Dear Alumni Sheyichyu!
Sholom U’Brocho!
Mazel Tov to Shmulik Rabin on the occasion of his engagement. May he use out the special period of Yokor Mikol yokor to its’ utmost! Mazel tov to Rabbi and Mrs. Benyomin Warmflash on the birth of their daughter. Mazel tov to Rabbi and Mrs. Dovid Goldberg on the birth of their son. Mazel tov to Rabbi and Mrs. Eli Janowski on the birth of their son. Mazel tov to Rabbi and Mrs. Sholom Ber Bloom on the birth of their daughter. Mazel tov to Rabbi and Mrs. Dovi Straiton on the birth of their son. May they bring them up lTOveCHuMAA”T mitoch harchovo, and to be true chayolim/os! (If anyone is aware of any mazel tov’s that I omitted please let me know).
Thank you as always for the feedback, it is much appreciated.
The following story was first shared with me by Rabbi Benny Zippel, head shliach of the Rebbe to Utah, and I then verified the details with Rabbi Nechemiah Polen, of Boston, who heard it firsthand from the baal hamaaseh. Many thanks to them, zechus horabim toluy bohem:
A certain secular academic, who was originally from Russia and moved to Israel, eventually settled in the United States. This man had a son, who was diagnosed – lo aleinu – with a tumor in his brain. His situation was very serious, and they visited various specialists to seek treatment. At one point, they also travelled to the Sloan Kettering hospital in New York, to seek assistance from a specialist there.
Before their trip, they were urged by some friends or acquaintances to use the opportunity to visit the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and to request his brocho. At first this academic was reluctant. “I’m a completely secular Jew”, was his reaction, “what connection do I have with Rebbes or brochos?” But eventually he was convinced, and agreed to schedule the visit.
Before they travelled to New York, they were contacted by a high official in the Israeli government (from the mosad, or the military, or the defense department). “We heard that you will be visiting with the Lubavitcher Rebbe”, they told him, “and we would like to request a favour of you”. Of course, he was happy to comply.
“We have one of our men”, they explained, “who is in prison in Romania, and it is vital that we get some means of contacting him. So far we have been unsuccessful at facilitating this. We know that the Lubavitcher Rebbe has contacts throughout the world, and we wondered if he could advise us”.
While the request seemed rather bizarre, the academic was glad to help out.
During his yechidus, after requesting a brocho for his son, he conveyed the message from the Israeli government.
The Rebbe immediately took out a pencil and a piece of paper, and drew a prison facility. “This is the way the prison in Romania that we are discussing looks from the outside”, the Rebbe explained. The Rebbe continued to show him on the sketch: “In the prison there are 3 sections, section A, B and C (the Rebbe showed him each section on the diagram). If this man is in the first section or in the second section, then there is nothing we can do. But if he is in the third section, then we can arrange communication with him”.
Rabbi Nechemiah Polen is a chaplain who lives in Boston (and is on the staff of Hebrew University there). Once, while visiting in a hospital, he met the above academic who was there with his son, and the son was, clearly, in a terrible state at the time (in fact, he passed away a few weeks later). On that occasion, the academic shared the story with him.
Rabbi Polen related how the academic was visibly moved by the Rebbe’s far-reaching influence, and how the Rebbe was able, on the spot, to make a precise diagram of a prison in a remote location in Romania!
In this week’s Parsha
we find the clearest illustration of Moshe Rabbenu’s complete dedication to, and mesirus nefesh for, the Yidden. When davening on behalf of the Jewish people, after they had sinned with the egel, Moshe said to Hashem ואם אין מחנינא מספרך אשר כתבת; - If You will not forgive them, then remove me from your Torah.
For Moshe Rabenu, who’s entire life was Torah, to be erased from, and detached from, the Torah was the equivalent of losing his very life, - worse even, it was losing his entire existence. And yet, Moshe was readily agreeable to forego everything in order to protect his people.
For whom was he davening then? The tzaddikim had not served the egel to begin with. The bochurim were busy in Yeshiva, learning and davening and farbrenging. They surely had no time for golden calves! His entreaties, then, were on behalf of the sinners, the rebels (the ones who were busy on websites that were not approved by the Rabonim...), those who were prepared to disregard everything that he had taught them, to commit the ultimate transgression in a moment of lightheadedness. And for their sake, for those who had shunned him and disobeyed and disrespected him (substituting him with an egel), Moshe was prepared to give up his life and his entire being. And this to save them from a punishment that they earned, and well deserved!
When we learn in chassidus the explanation of what a Rebbe is, this becomes more understandable. The Alter Rebbe explains in the second Perek of Tanya that a Rebbe is not an independent entity who leads and cares for and nurtures his flock. Rather, a Rebbe is the head of the nation, and the word רבי is an acronym for Rosh Bnei Yisroel. Just as the head is a part of one indivisible human being with the rest of the body, and it feels the parts of the body as an extension of itself, so, too, Moshe Rabbenu and the אתפשטות אדמשה רבינו בכל דרא feels every Jew as an inseparable part of himself, and his own existence is bound with theirs.
Isn’t it interesting, then, that the phrase ראש בני ישראל is found in Torah only once, and that is in the beginning of the Parsha of this week! It seems only fitting that the Parsha that contains the story that describes so aptly the characteristics that define Moshe as the “head” of his nation should be the place where this title is clearly spelled out.
But sometimes we may feel just the opposite.
When our conduct is as befits a chassidisher bochur or yungerman, then, we tell ourselves, we are connected to the Rebbe. On those days, we may feel, we can feel comfortable writing to the Rebbe and thinking about the Rebbe and focusing on our hiskashrus.
But what about the other times, when we aren’t behaving as we should? What about when we’re in prison in Romania, in some remote part of the world? Does the Rebbe have a connection to the man imprisoned in Romania, does the Rebbe have access there?
What does it mean to be imprisoned? Chassidus explains the difference between רופא חולים and מתיר אסורים: An ill person loses the ability to distinguish between good and bad. Bitter foods may taste sweet to him, and vice versa. But a prisoner knows that with all his heart he wants to be anywhere but here. But he is unable to change things.
In ruchnyus, the “prisoner” is one who realizes that the way he is behaving is not proper; - that is not the way a Jew behaves, and surely not the way a chossid behaves, and surely not the way a tomim behaves. But he can’t control himself. He wishes that he could change, that he could act differently (that he could wake up on time in the morning, and spend more time learning and davening, and not do things he shouldn’t and say things he shouldn’t and think things he shouldn’t...). But he feels like he can’t. He feels like a terrible person.
That is the one who may question his connection with the Rebbe.
There can be one person who is imprisoned in New York, in Brooklyn, in Crown Heights or in 770. In that case, even though there are areas in which he senses his imprisonment, in which he may be frustrated by his inability to control himself, - still, the fact that, in general, he is in a good environment means that overall he may not feel so distant.
But the one who’s in prison in Romania, far from anything Jewish, far from anything chassidish, and there he’s languishing in prison, he may have a hard time believing that the Rebbe is connected with him.
Yet, as the story illustrates, being the “Rosh” the Rebbe is connected with him as well. All that’s needed is to turn to the Rebbe (and even a secular Israeli government understands well that when there is no other solution in sight, the thing to do is to turn to the Rebbe), and the Rebbe will reveal that connection. Moreover, the Rebbe will show that the prison in Romania, that we thought was so remote and so out of touch with everything, was very much on his mind, in complete detail, all along!
So, any of us who feels ourselves imprisoned in Romania (or in our own personal “Romania”, whatever form it may take) needs to know that this is the time, especially, to turn to the Rebbe, more than ever. Because the Rebbe has us in mind, and has the prison in mind, and he will open up the lines of communication, and, ultimately, get us out of there.
To turn to the Rebbe means kepshuto. To write to the Rebbe. To daven at the ohel. And, of course, to strengthen ourselves (and others) in carrying out the directives that the Rebbe gave us.
We need to know that regardless of what spiritual difficulty we may be facing, even if we foolishly got entangled with our own golden calf r”l, and we see ourselves hopelessly incarcerated in the formidable Romanian jail, still all is not lost. The Rebbe is aware of our situation and is waiting for us to seek the connection, and we have to do our part, to proactively reach out for the helping hand that will extricate us from our predicament!
L’chaim! May we all be doing whatever necessary to bring about our matir assurim, - our liberation from our spiritual prisons, and may the Eibishter do His part to liberate us all, collectively, from the “Romanian” prison of golus, with the immediate revelation of Moshiach Tzidkeinu NOW!!!
Rabbi Akiva Wagner
לזכות ב"ש דבן מרים, 'שיט" לאויוש מתוך בריאות הנכונה ס"וכט בטוב! ג"הנרו הנ לזכות ת"הרה אהרן בן, חנה ק"ל רפושוט" ואויוש
