6669 —תפקיד הישיבות: הכנת יהודים "סתם" להפוך את הגשמיות לרוחניות

B"H, Erev Rosh Chodesh Shevat, 5719
Brooklyn, N.Y.

To the participants in the 19th^[1] annual dinner of Merkaz HaYeshivos "Tomchei Temimim" Lubavitch, may G‑d be upon them, may they live^[2]

Shalom u'Vrachah!

This year's dinner – on the 2nd of Shevat^[3] – takes place close to two important days of this month, which have a special significance for yeshivos in general and for the Tomchei Temimim yeshivos in particular.

* * *

On the first day of the month of Shevat, the Torah tells us (Devarim 1:3)^[4], Moshe Rabbeinu began to say the Book of Devarim – Mishneh Torah^[5] – to the Jewish people.

Mishneh Torah had a special significance also as a preparation for the Jews on the eve of their entry into the Land of Israel. They were leaving a place where for years they had had no material worries, where all their needs of food, clothing and a roof over their heads were provided for by G‑d (through the manna, the well, the clouds of glory, etc.)^[6]; and before they came into a land and a way of life where one had to plow and sow and reap and occupy oneself with all other worldly matters, they needed to receive special spiritual strengths and safeguards, so that in the material world they should not only not become coarsened, but on the contrary, they should bring holiness into it, refine and elevate the material world around them; they should make the material into the spiritual^[7], through Torah and divine service, charity and acts of kindness^[8].

And this is also – especially in the recent generations – the task of the yeshivos.

Not, as others think, that the main goal of the yeshivos is to prepare rabbis, shochtim and other religious functionaries; rather, the main and chief task is to prepare "ordinary" Jews, so that before they go out into the world and become householders, businessmen and the like^[9], they should first be saturated and permeated with Torah and the fear of Heaven; and later, being out in the world, they should uplift their whole surroundings – by inspiring all the Jews around them with love of G‑d, love of the Torah and love of Israel in everyday life.

* * *

The tenth day of Shevat is the yahrzeit of my father-in-law, the Rebbe^[10], the director of the first Lubavitch yeshivah^[11] (which was founded by his father, the Rebbe (Rashab), in Lubavitch 62 years ago, and) which thanks to him flourished in America as well, 19 years ago.

And in the Tomchei Temimim yeshivos in America, too, my father-in-law, the Rebbe, set the above as the goal:

Together with raising students who are great in the revealed Torah and great in the teachings of Chassidus, the main task should be to raise students with self-sacrifice for love of G‑d, love of the Torah and love of Israel^[12] – and specifically through actual deeds. And he succeeded in this too, as one sees in the Temimim in the four corners of the earth^[13].

In view of the day of the hilula – Yud Shevat^[14] – of the founder of Merkaz HaYeshivos Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch in America, each and every man and woman will surely arouse within themselves inner strengths to support Merkaz HaYeshivos Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch in the greatest measure.

And through this, each man and woman who takes part in the support and expansion of the holy institutions that he founded will enjoy the Divine blessings which the master of the hilula arouses abundant mercy to draw down – they, their sons and daughters, and all that is theirs, may they live long and well.

With respect and with blessing,

M. Schneerson

Publisher's notes

Printed in Likkutei Sichos vol. 9, p. 247, and completed from a photocopy of the letter.

Annual dinner (יערלעכען דינער): The Rebbe enclosed a copy of this letter on 2 Shevat 5719, the day of the dinner, in his letters to his emissaries: to R. Yosef Chaim HaKohen Rosenfeld in San Francisco (below, vol. 18, letter 6671, "only in order to make use of the idea in your work"), and to R. Gershon Mendel Gerlik in Milan (below, letter 6672, toward the day of the hillula, "but appeals and the like are not to be mixed in").

Notes

1. The 19th (19'טן): That is, the nineteenth annual dinner. The Tomchei Temimim yeshivos in America were founded on 9 Adar 5700 (1940), nineteen years before this letter; in letter 1347* (15 Teves 5712) that year's celebration is called "the twelfth annual celebration", and letter 5995 (18 Teves 5718) marks "the eighteenth anniversary of its transfer to America".

2. May G‑d be upon them, may they live (ה' עליהם יחיו): From the verse Yeshayahu 38:16: אדני עליהם יחיו, "O L‑rd, upon them they live"; the Rebbe's usual form of address to a gathering.

3. The 2nd of Shevat (ב' שבט): Sunday, 2 Shevat 5719 (11 January 1959). The letter was written on Erev Rosh Chodesh Shevat, Friday, 9 January 1959; on the same day the Rebbe also wrote letters 6667 and 6668, on founding vocational schools in Ra'anana, where he likewise stressed education "on the watchword that love of G‑d, love of the Torah and love of Israel are one" – as he writes here of the goal of the Tomchei Temimim yeshivos.

4. Devarim 1:3 (דברים א, ג): "And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moshe spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the L‑rd had commanded him for them." The eleventh month is Shevat; from then until his passing on 7 Adar, Moshe said the Book of Devarim.

5. Mishneh Torah (משנה תורה): "Mishneh Torah", the "repetition of the Torah", is a name of the Book of Devarim, in which Moshe repeats the Torah to the Jewish people; from the verse Devarim 17:18: "he shall write for himself this repetition of the Torah (משנה התורה הזאת) in a book". So too in the Gemara, Megillah 31b: "but the curses in Mishneh Torah – one may interrupt".

6. The manna, the well, the clouds of glory (מן, באר, ענני כבוד): Taanis 9a: שלשה פרנסים טובים עמדו לישראל, אלו הן: משה ואהרן ומרים. וג' מתנות טובות ניתנו על ידם, ואלו הן: באר וענן ומן, "Three good providers arose for Israel: Moshe, Aharon and Miriam; and three good gifts were given through them: the well, the cloud and the manna" – the well in the merit of Miriam, the pillar of cloud in the merit of Aharon, the manna in the merit of Moshe. On their clothing, Rashi on "your garment did not wear out upon you" (Devarim 8:4): "the clouds of glory would rub their clothes and press them… and even their little ones, as they grew, their clothing grew with them". In the desert all their needs – food, water, clothing and shelter – came from Heaven, without any toil.

7. They should make the material into the spiritual (זיי זאלן מאכן די גשמיות - רוחניות): From the words of the Alter Rebbe cited in Hayom Yom, 27 Elul: "G‑d makes the spiritual into the material, and the Jewish people make the material into the spiritual."

8. Torah and divine service… acts of kindness (תורה און עבודה, צדקה און גמילות חסדים): Based on Avos 1:2: "The world stands on three things: on the Torah, on the divine service, and on acts of kindness."

9. And the like (אד"ג): אד"ג = און דער גלייכן, "and the like".

10. My father-in-law, the Rebbe (כ"ק מו"ח אדמו"ר): כ"ק מו"ח אדמו"ר = כבוד קדושת מורי וחמי אדונינו מורנו ורבנו, the Previous Rebbe, R. Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, who passed away on 10 Shevat 5710; 10 Shevat 5719 was his ninth yahrzeit.

11. The director of the first Lubavitch yeshivah (דער מנהל פון דער ערשטער ליובאוויטשער ישיבה): Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim was founded in Lubavitch by the Rebbe Rashab on 15 Elul 5657 (1897), and on 24 Elul 5658 he appointed his son, the Previous Rebbe, its director. "62 years ago" is 5657; "19 years ago" is 5700, when on 9 Adar 5700, on the evening of his arrival in the United States, the Previous Rebbe founded Tomchei Temimim in America (see note 1).

12. Love of G‑d, love of the Torah and love of Israel (אהבת השם, אהבת התורה און אהבת ישראל): Based on the well-known teaching from the Zohar (III 73a), "Israel, the Torah and the Holy One, blessed be He, are all one"; see Hayom Yom, 26 Adar I: "With three sacred tools – love of G‑d, love of the Torah, love of Israel – young men, sons of Torah, must go forth to work in the vineyard of G‑d of hosts, to bring the hearts of their brethren closer to the practical observance of mitzvos and to fixed times for Torah study".

13. In the four corners of the earth (בארבע כנפות הארץ): From the verse Yeshayahu 11:12: "and He will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth". "Temimim" are the students and graduates of the Tomchei Temimim yeshivos.

14. The day of the hilula – Yud Shevat (יום ההילולא - יו"ד שבט): "Hilula" ("celebration") is the name for the day of a tzaddik's passing, and the "master of the hilula" is the tzaddik whose day it is – here, the Previous Rebbe. The Rebbe writes that the master of the hilula "arouses abundant mercy" to draw down blessings to all who support the institutions he founded.

Summary

For the 19th annual dinner of Merkaz HaYeshivos Tomchei Temimim on 2 Shevat 5719, the Rebbe links the dinner to Rosh Chodesh Shevat, when Moshe began Mishneh Torah to prepare the Jews for a life of plowing and sowing in the Land of Israel, and to Yud Shevat, the yahrzeit of the Previous Rebbe, founder of Tomchei Temimim in America. The main task of the yeshivos, he writes, is not to train rabbis and religious functionaries but to prepare "ordinary" Jews who will make the material into the spiritual and inspire those around them with love of G‑d, of the Torah and of Israel, and he blesses all who support the yeshivos.