was the natural most authentic deepest expression of the jew because if you dig deep into yourself you will find how spiritual you really are and if you ignore that he believed there will be a void that will not be filled and it will cause you to become grouchy and hungry and depressed you know when people don't eat for a while they get into very bad moods and he believed that if you don't feed your soul it also gets into very bad mood and many of the much of the turmoil we have in our consciousness from the chabad perspective is based on the dichotomy between the various forces within us and our inability to acknowledge and embrace what is truly underlying within our system this was a major development in thought now as usual with chabad it was never new or innovative represent proves everything in the talmud and the kabbalah and the zoar in the midrash in the bible but the way he excavated it the way he he developed it the way he found it from my flesh i perceive god it's a verse in job the soul is a part of god helika lokamimal it's a verse of job but somehow the other commentators don't translate the words hey like elokami mal a part of god above azerbaijam in the second chapter of time which brings us to another point another major point and that is love love you all know the talmudic story interacted shabbat page 31 a gentile comes to shammai the sage and he says teach me the whole torah while i'm on one leg how long can you stand on one leg for 40 seconds two minutes says out of here i'll come to y'all that teach me physics on one leg right teach me teach me mathematics on one leg what type of chutzpah shamay throws him out he comes to hillary says no problem i'll teach you all of torah in six seconds what you dislike to be done to you don't do it anybody else that's the whole torah everything else is a commentary go study the commentary rabbi schneider zalman asks the obvious question come on this is all of torah not eating spinach on yom kippur has to do with love putting a mizzou's on your door is love to fill in his love shabbat is love mikveh's love some mitzvot are about love most mitzvoth are not about love the answer he gives is very original and it's based on his entire philosophy and he says this how can you really love somebody else nietzsche said friedrich nietzsche said we don't love other people we love our version of them is that true rabbi israel salanter the founder of the muslim movement now that's a whole other movement rabbi israel lipkin one sees a jew eating chicken with a lot of passion he says calm down the jew says i love the chicken rabbi israel cilantro says really you love the chicken he says absolutely he says wow is this what you do with everything you love you have it killed sliced plucked sauteed cooked and then converted into your blood is this how you treat everything you love you don't love the chicken you love your taste buds you love your abdomen you don't love the chicken when i say i love you i love my girlfriend i love my boyfriend i love this one i love this one is it them you love or is it just yourself that you love and they happen to serve your needs all love essentially in the famous works of the term of jewish philosophy all love is about me i love you because i get a kick out of you because you enhance my life is there a possibility for real love rabbishne is almond and estanya writes no there's no possibility for real love because life is about self-preservation and self-gratification i love you because i get something out of it besides if i can somehow love my real self and for him what's the real self the real self is the real essence of all of creation it's the real essence of myself as well it's my soul my soul is divine and then i can really love you because my soul and your soul are one are interconnected so hillel was telling this gentile convert all of torah teaches us how to love because all of torah is about getting in touch with your soul every mitzvah is another way of accessing your soul so every mitzvah is a commentary on love because you can only love if you access your soul i want to conclude with one more point of his teachings and for this i'm going to share a little story that i heard from professor eli wiesel and i love this story it's a great story about life he says there was once this young hasidic jew who would sit and learn all day he would study talmud all day and one day he closed the book and he said that's it i'm not learning anymore until somebody can tell me what is the meaning of life why am i alive i just have to know the meaning of life and they take him to one therapist and another psychologist and another rebbe and another teacher and everyone is just telling him forget about the big questions just get back to the books and study forget about the questions but he can't rest he can't relax he's filled with turmoil stay taken to the big hasidic master and he comes in and he says rapper what is the meaning of life please tell me i beg you what is the meaning of life the rebel gives him a patch he gives him a smack in his face and he says rubber master why why do you smack me i ask such a good and innocent question what is the meaning of life just answer me and as rabbi says you know you're asking such a good question why ruin it with an answer you see it's the question that unites us it's the answers that divide us stay hold onto the the question unites us the answers that's where we go different ways here finally is another major contribution of rabbis oman of liandi and that is he embraced paradox i believe like no scholar before him if you study his works well he did not cease to embrace paradox and was somehow quite comfortable with the synthesis of paradoxes there are those who claim that rabbishness almond synthesized what would be akin to a physicist coming and saying i will synthesize the physics of aristotle newton and einstein in other words it's impossible these are different systems and yet rashner zalman is always embracing paradoxes perhaps perhaps and maybe the scholar if he would have taken it a little further and introduced quantum mechanics and string theory and schrodinger's cat and two opposites happening simultaneously on a subatomic level perhaps more interesting synthesis can occur but i'll give you an example passion versus scholarship which prevails in jewish life normatively most scholars love saying the snag them versus the hasidim we'll soon read professor stern's book on the gone of vulner the god of vilna is the genius that's the name of his book the genius the genius par excellence the man who's completely dedicated to learning learning learning learning learning the father of the yeshiva world and then you have the hasidim who say let's say give me the schnapps and both serve a role one embraces passion one embraces intellect with rabbi schneiderman of lyadi that distinction would be very very poor judgment there is no the amount of attention and focus that he placed on rigorous study for the sake of study was almost unprecedented he is the one since maimonides sixth centuries six seven centuries since maimonides the first person to write his first work his first work published almo torah four unbelievable chapters where he compiles everything about the study of torah with a lot of original ideas in which he elevates torah's study above everything even in his discourses he embraces passion and yet in his own personal life when you see his works and his output and what he demanded from his hasidim embraces tremendous intellectual entrenchment another issue love versus action of mitzvot till today there is what we call spiritual judaism and what we call action-oriented judaism is judaism about meditation relationships feelings or about action that paradox he embraces both with rigorousness perhaps most interesting is there were i don't mean it literally but there were two gods in jewish history okay there's the god of the jewish philosophers and there's the god of the jewish mystics of many of the jewish mystics the god can feel the god that is intimate the god that you can affect the god that cries and laughs with you there is the abstract god beyond abstractions we can't even refer to him as anything not even as him not even his existence and then there is the god of the zohar the intimate god rabbi shnaya zalman's works hundreds and hundreds of discourses he will not leave go of this and he will not leave go of this as he always begins his discourses there is mammalia calamine and soviet calaman there's the god who fills the world and there's the god the infinite god who transcends the world and somehow all of judaism is based on embracing that paradox and living that paradox living that tension because it's in that tension where the full splendor of jewish life from his perspective emerges now if i take all of this and i apply it to the 21st century where are we left today if i look at the chabad movement today it's certainly not khabad of 200 years ago the year abhishe zalman passed away while running away from the napoleonic wars against russia it's 200 years later literally two to two centuries exactly from 1812 the year when rabbi schneider zalman returned his soul to its maker but when i look today you'll notice some very powerful ideas number one professor stern couldn't say it better the concept of inner jewish pride and confidence not based on some primitive pompousness and superficial arrogance which would be ridiculous and narrow-minded but based on the idea that judaism never has to shrink and duck in the presence of a world on the contrary rabbi zalman taught that the whole world craves to be united with god the whole world craves to put its mouth on mouth of man and declare yet the whole world is essentially a manifestation of torah a manifestation of divine so why are you running why are you running don't run and don't hide you have a powerful message that can teach that can inspire that can illuminate a world judaism is a blueprint for the jewish people but it's also a blueprint for tikkun olam the concept although was coined by other groups and other denominations but in the hasidism of revelations all of judaism is tikkun olam to redeem the world to transform the world a world waiting waiting for tikkuna word waiting for redemption the concept of khabada for example using modern technology not shunning modern technology right now we're using modern technology to talk about chabad right where people often say how city group why are they not isolated it's the same issue for abhishe every development in the world at its core is there to be used in the service of the spiritual core of the universe or in kabbalistic terms there are sparks everywhere there are holy sparks everywhere you just have to find them the concept of chabad known as khabad has sent out ambassadors and emissaries to all corners of the world it's all based on this on this very concept it's never about isolationism it's about the truth of judaism can be articulated and expressed in all circumstances to all people because ultimately as rebecca as almond taught and never stopped teaching there is nothing outside of divine oneness thank you very much [Applause] questions okay questions or objections go ahead you can ask all three so you talked about kind of these three slash four different versions that occurred in the 1800s but in reality i think your argument is i think many people would agree um the idea of compartmentalism is in fact a civilization and i think from a lot of perhaps outside perspectives insulation and recidivism appear to be very similar so that's question one question two is i guess kind of your your thoughts on the fact that the zionist movement came out of reform movement argued that can be argued um which ultimately led to the modern state of israel um kind of thoughts on on that and its relationship with a citizen and my third question which is a little bit uh i don't know which i'm actually very interested is that this statement that basically you're a jew first how does how does the jew balance that that we're there with living in a world of nation in a world made up of nations and perhaps more importantly if we say publicly that we're jews first how can we then claim that saying that jews are one of the jews first is anti-semitic so those are the three questions okay three loaded questions unintentionally yes welcome to new england thank you thank you question number one i have to test my memory oh isn't it true that hasidism in reality was and is synonymous with isolationism contrary to the message we try to articulate it's certainly true that many many hasidic groups are very much isolated till this very day and that is a major tenet of their philosophy of their perspective i was referring specifically to chabad which as you probably know today is quite on the contrary is very very much out there um in all i mean literally in places that are you know uh in the middle of nowhere literally in the middle of nowhere i mean i think there are four thousand kaban institutions today in hundreds of countries and states serving and building bridges between people of so many different walks of life and what i'm arguing is that this is not a breakaway from the original chabadha citizen rather as the most recent labacher ever has explained many times and i've heard this from him because i sat at his feet for many years it was a direct correlation to the teachings of rabbi schneiderman of lyadi and his successors generally chabad even you see also you have to distinguish between isolationism as an end in and of itself and isolationism as a means for an end right i may isolate my children from a particular influence simply because their children and i want they should be able to develop a certain identity without distractions right i don't want my children my little children being on the internet all day not because i think the internet is inherently evil i use the internet and the internet is an unbelievable tool for spiritual purposes to spread torah but simply for practical purposes right we understand the addictions we understand the dangers we understand so that's where isolationism is a means for an end not an end in and of itself that's the idea so even if nationalism is employed the question is philosophically do we see the philosophy of khabar as essentially believing in isolationism and anyone who studies khabad knows the answer is not the focus is always on world transformation the second question was uh second question was commentary commentary on the fact that zionism modern day of israel kind of came out of the reform movement as opposed to okay now zionism i don't think came out directly right zionism didn't come from the reform both of them were movement science the form of imminently so and didn't increase until the 20th century later okay right herzl was no reformed jew herzl was no reformed jew and max nordo was no reformed jew and nathan birenbaum who coined the term zionism later became a an observant jew of baltruva but then at the first zionist congress was not and zionism was a rejection as professor stern said of tradition now when we talk about zionism itself you have to understand there's two elements of zionism there is the love to the land of israel for example the fourth laboratory his name was rabbi shmuel the son of the tsam sadiq a grandson of rabbishalmun in his time there was a movement called he he died in 1882 and that's the beginning the beginning of the zionist movement and there was an organization called bilo bilo in russia which is acronym house of jacob come and let us go to the land of israel and he told them he told its leaders if you just add two words to below hashem the house of jacob let us go with the light of the divine he says i will go and i will bring a million jews from russia to the land of israel the fourth laboratory ever said this add those two words so you have to remember you have to make an important distinction zionism from the word sion every serious jew said many times a day god should bring us back to zion the challenge of zionism was it developed as a very anti-torah movement anti-tradition movement you understand what i'm saying so that's that's a very important distinction otherwise this zionism has developed as a political movement and even that itself you have the zionism of herzegovina of the zionism you have the zionism of martin buber and they itself were very split and fragmented even concerning secular political zionism the challenge of religious traditional jury was that the mandate of zionism was nationalism will replace tradition nationalism will replace torah if we can only have a state then we solve the jewish problem and we do not need any more judaism and this is where the great challenge and conflict in zionism and tradition tradition developed herzl felt very strongly you ever read herzl's book herzl the the founder of the zionist movement felt very strongly that with the establishment of an independent jewish state two major things would happen two major things would happen first of all it would normalize the jewish condition because he felt a lot of anti-semitism is being caused because jews are seen as parasites they live in other countries in other states if they would have their own homeland they would be treated finally as ordinary people all anti-semitism would cease if they only have their own state he felt the jews would be able to protect themselves he felt that jews with a state also don't need a torah the whole concept of tradition is absolute well today it's more than a hundred years afterwards it's very sad to say jews today thank god have a state we have israel not only did it not eliminate anti-semitism but israel actually is today the great uh target of all anti-semites in the world israel became the new jew israel is now the jew so that's very telling but essentially that was the conflict between tradition and zionism but not the concept of the holiness and the preciousness of the land of israel your third question was or you also forgot no i don't know remind me no the third question was if a jew is a jew first how does one balance that with their other otherwise national obligation okay and if if the idea is that there's always the president then how can you claim that saying that jews are the very worst jews from the perspective of chabad the answer is that a basic tenet of judaism and of torah is to quote the verse in jeremiah we are responsible to pray and care for the welfare of the country and state in which we live in to quote the talmud the land the law of the land is law from perspective a jew being conspicuously jewish a jew being proud of his judaism in a true internal refined fashion not only will not generate or create anti-semitism on the contrary it generates respect you know what you remind me there was once a year so they say dr twersky is a jewish psychiatrist was on a plane dressed like a hasidic jew round black hat long black coat square white beard and a jewish woman sitting near him turns to him in yiddish and says you are ashanda you are a disgrace you stand out if you would only dress like everybody else there would be no anti-semitism so he looked at her and in a perfect english she says excuse me ma'am i failed to comprehend your verbiage i am amish she says oh i'm so sorry i thought you were hasidic i love the amish he says why she says you know you guys are a minority and yet you maintain your heritage with such pride and dignity say now he responds to her in yiddish he says if i would have been amish you're proud of me but just because i'm jewish you loathe me so i bless you that one day you should appreciate in your own what you can appreciate in other people um i think i truly believe that uh if the world will one day come to admire the jewish people it's when the jewish people will start admiring the jewish people i think the world appreciates respects and loves jews love jews when they are jews who love jews when there are jews who respect their own judaism i think it makes the world comfortable with the jews when they sense that the jewish people are comfortable with themselves i think when we try to uh out gentile the gentiles and we assimilate in order to find favor and to just be able to attract that claim that we're normal historically it has only exasperated anti-semitism it's not the cause of anti-semitism but it has exasperated it so i really don't think that a jew who's confident with his judaism evokes anti-semitism the people that hate us the people that want us dead ahmadinejad does not love secular left-wing anti-israel jews more than he despises ultra ultra orthodox fundamentalist jews are against the palestinian states would like both types of jews to be dead the same was yasser arafat and the same as mr nasrallah and the same as hezbollah and hamas as well i think for the ordinary fine human being a jew who is comfortable in his or her skin garners respect and admiration far more than the other way i feel like you kind of split on the first part of my question there in the sense that um let me let me phrase maybe not split but you make the point that basically we were to respect the rules of whatever land we're in but we should also be proud jews i guess more of my question is to pick that apart i'm sorry to monopolize the time but what do you do when there's attention between those two things and why aren't i don't think jews are very uh vocal about explaining that kind of nuanced point that he just made so and we can do this offline either no no it's a good point but but anyone who's loyal to jewish sources and jewish observance knows that the sensitivity and obligation that jewish law confers upon the serious jew to be honest to be straightforward to be kind to be compassionate to be a good citizen is obvious it's certain judaism in other words only refines one's behavior in the face of a secular society only fine tunes our sensitivity to other people the emphasis in judaism on ethics on moral refinement on the dedication to charity to education to the needy to the poor these are basic tenets of judaism that when a jew is truly entrenched in judaism i think they become sources of inspiration for the gentile world how they themselves can enhance their family lives the concept of the jewish sabbath the concept of of jewish mitzvot the concept of discipline and eating and in so many other areas the focus on on faith on love etc i think these are items that not only we should not hide we have to display it because we are obligated to serve as sources of light of hope of love as ambassadors of inspiration to a society that today needs it more than any other time in a society even a beautiful society is america where there's so much family disintegration where marriages so many marriages face a crisis where there's so much confusion with this ambivalence with this depression where there's a lack of meaning where so many young people are miserable even people at yale university who have bright careers and yet psychologically have inner anxiety and misery present company excluded i think huh actually i would exclude president trump you wanted to 2000 okay i'm glad you're also human and normal so i think i think uh i think on the contrary it's our obligation today as jews who have been around for four thousand years through thick and thin to serve as ambassadors of love of light of hope of inspiration of guidance to the larger jewish world it would be immoral of us to duck and say we have nothing to share we have nothing to give we would be shirking from an important duty and privilege that we the jewish people have today and i believe the world craves to hear it if it's presented in its authentic language that's my perspective what is the essence of a fire brengan in one foot what you dislike to be done to you don't do it anybody else that's the essence of a fabregan the truth is if a brain is a very interesting phenomena that was developed that was developed by the early generations of hasidim in khabad it became a very powerful phenomenon i would say in some way during forebrainians hasidim interrupt each other so before rabbi jacobson answers the question i i want to remind those of us that are sitting here that i was when i was before i got married before i moved to new haven i was very fortunate to be able to sit by the late lubavitcheraba uh at fabregan's when the rebel would speak on 77 eastern parkway the world headquarters of the lubavitch movement for many many many many hours and speak um not only during the week when it was recorded like we're being recorded tonight but on shabbos when there was no recording when i say many and on the festivals passover rosh hashanah sukkot etc when i say many hours daniel i mean five six sometimes seven hours of the rebbe speaking with very short intervals where we would sing hasidic melodies and say and after shabbat there were perhaps a handful of individuals in the world that were capable of memorizing just the almost verbatim everything that rebbe said for five to seven hours and they would sit down and write them and if you come to my house you'll see on my shelf hundreds and hundreds of volumes of books that were written by people who memorized five four six seven hours of the rebbe's talk week after week year of the year rabbi jacobson is one of those people now you can answer the question so now that i got to hear my eulogy during my own lifetime [Laughter] where do we go from here so oh you don't want to ask that question right into the grave it doesn't get better after the eulogy but the truth is i think you're touching up on an interesting phenomenon because i think if i bring in hundreds of years earlier or 150 years earlier before the 12 step program movement and and meetings 12-step meetings of course in a very different model and with some schnapps on the table the original fabregan among hasidim was people coming together and sharing what is on their heart with each other and this was a unique phenomenon because when jews got together it was to learn text to study text and that was the highlight of the jewish religious experience talmud torah studying torah and one of the most magnificent institutions of judaism till today jews come together to learn and learn and learn just for the sake of learning i heard from the british chief rabbi jonathan sachs that he was once in the hospital he had to be there for a surgery he was there for a few days and he's he's in bed you know in hospital clothes uniform and he's under the blanket and an elderly jew walks into his room and he says that's you rabbi sax britain's chief rapper says yeah so you know he thought he's going to say how are you i came to he said that's great so we could sit and learn together here i have a talmud let's sit and study talmud it's a magnificent component the idea of the fabregan was jews coming together and internalizing what they learned in others asking the question not what have i learned but what has the torah taught me how much have i internalized it dealing with emotional struggles with anxiety with with personal growth that was the concept of a fabrian a very powerful tool for spiritual growth and was very encouraged by the hasidic masters especially in khabad so the mission statement of the fabrega is a camaraderie of vulnerability and integrity and you know when people have the courage to be vulnerable they can also be happier because you know the less defense mechanisms you have easier it is for the happiness to flow so the fabrian was there to remove defense mechanisms to allow people to celebrate their vulnerability without being judged very very powerful institution it developed a long time ago you know before this vocabulary became so common and common in the modern world it's a yiddish word which literally means gathering like a gathering of souls of hearts of spirits so that's what it is the fabregans of the loboviche rebbies especially the most recent one took on already a different form it actually became a platform for presenting very elaborate ideas not only in hasidism but in talmud and maimonides and biblical commentary and law and current events the late laboratory who was a seventh generation chabad rabbi named schneider's sin their old name schneider is sent son of schneider because the father of khabar is schneider zalman so that's why their name is schneider's son by the way he would sit for hours and he would use the fabregas platforms he would discuss often current events jewish history through initiatives for jewish continuity hasidism jewish philosophy a lot of talmud maimonides rashi many different aspects of torah but that's the general concept of hebraic at this point i want to thank very much the jewish society at yale eliezer for giving me the privilege of addressing you together with honorable professor stern on the topic of chabad citizen i thank you all for coming and wish you all tremendous success in your academic life personal life and jewish life thank you i have the pleasure of introducing our two distinguished speakers tonight the first speaker is stern he's a professor of religious studies at yale university he studies and teaches questions involving zionism secularism religious radicalism and also on eastern european jury he completed his bachelor's at shiva university his phd at berkeley and his postdoctoral studies at oxford university he's in the process right now of completing a book on the go in the vilnau which is expected to come out soon he teaches a extremely popular class at yale university uh and without further ado this [Applause] thank you so much for inviting me here tonight um it's an honor to be here on on such a joyous occasion and also it's an honor to speak with uh rabbi jacobson it's um not something that i i'm not something it's not something i i have actually ever spoken about i i work on primarily and post on uh elijah of donuts who was known historically as one of the opponents of schneider's almond of riyadh but lately last few months i've been spending spending my days reading through habad which was the largest pacific group in the in lithuanian lands in the 19th century in terms of trying to better understand the socio-political history of eastern european jewelry where 80 percent of youth today come from now i wanted to break up my comments in two sections the first is going to describe the beginnings of the famous uh battle that brought schneider's almond of riyadh the founder of to saint petersburg in 1798 and then again in 1801 brought him to be jailed and opposed by uh the russian senate first i'm going to describe what led up to that how did he get himself into that kind of hot water and then i'm going to try to speak a little bit about what you might say is khabad's legacy today for those of you don't know um was a spiritual pietistic movement that began in the 18th century in southern poland around the charismatic figure of israel it then spread up through southern poland eventually meeting stiff resistance in the 1770s in lithuanian lands in specifically vilna which would become the epicenter the capital if you will of jewish intellectual life throughout the 19th century well what happened in village that created this kind of backlash what was it about hasidism that disturbed those who were living was primarily a movement the galvanized lower sectors of society but not only lower sectors also higher sectors and police as well but what it did was it fundamentally said that judaism was not something based simply upon political or social institutions it was not something simply based on jewish the study of rabbinic but it was something to be experienced in the real now what made this controversial was to understand pacifism you have to recognize that 18th century jewish life was largely controlled and understood by the institution of the kihiba the jewish governing system jews were an autonomous muslim japanese but had their own internal political and economic system you didn't take taxes if you lived in 18th century to a to uh king stanislaus yoski of the uh of the polish lithuanian commonwealth you paid your taxes to a tequila who then paid the taxes to the king your so any social welfare system was controlled by this kikila system this jewish self-governing system you were not a subject of the state you were a subject of the kingdom if you were allowed to live somewhere it was because the kegela let you live there in that context jewish life was largely defined by certain kinds of socio-economic institutions and said that judaism ultimately had to be about a religious experience now what ended up emerging from that was once you start putting religious life into experience it opens up all kinds of possibilities for what constitutes religion is religion me going off into the woods and having my own spiritual trip is religion sitting in bed with my wife enjoying her company having her pleasure is a religious experience me smoking a pipe eating a piece of quagga or is it something based on studying the text once you say that religion can be found in experience all kinds of possibilities are opened up to you and so those who wanted to restrict you those who saw the center of religious life either being in political institutions which are highly normative and controlling or in the study of ancient rabbinic works the idea of text studies being the central aspect of religious life felt incredibly threatened by this new hasidic group which was claiming the idea of judaism being found anywhere and everywhere now one of those who uh studied under uh um uh different hasidic masters most notably a man in the market of mesrick poland was someone named zalman of lyadi schneider dalman baruch famously tried to confront the governor vilna and his mcnag did opponents on the issue of hacidism's legitimacy and what he tried to argue was that pacifism was not an antinomian group was not a group that was into pleasure seeking and all kinds of deviant religious behavior but rather it was a normative group that was some said group that believed in the importance of law and order support from different uh sectors of lithuanian society now during his lifetime the golden villa issued three bands against [Music] [Applause] the interesting things now all the fights between us of the jewish take matters into their own hands they would actually have a deputized uh police-like figures which is called the rotate nala which would uh take a person put them in a cuna which is the polish word for a pillary and would pillar the person or they would excommunicate them or they would put a ban on buying this person's shop that was how the fight was being waged for the most part up until the governor vilnius death [Applause] now when the donor vilna uh passed away the fight began to be ratcheted up now first of all he passes away on on on one of the jewish festivals in which one is commanded to continue to observe the festival even if somebody died so you can imagine you have all the magnolia who are sitting there crying over their masters and the hasidim now are even extra happy that here their chief opponent had had passed away well soon after the opponents of the group began to um make a decree that people should hunt down and capture all khasi at which point the hasidic in fear of the magnitude hunting them down and by the way there was a threat you have to understand something in the background very important what the mcnaughton feared was that the greatest the greatest calamity to happen 17th century jewish life besides becoming dominicki uh very spiritual calamity was the emergence of the false messiah sabotaged state which garnered support all over eastern europe took everybody up to turkey and then ended up converting them all to uh to to islam it's a story of itself but many of the ideas that were found in were also present in certain hasidic groups now chairs almond liadi would do is he would go out of his way over the course of his life to combat those charges back to the to the end of the end of the 18th beginning of the 19th century what would happen is that the hasidum would then go to the government and tell the government we are being persecuted you government russian state which took over 1.5 million jews since 1795 have already decreed that religion is privatized that there is no more self-governing system that has the ability to coerce to have restrictions on where people live to be able to tax people in other words jews were now subjects of the state not subjects of a jewish governing system and likewise becoming the subject of the state allowed them to practice their religion as they saw fit and so the magnum would say no no no no we want to have that power we still want to have the coercive power to enforce a certain kind of elite view or elite reading of judaism now this would end up leading to the hasidim after the hasidim went in and did this came to the government the midnight of course came right back to the government which led the government to say what's going on well mcnaughton claimed that what was really going on was these acidic groups and most notably they went after specifically the leader of the hasidic groups in lithuanian remembrance are in poland southern's holy these are lithuanian lands we're talking about these identical hasidic master in lithuanian land was schneider's album and they claimed was actually a covert friendship who was trying to spread antinomian libertarian ideas and was engaged in celebrating the pleasures of life feasting and smoking and enjoying that this is the person who has no respect for any law you read the the uh the documents that were sent to the to the uh specifically the minister of justice in 1798 that is what the charges were shares out of the audi then is forced to respond to these charges and in his response to these charges he argued as follows the mercy of god rested upon us when the government of the russians are in power and spread across poland a government system and spread across poland a governing system that did away with the communal rabbis and then people were freed under the russian state and permitted to worship as they came hit in that was his argument his argument was once judaism is no longer a corporate institution no longer a political socioeconomic institution but rather judaism is a religion it ought to be granted the same rights of any religious but he would go a step further not only would he say or argue that and specifically his version his brand was not antinomian but rather it represented the impacts of or the best example of the jewish of the jewish legal system rather what it emphasized was the aspect of jewish rituals and what chairs did was he argued in the same way in which we are subservient to god through our practice of religion is the same way in which we are subservient to the state then ultimately hassanism is not an antinomian but rather the most normative of groups now as a side note you should know shares only wasn't wrong for what he was playing for example the governor bill number his chief nemesis oh he never wrote a code in his lifetime before schneider's omniviati would write his tanya in 1795 the first the first book he actually published was a book on the laws regarding the observance of taurus type famously schneider actually wrote a code of jewish law whereas elijah villa never even wrote one in his lifetime shares almond actually penned one but he did something original what he did was he took jewish law and he turned it into a jewish ritual what do i mean differences jewish law jewish law is something which is based on also not permitted or mutar something permitted something which is based on force or coercion it assumes that judaism is a legal system which has the means to enforce observances and practices as a legal system would what change out he did in his code was he emphasized the ritualistic it the aspects of experiencing the rituals themselves and so when chairs ahmen abriadi will explain what is the concept the grand philosophical idea of medieval jewish life the reasons behind the commandments he will not give a legal argument for the upkeep of society he will not give a rational argument that it is there for ethical purposes rather he will say does that mean reason rather it means top to taste what you're doing right now the pleasure and enjoyment of the mid-smoke are what is most critical the the physical experience of putting on filling of putting on a phylacteries of putting on a prayer shawl of eating on on the sabbath that is what the mitzvot the commandments are about they are not specifically just about rights and wrongs they are about a certain kind of lifestyle that is also pleasurable and pleasure is not something to be found in antinomian activities activities that undermine a legal order but rather pleasure is something that comes out of a normative experience in so doing snares on gliadi was able to bring together the two antinomies in facetism and immigrationism on the one hand the normative character of jewish law that was seen as a kind of benchmark of one's relationship to a authentic religious tradition and on the other hand the importance of pleasure people want them to be able to enjoy themselves in religious levels the bridging of that chasm is what made schneider's almond of riyadh's theology not only something that could be seen as part and parcel of the jewish tradition but also something that was able to garner following and support now i want to just stop here before i stop the questions i want to talk a little bit about there's a lot of parts about each one of these movies that i think we could uh question or ask for them to be different circle khabad's relationship to zionism is radically transformed originally imminently viminately opposed not only to zionism the idea of jews the whole idea of there being even a jewish state even if the people were to be religious it was totally even if they were to be religious in this regard there were certainly things that we could say uh not to explain but one thing to schneider's album's credit that i think runs through abide from beginning what starts already from the dissemination of italian one of the most popular hasidic works which name samuel already used the printing press to publicize facetism outside of his own specific court's own domain [Applause] uh history the idea of publicize judaism and and and where this we see this most is you know tis the season this is not just khabad taking advantage of this this is a serious theological philosophical position since it's beginning to believe in the importance of publicizing judaism the judaism should be in the public sphere now the great irony is that who knew it wouldn't be in russia where that could be celebrated but it can be celebrated in a place like america where we where we recognize the importance of various minority groups being able to express themselves in a way that both universalizes their message and takes into account its it's particular so while kabbalah might have has might have transformed the meaning of of chanukah from something that fought against greek knowledge to something now that celebrates the idea of a freedom of religion which you can read tedx writings on hanukkah and you read the last level two repeats writings on chanukah they're different one thing does remain i think consistent and that is the idea that judaism is something that one should feel comfortable embracing publicly it should not be something just hold up in a little room the same imageness almost afraid to explain himself in front of the czar this is the same way which the mid the the the uh the third level not this one the third one also went to went to uh saint petersburg in the same light to explain judaism in the 1840s and it's the same message that continues today whether it be on telegrams on tv or whether it be on on hanukkah lights uh hanukkah uh lights on on public um in public places the idea that religion is something that can enrich society and to that in a way about more so than any other movement understood that message and gave us [Applause] it's a very very complicated story the history of print in eastern europe specifically hebrew up until 1830s there were hebrew printing houses all over eastern europe uh interestingly they were usually divided up along aguila oftentimes ideological lines those that were closer to vilna were more mcnaughter those that were further out in poland or southern poland tend to be more eventually what would happen would be there will be two presses that emerge because ironically the jews themselves having all all these kinds of various internal fights with the government two presses would emerge one in vilna one in the press was the heir to the press which was run by a hasidic family named the shapiro fan they primarily published at that time however should be known that when schneid when she went to publish his first work on uh on on ritual that was published in these years actually published in schlub which was a bastion of anticlasses it's a very very long story and it was the ancient that brought or that created hacidism the shiva movement um she wrote as opposed to the which took the pacific court as their model and the tuition like the mosquito all three were keeping it up over who would publish what yes with the worldwide success of fabad have the miss noggins changed their position in any way over the past 300 years but before the 19th century there were 20 30 people would study in place in the 19th century the mcna did elijah gomez students established ishibot that and here's the big transformation that we're not based simply on who's going to marry the rabbi's daughter but rather anybody from any group any socioeconomic background irrespective of locale could attend mission and that happened also because there were no more residential in other words anyone could live wherever the hell they wanted so you could have two three the yeshiva movement as we all know today and five thousand people in length even has a massive issue here's what happened the two groups largely came together by the end of the 19th beginning of the 20th century before they could come together but when we call today there's a block and here's the group the block happens because but [Applause] the model for the rabbi ended up coming for classes they became a reddit the original rabbis in these yeshua couldn't give a damn about how you tied your shoes and get married to this one get married to that one that wasn't what ended up happening was both of those things have been done together so you have yeshivali but the leadership structure is awesome yes no um so i'm just curious so i'm curious to hear what you've uh what you've discovered about the uh the uh the author of these arrests and uh you know if you have any if you found anything about that i found i mean give a little bit more of the detail on the rest can you repeat the question the question was uh the question was what happened during this arrest of of sharing dominating two arrests 1798 one in 1801 um first of all the arrests were largely were largely because the government thought that these people were revolutionaries now interestingly you know this is something very considerable but it's a very important detail [Music] who is the hero of war and peace who's the hero of war and peace for those of you who i only made it through i don't even want to tell you what was going on in my life that brought me brought me to that war um but for those of you who made it through that war who is the hero of world peace no keep here yes yes yes yes okay pierre is i will call me yes yeah let's let's talk who wins the war in war and peace comes in and saves the day russia is faltering it's losing and kutuzov is sitting back and smiling and smirking and eventually comes in and wins the day well before kudosa was saving russia to become its greatest military era kutuzov was the governor general of vilma at the beginning of the 19th century and kutuzov was the person that all of the various petitions ended up going to and he was the one who ended up ruling very calmly very clearly very simply that schneider's almond yachting this acidic group poses no problems [Music] and should be allowed to practice as they please and was uh was um and was essential in the drafting of the 1804 laws for the part of the russian government allowing for the freedom of religion and the end of excommunication of judaism and the text communication that jews were able to have in their societies yeah anything else in the 18th and 19th century um alongside the emergence of orthodoxy [Music] as a response to reform eastern europe totally different western you're very you know we even see it today kind of the breakdown of denominations the re-emergence of spirituality the kind of nationalists politics uh the western european model it's like i i if i were to predict long term it's like a little blip it's a little clip it doesn't most jewish historians spend a great deal of time on western europe i want to understand where 80 percent of jews come from today who understand how they kind of the deep structures in eastern eastern europe you have three groups that emerge out of the privatization of judaism that happens three groups remember you can only have three groups when you privatize religion if you don't privatize religion because then you have a political entity to control ideology that's why 16th or 18th centuries idiot shot might sleep for a minute who's a kind of transnational character but you don't have one somebody wants to privatize you frequently three groups masculine and those are the three main groups those three groups would end up all all of them would end up going under if you will in the face of jewish energy this is what took place what happened is the tequila structure does two things it does two things fundamentally number one the fine juices of body power defining provide even address this there is a place there's an address to speak for one million jews the second thing that gila structure the corporate structure pre-modern jewish like did was it took care of people's socio-economic well-being old people sick people shows schools poor people socioeconomic well-being defined body power state privatizes duties and says you're no longer identified as jews primarily you are identified politically as members of a nation state number one number two with that you're not anymore responsible for the civil well-being civic upkeep of your sis of jury we are the status responsible so you don't have the right to communicate and we're supposed to take care of your socio-economic well-being understand we're going to just finish this up here the problem with that is that it makes judaism turn into fully religion okay transformers judaism religion but that happens in the west also but for differences yes you have a welfare state that emerges that begins to take care of people's socioeconomic needs begins to take care of people if they're poor if they're sick if they're this you go to russia states know where to be fun it takes you it takes years until something from saint petersburg can even get down to villa so what you have is you have the religion you have judaism be transformed into religion which is about the spiritual moral well-being and so you have but you have a state that can't take care of putting bread on the table and that regardless was better than the other two because at least they had a kind of social welfare system in place ultimately though all three of them were a joke because ultimately people were poor and the state wasn't there to help them so it emerges in the 1860s it is you have jewish nationals jewish nationalism says yes [Music] forget yeshivas or jews most common ethnic define political violence number two stop being a poor nausea you want to go make a respectable person might be in your field i'm going to give you a land i'm going to replace the work like any normal human being and you're going to be able to break up that's the beginning of jewish nationals in many ways it ends up coming on the heels of what we're speaking about thank you very much [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me [Music] [Applause] [Music] this class is brought to you by the yeshiva.net please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at www.theyeshiva.net donate