Rabbi Nachman of Breslov's Opinion of KIRUV OF WICKED PEOPLE

0:10Everyone that thinks that Rabbi Nachman of Breslov was, chas v'shalom, like some of the kiruv rabbis today who don’t say a single word, should read his actual book and see what he actually says. In Likkutei Moharan, he first starts by saying that,

1:32Don't befriend them to the point where you're going to the bar with them because you're trying to help them do teshuva. Don't host a Super Bowl party. That's not how we do kiruv. V'heichal ha-kodesh hazeh moshav et atzmo, tamid le-sharsho, eino le-libo she'osehu, ki sham sharsho, ki me-chamat ha-dvarim she'yatz'u me-omek libo shel ha-ish ha-kasher, niknessu be-libam ve'chazru la-Hashem yitbarach. He says the person that is doing kiruv is called a vessel of holiness. He's a vessel of holiness that brings upon himself things, and naturally, if he's truly a vessel of holiness, he is constantly looking for ways to connect further and further to the root. What is the root?

2:33So he has to protect himself. This is a holy thing. So how does he do kiruv? He says if he takes it upon himself to speak from his heart, if he shares the truth from his heart and not just what they want to hear, then it's impactful. The truth, what does Hashem say? Yes, it's going to hurt. Yes, it's going to bother them. Yes, she's wearing this. Yes, he's wearing that. Yes, he's going out where they're going out. Yes, they have to get out. Yes, it's going to hurt. But it's the truth. He says it from his heart, from the depth of his heart of this kosher person. He's a kosher person. This is going to go to their heart and they're going to do teshuvah. If it's coming from his heart, meaning, mamash, he's telling the truth, and he's not... destroying it with his own opinion. It'll reach their heart and they will come back to Hashem. This was in Likutei Moharan 59:1. If you continue to 59:6, there's another thing that Rabbi Nachman of Breslov wants to tell us.

3:50Something that most people in Breslov today probably don't even know is that, according to many who are not genuine Breslovers, they don't acknowledge that there is such a concept as "reshaim" (wicked people). Because any time that I mention reshaim in my lectures, they immediately start cringing. "Whoa, who are we to say that there are wicked people in the world? It's not nice. You know, everyone's a tzaddik, we're all the sons and daughters of Hashem. How can you call them reshaim?" Okay, let's see what your rabbi says. Let's see what the Kodesh Kodeshim of Rabbi Nachman actually said himself. In Likutey Moharan, same one, Vav, 6, 59, 6. Veda, no. There are some wicked people; there are some who are so wicked that you're not even allowed to actually get close to them to help them do teshuva. They're so wicked, don't even help them. Your only job with them is to stay away from them. Why? Not only are they reshaim, but as Rambam explains in Hilchot Teshuva, they can bring others down from their level.

5:05Nachman miBreslev is telling us, not only are some people Reshaim in the world, but some are such Reshaim, it's like the Rambam says in Hilchot Teshuva, you're not even allowed to help them do Teshuva. Why? Ki hem moridim et hamekarev midargato. They bring down the person that is trying to help them do teshuva. He's telling them, let's keep Shabbat. Why don't you come to my house? One says, okay, you know what, let's go to the bar and talk about it. He says, you know, let's go to Beit Knesset, and he goes, you know what, let's go to Starbucks first — a non-kosher operation with a bunch of Jews that attend for some reason. One of my students asked me, "Did Starbucks put their tools in the mikveh?" I said, "No." He goes, "So why does the rabbi go there all the time?" Not me; there's another rabbi. I said, "I don't know. You have to ask him." Where do we see this, Rabbi Nachman says? We saw this with Moshe Rabbeinu himself, who did kiruv with the Erev Rav, the Egyptians that were fake converts.

6:29He brought them to join Am Yisrael. In the book of Shemot (Exodus) 32, Hashem says, "Go down," meaning go down from Mount Sinai, go to your nation who became despicable. Why does He say "your nation," Moshe? Isn't it Hashem's nation? No, it's Moshe's nation. It's the Erev Rav that sinned. It's the Erev Rav, the insincere converts who sin. I didn't tell you to do kiruv with them. I didn't tell you to do kiruv with the guys who are, you know, missionaries. I didn't tell you to turn the missionaries into Jews. I didn't tell you to do that. There's no power in the world to actually bring them down. Some people are so wicked. That they've become, once they've gone to the point where they cause other people to sin, there's no power to destroy their wickedness. What does it mean? They can't do teshuva? Yes, they can, but on their own. You cannot help them. You are not allowed to help them. This causes a lot of destruction.

7:58If we continue, Rabbi Nachman from Breslov continues in Likutei Moharan on Siman Samech, Samech Zayin. A person who deals with teaching the public, to wake them up, needs to preserve themselves from Talmidim, from students that are not fair, so he doesn't get affected by their wickedness and thus doesn't destroy himself and hurt himself. needs to preserve themselves from talmidim, from students that are not fair, so he doesn't get affected by their wickedness. This way, he won't destroy or hurt himself. Our sages have said in Masechet Chullin, page 133, that a person is not allowed to teach an unworthy student. What's an unworthy student? Instead of genuinely learning Torah, he's looking for ways to manipulate it. There are different types of people who learn Torah. Ideally, there's a certain type of person who learns Torah because he wants to honor Hashem.

9:25That's the highest level, even without a reward. Then there's a person who learns Torah because he simply wants a reward. He wants Hashem to give him Olam Haba, he wants money, he wants this, he wants that. And the Gemara says this is not for the sake of shamayim. He's not learning for the sake of shamayim. He's learning for the sake of a reward. He's learning for the sake of money. But still, even if someone starts that way, eventually he'll end up doing good and learning Torah also for the sake of shamayim. But then there's such a student that wants to learn only to find the rabbi's mistakes, only to find ways that he can manipulate the Torah by looking for the gray areas constantly. He is always looking for the difficulties, the machloket, the debates, and searching for the places where the rabbi might not be an expert. It is said about such a person in the Gemara that it would have been better for Hashem to suffocate him inside his mother's womb than for him to come to the world and learn Torah with the intent to seek errors and manipulations. Such a person is not a Talmid Agun. He is not a fair student. You're not allowed to teach him or engage in Kiruv with such an individual. On him, it is written in the Gemara that it would have been better for Hashem to suffocate him inside his mother's uterus than for him to come into the world and learn Torah in order to look for mistakes and manipulations. Such a person is not a talmid hagon; he's not a fair student. You're not allowed to teach him. You're not allowed to do kiruv with such a person.

10:48Yeah, but he's a Jew. Good. Let him be a Jew somewhere else. You're not allowed to put yourself at risk doing kiruv. What is this like teaching such a person? The Gemara in Masechet Shabbat, page 108, says the mitzvah of tefillin requires you to write tefillin on a behemah, on a kosher animal. on a kosher animal. You can't take the skin of a lion and write tefillin on it, even though it's also leather. You're not allowed to use it. Why? Because the verse in the Torah from which we learn this halacha is "Your your the Torah of Hashem will be in your mouth," and from this state, we learn that just like the Torah is in your mouth, the actual animal that you're using also has to be permissible for you to eat. So, to write with that tefillin, it must come from a kosher animal. The halachic principle is clear: the Torah's sanctity extends to the materials used in its performance. Your Torah of Hashem will be in your mouth, and from this we learn that just as the Torah is in your mouth, the actual animal that you're using also has to be permissible for you to eat. So, to write with that tefillin, it must meet these same kosher requirements.

11:51Now, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov says that teaching a talmid, teaching a talmid that's not a kosher talmid, he's not looking for the truth. He's looking for excuses. He's just using you as the way to get the excuses. This is like writing a Sefer Torah or tefillin on an unkosher animal. Why? Because, in essence, when you teach Torah, you're engraving the Torah on his heart, on his neshama. Don't engrave on a non-kosher vessel. So even here, Rabbi Nachman says that not only are there reshaim in the world, there are some people who are simply not even allowed to be taught. Because they are such non-kosher people. Because if you teach a kosher person, Rabbi Nachman says in Gemara Masechet Sanhedrin, page 99, it states: "Anyone that teaches the son of his friend Torah is like he created him." Such is the significance of helping somebody do teshuva. Such is the importance of teaching kosher Torah.

13:09But you have to be careful. Specifically, the people out there that don't know right from left sometimes, and they're just trying to gain fans and YouTube followers. So they try to do things that sound popular. They like to spend their time debating people: debating Christians, debating heretics, debating atheists, and so on and so forth. No one ever told you that you're allowed to do it, first of all. And secondly, it's very, very dangerous ground. Why would you do it? These are people who are looking for excuses. They're not looking to agree. This is not a debate for Shamayim. The two sides are debating to win—it's like two lawyers. No one cares what the truth is; everyone cares about winning. Such a debate between a Christian and a Jew is not for Shamayim. Anyone that's really looking for the truth, Baruch Hashem, there's plenty of truth out there. Why are you spending so much time doing it? And that's why I disagree with some of these people that are relatively decent people, in some cases amazing people, but they spend a lot of time debating.

14:13For what? What's the purpose? There are plenty, there are 20 million Jews in the world who are not even keeping Shabbat. Why don't you focus on them instead of the heretics, instead of the Christians, instead of all the other people? Why don't you focus on them? And Rebbe Nachman of Breslov says there's actually something you need to learn about this. In Likutei Moharan, Torah Samech Dalet, he says the following: He says there's a snake. There's a snake in creation. Who's the snake today? Who's the snake? The snake was in Gan Eden. Who's the snake today? The snake today is the wise among the wicked. the philosophers, the atheists, the Darwins of the world, what's that other guy that debated Sacks?

15:15Dawkins of the world, it's like Shapiro of the world, the maximum of his equal, all of those heretics, missionaries, the Brown, whatever his name is, Brownie, much more Michael Brown – all of these missionaries and apikorsim, and so on, they are the nachash. They are the serpent. They are the snake. Why? They are looking for ways to create more heresy and just like it's written in the book of Jeremiah chapter 4, these wise among the wicked, even if they try to do good with their wisdom, they simply can't. Such is their wickedness. Not only should we acknowledge that there are wicked individuals among the people, even sometimes inside the Beit Knesset, but there are also such people in the world among both Jews and non-Jews that you are simply not allowed to help, and you have to do everything you can to avoid them, as you would avoid the Black Plague.

16:27This, rabotai, is critical for every Breslover chassid, every Jew, every person on earth needs to know this. Why? This is the truth. You cannot help everybody. You have to pick and choose. And now that we're in a time of Mashiach, there's not enough time. There's not enough time to spend time debating people and going back and forth. You gotta spend. If he gets it within one lecture, good, continue. If he doesn't get it, we gotta move on. I'm sorry, you didn't get it, I'm sorry. Here's another lecture, let me know if you get the next one. I'll send you as many lectures as you want, but I can't handhold you forever. There's not enough time. There's not enough time. Mashiach is around the corner. There's not enough time to spend three, four, five hours with you. There's not enough time. Oh no, can I have a private lesson? Yes, it's called the shiur Torah. Every Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. No, can I have one-on-one? Yeah, one-on-one. You're sitting over here. I'm sitting over here. We learn one-on-one. Yeah, but there are other people there. So what do you care if they're there? Why, are they bothering you? Are you racist? Are you sexist? What's the matter? They're Jews. What's the problem?

17:42What's the problem? Why don't you want them there? What are we, dating? What do you want? Why does everybody want one-on-one? What are you gonna get one-on-one? I'm speaking, you're learning, that's it. You have a question, you ask. Did I ever tell any of you guys no more questions? What's the problem? Stop making excuses. Stop making excuses. The reality is, Rabotai, people need to understand there's not enough time. There's not enough time. There's simply not enough time to waste time on everybody. You have to pick the best. The best of the best. Sometimes I see people watching a shiur online. It gets me very excited. I see there's a new person. Never heard of him before. Never saw him before. He's excited. She's excited. They say all types of nice things about me. Compliments. He's this. He's that. Whatever. It's nice. Thank you very much. But the reality is that you listen to what I say. and then I see them. You know, they watch for a week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, five months, six months, and then disappear off the face of the earth. What happened? Korach invited you in. What happened? Where'd you go? Oh, for five months I was saying things they liked. On the sixth month, they heard one thing they didn't like. So what happened to the fruit? What did I say? Is it fake? Did I make it up? Is it my opinion? It's still Torah, right?

19:13A person needs to know there's only one truth. There aren't 500 truths. You cannot help everyone. If I see a person comes to the shiurim, sends letters, sends emails, stays in touch, and so on, if he asks good questions, he's looking for the truth, he's doing something to actually live the truth, I'll do everything I can to help him. But to go after people and start chasing them and calling them, what's going on? There's simply not enough time. There's not enough time for me to do it. There's not enough time for anyone to do it. Why? There are too many of us that need help. Too many of us, religious and non-religious, are simply living a lie, thinking it's the truth. And that's also one of the things that Rebbe Nachman says, actually. I saw it today. Because there are some people that are sleeping their whole lives. What do you mean sleeping? How can they sleep? Spiritually sleeping.

20:35Spiritually sleeping, how could this be? He says it's actually in their imagination. It's in their imagination that they're serving Hashem, and they're dealing with Torah and tefillah. But in reality, their service is not giving Hashem any comfort at all. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov is saying that some of us are sleepwalking, thinking we're religious. So here, we have learned that it's not all fun and games all the time. It's not all fun and games all the time.