The Alter Rebbe once delivered a Chassidic discourse that was so difficult to understand the Chassidim asked him to repeat it. The repetition was given in the Rebbe’s room and only a select group of elder Chassidim were permitted to enter. Reb Isaac of Homil, who was a young married man, stood by the door. After the door had already closed, the Alter Rebbe opened it and invited Reb Isaac to enter, saying that, from a young man, an old man could emerge. The Alter Rebbe meant that even by entering the room as a young man, he would nevertheless emerge with the intellectual maturity of an elder.
Reb Isaac entered and heard the discourse. What’s more, he absorbed it thoroughly, to the point where he could recall it in detail over 40 years later. Not only did he remember all the details of the discourse, he even remembered the marginal comments of the Rebbe that were not part of it. How was a young Reb Isaac able to grasp such a difficult maamar? Our Rebbe says that the Alter Rebbe revealed the hidden power and potential of Reb Isaac’s intellect that came from the essence level in the young scholar’s soul.
At the time that the Alter Rebbe was delivering the discourse, his little grandson Menachem Mendel (the future Tzemach Tzedek) was running around dragging potatoes on strings, pretending that they were tefillin. When someone shushed the little boy for disturbing the men, the Alter Rebbe interrupted the maamar, and said “Let the boy play. He understands every word and one day, you will know that he truly understood every word.” Sure enough, when the Tzemach Tzedek accepted the position of Rebbe, he recited the maamor from 40 years earlier, exactly as Reb Isaac remembered it.
In relating the story, our Rebbe notes that the end of the first book of Tanya expresses how Hashem [the Shechina] is a consuming fire. He then connects it to the last chapters where a Jew is compared to a candle (not a consuming fire) which glows with the light of the Shechina [G-dliness].
In this example, Torah and Mitzvos serve as oil, while his animal soul serves as the wick. In this way, the Jew turns into a fit vessel to shine the light of G-dliness. The Rebbe explains further that in the candle metaphor, Torah and Mitzvos provide the glow of candle light. On a higher level, speech and action in Torah and Mitzvos generate a brighter fire which is typical of wood. However, neither is quite yet a consuming fire. Faith [Emunah] is the consuming fire. And faith in the Rebbe is what empowered Rabbi Isaac to reveal the hidden, essential power of intellect of his soul by following the Alter Rebbe’s instruction to walk into the room.
[ yud base tamuz 5726]