There’s no question that Reb Yoel Kahn, who left us just recently, was the preeminent chassidic scholar of our generation. Not only that; there is no one that even comes close to Reb Yoel’s knowledge, his understanding, depth and breadth.
What is the secret to understanding Reb Yoel?
Reb Yoel was first and foremost the Rebbe’s chozer. A chozer is the one who memorizes the Rebbe’s words as they are spoken and then commits them to writing. Most of the Rebbe’s farbrengens were held on Shabbos and Yom Tov, when electronic recording is prohibited, and thus the entire transcription of several hours of deep Chassidic concepts relied solely on memory. (This challenge was compounded further when Shabbos was directly followed by Yom Tov, requiring the memory to remain fresh for several days, and even to keep track of multiple farbrengens prior to writing.)
What one needs to be a good chozer, and certainly a perfect chozer, is a phenomenal memory to be able to remember the Rebbe’s words.
Interestingly, the faculty of memory is not counted among the three components of the brain according to Chassidus. The brain’s three components – which comprise the acronym of ChaBaD – are Chochmah, Binah and Da’as. Memory is not included.
Chochmah, as explained in Chassidus, is the Barak Hamavrik, the flash of light, the brainstorm that you initially receive. For example, you are trying to learn something and you don’t understand. You’re sweating and toiling, and then after a long while, suddenly, there’s a lightning flash and you begin to “get it.” Or when you get a new idea, a brainstorm. This is chochmah. But that light is still general, without details.
The next stage is binah, where you begin to investigate and understand the implications of that first flash. The abstract idea now starts becoming articulated and developed in depth (profound understanding) and in breadth (details and consequences).
The final stage is da’as, where you apply the idea practically, connect with it, and effect a change.
Not everyone is blessed with exceptional capabilities in all three components. One person’s forte may be chochmah but he’s not so good at binah and daas. Another may specialize in binah, while a third is best at da’as.
On top of that, not everyone has such a great memory. It was said by many chassidim, “A chozer like Reb Yoel, no [other] Rebbe had.” It is an ambitious statement, to say that the Rebbe had a chozer like no other Rebbe had. Nevertheless, after reviewing the history, you see that the chozrim in previous generations were great at remembering what the Rebbe said. But that’s memory. It’s not known that they excelled in all three components of chochmah, binah and da’as in understanding the depth and breadth of the Rebbe’s words and what, exactly, the Rebbe meant.
I remember years ago the Rebbe talking about this concept and he said that there is a term called “Tzana molei safro,” which means a “bookcase full of books.” You say this about a smart person, that he’s “a bookcase full of books” and it’s generally a compliment. The Rebbe said, however, that it’s not always a compliment, because the bookcase “doesn’t know from the books,” and the “books don’t know from bookcase.” They are two separate entities.
A person can be “full of books” because he has a photographic memory. He sees a page and it becomes fixed in his mind, and whenever you talk to him about it, he remembers it and can “see” the page before his eyes. But he doesn’t always understand exactly what it says on that page.
The specialty of Reb Yoel is that not only did he remember what the Rebbe said – and he remembered very well – but he also understood what the Rebbe said. In order for Reb Yoel to give over the depth of what the Rebbe said, he had to understand it himself.
How was Reb Yoel able to explain matters of Chassidus so well? Because he understood them so well himself. You can’t explain something to someone else if you don’t understand it yourself. Reb Yoel understood the concepts so well, and in his mind every concept was shining in all three components of the intellect: chochmah, binah and da’as. Since it was crystal clear to him, he was able to relate that clarity, depth and breadth to others.
There is another component to Reb Yoel – his spiritual side. We’ll discuss this next week, with Hashem’s help.