Follow ChabadInfo & Never Miss an Update!

Follow us on Instagram Subscribe to our WhatsApp status and broadcast Follow us on Tiktok Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on Google News Subscribe on YouTube

In continuation to the letter of the Rebbe we published here, a reader brought to our attention a similarly-styled letter sent to a frum college student who was fed misinformation about the Chabad shita on a host of subjects and addressed these questions to the Rebbe. In very strong language, the Rebbe rebukes him for accepting lashon hara from ill-informed individuals while providing him the answers to his questions.

Click Here for Part One

3. Is Nigleh Enough?

Next you write that you have been “told by many people” about a disagreement between two persons and repeat a very serious, though ridiculous allegation… I leave it to your judgment to evaluate the character of the person who expresses categorical opinions in vital matters which are not his province, or how much such opinions can be relied on.

It is quite likely that the people who supplied you with the information are themselves ignorant of what actually transpired. But inasmuch as even the boldest lie must have some small grain of truth on which to rest, it seems to me that the subject of the discussion might have been a passage in the Zohar, Part III, p. 152, or the same idea more explicitly expressed in the Hakdomo of Rabbi Chayim Vital to Shaar Hahakdomos, which is based on the said Zohar. The position of Rabbi Chayim Vital is quite clear; and it applies equally to Chassidim and Misnagdim, and the language is unmistakable as to the person who takes only the literal meaning of the Torah and denies its inner aspects. This position was, of course, most strongly upheld by both the Alter Rebbe and the Wilner Gaon, so much so that the Wilner Gaon declared that it is impossible to have proper knowledge of Nigleh dTorah without knowledge of Pnimius haTorah.⁴

4. A Moshe in Each Generation?

Further on you write that you have heard that the Lubavitcher shita declares that it is possible to have in our generation great men of the order of men of former generations and you take issue with this view.

Here you seem to have fallen victim to the erudition of a real am-ho’oretz, for this idea is not a Lubavitcher innovation. It will be found in the Torah shebe’al-peh, in the Midrashim of our Sages – unless one wishes to deny its validity, in which case there is the clear ruling of the Rambam that one who denies the Torah she’be’al-peh is a kofer b’ikor.⁵ Moreover, the text in the Torah sbe’be’al-peh is not that “it is possible” nor is it confined to the Tannaim, but even higher, for it states: “There is not a generation in which there are no men like Avrohom, like Yaakov, like Moshe,” and the same is cited in other places (Medrash Rabba Vayero, 56:7 and there you will find other sources).

5. The Results of Chassidus

Your next question is – How can one be sure that Chassidus is the right derech, in view of the fact that when it began there was opposition to it?

Here again it is easy to see how much you have been influenced and biased by your informants. For, as a university student, surely you should know the value of independent research. If you took the trouble to check for yourself, you would discover that the dispute between the Misnagdim and the Chassidim was not an arbitrary one but that each side declared its reasons. The basic disagreement was this: the exponents of Chassidus claimed that it will increase Yiras Shomayim, while the opponents of Chassidus claimed that it will have the opposite effect, to the extent of completely leading Jews astray from Yiddishkeit. To discover this simple fact, you need not confine your research to Chassidic sources; you will find it even more explicitly stated in the writing of the Misnagdim. If, when Chassidus was still young and unknown generally, there might have been some justification for suspicion, surely now, 200 years later, there can be no doubt any more. For if you meet a Jew with a fully grown beard, who puts on two pairs of Tefillin, is particular about cholov Yisroel and pas Yisroel and meticulous about all other mitzvot – anyone will tell you, as a matter of course, that that Jew is undoubtedly a Chossid. I venture to say that even those who peddled the loshon horo to you (some of which unfortunately you seem to have “bought”) will have to admit to you that Chassidus can hardly be accused of having alienated Jews from the Torah and mitzvot.

I will conclude in the vein that I began my letter. I judge you “in the scale of merit,” namely, that the contents of your letter are not the result of your own original thinking, but that you are merely repeating hearsay. I am particularly inclined to judge you favorably if you are related to your namesake whom I met in Riga. I would like, however, to urge you to study carefully the sugya in the Gemoro Erchin 15b and then determine accordingly what should be your attitude towards the people referred to above, as from now on, if you are to have to do anything with them at all.

May G-d, Whose benevolent Hashgocho Protis extends to everyone individually lead you in the way that is truly good for you.

With blessing,

Source: The Letter and the Spirit, Vol 4 (Nissan Mindel Publications, 2017), 171.

Note: The “Nissan Mindel Archives” are comprised of secretarial copies, including first drafts, and may have subsequently been published with editorial changes. 

1) Erchin 15b.

2) See Bavli, Berachos 61b; Yerushamli, Berachos 9:5.

3) See Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, 406:3. p”ox” “XI .ז’ הובא בשו”ע אדה”ז שם סעיף ז (המו”ל)

4) See his commentary to Mishlei 2:9; 4:22; 5:18.

5) Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Teshuvah 3:8.

59