On Sunday, 12 Adar I, 5752, at 8:00 p.m. the Maamar (Chassidic discourse) of Ve’Atah Tetzaveh was brought to the Rebbe for editing, in order that it be distributed for Purim Katan. On Monday morning at 2:15 a.m. the Rebbe came out of his room to drop off the edited version of the Maamar on the table. The Maamar was then printed and faxed to hundreds of locations around the world.
When the Rebbe was leaving 770 on Monday morning, Erev Purim Katan, he turned to his secretary and said, “since tonight is Purim Katan we will distribute this Maamar after Maariv.” The Rebbe continued a few more steps towards his car, then turned again and said, “with a dollar”. The Rebbe took a few more steps and said, “with lekach also”
On the night of Purim Katan thousands of Chassidim, men, women and children, passed by the Rebbe to receive the Maamar “Ve’ata Tezave” from the Rebbe’s holy hand.
The Maamar itself is based on the Previous Rebbe’s Maamar of “Ve’kibel Hayehudim” from the year 5687 (1927). It expounds at length about the charge of Moshe Rabbeinu to connect all the Jewish people with their Creator, and how this in turn brings Moshe Rabbeinu himself to attain higher heights. And just as Moshe Rabbeinu did so with the Jews in his time, the same is true about the Moshe Rabbeinu (the leader of the generation) of each subsequent generation.
The Maamar speaks of two forms of self-sacrifice that are expected of a Jew during two sorts of time-periods. The first is when the Jewish people are in troubling times, as was the case at the time when the Previous Rebbe said his Maamar. It was said in a dramatic time-period, while the members of the Yevsektsiya (Jewish communist party) were chasing and harassing the Previous Rebbe in every possible manner, seeking to disrupt his network of Jewish educational institutions.
Nevertheless, the Previous Rebbe recited this Maamar openly in the big Shul in Moscow, speaking quite clearly about the self-sacrifice that is demanded from each and every Jew to remain firm in his commitment to Torah, and especially to Torah education, much as the Jewish nation did in the times of Mordechai. The power that the Jews have to practice this self-sacrifice is generated by the Moshe Rabbeinu in each generation, as our Sages say, “Mordechai b’doiroi k’Moshe b’doiroi...” (Mordechai in his generation is like Moshe in his generation.)
The second time-period that the Maamar discusses is one of more comfortable circumstances, when the Jews are not being persecuted and are free to practice the observance of Torah. However, the mere fact that they find themselves in exile, when G-dliness is not visible throughout the world, must shake them to the core (as the verse says about the preparation of the oil for the Menorah in the Bet Hamikdash “katit” – pressed) and give them no rest until they succeed in bringing about the final Redemption.
(adapted from Derher)
