1. At a certain time of serious distress for the Jewish people in the year 5607 (1847), many prominent figures in the Torah world met in the court of the Tzemach Tzedek. After each of them had said LeChaim! and had voiced his blessings for Jewry at large, the Tzemach Tzedek responded: “I wish you all LeChaim! – but as I have in mind, not as you have in mind. As a result of the prevailing strains and stresses, you are perceiving everything in terms of gashmiyus, whereas I’m wishing you all gashmiyus and also ruchniyus.”
In 5637 (1877) – I think it was on Shavuos – the Rebbe Maharash said that the Amen! that resounded in response from all those assembled still rang clearly in his ears, [thirty years later].
2. [The Rebbe Rayatz asked those assembled not to try to push their way forward, and added that doing so indicated that those involved were not interested in listening. Whoever could not hear was urged to ask a friend to tell him what he had heard.]
I want to set right a practice that has gotten out of hand, namely, wandering around, especially outdoors, while davenen. Doing so contravenes the halachah! This practice not only fails to combat the distraction of alien thoughts, but actively invites those thoughts.
3. [Further to the above statement:] You know me long enough to know that I am accustomed to expressing what I have to say gently. Those of you who study Chassidus are familiar with the difference between amirah (lit., “saying”), which is gentle, and dibbur (lit., “speaking”), which is stern.1 Yet today I have been speaking to you sternly, because this is an issue that literally affects the soul of every individual and the souls of the members of his household.
4. Let me recount an incident.
Soon after the Rebbe Maharash became bar-mitzvah, his father, the Tzemach Tzedek, called him and said: “To be thoroughly familiar with the entire Babylonian Talmud2 is no great level of achievement. [Beyond that,] a worthwhile goal is to study Ein Yaakov3 and be thoroughly familiar with Aggadah.”
In those days, as soon as a directive was given, it was acted upon. And indeed, the young Rebbe Maharash immediately began to study Ein Yaakov every day.
One day the Tzemach Tzedek entered his son’s room and found him studying a teaching of the Sages, cited in Ein Yaakov from Tractate Berachos:4 “When the Holy One, blessed be He, comes to shul and does not find ten people there, He is immediately angered – as it is written,5 ‘Why have I come and no one is present?’ ” The Gemara there goes on to present another teaching: “Whoever sets a fixed place in which to pray, the G‑d of Avraham helps him.” To the words “the G‑d of Avraham,” Rashi adds, “…who set a fixed place in which to pray.” Then, to the word meaning “helps him,” Rashi adds, separately, “…just as He used to help Avraham.”
Seeing that his son perceived something there as problematic, the Tzemach Tzedek asked him what was bothering him.
The Rebbe Maharash answered: “Firstly, why does the Gemara link those two teachings? Secondly, why does Rashi divide his explanation of ‘the G‑d of Avraham helps him’ into two comments?”
The Tzemach Tzedek explained: “ ‘The G‑d of Avraham who set a fixed place in which to pray’ implies that it was G‑d Who set a fixed place in which Avraham should pray – as if to say: ‘In this place I want to hear your prayer, not somewhere else!’ ”6
[Having recounted the above incident, the Rebbe Rayatz concluded:] Chassidim used to describe the above-discussed unsettled attitude to davenen in terms that left the offender’s nose bruised, so to speak. There are people who wander about for a couple of hours with their folded tallis still over one shoulder, and daydream about pie in the sky. That takes till 1:15, and by 2:30 the davenen is finished. And that’s called “davenen at length…!”
5. [The Rebbe Rayatz first asked the chassidim present if they remembered the niggun with which the Alter Rebbe sang the words, Tze’enah ure’enah.7 He then related:] So many chassidim came to spend Shavuos with the Alter Rebbe in 5555 (1795) that he had to deliver his maamarim in the courtyard, and even there, many stood on the surrounding roofs and pillars. He began to deliver his maamar on the words, Tze’enah ure’enah bnos Tziyon, intoning its opening words to a niggun of such soulful yearning that some chassidim actually fainted from hearing the niggun alone, and were unable to listen to the continuation of the maamar.8
[When the Rebbe Rayatz recounted the above, he sang the niggun that he had just described, and then continued:]
R. Aizik of Homil once described how on that occasion, he hung onto a pillar for so long that his arm seemed to be dead, and utterly disconnected from his body. At that time, he said, his soul was not bound within materiality: his soul alone heard the maamar.
6. The nesius of the Tzemach Tzedek began in the year 5589 (1829) and not, as many people think, in the following year.
7. The Tzemach Tzedek once asked the Alter Rebbe: “Why is Shavuos celebrated for seven days, until 12 Sivan, inclusive?” (I.e., during those twelve days Tachanun is omitted, and so on.)
The Alter Rebbe answered by means of an analogy: When businessmen have bought up all their merchandise after two days at the regional fair, they remain in town for another few days in order to pack it firmly, for fear of theft or loss. In the same way, after everyone has no doubt stocked himself up with the revelations of the Season of the Giving of the Torah, it takes a few days after Yom-Tov to pack [and internalize] those revelations firmly, so that upcoming distractions will not make them fade away.
