Dear Alumni Sheyichyu!
Sholom U’Brocho!
Mazel tov to Rabbi and Mrs. Shmulik Schtroks on the birth of their son. May they bring him up lTOveCHuMAA”T mitoch harchovo, and to be a true chayol! (If anyone is aware of any mazeltov’s that I omitted please let me know).
Once, while the Rebbe was distributing “lekach”, a young girl went by. After receiving her piece of honey cake, she looked at it, and blurted out in surprise: “But where is the icing?” The Rebbe replied “In Lubavitch is nisht geven kein crème” [In Lubavitch it was not customary to have icing on the cake].
Perhaps the Rebbe was establishing the minhag Lubavitch with regards to “lekach”. But perhaps, rather, the Rebbe was making a more basic point. It’s true that in this season we use various simonim to express our wishes and heartfelt prayers to be blessed with a good and sweet year. Besides our earnest recital of tehillim and increased concentration in our davening, we also partake of the apple in honey and dip our challah in honey on Rosh hashonoh, and we eat the sweet honey cake before and after Yom Kippur (it states specifically in sefer haminhogim that we don’t merely ask for it but we also partake of it).
It is sweet and tastes good, as it is meant to. We enjoy eating it, as we should, as we ask the Eibishter that we should experience the same sweetness throughout the coming year. But it is, after all, the bodily indulgences, and we have to remember not to go overboard. We draw the line, perhaps, when it comes to icing. The main focus must be, still, on the spiritual matters, and too much gashmyus or chumryus is inevitably a distraction from that focus.
Have the cake, and even eat it, and know that with this you are fulfilling a minhog Yisroel which is Torah. But you don’t need to mehader in this mitzvah. Save your extra efforts for being diligent for the spiritual side of your avodas Hashem.
R’ Moshe, the son of the Alter Rebbe, spent much time in self-imposed golus. He would travel to villages in which he would remain in the beis medrash without leaving. Once, he was in a city and staying in the beis medrash over Shabbos, as was his custom. A local chosid recognized him, and invited him to his home for seudas Shabbos. When R’ Moshe refused, the chosid insisted, saying that being able to enjoy a proper seudas Shabbos was a matter of halocho, which he would be unable to fulfill in the shul. R’ Moshe replied: “I heard from my father (the Alter Rebbe) that any mitzvah that the body derives pleasure from, one does not need to be mehader in it”.
So, the Rebbe was, maybe, saying: ‘do the mitzvah, carry out the minhag meticulously like a truly devoted chosid, but save the “icing” for your davening and learning!’
Recently, in the daily shiurim in Rambam, we learned hilchos teshuva, and I came across a Rambam that seemed to be very difficult. The Rambam writes (in the 7th perek of hilchos teshuva):
אל תאמר שאין תשובה אלא מעבירות שיש בהן מעשה כגון זנות וגזל .וגניבה אלא כשם שצריך אדם לשוב מאלו כך הוא צריך לחפש בדעות רעות שיש לו ולשוב מן הכעס ומן האיבה ומן הקנאה ומן ההתול ומרדיפת הממון והכבוד ומרדיפת המאכלות וכיוצא בהן מן הכל צריך לחזור .בתשובה ואלו העונות קשים מאותן שיש בהן מעשה שבזמן שאדם באלו נשקע הוא קשה לפרוש מהם הוא וכן אומר הוא יעזוב רשע וגו'.
This seems very puzzling. Someone commits adultery r”l, or steals, is equal to someone who fresses pizza every night, or who basks in the attention that everyone gives him??! True, it’s not nice, it’s grob, to be immersed in taavos, to be a glutton. But could that be equated with someone who commits an actual aveira, - to someone who goes against the explicit directives of the Master of the world?!
The Rambam emphasizes כשם, - in the same manner that I have to do teshuva and repent if I sinned, if I acted in a way that is contrary to shulchan aruch ch”v, so too, in the same manner, I have to do teshuva and repent if I’m a cynical joker (מן ההיתול) or if I’m always looking for a way to make another buck, or two, or a thousand or a million (ומרדיפת הממון).
Really?! They are actually the same? What if I don’t do any aveiros, I’m very meticulous about following shulchan aruch precisely, but I’m just not such an iskafya type of a guy (I’m just more into ishapcha...). Is that so terrible? Does that really necessitate the same level of teshuva as a sinner?
[Even the source that is brought by the meforshim to support this Rambam, from what Chazal teach us הרהורי עבירה קשים מעבירה, seems difficult to see as a source for the above].
Seemingly, the Rambam is based on what we learn extensively in chassidus; - that the true definition of teshuva is והרוח תשוב אל האלקים אשר נתנה, returning to a state of attachment to Hashem. And just as aveiros prevent that attachment, they separate between us and Hashem (עוונותיכם מבדילים ביניכם לבין אלקיכם), so too, in the same manner, our attaching ourselves to our material pursuits stands in the way of our connection with G-dliness. We can’t be immersed in our physical indulgences, whether our pursuit of glory or money or bodily pleasures, and at the same time be immersed in our connection with our Source, with Hashem echod.
[As chassidus quotes from the chovos halevovos: “Just as fire and water cannot coexist, so, too, is it impossible to coexist in one heart a love of Elokus and a love for physical and material pleasures”].
Indeed, it is כשם, - in order to do teshuva, to return to our state of oneness with Hashem, we must remove all barriers, both those caused by our actual sins, and those resulting from our immersing ourselves in the cesspool of olam hazeh. [If this is indeed correct, then this Rambam is a source in nigleh for the interpretation of teshuva according to chassidus].
So, what do we do? We aren’t allowed to fast, so we need to eat. And we are even expected to eat healthily and heartily, and not deprive ourselves of any food that may be necessary for a healthy and balanced diet.
[There was one very chassidishe bochur, in the early years, who had a “taava” to go in to the Rebbe for yechidus. However, yechidus opportunity for bochurim was limited to once a year, at the time of his birthday, and he felt he couldn’t wait until then. So the bochur told Rabbi Chodakov that he needs to ask the Rebbe for a tikun for something he did wrong, and it is a matter that can’t wait. Since that is, after all, what a Rebbe is for, he guessed, correctly, that Rabbi Chodakov would be unable to refuse such a request. But, once he got in, because he was “listed” as coming in to request a tikun, he now needed to actually find something to request a tikun for. So he said to the Rebbe that he fears that he once ate something that he shouldn’t have eaten, and he needs a tikun. The Rebbe smiled, and told him that his tikun would be to always finish all of the food that is in his plate! (He was always very meticulous in carrying out the Rebbe’s directive).
But we can at least forego the icing! We need to know that our bodily gratification stands in the way of our experiencing a geshmak in Elokus and in doing what the Eibishter wants, and we need to set our limits. At lease decrease, in some measure, your pursuit of taavos olam hazeh, and do the teshuva prescribed by the Rambam.
The Rebbe once said a vort that he said was quoted in the hakdomo of a (Ungarisher) sefer in the name of the Alter Rebbe: It says in shulchan aruch that in aseres yemei teshuva one should refrain from eating “pas paltar”, - the bread of goyim, even if throughout the year he is not so careful about it. The vort was: It says that Yakkov and Esav made a division, Yaakov took olam habo and spirituality, while Esav took worldliness. Even if during the year one is not so careful, - he partakes in “the bread of Esav”, in pursuing worldly indulgences, nonetheless in the aseres yemei teshuva he should abstain.
This is even better understood in light of the above Rambam, for an integral aspect of teshuva, of truly “returning” wholeheartedly to Hashem, is decreasing our pursuit of worldly pleasures.
This Shabbos we read Parsha Shoftim, and the Rebbe quoted from the Shach and other meforshim that שופטים ושוטרים תתן לך בכל שעריך refers also to the guards that need to be placed by the various gateways of our body; - our eyes and ears and mouth etc. We need to guard and monitor what goes into and out of our bodies, and ensure that it is only what belongs.
We are already in Ellul, and we need to put effort into setting up these shoarim. We need to set – and know - our boundaries. While we may allow the food and drink into our body, with the “icing on the cake” we need to draw the line.
And by taking away all of the barriers that prevent our connection with the Eibishter, we can be sure of a true teshuva, of returning to a state of Oneness with Elokus, and true sweetness, with a שנה טובה ומתוקה בטוב הנראה והנגלה ר"בגו, and the icing on the cake will be the geula ho’amitis vehashleima with Moshiach Now!
L’chaim! May we all endeavor to taste the sweetness in our spiritual pursuits, in our learning and our davening and our avodas Hashem, and may the Eibishter give each and every one of us and each and every Yid and all Yidden a כתיבה וחתימה טובה לשנה טובה ומתוקה בטוב הנראה והנגלה ר"בגו including and especially the main brocho for the immediate hisgalus of Moshiach Tzidkeinu NOW!!!
Rabbi Akiva Wagner
!ג"הנרוהנ בטוב ס"וכט הנכונה בריאות מתוך ט"לאויוש ,'שי מרים בן ב"שד לזכות ט"ואויוש ק"לרפושו ,חנה בן אהרן ת"הרה לזכות
