Boundaries in Shlichus and Educational Priorities

The holy letters of the Rebbe, volume 17. This is letter number 6,149. Baruch Hashem, the second of Nissan, 5718, Brooklyn. And the Rebbe is sending this letter to the Hanhala, the leadership of Tzeirei Agudas Chabad, and also Hanhala, the leadership of the Reshet Olei Yosef Yitzchak Lubavitch, the network of the Lubavitch schools in Israel, in Eretz HaKodesh.

And the Rebbe is going to clarify in this letter some major directions. And you know, a lot of times the Rebbe gives a directive or a suggestion, and the people, being that they are devoted and followers of the Rebbe and they want to do what the Rebbe wants, and therefore if the Rebbe makes a suggestion, it does not matter how much it costs, how much effort, they are just going to go, you know, we are going to do it no matter what.

And the Rebbe is basically trying to limit. He says when he comes with a suggestion, that does not mean that they need to spend an endless amount of money on it or they need to spend an endless amount of time. Let us see what the Rebbe writes. The Rebbe says, “I am confirming receiving your report dated the 24th of Adar and I am going to answer your questions. Number one, when you receive from here”—meaning when the Rebbe gives you some suggestion or even a direction, a directive—“it is obvious and it is really very simple: it does not mean that you need to spend amounts unlimited and energies unlimited just because this was a suggestion or a directive. Because,” the Rebbe says, “when you take upon yourself an obligation to pay back if you need money and you take yourself an obligation, you need to pay it back in the set amount of times. And if you make an unlimited obligation, then you cannot account for that.”

And I guess the Rebbe also, in certain cases, offered to support, as we have read in the previous letter, to pay for part of it, for some of it, but the Rebbe is saying there needs to be some sort of an order in it. You cannot do unlimited. The Rebbe says do it, but it still needs to have some sort of sense, it needs to make a little bit of sense.

Number two, based on the above, also understanding, the Rebbe was encouraging to travel to the various different settlements, to spend Shabbos there, etc., to set up classes and also to make schools over there, to establish schools. So the Rebbe says this also is like all activities of men, of people, that there has to be with a fitting limitation to the above point, which means, I guess, not every place could have a school and not every place we can support and not every—there needs to be a little bit within reason. The Rebbe says within limitation. A person, it cannot be without any measure at all.

I once heard the Rebbe say, you know, there is an expression the Rebbe used a lot, he loves that expression of the Rebbe Maharash, you know, you go over the top, you do not even try the bottom, you go. The Rebbe Maharash says “Lechatchila Ariber,” you go over the top. But the Rebbe says when you say over the top, it does not mean flying in the sky. Over the top means, well, there is a top and you go over it, so it means going above beyond your means, but it does not mean to go totally off. That is, I guess, also what the Rebbe is saying over here. Do it, but it still needs to be done as in a human way, which is with limitations.

On the other hand, the Rebbe says, the obligation that the Rebbe said he will collect, a special collection for half of the expense for the gathering of the youth, that is still in force. In other words, the Rebbe committed to pay half of the expense. The Rebbe says that is not diminished. And the Rebbe says, “I am surprised that you did not get it up until now from the money of that collection.” And the Rebbe says perhaps there was some sort of lacking over there temporarily, but you should be able to get those funds from that collection.

And then number four, the Rebbe has encouraged, as we read in previous letters, the Rebbe encouraged for anybody who could be a teacher. The Rebbe says the primary obligation right now is to be providing education. And the Rebbe says anybody who has any talent at all in education should become an educator, and to learn and to accomplish and to be there. And the Rebbe has followed up with several letters about that.

So the Rebbe writes here, as far as occupation in the area of education, the Rebbe says, “I believe that I already said here of a Chassid, Harav Yitzchak Ganzburg—we had letters to him before—and I also wrote it, that first of all, we are talking about who are the ones that should do it is for those who do not have as of now their livelihood.” The Rebbe does not mean everybody should drop their jobs and become teachers. No. First and foremost, this is to people that as of now do not have their livelihood. So the Rebbe is encouraging them, pushing them to go into the area of education. Or for those who are on the crossroads, they do not know where to go, what to do. There, that is the first one that is meant.

But not to drop an established livelihood, especially if you have a comfortable livelihood, because of the above. That is not the intent for everybody to drop their jobs and become teachers. So the Rebbe says, at least in the first step, those do not come into account at all. People who have jobs and people that have good jobs should not—this is not even coming into a question. So the Rebbe says, “As of now you have not yet recruited from those who are free, do not do anything, and those that are on the road.” Why, you know, they were probably writing to the Rebbe, everybody is ready to give up their jobs, everybody is going to become teachers. The Rebbe says, “No, that is not what I was talking about.”

And then that is number four, but we do not have five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten; they are not quoted over here, it is dot dot dot, because apparently there were things that are hard to quote even. And number eleven, it jumps to number eleven from number four. So the Rebbe says, taking into consideration the work, the time of work till now, how much time they put into the work, so the Rebbe says it would be fitting, proper to gather and to make a total from the work in the years past and its results. And to take some stock, to go through, review, review the past.

And the Rebbe says, “My father-in-law would commonly say that the past teaches the future.” Examine, you know, go through, reflect, and make an accounting. And the Rebbe says, surely with a proper reflection there will be added more points to the program and organizing the work of the future. Check it out what went on and you will know what to do in the future. The Rebbe blesses them with success in their holy work to spread the wellsprings until they reach also the outside.

So again, the Rebbe wrote detailed letters to Tzeirei Agudas Chabad and the Reshet. And in this case, we are missing several, a bunch of points, but the Rebbe makes point number one: when I suggest something or I direct something, it does not mean unlimited. It does not mean unlimited because if there is an unlimited obligation, then it does not come into consideration. In other words, the Rebbe says, you are going to spend, you know, it is like giving me an open check. You are going to spend all the money and you know and I am obligated to pay it, you know? That is not what we are talking about.

And the Rebbe says the same thing. So therefore, going to these various kibbutzim and setting up, it has to be limited. It has to be in a limited way. Not going to be—there is no endless amount of funding and no endless amount of commitment to things which are not limited. On the other hand, the Rebbe says he did commit 50 percent to the gathering of the youth, and for some reason they say they did not get it. The Rebbe says maybe temporarily there was something lacking, but it should be there.

The Rebbe encouraged people to go into education, but the Rebbe says again, it is mostly talking about people who do not have jobs or are on a crossroads. People that have jobs should not leave their jobs, at least not in the first step. The Rebbe says, “You still have plenty whom you have not gotten involved, you have not recruited yet, the people that you could. Let us worry about the other people later on.”

And the Rebbe says you should always take stock of how things went till now, what the accomplishment was, the results, and that should be the guide for the future. The past, as he quotes from his father-in-law, should guide you for the future. The Rebbe blesses them with success in their holy work to spread the wellsprings until they reach all the way to the outside.

And earlier the Rebbe wrote about this to Rabbi Ganzburg, Yitzchak Ganzburg, in letter number 5,884, and another letter to him is in 6,064. And the Rebbe’s main point that he talked about that was in that about these kibbutzim, that was in letter 5,551 where the Rebbe encouraged everybody to become teachers, and the Rebbe is qualifying now what he meant was those special people that do not have jobs or are on the crossroads, but he did not mean people that have jobs already to drop their jobs. Okay.

Summary
The Rebbe teaches that true dedication must be guided by responsibility and limits. One must act with structure, prioritize wisely, recruit appropriately, and continuously evaluate past efforts to ensure future success in spreading Torah and education.

אגרות קודש של הרבי, כרך י״ז. זהו מכתב מספר 6,149. ברוך השם, ב׳ ניסן תשי״ח, ברוקלין. והרבי שולח מכתב זה להנהלת צעירי אגודת חב״ד וגם להנהלת רשת אוהלי יוסף יצחק לובאוויטש, רשת בתי הספר של חב״ד בארץ הקודש.

והרבי עומד לבאר במכתב זה כמה כיוונים עיקריים. והרבה פעמים הרבי נותן הוראה או הצעה, והאנשים, בהיותם מסורים וחסידים שרוצים לעשות את רצון הרבי, ולכן אם הרבי נותן הצעה, לא משנה כמה זה עולה או כמה מאמץ זה דורש, הם פשוט הולכים לעשות זאת בכל מחיר.

והרבי בעצם בא להגביל. הוא אומר שכאשר הוא נותן הצעה, אין פירוש הדבר שצריך להשקיע סכומים בלתי מוגבלים או מאמצים בלתי מוגבלים. נראה מה הרבי כותב. הרבי אומר: “מאשר אני קבלת דו״חכם מיום כ״ד אדר ואענה על שאלותיכם. ראשית, כאשר מקבלים מכאן”—כלומר כאשר הרבי נותן הצעה או הוראה—“ברור ופשוט שאין הכוונה להשקיע סכומים בלתי מוגבלים ואנרגיות בלתי מוגבלות רק מפני שזו הצעה או הוראה. כי כאשר אדם מקבל על עצמו התחייבות כספית, עליו להחזירה בזמן מוגדר, ואם ההתחייבות בלתי מוגבלת, אי אפשר להתחשב בה.”

ובוודאי גם הרבי במקרים מסוימים הציע להשתתף במימון, כפי שקראנו במכתב קודם, אבל הרבי מדגיש שצריך להיות סדר. אי אפשר לפעול בלי גבול. צריך לפעול, אבל באופן הגיוני ומסודר.

נקודה שנייה, גם בנוגע לעידוד לנסוע ליישובים שונים, לשהות שם בשבת, לקבוע שיעורים ולהקים בתי ספר—גם כאן צריך להיות בגדר גבול. לא כל מקום יכול להקים בית ספר, ולא כל דבר ניתן לתמוך בו ללא הגבלה. צריך להיות מידה.

יש ביטוי של הרבי מהר״ש “לכתחילה אריבער”—לעבור מלמעלה—אבל אין פירושו לעוף באוויר ללא גבולות, אלא לעבור את הגבול במסגרת מציאות מוגדרת. כך גם כאן, לפעול מעל ומעבר, אך עדיין במסגרת אנושית ומוגבלת.

מאידך, ההתחייבות של הרבי להשתתף במחצית מהוצאות כינוס הנוער עומדת בתוקפה. הרבי מתפלא שלא קיבלו זאת עד עתה, ואומר שאולי היה עיכוב זמני, אך הכספים אמורים להיות זמינים.

בנוגע לחינוך, הרבי מדגיש שהחובה העיקרית היא לספק חינוך, וכל מי שיש לו כישרון לכך צריך לעסוק בכך. אך הכוונה היא בעיקר לאלו שאין להם פרנסה או שנמצאים בצומת דרכים. לא לאלו שיש להם כבר עבודה מסודרת וטובה.

הרבי מדגיש שאין לעזוב פרנסה קיימת, לפחות בשלב הראשון. יש עדיין רבים שטרם גויסו—אלו שאין להם עיסוק ברור—ועליהם יש להתמקד תחילה.

לבסוף, הרבי מדגיש את הצורך לעשות חשבון נפש על העבר, לבחון את התוצאות וההישגים, וללמוד מהם לעתיד. כפי שאמר אדמו״ר הריי״צ, “העבר מלמד את העתיד.” מתוך התבוננות נכונה ניתן לשפר ולארגן את העבודה העתידית.

הרבי מסיים בברכה להצלחה בעבודה הקדושה של הפצת המעיינות עד חוצה.