When the Alter Rebbe was in jail, the Baal Shem Tov and the Magid came to visit him even though they had already passed away. The Baal Shem Tov asked the Alter Rebbe to say Torah. The Alter Rebbe complied by reciting the discourse that the Magid said when he became Rebbe, “The appearance and working were as a wheel within a wheel.”
When the Alter Rebbe completed the discourse, the Baal Shem told the Magid, “He repeated it word for word as he heard it from me.”
This story is from the book “Bais Rebbe” and, at first, glance it seems to contradict the sefer, Hayom Yom [18th shvat] which seems to indicate that the Alter Rebbe first heard the maamar from Reb Mendel of Horodok, who was there when the Magid said it when he became Rebbe.
[The apparently contradictory versions can be reconciled easily assuming the Alter Rebbe heard it from the Baal Shem Tov and the Magid, as well as hearing it from the Horodoker. Interestingly, the Hayom Yom concludes, “he then wrote it in his own style” for all generations as it appears in Parshas Yisro in “Torah Or.”]
The maamar discusses the idea that the supernal chariot seen by Ezekiel contained “a wheel within a wheel.” The maamar explains that the small wheel which revolves inside the big wheel can reach a level even higher than the biggest wheel. [The inner, smaller wheel is above the bottom of the wheel that surrounds and is revolving around it.]
This dynamic was illustrated in the lives of Jewish leaders through the generations. By watching the flocks of Jethro [a small wheel], Moshe Rabbeinu became worthy to become the shepherd of the Jewish people [a truly big wheel]. Similarly, King David was a shepherd. The Baal Shem Tov also functioned as a small wheel when he assisted a teacher of young children. How much more so is it true for us who walk in their way, if a person sees himself as a big wheel, then he must concern himself with the smaller wheels.
Those of us poor in daas would suggest a scenario to explain the above. When a big wheel, an adult who makes a living concerns himself with supporting the education of children [small wheels] he makes it possible that those small wheels will become the “Big Wheels” the Rabbis and the supporters of education of the next generation.
