Dear Alumni Sheyichyu!
Sholom U’Brocho!
Mazel Tov to Herschel Spalter on the occasion of his engagement. May he use out the special period of Yokor Mikol yokor to its’ utmost! Mazel Tov to Shmully Weinberg on the occasion of his chasuna. May the new home be set up al yesodei hatorah vehamitzvos, and be a keli for all brochos! Mazel Tov to Rabbi & Mrs. Yisroel Mogilefsky on the bris of their son. Mazel Tov to Rabbi & Mrs. Yisroel Bisk on the birth of their son. Mazel Tov to Rabbi & Mrs. Yehoshua Steinberg on the birth of their son. May they bring them up lTOveCHuMAA”T mitoch harchovo, and to be a true chayol! (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.
In connection with chof daled teves, here are 2 stories with the Alter Rebbe:
The Alter Rebbe had a chosid, by name of R’ Avrohom Kalisker, who was blessed with a great mind, and was a very big lamdan. Once, in his youth, his father complained to the Alter Rebbe that his son has yeshus. The Alter Rebbe said: ‘Bring him to me!’ When the boy came to the Alter Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe asked him a question in learning, and then asked the youth if he thought that it was a good question. When the boy responded in the affirmative, the Alter Rebbe answered his own question, and asked Avrohom if he felt it was a good answer. When he replied that it was, the Alter Rebbe went on to ask a question on his answer, and once again asked the boy for his opinion on the question. This went on for a few questions and answers, until, suddenly, the Alter Rebbe exclaimed to him: “Everything I say you say is good, this is not what I consider knowing how to learn!” With this the Alter Rebbe was mevatel his yeshus.
Years later, R’ Avrohom, who was by then a talmid chochom of note, was in yechidus by the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe showed him a teshuva of the Maharam meRottenberg, in which he establishes a certain premise, and brings a support for it. The proof that he brings seems rather weak. The Alter Rebbe turned to the chosid, and asked him: “Can you bring other, perhaps more solid proofs for this premise?” The chosid considered it briefly, and then presented 5 strong supports for the suggestion of the Maharam meRottenberg. The Alter Rebbe then shared with him an additional 6 proofs of his own. “Why then”, the Alter Rebbe asked the chosid, “when there are 11 solid proofs to the position of the Maharam, does he have to base himself on one weak foundation?” When R’ Avrohom had no response, the Alter Rebbe went and refuted all of the 11 proofs, so that all that remained intact was the one passable support that the Maharam himself had put forth. The Alter Rebbe then explained to the chosid: “Do you think that the Maharam considered the 11 proofs, thought about the flaws in each of them, and therefore went to his own (flimsy) one? Not at all! Rather, the way of the rishonim was that they went directly to the truth, without having to first go through unsuccessful attempts”.
On another occasion, the (Alter Rebbe?) illustrated this idea with a moshol: If someone is in a dark room, and is seeking the exit, he has no choice but to feel his way for the door. When he finds an opening, he will try it out. If he later encounters an obstruction, he will realize that this was not a door, but a closet, and he’ll have to retrace his steps and start again. And so on. However, as soon as someone turns on the light, he goes directly to the right place! Our learning is like the person who is groping in the dark. We are trying to understand, so we suggest a svoro. We can go with it for a while, but then we encounter a stira, and we realize that we are on the wrong track and have to start over. It is a continuing exercise of trial and error. With the rishonim, however, they are like the person in the lighted room, who sees directly where to go!
In connection with the directive of the Alter Rebbe “Men darf leben mit di tzeit”, and since I know most of you are too busy learning and davening to be in touch with the outside world, I will share you the following recent news item:
On December 26 of this year (motzoei nittel), a 23 year old Nigerian man attempted to blow up a flight, about 20 minutes before landing at Detroit airport. In what was, apparently, the Moslem version of dira batachtonim, the man attempted to ignite explosives that he had sneaked onto the plane on his, well, you know, in his tachtonim. With no thanks to the security system (who drive us bananas whenever we travel but never catch the real terrorists), and all thanks to the Eibishter, the scheme was botched up and a serious disaster was miraculously averted. His anticipated one-way ticket to heaven will instead, hopefully (although perhaps not very likely), be his one way ticket to behind bars.
Understandably, the country, and especially those responsible for security, are in an uproar about the obvious shortcoming of the current system for security checks. The solution they came up with is a more powerful high-tech scanner, which will be able to see right through one’s clothing. They are already being put to use in various airports, and will from now on be put to use with increased frequency in more and more airports around the world. Henceforth, neither your, well, neither your elyonim nor your tachtonim will provide any means of helem vehester, as you will stand bared and completely revealed in front of the all-seeing eyes of the security guards!
We know that every event in the world contains a lesson for us in avodas Hashem, and how much more so an event of such earth shattering proportions. In fact, there seems to be numerous lessons that can be derived from this story. I am not very adept at deciphering these lessons, however, I will try my best, and may the Alm-ghty forgive any errors made in the attempt:
We are all, in some manner, readying ourselves for the upcoming date of Yud Shvat. On this day, on which the Rebbe formally accepted the position of our leader (with everything that goes along with it), we will all work on doing our part to re-accept him as our leader, to re-commit ourselves to obeying him and following him as he leads us. On Yud Shvat, as – literally and/or figuratively – we present ourselves to the Rebbe, we will do our best to present the image of a chosid who is at least expressing a readiness and willingness to strive towards the goals he shows us and has shown us. It is that image that will, we hope, confirm to the Rebbe the rightness of the decision that he made on this day; - to lead us and guide us until Moshiach!
It is in the endeavor to polish and perfect this image, that we put all the effort into the various “hachonos” that each of us in his own way is making in anticipation of the big day. We want to do all that we can to ensure that the chosid who presents himself to the Rebbe on Yud Shvat should be one in which, as much as is possible, the Rebbe can take pride.
But, and this is a big but, even if someone is really trying, if he’s going through all of the checklists, how does he really know that he’s on the right track? Maybe he looks Chassidish – even to himself – and on a superficial level everything is fine and dandy. But what’s going on underneath all those levushim? Chabad mont pnimiyus, what’s with his pnimiyus? Obviously, we realize that the Rebbe is not going to merely look at our superficial picture. What will he see when he peers inside of us? A rather unsettling question!
The Gemoro says that R’ Yochanan cried before his demise, saying ‘I see 2 paths before me, and I don’t know in which of them I am going to be led’. One of the explanations given for this in Chassidus is that, although R’ Yochanan had no doubts with regards to his piety on a revealed level, he was concerned about the state of his inner kochos, hence his concern over which path he would be led in. If this was true about R’ Yochanan, how much more is this a concern for us, where the “inner kochos” are actually very close to the surface, their blemishes (almost) visible to the naked eye.
It becomes increasingly obvious that, in order to approach Yud Shvat with confidence in our position, we need the assistance of some tool that will help us properly evaluate our innards. A high tech x-ray scanner, as it is, that will give us a clear unaltered picture of what’s going on beneath our levushim (don’t worry, it’s for your own eyes only, you don’t have to hang it up in your living room). And, considering that the price tag on the machines now being used in the airports is in the six digits each, this can present quite a challenge.
But: not to worry. We have just the tool, and an inexpensive one at that. All we need is to avail ourselves of it. The tool is: ASEH LECHA RAV! That’s right, all you have to do is speak to your Rav (as the Rebbe instructed), and he will help you peer beneath the surface, and get a glimpse of what’s happening inside of you, so that you can make timely corrections and repairs.
How does this work, you ask? The Rav is, after all, a plain person, like yourself, why the assumption that he suddenly gains possession of x-ray-vision? I think this can be explained in 3 ways: a) What’s important for us to see is not really the depths of our soul, that innermost level that R’ Yochanan was concerned about. Rather, we are concerned about what is (just beyond) surface deep, that has a great effect on all of our behavior, that could change the picture of all the things that we do. The only reason that it is invisible to us is because our emotional attachment to the subject clouds our vision. Thus, our Rav, by mere virtue of the fact that he is a detached, unbiased party, has access to x-ray-vision with regards to us. b) We don’t really know how the machines in the airport, that are essentially nothing more than a lot of metal and wires, have the ability to see through objects. But if the scientists, who studied the subject intensely (and who will be profiting from the six-digit price tags on the machines) assure us that they have the mechanism to do so, then we’ll trust them enough to give it a try. So too, we can trust the Rebbe’s superior knowledge with regards to the effectiveness of a Rav, even if we don’t understand how it works. c) But, perhaps the most important point is that there doesn’t have to be a reason why it works. When the Rebbe sends someone with a life-and-death question to a doctor, there is no need for the doctor to be brilliant or an expert; - the Rebbe gives him the power to answer correctly. So too, when the Rebbe sends all of us to speak to our Rav, the Rebbe simultaneously provides the kochos for it to be successful. So when we are intimidated by the seeming difficulty of approaching a Rav, we should contemplate the effectiveness to give ourselves courage to make the move.
So, in summation, the first lesson to be learned from the act that hopefully sent Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (that’s the gentleman from Nigeria with the tachtonim) to prison for the rest of his life, is to make the effort necessary to approach our Rav, so that he can help us reveal our inner selves, so that we won’t be imprisoned by our NHB for the rest of our lives.
Another point (at least in brief): These new high tech machines are, in fact, the essence of what Yud Shvat is all about. For the Rebbe defined Yud Shvat as drawing the shechina down onto our physical world. The reason why we would say that it is not here is because of the external levushim that conceal G-dliness. So that when we look at the world we see airplanes and airports and all sorts of technology (and a bunch of other things that we shouldn’t see..). The one thing that we don’t see is the presence of Hashem. Bringing down the shechinah into this world is to endeavor to change that. To transform this physical world into a place where G-dliness is revealed.
In a general sense, that took place at Ma’an Torah. Through Torah and mitzvos, that deal with, and are performed with physical objects from this physical world, it becomes apparent that also this world is G-dliness. In contrast to before Ma’an Torah, the shechinah had now descended onto this world. Because, while prior to Ma’an Torah, connecting oneself to Hashem meant running away from olam hazeh hagashmi and what it represents, after Ma’an Torah, davek vechibur – connecting to Hashem was in and with the world itself.
However, that is only in a general sense. Because, more specifically, although we see that the world is one with Hashem, when we look at the world itself we still see not G-dliness, but levushim. So, while we are arriving at the right conclusions, we are still like the person who is groping in the dark to get there. We are like the old-fashioned x-ray machines, that tell us (most of the time) what is inside, without changing the fact that what we see in front of ourselves are the levushim. The ultimate goal of bringing the shechinah downstairs, of realizing the real dirah batachtonim, is to get the real picture, to turn on the lights. It’s to implement the high tech machines, that get rid of the levushim altogether. Then Hashem and the tachtonim are truly one. And that is the mission of our generation, of the 2nd dor hashvi’i, the 2nd stage of bringing the shechinah completely into tachtonim. Then, and only then, will we experience the Possuk veloyikanef od morecho, there will be no more levushim, and all of the world will be Hashem echad uShmo echad!
Much more to be said on this, Hemshech Yavo IYH L’chaim! May Hashem Yisborach keep up with the times, and utilize the new high tech scanner to blast away all traces of levushim, and then all the world, including and especially the tachtonim, will truly be filled with the revelation of G-dliness, with the hisgalus of Moshiach Tzidkeinu TUMYM!!!
Rabbi Akiva Wagner
לזכות 'ר שלום מרדכי הלוי בן, רבקה לגאולה וישועה קרובה, ושלימה י"ת וממש ג"ב טוהנוהנ
