Weekly Story: Chof Beis Shevat

by Rabbi Sholom DovBer Avtzon

This coming Thursday is chof-beis half Shevat, the yahrzeit of the Rebbetzin. As is well known the Rebbetzin was extremely private and shied away from any publicity. 

That is the reason why most people in Crown Heights never met  or even saw her, and if they did see her from a distance, most probably they would not even have recognized her. Subsequently, I do not have that much information about her that is not well known, and I am not going to repost aspects that I wrote in previous years. Nevertheless, there is one aspect which I did not write about, and I thought it will give us a deeper insight into who she was and therefore I am sharing it with you. As always, your feedback and comments are most welcome and appreciated. 

While it is well known that certain people maintained regular contact with the Rebbetzin, some of them on a frequent or even daily basis, they are just a select group of people. Some of them were neighbors or acquaintances that knew the Rebbetzin in Russia, Rega or Poland. Others became acquainted with the Rebbetzin because of their interaction with the Rebbe. 

This gives the impression that the Rebbetzin was only interested in certain type of people that had the above-mentioned requisites. This would be implying that she did not have contact with a regular Crown Heights resident. 

From the following anecdote you will see that this is completely false, and as you will read below, the Rebbetzin was very interested in knowing what is going on with the average person as well as our youth. 

Obviously, I am not going to divulge the person’s name or how she came into contact with the Rebbetzin because that is her decision whether to publicize it or not and not mine. 

There was a teenage girl who was learning in Beis Rivka and she had an open door to the Rebbetzin and i believe she would visit the Rebbetzin on a weekly basis, discussing whatever she wanted to and hearing the Rebbetzin’s thoughts and guidance. 

For many years she was told that she does not have to call before she would be coming, she could come whenever she wanted. She would just knock on the door and  would welcomed in. [Later on, for a specific reason which the Rebbetzin explained, the Rebbetzin instructed her, that she should please call the house 10 minutes before she would be arriving. When they talked, the Rebbetzin paid close attention to what she was saying and expressing and asked the teenage girl about her concerns and to fill her in and what is going on in her day inside and outside of school. 

I am not going to speculate as to why she did this, but I am noting this little point to show that just as the Rebbe was interested in every chossid and in fact in  every Jew, the Rebbetzin was also interested in knowing and finding out about the well-being and thoughts of even the children of Crown Heights. 

Furthermore, there was one individual who would visit the Rebbetzin every Friday night in the house before the Rebbe would come home. 

On one occasion when she asked him her regular question about the well-being of each one of his children by name, the person expressed his disappointment with one of his sons. 

The Rebbetzin was not happy to hear his criticism of his son, and she pointed out the tremendous quality and beauty of the action that that son took which caused him to have anguish from. 

She gave him a different perspective and enabled him to see the beauty and pureness of his sons action.

A Taste of Chassidus               Bayom Hazeh 

The possuk informs us that on this day the Jewish people came to Midbar (the wilderness of) Sinai. The question is, which day is that referring to? 

Our sages teach us that we learn out through a gezeira shuveh, that it was on Rosh Chodesh Sivan. However, Rashi tells us that the reason why it does not say which day it actually was, but rather just says on this day, is in order to instruct us that every day we should consider it as if is that is the day we received the Torah. 

So we have to understand, how can these two seemingly opposing opinions of it being a specific day (Rosh Chodesh Sivan) and it also being every day of the year be true and they are explaining the same word!? 

As explained in the A Taste of Chassidus of last week, the light of Hashem before the actual creation began, was higher to no end and lower to no end. 

Chassidus explains that before Hashem gave us the Torah there was a decree that separated the heavens and the Earth, that what was on high should not come down below and what was below does not have the ability to rise and connect to what is higher than it. However, at the time Hashem gave us the  Torah on the mountain of Sinai, Hashem said that this degree is nullified, and He nullified it by descending from above to below. 

This gave those that are down on this Earth the ability to elevate themselves and connect to what is above them. Subsequently our fulfilling a mitzvah has the ability to infuse spirituality into the physical item (unlike before Mattan Torah), and also enabled us mortals who are limited to understand and comprehend the Torah which is Hashem’s wisdom. and is unlimited.

Now we can understand what high or above and low or below means. In simple terms we explain that above/high means the heavens with the spiritual worlds that are higher and above us, while below means or refers to this physical world. According to this explanation, both the high and the low are tangible or Limited things that have a defining place or setting, just one is stronger, greater or higher than the other.

 However, based on the maamar that we learned last week that Hashem’s light extends itself to the highest spheres in the heavens, as well as to the lowest levels on this Earth or beneath it, so then high is referring to what is unlimited and below is referring to what is limited. Subsequently, when Hashem came down and gave us the Torah on Har Sinai, not only did he fuse the higher worlds with the lower worlds that they can have a connection, but even more so, that the unlimited light can be connected with the limited one. 

This gives clarity to a perplexing question. The halacha is that a person can only bring a sacrifice in a certain place, which is the Beis Hamikdash and furthermore it must be brought at a certain time. Yet at the same time we are taught that whoever learns the laws of sacrifices it is as if they brought a sacrifice at that moment. 

In other words, a person who is living outside the Beis Hamikdash or even is living in Exile and is learning the laws of a certain sacrifice at night, so practically speaking that person cannot bring any sacrifice, because he’s not in the proper place and it’s night time when a sacrifice cannot be brought; yet our sages teach us that at that moment when the person is learning about sacrifices, it is considered as if he brought a sacrifice and gains all the benefits of bringing a sacrifice. 

But as explained above, since Hashem connected Unlimited which is higher than time and place with limited time and place, so therefore a person who is living in Exile was given at Har Sinai the ability to connect to what is above them, and therefore it is considered as if he brought a sacrifice even in this situation. 

This answers our original question. Yes, the Torah was given to us on one specific time / date, but at that point not only did Hashem come down to us but he also granted us who are in this world to elevate and become connected to what is above us and that is to connect to the unlimited, something that is higher than time and space. 

So that defined moment became elevated to the extent that it became Unlimited in time and space.  

So while the Torah was given once and there will never be another giving of the Torah, nevertheless, whenever we learn Torah our sages inform us that it is as  if that is the moment Hashem gave us the Torah

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