An overview of the historical origins and the importance of writing
By Dovber Aloro-Cohen
Since the dawn of Chassidus, writing to the Rebbe has been a key element in the bond between Rebbe and Chassid. An old Chassidic proverb says that just as a “woman is acquired in three ways: money, document and bi’ah,” so too, a Chassid is acquired and sanctified to the Rebbe “in three ways: money – maamad; document – writing to the Rebbe; bi’ah – traveling to the Rebbe.
Over the generations, the mode of connecting through writing evolved into one of the main means by which a Chassid connects to the Rebbe. It is hard to describe the lifestyle of a Chassid without his writing to the Rebbe at every juncture of life, regarding material and spiritual concerns, as the Rebbe writes in a letter dated 15 Shevat 5709:
“There is a Rebbe in the Jewish nation and he does not enter under the limitations of nature. One who wants to tread his life path securely, in business, running the household, etc, should not lift a hand without consulting with the Rebbe.”
Writing to the Rebbe is of supreme importance and Chassidim would even draw a parallel between the day that they wrote and the day they had yechidus. Immersing in a mikva, proper preparations, and wearing a hat and jacket (married men with a gartel) characterize seeing the Rebbe for yechidus and also characterize writing to the Rebbe.
This is not simply a “Chassidic hergesh.” Back in the time of the Alter Rebbe, writing to the Rebbe served as a substitute for yechidus. When the number of Chassidim grew, it became difficult for the Alter Rebbe to receive them all for yechidus. “Takanos Liozna” (Liozna enactments) were formulated which limited the Chassidim as far as visiting the Alter Rebbe. Instead, they were guided to write letters.
Today too, the accepted approach among Chassidim is that writing to the Rebbe is a sort of yechidus, and that the answers opened to at random in the Igros Kodesh are coming from the highest place. As the Alter Rebbe writes in his introduction, that through the Tanya it is possible to receive all answers to all questions:
“And all of them are responsa to many questions which all our faithful in our country have constantly asked, seeking advice… since time no longer permits replying to everyone individually and in detail about his particular problem. Furthermore, forgetfulness is common. I have, therefore, recorded all the replies to all the questions, to be preserved as a signpost and to serve as a visual reminder for each and every person, so that he will no longer press for admission to private conference with me. For in these he will find peace for his soul, and true counsel on every matter that he finds difficult in the service of G-d, and thus, his heart will be firmly secured in the Lord Who completes everything for us.”
Chassidim always regarded writing to the Rebbe as of supreme importance and today too, are particular to treat it with great care and awe. This is something that we can learn from the story told by Rabbi Yoel Kahn (Anashim Chassidim Hayu, p. 50):
“In 5709, a few tmimim from Tel Aviv came to the home of the Chassid R’ Zalman Moshe HaYitzchaki and asked him to teach them how to write a pidyon nefesh to the Rebbe. R’ Zalman Moshe took a pencil and paper and suddenly burst into tears. He sobbed for quite a while. After he calmed down a bit, he asked the bachurim to return the following day because he was unable to write a pidyon nefesh then.
“The next day, the talmidim returned to his home and asked him again to write a pidyon nefesh. R’ Zalman Moshe took the pencil and paper and wrote the words, ‘Ana l’orer,” and then again, he burst into uncontrollable crying and could not continue writing the pidyon nefesh.”
THE REBBE ENCOURAGES WRITING
Before formally accepting the Chabad leadership, the Rebbe began encouraging Chassidim to write and even expressed pleasure and joy from people writing to him (Igros Kodesh, volume 3, p. 402):
“I am always glad to know what is happening with Anash. If it is good news, then this causes pleasure and joy, and even if it is the opposite, G-d forbid, this itself, i.e. being in touch through letters, provides encouragement and diminishes the feeling of being alone and feeling down.”
In addition to the importance of writing as a fundamental apsect of hiskashrus, the Rebbe points out regarding the act of writing, that when a Chassid knows that he needs to write a report to the Rebbe occasionally, this gets him to act properly. As the Rebbe writes (9 Iyar 5719), “We see that the knowledge that eventually they will write about the activities to someone, leads to an increase in activities, whether in quantity or quality or both.”
Throughout the years, on many occasions, the Rebbe insisted repeatedly, from the Chassidim in particular, and from the Jewish people in general, that they write to him frequently. To those who wrote to him after a long time, the Rebbe mentioned this in his response in this often-used line, “After an extremely long break, you letter was received …”
As to how to write, the Rebbe asked for as much detail as possible. “I want to receive a detailed report about everyone’s activities,” the Rebbe asked on 11 Nissan 5712, of the bachurim going home for Pesach who would be reviewing Chassidus in shuls.
“It’s a wonder that you do not write in more detail about the promoting of the published works,” writes the Rebbe (Igros Kodesh volum 14, p. 36) to R’ Zushe Wilyamowsky, who disseminated Chabad sefarim among many communities. The Rebbe writes to him:
“It is explained in a number of places in Chassidus and we see tangibly that when writing in a general manner it does not add vigor to the activities, because with a description of the situation in general terms there is no compelling need to alter the description if the activities would grow many times over, or conversely if it would shrink many times over. Whereas when one knows in advance that after a brief time they will have to write in detail, as above, that this work sold so-and-so many copies and the other work so-and-so many copies, that changes the approach from the outset.
SPECIAL EXPRESSIONS FOR LETTERS
Despite the burdens and many involvements, the Rebbe was particular to personally write any responses to letters that he received, as he said, “I read all the letters that are addressed to me myself, and also answer them myself … as has always been the custom.”
The Rebbe never complained about the many letters sent to him. In 5716, the Rebbe’s shluchim visited many Torah greats and people of renown, with the goal being to enlist their support for the residents of Kfar Chabad. One of the personalities that they visited insisted that he does not want to write to the Rebbe because he does not want to disturb the Rebbe. The shluchim explained to him that it does not disturb the Rebbe at all, and the Rebbe followed up by writing the following:
“Certainly, the shluchim were correct in that letters do not impose upon me, and if only we would merit within the entirety of Jewry that the content of letters to each other be happy, in gashmius and in ruchniyus, and in visible and revealed good.”
The Rebbe used a very interesting expression in a letter to a correspondent (whose name was not published, in Igros Kodesh vol 14, p 493), “It has been a pleasure for me to get to know you, at least in writing.”
It is well known that the Chassid, R’ Zushe Wilyamowsky the “partisan,” would report frequently to the Rebbe on his activities and would receive many responses, at every step. Once, when he went in to the Rebbe for yechidus, the Rebbe told him, “You have revived me with the notifications, and whenever there is any news, you should write.”
The Rebbe did not ask only for good tidings to be written. As he wrote to R’ Gershon Chein, “At every time, I am pleased to know what is happening with Anash, because if the information is positive then it causes nachas and simcha, and if ch’v the opposite, at least that itself – being in contact through letters – strengthens.”
Another aspect of the importance of writing and its significance can be derived from the fact that the Rebbe expressed his preference that any question be written by the petitioner himself. As he told one person in yechidus, who had asked a question in the name of a family member, that it is preferable for the request to be written by the petitioner himself rather than transmitted verbally through another. He explained that this is because it is possible, by giving it over verbally, the person might leave out a detail that he does not want to specify to the one presenting the question. Another reason is that by the person writing himself it adds in his inner hiskashrus to the Rebbe, as opposed to a letter written by someone else.
Over the years, the numbers of letters grew until they reached such huge amounts that they were impossible to deal with on this physical plane. In later years, the Rebbe instructed ever more that the number of letters sent to him should be lessened, and that people should turn for guidance to experts in the field such as a “doctor-friend,” a friend who is a “maven” or a rav that issues halachic rulings, each according to his situation.
Despite the great importance that the Rebbe attached to writing, when Chassidim began to send letters about every little thing, and when they did not have what to write of substance and would just manufacture something, just for the sake of writing letters, the Rebbe spoke out strongly against the practice. He demanded that “when people write a letter, they should think again whether there is a need for the writing of this letter, or is it a waste of time, both the time of the writer and the time of the recipient. And if there is a doubt in the matter, instead of devoting attention and exertion etc. to a doubtful matter, it is better to put the doubt aside, and be involved in something certain, to take a sefer and learn.”
THE VERY ACT OF WRITING
We all know the feeling of writing a letter and not meriting to receive a response, but we need to know that the very act of writing to the Rebbe completes the connection, and the Rebbe thinks about us and answers us, even if we don’t see it. As the Rebbe himself wrote in response to someone who wrote about not meriting responses from the Rebbe:
“Finally, his letter was received. As far as his explanation for the lack of his letters since there was no response from here; it is a wonder, since I have asked Anash many times not to offer explanations about the lack of an answer from here, because in the overwhelming majority of cases it is because of the busyness, and therefore the answers to the most urgent and important issues take precedence…”
In response to a report from the shluchim gathering in South America in 5746, the Rebbe wrote, “It was received and teshuos chein, and I will mention it at the tziyun. And the time does not lend itself even to read it, but the act of giving it over is already complete and in all of the details, as per the psak din of the Torah of truth.”
The Rebbe added an explanation to the above, “In order to make it easier to understand even for… Specifically in our times they have shown us a vivid example, which people act upon and even in the most important and weighty matters, in how people can accomplish the above mentioned even through the use of an inanimate object. As soon as one enters a number of important details into a computer, they can instantly know all of the conclusions and rulings on what to actually do. So when it is conveyed/mentioned at the tziyun (of my father-in-law, the Rebbe), it is obvious that it is all the more so and incomparably greater than transmission to the previously mentioned inanimate object…”
ANSWERS THROUGH SEFARIM
As far as putting a pidyon nefesh or letter into a sefer and receiving answers through sefarim, there are many sources in many places for this. We will focus on a few of the Chabad sources:
There is the well known letter of the Rebbe delineating the customs of a yahrtzeit, written before the first Yud Shevat in 5711. There the Rebbe says to place the pidyon nefesh between the pages of a maamar or kuntres of the Rebbe Rayatz, after reading it on the yahrtzeit while wearing a gartel and picturing oneself in yechidus with the Rebbe Rayatz, and then if possible to send it to be read at the tziyun.
As far as the source for the practice of receiving an answer by way of sefarim, the Rebbe referenced this on more than one occasion at farbrengens in the year 5749. In the sicha of Noach 5749 (Hisvaaduyos vol. 1 p. 309) the Rebbe said: “It is known regarding the custom of many many Jews, whether Gedolei Yisrael or simple Jews and also women, that before undertaking a certain activity they open a holy sefer, and they look into the place that the sefer opened to and the eye fell upon at first glance (without intention, because they want to see where it would open to by divine providence) and based on this they would decide about doing it. For example: If it opened for them to the verse ‘open shall you open,’ or ‘rejoice shall you rejoice,’ and the like, this was a ‘sign from Above’ for them that there will be great success in the thing that they were about to do. Or else they understood from the sign to refrain from doing it or to delay it, and the like.”
On a later occasion that year, in the sicha of Bamidbar 5749 (Hisvaaduyos vol. 3 p. 224) the Rebbe added: “And as is known the Jewish custom from days of yore when they wanted to clarify how to conduct oneself in a permitted matter (i.e. in a matter with no explicit directive in the Torah about what to do)
There is a rule that ma’aseh rav (actual practice is a decisive ruling), so the greatest proof is that the Rebbe himself directed people to open holy works (Heichal Menachem vol. 2 p. 217) in response to a question that he was asked: “A number of suggestion were suggested to us for X, and we are unable to decide as to which one of them to approach, what should we do?” The Rebbe answered: “There are those who have the practice of opening a Chumash or Tehillim, and they learn what to do from the first verse that they encounter…”
In the work L’sheima Ozen of R’ Shneur Zalman Duchman, he recounts a story of the Rebbe Rashab who said, “When something happens to a Jew, every Jew has the power to open the sefer of Tanya and to say: Rebbe, help me! Apparently, that is why it is the custom to place a pidyon into the sefer of Tanya.”
In the diary account of the arrest and imprisonment of the Rebbe Rayatz, he testifies to the use of this practice during his imprisonment, “When I was there, I did not have any sefer with me and the first sefer that they brought me was a volume of the book of Shmuel in Tanach, and when it opened I encountered the verse, ‘Do not continue to go out with us to war, and [thus] the candle of Yisrael shall not be extinguished.’ And when I saw that this is what I chanced upon I rejoiced with great joy and made a note of it for myself.”■
A Virtual PA’N
Chassidim tried to write to the Rebbe under all circumstances. The Chassid and mashpia, R’ Mendel Futerfas z’l, told about a spiritual pidyon that he “wrote” (R’ Mendel p. 44):
Throughout the interrogations, my mind wasn’t free to think about myself or anyone else. All of my wits were focused on what to say and what not to say. It was only after they sentenced me on erev Lag B’Omer to eight years in exile in a labor camp, that I started to think a little about myself. Then I recalled what the Rebbe Rayatz once said, “All those in Russia, and especially those in prison, should focus their thoughts intensely on me, and I will focus intensely in thought upon them.”
This is what I did. When I found myself in a prison cell, the first thing I did was stand in a corner, close my eyes and think as though I was standing in yechidus before the Rebbe, or at least sending him a letter, informing him of my present situation.
It was only when I left Russia years later, that I found out that that very day, erev Lag B’Omer, the Rebbe Rayatz sent a telegram to London addressed to my name which said, “The telegram was received.”
At first, my family thought that I had managed to fool them all and that I was already out of Russia and had sent a telegram to the Rebbe and this was his response, but after a while, they found out that I was “sitting” [in jail] and they did not understand the telegram. It was only when I arrived in London in 5724 that they all understood that this was the Rebbe’s answer to the yechidus I had while in jail.