The Unique Opportunities of Galus
Serving Hashem However, Whenever, and Wherever
A chassid once came to Rebbe Aaron of Karlin (known by the title of his sefer, Beis Aharon) after three years during which he had not visited the Rebbe. When the Beis Aharon asked where he had been all this time, he said, “The last time I was here, I heard words from the Rebbe that kept me going for three years!” When the Rebbe heard his reply, he asked, “Which words were these that had the power to strengthen a Yid for three years?” And the words of the chassid are inscribed in the sefer Beis Aharon to this day: Which of the creations can lift himself up to serve G-d? But how good is it to serve G-d however one desires, whenever one desires, and with whatever one desires.”
This means: How can human creatures—fashioned from the lowest elements—dare to serve the Ribbono shel Olam, the Melech Malchei HaMelachim? Although, in his understanding, a person doesn’t understand how this is possible... once he begins the work of serving Hashem—and he can do so in whatever situation he is in and with whatever resources he has—he becomes elevated, and once he is uplifted, there is no question any longer....
The Galus Difference
In the context of our galus, this takes on a new meaning. For in the Beis HaMikdash, there was no choice in how to serve Hashem; the Avodah followed a strict and rigid routine: The korbanos must be offered and eaten in a very specific place; aliyah l’regel took place in a very specific place; the Shechinah had its own specific place.... Indeed, the levels of kedushah that Klal Yisrael attained there—in Torah, tefillah, and yiras Shamayim— are incomprehensible to us, and we pine for this every day, for it is essential to our very lives! But when Hashem exiled us from this holy place, He also revealed to us, “It is true that the place is no longer extant, but my Presence has never departed from among you.”
Going to the Beis HaMikdash
The goyim—or rather the inner goy inside each of us—taunt us, saying, “the Presence of Hashem has departed from among you. He will no longer return to you.” And when a Yid listens to that voice, whose source is in klipah, he is demoralized, and he sighs in dejection....
But, says the Medrash, let me explain the back-and-forth going on inside you. It goes like this: A person becomes entrapped in aveiros... again, and once again. And he says to himself, “How will we be able to be mechanech the future generations under such harsh circumstances? The pain and the anguish are terrible!” Who speaks this way? The voice of the goy within us! And what feelings does it evoke within us? Only sadness and bitterness.
And what do we need to answer that voice? What do we need to “bear in mind”? The answer is that HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, “All I did was to conceal Myself. Previously, I was concentrated in one place, and now I am concealed everywhere, and you can serve Me in myriad ways—in whatever way you will uplift yourself, you will be able to reach incredible heights!”
Indeed, the avodah in galus is very difficult—because it is an internal avodah. There is no Beis HaMikdash to go to, and there is nowhere to go to, nowhere to escape to. “There is no one to rely upon but on our Father in Heaven.” Tzaddikim explained it as follows. “The only thing a person can do is to internalize the reality that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is our Father! That is the only thing we can rely upon: the fact that we understand this.”
The only way to “go to the Beis HaMikdash” is by thinking the proper thoughts and doing teshuvah.
“I Am Not Abandoning You”
This yesod is expounded upon in the words of the holy Tanna Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Maseches Megillah (29a). We learned, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai said, “Come and see how beloved Klal Yisrael are before HaKadosh Baruch Hu, for in every place that they were exiled, the Shechinah remained with them. When they went to Mitzrayim, the Shechinah was with them... when they were exiled to Bavel, the Shechinah was with them... and also when they are destined to be redeemed, the Shechinah will be with them, as it says שבותך את אלוקיך ה’ ושב, Hashem will Himself return with your return. This teaches us that HaKadosh Baruch Hu will return along with them from the galus.”
This is the yesod. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says, “I am not abandoning you. Wherever you go, I will go along with you.” If one will ask, “If so, how is this galus?” The answer is that until the Churban, the Shechinah was באתגליא, revealed. This meant that any person, no matter how low he was, was able to come to the Beis HaMikdash and gaze at the Menorah and the Shulchan and at the Avodah of the korbanos.
In galus, however, where there is no revealed place of השכינה השראת, since it is באתכסיא, hidden—the Shechinah can be found everywhere. Wherever Bnei Yisrael find themselves, HaKadosh Baruch Hu can be found there with them, and they can come close to him from that place. And so, the difficulty is in the fact that a person cannot see it—not only with his eyes of flesh, but even with his spiritual “eyes.” If a person is in a lower state, he is outside the Beis Medrash, he will not feel it. The chizuk, however, is that if a person will do the hard internal work, he will “enter the Beis Medrash and he will encounter HaKadosh Baruch Hu there, and his tefillos will be answered —just as in the Beis HaMikdash.
Thus, when we read in Eichah (3:8) תפילתי שתם ואשוע אזעק כי גם, Though I cry out and plead, He shut out my prayer, the Gemara (Berachos 32b) learns from here “From the day that the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, the gates of tefillah were sealed shut”—this is only when we are outside the Beis Medrash. But when a person is inside the Beis Medrash, where the Ribbono shel Olam is accessible, he is in a place where there is no Churban Beis HaMikdash, and thus the tefillos are accepted.
I Shall Descend with You to Mitzrayim
HaKadosh Baruch Hu wants us to know this and to study this. When Yaakov Avinu was about to descend to Mitzrayim, HaKadosh Baruch Hu told him, עלה גם אעלך ואנכי מצרימה עמך ארד אנכי, I shall descend with you to Mitzrayim, and I shall also surely bring you up. HaKadosh Baruch Hu says to Yaakov, “I am bringing you to a new situation, but I want you to know that I am going with you... and I will elevate you. You’re going to Mitzrayim, but don’t think that I’m sending you away; I am going right along with you.”
Revelations in the Night
The Meshech Chachmah (Parashas Vayigash) points out that both times Hashem revealed Himself to Yaakov Avinu when he was leaving Eretz Yisrael—once to Charan (when escaping the wrath of his brother) and the second time to Mitzrayim—the revelation took place at night. Says the Meshech Chachmah: “For this reason, the revelation came at night: to indicate that even at night, in the darkness of the galus, the Shechinah still rests among the Yidden. It is dark, all true, but HaKadosh Baruch Hu isn’t impressed by the darkness. He ventures into the darkness and from that place of darkness, He draws His children close to Him.”
Thus, we have learned so far in the sugya of Hashem’s Presence in galus: 1) HaKadosh Baruch Hu says that: even in galus, you can access His light when you “enter the Beis Medrash,” and you will feel that the Shechinah is still among us and that we aren’t abandoned; The idea that Hashem constantly says to those being exiled that He is exiled along with them, and that He remains with them in the exile.
As we have learned, only the “wood and stone” of the Beis HaMikdash were destroyed, but the השכינה השראת remains. The light may be more difficult to access, but this elevates a person, because he is compelled to do the internal work to access the light.
