Yud Tes Kislev farbrengen

In Lubavitch, there is blind faith with an explanation. In Breslov, there is blind faith. Everything is G-d. There is not even yetzer ha'rah. Imagine you're walking on the street, trip and fall on your face. A Breslover would say: "G-d just punched me in the nose."

A farbrengen tonight with Rabbi Yossi Paltiel in the place of re-doubled darkness and kaltkeit. Some of the stories I've heard before, but some I have not. Overall, an amazing talk as usual (close to the end of the talk, I've seen at least two people wiping off tears). I apologize for poor sound quality; I think I placed the recorder too close. Although the sound improved after e's uncle turned off the microphone.



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After the official talk, there was a long farbrengen, parts of which I might post later after some heavy editing. At the beginning, Rabbi Paltiel told a story of a guy whose name was Reb Reuven Dunin. His father was a Litvishe Yid, but he himself fried out and became a Zionist. He drove a tractor working with other people on cultivating land in Haifa region.

He realized himself that his life was empty. And decided to become a ba'al teshuva. He came with his father to a Lubavitch yeshiva, and after entering it and making a few steps, said: "Zeh makom sheli" ("This is a place for me"). Rosh Yeshiva was a little dubious. Reb Dunin pointed at his ponytail: "What, this? It will be gone tomorrow. I will look like the rest of them."

When he worked on the tractor, he could pull two shifts and then go party. This is how he learned in the yeshiva. Bochurim took turns sleeping and learning with him. He learned and davened the whole day and night and eventually asked permission to go to US to see the Rebbe. Rosh Yeshiva normally was reluctant to sent people to see the Rebbe, but since this guy was a little older and in general, a mature and an experienced person, he agreed.

Reb Dunin entered the Rebbe's office and gave the Rebbe his letter. Now, beforehand, he was told that the first words that the Rebbe tells you are the most important. So, he was standing there, looking at how the Rebbe was rolling his letter around a pencil and reading, as the Rebbe would usually do. Then the Rebbe looked up and asked: "Do you know how to operate a tractor?"

For Reb Dunin the tractor represented klipah, all his former life that he was trying to leave behind. He was expecting the Rebbe to say something very holy. So, when the Rebbe asked his question, Reb Dunin was so shocked that he started crying. The Rebbe waited for him to calm down and asked: "What did you expect when you came here?" And Reb Dunin confessed to him about everything that he has done in his life. And asked what he should do next.

The Rebbe answered: "First, you need to focus on creating a normal and a happy life. Living a normal and a happy life with Halacha is already a big deal. A chossid should not be a meshiginer." Then he told Reb Dunin to go back to Eretz Yisroel and operate a tractor. And Reb Dunin did. He worked on a tractor looking like a Chassidish Jew and this way broke all stereotypes about religious Jews that people working with him had before. Even those that he did not succeed in mekareving he touched.

Much later, being a famous mashpia, he was talking about his yetzer ha'rah and calling it a donkey. One night, after a few lechayims, he got into his car and asked the chauffeur: "Why do they laugh when I call myself a donkey? I really am one." The chauffeur felt sorry for him and answered: "I believe you."

* * *

Education and children were discussed at length during the farbrengen. Rabbi Paltiel said that when his students ask him how to make sure their children are religious, he answers: "Sholom bayis." He told a story about how the Rebbe once told a chossid of his to write down in a letter about his relationship with his wife. ("I guess he did not believe that an American bochur can have a normal relationship with a Russian girl," he said. "Today it's not such a big problem. Russian Jews are not so Russian, and American Jews are no longer so American. But back in the 50's, American Jewry was all about fitting in and being 'normal'.")

So, the chossid wrote a long page of what he thinks about his wife and wrote at the bottom one sentence: "Perhaps I am describing my wife too favorably and idealistically". The Rebbe returned the letter with the last line crossed out.

* * *

"A chossid should be so busy that he should have no time for politics. Starting a war is like riding a tiger: it's fun until you realize that you can't get off. We start a machloikes without realizing how damaging it is. Every loshon ha'rah can be countered with an opposite loshon ha'rah. So, in the end, they cancel out each other. Why not have nothing at all?"