Why the Chabad Rebbe Really Started the Tefillin Campaign

When you KNOW ABOUT CHABAD, THEY'LL TELL YOU ONE OF THESE THINGS and most notably they'll tell you, "Oh, you know, I like the fact that the Chabad guy comes every once in a while and he puts on tefillin and on me." Okay, great. Did the Chabad guy ever tell you maybe you should get your own tefillin? No, not usually. Or when he did, I told him, "No, I don't feel like buying it. I don't want I don't feel like spending a thousand bucks." And he said, "Okay, no problem. I'll just keep coming once a week." And as if it was no big deal. Why? Because every Jew is precious, he said. Every Hashem understands everybody. Hashem knows. No. That Chabadnik knows that there's an obligation to put on tefillin. Hence the reason why the Rebbe, the Lubavitcher Rebbe alav hashalom, sent his soldiers all over the world to go put on tefillin on people. So, they know that there's an halacha, a Torah obligation for a Jew to put on tefillin. Everybody knows this. The religious Jew, the non-religious Jew. Everyone knows there's an obligation to put on tefillin. But yet, with all of that knowledge and all of those soldiers putting on tefillin, nobody really knows the consequences of not putting on tefillin. NOT A SINGLE ONE of them. Why? Because if somebody says, "I don't have tefillin." So, okay, so well, I'll come once in a while and I'll put a tefillin on you. Okay, great. So, what about the rest of the week? Ah, no big deal. You know, I'll come whenever I get a chance. If you ever want to get one, let me know. I'll sell it to you. So, that that in essence gives them the license to just simply not do it until you come. Meaning, they've transferred the responsibility of putting on tefillin on that messenger, on that Hasid that comes to their office or their street every so often. What's the problem? The problem is that the Gemara doesn't agree with such a thing. Why? Because the Gemara in Maseches Rosh Hashanah in page 17A says that a Jew that doesn't put on tefillin is going to go to Gehenna and never come out. He's one of those people that is considered as if he is completely disregarding Hashem in all aspects to the extent where he's desecrating Hashem's name on a regular basis by not putting on tefillin, and he's going to get a permanent punishment until his soul is destroyed. Now, you will say, "Yeah, no, no, but he did put on tefillin once a week, once a month." Okay, so you realize that he's going to get a very, very severe punishment for every time he didn't. A punishment that will make the Holocaust look like a child's play. Do you know that? Do you know that every time you miss tefillin, you're going to get punished severely for it? Oh, I thought it's just a good thing to do. Yeah, it is a good thing to do, but it's also terrible thing not to do. And [snorts] unless you knew the musar aspect of it, which is the ramifications of not following the law, knowledge of the law, meaning the fact that you need to do it, and obligated to do it, was not sufficient. This is just a small, small example of how knowing the law is not enough. Same thing with Shabbat. Person could know, I need to keep Shabbat, I need to keep Yom Kippur, I need to keep Pesach, but if something, a delicious sin comes my way, unless I know the price of that sin, most likely the knowledge of that law is not enough, not enough to keep me away from sins. So, that's why the Hahamim already say in the Mishnah in Avot, the same exact thing what the Hazon Ish says, that if a person wants to have his Hochma last, it has to be preceded by fear of heaven. >> [music] >> You realize you're sick. You're spiritually sick. Nothing wrong with him. You're all spiritually sick. >> [music] >> There's nothing wrong with being spiritually sick. There's something wrong with denying [music] it.