What YOU can give the Rebbe | Letter #3 of 30 Letters in 30 Days

okay bashem we're here for letter number three of 30 letters in 30 days thank you for joining us by the way the letter to the burnt out teacher letter number one uh I told you last night we had a uh little miracle of a teacher who got that message so last night I heard from another teacher who was also ready to quit and was uh answered through that class so the ripple effect continues um and if you have stories by the way where you feel that a particular night's class was meaningful to you in a personal way and you're comfortable sharing it with me I don't have to share it here in the on the live stream you could just tell me just so I could know and then if you want me to share it or parts of it you can let me know send me an an email info@ souls. org also if you have suggestions for letters that you would like to learn uh info@ words.org by the way somebody just shared with me today a letter which nobody to my knowledge has really seen because it was never printed anywhere and God willing we're going to learn it m of chabas Saturday night God willing um yeah please remember also that there is a class Thursday night even though there is mcgilla reading but yes I'm crazy I'm going to do a class anyway and not only a class but a double class because we have to do the letter for Thursday night and for Friday night because it's shabas we can't do uh uh can't do a show so we do a double letter on Thursday nights okay so let's do tonight which is Wednesday night um yeah let's Ju Just Jump Right In by the way where am I reading from I'm reading from a PDF where are these PDFs well if you're on soulwords dorg which is our website and just look below the video player there's a clickable uh PDF if you're on YouTube click on the video description you might have to click to open up the video description but underneath the description there is a link for a PDF and if you're listening on podcast platforms like Spotify or apple podcasts then well if you're listening rather than watching you're probably driving and you shouldn't be looking at a PDF okay fine um let's jump in this is a letter from volume 26 of igis Kish letter 9,612 Brooklyn New York to all of those who blessed who gave blessings um Brooklyn New York so so let me give a little background okay so this is T of K the and theon's wedding anniversary is yid Kliff people gave gifts anniversary gifts to the ebson in honor of uh their anniversary this was like we read the datein uh so that was the um so that was 19 19 uh 69 so that was the 40th wedding anniversary the wedding was n um actually in the secular year maybe it was still 1928 maybe kiss was still the end of 1928 someone's GNA look that up and let me know uh but it was the 40th W wedding anniversary the Reb and the debbon were married in uh in vsha and Warsaw Poland and uh this is their 40th anniversary and people were celebrating and sending gifts and there was a list of people who who sent gifts and I'll talk a little bit about the nature of these gifts in a moment but apparently among the different groups many many people were giving uh gifts but among those who gave gifts were uh people who had done so with with Association to uh t uh T was you know T is an organization I guess they were amassing a list of people who wanted to give anniversary presents to the Reb and the reiton what were these wedding presents okay so as as it will become clear from the letter um these were Mitzvah gifts these were spiritual gifts that people took on Mitzvah in the Merit and the honor of the Reb and the rabbitson okay but this will become clear from text and uh I guess I'll I'll just before I jump in I'll share with you why I'm choosing to learn this letter you hear already that it's to a group of people so how personal could it really get right I'm sure that you've I mean if you've done 30 letters in 30 days with us in previous years you know this but even if you just did the past two nights you know that one of the real powerful features of igis is the rebba is writing to individuals about their personal lives and you get to see that abb's compassion and and and uh the human Connection in the letters so this is written to a group of people a list of people who were all uh signing that they had done Mitzvah in honor of the Reb and the rebbit and so how personal could this really get right it's written to a list it's it's a m of it's a group of people so the answer is it actually does get personal but in a different way normally the letters give you a glimpse into the Deb's insight into the personal life of the person that the Deb is writing to this letter gives us a little bit of an insight into the Reb himself and how the rebbi feels about his relationship with us and I thought that was pretty important to share and I actually didn't even get that at first when I read the letter but my friend Ley shov who is the impetus but behind 30 letters in 30 days really in a lot of ways um certainly this year wouldn't be able to do it without him he pointed that out to me and then when I saw it it really struck me and I hope that it'll be meaningful to you as a glimpse into the Deb perspective on his relationship with us sh greetings and blessings um I hereby acknowledge receipt of the letter from y That's the date of the anniversary and it's enclosure I I guess the enclosure was probably the list of names that's what I'm assuming okay sometimes they translate that as sometimes it's a warm thank you but it means thank you thank you for the the blessings people wished blessings upon the for in honor of his anniversary in conjunction with the 40 years like I said this is the 40th anniversary from the Reb and theon's wedding and in the language of our sages your word was already stated your blessing is already written I will bless those who bless you all right let's back upur your word is already stated that's a reference to a story about re is the Tana it's actually in a couple of places it's in the Yushi it's also in uh but basically the story is a non-jew came over to RAB is and bened him gave him a a blessing and he told him your word is already stated and then another NJ came over and cursed RAB is and he said the same thing to your word is already stated and the onlookers said why did you give them the same response he said because I'm referring to one statement the statement is the verse C uh those who bless you I will bless those who curse you I will curse so the one who blessed me he's going to get that part of it the one who cursed me he's going to get that part of it so the only mentions the positive part of it and says listen your word meaning the response to what you've done is already stated in the T which is you you gave me a you you blessed me so Hashem promises that anyone who blesses you meaning the Jewish people people or any individual Jew is going to be blessed by Hashem so theb says the response first of all you you blessed me IR regardless of my response you have triggered an automatic guaranteed response from on high Hashem is going to bless you and that's an important concept here um just pause for a second from the letter there's a that theb said the shabus after the anniversary where the debba elaborates on a lot of the themes that are in the letter and in fact notably theba was MIA that means theba edited for publication that letter which was not common in those days to edit such a um so quickly and and also it wasn't like your typical format of a like of a type it was more like you know the Deb is speaking about the current event that the meaning he had the anniversary and people gave gifts Mitzvah gifts in honor of the anniversary and the Deb is thanking them for their for their blessings and their gifts so the fact that the Reb wanted to edit that s and have it published just shows the importance which the Reb attributed to that message wanting to get the message out and the rebba speaks about it in the that I'm thanking everyone who who are here but the word should get out to everyone who's not here everyone who sent Their Blessings and it's the whole thing how the Deb is acknowledging the blessing but then the question is but why acknowledge the blessing because after all once you bless your fellow Jew Hashem is going to already take care of the the guarantee which is I'll bless those who bless you and that's kind of what the dev speaks about in the SAS and also a little bit here in this letter which is if Hashem is has already set up a system where those who bless will be blessed then why does the recipient of the blessing also have to chime in and and acknowledge it um not in the letter but in the talks about a story that actually happened in the gor with with I think it was R and rauna that one gave the other a blessing to become rich and then he became rich and then he came back and said I became Rich aren't you happy that your blessing came true he says yeah but I'm not happy that you you should have said V Lamar and so same to you because it would have come back to me so then there's a whole question of why do why do we have to sayar so meaning there's already the system set up but the idea is that even though you will certainly be blessed by blessing there's a human component that's necessary where the one who receives the blessing should acknowledge it and wish it back upon the blesser so the debba says he's in this position of being the blessed one the one who received the blessing really everyone who blessed him already has the guarantee that Hashem is going to bless them for blessing him but that ebba wants to add his personal so to speak same to you back at you that's basically the idea which if you look in the um is very clear all right and should be in a manner of addition which hashem's additions are greater than the principle got to explain that so basically that EB is saying if you bless me whatever you bless me with you're going to get that back at you but it should be with interest meaning an addition and when Hashem adds with interest so it's not 5% 10% it it's not even 100% it could be 200% or a th% meaning the addition can be more than the original amount so whatever you blessed me with is coming right back at you but it's Amplified with hashem's uh mathematics which are exponential you're going to get Amplified blessings back at you for whatever you blessed me um wow strong language it was very pleasant and it brought great joy great Jo I just talking about his feelings right now it was very pleasant for me it brought me great joy the notification that many of the people who gave me blessings added to their blessing they they strengthened it they they verified it they added to the they didn't just say a blessing well wishes they added to it a gift of a Mitzvah that they're doing in celebration of the anniversary for instance a donation to or learning something in and theb will amplify this concept later in the letter and again the that was spoken the Sha Following chabas also speaks about it in even greater length the two concepts of Sedaka and limit of okay so just to review deba says thank you for the blessings the blessings are going to come back at you I am even though Hashem guarantees that I'm doing my part to also co-sign that and also to let you know when Hashem sends blessings back to you the addition can be even more than the original um and now I want to also add that I was particularly happy that the blessings were combined with gifts of ITV and T study now I don't know if people realize this so I'm going to tell you the origins of 30 letters in 30 days meaning why we started this in the first place was to give Torah gifts to the rebbi for the Reb's birthday for Yol Nissen that was the original concept should I talk about this I'm going to talk about it maybe I'll regret it later I remember well three years ago when we first started 30 letters in 30 days that people came over to me and they were like CU I because I told people I it was part of like the advertising campaign give a gift of Torah to the rebba and they were like what's the gift of Torah how is this Torah study I said we're going to learn the the Reb's letters they were like that's not Torah study you know a MIM a how was IG Torah study it's you know that I've been writing to people so barash I feel like in in the past few years perhaps that has changed and I hope that 30 L and 30 days I I kind of feel 30 L and 30 days has been part of that change that people realize that the letters are so deep and they are worthy of actual study I you see even here this this in this letter that we're learning right now how much depth how much scholarship is interwoven in every line okay so we're studying 30 letters in 30 days as a Torah gift to the Reb Okay so we're giving the rebba a birthday braa and birthday gift and I guess it's meaningful to me to have some insight into how the rebba feels about that and since the rebba revealed his feelings about the birthday blessings and gifts that he received for his 40th wedding anniversary we know how theba described how he how he received that and experienced that and felt about that it gives us a little bit of insight to how what we're doing right now um is being received which I think I think is particularly meaningful okay um yeah there are three levels of advantage to this to what to doing a Mitzvah or studying some Torah as a gift in honor of somebody of somebody else Zula and each one is greater than the previous one okay so in ascending order the first level Mitzvah the fact that when you give somebody a gift you know you could just you know you could send him a birthday card with a $20 bill but the fact that you did a Mitzvah as the gift that's very very powerful the Mitzvah when person does a Mitzvah it doesn't just benefit the person who does the Mitzvah it benefits the whole world in fact that is this world and the world to come so if you do a Mitzvah because it's the Deb's anniversary or in our case because it's the Debb's birthday so this benefits the rebba because the rebba is in the world and the world is being improved when you do a Mitzvah so the person that you're doing the Mitzvah in honor of as being part of the world that is being improved through your Mitzvah is benefiting so when you do a mitzvah for somebody as a gift the the first level of impact is that you're making the world a better place and the person that you're doing this for lives in that world and so they're gaining from the Improvement that you've just done for the world okay that's level one you say is um the SEC the second level the greater level is in parentheses the person who caused the Mitzvah to be done even unknowingly in other words if I get you to do a Mitzvah then I get credit and therefore spiritual benefit in a very special way from that Mitzvah even if I don't know I'm the one who got you to do the Mitzvah maybe I don't know I was making a good example and you saw it and you imitated it and then so I caused you to do it right in this case well would it be let's say it's my birthday and you wanted to give me a birthday present you did you did a mitzvah for me in in my honor for my birthday well then I caused you to do it even if I don't know that you did it in my honor but I was the cause H so I'm going to get some credit and some spiritual benefit so the Deb is saying that if you did a Mitzvah because of me I want you to know that you did something for me not just the first level where you did something for me because you made the whole world better and so it's better for everyone in the world but you did something because of me so that benefits me that I was saying you're helping me out here you're actually giving me something like it's a real gift it's a significant gift all right and that which ascends all of them surpasses all of them the highest level the third level if the doing of the Mitzvah is specifically in the Merit of the person meaning to say it's not just the second level where you did the Mitzvah because of someone oh it's Le's birthday let's learn some T but you did the Mitzvah specifically in that person's Merit where now they get an even greater benefit from the Mitzvah that you did in their in their made a I met a br earlier okay so you think about this we're learning 30 letters in 30 days now we're doing it because of JAL Nissen so we're doing it because of the Reb and the truth is we're doing it as a for the Reb we want to give the Reb something you give somebody a present for their birthday right so the Deb is telling us like a genuine thank you you're actually helping me you're benefiting me which is I mean if you reflect on that for even a moment that's incred incredibly powerful we're not just recipients of inspiration of guidance of clarity that we're getting from the letters but we are privileged to be able to be giving something back which is mind-blowing if you think about it okay I I therefore come with a suggestion request y that all of those people who gave birthday blessings they should do both what what are both well we mentioned it earlier both forms of the referred to Torah study and monetary gifts meaning giving Saka charity in honor of the rebit okay the Reb spells it out here tal which is study and deed G together together what does it mean together that each one has a quality that the other doesn't have so you put them together in order to have the best of both worlds now in the S I referred to the the s from the chabas after this letter the speaks very very explicitly about there are people who are what we call Y oil they are primarily they they're dwellers of the tent they're primarily um Scholars but so anyone who says I'm only going to do I'm not going to do acts of kindness so that that doesn't work you have to do so even the the people who study really well and they study a lot and their gift their primary gift will be a lot of studying um they should also give Daka and also the balic the the person who's in business who his main way of contributing is to give a lot of Saka to give you know ample money to charity but he or she should also Al do some Torah study so everyone should do both um and [Music] furthermore not only does something that Torah study doesn't do but it has a unique effect upon the Torah study that it amplifies it and enhances it V now Torah study is like water for fish everyone knows the famous story about reab AA the Romans said don't study Torah by by threat of death he was still studying Torah they asked him how can you study Torah you're going to get killed he said the famous story about the fish who was in the water and the fox had come out of the water the fishermen are going to catch you in the water he says to the fox oh you fool they all say you're so wi they say you're so wise but you're a fool if I'm in danger in the water because the fishermen have cast their net I'm going to come out of the water you think I'm going to be safer no I'm going to be much more in danger the Torah is to a to a Jew like water is for a fish I can'ta said if I abandon the Torah then I'm even I'm in even greater danger of losing my life my life is in Torah so when you increase in it in Torah study which is the life of the person it increas pces uh life in all of your actions so we put it together that's daa and the Torah study and we increase the Vitality now now I have an idea and that is because obviously you're you're doing the Torah study because you're with me right now right but what about the daa no I'm not going to ask you for money actually I'm not um I'm going to make a suggestion you could open up the kabad pushka app and if you don't have it download it please so you download the pushka app so I'm going to open up the KY kabad push Gap and you just go like this okay I'm gonna don't worry I'm not a big spender I'm not pushing the I I see a button for a dollar $5 and $10 and other I'm just going to push the dollar button oh hold on I gotta turn I have my phone silenced I gotta unsilence it so that you can hear the little pavlovian uh noise here you see it sounds like a coin falling into a pushka all right so now they got me to give $2 because the first one was silent and I had to redo it so I just give $2 but it's so addictive cuz the sound is so cool okay now I give $3 but who's counting all right anyways I recommend everyone download the C oh I didn't know it did that oh that's cool if you shake it you hear the coins inside that is so cool okay anyways and now I'm G to resilence my phone but yeah K pushka app and [Music] okay little bit of background this is which is right in the middle of and the 10th of is the Redemption anniversary of the Redemption of the from prison or the 19th of K is the anniversary of the Redemption of the Al from prison and so we're in those days days between those uh liberations and both of their liberations are connected to the verse in tahim in Psalms my soul you redeem my soul peacefully um our sages explain that verse in in Psalms and say what does it mean the Holy One Blessed Be says sound familiar anyone who occupies themselves in Torah study and in doing Deeds of kindness meaning Saka there's the third one here because there's three pillars with a minion uh Mila I can't help you with that you got to go find a minion mil an i credit him as if he redeemed me meaning Hashem himself from among the nations with the blessings for the uh this F of Liberation meaning uh that is name and I hope that inspires everybody to feel that their Torah study that they're doing together here with the 30 letters in 30 days is Meaningful of course you could add to that you can certainly add to that and learn other Torah I want to really recommend rambam we just restarted if you're doing three chapters a day and sa for Mitzvah we just restarted you can jump aboard that train um yeah and Seda Kad let me just do it one more time it's so this is like a good addiction you know they say like the little bells and whistles on the phone they just get the little dopamine hit from it let me let me do this you see feels good feels good all right good night