Chasidut for Demai 2:3
הַמְקַבֵּל עָלָיו לִהְיוֹת חָבֵר, אֵינוֹ מוֹכֵר לְעַם הָאָרֶץ לַח וְיָבֵשׁ, וְאֵינוֹ לוֹקֵחַ מִמֶּנּוּ לַח, וְאֵינוֹ מִתְאָרֵח אֵצֶל עַם הָאָרֶץ, וְלֹא מְאָרְחוֹ אֶצְלוֹ בִּכְסוּתוֹ. רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר, אַף לֹא יְגַדֵּל בְּהֵמָה דַקָּה, וְלֹא יְהֵא פָרוּץ בִּנְדָרִים וּבִשְׂחוֹק, וְלֹא יְהֵא מִטַּמֵּא לְמֵתִים, וּמְשַׁמֵּשׁ בְּבֵית הַמִּדְרָשׁ. אָמְרוּ לוֹ, לֹא בָאוּ אֵלּוּ לַכְּלָל:
One who takes it upon himself to be a <i>Chaver</i> [one who scrupulously observes tithes and purity laws] may not sell to an ignorant person wet or dry [produce], nor buy from him wet [produce], nor be the guest of an <i>Am HaAretz</i> nor host him as a guest [when he is clothed] in his [own] garments. Rabbi Yehudah says, “He may not even raise small animals, nor be unrestrained regarding vows and entertainment, nor become defiled by [contact with] a corpse, and frequent the house of study.” They said to him, “These are not included in the general principle.”
Hakhsharat HaAvrekhim
We ask that not only the Chassid who is a part of the chevraya, but also the Chassid who never even had the possibility of the chevraya, and serves God by himself, should take upon himself to do all that we have asked in these protocols. If you ask on what authority we ask that someone not involved in the chevraya should accept such an obligation, we refer you to the Mishne Torah of the Rambam,238Hilchot Miskav U’Moshav, Chapter 10 See Mishna Demai, Ch. 2 Mishna 3. who decrees that in this age, even a talmid chacham (Torah scholar) should accept upon himself “divrei chaverus.”239This is a concept pertaining to the laws of Taharos, ritual purity, which since the destruction of the Temple (may it be rebuilt soon and in our lifetimes) has been out of practice. As we said at the outset, a Chaver, or friend, also means an individual dedicated to the Torah. A chaver is assumed to be ritually pure, so one could receive food from him and not worry that it had been contaminated. An “am ha’aretz,” meaning an unlearned Jew, (specifically, a Jew who is ignorant of the laws of purity [Taharos] and the laws of tithing,) is assumed to be ritually impure, (as he simply does not know how to keep pure, remove impurity, etc.) so that any food or vessel received from him is suspect. If an am ha’aretz wants remove this assumption of ritual contamination, he may accept upon himself “Divrei chaverus.” Based on the Mishna in Demai, (2:3) the Rambam writes, “what is divrei chaverus? He vows to be careful of not becoming contaminated by defiled things, to be careful of not contaminating things that are ritually pure, to be careful of netilas yadayim (ritual hand washing), and keeping his hands pure by not receiving anything wet from an am ha’aretz, not being a guest in the house of an am ha’aretz not hosting him in his house while the am ha’aretz is wearing his own clothes (as they are more suseptable to contamination than the am ha’aretz’s body).” The Rambam continues in Halacha 3, “from the time of the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash the Cohanim agreed among themselves with elitist suspicion that they would refrain from handing ritually pure objects or food even to Talmidei Chachamim unless they had accepted the conditions of divrei chaverus.”
But now we have no Temple, no Cohen who has a ritually pure object to give, no continual offering nor even the altar to atone for our sins, and no ashes of the red heifer to purify us from defilement, only cigarette ashes to smear on our heads and let us remember what we had and what we need to yearn for. If we could only do what we need to do to change our bereavement into holy simchah, we would be standing before the Temple in an instant.
The defilement that the Rebbe is hinting at is a spiritual defilement. Not a concrete defilement of ritual impurity, where if I touch a wet apple I have to be aware that I have just defiled the apple, but the defilement of a cold, unfeeling avodah, where I am saying the words of the prayers by not aware what I am saying or to Whom I am praying. But in the interest of accentuating the positive, which we should all strive to do, let us say that a pure avodah is an avodah with a revealed soul. And in order to preserve this pure avodah, the Piasesner Rebbe advises even a Chassid who is not connected to an association to fulfill all of the advice given to the association as every word of advice is a method that facilitates this revelation. In this way, members of a chevraya need not suspect a lone servant of God and cast aspersions on his avodah, or in the context of our discussion, alienate him simply because he is not a part of the group. This advice is a way of fostering unity if not among all Jews, because “you need to learn to walk before you can run,” and as he said a member who is not suitable could harm the interests of the chevraya, but at least among the Chassidim, where there is much work to be done. In truth, such a vow should be said before three Jews, but on this point we will not be overly strict, and it is enough for him to accept the conditions alone before his Master. We will provide you with a text of the vow below.
But now we have no Temple, no Cohen who has a ritually pure object to give, no continual offering nor even the altar to atone for our sins, and no ashes of the red heifer to purify us from defilement, only cigarette ashes to smear on our heads and let us remember what we had and what we need to yearn for. If we could only do what we need to do to change our bereavement into holy simchah, we would be standing before the Temple in an instant.
The defilement that the Rebbe is hinting at is a spiritual defilement. Not a concrete defilement of ritual impurity, where if I touch a wet apple I have to be aware that I have just defiled the apple, but the defilement of a cold, unfeeling avodah, where I am saying the words of the prayers by not aware what I am saying or to Whom I am praying. But in the interest of accentuating the positive, which we should all strive to do, let us say that a pure avodah is an avodah with a revealed soul. And in order to preserve this pure avodah, the Piasesner Rebbe advises even a Chassid who is not connected to an association to fulfill all of the advice given to the association as every word of advice is a method that facilitates this revelation. In this way, members of a chevraya need not suspect a lone servant of God and cast aspersions on his avodah, or in the context of our discussion, alienate him simply because he is not a part of the group. This advice is a way of fostering unity if not among all Jews, because “you need to learn to walk before you can run,” and as he said a member who is not suitable could harm the interests of the chevraya, but at least among the Chassidim, where there is much work to be done. In truth, such a vow should be said before three Jews, but on this point we will not be overly strict, and it is enough for him to accept the conditions alone before his Master. We will provide you with a text of the vow below.
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