The holy Rebbe, the Rashab zy”a of Lubavitch, father of the holy Rebbe the Rayatz zy”a, once began repeatedly asking those who served him to bring him various beverages. He would pause briefly, and then ask whether another type of drink could be brought—at one time spirits, at another a cup of tea, sometimes with sugar, sometimes without... Thus he drank far more than was his usual custom.
The members of the household, greatly alarmed for his wellbeing, feared that perhaps he was unwell and therefore requesting drink so frequently. They approached him and asked, with great concern, whether he was experiencing any illness or pain, or perhaps suffering from dehydration and therefore required so much to drink.
The Rebbe smiled and said: “Baruch Hashem, I am healthy, without any trace of illness at all. Rather, news has reached me of the troubling ‘movement’ that has begun spreading throughout Russia—the ideology of communism—which not only persecutes our brethren, the Jewish people, and Judaism everywhere, but has also begun disseminating denial and heresy throughout the world. It appears that their entire goal and intent is to uproot, from its very foundation, faith in Hashem, Baruch Hu. Therefore, they have launched such a fierce campaign, in order to increase denial and terrible heresy in the world.
“As indeed became clear in the years that followed, these communists were among the greatest deniers, and all their books and writings were filled with mockery and ridicule of the simple faith of Klal Yisrael—may their mouths be filled with dust. Tragically, at that time the hour smiled upon those wicked ones, and they succeeded in uprooting tens of thousands of Jews from the purity of their complete faith, as is well known.”
“Therefore,” the Rebbe concluded, “in order to strengthen and establish faith in the world, I requested today to drink more than usual, solely so that I could recite—and repeatedly recite—the berachah שֶׁ הַ כֹּל נִהְיָה בִּדְבָרוֹ, to publicize and spread in the world pure and upright faith in the Creator of the world,— that all came into being by His word.”
“Know this with certainty,” the Rebbe added with sacred trembling: every time a holy Jewish person opens his mouth to recite the simple and familiar berachah that is constantly upon our tongues—בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה’ אֱלֹקֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם שֶׁהַכֹּל נִהְיָה בִּדְבָרוֹ – ‘Blessed are You, Hashem our God, King of the universe, by Whose word all came into being’—he sanctifies the world and, through his berachah, bestows an abundance of faith upon the world. Through a single berachah alone—and all the more so, when it is recited with complete and proper intention—he cuts off and nullifies many forces of denial and removes them from the world.
Therefore, specifically in these times when denial grows stronger and the world fills with heresy, it is upon us to strengthen ourselves all the more in the root of the mitzvah of emunah, to reinforce ever more the foundations of faith within and without. Through this we shall merit the proclamation of the sovereignty of Heaven throughout the entire world, Amen.
