Today is Gimmel Tammuz [the 3rd day of the month of Tammuz], the day that 31 years ago, the Lubavitcher Rebbe was taken from our eyes. Today, for everyone who feels connected to him, is a day of self-introspection and self-pondering to try and feel his energy and the strength of his character and to try and incorporate these into our own lives, to learn from his character how to lead our own lives and devote them to bringing the ultimate redemption to the entire world; to bring Mashiach to the world.
Let’s try to pinpoint and outline the four basic attributes or characteristics of the Rebbe with respect to one’s mission in life. Everyone has a mission in life, and to the best of our ability to accomplish our mission, we need to rectify our character attributes by trying to emulate those of the Rebbe.
These four are: faith, dedication, care, and responsibility.
Faith
Everything begins with faith. Our faculty of faith is known in Kabbalah as the unknowable head that is above and beyond the other powers of the soul. Faith at its simplest is belief in God, that God is here with us, that He has providence over us, all that happens is from Him and is always good, even though we cannot always see the revealed good, but we definitely believe that it is all absolute good and we will very soon see the good, known as “the revealed and visible good” (הֶלְגִּנַהְה וֶאְרִּנַב הֹטו) of God. That is the simplest meaning. But, according to the Ba’al Shem Tov, faith is not just belief in God. It includes faith in the Jewish people, in Israel. Every Jewish soul is an actual part of God above, and the Ba’al Shem Tov teaches that if you grasp a part of an absolute being, you are actually grasping the whole, even though it appears as if you are grasping just a part of it.
Now, we believe that the core essence of all humanity is good. We have to believe in this, because we see many negative manifestations and behaviors of mankind around us. The Jewish people have many sworn enemies. Nonetheless, we believe according to the Ba’al Shem Tov, that the core of the human soul—not just the Divine soul of Israel—the essential core of all humanity is good, because God is good. God created the world in His goodness, and even though He created it in a way that through the many levels of descent of His light [revelation], there are some manifestations of the non-good that are revealed, which we need to rectify. Still everything is deriving from God’s good, which means that its core essence is good.
This is all included in faith. To begin to bring God’s light, i.e., God’s revelation to the world, we need to have this faith—faith in He Himself, faith in His chosen people, Israel, and we must have faith in all of humanity, including all the creations created by God. We believe that God created all from His goodness, as the verse reads, “The world was created with loving-kindness” (הֶנָּבִד יֶסֶם חַלוֹעו) of the Creator. So essentially, everything is good, and since it is good, we can establish a relationship known in philosophy as an I-thou relationship with everything. Thereby, we can positively influence everything and also receive positive feedback from everything. This is all included in faith, the first attribute the Rebbe possessed and which he taught us to emulate. It all begins with faith.
Abraham was the first Jewish soul and the Torah says about him that “he believed in God” (ן בי-הוהִמֱאֶהְו). He is the first person in the Bible who believes in God. He is thus known as the “head,” or “first of all true believers in God” (יםִינִמֲאַּמַ הׁאשֹר). Abraham devoted his life, as we will explain, to mankind, to bring good to mankind. He did this by revealing God to mankind, this is the ultimate good. Even though in the beginning Abraham is described as “standing on one side of society and everyone else is on the other side,” he nonetheless believed that all those on the other side are ready vessels—because their essence is good—for receiving the light that he had been given to teach and reveal to the world. This is the faith we saw demonstrated so intensely in the Rebbe’s character.
Dedication
The second attribute is dedication. It refers to what in Hebrew is either mesirut, being “given over” to my mission, or “dedicated” to my mission. The second is devekut (הָרָּטַּמַּת בּקוֵבְּד), which means that I cling to my purpose; I am always focusing on the purpose of my mission in life. So it all begins with being given over (ןּתוָנְרוּסוָמ) totally to my mission. While I am giving myself over to it, I also cling to the end, or goal of my mission. This is the meaning of dedication. The Rebbe was most dedicated and given over to his mission. By giving himself over to his mission, his own personal life became meaningless in a sense. It was only meaningful to the extent that it helped him fulfill his mission. Unlike faith, which is a super-conscious, or all-encompassing property (יףִּקַר מֹאו), dedication and devotion are an inner property of the soul. They are a feeling in myself: I give myself over and cling to the end of my mission, seeing the end from the very first moment of my journey towards that goal.
Care
The next attribute is “care.” What we mean by that is both care as a synonym for “concern”; I have deep concern for someone else, because I deeply care about others. A person can have faith in humanity and can also be dedicated to the mission of bringing enlightenment to humanity, but that is not the same as care. Instinctively, care is for every individual in the world. This is inner care. It is more than just concern because care implies love and compassion and that you are very important for me. That is the way the Rebbe related to every individual: he cared for every individual. In Hebrew “care” might be translated as תּוּיִּתַּפְכִא, but that is closer to “concern.” To understand the distinction between concern and care in a deeper way, we may note that care also means “to take care of someone.” Like a nurse in a hospital. She needs to care to take care. To care is not just an emotion in the heart, it is also the translation of dedication to practical actions that exhibit care. In Chassidic thought we can explain the difference between the two meanings of care in the following manner. The first meaning of care is in the heart: I really care for you. The second meaning is in the three lower sefirot, the three lower faculties of the soul, which are also tied to the heart—victory, thanksgiving, and foundation—and are known as the “active emotions.” These are the emotions as they express themselves in deed. There is care in the heart and there is active care in deed—taking care of someone whom you care about. The second meaning is not contained in the Hebrew word תּוּיִּתַּפְכִא.
By the Rebbe, we certainly saw both meanings come together. To capture both meanings in a single Hebrew word, we turn to the word הָגָּאְּד. This may be somewhat surprising, because this word is usually translated as “worry,” in English. There is a connection of course between care and worry: if I care about you, I worry about you. But in Hebrew, הָגָּאְּד, means more than “worry,” it also means “to care” for someone and “to take care” of someone.
The numerical value of this Hebrew word, which we are now proposing as one that captures both meanings of “care” (הָגָּאְּד) is 13, which is also the value of “love” (הָבֲהַא). To worry for someone is to love them and to take care of them. This is the third characteristic that we want to learn from the Rebbe.
Responsibility
The fourth and last is responsibility, which in Hebrew is the word אחריות. What is the difference between being responsible for someone and being dedicated to someone. We might think they are the same, but they are in fact different. As we said before, to dedicate my life to my mission is an inner motivation of the “I.” I give myself over and dedicate my self to my mission. Responsibility comes from a different place. To be responsible for you means that I feel that I have a duty in life to help someone else. The word mission can either be a motivation for me, or it can be an acceptance of the yoke of duty that God has placed on me. These are two different directions: one is coming from my self and the other is coming from Above, like an order given to a soldier who is responsible for fulfilling the order. This is most definitely a characteristic of the Rebbe that we need to emulate, because the concept of “taking upon oneself the yoke” (לֹת עַלָּּבַּק) is one of his most basic teachings.
Just as faith begins at the highest level of the soul, so responsibility that comes from accepting a burden or a yoke fuels the lowest of the sefirot, the sefirah of kingdom (תּכוְלַמ), which is the lowest and most down-to-earth faculty of the soul. Responsibility is always accompanied by a demand for a just reckoning at the end: did I or did I not fulfill my responsibility.
Let us now go back and analyze these four characteristics we want to learn from the personality and conduct of the Rebbe as they correspond to the well-known four-part model based on God’s essential Name, Havayah, the Tetragrammaton.
As we said, responsibility corresponds to kingdom—taking upon oneself the yoke of the kingdom of heaven (םִיַמָׁת שּכוְלַל מֹע)—and thus also corresponds to the final letter of Havayah, the hei.
Regarding care, we saw care in the heart, and care in deed; love and compassion in the heart and the power to actualize these in actions. These together correspond to the third letter of Havayah, the vav.
Devotion and dedication to a purpose is representative of the sefirah of knowledge (da’at), which is what forms connections. Knowledge is what facilitates my mind connecting to the essence of who I am, which is my mission in life. As such knowledge creates devotion and dedication to what the mind understands—the sefirah of understanding corresponds to the second letter of Havayah, the hei—to be my mission in life. Thus, I am able to give myself over completely, I dedicate myself entirely, out of free choice, to my mission.
Faith and especially the belief in the ultimate good of everything that God has created for His glory, reveals itself in the wisdom of the soul, which corresponds to the first letter of Havayah, the yud.
letter of Havayahsefirahcharacter traityudwisdomFaith in the ultimate goodness of all of Creationheiunderstanding and knowledgeDedication to one’s mission in lifevavloving-kindness through foundationCare about and care for othersheikingdomTaking responsibilityOne of the things that this correspondence clarifies is why we might be confused by the similarity between dedication and responsibility, since both correspond to the letter hei—the first hei and the second hei in the Tetragrammaton. The higher, first hei is the dedication, and the lower, second hei is responsibility.
Let us now ask God to give us the inspiration and insight to be able to first of all perceive how the Lubavitcher Rebbe—a human being in our world—was able to come to such a complete fulfillment of these four characteristics. By contemplating this and asking God that we too merit emulating the Rebbe, we will certainly receive from the Rebbe his light and his inspiration to follow this path that he lived so that we may merit to bring the redemption and Mashiach to the world.
