Thursday, Tes Zayin Elul תרנ"ב (1892) was the last day of Sheva Brachos for the Rebbe Rashab's sister, Chaya Mushka. On that day, the Rebbe Rashab went to the Ohel of his father, the Rebbe Maharash. On Friday he again visited the Ohel, and stayed there until very late, returning with tear-stained eyes.
On Shabbos, the Rebbe Rashab would customarily start davening very early in the morning and finish around two in the afternoon. On that Shabbos he davened much longer than usual and with exceptionally fiery passion.
It was not until the farbrengen of Shemini Atzeres תרנ"ב (1892) that he related what had occurred that Shabbos:
"Whenever I prepare a maamar, I don’t deliver it publicly until I receive a sign from Above that the maamar has become one with me, integrated within me. I toiled immensely in the maamar of that Shabbos, and yet it was still not utterly internalized with me. I decided then to visit my father, the author of the teaching that had inspired the maamar. When that did not help, I traveled again on Friday, and thanks to HaShem, the maamar became internalized.
"Now, HaShem leaves no debt unpaid, so because of my dedication, my father repaid me. On that Shabbos, Chai Elul, my father appeared to me and said, 'Let us go and hear Torah from the Baal Shem Tov,' and he took me with him. Throughout that Shabbos I heard from the Baal Shem Tov seven different teachings, each one at a different time of the day."
One of those teachings concerned the strength of the neshama, and the Baal Shem Tov concluded it by saying: "The simplicity of HaShem's Essence (Atzmus) shines in unlearned Yidden more than in bnei Torah."
(סה"ש תרצ"ז ע' 189, 197)
When President Zalman Shazar visited the Rebbe in the winter of 5733 (1973), he spoke of the am haaratzus, the sheer ignorance, of the Russian Yidden who were moving to Eretz Yisroel. More than once, the Rebbe corrected him and said that this should not be referred to as am haaratzus but rather as their being poshut, meaning that they were ordinary and unlettered. The Rebbe added that this simplicity in fact connects them with the simple and undefinable Essence of HaShem.
(שיחו"ק תשל"ג ח"א ע' 453)
