Weekly Story: One Drop Is Sufficient – Yud Tes Kislev Part #1

by Rabbi Sholom DovBer Avtzon

When I farbrenged in Lakewood on Chai Elul, I saw that around 700 people listened to the farbrengen online. Therefore, I decided to share some of the thoughts that I plan on saying in connection to Yud-Tes Kislev. So this way it could be shared with Anash, wherever they may be. Bezras Hashem, next week there would be an additional installment.

As always, you’re your comments and feedback are welcomed and appreciative, as I normally do respond to them. 

One Drop Can Suffice

One of the most famous stories in Lubavitch is the parable that the Alter Rebbe said to the tzaddik, Reb Pinchos Koritzer, when he was upset that some pages of Chassidus were being blown around in the Maggid’s courtyard. How can the Maggid’s talmidim be so careless with the secrets of the Torah. Where is their respect?!

The Alter Rebbe said to him that once a prince was deathly ill and the doctors informed his father, the king, that the only way for his son to be cured was by grinding a certain diamond and mix it with water. If the prince would drink some of that potion, he would be healed.

 The servants eagerly searched through the kings’ treasure house, but to no avail; the diamond was not to be found. But suddenly one of them realized that it is the center diamond of the king’s crown. However, by that time the prince was so ill that his lips became so swollen and bloated, that no one could guarantee that any portion of this medicine would enter through the prince’s lips, and it would be a pity to destroy the beauty of the kings crown for naught.

The king instructed them to grind it and mix it with the water anyways. He explained, “The only thing that is necessary is for one drop to enter through his closed lips. That drop would save the life of my son, the prince! Yes, I realize that the remaining 99 percent will spill on to the earth and be lost forever. But that is not concern of mine at all. What is the crown worth, if the prince won’t live!! 

They did so and indeed, the prince was healed.

So too the Alter Rebbe continued, the Jewish people, are Hashem’s only child, and their connection to Hashem was dangerously low, so Hashem gave up his crown Jewel, the teachings of Chassidus to revive them. So while some pages are being blown around by the wind in the courtyard, which shouldn’t happen, but nevertheless, the little amount of Chassidus that was absorbed by the Jewish people revived them.

Reb Pinchos Koritzer was appeased by this answer, and declared, “Lucky is a teacher, who has such a student!”

While this story served a purpose then and saved the Maggid from Reb Pinchos’ accusation, being that it was repeated to us by the Rebbeim, that shows that it applies to us as well. The question is what can we learn from it, or how can we apply this to ourselves, in our daily conduct?

When my son was learning in Toronto, all the parents were invited to attend a father son Shabbos farbrengen. During Shabbos, all the parents were asked to speak, and during the Friday night meal and farbrengen I said the following.

As all the students may have noticed, I was learning a maamar between mincha and kabolas Shabbos. I will be honest with you, there were parts of the maamar, that I didn’t understand. And when someone spends an hour or many hours trying to learn something and they don’t understand it, that can be frustrating and if it happens often, a person may lose their drive to learn them. 

However, there was one segment of the maamar that I understood quite well, and it gave me food for thought. That one thought was worth the entire time I toiled on that maamar. Yes, it would have been nice if I understood additional aspects of the maamar, but that one point, made an impact on me and it was well worth it.

The following morning before davening another father came over to me and said, thank you for what you said last night. It is almost ten years that I participate weekly in a shiur Chassidus and yet I still don’t comprehend the maamarim properly. Lately I was thinking that perhaps I should stop attending that shiur and utilize that time more productively, to learn something that I would be able to understand. 

However, when you publicly stated that you also don’t understand every aspect of the maamar, but it is worthwhile for the aspects that you do understand and can take to heart, that strengthened me and I now realize, that I too have benefited greatly from the aspects that I did comprehend, and i will rejoin that class with renewed enthusiasm.

Yes, the maamar you may be learning may be long and complex, but as the Alter Rebbe stated in this parable, if even only one drop of it enters my heart, and the rest is beyond me, that drop can revive my soul to serve Hashem properly.

This can be compared to a diamond field or mine. A person spends an entire day or a few days looking for a diamond or other precious stones and minerals and finally finds one. Is the person going to bemoan the fact that so much time and effort was wasted, or would they say, that for the one diamond which they found, the entire effort was well-worth it.

As an introduction to this thought, I would like to add the following story.

As a student, I learned one yeae  in Tomchei Tmimim Montreal. One wintery day, there was a tremendous snowstorm, and not knowing that Montreal clears up the snow immediately, I thought maybe there will be a change in the schedule, as happens in America, when there is a heavy snow.

Looking around I was shocked to see the Mashpia, Rabbi Greenglass, staring in bewilderment at the snowfall. I had heard that the Rebbe referred to him as his mekubal and I was intrigued to know him not only as a teacher, but to gain a deeper insight of who he is.

So I walked over to him and asked, Why is the Mashpia staring at the snow?

He turned very slowly to face me, and in a quiet voice he replied, Hamshachas Loivein Huelyon bai dir is a kleinikeit – the drawing down of the supernal level of Loivein Huelyon, (which will be discussed briefly in this thought) into this world [in the form of snow] by you is a trivial matter. 

At that point I realized that while two people seemingly see the exact same thing, they actually may be visualizing two totally different and opposite things. From then on, I had too much respect for him to ask about his conduct.

A Taste of Chassidus

Va’Yashkeim Lavan Baboker Va’Yinashek L’Bunoiv U’livinoisov

When the Torah teaches us a halacha (a rule), we may simply believe it only means that when this scenario happens this is how the law should be. However, the Torah is compared to water. Just as water flows from high to low, so too the Torah came down from Heaven to Earth. So while the Torah is definitely telling us that Hashem’s will is that this is how we should rule in that scenario, that is only looking at the Torah on the surface. 

However, there is a deeper meaning to this, since the Torah was originally speaking or discussing spiritual points and concepts, and only as it came down into the physical and material world, it is expressed in physical and material aspects. However, in reality the Torah is speaking about spiritual concepts.

At the end of this week’s Parsha, we have a clear example of this. It says that Lavan kissed his sons and daughters and then he returned to his place, and after he left, only then did Yaakov proceed on his way.

Lavan is a human being that we know was not an honest person and he was upset that Yaakov took his wives and their children, who were Lavan daughters and grandchildren, without informing him of their departure. 

However, Chassidus explains that Lavan is something else entirely. In its exalted level it is called Lovein Hu’elyon. Roughly translated as the highest level or the source of white i.e. purity, which means there’s nothing else mixed in it. That is a reference to Hashem’s essence, or as expressed in Chassidic terminology, Atzmus.. 

Kissing is a form of transmitting one’s inner feelings in the most powerful way. So this exalted level of G-dliness kissed, meaning transmitted over those powers It contains to his sons and daughters. In general, a male is called a mashpia one who provides to the receiver, who is referred to as the daughter. FN This is the way Hashem created the world, everything is either a giver/provider or a receiver. For example, parents provide and give to their children, a teacher gives over knowledge to a student, the person in need receives money or guidance from one who can provide it. The reason why Hashem gave over these powers to us, to those who are considered being the provider as well as those who are in the category of being a receiver, is to give us the tools to elevate the world.  

However, Hashem wants us to elevate the world, on our own and not through His intervention. That is the reason why this highest level of G-dliness left, leaving Yaakov by himself. Only then did Yaakov continue on his way to elevate the world, because he knew that Hashem desires that it should be done with his own talents and determination, and not that Hashem’s presence is forcing him to do it. 

We see this concept also when Yaakov and Lavan made an agreement on what Yaakov’s pay should be, for taking care of the sheep. 

The Torah tells us that they agreed that Yaakov should receive the sheep that were born ankle-striped, speckled and blotched. While the Hebrew  words for these marks are a reference in the Heavenly spheres to something else entirely. Akudim means they are tied and bound up as one, nekudim means that they are separated one from the other, while beroodim means that the 10 individual aspects interact with each other. 

In the spiritual worlds, at the beginning of the process of creation there was only Hashem’s Glory. Meaning that everything was included in Him, and nothing was separated as an individual item from Hashem’s essence. That is the highest level of G-dliness and is referred to as Akudim. From there we come down to individual and separate entities. Subsequently that which was part of Him and therefore seemingly non-existance, separated from.each other and became the 10 spheres. They begin from Chochòma wisdom until Malchus Kingdom.  However, each one is separated from the other, in Chassidic terminology that is called the world of Tohu. After that it descends further into the world of Tikun and there these 10 separate entities intermingle one with the other. 

So if the 10 aspects of each of the 10 spheres intermingle with each of the 10 aspects,  so 10 times 10 equals 100. Therefore Lavan changed the agreement with Yaakov 100 times. 

In other words, the holiest level of Lovein Huelyon, descended into a person that was a deceiver and a thief. Because the reason why Hashem gave us all of our talents through His kiss, is in order that not only should we elevate ourselves, but we should even elevate the elements of evil and wickedness that are around us.

As we saw this by Yaakov. Lavan removed all of those unique sheep from the flock, so by laws of nature the remaining sheep would only give birth to regular sheep. But through Yaakov’s toil, he elevated the entire world, even the nature of the world and the sheep gave birth to what wasn’t expected.

Or in Chassidic terminology, Yaakov elevated the physical world, which is called Olam Ha’asiuh, to Atzilus, the beginning of the world of tikkun, and then to the higher world of Tohu, until he elevated this physical world to be in unison with Atzmus itself.

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.