📋 Shiur Overview
The Beit Midrash — What It Is, What It Produces, and Why It Never Ends
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A. Defining “Beit Midrash” — An Action, Not a Building
The Topic and the Question
What is the true meaning of “beit midrash” in the language of the Sages, and how does this differ from what people imagine today?
Introduction: The Term “Chazal”
The term “Chazal” is problematic — it turns “Chachmeinu Zichronam Livracha” (our Sages of blessed memory) into a cold abstraction. Among the Rishonim it almost always says “Chachmeinu” — this expresses a living relationship: *our* Sages, in contrast to *their* sages (of the nations). The hypothesis is that the term “Chazal” originates from a maskil, though there is no proof of this.
The Fundamental Principle: Beit Midrash Is an Action
When the Sages say “beit midrash,” they don’t mean a physical building with tables, benches, and an aron kodesh. They mean what we today call a “shiur” — people who come together and learn. When it says “asu beit midrash” it means they *made* a shiur. “Ein beit midrash belo chiddush” doesn’t mean there’s no new shul, but rather that a shiur without a chiddush is not a real beit midrash.
In Gemara Berachot, where it says that davening in a beit midrash is different from davening in a beit haknesset — it only means davening in the place where the shiur was learned. It’s not a din in the *place*, but a din in the *action* — in the people who come together and learn.
Thought Is an Action
Just as thought is not merely information that one puts into one’s head (like Wikipedia), but something one *does* — so too a beit midrash is an *action*, not a *place*. In Aristotelian language: the building is only “b’koach” (potential — one *can* learn there), but when one learns together it is “b’poel” (actual).
The Word “Midrash”
“Midrash” means *to investigate* (today one says “mechkar”). A beit midrash is a place where one comes together not only to learn, but also to *think*. This comes from “lidrosh et Hashem” in the Prophets — “davar zeh tzarich lish’ol v’lidrosh.”
Sources: Gemara Berachot (distinction between beit midrash and beit haknesset), language of the Rishonim (“asu midrash”), “lidrosh et Hashem” in Prophets/Writings.
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B. Why Does One Need a New Campaign Every Year?
The Topic
It is a custom every year before Shavuot to bring forth the principle of the beit midrash. Why does one need this anew every year?
The Answer
Because a beit midrash is an *action* and not a *building*, one can never “finish building” it. Every shiur, every gathering — in Lakewood, Monsey, Eretz Yisrael, on Zoom, WhatsApp, Telegram, email — is a new action of building the beit midrash. This is the intention of Sefirat HaOmer: one must rebuild the Torah every year.
The Parable
Two fundraisers — one builds a building and afterwards he can no longer raise money because no one wants to pay for lectures. The other never finishes building. The beit midrash is like the second one — it never ends.
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C. The Model of Large Yeshivot and “Hadrat HaTorah” — A Question on the Beit Midrash
The Topic
How do large yeshivot (Lakewood, Mir) raise money, and what is the problem with this model for the beit midrash?
The Explanation
A baal habayit asks: if the yeshiva closes tomorrow, what changes? Everyone continues learning in his beit midrash. The yeshiva consists of checks that are sent every month — but why should a baal habayit give for this?
The answer of the “chachmei hador”: one makes a large gathering every year in a stadium, one brings together all the yungeleit, their wives, children — fifty thousand people — and one shows the baal habayit: *this* is the yeshiva! Physical proof for the physical eyes.
The Problem for the Beit Midrash
The beit midrash, which is action-based and not building-based, has a harder time with the stadium model. It has no physical location. But through “analytics” on the internet one can see in black and white how many people are watching — approximately one hundred and fifty thousand shiurei Torah views a year. One can show this directly on YouTube and Google, though one can also falsify, but it’s harder.
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D. The Product of a Rebbe — People, Not Numbers
The Principle
What does one who teaches Torah sell? He sells people. The product of a rebbe is talmidim.
The Story with R’ Shmuel Munkes
R’ Shmuel Munkes, a chassid of the Alter Rebbe (R’ Shneur Zalman of Liadi), was a badchan — a prankster. He once hung himself on a tree in front of the Rebbe’s house. When the Rebbe asked what he was doing, he answered: “I am your sign, your advertisement.” His reasoning: every business hangs outside what it sells — a shoe store hangs a shoe, a hat store hangs a hat. The Rebbe makes chassidim — people — so he hangs out a chassid.
Making People, Not Golems
A rebbe doesn’t make books — a book is a type of monument. A rebbe makes living people — himself, his friends, his students. But one must be careful: every person is a bit different. When one makes fifty people who all go in the same track — one has made golems, not people. Sefer Yetzirah can make people, but what comes out? Golems. There are rebbes who go with the literal meaning of “efshar asu adam b’churban” (Sanhedrin) — they make an assembly line of golems. Real people must have their own understanding of the rebbe, each one a bit different.
“Ishenu Po V’Eishenu She’eino Po”
Every person who is here carries within himself souls of other people — whoever once heard from him, through whom a link comes to a second person, a word to a third. Thus the word and the idea go around the entire world. The beit midrash is the people — not the walls, not the books, not the emails.
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E. Stalin’s Principle — The Difference Between People and Numbers
Stalin said: one person is a tragedy, a million people is a statistic. One who kills one person face to face is a murderer. But one who drops bombs from an airplane doesn’t see any people at all — he is an “ish hamisparim,” he only looks at numbers, not the things the numbers represent. This is not just a teaching — it’s a practical detail in every business that deals with people.
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F. The Rambam: Perfection Must Spread
The Rambam says that this is a law in reality: everything that has a good thing, a perfection, its law is that it continues. It’s not possible that a person should have wisdom and not want to tell it to another. Whoever says “I have wisdom and I tell it to no one” — has very little wisdom, only enough for himself. True wisdom has enough for other people.
This agrees with Kabbalah as well: the more one receives, the more comes to the sefirot — this is the nature of the thing. The Rambam and the mekubalim completely agree on this principle.
Wisdom Doesn’t Belong to the Person
Everyone who has wisdom knows that wisdom doesn’t belong to anyone — wisdom belongs to the Ribbono Shel Olam, wisdom belongs to the wisdom itself. This is not megalomania. The nature of wisdom is that it wants to spread everywhere.
It cannot be that a person knows something and he doesn’t want his children to know it. This is the meaning of “u’limadtem otam et bneichem” — “bneichem u’vnei bneichem”: at Matan Torah, what did you see? You want to tell it to your grandchildren. Just as a person who went on a safari tells his grandchildren, so whoever sees a chiddush in the unity of Hashem also wants to tell it.
A person who calls himself a wise man and doesn’t want to share his wisdom — the Gemara calls such a creature “shedim yihyu lo,” some kind of androgynous, an aylonit, not a normal creature.
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G. The Goal: A Beit Midrash in Every Jewish Community
The goal is to have a beit midrash in every Jewish community in the world — just as the Belzer Rav wants a Belzer shtiebel in every city where there are ten Jews. But “shtiebel” doesn’t mean a building — a building is the vessel, it’s certainly good. But the essence means ten people who think in one way, who have learned in one manner. This costs even more than a building.
Rav Kook’s “Yeshiva Merkazit Ha’olamit”
Rav Kook with the Rav HaNazir opened a yeshiva with the name “Yeshiva Merkazit Ha’olamit” — the worldwide yeshiva. In truth there were only two-fifty students there, in a tiny house on Rechov HaRav Kook in Jerusalem, a classroom smaller than a table. But the meaning is: Rav Kook understood what wisdom means — wisdom belongs to the entire world, therefore he called it “ha’olamit.”
Jews and Missionarism
If I understand something, it’s understood that others can also understand. It cannot be that one has a point of truth, a point of wisdom, and he doesn’t want to spread it. When people say “Jews are not missionaries” — does this mean that Jews don’t know anything that is true? This cannot be. Jews are not missionaries only for practical reasons — one has no strength, one must be careful. But certainly Jews are missionaries in essence. It says in the Prophet: “she’al mimeni v’etnah goyim nachalatecha” — there will come a time of apostolism.
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H. The Danger: Numbers-Thinking vs. People-Thinking
The Stalinist Mindset
Here lies a great danger. When one sees that there are only ten people, one begins to think: “It’s only ten, I need to speak to the entire world!” — one wants to send flyers, thousands of letters, emails, “holech igrot k’chtav kora sofrei hamelech l’chol am va’am medinah u’medinah k’chtavah v’am va’am k’lshono” (Megillat Esther). This “only ten” comes from counting numbers, not people. This is a Stalinist mindset — Stalin had no interest in ten people, he wanted to deal with millions, he was a worldly leader of the international revolution. But the reason why we say that the entire world must hear our Torah is because we are people, not because we are numbers. The world is made of people, not of numbers.
Kedusha and Angels
When one says kedusha in shul — “kadosh kadosh kadosh Hashem tzeva’ot melo chol ha’aretz kevodo” — there’s a midrash: “Ein malachei hashareit omrim kadosh ad sheYisrael omrim Shema Yisrael.” The angels must receive permission from Jews. This doesn’t mean that I know what angels don’t know — but rather that for me there is an aspect, a clarity, a chiddush, that I know and he doesn’t know, and I want to tell it to everyone.
Truth Is Not “My” Truth
If you grasp that something is true, you don’t grasp it because it’s “my” truth. One must climb out of the mindset that truth belongs to me. When a person understands a true thing, he usually thinks that everyone says it — because he doesn’t understand that he has been mechadesh something, but rather that “this is how it is.” Like when one learns a piece of Gemara, one meets another who has the same interpretation — “kulei alma, the Gemara already said my interpretation.” One says: if one goes straight, one meets many friends.
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I. A Person Is an Entire World — The Value of Ten Jews
“Chayav Adam Lomar Bishvili Nivra Ha’olam”
A person is an entire world — what does this mean? None of us, if he dies tomorrow, will anyone know about it except his wife (as the Gemara: “ein lo domeh ela ishto”). But “a person is an entire world” means: the person can bring out, produce, the entire world. Two people who learn together — it becomes better, clearer — are two entire worlds, no contradiction. Three people is three worlds. It’s already full.
Ten Jews Is an Entire World
There is a law of a tzibur of ten Jews. The moment one has ten Jews there is already an entire world. Ten people usually represent a “cross-cut” of all kinds of people. There are only ten Jews in the world — all others are other representations of the same ten Jews. Each one can be another entire world.
Simchat Torah with Ten Jews vs. Two Thousand
A chassid travels to a rebbe where on Shavuot there are ten thousand Jews. But in a small beit midrash with ten Jews — nothing is missing. People who have a desire, a vitality to dance with the Torah on Simchat Torah or say Akdamot on Shavuot — it doesn’t bother them that there are only ten Jews. There is a concept of “b’rov am hadrat melech” — it’s certainly better with thousands of Jews. But nothing is missing from ten Jews. One can make kedusha, kaddish, a proper minyan — everything is there. Even better: fewer people, more space, enough honor-cake for everyone.
The person who cannot console himself — who needs ten thousand people in order to feel that there’s a point — this person has a problem. He needs others to strengthen him constantly. The large gatherings become bigger every year, but the minyan becomes smaller — and this is not a contradiction, this is actually more correct.
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J. Writing for One Person — The Rambam and the Mitteler Rebbe
The Rambam and the Moreh Nevuchim
The Rambam wrote the Moreh Nevuchim for one person — R’ Yosef ben Shimon. He writes explicitly: “I write it only for you.” The Rambam was even a bit disappointed with his student’s understanding. And yet — with the book he wrote for one person he turned over the entire world. Why? Because he wrote it for a person, not for a number.
The Mitteler Rebbe
The Mitteler Rebbe (the second Lubavitcher Rebbe) published several books. The Rayatz (the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe) has a tradition that every book the Mitteler Rebbe wrote was intended for one specific chassid. He knew the names — Shaar HaOrah was written for that chassid, according to that one’s character traits. The Mitteler Rebbe was somewhat secluded, he sat in his room, and therefore his books are so long — because he imagined himself speaking to that chassid, and he adapted himself according to that one’s understanding. Specifically a book that is written to a real person — not to a number — this one enjoys.
The Fundamental Principle
When a person writes for a “marketing agency” — he wants to appeal to the most people — he speaks to no one. “I’m not called Joseph Stalin, I want to speak to one person.” One speaks to one person, and through this one speaks to the entire world — because every person is an entire world. If one can truly reach one person, one has reached the entire world — all the more so a Jew.
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K. Hitkalelut — Every Jew Carries Within Himself All Jews
Each one of the ten Jews in the minyan must bring ten thousand or one hundred thousand dollars — because under every Jew lies the spark of sarei alafim, sarei me’ot, sarei asarot — so many Jews are included in him. A shiur cannot be spoken in the air — one speaks to certain people, but other Jews are included in them. This is hitkalelut: a camera (for example) is only b’shem kol Yisrael — every person must obligate himself b’shem kol Yisrael. All actions and matters are not only for us — each one is responsible for the entire world.
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L. Conclusion — Practical Call
Therefore let everyone bring enough money for the entire world, let us complete the 360,000 dollars for this year, and may there be a geulah sheleimah — and by next year it will be 720,000 dollars.
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All Sources Mentioned:
Gemara Berachot (distinction beit midrash/beit haknesset) • Language of the Rishonim (“asu midrash”) • “lidrosh et Hashem” (Prophets) • “ishenu po v’eishenu she’eino po” (Midrash, Matan Torah) • “efshar asu adam b’churban” (Sanhedrin) • Sefer Yetzirah • Rambam (Moreh Nevuchim; abundance from sefirot; nature of perfection) • Kabbalah (sefirot) • “u’limadtem otam et bneichem” (Devarim) • “bneichem u’vnei bneichem” • “shedim yihyu lo” (Gemara) • “she’al mimeni v’etnah goyim nachalatecha” (Tehillim) • “kadosh kadosh kadosh Hashem tzeva’ot” (Yeshayahu/Kedusha) • “ein malachei hashareit omrim kadosh ad sheYisrael omrim Shema Yisrael” (Midrash/Gemara) • “chayav adam lomar bishvili nivra ha’olam” (Mishnah Sanhedrin) • “ein lo domeh ela ishto” (Gemara) • “b’rov am hadrat melech” (Mishlei) • “holech igrot… l’chol am va’am” (Megillat Esther) • “lo lagiborim hamilchama” (Kohelet 9:11) • “hachacham gover b’oz” (Mishlei 24:5) • “lo lakalim hameratz” (Kohelet 9:11) • Rav Kook, HaRav HaNazir, Yeshiva Merkazit Ha’olamit • The Rayatz (tradition about the Mitteler Rebbe’s books) • The Mitteler Rebbe (Shaar HaOrah, etc.)
📝 Full Transcript
The Beit Midrash: An Action, Not a Building
State of the Union Address — The Foundation of Our Beit Midrash
Rabbotai, State of the Union address, literally. It’s the custom every year before Shavuot to bring forth into the world of speech, from the world of thought to the world of speech, what is the foundation of our beit midrash.
The Merit of Explaining the Language of the Sages
As Reb Yoel said, that one should explain the language of the sages, is a great kindness.
Why “Chachmeinu” and Not “Chazal”
What we call Chazal, I am opposed to this title, because it’s a desecration of the name of our colleagues. Imagine you meet someone in the mikvah, “Ah, good morning Reb Chazal, what?” Ah, you know what? Two things, you know what? One is “after Chazal,” two is “hey Chazal.” No way.
Chachmeinu zichronam livracha — that we should be a blessing. But our sages, the merit of my title is that then you grasp it, there isn’t such a group of people called Chazal. Chachmeinu, may they live and may their memory be a blessing, we should be blessed from them and they should be blessed from us. Here are our sages, there are their sages, the gentiles also have their sages. Here are our sages, chachmeinu.
This is how the Rishonim almost always write chachmeinu, it doesn’t say Chazal. I think that the title Chazal was invented by a maskil, that’s my conjecture, I have no proof. One can check, one can search sources and find out. Find who was the first honest Jew who wrote Chazal. I think it wasn’t any honest Jew, in my opinion. That’s my conjecture, I don’t know. We’re talking history now.
What Is a Beit Midrash? — The True Meaning
Beit Midrash in the Language of the Sages
In any case, in the language of the sages, and the language of the sages is a language of the sages, a language unto itself. In the language of the sages there is such a word called beit hamidrash, or midrash, or beit midrash. Beit midrasho shel Shem, we have fantasized much, imagined how Avraham Avinu had a beit midrash, and Yitzchak Avinu had a beit midrash, and so forth.
And one must note, that when we say the word beit midrash, and when the sages say the word beit midrash, it has a different meaning. When we say the word beit midrash, we imagine such a place with such a pillar, with an aron kodesh, with tables, with benches, some building, a real building alone.
When the sages say a beit hamidrash, they mean what we call in our language a shiur.
“Asu Beit Hamidrash” — Made a Shiur
When it says “asu beit hamidrash”, “ein beit hamidrash belo chiddush”, yes? What does “belo chiddush” mean? It doesn’t mean that there isn’t any beit midrash, or any new type of shul. Every one that matches the same shul, or it’s from the same company, it’s no chiddush. “Ein beit hamidrash belo chiddush” doesn’t mean… It’s no chiddush that Jews sit together learning, there’s no chiddush. And so forth ad infinitum, with fear of the sages.
Beit Midrash and Beit Knesset — Not Two Buildings
The same thing when it says a beit hamidrash. People think that once there were two types of buildings. There weren’t two types of buildings. Beit midrash simply means the corner in the beit knesset, or downstairs, upstairs, some other place, no difference where it was, where one learns.
It says in the Gemara in Berachot that it’s different to pray in a beit midrash than in a beit knesset, it simply means right by the shiur, or in the place where one had the shiur. But it’s not a law in the place, it’s a law in the people, in the action that one comes together and learns there.
Everyone Are Sages
Whoever learns in the Gemara and sources from the sages in the times of the end of the Second Temple, no, they’re all sages, the young bachurim are all sages. But whoever learns in the… or even later, our sages from the time of the making of the Torah, our sages from the ancient times, yes, our sages from the ancient times, when they said, and even the Rishonim too, one sees in the Rishonim, the language “asu midrash” always means made a shiur.
The language of a shiur is much later, perhaps in the Acharonim, I don’t know from when. Perhaps it’s perek, perek is the translation of shiur, if one thinks about it. In any case, let’s not talk about this now.
Midrash Means to Investigate
Ah, simply, it’s clear that this is the plain meaning. I say, for us, I have something that I call beit midrash. About seven, eight years ago I founded this matter. I thought to see what to call it, and I thought, what are we going to do? We’re going to do what our sages did, and we’re going to make a beit midrash. That’s the whole thing.
And until today, when I tell a person I have a beit midrash, they ask when one prays mincha there. What does a beit midrash have to do with praying mincha? Beit midrash means to say, people who come together and learn. That’s the meaning of beit midrash.
How do I do it? What does midrash mean? Midrash means to investigate. Today they call it mechkar. Today they call it mechkar. Ah, you say well. Today in midrash they say mechkar, yes. But that’s the meaning. Exactly.
The question arises, who was the doresh? Who was the nidrash? Who was the one who investigated the words of Hashem? It was nice, it was fine. But certainly, a beit midrash comes from there, from “davar zeh tzarich lishol velidrosh”. No, by “lidrosh et Hashem” in the Prophets and Writings it says. Okay, we need to connect. It’s another thing, I want to get to us, I don’t have a history lesson here.
Beit Midrash Is an Action, Not a Building
Thought Is an Action
So, but the truth is, our beit midrash, as it says in the Gemara, as it says in the Rishonim, a beit midrash is a thing, an action. As we like to say, thought is an action. Yes, people think that thought is something that one puts into a chamber, that a person has in his head a Wikipedia and he puts in more thoughts and more thoughts. No, thought is something that one does.
So too is a beit midrash, that it’s not something where one goes, not a building that one has, it’s something that one does. It’s an action. Aristotle would call it be’fo’el. It’s a davar befo’el. It’s not a davar bekoach. A beit midrash, the building is only bekoach. One can learn in the building. But when one learns and comes together, that’s actually a beit midrash, something that one does, it’s a pe’ulah.
This Answers All Questions
And everyone understands, if so, with this one answers all questions. The truth is, I didn’t make all the questions, because the world acts like the Satmar Rebbe used to conduct himself.
[Note: Yes, but machshava can mean intentions. “Machshev bakodashim” doesn’t mean thought, he had intention. True, true. No, I just want to bring out, therefore it’s called beit midrash, “ein lemachshava” they called it. It doesn’t fit the grammar, but there’s a concept in this. But the point is, that it’s a beit midrash. Beit midrash means a place where one comes together not only to learn, but also to think. We’ll talk about this next.]
First Question: Why a Campaign Every Year?
The Question and the Answer
So that’s the first thing, it answers with this the question. Rebbe Reb Tzvi Elimelech used to ask a list of seventeen questions, afterwards he answers it. If one fell asleep during the questions and woke up when it comes to the mussar at the end, so I skipped the questions, I say briefly that the questions are answered.
The first question that is answered is, why does one need to make a campaign every year? And one could do the action, so I met two rabbis or two fundraisers, the same idea, it’s the same job with a different name, and they asked each other how he makes money?
He says, “What do you mean? Everyone wants to give me a building and write his name, building so-and-so.” He builds a building and he makes money. He says, “Yes, I also built a building, and after finishing building the building, now it’s hard to raise money, no one has any desire to give money to pay the electric in the building.” The other one said, “You fool, when am I going to finish building?”
One Can Never Finish Building
Our beit midrash, since our beit midrash is not something that one can finish building at all, it’s obvious, renewal in action, every shiur, every time one comes together to learn here in Lakewood, in Monsey, in Eretz Yisrael, on Zoom, on WhatsApp, on Telegram, on email, every place is an action of building beit midrash. It’s a beit midrash, one comes together to discuss in a beit midrash.
So it’s obvious that one can put up the name every time, heichal so-and-so, sha’ar so-and-so, every time, it’s not something that finishes building. So it’s obvious that it’s not a question at all that every year… This is the intention of sefirat ha’omer, each and every one, one must rebuild the Torah every year. And this is obviously the plain meaning. The first thing, one question has been answered.
Second Question: The Model of Large Yeshivot
The Question from the Baal Habayit
The second question is answered, that I have a question, and I tried to answer the answer last year with a different way, but it’s not the true answer. There’s another question, that usually, so is our custom, yes? There is such an institution called… One shouldn’t misunderstand. Hadrat HaTorah, today there are the two largest yeshivot in the world, one camp the largest yeshivot in the world, they make money how?
I mean I have… They are very large yeshivot, very large operations, it costs I know, a few million dollars a year just the electric, just the paper there basically, and so forth. How are they going to make money? They said that one must make kavod haTorah, as befits them.
But what they mean to say, so ask the askanim, so they say, what they mean to say is this: that you come to a baal habayit, baal habayit means a person who is engaged in the building of the beit midrash, everyone is the baal habayit, yes? And you come to him, and you say to him, I have a huge yeshiva, there learn so many and so many people, you must support it, it’s a great merit, and certainly he already believes in this, he’s an honest Jew, he already believes in this, he himself learned in yeshiva.
He looks and he says, “Yes, how many people do you have in your yeshiva?” You tell him a number. “By us in Lakewood there are six thousand yungeleit and another two thousand bachurim. By us in Mir there are eight thousand yungeleit and another two thousand bachurim,” or vice versa, no difference.
He says, “I hear, you have a number on paper. I also have numbers. A person who belongs to your bachurim, but I also learned once without you. If my yeshiva closes tomorrow, nothing changes in Beit Yisrael. Everyone learns in the same beit midrash further. What does Mir yeshiva consist of? Lakewood yeshiva closes tomorrow, and the seventeen batei midrashim that are around Lakewood, everyone comes early in the morning with his chavruta. What does the beit midrash consist of? Ah, it’s a kollel, one sends a check every month for certain yungeleit. Okay, so the checks, for the checks alone doesn’t make sense, right? The checks are to pay for something. So what’s going on?”
The Answer: Hadrat HaTorah in a Stadium
So the sages of the generation invented an answer. That one is going to gather together every year after Shavuot in a stadium, a large stadium, and one is going to bring together, they say all the yungeleit will come, one is going to tell them that one gives them honor, one gives them honor. One must tell that they belong to me, right? They are part of the yeshiva. When you ask who is the yeshiva, the yeshiva is the one who has six thousand yungeleit who fill a whole stadium. Not only the yungeleit, their wives, their friends, their children, bring together the whole, fifty thousand people one brings together, and one puts the yungeleit in the middle of the yeshiva. Now you see the yeshiva? I have a picture for you, you can come over. You don’t even need a picture, you can come live every year to the event. This is the yeshiva! The proof, the evidence, that there is a yeshiva, that there are six thousand people in Lakewood yeshiva, because you don’t believe me. And he’s right, he doesn’t believe. From where should he know? Even so one can’t know, it’s just dragged-along people, but in any case one can see people. Something is shown to the physical eyes.
This is the answer that they found, the sages of the generation, and as our halacha always is, on what the wisdom is there to do, especially those who make money must certainly learn from him. You can’t be a… And they should be criticized on those who make money, and must share those who make money. I don’t have the wisdom to be the sage who has no money and say, “Ah, I have no money, I am a sage.” You are as wise as your money.
Therefore, this is the way they do. So now, in my beit midrash there is a little problem. What is the problem? That I have
The Product of a Rebbe: People, Not Numbers
The Verses That Are Twisted
Yes, the verse is like “lo lagiborim hamilchama”. One thinks it means that warriors don’t have war? No, on the contrary, they do have war. But the Almighty helps them. Simply twisting a verse. In that verse it says “hachacham gover be’oz”. True? A simple verse. “Lo lakalim hamarotz”. You also say, whoever exercises doesn’t run faster? No, that’s an answer that lazy people who call themselves sages say. Real sages don’t say that. So what then? On the contrary, this isn’t our discussion, I’m just saying what I hold.
The Reality of Our Beit Midrash
So what then? Our beit midrash doesn’t have such a thing as locations, and one hears it. Every week the shiur is heard by a few hundred people. Every shiur is heard by a few hundred people across the entire world. But it’s hard to show.
Analytics and Numbers
Last year I also tried an idea, one can go. There is something called… I used to work in this even, Reb Yeshaya knows. There is something called “analytics” on the internet. One can, according to what the sages of technology say, one can see how many people have heard and seen and looked. One can gather it in numbers, and approximately it’s approximately true, and say, yes, I can show you, from here come in two thousand people, from here ten thousand people, from here one hundred thousand people.
In total, in total over a year, approximately, every year there are in this beit midrash approximately one hundred and fifty thousand shiurei Torah. It’s a fact. It means views. Now, in practice, you don’t have to believe me. I said, okay, I can… You know what, I’ll show you this yourself. I’ll go to the wealthy man, I’ll show him. You don’t have to believe my document. I’ll open my Google for you, you see this is YouTube, I’ll show you black on white. You can also forge, but it’s harder to forge, yes? I’ll show you black on white how many people see. Okay, you can do that. That’s one thing you can do.
But This Is Not Right At All
But when we came down to it, that this is not right at all. Small voices. Why?
The Product of a Rebbe Is Talmidim
There is on YouTube a shiur, I think the title is called “The Product of a Rebbe Is Talmidim,” some such title. Do you remember such a shiur? Approximately. If that’s not exactly the title, ask AI what it’s called. It’s called approximately that.
The result of this is, what do I sell? What does everyone who teaches Torah sell? Reb Yonatan, everyone, what does one who teaches Torah sell? What he sells is this: he sells people.
The Story with Reb Shmuel Munkes
You know the story, yes? There was a chassid by the old Rebbe, Reb Shneur Zalman of Liadi, he was called Reb Shmuel Munkes. Reb Shmuel Munkes, one day, he was a prankster, such a lively young man. By chassidim it was always introduced that one who is a rebbe’s, he must be joyful. It’s not a concept to be such a Litvak who always goes like this.
He once made, what do you call it, a prank. He made pranks. By the rebbes they used to, so was the custom. Today it’s not introduced by the rebbes, one must introduce it back. So, do so. I tell you, certainly one must introduce this. So Reb Shmuel Munkes was a prankster. In the chassidic writings he’s a badchan. A badchan isn’t one who says rhymes that everyone already knows by the mitzvah dance. He made pranks, practical jokes.
One day comes, he’s standing outside the Rebbe’s house, and he’s hanging on a tree. The Rebbe comes out and asks him, “Shmuel, what are you doing there on the tree?” He says, “What do you mean? I am your sign, I am your advertisement.”
Wisdom Belongs to the Entire World — Not to the Individual
The Nature of Wisdom: It Wants to Spread Everywhere
There’s something called being a fantasizer, delusions of grandeur (shigayon gedolot), yes? But this isn’t delusions of grandeur. Wisdom belongs to no one. Wisdom belongs to wisdom itself, to the Almighty who is the wisdom. Wisdom belongs to wisdom itself.
But the nature of wisdom is that it wants to go everywhere. It can’t be that a person knows something and doesn’t want his small children to know it. It can’t be, this is what the Torah means “and you shall teach them to your children,” which means “your children and your children’s children,” which came at the giving of the Torah and saw, what did you see? You want to tell it to your grandchildren.
The nature of a person is such, that if a person traveled on a safari in Africa, he tells his grandchildren. Truly, if he saw some novelty (chiddush) in the unity of God, he also wants to tell it to his grandchildren. It’s a strange thing, a person calls himself wise and doesn’t want to share his wisdom. As the Gemara calls it “he will have demons” (shedim yihiyu lo), it’s some strange creature, it’s some androgynous, a barren woman (aylonit), he’s not a normal thing, he’s not a normal person.
Wisdom is Cosmic — Universal (Olami)
And how strongly one understands the wisdom, this is the reason why people don’t fall into delusions of grandeur, one must lower the character traits (middot), I’m not talking now about that matter, this isn’t a lecture on character traits, it’s a lecture on wisdom. Whoever has recognition of the value of wisdom and thinks he grasps some matter of wisdom in the world, understands that wisdom is something that belongs to the entire world. There’s a word for this in English, cosmic, yes? Universal (olami)!
Rav Kook’s “Central Universal Yeshiva”
Rav Kook opened a yeshiva, he called it with Rav HaNazir “Central Universal Yeshiva” (Yeshiva Merkazit Ha’olamit), it’s the worldwide yeshiva. This means worldwide, do you know how many people learned there? There were two hundred fifty people, the entire yeshiva, I was there in that building, there’s Beit HaRav Kook on Rechov HaRav Kook it’s called today there in Jerusalem, it’s a tiny house, it’s smaller than this, the entire building together has a few rooms there, the lecture room is smaller than the table we’re sitting at here. It was tiny, yes, there was the original Merkaz HaRav, it’s tiny, no people fit in there, they broke through a bit so you can make a minyan, it’s weak stories. But what’s the point? He was a Jew who understood what wisdom means. Wisdom is something that belongs to the entire world.
Jews and Missionizing — The Spreading of Truth
It belongs, that if I understand something, it’s understood that others, that person can also understand. On the contrary, let’s say what he understands, I’ll say, “leave me alone, he shouldn’t make himself.” But wisdom is something that belongs to the entire world. It can’t be that someone understands a matter of wisdom, a matter of truth, and doesn’t want to be a missionary and tell the entire world. It can’t be. Someone says, Jews aren’t missionaries. Does this mean to say that Jews don’t know anything that is true? It can’t be. Jews aren’t missionaries because we don’t have the strength, we must be careful. This is a simple practical thing. But certainly Jews are missionaries. One just needs to think about what it says in the prophet, that it will be with apostolism, “Ask of Me, and I will make the nations your inheritance” (she’al mimeni ve’etnah goyim nachalatecha). Fine. But there can’t be such a thing, it can’t be that he has a point of truth, a point of wisdom, and doesn’t want to spread it to the entire world. This is the nature of things (teva hadvarim), this is the foundation of the matter (yesod hadavar).
The Danger of Numbers-Thinking
Now we’ll continue. If so, there’s a great danger here. A great danger. What’s the danger? That one comes here, and thinks, I’m explaining now the lecture from last week better, yes? And one thinks, I come I give out flyers for the lecture, because I say it’s a cosmic lecture, it’s a lecture of the worlds, okay? I’ll agree. Lecture of the mountain of intellect, matters of thought, lecture of the worlds. Universal center. You know, in these times, every Hasidic group has a “Universal Center of Hasidei Alexander.” I remember that… yes, universal center. This is a pitiful creation, this doesn’t make sense. It must be universal. It is universal. Universal? One world? The worlds! “A person is obligated to say ‘the world was created for me'” (chayav adam lomar “bishvili nivra ha’olam”)? What is this not mine? It’s only one… only when one lives must one speak? One thinks one died too. And in the next world too.
The Angels Are Waiting for Us
And the angels, the angels, Master of the Universe, you say Kedusha, huh? You say Kedusha in shul, the crown (keter)? Do you know what it says there? It says like this, I just learned a bit about the sanctification of the Name, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory” (kadosh kadosh kadosh Hashem tzeva’ot melo chol ha’aretz kevodo), and I hold that the angels may come to me to hear what I have to say about this, yes? “Angels standing above, with Your people Israel gathered below” (malachim omdim mima’al, im amcha Yisrael kevutzim matah). This is built on a midrash, that “the ministering angels don’t say Kedusha until Israel says Shema Yisrael” (ein malachei hashareit omrim kadosh ad sheYisrael omrim Shema Yisrael), until they hear receiving permission from the Jews, yes? It’s a Gemara. Okay. So this is the meaning. I hold that the angels may come to me to hear. That means, I know what the angels don’t know? I don’t know what the angels know. I know for myself here some aspect, some clarity, some novelty, that I know and he doesn’t know, and I want to tell it to everyone. If it becomes a problem, it becomes a big problem.
The Stalinist Thought: “Only Ten People”
What’s the problem? Besides the problem that one begins to answer the knowledge means the body, if this means mind building, it doesn’t mean mind building, it means the wisdom itself, that’s the simple meaning. There’s a second problem. The problem is, now he comes and he says, I saw ten people there, I saw, someone told me the story literally, I saw a beit midrash there in a Pesach village, there are ten people there, they shout Kadosh, they say that the angels are waiting for them to light up Gehinnom again, they’ll say, “yes yes, have mercy, just normal people, these are three disconnected Jews there in Shidward there in Hungary, and the angels are waiting for you to light up Gehinnom again? Yes, for you they’re waiting, for you they’re waiting.”
Meaning to say, I, what I understand about the Gehinnom that closes on Shabbat, isn’t an understanding that I understand by myself, it’s an understanding that I understand in the world and how the world is. The understanding belongs to the entire world. So to the extent that I have some novelty, even without a novelty, the understanding lies on me, it belongs to the entire world. But here there’s a problem that a person sees, there are only ten people here. What’s the problem? One begins to think like this, literally a Hitler, a Stalinist thought begins to think. One begins to think like Stalin. He says, “ah, so the ten people, so you have a numbers game? I need to speak to the entire world. So I need to send flyers and send letters ‘as the king’s scribes write to every people and people, province and province in its script and people and people in its language’ (kichtav kore sofrei hamelech lechol am va’am, medinah umedinah kichtavah ve’am va’am kilshono).” I need to write thousands of letters and thousands of emails and faxes and I don’t know what people send today, and maybe it will reach the entire world. The ten Jews are nothing, they’re only ten.
So the “only ten” comes from what? From counting numbers, not people, yes? So only ten, only ten in which aspect? In the aspect of numbers, of counting, like Stalin counted that it’s only ten. Stalin wasn’t interested in killing ten people, he had nothing against ten people. Yes ten people, not ten people, makes no difference at all. He wanted to do something about millions of people, he was a world leader, yes? The international revolution he led, not just anything. Right? Ah, then he must reckon with millions of people. This isn’t a normal thought, this is a Stalinist thought.
The World is Made of People, Not Numbers
If you understand that the whole reason we say that the whole world needs to hear your Torah, the whole world needs to understand what we understand, is because we are people, not because we are numbers. The world is not made of numbers. The world is made of people. The human world likes to make numbers.
But if fewer people hold something, it could be that they’re making mistakes.
And what is the wisdom? Ten people hold this way, you count ten people.
Let’s understand. Let’s understand.
No, it’s less true.
It could be. It could also be less. Everything…
Truth Is Not “My” Truth
If fewer people hold something, you count ten people.
Let’s talk about what Reb Avraham Chaim told me. My custom is only to respond to what Reb Avraham Chaim told me. What I will tell him is that if you grasp that it’s truth, you grasp that it’s truth not because it’s my truth. One must climb out of the thought that truth is mine.
Very good. We should learn from all these precious people who have something to say. They are all invited to come explain to us why we are wrong. An open invitation, no problem. Sit down, with yishuv hadaas (composure), explain to me why I’m wrong. Certainly. Every person has some portion of wisdom, and one must also learn from every person. There’s no doubt. One must be lomed mikol adam (learning from every person).
When One Understands Truth, One Thinks Everyone Says It
But when I understand that something is truth, I’m not some innovator of the truth. By the way, from this, whoever understands, usually when people understand some davar emes (matter of truth), they think that everyone says it. I say, a mistake can happen, because the other person understands something that you don’t understand. But the reason this mistake comes is because I don’t understand something that I innovated, rather I understand that this is how it is. I find, when I learn a piece of Gemara, I learn the pshat (straightforward meaning), I meet another person who learned the same Gemara. He says this, kulei alma (everyone), the Gemara already said my pshat. And many times it’s true. They say, when one goes straight, one meets many friends. Many times I indeed say, I’m not saying that I’m saying something you don’t know. But I say the opposite, since the thing doesn’t belong to me, it belongs to the reality of the world, it belongs to everyone.
A Person Is an Entire World — The Value of Ten Jews
And what I just want to say is this, that one shouldn’t think that if so, that there are few people makes a difference. It makes no difference. Not only does it make no difference, a person is an entire world. What does it mean a person is an entire world? What does it mean that a person is a world full? Can you explain to me? I tell you that any one of us could die tomorrow, no one will know about it, except for his wife. There’s a Gemara, ein lo domeh ela ishto (he has no equal except his wife). No one cares. Except for a wife, he can die, you’re lying down, it makes no difference to anyone.
Every Person Can Bring Out the Entire World
What does it mean that a person is an entire world? It means his portion, that the person can bring out the entire world. Woe to him, if a person can teach another person the entire world, we learn together, we learn, the entire thing becomes better, the entire thing becomes clearer, kol ha’olam (the entire world) is to us, it’s two entire worlds, not a contradiction, it’s two. And three people is three. It’s already full. When you have ten Jews, there can be no distinctions, there are things that are however a din (law), a din mezuman (quorum law), a din tzibbur (communal law) of ten Jews. The moment you have ten Jews there’s already an entire world.
Ten Jews Represent a Cross-Section of All People
I need to have understanding in this, ten people usually represent a cross-cut of all sorts of people that exist, more or less. Now, there’s a difference what people need. Every person, every Jew who stands at the amud (prayer lectern) needs siyata dishmaya (heavenly assistance), there are all kinds of souls, people who are in his direction, who are his neighbors, who have his sort of tkhunos hanefesh (character traits), etc., etc.
I said, earlier I also said it, I say that our advertisement is the ten Jews who sit here, that’s all. There are only ten Jews anyway in the world. All the others are other representations of the same ten Jews. Each one can be another entire world. But a person is an entire world, he’s not smaller, he’s not some number. Whoever says he’s a number, he needs to gather all people together.
Simchas Torah with Ten Jews — Nothing Is Missing
And I say even more, I say about many Chassidim, he travels to a Rebbe, but there’s such a Rebbe where on Shavuos there are ten thousand Jews. Ah, obviously so, I can’t, I have a small, let’s say a small beis medrash in our area, I work very hard to be there for yom tov, I don’t have the strength to travel up and travel away on yom tov. I want to have yom tov with a minyan where I can spend a little time together. And all these people, they’re Chassidim. When you have in that shul of ten Jews, I’ll try Simchas Torah, the hakafos (dancing circuits) which is a normal person, he says ah, obviously so, you don’t truly believe that you want to rejoice with the Torah. You go to a large shul, there are two thousand people on the branches, you think, that’s how it becomes. It can’t be that I’m the only one who’s crazy, if two thousand people are dancing with the Torah, probably there’s a point to dancing with the Torah. Ten Jews dance with the Torah, he does this.
Berov Am Hadras Melech — But Nothing Is Missing
I’m not saying there’s no such concept of rov am (multitude), there is a concept of rov am, there is a concept of making much more geshmak (enjoyment) when there are thousands of Jews, it’s certainly better. But nothing is missing from ten Jews. Instead ten Jews is a problem, you can’t make kedusha (sanctity) in Kaddish, you can’t make a proper minyan. You have ten Jews, nothing is missing. Very happy. You can look at him by the way, the 7th of Adar that you said is true. The people who have a longing for life and dancing with the Torah on Simchas Torah, or saying the Akdamus on Shavuos, it doesn’t bother them that there are only ten Jews in the beis medrash. Even better, fewer people is better, you don’t have to push, there’s room, the main thing isn’t, everything is there, there’s enough honor cake for everyone, everything is there.
The person who has a problem with this, he doesn’t trust himself. Because you’re somewhat right, a person doesn’t need to trust himself alone, but in the end whom will you trust if not a Jew like yourself?
Speaking to One Person — The Power of Hiskallalus (Integration)
True Joy Doesn’t Need Masses
Okay, there are ten Jews, nothing is missing, one is very happy. You can look around, and the proof to what I’m saying is true, the people who have a long-standing life and dancing with the Torah on Simchas Torah, or saying the Akdamus on Shavuos, it doesn’t bother them that there are only ten Jews in the beis medrash. Even better, fewer people is better, you don’t have to push, there’s room, the main thing is everything is there, there’s enough salvation against evil beasts, everything is there.
The person who has a problem with this, he doesn’t trust himself. You’re somewhat right, a person doesn’t need to trust himself alone, but in the end whom will you trust for a good year? He doesn’t trust himself. I, I hold, you know what? I hold that the Torah is good, and I rejoice on Simchas Torah. Do me something, you don’t hold? Go to the Rebbe indeed and dance there, because you need people to strengthen you all the time. Ten thousand people, ah, maybe, maybe it’s something.
Therefore, every year the gatherings become bigger and bigger, despite the minyan becoming smaller and smaller. And not because it split up, every ten Jews have a different sort. You can’t dance with ten thousand people, I can’t dance with ten thousand people who rejoiced. Why not? It’s very difficult, because every Jew has a different, I have a different interpretation in the hakafos than the other person. I can adjust to his hakafos, with my few brothers, with my friends, with my neighbors, I can, I already know how to deal with them. Do you know how to deal with ten thousand people’s pshat in the Chumash? And did they all finish the same Chumash on Simchas Torah? They didn’t finish the same Chumash. In my Chumash different things are written than in his Chumash. Vayikrevu zeh el zeh (And they drew near to one another).
But what, it has nothing. What you say regarding edus Hashem ne’emana (the testimony of God is faithful), ten thousand Jews dance, the Rebbe shouts Toras Hashem temima (the Torah of God is perfect), there must be some point. But if one understands the opposite, the smaller is better, and smaller doesn’t mean it’s less, it doesn’t mean your Torah doesn’t speak about the entire world. It’s not a contradiction at all, it’s not only not a contradiction, it’s more correct this way, the more and the truth is this way.
The Rambam’s Moreh Nevuchim — Written for One Person
The more, the holy Rambam wrote a sefer Moreh Nevuchim (Guide for the Perplexed), do you know for whom he wrote it? Do you know? For Reb Yosef ben Shimon, there’s such a Jew. There he says, when the Rambam writes, he writes, “I write it only for you.” He says, “yehei bezeh sakhar kamocha” (may there be in this reward like you). There’s no sakhar kamocha, even that one, the Rambam was a bit disappointed from his understanding. I write a sefer for one person? For one person?
The Rambam was a great Jew, yes, he had a good business, he led the king there, the doctor there, he had a position, he could go up. And he turned over with this sefer that he wrote for one person. For how many people did he actually write the sefer, in practice in the end? About for one person in the end, huh? But in practice, the entire world he turned over with this sefer that he wrote for one person. Why? Because at least he wrote it for a person. Here is a person who writes a sefer.
The Mitteler Rebbe — Each Sefer for a Specific Chassid
They say that the Mitteler Rebbe wrote, I mean he published four, six sefarim, I don’t remember. Says the Rayatz, the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, that he remembers, he has a tradition, that every sefer that the Rebbe wrote he meant one chassid. He even knew the names. Shaar HaOrah he wrote for that one. He wrote it according to that one’s tkhunos hanefesh (character traits).
He held, and in other words, the Mitteler Rebbe was somewhat a misvoded (recluse), didn’t like to be among people so much, he sat in his room. Therefore his sefarim are so long, because he talks this way with people. He wrote the maamar (discourse), he imagined how he speaks to that chassid, and he had to give according to how he held that the other understood. The other sefer he wrote for a second chassid. Certainly, everyone enjoys it. This is how one enjoys a sefer that is written to a real person, not written to a number.
I’m Not Called Joseph Stalin — Speaking to People, Not to Numbers
When someone writes a sefer, and he goes to a marketing agency, he tells him, “You write something that will appeal to most people.” Do you mean to say that you don’t want to speak to any one person, but to numbers? I’m not called Joseph Stalin, I want to speak to one person. One speaks to one person, and through that one speaks to the entire world, because every person is an entire world. If one can truly reach one person, one has reached the entire world. And certainly if every person is himself, kal vachomer (all the more so) a Jew.
Every Jew Carries Within Himself All Jews — Sarei Alafim, Sarei Meios, Sarei Asaros
This is what we see, that each one of the ten Jews in this minyan must himself bring ten thousand dollars or a hundred thousand dollars, and the ten is not enough. And this is the spark that lies beneath every Jew. Every Jew is here, beneath him lies sarei alafim (officers of thousands), sarei meios (officers of hundreds), sarei asaros (officers of tens). So many Jews lie beneath every Jew. And it must be so.
I can only give a shiur, I can’t speak into the air. I need to speak to certain people. And it’s very powerful from the conduct of every person, not to speak into the air to a camera, because other Jews are included in this. This is the hiskallalus (integration). The camera is only beshem kol Yisrael (in the name of all Israel). I must obligate myself that everyone must be beshem kol Yisrael. I must make the camera. Now it’s beshem kol Yisrael, it’s not only for us. All our deeds and matters are not only for us. But truly, each one is responsible for the entire world.
Conclusion — The Practical Implication
Therefore he should bring enough money for the entire world, and there should be a geulah sheleima (complete redemption), and one should complete all three hundred sixty thousand dollars for the year. And next year it will be 720,000 dollars.