Dear Alumni Sheyichyu!
Sholom U’Brocho!
Mazel Tov to Mendel Perlstein on the occasion of his engagement. Mazel Tov to Eliezer Posner on the occasion of his engagement. Mazel Tov to Moshe Pinchos Katz on the occasion of his engagement. Mazel Tov to Zalman Horowitz on the occasion of his engagement. May they use out the special period of Yokor Mikol yokor to its’ utmost! Mazel Tov to Rabbi & Mrs. Tzvi Shuchat on the birth of their son. Mazel Tov to Rabbi & Mrs. Levi Browd on the birth of their daughter. May they bring them up lTOveCHuMAA”T mitoch harchovo, and to be true chayolim/os! Mazel Tov to Michoel Chaikin on the occasion of his chasunah. May their new home be set up in accordance with the Rebbe’s wishes, and be a keli for all brochos! (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.
A peasant once sinned against the king. The king was angered, and ordered the man, along with his entire family, to be thrown into the dungeon. The dungeon was actually a very deep pit, where the hapless family was surrounded by the bare stone walls. Once a day, someone from the palace was assigned to lower a basket to them, containing enough food to sustain them for the day. Time passed in this manner, with the family having ample opportunity to regret their actions, as they recalled wistfully the happy life they led before their incarceration, and bemoaned the tragedy of their current suffering.
Years went by, and the parents died in captivity, while the children and their families aged, and new generations were born in the dungeon. Gradually, the older generations passed on one by one, and the dungeon came to be inhabited by descendents who had never known any other existence. To them the world consisted of four imposing stone walls. They knew that somehow food supplies came to them every day from above in a basket; they didn’t necessarily understand how this worked, but they all knew that this was a fact, - they saw it for themselves; this was their reality.
Of course, they were all able to recall the “bubbeh maases”, the tales that used to be told by the ancient great-grandfather and great grandmother before they died, that described a great big world, with trees and oceans, and fields and animals and heavenly bodies and vast open spaces. They had described it all very vividly, and claimed to have witnessed it all themselves “before” arriving here. Much of this was corroborated by their grandparents, and great uncles and aunts. But they already did not have such clear memories of their own, and relied on the patriarch.
But, as interesting and fascinating as these tales were, the new generation knew to take it all with ‘a grain of salt’. They considered themselves to be rational and intellectual, and they reached logical conclusions based on what they could see with their own eyes. It was plain that their ancestors were rather fanciful, and not very well grounded. Even those who gave some credibility to these stories, believed that they were surely greatly exaggerated, even if they did have some basis, but many others dismissed them out of hand as absolute fabrications and figments of their imaginations.
In the meantime, in the royal palace, the identity and transgression of the original peasant was long forgotten; there, too, the younger folks took the place of their elders, but the old traditions continued, with someone always being assigned the important task of lowering daily rations into the dungeon.
Many years passed, and one day a new king was crowned. As he was reviewing some old documents, he chanced upon the story of this unfortunate family. The king immediately decided that they had suffered long enough, and he signed an executive pardon, allowing them to be liberated. However, the various courtiers, along with the royal psychiatrists, expressed some concern. The current prisoners had spent their entire lives in the prison, to them this was their entire universe. To abruptly yank them from there and hurl them into the real world could prove catastrophic; they may not be able to make the adjustment. After lengthy consultation, it was decided to send the chief psychologist to them, to help prepare them for the great change in their lives.
Thus it was that, the next day, as they awaited their food to descend from above as it “naturally” did every day, they suddenly saw a human being appear with it! Overcome with curiosity, they immediately surrounded him, trying to discover from where he had materialized. He told them all to listen carefully, for he had important news to share with them. Slowly he began describing to them the “real world” that exists “out there”; - the world from where he had come to them, and to which he belonged; - the world to which, very shortly, they would all be returned.
The fact of his having just arrived from the outside world was to them a living vindication of their ancestor, and a validation of his old fashioned stories. Hearing the descriptions from this man who stood before them in the flesh caused all of their doubts to melt away like flax before a burning flame, and they couldn’t hear enough from him, swallowing his information as a thirsty man his first drop of water. In no time they discarded the foolish notions that they had acquired during their lengthy stay in the prison, and began thinking like “free” people once again.
Chassidim would use the above moshol (or a variation of it) to illustrate what a Rebbe is: Our neshomos, which are chelek Eloka mimaal mamash, at some point had to descend “mei’igra rama l’bira amikta”, - from a lofty mountain to a deep dungeon. If that isn’t bad enough, we find ourselves in a world where the truisms that were ingrained in the neshomo since time immemorial, are at risk of being eradicated, and substituted by the “modern” “rational” ideas of the societies in which we reside. Our constant exposure to the workings of nature inevitably deceive us into believing in it more than in “ein od milvado”, until ultimately – if only in a subtle way – we begin to worship this very nature as the source of our livelihood (while paying only lip service – at best – to the old-fashioned ideas with which we were raised; - of a different reality).
But the Eibishter, the King of kings, wants to liberate us, to allow us to rehabilitate, and to ease our adjustment. To this end, the ideas we learn in seforim don’t always suffice. We are all too familiar with these (old-fashioned) concepts, yet, all too often, the (so-called) reality that faces us in front of our eyes can prove more convincing.
Therefore, the Eibishter (probably after having consulted with the celestial psychiatrists) sends us a Rebbe! For the Rebbe is a living breathing representative of the “real world”. He comes down to us, to our dank and dirty dungeon, to share with us firsthand information of the real world; - to exhort us not to allow the pitiful dungeon to become our reality! He comes to us saying: ‘Come on, get with it, making a few dollars isn’t a life, and watching a movie or going to a restaurant isn’t a pleasure!’ He tries to liberate us from our narrow-minded, confined existence, in which we can’t see beyond the prison walls, and to help us realize that there’s whole world out there; - a real world, with real life and real pleasures and worthwhile pursuits!
The purpose of a Rebbe is not (merely) to instruct is, to give us brochos, or even to teach us. The Rebbe is our link to reality, to enable a smooth adjustment from our deprived and pitiful life of deceit and falsehood to a life of G-dliness; - of Truth and Life. If we listen and pay attention, then the “natural” world will lose it’s hold on us.
This is what we learn in this week’s parsha, regarding Moshe Rabbenu (who was the Rebbe of his generation, and one of the first Rebbe’s of Yidden): Pahroh’s evil design against the Jewish nation consisted of – specifically – having all of the baby boys thrown into the Nile River. The Nile was the avodazara of Mitzrayim; - being that it was their “natural” source of livelihood, they attributed their sustenance to it, and they worshipped it (similar to the way people today may worship the stock market, the internet, or the almighty dollar).
Pahroh, the embodiment of kellipa, wanted to drown the Jewish babies there as well. He aimed to have them lose their “old-fashioned” beliefs and mindsets, and have them replaced by the “realistic” and “practical” outlook of treating the world as reality and worshiping nature. In fact, he had good chances of being successful ch”v.
Enter: der Rebbe Reb Moshe (Rabbenu). Moshe was a Rebbe from the moment of his birth. He was a representative of the real word, who came to bring regards from there to the Jews languishing in golus. Thus, Chazal teach us, from the moment of his birth he spread light. Moshe brought with him the light of truth and life, the light of G-dliness, that dispels the darkness of golus.
Thus, Chazal teach us, with the birth of Moshe the decree of Pahroh was annulled. With the arrival of Moshe, the misconception of the laws of nature being perceived as the source of sustenance lost it’s influence, and, subsequently, the risk of Jewish children being “drowned” in the foreign ideologies of Mitzrayim was averted.
It’s that time of the year again. We’re within 30 days of Yud Shvat, and all of us are scrambling to figure out what extra hachanos we should make for that special day. From bochurim to shluchim to balebatim, from the more chassidish to the more “veltish”, everyone is at least conscious of the necessity to be involved in some way in preparing for Yud Shvat.
But, rather than just filling out a hachono checklist, and joining the most attractive mivtzva’s, we should take some time to contemplate what exactly it is we are preparing for.
Yud Shvat is the day that the Rebbe formally accepted the nesius, the day that he “officially” became our Rebbe. It is a day to renew and strengthen our hiskashrus to the Rebbe, to re-commit ourselves to following his instructions and directives (in fact, it is a day that eltere Chassidim named “Rosh Hashono l’hiskashrus”). And, we have to remember what a Rebbe is all about: The Rebbe comes to us to illuminate our darkness, by exposing us to the truth. In the Eibishter’s great mercy for us, over the fact that we’re languishing in this pitiful dungeon, he sent us the Rebbe, to help us realize that this is a despicable dungeon, that there’s another reality, a better life.
Unfortunately, all too often, we stubbornly cling to our golus mindset. This is a wonderful life, these four walls are all that exists in the real world, and all that I need is for my stock to go up a little more (if only Madoff would let me invest some more with him, with his spectacular returns..) and everything will be just fine and dandy. WRONG! This is an intolerable prison, and not (only) because of the suffering in the world, but because of it’s very existence; - it’s very nature.
History is repeating itself. We’re once again in danger of drowning in the idolatrous pleasure-pursuing ideologies of the society we reside in, and losing all sense of truth and real life. But, history is repeating itself, and we once again have a Moshe Rabbenu, who is here to avert the danger, to annul decree. It’s up to us to take advantage of this opportunity.
The conclusion is, therefore, that the essence of all of the hachonos for Yud Shvat, - their neshomo – regardless of what specific form they take, is to allow ourselves to be rescued from the river that is engulfing us, to grab onto the lifeline that is being extended to us. Whatever additional learning and actions we undertake at this time should be focused and aimed to getting into the world that the Rebbe is showing us and sharing with us. To place ourselves, into his daled amos, and since they are konos lo, this draws into his world and mindset.
The mayor of Bnei Brak, a Gerer chosid, was once by the Rebbe for dollars. During the course of the conversation, he remarked to the Rebbe “men pruft ton vifil es iz meglech” [‘we try to do as much as we’re able’]. The Rebbe looked at him in amazement, and exclaimed (approx.): “meglech?! dos iz al pi teva, vos far a shaychus hot a Yid mit teva?!” [‘as much is possible, naturally, what kind of a connection does a Jew have with nature?!’]
Freeing ourselves from our prisoner’s mindset includes living with the real perspective and outlook that “Hashem hu hoElokim Ein Od milvado”. That’s not a slogan or a party line or a chassidishe expression. That’s the only truth and the only reality. And this realization needs to affect every aspect of our life, because if we truly see things that way, then we would/will approach everything differently. The most basic example, as in the above anecdote, this perspective doesn’t allow is to view anything – that the Eibishter expects of us – as beyond our means.
Practically, the hachanos are the same, increasing in Torah, both in nigleh and in chassidus, increasing in avodas hatefilla, and increasing in gemach and ahavas Yisroel. But we need to bear in mind and keep in sight where we’re going with this. Each of these are, and can be, a means of extricating ourselves from our confinement, and of advancing our adjustment into the real world. Because, we’ve been drowning long enough, it’s high time that we get the executive pardon, and that we take advantage of it so that it can be properly implemented!
L’chaim! As we read in the Torah about how Moshe illuminated the darkness and dispelled it, so too bizman hazeh may the Eibishter send Moshe, Goel Rishon hu goel acharon, to dispel the horrible darkness of these final moments of golus, and replace it with the infinite light of Moshiach Tzidkeinu TUMYM!!!
Rabbi Akiva Wagner
לזכות 'ר שלום מרדכי הלוי בן, רבקה לגאולה וישועה קרובה, ושלימה י"ת וממש ג"ב טוהנוהנ
