Weekly Story: Are You An Admirer Or A Chossid?
Rabbi Sholom DovBer Avtzon
This Shabbos is Yud Tes Kislev, Chag Hachagim and Rosh Hashanah L’Chassidus, and a day that chassidim always farbrenged, so I am posting two of the points that I will be mentioning in the farbrengen in honor of Yud Tes Kislev. The first one is about Yud Tes Kislev and the second one is in connection to the Chalukas Hashas, which the Alter Rebbe instituted and is part of darkei Hachassidus.
As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated and helpful in many ways. Some have mentioned that they enjoy the story forum which I have done for the past five years, and others have mentioned that they enjoy the farbrengen style, so this week is a combination of both.
Rabbi Sholom Eidelman a”h was a Shliach in Casablanca, Morocco for over 60 years. He was niftar there this past Pesach, and I heard the following on the Zoom in honor of the Shloshim.
A Jew in his community once came to him on Yud Tes Kislev and said, “The honorable Rabbi tells us every year that Yud Tes Kislev is not only a special day, it is a great holiday. Hashem has made a tremendous miracle, that even the nations of the earth recognized the hand of the Creator etc. If that is so, why don’t we say Hallel on such an auspicious day?!”
Rabbi Eidelman responded, “You are asking a very good question, but let us think for a moment. Yes it is true that Hallel is said on holidays. However, the Talmud states that there is one holiday that we do not say Hallel on and that is Purim, so the Talmud asks why this is so?
“One of the answers that the Talmud explains is since we read the Megilla on Purim, which expresses in great detail the wonders and miracles that Hashem did for the Jewish people, that negates the necessity and takes place of saying Hallel, since we praised Hashem in the Megilla.
“That is the answer to your question as well: the celebration of Yud Tes Kislev is one that permeates your being throughout the entire day. It is not only noticeable during the farbrengen and through the Yom Tov clothing you are wearing, but in everything you do, all being an expression of the greatness of the day. Therefore, it is not necessary to say Hallel.”
So let us celebrate this Shabbos and Sunday in a meaningful way that even an outsider would feel the sensation of Yom Tov.
When the Czarist officers came to arrest the Alter Rebbe he left the house to postpone it, and as the saying goes, once it is postponed it should be postponed permanently. A short while after he returned, Reb Shmuel Munkis knocked on his door. After opening the door, the Alter Rebbe said, “Shmuel, you know they came to arrest me.”
Reb Shmuel replied, “I hold that the Rebbe should go. If he is a Rebbe, then nothing bad will happen to him. If not, he deserves the punishment, for what right did he have in taking away the enjoyment of this world from tens of thousands of Jews.”
In essence Reb Shmuel was saying, that iskafia – not giving in to your personal desires – is the message and accomplishment of Chassidus. When a person constantly thinks about the question that is repeated throughout hundreds and indeed thousands of Maamarei Chassidus, ‘For what purpose did my soul descend into this world’, then he will always think if he should perform a certain action or not. Is that action in accordance to the purpose of my Neshoma’s descent or contrary to it?
Now, if we are speaking about a person that might have an inclination to do something wrong, then one understands the place and significance of Iskafya, holding yourself back from your inclination. If however, we are speaking about a Beinoni, the level in Tanya that the Alter Rebbe says each one of us can reach, one whose attachment to Hashem is so powerful that the other inclination never has an opportunity to express itself, where can there be an iskafya?
My father a”h often would tell me the following story. The Chossid Reb Itche Hamasmid was known as a Beinoini. He enjoyed his davening and learning. When he felt a strong desire to learn Chassidus, he began studying Nigleh (the revealed parts of the Torah). When he started to experience an enjoyment in the Nigleh he was learning, he would then switch gears and begin studying Chassidus, repeating this cycle.
In other words, iskafya is applicable to everyone at their level.
On Yud Tes Kislev 5647 (1887) the Rebbe Rashab was in Yalta and he farbrenged with Reb Schneur Slonim and a few other chassidim. In the farbrengen the Rebbe said that whoever holds on to the door handle of the [Alter] Rebbe, will have success in all his needs.
His son, the Frierdiker Rebbe, who was then just six years old said to his father, “I want to hold onto the Rebbe’s door handle. Where is the door handle?”
His father knew that his son often made some mistakes in reading and that he also enjoyed davening by heart, so he replied, “You should daven from a siddur and make sure to say the words properly – that is the door handle of the Rebbe!”[1]
At that age and point in his life that was his iskafya.
This brings me to the heading of this week’s post, Are you an admirer or a Chossid?
One of the Takkanos of the Alter Rebbe is that each community, and if possible each minyan, should make a Chalukas Hashas. This way collectively, each member participated in the learning of the entire Shas every year. I have the merit to be the initiator of this in the shul I daven in for many years, Ahavas Achim, commonly referred to as Empire Shtiebel. There is Boruch Hashem a Chalukas Hashas every year.
Years ago, one individual told me that I should approach him when I am almost finished dividing the Shas, after majority of the Masechtos have been chosen by others and there are only a few remaining. This way, he explained, for every moment that I am learning that Mesechta, I am connected to the Rebbe’s Takkana. I am not learning it because it’s what I am reviewing anyways with my son or chavrusa so I made sure to undertake that particular Mesechta, but I am doing it only because the Alter Rebbe wrote about participating in Chalukas Hashas.
That reminded me of my father’s custom to give everyone a choice in selecting a Mesechta and he learned the Mesechta that no one took to learn. One year that happened to be Mesechta Sota. As he did every year, he wrote to the Rebbe detailing who participated and which Mesechta each person undertook to study, and requested a brocha for all the participants in whatever they needed.
That year, the Rebbe replied to him, “By you taking Sota, it has nothing to do with the Takkana of the Alter Rebbe. You study Sota every year anyways between Pesach and Shavuos. So what did you do because of the Alter Rebbe’s takkana?
[I don’t remember if my father took another Mesechta or said that he would learn Sota in greater depth].
This week in shul when an individual said that last year it was a tremendous challenge for him and he doesn’t know if he is ready for it again, I told him to take a moment and think that every moment of the challenge, you realize that at this moment you are doing it only for one reason, and one reason only, that now you are doing a Takkana of the Rebbeim. He told me, “You are a good salesman; that is a powerful pitch and yes I will participate in it.”
An admirer is one that includes you if it coincides with his schedule. I have to be in New York, so I will also go to the Ohel, while a chossid says, I have to go to the Ohel, so I will take care of a few things in New York. What is primary and what is secondary?
So if I am an admirer of Chalukas Hashas and I happen to be giving a shiur in Mesechta so and so, and that is available, I will write it down as my participation. If someone else took it, I will not take anything. In essence, this Takana has no connection to me. But a Chossid will change his schedule and incorporate it even if it wasn’t on his planning board, after all the Rebbe wants me to do this. I will learn any Mesechta.
A gut yom tov, b’darkei HaChassidus u’b’limud HaChassidus.
I will conclude as others do. This is my thought. What is yours?
This week’s post is l’zechus the complete and immediate refuah for my sister Chaya Rivkah bas Cheyena and all that are in need of a brocha.
Rabbi Avtzon is a veteran mechanech and author of numerous books on the Rebbeim and their Chassidim. He can be contacted at avtzonbooks@gmail.com
[1] Sefer HaToldos, p. 23.
