The following story happened on this very Shabbos, 80 years ago.
One of the great rabbis of Pre-war Europe was Rabbi Aharon Rokeach (1880 – 1957), the fourth Rebbe of the Belz Chasidic dynasty (Belz is a city in Galicia, Poland.) He led the movement from 1926 until his death in 1957.
Known for his piety and saintliness, Reb Aharon of Belz was called the "Wonder Rabbi" by Jews and gentiles alike for the miracles he performed.
His reign as Rebbe saw the devastation of the Belz community, along with most of European Jewry, during the Holocaust. During the war, Reb Aharon was high on the list of Gestapo targets as a high-profile Rebbe. They murdered his wife and each of his children and grandchildren. He had no one left. But he and his half-brother, Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgoray, managed to escape from Poland into Hungary, then into Turkey, Lebanon, and finally into Israel, in February 1944. He remarried but had no children.
Most thought that Belz was an item of history. Yet, the impossible occurred. His half-brother Rabbi Mordechai also remarried and had a son, then died suddenly a few months later. Reb Aharon raised his half-brother's year-old son, Yissachar Dov, and groomed him to succeed him as Belzer Rebbe. Today, it is one of the largest Chassidic groups in Israel, with hundreds of institutions, schools, synagogues, and yeshivos.
The Belzer Rebbe not once said any of the prescribed prayers like Yizkor or Kaddish for his wife and children, because he felt that those who had been slain by the Nazis for being Jews were of transcendent holiness; their spiritual stature was beyond our comprehension.
For Reb Aharon, the only proper way to respond to the near-total destruction of Belz and honor the memory of the dead was to build new institutions and slowly nurture a new generation of Chasidim. This is what he did for the remainder of his life.
The First Shabbos
The first Shabbos after he arrived in Israel during the winter of 1944 was Shabbos Parshas Beshalach, and he spent it in Haifa.
UFARATZTA
Act Positively and Receive Positivity from Above [Continued from last week]
Az Yoshir Moshe
... In general, we should guard our thoughts-speech-actions, refraining from worrisome and disheartening thoughts. We should go in the opposite direction, [thinking,] speaking and doing things that lift us up and bring us happiness. This behavior will settle and become part of one’s mindset. And in this way, [as a result] a spirit from above will shower joy and an upbeat heart upon us. And this is what I heard from my grandfather, our teacher and Rebbe [The Baal haTanya]: The Magid* (Nishmoso Eiden) would say, on the Pasuk [Yechezkel 1,26] “... like the appearance of a man upon it, from above,” that in accordance with how a person projects himself down in this world, so they relate to him from above. Therefore, he** recommended that I should refrain from singing sad*** tunes during davening. He waited until I finished davening Maariv and then told me the [above] Torah of the Magid. ...
==== Igros Kodesh Tzemach Tzedek P21 22.
*The Magid of Mezritch, took over the leadership of the Chassidim after the Baal-Shem-Tov. The Alter Rebbe/ Baal haTanya was his talmid.
** The Baal haTanya /Chabad Rebbe, maternal grandfather of the Tzemach Tzedek/ the third Chabad Rebbe. The Tzemach Tzedek would hum tunes during his tefillos.
*** Not to confuse sad tunes with slow, passionate tunes.
Note: The above Torah of the Mezritcher Magid, the Alter Rebbe/Baal haTanya said to the Tzemach Tzedek on the last Maariv before the Alter Rebbe was nistalek. The Alter Rebbe was nistalek on Motzaei Shabbos, 24th of Teves 5573/1812.
He was alone in the world, without a single relative (save his brother) alive. During that Shabbos, he held a “tisch,” a formal Chassidic gathering, in which Chassidim sing, dance, and share words of inspiration and Torah. The Belzer Rebbe quickly realized that the Holocaust survivors present, who had endured indescribable suffering and had lost virtually everything they had, were in no mood to sing.
In response, the Belzer Rebbe raised the question of why the Torah specifically alludes to techiyas hameisim, the resurrection of the dead, in conjunction with the song that was sung celebrating the splitting of the Red Sea?
He gave the following chilling answer.
When the Jewish people sang the Song of the Sea, much of the nation was not present. How many people did not survive the enslavement of Egypt? How many Jewish children were drowned in the Nile? How many Jews never lived to see the day of the Exodus? How many refused to embark on a journey into the unknown?
According to tradition, only a fifth of the Jewish people made it out of Egypt. It is safe to say that everyone who did make it out of Egypt had lost relatives and could not fully rejoice in the miracles they were witnessing. Now, the sea split. Wonder of wonders! Moses says to them, “It is time to sing." But they responded, "Sing? How can we sing? Eighty percent of our people are missing!"
Hence, the Torah says, “Moses and the children of Israel will sing,” in the future tense. Moses explained to his people that the story is far from over. The Jews in Egypt have died, but their souls are alive, and they will return during the resurrection of the dead. We can sing now, said Moses, not because there is no pain, but because despite the pain, we do not believe we have seen the end of the story. We can celebrate the future.
Rabbi YY Jacobson
