Weekly Story: A Perspective

by Rabbi Sholom DovBer Avtzon 

Although this Shabbos is Yud Beis Tammuz, and I should focus on the Frierdiker Rebbe, I felt it is proper to share with you something that I heard last week from Rabbi Sholom Zirkind and others during a farbrengen on Gimmel Tammuz.

Yud Beis Tammuz is the Frierdiker Rebbes 143rd birthday so we begin saying kapital 144. If you don’t say it throughout the year, at least say it on Shabbos, the day of his birthday. On Friday night we say b’simca instead of b’rina at the end of lecho doddi.

As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated and most welcomed.

Rabbi Shmuel Levitan once related the following story. When he was a student in Lubavitch, an individual entered the Beis Hamidrash. From his demeanor, it was quite noticeable that he was under tremendous stress and no one even tried to approach him. In Yiddish we describe it as ois mensch. Sometime later, the gabbai went over to him and informed him that he can enter the Rebbe’s room for a yechidus.

He was with the Rebbe for just a few minutes, but when he returned to the Beis Hamidrash he was a completely different person. He was smiling, relaxed, and quite talkative. So we, the students of the yeshiva, decided to ask him what the Rebbe did for him that caused this transformation from one extreme to the other.

He replied that as you probably realized, I had a lot on my mind. As the saying goes my plate was overfull, and I just couldn’t deal with everything anymore. It really was an awesome burden which almost shut me down. Seeing that I was drowning, I decided to come to the Rebbe since he could help me.

The Rebbe asked me what was bothering me, and I told him about everything, concluding that I can’t cope with it. After hearing my entire list of problems and worries, the Rebbe uttered an eehhh and made a dismissive motion with his hand, as if to say it is nothing to be concerned about. The Rebbe was informing me that my perspective was wrong, and I have to look at everything differently. 

So if the Rebbe said there is nothing to be concerned about, even if I am still faced with these situations, there is nothing here to make me tzuroodult. I have to look at it from a different perspective. 

This brings us to a well known story that could give us a perspective about Gimmel Tammuz.  To some it may already be their perspective, and to others it may be new.

After the histalkus of the Chozeh of Lublin, his children divided his belongings amongst themselves. One of them received his clock. On the way home he was delayed and was in an inn for an extended period of time. 

The problem was he did not have enough money to pay for his lodging, so he offered to give the innkeeper the clock as part of the payment. Seeing that his guest was an honest person who was forced to remain at his inn longer than he anticipated, he accepted it and placed it in one of his rooms. 

Time passed and many people used his inn. One evening he had a guest who used to be a student of the Chozeh. In the morning he asked him about the clock. After hearing how a son of the Chozeh gave it to him, he exclaimed, “I knew it was the Chozeh’s clock!”

“A clock is a clock,” replied the innkeeper, “how did you know this one belonged to the Chozeh?”

The student replied, “Every clock chimes. The chime reminds us that an hour of our life has passed and questions us what did we accomplish in this hour? This is a sobering thought. However, the chime of this clock has a different message. It is telling us that we are an hour closer to the Geulah (the final redemption through Moshiach Tzidkeinu). That is an invigorating and upbeat approach, and that is how my Rebbe the Chozeh lived his life. Therefore, I knew it was his clock.”

So while it is understood and proper to express the thought that it is already 29 years since Gimmel Tammuz and who would have thought that the world could become so dark. However, there is a different perspective; namely look at how much closer we are to fulfill the Rebbe’s mission of preparing the entire world for the coming of Moshiach. Then there were around one thousand shluchim, now the number is around six thousand! Just imagine how many more people are being impacted and revitalized by the Rebbe and his teachings, and how much closer we have come to finalize and fulfill the Rebbe’s mandate and mission of preparing the world for the coming of Moshiach.

[Authors note: This is similar to what the Rebbe teaches us in a sicha explaining a difference between Yosef and his father Yaakov. 

Yosef named his first child Menashe to remind him that he is away from his father. The next child he named Ephraim to thank Hashem for enabling him to succeed and flourish under these dreadful situations.

However, when he brought these two children to be blessed by Yaakov, Yaakov placed his right hand on Ephraim, the younger son. He was informing Yosef that although one has to realize that they are in exile, nevertheless you should always try to see the positive side of the picture.]

Others brought out this thought from a hadran that the Rebbe said on Mesechtas Makkos. There the Gemora relates that Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues were walking, when they suddenly noticed a fox walking on the place where the kodesh hakodoshim stood. The sages began to weep, while Rabbi Akiva began to laugh.

Astonished at his behavior and public conduct they asked him, “Why are you rejoicing?”

As a way of reply he inquired of them, “And why are you crying?”

They replied, “When one sees a fox trampling on the holiest place, is that not a reason enough to cry?”

“That is why I am rejoicing,” he informed them. One prophet said that Yerushalayim would be a plowed field. Another prophet described the beauty of the third Beis Hamikdash. I used to think that the first prophet’s words were said metaphorically about the destruction, reflecting that something sad is going to occur (and therefore, the rebuilding might also be a metaphor.) But now I see that it is literal. Therefore, the other prophecy is also literal, and therefore it is time to rejoice.”

Hearing this profound thought the sages said to him, “Akiva you have comforted us, you have comforted us.”

One of the questions the Rebbe asks on this is, yes, it is true that ultimately the third Beis Hamikdash will be built, and it will be glorious. However, at this moment they see destruction, so seemingly they were right to cry. When it will actually be rebuilt, then we would rejoice. But why rejoice now?

The Rebbe answered the prophet didn’t say that the Beis Hamikdash would be destroyed, he said it would be plowed like a field. The only reason a farmer plows his fields is to enable him to plant new crops and later on harvest them. So Rabbi Akiva was saying that not only do you know that sometime in the future it would be good, but even at the present when we see destruction, we are to look at the purpose which is the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash, may it actually be speedily in our days.

Rabbi Avtzon is a veteran mechanech and the author of numerous books on the Rebbeim and their Chassidim.  He can be contacted at avtzonbooks@gmail.com