Weekly Dvar Torah: A Chossid Creates Light to Illuminate the World

One of the most beautiful insights from the Zohar about the exile, is the explanation of how we can experience the hard labor that the Jewish people experienced in Egypt.

The Pasuk says:

וַיְמָרְרוּ אֶת חַיֵּיהֶם בַּעֲבֹדָה קָשָׁה בְּחֹמֶר וּבִלְבֵנִים = And they embittered their lives with hard labor, with clay and with bricks. The Zohar explains that in consequent exiles we can experience the hard labor of laying bricks, by immersing in the study of Torah, בְּחֹמֶר – דא קל וחומר, וּבִלְבֵנִים דא לבון הלכתא, which expresses the sweating and toiling to work through and reach the deeper meaning of Torah.

The benefit of these long years of Golus is that we now have lots of חֹמֶר וּלְבֵנִים = clay and bricks, lots of toil in the form of many explanations of the Torah in its many thousands of volumes of the oral law.

This Shabbos we have one such statement in the Hayom Yom of the 29th of Teves, which can perhaps illustrate an example of this. This is so meaningful and sweet.

Hayom Yom 29 Teves:

אֲנַן פּוֹעֲלֵי דִימָמָא אֲנַן. יוֹם הוּא אוֹר, עֲבוֹדָתֵנוּ הִיא עֲבוֹדַת הָאוֹר, מאַכעֶן לִיכטִיג דִי וועֶלט בְּאוֹר תּוֹרָה.
“We are day-laborers.” [In the literature of Chassidus], “day” is a code word for “light” — and, indeed, our Divine task is a mission of light, to illuminate the world with the light of the Torah.

The Frierdiker Rebbe relates the background of this statement in a letter to Reb Zalman Havlin:

Reb Hillel Paritcher once complained to the Tzemach Tzedek, that since he was a Shadar (a messenger who travelled all over Ukraine to teach Chassidus to the farmers, and to raise money for Torah), he was unable to concentrate on his own spiritual Avoda to serve Hashem properly according to his ability.

The Tzemach Tzedek responded; “we are day laborers, our job is to make light, and the only way to make light is through the light of Chassidus. The light of Chassidus is a light of essence, which was revealed as a result of actual self-sacrifice.”

From this statement the Rebbe learns six points:

1) One must forgo his own good for another Jew = self-sacrifice (put your own spiritual growth aside for the betterment of another Jew).

2) We have a duty to illuminate the hearts and homes of the Jewish people (so you can’t focus on your own spiritual needs while neglecting your duty to bring light to others).

3) It is a personal obligation of every individual Jew, regardless of his own spiritual level, to illuminate the Jewish people with the light of Chassidus (therefore you can’t relegate this job to others).

4) The way to make light is through the light of Chassidus.

5) The light of Chassidus is a light of essence, therefore the light of Chassidus can never be extinguished (like fire, a burning ember which radiates fire and light, can easily be extinguished, whereas a fire hidden within a flintstone, which is a fire of essence, that even after soaking in water for 10 years, will can never be extinguished, whenever you will strike the flintstone the spark will always ignite).

6) This light of essence of Chassidus, was revealed through self-sacrifice, therefore because of the self-sacrifice for Chassidus by the earlier generations of Chassidim, the essence of Chassidus flows through the veins of their grandchildren, and it will ignite from within whenever they are stricken, it will enable the Chassidus of the grandchildren to surface and come to life.

It’s amazing how many practical lessons a Chossid gets from just a one-line teaching of the Tzemach Tzedek, a one liner that kept Chassidim going for many generations.

This is only one example of how one line of the teachings of Chassidus has so much depth to it, and which can give us so much to learn from. This happens only by our delving into the deeper meaning of Torah and Chassidus.

This, says the Zohar, is what the current Golus is all about. To toil and sweat trying to understand the deeper meaning of every word and every line of Torah, is how we transform the bitterness of the slave-labor of Golus to slaving away while studying Torah. How much easier and sweeter can the Golus experience get.

But most importantly, when we experience the Golus in this way, we illuminate the world with the light and the spirit of Moshiach, whose most important function will be to teach us the inner meaning of Torah, the essence of Torah, which will reveal the true light of the essence of G-d.

This is also the most appropriate preparation, and more so the pathway, to pave the road for the coming of Moshiach NOW!

Have a sweat-full Torah Shabbos,
Gut Shabbos

Rabbi Yosef Katzman