To Count is not to be Counted Upon – Dependability Determines Self Worth

It was the Baal Shem Tov’s custom to draw out his prayers on Friday evenings. His disciples, who typically finished before him, would wait for their Rebbe to conclude, so that they may join him in the Shabbos meal.

It happened, on a given Friday, that one of the participants felt rather hungry. He thought to himself: “There is still plenty of time before the Baal Shem Tov will complete his prayers; I ought to go and eat something. In all likelihood, I will be back before he’s done. Besides, there are plenty of others around; I shall certainly not be missed.”

Seeing him slip out the door, another fellow decided to do the same. This started a chain reaction and soon the Baal Shem Tov was left to himself. Imagine their embarrassment, when, upon their return, they found their Rebbe sitting all alone waiting for them.

The Baal Shem Tov lovingly explained to them that a head is only as high as the body on which it rests. He said that his ability to stay “up there,” and function as their head, depended entirely on the degree of their individual and collective commitment.

The Weekly Sicha of the Rebbe – Parshas Bamidbar

The Rebbe says:

1. This week’s Torah portion (as well as next week’s Torah portion) discusses the Mishkan (the Tabernacle) which was in the desert with the Jewish people and the jobs associated with bringing it from place to place with them.

2. The Rebbe tells us the lesson we can learn from this:

This passage emphasizes that even when the Jewish people are in a desert they have the strength to set up a place of holiness for Hashem’s presence (the Shechinah) to rest among the Jewish people in general and within every single Jew individually.

Furthermore, just as there is a desert in the physical sense, which is a barren wasteland where extremely calamitous elements dominate, so too there is a desert in the spiritual sense where terrible ideas and ideals dominate the atmosphere. Indeed, there can be a spiritual desert in a land which is physically a blooming garden.