It was a year after the passing of the Rebbe Maharash but before the Rebbe Rashab accepted the crown of leadership of the Chabad movement. At that time the Rebbe Rashab lived in a small two room apartment. Once when the Rebbe Rashab was learning Torah with a chavrusa, the Rashab’s four-year-old son, the future Previous Rebbe, slept nearby in a trundle bed.
The Rebbe Rashab’s learning partner glanced at the sleeping boy and said, “A ray of light of pure thought is shining from the child’s face.”
The Rebbe Rashab stood up to kiss his son, however, he stopped from delivering the kiss and thought for a moment. He recalled that besides offering sacrifices in the Holy Temple, the Jews also brought silver and gold to build and beautify it.
The Rashab resolved to exchange the physical kiss with a Chassidic discourse [maamar] starting with the words “How great are Your works Hashem.”
Years later when the Previous Rebbe was 12 years old, his father gave him the handwritten maamar and said “This is a Chassidic kiss and soon I will explain to you the meaning of what is written in it. “
When the Previous Rebbe turned 16, his father told him the whole story of that Chassidsher kiss which had taken place back when they were living in an apartment of two rooms.
At that time, the Rashab could have already been Rebbe if he had been willing to accept the crown. Nevertheless, he was content to live in a two- room dwelling and serve Hashem happily and with a whole heart.
Before explaining the greatness of a kiss and the even more powerful expression of essential love embodied in a maamar, our Rebbe contrasted the Rebbe Rashab’s residence to our present lifestyle and our need to spend so much time and effort on physical needs to the detriment of spiritual gain.
The Deeper Meaning of a Kiss and a Maamar
The Rebbe then explained that a kiss connotes essential love, in fact, no words can communicate the level of love expressed in a kiss. This is especially the case since we are speaking of a kiss to a child who slept with a light of pure thought shining from his face. How much more so, a kiss from a Rebbe to a son who would eventually fill his father’s place as Rebbe.
From a different perspective, the love of a father for a child is not merely understood as an expression of nature but is also a principle in Torah. We cry to Hashem, “Have mercy on us like a father has mercy on his children.” Furthermore, we call Him “merciful Father” or “Father of Mercies.” A father and son are essentially one essence.
If this precious kiss was being traded for a maamar then we can have an inkling of how precious that maamar gift must be.
Nevertheless, our Rebbe asks, considering the essential power of the love expressed in a kiss, how can it be traded for a maamar, which at first glance, is merely an expression of intellect?
However, since the Rebbe Rashab traded it for that kiss, we must say the maamar does represent a greater expression of love, and that there is something higher in the maamar than the kiss.
The Rashab taught the bar mitzvah boy that a kiss from a father to a son indicates an “expression” of essential love. But dressed in a maamar is contained the actual essence of the Rebbe.
It is known that Hashem “wrote Himself” into the Torah. A tzadik is like Hashem. When the Previous Rebbe became upset witnessing the last moments of his father’s life, the Rebbe Rashab told him, “I am going in heaven but the writings I am leaving here.” Meaning that the Rebbe’s essence is in his writings.
Those of us poor in daas understand that when a father kisses a son it is a wonderful outpouring of love. But the nachas the father gets when the son returns the kiss is incomparable. In a similar manner, the Rebbe receives great nachas whenever we learn a maamar that he has given us.
