This week’s Torah reading is always read in the month of Ellul. It contains 38 commandments and one of them is to make Cities of Refuge (sanctuary cities for accidental murderers).
Elul, is the last month of the Jewish year and it is called The Month of ‘Return’ (Tshuva). It is the month of self-reckoning to 'return' ourselves to the right spiritual place. Therefore, it is a month of intense introspection, self-correction, inventory of the past and good resolutions for the future. Something similar to a city of refuge.
For Chassidim it is the month to travel to the Rebbe.
A Rebbe is a Master of Return, a Master of Truth. He is the only one that really knows our true potential and how to activate it.
For instance, there is a story about a Lubavitcher Chassid that every year on the first day of Elul would begin walking by foot to the Rebbe (I heard it was to the third Rebbe of Chabad called the Tzemach Tzedek about 150 years ago) to be by him for the holidays (Rosh HaShanna etc.).
Now this was no easy task; the weather was usually freezing and snowy at that time of year but he forced himself year after year to go by foot saying that to be by the Rebbe requires self-sacrifice.
When he was in his sixties it was difficult, in his early seventies it was an open miracle. Until finally, one bitter cold afternoon he was in his late seventies, on a lonely forest road, snow up to his knees, his ‘batteries finally ran out’ and his frozen legs simply would not move!
“Nu, at least I’m dying on the way to the Rebbe.” he consoled himself “I just hope someone will find me and give me a Jewish burial so the animals don’t eat me.” He was exhausted and was considering sitting in the snow for a final rest when suddenly he heard something in the distance!
It was a wagon! It sounded about a mile away but the sound was unmistakable; the wheels crunching on the snow and the plodding of the horses. Occasionally the wind wafted a few notes of the song the driver was singing. It didn’t take long until it reached him; it was a wagon filled with large barrels, and it stopped before our freezing Chassid.
“Hey, Moshke!” The wagon-driver yelled (That is what the non-Jews called all the Jews) “Hey! Want a ride? If you can find a place, jump in!” he stuck out his powerful hand. With renewed hope the old Chassid gratefully grabbed the driver’s hand who pulled him into the wagon. He wedged himself down between the barrels and the wagon began to move.
But after a few minutes huddled between the barrels he was abruptly reminded that he was freezing, and not being able to move didn’t help any. That was when he noticed a small spigot sticking out of one of the barrels.
“Maybe it’s wine (wine of non-Jews is forbidden to drink), or oil, or vinegar, or maybe something else,” he thought to himself. “But, it might be .....”.
He just happened to have a small cup on him (for emergencies) and with a shivering hand held it under the spigot and turned the handle. No ...... It wasn’t wine or oil, not vinegar or anything else it was .....VODKA!! He quickly made the appropriate blessing and drank the cup.
“Ivan!” he yelled to the driver “I took a little of your merchandise here, I was freezing! Listen, I’ll pay, I promise! Can I take another small cup?”
“Of course, my friend” shouted the driver over his shoulder. “But I want you to sing! You know how to sing happy song?”
The second cup was better than the first, and in a minute Moshe was warm. He was happy! He was going to the Rebbe! G-d made him a miracle! And he began singing! In no time the driver was singing with him and before he knew it the ten-hour drive passed like minutes and they had reached Lubavitch!
The driver helped him out of his ‘place’ gave him a big hug and they warmly parted. Our Chassid walked straight to the Shul (synagogue) where he immediately gathered everyone around him and said he wanted to tell them something.
“Today I learned a very great lesson.” He began, occasionally rubbing his hands to warm up. “The Torah is supposed to make us happy. Correct? But the Torah is also compared to water, right? And water can be cold.
“So that is why the Baal Shem Tov and all the Rebbes began writing Chassidus, Chassidut is sort of like vodka! It’s Torah that makes you warm and happy! Right?”
No one knew exactly what he was getting at but everyone respected him and waited for him to continue.
“Well, I just discovered that a Jew can be surrounded by barrels of Chassidus, by a sea of fire water, and ALSO be cold. I was sitting in a wagon surrounded by vodka and I was freezing to death. But ... when I took just a little bit INSIDE .... Ahhh. Then I became warm and alive!! In fact, then I even warmed up everything around me!! That’s what the Rebbe is for. To put Chassidus into our hearts!! To make Judaism ALIVE!!! Lechiam!!”
That is the purpose of the month of Elul, to take the G-dliness; the LIFE of the Torah to heart and see what a warm, happy and meaningful thing Torah and commandments really are.
It is the month when we begin to see that we could have done much better in the year that passed, especially in the four areas (hinted at by the letters E’L’U’L: Torah, Prayer, Charity and Tshuva. (See Kitzur Shulcan Aruch chap. 126:1)).
And that is its relevance to the Cities of Refuge.
The Lubavitch Rebbe explains that each of us (in a spiritual sense) is an ‘accidental murderer’ pursued by an avenger (‘Goail HaDam”).
‘Murderer’ because every transgression we do takes life from the ‘holy soul’; the ‘image of G-d’ within us. Accidental because no one really intentionally wants to do such a thing. And the ‘Avenger’ is the selfish impulse (Yetzer HaRa) within us that is pursuing us constantly to destroy us.
Therefore, G-d has given us the month of Ellul, more exactly; learning Torah in the month of Elul, as a safe place from our own drives, urges, habits and mistakes.
This month has a special spiritual aura, which protects us and draws us closer to serving G-d.
And this is VERY relevant to Moshiach.
In this week’s reading (19:9) it tells us that ‘in the future’ (when Moshiach arrives) G-d will add three more refuge cities to the six already stated in the Torah.
The question that immediately arises is; in the days of Moshiach there will be no sins of any sort and certainly not accidental murder! Why will we possibly need three MORE Cities of Refuge? Why will we need such cities at all???
And the answer is, as we explained in our story; the Moshiach will make the Torah so real, internal and warm that even the THOUGHT of doing a sin will be considered accidental murder. And anyone that has such thoughts will flee to one of these cities to learn to think ONLY positively.
And the Lubavitcher Rebbe says this should happen at any moment. We are standing on the merits of thousands of years of Jewish hopes, prayers and suffering. Now it could be that just one more good deed, word or even thought can bring ... Moshiach NOW!!
Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel
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