Appendix C: A Letter by the Rebbe 5727 (1967)

This date appears in Yechezkel 1:1:“In the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles [in Babylonia], the Heavens were opened and I beheld visions of G‑d.”

On this verse the Zohar (II, 82b) comments: “The people were not there. Why, then, was the Divine Presence revealed there? If you were to suggest that this was in the merit of the Jewish people, [then it would have been better that the Divine Presence abide in their midst, rather than it should be revealed there for their sake]. So understand, rather, that if the Shechinah had not been revealed there, they would not have known [that the Shechinah was in their midst].”

[Hence, according to the Zohar, prophecy is possible in the Diaspora. However,] see also a similar discussion in Moed Katan 25a.

It would appear that even though Rambam defines prophecy at length and in detail, he mentions no proviso that only in Eretz Yisrael can prophecy – or at least its initial stage – occur. Since in Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah 7:1 he does not specify such a proviso, this implies that he does not hold that it exists. This accords with the above-quoted view of the Zohar.

(In fact, the passage in Moed Katan can also be understood in this way. That passage, as in the opening query of the Zohar, excludes only Babylonia, the Land of the Kasdim (Chaldees). Indeed, the Gemara there uses the phrase Bavel garmah, implying that the only reason a certain sage was not granted prophecy was that he was in Babylonia. This view differs from that of Rashi, who understands that phrase as applying to the entire Diaspora.)

See also Zohar I: 85a, 149a, 222b; Raaya Mehemna, foot of that page; Zohar II: 8a; Zohar Chadash on Vayeitzei, foot of p. 28d. The above discussion will suffice for the present.

In the original, yemei segulah.

On his imprisonment, capital sentence and liberation in Leningrad in 1927, see Likkutei Dibburim (in English translation), Vol. 4, pp. 141-218, and Vol. 6, throughout.

In the original, acheinu bnei Yisrael, Shlita.

Avodah Zarah 5b; see also Zohar II, 25a.

See Rashi on Avodah Zarah, loc. cit.

In the original, these three nouns are: daato, tevunaso and chochmoso.

See Rashi on Devarim 29:6. Note that the plain meaning of mishnaso is that which a person deduces from what he has heard or studied; i.e., tevunah, as in Rashi on Shmos 31:3.

The Talmud (in Avodah Zarah, loc. cit.) does not speak of understanding the words spoken by a mortal mentor but the words spoken by Moshe Rabbeinu’s Divine Mentor.

See the maamar beginning VeYadaata HaYom – Choref 5657 [1897], sec. 2.

Devarim 29:3. “To know,” “to see” and “to hear” together correspond to the three stages of Chabad – Chochmah, Binah and Daas; and “heart” corresponds to the middos (which are also included in Rashi’s interpretation of sof daato). See also Or HaTorah by the Tzemach Tzedek on the above verse (p. 1122 and elsewhere).

See the maamar beginning VeYadaata HaYom, loc. cit.

Devarim 29:1-2.

Sefer HaSichos – Kayitz 5700 [1940], p. 73; see also Rambam, Hilchos Taaniyos 1:3.

Note Nedarim 64b, which likens a blind man to a dead man, and Bava Kama 85b, which rules that the compensation to be paid by a person who deafens another must be equivalent to his total “value.” See also the maamar entitled Lehavin Inyan Yom-Tov Sheni in Likkutei Torah – Devarim, p. 91c ff.

Devarim 8:2.