Several weeks ago, I spent Shabbos at Chabad of Brighton Beach visiting my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and their family. As I entered the shul, I passed a small side room where a young man was davening fervently. Suddenly the room went dark when a few kids playing nearby accidentally hit the light switch in the hallway. The young man joined the main minyan in the shul where I commented on how annoying it must have been to be forced out of his quiet davening space. He admitted that it was, but then he asked me, “Doesn’t the Torah explain why things like this happen to us?” I shared the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov as explained by the Alter Rebbe, that everything that happens is b’hashgachah pratis.
Therefore, when a Yid is disturbed by someone else during davening he should know that this is a message from Hashem. In this case, I speculated, the message may be that your davening is so precious to Hashem, that the yetzer hara decided to try to disturb you.
(I was inspired by this young man who was seeking the truth and also by his shliach, my brother-in-law, for making the concept of hashgachah pratis so accessible to this budding baal teshuvah.)
In 5745 (1985), a grandson of the Frierdiker Rebbe challenged the present Lubavitcher Rebbe over ownership of the prized library in 770. He claimed that it was part of the family estate, of which he was a legal heir, while the Rebbe proclaimed that it belonged to the Chabad movement. One of the opposition’s fundamental arguments was that with the passing of the Frierdiker Rebbe, Chabad Lubavitch was no longer an active movement.
After winning the year-long legal battle on the 5th of Teves 5747, the Rebbe delivered a public address. “How can it be that someone should make such a preposterous claim?!” the Rebbe asked. After all, isn’t it plain to see how much Chabad had accomplished in the past 46 years since the Frierdiker Rebbe’s passing?!
The answer, explained the Rebbe, can be found in the portion of Chumash that is learned on the Tuesday of Parshas Vayigash. There, we read how Yosef consoled his brothers by assuring them several times that it was not they who sent him down to Mitzrayim but rather Hashem. To Yosef, all the suffering and agmas nefesh he experienced was from Hashem. The fact that his brothers were Hashem’s messengers did not make them responsible for the Master Plan.
Here too, the Rebbe explained, Hashem was clearly sending us a message: This entire episode of agmas nefesh was in order to propel us to become even more active than before!
And the rest is history. In the years that followed, the Rebbe took the Chabad movement to a whole new level.
True resilience is achieved by recognizing Hashem in our lives. There is no stress, adversary or challenge that happens to come our way. Everything is carefully orchestrated by Hashem with our good in mind.
May we see an end to all agmas nefesh with the coming of Moshiach, NOW!
A Gut’n Shabbos,
Rabbi Mordechai Lipskier
