Weekly Letter: From the Memoirs of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s Childhood Years

In celebration of Yud Shvat this coming week – we are sharing material from Nissan Mindel’s archives – some notes from the Memoirs of the Frierdiker Rebbe about his early childhood.

A
When I was four years old, I asked father: Why did Hashem create a person with two eyes, it could have been sufficient just one, just like He created one mouth and one nose?

And father answered with a question: Do you know the alef beis? I said, yes. Father again asked: Do you know that there is a right shin and a left shin, and what is the difference between them? And I answered him: the right shin has the dot on the right and the left shin has the dot on the left.

Father told me: there are things that we need to look at with the right eye (with love and closeness) and there are things that we need to look at with the left eye (with reserve and distance). On a siddur and on a Jew we need to look with the right eye and on a candy and toys and the like, we need to look with a left eye.

From that time, it was engraved in my heart and mind the idea of ahavas Yisroel – that on every Jew, not matter who, we need to look at with a good eye.

B.

In 5649…

C.

On Monday, the 12th of Tammuz, on the day of my bar mitzvah, on returning from the holy resting places, and after the maamar, d’ch, there was a very uplifting farbreingen which lasted a number of hours.

Around six o’clock we sat down for the se’udas mitzvah. My father was very enthusiastic and opened by saying:

It was a tradition (seder) in the household of the Rabbeim, from the Alter Rebbe, who asked his son – the Mitteler Rebbe – at his bar mitzvah se’udas mitzvah: ask me something. And at the se’udas mitzvah of my grandfather’s father, the Tzemach Tzedek, the Alter Rebbe told him to ask something. And in this style, the Tzemach Tzedek turned to his son, my grandfather the Rebbe Maharash, and likewise my grandfather the Rebbe Maharash turned to his son, my father the Rebbe Rashab during his bar mitzvah meal/celebration.

And in the same style, my father turned to me during my bar mitzvah meal/celebration, and said to me: Yosef Yistzchak, ask me something.

And I asked my father:

It is written in the siddur: it is proper to say before the prayers, “I hereby accept upon myself the positive mitzvah of – to love a fellow Jew as yourself.” Why is this written specifically before the prayers? And if the mitzvah of ahavas Yisroel begins as soon as the day begins in the morning, it should have been placed among the morning prayers/birchos ha’shachar?

My father answered me:

When a father has many children, his essential pleasure comes from seeing all his children united and loving one another. Tefilla/prayer is about asking for our needs, both for the material needs and for the spiritual needs. And it would only be proper to please our Heavenly Father before we make our request. Therefore it was established that we accept upon ourselves the positive mitzvah of ahavas Yisroel particularly before the prayers.

What is this concerning? In order for you to understand the responsibility of a father to give his son guidance and ways of conduct on the day of his bar mitzvah, that should show him the path in life.

The concept of “loving your fellow Jew as yourself” does not only mean to feed the hungry person or do a kindness to the needy or to give the homeless a place to sleep. Rather, the concept of “love your fellow Jew as yourself” needs to include his entire essence – meaning that the needs of the other should concern you more than your own needs. And as is well known the saying of veteran Chassidim: “Love your fellow Jew as yourself” means to love yourself as you love your fellow Jew.