Weekly Story: Preparing For Yud Shevat

by Rabbi Sholom DovBer Avtzon 

Before I post the weekly story, I am noting a point about this Shabbos, which is the third of Shevat, and it is also the yahrzeit of my brother, Rabbi Yonah Avtzon a”h. 

It is well known that he was one of the original founders of Sichos in English in 5738 (1978), and directed the organization for 40 years, until his untimely passing six years ago in 5779 (2018). 

On the 3rd of Shevat 5752 during the Shabbos farbrengen, roughly 6 weeks before the Rebbe had his first stroke, the Rebbe mentioned a thought that many people felt that there was some type of message in it, and it was not a comfortable one. 

The Rebbe said that a doctor asked his father-in-law the Rebbe, being that your whole life is dedicated to spreading the teachings of Chassidus, how is it possible that Hashem took away from you, your power of speech thereby preventing you from teaching Chassidus to the masses? 

The Rebbe explained that Hashem told Moshe Raibeinu in last week’s parsha, “Go to Pharoh and your brother Aharon will speak for you.” In simple terms, when the Moshe Raibeinu of the generation wasn’t able to verbally give over the words of Hashem, those who are connected to him will have to do so.

After the stroke on the 27th of Adar I, people understood that the Rebbe was alluding to the point that now that his ability to speak publicly is hampered, the chassidim have the responsibility and obligation to give over to other Jews the Rebbe thoughts and teachings. Everyone recognizes that as director of Sichos in English, my brother was one of the people that stood in the forefront and publicized his teachings to the masses. May his remembrance be a blessing. 

After the histalkus of the Frierdike Rebbe, our Rebbe wrote, that on the yahrzeit we should explain to our friends and family members the greatness and role of the Rebbe. 

Being that some people came over to me this week and asked me to share my thoughts of what is a Rebbe, I decided to post them this week. Obviously, there is much more to wrote on this topic, but due to the format of this column, I am limiting it to this point. Perhaps we would expand on it in future posts.

As always, your comments and feedback are greatly appreciated.

What Is A Rebbe?

Very often we hear shluchim and others mentioning their astonishment at how the Rebbe looked at every detail of every paper that they sent in. Some of the papers were the advertisements they created for an upcoming event, other times they were papers that young students in their school wrote, or articles that they wrote and placed in newspapers. 

Other people marvel at the fact how the Rebbe was able to find common ground with each individual who came in contact with him. This is akin to what an elder chossid replied to bochurim in a Litvishe Yeshiva as to why we Lubavitchers consider the Rebbe  in a league of his own. 

He explained there are many individuals that rightfully deserve the title of a Godol – a great individual. In the Yeshiva there’s obviously the Rosh HaYeshiva, he is the one who is guiding and teaching you. He is truly a Godol in Torah. But then you also have the mashgiach the mentor in the yeshiva, who is guiding you on how one is to serve Hashem. 

While he may not be as learned as the Rosh HaYeshiva, his greatness is in a different field, in the field of serving Hashem. Therefore, many students feel most comfortable discussing with him their personal issues.

But then there’s another individual in the community, the Rov, who answers everyone’s question in Jewish law how to conduct themselves. In fact, the Rov of this wonderful community is so great, that Rabbonim from many other communities ask him for his guidance in resolving their complicated halachic questions.

Additionally there are numerous people who give tzedakah in a very generous manner, as well as those that give up their time for communal matters such as presenting the community needs to the local and state officials. 

There are also individuals who are available to those who are seeking advice and give up many hours of their day just to assist others. And of course there are the numerous chesed organizations, who are essentially the lifeline to those who they serve! Who is to say who is the greatest of them all? A community needs all of these great individuals to prosper. 

But then there is a person who excels in all of these aspects. Is he not greater than them all and in the league by himself? That is what a Rebbe is. They are not only interested in their Yeshivos, organizations and community, but are interested and is available to assist any jewish community and every individual Jew, no matter where they are!

But we have to understand indeed how is all this possible? The Talmud states that Rav and Shmuel often argued in halacha. Rav’s opinion is considered the law when we are dealing with questions of if something is permitted or forbidden. While at the same time we don’t follow his opinion when it comes to monetary questions, rather we follow Shmuel who argues with him. 

So you see that certain people are experts in a certain field of Halacha and not in others. So how indeed is the Rebbe able to be an expert in all fields of halacha and in other fields as well, and is able to connect to every individual who asks him something and pays attention even to the minutest detail in the letters that anyone sends to him?! The Rebbe once explained the greatness of Revelation Rogatchover gaon, Rav Yosef Rosen. The way he approached learning was that everything is part of the same Torah, even though there are different halachic guidelines in different aspects to the Torah. [For example in monetary matters we need two witnesses, but in some other matters one witness is sufficient for the court to act upon their testimony.]

Therefore, he would combine concepts that are mentioned in what others considered to be different aspects of the Torah and show that they have a common theme in them. In other words, his unique greatness was that the Torah is one, as it came from Hashem who is One. 

This concept explains who a Rebbe is. 

If there are different sections or parts of the Torah, then one may say I will put in more concentration in this part then another parts. Subsequently, the Sages may rule like my opinion in the part that I concentrated on heavily and not in the other parts. 

In simple words, my actions demonstrated that to me there are certain parts that I feel are more important to understand than others. Not that the other parts are not important, but that I am able to understand this aspect clearer and therefore I will put my energy into studying it.

However the Rebbe considered everything in the world as part of Hashem’s creation, desire and will. If it is a positive action that causes Hashem’s glory to be drawn down into this world, however a negative action causes a spirit of impurity to be present in this world.

Therefore, everything, even a minute detail on a brochure or school paper and perhaps it is from a young child deserves his complete attention just like a letter from someone who is considered an important individual. For that same reason he made sure to greet everybody equally as the Talmud teaches us, that all Jews are considered as the only child of Hashem. 

So when he looked at an individual while he knew that individual may not be perfect, but yet he connected to that person’s essence, which is that that person is Hashem’s only child. And by bringing that concept to the forefront the person might be willing to improve their actions and come closer to Hashem. 

So once again at that moment, there is no one more important  than the person with whom the Rebbe is talking with. As many non-Lubavitchers and even not from other chassidic groups attest that when they were speaking with the Rebbe they felt that the Rebbe had nothing else on his mind besides them.

Subsequently, he was available and ready to help any individual in whatever aspect that person felt was important to them at that time; be it in their Torah study, observance of mitzvos, earning a livelihood, health or any other issue.

Perhaps the following story would explain this concept. Many years ago I heard that in the city of Paris they wanted to build a unique building. After an exhausting search, they hired a famous architect who lived in New York. Once the architect submitted his plans they began building that grand edifice. 

When they saw they were almost finished they invited the architect to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony, where they will present him with a plague. He accepted the invitation and arrived a day earlier. One of the first things he did was to take a tour around the building from the outside. He was extremely pleased with the outcome, on how the builders execured his blueprint in.ecery aapect. 

During the ceremony he was lauded for the beautiful design and after all the speeches the ribbon was cut and a delegation opened up the front doors and they began entering the building marveling at its grandeuron. Suddenly, everyone heard a little creaking and rumbling which became louder and more frequent, and then a few moments later the beauty of the building the round dome collapsed in front of their eyes. For a moment everyone was shocked and bewildered on how this happened until the architect turned to the builder and asked where are the twelve pillars? 

Pillars he asked in bewilderment, you never said that there has to be pillars under the dome! 

The architect inquirer did you not notice the twelve dots on the blueprints? 

Yes of course I noticed them, and therefore we placed a different color tile on the floor in those twelve spots, as we thought it was the design of the floor. That architect was flabbergasted and said, the interior design was on a separate file. If you did not realize the significance of those twelve dots you should have asked me. They were the support pillars for the Dome! 

The same thing is here. Too often we remember the words of the mishna that state that there are different mitzvos strict ones and easy ones. And we mistakenly understand it to mean important and not so important mtzvos. At the same time we forget the other words of that mishna that says you should not judge the importance of each Mitzvah and you should consider them all equal. While tzaddikim and even some non-tzaddikim revere every mitzvah, but to consider every aspect of the world an extension of G-dliness and vital to the purpose of creation that is what a Rebbe is.

A Taste of Chassidus                     Basi Lgani 5725 

As is well known, the maamar of Basi Lgani that the Frierdiker Rebbe released to be learned on Yud Shevat 5710 (1950), has 20 chapters. The following year, when the Rebbe said his first maamar, he focused on chapter 1. Each subsequent year, he would focus mainly on the chapter that was corresponding to the new year. So in the year 5725, the Rebbe focused on chapter 15 of the maamar Basi Lgani. I will attempt to give over one of the basic points of this chapter. 

In previous chapters the Frierdike Rebbe explained that a king has a tendency to put away precious valuables in his treasure house. Those items are for him to view (or perhaps to show them to a select few) from time to time. But the masses do not see it and subsequently don’t get a direct benefit from it. 

However, when it comes to a time of War, in order to be victorious, the king is not only willing to splurge all of his treasures including the most precious ones, in order that the soldiers have the means- weapons to win the war, but actually does so. He will instruct his generals to obtain every weapon that would give the soldiers the ability to vanquish the opponent.

 The question then becomes what are Hashem’s most precious treasures that He gives to us in order to enable us to combat and overcome the darkness of Exile – golus and reveal that the whole world is a manifestation of Hashem and is nothing besides that. 

In chapter 14, the Frierdike Rebbe explains Hashems’ unlimited light comes down into the lowest aspects of this world and our Rebbe clarifies it  to mean, it even gives life sustenance to something that is completely impure. While in  this chapter 15 he notes that this same light goes up to the highest levels possible. 

The Rebbe explains that we have to understand being that we are speaking about Hashems’ unlimited light, that means not only is it unlimited that it cannot be contained in a vessel, but it also has the power of being Limited. Otherwise, you are saying it only has the ability to be Unlimited, and that itself is a limitation on it. 

He explains that while the unlimited light has both aspects but because the unlimited aspect of it is so powerful that it overshadows completely the limited aspect of it. Subsequently, at that point the world could not have been created, for they would have been overcome overwhelmed from the unlimited light. Therefore, in order to create the world Hashem had to remove His unlimited light, so therefore there could be a place for an entity to survive. 

However, this concealment was only a concealment from the world vantage point, it did not “see” the brightness of Hashem’s light. But from Hashem’s vantage point, He is there in His complete Glory just He is being concealed from others. Being that he is concealed, therefore the world was created and not only did The Limited light come down into this world but the unlimited one as well, in an unrevealed manner. 

In chapter 15 he explained how the unlimited aspect of the light goes back to its source which is to Hashem Himself, and that is where the treasure comes from, from the level of the unlimited light as it emanates from Hashem’s essence. 

However, the truth is that even the concealment to this world is not really concealment to the world. A person conceals something because he does not want others to know about it. But in this case, the reason Hashem made this concealment is in order that He be able to ultimately reveal Himself in this world. Therefore, in truth it is the beginning of the process of Revelation. 

This is similar to when a teacher wants to teach the student a new concept. If the teacher would reveal all the details of the concept at the onset, the student most probably will be overwhelmed and won’t be able to concentrate and understand it properly. Therefore, the teacher limits what they are going to teach with the ultimate goal of revealing everything in a manner that the students can retain and understand that knowledge. So yes, on the surface it looks like a concealment, but when a person looks a little bit deeper they realize that it is the beginning of the revelation.

 In culmination the treasure that Hashem is giving us is this unlimited power to fulfill our mission of transforming the world back to its original purpose mission of being a dwelling place where Hashem’s essence is, in a revealed manner

Rabbi Avtzon is a veteran mechanech and the author of numerous books on the Rebbeim and their chassidim. He is available to farbreng in your community and can be contacted at avtzonbooks@gmsil.com.