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I had a friend, a senior colleague I should say,
whose name was Professor Velval Green.
He was a rising star in the University of Minnesota.
He was a pioneer in the field of bacteriology, meaning he was an expert on bacteria, and he worked for NASA.
NASA hired him to figure out something very interesting, to figure out the effects of space travel on human life.
and he worked for years in NASA.
He was a lecturer in many universities and his real expertise was in bacteria and various forms of chemistry.
A very, very well-educated man.
Towards the end of his life he made Aliyah and he became a professor in Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva where he taught, I believe, till his death a few years ago.
In 1963, living in St.
Paul, Minnesota, he came across the Chabad ambassador to Minnesota, Rabbi Moshe Feller and his wife, who just passed away, and they got in contact with him.
And he slowly began to discover the world of Yiddishkeit, and he started to come closer to Yiddishkeit.
He was a very intellectual man, I knew him quite well and he had a lot, a lot of questions and he started to learn slowly and he became very enthralled by the world of Torah and because he had so many questions so he would always come to Feller and debate him and discuss and one of the big issues was evolution versus creationism
Can we accept that the world was created by God in light of the great and grand theory of evolution that has been so profoundly embraced supposedly by the academic and scientific world?
And Feller, Rabbi Feller told them, I'll tell you the truth, I'm not in the league of arguing with a man like you.
You're an accomplished scientist.
You're an academic.
I don't have this background.
But what I suggest to you is why don't you write a letter with all your questions to the Lubavitcher Rebbe who lives in Brooklyn.
He's a very, very educated man.
And ask him all your questions.
I'm sure he'll be happy to answer.
So they developed a long correspondence in a lot of areas.
Once, Velvil Green writes a letter to the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the letter is extremely sharp.
What happened?
He came across a letter that the Rebbe wrote to another scientist about evolution.
The weak points in the theory of evolution and how the academic community is being dishonest about all of the discrepancies and the thousands of intellectual problems with the theory of evolution.
It became like a mantra.
You're not allowed to question.
And he wrote a long letter to the scientist.
And Velvil Green, who was a scientist, came across this letter.
He writes to the Baba Sheba, he says, I read your letter.
And usually when I'm writing to a layman,
I will try to be respectful.
But since I hold you in high prominence and I respect you, I'm going to write to you bluntly.
Lubavitcher Eber, why don't you continue doing what you do well?
You be a rabbi and leave science to scientists.
It's not your field.
I see you know nothing of it.
And he attacks all of his arguments.
and objects to them and from his perspective disproves them a very sharp letter to the Rebbe saying how he doesn't understand science and doesn't understand evolution and doesn't understand the proofs of evolution and is just trying to defend his religion and he asked the Rebbe just stay out of this.
This was in 1964.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote him back a letter
And instead of addressing the main issue, he wrote, I was delighted to read in your letter that in the summer you're sending all of your children to a Jewish camp, to Felech Abad camp in St.
Paul.
I am so delighted.
And he goes on writing a whole letter about the greatness of a Jewish summer camp.
and he ignores this whole personal very, very intense attack on him of how he knows nothing of science and understands nothing.
And Green thought, you know, it was the Rebbe's nice way of saying you're right and submitting and acquiescing and just like almost saying, okay, you know, I'll write about summer camps instead of the Jewish summer camps and Jewish education instead of evolution.
So you know he felt it would be a little difficult probably for the Rebbe to say you're right I'm wrong I apologize but this was a nice way of just saying let's move on and you know I won't bring up these topics again and I'll just do my thing and I'll let you do your thing fine which he was fine with that at least the Rebbe wasn't busy defending himself
And so years went by and he came much closer to Yiddishkeit.
He started to put on tefillin and he kashered his home and they started with mikveh.
You know how it works.
It's not an easy process.
Especially not in the 60s.
Till today it's not an easy process.
Hard for people who grew up in the religious world to understand the transformation that a baltruva has to go through especially once they're established with a family and a career and his parents and his siblings etc.
It's one of the
Great, great, courageous moves people could make in life.
So I'm sitting right here in this tent.
After years past, I think it was, after years past, I think it was 68, quite a few years later, he made the big move, he and his wife, and they took their children out of public school or prep school, and they put them into a Jewish yeshiva.
a Jewish day school or a Talmud Torah yeshiva Jewish institution which of course is always the key factor of ensuring a future when the children are getting an intense Jewish education not just a half an hour Sunday afternoon coloring a menorah.
So Velva Green wrote a letter to the Rebbe reporting to him that for this September for the new semester for the new year his children are going to a Jewish school.
So Debra wrote him back a beautiful letter acknowledging it and supporting it and mainly blessing him and telling him how happy he was, etc.
And then after the letter, post script, P.S.
A few years ago,
You wrote me a whole letter about evolution.
I didn't answer it at the time and I would like now to explain to you my position.
And he goes on writing to Velvet Green a whole letter, point by point, addressing his attacks on the Rebbe years before about his ignorance in science.
And Velvet Green told me that it was an extraordinarily scientifically brilliant letter.
It's rationality, it's keen arguments, it's honesty, it's loyalty to the scientific doctrine and principles.
He was really, really impressed by it, not emotionally, but academically, pointing out various things very respectively.
But Rebbe was very succinct and very sharp in terms of the intellectual arguments.
He finishes and he says that's what I want to explain to you what I meant in the first letter that you were so upset about and I hope it will clear up the issue and you will see you will see why I maintain this in this perspective.
And then he finishes the letter.
You may be wondering why I didn't respond to you then when you were starting to come close to Yiddishkeit and you attacked me.
Why I didn't feel the need to defend myself and explain my position.
Especially an important issue.
And he says the reason for that is because if I would have done it then I would have won the argument but I would have lost the Jew.
And my mission in life is not to win arguments.
My mission in life is to win Jews, to bring them closer to their father in heaven.
He says, my mission in life is to bring Jews closer to Torah and Mitzvot, not ever to win an argument.
And that's really the guiding principle that I think the Meshach Chochmah is saying.
I can win an argument or not.
I can get into an argument, but you don't want to win an argument.
because you win an argument but you lost the person.
You have to be able sometimes to lose the battle and win the war.
There are people who win battles but always lose the war.
They win arguments but they lose people.
Have a wonderful week.
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