topic tonight, as we all know, is מיהו יהודי, who is a Jew? And what really made me think of this topic or choose this topic is because the last two weeks we discussed different things concerning ארץ ישראל, and the problems that we had in ארץ ישראל, and we still have in ארץ ישראל. And one of the problems that we had that the רבי spoke a lot about was concerning the question of מיהו יהודי, who is a Jew? Now, basically, the topic will be about explaining what is the difference between a Jew and a גוי according to the way it says in תורה, and explain חסידות, because just in הלכה there is very simple thing, what a Jew is a Jew and a גוי is a גוי. But חסידות explains it. And also touching the concept of גיור, of conversion, and what is the idea of גיור כהלכה, because that was really the problem when the whole issue of מיהו יהודי came up. But before we get into the ענינים of what the תורה and חסידות tells us about the ענין of a ייד and a גוי להבדיל, just a little bit of historical background of what the problem was and how it started.

When they established the State of Israel, so they, one of the first laws that they made was what they called the Law of Return, חוק השבות, which is the Law of Return, that any person who is considered a ייד has the right to come back, to move to ארץ ישראל, and become an automatic citizen. Like this, every country has all kind of quotas and things, you can't just come into a country, there is immigration, all kinds of things. So here, they made a law that every ייד has the right to return to ארץ ישראל, because originally we were all in ארץ ישראל, and could come back, and automatically will have all the rights of the land, and he will automatically become a citizen. That was the Law of Return. When they made that Law of Return, they had to describe who is a Jew. The law is that any Jew who comes back to ארץ ישראל has the right of living there and automatically becoming a citizen, but who is a Jew? So the wording in the law was like this: anybody who is נולד מאם יהודיה, anybody who is born from a Jewish mother, or נתגייר כהלכה, or anybody who converted according to the הלכה, that is considered a Jew, and automatically he is able to come into ארץ ישראל, and automatically he is a citizen. As a

few years passed, there were certain elements that started, as we call בורטשינג, and started making trouble, that we should also accept into this חוק השבות, into this law, Jews who were converted not כהלכה, not according to the הלכה. That means converted by Reform or converted by Conservative, not Orthodox. Orthodox does the conversion כהלכה, Conservative does not do it כהלכה, and we will go into the details a little later, Reform certainly doesn't do it. Now, according to the wording of the law the way it was worded, they had, they were not included in this Law of Return. And therefore, if a person was converted by a Conservative rabbi or a Reform rabbi, was not allowed into ארץ ישראל. He was allowed like other people, but not under this Law of Return. And these people started making a whole tumult that, how come, the Israeli government does not recognize these conversions? They put pressure on the government till finally Ben-Gurion in תשי\"ט, which is in 1959, Ben-Gurion sent out a letter, I think it was a hundred letters he sent out to a hundred great Jewish leaders all over the world, in ארץ ישראל and all over the world, to ask their opinion what would they say concerning this question that he named it, who is a Jew? Because other people say that if you're נתגייר שלא כהלכה, if you converted not according to הלכה, you're also a Jew. And he got responses. Now,

many of the answers said that it has to be only if you're מגייר כהלכה. The one answer that impressed him the most, and I remember, I was very young then, but I still remember, I saw in the newspapers then, in the Israeli newspapers and in American newspapers, that Ben-Gurion said that the one answer that impressed him the most was the answer of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The רבי sent him two letters, and out of all hundred answers that he got from different רבנים, גדולי ישראל, he only gave out to print, or maybe he gave out all, but they only printed the רבי's answer. That was printed in all the Israeli newspapers. The רבי's answer, it's printed now in the אגרות קודש in חלק י\"ט. So there you have the רבי's answer. The רבי answered him first one letter and then a second letter. In the first letter, the רבי answered him very clearly, obviously, that a Jew according to the way the מסורה, the way we have in tradition for all the years, and this was something that is accepted by everybody and doesn't make any split in כלל ישראל, is if you're born from a Jewish mother and you're מגייר according to the הלכה. And he writes clearly, \"I'm not going to tell you what the הלכה is. It's very clear. It's שולחן ערוך, a טור, a רמב״ם, you can look through and there you have it.\" That was the statement that the רבי answered. Then the רבי had a P.S. and wrote, it was about six-seven small paragraphs describing what מעלה, what specialty you will have if you follow this. And then the next day, I think this was, actually the date of the first letter was י״ח אדר, no, ח׳ אדר, ח׳ אדר, which actually is תשי״ט. It's, how much is that? 39 years ago, a week behind. Today is ג׳ אדר, ח׳ אדר. Then the next day, ט׳ אדר, the רבי writes a second letter to him. And the רבי writes, \"I want to take this opportunity to write you something else, it's informal and maybe not diplomatic, but I'm taking this opportunity, and I'm writing it especially as a separate letter, because I don't want you to confuse this issue with the issue that I wrote in the letter before.\" And the רבי goes into the whole אריכות telling him that since he is the Prime Minister of ארץ ישראל and he has a great influence on ארץ ישראל, ממילא he has a great responsibility bringing in more יידישקייט, and he connects it to this question of מיהו יהודי. But he specially did not mix it because he didn't want that בן גוריון should, as we say, טשעפע זיך אן and say, \"Ugh, this פרט, this he doesn't accept, that he doesn't accept,\" so the whole thing would be messed up. So he writes him clearly, \"Just in case you don't accept anything I'm writing here, I don't want it to have any bad effect on what I wrote you previously yesterday.\" But, and he was very impressed with that letter, and I can't say it's only because of the רבי's letter, but a lot because of the רבי's letter and what other people wrote, he came to a decision clearly, and he פסק'נט that it cannot be changed. The law remained as it was before, that a person who's born from a Jewish mother and is נתגייר כהלכה and converted according to הלכה, is considered a Jew in this Law of Return, in חוק השבות. And

therefore, when it comes to what they call the תעודת זהות, which is the identification card, and they would have to write in what religion you are, only if a person was converted כהלכה, they would write in יהודי, Jew. If the person was not converted כהלכה, if he would come to the Israeli government with a צעטל, a paper worded, signed by a Reform or Conservative rabbi that he was converted, they would not accept this person as a Jew. And it went off the agenda at that time. This was תשי״ט, 1959. About 10 years later the thing came up again. That was about תשכ״ט, it came up again in the government and there's another pressure again and the Reform and the Conservative started pressuring and pressuring that we have to change this law. So quietly they made all kinds of meetings and things like that and they made all kinds of deals, unfortunately with one of the religious parties, מזרחי, and what they did was they quietly changed the law that it did not say כהלכה anymore, that from then on the law said that any person who is born from a Jewish mother או שנתגייר, or that was converted, is considered a Jew and is accepted in ארץ ישראל and in his תעודת זהות, in his identification card it will say יהודי. When that came the רבי started שטורעמינג. I remember פורים תש״ל, פורים 1970. The רבי started by פארבריינגען speaking about this ענין with the greatest heartache. You can't imagine how much heart and energy the רבי put into this from that פארבריינגען on. Because it bothered him very much because this undermines the whole existence of כלל ישראל. And the רבי spoke about this very strongly by פארבריינגען, spoke against the religious parties, spoke all kinds of things. And from then on, for years, years, 10 years, 15 years, every single פארבריינגען the רבי spoke about מיהו יהודי. Half of the פארבריינגען would go on מיהו יהודי to שטורעם and scream against the government for changing this law, with all kinds of excuses that they gave. One excuse, for instance, that's just coming into my mind now, they said, \"What's wrong if it says נתגייר? It says that a person who converted. So you claim that their what they do is not conversion, so automatically when it says נתגייר, it means כהלכה, what are you complaining about?\" And the רבי was saying, \"So then why did you change it? Why did you have to change, take out the word כהלכה? Obviously specially you took it out in order for it to be accepted.\" The רבי שטורעמט and spoke. The רבנית said to somebody then, this was year maybe after he started speaking about it, that since the problem of מיהו יהודי started, the רבי doesn't sleep at night, just can't sleep. It was on his mind and his heart constantly. And he started שטורעמינג and talking, he said that by every חתונה we should speak about מיהו יהודי, and he spoke ברבים, in public, by a ל״ג בעומר parade in front of 10,000 children. He spoke, obviously it wasn't for the children, but he made a public, a public מחאה against the government, when it came to translate the שיחה... He told Rabbi Hecht not to translate that part, but he said it in public. And then every פארברענגען the רבי spoke about it, and anybody who came to the רבי, he spoke about all kinds of things, all about this problem of מיהו יהודי. And the רבי explained, and this is what I'm going to try to explain, what the רבי spoke about many of the times, and the way it explains חסידות, why the רבי chose this topic, that by him this was the worst in the world. There were many other problems that came up in ארץ ישראל, and other רבנים also spoke about those. For instance, at that time there was a problem with ניתוחי מתים, which they they would autopsies, autopsies without the permission of the of the people, and they would do it to religious Jews against הלכה, and a lot of רבנים spoke about it, and the רבי also many times mentioned it. Then there were problems with the צבא, with taking girls to the army, which many spoke about, and the רבי did also. But nevertheless, the רבי did not speak so strongly and so much heart on anything as much as he spoke about מיהו יהודי. Why? And the רבי explained it like this, that when we have all kinds of other problems, they are all within the framework of Jews. They're within the הגבלות, they're within the the realm, they're within the borders of a ייד. This problem crosses the line. This problem crosses the border. Here we are dealing with accepting into כלל ישראל and mixing with כלל ישראל of people who are not Jewish. Everything else is within Jews. You have a better Jew, a Jew who does more מצות, does less מצות, a Jew who had a problem, a Jew who does עבירות, they have all kinds of things, but they're all Jews. And here we are talking about bringing in non-Jews, people who are not considered Jews, and mixing them in into כלל ישראל. The רבי explained that that is already crossing the border, that's going beyond the מחיצות, and therefore this is the worst thing. And here we go into the whole concept of what is the difference between a ייד and a non-Jew. There's a מדרש that says that the יידן are compared to oil. מה השמן, and the רבי quoted this מדרש constantly, מה השמן אינו מתערב עם שאר משקים, just like oil does not mix with any other liquid, so does the Jewish nation not mix with any other people. You can't mix them. Just like oil, whatever you'll do, it'll always float on top, the יידן do not mix. And therefore, by doing that, you're going away, you're changing from you're taking one category and saying that it's a different category, when really they can't mix, and you can't bring in non-Jews into the Jewish nation when they're not really Jews, and they didn't convert כהלכה, as I will explain soon what that means. And we טאקע see that אלטער רבי brings, the רבי quoted it then too, the אלטער רבי brings in אגרת התשובה in the מהדורה קמא, he says that it's interesting that constantly in the גמרא or in פוסקים, when we talk about Jews and non-Jews, so the worst Jew is referred to as פושעי ישראל. A פושע ישראל means a bad Jew. The best גוי is called חסידי אומות העולם, the חסידי אומות העולם, the righteous non-Jews, the righteous of the nations. So as good as he is, he still remains אומות העולם, still a גוי. And a Jew, as bad as he is, he's still considered a ישראל. Like the גמרא said, ישראל אף על פי שחטא ישראל הוא. A ייד, even though he sins, he's still a ייד. You can't cross that border, you can't cross that line. How will I explain it? We know

what we say in דאווענען, יום טוב it's part of the שמונה עשרה, we say אתה בחרתנו מכל העמים, You chose us from all the nations. And every day in דאווענען right before קריאת שמע we say ובנו בחרת מכל עם ולשון, You chose us from all nations. What does that mean? We say it that we are the chosen people. Now this is not to be chauvinistic, so we say we're the chosen people, but what we're saying is because the תורה tells us that. And I just want to mention one thing as an introduction to what I'm going to say further, just in case somebody who will hear this that will need this introduction. What I'm going to say further, I will not prove. In other words, I'm not going to try to prove that all this is true. Why not? Because what I'm going to say is taken from the תורה, and since the תורה says it, it is true. If someone doesn't believe it, then he has a different problem. Then you have to come to a different class and discuss to prove that the תורה is true. Fine! But that's not a question about this issue, then it'll be a question about שבת, it'll be a question of anything. What we're discussing now is we're holding at a stage where whatever it says in the תורה is true, and therefore what I'm going to say, even though I will not be able to prove it directly to this ענין, but if we only accept what the תורה says as being true, then what I'm going to say is true. The תורה says אתה בחרתנו מכל העמים and that we were chosen by השם as a chosen nation. That means means that what people say, and I'll have to explain it right away because it doesn't sound so good, like what is said especially in United States that all people were created equal, it is not true. Not all people were created equal. יידן were not created equal. יידן are chosen people, but I have to explain it. It doesn't mean חס ושלום like others who said that we are chosen and therefore we have to exterminate the rest and the rest have to be slaves. חס ושלום, God forbid, that's not what we're saying. We're saying that all people in the world are special and great and fine and good and they have their mission in life, but we have something on top of that. But it doesn't make it easier for us, on the contrary, because we have that something special, we have a greater responsibility. We have more things that we have to do. I think it has a משל in the מדרש between the יידן and גוים, it says that a person who why, no it says לגבי this, why is it that we are not allowed to eat certain insects and certain kinds of animals and גוים are? So it says an example: There are certain people who have very delicate stomachs and they can't eat coarse food and certain people could. The יידן לכתחילה created more delicate and therefore we have certain הלכות, certain things we can't do. Why? Because we were created more delicate. But not that we're trying to knock somebody else, we're just saying that we have something special. What is the פשט that we were chosen by השם? What the פשט, אתה בחרתנו, we were chosen? The word choice, the word choice, the way it's explained in חסידות, choice means that the person who chose it's all up to him. If a person does something to deserve a certain thing, then he is not chosen. If someone picks somebody to come some place let's say, because this person is better than others, then in that case it's not that I chose, I had no choice. Just for instance if a person has a choice of an apple and an orange, and he likes an apple, so he picks the apple. Is that called choice? He had no choice. Either this is an apple, this is an orange, he wants that. Choice means that there is nothing within the chosen thing that indicates or pushes for me to pick it. That means it's free choice from my side. When it says that the אייבערשטער chose us, it means it was not because of something that we did that He made us special, it's because of His side. It's not because we are better, we are on our own better, we we are we worked better and therefore השם says, \"Well, as a reward I'll give you.\" It is השם, because of Himself, decided that these people will be chosen. We find an interesting thing, we find by אברהם אבינו, it says that ויאמר השם אל אברם, השם said to אברם, לך לך מארצך, go from your land and go אל הארץ אשר אראך. Now why did השם speak to אברהם and ask him to go? When we learn חומש and we look at פרשה before לך לך, it's mentioned that אברהם was born and it doesn't say that אברהם was a special person. And all of a sudden the פרשה starts השם spoke to אברהם, go מארצך. Why did השם speak to אברהם? We don't know yet that אברהם was special. Look at the פרשה before, פרשת נח, it says השם spoke to נח, but before that, it says that נח was good, ונח מצא חן בעיני השם, נח was good and fine, and therefore we understand that השם spoke to נח. Why did He choose to speak to נח? Because נח was a special person. So why doesn't it say by אברהם that אברהם was special and then we understand why השם spoke to him? So the רבי explains the פשט is to teach us that the reason השם spoke to אברהם is not as a result of אברהם's behavior, since he was good, so השם chose him, that means that the specialty of אברהם, who is the first ייד, is because אברהם was good, so it comes as a result of him. So therefore, if somebody is not so good, doesn't have that specialty, it's not so. It came directly because השם decided, השם decided to choose. And in חסידות it says even deeper than that, that when they speak about choice, choice means that it's not because of any reason that the person has. Then why did he choose? Because essentially there is a connection. This need a lot of explanation what the ענין of בחירה חופשית is, in חסידות it's one of the hardest subjects, but nevertheless, this is the פשט השם chose us, and השם made us different than He made other people. And this is the פשט that we always know that the מעלה of a ייד over a גוי, the difference of ייד and a גוי is that a ייד has a נשמה. And a גוי doesn't. A גוי has a force of life. Every person has what we call a נפש, a life. That every human being has. He has a life. Because if you don't have a life, you don't live, you're not You see a person who's not alive also has a body. What he's missing is that force of life. So every human being has a force of life. But that force of life is just a plain נפש. But a נפש האלקית, a godly soul, that only a ייד has. And when we say השם chose us, that means השם put into us a special נפש, a godly a godly נפש, and it says in תניא that that is a חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש. השם took a part of himself and put it into every single ייד. And that's the life that he gave to every single ייד. And let me explain it. What it means is like this: השם created the world, that's the creation, and the world goes on naturally, and there are certain things in the nature of the world that the the

world needs. Now the world, people, in order to be alive, need this power, this source of life, this power of life that's there. So a ייד also, in order for a ייד who is a human being, in order for him to be alive, you need that source of life. And that's as far as it goes. There's no more need. As far as nature is concerned, in order to exist and to live, you need the נפש. That's all. השם says, in a ייד I put in a life which is not part of the nature. In other words, as far as nature is concerned, you don't need it. You could live and exist without that. And nevertheless, השם says, I will make you alive from a different angle, because of a different reason. I put into you another force of life that will make you live, but that's beyond nature. That's not because you need it for the nature. So להבדיל a גוי, who's a human being, and he is a human being is the highest race of the creation, has the force of life that's needed מצד the nature of the world to exist. But a ייד has an extra force of life that makes him alive, not because of that, but because השם put in something which is beyond the creation. For the creation's sake, you wouldn't need it. That's the פשט, he has a נפש אלוקית, he has something godly, and it's called a נפש. It's not that we say that a person has person is alive, then he has something extra within him. That extra thing is called נפש. It's נפש אלוקית, that means it gives him life. But the question, why do we need it? If we are alive just because we are human beings, so why do we need this extra thing? Naturally, we טאקע don't need it. But השם says, I put into you an extra life force, an extra life force which is not needed for the nature, and I'm giving it to you special as part of me. And because of that, it says in תניא, there are certain things that we that is by a ייד, that exists by a ייד, and doesn't exist by a גוי, because he has this special נפש. And when they translated the תניא into English, so the first time when they translate, there was no problem. But when they translated it in England, the Soncino translation, there was a big problem in translating that paragraph. And that is, in the end of the first פרק תניא he explains the difference between a ייד and a non-Jew. And he says like this: A non-Jew, the best things he will do, it still always has this feeling that he's doing it for himself. It's always for a selfish reason. While by a ייד, a ייד is able to do something for no selfish reason. Even when a גוי will help somebody, and he will put his money on the line, and he will put his his life on the line, it's still for a selfish reason. And he quotes the גמרא, it's from a גמרא, it's אינו אלא להתייהר. But a ייד, doesn't mean every ייד is like that, but a ייד is able to do something just because it's the right thing to do, for no selfish reason. And

when they wanted to translate this, so they said, you can't, this is going to cause anti-Semitism. How could you say such a thing? You're knocking the גוים, you're saying that they do things for selfish reasons, etc., etc. And look how many people we had, and there were many גוים טאקע that helped יידן and put their life on the line, and they sacrificed themselves to help other people. So how could we say such a thing, that the גוים, whatever they do is selfish, and we יידן are able to do things which are not selfish? But the פשט is, I remember the רבי wrote to England and they told him to answer. Anyway, there were different answers written in different papers, but one of the answers that was given then is a very simple one: It's only natural, it's only natural, it can't be different, for a person to do whatever he does to be selfish. It is impossible naturally not to be selfish. There are many degrees. Some people are very selfish and everything's for himself. Some people are not so selfish. But there has to be some type of selfishness in the person, whatever you do. It's against nature not to do it, not to be like that. Like, an example, if somebody sometimes will see someone hurt on the street and is bleeding, and they'll run over and help him. And sometimes he could say, \"I just can't stand the sight of blood.\" Now, that's very good, ברוך השם, הלוואי most people like that and would help people. But after all, there is this feeling of \"I can't stand the sight of blood.\" That's one דרגא. You can have people finer than that, but it's impossible to undress oneself from himself. It is only natural. So we're not חס ושלום trying to knock the גוים saying that they are bad or they do, what they're doing is only normal. There are a lot of levels in that, but it's only normal. What it says in תניא is that a ייד is able to be abnormal. A ייד is able to have a certain could do something which is not for any selfish reason, and it makes no sense. The question is opposite, not like they ask, how could you say whatever a גוי does is selfish? That's not the question, that's normal. Doesn't mean selfish for bad reasons, but it's always yourself that is involved. The question is how could it be the opposite? How is it possible for a person to do something which is not selfish at all? And the answer is because the אויבערשטער put into a ייד something that's beyond nature. So naturally it can't be, beyond nature it could be. It's one of the answers given to a famous question that also these are the questions that the Bible critics and anti-Semites always bring up. It

says in תורה you're not allowed to take interest, not allowed to take interest when you lend money. In הלכה you find ways to do it, but as long as it's within the הלכה, otherwise you can't take interest. Then the פסוק says ולנכרי תשיך. From the גוי, you should take interest. So they always say, \"Ah, look at these Jews that from the גוי, and that's what all these Jews do. They try to schlep money from the גוים, and the גוי you have to you have to take interest.\" That's not the פשט. Normal economy, normal way of life is to take interest. That's the way. Imagine if there wouldn't be any interest, the whole economy wouldn't work. It's only natural to take interest. We're not saying, חס ושלום, something against the גוים that we do something back to them, take, schlep the money out of them. That's not the פשט. You have to with a גוי, since he is a normal human being, so you have to behave normally, naturally. The תורה says to the ייד, \"Since you, ייד, you are beyond nature, you have an ability to be abnormal. So you I want not to take interest.\" \"Ay, what's going to happen to the economy?\" השם says, \"That's the question of nature. I'll take care of it.\" But it's not that, חס ושלום, we're knocking somebody, we're just saying that a ייד has within himself a כח of השם which is beyond nature. So if we want to put it in other words, the difference, the way it's explained, between a ייד and a non-ייד is basically the difference between nature and beyond nature. Or if we want to put other words, the difference between creation and the Creator. Creation is the nature, the Creator is השם. So just like there's a difference between the Creator and the creation, and that's the difference is so great, as extreme as you find of different things, this is the greatest extreme: nature, creation and the Creator. That's the difference between a ייד and a גוי. And a גוי is part of creation, fine part of creation, the most sensible part of creation, but part of the creation. And a ייד is not part of the creation. He has within himself part of the creation too, but he has in addition to that something which is completely beyond creation, something that השם put in. Like I said, ask me to prove it, I can't prove it. They do say we sometimes we see יידן do things which are not normal, good things, they go on קידוש השם, they give up their life for things. But you still can't prove it. Someone can say, prove it, that to show that this is what a ייד is. Can't prove it. But if we believe in the תורה, this is what the תורה says: a ייד is beyond creation. And therefore, what comes out from here comes out like this. We

always know that in the creation we have four categories. The רמב״ם says, everyone knows four categories. The four categories are like this: דומם, צומח, חי, ומדבר. דומם are the unmovable objects, צומח is the plant life, חי is the animal life, and מדבר is the human race, the speakers, we're the human race. So we know there are four. In truth, there are not four, there are five: there is דומם, צומח, חי, מדבר, and the Jews, the יידן. The יידן are not just another part amongst people. Since we're explaining that the יידן have this extra נשמה which makes them beyond nature, then this is another category in itself. It's like we would say, we have the דומם, צומח, חי, מדבר, and then we have a power of the בורא, the Creator. The Creator put into us something that is beyond nature. If we accept that, and we all know this is true because it says in the תורה, then automatically we come to one conclusion: that the whole concept of being a ייד is not within at all within the realm of human beings. This means like this: no human being could come and describe what's a Jew. Since a Jew means something spiritual beyond nature, so nobody who is within the nature can come with a description, because who knows what goes on in the world, higher worlds, in the Creator? The only one that could make up who is a Jew is only השם. See, if we don't believe in this, then we don't believe בכלל the whole concept of what's a Jew. Then a Jew and a גוי is like an American and an Englishman, that's all. But when we talk about a Jew and a גוי, we're talking about a religious concept, a spiritual concept. So no Nobody is able to give his opinion in the spiritual concept. The only one that could give the opinion is the one that's spiritual, is השם himself. And therefore, being that a ייד and a גוי are two different categories completely, it is naturally, normally, impossible to change from a ייד to a גוי or from a גוי to a ייד. You can't. It's like saying, and I hate to say this example, I don't really mean this example, but I'm saying it, imagine that somebody want to change from an animal to a human being. You just can't, or from a human being, make him into an animal, you can't. They're two different categories, they're two different things. You could change a person, looks like this, looks like that, but you can't change categories. You can't take an animal, change him into into grass. You can't change categories. Impossible. Normally, it's impossible to do it. And therefore, it is impossible for a Jew to become a גוי. It's impossible. The גוי could do what he wants, he could say sprinkle water, he could do everything, it can't be. You can't change. That's why they have the

famous joke that they say, it's a famous joke, I'm sure everyone knows it, that once this ייד שמד'ט, the ייד converted and he became a Christian or a Catholic or a priest. And they have it, I don't know exactly when, they have on Friday, a certain Friday you can't eat meat, you have to eat fish. So once this guy who converted, was on that Friday that you're not allowed to eat meat, he was eating meat. So the גלח, the priest happened to come into his house that day, and he sees him eating meat, he says, \"Hey, I thought you were a good גוי, how come you're eating meat?\" So he says, \"You know, I'm not eating meat.\" \"What do you mean you're not eating? I see you eating meat.\" \"I took some water and I sprinkled, I said, 'Fish, fish, fish, fish, fish,' it turned into fish. That's exactly what you did to me. You took some water, you sprinkled and you said, I don't know what they said, 'גוי, גוי, גוי, גוי,' turned into a גוי. It's exactly what you did, the same thing here. I turned it into fish.\" He said, \"What are you talking about? It's meat.\" \"No, it became fish.\" Same thing here, you can't make a גוי should turn into a ייד. A ייד, a ייד should turn into a גוי, you can't, impossible. Now in truth, according to this, you can't do the opposite either. You can't make a גוי turn into a ייד. And the truth is, you can't. The

only one that could do it is השם. השם, he is the one that made up this whole thing of ייד and the גוי. He's the one that put into the ייד the נשמה, so השם, he could do it. He could make, if he wants, from a ייד to a גוי, or from a גוי to a ייד, he could do it, but no one else. And therefore, השם himself gave us the הלכות and he said, if you follow these and these and these points, you will change this גוי into a ייד. It's as if השם would say, you will change this animal into a person. Yes, he could do it. השם is not limited. Anybody who will come with his own ideas of how to change, automatically it's a contradiction in itself. The moment a person, a human being, will decide, I decided how to change a גוי to a ייד, that's a contradiction. Then obviously he doesn't know what it means a ייד and a גוי. Since the whole concept is an impossibility, so it's only possible by השם. So השם, only כהלכה, so this is the reason why only כהלכה is it possible to become a גר. Then, just like השם said that if you're born from a Jewish mother or whatever השם said concerning the ייד, so a גוי becomes the same way. And this person is a ייד like anybody else. But it's only because השם did it, but without השם, it's an impossibility. You can't you can't do it. There is another possibility, the truth. There's another possibility similar a little bit where a ייד could turn into a גוי. Not a ייד ממש, there is an exception to it, but again, why is it? Because השם said so. And that is the case when a Jewish man marries a non-Jewish woman. Or as for that sake, a Jewish man has relations with a non-Jewish woman and had a child, that child is a גוי. Now, השם set up the law that a child, whether he's a Jew or a גוי, follows the mother. And the רמב״ם explains this, and the רמב״ם says like this, that even though the איסור, the עבירה of having relations with a non-Jewish woman is not as strict as many other forbidden relations, they are much worse, a married woman or a sister or other relatives are much worse in the level of of punishment and things like that. Nevertheless, he says there is something that happens when you marry a non-Jewish woman that doesn't exist by any other of the forbidden relations. As a matter of fact, it doesn't exist by any other עבירה, any other עבירה in the world. And he says what is it? Here you are crossing the line. Every עבירה, חס ושלום, a ייד does, so he מחלל שבת, חס ושלום, so he's still a ייד. He didn't do anything to cross the line of a ייד and גוי. When you have relations with a גויה and a child is born, then you took a part of a Jew and you turned it into a גוי. It became a גוי. There are other reasons in this עבירה that it's worse, but that's not only in this עבירה, that's only any עבירה with relations because that's when it comes to that, the whole person's essence is involved, every עבירה Only a certain part of the body is involved. Your hand, when you hurt somebody, it's the hand. You're מחלל שבת with a hand, or any עבירה you do, it's a certain part of the body. There's no עבירה that your whole being is involved. This is a type of an עבירה that your whole being is involved. But that is true concerning any עבירה that involves marriage and relation. But in this part, it's only by in this ענין, the other part, which is the idea of taking a ייד, part of a ייד, and that is transformed into a גוי. The child is a גוי. And the

truth is, even if there is no child, it becomes part of a גוי. It says בכללות, for every relation, spiritually there is a child, a spiritual child born, and בכלל you give of yourself to a גוי, and it becomes part of the גוי, that means that you crossed the border and you gave away part of a ייד to a גוי, which is the only possibility of changing ייד, part of ייד into a גוי. But otherwise, a ייד should שמד זיך, he can't, a ייד שמד זיך, he can't can't convert. Impossible. And the other way, it could happen only because the תורה says, and only the way the תורה says. And therefore, גיור כהלכה, when to convert according to הלכה, is logically the only thing that to make a a גוי turn into a ייד. When the גיור takes place, then this person who's מגייר is in no way less, חס ושלום, ייד than the person who was born a ייד. There is no difference. Because who made the person who's born a ייד? It's not a natural thing. It's, to begin with, a spiritual given by השם. The same השם said that if he's מגייר according to this way, he is a Jew. גר שנתגייר כקטן שנולד דמי. A גר, a convert that converted, is like a child that's born, and he's a new person, and that moment he's a Jew like anybody else. There's a

famous letter that the רמב״ם wrote to רבינו עובדיה הגר. There was this great person in the רמב״ם's time, his name was רבינו עובדיה הגר, and he wrote to the רמב״ם a letter saying, \"I feel very bad every time I remind myself that I'm a גר.\" And he wrote why. He says, \"Because יידן are מתיחס, they have their lineage going back to אברהם, יצחק, and יעקב, and who do I go? So I feel bad.\" So the רמב״ם answers him, \"Don't feel bad,\" he says. \"Because אנו מתיחסים לאברהם, יצחק, ויעקב. We, טאקע, are מתיחס, our יחוס is to אברהם, יצחק, and יעקב. But the גרים are מתיחס למי שאמר והיה העולם. They're מתיחס to השם directly. So you have direct, intimate connection. Our connection to השם goes through the אבות, it goes all the way, all these years back, and then it goes to אברהם, and אברהם started with with with the נשמה, and that's where we come. But you come directly from השם. There's nothing to be afraid of. There's nothing that you should feel you're missing.\" The same נשמה that השם gave to a ייד, or gives to a ייד when he's born, born ייד, he puts into the גר. But in the נשמה we find, and this is in חסידות full, but in the נשמה we find when אדם הראשון was created and השם blew the נשמה in, it says in תניא, it says in חומש, that he blew the נשמה in. So in תניא he brings from the זוהר, right in the beginning of תניא, second פרק, that why does he use the term blew? השם doesn't have a mouth, השם doesn't blow. And when it comes to other things, it says השם said. How did he create the world? He said, let there be light, let there be this. Here it says he blew. What's that blowing? השם doesn't speak, השם doesn't blow. אלא מאי, we use words just for us to be able to relate to, so we have to have words from our world. So why choose a word blowing? So he says like this: because the חומש uses such words that we could relate to, but from these words we can understand the spiritual aspect of what was taking place. That the difference between speaking and blowing is that both of it gives out your energy, gives out your your life, but when you blow, you give out your real פנימיות, part of really part of you. A person should blow, how long can a person blow? Blow. For a minute, and if he continues blowing, he'll die. What does that mean? His נפש, his whole energy comes out with blowing. When a person speaks, also, I can tell you that, you get tired. You get hoarse, I know, and you speak, and you speak, and eventually you have to stop. But it'll take a good few hours till you have to stop. You give out part of you. The פסוק says, נפשי יצאה בדברו. Your נפש comes out when you speak, it's true, especially when one speaks with heart, you know, it comes out. But it's not like blowing. Blowing is really, really your real essence. So

when השם put the נשמה into אדם הראשון, there he used the word blowing to show that this is the real essence of השם that he put into the into אדם. And that's the נשמה every ייד has. I know people ask a question, if it was done to אדם הראשון, then it means all human beings. We bring the proof from אדם הראשון. אדם הראשון was the father of all human beings. So why do we say it's only by a Jew? So the אריז״ל asks the question, the אריז״ל says that אדם הראשון was a Jew. He was, he had a נשמה If he wouldn't have sinned with the עץ הדעת, all his descendants, all people would be Jews, everyone would have a נשמה. Since he sinned, so השם said no, so from then on his children were not with נשמות, with this special נשמה. And it came back starting a little bit with אברהם אבינו. אברהם אבינו was the first Jew we call it, but not 100% yet. אברהם אבינו did not have the same נשמה that יידן after the תורה was given. When did השם choose us? When the תורה was given. So from then on, we are able, we have this special נשמה, whether we are born Jewish or גיור כהלכה, or a person is מתגייר כהלכה. And if you follow the laws of גיור כהלכה, then you're a Jew. And that was the whole fight of the רבי. The רבי said then that by accepting Jews, גוים who are not מתגייר כהלכה, accepting גוים, there's no such thing as 50/50. So he's not 100%, so he's a Jew, you could say he's not 100% פרום, he's not doing 100%, but you can't be 50% Jew, a little bit Jew, there's no such thing. Or a Jew or a גוי. And if you're not מתגייר כהלכה, then you are 100% a גוי. And you can't mix that into כלל ישראל. That's why the רבי, this is crossing the borders, and this is completely I do want to go a little bit, we have a few more moments, into a few aspects concerning גיור. What is גיור כהלכה? What do we do when we're מתגייר? So we know that

when you ask any person who learns some גמרא, some שלחן ערוך, who'll be able to tell you that there are three things you have to do in order to become a גר, and that is מילה, טבילה, קבלת מצוות. Or really the order should be קבלת מצוות, מילה, and טבילה. Accepting upon yourself מצוות, to accept the מצוות upon yourself, and if it's a male, circumcision, and then you have to go to the מקוה. And it all has to be done in front of a בית דין. In the time of the בית המקדש, there was something else he had to do, and that is to bring a קרבן. We learn out all these דינים from the יידן, when the יידן were מתגייר, when all the יידן became Jews. When did the יידן become Jews? By מתן תורה. That's when השם gave them the נשמה. So we know that when the יידן left מצרים, which was the beginning, the preparation to the giving of the תורה, they all circumcised themselves. Then before מתן תורה, השם said they should all go to the מקוה. By מתן תורה they said all נעשה ונשמע, we will do and we will hear, that means they accepted upon themselves the מצוות. And then it says in חומש actually, in the פרשה we read שבת, that they brought קרבנות, so you have to bring a קרבן. Now,

it's interesting, just to note, that when the רמב״ם speaks about it, the רמב״ם says like this: When a גוי wants to enter into כלל ישראל, he has to do three things: he has to go through מילה, טבילה, circumcision, going to the מקוה, and a קרבן. And the רבי asks the question: Why doesn't the רמב״ם mention the main one, accepting מצוות? That's the first thing! So the רבי says very simple: Accepting the מצוות, that is the גיור itself. The other things are how to become a גר. This is the גיור. You can't say, in order to become a גר you have to accept מצוות. What the רמב״ם means to say, if a גוי wants to accept מצוות, he wants to become a ייד, the main part of the יידישקייט is to accept the מצוות. In order to do that, there are three conditions. Now, it would seem that now that we don't have a בית המקדש, what happens to that part of bringing a קרבן? We don't have a קרבן! So the רמב״ם says that all the גרים of all the times, משיח will come, will all have to bring a קרבן. A גר who doesn't bring a קרבן, the רמב״ם says in the time of the בית המקדש, cannot eat קרבנות, is still lacking, cannot eat קרבנות. You have to bring a קרבן in order to able to eat קרבנות. Now, accordingly it would seem that nowadays, when we don't have a קרבן, we have no choice. So the

גר is still lacking something. Not his fault, there's no בית המקדש, and it's only concerning one aspect of יידישקייט, but one aspect of יידישקייט he's still lacking. So a גר is a little bit like he's 95% Jewish and 5% not, without makes no difference because we have no קרבנות anyway, but that's what it sound like. So I remember once by פארברענגען, when there was a guest from ארץ ישראל, who is very, very חשובע person, a משפיע, a ראש ישיבה, a very I mean he's a big תלמיד חכם, who is a גר. And he was there by that פארברענגען, and we know that since the רבי started speaking about learning רמב״ם, for the first few years every פארברענגען he would speak on the רמב״ם of the day, one הלכה at least. The רמב״ם of that day happened to deal with the הלכות of גרות, of conversion. And he was there by that פארברענגען. And the whole thing that the רבי brought out by that פארברענגען was that when we don't have a בית המקדש, and we don't have קרבנות, then by not bringing the קרבן you're not lacking anything. I don't want to go into the למדות of it, that a גר now is a hundred percent. In other words, in the time of the בית המקדש, if he didn't bring a קרבן, he was 95% a גר and he did everything fine, but he was still lacking one thing, some percentage concerning eating קרבנות. Now, the רבי brought out a פשט and I remember it was printed in לקוטי שיחות, now it's not like that. And therefore the רבי says when the בית המקדש will be rebuilt, all the גרים will be able to eat קרבנות without bringing the קרבן. They have to bring the קרבן anyway because there's a הלכה you have to bring a קרבן. Other people have to bring קרבנות for different reasons. A woman that gives birth has to bring a קרבן. That's nothing to do with her אידישקייט. The same thing here, he will have to bring a קרבן as a הלכה, but as far as the lack, even concerning eating קדשים, you won't have to, because he is a hundred percent גר. And

not only, like I said before, a hundred percent גר, but the רמב\"ם says even more, there's an interesting תוספות in גמרא. The גמרא says a harsh statement. The גמרא says, קשים גרים לישראל כספחת. That the גרים are very hard for the אידן, like a ספחת. ספחת means a אנטשעפעניש, like some, you know, extra thing that extra growth to to make problems. There are פשטים in גמרא, what does that mean that the גרים are terrible for the אידן? So תוספות says like this, that this person, I think his name is רבינו אפרים הגר, one of the בעלי התוספות, one of the people in תוספות writes like this, \"You know what the גמרא means? Why is there a problem with the גרים? Because the גרים are better than the Jews.\" When they become גרים, they keep the מצוות better. And what it causes is that השם, למעלה, looks down and says and he complains to the אידן, \"Look, these people just came into the fold, and look how good they are, why can't you be like that?\" That's the problem, because they are even better to a certain degree. Then there are certain הלכות, simple small things which are touch upon in the גדר of גירות, converting a child, because we said before in order to convert you have to accept the מצוות. Now, a

child can't. So there is a דין that גר קטן מטבילין אותו על דעת בית דין. A child, a גויישע child, you could convert on the דעת, on the intentions of the בית דין. And you could convert a child, it has to go through מילה, you have to circumcise the child if it's a boy, and you have to go through טבילה, but the מצוות he doesn't have to accept, because he's too small, his acceptance means nothing. And he is a Jew if the בית דין takes him. The only thing is when he becomes בר מצוה he has a ברירה, a choice to say, \"I don't want.\" Then he could become a גוי. But otherwise he is a Jew. And this applies in many cases to adoption. When you adopt a child, and many people would rather adopt non-Jewish children than a Jewish child, for the simple reason that a Jewish child you don't know who the father is, maybe the child is a ממזר, you know, but if you adopt a non-Jewish child and you מגייר the child, as they say, the expression goes in Yiddish, \"First is a כשר'ער גוי, now is a כשר'ער איד.\" There's no problem, everything is fine. He's a כשר Jew, he's no problem. While others you don't know, you know, where he comes, so you have to find out. And since by adoption, at least in the United States, they don't allow you to find out, so you have a problem. The רבי actually writes that it shouldn't be like that, you should adopt a Jewish child, why take a non-Jewish, that's already a different discussion. But when it comes to it, what happens? The parents who adopt are מגייר the child. And the child is a hundred percent Jewish. The

question is, what happens about adopting a non-Jewish child by a non-religious family? If that's okay. Now on one hand you could say since we don't need the child's acceptance, so what difference does it make which family? If the בית דין will מגייר him, the בית דין could do it. So in truth it's possible. But many many people wouldn't don't, many רבנים, or most רבנים wouldn't do it, because why bring a Jewish child into a family where he'll eat טרף and he'll be מחלל שבת? Why do it? So usually what they would do is if the parents agreed to start becoming פרום, different different, Some say it wouldn't even help, because the only reason that helps by a child is the גמרא says, because זכין לאדם שלא בפניו. Since you could, when it comes to do something good for a person, you don't need the person's agreement. And it's good to become a Jew, so you don't need, even though he cannot, he has no שכל to agree, but the בית דין could agree for him. But if you take him into a family which is non-religious, who says it's good for him? You're, instead of helping him, you're being מכשיל him, you're making him stumble over an עבירה. And who knows what's going to happen. So that's a discussion in itself, whether adoption with a small a child by a non-religious family. But basically, going back to the point that the conversion, גיור makes a person to a regular איד only if it's done כהלכה a hundred percent. If not, then it's complete גוי. And

basically, I would say, this is one of the major, major, most major problems in Jewish life in this century, the conversions. You know how many conversions go on שלא כהלכה, not according to הלכה. Every Reform rabbi, every Conservative rabbi has every Sunday 10 conversions, 5 conversions. There are hundreds of thousands of people walking around who claim they're Jewish and they're really not Jewish. See, this is one of the things they used when it came to the whole tumah of מיהו יהודי. The Reform came out against the פרום, against the religious. And what did they say? The religious Jews don't consider us Jews! That's what they used to say. It was lies! We don't consider the conversions conversions! That's why I made a joke before that someone wrote that instead of asking the question, who is a Jew, should ask the question, who is a rabbi? Because the rabbis are the ones that make the conversions, and that's the question. Now, what is wrong just in short with the Reform conver- Reform conversion is nothing to begin with. I mean, they don't do anything, so it's nothing. The Conservative, many of them do it properly. They take to the מקוה and they do מילה. The main problem is this: you have to have a בית דין of three watching and the בית דין have to be כשר Jews, I mean religious people. And most and usually a Conservative rabbi, Conservative temple is not religious, so you don't have a בית דין. Finished. Without a בית דין, it's nothing. But there's another point. Even if the person himself, the three so-called rabbis are religious in their own personal life, it's still a problem. Because the הלכה is that if a person, the גר, the גוי, accepts upon himself all the מצות except one, one מצוה I don't accept, the whole גיור is nothing. You have to accept every מצוה, even though he doesn't know every מצוה yet, but he has to say, I accept every single מצוה. If he'll say clearly, I accept everyone ex- every מצוה except one, he's not a גר. If the Conservative are מגייר and they don't accept everything properly, so the acceptance of the מצות of the גר is according to the Conservative standards. So, על פי הלכה, that's not a גר, that's not a גיור, even if he be פרום. But they try to say we don't accept, we don't hold them as Jews. That's, I mean that's that's not true. But this by the רבי was the worst thing in the world, this is the worst problem. And even though the רבי fought about the law in ארץ ישראל, really what was the fight there was against the whole concept of conversion, which is the biggest צרה we have in the world now, in America and in the world, because now you don't know. The only thing that we do have now a little different than before, that the הלכה is that we don't we don't ask for a conver- Not like חס ושלום like the גוים who go around trying to convert, we don't. But what happens if a person converted according to the Conservative? Then it is כדאי to try to convince the person to convert כהלכה. Why? Because since he thinks he's Jewish, he's going to make more צרות, he's going to get in- mixed with כלל ישראל and that's worse. So we do try to convince. And other cases also now we try to be מיקל and convince, but it has to be always within the framework of הלכה. And if it's within the framework of the הלכה, then it's done. And actually the גמרא says, and this is what I'm going to finish, that the whole reason השם sent us into גלות כדי שיתוספו עליהם גרים, to have more converts. חסידות has an explanation, it means to take out the holy sparks, ניצוצות הקדושה, but in simple פשט, the whole גלות was worth so we could have more people enter in כלל ישראל. And therefore, we assumed then that the רבי fought for גיור כהלכה, that was a very strong fight because it was נוגע to משיח, because the גיור is one of the things that is going to bring משיח, and we hope it's going to happen במהרה בימינו ממש. Yes. Yeah. And first of all, I want to give you a יישר כח for this very inspiring, very fine שיעור. And the discussion was what we spoke about. And we talked about the נשמה. So the question is, examining or investigating the motivation of a גוי to why he should want to become a become a ייד על פי הלכה, a גיור כהלכה, even with that. I mean, to do it to do it properly. Why would a why would a גוי, he doesn't have, he has to take on the תרי״ג מצות and so forth, or whatever, all these different obligations that a Jew has to. So the answer that the בחור gave me, which I wasn't aware of, that it's brought some place in חסידות that בעצם that גוי had had a had a connection to אידישקייט. Let me finish. Had had a connection to אידישקייט, so I've never heard this before. But you didn't address this. I'm not I'm not criticizing, חס ושלום, but I'm saying this is something that I never I really appreciate you bringing it up and I will address it now. It's not really a question, it's bringing up a point. It's bringing up a point which is כדאי to mention. Actually, it's not the source is not in חסידות, the source is from the חיד״א. And the חיד״א was the name of a great צדיק, a great person and the חיד״א is an abbreviation of four words: ח׳, י׳, ד׳, א׳. His name was חיים יוסף דוד אזולאי. Or אזולאי. And he was a ספרדישע גדול, but he was known, he wrote many ספרים and so he writes like this: he asks a very interesting question. The expression in גמרא always is גר שנתגייר. If a גר converted, etc., etc., whatever the גמרא says. So he says, why does it say גר שנתגייר, a גר converted? When we talk about an עבד, there is a דין that if a slave, a גויישע slave is freed, and a lot of דינים, so the expression in גמרא is עבד שנשתחרר, a slave that was freed. So what should they have said here? גוי שנתגייר, a גוי that converted. A convert that converted? So, the חיד״א writes that in truth, when a גוי converts, it's because בעצם he has a connection, there is some kind of spark of a נשמה in him, but it's not הלכה'דיק, which means legally, הלכה'דיקלי revealed, and that's why he wants to be מגייר. And it תאקע says that all the נשמות stood by מתן תורה. First of all the יידן who lived then, all the future נשמות stood by הר סיני, and it says even the נשמות of the גרים. So, these these people have a certain connection because their נשמות were there, even though it wasn't put into them, but that's why they're called already גר שנתגייר. And that's where the expression in Yiddish comes from, אַ ייד שמדט זיך נישט, און אַ גוי זאַך נישט מגייר. A ייד doesn't convert, and a גוי is not מגייר. What's the פשט? That if a גוי is מגייר, a סימן that first of all, he has some Jewish blood if you want to put it in simple terms, but it means more than that. There is something there, some connection, and that brings him to be מגייר. But to address the other point you mentioned that what brings a גוי to be מגייר, so the רבי explains, it's based on different ספרים, that we know that there is a concept of effort. A person does something, it's great. The more לפום צערא אגרא, the more effort you put in, the more reward you get. So the רבי says, the real person who puts in effort on his own is a גוי who is מגייר. A ייד, as much as he works on his own, a ייד, as much as he works on his own, but he has a נשמה. Since he has a נשמה, it helps him out. So, even though on his own he tries to learn, he tries to דאַוונען, he tries to do מצות, but there is something there that is helping him. The גוי who doesn't have that holy נשמה, that holy soul, what's helping? Then it's completely on his own. So when it says לפום צערא אגרא, you get reward based on your effort, the real effort of your own is by a גוי who is מגייר. And that's why who said this לפום צערא אגרא in פרקי אבות? Who said this this this saying that according to your effort, that's how much reward you get? בן בג בג. So it says in ספרים that בג בג is an abbreviation of בן גר and בן גיורת. He was a גר. And the רבי says, it says in other ספרים also that there's another person called בן הא הא. They say it's the same person, because בג, ב׳ ג׳, adds up to five, ה׳. ב׳ and ג׳ is five, two and three is five, so בן הא הא. And he said it because that's תאקע the greatest effort. Even though we just said he has some kind of spark, but nothing compared to a ייד, and if he decides to change, then he תאקע gets reward for his change. Okay, yes, I will. Question is, if a person converts for the sake of marriage, is it a כשר conversion? Okay. Now the question is because, because there is a הלכה that if a person wants to convert for the sake of marriage, we don't accept him, that's the דין. But this is only לכתחילה, we can't, we don't accept him, we do say no. But if he converted according to הלכה, that means he sincerely accepted upon himself all the מצות, and he went through מילה and טבילה, the circumcision and the טבילה, קרבן we don't have now, but he went through that, and he sincerely accepted the מצות, even though it started off because of marriage, על פי הלכה he is a כשר convert, a כשר Jew, and he's in the category of a גר צדק, and 100%. Even though we don't accept לכתחילה, in other words, from the beginning if he comes, we will not accept him. And so we make בכלל hard for people to convert because we want to know he's sincere, but if we see he's sincere, even though it started, the conversion is good. That's a good question, but I think I've answered it in my talk. Once he converts, can he go back? No! Just like a Jew cannot become a גוי, a convert can't become a גוי, he's a Jew! The reason he became a Jew was because השם gave certain laws and the, it's השם's doing. השם never did anything to make a ייד to become a גוי, and therefore he can't. Yes. There is some comfort to that problem. Okay, they are two Okay, two parts to the question. Let's start with the first part, and then we'll do the second part. What is the first part? Oh, when משיח will come, what's going to happen, since there is such confusion now, we don't know who is converted כהלכה, who's not, who's a איד and who is a גוי? Fortunately, there is a הלכה. And again, everything has to be based on הלכה, cuz this whole concept is a תורה is a spiritual concept. The הלכה says like this, משפחה שנטמעה נטמעה. I'll translate. A family that got mixed in, נטמעה not like טומאה with a א,

נטמעה with a ע, a family that got mixed in is mixed in and stays. That means if a family which is not Jewish and it got mixed into Jews and people think they're Jewish and no one knows they're not, they are על פי הלכה Jews. And when משיח will come, it is clearly the רמב״ם says this to this question, משיח will come, they will remain Jews if no one knows. And not because if no one knows, the expression is what you don't know doesn't hurt you, that's not the פשט. The הלכה is the same הלכה that said that in order to be Jewish you have to be born from a Jewish mother, in order to be Jewish you have to convert so and so, the same הלכה says if a family that's non-Jews, but claimed they're Jews and were accepted, and people think they're Jews, they remain Jews. That's a fortunate הלכה, because if not, who knows טאקע? Sometimes you marry somebody and you never know. When the רבי spoke the first time, not the first, the first months or years about מיהו יהודי, the רבי brought that up. He says, you could never know what's going to happen. You yourself, those people who didn't want to work on it, you yourself are going to come to a problem that your child is going to marry somebody, and you'll find out the child is a גוי. And it טאקע happened, not not long after that, not long I remember that מעשה.

There was a תלמיד in ישיבה, in a certain big ישיבה in ארץ ישראל. He was the best בחור in ישיבה, and I think he was even already a חתן to the ראש ישיבה's daughter, I think. And then, before the חתונה, they found out that his mother was converted שלא כהלכה. Can you imagine how he felt? He was ממש a גוי, and he had to go through conversion. I remember the way the story went then, that he found out on Friday and there was no chance to convert, and he was a good בחור, and No, it was not that why No, not this. This was a Friday. But like this, as soon as he found out, and you don't have to wait by him for two years to convert, I mean, he was a real regular פרומער בחור, a עילוי. So, he couldn't convert. You know what he had to do on שבת? He had to switch the light on, because a גוי is not allowed to keep שבת. A גוי has to be מחלל שבת, so he had to be מחלל שבת that שבת. Huh? He had Yeah, no, he was fine. His mother was converted שלא כהלכה. So he was really a גוי. And that's what that ever stemmed in. Now,

concerning your second question, בנוגע will the גוים get up to תחיית המתים? Really, it's not part of our discussion here, but I will anyway, the רמב״ם says that חסידי אומות העולם will get up to תחיית המתים. תחיית המתים is when the resurrection of the dead. I got a message before to say, speak more English. So, it says, the רמב״ם says that even though בכלל only the Jews will get up to תחיית המתים, not the גוים, and the reason is very simple, because a איד has a נשמה and that נשמה is eternal, so it'll stay forever, but חסידי אומות העולם, the righteous non-Jews, will also get up. They will be in a separate chamber, they won't be the same level as we are, but they will also have תחיית המתים. That's connected. That's what it means. עולם הבא is תחיית המתים. His mother didn't He didn't convert. His mother converted. They didn't do a conversion for him at all. That the fact that they did a conversion He was a גוי, he needed conversion. No, you need to feel it. He had a הטפת דם ברית. הטפת No, he needed הטפת דם

What happens if a גוי who converts was נימול? You could have a גוי that did Nowadays everyone does circumcision. So, you have to do הטפת דם ברית. You have to take out a drop of blood לשם גרות, and then you have to go to the מקוה לשם גרות. Yeah, he had a very good ברית מילה, because they didn't know. But they had to do הטפת דם ברית. הטפת דם ברית, and they had to go to the מקוה לשם גיור, then he was a איד. But otherwise he was ממש a גוי, because he wasn't converted. It was his mother that was so to speak converted שלא כהלכה. Three people. Only three, less than three is not a בית דין, and it has to be during the day, not at night, and yeah. It's a big problem. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So you have to go, so whatever, you have to go back as far as you can, whichever way, so it makes a big problem. No, that טאקע does make a big problem. Yes. You mean his husband she was married to him before? See, the fact that you said it's a local case here and all makes it puts it it's very hard for me to answer. But in truth is there is a הלכה that at first glance you cannot marry the person. But there are a lot of תשובות who explain it that it doesn't mean regular case and the circumstance and they find היתרים. It is because the הלכה לכתחילה was made with a lot of conditions. So we always try to find out if it fits to the condition. But like this, the הלכה is that you can't. But with the conditions, many cases you do. And I know of many cases that they did, and it's not against הלכה. No, the

first moment they find out that you ask him or they have a chance. If they don't, it's later that they could do it. Why do you ask about a בר מצוה? Ask even if he does it on the second of בר מצוה. The thing is that he was a child. למשל, I'll give you an example to make your question even harder. A child שוחט. Okay, we'll say... Okay, I have a better שאלה. If a גוי touches wine, you can't drink the wine unless the wine is cooked, יין מבושל, and that applies also to a child, if a גוייש child touches. What happens if this child who was converted as a child touched wine, and then later he changed his mind when he became בר מצוה, he said, \"I don't want\"? So all the wine he touched before is יין נסך? Yes, it is. Well, you just don't suspect that it's going to happen. The חזקה is that it's not going to happen. But if it does, it is. Cuz they found out. They found out. It's not because he lived, because no one knows. That's the הלכה is if no one knows. In other words, what you if we're afraid I'm going someone wants to marry somebody, maybe this is a Jew, he's a גוי. As long as you don't know, the הלכה is it's no problem. The moment it's found out, then he's a גוי. It's only if נטמע, the word נטמע means mixed in without knowing. Now, I one second, we'll give the women a chance, too. No. Yes?

Before, there was no real concept of a Jew. See, the question is by מתן תורה the whole from the when the תורה was given the law is that it goes after the mother. Before that, it wasn't a question of a Jew. Everything followed the father. Even now, everything follows the father, except that question. If the child is a כהן or a לוי, the father. Everything follows the father, the יחוס. The only thing is concerning a Jew. Before מתן תורה, there was no real thing as a Jew. The whole concept of a Jew started after the תורה at the time of מתן תורה. And then the תורה said that it's only it follows the mother. Doesn't follow the mother... What? It's taken from a פסוק in פרשת ואתחנן. In פרשת ואתחנן the פסוק says, I don't remember the פסוק offhand, I think it says...כי יסיר את בנך מאחרי. Anyway, that's a פסוק. From there רש״י says, from here we know that if your child, a child that's born from you with with a daughter from them is not my child, השם says, is not considered yours. If it's from them from your daughter, it is my child. So from that פסוק the חכמים learn out that if the mother is Jewish, and the child is Jewish. That is, the Rebbe writes, this shows the Question is why is it that everything else goes after the father and whether you're a Jew or not goes after the mother? Well, this just shows the specialty of the women. I usually say this in women's classes, but when it's mixed I don't know what to say, cuz whatever I'm going to say is not going to be good. But it just shows the specialty of the mother, that when it comes to, we call it in חסידות, גילויים, individual specific things, that follows the father. You're a כהן, or a לוי, a ישראל. But when it comes to the essence, that's where the mother comes in. Essentially the mother. Now the רבי writes the reason is because the development of the child for nine months is in the mother. And therefore she is the one that makes the child as a person. And therefore what the the type of person he is, whether he is this category, that category, follows the mother. A

question regarding surrogate mothers, the latest thing you hear about. When you have the egg of a Jewish mother, the egg of a Jewish mother put into the body of a non-Jew, and is fertilized by a Jewish man, so what is this child? What would be the הלכה? What would be... what would be the child? I won't answer that question. It's a good question. Nowadays, a surrogate mother, that if the real the real mother the first mother or whatever we call her, is Jewish, put into the mother into the womb of a non-Jewish, or the opposite, what is the child? See, all all these modern questions are not written in the שולחן ערוך, right? So how do we know how to פסקן it? So you have to find sources in original places where they touch upon things which we could compare. And there is no place other except one מדרש. One מדרש that they bring as a proof, and based on that they discuss, a מדרש that says that really, I think it's concerning יוסף or בנימין, I don't remember which one, that really she started he started off in דינה's stomach and was switched by a מלאך into רחל. And in order for רחל into רחל, I think. Or maybe לאה's? I don't... No, nothing is... oh no, לאה's, I said דינה's. Like like we find... you're right. By לאה into לאה it was from לאה and the מלאך switched it into רחל. So and it's considered רחל's children. So they want to base on that, but this is only a מדרש, and I explained last week you can't base הלכה on מדרשים. This is a question that's going to... No. No. No, ובכלל the רבי... the רבי went into certain הלכות. No, for instance, this is just an example, the רבי wrote clearly in vitro you shouldn't do, he said על פי הלכה it's אסור. Now why and what, he didn't write, but there's certain הלכות the רבי touched. To take into a test tube baby, not to do it. But the רבי did so this the רבי never touched, but and פוסקים, I saw a whole article from different רבנים, it's a very complicated שאלה that I don't know who is going to take the responsibility of answering this question. I heard someone said something that if the גוים will keep שבת, משיח will come. If the גוים will keep? If the יידן will keep. If the גוים will keep שבת... גוים? גוים?! It says, in one place it says if the יידן will keep two שבתים, משיח will come. In one place it says if יידן will will keep one שבת. Different opinions. But the גוים? עכו״ם? There's a לשון הגמרא and it's a שולחן ערוך: נכרי ששבת חייב מיתה. A גוי that keeps שבת is חייב מיתה. Yes. Regarding that that story about that about that that that בחור, there's another story that a מעשה שהיה that told by a רב some time ago. There was a Jew in בני ברק, and the ציצית was there, he got a בעקישע and a velvet קאפאטע and and and the and the פאות, I mean he put on the whole... And which ישיבה did he learn? And that's one. So so my so my question is, my question is, so so like the answer before that the that the חפץ חיים brings, someone I mean with the שיטה that he was his עצם was... so his his עצם was was... Obviously. ...was a גוי. Well, there's one thing I can tell you: he didn't learn חסידות. Obviously. Yes.

Can you discuss the Ethiopian Jews? Not in public. Not in public. Tell me after. Okay. Okay. I'll tell you. This is a very very touchy subject. Not for us here, but it's in ארץ ישראל. I'll tell you what the problem there is. There is a big argument whether they're considered Jews or גוים. If they're considered Jews, it's worse than if they're גוים. Why? Because if they're Jews, then they're all ממזרים. Why? Because they for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years did not keep the laws of גיטין and קידושין, and marriage, and גיטין, and therefore it's all mixed up, and that's a big שאלה, and then they can't marry into כלל ישראל because a ממזר cannot marry... somebody from, from כלל ישראל. If they're גוים, then like I said before, no problem: כשר a גוי, a כשר a איד. You know, you מגייר, and they're good. When they came to ארץ ישראל, there was a big problem. Now, they accepted them, but the רבנות came out, the Chief Rabbinate came out that they all have to go through גיור לחומרא. Means לחומרא that really they said you really don't have to go through, but you have to go through גיור because to make sure that you're Jews, you have to go through גיור. I remember I spoke to Rabbi ליבס, he's one of the big פוסקים nowadays, huh? Brogier, and he's a big פוסק, and I met him a lot of times here, and I also wrote to him, he has תשובות that he wrote to me, and he said he doesn't understand why they said they should go through גיור לחומרא. They should go through גיור לקולא! לחומרא means to be stricter, to make sure, to go to גיור. But if they go, if you tell them to go through גיור, then that's a קולא, you're מיקל, because you consider them גוים, that's a קולא! Because otherwise, if you consider them אידן, there's a problem. Now, I'll

tell you, this is a big problem not only with them. The problem is also with the group called קראים, the Karaites. And that already the פוסקים speak about from the רמב״ם's time. Some פוסקים held that this is a group of people who are actually גוים, and some held that they are אידן. But being that they're אידן, we have a big problem because they didn't keep. I myself, I must tell you, had a שאלה that someone came to me that a person who was married, a woman who was married, and anyway, they found out that the husband was actually from the group of Karaites. There are not too many in ארץ ישראל, but he happened to be from that group, no one knew. And they were just married and she was pregnant, and they asked me the שאלה, what do they do? Now, what should I say? Who's going to take responsibility of such a שאלה? I asked at that time Reb זלמן שמעון דבורקין, and he wouldn't פסקן. I finally got to Reb משה פיינשטיין, and Reb משה פסקנט, and he said like this: being that she's pregnant already, he will be מיקל and let him go through גיור. Let him convert. He didn't want to! He claimed, \"What, I should convert? I'm a Jew!\" He had no choice. Huh? Yeah. פרום, I wouldn't say, but he was פרום, שומר שבת, כשר, I mean yeah. And he had no choice because we told him otherwise you know, and he went through גיור. But it's a big He said he was a That's what he said, \"Because she's pregnant, there's a question of a child, I will be מיקל, and I will פסקן that according to that opinion that they're גוים, that's the קולא.\" And the same thing with these. Now, you ask me if the רבי ever said anything about it? The רבי, in ארץ ישראל, when they came out, the רבי said to be strong, not to give in to the to the pressure that they made. I remember just then when they Rabbi בנימין גורודצקי happened to be visiting Miami, so he came to the ישיבה and he was speaking with me, and we were speaking about it. And he said that the רבי told him, and he was the one that was in charge of the schools in ארץ ישראל, you know, the רבי's שליח, and to be strong, not to give in, and not to take him. And he said that the problem was the Joint, he's from the top people in the Joint, give a lot of money, and they made conditions that they're only going to give the money if you take in into the different schools a certain percentage of them. And the רבי said not to budge, and if it means losing the money, you go on to on top of their heads. He told me that himself. I heard from somebody, now this is, I don't even know if I should say it, because I don't know how reliable it is, but I heard it then yet. I don't remember even now from whom I heard it. I don't think it was from him, but somebody, that the רבי told somebody, now again, I'm making putting a claimer before I even say it, because it could be it's not true, that he said he started looking into this issue, this subject in הלכה to see, investigating in הלכה, and he saw where it's going to lead, and he stopped. He didn't want to finish. At one point, in one of the schools in ארץ ישראל, they wanted to pressure them to take without going through גיור, which that even the Israeli government, the רבנות said they should. And they didn't take him, and they closed the school. Because it was a it's a public school, it's ממלכתי דתי, so it's a public school by the government, a religious public school that's funded by the government, and the government, \"We're not going to give you the money,\" and they closed the school, and Lubavitch didn't give in. But that was a case where they didn't even want to go through the גיור. If they would go through the גיור, that's already a קולא, that we say okay, we'll assume they're גוים, but to assume they're אידן and let them in, that's that was the So, the רבי's stand was pretty firm, even though he didn't come out publicly, but The government, no, demand. The government, quietly, was trying to make the They made demonstrations against the רבנות not to be מגייר. They could They're שייך to make demonstrations? What, they just came from Ethiopia, they knew what's flying? The government דרייט אונטער that they should make demonstrations against, because they don't want them to be מגייר. They don't want, because if you tell them to be מגייר, that means that they're גוים. They They made a whole טומל that they saved 10,000 אידן from Ethiopia, listen, here you're going to tell them to be מגייר? This is against their whole philosophy. They didn't want them to be מגייר, and they pushed them to not to be מגייר. Which boys? The Ethiopians? Yeah, probably, probably. If those that are פרום, the moment they became פרום, they realized and they were מגייר. Yes, yes, definitely. Yes. It's the רמבם says that it's worse than any other, yeah. Well, the תורה allows it. Well, the תורה says it's okay. I don't want to get into the details because with how the תורה describes it. Because the דינים from last week's פרשה, an עבד עברי, if a Jew a Jewish person sells himself as a Jewish slave, his master is allowed to give him a שפחה כנענית, a non-Jewish maid, as a wife, even though he's married, not only even though he's married, only if he's married, and then the children are עבדים. He asks the same same question, so he is, so to speak, producing גוים. But that's what the תורה says. See, this is a problem that the תורה says, and the תורה says you're allowed, there's no problem. Yeah, I don't know if it's a good thing. The תורה says that an עבד עברי is supposed to work for his master עבדי ביום ועבדי בלילה, that's one of the things. That's why he has to do it. So, he will produce more עבדים, that's one of the things that he does for his master. He could have a lot, yeah. Now, there's another point here, there's another point here: when we talk about a איד and we talk about a גוי, there is another concept, an in-between one, which people are not even familiar with. Like this, we know a איד and a גוי, there's nothing else. There is an in-between, and that's an עבד כנעני. When a איד would buy a non-Jewish slave, this guy is in-between. He has to go to the he has to have מילה, circumcised, he has to have מילה, טבילה in the מקוה, he has to accept himself upon himself מצות, but he's only obligated to do the מצות like a woman. Just like women are only are exempt from מצות which are have a have a time limit, so he too. מצות שהזמן גרמא. And the רמבם says that an עבד כנעני, an interesting expression: יצא מכלל גוי ולכלל יהודי לא נכנס. He's not a גוי anymore, but he's not a Jew either. So he's a a person in-between. So he's not really a גוי. We see from last week's פרשה, if you kill an עבד כנעני, you get killed for it. If you kill a גוי, you don't. Are עבדים כנענים. They're 50/50. They're in middle, yeah. Yes. We spoke about that before. Who says that you're not allowed to do it? The תורה! The same תורה is allowed, could say in this case you can. Okay, I guess we are finished. One more little question, okay. It says that when השם changed his name from אברם to

אברהם, he said אב המון גוים נתתיך. I made you the father of all the nations, so it means he's the father of all גרים. So it says that all the גרים came from אברהם, which is a little bit different than what I said from the רמבם that you are מיוחס directly to השם, but it does say that you are מיוחס to אברהם also, from a different angle, and that's why a גר, because there's a famous question: how could a גר דאווען and say אלקינו ואלקי אבותינו? השם, the father, the God of our fathers. It's not his father! Who's the father? I mean אברהם, יצחק is not his father, he doesn't come from אברהם. So it says that he does, because of that reason, because אברהם is אב המון גוים. Just two seconds for everybody who was not here at the beginning, one, I want to thank So there's an ענין not to make a, not to make a גזירה that the, that the ציבור cannot hold. And then there's an ענין of, like, בל תוסיף, like you shouldn't add on to, like you're not allowed to add on to the תורה. So, like, how do you know what's, what's the גבול? Like where does, where does it cross the line between making a fence and adding on to the תורה?