Weekly Dvar Torah: From Chanukah to Hey Teiveis
It’s All in The Books
Chanukah, we celebrate miracles.
What is a miracle?
There is a concealment of G-dliness, where we don’t feel and see G-d’s hand looking out for us while we are being persecuted and hurt, and suddenly G-d appears and shows a miracle. G-d evoked His mercy to show His love to His children who are in a difficult situation.
For reasons G-d keeps to Himself, He chose to reveal Himself to us mortals not when things run smoothly but rather when things are tough and we feel the concealment, and we cry out for some revelation. This is a miracle.
Immediately after Chanukah comes Hey Teiveis, the Holiday of Books.
What’s the connection?
When the books were on trial, the Rebbe used very strong language to explain the meaning of the books to Chabad and the Rebbeiim. And the Rebbe said that this should be the concern of every Chossid.
Here are some of the things that the Rebbe said:
Seforim are the life of the Rebbe.
35 years after Yud Shvat the Frierdiker Rebbe is only getting healthier and is more alive.
The Rebbe lives in us, with us and through us.
The Rebbe lives in the Seforim, when you remove a book from its proper place you take away part of the Rebbe’s life.
The Rebbe is alive and well and therefore there wasn’t and there isn’t any talk of apportioning his estate.
In summary; the Rebbe is talking to us 35 years after Yud Shvat and is explaining to us how the Frierdiker Rebbe is still with us, and he is still leading us, and he is only getting stronger and healthier. And this is thanks to the books, and this happens through us.
The obvious question is, why did the Rebbe have to say this to us? It was 35 years into the Rebbe’s leadership, the Rebbe is the Nasi Hashvii, the seventh generation, and very successfully so. The Rebbe is sitting and Farbrenging with us week after week, for thousands of hours he doesn’t stop teaching us and leading us during these 35 years. The Rebbe set up an unprecedented movement of Shlichus with thousands of Shluchim worldwide. The Rebbe has opened the treasures of Chassidus and he has published all the manuscripts that lay hidden for generations. Chabad has become mainstream Judaism, something that was never before.
Why is the Rebbe trying to imbue us with the idea that the Frierdiker Rebbe who passed away 35 years earlier is still the Nasi, as the Rebbe always says ‘Nasi Doreinu (the leader of our generation)’, we have a living breathing Rebbe sitting in front of us who is telling us all of this. Isn’t the Rebbe that we were listening to, our Rebbe?
If I may, in my not so humble opinion I dare say, that the entire story of Hey Teiveis and the trial of the Seforim, was an exercise by the Rebbe to explain to us, who are sitting 30 years post Gimmel Tammuz, and pitying about the current state of Rebbe and Chossid relationship. And he did so by explaining the books.
The Gemara says, that when G-d gave the Torah He started with the word ״אָנֹכִי״ which is an acronym for ״אָנֹכִי״, נוֹטָרִיקוֹן: אֲנָא נַפְשִׁי כְּתַבִית יְהַבִית, which according to the Zohar, and is explained extensively in Chassidus, means to say “I (G-d) wrote my essence into the Torah and gave it”. When you study Torah, you connect with the essence of Hashem.
Tzadikim are like the Creator, says the Midrash, when a Tzaddik writes a Sefer, he inserts his essence in that book. This is how the Rebbe constantly explained to us the meaning of the Rebbe Rashab’s statement “איך גיי אין הימל, און די כתבים לאָז איך אייך” “I am going to Heaven and the writings I leave with you” that the Rebbe is here with us in his books, and when we learn his books we have his essence, no different than when we see him with our eyes of flesh. So his entire presence, which includes his leadership as Rebbe, is here through the books. And when we study the books and follow his teachings he manifests his life through us.
For whatever reason G-d and the Rebbe chose that his presence should be present in a concealed way. But it is up to us to reveal his presence and this happens through the books. That’s what the holiday of Hey Teiveis is all about. The Rebbe simply prepared us how to find him, and how to be connected to him, and how he will continue to lead us even when we will not see him.
Unfortunately, 30 years have passed, and time has proven the Rebbe’s words to be exact. Children who never saw the Rebbe, are connected to the Rebbe more than ever, and the Rebbe is their Rebbe, and continues to lead them like never before.
Just like Chanukah, G-d concealed Himself to allow the Greeks to persecute us, and when we stood up with self-sacrifice, he revealed Himself and performed the miracle of Chanukah. So too, the concealment of the Rebbe for 30 years only intensifies our desire to reveal him by learning his books, the Sichos and Maamarim, and following his instructions, and this will bring about the ultimate revelation of the Rebbe to see him once again lead us out of Golus, by teaching us new Sichos and Maamarim, with the revelation of Moshiach NOW!!!
Have a book filled Shabbos,
Gut Shabbos
Rabbi Yosef Katzman
