1. What would be most appropriate at this time is – great salvations.1
2. Not only the Baal Shem,2 but every leader is a baal Shem3 – except that not everyone is permitted to reveal things.4
3. In earlier days, my father usually related the subject of mashke to the teaching of the Sages that joy is aroused specifically by wine and by meat.5 His later references to mashke were different:6 they related it to the procedure preceding a sacrifice, whereby the animal is given water to drink,7 so that it will be skinned more readily.8
Since the sacrificial laws applying to skin and flesh differ, care had to be taken that no flesh should remain attached to the skin. Hence the above procedure – to separate the two. So, too, with mashke. Inside, after all, everyone is good.9 The other fellow’s inner personality, his pnimiyus, is most certainly good, and that is how one should regard him. The same applies to oneself. What is not good is only one’s outer skin, the animal soul.10 And the purpose of taking mashke is to separate the outer personality, the chitzoniyus, which is the animal soul, so that it should not obscure the inner personality.
In later years my father no longer gave that explanation, but explained the function of mashke at yet a higher level. He did not relate it to separating the outer skin, but to the statement in the Midrash11 that in the sefer Torah of R. Meir,12 [in the verse13 that speaks of the garments that G‑d made for Adam and Chavah,] the word עוֹר [meaning “skin”] was spelled אוֹר [meaning “light”]. My father then took this further, and pointed out that even beyond the fact that the avodah of making the animal soul light up is superior to the avodah of merely separating it, there is […14 ].
4. [At this point Rashag asked:] “It would appear that the above concept of giving the animal water to drink [or: the above concept of elevating the animal soul15 ] does not apply to tzaddikim. And if so, what is the meaning of ‘giving the animal water to drink’ as it relates to tzaddikim?”
[The reply was as follows:] Why? My father once said that nothing should be idolized and nothing should be clouded over. The point is only that in that other context, the above concepts are to be understood differently. The reason that we use the same word to describe a variety of things is that we lack the necessary expressions: we are poor in words. In that other context, with regard to tzaddikim, the above concepts are to be understood differently.
5. In his old age, R. Aizik of Homil used to accept pidyonos.16 He did not receive chassidim at yechidus, but would respond to individual queries and requests in the course of a farbrengen. When in the course of time his doctors forbade him to take mashke, he would place a bottle of mashke on the table and look at it, and would explain: “Looking at it can do no harm, and it impacts the observer.”17
6. [No account is extant of the sichah in which the Rebbe now expounded the phrase,] כֻלָּהּ מַשְׁקֶה.18
7. There are many subjects that I previously didn’t want to talk about. Now, however, because of a heavy heart and an anxious mind, things are now being talked about that were not talked about in the past. Here, let me share with you something that until now has been regarded as classified information, so to speak.
Once, in a public talk, my father discussed the difference between the maamarim that the Alter Rebbe delivered before his incarceration in 5559 (1798), and after that time.19 I then entered my father’s study and asked: “That difference relates to the Rebbe – but what does that difference mean as it relates to chassidim?”
My father answered: “Your question is taking the subject a little too far....” [Nevertheless,] in the course of the next few days, he explained to me six analogies which appear in Chassidus with regard to אוֹר, [spiritual] light, and which define the relationship between (respectively) Maor and or, Atzmus and hispashtus, hiyuli and gilui, ayin and yesh, ilah and alul, av and ben.20 My father concluded: “The bond and relationship between Rebbe and chassid incorporates the positive values to be found in all of those six analogies. It thus goes without saying that whatever is said about a Rebbe is also true of a chassid.”
8. There is a niggun that was already sung in the time of the Baal Shem Tov. After “the well-known incident” – that was how chassidim used to refer to the malicious slander21 – it was forbidden to sing it in the presence of more than five or six people, never more publicly than that, until in the time of the Mitteler Rebbe it was completely forbidden.
Its words,22 freely translated, are as follows: “Blessed be He, Who created us for His glory and splendor and greatness, Who separated us from those that go astray and from those that are mistaken, really astray and really mistaken. Blessed be He, Who gave us the Torah of truth! May He be blessed and extolled!”
Before Petersburg, chassidim sang with gusto the words of gratitude to Him “Who separated us from those that go astray”; after Petersburg, they sang with even greater gusto the words of gratitude to Him “Who gave us the Torah of truth.”
When the chassidim of earlier generations used to farbreng, they would discuss explanations of concepts in Chassidus that they themselves had proposed. Thus, for example, in the year […],23 three elder chassidim of stature visited Lubavitch – R. Shmuel Ber [of Borisov], R. Gershon Dov [Pahar], and R. Chaim Dov [aka R. Chaim Ber] Vilensky of Kremenchug. In the course of their debate, they discussed twenty-one analogies for the infinite Ein-Sof light. When my father heard the sixteen original analogies that had been proposed by R. Chaim Ber, he commented, “Pravda!24 To arrive at those analogies, he toiled and perspired.” Five analogies had been added to R. Chaim Ber’s list by the Rebbe Maharash, at yechidus.25
9. Rava taught: “One should always be crafty in one’s awe of G‑d.”26 It’s not easy to say this, but this teaching [which Rashi understands to mean that one should contrive all kinds of ways and means of serving his Maker] was said before the teachings of Chassidus were revealed. Since that time, that attitude comes spontaneously.
10. Merely wanting to do something is worthless. As people used to say, “Merely wanting serves no purpose.27 Things need to be done.” […] Every individual ought to realize that at all times and in all places, he is a shaliach, an emissary, of the Holy One, blessed be He, to carry out the intention for which he was placed in This World. Moreover, there is a chazakah, a halachic presumption, that “an emissary carries out his mission.”28
It is written, “By G‑d are a man’s steps made firm.”29 One should never say, “If only I were at such-and-such a place, I would motivate people to read Tehillim, to love each other, and to study a passage of Chumash...” Only a fool does things by hit and miss, repeatedly, even three times. There’s no point is doing something over and over again. A sensible person does it boldly, in one shot. It’s hard for me to tell you this directly, but the fact is that people are pussyfooting. They find pretexts for their inaction – but with what justification? Who ever gave permission for such pretexts?
11. During the Rabbinical Conference in Petersburg in 1910, I was given the task of securing a certain note from a wicked official called Orlov, which would enable R. Ginzburg30 to approach Prospov’s deputy. I was simply and physically afraid, because this Erlov was a vicious villain.
Perceiving this fear, my father said, “What’s this?” – and I answered: “Before me stands a brick wall.”
My father’s response: “Avodah means that with your forehead you make a hole in the wall, and of that hole you make an entrance – while keeping your forehead intact!”
12. [No record is extant of an analogy that was drawn at this point, which contrasted mining for coal and for gems.]
13. At one stage my father had an attendant called Mendel Kantor who was responsible for the needs of the household, and another attendant, a simple fellow, who attended to tasks that called for plain labor.
My father once told the latter worker: “A baal-habayis, the master of a household, is not someone who owns whatever a household could need, but someone who utilizes everything at the right time and place.”
At that time I was in the same room, learning with my teacher, Rashbatz. As soon as my father left the room, my teacher said: “Did you hear what your father, the Rebbe, said just now? I’m certain that he wasn’t really addressing the attendant: he was addressing himself to me.”
With the above words, I simply want to show you the meaning of hadrachah, educational guidance! For a whole week after that, Rashbatz […], and showed me how every trifle, even a stick or a leaf, should be utilized at its proper time and place.
The chassidim of the Alter Rebbe used to say: “The piece of bread that I have is yours just as much as it is mine.” And they would say “yours” before “mine.”31
Once, when many Jews were forbidden to work in the breweries and were thus deprived of their livelihood,32 the Alter Rebbe said to a certain chassid: “In Shemoneh Esreh we say, ‘He sustains the living with kindness.’ We don’t say that ‘He sustains the living with breweries…’ ”
Chassidim are simply clever. If there’s a chassid who is not clever, that’s because he doesn’t study Chassidus…My father once said: “I’ve seen an intellectual chassid,33 and I’ve seen a chassid of exemplary middos34 – but above all, I was impressed by the sight of a chassid heating the oven to bake a potato.”35
The role of a niggun is to transfer a person from one place to another, and even beyond that.
May the one Above help all Jews; may He help chassidim.
