Weekly Story: Yud Beis Tammuz
by Rabbi Sholom Avtzon
I was thinking of continuing writing some additional aspects and thoughts which I mentioned or heard at a Gimmel Tammuz farbrengen. However, someone related to me the following story he personally heard twenty-eight years ago from Chacham Lasry a nephew of the Baba Sali. It is Chacham Lasry’s personal story of an interaction he merited to have with the Frierdiker Rebbe.
So, I decided to post that story and as always, your comments and feedback are greatly appreciated and most welcomed.
In 5556 (1996) my parents took the family to Eretz Yisroel to participate in the bar mitzvah of a close relative. Once we were there, we all went to Chacham Lasry, to receive a few brochos.
My mother requested a brocha for another child, and his first reply was, “Why are you asking me, when you already requested this brocha from a tzaddik who is much greater than me! Yes indeed, my mother had asked our Rebbe some years earlier for this brocha.
He continued and said, “I can understand your feelings as I was not blessed with a child for some/many years after I married.”
So I will relate to you something personal. One day while I was learning in my house, that was while we were living in Morocco, I suddenly felt the presence of someone else in the room. However, after looking around and seeing no one, I thought I must have made a mistake. But I could not shake off that feeling.
Suddenly, the person addressed me and said, “I am Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn. You will be blessed with two sons. Reserve my name for one of them.
He then turned to my grandfather and said, why are you here when the Lubavitcher Rebbe specifically instructed you not to come to Eretz Yisroel, unless it is a real necessity. He then instructed him to say a specific tefila at the kosel.
My mother then asked him for a brocha for me, as I had an infection that the doctor’s couldn’t heal, and by the time I returned to America, it was completely healed.
*****
Being that this coming Tuesday and Wednesday is Yud-Beis and Yud-Gimmel Tammuz, I will give a brief update about the biography which I am writing about the Frierdiker Rebbe. I am pleased to inform everyone that over half of the first volume has been edited.
One of the points that I tried to understand was, what was the Frierdiker Rebbe focused on when he was in Poland? Obviously, he was still doing everything in his ability to help in any possible manner the chassidim and all Jews who weren’t able to leave Russia. But that wasn’t his only focus. Additionally, being that the doctors instructed him that he must rest twice a year, for a few months each time, what happened in those months?
As noted, he was working on behalf of Russian Jewry. Then I learned that not only had he established the Lubavitch Yeshiva of Tomchei Tmimim in Warsaw and relocated it to Otwock, but he established a network of Yeshivos throughout Poland.
However, being Rebbe, he wasn’t only interested in his talmidim who were learning in his Yeshiva, or to instruct them to open additional yeshivos, but he traveled to numerous communities, and accepted Jews from all backgrounds for a Yechidus.
This occurred when his health began deteriorating seriously, and he wasn’t even able to walk on his own, he needed assistance to walk when transferring from one train to another.
But what almost totally news to me was the extent of his correspondence with Jewish communities not only in Europe, but world-wide. His secretary Rabbi Chadsha Feigin hy”d would bring him large piles of mails every day, and sometimes twice a day, from askanim all over asking the Rebbe for guidance and a brocha on how to strengthen Judaism in their community.
Being that each community had its unique situation, the Rebbe’s answer was not a general answer, but he went into detail and pinpointed many details that the Rov or communal worker, didn’t note in their letter.
But his challenge wasn’t just his health issues, there was also the sensitive issue of not taking away the honor of the Rabbonim and askanim who lived in Poland and the surrounding areas.
The Rebbe showed them tremendous respect, while many of their talmidim and chassidim, enrolled in his Yeshiva and became his talmid and chossid.
A Taste of Chassidus Hasuhm Nafsheinu BaChaim 5734
This Possuk means, Hashem placed our Neshoma in life.
The obvious question on this is, isn’t the Neshoma itself the thing that gives life to the body, meaning it in itself is life. So what does the possuk mean, that Hashem placed the Neshoma in life, which indicates that it didn’t have any life or vibrancy until then? Furthermore, the possuk iterated this point by stating hasum, Hashem placed it in life, which points out that until then it was not in life.
We also have to understand, what is the connection of the beginning of the possuk to the next phrase which states that Hashem doesn’t allow us to stumble?
In the maamar on this possuk, which my father-in-law, the Rebbe said shortly after his liberation he mentions the explanation of the Siporno on the first phrase of this possuk, that Hashem maintains us amongst the Nations, which is something against the natural perception of how it would have played out in the natural way of the world. While the continuation of the possuk means that the Nations don’t have the ability to cause us to separate ourselves from Hashem.
[The Rebbe is going to explain in this maamar, what does it mean the natural way of the world? He continues and says:] But as everything in the Torah there are various explanations on a phrase, which may not only be different, but sometimes seem to be contradictory, However, in reality they are complimentary of each other.
As we see this from the maamar Min Hameitzar kuruhsee, from the depths I called out to You, which the [Frierdiker] Rebbe wrote while he was in prison.
The simple explanation of straits / depths is that the person is in a very uncomfortable, difficult and perhaps dangerous situation. For example, as the Rebbe was at that moment, as he was in prison with the possible and already prepared judgment of a death penalty. However, straits have a higher meaning also, it can be referring to a tzaddik, yet at the same time he feels that he is in a strait because the Jewish people are still in golus (exile).
We also see this in the megila, that even after the Jewish people were free from the danger of Haman decrees and Mordechai took over, not only Hamans position but even his possessions, nevertheless, they were in a strait, as they felt we are still servants of Achashveirosh, because we are exiled for our father’s table.
This concept of the same point being expressed on various levels can also be seen in the [Frierdiker] Rebbe’s kapital tehillim that we say this year [5734 (1974) ]chapter 95, [that begins with the words Lichoo niraninuh]. Adam HaRishon told and inspired all the animals, Come and let us give praise to Hashem who created us. At that time the world was as perfect as Hashem created it, Adam and all the creations were living in Gan Eden, as it was before the snake convinced Chava to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, yet Adam brought them to a higher level of perfection, that they made a conscious decision [and not just a natural one] to praise and serve Hashem.
This concept explains another perplexing question. It says in the midrash that Hashem thought to create the world through the characteristic of judgment, but then he added the characteristic of compassion as well. Judgment means that the world should be conducted in the way of nature. However, Hashem then saw that in order for His nation to survive there is going to be a need for the trait of compassion, meaning a revelation of G-dliness that is higher than nature, which simply means giving tzaddikim the power and ability to perform miracles. When a Jew witnesses that miracle, that uplifts them and enables them to elevate themselves higher than the natural way of the world, which nature dictates would have meant the gloom of the Jewish people.
However, as noted, words can and do have different meanings especially when we are referring to different levels.
Chassidus explains that in general terms Hashem’s revelation comes in two ways, onr that He is enclothed in the world and one that His revelation is too powerful for the world to contain it. In Chassidic terminology they are referred to as mimaaleh kol almin , and soivev kol almin.
The word Shema is an acronym of Si’oo Muhroim eineichem, lift up your eyes and when you observe the vastness of the universe, one realizes that there is a Creator. So nature itself dictates that there is a Creator. But nature is limited and therefore the inspiration that one can derive from it is also a limited one. However, a person is supposed to serve Hashem with a sense of higher than nature, and for that he has to contemplate on the revelation that is above nature.
So you see that the meaning of one word can be from one extreme to the other. Now we can explain and answer our original question of what does it mean that Hashem placed the Neshoma in life, when it is alive before that?!
So while the Neshoma by its very nature is alive, however, that is by nature that I was created to serve my Creator. Yet Hashem wants us to serve Him on a higher level and that is what it means, He placed our Neshoma in life, meaning in a higher level of life.
Our sages state that a tzaddik cannot stand (meaning doesn’t reach the level) of a baal teshuva. However, at the same time a person is to aspire to live the life of a tzaddik, so before moshiach comes, Hashem is going to give every tzaddik to attain the level of a baal teshuva on a spiritual level.
And that is what it means He placed our Neshoma in life, meaning Hashem is elevating us to a higher level, that we don’t merely serve Him because that is our nature, but we begin serving Him above nature.
We now can also understand the next phrase of the possuk; our feet don’t stumble. That even when we fulfill a mitzvah, without thinking about the meaning of the mitzvah, nevertheless, Hashem ensures that we don’t begin stumbling and doing it for example in order to receive honor.
As we saw that even when the Rebbe was in prison, he made sure that the work that he was directing on behalf of the Jewish people, doesn’t stop or become weakened even in the minutest 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@gmail.com
