"What's your SECRET?" | Letter #28 of 30 Letters in 30 Days

All right. Welcome to uh Sunday night, the uh eve of Tess Nissan. This is our 28th letter. Tomorrow night will be the eve of 10 yud niss with our 29th letter which means that Tuesday nightm will be the the eve of yolaf niss that have his actual birthday and our 30th letter. We want to remind you that that event will be live streaming and if you want to get a notification when we start streaming please make sure you're subscribed to my YouTube channel. We're about to get 100,000 subscribers. I want to get a little silver plaque. YouTube gives you a silver plaque if you get 100,000 subscribers and I can put it up on the wall in the new Soulwards House. Speaking of the new Soul Words House, our first event, I mean, it literally I was just there earlier today. It's crazy. Like the contractors, there's literally still wet paint uh there and fixtures going up and all chaos. But by Tuesday night in ROSM, it'll be beautiful. So, if you would like to attend, I think there are a lit literally maybe like three or four more spots. Um, I have 40 chairs and three benches. So, like there's 40 there's really 49 real spots and I think we have like 45 already booked. So, the link is below. Also, uh, since we're mentioning links below, the link to order the four cups Hagoda is below. Order it today, you'll still get it in time for the seder. This is a recovery hagoda that I edited. It's full of you can get it a gift, get it as a gift for someone. Also, please remember the link below for the Kyabad Pushka app. And uh let's do a little taka. And of course we do this because we're learning the letters as a preparation for the Debb's birthday. So part of our birthday present to the Deba is learning. The other part of the birthday present is sadaka. So we're going to give a little here with the kabad pushka app. Okay. All right. And I think I'm going to shock you right now. I did not make a braha earlier. I always say I made a earlier. Well, this time I didn't. Let's learn today's letter which is from the Igris V 15th volume of Igris. Um it's letter 5,331 Brooklyn New York. Anyone who is a student of Israeli literature will know the name Eleazar Steinman. He was considered to be one of the greats. Maybe not as popular as other names because his work was more highbrow, but definitely he is respected among those who were responsible for creating uh literature, real uh literature, high high quality uh writings in that uh in that era. You know, we're talking about Tshin Y. We're talking about the 50s. Uh I think he passed away in 1970. Uh yes, he did. Topshin Lammed. He has an interesting backstory which is that he was originally from uh Kishv where he was a child prodigy in Yeshiva. He was raised religious. his uh he was a he was a genius of a of a student in yeshiva and I think he received he received rabbitic ordination as a as a teenager maybe 15 or 16 years old so you're talking about somebody who had unusual gifts and talents unfortunately he left Yiddish kite he became a communist he went to Moscow after the revolution then eventually he made aliyah he moved to the Holy Land. And um that's all sort of the backstory here that you're talking about this great of modern Hebrew literature who was extremely as far as his influence secular and yes as far as his personal life as well extremely secular although he had at one time been a uh what you would consider a a young Talmid. So he was in that category, the dubious category, dubious distinction of the uh shaovish, someone who had once learned and then left Torah, which is much more egregious obviously than somebody who who never learned. Um, and with all that background, what I'll tell you is this. He began writing a series called this and it ended up being 10 volumes and two of the volumes were specifically about Kabadis and it the intention it seems was more of like I said he was more of a highbrow writer so the intention was more I guess of an academic or journalistic work But the effect was that it actually was the the refers to it as such as meaning spreading the wellsp springsings of the bal meaning that many people were brought into contact with and the bal's and we're to some extent to through his work. So that's an interesting sort of story. Um you have this secular not just secular but formally religious then ex-religious secular thinker and writer who then somehow in the middle of his career starts writing these works onis which were intended to be more of an academic nature but they end up having a very powerful spiritual influence. And um that's the background. I I I could share a little bit more which is known which is that uh this uh Ali Steinman originally contacted Aram Glitenstein who was a great uh Kabad writer aid a real and a and a writer and um I think at first Rabbi Glitenstein did not want to help maybe He was worried that it would be misused. You know, there's always that concern. And that the Reba eventually instructed Rabbi Glitzenstein to to be of assistance to uh to Mr. Steinman and um the Reba interestingly enough gave very specific instructions that you are to be helpful to him in his research but do not talk to him personally about Yiddish kite meaning you know this goes against all of the instincts of aid of the seventh generation which is of course you want to be mad of this guy and the deba said help him out if he asks you for resources if he's asking for research things, but don't don't try to push Yiddish kite. Don't even mention Yiddish kite to him in any way. Okay, so that's the background. Um, let's let's look at the letter. Greetings and blessings. I made earlier. You saw me do it. as we approach Pes or Kagamatis, the festival of matzas, which shall be uh which should come upon us and all of the Jewish people for good. I send you and yours uh blessings for a kosher and joyous festival. May it be God's will that the festival of our liberation should bring liberation both uh material liberation as well as spiritual liberation from all concealments from all coverings and anything that interferes with serving Hashem joyfully. Y that should all be u we should be redeemed from all of that liberated from all of that and then we should spread forth that that to the whole year shouldn't just be for pes it should last all year beautiful now in connection with this with the braas for uh for pes shall I'm sending you in connection with PES. I'm sending you the Hagod. The Reb wrote or edited a Hagod. This is the Reb's own Hagod which came out before the Nissas. The Reba compiled and wrote and published this in America. Um, and we've just published a third edition and I'm sure you'll find it of interest and I hope it reaches you um in the right time which probably means in time for Yam because this letter remember was Gimmel Nissen. Okay. Now, so far everything is I don't know. I would say what I might expect. The Reb gives a P. The Reb says, "I'm sending you my Hagada." I mean, you're talking about an intellectual. You're talking about someone who one time was uh a a scholar of of Tyra. So, the Reb sent him his aoda. Like, it's uh none none of this is like particularly surprising. Okay, here's where the letter becomes quite interesting. And I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. And you know, I I've told you before that I try to refrain from sharing my subjective take too much. Sometimes I kind of have to cuz um if I don't share some type some type of interpretation, then we're just going to read and translate without putting it together and giving context. So, I'm going to have to tell you some of my own thoughts, but please understand that is all bed. It's all said as merely suggestive. And if you have a better interpretation, um I thank you for that. Oh, and thank you to the one person. Remember last night I was struggling with the roshavas at the end of the letter. So, only one person actually sent me the roshetavas. So I want to thank uh my friend Schustman which interestingly enough was my partner in creating the four cups of god. So give me a chance to plug that again that um he said I'm sure 100 people told you already but the the the acronym was to khayamim. Um and I told him nobody told me. He said 100 people told me. No you're the first person told me the only person. Okay. At any rate, so if you want to give me insight about this letter, be my guest. I'm going to give you my insights again merely as a suggestion. Okay. Now, every time I see your books or I think about them, [Music] I think about the great that you have, the great merit that you have that you merited to spread forth the wellsp springsings. That's how we talk about teachings of the Balshamto's teachings which are called the Mayionis based on the famous story the Balshamto's uh alias when he encountered the soul of Messiah in in heaven and asked the famous question when is the master coming and Msiah told when your mayus when you're wealth wellsp springs meaning your teachings are spread are spread out. So the Reb says, "Every time I see your was talking about his series that I mentioned earlier or or I think about them, I think about the tremendous merit that you have that you merited to spread out the wellsprings of among those circles of people that without your work, who knows when would have reached them. I think it's interesting that EBBA says who knows when it would have reached them. Not if it would have reached them because sooner or later this is going to reach every single Jew, but when would it take how long would it take? When would it reach them? You know, without your work, it's not easy to think of how else it would have happened very soon. And that's a tremendous that you have that you're the one who brought I mean that's part of the definition of means to places where you would least suspect to uh to reach. So what a tremendous you have. But here's what I want to explain. The Reb is not just saying you have you have a that you or me that you spread the wellsp springs. The Reb is saying you have a that gave you the ability to have the that you are meonus. You understand we're talking about two. You have to you have to take this slow. Okay. You ever heard people use the expression tiskits? That expression always bothered me. Like really, it actually annoyed me. Like you do someone a favor like usually it's like a ride. Like can I have a ride? Sure. And you drop them off and they say tiscul mitzvah. Now they're saying because that's just what we say. But it always bothered me because I'm like tiscul mitzvah means you should merit to do mitzvah. What do you mean I should merit to do mitzvah? I just did a mitzvah. It's sounds ungrateful. It's like it's it's like telling someone, "Oh, you should accomplish something for once, but I just did accomplish something." It but then it finally clicked for me. Actually, I'll tell you what made it click for me. There's a from from the Reb about um how he was to save the whole world. It was a global famine and he was the one who told P to store up the grain and and it you if you trace the whole story back the way he became a dream interpreter and was in a position to save the whole world was when he initiated conversation with the uh baker and the uh and the butler in in prison. So the deba says basically he had this of being friendly being compassionate to strangers even when he was in a difficult situation and he could have said I'm not in the mood to make small talk with strangers right now and because he had that well you know this expression right means literally we roll a merit through one who is meritorious that someone who already has oneus So another will come about through that person. So basically because had the one he uh was friendly in prison to these strangers he ended up having an even bigger which is he saved the whole world from famine. Um I remember Misha Katlarski Shalom used to say all the time how do you know that Eb was happy with a job you did? He would give you another job. That's like the real that's the zak right. So basically the says you have this that you the doesn't say it explicitly but it's kind of implied here. you of all people, right? You're not a rabbi. You're not a you're not somebody who set out to be a source of spiritual guidance and inspiration. You're your whole career is a secular career. And you of all people ended up being the one who loo you're the one who got into these into these uh circles of people. So you must have not that you do have aus for for having done that you do but it's even deeper than that you must have some otherus that it was mgal that to come through that you were already a zakai in respect to some previous do you follow me some previous that made you meritorious that now this should come through you because really otherwise it's kind of implausible it doesn't even make sense why would you be the guy now I know that sounds like an like underhanded compliment the way that I'm saying it. And it's not meant to be like harsh, but there is sort of a tone here of like, isn't it weird? Like weird is maybe not a nice word, but like it's kind of funny that you're the guy who who was responsible for all this being spread out. So, we must say that somehow you deserve to be the one. somehow you you did something previously that made you deserve to have this tremendous because otherwise it's just so random doesn't really make sense. You follow what I'm saying? There's another there's another layer of this as well and this is also speculative and and I got this actually I called my friend uh Ai Spiegel who's in Svas because when I need to know something about modern Hebrew literature and all this kind of stuff, he's my go-to guy. He's my go-to guy for a few things, but uh Israeli culture and stuff uh he's definitely my go-to guy. So I I called him up and he told me, you know, he told me a number of things, but one of the things he's saying is imagine you're like this giant of uh literature, you know, Elazar Steinman is a name. He's like uh what we call in America like Puliter Prize winner, you know, like a level a whole shame do and he has this successful series of books. and you would say to him, I wonder what spiritual reason there is that would explain why your works were so successful. It's like what spiritual reason there can it just be that I'm a really good writer? Like, so not to say that Ev is trying to like knock him down a peg, but it's interesting because, you know, you're talking to someone who has this incredible reputation for being a powerful pen and so his series was successful. Okay. So, the answer is because I know how to write. And and yet the Reb is saying, "No, no, no, no. That can't just be it. It can't it can't just be that's not it's not plausible. There has to be some deeper spiritual significance behind this whole story that would explain why you are the guy who ended up bringing this to so many people who otherwise would not have been exposed to it. Okay, let let's and in case you're thinking I'm making all of this up, let's read further and you're going to see that this is pretty clear. I don't know if I'm exactly on the money, but I'm not far off because you'll see from the context. Let's let's continue here. Um, right. It's clear to me. Very interesting. You or your parents. And by the way, um, Alazer Steinman was an orphan at a young age. This is also something that Abbasi told me that he writes in one of his books how he was raised by his uncles because he was orphaned at a young age. So it's interesting that says to you or your parents there must have been must have must have been some special some special merit that caused that again this term this term is mgalin this rolling this devolving um of This the aforementioned is the merit of the many. The merit of the many is that you brought to the masses. But the fact of the to bring to the masses must have been based on some previous that you or perhaps your parents even have. And that's how you earned that ability to uh to be the one cuz otherwise like why you like in other words there's plenty of people who are actual mashiam who their whole job is to learn and teach and their whole goal in life is to teach and that wasn't your goal. That's not like your that's not your career. And yet look you're the guy in in in re in in reality you're the guy and that's a huge discourse. So there must be a previous that gave you this. It's an interesting interesting concept that when somebody has some I would I would say like maybe unexpected success in something good and holy. It doesn't happen randomly like Vapus. Why that guy? Why that guy? Okay, it's not random. There's a reason why that guy. Now you're going to say to me, okay, so who cares? Like, so there's a reason like who can know such things anyways? So that's what the Reb addresses next. And if someone were to ask, what difference does it even make practically to measure merit? Well, the Reb says, "I'll tell you." Um, first of all, it could be of benefit to others. The knowledge of it could be of benefit to others and possibly also to me. I was like floored when I read that phrase also maybe for me. I mean do you understand what the dev is saying? Dev is saying certainly there's some type of that you have why you were the one who got to spread out all this said this to all these people and if you're going to say to me well who cares what it is what's the practical difference? Well I'll tell you a practical difference. One practical difference is if we could identify what this is like like was there a certain you said before you started writing whatever I don't know but if we could figure it out if we could identify what it is well other people could also do that and and maybe I would like to do it it's very powerful and thinking about the rebba just in terms of the rebba as involved in hapata sayas the rebba as a purveyor here a teacher a disseminator of and like there's dare I say this here of like the is saying wow I would also like to be able to succeed in like you did if we could identify what you did that be to be that guy I will go out and do that too was there a special city you ded from I'll go d from that city there I mean I'm being a little bit light-hearted with my examples but I'm saying it's an incredible thought that the is basically saying to this guy who was not from and like I said before he he he was a sha he was somebody who had been from and he left he left Yiddish and and the Reb is saying to him what do you have if we could just know other people could do it and maybe I would do it myself maybe I would do it all right so that's one reason why it's relevant to figure out to pinpoint what your was and another reason I got another reason for you when you see that a particular thing brought such a reward and again what's The reward here, riches, fame. He was already famous. I don't think he ever became rich. The reward here is the you have to understand it's like I said before about Yafetic like what was his reward for being friendly in prison? His reward was he got to do something even bigger for the world. This is a basic fundamental concept to this that the ultimate reward for doing the right thing is the ability to do more of the right thing but to be able to do it on an even bigger scale or like I said before like uh Mishlaram used to say how do you know that everyone was happy with something you did he gave you another job to do gave you something more to do so it's like this is the real zaka or you might call it mitzvah mitzvah that's another way to say it in Pervis it calls it mitzvah mitzvah that one mitzvah brings another mitzvah in its wake but it's it's bigger you know because it's momentum mitzvah mitzvah implies momentum it's like like a snowball rolling down the hill and getting bigger um so you had to have some we don't know what it is but something reminds me also of the story the fba tells about the balm 's previous incarnation when he was at saddic nister invasion novi comes to him and asks him what did you do on your bar mitzvah day and the guy is like no that was between me and hashem I'm not going to tell anyone in that case the guy knew what his special was but he didn't and he didn't want to tell it okay here the rebba is imploring uh alazerinaman to contemplate and try to think could he possibly Guess what special he might have. All right. Furthermore, when you see that some particular thing brought such a reward, meaning that you were the guy who brought to so many people who otherwise would not have learned. It gives him more power in that area. In which area? In the original area. Meaning, if you knew that there was something little you did that set you up to have the to do some huge thing, then you would realize that little thing was not so little. Wasn't so little after all. And then it would give you more to do more of that thing. It's the nature of people that when you know something in a general way, in a vague way, it doesn't affect you. It does not affect you as deeply as when you know something in its details. In other words, like it would be helpful as far as motivation for you to try to figure out specifically what this is. Now, this is fascinating. It's understood that it's not it's not my not my thing to go into other people's, you know, to to investigate into other people's personal lives. It's not my thing. Surely people volunteer volunteer personal information with the Reba all the time. They they turn to the Reba and they pour out their hearts. But the deba is saying it's not my thing to like try to get into people's personal lives. And and here it seems like maybe the is because he's saying could you think could you think try to think something you did something you know that nobody would know about only you would know. The is not saying any of this explicitly but it's like sort of implied like some little thing some personal thing like maybe it was your parents even what what might it be? So the deb was like by the way it's not my thing to like investigate people's personal lives. who however you see that what it translated to was this this other merit of spreading out the wellsp springsings of to the multitudes and that is my thing that is my thing that I was saying like not my thing to uninvited uh unsolicited go into people's personal lives but it is my thing to figure out how to spread to the most amount of people and if we could trace the cause an effect link over here and replicate that or even if I could personally replicate that and and be more successful. Yeah. So then it would be worthwhile to know what this thing is. So let's let's see if we can figure it out. So certainly there has to be some type of meaning The nature of the original thing may be personal, but because it ultimately evolved into something that gave you this where you were misak the multitudes and the masses with learning or learning about. So therefore that thing that original thing now has it almost becomes like um public property in a certain way like it has relevance to the public. So again like forgive me for getting deep into your personal life and you know you have to assume here is even I'm saying set aside all of the the holiness here and just think about it in terms of psychologically how is he how is how is Elazar Steinman supposed to take this he's probably going to think back to his old life when he was f he's going to probably think about his childhood growing growing up in the alaheim and how he was raised and what it was like learning in yeshiva, right? So, it's like triggering a lot of memories of that time in his life. Okay. Okay. I'm saying aside from any of the spiritual explanations of what's happening here in this correspondence, which is above my pay grade, um, you know, he's probably going to start thinking back to his to his youth and to the mitzvah that he did and maybe maybe pinpoint that there was something special that he did that might explain why he went on to inexplicably in a way that's very out of character with the rest of his career trajectory become this huge purveyor to to so many. Okay. With uh respectful blessings for the uh for the Yam and the Reb's name. Fascinating fascinating letter. Oh, I should mention to you, should have said this at the very beginning, but this was suggested to us from one of the viewers of 30 letters in 30 days. Um, I don't know if she wants me to say who who who she is, say her name, but one of our viewers sent me this letter and said, "Could you could you teach this letter?" Um, yeah. Yeah. Hi, Rabbi Tab. Thank you for the egress classes. I was very excited when I saw you doing this one for Yudolf Nissen since I really enjoyed the previous ones. I especially enjoyed the letter about the Israeli guy who was anti- relligion. Yeah, Mr. Zurbl uh letter. I came across this letter and I was thinking I really enjoy your insight on it. So, I'm sending it here. Maybe you can use it for one of the upcoming classes. And we did. We we and I wrote back and I said, "Was there anything in particular that made you want to suggest this for a class?" because I wanted to know, you know, maybe there was some aspect of the letter that had personal significance to her, but I didn't get a response yet, but that's fine. Okay. Anyways, it's a fascinating letter. H, and uh I think it demands from all of us to think in terms of the the ripple effect that from the perspective of infinity there's no small mitzvah and that one good deed can open the doorway to a much much greater good deed and we don't know what it is maybe in retrospect looking back we might identify what it was and uh yeah I think also the concept of when you do accomplish something great that I've been saying it is useful to think about your spiritual path that led to that when you've accomplished something big like why why were you the guy like could have been I mean whatever I not I'm not here to talk about my personal life but when I read the letter I was definitely thinking about certain things where it was like you know things that I'm proud of that are good things that I think are yeah things that the way in English you would say something to write home about and you know we would say something to write to the deb about there's certain things that I've been able to do that yeah I've definitely written to the deb about and with with good feelings of being able to bring good news and and the saying you should stop a second and think like why why were you the one who did it like and and it's true sometimes it doesn't make sense sense like would have made more sense for other people. I mean this is clearly the case here. It would have been logically would have made more sense for someone else to have been the one who had this. So why did Hashem pick you unless you say well what does it matter to me to know? Well it it does matter because a maybe we could replicate it you know maybe we could tell other people to do it. Um, also B, maybe it'll motivate you more to have extra motivation in that area knowing how it led to something greater than what you were anticipating. Anyways, I I can definitely connect to this on a personal level and I'm hoping that uh you out there can connect to it. Maybe you'll write to me and you'll let me know about what this brings up for you. I'd be interested to hear that. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow night is our second to last letter. We are drawing to the uh culmination, the climax of our 30 letters in 30 days. We'll see you tomorrow night.