Hayom Yom: Tackling Life's Tasks - 24 Teves

from Chabad.org

[This date is the anniversary of] the passing of the Alter Rebbe in the village of Piena, on Motzaei Shabbos, Parshas Shmos, 5573 (1812). His resting place is in the township of Haditch.

My revered grandfather, the Rebbe [Maharash], once asked [his father,] the Tzemach Tzedek: “What did our zeide1 want to achieve with the ways of Chassidus2 and [through the study of] Chassidus?”

The Tzemach Tzedek answered: “[The goal of] the ways of Chassidus is that all chassidim should be like one family, [united] in love according to the Torah. Chassidus is vitality, bringing energy and light into everything, even into those things that are undesirable. We should recognize our own evil as it is, so that we can correct it.”3

A Mini-Farbrengen

The last lines of the above teaching summarize a dialogue between the Tzemach Tzedek and the Rebbe Maharash. After the Tzemach Tzedek said that “Chassidus is vitality, bringing energy and light into everything,” the Rebbe Maharash asked him: “Even into undesirable matters?”

The Tzemach Tzedek answered: “Yes, we must illuminate even evil,” and then continued as quoted: “We should recognize….”

With this approach, the Tzemach Tzedek shed light on the Chabad approach to confronting and refining one’s own negative traits.

It is related that the saintly disciples of the Maggid of Mezritch embodied three different approaches when confronted by the evil in others. One approach was personified by R. Zusya of Hanipoli, who simply never saw wickedness in a fellow Jew. No matter how bad the person was, R. Zusya saw only the good in him.

Another approach was personified by R. Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, who could see the evil in a fellow Jew, but would never accept it. He would pray for him until G‑d washed the evil away.

The third approach was personified by the Alter Rebbe. He would see the evil in others, yet despite the unpleasantness of dealing with such traits, he would face those people and talk to them about their problems. Thus, he taught them a path of Divine service that enabled them to correct their difficulties themselves.

A similar concept applies to facing the evil within ourselves. Only after we confront ourselves and look at ourselves honestly can we correct our faults. This approach also relates to the above-quoted call by the Tzemach Tzedek for unity among chassidim, for the work of self-refinement is easiest when we are part of a community whose members relate to each other lovingly — as within a family — and actively support each other’s strivings toward personal growth.

6th Rebbe

6th Rebbe - the Destiny Foundation

"In New York he faced a new threat: a largely apathetic Jewish world. He said, “America is no different” and that even in such a materialistic country, the Torah could take root and flourish. He established yeshivas, day schools, youth clubs, publishing house for Jewish books and social services. Hundreds of people turned out to hear his public lectures. He targeted America as a whole, sending out small groups of highly trained rabbis to teach Torah across the nation – a method used by Chabad today.

"In 1948 the Rebbe founded Kfar Chabad near Tel Aviv, Israel. Today it is a community of 400 Chabad families.

"He passed away in 1950. In his seventy years, he personally stood up to and confronted three major threats to Orthodox Jewish life: Tsarist Russia with its pogroms, Communism and its war against religion and assimilation in the melting pot of America.

"Rabbi Schneerson initiated a worldwide movement to bring Jews back to their religious heritage and observance. He was devoted to helping resettle Jewish refugees after WWII. He published hundreds of commentaries, articles and essays. He also kept a diary documenting the history of Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidism.

"The Rebbe had no sons. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, his son-in-law, became his successor.

"The seeds the Rebbe planted are visible today all over Russia. When he left in 1929, his underground infrastructure of Jewish life continued, spreading the teachings of Torah and Chassidism.

"Today, there are hundreds of synagogues, Jewish schools and mikvaot that the Rebbe himself had built. When the USSR collapsed in 1991, they emerged from the cellars and attics into vacant Communist Party buildings. The Communist plan to destroy the Jewish religion had not succeeded, mainly due to the valiant efforts of Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak Schneerson."

Tears and Action

After Yosef revealed himself to his brothers, he fell on Benyamin's neck and wept  and Benyamin fell on his neck and wept. Rashi tells us the tears were future oriented. They were tears for the destruction the Temple, built in the tribal area of Benyamin, and Shiloh, built in the area of Yosef. Why the neck? The Temple is like a neck that connects something higher, the head, to something lower. Why crying for the other? Because tears may be cathartic but what we need most is action. We must build anew, tapping into our potential. But when it comes to another person, or group, each of us can offer advice, encouragement, but ultimately the action is in the hands of the other. So we weep. 

7th Lubavitcher Rebbe on Vayigash

Rabbi Nissan Mangel

Rabbi Nissan Mangel

The Chizuk Tour that Almost Wasn't

A local Litvish shul near me organized a chartered bus trip to see Litvish gadolim. A trip for chizuk. And it was a well organized trip. We even arrived back home exactly on schedule. 

We saw three, the first a famous rosh yeshiva in a famous litvish place. The second a grandson of a famous one at the same place. The third was RY of a musar yeshiva.

Nothing went wrong. The rabbis all acted respectably enough and tried to be inspirational in their way. But what I experienced was a distinct lack of inspiration from the first two because all they talked about was the importance of Torah study. Happiness is Torah study one said. And if you only study part of the day, that's the time when you'll be happy. The other one talked about how klal Yisroel lives through Torah study. And his grandfather built a yeshiva against all odds. And now all this studying goes on. Mind you, the bus was full of baal habatim, not yeshiva students.

This kind of talk has never moved me and I have tried for decades to make it move me. To me, there are 613 mitzvos and the most important thing is emunah.

The musar rav did speak about the shechinah and how it left the Temple during the year under the Syrian Greeks when the Temple ceased functioning. And how the miracle of Chanukah helped bring back the shechinah and how we can too. 

The last talk I enjoyed. For it was about Hashem and not about "mevakshei Hashem" by virtue of hunger for Torah study alone.

I like musar. And I like Chassidis. I feel bad saying it, but the Torah study as Judaism approach doesn't feel like religion to me. If it works for others, fine. It doesn't work for me, never has, and likely never will.

Until we visited the last guy I was starting to feel a little blue. Chizuk that almost wasn't.

I asked a student there how much musar they do. He said, 1/2 hour a day of self-study. One shiur a week. That made me a bit sad again. I don't understand these people.