Attn lubavitch: I have a strange request

Executive Member Joined: Mar 04 2009 Posts: 363

im not chabad, but we respect and admire the Rebbe and his ways (and we frequent the ohel a lot)

you know that sefer that you can ask a question and open it randomly and you get an answer? I was wondering, does it work through a shaliach? if so, does anyone that have it want to volunteer to be mine?

PM me

thanks

Gold Member Joined: Mar 26 2006 Posts: 1626

You are referring to the "goral HaGra", the way the Vilna Gaon used to open a chumash at random and find an answer by looking at the first word on the page, or whatever.
Some Lubavitchers have adopted this goral by using a volume of Igros Kodesh, letters the Rebbe wrote on a wide range of topics. They will write a piyon nefesh/letter, and put it randomly into the sefer. Then they will open the sefer to that page and read the letter appearing on the page, hoping that it would address their question.
Do you live near any Lubavitchers? Can you knock on a door and ask to borrow a volume of the Rebbe's Igros Kodesh for an hour?
I have never heard of it being done through a shliach. First of all, how would the letter get to the shliach? If you can bring it to the shliach, you can also borrow their sefer!
Also, this is very personal. Would you want just anyone reading your letter and the reply? What if the letter on the selected page said, "You need to improve your Taharas Hamishpacha" or something?

ETA - If you frequent the Ohel a lot, there are bound to be a few volumes of Igros floating around.
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I have asked someone else to put a letter in the Igros Kodesh for me on occasion but that has usually been when I cant get to one
ex. when I was in labor and my fil did it for me and dh and read us the response on the phone
I would try to do it yourself
why dont you ask your local shliach if you can borrow a sefer or come over and use it?
if you have no way of coming by one in person then you can always try and get someone else to open the Igros for you

Try this: www.igrot.com Web Page Name
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just a few notes about doing this.

* You aren't writing to the igros, you are writing to the Rebbe via the igros.

* Just like when people used to go to see the Rebbe in person one would prepare themselves spiritually, daven, learn something etc we do the same regarding going to the ohel or writing into the igros. Act like you would if you were in the Rebbe's presence physically.

* Don't expect it to work like magic that you open up and wow amazing the letter was just for you. What we do is we read whatever letter is there and see what we can take away from it, what applies to us and what we can learn from it. I've been wowed sometimes by the relevance of the letter to my situation and sometimes not but I've always been able to take away some sort of chizuk from it and learn something

* Get someone to help you read and understand the letter.

also, rather then getting a shliach to do it for you get someone to do it with you.