Yossi, the Bar-Mitzva boy, eagerly unwrapped his Bar-Mitzva presents. Living in the 21st century, it was not surprising that one of his relatives gave him a fancy new cell phone!

“How is it possible,” he asked his father, admiring the wireless phone he held in his hands, “to have a phone that works without wires attached?”

His wise father answered, “So tell me, Yossi, you’d be able to understand how it works with wires?!”

Comment:

Naturally, our psyche allows us to think that we can connect to something solely when we can visualize and comprehend the connection.

In the case of a telephone, visible wires indicate the channel through which the connection travels. It seems simple, but in reality, we don’t understand the connection via wires either, it’s only that our psyche thinks it makes sense. We only begin to have questions when we see a cellular phone, which has no wires visibly making a connection.

Our understanding of hiskashrus, how we connect to the Rebbe, is similar to Yossi and the way he related to his cell phone.

Even when we were able to physically see the Rebbe, while we had a seemingly “wired” connection, we thought we understood. It may have seemed clear how we were able to connect to the Rebbe.

However, when the Rebbe was physically taken from us, it became a “cellular” connection. Suddenly, questions arose and we began to wonder.

In essence, we didn’t understand how the wires worked either. For our connection to the Rebbe is a spiritual one. Just as the Rebbe connected to us before, he connects to us now.

Be it via wires or wireless.

“Ask not what the Rebbe can do for you; Ask what can you do for the Rebbe.”

“Indeed, the Rebbe is with us. But are we with the Rebbe?”