VAYEIRA I | וירא א
Adapted from a sichah delivered on 20 Marcheshvan, 5713 (1952)
Introduction
The Rebbe begins the sichah with the story of the Rebbe Rashab who, as a four- or five-year-old boy, burst into tears, asking, “Why has G-d not revealed Himself to me?” He uses the story as a springboard to teach us what we should cry for – that each one of us can ask for G-d to reveal Himself to him.
The answer the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe Rashab’s grandfather, gave him, teaches that such a revelation must be earned. Yes, we can demand Divine revelation, but the revelation comes with a price – the effort it takes to transform ourselves so that we are worthy of it.
This teaching speaks to every person’s spiritual journey – highlighting our yearning for G-dliness and the steps we must undertake so that we can experience His presence.
A Question that Brought a Child to Tears
1. Today is the twentieth of Marcheshvan – the birthday of the Rebbe Rashab, the father of my father-in-law – accordingly, I will relate a story I have told before:
Every twentieth of Marcheshvan – his birthday – the Rebbe Rashab would go to his grandfather, the Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, to request a blessing. Possibly, this was also the custom of the other grandchildren of the Tzemach Tzedek.
Once, the Rebbe Rashab burst into tears when he entered the Tzemach Tzedek’s study to request a birthday blessing. [The Rebbe Rashab was then only four or five years old, because he was born in the year 5621 (1860) and the Tzemach Tzedek passed away in Nissan, 5626 (1866).] The Tzemach Tzedek asked him, “Why are you crying?” He answered that he had studied in the Chumash (or heard it being related) that G-d had revealed Himself to Avraham, our patriarch. (This story took place during the week of Parshas Vayeira.) And the Rebbe Rashab cried, “Why hasn’t He revealed Himself to me?”
The Tzemach Tzedek answered him: “When, at the age of 99, a Jew (a second version: a Jew, who is a tzadik) realizes that he must circumcise himself, then he is worthy that G-d should reveal Himself to him.”
The child accepted the answer and stopped crying.
A Child’s Story, A Universal Message
2. Although the Rebbe Rashab was still a small child, well before his bar mitzvah – even before he had reached the age of chinuch, the age at which he was to be trained in the observance of the mitzvos – when these events occurred, we should nevertheless learn from this story. The fact that the Rebbe Rashab told it to his only son, the Rebbe Rayatz, and the Rebbe Rayatz retold it so that it should be transmitted to people at large, proves that the story is relevant for us as well.
We can learn from it two concepts; in other words, both the question and the answer can serve as lessons.
What We Should Cry For
3. The story about the Rebbe Rashab crying because G-d did not reveal Himself to him teaches us that every Jew can yearn to see G-d. This applies regardless of the situation he finds himself, even if he has not reached the age of chinuch – meaning that he has so little understanding that not only does he himself not comprehend, but he also cannot absorb any influence from another person.
Chronologically, he may be an adult, but when it comes to spiritual matters, he may be like a child who has not reached the age of chinuch. As the Rebbe Rayatz, my father-in-law, said, a Jew’s years are not counted according to his passport. His passport may say that he is an elderly Jew, but in his true, spiritual years, in his fulfillment of the Torah and its mitzvos, he resembles a small child who plays under the table.
Every Jew can demand – and demand forcefully, which is what crying over such a demand means – that G-d should reveal Himself to him, just as He did to Avraham, our patriarch.
He cries because the matter transcends his understanding. It is loftier than his mind. When the mind can no longer bear something, tears come from mosrei mochin.
Every Jew can ask for G-d to reveal Himself to him with an intensity that brings him to tears.
What Avraham Could Not Achieve on His Own
4. Moreover, every Jew can demand that G-d reveal Himself to him in the same way that He revealed Himself to Avraham, our patriarch, after he fulfilled the mitzvah of circumcision. It was in this spiritual state that “G-d revealed Himself to him.”
We also find that G-d revealed Himself to Avraham before this, but those revelations are not comparable to the revelation – as reflected in the term used by the Targum, v’isgeli – that occurred after the mitzvah of circumcision, which was much loftier.
When G-d revealed Himself to Avraham after the mitzvah of circumcision, he was no longer called Avram but Avraham, the letter hei having already been added to his name. The Gemara states that, at that time, Avraham became master over his five sensory organs: the eyes, ears, and the male organ, over which, by nature, a person has no mastery.
Previously, when he was called Avram – without a hei – he was master only over those tendencies that a person can naturally control. Afterwards, however, as a result of working on himself with his own power – to the full extent that a person could achieve with his own power – he was granted from Heaven the potential to control even matters that one cannot ordinarily govern on his own. Even tendencies over which, by nature, a person would not ordinarily be able to rule were subjugated to him.
Consequently, it is clear that the revelation to Avraham, our patriarch, after the mitzvah of circumcision was much loftier than those revelations granted him before.
Nevertheless, as a result of the spiritual heritage stemming from Avraham, every Jew – even one who has not reached the stage of chinuch, i.e., who has yet to begin his education in spiritual matters – can also demand that G-d reveal Himself to him just as He revealed Himself to Avraham after he reached the level he was granted following the mitzvah of circumcision.
Recognizing the Need for Something More
5. From the Tzemach Tzedek’s answer – that the revelation to Avraham came because he realized that he must circumcise himself – we can learn the following:
True, every Jew can demand that G-d reveal Himself to him. However, this requires a prerequisite: he must know that he needs to “circumcise” himself spiritually. This means that despite all the virtues he possesses – whether actually or at least potentially – he must still take another step.
As was discussed earlier, potentially, every Jew can reach the highest levels and, as the Sages teach, every Jew is obligated to ask himself, “When will my deeds reach the deeds of my patriarchs Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov?” (The fact that Avraham is mentioned together with Yitzchak and Yaakov shows that this refers to Avraham at the level he reached after the mitzvah of circumcision.) Nevertheless, despite this potential, every Jew must realize that he needs to “circumcise” himself.
When Mastery of One’s Senses Is Not Enough
6. Moreover, even those who actually possess such virtues – tzadikim who, like Avraham our patriarch, master even those organs that by nature one cannot control – must know that they need to “circumcise” themselves.
There is a well-known story about the Rebbe Rashab. Once, he complained that he could not hear in one ear. When an inquiry was made regarding the cause, it was discovered that, on Shabbos, when he would deliver a maamar, a discourse of Chassidus, there were people in another room who were talking and this disturbed him in delivering the maamar. Apparently, he had made a subconscious decision: Since he felt the responsibility of his role – to transmit Chassidus – and the talking was disturbing him, he removed the sense of hearing from the ear that was on the side of that room.
(This reflects what is stated in a maamar – that tzadkim have control over their senses and can remove their ability to see or hear when that particular sense disturbs their G-dly souls, for tzadikim are masters even over the senses that by nature a normal person does not control.) Yet even those who stand at such a lofty level must know that they need to “circumcise” themselves.
Inner Change – the Prerequisite for Blessing
7. Why is such “circumcision” necessary? Because even a spiritually elevated person possesses a very subtle spiritual foreskin, something that inhibits his spiritual sensitivity, and which can, after a series of chainlike descents, ultimately lead him to coarse and lowly matters.
This is reflected in the precise wording of the Tzemach Tzedek: “When, at the age of ninety-nine, a Jew, who is a tzadik, realizes that he must circumcise himself, then he is worthy that G-d should reveal Himself to him.” Reaching the age of one hundred indicates that a person has refined all his ten faculties, each faculty including its ten subdivisions. At this point, he has nothing more to fear because he no longer has any connection to worldly matters, as the Mishnah teaches, “At one hundred, it is as if one has died, passed away, and been nullified from the world.”
This is obviously the intent of the Mishnah. Otherwise, the meaning of the teaching, “At one hundred, it is as if one has died, passed away, and been nullified from the world,” is difficult to understand. All the other stages enumerated in that mishnah are practical directives concerning how to conduct oneself: “At [the age of] five years, [one begins the study of] Scripture; at ten, [one begins the study of] Mishnah; at thirteen, [one becomes obligated in the observance of] mitzvos….” However, what is the directive implied by “At one hundred, it is as if one has died, passed away, and been nullified from the world”?
The explanation is that when he has already refined all his ten faculties – and did so in a detailed and specific manner, each one as it includes its ten sub-faculties – thus, he has attained the level of 100. Then, it is “as if he has died, passed away, and been nullified from the world.” Such a person no longer has any connection to worldly matters and has nothing to fear. It is as if he no longer had an evil inclination at all.
However, when a person is ninety-nine years old – in other words, something is still lacking in his refinement of the specific details of all his ten faculties – then, he must “circumcise” himself. Even at such a stage, a person faces the possibility of a series of chainlike descents and can ultimately slip and fall into lowly matters.
[The intent is not a series of descents where the person finds himself in one world and the descent occurs in another world. Rather, since he exists both “before maasei Bereishis (‘Work of Creation’) and after maasei Bereishis (‘Work of Creation’)” – that is to say, he has both a lofty spiritual potential and a base, material potential – the possibility of a series of descents exists within the person himself.]
However, when a person operates from a base of general self-nullification. In other words, he realizes that he must “circumcise” himself. He recognizes that, as he is, he is inadequate and he must change. This awareness is a prerequisite to reaching higher levels. Then, “G-d will reveal Himself to him,” just as He did to Avraham, our patriarch, after the mitzvah of circumcision. He becomes “Avraham” with an added letter hei. He becomes master over all his senses, even over those that by nature one cannot control.
Furthermore, he becomes master over his portion in the world. As was discussed in the maamar regarding tzadikim: Through the refinement they bring about within themselves, they also bring about refinement in their portion in the world.
Similarly, by becoming master over his senses, a person also becomes master over his portion in the world – over all the things he needs to serve G-d, whether they be children, life and health, or sustenance. May these all be granted in abundance.
