I know, Parshas Shmos has already passed, and I’m already late. So, before I begin my email, I’ll offer a word of explanation:
For some time, I have been having trouble with the charger for my computer. I thought it was charging, and then, when I would check it later, the battery was almost dead. I would jiggle the wire, and eventually manage to correct the problem.
Well, a few days ago, the wire stopped working altogether. No amount of jiggling or wiggling could make any difference. The battery was rapidly draining. I realized Thursday that there was no way it had enough power for me to type out and send out an email. So I (finally) ordered a replacement wire, which (with amazon prime and all that) arrived today, and I was able to get on with my computer-related work.
And I learned a lesson. I could have many good ideas and an excellent top-of-the-line computer with all kinds of excellent features. But the charger has got to be functional. Otherwise, it’s not gonna work. It has to be able to charge.
And the same is true with all of us. We may have excellent features, we may be smart and talented and creative. But, in order to function properly, we have to be able to be charged. Which requires a proper wire that connects us to a source of power, that is flowing and unimpeded.
Which is actually what we’re all focused on these days. As we go forward with our preparations for Yud Shvat, we need to stay focused on what it’s all about. Yud Shvat is about being connected, and being recharged and powered up. We all have our “kiyur”, our apps and our features and our frills. But sometimes we get too caught up with them, on all the things we want to accomplish, and we’re too preoccupied to wire up. And, when that happens, we end up with less power.
There is a story of a chosid who used to travel once a year to his Rebbe. One year, the chosid had a challenging year in his personal spirituality, and he knew that his avodas Hashem had suffered. He felt very uncomfortable with his situation, and was extremely embarrassed at the thought of facing his Rebbe looking that way. So, he decided to skip the trip that year, and hopefully the following year, after finding ways to improve his ahava and yira, he would be ready to resume the trip.
But, of course, a chosid not going to his Rebbe is not the best recipe for enhanced avodas Hashem, and this chosid, too, continued his downward cycle. The following year, he was even less inclined to be able to present himself to his Rebbe. And he continued in his downward spiral.
After a number of years, during which he fell מדחי אל דחי r”l, he suddenly realized the desperation of his situation, and he dropped everything and ran to his Rebbe. When he arrived, his Rebbe reprimanded him: “When you are not doing well, that is when you need to go to the Rebbe, so that he can help you extricate yourself!”
So, rather than ch”v letting our battery life just continue to dwindle, we need to all make sure that we have workable wires, and that they’re plugged in!
And now, to get back to my email (many of the details in the following story, that had been previously unknown to me, were shared by Sholom Ber Moskowitz, and are much appreciated!):
Rabbi Aharon Chaim Zimmerman was a brilliant iluy. He was a nephew of Reb Boruch Ber Leibowitz, under whom he studied in Kamenitz, and he came with his father to America as a young teenager. In America, he met the Rebbe, and he would come to 770 at every opportunity to speak with the Rebbe in learning.
[He didn’t have any appreciation for chassidus or chassidishe matters. All that appealed to him was the geonus of the Rebbe. He would complain bitterly about the fact that Rabbi Chodakov would make him wait months for yechidus, saying “he lets in women and children, and Chaim wants to speak with the Rebbe in learning and he holds me back!” Often he would be in 770 and the Rebbe would call him over and initiate a conversation in learning. They never used seforim, and he said that the Rebbe resolved all of his difficulties. Years later, when he was already living in Eretz Yisroel, he once said to someone: “Just as I am familiar with my 5 fingers, that’s the level of familiarity that the Lubavitcher Rebbe had with every part of Torah!”]
Once he met the Rebbe walking towards 770, and they began speaking in learning, as they walked into 770. Reb Yoel Kahan witnessed it and later described it: The Rebbe was standing calmly with his back to his room, and Reb Chaim Zimerman was running back and forth excitedly (as was his nature), and they were exchanging marei mekomos from throughout Bavli and yerushalmi. In the end the Rebbe mentioned a yerushalmi. He said to the Rebbe: “That is a strong proof, I don’t have an answer, but I still think I’m right”.
A year and a half later, Reb Chaim was once talking to Reb Yoel, and he asked him about the incident. “Do you remember that conversation?” Reb Yoel said that he did. “Do you remember which yerushalmi the Rebbe quoted at the end?” Reb Yoel said that he did. “You should know”, he told him, “that I’ve thought about that proof over and over since then. It is “eizen”, it is solid! But I still think that I’m right.
Once, when he was in 770, he saw a group of bochurim telling a story of the Rebbe. He went over to them angrily. “Ach! What did you guys do?! You took such a gaon, and turned him into a Rebbe!”
He was in Chicago once, by a meeting of rabbonim, and one of the rabbonim there made a disparaging remark about the Rebbe. Reb Chaim turned to that rov, and called him an am ho’oretz. One of the other rabbonim present challenged him. “How can you say such a thing, you don’t know him!” Reb Chaim said to him: “It’s true that I don’t know this rov. But I know the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and I know that he’s a true gaon, and if this fellow would have any “chush” for Torah he would respect the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and if he could speak with such disrespect then he’s unquestionably an am ho’oretz!”
Once, he called up Rabbi Chodakov at 3:00 in the morning. “Go into the Lubavitcher Rebbe”, he exclaimed excitedly, “and tell him that Chaim Zimerman said that he’s the gaon hador!” It turned out that he received a response from the Rebbe to a question he asked in learning, and he had just completed deciphering it. Reb Yoel subsequently asked him about the incident. “Why did you get so excited about a klein etzetel (a small piece of paper)?” “What do you mean”, he retorted angrily, “that contained gantz kodshim!”].
Reb Yoel once asked him “What impresses you so much about the geonus of the Rebbe?” “Ah”, he said, “you would never understand”. “Tell me”, Reb Yoel insisted, “I’ll understand”. So he said to him: “Have you ever learned a Pnei Yehoshua? He learned a daf gemoro thoroughly, he had questions, answers, chidushim. He learned another daf, had different questions, from the previous daf, or from elsewhere, and he answered them. The rishonim were different. The Ran had a few yesodos, and with those yesodos he learned the entire shas. The same was with the Rambam and each of the rishonim,- they each had their few yesodos that with them they went through the entire Torah. That’s the way the Rebbe learns. He has a few nekudos, I don’t know if 3 or 4 or 5... definitely not more... and I don’t know what they are... but with those nekudos he learns the entire Torah, every gemoro, every rashi every Rambam. There can be questions, and everything is solved by those few nekudos. That is unmatched geonus!
Reb Chaim Zimerman enjoyed speaking with Reb Yoel in learning, and respected him for it, and, nevertheless, he did not think there was a chance of him appreciating his definition of the Rebbe’s geonus, so what hope do we have? But, there is an aspect of it that, perhaps, we can relate to:
Because this may be true not merely about the Rebbe’s learning, but about the Rebbe’s overall approach. The Rebbe approaches the entire world with 3 nekudos. We see a world that is so diverse, there is so much going on, it is the ultimate מה רבו מעשיך ה',- the ultimate expression of “multi”. But for the Rebbe, everything is broken down into 3 nekudos, and there is nothing that doesn’t fit into one of those 3 nekudos.
I think that, perhaps, the 3 nekudos are Yidden, Torah and Eibishter. In the words of the Zohar, ישראל אורייתא וקוב"ה חד הוא. Or, as in other times the Rebbe spoke about שלימות העם, שלימות התורה and שלימות הארץ. And we know that those were the 3 relentless campaigns of the Rebbe;- for mi hu Yehudi (shleimus ha’am), for the shtochim (shleimus ho’oretz) and for hafotzas haTorah vehaYahadus (shleimus haTorah).
Everything and everyone is viewed by the Rebbe in the context of these 3 nekudos. It is an aspect of connecting with G-dliness, of loving a fellow Jew or increasing Torah learning. ואידך פירושא,- all the rest is external, it’s secondary.
[I heard the following story recently from my brother, Rabbi Avrohom Wagner: The Rebbe was once on the way to 770, and passed by a shul that was not of Lubavitcher chassidim. They were short one for their minyan, and–not recognizing the Rebbe–they asked him if he can help complete their minyan. The Rebbe came in and sat down. One of the people there recognized the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and quickly sent them out to get a replacement. They apologized to the Rebbe, saying they did not realize who he was, and told him that they got someone else, and he was free to go. But the Rebbe said to them that no apology is necessary, and that they had no need to seek a replacement. He was very happy to help them out with their minyan! Some asked: Why did the Rebbe not tell them that he is in a rush to a different minyan (in 770), and is not available? After all, he is the Lubavitcher Rebbe, does he need to be the one to become the tenth man for people’s minyonim?! I think the answer is that for the Rebbe, everything is in the context of the 3 nekudos, If there’s an opportunity for a Yid to say kedusha, to say אמן יהא שמיה רבא, then that is the Rebbe’s objective].
We are all working diligently to prepare ourselves for the great day of Yud shvat. We are trying to figure out how to strengthen our hiskashrus to the Rebbe (to fix our wires so that we can recharge). And, in order to connect with the Rebbe, we need to contemplate and understand what Rebbe is, and what the Rebbe means to us.
And here, I think, Rabbi Zimerman’s definition could be a very good starting point. For the Rebbe, everything in life, everything in the world boils down to a few nekudos. And as chassidim, who are seeking to strengthen our connection with the Rebbe, we need to work on acquiring that mindset.
Stop getting caught up with all the nonsense, with all the values of society, or even with the agendas of your neshomo. As a chosid of the Rebbe, we need to have our 3 nekudos, and everything needs to be measured and viewed and analyzed in the context of those 3 nekudos.
You have a choice to make. Never mind what this will do for your status or your financial portfolio. The issue is not whether or not it will make you as wealthy as Elon Musk. The only criteria is how does this enhance my connection with the Eibishter, Torah or other Yidden.
We are not detaching ourselves from the world. We are involved in every aspect of the world. But everything, every part of the world is defined and compartmentalized into one of these three nekudos. And that and only that determines our approach to it.
By focusing on the 3 nekudos, and how they relate with every aspect of our lives, we make it easier to bring everything into the one nekudo,- to bring the shechina from the first rokia into the world, and to finalize the geulah of Moshiach Now!
L’chaim! We should all move away from the diversity of the world and bring everything into the 3 basic nekudos, and may the Eibishter as well bring the entire world into the one nekudo of והיה ה' למלך על כל הארץ ביום ההוא יהיה ה' אחד ושמו אחד with the immediate hisgalus of Moshiach Tzidkeinu NOW!!!
Rabbi Akiva Wagner
