His children sensed his concern, and set out to reassure him. “SHMA YISROEL”, they declared, “HASHEM ELOKEINU HASHEM ECHOD”.
כשם שאין בלבך אלא, אחד כך אין בלבנו אלא אחד
They said: “Listen to us, our father Yisroel, just as your heart is whole in its loyalty to the One Hashem, so too are our hearts whole in their loyalty to the One Hashem.”
Yaakov was overjoyed and cried out Boruch Hashem (more specifically, he said “Boruch shem kevod malchuso le’olam vo’ed”, which is the reason, the gemoro explains, why we say the same possuk following shma).
This story leaves us with 2 basic questions. Firstly, their preface seems entirely superfluous. The discussion, after all, wasn’t about Yaakov; it was about his children. All that needed to be stated was that the tribes themselves were all loyal to Hashem. What need was there to mix Yaakov into the discussion?
[There was once a bochur who was in the stage when he should be “going out”. However, in his own mind – he still had much to accomplish, and he really didn’t feel ready for this monumental step (maybe he just wasn’t interested). The Rebbe ‘got involved’, and urged the bochur to get moving. There was a specific very respectable “suggestion” on the table. As a result of the Rebbe’s insistence, and despite the bochur’s misgivings, he agreed to meet her.
When they finally went out, things didn’t seem to be going well at all. The bochur was very uncommunicative and moody. All he could think about was ‘What on earth am I doing here, how did I ever get myself into this’, true ‘it was the Rebbe who pushed me into this, but why, what did I need this for?’ In the meantime the poor girl was trying to figure out how to deal with the uncomfortable silence (isn’t this what happens by all dates).
She knew that he was a very smart chassidishe bochur, so she decided to try to draw him out by asking him “What did the Rebbe speak about by the farbrengen last Shabbos?” But this question, intruding as it did into his very troubling trend of thought, evoked a very harsh response from him, as he exclaimed to her “Don’t mix the Rebbe into this!” (And, yes, they were happily married, and lived happily ever after, and are probably great grandparents by now, or at least close to it)].
The 2nd question is, what was the doubt to begin with? We are dealing, after all, with the holy shvotim, shivtei koh, could they really have been suspected of not being faithful to Hashem Echad?!
[The gemoro says “kol ho’oimer Dovid choto eino elotoieh”; - anyone who thinks that Dovid sinned is mistaken; - in truth no sin took place. Chassidim commented on the wording “eino elotoieh” – ‘he is nothing more than in error’, which seems like a strange way to express the point.
Chassidim explained that the gemoro is not merely saying that the story with Dovid wasn’t a sin in actual fact, because of the circumstances, in other words that one who suggests that Dovid sinned is ignorant of the historical details. Rather, the gemoro is telling us that if you think that Dovid sinned you have it all wrong! “Eino elotoieh” To think such a thing means that you don’t begin to know who Dovid Hamelech was, you are analyzing him from your narrow viewpoint and have a totally wrong idea about who he really was. To know who Dovid hamelech was, to understand that he is the embodiment of malchus d’Atzilus, is to realize that he is not capable in any way of sin the way we understand it].
To answer these two questions, the Rebbe explains as follows (in the name of the Mitteler Rebbe): In truth, there is a big difference between the “Echod” of Yaakov and the “Echod” of the shvotim. In the terminology of Chassidus: Yaakov was in Atzilus. In Atzilus, the reality is Elokus. It’s not a religion, or a culture, or a habit or a practice. It’s life and truth. That’s all there is.
The shvotim, in contrast, were in BIA (no, that’s not some baseball club, it’s the worlds of briah, yetzira and asiyah), in the lower worlds. True, they were in the uppermost point of those lower worlds, in the world of briah, but, nonetheless it’s the realm of hishtalshelus, it’s the plane in which, ultimately, worldliness is more of a reality than G-dliness.
Sure, for them, too, Hashem Echod was the ultimate truth. But the world existed for them, and they needed to work to overcome the challenge it presented to their perception of the Oneness of Hashem. That differed from the Echod of their father Yaakov, which was obvious, natural, effortless.
This, then, was the profound response of the shevotim to Yaakov. Although their ‘station’ in life was in the lower worlds, still their Echod, their relationship with Elokus, was not in the manner of the lower worlds, as someone who is an independent entity who is actively engaged in trying to connect to Something higher. It was not the Echod of “yichuda tata’ah”, of the olamos. Rather, their hearts were permeated with the true and ultimate Echod; - Echod as opposed to vo’ed, - the Echod of “yichud ila’ah”. Their oneness with Hashem was in a manner in which they were not apart from Him at all, but, rather, G-dliness was their entire reality (in the manner of Atzilus, where “ihu vechayohi vegarmoih chad”).
But how can that be? A person can’t be more than what he is. A neshomo that belongs to the worlds, cannot profess to experience the relationship with G-dliness of Atzilus, it just isn’t feasible!
[Two chassidim, in the times of the Rebbe Rashab, once had an argument (yes, they – apparently – on occasion found what to argue about even back then). The question was, whether it’s conceivable that a chossid in today’s day and age (their ‘today’s day and age’ that is) can actually experience yichud ila’ah. One said that it is possible, while the other argued just as strongly that it isn’t.
Being unable to resolve their difference, they presented their question to the Rebbe. The Rebbe Rashab listened to the debate, and then proclaimed: “What is the question. You – indeed can’t, and you – can”! (Imagine if the differences today could be resolved so easily)]
How, then, could the shevotim claim the level of Echod that is seemingly not in their league? To answer this, they prefaced:
כשם שאין בלבך אלא, אחד כך אין בלבנו אלא אחד
We ourselves, indeed, have no capability of experiencing “yichuda ila’ah”, of sensing the Oneness of Hashem the way it is felt in Atzilus. That is unquestionably beyond our capacity (being that we belong to the ‘merkavta tata’ah’, - the lower chariot of briah). But it is not us who reached this. Rather, this achievement is yours. Since we are no more than an extension of you, we are your children, we can therefore recognize, within our lesser perception of Havaya Echod, the deeper, truer perception of “yichud ila’ah” the way it is seen by you.
כשם שאין בלבך אלא, אחד כך אין בלבנו אלא אחד
It is through and as a result of the “belibcho echod”, - the Echod that is in your heart, Yaakov, that we are able to find “belibeinu echod”, we are able to identify that same echod – that on our own would be unreachable by us – within our hearts as well.
And this idea of the maamar has a profound lesson and message for all of us, especially in connection with the upcoming day of Yud Shvat:
Sometimes we may study the Rebbe’s sichos or maamorim, we may learn the Rebbe’s farbrengens, and we may feel “That is just not me!” The Rebbe holds us to very high standards, he expects a lot, and we may just not see it in us.
Just as I don’t see myself (or anyone else, for that matter) as being the “ben chomesh le mikra” whom the Rebbe refers to, I similarly (and more so) can’t see myself as the chosid who is capable of the many other expectations and demands of the Rebbe. I’m just a regular guy, a merkavta tata’ah type of a chosid, I’m not the one who can forget about the world and live a life focussed exclusively on the Eibishter!
We learn about how we cry out thrice daily “vesechezeno eineinu” and that it is an expression of the fact that nothing is important to us, nothing matters to us as long as we don’t have the final and complete geulah. We hear from the Rebbe how we aren’t sure whether we can bentch after eating, because we don’t enjoy the food and aren’t satisfied when we contemplate how we are not yet partaking of the banquet with the shor habor and the Levyason.
And we think: “Who, me?” “That doesn’t sound like me! I mean, I gotta be realistic, and know my place and all that, we aren’t allowed to fool ourselves or fantasize”.
And the Rebbe says to us: It’s true, our own level is one of “olamos bepshitus”, of the world and worldliness being our reality. Our natural focus is on our material possessions and physical pleasures, and it is only with effort that we are able to include the Eibishter in our agenda to some degree (and even then it is in a way of Elokus behischadshus).
But nonetheless we can still declare:
כשם שאין בלבך אלא אחד, כך אין בלבנו אלא אחד.
It is not us, and it wouldn’t be our doing. But if we connect ourselves with the Rebbe, if we focus on the fact that we are his children and, as such, merely an extension of him, then we have the ability to make the world of the Rebbe and the Elokus bepshitus of the Rebbe become our world. For deep within our heart, within our Echod – our connection with Hashem – is the Echod of the Rebbe (as the famous saying of chassidim expressed עומק חסיד – רבי).
כשם שאין בלבך אלא, אחד כך אין בלבנו אלא אחד
We have the ability, and therefore the responsibility, to identify the Echod of the Rebbe in the depth of our own heart. And although it is only present in a very deep place (and in a barely visible manner), nevertheless through focussing on it and thinking about it, we manage to sense it somewhat, and – most importantly – to benefit from the impact and influence that it has on our own echod; - on our own level and standard of avodas Hashem.
So, as we spend the final days of preparation for the יום הגדול והקדוש of Yud Shvat, we need to keep our focus on the ultimate goal, כשם שאין בלבך אלא אחד, כך אין בלבנו אלא אחד – to find the HAVAYA ECHOD, the VEHOYO HASHEM LEMELECH AL KOL HO”ORETZ of the Rebbe in and within our own heart, and to join them together until they are one and the same. And since each of us is an olam koton, a microcosm of the entire universe, our avoda in this area will be the fitting preparation to bring about the revelation of the true in ultimate echod throughout the world; - Hashem echod u shmo echod!
L’chaim! Let us all these utilize these last few days of preparation properly, and may we spend this Yud Shvat together with the Rebbe, in a world permeated with the true and ultimate echod; with the immediate revelation of Moshiach Tzidkeinu TUMYM!!!
Rabbi Akiva Wagner
לזכות 'ר שלום מרדכי הלוי בן, רבקה לישועה וגאולה בפשטות ובגשמיות ולמטה ט"מיי"ת ומממש ולזכות 'רב ברוך מרדכי בן 'חיה אסתר ש"ל רפוק" ורפוט" ואויוש מתוך בריאות הנכונה ס"וכט ב"ה ליל עש"ק פר' בא, ג' שבט, שבת שמיני' מתברך העשירי בשבט, שנת "תהי' שנת חיעולמים"
