A Chassidisha Kiss
It was a year after the passing of the Rebbe Maharash but before the Rebbe Rashab accepted the crown of leadership of the Chabad movement. At that time, Rashab lived in a two-room apartment. As he learned Torah with a chavrusa, the Rashab’s four-year-old son (the future Previous Rebbe) slept nearby in a trundle bed.
The Rebbe Rashab’s learning partner glanced at the sleeping boy and said, “A light, reflecting pure thought is shining from the child’s face.”
The Rebbe Rashab stood up to kiss his son but stopped before delivering the kiss. He recalled that besides offering sacrifices in the Holy Temple, the Jews also brought silver and gold to build and beautify it. With this in mind, the Rashab resolved to exchange the physical kiss with a Chassidic discourse [maamar] starting with the words “How great are Your works Hashem!”
When the Previous Rebbe was 12 years old, his father gave him the handwritten maamar and said, “This is a Chassidic kiss and soon I will explain to you the meaning of what is written here.
When the Previous Rebbe turned 16, his father told him the story of that Chassidisha kiss that had taken place back in the two-room apartment.
At that time, the Rashab could have already been Rebbe if he had been willing to accept the crown. Nevertheless, he was content to live in a two-room dwelling and serve Hashem happily with a whole heart.
Before explaining the greatness of a kiss and the even more powerful expression of essential love embodied in a maamar, our Rebbe contrasted the Rashab’s residence to our present lifestyle and our need to spend so much time and effort on physical needs to the detriment of spiritual gain.
The Rebbe then explained that a kiss connotes essential love. In fact, no words can communicate the level of love expressed in a kiss. This is especially the case since we are speaking of a kiss to a child who slept with a ray of pure thought shining from his face; and much more so, a kiss from a Rebbe to a son who would eventually fill his father’s place as Rebbe.
From a different perspective, the love of a father for a child is not merely understood as an expression of nature but is also a principle in Torah.
We cry to Hashem, “Have mercy on us like a father has mercy on his children.” Furthermore, we call Him “Merciful Father” or “Father of Mercies.”
A father and son are essentially one essence. If this precious kiss was being traded for a maamar then we can have an inkling of how precious that maamar -gift must be.
Nevertheless, our Rebbe says that, in light of the essential power of love expressed in a kiss, how can it be traded for a maamar, which at first glance, is merely an expression of intellect?
On the other hand, since the Rashab exchanged a kiss for it, we must say the maamar does connote a greater expression of love, and that there is something deeper in the maamar than the kiss.
Our Rebbe explains that a kiss from a father to a son indicates an “expression” of essential love, but in a maamar [“How great are Your works”] is contained the actual essence of the Rebbe.
Just as Hashem “writes” Himself into the Torah, a tzadik “writes” his essence into the discourse he delivers. When the young Previous Rebbe became emotional witnessing the last moments of his father’s life, the Rebbe Rashab told him, “I am going in heaven but the writings (which contain my essence) I am leaving here.”
When a father kisses a son it is a wonderful outpouring of love, but the nachus the father gets when the son returns the kiss is incomparable. Those of us poor in daas believe that, in a similar manner, the Rebbe receives great nachas whenever we learn a maamar that he has given us.
