Is Anybody Home?
ויקרא ה' אלוקים אל האדם ויאמר לו איכה
G-d called out to the man and said to him: Where are you...?!
Is Anybody Home?
In 5559, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi was imprisoned on the charge that his teachings undermined the imperial authority of the czar. For 52 days he was held in the Peter-Paul Fortress in Petersburg.
Among the Rebbe's interrogators was a government minister who possessed broad knowledge of the Bible and of Jewish studies. On one occasion, he asked the Rebbe to explain the verse: “G-d called out to the man and said to him: Where are you?” Did G-d not know where Adam was?
Rabbi Schneur Zalman presented the classic explanation offered by the commentaries: the question “where are you?” was merely a conversation opener on the part of G-d, who did not wish to unnerve Adam by immediately confronting him with his wrong-doing,
“What Rashi says, I already know,” said the minister. “I wish to hear how the Rebbe understands the verse.”
“Do you believe that the Torah is eternal?” asked the Rebbe. “That its every word applies to every individual, under all conditions, at all times?”
“Yes,” replied the minister.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman was extremely gratified to hear this, The czar's minister had affirmed a principle which lies at the basis of the teachings of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov - the very teachings and ideology for which he was standing trial!
“‘Where are you?’” explained the Rebbe, “is G-d's perpetual call to every man. Where are you in the world? What have you accomplished? You have been allotted a certain number of days, hours and minutes in which to fulfill your mission in life. You have lived so many years and so many days - Rabbi Schneur Zalman spelled out the exact age of the minister - where are you? What have you attained?”
Source:
Told by Rabbi Menachem M. Schneersohn, the Lubavitcher Rebbe shlita, on December 12, 1957, on the occasion of the 159th anniversary of Rabbi Schneur Zalman's release from prison in Petersburg (Kislev 19th on the Jewish calendar).
