The Rebbe’s principal activity was studying —poring over the texts of the Talmud, the legal codes and responsa, Kaballa and philosophy —every aspect of the wealth of Torah, examining and comparing from every angle, asking the questions others were afraid to ask and providing solutions nobody thought to answer.
True, he was running an international activist organization with hundreds of offices across the globe. True, he received bags of mail every day. True, he himself was the one who demanded action and not just ideas. Yet his principal occupation —-what he spoke about, what he wrote about, how he spent most of the hours of his day —-was Torah study.
The Rebbe often repeated that through the study of Torah you could conquer the world. And from the way the Rebbe discussed Torah you could see he was doing just that: Every thought, every teaching was a new understanding of the entire universe. A simple story or a seemingly dry legalistic point became in his hands an insight to the workings of time and space.
In fact, spending that degree of time on study is a strong statement in itself. It says, "This of me that you see involved in the world and its affairs, this is not me -—this is a mere glimmer of my soul. Where I truly am is in an intimate union with a G-dly teaching that is beyond time and beyond the whole creation."
Only one who is firmly anchored in a higher realm can effect true change within our world.
LOGIN
ASK THE RABBI
Comment
