Jewish audio on chabad.org. There is a famous joke that is known that when the Prime Minister Golda Meir once came to visit President Nixon to discuss different matters, so during the conversation, President Nixon tells her, \"You should know that you should know who I am, because you are a prime minister of a country that has two and a half million people. I'm a president of a country that has 250 million people. So you could imagine my job is much harder than yours, and my position is much greater than yours.\" So she says to him, \"You should know, you are a president of 250 million people. I'm a prime minister of two and a half million prime ministers.\" It is the nature of Jews to always feel as leaders and want to lead and be in that position. And as much as this is a joke, but every joke has some truth in it. And the truth is that every Jew was given by God this quality of leadership, of being able to lead and help others, be in charge, and also feel the responsibility for others. That's really what a leader is: he feels the responsibility for others. We as Jews know, I wouldn't even like to use the word believe, but we know that we have a soul, a נשמה, which is godly and was sent down to this world by God to fulfill a certain mission. And the mission that was given is twofold: number one, for yourself, there is a mission that God gave every single Jew that he has to do for his own accomplishment, things that he has to fulfill in order for to fulfill the will of God of why he sent him down to this world. But then there is a second half to this mission, and that is the responsibility to feel to others. In general, the responsibility to the whole world, we know it says in different verses in תנך that the Jews should be אור לגוים, they have to be the light to the nations. We have to feel the responsibility of showing the world how to behave and what to do in a proper way, basically to be leaders in the world because God gave us this quality, and not in a negative way that we feel special and greater and bigger and better, but it's just a responsibility that God has given us. Certainly, he has given us a responsibility towards other Jews, that we have to feel responsible. If we are able to lead, which means to help and feel responsible for others, that's what we have to do. There is a famous saying, statement in the Talmud, in the גמרא, which says, כל ישראל ערבים זה בזה, all Jews are responsible one for another. And the word ערבים actually the previous רבי says has two other meanings in Hebrew. If you're familiar with Hebrew, ערבים also means mixed, we're all mixed. And ערבים also comes from the word ערבות, which means sweet, געשמאק, tasty. It is a very, very sweet idea by a Jew that he feels responsible for others. And God gave us this feeling of being responsible, feeling that we are not alone. A person cannot look at himself saying that \"I have my job that I have to do to fulfill what I have to accomplish,\" but together with it, whatever I have to do is important for others. We know that the Jewish nation as a whole is called a ציבור, a community. That means we are all members of one community, and therefore every single person makes up the community. And we have to do things not only what would be good for myself, but we have to think of what is good for the community. We have, each one has his way and things that he has to do, but that's not only for himself, but this is what is going to affect the whole community, and that's what we have to have in mind. Just like in a body, we know it says in the different ספרים that the whole Jewish community is like one big body. And in a body, we have different parts, and each part of the body, each limb has its function, and it can't mix and do the function of the other one. But at the same time, each function is not just for himself, but all together we make up one body. The heart is important not only for itself, but in order for the whole body to be proper, the heart has to work properly for the sake of other parts of the body, too. The feet have their mission, not only for themselves but to make the whole body complete, that means the whole body is not complete unless every part of the body does its function for itself and for the rest of the body. We Jews are one big body, and we all have the responsibility for others. And therefore it is very important for each one to be a leader in whatever capacity he is able to be. The רבי once said in the name of the פריערדיקער רבי that everyone is able to lead another person. And one asked the פריערדיקער רבי, \"How's it possible? I don't know much, I don't have a lot of money so I don't have much to give, I don't have a lot of knowledge, so how can I be a leader?\" And the רבי answered him, \"You know אלף בית?\" He said, \"Sure.\" So he said, \"But there is another Jew someplace that doesn't know that. So teach him the אלף בית that you know.\" The ultimate leader we know is השם, is God. This is the ultimate leader. But we as Jews who have this holy נשמה, which as it says in תניא, and I'm sure being lay leaders in חב\"ד you all learn תניא, at least the beginning of תניא, and in the second פרק of תניא he says that the נשמה that a Jew has is a חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש, which means it's a part of God Himself. And since God is the real leader, we are all we all have this quality of leadership that God gave us. Now obviously there are certain people who have this quality in a stronger, greater way, starting from the leader himself, the רבי in our generation, in every generation the real leaders of the generation. Then we have in a lower level, simpler level, the רבנים, the rabbis, the people who have the official position of being leaders. That's in a very strong, higher level. But it trickles down that every Jew has also this responsibility of being a leader, which means to help others in whichever way he can. Whether it is through his knowledge, or through his money, or through any other way that a person is to do it. But we were all given this responsibility. And even if a person is in the a layman who could say, \"I don't have the official position that I have to be in the position of a leader,\" he also has this responsibility in the ways that he is able to do. And I have to tell you, in a certain degree, the effect that a lay leader is able to have on others is greater and stronger than the effect that a rabbi. Number one, when you want to influence another Jew and make him a better Jew in whichever way you're able to, if it's done by a rabbi, you know how he looks at it? \"Well, that's his job! What else should he come to me and talk to me about? That is his job.\" If he's involved in that, it's not really real, at least in the eyes of some people, because he's doing what he is basically paid for, or this is his position. But when you have a layman who that is not his position, he's a businessman or a professional, and his real work is other things, and he comes to another person or in some other way he is able to lead and help others, then they see this is real. This is not you're not doing it because this is what you basically have to do. You don't have to do it. That's not what your position is. That's not what you're getting paid for. And nevertheless, you choose to do it because you know this is the right thing to do. This has a greater influence than if a person who officially, this is his job and this is what is expected of him. And another thing: A rabbi, to a certain degree, is removed a little bit away from the living of the ordinary I wouldn't call them ordinary, but the regular people who are not in that position. And therefore, in order to influence others, you're a little bit removed and therefore not always do you really know the situation of what goes on in order to be able to relate and have the proper effect. But a person who's out there in the world, who, as using the term of תנ\"ך, בתוך עמי אנכי יושבת, you're amongst other people, and you're in the business world to begin with, and you know what goes on, and you know what people need, and you know how people look at things, and then you utilize your leadership qualities, that has a greater effect. There's a story that with the אלטער רבי, the בעל התניא, the first first ליובאוויטשער רבי had on mind to move to ארץ ישראל together with ר' מענדעלע האראדאקער, and there was one חסיד, great חסיד known as ר' לייב בעל יסורים, who was going to stay behind. And the חסידים asked him, you know, רבי, since you are leaving us, maybe you will ordain this person, since he's so great, that he should be able to become our leader when you're in your absence. And he answered, in order to be a leader, you have to know, he called it, using the term of the זוהר, חיזו דהאי עלמא. You have to know what this world looks like. This great person, ר' לייב בעל יסורים was so great, he was so removed, he was so in the heavens, as we could say, that he couldn't relate to other people. Therefore the אלטער רבי said it's not for him. On one hand, he was very great. But in order to be a leader of people, you got to be amongst them and realize what is it what they that they need. And therefore, as much as a rabbi and a שליח, certainly a חב\"ד rabbi, knows what goes on in the world, they teach us in חב\"ד to have both extremes, on one hand to be very learned and very פרום, and to be involved in אידישקייט to the furthest degree, and at the same time we should be able to mix with other people and know exactly what goes on, to be able to relate. But I still have to tell you, still, still, after all, being that his position that he is a rabbi, a person who is a scholar, and a person who is a חסיד from birth, and therefore this person has a harder time to relate to others, and therefore to be able to influence them. But a person who lives in the world of business, let's say, in the world of other people, this person is able to relate to them much stronger, much better. And therefore, the leadership that lays on the responsibility of the laymen to a certain degree is greater, because they are able to have a stronger effect. ושכר, the reward that's given to a person who is involved in communal work, whichever way, like I said, whether it's to help through teaching, to help in מבצעים, to give money, which we know that without money nothing goes, the reward is the greatest possible. The title a person like that has, we know, is called עוסק בצרכי ציבור. עוסק בצרכי ציבור means that you're involved in communal matters. And we are all familiar with the special מי שברך that is said on שבת, after the reading of the תורה, what we say יקום פורקן, and then we say a מי שברך, there is a special blessing there, כל העוסקים בצרכי ציבור באמונה הקדוש ברוך הוא ישלם שכרם, that those that are involved in communal matters, השם will repay them, and we go through a list of different blessings that we say they will get because of working בצרכי ציבור. It's because this is the ultimate level of a person giving away from himself for others. And this is the greatest title, we know, is a person who is called עוסק בצרכי ציבור. We know from the רבי, from different letters, from different things, that when he would add with his handwriting to someone's title the word עוסק בצרכי ציבור, and this was not necessarily to a rabbi, or to a שליח, many, many laymen who were involved in communal work by helping, whether it was by helping through funds, or helping through doing work for the חב\"ד house, or for the שליח, or for the rabbi, these people, when the word of the רבי's handwriting was added to their title עוסק בצרכי ציבור, we knew this was the greatest title this person could get. And we have to know that whatever we do for the community that we are in, as much as it seems that we're doing it for the immediate community that we live in, but the ripple effect that's there is so great that it has an effect, and far, far reaching effect to other places. Especially nowadays, when the world became so small, and whatever is done in one place is automatically, right away heard all over, known all over, the effect all over makes that the effect that you have, and the work that you put in, which might be a smaller investment, but the effect is so great. I went to Russia, the רבי sent my wife and myself to Russia about close to 30 years ago, when it was still full Communism was at its height, and אידישקייט was in the underground, and the רבי sent from time to time שלוחים to teach different people there in Russia underground, and it was an experience in itself in order to go through all the stories that happened would take who knows how long. But one of the things that hit me there, every night we would give שיעורים to different groups. I would give diff- one sh- different שיעורים, my wife gave other שיעורים, we had different פארברענגענס. And I was told there, you should know that the people who come to to your שיעורים, which for them was a big risk, not only because studying תורה was a risk, but coming to listen to a foreigner was the greatest sin you could imagine in Russia. That would be considered propaganda against the Russian government. Never spoke against the Russian government, but that's the way they looked at it. So, people were afraid. So he said, all the people who come to your שיעור, which sometimes had 15 people, 20 people, you should know that each one is a teacher. And each one later on will take what you taught them, taught him this person, another person, and go and have a class of his own. And they told me, you should know you're teaching tonight 10 people, you're really teaching a hundred people. And I thought to myself, wow, the investment of teaching 10 people multiplies itself by itself into a hundred. And this put into my mind that over there you could actually see it because people were afraid to come, so when one of their own taught them, the danger the risk wasn't so great, so they were able to come. But I thought this is a lesson that really, it's not only there where people couldn't come, all over, when you, nowadays especially, when you teach a group, or when you help a חב״ד house, and it seems like you're helping the חב״ד house where you are, in your community, which in itself is fine and good, and this is what you should do, but you have to keep in mind that this will multiply itself because guests come, other people come, the internet, with all the different things, people hear, and if they see the behavior of one Jew trying to be a leader and a helper and doing for the community, what it does is it brings other people to have what which call in Hebrew or in Yiddish the חשק also to desire to do it. That's why there's a famous רשב״א. רשב״א, one is the ראשונים, one of the scholars, the sages that lived about seven, 800 years ago, he writes מצוה לפרסם עושי מצוה. It's a מצוה to publicize those that do מצות. You see usually we know and the תלמוד tells us that one of the highest levels of צדקה is to give in a way that no one knows. But he writes that nowadays especially, he says in his time, and this goes back 700 years ago, you can imagine our times, he says it's a מצוה to publicize. Why? Because if other people see that you did a מצוה, then they will copy you, they will also do it. And then that means that what you did is not only what you did, but what this will bring others. I remember when we opened the ישיבה in Miami, we were the first ישיבה גדולה, the first ישיבה college, ישיבה college, that we opened, a ישיבה גדולה means for students after high school, and about a year later, there was another ישיבה opened. Thank God, now it's a city of ישיבות and completely different than 37 years ago. But I remember when they opened the seven the second ישיבה, I met actually was the mayor of Miami Beach then, it was a Jewish person, he was a religious person, and he tells me, Rabbi, I heard you opened two ישיבות. So I said, two ישיבות? We only opened one. He says, no, you heard there was another ישיבה opened? I said, yes. Well, that's all thanks to you. If you opened a ליובאוויטשער ישיבה, other people who are not ליובאוויטש wanted to have a ישיבה, too. So they opened a ישיבה, too. So really you opened two ישיבות, you didn't open one. I said, I'd never thought about it. It's true, we opened two ישיבות. And that's what ליובאוויטש does all over. You open one thing, and all of a sudden you see other people come and open another center. And hopefully it doesn't take away from us. And if they open another one, if it doesn't affect in a negative way, which sometimes it does and you got to, but if they opened, that means that you did double. Certainly in other cities they will copy you. So whatever is done, it has the effect is much greater than what we could imagine. And this is why an עוסק בצרכי ציבור, a person who is involved in community matters, and it doesn't say, like I said before, necessarily a rabbi or a שליח. עוסק בצרכי ציבור usually is a term used for people who are not rabbis. People who are lay leaders, עוסק בצרכי ציבור, they have to realize the great accomplishment that they have and therefore the great reward that השם will give them. Now the truth is sometimes it's not easy, sometimes it's hard. Some people claim that their nature is not to be a leader, or sometimes when it comes to teach, I cannot teach, or sometimes when it comes to give money say, well it's hard to give money. Well, the truth is, if it's hard, then it's even better. Because if it's easy, that means you're doing something that you enjoy and you basically doing it for yourself, \"I want to feel good, so I'm doing it.\" If you don't feel so good about it and you do it, then you know you're doing it for השם's sake. You're doing it because it's right. I remember when we started the ישיבה in Miami, there was a man Mr. Margulies from Seattle, remember him? Joseph Margulies. He was the one that supported the ישיבה for the first few years. He had a yacht. I remember he took me once out and we were talking and he says, \"Rabbi, I don't really think that I'm doing really much for the ישיבה.\" I said, \"What do you mean you're not? You're supporting the ישיבה for the last three years already.\" He says, \"You know what I feel? I feel that if I'm giving so much and it doesn't hurt, it's not really much, I didn't really do much. I'm waiting to do it, it should hurt me. Because then I know that I'm doing it for the sake of God, I'm not doing it for myself. Like this, I'm doing it for myself.\" So I told him, \"You know what? I give you a blessing, it should never hurt, and you should always have enough and plenty and plenty more and more and more, you should be able to give more.\" This is his way of thinking of it, which is fine from his side, and I told him, \"We don't mind if you don't.\" But I'm just saying it from our side that we have to know that if it's something that is not as easy, then it's even stronger and more acceptable by השם. The רבי wrote to somebody who wrote to him that he's not doesn't feel that he could do communal work and things like that, it's against his nature. You know what the רבי wrote? \"It's against my nature, too.\" So he wrote. Imagine. And the רבי said the truth. He says, \"It's against my nature. I would really like to lock myself in a room, study תורה all day, דאווען, learn, and get connected to השם in the best possible way. But we've got to do it. We've got to bring the world closer to השם, we've got to bring the world closer to משיח to bring משיח, we've got to do what God wants of us.\" And that is the question: Do I do what I want or do I do what השם wants? And השם, as I said in the beginning, sent down the נשמה down here with a mission, and the mission is for our own perfection, but another half of our mission is that if we have the ability to help others, we must do it. And if we do it, we're really doing God's work, השם's work. Basically השם wants to do it, but He said, \"I'm making messengers.\" An official שליח has the official title of שליח, but if not, you are still a שליח of השם. And we know the הלכה and the constant statement in the תלמוד, שלוחו של אדם כמותו. A שליח, a messenger, an agent of a person is like him, and in this case, I'm talking of being a שליח of השם. And שלוחו של אדם כמותו means that if you're a שליח of השם, then you are very, very close to Him and you get all the blessings. So I want to finish off that if we keep all this in mind, then we know what we are expected to do by השם, and we know what we are going to do, and then, as the expression is in Yiddish, דער אויבערשטער בלייבט נישט קיין בעל חוב. I don't know how many speak Yiddish, it means השם doesn't remain in debt. השם pays sooner or later. Sometimes He pays a person with a lot of wealth, sometimes He pays a person with a lot of נחת from children, with health, with all the ברכות, but השם definitely pays. But that is not the point here. That is you could say a side benefit. The main benefit is that we are accomplishing the wishes of השם, and especially the way it was told to us through the רבי, of becoming the real leaders and having the special benefit of being lay leaders, as I said before, which have a stronger and greater effect on this on the community, on people. And if we do that, we definitely will hasten the coming of משיח, who will come very, very soon בקרוב ממש. And I can tell you, all the lay leaders that help חב״ד all over the world will be in the front lines when משיח will come, and משיח will point at them and say, \"Look, these are the people that brought me so soon.\" We'll tell him, \"Hey, Mr. משיח, Rabbi משיח, it's not so soon.\" \"But I could have come later, and because of these people, I came when I came.\" came, and we will be, he will be thankful, and automatically we will again be united with the רבי, and השם will look down and say, \"The time of the גאולה has come,\" will take us from here to ארץ ישראל, and we hope and pray and wish that this should happen very, very, very soon, as we דאוון, and we say, and we beg, and we sing, that we want משיח now!