SEEKING GUIDANCE
A chossid once traveled to see his Rebbe and was admitted to yechidus. He told the Rebbe of his spiritual challenges, and also mentioned his business troubles. The Rebbe gave him advice and gave him a bracha, and shortly after, the chossid’s business greatly improved. One of his neighbors noticed his sudden success, and she nagged her husband, who was not a chossid, to visit the Rebbe. The husband eventually gave in to her prolonged pressure, and took to the road. However, when he finally asked for advice and for a brocha for success in parnasa, he was told, “I have no advice for you.”
“But you had for my neighbor,” complained the simple fellow. As an explanation, the Rebbe told him a parable:
A merchant traveled to Leipzig to buy and sell his merchandise. When it was time to return home, he noticed that the wheels of his carriage needed to be oiled, but all the shops were closed. Walking around in an anxious search, he finally met a fellow businessman who offered to sell him some of his oil. Seeing this, another wagon driver, asked to buy oil as well. “I don’t sell oil; I deal with precious stones and diamonds,” the businessman replied. “But you gave the other man,” the driver protested. The businessman said, “How can you compare? We do business together, and I am always ready to do him an extra favor, but in general, I don’t sell oil.”
Explaining the mashal, the Rebbe continued, “Your neighbor, the chossid, has always come to me for guidance in his avodas HaShem. His material needs only come up while we discuss his spiritual needs so, sensing his difficulties, I try to help him. However, you have approached me only for your material needs. That’s not my line of business...”
(רשימות דברים לר"י חיטריק)
The Alter Rebbe likens our connection with tzaddikim to our relationship with HaShem. The connection of Yidden to HaShem is to his inner Will, which is expressed in Torah and mitzvos; other nations connect only to the external energy of HaShem, by receiving physical bounty. Likewise, which neshamos do tzaddikim enliven with the ray of the Shechina? – Those neshamos that connect to them through Torah and tefila. Those who do not bond to them in this manner, and especially those who rebel against them, receive their material sustenance from the external aspect of the tzaddikim.
(מאמרי אדה"ז תורה ע' תתלא)
WHY ARE WE GOING?
Once, at the end of the week, Reb Hillel Paritcher was suddenly inspired to spend Shabbos with the Tzemach Tzedek. It didn’t seem feasible to travel from his hometown of Babroisk to Lubavitch in such a short time, until a man offered his team of stallions for the trip. However, he stipulated two conditions: that they travel on the main highway built by the wicked Czar Nicholas, which Reb Hillel normally avoided, and that Reb Hillel not delay the trip by davening at length on the way. Left without a choice, Reb Hillel agreed.
On the first night of their trip they stayed overnight at an inn. In the morning, the young man had already davened and eaten, but Reb Hillel was still davening. Hours later, when Reb Hillel finally finished davening, the man came to him in complaint: “Didn’t you promise that you would daven at a regular pace? Now we won’t be able to arrive in Lubavitch in time for Shabbos!”
Reb Hillel answered him with a mashal: “Say a person traveled to great fair in Leipzig to purchase some materials which were available only there, and on the way he happened to meet someone who was selling that very material at a reasonable price. Should he refuse to buy it and insist on buying it exclusively in Leipzig?! That would be a foolish thing to do, for what difference does it make if he buys it here, there or in Leipzig? After all, this is the material that he needs!”
Now Reb Hillel arrived at his point: “Why do we travel to Lubavitch? We go to the Rebbe for advice and assistance so that our davening should spring forth spontaneously (es zol zich davenen). Now, if along the way we somehow succeed in davening, one has to be a fool to forgo the opportunity and rush off to the fair...”
As things turned out, they actually did arrive in Lubavitch before Shabbos.
(שמו"ס ח"ב ע' 56)
WORTHY OF BLESSING
When HaRav Shmuel Vozner a”h was a young student in the Pressburg yeshiva in the year חצר”ת (1938), he already had a connection with the Frierdiker Rebbe. After some of his friends visited the Frierdiker Rebbe, HaRav Vozner received a letter from him on how to guide them in the basics of Chassidus and hiskashrus.
In that letter the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote:
“A chossid according to Chabad Chassidus is a person who is aware of his standing in the knowledge and study of Torah, and in the observance of mitzvos. He knows what he is lacking, makes a point of correcting it, and excels in obedience and kabbolas ol.
“A mekushar according to Chabad Chassidus is a person who studies Chassidus at a set time every day and especially on Shabbos, observes the instruction to recite Tehillim every day after davening as well as on Shabbos Mevarchim, and from time to time corresponds [with the Rebbe] to report on his progress in Torah study and in avoda.”
The Frierdiker Rebbe then asks HaRav Vozner to direct his friends in their study of Chassidus and sichos, and thereby to allow them to become mekusharim.
(אג"ק ריי"צ ח"ד ע' ער"ה)
CONSIDER
What is the purpose of our connection to the Rebbe? What’s the difference between the physical brachos of the Rebbe to one who has a ruchniyus’dike hiskashrus and one who doesn’t?
