In k’dusha, there isn’t and there can’t be something that is devoid of meaning. Every word has a purpose. And even if sometimes we don’t understand the deeper meaning hidden behind a certain word, every person needs to be careful to fulfill the words of the Sages with awe. • From a speech said at a Chaf-Ches Nissan gathering in Kfar Chabad
SPECIAL STRENGTH
If you study the Rebbe’s sicha of Chaf-Ches Nissan 5751, you discover that the Rebbe endowed us with special strength that we did not have before. The purpose is for us to use these kochos in order to carry out the avoda that is seemingly impossible: to take “Lights of Tohu” and draw them down into “Vessels of Tikkun.”
Whoever has learned any Chassidus and knows the significance of these concepts, “Lights of Tohu” and “Vessels of Tikkun,” immediately realizes that these are concepts that don’t naturally occupy the same space. “Lights of Tohu” are lofty spiritual lights that cannot be absorbed by human intellect, while “Vessels of Tikkun” represent human intellect, which wants to deconstruct all spiritual matters into material terms.
The question is: how is it possible to take such lofty spiritual ideas, which by definition are considered such that defy deconstruction and comprehension in material terms, and to break them down to the point that they can be grasped in the lowest material vessels?
As for us, the concepts associated with Yemos HaMoshiach sound so far from the physical reality we live in, in galus, how can we be expected to tell people about these lofty matters in a way that they can understand?
TO INSIST AND TO PLAN
You can find the answer further in the sicha. The Rebbe says that in order to bring Moshiach there are two prerequisites. The first condition is that ten Jews need to be stubborn about bringing Moshiach. According to Chassidic explanations, stubbornness is expressed in consistent and uncompromising advancement according to the rules that the Torah dictates, without taking into consideration any agency that seeks to undermine the full power of emuna. This stubbornness, even before coming up with a plan, which I will speak about shortly, is how we are described, “it is a stiff-necked nation.” In the positive sense, it can lead to “and You will forgive our iniquities and sins and take us as Your inheritance.”
But stubbornness alone is not enough. It is necessary to fulfill the second condition, to come up with a plan. To sit with PR experts and think about all the ways the message can be conveyed in the most assimilative manner.
EVERY WORD COUNTS
The first original work the Rebbe authored contains his explanations on the Hagada. In the introduction, the Rebbe quotes the Maharil that “every person should tremble in awe to fulfill the words of the Sages who enacted the mitzvos of the seder and the Hagada and this matter should not be light in his eyes, even if people think that some things one need not be particular about; he should consider in his mind to fulfill them for there is no word devoid of meaning in them.”
Being that in Chabad it is not the practice to say Chasal Siddur Pesach since Pesach does not end, especially as Chassidus explains the uniqueness of Pesach that not only a glimmer of it illuminates throughout the entire year but the very essence of the holiday extends over the entire year, obviously this contains a practical lesson for the entire year. The lesson is that in the realm of holiness, “there is no word devoid of meaning.” Every word has a purpose and even if sometimes we don’t understand the deeper meaning hidden behind a certain word, every person needs to be careful to fulfill the words of the Sages with awe.
SLIPPERS AND
TOWELS INCLUDED
The story is told of the holy Baal Shem Tov’s servant who merited to live an extremely long life. When he was asked why he deserved this, he said that one time he entered the Baal Shem Tov’s room in order to clean it. When he began cleaning, he noticed the Baal Shem Tov’s slippers near the bed. He considered moving them so they would not be in the way of his work, but changed his mind on second thought. He decided that since with a tzaddik of the caliber of the Baal Shem Tov, everything he does is precise, and since the Baal Shem Tov plays a pivotal role in the existence of all the worlds, surely the way he placed his slippers is also of utmost importance and should not be changed.
When the Baal Shem Tov awoke, he exclaimed that the servant had done the right thing in not moving the slippers because there were, indeed, lofty intentions. He promised the man a very long life.
A similar story is told about the Mezritcher Maggid who once went to the Toldos, R’ Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye to visit him. The Toldos asked him how he, out of all the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov, had merited to become his successor.
The two great men sat together and spoke divrei Torah and there was nothing that the Maggid knew that the Toldos did not know. Finally, the Maggid told the Toldos that in the Baal Shem Tov’s room hung two towels. The Maggid asked the Toldos whether he knew why the Baal Shem Tov needed these two towels. The Toldos was silent, for he did not know.
The Maggid said, I will tell you the story of these towels. These towels were always in the Baal Shem Tov’s room and every Friday, after immersing in the mikva, he would use them. The Maggid once hid in the Baal Shem Tov’s room shortly before he returned from the mikva and waited to see what would happen.
From his hiding place, he saw the Baal Shem Tov wrap himself in one towel. At that point he began to feel such a lofty spiritual elevation that he felt he could not bear it. He tried to leave his hiding place but then the Baal Shem Tov said to him that it was too late and he held out the second towel and said the Maggid should hold on to it and this would help him in his spiritual elevation.
That was the Maggid’s story, which he concluded by saying that he could not divulge more than that. In any case, from this story we learn that by a Rebbe there is no such thing as even an extra towel. If there were two towels in the Baal Shem Tov’s room, there was a purpose for the second towel, to raise the Maggid to those lofty levels.
NO CHANGE
From all that was said thus far, we understand that every point brought in the Rebbe’s sichos, even if it’s brought parenthetically, needs to be treated with the same measure of awe and fear that we treat all the explicit instructions of the Rebbe. There is no difference between them!
In what the Rebbe said there is no “missing or extra.” If it was enough that we knew that the Rebbe is Moshiach and he is chai v’kayam in a physical body, but it was not necessary for us to know that there is not even the change of g’niza (being buried or hidden away) then it would not have been said!
Since it was said, this proves that this fact is non-negotiable!
In the same sicha (Shoftim 5751), the Rebbe explains that the very existence of the Nasi HaDor is the symbol of the revelation of G-dliness in the world and therefore, based on the principle explained in Chassidus that G-dliness is revealed within the worlds, there must be a judge and prophet in every generation that exists in an eternal fashion just like the Foundation Stone which is in a certain location in this physical world and it exists constantly with no change, not even the change of being hidden, as the Aron was hidden.
In Kuntres Beis Rabbeinu Sh’B’Bavel, the Rebbe establishes unequivocally that Moshiach’s place is 770 where he sits and waits for Hashem to tell him to reveal himself and redeem the Jewish people. The fact that we don’t see this is a very tough problem, but it’s our problem. We are limited and unfortunately we cannot open our physical eyes and see the eternal truth, that the Rebbe is chai v’kayam in 770 without the change of g’niza.
VICTORY PARADES COME LATER
We need to review and repeat to ourselves that in the end, everything the Rebbe said will be seen as utterly precise. In the final moments of galus we need to muster all our strength in order to stand strong.
Each of us remembers and thinks about farbrengens with the Rebbe, getting dollars or kos shel bracha, the yechiduyos or Lag B’Omer parades. We feel nostalgic and long for those days. Nostalgia is a good thing but we can’t stop with that. The great longing needs to spur us on to intensify the work with the absolute knowledge that we are right in the middle of the final assault on the enemy and we cannot stop. When we conclude the operation with a great victory, then we will merit once again all those special spiritual experiences, with the peak experience of receiving kos shel bracha at the festive meal with the Shor HaBar and the Leviasan.
Another important thing to remember is in one of the Rebbe’s sichos in the summer of 5750. There he says that since the Nasi HaDor is one with Atzmus, he is capable of taking our free will from us. That means, we will definitely do the work the Rebbe gave us to do. If we don’t do it willingly, the Rebbe can take away our power of choice and then we will have no choice but to do what we have to do.
The work will get done, that’s a given. The question is whether we will do it of our own free will or … We will stand at a parade in front of the Rebbe and receive kos shel bracha from him. Will we be able to look him in the eye and say: We did the mission assigned to us?
The work is hard. Nobody doubts that. But it is non-negotiable. We must do the job. We must rely on absolute faith in the Rebbe, the faith of stubborn people, and with this strength do what the Rebbe wants and expects to see.
DON’T LEAVE THE WOUNDED BEHIND
Along with the work with all the fervor we can muster we cannot forget what it says in the HaYom Yom for 28 Nissan: Chassidim asked the Alter Rebbe: “Which is the superior Avoda, love of G-d or love of Israel?”
He replied: “Both love of G-d and love of Israel are equally engraved in every Jew’s neshama, ruach, and nefesh.
The pasuk is explicit: `I have loved you, says the L-rd.’ It follows that love of Israel is superior – for you love whom your beloved loves.”
Even in the fervency of the work, we must bear in mind that in war, as is always the case in war, there are those who are wounded. Some become shell-shocked and some receive head wounds and begin talking nonsense. It happens. But we never abandon the wounded. We go over to them and try to treat them and do all we can to save them and facilitate a full recovery.
In the battle to bring the Geula there are people who are wounded. We cannot ignore them. We must do what we can for them so that they can heal. Then, they too can march, in good health, in the great victory parade.
We must recognize that there isn’t and cannot be a Lubavitcher Chassid who does not believe with complete faith in everything the Rebbe said. If we hear a Chassid speaking against pure faith, G-d forbid, we need to know that it’s only the “spirit of foolishness” within him, but he himself, deep inside, is also a believer.
LIKE AIR TO BREATH
In the sicha of Parshas Toldos 5752, the Rebbe explains at length that the idea of Moshiach can be likened to air that we breathe. Air is an inseparable part of our lives and that is how we need to live with Moshiach, in such a way that there isn’t a moment that we are living without Moshiach.
Air is a natural need of every human being. If someone were to say that he doesn’t like the usual air and he wants to add interesting fragrances to it, or he would say that he is sick and tired of breathing air all the time, we would say this person is not normal.
Living with Moshiach is our oxygen. Someone who doesn’t like it, someone who wants to tamper with the message, someone who claims he is sick and tired of dealing with one thing all the time, has a serious problem and he needs to make a spiritual accounting and examine his hiskashrus to the Rebbe. Because to a Chassid of the Rebbe, inyanei Moshiach are like oxygen.
Even when you proclaim Yechi, you need to know that Yechi is air for a Chabad Chassid and this is why it needs to be said slowly and while thinking about what it means, making sure it has an effect on all limbs of the body like air that reaches all limbs of the body.
May Hashem help that our stubbornness immediately bear fruit and with a mighty singing of Yechi we will march proudly toward the true and complete Geula through the Rebbe MH”M!
Yechi Adoneinu Moreinu V’Rabbeinu Melech HaMoshiach L’Olam Va’ed!