A request to convey a letter to a Rabbinic writer

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Thankful acknowledgment to a chassid for sending his memoirs

No. 427

This letter was also addressed to R. Shalom Posner.

B"H, The Festival of Redemption, 19 Kislev, 5709

Greetings and blessings,

With regard to the texts [authored by] Rabbi A. Benyamin Silverberg from your community:[76] These books are not in my possession, nor are they in the library of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch. By chance, I saw only his collection of Responsa, Mishnas Benyamin. I received much satisfaction from perusing it, [happy that such a book was published] in this country and at this time. To borrow the wording used by my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe Shlita, in his preface to Kuntreis Etz HaChayim (in reference to another country):

Young men who are described with the titles of Geonim and intellectual giants, with trimmed beards and clipped peiyos, enter into learned discussion regarding a deep Talmudic passage [with the intent of] arriving at a lenient ruling regarding every matter that is a mitzvah, leaving [the Torah] naked, like a body without a soul. [Moreover,] they have the nerve to challenge the opinions of the Geonim and to crush the prohibitions [enacted] by the Rishonim.

Instead, a text was printed here that reinforces the customs of our ancestors without giving extra weight to the power of leniency,[77] [the latter being so insidious] that it suppresses straightforward thinking and causes one to deviate from delivering a genuinely true judgment.

(I was, however, surprised to see him depart from his pattern in Responsum 76 and speak weakly against using a microphone in a synagogue on Rosh HaShanah, using pleading tones and only making reference [to the discussion of this issue] in the Pardes. [This is especially surprising since] there are authorities who forbid this even when all the care prescribed in positioning the microphone and setting it up is taken. {It appears to me that several of these [stringent opinions] were quoted in the 5705 issue of the Pardes.} [The institution of microphones in synagogues] is a matter over which common people have authority, and if they are permitted to use it on a festival, they will use it on Shabbos as well.

“The eyes of a wise man are in his head.”[78] [Leniency] will lead to tearing down precautionary barriers [that will lead to the violation of] Scriptural prohibitions. Even if after thoroughly contemplating the matter and applying deep thought he did not find clear reason to prohibit it, he should at least not have printed this responsum. For this gives room for people to say: “See, even those who usually rule stringently rule leniently in this instance.” In regard to situations like this, it is said: “If you would purchase a word with a sela, purchase silence with two.”[79])

What amazed me, however, was that when looking at the text, I saw that the author cited Acharonim and later Acharonim, but he is very careful not to quote the Alter Rebbe or the Tzemach Tzedek or their rulings.

See Rama (Orach Chayim) and Nesivos HaMishpat, sec. 28, with regard to the power of Torah texts that have spread throughout the Jewish people. An error with regard to the glosses of the Shulchan Aruch is considered as an error with regard to a statement of the Mishnah.[80] (This concept is also alluded to in the Alter Rebbe’s Hilchos Talmud Torah, at the beginning of ch. 2.)

At the outset, I judged the author with favorable consideration, [thinking that] perhaps he did not see these texts or know of them. (See the Shelah’s interpretation of the verse:[81] “I sinned, because I did not know.”) Then, however, I saw that he quotes [the halachic encyclopedia,] Sdei Chemed which cites [the rulings of] the Alter Rebbe and the Tzemach Tzedek in several places.

[The Rebbe proceeds to cite several examples where it would have been appropriate for the Mishnas Benyamin to have referred to the Responsa of the Tzemach Tzedek. He concludes the letter as follows:]

I am concluding with blessings for the Festival of Redemption, Yud-Tes Kislev, 5559. That is when the Divine service of spreading the wellsprings of Chassidus outward began. From that time onward, it continued and increased. (See [Tanya,] Iggeres HaKodesh, Epistle 14.[82]) In these days, Mashiach’s promise to the Baal Shem Tov will certainly be fulfilled and Mashiach will actually come and redeem us in the most literal sense in the true and Ultimate Redemption.

M. Schneerson

   

Notes:

76. (Back to text) [See the preceding letter.]

77. (Back to text) [Cf. Eruvin 72b, et al.]

78. (Back to text) [Koheles 2:14. I.e., he looks toward the future and takes the appropriate precautions.]

79. (Back to text) [Megillah 18a.]

80. (Back to text) [See Kesuvos 84b which states that when a Rabbinic authority makes an error with regard to a matter explicitly stated in the Mishnah, his ruling is retracted and the case is judged again. These later authorities explain that this concept applies not only with regard to the words of the Mishnah itself, but with regard to any clear-cut Torah ruling that has been universally accepted among the Jewish people. Hence, the Rebbe is implying that since the rulings of the Alter Rebbe and the Tzemach Tzedek have been granted such universal acceptance, if their rulings are ignored, the current judgment is considered in error.]

81. (Back to text) [Bamidbar 22:34. There the Shelah asks: “If he did not know, what was his sin?” and explains: “A person is held responsible for what he should have known, but did not.”]

82. (Back to text) [There the Alter Rebbe writes that each year, a new and higher light is revealed from Above necessitating a new and more complete level of Divine service.]

A request to convey a letter to a Rabbinic writer

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Thankful acknowledgment to a chassid for sending his memoirs