ChabadLife.TV Street Farbrengen
ChabadLife.TV Street Farbrengen
Street Farbrengen Episode 119 - No Excuses
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Just a line that echoes louder with time:
“It’s all up to you.”
In this episode, the conversation continues and gets uncomfortable.
Not theoretical... personal.
What does it actually mean to live in Geulah without being “pulled out”?
Without waiting for clarity, for leadership, for a miracle?
From the tension between Geulah and Golah…
to the contradiction between what we were told and what we see…
to the deeper fear we don’t say out loud—
Maybe we don’t want it to be up to us.
This isn’t a neat answer.
It’s a confrontation.
Because maybe the Rebbe didn’t leave a gap—
he removed the excuse.
Part Two And Raw Frustration
SPEAKER_03Zakaria tonight is part two. I expressed the last time we forebranged my frustration that after over 30 years, I'm fed up. I don't understand the answer the Rebbe gave after Koyach Nissan to Rabbi Groner, which essentially was all I'm asking is for people to learn and spread Chasidis. And you, if I have to remind you what we talked about, I'd be happy too. And it it crystallized for me the very basic essence difference of Chabad Chasidis in our generation, which is as what the Rebbe said, it's all up to us. And if you can't carry the weight, maybe you should check out another Rebbe. How many people in your shoulder are there? Kapatas, capatas.
SPEAKER_0060.
SPEAKER_0360. How many of those 60 kapatas do you think are wondering how come we don't have a new Rebbe?
SPEAKER_00I'm sure there's a solid percentage. Right.
SPEAKER_03I mean, we don't have anyone to point to. We all know that. Yeah. Okay. But I'm talking about the sentiment.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I'm sure there's a there's a there's a solid number.
SPEAKER_03Okay. What about you?
SPEAKER_00I don't I don't think that way. I don't think I've ever thought that way.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Why not? I mean, if you think about it, let's be honest, because this is a street for Bregen. This is not puffy woofy for Brangen. This is street for Bregen. Why? And I know I'm not asking an intellectual question, and I don't want to go over stuff we may have for Brang about before, but when you think about it, in our generation, the books and the memoriam that we have of the Lababaj Rebbe, contextually in time, is no different than the Rebbe Rashab and all the other Rebbes that we have a sh a library shelf.
SPEAKER_00You're correct, Rubain. And I don't think the answer is an intellectual answer. If you're asking for a reason, I could tell you the Rebbe is the greatest of all time. Okay. Does that do anything for you? No, not particularly. So why the Rebbe and not the Rebbe Roshab? Why the Rebbe and not somebody new? I I don't have an answer outside of the Rebba is my Rebbe, that's who I feel connected to. That's who I know according to the Sikhas and other things of that nature. That uh that's my Yahid of Shabb and Nefesht. Um I don't need to look anywhere else. That's it.
SPEAKER_03That's the way you feel, or that's the way the Sikhs tell you.
SPEAKER_00No, I'm saying that the the feeling of I there's nothing, there's nothing else that exists that will be able to replace the Rebbe, so to speak, is in conjunction to understanding because the Rebbe is my Yachida Shabinesh, there's nowhere else to go. There's nothing else to do.
SPEAKER_03Well Yachid of Shabinfish, uh okay, well let's not go down that road about Yachid Shibnefish. So I am going to suggest the following.
SPEAKER_02And of course I don't disagree with you that the Reb is the Reb. But we I've I've said this to you before. Life has two general uh aspects to it. I call the snapshot and the commentary.
SPEAKER_03Right? So you take a picture of a beautiful forest, and it's a picture of a beautiful forest. One guy looks at the beautiful forest and says, I'm scared because at night I wouldn't want to still sleep there.
SPEAKER_02That's a commentary. It's just a tree in all its beauty that it exists.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Okay.
SPEAKER_03What's the snapshot of Hasidic life in Taf Shin Pe Vav 19? What are we? No, sorry. 2026. Oh boy. Um who's president? Eisenhower? Um, anyways. What's the snapshot? Like we said a few weeks ago. I don't miss the Rebbe, but I do miss Fabrangans. There are no Fabrangans. There is no more mimorim. Which there was in, by the way, before Tar Gimel Thomas. And a lot of people didn't even raise an eyebrow about it, which the Rebbe complained about.
SPEAKER_00I heard I heard that the somebody asked the Rebbe finally, and he said nobody asked.
SPEAKER_03So the snapshot is we are Chasidim without a visual. Well, how let's call it that. Okay. Yes. The Rebbe's the Rebbe and he talks to your Yhidashib and Nefesh because that's the spiritual nutrition and the spiritual vitamins that the Rebbe gives in his chasidis to live where there is no visual.
SPEAKER_00Agreed.
SPEAKER_03Which is, okay, which is it's all up to you.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Now, going back though to last for bringen, the frustration is he gives you those things, right? Yeah. And then there's still the big question mark of what does it mean?
SPEAKER_03What does what mean?
SPEAKER_00In last week's forbringen, it was I told you learn more Davenmour and spread more Hasidis. You know, do all that you can, and it's up to you. And and you we you were left very frustrated, and that frustration I felt also afterwards.
It’s All Up To You
SPEAKER_03No, I was not frustrated that I didn't know the ant that I saw a discrepancy in the story. Well, that was my frustration. Oh, I thought that I told you straight out that the Rebbe said there was one person, three people, ten people who should figure out what to do. And now two weeks later, the Rebbe's saying, Why are they breaking their heads over it? I told them what to do. But that's not what the Kayhnissen sikr said. He said, I don't have, in a sense, he said, I don't have the answer. The Khasidim have to have the answer. And that's why the next Sunday you have that famous encounter of the woman to the Rebbe saying, You're abandoning us. And the Rebbe is saying, It's up to you, it's up to you, it's up to you. That is what the Rebbe. Let's talk about the snapshot versus the commentary. The Rebbe said a Sikha. The Sikha said, It's I don't have an answer, basically. It's up to the Hasidim. That's the snapshot. So the Rebbe Groner was telling the Rebbe they're they're racking, you know, they're breaking their heads over it. What is the answer that the Rebbe? I I mean we I thought about it after the Fabranga we had. What is the answer the Rebbe saying when he said, What do you mean? Why are they breaking their heads over it? I told them. The Nakuda wasn't we don't know what to do. The Nakuda is we are the ones doing it. Ironically, it's the flip side, it's not even ironic, it's beauty. The beauty is it's the flip side of Zionism.
SPEAKER_00How so?
SPEAKER_03What was the what was the um uh pro of the um objec what's the word I'm objection of the religious camp to Zionism?
SPEAKER_00That you're going to Erit Israel before the Shiach comes, before you know there's a gathering of the exiles from a leader and it's from Halacha and from Okay, I I I I understand you know the structure.
SPEAKER_03Basically, you can't do it yourself.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03That was the objec that was the objection.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Okay. And what's what are we left with today with the Rebbe?
SPEAKER_00It's all up to you.
SPEAKER_03It's all up to you. It's all up to you doing it. That's what I'm saying. It's the flip side of the Zionistic ethos.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_03Okay. And you know what? It's time for maybe us Lobavichas to become religious Zionists.
SPEAKER_00Ooh, that's controversial.
SPEAKER_03No, I don't mean in the that they should be in whatever. The truth of the matter is most of the Hasidim are, but that's besides the point. They pretend they aren't. But I don't want to go down the road.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And it's tough.
SPEAKER_03That was the conclusion I came to that story with Rebbe Groner and the Rebbe. That the Rebbe said, why are they breaking their heads? What do you mean, why? You said we should be maybe one guy, ten guys, three guys. And the answer is you don't get the message. The message is it's totally 100% up to you. If you learn a mimer because you think that the mimer is going to make your life different, it's going to give a good drug-induced moment of escape, you're abdicating the concept of it's up to me. It's not up to the mimer. It's not up to the reba. It's up to me. Now, the the objective of what's up to me to do obviously needs the mimer. It needs the rebbe. And I I I I think that um that's what makes being a chabadnik so difficult today. Because we don't want it to be up to us. We want to say the normative Taich Admasai. We are in a pit of dung. Please save me. Send me that life preserver. Please. And what really is behind that, and I do I know I do this, what's really behind that is I'm helpless. I don't want it to be up to me. It's too tough for it to be up to me. Screw that. And then I have the luxury of complaining, like we were talking the last time we met, that I'm frustrated. And now what what what's the result of the frustration? Well, let's go party. Or whatever I decide to do.
SPEAKER_00You're saying the escapism because you're helpless.
SPEAKER_03The alternatives and tanya. Well, it's it's precipitated by that, but the alternatives isn't tanya. When you come to the conclusion you're holding nowhere, then you give up. You have a good excuse. Every moment you say I have to be schlepped out is abdicating any ability of yourself. And you know what? Some people can't, like I said, carry the weight. Maybe they should go look for another Rebbe. Except it's gonna be mismatched with the generation. Because you know the big secret? Just like we don't have a visual, no one else does either. They have placeholders, but they don't have visuals. No offense to all the placeholders. Now you heard my opinion, whatever value it has. What can I say? And that's hence was my is my answer to the frustration.
SPEAKER_00I appreciate that. I'm glad we I mean, I was the one who pushed for us to forbring the next night. I I wanted to uh I wanted to hear your response to that frustration we left off on.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And now now I understand where you're where it's coming from or where you feel like it's going is and and again the the idea of the fact that it's all up to you is I think a a theme that you've focused on a lot in recent months, maybe years. That uh that meaning meaning like this what what's left 30 years later, what we what haven't we figured out? There's nothing to figure out is is if I was just gonna say is effectively nothing. It's not about figuring anything now out now, it's now just about taking ownership.
SPEAKER_03I wonder how many people in Chabad have this question. What what are we to do now?
SPEAKER_00I mean I think a lot of I don't think Shalokum have that question. Well You know what?
Zionism And Geula Tension
SPEAKER_03Let's get down to some messy area of this where this comes down into. Somebody came up to me today in Shu, a gentleman who as somebody once said, he's a Talmud from Satmar, but not necessarily a chassid of Satmar. And his kid, though, nine-year-old kid, goes to Satmar Yeshiva. And he came home screaming on Hey Tay Ear that Rev Kuk is a Shagats, and on and on and on. And this guy was had a whole conversation with him and his daughter, and he tells me this because he wants to show me a Sikha on his phone that he had from one of the PDFs of the Rebis for Brangen, where the Rebbe says pretty harsh words about Zionism. Not so harsh, but harsh enough. He doesn't understand he was shocked. One of the knoyam of Satmar sent it to him.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_03Right? Well, you see, the Lababish Rebbe himself says so I asked him, let's okay, let's it was like two pages of the Hanachas, and I said, Okay, let's let's read this. The Nakud of the Rebbe Sikha was this was in from 1969, Tashin Khovtas. And the Rebbe says, I'm putting in my paraphrase wording, we're cow to uh cow, how's it called it's escaping me? We are trying to for an answer the goyem, they keep on sending terrorists, and we're calling this gulah, and that's chosen kafful machup. That that you're calling sorry, not gula, he's halto the gula. That you're calling ish of the ghoula is a chhoyshik because you think this is normal stuff that should be with gula, right? Okay, so what you're calling darkness, you're calling light. Now the guy didn't even have the temerity to ask the question, but I asked the question. Because he maybe he doesn't know actually. The Rebbe said we're in this, would you say that the Rebbe said in Tafshin and Alov, we are in the era of gula? Yep. Okay. Take that sicha and apply it to today after October 7th. Are we in the Ishhalta de Gula? If you transport that Sikha to today, you have the same statement? How could you call this ghoula?
SPEAKER_02So how did the Rebbe say that? Right? Yeah, what's the answer?
SPEAKER_03It it's we could leave it up to we don't understand, which is valid. But I think that's a question that a lot of people have, anyways. That forget about Zionism and the Ishaalta de Gula. The Rebbe said Gula, Ishalta de Gula, and we have October 7th, and we have wars, and we have people dying, and we have social problems, and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, right? And that's what our Rebbe said.
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_03Okay. So you have two groups in Labavic. You have guys walking around with flags in 770 after Marav and Minchman Chakris, singing and dancing, saying, We're here with the gula because they're with Kabbalah Sol that the Rebbe said. And then you have people looking on from the side saying, This is ridiculous. Well, if it's ridiculous, how do you explain the Rebbe's statement? Okay. Good question.
SPEAKER_00Wonderful.
SPEAKER_03Okay. Did it ever bother you?
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_03Good. Did you ever answer it?
SPEAKER_00I came up with lots of answers over the years. I don't know if any of them are.
SPEAKER_03For you? There's no one else who has an answer.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03Okay, for you, do you have an answer?
SPEAKER_00At the moment, no.
SPEAKER_03What do you mean at the moment? You mean you used to?
SPEAKER_00Used to feel like I had an answer, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh, as did that go away? Yeah. Oh, okay. So, fine. So you don't have an answer. We only can talk about the here and now. That's why I'm saying that. Okay, I just wanted clarification.
SPEAKER_02What if? So let's take the picture again, not the narrative.
SPEAKER_03Lababit Shareb says he's halted the gula. I don't even know if he used that terminology. We are in the era of gula. I don't think he said the beginning. I don't remember.
SPEAKER_00I could tell you, whatever.
SPEAKER_03What?
SPEAKER_00He says different things in different places.
SPEAKER_03But did he say he's halta?
SPEAKER_00He said we're in the gula mitta schlema. Okay, but that's not he's halted the gula. He says he says they're wearing Yamosa Mashiach and two or three of them.
SPEAKER_03The terminology is halted the gula. But in any case, and I don't know the difference between the two, but let's try to be precise. Okay. Okay. So the picture is he says that, and there's all these problems, and in Chaf Tessicha, he says, when there's all these problems, how you can call a gula.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So if you just be simple and honest, there seems to be a huge contradiction.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean the Rebbe addresses, but yeah, what does he address? He essentially says that the everything that needs to be done is done. And so what's left is first of all, in one place he says what's left is that it's up to Mashiach. And in another place he says that what's left is it the the people's like individuals need to refine themselves is still there, but that's not taking away from the fact that the the claw is already completely done and it doesn't need to be anything else.
SPEAKER_03So what area era are we in?
SPEAKER_00I'm saying it's he says different things in different places. I'm just saying these are these are answers that he gives to why things around still do not look as they should or as you can. Because the claw were in Gaul, but the frat were not. I'm saying it's it's described differently in different sichas. Okay. But he addresses this question a bunch of times.
SPEAKER_03Okay. But you don't know how to make sense of it at this point. At this point, no. I don't think anyone else has either. Okay. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Um what if we look at it as a snapshot?
SPEAKER_03Meaning the Rebbe has these contradictory statements, from Hoftes, certainly, to to today, where we have pain and sufferings physically, socially, politically, etc. And the Rebbe's saying we're on one sicha, we're not in Goula because of that.
SPEAKER_00He's called In the same sicha, the Rebbe would say we're in Goulah, and then he would talk about being in Gaulas.
SPEAKER_03Okay. That just uh magnifies the contradiction. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Clarify.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_03So you take that as a snapshot.
SPEAKER_02Not a commentary. Okay.
SPEAKER_03The commentary is gonna be, how does the Rebbe say contradict himself and on and on and on? Maybe there's confusion on his behalf. I could say such a thing. Well the Rebbe said he didn't understand why Mashik hadn't come yet. I don't know if that's confusion, but uh okay. But I don't want to sound like an epicorus. Though the Rebbe can handle Reuven Flamer being an Epicorus, I think it's not gonna hurt him.
SPEAKER_00So is that taking away agency from yourself?
SPEAKER_03No, no agency. I'm just agency from myself.
SPEAKER_00You're saying it doesn't matter then.
SPEAKER_03I didn't say it doesn't matter, I said it doesn't hurt him. So he can handle it. But okay, this is a dumb, stupid thing. So the snapshot of this contradiction is Khalta de Gula is not when there's pain and suffering, and now we're in a state of pain and suffering, October 7th, etc., and all the other stuff that's going on, and you know very well in your own life. And how can you say it's gula? According to the Sikh and Khaftes, it's not. According to the Sikh's Nun Albanan Bais, it is, even though you have all these situations. Okay, that's the snapshot. I think I made that clear.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_03What if that snapshot is waiting for a commentary? It's a snapshot, right?
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03And what if the commentary is within the context of it's all up to you.
SPEAKER_02Explain what you mean. Your Rebbe said we're in ghula. Yep. Chaftes Sikha says that's a contradiction.
Beit Din And Human Power
SPEAKER_03The Rebbe said it's up to you. Up to you what? So I'm gonna give an example of something that we just learned together. The based in comes along on the 30th of the month to decide whether it's going to be a 31st, I mean 29th of the month, whether it's gonna be a 30th day or whether it's gonna be the next day Rosh Khadesh. They go through all the halachic protocols and they erroneously decide when Rosh Khoidish is. Yeah. What's the halacha?
SPEAKER_00That's what it is.
SPEAKER_03That what?
SPEAKER_00That when the basin dect.
SPEAKER_03That when the basin decides. What is?
SPEAKER_00It's Rosh Kodish.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I know you know that because they decided. I'm saying, what's the we're looking to what's the halacha? What's the Metsyas? Mitsuyas is that anything that was impacted by whether it was already the 30th, but now we're gonna go back to its not Rosh Khoidish, we're gonna let's say have an Ibrayor, it's Andersini. Whatever was impacted by the date change, I don't have to go into it, goes back as if it wasn't didn't happen. Because the Baistin decided this is when Rosh Khoidish is. The Baistin accepts, sorry, sets up the Mitsuas, yeah, changes the Mitsuas. Yes. What if that snapshot of the Rebbe saying Gula or and uh the other Sikha saying Gallis, which is the snapshot, we have the contradiction, is waiting for it's up to you to be like the based den to make the sake that would be very powerful.
SPEAKER_02That'd be amazing.
SPEAKER_03What's up to me?
SPEAKER_02What does it mean it's up to me? What does it mean? But practically what does it mean that you don't have a visual rebel? But practically it's up to you. Yeah. You don't complain you don't have the altar rebba.
SPEAKER_03That's fine by you and everybody else who's listening. So is the rebber so so is the rebber reba today or not?
SPEAKER_02It's up to you.
SPEAKER_03If you're looking for a rebba to schlep you out, tucka go somewhere else. Because the rebbe made the statement, I ain't schlepping you out. Then what the reb is for? What's the rebbe for if he's not there to schlep you out?
SPEAKER_00To give you the tools to schlep yourself out.
SPEAKER_03Not schlep. To be the tools, to give you the tools to be who you are.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Not to who you could become.
SPEAKER_03And that, my friend, is Yachid Shibinavish. And that's why you don't have a Shila. Because we live in a generation where there is no other inspiration. I people traveled all over Hungary last week for Shila's yard size. And I heard people talking about all the miracles that have been kicking around and so forth. And they're not saying it, but they're showing on their face they hope that they will be one of the ones that the stories will be told about. Right? Um wheel.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_00No. Everybody likes a good miracle. You can't take that away. Everybody wants a miracle. I'm not saying that it's you're saying that has to be that's in complete contradiction to make your miracle.
SPEAKER_03Now I know that sounds easy for me to say because I'm in a place of frustration, but that's my frustration. I know that that's what the Reb is saying.
SPEAKER_02Make your own miracles. He's halted the Gulah based on what's going on with the Goyim is taka ashila. Based on your conduct and behavior, that you have power over. Okay. So without getting into any personal stories, so both of us have to apply that to our own snapshot. Right?
SPEAKER_00That's right.
SPEAKER_03I have gallus part of me, and I'm dying for a goo'ah. I'm talking about within my own context.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
Choosing Agency Over Escape
SPEAKER_03And yet that's a contradiction because I have a gallus part of me. And then the Rebbe comes along and says, You could do anything, Bubala. What are you talking about? Help me. Give me a miracle. Give me a miracle for me. Meaning to say that, I don't know, something that I don't expect that I can't do on my own. And if I don't have that, I'm a prisoner in my own life. Until you spring me. You know, I heard this great story from there's a great podcast, Rabbi Kras from Florida. And he told over a story from Ram Rottenberg.
SPEAKER_02Maram Rottenberg.
SPEAKER_03Um very special yid, obviously. And he went to prison. The Goyim uh the king, I think it was the king took him into prison without getting into all the details. And he passed away in the prison. There's a whole story behind that. And for I think seven years, he was not his body laid there. And we're talking about a person of great magnitude, but Sadek. And I don't recall the individual's name, but there was a Gvir who gave all his money to the king to redeem the body of Rab Rat. Wow. And I don't remember when it was, but he had a dream, or somebody had a dream. I don't know if it was him, I don't remember. Somebody, there was a dream, a dreamer who had a dream, that the Rav came to him and said, You have a choice. If you want to be next to me in Gun Aiden, you got it for giving up, you know, the all this money. He he ended up poor because he gave away his money. And you'll get you'll you'll you'll die and have gun aiden. Or you'll remain down here and you know you'll become well, maybe he'll become wealthy, and all your kids and children's generation will be affected, and so forth. This is going back at least 500 years. So he decided he wanted the gun aiden.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_03And shortly thereafter, a few days, two couple of weeks later, he got sick and died. And the Rebbe said that that answer was pre-Balshemtiv. That post-Balshemtav is think of the money, that was the other thing. He could become rich and all the kids would benefit. Think of all the good you could do with the money that you would be given. But he wanted to have his little gun aiden. Okay. So every time we're looking for somebody, meaning the rabbit, to spring us out of our crap because we think we can't get out of it, is like this guy saying, I want gun aiden. The other guy who's got his own challenges and has all his problems that he has and gets up and says, I'm going to do what I have to do despite of all these challenges, and I'm going to make it happen, and I'm going to make do whatever it takes, is thinking about look at all the good that I could do. That's the difference between the sikha from Chaftes and the Sikha Sum Nan Aliban Bass. Which one are we hanging out on, Sakai? So when I was voicing my frustration and it was real, I was probably in chaftes.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02I get that. And what about you? Are you in chaf test or no no? You don't have to answer that. So you look into your life and you take a picture of it and you say, Where am I seeing imprisonment?
SPEAKER_03Where am I seeing helplessness? Where am I seeing I I coined a phrase in a script that I was writing today about a character in French.
SPEAKER_02Ennui de rigour the boredom of the expected versus the delight of the surprise.
Habit Or Alive With Surprise
SPEAKER_03So which life do we live in our Hasidic life? We said the last time we met.
SPEAKER_02Do we put on filling like we drink coffee? It's just one of the things that we do.
SPEAKER_03And it's just habit. To the extent where we don't even think about it, the body just the hands and the feet just go to the coffee machine without even thinking about it. Maybe a couple hours later you say, I haven't had a guy told me, I called him up like 11 o'clock in the morning. He says, I haven't had my first coffee yet, so don't talk to me. So what time did you wake up? Anyways, so yeah. So which ones are we at on this? Spirit of Hessen of Netta.