Weekly Story: What About Me?

by Rabbi Sholom DovBer Avtzon

On the last day of Pesach, our custom is to partake in a special seudah (meal) beginning after Mincha, and many extend it past sunset. The Rebbe Rashab publicized this tradition in 5666 (1906) and informed us that it is called The Meal of Moshiach, and we are to drink four cups of wine.

This year I participated in this meal, where Rabbi Mendel Gluckowsky, the Rov of Rechovot, Eretz Yisroel farbrenged and he related the following touching and inspiring story. With his permission I am publicizing it. 

[To give some context to the story, Rabbi Gluckowsky grew up in Toronto, and maintained contact with many of his friends and acquaintances. This continued even after even after he settled in Eretz Yisroel and became a Rov etc. One of them is the focus of this story, a man by the name Jack, who learned his bar mitzvah lessons from Rabbi Gluckowsky’s father, Rabbi Yaakov.] 

I hope you too will be motivated by it.

After Pesach the Rebbe’s custom is to wish everyone “A guzunte Zumoor – A healthy summer.” May all of Klal Yisroel indeed merit this blessing in completion.

As always, your feedback is always appreciated.

While my position as a Rov brings me to many communities, I made it a point to visit Toronto very often, in order to visit my parents. While I was there, I also reconnected with numerous friends and acquaintances. As my responsibilities in Eretz Yisroel increased, I also would do some fundraising there for the numerous causes I am involved in. Many of my friends and acquaintances helped me in this endeavor as well .

Amongst them is a wonderful person, Jack. He wasn’t a neighbor, nor a person with whom I went to school with, but rather someone who took his bar mitzvah lessons from my father. Nevertheless, we connected and remained close for many years.

While his family is traditional, he would constantly ask me about the Rebbe and insist that I share with him something that the Rebbe spoke about.

It was the early nineties, and when we spoke that year, it was shortly after the kinus hashiluchim, so I mentioned to him that the Rebbe said, “Everyone has to prepare themselves and be ready to greet Moshiach.”

Hearing this he said, Rabbi I just moved into a new house and I don’t want Moshiach to catch me in pajamas, i.e., that I was sleeping on the job and didn’t do anything to prepare myself for his coming. Rabbi I want mezuzos for my house, as soon as possible.

I asked him, Jack, how many doorways to you have?

He was silent for a few moments as he mentally counted them, and then replied twenty-six.

Jack, a proper mezuzah [at that time] is seventy-five dollars, should I get them?

Without a question, he replied. I definitely want one on each dooorway. 

Could I come over at nine tomorrow morning, I inguired?

Thay would be wonderful and I would be extremely grateful if you do.

Hearing this, I left my parents’ house and drove to a sofer, whom I knew and asked him to prepare the twenty-six mezuzos, their coverings, as well as the nails etc., that I would need to place and attach them to the doorposts.

The following morning, I brought all of the mezuzos to his house and helped him place them on the doorposts. After placing the final one, I saw that Jack was extremely uplifted, he then declared, Thank you, Moshiach will not find me in my pajamas, I prepared my house for his coming.

After speaking with him for a few more minutes, I left and began driving back to my parent’s home and he went to his work.

Suddenly after driving a block or two, I was overwhelmed with the following thought and it struck me like a thunderbolt. Jack, is not a Lubavitcher, he is not a chossid etc., yet, as soon as he heard these words of the Rebbe he made a momentous decision that changed his life-style. He felt a need to do something to prepare himself for Moshiach’s coming. 

But what about me? Yes, I learn and teach the Rebbe’s sichos and maamorim, as well as being active in the Rebbe’s institutions and activities. But, did I change anything in my life or perspective? Did I do something just for the sake of preparing myself for the coming of Moshiach? Or as Jack said it so poignantly, Am I going to be dressed when Moshiach comes, or will he find me in my pajamas? 

In simple words, did anything in my daily routine change before I heard those words of the Rebbe or not?!

This got me thinking, The rebbe said and wrote at that time, that one of the things we can and should do to prepare ourselves for Moshiach’s coming is that we should learn the Alter Rebbe’s seforim Torah Ohr and Likkutei Torah, every week. [Rabbi Glucowski continued, my own thoughts as to why the Rebbe specified these two seforim is, that in the year 5608, a year that many believed was an auspicious one to usher in the era of Moshiach, the [Rebbe] Maharash asked his father, the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek, why didn’t Moshiach come that year?

The Rebbe replied, He did [in a spiritual sense] as Likkutei Torah was published.

Yes [father], that is true, but the Jewish people need Moshiach in a physical sense [as well]!]

But let us say that it is difficult for you to learn the few maamorim that are printed in those seforim for each sidra. You can’t learn it properly in one week. While this can be true for some, nevertheless, don’t be caught asleep on the job, with your pajamas still on. Begin learning each week whatever you are able to. This way you are definitely preparing yourself for his coming and redeeming the Jewish people, and he will find you in middle of your preparation.

So instead of learning both seforim in one year, it will take you a few years. But you acted on the Rebbe’s guidance and fulfilled it!

[Rabbi Gluckowsky then added a similar thought. Since this Simchas Torah, te life of every Jew in Eretz Yisroel has changed drastically. I am not speaking about our brave soldiers, who are risking their own life to save the nation at large, but every  individual. No ones life is as it was before. In my shul one of the things I added was to establish three more time slots for a Shacharis minyan, and each one now has around twenty-five participants.

All of these people can point to something concrete that they are doing to arouse Hashem’s compassion on His children. The question every individual has to ask themselves is, what concrete thing am I doing to help my brothers and sisters?!]

A Taste of Chassidus

Kol Yisroel Yeish Lo Chelek B’Olam Haba 5733 

The Mishna is informing us that every Jew has a portion in the world to come, at the time when Hashem will resurrect those who are no longer among the living. However, when it comes to having a portion in Gan Eden, which is also sometimes referred to as the world to come, Dovid HaMelech states in Psalms (24:3-4) that only individuals that have certain qualities have a place in Gan Eden.

Now, the G-dly revelations that will be revealed in the world to come are much loftier than the revelations that are revealed even in the highest level of Gan Eden. So, the question is, how is it possible that while some people do not have a place in Gan Eden, they will have a share in the world to come which is on a much higher (exalted) level than Gab Eden?

To understand this properly, we first have to explain why are the revelations of Gan Eden given to the neshamos as they are separated from a physical body, whereas, the higher revelations of the world to come will be revealed only to a neshoma that is enclothed in a body. 

Chassidus explains that a body has the constraints of time and place, while a neshoma doesn’t have those constraints, so the higher the revelation is, the more spiritual should the recipient be. But we say no, those loftier revelations can only be revealed to a neshoma which is in a limited body!

The possuk states (Bamidbar 19:14) Zos Toras Adam (this is the Torah of a person). The possuk is informing us that mankind was created in a similar mode as the Torah. Just as a human body is comprised of the physical body and the neshoma (soul) that gives it life; so too the Torah is comprised of a body and soul.

In general terms this relates to the Torah itself and the fulfillment of its mitzvos. The 248 positive commandments allude to the 248 limbs, while the Torah which is the life source is compared to the neshoma, which gives life to the mitzvos (body).

Subsequently, just as a body is limited to a certain time and place, so too mitzvos have guidelines that limit them as to when and where they can be fulfilled. Therefore, the numerous mitzvos that are related to the Beis Hamikdash, such as the bringing of sacrifices, cannot be fulfilled nowadays. However, the neshoma itself is spiritual and not confined to the guidelines of time and space, therefore we are allowed and instructed to learn the laws of sacrifices even in exile and at night when they cannot be brought. The reason being is that Torah is the neshoma of the mitzvos and do not have those constraints.

However, this that the Torah is higher than mitzvos, that is only in the level they were revealed to us. But in their source, mitzvos come from a much loftier source. As the Torah is Hashem’s wisdom (chochmah), while Mitzvos are Hashem’s desire (ratzon). And it is known that a person’s desire is rooted much deeper than their wisdom. The proof to this is that the Torah itself teaches us how to fulfill the mitzvos. 

Being that we said that the body and neshoma are similar to mitzvos and the Torah, so just as the source of the mitzvos are on a higher level of the Torah, so too the source of the body (which are synonymous with mitzvos) is from a higher level than the source of the neshoma.

The explanation given to this is that the possuk states, You are children to Hashem, and this is referring to the connection of our neshoma with Hashem. So the relationship between Hashem and our neshoma is compared to the deep love of a parent to their children. As deep as this love is, it is based on the fact that this is my child. While Hashem’s love to our body, has nothing to do with the quality of our body, it came from the fact that Hashem chose us on His own. When one chooses one of two objects, the fact that it was chosen shows that there was no reason to make this decision, just it was the choosers gut decision, higher than reason. So that demonstrates that in the source the body comes from a higher source.

And just as we said that the fact the Torah explains the mitzvos demonstrate that the mitzvos come from a higher source, so too the fact that the neshoma gives life to the body, shows that the body is higher than it. [As the lower thing serves the higher one.]

Being that the mitzvos are from Hashem’s desire therefore, just as when one desires something in a certain way, if one detail is changed it ruins the entire thing and the person won’t accept it as it is not what they desired. This shows that desire is above details. Therefore, mitzvos apply equally to every Jew, everyone is obligated in fulfilling the mitzvos (whereas, when it comes to Torah study, there are differences in one’s obligation, and that is based on the amount of time the person is not occupied with their livelihood). For this same reason our sages state that every Jew is full of mitzvos, just as a pomegranate is full of seeds. It says every Jew, without and distinction between one and the other, since desire is not divided into details and sections. 

This explains why for one to merit Gan Eden, there are guidelines to meet, as in Gan Eden the focus is on learning Torah, and in Torah learning there are differences in a person’s obligations. And since the Torah is compared to the neshoma, therefore the revelations are given solely to the neshoma.

However, in the world to come, we will merit to see the accomplishments of the mitzvos that we fulfilled, and as noted every Jew is full of mitzvos just as a pomegranate is full of mitzvos, so every Jew without exception, has a share in it. And since mitzvos are compared to the body, although the revelation is a higher one than the revelation in Gan Eden, but as noted it is revealed to the neshoma as it is enclothed in a body. Because the source of our body comes from Hashem’s essence and only it can receive this tremendous revelation.  

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