begin and the the subject tonight is, as you just heard, Who is a Jew? or in the Hebrew מיהו יהודי? Who is a Jew? And that actually has two parts to it. One, as soon as you hear the term Who is a Jew?, right away it reminds you of the political issue in Israel, and this is something that went on for many many years, and the truth is it was never resolved. The מיהו יהודי problem, the Who is a Jew? problem. So we will discuss that part, but it's connected to the real meaning of מיהו יהודי just to explain who is a Jew. And automatically when we talk about who is a Jew, we also are going to discuss automatically מהו יהודי, what is a Jew. What is a Jew, then we can understand who fits that criteria of being a Jew, what when we explain what a Jew is. And obviously the most important part of this discussion is the understanding of what is a Yid and who is a Yid, not the political issue. But nevertheless, that plays a role when we discuss this whole discuss this whole subject, so I think what I'll do is I'll start with the technical political part, it's not really political, it's important for halachah and, but it was became a political issue, and I'll start with that, and from that we will get into the real explanation what is a Jew, who is a Jew and what is a Jew, which automatically will touch upon the halachot or the ideas behind giyur, conversion, because that's really what the dispute in the מיהו יהודי problem was, was the aspect of giyur, the conversion problem in connection to who is a Jew. So since I said we're going to start with the, call it political part of it, we'll start with that.

All this started when there was the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The first thing they did was they made the law which was called the חוק השבות, the Law of Return. And the law was became that any Jew who wants to come to Israel to live automatically gets his citizenship. Not like other countries where there are all kinds of rules and restrictions, you can't become a citizen right away like in the United States, you have to live here for five years and you have to do this, you have to do that, there this is the law: automatically anybody who comes to Eretz Yisrael, to the, and this was after the state was established, you, if you're a Jew, you will automatically become a citizen, and you will have all the rights and privileges of a citizen. And there were a lot of rights and privileges a citizen had, and that you get automatically, any Jew who wants to come back. When that happened, automatically they had to define what is a Jew, who's a Jew? You say every, any Jew who wants to come back, so who's the Jew that wants to come back? So the law was written that any person that was נולד מאם יהודיה, any person that was born from a Jewish mother, או שנתגייר כהלכה, or converted according to the halachah, is considered a Jew, and automatically will fall under this category this חוק השבות, this Law of Return, and will automatically be a citizen, and automatically in their תעודת זהות, which is the identification card, they will be written as a Jew. And then all the dinim of a Jew according to the law the the the government laws will apply. And since for instance the laws of marriage and divorce in Israel in the hands of the רבנות, there is no such thing as civil marriage, but under the halachah, so if a person is a Jew, then automatically the rabbis will marry this person off if it comes to it, or get a get. If the person does not fall under the category of one of these two, whether it's born from a Jewish mother or נתגייר כהלכה or was converted כהלכה, then the person is not considered a Jew according to the law of the land, besides of the law of the land, and therefore this person will not get married normally, we'll have to find other things, not get a get, etc. etc. That's how it went on, that's how it was established, that's how it went on, till it came to תשי\"ט, 1959. There were certain elements that started making a tuml. Basically it came backed by the Reform and Conservative movement that this law doesn't recognize their conversions, because the law said clearly that only if you it said born from a Jewish mother or converted according to halachah, so automatically if you're not converted according to halachah you're not considered a Jew and you don't have that privilege of being a Jew, you're not a citizen, etc., etc. So they started making the whole tumult, and they started pressuring the government that this is not right, and etc., etc. So what happened at that time, Ben-Gurion that time was the Prime Minister. So Ben-Gurion

decided that he is going to send out a letter, a questionnaire, to close or maybe even over a hundred Jewish leaders all over the world, and ask them their opinion: what do they think the law should be in who is a Jew, and what will be best for the Jewish people, what will be best for the State of Israel, and he'll see what they answer, and based on that he will come up with his decision. Now, he got answers from all these Jewish leaders. The one answer that was most outstanding, as he himself said later in his mind, was the answer, he said, of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Other people answered, and obviously they all the Orthodox rabbis all answered that it's only if you're a Jew according to halachah, etc., etc., but the way the Rebbe put his answer, that impressed him the most. And actually, that was from the only letters that they gave out to print, and all the Israeli newspapers printed the Rebbe's letter, the answer he gave to Ben-Gurion in תשי\"ט. And

basically, the answer was it was a letter sent in beginning of the month of Adar, תשי\"ט, 1959. And the Rebbe wrote him like this: in answer to your question, the answer is that you want to know what is the best for the Jewish people. This is this is the way the Jewish tradition for thousands of years was in who is considered a Jew, and that is born from a Jewish mother or the one that converted according to halachah. That is what is a Jew, and that's accepted by everybody. And if you have that law, then this is something that will not make any division amongst the Jews, and this is the Jews the best way. And he said, \"I'm not even going into the details of what the halachah is. Look into Shulchan Aruch, in Tur, in Rambam. There you have the halachah, and that's what it is.\" And that was a short letter. Then P.S. the Rebbe wrote, and he explained to him why this is the best way. In other words, he didn't mix the two. He didn't go into any explanations. First, he wrote the letter as a clear-cut answer, then the P.S. was explaining that this will be the best, this is the way it was in tradition for all the years, why make changes, etc., etc. Then the

Rebbe sent him a second letter. On the second I think the first letter was dated ח' Adar, the second letter I think was dated ט' Adar. And he writes to him, \"In continuation to my first letter, I want to write you another letter, even though it's not going to sound diplomatic, and it's not normal protocol the way I'm going to do it, but I'm nevertheless writing to you a letter.\" And he writes to him, \"I specially did not want to write what I'm writing now in the same letter as I wrote. I wanted to write it in a separate letter, in a separate day, because just in case you do not accept what I'm going to write to you now, it shouldn't confuse the issue. If I mix it up with the other answer, you'll say, 'Well, you don't accept what the Lubavitcher Rebbe says, then you won't accept the whole answer.' That I want to be a separate thing.\" And now he went into the whole thing, saying, \"You should know you're the Prime Minister of Israel. The influence of Israel is on all Jews all over the world, and you should know your responsibility as a leader to bring more tradition to Yiddishkeit, etc., etc.\" And the Rebbe writes to him, \"I know that don't think I'm stupid to think that by just writing a few lines to somebody whose whole outlook on life is completely different, you think I expect you to change your outlook just with a few lines? I know that it's not, but nevertheless, I'm trying to to mention a point to show your responsibility to think about it again. But remember, this should not affect anything that I wrote to you in the other letter in the answer of who is a Jew.\" And that the letter was printed. It's printed now in the Igros. And that impressed him very much, and this, and probably from others also, impressed Ben-Gurion, and he came with the conclusion not to change the law. And it stayed. And therefore, it continued that the Law of Return states: any person who was born from a Jewish mother or converted according to halachah is a Jew. And that's how it went on for 10 more years.

Came תשכ\"ט, which is 1969, I remember this I remember clearly when this happened. Again, the Reform movement and Conservative movement started pressuring again to see what they could do to change the law. And this time, it didn't come out into the public, and the government quietly, amongst themselves, had meetings and back and forth, including, unfortunately, the National Religious Party, the Mizrachi, who were part of this whole deal, and they quietly changed the law, took out the word כהלכה. And the law became: any person who's born from a Jewish mother or שנתגייר, or that was converted, and they took out the word כהלכה. And that opened a door that all the converts that were converted by Conservative and Reform will be accepted in Israel as Jews. When this happened, And the Rebbe, as while this was still going on, while the discussions were going on, the Rebbe behind the scenes was working very hard not to allow this to happen. But when it did happen, that's when the Rebbe came out in public. The

first time he spoke about it was Purim תש\"ל, Purim 1970, he spoke about it at length, and I remember the farbrengen with such heartache when he spoke of this, the destruction that this could bring to the Klal Yisrael. And since then, for years, maybe for 15 years, every farbrengen, every farbrengen the Rebbe spoke about the problem of מיהו יהודי. And he explained that this is a law which is a, he used to call it חוק האומלל, a tragic law to have such a law. This brings in goyim into the Jewish nation, etc., etc., he went on and on. And this bothered him so much that he to the nth, nth degree, the Rebbetzin told somebody in those years that since the law was changed, the Rebbe cannot sleep at night. He just cannot sleep because this is how much that's on his mind, this fact that there's now there's such thing. And the Rebbe explained that there are some people who questioned, what is such a terrible thing, so let them make that law, let them write what they want, who cares? There were other problems that Israel had at that time that Gedolei Yisrael were fighting. That was ניתוחי מתים, that was to autopsies, forced autopsies that they used to do, and they had protests and many rabbanim was fighting, the Rebbe himself spoke about it more than once. They had גיוס בנות, drafting girls to the army, which all the Gedolei Yisrael were against, and they said this is mamash you have to fight it as to the end of the, and it worked and they, you know, they changed the law and they allowed that if you don't want a, girl doesn't want to go to the army she doesn't have to. But this was the one law, the law of חוק השבות, the מיהו יהודי law, was the one law that the Rebbe fought the most, without an end, without an end for years! 15, maybe 20 years, even after they changed the law, every farbrengen the Rebbe spoke about it. And the Rebbe said that no one should stop. He said that the government, that the religious parties should go out of the government in protest. He said that every simchah, by a chasunah, every time you should speak about this law to, to pressure the government to change the law. And he explained, why is this so important, more than the others? It

would seem at first hand that the other laws are worse. They're forcing things upon the Jews who don't want. They force you girls to go to the army, so they're forcing religious Jews to send their girls to the army, their daughters to the army, which is against halachah, or they're forcing autopsies, which is against halachah. Here, all it is, is what they're going to write down in your תעודת זהות, what they're going to write in your identification card, and what the government is going to, so who cares what they consider? And the Rebbe explained that all these problems are all within the framework of Jews. A Jew has a problem. A Jew keeps Shabbos, doesn't keep Shabbos, all kinds of problems. This law crosses the line. This crosses the line between Jew and non-Jew. This is a law that will allow non-Jews, which are really non-Jews, to enter into Klal Yisrael, because you will give them the תעודת זהות where it will say they're Jewish because they were נתגייר, they converted. But they did not convert according to halachah. And we will go in later on the difference between what halachah is and what not. The details we're going to explain later. But the moment you accept this, and if the Israeli government accepts it, automatically what's going to happen is they're going to be accepted by the community, they'll be mixed into Klal Yisrael, and you'll have goyim mixed in. And what we will be doing is not we will be doing something wrong like ניתוחי מתים. Autopsies is wrong if you do it when you're not allowed to. This is crossing the line and bringing goyim into the Jewish nation, and that is the worst. And that's, and the Rabbi explained then at length at all the farbrengens that this is something that, and as I'll explain later, that cannot be tolerated. We see what people did not see then, because some people said it's not so geferlech, and some people even said, you know what some people told the Rabbi? What's wrong? If you claim that Orth-, a Reform or Conservative conversion is not a conversion, then what do you care if it says שנתגייר? It says there anybody whose mother is Jewish or converted. Okay, you say that that's not called a conversion, so that's no problem. So the Rabbi said, so why did you fight to take out the word kehalachah? If it makes no difference, you could have left kehalachah if this is what it means anyway. And there were all kinds of other alternative ideas, just not to give in to write the word kehalachah. And the Rabbi fought it to the end. And even those people who then did not see the problem, now they see it, with all those Jews that came from Russia, the immigration from Russia. They know that close to 50% of the people who came are goyim. They're all, or real goyim, or converted just by getting a piece of paper by some rabbi, call, so-called rabbi that he's Jewish, and it's all accepted. And that made a big problem. And now, all the Gedolei Yisrael, those that didn't really go along with the Rabbi then, admit that had they fought it then tooth and nail, and they would have changed the law back to the word kehalachah, as the Rabbi said, the Rabbi said if you fight it, you'll can succeed. He said if the religious party go out of the government in protest, they'll have no choice and they'll have to change it. Had it been changed then, we wouldn't have all the problems now with all these goyim who are coming in, because the word would have been kehalachah, and as long as the halachah, the Rabbanim would not say that this person is Jewish, they would not be able to accept him as a Jew, and it wouldn't be written and it would be a clear distinction between a Jew and a goy. And now we see the problem. But anyway, the idea is that this is a thing that crosses the line between Jew and non-Jew, and that's something that's out of the world. And I'll go in to explain what this idea is. We know that the best goy is still a goy. We're not talking about the personality of the person, could be a very nice person, we're talking about the halachah aspect of it. He's a goy. The worst Jew is a Jew. We know that in the expressions in the Gemara, the best Jew, a good Jew, the I mean the worst Jew is called פושעי ישראל. פושע means a a רשע, a evil Jew. The best goy is called חסידי אומות העולם, a righteous goy. We don't say because he's so good, automatically he turns into a Jew, and this Jew is bad, he's a goy. A Jew is a Jew is a Jew, and a goy is a goy, and you can't mix the two. He could be a very, very good goy, and we bless him and everything, good goy, he could be a very terrible Jew, but he's still a Jew. The Gemara says, ישראל אף על פי שחטא ישראל הוא, a Jew, even if he sins, is a Jew. And the Gemara talks about Achan, who was terrible, but he's still a Jew. The difference between a Jew and a גוי is not just a difference in certain qualities, in certain quantity things, it's a difference in מהות, it's a complete different category altogether. And this is what I really want to explain, getting to the second aspect of מהו יהודי? What is a Jew? And when we understand what is a Jew, then we'll be able to to see what this whole problem here is. We know we

say in davenen on יום טוב, אתה בחרתנו מכל העמים, You chose us from all the nations. We say it everyday in דאוונען, ובנו בחרת מכל עם ולשון, You chose us from all the nations. Hashem chose us. We're the chosen people. Now, some people get scared when they hear us say we are the chosen people. Oh, that you're the chauvinists, and this reminds them, God forbid, God forbid, of those people who cr- claimed that they are the supreme race, and that's exactly, chas veshalom, God forbid, that we're saying, and we're the chosen people. The truth is, we are saying we are the chosen people. We don't believe in the fact that all humans were created equal. They were not. Jews are different. But not, chas veshalom, the same way they claim. So, those people claimed that because we're the supreme being, what do we have to do? Get rid of everybody else. Who needs them? Let's exterminate them. We say the opposite: because we're chosen, we have more responsibilities than you. We have more restrictions than you. It says within the in the Midrash, why did Hashem say we shouldn't eat certain insects and all these animals that we can't eat? Because Hashem expects us to be eidel(er), to be finer. Not more responsibility, not saying, \"Oh, because I'm better I have something more, then I don't need you.\" The main thing is, because we are chosen, we have to be a אור לגוים. We have to be the leaders and show everybody the right path. We have to help everybody. See, the opposite of what they thought. Those people said, \"We're the supreme being, and we don't need them.\" We're saying the opposite: we are chosen, and the fact that we are chosen, we have to try to help. We have the responsibility to the whole world. We have to make sure that the whole world runs the right way. We have to make sure that all the people, other nations in the world, should also do the right thing. And we are responsible if they don't do the right thing, we take the responsibility. So, it's not that we're trying to get rid of others, it's the opposite: we're trying to be respon- more responsible. But what is the true meaning of Hashem chose us? Let me explain that. Not just that we're better, that's not the word, we're not better. Hashem chose us, let's understand one aspect at least from the concept of choice, the true meaning of choice. And there are many ways to explain it, but I'm just going to choose one. When we talk about somebody choosing something, choosing something, the concept of the expression choice, not taking, not liking, but choice. Choice means this is something that comes purely from the side of the chooser, not because of the thing that was chosen. When do we use the term choice? Let me give an example. If a person wants to eat an apple and goes to the fridge, and there is an orange and an apple. So he takes the apple, because he likes an apple,

doesn't like an orange. This is not called choice, he had no choice, because if he wanted an apple, it's the apple that made him take it. Because if he likes an apple, and this is the apple, so when you look at the two, why did he pick this one from the other? Because this is an apple, this is an orange. He doesn't want an orange, he wants an apple. When will we use the word choice? When you have two apples, and you just pick one. Now, why did you pick that one? Is there anything within the two apples that you pick? If there is, again that's not choice. If one looks better than the other, one is tastier, one is sweeter, and you like that one, then it's not choice. Then basically you have no choice. This is the one that's good. But if they're both exactly the same, and you pick one, that's called choice. Actually that's called free choice. When we say Hashem chose, as we say, it's something that came from Hashem's side. It's something that Hashem did because of Him, not because of the one He chose. In other words, when we say Hashem chose the Jews, it is not something that comes from within us, and therefore He chose us, but it's something that comes because of Hashem's side, He decided to take us. That's what choice means. And therefore, when we say it came from His side, not from our side, there is a difference. If it comes from our side, who are we? We are human beings, limited human beings. So if the whole reason we are chosen by Hashem, we're taken by Hashem because of something that we deserve, then it's limited to how much we deserve, whatever we do. When we say it's from Hashem's side, and Hashem is the Creator, He is unlimited, then the choice is an unlimited choice. The choice comes from His side. And this is one of the reasons, I'll explain why I picked for this week, Parashat Lech Lecha. In Parashat Lech Lecha we get the idea what a Jew is, and I'll explain how. Parashat Lech Lecha deals with Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu is known the as the first Jew. אחד היה אברהם, he's the first Jew, because from him started the Jewish nation. It developed to come to a completion at the time of מתן, יציאת מצרים, מתן תורה, when they went out of Mitzrayim, when they Hashem gave the Torah, but it all started with Avraham. And

therefore, when we want to understand what is a Jew, who is a Jew and what is a Jew, we have to look at Avraham, and we see something interesting concerning Avraham Avinu. We look in the parashah, and the parashah starts, ויאמר השם אל אברם, Hashem said to Avraham, לך לך מארצך, you shall go from your land, from your father's house, from the place you were born, etc., etc., to the land I will show you. When a person the Ramban asks this question, when a person starts learning the parashah, he doesn't understand, why did Hashem speak to, who's Avraham? What's so special about Avraham? You see, if you look at the parshah before, by Noach, by Noach we see that in the end of Parshat Bereishit, it already mentions that Noach was born, and it said that people were bad, but נח מצא חן בעיני השם. Noach found grace in the eyes of Hashem. So we see right away Noach the Torah, as soon as it mentions Noach, it says Noach was a special man. So the next parshah, when it starts, Hashem spoke to Noach, and He said, this and this I want you to do, we know why He spoke to Noach. Noach was different. By Avraham, all we know is last week's Parshah Noach finished off with the families, one family after another, and then finally it comes to the family of Terach, and it says Terach had three sons, Avram, Haran and Nachor, three sons. And then Terach took his family, we don't know, three sons, they're all the same, and we don't know anything special, and Terach took his sons, and traveled. Fine, there's a family of three sons. Doesn't say anything that Avraham did this or. And finally it starts off this parshah, השם spoke to Avraham, do so and so. Why Avraham? Who's Avraham? What's so special about Avraham? And the truth is when we look in תורה שבעל פה, when we look in the Midrashim and the Gemara, we find that before Hashem spoke to Avraham and told him לך לך, you know how many great things Avraham did?

When he was three years old, he recognized Hashem. בן שלש שנים הכיר אברהם את בוראו, he was three years old when he recognized Hashem. That's why the pasuk, interesting pasuk, says עקב אשר שמע אברהם בקולי, there's a pasuk, it says Hashem said because, עקב means because Avraham listened to My voice, so the Gemara says the word עקב is the gematria, numerical value, of 172. But the pasuk says for 172 years Avraham listened to me. Why 172? Because Avraham lived 175, and the first three years he did not recognize Hashem, so it's 172, עקב אשר שמע אברהם. But when he was three years old, the Midrash tells us exactly what happened, that he saw the sun and he saw, it's maybe the sun is God, and then he decided it's not because in the morning at night it went away, then he said maybe it's the moon. Finally he realized there must be a Creator, he recognized Hashem. Three years old. What did he do that later? He went on mesirat nefesh, he sacrificed his life, he broke the idols of his father, and threw him and Nimrod threw him into the furnace, etc., etc. So many things. Then he went around to the whole world spreading the philosophy of one God. All that happened before the story of לך לך. So the Torah could have mentioned, you know, Avraham was such a great man, he did great things. And then when the Torah said, and Hashem Hashem spoke to him, we understand why Hashem spoke to him. But that's not what it says. Doesn't mention a word in the Torah about Avraham's behavior, Avraham's greatness. And all of a sudden it said Hashem spoke to Avraham, said, \"Go לך לך.\" Who who who's Avraham? Why Avraham? So the Rebbe explains that and he says, because Avraham is the first Jew and we want to learn what is a Jew, obviously from the first Jew, that's the foundation, so the Torah wanted to show us exactly what is a Jew. And what is the difference between a Jew and a non-Jew? And this is what the Gemara that the Rebbe explains. By non-Jews, there are many non-Jews in the world that are good, tzaddikim, like Noach. Noach was a tzaddik, it says צדיק תם it says in the Chumash. And they were great people and they were close to Hashem, but you know what it is? Their closeness to Hashem came as a result of them. They did what they're supposed to, they meditated, they thought, and their whole connection to Hashem came as a result. So they connect, they got close to Hashem, fine. Because they were connected to Hashem as a result of of themselves, of what they did and how they behaved, and since as great as they are they're still human beings, limited human beings, so the connection to Hashem is limited to the maximum a human being could get. But it's still a result of human behavior. By a Yid,

his connection to Hashem is not based on his behavior. It's something that comes not from us, but it comes from Hashem. Certainly Avraham was good, and Avraham behaved, and Avraham was a tzadik and did everything. But when Hashem chose Avraham, what happened was it came from Hashem's side. That's choice, not from the chose chosen, but from the chooser. Hashem chose. Had the pasuk said first, \"אברהם היה צדיק, אברהם was great,\" and then the pasuk would start, \"ויאמר השם אל אברם,\" what would it seem? That why is there a connection between Hashem and Avraham? As a result of what Avraham did. Avraham was great, Avraham be- was a tzadik, and he was the best human being possible, so as a result, Hashem is close to him. It would teach us that the closeness Avraham, and mainly means a Yid, to Hashem is based on his behavior, and then it's limited to what he is. The pasuk tells us clearly, \"No.\" The pasuk doesn't mention anything about it, even though it was there. The concept of a Yid is beyond that. It's from Hashem's side. It starts off, we have no idea who Avraham is. ויאמר השם אל אברם, Hashem said to Avraham, Hashem connected Himself to Avraham. That's what the difference between a Jew and non-Jew is. You could have great people, not saying, we were chosen means that we have the Godly side from God's side to us, which is beyond the limitations of the creation. Which if you want to go a little bit, you put it in other words, the the basic difference between a non-Jew and a Jew is a non-Jew could be very good, but the best possible of the creation, and a Jew has the Creator within him. So now when we start comparing, what kind of comparison, that this is better or worse, it's similar to the difference between the creation and the Creator. There is no difference greater in the whole being, in the whole existence, than the Creator and the creation. You have a difference between black and white, and good and bad, and all kinds of differences. You have top up and down, all the kinds of things, far and close. But the furthest two things apart that exists is the Creator and the creation. And that's the difference: we have our connection is from the Creator's side, and their connection, and they have a connection, they're able to have, is from the creation's side, from their side. Which is the true basic difference, even in the mitzvot that we have and they have. We have 613 mitzvot. The goyim have seven mitzvot. So some people think the difference is we have a lot more, we have 613, imagine! They have only seven. The truth is they don't have only seven, they have much more than seven. The seven that we know are just the major ones. The seven have branches, they're called סניפים וסעיפים, I think if you make a cheshbon all together, it comes out to 45 about mitzvot that they have. But still, you say, well, we have much more. It's not the difference in quantity, how much we have. The type of mitzvot is different. The mitzvot that they

have is basically in order for the world to be a civilized world. Hashem said there are certain laws they have to live by. And if a goy would live by these seven laws, then the place this world would be the best place possible to live. In other words, what is the reason for these mitzvot? It's an outcome of the creation. Because there is a creation, and there is a world, and the world has to be a good world, not a jungle, so Hashem said, \"I'll give you mitzvot how to live.\" So the mitzvot is a result of the creation. The מצוות השם gave us, the 613 mitzvot, is not because the world, in order to be a proper creation, a proper world, has to be in such a way. Hashem from His side, He decided that we should do it. It comes from the Boreh, from the Creator, as a result of the Creator, not from the world. That's why we say בראשית, it says the first word in the Torah בראשית. So Rashi says בראשית means the word בראשית, ב' ראשית. There's a ב', ב' means two, and ראשית is the beginning. There are two things which are called beginning: Torah and Yidden. And the world was created בשביל התורה, בשביל ישראל, because of the Torah, because of the Yidden. In other words, the Torah is not the result a result of the creation, it's the opposite. The creation is a result of the world, is of the a result of the Torah. The Torah is not there because there is a world. So, it comes out that the mitzvot that the non-Jews have, besides the fact they're only seven or 45, those are mitzvot which are part of creation. And the mitzvot that we do are not part of creation. It is not because there is a world and the world has to be in a certain way, therefore Hashem gave us the mitzvot. These mitzvot are because Hashem wants us to do them because of Him. So, it's not a result of the world, but is because of Him. And that is the main difference between mitzvot of the goyim and mitzvot of the Yidden. The mitzvot of the goyim is part of creation, and the mitzvot of the Yidden are something beyond creation. The reason there is a difference in the mitzvot is because there's a difference in what a Yid is and what a goy is. A non-Jew, as we said before, is part of the creation. He could reach a very high level within the creation, but he's still part of the creation. While a Yid is something as beyond creation, Hashem from His side, who is beyond creation, He's the one that chose the Yid. So, it comes out from here that it's not like we think that there are really four categories in the world: דומם, צומח, חי, מדבר, the unmovable objects, the plant life, the animal life, and the human race. And within the human race, we say, well, you have non-Jews and you have Jews, and we Jews claim that we are אתה בחרתנו, we are the chosen people. It is not so. We are not in the same category as the regular human being, because the regular human being is part of creation. So, as far apart as he is from the other parts, from the animals and certainly from the plants and certainly from the דומם, he still has something in common with them that he is part of creation, they are part of creation. But within the creation itself, he is the chosen one. But a Yid has something within him which is beyond the creation. And therefore he is a category for himself. He is not part of that fourth category, just in it itself in a higher level. He is a category in itself. Which basically means that the difference between a Yid and a non-Yid is similar to the difference between נברא and בורא. Just like we know there is a difference between the Creator and the creation, this is the greatest difference possible between two things, this is the difference between us and the non-Jews. This is the meaning that we always say that a Yid has a נשמה and a non-Jew doesn't. If you ask somebody what is the difference between a Yid and a non-Jew, he will answer you, \"Well, a yid has a neshama and a non-Jew doesn't.\" So let me explain really what that means based on what I explained before. Even a non-Jew has a nefesh. Nefesh means a life force, we call it a soul. It's not something that's tangible like the body, but it's there to give life to the body, and that's a separate entity. You have the body and you have the nefesh. The proof that it's a separate entity is because it's possible for the body to exist and be complete and not be alive. What's missing? The nefesh is missing. And in truth, this is not only by a human being, the same thing is by an animal. Also has a guf, a body, and a nefesh. Now, the nefesh is part of creation. Even though the nefesh is more spiritual than the body, the body is physical, something that's tangible, something that you could touch and see, while the nefesh is something that is not tangible, that's something something that's more spiritual. Nevertheless, it is part of creation, which means that when Hashem created the world, He wanted the world to be the way it is with all these different things, including a human being, and He wanted that the human being should be alive, He wanted that the animals should be alive. In order for the human being to be alive or even the animal to be alive, you have to have a nefesh. So Hashem put a nefesh into this guf. At the same time when He created it, He made a guf and a nefesh. So even though the nefesh is spiritual, but it's still part of creation. It's part of what Hashem wanted into the creation, and there should be a living being, and that needs a nefesh. So this is part of creation, that nefesh we call the נפש הבהמית, the animalistic soul, because even animals have it, or another name it has is נפש הטבעית, the natural soul, because this is part of nature. Part of the nature of the world, the way Hashem created it, part of creation, is there should be this nefesh. Now, a yid, we

say, besides having this regular nefesh which gives him life to makes him make him alive like any other human being, Hashem says he has another nefesh. There's another life force that I put into the Jew, and that is not needed there because of the creation, because of the nature, because even if a person wouldn't have it, he still would be alive, because he has that other nefesh. But Hashem says, nevertheless, I put in another nefesh, which is not part of the creation, not needed for the creation, and that is because I want to put in, into the Jew, a nefesh, which means a life force, which comes from Me directly, which is not part of the creation. That is the נפש האלקית, the Godly soul, which the Alter Rebbe in Tanya says is a חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש. It is part of Hashem, mamash part of Hashem, which means it's not because of the בריאה, not because of the creation, because as far as the creation is concerned, this is not needed. But Hashem, on His own, put it in to us, even though as far as the creation we don't need it, because He put into us something that's beyond creation, and that's the נפש האלקית. So we have that part of God within us, and this fits to what we said before, that it is not something that comes from within the creation, this is something that comes from outside of the creation. Now, the truth is, if someone doesn't believe this, it's hard to prove, because after all, how can we prove that a yid has another life force besides the regular life force that any human being has? That means he has a nefesh which comes beyond the creation, which is not needed for the creation. We can't prove it, but obviously we're not talking here to people that have to be we have to prove to that what it says in the Torah is true. So therefore, we know that this is true. We do see sometimes certain behavior in people that do indicate that there is something beyond creation within a Jew, and that is when a Jew goes on mesirat nefesh, etc., etc., which naturally he wouldn't do it, but otherwise we cannot prove this. But since it says in the Torah, we know that this is true, that a Jew has this nefesh, which is beyond the creation, it is a נפש האלקית. And this is connected to what we said before, that a Jew, there is something there that Hashem, from His side, is pulling the Jew to Him, put into the Jew which is part of Him. Because of this, it is possible for a Jew to do something which is beyond the nature of this world, to do something which is beyond the nature of creation, because he has within him this power beyond creation. And I'll explain what I mean. At the

end of the first perek of Tanya, he quotes the Gemara that whatever a non-Jew does, לגרמייהו עבדין, they do it for selfish reasons. The best thing that a goy would do, there always must be a selfish reason involved. That's what he says there, while a Jew could do something not because of any selfish reason. And when this was translated into English, the people were worried that this will fall into the hands of the non-Jews too, and they are going to say that, look what you're saying, you're saying that we are no good, and what we do is selfish, etc., etc., and this will cause anti-Semitism. And they asked the Rebbe whether they should translate it into the English, and the Rebbe said yes. And then when they printed the first bilingual Tanya, which is the Tanya, the Soncino Tanya, there was again, this came up again that now this is going to be spread more to more people, this will have a greater audience, so this might fall into people's hands that do not need to see this, that this is what we say, and this might cause anti-Semitism. And they asked the Rebbe maybe they should skip it, and the Rebbe again said, chas v'shalom, we can't not translate this, this is part of Tanya. And lo and behold, when the Tanya was printed, there was a book review in the famous Jewish Chronicle, which is the most famous, most prestigious Jewish Anglo- Anglo-Jewish newspaper in the world in London, and there there was a book review on this Tanya, and this is what he picked up on, that look what they write here, that they what Whatever they do is selfish, and we do it not for selfish reasons, and he says, \"This is the worst thing. This causes anti-Semitism,\" etc., etc. So they wrote to the Rebbe, and the

Rebbe said, answered them that somebody, more than one person, should write an answer in the newspaper, letters to the editor. So different people answered it, but the one outstanding answer was from a lady. She's a professor, she happens to be a convert herself, very smart lady, and this is what she wrote. She wrote that, \"By saying this, we're not putting anybody down. We're not saying that there is something wrong or something not good with those people, the non-Jews.\" And she explained, \"Naturally, the way the world is created, it is impossible for a human being to do something without a selfish reason. It's just against the human nature, and against nature of creation, because the nature is that every, since you're doing it, you're involved, so there has to be something that's for you to gain. It is impossible. So, therefore, when we say that a non-Jew, whatever he does is for a selfish reason, we're not putting him down. We're just saying that they're normal. We're saying these are normal human beings that behave normally. And as much as they try to do it for good reasons, there must be some selfish reason involved. It's impossible otherwise. All we're saying is that Hashem put into the Jews something godly, that, therefore, they are able to do something that's not normal. So we're saying that they're normal, and we're not normal. There's something that we could do which is beyond creation, and it's all based on what we said before.\"

Another example: The pasuk says that you are not allowed to take interest. When you lend money, you're not allowed to take interest. But then the pasuk says, \"ולנכרי תשיך,\" from a Gentile, you are allowed to take interest. And again, those Bible critics used to come up and say, \"Look, this is exactly what we're saying: the Jews try to squeeze money out of the non-Jews,\" etc., etc. But the truth is, this is not the pshat. Taking interest is normal. This is commerce. This is the source of the economy. If we wouldn't take interest, and the banks wouldn't be able to take interest, then the whole economy wouldn't be able to exist. So this is normal. So all we're saying is, Hashem says that when you are dealing with a goy, or goyim among themselves, should deal normally, as the nature of the world expects. Well, Hashem says, \"I want you, because I put something godly into you, to behave differently, to behave in a way that you could do something beyond nature, something that is beyond normality.\" And this is all because Hashem put into us something that's godly. He connected Himself to us and put something of the Creator within us.

What we said till now could be put in other words, and that is that the whole difference between a Jew and a goy is not a physical matter, it is a spiritual matter. In other words, the difference between a Jew and a goy is not like a difference between an American and an Englishman and a Frenchman. There, the differences are physical. But the difference between a Jew and a non-Jew is a spiritual matter, it is a religious matter. And, therefore, it is possible for a person to change from being a American to be an Englishman, because all you have to do is learn the accent, speak the way they speak, eat what they eat, dress the way they, and then you become an Englishman. But between a Jew and a non-Jew, there's nothing, there is nothing the person could do physically that will make him change, because the whole difference is a spiritual matter. It is something that is connected to the spirituality of the person, and, therefore, it is not in the hands of a person to be able to change. So, according to all this, it would make sense that it is impossible for a Jew to become a non-Jew or a non-Jew to become a Jew, because, being that they're two separate things, they're two categories far apart, further than the difference between a human being and an animal, for instance, so, therefore, just like you can't change from a human being to an animal or from an animal to a human being, it is impossible to change from a Jew to a non-Jew or from a Jew, as a matter of fact, the same thing should be, logically, from a non-Jew to a Jew. And, therefore, there is no such thing as a Jew should convert to Christianity or to any other religion. He might do things that he thinks he converted, but, in truth, there is no such thing as conversion, because a Jew can never change, because he's a different category, just like a human being can never become an animal. This

reminds me of the famous joke that once a Jew wanted to convert, so he went to the priest. The priest converted him, sprinkled, so to speak, holy water on him and he became a good Christian. The law by the Christians are that there is a certain Friday called Good Friday that you are not allowed to eat meat. And it just happened to be that the priest entered the house of this converted Jew on that day and he saw him eating meat. And he said to him, \"What is this? I thought you were a good Christian. How could you eat meat today?\" So he says, \"No, I'm not eating meat. This is fish.\" He says, \"What do you mean, it's fish? I see that it's meat.\" So he says, \"No, it's fish.\" He says, \"But it's not true.\" He says, \"Well, I took some water, I sprinkled on it, and I said, 'Fish, fish, fish,' and it turned into fish.\" He said, \"What are you talking about?\" He started laughing. \"How could you do that? It's meat! You can't just sprinkle water and make it turn into fish. It didn't turn into fish!\" He says, \"Yes, it did.\" And he started arguing with him. Finally, this Jew tells him, \"Isn't this exactly what you did? You took some water, sprinkled on me, and you said whatever they say there, 'גוי, גוי, גוי,' and I turned into a goy?\" In

other words, it's impossible to turn a Yid into a goy, just like you can't turn meat into fish, or whatever a person will do, it won't help, it'll still remain meat. The same thing, a Yid will remain a Yid. That's what the Gemara says, ישראל אף על פי שחטא ישראל הוא. A Yid, even if he sinned, is still a Yid, because you can't change that. Now, in truth, logically the same way should be that you could not be able to change a goy into a Jew. Because just like you can't change a human being into an animal, and an animal can't be changed into a human being, similarly a Jew can't be changed into a goy, and a goy shouldn't be able to be changed into a Jew. Because it's impossible to change it. But the only one that could do it is Hashem Himself. Being that He's the Creator, and He's the one that created the Jews, created the non-Jews, He's the one that made up that certain ways you are a Jew and you have this Godliness within you, and certain ways you're not, He's the one that's able to change it. So God is able to change a Jew to a non-Jew. So therefore, if we follow what God, Hashem, prescribed, then a non-Jew could be changed into a Jew. Not because it is our doing. We, as human beings, cannot do anything to change it. It is only that Hashem is able to change it. So Hashem says, \"If you do so and so, you follow My instructions, I will change this person into a Jew.\" Just like if a person is born from a Jewish mother, it's Hashem who said that this person is a Jew, and I connect Myself to him, and I put this Godliness beyond creation into him, I will do the same if you follow these and these this and this thing that I tell you to do. And therefore, the only way a non-Jew could change to become a Jew is only if it is done according to the halachah. If it's done according to the halachah, that means it's done according to what God wanted, so God says, \"I will do it.\" The moment it is not done according to halachah, that means it is not done according to the way Hashem said to do it, then it's man-made. Then it is something that's made up by human beings. And a human being, as we said before, is not cannot change from a non-Jew to a Jew, just like a Jew can't change to a non-Jew. A human being can't interfere and say what changes and how to change, because it's impossible. So if you follow the halachah, then it's not that we're doing it, it's Hashem that's doing it. Hashem said to us, \"If you do so and so, I will do it.\" But if Hashem didn't say it, and we make up on our own, then this doesn't work. And this is exactly what the conversion of the Reform and the Conservative is. The conversion of the Reform is to begin with nothing. They don't do anything that it says in halachah at all. They just tell you study for a certain amount of time, and then raise your hand and say, \"I accept to be a Jew,\" or promise to give some money to the Federation or UJA, or whatever it is, and then you are a Jew. So obviously that's man-made, made up, so that has no validity, it's a joke. Even the Conservative, they do follow, many of them follow some of the halachot, they make you go to the mikveh and they have milah, etc., etc., but they don't do everything correctly. Not everything the way Hashem wants. Parts yes, parts not. But Hashem said, \"Only if it's done the way I tell you, then you become a Jew.\" And therefore, if you don't do 100% the way Hashem wants, then you don't become a Jew. So then again, it's man-made. Just that the man-made thing is they took some of the things of what says in Shulchan Aruch, what Hashem said, and then put in some of their own, or did not do everything that Hashem said, and they decided that's going to make you a Jew. They can't decide! There is no such thing as a human being deciding how a non-Jew becomes a Jew. Similar to the law that someone changed that if you're born from a Jewish father, you're also a Jew. Reform accepted it, some Conservative accepted it. That's also a joke. Who could decide who is a Jew? It's Hashem, because this is a godly matter, something that's from Hashem's side, as we said before. So Hashem said if you're born from a Jewish mother, you are a Jew. If you converted according to these these guidelines, you are a Jew. Anything else, Hashem didn't say it, on our own we can't make up that this person is a Jew. And therefore, גיור שלא כהלכה means nothing. And this was the main fight that the Rebbe had, not to allow goyim who are converted שלא, not according to halachah, which means that they are still completely goyim, to get mixed into Klal Yisrael. They would be accepted by the Israeli government, which means that they would write down the word \"Jew\" in their תעודת זהות, umimela they would become in society part of Klal Yisrael. And this would be a mishmash mix-up, not just doing a aveirah or make people do something wrong, but it would mix up the whole essence of what a Jew is, that goyim will be called Jews and Jews will not know exactly who's a Jew, and that will be a whole churban, a whole destruction in the whole Klal Yisrael. That's why the Rebbe was so strong against this and fought this. And had they listened to the Rebbe then, then we wouldn't have the problems in Israel that we have now. I

would like to take the opportunity now to just go through a few of the halachot of גירות, the main points of what גירות כהלכה is. And we know that גירות כהלכה is that you have to go through milah, circumcision if it's a male, go to the mikveh, that's tevillah, and קבלת מצות, accepting the mitzvot, and in the time of the Beit Hamikdash, you also had to bring a special korban. Now, it's interesting that when the Rambam says the order of how you become a Jew, he says, in order to become a Jew and enter into the covenant of Klal Yisrael, you have to do three things, he says: you have to have milah, tevilah, and bringing a korban in the time of the Beit Hamikdash. He doesn't mention the acceptance of the mitzvot, and the question is why? And the Rebbe says, now, it doesn't mean that he doesn't mention at all, he does mention the halachot of geirut that you have to accept the mitzvot, but when he specifically talks about the order and the things that are done, he doesn't say that. So, the Rebbe explains that the peshat is that acceptance of mitzvot is not a condition how you become a Jew, how you become a ger, how the geirut is done. This is the conversion itself. In other words, there are two things: there is what the conversion is, what is the change from a Jew to a

goy, goy to a Jew, and then there are conditions how that takes place. So, to go through milah and tevilah, those are conditions that you have to do in order to become a Jew. But accepting of the mitzvot, that's becoming a Jew itself. That is what it means to become a Jew. And that's why the Rambam doesn't even mention as a condition, because that's the essence of becoming a Jew. And this is one of the reasons why the Conservative geirut is not a real geirut, because the problem by them is not so much the milah and tevilah, which many of them do, but the problem is kabalat mitzvot. They don't make you accept all the mitzvot, and even if you do accept all the mitzvot, it's accepting the mitzvot the way the Conservatives look at it, and they don't look at the obligation of keeping all the mitzvot. And therefore, to begin with, you didn't accept all the mitzvot, so you missed out on the main point of geirut. Now, concerning the point of bringing a korban, so the Rambam says, in the time of the Beit Hamikdash, if you didn't bring a korban, this convert, this ger, was not allowed to eat kodashim, was not allowed to eat meat from a korban. And it would seem from the Rambam that as long as he didn't bring a korban, his conversion is not complete, and therefore there is still one aspect that he's missing. And

according to that, it would seem that nowadays, when we don't have a korban, so a convert who converted with the three things, but didn't bring a korban because we have no korbanot, even though concerning everything else he's a Jew, but there is still something that he's missing. And the Rebbe explains that it's not so, that it's only in the time of the Beit Hamikdash when there was a korban, that's when the korban was needed for the aspect, the last point of becoming a complete Jew, to be able to eat meat from korbanot. But nowadays that we don't have a korban, then a Jew is a complete Jew, 100%, even without bringing the korban. And the Rebbe even says that probably, when Mashiach will come, all those gerim will have to bring a korban, but till the korban, they are still completely Jews, 100%, because they converted at a time when there was no korbanot, and this is their conversion 100%. Another point I'd like to make concerning conversion, that there is a concept of converting a katan, a child. We said before that the main point of conversion is acceptance of mitzvot, and then you have to go through the motions, the conditions of milah and tevilah. When you convert a child, for instance, when a family wants to adopt a non-Jewish child, so it goes through conversion: you take it to the mikveh, you do milah, etc., etc. There, the din is that the child doesn't have to accept the mitzvot, because he's a child and he can't. But the

question is, how is the geirut? So the din is because זכין לאדם שלא בפניו. That means to become a Jew is something that's good. The law is that you could be zocheh something that's good for somebody else without this other person's knowledge. For instance, if I want to give someone a present, I can have somebody else be zocheh for that person, and even if that person doesn't know about it, the present, that becomes his. So too, even though a child, it's as if it's שלא בפניו, it's not in front of him because a child doesn't have the daat, doesn't have the sechel, so he's not really involved, but we, the beit din, accept it for him as a zechut. The only thing is, when he becomes bar mitzvah or she becomes bat mitzvah, she has a right to say, \"I don't want.\" But otherwise, we accept for him, and the geirut is a good geirut. But I want to mention that if the parents who adopt the child are not religious, then there is a whole discussion whether it's still called a zechut and the geirut, the conversion, is valid. Because to make someone a Jew and knowing that he will live in a family that will not be frum, which means that this child is going to eat treif and this child is not going to keep Shabbos, so then it's not a zechut, it's worse for a person to be obligated to keep Shabbos and then not to keep it. So maybe it's not even a zechut to begin with and the conversion is not chal. There is a whole discussion about it, but definitely the rabbanim would not do it. Another point I want to mention, and it would seem that as much as we're saying that the person who is megayer, he is a complete Jew because Hashem puts in him the neshamah, connects himself to him if you go through the instructions that Hashem gave how to convert. But nevertheless, some people feel, but still, they just became Jews, they're not as this like a Jew who is born a Jew, etc, etc. So I want to mention the letter that the Rambam wrote to Rabbeinu Ovadiah HaGer.

There was one of the great chachamim in the time of the Rambam, his name was Rabbeinu Ovadiah, but he was a ger. And he wrote to the Rambam that every time he reminds himself that he's a ger he feels bad, because he starts thinking that all the Jews their yichus is their lineage goes all the way to Avraham Avinu. But mine not, he says. My parents, my grandparents were not Jews. So I don't have that yichus, so I feel I'm missing something. So the Rambam wrote to him and he said, don't feel bad, you should know that we, those that are born Jews, their yichus go up to Avraham Avinu, they're meyuchas to Avraham Avinu. The yichus of a ger is meyuchas directly למי שאמר והיה העולם, directly to Hashem who created the world. So your yichus is even greater. The greatness that we have that we're Jews is because Hashem is connected to us, but it goes through a hishtalshelut, it's because of my father, my grandfather, all the way to Avraham. By a convert, that connection to Hashem goes straight to Hashem because he's the first one Hashem put Himself to him, and therefore this ger is even greater. While we're on the subject of who is a Jew, I'd also like to mention the letter of the Rebbe where he writes that some ask why is it that only if you're born from a Jewish mother, why does it depend on the mother? Kohen, Levi, other things depend on the father. Which shevet you are depends on the father, but whether you are a Jew or not, that depends on the mother. And the

Rebbe explains because the development of the child from beginning to end is all on the mother. It is the father's the essence that comes from the father, but the development and turning into a human being is all in the mother's womb and therefore the inyan whether you're a Jew or not depends on the mother. The main thing after everything said and done is that we should recognize what we have, we should recognize the greatness that we have as Jews. אשרינו מה טוב חלקנו, how lucky we are that we are Jews, and we are אתה בחרתנו, chosen by Hashem, and utilize it, not, God forbid, in looking down on anybody else, but utilize it in feeling the responsibility that we have to others, to the all the nations of the world, and as the Rebbe said many times that we have to work even on trying to spread that goyim should keep the seven mitzvot. Certainly we have to help Jews, but in this case we're talking about even helping non-Jews, and realizing that because we are special, we have a lot of restrictions and we have all kinds of special things that we have to do, a special diet and special behavior, etc, etc. And if you do it properly, Hashem will do His part properly and He will give us everything that we need, and the main thing is He will bring משיח צדקנו במהרה בימינו.