How did the Jews survive for so many years? What will they achieve when Moshiach comes? These and countless other questions were posed by thousands daily before Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, our current Rebbe and leader. The Avner Institute presents an audience with a group of teenagers in 5723/1963, accompanied and recorded by Rabbi Samuel Lew, where the Rebbe’s tough answers ring true today and show a guidance still relevant.
In loving memory of Hadassah Lebovic A”h
“All the Limbs are Connected”
Frequently schools brought classes to meet the Rebbe, and often a tape recording or transcription was made of the audience. On 27 Iyar 5723/May 21 1963, the following audience, conducted entirely in English, took place between the Rebbe and a group of teenage students and their teacher from New Jersey. The transcription, made by Rabbi S. Lew, appears here in edited form:
Jewish Continuity
Student: What has kept the Jews together and caused the Jews to last all these years?
Rebbe: According to the approach of science to all historic events, we must study history and find out the common points and denominators that have not changed. If for 3,000 years we have withstood all the persecution and all the pogroms and all pressures, then there must be something special during all these 3,000 years. For if there were a stop of a certain period, then the Jewish people could not possibly have overcome the persecution and pogroms during the period when the common point was not present.
If we study Jewish history, we see that all things change – the language, the territory, the government, the clothing, the culture, and the outside world. Here we speak English; in Russia the Jews speak Russian; in Eretz Yisrael, Hebrew. The same difference existed 1,000 years ago also, and the only unchanged thing in all these years is the mitzvoth – the precepts we perform in daily life. The tefillin [phylacteries] have not changed all these 3,000 years. The same goes for Shabbos and the Dietary Laws. We have the same Chumash as 1,000 and 2,000 and 2,500 years ago.
At all times certain groups and individuals deviated from the course. Some of these groups were mighty, but no trace was left of them five or six generations after their activity. Forty days after mattan Torah [giving of the Torah] a mighty group made the [Golden] Calf. During the time of the Temple there were idol worshippers, as during the Second Temple. In Spain, at the time of the Inquisition, there was a mighty influential circle. Strictly from a point of historical research, we must accept the facts even if we don’t understand them: the common point has been mitzvoth ma’asiyos (practical mitzvoth).
Modern Day Judaism
Student: What do you say of the present day?
Rebbe: Every era had those who are going away, and the same is true of 1963. But this is only for a certain period, for then a large percent return.
Student: They still believe in everything, in spirit.
Rebbe: You mustn’t separate the spirit from actual life. There are also differences in spirit, but not within the practice. Not all pray with the same nusach [prayer rite], which is a difference of the spirit. Some pray according to Kabbalistic kavanos [mystical intentions], some according to Chassidic kavanos, some according to Hungarian kavanos and some pray with no special kavanos at all. But the basic nusach in the essential parts is the same. Tefillin had a different interpretation in Alexandrian Egypt and yet the same tefillin were put on the left hand and head, then and now.
Chabad
Student: Would you explain the Chabad movement?
Rebbe: It would be better if you would study this from printed literature. It is difficult to explain in a nutshell, and it is not fair to all the members of the group, who might have studied some (and who don’t want to hear it now.) You can get literature in English in the office, which you can study at your leisure, and will be able to study it more deeply than through conversation and my English explanation.
Everyday Life
Student: How can we use our knowledge of the Torah in everyday life?
Rebbe: Study the Torah, Nevi’im, Kesuvim, their commentaries, and afterwards it is not difficult, when you are not prejudiced, if you are ready to make small sacrifices. You cannot expect to achieve everything right now but every day there must be mesiras nefesh [self-sacrifice]. You must accept . . . . the same condition applies to all who have an ideal in life – they cannot have all the same pleasures as those without a certain goal.
Jewish in the Army
Student: Can a Jew in the army keep the Torah?
Rebbe: Many soldiers in the last war observed all the laws of kashrus, as it was their sincere wish. They brought to the commanding Officer their sincere wish, and kept it even overseas in trenches. It doesn’t mean that they always had the same tasty meal as everyone else, but they always had a healthy menu. They got permission from their officer to observe the law because it would not take away their capacity to be strong soldiers.
Non-Ethical Mitzvoth
Teacher: We discussed this point in class: why can’t one better himself without keeping kashrus and yomtov but through good ethical practices?
Rebbe: To illustrate my point. It is the same as a human body, which has many limbs and members. You can do something to better every part, and you can restrict medical care to one part. You can observe only the rules applying to health of the hands, but not of the feet, or only the rules for health of the respiratory organs and not the digestive organs. There may be good results to this part, but not to all parts. And in the long run, since all the limbs are connected, the condition of one influences all the others. If it is good, it makes them good, and if it is worse, it influences the others in the wrong direction.
If you are observing a certain part of the 613 mitzvoth, you are going a good job: but this does not exempt you from observing the others. What’s more – not observing one disturbs also that category which is observed.
Teacher: Do you say that if one does not keep Shabbos, he can’t keep the laws of ethics?
Rebbe: I cannot deny the fact – many people keep the ethics and not Shabbos, and many observe Shabbos but not the ethics. Each has its own merits and cannot be substituted, and all are connected. Each brings another – mitzvah goreres mitzvah – and not observing – aveirah goreres aveirah – spoils the others.
Many groups study Pirkei Avos [Ethics of the Fathers], which has a curious beginning. It is one of the tractates of Seder Nezikin, and in that seder [section of the Mishnah] it is one of the last, yet the beginning of Avos tells us that Moses received the Torah on Mount Sinai and gave it to Joshua, and so it was passed on to our times. This Mishnah surely belongs at the beginning of the entire Torah Sheba’al Peh [Oral Torah] – at the beginning of Berachos, to tell us that all the rulings of the Torah Sheba’al Peh were given on Mount Sinai. Nevertheless, we find it on Avos, with the ethical rules.
For it is not necessary for putting on tefillin, which can be done without believing . . . . There is no condition that one must know the reason for fulfilling the mitzvah of tefillin. But if one is ready to keep the moral laws all his life, they can’t be based only on human reasoning and consulting friends. For then, one can deviate and stretch until one distorts a mitzvah. From an ethical rule one makes a sin, and from a sin, an ethical rule. And therefore we find this introduction, which was expressly meant to introduce the tractate which contains ethical rules.
To our sorrow, in our era and generation we saw all the distortion, in Germany. I studied in Germany for many years, before Hitler, and people in influential circles always quoted from Kant, Goethe, and the ethical philosophers. They made no move without a footnote – with the book and page number. Then Hitler came to power with a new theory and philosophy, and an overwhelming majority of people, in my opinion 99 percent, were on his side – not after rejecting Goethe, Kant [here the Rebbe named quite a few thinkers] but continuing to accept them, and they joined Hitler in all his actions, even the massacre of people. This is an illustration of an ethical system based on philosophical theories and human reasoning, without a solid basis which will not change.
Generational Advantages
Student: What is our opinion of the Jews of today, compared to those of long ago?
Rebbe: In my opinion you are very lucky in relation to the Jews of thousands of years ago. When a Jew was asked the reason why his behavior was different from all the people around him, he had no history to persuade people that he was right, for the Jewish people were only years or generations old. But now, after 3,000 years of history in many different countries and conditions, 99 percent of these times under non-beneficial conditions, though no trace remains of the people who oppressed them – Egyptians, Babylonians, Romans, Greeks – the Jews survived all their oppressions, including Hitler’s.
As previously said, you can’t come with a ready-made theory, and you must study history and see where it points. The power to survive oppression is not something accidental, because they have the same history for over 3,000 years. All of recorded human history is only 4000-5,000 years, no longer. And for 3,000 of 5,000 years a single unusual phenomenon has occurred. A people which was always persecuted and a minority always survived its oppressors who were many times bigger. If you study books to see what their behavior was you can answer the question of why we are different, why we seclude ourselves without assimilating.
Student: Are people are religious today or less religious than those long ago?
Rebbe: Probably the same; but it was much harder to understand them. For 2,000 years ago they could only base themselves upon belief without any facts, and now in the twentieth century we have solid facts to support us as to why we existed with the same behavior all those 3,000 years.
American Jews & Israel
Student: Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the American Jew is confronted with the problem of dual allegiance. What should have priority?
Rebbe: I don’t find a contradiction between them. The main thing is spiritual values, then come the secondary ones – the army, guarding the borders, and all other things. One’s main purpose, though, must be to become a Holy People and a Kingdom of Priests. Don’t be afraid: you can become part of a Kingdom of Priests even if you are a professional or a businessman, an engineer or doctor.
Moshiach in Modern Times
Rebbe: Many people feel unable to accept the idea of Moshiach. They cannot understand with human reason how Moshiach can come and transform the order of things around us, to the extent that all basic aspects of our lives will be different. This notion would be expected to exist many generations ago. But now, so many changes take place in a day, or even in an hour or minute, that this is not difficult to accept. And maybe even more – not only is it acceptable, but it can be believed. If someone makes a momentous discovery or invention he can change things quickly.
To put it more bluntly: If tomorrow morning a more powerful weapon than any other country possesses should be invented, it gives its inventor the power to dictate. He doesn’t have to be afraid: he cannot be counterattacked. He can dictate to all governments and demand certain behaviors and certain rules in their countries and governments. They have no choice: they must accept his conditions, for it is now possible for him to destroy a large section of the earth even without an army on his side. In other words, if a mighty intellectual should dictate instructions to millions around him, this does not need a miracle, through some electronics or the like. So, if you must understand Messiah in physical terms – he may be great even in electronics and power.
Teacher: This is very interesting – understanding the idea of Messiah is a natural concept. You usually hear of Messiah in terms of the supernatural.
Rebbe: I also believe in Messiah as supernatural. But people today find it hard to understand the supernatural. Maybe by understanding it in these terms, this will prepare the way for them to fix themselves before he comes, and they will save Moshiach the job.
Importance of Action
Rebbe: One more point: Many circles today devote too much time to discussions. We live in an epoch when people need actions and deeds. It is the same as if there is an emergency case – there is no time to discuss all the possibilities and how to counteract them, if necessary. We must take all measures which are possible, from a day or a decade or a year before.
Our epoch has many emergency cases, and if every one of us has time and ample time, and discusses all the possibilities and tries to invent, and postpones doing something until then, it will take many years and decades – and I don’t know if it’s right to do this. Maybe it is more rational to use the measures and segulos [charms] and treatments used 100 and 500 and 1,000 years ago, to strengthen things around us. Then we could take the time for proper research. In other words, it is not in order that we experiment: we must first take the patient alive.
Student: Must we, then, be just men of action?
Rebbe: One should not think, “I want to show my inventive mind.” It is more important to find good applications for the treatments used many years ago.
How to Bring Moshiach
Student: What will the Jews achieve when Moshiach comes?
Rebbe: After he comes?
Student: Before he comes.
Rebbe: What must we do to accelerate his coming?
Student: Yes.
Rebbe: To be as much prepared as possible for the order of things after he comes, when there will be justice and peace, we must fulfill the instructions to us and to the world around us, in Torah, Nevi’im, Kesuvim [Prophets, Writings]. Every act must be in accordance with these instructions and we must influence others. When you do this, you will do your share to accelerate his coming.
Student: Do you believe that Moshiach will come within the next 50 years?
Rebbe: Much sooner! Don’t postpone it for so long!
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