Rabbi YY Jacobson
Chassidim Ein Mishpacha
The saying “Chassidim are ONE family,” was coined by the Maharash, saying that the Alter Rebbe [the founder of the Chabad movement,] dedicated his life and invested his strength toward the goal that Chassidim should be like one family [care for and look after each other as a family].
==== The Rebbe Maharash P355.
Beis Iyar, Tiferes Sheb’Tiferes, the Yom Holedes of the Maharash, Admor Shmuel, 4th Chabad Rebbe.
UFARATZTA
What was the greatest project ever undertaken? No question, it was the creation of the cosmos. After all, that is the mother of any other project, big or small, undertaken by man or by nature. Our observable universe is a sphere around 92 billion light-years wide. We know of roughly octillion – 1 followed by 27 zeros – planets in the universe. The human body alone contains some 100 trillion cells. Within each cell is a nucleus. Within each nucleus is a double copy of the human genome. Each genome contains 3.1 billion letters of genetic code, enough if transcribed to fill a library of five thousand books. The greatest miracle of all time, without any close second, is the universe. It is the miracle of all miracles.
And yet, the Torah teaches there is something even greater than the universe.
What?
In the beginning of Genesis, the Torah devotes 31 verses to describe how G-d created the entire world. “In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth.” In striking contrast, the Torah devotes 371 verses to describe how the Jews created the Tabernacle, or Mishkan, in the desert!
This seems profoundly strange. The universe spans some 176 trillion billion miles and is an infinitely complex structure. After millennia of research, we have not yet scratched the surface of its untold depth and unbound mysteries. We have not even mastered the secrets embedded in a single cell. The Tabernacle, on the other hand, was around 150 feet long and 75 feet wide, and was an impressive structure, but essentially a small tent; a mini mobile "shteibel."
Why would the Torah be so expansive about the creation of a humble albeit splendorous tent in the desert and yet so terse about the creation of the cosmos with its infinite depth, majesty, and grandeur? Does that make sense?
The answer is that the universe is the home G-d makes for man, while the Sanctuary is the home man makes for G-d. It may be smaller and simpler, but still more significant and prominent.
And yet, there is something even greater than the Sanctuary. Even the construction of the Sanctuary had to be suspended for something. For what?
The Shabbat! Even to construct the Sanctuary, we may not desecrate the Shabbat. The sanctity and preciousness of Shabbat trumps the Sanctuary, which trumps the universe. This tells us something about the infinite greatness of Shabbat. For even the Sanctuary, which serves as G-d’s home on earth, is not as holy as Shabbat – the day of “rest,” which transcends the entire creation, the entire universe, even G-d’s “home” in our world. Shabbos is a day of intimacy with the Divine beyond the world, with G-d Himself.
But wait, there is something even holier than Shabbat! And for that, even Shabbos itself needs to be shattered and destroyed.
What is that? The Jew! The Shabbat must be violated to save a life. Even if there exists only a one percent chance that a life might be saved by violating the Shabbat, and to just prolong a life by a few minutes, all the laws of Shabbat must be broken. For the sanctity of life trumps even the sanctity of Shabbat, which trumps even the sanctity of the Temple, which trumps the very act of creation—the origin of all existence.
The Shema
This, says the Chasam Sofer, is the meaning of the words “Shema Yisrael Hashem…” Shema consists of three letters, which are the acronym of “Shabbos, Mikdash, Olam.”
The Shabbat, the Temple, and the world. These are in descending order the three most precious items of existence.
And yet above all three of them is (Shema) Yisrael—the Jew himself! For the Jew is literally one with G-d in His very essence, Yisroel is part of “Hashem Elokanu Hashem Echad.”
