Chapter 26

THE FIRST SICHAH

1On this day, fifty years ago, I heard from my father, “Gut Yom-Tov!”2

After class on Tuesday, the 17th of Elul, 5653 (1893), my father told me: “Tomorrow, early in the morning, go to the mikveh and don’t say Tachanun.3

It was understood that “early in the morning” meant “before daybreak,” because at that time no one was around to see where I was going. (The mikveh in Lubavitch used be open around the clock.) This instruction was typical, because the education and spiritual guidance of those days engraved within you the ideal of keeping your spiritual regimen out of sight.4 This meant not merely spurning ostentatious conduct (blitos) and excluding any outwardly visible piety (chitzoniyus).5 Beyond that, it meant learning from childhood to revile and uproot them, and to replace them with positive behaviors – above all, with keeping one’s spiritual efforts inconspicuous.

When my father instructed me not to say Tachanun, I didn’t ask, “Why?” With us, the children of the Rebbe’s family, that word had no place in our vocabulary. The instruction to “make your ear a receptive earpiece”6 was almost an inborn trait. As I leaf through my recollections of whatever I have ever heard about the early years of the children of the Alter Rebbe and all the way to the children of my grandfather – namely, my father and my uncles – and likewise with the memories of my own earliest childhood years, I perceive this principle: “Make your ear a receptive earpiece.”

It was axiomatic that your role as a child was to listen and to watch, and not to ask “Why?” If something was said [by one’s father], then that was what ought to happen. There was no need for orders to be given: it was natural for whatever was merely said to be carried out.

* * *

The cheder in which three friends and I were taught by our melamed, R. Nissan Skablo,7 was housed in a big room in the home of R. Yeshaya Kastier. (Ten or twelve years later, that house belonged to R. Moshe Zarchi, and that was where the Yeshivah’s little shiur was conducted.)

My schedule at that time went like this: I would rise at 7:00 and daven with the 8:15 minyan; from 9:30 to 2:00 p.m. – cheder; from 2:00 to 3:00 – lunch break; from 3:00 till 7:00 – cheder again; and from 7:00 till 9:00 – with my father. From the time before davenen in the morning and from 9:00 p.m. until bedtime I managed to muster an hour, or sometimes an hour-and-a-half, for writing, which I was very fond of doing, already in those years. I also found time to write on erev Shabbos, and again on Motzaei Shabbos, after which I would regularly listen to the recollections and family traditions shared by my saintly grandmother, Rebbitzin Rivkah.8

On Wednesday, the eighteenth of Elul, I returned to our cheder at 3:00 p.m. and we studied as usual. An hour later, Reb Mendel, my father’s attendant, came in and told my melamed that the Rebbe requested that he excuse me from class at 4:00, and that I should then go to my father’s study.

As soon as I walked in, my father greeted me in high spirits: “Gut Yom-Tov to us! Today is the birthday of our two great luminaries: Monday, Chai Elul, 5458 (1698), was the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov, and Wednesday, Chai Elul, 5505 (1745), was the birthday of the Alter Rebbe!”

Before that day, too, I had heard and written down various oral traditions about Chai Elul, but they had never been highlighted. The first time I heard a live and highlighted “Gut Yom-Tov!” was on that Chai Elul in 5653 (1893).

After that greeting my father stood up, briefly went into the adjoining room, and returned wearing his Shabbos garb. After telling me to lock both doors, he delivered for me a maamar of Chassidus on the teaching, “Fifty Gates of Understanding were created in the world. [They were all entrusted to Moshe, except for one.]”9 (That maamar supplements the maamar on the words, “And G‑d will remove every ailment from you,”10 which my father had delivered on Shabbos Parshas Eikev. I am now publishing the maamar on “Fifty Gates…” as it was recorded in writing.11)

After completing his delivery my father added: “An extension of Moshe is to be found in every generation.”12 The Moshe of Chassidus in general – with the Fifty Gates of Understanding with which the world was created – is the Baal Shem Tov with his teachings of Chassidus.13 Our Chabad – Moshe with the Fifty Gates of Understanding – is the Alter Rebbe with his teachings of Chassidus. “They were all entrusted to Moshe, except for one.” And the lack of that Gate of Understanding must be filled by chassidim until Mashiach comes. This is the meaning of [the reply that the Baal Shem Tov received when his soul ascended to the heavenly palace of Mashiach and asked, “Master, when are you coming?”]: “When the wellsprings of your teachings will be disseminated far and wide.”14

* * *

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the first time that I was privileged to hear that highlighted Gut Yom-Tov! on Chai Elul, so let me wish you likewise, Gut Yom-Tov!

And since “one is obligated to quote the wording used by his mentor,”15 I will quote my father’s holy words as I heard them: “Gut Yom-Tov to us! Today is the birthday of our two great luminaries: Monday, Chai Elul, 5458 (1698), was the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov, and Wednesday, Chai Elul, 5505 (1745), was the birthday of the Alter Rebbe!”

THE SECOND SICHAH

At the festive meal of Shavuos in 5613 (1853), my great-grandfather, the Tzemach Tzedek, told the chassidim at his table: “One cannot discharge his obligation to partake of a seudah, a festive meal, by thought and speech alone. There has to be action. The sequence of the three ‘garments of the soul’16 – that is, the soul’s three means of expression – is: thought, speech, action. And in the case of a seudas mitzvah, a seudah that is associated with a mitzvah,17 the action refines one’s speech and thought.”

The learned rabbis at the table were left wondering why, in passing, the Rebbe had counted a seudah of Yom-Tov as a seudas mitzvah. After all, they thought, a seudah of Shabbos is more elevated than a seudah of Yom-Tov. (This can be seen in the fact that when the Prophet Malachi chastises the kohanim who had betrayed their mission, he describes the sacrificial festive offerings that they consume grossly as “the dung of [their] festivals.”18 The Zohar adds: “…but not of their Shabbosos.”19) Nevertheless, even though eating on Shabbos is more elevated than eating on Yom-Tov, it is superior only to the extent that Shabbos meals do not need to be sifted and refined by the avodah of beirur,20because intrinsically they do not coarsen their consumer. (Yom-Tov meals, by contrast, can coarsen a person – which explains why the penitential fasts of Behab were instituted soon after Sukkos and Pesach.) Yet although eating on Shabbos does not coarsen a person, it does not refine him. Nevertheless, the Tzemach Tzedek stated here that at a seudas mitzvah, eating – which belongs to the realm of maaseh, action – “refines one’s speech and thought!”

This statement left the chassidim at his table wondering, as part of the broader question raised above: Why had the Tzemach Tzedek referred to the seudah of Shavuos, a seudah that was held in honor of a festival, as a seudas mitzvah?

They all understood his statement that the sequence of the three ‘garments of the soul’ – that is, the soul’s three means of expression – is: thought, speech, action. The Rebbe was saying that when one is about to eat, action, one first pronounces a blessing, speech, but before that, there must be thought: (a) one must intend to benefit from the original creative Word of G‑d that is continuously and actively present in the food before him,21 and (b) he must also pause to consider Whom he is addressing when he pronounces his blessing.

* * *

There was once an oved of stature called R. David Leib Chein, who is reverently known by his acronym as “the Radatz.” Throughout his life, before saying a berachah over food or drink, he would bring his right hand to his forehead, as people often do when they are trying to recall something profound. Way back, in my earliest years, in 5650 or 5651 (1890 or1891),22 I asked him why he did this. He answered that when he was twelve years old, his father, Reb Peretz Chein, took him to see the Tzemach Tzedek in Lubavitch. The Rebbe related to him warmly, and one of the things he told him was this: “Listen to me. Stop being a child. Whenever you need to say a berachah over food or drink, and you’re about to say Baruch Atah (‘Blessed are You’), remind yourself Whom you are about to address with those words, Baruch Atah.”

* * *

This, then, is the meaning of the Tzemach Tzedek’s statement that the sequence of the three “garments of the soul” – the soul’s three means of expression – is: thought, speech, action. Its message is that a prologue of thought ought to precede the spoken blessing over the action of eating.

This teaching, together with other teachings and traditions that the Tzemach Tzedek had relayed, was discussed and debated by his sons and the learned rabbanim at the table.

The Tzemach Tzedek’s statement, that by participating in a seudas mitzvah one refines one’s speech and thought, was explained by my grandfather, the Rebbe Maharash, as follows:23

Although a seudah of Shavuos is of course a seudas Yom-Tov, it is basically a seudas mitzvah. True, this is also the case with all the festivals, except that with each of them, the seudah celebrates a specific mitzvah, whereas a seudah of Shavuos celebrates our receiving the totality of the Torah and the mitzvos. This difference may be appreciated by a simple kal-vachomer,24 as follows: When a young child is brought to his place under the wings of the Divine Presence by the Covenant of Avraham Avinu,25 or by being brought as a new pupil to his cheder, the seudah that celebrates that occasion is a seudas mitzvah. If so, how much more of a seudas mitzvah is the seudah that celebrates the time at which 600,000 men of the age of military conscription – apart from old men, and women and children – were brought by G‑d into their “cheder,” in order to learn (just as little children learn their first reading lesson) kometz-alef-o!

A hint of this spiritual “cheder” may be found in the verse that says, “The King has brought me into His chambers” – in the Holy Tongue: chadarav, which is the plural form of cheder – “and we shall rejoice and be happy with You.”26 On Shavuos, G‑d brought the entire Jewish People, men and women, to the Torah-cheder, where they would be able to say, “we shall rejoice and be happy with You.” Now, in that verse, the word meaning “with You” is בָּךְ. Its numerical value is 22, alluding to the 22 letters with which the Torah was given in the Holy Tongue.27

Moreover, the first letter of the first word of the Ten Commandments which were given on Shavuos, [as the first lesson in G‑d’s Torah-cheder], was the above-mentioned kometz-alef-o, in the word אָנֹכִי – “I am [the L‑rd your G‑d…].”

And that is why a festive meal on Shavuos is not only a Yom-Tov meal, but basically a seudas mitzvah!

In the thinking of earnest ovdim who actually serve G‑d with their bodies,28 there are four levels of seudos, which are distinct not only in their relative levels, but also in the manner in which each generates its effect. In ascending order: (a) a weekday seudah; (b) a Yom-Tov seudah; (c) a Shabbos seudah; (d) a seudas mitzvah.

A brief introduction: All these four levels of seudah are relevant only after one has worked through the avodah of observing the above-mentioned sequence29 of thought, speech and action, as it applies to the spiritual task of eating and drinking. This means: first, thinking about the original creative Word of G‑d that is continuously present in the food, and pausing to consider Whom one is addressing when one pronounces his blessing (speech), before the action of proceeding to eat or drink. Observing this sequence is a prerequisite to the four levels of seudah listed above.

(a) A weekday seudah.

The Zohar30 teaches that “bread should be eaten by the edge of a sword.” Some people eat “the bread of disgrace,”31 free food – that is, food that has not been earned from G‑d in a way that will cause Him, so to speak, to provide for such people with a smiling countenance. Their food, too, comes from Him, as it is written, “He gives food to all flesh”32 – but it is called “the bread of disgrace.” By contrast, those who love G‑d ought to eat bread “by the edge of a sword,” that is, bread for which they have had to fight.

All physical things include a latent spark of holiness, except that it is submerged in the materiality of that physical object.33 Extracting it and elevating it requires a battle, namely: spurning the pleasure that the physicality offers, and instead, focusing on its potential to advance one’s endeavors in Torah, tefillah and mitzvos, and in avodah in general.34

When consuming food and drink at a weekday meal a person must be vigilant in order that they should not coarsen him,35 because even though they are absolutely permissible, they are basically physical,36 and hence can easily draw him in the direction of grossness.

(b) A Yom-Tov seudah.

Since such a meal is a seudas mitzvah and it is also occasioned by a particular Yom-Tov, the physical aspect of its food is less gross than the physical aspect of a weekday seudah. Although it thus requires less beirur than a weekday seudah, without vigilance it can degenerate to the level of [the grossly-consumed sacrificial festive offerings described by the Prophet Malachi as] “the dung of your festivals.”37 This also explains why the penitential fasts of Behab were instituted after Yom-Tov“in case one sinned,” because the lush physicality of Yom-Tov delicacies requires beirur.

(c) A Shabbos seudah.

Thedelicacies of a Shabbos seudah are quite different, even from the delicacies of a Yom-Tov meal. Since they do not coarsen, they do not require beirur and, unlike the delicacies of a Yom-Tov meal, they cannot degenerate.

The underlying difference is that Yom-Tov meals include an element of materiality (chumriyus) which is [basically only] physicality (gashmiyus), but which can become “the dung of your festivals.”

Thedelicacies of Shabbos do not coarsen a person, but neither do they refine him. In fact they can have the opposite effect, if while eating one focuses on their taste. This applies even on Shabbos because, as explained above, one’s preparation before eating or drinking ought to cause him not to seek the material pleasure involved. Otherwise, the food itself demotes him (G‑d forbid!) from his spiritual level. This is exemplified in the classic story of how the Baal Shem Tov once pointed out to his holy disciples a neighbor who was seated at his Shabbos table, and visibly relishing the delicious savor of his fat meat. However, [from the spiritual vantage point to which the tzaddik had elevated them,] the neighbor they saw, fully dressed in his Shabbos garb, was – an ox!

(d) A seudas mitzvah.

At a seudas mitzvah, which is the highest of the four levels, the mitzvah lights up the seudah. What underlies the superiority of a seudas mitzvah over a seudah of Shabbos or of Yom-Tov?

Concerning a seudas Yom-Tov it is written, “Eat choice delicacies and drink sweet beverages.”38 One ought to give the body pleasure from them, but this should be done leshem Shamayim, “for the sake of Heaven” – not because one seeks to relish their appetizing taste, but because giving the body this pleasure is what G‑d has directed. True, concerning Shabbos, too, it is written that one should have more delicacies than usual, but in the case of a seudas mitzvah, the whole subject of food and drink is not an issue; the issue is the mitzvah that gave rise to the seudah. The pivotal issue at a seudas mitzvah is the accompanying farbrengen that increases ahavas Yisrael, brotherly love. And that is why a seudas mitzvah refines its participants.

[At this point the Rebbe Maharash is about to conclude his explanation of the above statement by his father, the Tzemach Tzedek,39 that participating in a seudas mitzvah refines one’s thought and speech.]

Why was it specifically at the seudah of Shavuos that my father spoke of a seudas mitzvah? – Because all the participants in a seudah of Shavuos [which is occasioned by a mitzvah] are essentially at a farbrengen and in a state of bittul, each setting aside his own ego – and a farbrengen and bittul both give rise to self-refinement and to a progressive ascent from one level to the next.

THE THIRD SICHAH

On this Chai Elul I find it possible40 to complete the teaching that was shared three years ago, on Chai Elul, 5700 (1940).41 (Chai Elul that year, like this year, fell on Shabbos Parshas [Ki] Savo.)

Today is the birthday of the two great luminaries. [a] Our mentor, the Baal Shem Tov, was born on Monday, Chai Elul, in the year תנ"ח[ה]. Those three Hebrew letters, which indicate the year 5458 (1698), when transposed comprise the word נַחַת (nachas – “peacefulness, a sense of fulfillment”). In the same year, the Shelah (Shnei Luchos HaBris) was reprinted with clear typography, in Amsterdam.42 [b] The Alter Rebbe was born on Wednesday, Chai Elul, in the year [ה]תק"ה (1745).

In the first chapter of Tanya – Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah, the Alter Rebbe writes:

It is written, “Forever, O G‑d, Your Word stands firm in the heavens.”43 The Baal Shem Tov, of blessed memory, has explained that “Your Word” which You uttered, [namely,] “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters…,”44 these [creative] words and letters stand firmly forever within the firmament of heaven and are forever clothed within all the heavens to give them life, as it is written, “And the Word of our L‑rd shall stand firm forever…”45

The question has been raised: Since the above explanation that the Baal Shem Tov used to give is a teaching of the Sages,46 why did the Alter Rebbe choose to cite it in the name of the Baal Shem Tov?47

Some time after my grandfather, the Rebbe Maharash, asked his father, the Tzemach Tzedek, this question, the answer was as follows: “Midrash Rabbah was compiled by R. Oshaya,48 who began it with one of his own teachings, in order to perpetuate his name. Rashi likewise began his commentary on the Torah with a teaching of R. Yitzchak, in order to perpetuate the name of his father.49 In that spirit, my grandfather,” the Alter Rebbe, “wanted to perpetuate the luminous date of Chai Elul, on which the Baal Shem Tov was born. In that year, תנ"ח (5458/1698), Chai Elul was a Monday, which in the Six Days of Creation was the day of the creative utterance, ‘Let there be a firmament!’ And that is why my grandfather cited the explanation of the verse, ‘Forever, O G‑d, Your Word stands firm in the heavens,’ in the name of the Baal Shem Tov.50 By doing so, he perpetuated the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov on Chai Elul, which in that year was a Monday.”

I relayed the above teaching on Chai Elul, 5700 (1940). At that time, I very much wanted to relate also its source and its line of transmission, because the established tradition of the nesi’im and the chassidim of Chabad has always been to convey precisely the time and place of an event being related, as well as the circumstances in which the event was related or the teaching was first expressed.

Unfortunately, however, at that time I was unable to do this, because of the foul atmosphere spawned by the false view that “America is different” – as if in America one cannot be as Jewish as in the Old Country. Over the years, that false view overrode even the Torah scholars: it closed their mouths from speaking up about it.

* * *

During my visit in this country thirteen years ago, I witnessed the exile in which rabbanim were constricted by synagogue presidents and congregants. I sympathized with them, and in my public addresses I stressed that Yiddishkeit in America could be rebuilt only by freeing the rabbanim from that exile.

That exile in fact intensified the foul atmosphere that prevailed. When I arrived here on the ninth of Adar Sheni, 5700 (1940), the spiritual state of the young Torah scholars was a cause for despair. I saw how remote they were from refined conceptions. The wholesome food that one can give an adult and that will make him healthier and stronger must not be given to a nursing infant: it could endanger his life.51

* * *

In the course of these three years, the foul atmosphere of the false view that “America is different” has somewhat evaporated. After toil, heavy toil, G‑d has enabled me, in the merit of my holy forebears, to create an environment illuminated by Torah and Chassidus. This has to some extent cleansed the atmosphere, and in our own immediate environment52 there is a refined ambiance of Torah and avodah. With the help of the One Above, the students of the Tomchei Temimim Yeshivos have opened up the windows of their yeshivos to the public thoroughfares, so that the refined ambiance of Torah and yir’as Shamayim, the Awe of Heaven, is diffused in all directions for a distance of fifty cubits.53

Now that people’s minds are able, with G‑d’s help, to grasp subtle and refined concepts, I am able to recount the source and the circumstances in which the answer was first given to the above question.54 This, however, requires a brief introduction that will make it possible to envisage a true spiritual conception of the World Above in general, and in particular, of the manner in which souls live.

The brief introduction:55

The Torah comprises a revealed aspect, galia shebaTorah, and a hidden aspect, nistar shebaTorah, that is, the mystical aspect – literally, “the secrets” – of the Torah. Although they are distinct levels within the Torah, they nevertheless are both part of one scheme: the revealed aspect also comprises a hidden aspect, which is the soul of the revealed aspect, and the hidden aspect also comprises the revealed level within it, which is body of the soul of the hidden aspect.

All the Jews who study Gemara, and likewise all the Jews who listen to the aggadic teachings assembled in Ein Yaakov, know that there exists a Mesivta DeRakia, the Academy on High, where souls study the secrets of the Torah.56 In light of the above explanation, this means that there, the souls study both galia and nistar, both the revealed aspects of the Torah and its hidden aspects.

“The World Above parallels the world below.”57 In the Torah that G‑d has given all of us Jews in the world below, its revealed aspect (galia shebaTorah) also comprises the hidden dimension – the soul – of that revealed aspect. Likewise, the nistar, the Torah’s hidden aspect, also comprises the revealed dimension – the body – of that hidden aspect.

Even though the World Above parallels the world below, there is – and there must be – a difference between the two, insofar as the world below is physical (gashmi), whereas the World Above is spiritual (ruchni).58 At first sight, the gashmi and the ruchni appear to be opposites, but that is not true: they are both Divine creations. Wherein lies the difference? In the case of the gashmi, both the manner in which it comes into being59 and its ongoing existence60 derive from the Divine irradiation that is cloaked in nature. In the case of the ruchni, both the manner in which it comes into being and its ongoing existence derive from the Divine irradiation that is diffused overtly,61 without being cloaked in the obscurity of nature.

In order to attain at least some grasp of the nistar, the hidden dimension, that underlies the galia, the revealed aspect of the Torah, in the world here below, let us consider the familiar expression of the Sages, that “there is a difference of opinion in the Academy on High.”62 The question under discussion concerned which of two symptoms in a case of tzaraas63 appeared first in a certain location – a discoloration of the skin,64 or white hair? The parties to the dispute were the Holy One, blessed be He, and the Academy on High. The Academy on High held that in this doubtful case the affected person was ritually impure, and the Holy One, blessed be He, held that he was ritually pure.

* * *

The obvious question arises: What is a disease involving ritual impurity doing in the Academy on High? It can well be a possibility in the world below – but in the Academy on High?!

The truthful explanation is that the disease in the Academy on High results from the academy – the yeshivah – in the world below. [Since those stricken by this disease are quarantined,] the Targum’s Aramaic translation of tzaraas is sgirusa, which means “locked,” such as when a yeshivah locks out the light of the Torah’s pnimiyus, its innermost and mystical dimension.65 When there is a doubt as to whether the isolation results from ritual impurity, there is a difference of opinion. The Academy on High holds that since this is a case of enforced isolation that does not admit the light of the Torah’s pnimiyus, then even if the reason for the enforced isolation is doubtful, this should be regarded as a case of ritual impurity. However, the Holy One, blessed be He, knows that this isolation will be unlocked, and that the light of the Torah’s pnimiyus will eventually light up the galia, the revealed aspect of the Torah. He therefore holds that a doubtful case should be regarded as ritually pure.

The above is an instance of the nistar, the hidden dimension, that underlies the galia, the revealed aspect of the Torah, as it relates to the halachah in a case of doubt. In the above case, the doubt relates to the question as to which of two symptoms in a case of tzaraas appeared first, the discoloration of the skin, or white hair. Likewise, every subject in the galia, the revealed level of the Torah, contains an element of the nistar, the hidden dimension, that underlies it. That element of nistar is not only its soul: it also uncovers the spirit of life within the nigleh.

This can be plainly seen. There are those who, while studying the revealed level of the Torah, are aware that within it there lies a hidden element. Even if, in addition to their belief that it exists, they have even a limited knowledge of it, their awareness of it injects their study of nigleh with a spirit of life. Their study of nigleh is utterly different to the study of those who study it and do not know – or perhaps do not want to know, and there are even some who (G‑d forbid) do not believe – that within the revealed Torah there lies an element of nistar.

That element of nistar not only injects the study of nigleh with a spirit of life: it also opens the way to enabling the scholar to have an inkling of the galia that exists within the nistar. And a person who studies the holy Zohar together with the explanations of Ramak66 and the Shelah can have some conception of the hidden element of the Torah in general.

Just as the revealed level (the nigleh) of the Torah comprises the halachah of the Torah and the aggadah of the Torah, so too the hidden level (the nistar) of the Torah comprises the halachah of the nistar and the aggadah of the nistar.

The halachah within the nistar contains more of the Torah’s secrets than are contained in the nistar which is within the galia. The nistar within the galia is easier to grasp, because one’s grasp of the galia in which it is sheathed helps one understand the nistar within it. Hence, even though the nistar within the galia consists of sodos haTorah (Heb.: “the secrets of the Torah,” i.e., the Torah’s mystical teachings), they can be well grasped by the mortal mind. In contrast, the razin d’Oraysa (Aram.: “the secrets of the Torah,” i.e., the Torah’s mystical teachings) cannot be apprehended in the way that one can apprehend the sodos haTorah, because apprehending the razin d’Oraysa has a certain intellectual prerequisite – a mind that is clean and refined and open to spiritual subtleties.67

As lofty and as profound as those razin d’Oraysa may be, they are, after all, the halachah of the nistar within the Torah. They are merely its body, whereas the aggadah of the nistar within the Torah – that is, the innermost mysteries68 of the Torah – those mysteries are the soul of the nistar within the Torah.

The extensive explanations provided by the Kabbalistic classics and by the teachings of Chassidus, particularly of Chabad Chassidus, enable the mortal mind to attain some grasp of Divine concepts.

If one studies the galia of the Torah with the pervasive knowledge that every halachah that he studies contains an element of nistar which is the soul of that halachah, then even though that element of nistar is one of the Torah’s innermost mysteries, it can be grasped. The nistar within the galia sensitizes the mind, enabling it to grasp something as wondrous as sodos haTorah,which is the halachah of the nistar. Then, after a certain degree of toiling in avodah, one can be privileged to be privy to the Torah’s innermost mysteries, which are the nistar of the nistar of the Torah.

The halachah and aggadah within the nistar of the Torah can be seen in the holy Zohar. (That statement, of course, applies only to someone who can see – that is, someone who sees “Who created these [heavenly bodies],”69 someone who sees the Divine creative energy that animates all created entities, someone who perceives the workings of Divine Providence, and so on. When such a person studies the Zohar, he can see there the halachah and aggadah within the nistar of the Torah.)

The statement that “at midnight the Holy One, blessed be He, comes and plays with the tzaddikim in Gan Eden”70 gives a kind of picture of the life of souls in the World Above. And the teaching of the president of the Academy of Gan Eden that “a wooden beam which does not catch fire should be splintered so that it will produce light, [and similarly,] a body into which the light of the soul does not penetrate should be crushed in order to admit the light of the soul,”71 gives a kind of picture of the manner in which nistar is studied in the Academy on High.

* * *

Following that brief introduction, I am able to relate to you the source of the above-quoted teaching,72 and the circumstances in which it was first revealed and articulated.

When my grandfather, the Rebbe Maharash, was quite young, and his father, the Tzemach Tzedek, taught him Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah for the first time, he asked: “Why does the Alter Rebbe cite the teaching on the verse, ‘Forever, O G‑d, Your Word stands firm [in the heavens],’ in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, instead of citing its original source in the Midrash? After all, the same deeper meaning could also be understood from the Midrash!”

The Tzemach Tzedek answered that he had never thought about this question, but said that when he next met his grandfather, the Alter Rebbe, he would ask him and would then relay the answer.73

Some time later he called in my grandfather, the Rebbe Maharash, and said: “I saw my [spiritual] grandfather,” i.e., the Alter Rebbe, “and asked him why he had cited the [above-quoted] teaching on that verse in the name of the Baal Shem Tov. He answered [as was narrated earlier in the present farbrengen: ‘Midrash Rabbah was compiled by R. Oshaya’ and so on].”74

THE FOURTH SICHAH

Yesterday, the 17th of Elul, was the two-hundredth wedding anniversary of the Alter Rebbe’s parents – the saintly gaon, R. Baruch, son of R. Shneur Zalman, and Rebbitzin Rivkah, daughter of the gaon, R. Avraham of Liozna.75

Although [the ceremony under] the chuppah took place on Friday, the 17th of Elul, erev Shabbos Ki Savo, the wedding celebration took place on Chai Elul, for this was one of the conditions set by R. Baruch. According to a tradition handed down over the generations, R. Baruch had wanted the chuppah to be held on Chai Elul. Since that was a Shabbos, he first decided that it should be postponed until Motzaei Shabbos, but later, a few weeks before the wedding, he informed the bride’s father, R. Avraham, that he agreed to Friday, the 17th of Elul.

Earlier, during the years of his wanderings, R. Baruch had encountered the hidden tzaddikim76 and had learned a great deal from them. Having observed their personal and interpersonal conduct, he held them in such high esteem that he yearned to join their brotherhood.77

As is well known,78 during the years of the early nesi’im of this circle, R. Yoel Baal Shem and R. Adam Baal Shem, the divine service of the hidden tzaddikim focused on disseminating the teachings of Kabbalah. This they did in the utmost secrecy and only among Torah scholars.

* * *

The Baal Shem Tov implanted the over-two-hundred-year-old tradition of ahavas Yisrael among chassidim of all circles – the varied branches of the Tree of Life – who are his disciples and the disciples of his disciples, the members of the Holy Brotherhood. The chassidim of all those circles embraced three-quarters of Jewry, and their tradition of ahavas Yisrael also radiated its positive influence on the pious and G‑d-fearing members of the other quarter.

Concerning this inheritance that the Baal Shem Tov bequeathed to Jews at large, my memoirs include a memorandum dated 5656 (1896). It records how on his sixteenth birthday, in 5474 (1714), as the result of a teaching that he heard from Eliyahu HaNavi, he arrived at a path in avodah which is the source of the theme of ahavas Yisrael that he implanted in his disciples and followers when he became the nasi of the chassidic community. I will pass on a brief selection from the above-mentioned memorandum so that it can be copied.79

When G‑d (so to speak) appeased the moon [for having diminished it], He assured it that the names of [certain] tzaddikim would reflect its smallness.80 And indeed, tzaddikim resemble the moon. Unlike the sun, whose size is constant, the moon at certain fixed times is perceived as growing from smallness to fullness – yet even when it is at its tiniest, it is still in essence the moon. Tzaddikim likewise: even when they are very young they are in essence tzaddikim, though on a smaller scale, and they grow with time. This too was the case with the Baal Shem Tov.

As a child he had already been accepted into the circle of the hidden tzaddikim. Yet although he constantly grew as the years passed, his full stature was not grasped by even the greatest of them, and even by their nasi, R. Adam Baal Shem. Even though the Baal Shem Tov was thus a tzaddik nistar, hidden even from their perception, when he was merely nineteen years old the senior members of the brotherhood welcomed him, on account of his outstanding talents and middos, into the Vaad, their inner circle, as an equal.

When he began to assume a more prominent role in that circle, he proposed that they follow a new path and focus their attention on the plain and unlettered fellow Jews. For example, they would fortify them in their avodah of davenen and saying Tehillim with unsophisticated earnestness. They would also see to it that melamdim should be settled in the villages and near the inns [which Jews often operated under commission from the squires who owned them], in order to teach the local children and to read passages of Aggadah for their unlearned parents.81

The proposal of the Baal Shem Tov was accepted. Within a few years it produced substantial benefits, and in the course of his nesius82 this approach – boosting the standing of the unlettered Jews and uprooting ignorance by means of a brotherly approach – became widespread. After a few such years as a lone pioneer, his fellow members of the brotherhood learned to emulate his example. They too would prompt men, women and children, in their homes and workplaces in hundreds of townships and villages, to thank G‑d for His gifts of health and livelihood, by inquiring as to their welfare and the welfare of their families.

Already during the nesius of R. Adam Baal Shem, when the Baal Shem Tov was a member of the three-man Vaad, he had urged the nasi and his colleagues to invest strenuous efforts in popularizing the ideal of ahavas Yisrael.

Even before that, when he was a nistar, a hidden tzaddik, he had developed an entire virtual “tractate” on the concept of ahavas Yisrael, replete with its relevant laws. And with the arrival of the fortunate moment at which he was coerced from Heaven to become revealed,83 he disseminated and intensified this project even further. Thus, in the course of time, tens of thousands of Jews throughout the region came closer to his path.

Thus it was that in the course of the eight years from 5494 to 5502 (1734 to 1742), that is, from the time that the Baal Shem Tov became revealed until the time that R. Baruch came to know the disciples of that tzaddik, the Baal Shem Tov’s school of thought was relatively well known.

* * *

In the summer of 5503 (1743), after R. Baruch had spent some time in Dobromisl together with a chassid called R. Yitzchak Shaul,84 son of the learned R. Nissan melamed, he spent some time in the company of the erudite tzaddik, R.Yissachar Ber Kobilniker. On a few occasions they had studied together manuscript copies of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings, which had been recorded by R. Yosef, who was R.Yissachar Ber’s father-in-law and who served as the maggid of Lubavitch. And that was how R. Baruch came to be a follower of the Baal Shem Tov.

Over the generations, the weddings of most of the nesi’im of Chabad were set for Friday, as a reminder of the wedding of R. Baruch and Rebbitzin Rivkah. A description of the wedding and of how R. Baruch organized his life after that time has been given elsewhere.

After ten months had passed and Rebbitzin Rivkah had not yet conceived, R. Baruch shared his concern with his lifelong friend, R. Yitzchak Shaul, and they decided that R. Baruch should visit the Baal Shem Tov. Thus it was that R. Baruch, having received his wife’s permission, set out together with his friend in Menachem Av, 5504 (1744), to visit the Baal Shem Tov in Mezhibuzh.85

Some details of what transpired in Mezhibuzh have been preserved by oral tradition from Rebbe to Rebbe and from the elder chassidim of the Maggid. Those details are recounted elsewhere.86

On Chai Elul every year the Baal Shem Tov used to conduct a festive meal and share Torah teachings, and the same took place that year, 5504 (1744), which fell on a Wednesday. When he gave R. Baruch his blessing of LeChaim!, he said: “Exactly at this season you will embrace a son!”87 And on Chai Elul, 5505 (1745), which also fell on a Wednesday, the Alter Rebbe was born.

THE FIRST MEMORANDUM88

The notes that follow are from the above-mentioned memorandum [written by the Rebbe Rayatz] dating from 5666 (1905) insofar as they relate to the birth of the Alter Rebbe, and to the day on which he was ushered into the Covenant of Avraham Avinu.89

(On erev Sukkos that year my father caught cold and had to spend the day in bed. On the first evening of Yom-Tov he made Kiddush and had the festive meal privately in the sukkah, and lay down again. Although the fever subsided on the first day of Yom-Tov, he did not deliver any teachings of Chassidus throughout the first days of Sukkos, but while in bed resumed for me his account of the chronicles of the life of his father, the Rebbe Maharash. My notes on that subject are dated Thursday, 13 Tishrei.)

* * *

[The sixth section of the First Memorandum, which is reproduced below, was dated] Erev Sukkos 5666 (1905), Lubavitch, 3:00 p.m.

[The first-person speaker until p. 286 below is the Rebbe Rashab, who dictated his recollections of the family’s chronicles to the Rebbe Rayatz, who in turn recorded them in the following Memorandum.]

1. It was not the custom of my great-great-uncle R. Chaim Avraham90 to review maamarim of Chassidus in public. At the seudah of the Shalom-ben-Zachar91 [of the Rebbe Maharash, youngest son of his nephew, the Tzemach Tzedek], his joy was unbounded. Since he sang beautifully, and his voice resonated with the inflexions of the Alter Rebbe’s voice, the Tzemach Tzedek asked him to sing the Alter Rebbe’s niggunim, and he obliged.

2. My uncle R. Baruch Shalom92 told me in great detail all about the proceedings on Shabbos93 and about the vigil94 of the night before the bris and about the bris. My brother (your uncle, R. Zalman Aharon95) wrote them all down in his books of oral traditions.

3. On the morning of that erev Shabbos – and here my uncle R. Baruch Shalom quoted my great-great-uncle R. Chaim Avraham – my father (i.e., the Alter Rebbe) delivered a maamar on the verse, Shuvah Yisrael ad Havayah Elokecha.96It extols the virtue of penitents, who draw down Elokus with such heightened energy that the transcendent Havayah becomes their [immanent] Elokim. That was one of the first long maamarim that my father (the Alter Rebbe) delivered publicly. It had been preceded by the maamar on the words, Mashbi’in Oso: Tehi Tzaddik,97 which he had delivered in public on Rosh HaShanah, 5550 (1789).

4. At midday of that erev Shabbos, it was publicly announced that my father (the Alter Rebbe) invited all the townsmen and all the out-of-town guests to the seudah of the Shalom-ben-Zachar. His sons and sons-in-law and a number of elder chassidim, some thirty people98 altogether, would wash their hands as full participants in the seudah. All the others, after having had their leil Shabbos meal but before benschen, that is, before the Grace after Meals, would join them for the traditional delicacies of chickpeas.99 The seudah was to take place in the big shul in the courtyard.

5. The following are the holy words that my father (the Alter Rebbe) shared on that occasion:

(a) It was Shabbos Parshas Vayishlach, 5533 (1772), the last Shabbos of the Rebbe (the Maggid of Mezritch) in This World. While lying in bed and in the presence of all the members of the Holy Brotherhood, he said: “It is written, ‘And Yaakov sent mal’achim to Eisav.’ [Since that word can signify either “messengers” or “angels,”] Rashi specifies: ‘Mal’achim mamash,’ [which means: actual angels].100 [The Maggid added:] What Yaakov sent to Eisav was the mamash of the angels – their material actuality, so to speak, whereas the ruchniyus of the angels remained in the possession of Yaakov.”

After Maariv and Havdalah, the Rebbe (i.e., the Maggid) said: “It is written, Chazon Ovadiah, ‘The vision of Ovadiah.’101 [To explain:] It is written, כִּי בְּיָ-הּ ה' צוּר עוֹלָמִים – (lit.,) ‘for the strength of the worlds is in G‑d the L‑rd.’102 [Noting that ‘worlds’ appears in the plural,] the Sages expound the two-letter Divine Name יָ-הּ as follows:] With the letter yud, the World to Come was created, and with the letter hei, This World was created.’”103 The Maggid now added: “The name of the Prophet Ovadiah (עוֹבַדְיָ-ה) comprises two words, which together mean ‘the servant of G‑d’ – עוֹבֵד (oved) and the Divine Name יָ-ה . The name עוֹבַדְיָ-ה thus alludes to a servant of G‑d, and the phrase chazon Ovadiah (‘the vision of Ovadiah’) alludes to what an oved HaShem, a true servant of G‑d, envisages.”

(b) On Sunday, the seventeenth of Kislev, the Rebbe (i.e., the Maggid) told me that during the last three days before a man returns what was deposited with him for safekeeping – that is, during the last three days before his passing – he sees only the Word of G‑d that animates any material entity, for the Word of G‑d104 is the mahus, the very essence, of that material entity.

(c) On the same night, the Rebbe told me what should be done in the course of the vigil on the night before a bris.

(d) When the Rebbe told me the above, he asked me: “Why don’t you ask about what should be done at a Sholom-ben-Zachar?” I answered: “I feel that the holy words that you bestow upon me come as an initiative from above, ‘like dew that drips from [the lofty level of Elokus that is known as] Atika Kaddisha…’”105

When my father (i.e., the Alter Rebbe) said those holy words, he leaned his head on his hands, cleaving Above in a state of rapture,106 for quite some time. Observing him, we were overtaken by fright, because this state resembled his dveikus on Yom Kippur – except that on that holy day he faced the wall, whereas at this seudah the face that could be seen between his hands was fiery and radiant.

When he emerged from that dveikus, he resumed what he had previously been saying:107 “…concerning which it is said, ‘and you shall remain silent,’108 that is, ‘do not [take the initiative to] arouse at all.’” And my Rebbe, the Maggid, nodded in agreement.

(e) The Rebbe then told me what should be done on the day of a bris, and at a Sholom-ben-Zachar.

(f) He then said: “Chazon Ovadiah: he who is an oved (a true servant) of G‑d sees.109 You will have a son and you shall give him my name. And at the vigil on the night before he is ushered into the Covenant of Avraham Avinu, recall and repeat what I told you tonight.”

(g) Here is one of the teachings that the Rebbe (i.e., the Maggid) taught me on the day of his passing. “It is written, ‘He will heal us from two days, and on the third day He will raise us up and we will live before Him.’110 ‘He will heal us from two days’ alludes to the removal of the foreskin and the infant’s entry into the Covenant of Avraham Avinu. That relates to the phrase that appears twice [in a verse that is quoted immediately after a bris], ‘In spite of your blood, you shall live! In spite of your blood, you shall live!’111 And concerning ‘the third day,’ which alludes to the third day after a bris,112 it is written that ‘He will raise us up and we will live before Him.’”

(h) A year later, on the ninth of Kislev, 5534 (1773), my son DovBer113 was born, named after the Rebbe, according to his directive. During the vigil on the night before the bris, I recalled and fulfilled the Rebbe’s instruction a year earlier – “Recall and repeat what I told you tonight” – in the company of two members of the Holy Brotherhood, R. Menachem Mendel of Horodok and R. Avraham of Kalisk.

(i) After the seudah celebrating the bris we traveled to the home ofR. Menachem Mendel of Horodok for the first anniversary114 of the passing of the Rebbe, which fell on Shabbos Parshas Vayishlach.

(j) On Shabbos, Yud-Tes Kislev, I repeated in public the Rebbe’s teaching on the verse, “He will heal us from two days…,” which he had imparted just before his passing.115

6. After relaying the above ten statements, my father (i.e., the Alter Rebbe) sang niggunim for a long time and then delivered the following maamar:116

The117 name Avram (אַבְרָם) comprises the words av and ram, which in the code-language of Kabbalah suggests Seichel that is beyond the ken of any intellection, and can be revealed by the removal of the [spiritual] foreskin. In contrast, the name Avraham (אַבְרָהָם), which includes the letter hei, signifies the first stage of Tikkun – hei ila’ah, which is Atika Kaddisha. It can be revealed down here below by the level of revelation of Atik in Binah, and not in Chochmah. Composing an explanatory parable calls for a superior chacham, hence it was specifically Shlomo who composed three thousand parables.

Having completed the maamar, my father had the chassidim sing a niggun and led the benschen, and before taking his leave he had someone give each of those present a sip of the wine in the goblet over which the Grace after Meals had been recited. There were so many people present that this took a long time.

7. That Friday night we hardly slept. My father was in a state of heightened joy throughout the seudah, which lasted until close to midnight. My brother, the Rebbe,118 and the elder chassidim repeated several times the ten teachings that our father had heard [from the Maggid], clarifying them by their own explanations. In addition, my brother, the Rebbe, explained at great length the maamar that begins, Avram Hu Av Ram.

8. On Shabbos morning, my father davened in the big shul in the courtyard, and personally read the Torah. For Shlishi, my uncle Maharil (R. Yehudah Leib, a brother of the Alter Rebbe) was called up;119 for Revi’i – my brother, [later to become] the [Mitteler] Rebbe; for Chamishi – my uncle, R. Yisrael (a brother of the Alter Rebbe); for Shishi – my brother-in-law R. Shalom Shachna,120 father of the infant; for Shvi’i, I was called up; and for Maftir – my father, the [Alter] Rebbe.

9. Even though my father read the maftir of Shuvah Yisrael121 with inner joy, his trembling voice made every word pierce all hearts. And the intense devotion with which he read the Thirteen Attributes of Divine Mercy122 brought us all to tears of repentance.

10. At the midday seudah, my father’s joy was more exuberant than we had almost never seen. The first niggun that he sang was the niggun that Reb Michele Zlotchover [composed, and] sang in the presence of the Baal Shem Tov.123

[The Rebbe Rayatz inserts here:] By the way, my memoirs record several oral traditions relating to that niggun. I heard it for the first time on Motzaei Shabbos Shmos, 5651 (1891),124 at the farbrengen that was held “in the minyan,” that is, in the little zal, after the chazarah during which the chassidim together reviewed from memory the maamar that my father had delivered on Friday before Kabbalas Shabbos. It was on the verse, Ani Yesheinah VeLibi Er.125The revered chassidim who had arrived in Lubavitch for that Shabbos included R. David Tzvi Chein from Chernigov, R. Yaakov Mordechai from Poltava, R. Meir Shlomo and R. Asher Grossman from Nikolayev, and R. Zalman Zlatopolsky from Kremenchug. And after the above chazarah, R. Yaakov Mordechai and R. Asher Grossman andR. Zalman Zlatopolsky sang Reb Michele Zlotchover’s niggun.

Two substantial notes on that melody are also recorded in my memoirs of the years 5653 (1893) and 5657 (1897).126

[From this point on, the first-person speaker is once again the Alter Rebbe’s son, R. Chaim Avraham.]

While my father sang that niggun, three hoary chassidim – R. Zalman Lutzker, R. Yonah Polotzker and R. Shlomo Bayever – rose from their places: their eyes were closed, tears were streaming down their cheeks, and their faces were white.

11. All three were extremely old. R. Zalman Lutzker was the nephew of the hidden tzaddik, R. Kehos, who was a close colleague of the Baal Shem Tov. The father of R. Zalman Lutzker, R. Naftali by name, was one of the hidden tzaddikim in the circle of R. Adam Baal Shem and in his youth had even known R. Yoel Baal Shem. R. Zalman Lutzker himself had been attached to R. Adam Baal Shem and later served as an attendant to the Baal Shem Tov, who dispatched him several times on missions that involved mofsim, miraculous occurrences. He later served as an attendant to the Maggid, and for about five years, 5527-5532 (1767-1772) he settled in Mezhibuzh. During the first year (5533/1773) after the passing of the Maggid, he lived in Anipoli, and later he moved to Liozna. He was an outstanding scholar, he served his Maker earnestly, and he was fond of solitude.

12. R. Yonah Polotzker, the second of the three above-named elders, was the son of one of the foremost geonim of his time – R. Avraham, who studied ceaselessly, and with his solid and rational mind clarified every Talmudic topic that he encountered. Even when he was about eighty years old and studying alone, he would audibly translate every single word into the vernacular,127 as little children do. Concerning this habit, the Baal Shem Tov once remarked that a lot of angels are kept busy laundering the words of this old sage’s Torah study from his over-palpable explanations – yet great joy was aroused Above by his innocent fondness for studying Gemara.

His son, R. Yonah Polotzker, received his early education at home, and when he reached the age of bar-mitzvah his father sent him off to study in the yeshivos of Vilna, and then of Brisk. There he eventually married the daughter of one of its leading rabbanim and furthered his Torah studies earnestly. When he was about thirty years old he returned to Polotzk, where he taught in one of its yeshivos.

While there he became a firm friend of R. Ezriel Sofer, a chassid and a Kabbalist, who was a committed disciple of R. Yonasan Tepper (“R. Yonasan the Potter”), and he in turn had a strong spiritual bond with the Baal Shem Tov. In the course of his three years of joint study with R. Ezriel he became an enthused chassid, established a connection with the Baal Shem Tov and later with the Maggid. When he was about seventy-five years old, he saw them both in a dream and, following their directive, moved to Liozna in 5538 (1778). There, for the next five years, he taught an advanced Gemara class of young married students until, having been granted permission from my father (the Alter Rebbe), he resigned from that post because his soul yearned for independent Torah study and avodah.

13. The last of the three above-mentioned elder chassidim was R. Shlomo Bayever.His father, R. Uri Nosson Nota was known as one of the geonim of Brisk, and already in his youth was nicknamed “the ilui of Krinik” (which was a township near Brisk). One of the well-established townsmen chose him as his son-in-law and for many years provided for his every need, so that he could devote himself to studying Torah for its own sake. Some time later he was widowed, and after his father-in-law took him as a husband for his second daughter, she too passed away. Eventually, one of the geonim of Slutzk who knew him took him as a husband for his widowed daughter and they settled in Slutzk.

At that time his former father-in-law had no children apart from those two daughters. So fond was he of his gifted former son-in-law that he presented him with a field and a vineyard which R. Uri Nosson Nota leased out, and he was now comfortably supported. When he moved from Brisk to Slutzk, his former father-in-law did not agree to his selling them. And indeed, G‑d blessed his path, and for many years the lessee worked those properties under good conditions.

R. Shlomo Bayever was educated by his erudite father, and then, when he was fourteen years old, he traveled far afield to a scholarly center128 – Vilna, from there to Horodna and from there to Cracow. There he encountered one of the local geonim, R. Menachem Aryeh, who belonged to the circle of hidden tzaddikim, and established a close connection with him. Together they studied the teachings of Chassidus, both observing the condition that no one should know of their joint studies. When R. Shlomo was twenty-two years old he went home to Slutzk, where his learned father exulted in his son’s erudition and married him off to the daughter of the part-owner of a nearby township. However, about half a year after their marriage, the young wife lost her sanity, thus rendering her husband an agun.129 His father, deeply pained, endeavored to find some halachic means of enabling him to remarry, but without success.

This situation remained unchanged for six years – until one day, in the year 5500 (1740), the Baal Shem Tov visited Slutzk. All the geonim of Slutzk and the surrounding provinces came out to greet him with reverent awe. Prominent among them was the hoary gaon, R. Uri Nosson Nota, who shared his pain with the Baal Shem Tov over the insoluble lot of his son. The young woman’s father, Reb Eliyahu Moshe, likewise asked the tzaddik for advice and a berachah.

The Baal Shem Tov invited the two fathers-in-law and the young man to meet him together, and asked them whether any one of them harbored some grudge in his heart against any of the other parties.

R. Uri Nosson Nota had nothing but praise for his mechutan, R. Eliyahu Moshe: he set aside fixed times for Torah study, his home was wide open to receive any fellow Jew, and he generously supported Torah scholars. In fact, not only did he respectfully and lovingly support his young son-in-law, but in addition, from time to time he had supported R. Uri Nosson Nota himself.

In the same spirit, R. Eliyahu Moshe sang the praises of his son-in-law, R. Shlomo: “In addition to his conscientious Torah study and his G‑d-fearing conduct, ever since he settled in the township he showed the unlettered townsmen warmth and closeness. Every day he taught them Chumash with Rashi, and Ein Yaakov, and on Shabbos he taught them Midrash and Pirkei Avos. He related to them lovingly, and introduced brotherly love into their hearts. Before his arrival the townsfolk sometimes quarreled with each other – usually because of envy, or because each party imagined that his livelihood was being whittled down by the activities of the other fellow.

“However, ever since my son-in-law arrived in town and taught them that whatever happens takes place by Divine Providence, which means that no one can possibly take what was ordained for his fellow, not only did the quarrels cease, but he also implanted in them mutual love and respect. In addition, he constantly concerned himself with the welfare of every individual townsman. Little wonder, then, that they all love him. They share his pain, they pray that my daughter regain her health, and they look forward to the time when he will return to my home and teach them and guide them as he used to.”

After listening attentively to both fathers-in-law, the Baal Shem Tov told them: “With HaShem’s help, I can restore the young woman’s mental health completely, but only on condition that from that time on, the couple will not live in the same house, and a few days after she is utterly healed and is halachically able to accept a get, a bill of divorce, she will do so willingly and with a happy heart.”

The parents were astounded. R. Uri Nosson Nota proposed various halachic reasons that would disallow his son to give such a get. R. Eliyahu Moshe argued that his daughter would find it extremely painful to be divorced by the husband whom she respected dearly, just as it would be extremely painful for him to be parted from her. Instead, he offered to donate a substantial sum for tzedakah for his daughter to be healed. The couple would then live in loving harmony as they had done in the past, and would eventually rejoice in the righteous fruit of the womb with which they would be blessed.

The Baal Shem Tov’s response was clear: if they did not agree to his condition, he would not be able to help them.

A few days later the three men returned to declare their agreement, but added that they could not guarantee the consent of the young woman. The Baal Shem Tov accepted this, and instructed Reb Eliyahu Moshe to go and tell his ailing daughter that the Baal Shem Tov, who was known to be a miracle worker, had come to Slutzk and wanted to see her for an important reason. The two men looked at each other in astonishment, and Reb Eliyahu Moshe, mustering all his courage, explained that for about six years his daughter hadn’t uttered a word. She had chosen to sit in a certain strange spot between the fireplace and the wall behind it. There she was fed with great difficulty, and all her other basic needs had to be attended to, because she was completely out of her mind.

The tzaddik did not respond. Reb Eliyahu Moshe, leaving with a broken heart, commented that if the Baal Shem Tov had seen what condition his daughter was in, he would not have suggested that she should be told something or that she should be spoken to at all. The young man’s father agreed: he simply uttered a deep sigh over the predicament of his son, R. Shlomo, and over the anguish of his mechutan, whose only child was this one daughter.

R. Shlomo, himself, however, had been a disciple of the hidden tzaddik, R. Menachem Aryeh. By this time he was a longtime student of Chassidus, and felt ideologically connected to the Baal Shem Tov. So now that he had been privileged to see the Baal Shem Tov and to hear a teaching from his mouth, he felt bound to him with all his heart and soul. He therefore stated clearly that he held that the directive of the Baal Shem Tov should be followed, because he was widely known as a baal mofes, a miracle-worker. His father, R. Uri Nosson Nota, said in response that since they had already agreed to his weighty condition, they should also fulfill the instruction to speak to the young woman.

Arriving home, Reb Eliyahu Moshe found his daughter in her usual spot. He told his wife that the Baal Shem Tov had said that with the help of G‑d he could heal their suffering daughter, and went on to tell his wife about the wondrous things that people recounted about the Baal Shem Tov. Overhearing this, their daughter suddenly stepped out of her accustomed spot and asked them who this worker of miracles was. Not having heard her voice for some six years, they were overwhelmed. Her face had changed and her eyes had lit up. And now, having heard that the man they were speaking of was a revered tzaddik, she said that first of all she wanted to bathe and become pure.

The parents had believed all along that their daughter was stricken because of the ayin hara, the “Evil Eye,” that had been aroused by a certain townsman who only a few days before that had sung her praises at great length. He had marveled at the fact that she had been found worthy of marrying such a good-natured young scholar who loved all his fellow Jews and devoted himself warmly to the needs of the township’s unlettered folk. Now, therefore, after she had experienced such a remarkable revival, they locked their door so that no one should enter and publicize it.

That evening she ate like any regular person and lay down to sleep in her bed, but in the morning, even though she spoke normally, she was still extremely weak. On the third day she fell ill, not mentally, but with malaria. In her high fever she occasionally spoke irrationally, She also retold stories about the miracles that the Baal Shem Tov had wrought, which she had heard from her father, and tearfully asked to be taken to see him. This reminded her father, whose mind had meanwhile focused only on the transformation which had taken place, that the Baal Shem Tov had invited her to come and visit him. He now told her of that invitation, which she was only too happy to accept, and the next day she and her parents took a wagon to Slutzk.

* * *

The morning after the transformation, her parents had immediately dispatched a messenger to convey the dramatic news to their son-in-law and his parents. They, of course, were all overwhelmed. Although until then his father had kept a certain distance from the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, the young husband hoped that the present news would make this an opportune moment to warm the heart of that famed gaon to those teachings. He therefore outlined them for his father’s benefit, as follows:

(a) Understanding the Torah. “The entire Torah comprises the Names of the Holy One, blessed be He.”130 A name allows one to merely know about a subject, not to understand it fully. Likewise the Torah and the halachos that are set out before us allow us to merely knowthem, but not to understand them fully, because the Torah’s inner dimension, its pnimiyus, is infinite.

(b) Hashgachah Peratis: Divine Providence applies not only to the minutest detail of every created entity, so that (for example) G‑d can release a wind from His storehouse in order to overturn a mere wisp of straw for a specific reason. Beyond that, this Divine intent is the vitality that maintains that created entity in existence with its own distinctive characteristics.

(c) The Distinctive Quality of a Jew. In essence, even the most ordinary Jewis exactly as elevated as the most eminent gaon. It is written that “you are children of the L‑rd your G‑d.”131 It is also written that “these are the chronicles of Yitzchak the son of Avraham: Avraham was the father of Yitzchak,”132 and from this repetition the Sages learn that the appearance of the son resembled the appearance of his father.133 This is the message of the above-quoted statement that “you are children of the L‑rd your G‑d” – the distinguishing features of the children (the Jewish people), who are “compassionate, bashful and kind-hearted,”134 resemble (so to speak) the distinguishing features of their Father, the Holy One, blessed be He, Who is merciful and compassionate and abundantly forgiving to penitents. Moreover, just as He is eternal and his Torah and His mitzvos are eternal, so too are his People and His heritage135 eternal. Indeed, the humblest little Jew crowns “G‑d, Who is great and exceedingly extolled,”136 with a crown of glory.

(d) Ahavas Yisrael: In the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, the attribute of loving a fellow Jew springs not only from the fact that a person is goodhearted and kindly. True, every Jew is obligated to work on himself in order to banish negative attributes such as pride, falsehood, envy, hatred, and the like. He is likewise obligated to work on himself in order to acquire positive attributes such as awe of Heaven, love of the Torah, fondness for mitzvos, humility, truthfulness, loving people, and the like, all of which are included in the comprehensive distinguishing features of the Jewish People, who are innately “compassionate, bashful and kind-hearted.”

The young man then introduced his father to a perspective that reaches beyond all of the above, by sharing with him the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov on those three Jewish characteristics:

Jews are compassionate: They feel pity for the Divine soul that descended from its exalted status as it stood before G‑d, in His Garden, and came all the way down through hidden steps, in order to be vested in a body whose source is dust and is destined to return to dust.

Jews are bashful: Feeling abashed in the presence of the lamp of G‑d that hovers over their heads,137 they upgrade their observance of the mitzvos.

Jews are kind-hearted: The soul of “the Supernal Man” on the “image of a throne”138 teaches them that they should (so to speak) do a kindly favor to their bodies by elevating them and all of their bodily needs. This, in addition to their obligation to elevate “their share in the world,” meaning all the materiality that they are destined to encounter in whatever place and whatever time, as ordained by Divine Providence. All of that materiality they are obligated to refine and illuminate with the light of Torah and avodah.

All of the above, R. Shlomo explained, relates only to the acquisition of positive character attributes as part of one’s standard avodah. The ideal of ahavas Yisrael, however, is wondrously superior to all those attributes.

R. Shlomo illustrated this by citing the following talk once delivered by the Baal Shem Tov.

Let Heaven and earth be my witnesses about a serious trial that was underway in the Heavenly Court. It concerned a recently-departed and unlettered Jew who had never learned anything beyond the ability to daven and say Tehillim. However, he excelled in the mitzvah of ahavas Yisrael with his whole heart and soul. He used to think about it, he used to talk about it, and on the practical level he used to do whatever he could to help out a fellow Jew. He was pained by the anguish of every Jewish man or woman, and was gladdened by their happy moments.

The verdict of the Heavenly Court was that the appropriate place for him was to be in Gan Eden, in the company of all the tzaddikim and geonim concerning whom the Sages testified that they loved their fellow Jews.

[Before the Rebbe Rayatz returned to the episode of the young husband and his ailing wife, he concluded the above interpolation as follows:]

The sigh uttered by a Jew over the anguish of a fellow Jew shatters all the ironclad obstructions erected by the accusatory voices in the Heavenly Court. And the joy that he experiences in another’s joy, and that prompts him to bless that fellow Jew, is as warmly accepted by G‑d as the prayer offered by R. Yishmael, the Kohen Gadol, in the Holy of Holies.

* * *

R. Shlomo’s summary of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings for his father occupied the mind of that innocent elder sage all day and all night. In the morning he visited the Baal Shem Tov, told him what he had heard, and added that he wanted to cultivate a spiritual connection with him. However, when he told the Baal Shem Tov that his mechutan had given him the good news of his daughter’s return to sanity, the tzaddik told him that on that day, as they now spoke, she had regressed. After her father fulfilled the mission with which he had been entrusted, she would be cured and would then come.

When she arrived in Slutzk, she and her husband and their parents all went to see the Baal Shem Tov. The first to be admitted were the young couple, and the tzaddik told them that they should undertake to divorce. In response, the wife spoke about her husband’s exemplary character and about how dearly she loved and respected him. However, she added with bitter tears, if the Baal Shem Tov ruled that they should divorce, this was no doubt because he knew that she was unworthy of being the wife of such a tzaddik. She therefore felt obligated to accept his ruling. The husband spoke similarly of his wife, who exemplified all the precious qualities enumerated by the Sages. Nevertheless, he concluded, if a divorce was what the tzaddik directed, he too would no doubt accept that directive, and he too wept bitterly.

The Baal Shem Tov said that he would give them three days, and when they visited him on the fourth day, he would arrange to have the divorce document inscribed according to the Law.

After three agonizing days of fasting and Tehillim, the couple and their parents returned to the Baal Shem Tov like mourners, their hearts broken and their spirits crushed.

Entering his study, they found the scribe and two witnesses already there. The Baal Shem Tov asked the couple whether they were prepared to divorce willingly. They both answered that since they believed the tzaddik that this would be for their benefit, and since they had complete faith in his directive and in the blessing that he would give them, and since they loved each other, they now wanted to separate from each other willingly – each for the benefit of the other.

Hearing these words, the Baal Shem Tov retired into another room for a little while. When he rejoined them, he said, “About six years ago, a kitrug – an accusatory voice – spoke up in the Heavenly Court and brought about a decree against you: the woman would be punished by losing her mind139 and the man would be punished by remaining an agun. However, now that you have both been willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of your simple emunas tzaddikim, and you have even undertaken to divorce, you have been cleared in the Beis Din shel Maalah, and the decree has been uprooted.”

The Baal Shem Tov then gave them his blessing for sons and daughters and for a long life.

After three more years in Slutzk, they moved to Minsk, where R. Shlomo became one of the pillars of the chassidic community and nurtured many students. Later, following a directive of the Baal Shem Tov, they moved to Bayev, where G‑d blessed them with sons and daughters whom they eventually married off to the daughters and sons of fine and learned chassidishe families. When my father (the Alter Rebbe) returned [to Liozna]140 from Mohilev Podolsk after having escorted R. Menachem Mendel from Horodok, R. Shlomo settled in Liozna. Finally, in the year 5556 (1796), he set out with his wife for Eretz Yisrael, where they lived for about fifteen years.

[The speaker in the following interpolated paragraph is the Rebbe Rashab.]

My father (the Rebbe Maharash) once told me that my great-grandfather, the Tzemach Tzedek, was not fully aware of the spiritual standing of R. Shlomo Bayever, because he preferred to be silent. Even when he was asked a scholarly question, he would respond with a few closely-clipped phrases. When he set out for Eretz Yisrael, the Tzemach Tzedek was about seven years old, but unlike most of the elder chassidim, who related to him warmly, R. Shlomo kept an isolated distance. Nevertheless, he knew from the records of Collel Chabad that the Alter Rebbe regarded him highly and saw to it that he should be supported generously.

[From this point on, the narrator is once again R. Chaim Avraham, son of the Alter Rebbe:]

14. The three aged chassidim mentioned above141 were present on Chai Elul, 5505 (1745) at the seudah that the Baal Shem Tov conducted on that date every year. He was in an elated frame of mind, and delivered a chassidic teaching on the phrase, Zeh yenachameinu (“This one will console us”), which the Midrash explains by saying that until No’ach there were no plows.142 At the Shabbos table on Parshas [Ki] Savo, the Baal Shem Tov delivered a teaching on the verse that begins, Kumi ori… –”Arise and shine, for your light has come, and the glory of G‑d has shone upon you!”143 On the 25th of Elul144 he arranged for a seudah to be held, and there his Torah teaching was based on the verse, “And on the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.”145 At the seudah on Shabbos Parshas Nitzavim he expounded the verse, Sos Asis BaHavayah – “I shall exult in G‑d,”146 but no one there had an explanation for his heightened joy.

[In due course,] when my father (the Alter Rebbe) came to Mezritch for the first time to study under the Maggid, the Maggid told his son, R. Avraham “the Malach,” that his mentor, the Baal Shem Tov, had told him of the heightened joy that he had experienced147 when the Alter Rebbe was born.148 (At that time, the Maggid had not yet studied at the feet of the Baal Shem Tov.) The Baal Shem Tov went on to tell the Maggid that he had celebrated the day of the Alter Rebbe’s birth, the day of his circumcision, and the third day after it, by delivering Torah teachings, each of which related to the avodah appropriate to that day. Finally, the Baal Shem Tov told the Maggid that he was informing him of all the above, because the Alter Rebbe would eventually be connected to him, to the Maggid.149

15. We have no details about what took place during the week after the birth of my father (the Alter Rebbe), or during the vigil of the night before thebris, or of the three days following the bris. All we know is what I heard from his mother, my grandmother Rebbitzin Rivkah, as follows: “When your grandfather (R. Baruch, the Alter Rebbe’s father) came home after seeing the Baal Shem Tov, he brought with him a prescribed order of conduct for the stages of conception and pregnancy, and for the promised child’s first five years. And on Chai Elul, 5505 (1745), two years from the day of our wedding, your father (the Alter Rebbe) was born.”

[Here end the recollections that R. Chaim Avraham, son of the Alter Rebbe, shared with R. Baruch Shalom, son of the Tzemach Tzedek. The Rebbe Rashab heard them from him, and in turn dictated them to the Rebbe Rayatz.]

THE SECOND MEMORANDUM150

4. 3 Kislev, 5656 (1895), Lubavitch. 11:00 p.m.

At this evening’s shiur, my father completed his explanation of the maamar which appears in Tanya – Kuntreis Acharon151 and which begins, “In order to understand the statement in the second chapter of Shaar HaYichudim…”152

The shiur focused on the closing words of that maamar: “But the neutral study of Torah that is without a negative intention, but is prompted merely by one’s latent, innate love [of G‑d], is not inferior to the ‘breath of the mouths of schoolchildren,’ which ascends aloft because it is ‘breath untainted by sin.’ It ascends aloft, [even though it may be emphatically not altruistic, but only prompted by fear of punishment by the teacher. See there on p. 255b: the angels elevate the breath of schoolchildren to Atzilus.]”

My father explained that the process which the Alter Rebbe quotes in the name of the Zohar – that “the angels elevate the breath of schoolchildren to Atzilus” – resembles the rarefied level of the yichudim, the Supernal Unions, that are accomplished by the holy and pure tzaddikim when they prepare themselves and refine their bodies in a systematic manner according to the classic works of the Kabbalah. My father then taught me the fifth chapter of Shaar HaYichudim and explained it briefly, and instructed me to review it all thoroughly. He added that he believed that by the time he later explained me its teachings in detail, in Etz Chayim and Pri Etz Chayim, I would have mastered them.

My father then said: “The Alter Rebbe writes above that ‘the angels elevate the breath of schoolchildren to Atzilus’ and emphasizes that their breath is ‘breath untainted by sin.’ This can be understood in light of what I am about to tell you.

“Their breath is sinless because they speak with artless innocence,153 just as when they are learning to read, they recite kometz alef – o! At that time they believe, inartless simplicity, that this vowel and this letter, and likewise all the vowels and letters, were handed to Moshe at Sinai. It is by virtue of their holy and innocent faith that their heartfelt breath is untainted by sin and is utterly pure and holy.

“This commentary supplements the plain and primary meaning of ‘breath untainted by sin.’ That is to say: not only are those children still pure from the taint of sin, which is utterly foreign to them; beyond that, by virtue of their hearts’ pure and deep-seated faith in G‑d and in His Torah, their breath creates yichudim, Supernal Unions, in all the spiritual worlds.”

My father continued: “If, according to this second explanation, ‘breath untainted by sin’ signifies their expressions of innocent faith, then the result should likewise be true not only of little schoolchildren, but also of adults who similarly utter words of Torah and mitzvos in pure and simple faith. They too create yichudim, Supernal Unions, in all the spiritual worlds.”

At this point my father shared a recollection: “Early in the winter of 5645 (1884-1885) I was physically very weak. The medical specialists in Moscow and Petersburg were unable to diagnose the cause and advised me to consult the specialists in Vienna, who at that time were held to be the leading experts.

“While I was at the Ohel of my father and grandfather154 before setting out, my father told me that on my way to Vienna I should visit Niezhin, Haditch, Hanipoli and Mezhibuzh.155 He added that at each of these sites I should conduct myself according to the Kabbalistic sequence of yichudim, or Supernal Unions, that are appropriate when visiting the resting places of tzaddikim.156 That was the protocol of avodah that he had instructed me to follow in the year 5640 (1880), when he dispatched me as his emissary to pray at the holy resting places of our revered forebears, and the same directives guided my conduct throughout the two weeks of this itinerary.”

* * *

My father now added: “The spiritual aspect of spirituality, ruchniyus sheberuchniyus, can definitely not be assessed. In fact, even the spiritual aspect of materiality is very difficult to assess, for doing so requires rare and unique criteria. ‘The spiritual aspect of spirituality’ means the spirituality of the nefesh Elokis, the G‑dly soul,which is holyspirituality. From its perspective, even spirituality is no more than a modest echo of the holiness of spirituality. It is thus obvious that we, who have no real grasp of spirituality, cannot assess the spiritual aspect of spirituality, which is primarily essential kedushah and taharah, essential holiness and purity.

“‘The spiritual aspect of materiality,’ ruchniyus shebegashmiyus, means the spiritual aspect of the nefesh hamaskeles, the intellective soul. Relative to the G‑dly soul, the intellective soul is virtually something material. Nevertheless, its spirituality can likewise not be assessed. True, [even] the spiritual aspect of materiality cannot be assessed, but to a certain extent it finds expression by intensifying the persistent wellspring – ‘the river that is fed by subterranean sources’157 – of the intellective faculty.158 This it does so forcefully that there surface original insights and explanations and wondrous spiritual conceptions.”

* * *

[Summarizing the above recollections of his spiritual odyssey ten years earlier, in 5645 (1884-1885), my father now said:] “Those visits granted me such immeasurable wealth that throughout the following two years I was spiritually excited by what I had been privileged to see and hear when praying at those holy sites. It was only in the winter of 5647 (1886-1887), when I was in Yalta, Crimea, that those experiences began to find repose within me. [Thus,] the maamar beginning VeChol HaAm Ro’im, [which I delivered on] Shavuos, 5647, is based on the maamar of my great-grandfather, the Mitteler Rebbe, which I heard when I prayed at the holy resting place [in Niezhin, two years earlier], in 5645.

“What took place at that time I will tell you eventually, G‑d willing. As for now, I want to tell you just one of the three things that I was privileged to hear when I prayed at the holy resting places in Mezhibuzh. What I am about to tell you is the basis of the second interpretation of ‘breath untainted by sin.’159

“In order to explain this fully, I should also have told you what manner of hishtat’chus that was, for as we learned in Shaarei HaYichudim, it spans several levels, especially if the person praying is linked [to the departed tzaddik] either by a family connection or by an inner, spiritual bond. All of that I will tell you, G‑d willing, in due course.”

[The Rebbe Rashab now relays to the Rebbe Rayatz what he heard] from the Baal Shem Tov, whose resting place is in Gan Eden.160

* * *

“When I was five years old I was orphaned of both father and mother. The last words of my holy father before his passing were this instruction: ‘Yisrolik!161 Fear no one but G‑d alone!’

“After hearing those words, I began to feel drawn to walking about in the fields and deep in the huge forest near our village. After class in the cheder I would go out into the fields and orally review that day’s lessons from memory. In fact I often stayed and spent the night there, or in the forest. The guardians who were appointed to look after me and after another few orphaned boys and girls had no patience for all of this, and they gave me a rough time.

“This went on for two years – until one day, as I made my way into the forest after davenen at daybreak,162 I heard a human voice. I followed the voice until I caught sight of someone wearing tallis and tefillin. He was davening with an exuberance the like of which I had never before heard. Hiding behind the trees, I stood still and enjoyed his davenen in wonderment, until I decided that this holy individual must be one of the world’s thirty-six hidden tzaddikim. After taking off his tallis and tefillin, that tzaddik began his sweet reading of Tehillim.

“He then sat down and studied with relish. After some time he placed his holy books and his tallis and tefillin in his knapsack, threw it over his shoulder, took up his staff, and was about to set out. At that point I left my hideout and approached him.

“He was amazed: ‘A little boy alone in the forest?! What are doing here? Aren’t you afraid?’

“I explained: ‘I like being in the fields and in the forest because there are no people around who are mostly arrogant liars, and I’m not afraid of anyone. I’m orphaned of both mother and father, and before my father passed away he told me to fear no one but G‑d alone, so I’m afraid of no one.’

“He asked me if I was the son of R. Eliezer. When I answered that in fact this was my father’s name, he took out a Gemara Pesachim and taught me for quite some time. I accompanied him along the road without knowing where we were going nor why we were going there.

“In the course of our wanderings we would often stay for a while in various towns and townships, villages and hamlets, sometimes for a few days and sometimes for a week or more. I didn’t know his name. He taught me every day. He never accepted money that was offered to him and always saw to it that I should have what to eat. This went on for three years.

“One day, as we approached a little village, the man said: ‘Not far from here, in the forest, lives a G‑d-fearing scholar.’ He added that he would leave me in that man’s home for a period of time, and that is exactly what happened. He took me to the cottage of that person, handed me over to his care, and went his way.

“Throughout the four years that I lived in the forest cottage of this R. Meir, he taught me with intensity. Every day we would make our way into the little settlement so that we could daven with a minyan. None of the villagers knew that he was a gaon and a hidden tzaddik.163 In their eyes, he was an ordinary fellow who earned his bread by burning tar.

“It was during that period that I found out all about the hidden tzaddikim and about the towering scholar and tzaddik, R. Adam Baal Shem, and was accepted into their circle. Once again I began to wander from town to town and from one village to another, on missions with which the leaders of that circle had entrusted me.

“Though not quite sixteen years old, I had quite a command of Kabbalah and would occasionally daven according to the Kabbalah of the AriZal, with the Unifications of Divine Names164 which my host, R. Chayim, had taught me.”

* * *

[The Rebbe Rashab continues to relay to the Rebbe Rayatz what he heard in Mezhibuzh from the Baal Shem Tov:]

“On my [sixteenth] birthday, on Chai Elul, 5474 (1714), I was in a little village. The tenant innkeeper was a semi-literate yokel who somehow managed to read the words in the Siddur, though without understanding them. Nevertheless, he constantly stood in awe of Heaven, and would respond to any occurrence at any time, ‘Blessed be He forever!’ In the same spirit, his wife would often exclaim [in Yiddish], ‘All praise to His holy Name!’

“On that day I set out to seek solitude in the fields, following the age-old custom of spending a certain amount of time on one’s birthday alone.165 Out in the fields, I read chapters of Tehillim and engaged in [the Kabbalistic exercise of] yichudim, unifying Divine Names.

“There, deep in thought and unaware of my surroundings, I suddenly caught sight of Eliyahu HaNavi, smiling. Seeing him while alone came to me as a surprise, because whenever I had seen him in the past, I had been in the company of R. Meir or of the hidden tzaddikim. And what was the meaning of his smile?

“He told me: ‘You toil so earnestly in focusing on the Kabbalistic unifications of the Divine Names that proceed from the verses of Tehillim that were given to us by David HaMelech. Now, Aharon Shlomo the tenant-innkeeper and his wife Zlata Rivkah know nothing of the esoteric unifications of Divine Names that are generated by his Blessed be He forever! and by his wife’s All praise to His holy Name! Yet their devout exclamations stir up repercussions in all the spiritual worlds more intensely than the unifications produced by lofty tzaddikim.’

“Eliyahu HaNavi then described to me the Divine pleasure (as it were) that is aroused by the words uttered by men, women and children in praise of the Holy One, blessed be He, especially if they are unlettered and unsophisticated. Indeed, if those words spring constantly from their pure and artless hearts, they cleave constantly to their Maker.

“From that time on, I undertook that path in avodah – to cause men, women and children to praise G‑d by inquiring as to their health and their children’s health, and their livelihood. Each of them according to their individual style would then respond with expressions of grateful praise to their Maker.166

“After I had done this for some years, a certain gathering [of the hidden tzaddikim] embraced this path in avodah, which eventually served to popularize the avodah of ahavas Yisrael, the obligation to love every fellow Jew.”

[Here end the words which the Rebbe Rashab heard in Mezhibuzh from the Baal Shem Tov, as recorded in writing by the Rebbe Rayatz.]

* * *

[The Rebbe Rayatz concludes:] The above encounter is the basis for my father’s second interpretation of “breath untainted by sin”167 – namely, that this phrase refers not only to little schoolchildren, but is also true of adults who serve G‑d out of simple and heartfelt faith. Indeed, they cleave to Him at all times and in all places. Moreover, little children do not come in contact with the materiality of This World, only with its atmosphere, whereas adults are constantly confronted by This World’s palpable materiality. It follows that the adults bring about a yichud, a unification [of the material world with Elokus], that refines even the materiality of This World.

THE THIRD MEMORANDUM168

The following is an extract of my father’s sichah at the Sheva Berachos celebration on the 17^th of Elul, on the eve of Chai Elul, 5657 (1897).169 It speaks of the niggun attributed to the tzaddik, R. Michele of Zlotchov, who sang it in the presence of the Baal Shem Tov.170

17 Elul, 5657.

The tzaddik, R. Michele of Zlotchov, was one of those who used to lead the singing of meditative melodies in the presence of the Baal Shem Tov.

[At today’s Sheva Berachos, while two revered elder chassidim,] R. Yaakov Mordechai [Bespalov] and R. Asher Grossman, were singing the above niggun, my father sang quietly with them. His eyes were closed, and tears were running down his cheeks. Their voices were accompanied by a young chassid, R. Mendel ben R. Zechariah Yaffe of Yekaterinoslav, and two other gifted violinists who had come from Vitebsk. As the soft music of their strings blended with the varying moods of the niggun, it stirred the eager heartstrings of the numerous chassidim who crowded the room in wordless awe.

With each of the three times that the niggun was sung with its violin accompaniment, its volume increased, and the same was true of each of its component themes.

My father finally opened his eyes, offered mashke to all those present, and said: “We have a tradition that the Baal Shem Tov used to refer to this melody as ‘the his’orerus-rachamim-rabim niggun’ – the melody that arouses Heaven’s abundant mercies. My father (the Rebbe Maharash) heard from his father (the Tzemach Tzedek), who cited what his grandfather (the Alter Rebbe) had heard from his mentor, the Maggid of Mezritch, who was present at the time – that the Baal Shem Tov, just before his passing, had his chassidim sing the his’orerus-rachamim-rabim niggun composed by R. Michele of Zlotchov. At that time, the Baal Shem Tov said: ‘I promise that throughout your generations, whenever and wherever a person experiences an arousal to do teshuvah and sings the his’orerus-rachamim-rabim niggun, then in whatever heavenly chamber I will be, I will hear him – for there are angels who bring information and tidings to souls. I will sing together with him, and I will arouse Heaven’s abundant mercies on those baalei teshuvah who are singing.’”

* * *

My father, in a very happy frame of mind, urged those present to dance and asked them to say LeChaim! – with all of its meanings.171 Since there was no room to move, he proposed that each person should dance on the spot on which he stood. They cheerfully did as they were asked to do: brotherly exchanges of LeChaim! were heard on all sides, they all stood up in their places, each man put a hand on his neighbor’s shoulder, and then, to the rhythm of the exuberant voice of the chassidic Kabbalist, R. Yehudah Leib Hoffman, they all sang and danced in their places.

Finally, my father said: “My father (i.e., the Rebbe Maharash) once gave me an explanation of the souls of the well-established niggunim, that is, those that express a certain content.172 This is what he said about the his’orerus-rachamim-rabim niggun of R. Michele of Zlotchov:

The soul of this niggun is the phrase, “I am a deeply-grieved woman,”173 and the content of the niggun is expressed in the later phrase, “I have been pouring out my heart before G‑d.”

The former phrase is a metaphor for Knesses Yisrael [lit., “the community of the Jewish people”], which is a synonym for [the source of Jewish souls, namely,] the sefirah of Malchus in the World of Atzilus. However, so long as the source of those souls is still in its pristine state Above, in Atzilus, it consists only of happiness and joy, and only when it descends into the souls of mortals down here below, can it actually174 be in the state of “a deeply-grieved woman.”

The content of the niggun, as was said above, is expressed in the phrase, “I have been pouring out my heart before G‑d.” This alludes to the individual’s arousal of Heaven’s abundant mercies, in order to draw down the innate happiness and joy of Knesses Yisrael, the Divine Source of Jewish souls, so that this joy will be experienced in those souls down here below.

The Baal Shem Tov promises that whenever a person is aroused to a penitent frame of mind and sings this niggun, he will help that person in arousing Heaven’s mercies. And since today is Chai Elul, when one begins to prepare himself for the avodah of Rosh HaShanah,175 let us sing the his’orerus-rachamim-rabim niggun with an arousal of teshuvah.

THE FIFTH SICHAH

The term chinuch (“education”) embraces all age groups, and serves as the foundation for all the subsequent hadrachah (“mentorship”), that a person applies to himself.

People commonly conceive of chinuch as relating to children, such as one’s little sons and daughters, and conceive of hadrachah as relating to adolescents. Chabad Chassidus perceives chinuch as relating to adults as well, and perceives hadrachah as signifying the lifelong self-mentorship that every adult ought to undertake.

Before the Alter Rebbe begins to explain the Divine concepts of yichuda tata’ah (“lower-level Unity”) and yichuda ila’ah (“higher-level Unity”),176 he writes a maamar on chinuch.177

When it comes to the service of the Creator, a person can attain the loftiest levels. This is seen in the well-known teaching that an aspirational servant of G‑d should ask himself, “When will my deeds match the deeds of my forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov?”178 Every Jew who dedicates himself heart and soul to the service of the Creator can attain the level of yichuda tata’ah, and from there he can arrive at the level of yichuda ila’ah.

The lower level, and certainly the higher level, can be attained only by means of a person’s self-mentorship, and that in turn is possible only when it has been preceded by a chassidisher chinuch, a chassidisher education – not only as a child, but also as an adult. That education consists of meticulously observing and truthfully appraising everything around him in order to appraise himself. He notes how distasteful are people’s negative characteristics, and also how fine and beautiful are their positive characteristics so that he can emulate and internalize them.

A careful observer notes the petty foolishness of a person who pursues honor; the double talk of a hypocrite, with his cheap flattery and fake smiles; the ugliness of a liar’s false talk and empty exaggerations; a proud man’s emptiness; the bloated self-importance of an arrogant individual, with his head tossed high and his affected little steps; the insolence of the nouveau riche; or the audacity of the self-styled intellectual. Such sights leave the calm and honest observer with a feeling of distaste, and spur him to monitor his own conduct. He asks himself whether he too might harbor some of the above-mentioned spiritual dirt. And this sobering thought empowers him to uproot even a trace of improper behaviors.

In addition, observing good deeds that are carried out even by very unlearned Jews yields very fine results.

* * *

[For example:] In Lubavitch there once lived a barely-literate but G‑d-fearing person called R. Yaakov Leib. (He was born in Rosaneh, about twenty viorsts away.) When he was still a very young orphan, he once heard two teachings from the mouth of R. Avraham the melamed, which remained engraved in his heart.

The first teaching (from page 22a of Tractate Sanhedrin) was that when a person is davenen, he should regard himself as facing the Shechinah, the Divine Presence. The second teaching (from page 31a of Tractate Shabbos) was that after a person passes away, the Heavenly Court asks him: “Were your business dealings honest?” – a teaching that he conscientiously fulfilled after marrying the daughter of Elye the Badchan179 and becoming a storekeeper.

When I was a child he was already a very old man. At sixty he handed over his store to his children. He and his wife had a dilapidated cottage near Binyamin’s Shtibl, where he served as an unpaid shammes, a volunteer beadle. They lived off their vegetable garden, and from whatever his wife earned by plucking chickens, pickling vegetables, and helping people with their home-catered family celebrations.

My grandfather, the Rebbe Maharash, once told a certain chassidisher maskil who had mastered all the texts of Chassidus that were then in print, and who used to expound scholarly discourses of Chassidus: “You should closely watch Yaakov Leib the shammes as he davens. One davenen of his outweighs all of your academic mastery of Chassidus!”180

When someone once asked Yaakov Leib why he cried so much during [the penitential prayers of] Selichos, he explained: “I’m not crying, G‑d forbid! I’m simply washing away all the muddy mess that accumulates in the course of a year!”

My melamed, R. Nissan, told my father (the Rebbe Rashab) of Yaakov Leib’s answer, and this was the response he received:

“The statements in the Gemara and the Midrash in praise of unlettered fellow Jews include two diverse expressions. The Gemara (in Sanhedrin 37a) says that ‘even the emptiest among you [i.e., even those among you who seemingly lack worthwhile content] are as filled with mitzvos as a pomegranate [is filled with juicy pits].’ Midrash Rabbah (on Bereishis, sec. 32) says that ‘even the emptiest among you [i.e., even those among you who seemingly lack worthwhile content] are as packed with teshuvos, penitent thoughts, as a pomegranate [is filled with juicy pits].’ Now, mitzvos represent yir’as Shamayim, standing in awe of Heaven, whereas teshuvos represent haskalah, the scholarly strata of Chassidus. An unlettered Jew has both virtues, except that in his case they find expression in his characteristically plain words.

“Yaakov Leib’s answer – that he wasn’t crying, he was just washing away all the mess that had accumulated in the course of a year – encapsulates the long and profound exposition181 by my great-grandfather, the Mitteler Rebbe, of the verse that says, ‘O wall of the daughter of Zion!182 Let tears stream down like a river day and night!’183 Likewise expounded are the words, ‘My tears have been my bread…,’184 and also the words, ‘Though you wash with natron…’185 A person can cry either because he is deeply moved and his mind feels constricted, or because that is what comes from his heart.186 In fact, the latter kind of crying likewise involves a feeling of being deeply moved, but that isn’t the dominant feeling. At any rate, R. Yaakov Leib knows nothing of my great-grandfather’s scholarly distinctions between the various levels of tears: he just says in his own plain words that he’s not crying, G‑d forbid! And if you observe that in fact he is crying, his answer is that he is not crying, G‑d forbid! He’s simply washing away all the muddy mess…”

Both the directive given by my grandfather (the Rebbe Maharash) about observing R. Yaakov Leib’s davenen, and the above response of my father (the Rebbe Rashab) to what he was told about it, I heard from my melamed, R. Nissan.

We see, then, that one ought to derive a path in avodah from an incident involving an ordinary chassid, and how much more so, from an incident involving a Rebbe. We see, too, that the Rebbeim took note of the conduct of even their least learned fellow Jews so closely, that every one of its details served them as a pure wellspring that highlighted the distinctive qualities of the Jewish People. And from this sprang their unbounded ahavas Yisrael.

THE SIXTH SICHAH

Chabad Chassidus, which seeks out the soul of any subject and explains it in terms that can be understood by everyone, teaches that there are two kinds of avodas HaShem. Anyone who has studied Tanya or who has heard it taught publicly, knows that the basic meaning of avodah (עֲבוֹדָה) is encoded in its three-letter root (עבד). That root means both “working,” including the labor of serving G‑d, and “tanning,” the process by which tough, gross hides are processed and refined until they become pliable and pleasant and useful.187

Transforming such hides into thin, snow-white parchment demands hard work. For a start, in order to remove the outer hair and the residue of flesh and fat on the underside, the hide is soaked in lime, which burns out that waste matter and also softens the leather. Trained craftsmen then cut it and peel it and work on it, until the foul, hairy hide eventually becomes pure, pristine parchment.

An oved, who seeks to embark on the avodah of coming closer to that which is holy, must first undergo a similar process of preparation – except that the object of his toil is not an animal hide, but mortal blemishes and frailties, whether innate or acquired.

It makes little difference whether a person was born a liar/flatterer/boaster from birth, or whether he reached that deplorable moral state later in life. What differs is only that each of those two situations calls for a different remedy. In both cases, however, arduous effort must be invested in order to utterly remove all filth, and to soften and refine whatever is tough and gross. Without that preparation, not only is orderly avodah impossible, but the vestiges of one’s former uncleanness also ruin his Torah study and his mitzvos and his davenen.

The above-described need for proper preparation, and the ill-effects of its absence, are repeatedly recorded in my notes [of the teachings of our Rebbeim], in a variety of contexts. In one place, those ill-effects are likened to the spoiling of sweet delicacies that have been placed in dirty vessels. Another analogy comes from the preparation of kishke, where the [spiced] flour and oil are ruined if they are stuffed into a length of intestine that was not first cleaned out thoroughly. The same memorandum also briefly retells the well-known story involving R. Shmuel Munkes at a certain farbrengen in Liozna.

AN EXTRACT FROM THE ABOVE MEMORANDUM OF MY FATHER’S WORDS

One doesn’t need to be unusually gifted or sensitive in order to feel the unpleasant odor of something gashmi, something material. That can be picked up by any ordinary person. And when I say “gashmi,” I’m not speaking of the unpleasant odor of something that is literally and palpably material, such as the smell of a dirty vessel or an uncleaned kishke. Even an animal can sense that. When I say “the unpleasant odor of something gashmi,” I am speaking of conduct that smacks of a light-minded disregard for the awe of Heaven.188 For example: hastily swallowing the words of davenen, or seeking – and finding – marginally permissive halachic rulings and kosher certifications.189

In the language of non-chassidic scholars, a person following this line of conduct is known as a bedieved-Yid.190 Among chassidim, he is described as a kal, “a light-minded person.”

Bedieved-permissibility is popular among scholars, and embraces almost every aspect of one’s life. Thus armed, one can make do with bedieved-tzitzis, and bedieved-tefillin, and bedieved-davenen. And when that kind of permissibility joins hands with its dear comrade, “serious financial loss,”191 what could be more convenient…? The only drawback is that in the meantime, the bedieved-permissibility turns the kal into a kal-shebekalim, a person who is utterly light-minded.

A bedieved-person smells of light-mindedness, and that unpleasant smell is so gashmi, so blatantly material, that it can be sensed by anyone. By contrast, a spiritual odor can be detected only by a discriminating individual with a refined sense of smell, and that level of discernment can be reached only via the teachings and the avodah of Chassidus. A chassidisher oved can sense a spiritual odor which others – whether they be great scholars in nigleh or in Chassidus – not only fail to sense, but can even mistake it for something positive.

In the early days of the Alter Rebbe’s nesius, there was once a big farbrengen. In those days the company included mighty cedars of the Lebanon192 – hoary elders who had been privileged to be chassidim of the Baal Shem Tov, and vintage chassidim who had studied for years at the feet of the Maggid of Mezritch – in a word, the wise and towering scholars who were the earliest chassidim of the Alter Rebbe.

Among those present was a chassid by the name of R. Shmuel Munkes. The scholars in nigleh and in the haskalah of Chassidus used to regard him as just a lively chassidisher wag. No one ever heard him expounding any subject in nigleh or in Chassidus, no one ever saw him davening in the traditional Chabad tradition of prolonged meditation: he was always just chirpy and mischievous. At this farbrengen, too, as always, he volunteered at act as waiter, bringing mashke to the table and handing out the refreshments, which in this case included roasted lung.

As soon as the pot with that rare delicacy, which had been prepared in the home of R. Nosson the Shochet, was delivered to the door, it was handed to R. Shmuel so that he would serve it at the table.

Jolly and exuberant as always, he took it in hand, danced and pranced with it around the room, swirling it in all directions. No matter how much people asked him to finally serve its contents, he just continued with his antics. This went on and on for a few hours – until he heard the younger chassidim planning to get up and take it from him by force. Determined to preempt them, he sprang aside and tossed the pot with its long-awaited contents into a huge tub of dirty water! That done, he exulted alone in a rollicking Cossack dance.

The chassidim were shocked. After all, it is prohibited to waste anything of value. And treating food with such disrespect was so intolerable that they decided to administer justice in the traditional manner. Hearing that this was what awaited him, he took the initiative: he jumped onto the table and lay down, ready for the slapping that was sure to come. When he saw that the energetic younger folk had just about finished expressing themselves, he got up and calmly went off to find some alternative refreshments to serve them all. Since it was now long past midnight, this was no easy task. Nevertheless, he found one of the householders of Liozna still awake, and managed to have him contribute a big pot of sauerkraut. He pranced his way cheerfully into the room and put in on the table, though those who were looking forward to relishing the roasted lung did not receive him with a smile.

At that moment the local butcher stormed in and screamed: “Dear fellow Jews! Don’t eat the roasted lung: it’s treif!”

The chassidim at the table froze in shock. It transpired that there had been an awesome mistake. The butcher now explained: While he was in a nearby village, his wife had mistakenly given the wife of the shochet193 a treife lung instead of the kosher one. When the butcher came home a few hours before daybreak, he was alarmed to hear that someone had come from the home of R. Nosson the Shochet to buy the lung. Having discovered the mistake, he immediately ran off to wake him up, and was told that the lung had been taken to the Rebbe’s beis midrash!

Hearing the butcher’s story, [and realizing that R. Shmuel Munkes with all his wild antics had sensed that the roasted lung was not fit to be eaten,] the elder chassidim took him to task: “Who do you think you are? Who are you to be dabbling in miracles and Divine inspiration, with mofsim and ruach hakodesh stuff?”

They decided that now he really deserved to be slapped up. So once again he took his place on the table while they [expressed their righteous indignation by] slapping his presumptuousness out of him. This time, however, the younger chassidim, [who had also heard the butcher’s story,] did not join in…

The elder chassidim told him to get off the table, and demanded: “How did you know that the lung was treif?”

“I knew nothing,” he said. “All I know is that at my first yechidus with the [Alter] Rebbe, I resolved in my heart that I should not be drawn to any material thing that is luscious. Tonight, when I brought in that lung, I felt that I really wanted to taste it, and I saw that others, too, felt strongly drawn to it. I decided on the spot that this delicacy must be something forbidden, because a permitted object doesn’t have the same intense power of attraction. This we learned from the Rebbe’s exposition of the verse, ‘There is an abundance of power in the strength of an ox.’194 As the Rebbe explained, the animal soul’s power of attraction is stronger than the power of attraction of the Divine soul, which is called adam (lit., “man”).195 And that’s why I threw out the lung.”

[Here ends the narrative shared by the Rebbe Rashab, as recorded in a memorandum by the Rebbe Rayatz.]

* * *

The above passage which I released for publication is only a small part of that memorandum, which discusses the various ways and the various areas in which one should prepare oneself to become an oved HaShem, a true servant of G‑d. However, I did release the above story about R. Shmuel Munkes, because it is a live commentary of the [Alter] Rebbe’s above teaching.196 As he points out, the root meaning of the word avodah in the Holy Tongue is identical to the word describing the process of tanning leather, whereby orderly toil can transform a gross and vulgar hide into a refined sheet of pristine parchment. So, too, by means of orderly toil, a very ordinary person can become someone with a heightened spiritual sensitivity in avodas HaShem.

After one is thus readied (with G‑d’s help) to embark on avodah, his actual avodah can take one of two paths – either (a) by means of is’arusa dil’eila, a spontaneous arousal from Above, which in turn sparks an is’arusa dil’sata, a responsive arousal of the mortal down here below, or (b) by means of an is’arusa dil’sata, an arousal that he himself initiates, which calls forth an is’arusa dil’eila, a corresponding response from Above.

Broadly speaking, these two paths are encapsulated in the following two phrases:

(a) Dodi li va’ani lo – “My Beloved is mine, and I am His”;

(b) Ani ledodi vedodi li – “I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine.”197

The classic season of the former sequence is the month of Nissan, and the classic season of the latter sequence is the month of Tishrei. And each of those revelations requires a program of preparation that is appropriate to the nature of the impending universal revelation.

Hence, since the month of Nissan is the time of the revelation of Dodi li (“My Beloved is mine”), that arousal from Above comes spontaneously, because it is in the nature of that which is exalted to be drawn towards that which is lowly. (In this spirit it is written, “Though G‑d is on high, He sees the lowly.”198) Accordingly, preparation for the revelation in the month of Nissan reflects that spirit of exaltedness and finds expression in the princes of the Twelve Tribes of Israel [who brought their costly inaugural offerings to the newly-built Mishkan on successive days in the month of Nissan, before Pesach].199

In contrast, the month of Elul is the time of the revelation of Ani ledodi (“I am my Beloved’s”). Accordingly, in order for the mortal to prepare himself for the revelation of that time, he is required to take the initiative in his own spiritual arousal by embarking on a program of teshuvah, with a contrite heart, in the twelve days from Chai Elul to Rosh HaShanah.200

The first night of Pesach is the time of the quintessential revelation of Dodi li that comes in the wake of the preparation personified by the Twelve Nesi’im, and the first night of Rosh HaShanah is the time of the quintessential revelation of Ani ledodi which is prepared for by one’s self-sacrificing kabbalas ol,201 in the wake of his preparation throughout the twelve days from Chai Elul to Rosh HaShanah.

During those twelve days, that preparation should involve a spiritual accounting of the past twelve months, one day per month. Thus, Chai Elul is the time for a spiritual stocktaking202 of the preceding Tishrei. This entails recalling everything that one then resolved to do, both in the realm of “turning away from evil” and in the realm of “doing good,”203 and comparing it with what one actually did, since that time. So, too, day by day, for each month.

* * *

One comprehensive subject to which one should devote earnest consideration and rethinking in the course of those twelve days of preparation for Rosh HaShanah is the satisfying times and the worries that one experienced in the course of the year. Specifically, one should consider what good deeds one did in the course of the year in exchange for the good things and the gratifying satisfaction204 that G‑d granted him. On the other hand, one should consider how much spiritual harm he experienced as a result of the worries that he brought upon himself.

Thus, a businessman would do well to make an honest accounting of how much he would lose if he were to set aside time for a daily study session and made a point of davenen with a minyan, and how much he gained by not doing those two things.

Everyone knows very well that a person’s livelihood for the oncoming year is determined for him on Rosh HaShanah.205 At that time, the amount that every individual will gain or (G‑d forbid) lose is written down and sealed, and no investment of toil and trouble will increase that amount by a single penny.

Businessmen have always worked hard, but in earlier times, they conducted their working lives in the spirit of the Torah. Those who were not traveling peddlers and the like, but worked locally, made a point of davenen with a minyan three times a day. In addition, they either studied independently or attended a group study session in Mishnayos, Gemara, Tanya, Shulchan Aruch, Ein Yaakov, and so on.

Friday afternoon they would begin preparing themselves for the approaching Shabbos. They did not merely fulfill the command to “remember the Shabbos day,”206 by simply recalling that this day was Shabbos. Beyond that, they also fulfilled the command to “safeguard the Shabbos day,”207 by ensuring that that day was invested in tefillah and Torah. And finally, Motzaei Shabbos served as a kind of Isru Chag, a semi-festive overflow of the wholesome and cheerful Shabbos. The pleasure of that experience, its oneg Shabbos, infused the whole of the following week with life, and throughout that week, husband and wife and children all looked forward to the approach of the upcoming Shabbos.

Nowadays, businessmen toil away throughout the week. (“You have to make a living…”) What kind of a pitiful living can a mortal make alone? What could a manmade life possibly look like! Life, together with whatever it needs, comes from G‑d. Yet befuddled worldly folk in general, and Americans in particular, think that the more they toil, the more they will have. So they push aside study sessions and davenen with a minyan, and they work hard throughout the week. There are even Shabbos-observers who finish their workaday week just in time for Lechah Dodi. And in most cases, Shabbos serves only as a day of physical rest – a day of eating, sleeping and strolling. And as soon as Shabbos is over, they harness themselves like an ox to the yoke of “making a living.”

The above is the spiritual stocktaking of a businessman whose life is completely in order – one who observes the practical mitzvos as he ought to, and runs his business as he ought to. The only problem is that it keeps him so busy and bustling that – so he says – he cannot set aside fixed times for Torah study or for davenen with a minyan. He simply has no time. But doesn’t he find time for idle conversation?

By contrast, as to those businessmen who conduct their affairs not as they ought to do (and this is discussed in various maamarim of Chassidus), their spiritual stocktaking should be utterly different and must pave the way for a complete teshuvah.

* * *

The spiritual stocktaking of a fulltime Torah scholar208 requires that he deeply scrutinize the underpinning of his avodah – whether in Torah study, in the fulfillment of mitzvos, in prayer (the service of the heart), or in his daily conduct. True, he may have studied Torah (and perhaps has also been fortunate enough to hit upon innovative concepts209), and it could well be that he observes the mitzvos as they ought to be observed (perhaps even with punctilious attention to their optimum observance210), and it could well be that he conducts himself (in his perception) according to upright principles. Nevertheless, it is possible that after close scrutiny he will discover that the underpinning of all the above is a dank wellspring that sputters forth time-wasting, arrogance, falsehood, gossip, undeserved hatred, or envy – except that in his case, these behaviors are all cloaked in rabbinic garb, ostensibly for the sake of Heaven.

If this fulltime Torah scholar tackles his spiritual stocktaking honestly, he will discover everything, the truth in everything. [Now, the penitential prayers include the words, Lecha HaShem hatzedakah (“You are in the right”), and also the continuation of that verse, velanu boshes hapanim (“and we are left shamefaced”).211] Only after the above-described Torah scholar has tackled his spiritual stocktaking honestly, will he say the first half of that verse with gusto, and the second half of the verse with even greater gusto…

* * *

Chai Elul is the first of the twelve days of preparation for the Days of Awe, and specifically, the day on which one examines the accounts of the past Tishrei.212 Erev Rosh HaShanah is the twelfth day, and specifically, the day on which one examines the accounts of the present month of Elul. It is thus the last stage in one’s self-preparation for the avodah of Rosh HaShanah. One now readies himself to be inscribed and sealed for a good year of Torah study and mitzvah observance and davenen, which is the service of the heart – in a year that materially, too, is good and sweet.

THE SEVENTH SICHAH

In the year 5658 (1898), Chai Elul fell on a Monday. At that time, my father and all of us were at the health resort at Bolivka. On all the other Mondays, my father would travel to Lubavitch to visit his saintly mother, the Rebbitzin [Rivkah],213 and to receive chassidim at yechidus. That year he traveled there on Tuesday, and spent Monday at Bolivka with his accustomed routine of Chai Elul.

On that day, he told me how Chai Elul was marked in 5638 (1878), repeated the maamar of Chassidus that his father, the Rebbe Maharash, had delivered, and a Torah teaching of the Baal Shem Tov. On the same occasion, my father told me four oral traditions about the Baal Shem Tov, and three oral traditions involving the Alter Rebbe.

My father also spoke to me at length about how to approach the mentorship of the students.214 This guidance was a continuation of the various written directives that I had received from my father in the course of that year. My father referred in particular to his essay entitled Klalei HaChinuch VehaHadrachah (“Principles of Education and Mentorship”215) that he had given me in the month of Sivan.

I am now going to relay to you the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov which my grandfather, the Rebbe Maharash, repeated for my father on Chai Elul, 5638 (1878). I will also pass on two items so that they can be copied: (a) the third edition of the above-mentioned essay entitled Klalei HaChinuch VehaHadrachah, and (b) extracts from my notes that relate to it.

And now, the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov:

It is written, תּוֹרַת ה' תְּמִימָה, מְשִׁיבַת נָפֶשׁ – “The Torah of G‑d is complete; it revives216 the soul.”217 The Torah remains intact: no one has yet penetrated its depth because [it is so utterly beyond mortal grasp that] it revives the soul. When one approaches the study of the Torah with pure faith and with an awe of Heaven, the light within it restores the soul: it mightily fortifies one’s conception of the greatness of the Creator. Accordingly, the Torah remains intact: no mortal has yet penetrated it.218

THE FOURTH MEMORANDUM
Extracts from the Diary of the Rebbe [Rayatz] relating to the essay entitled Principles of Education and Mentorship219

4.22018 Sivan, 5658 (1898), Bolivka, 11:00 p.m.

As I noted in my entry of 23 Iyar, my father decided that immediately after Shavuos, R. Chanoch Hendel Kugel221 should visit the students in Zhebin,222 in the province of Minsk, and examine them. He was then to return directly to the Bolivka resort, with a detailed report of his journey and his visit. Yesterday evening he brought brief reports of the students, their study program in nigleh and Chassidus, with a detailed description of their conduct and spiritual lifestyle. Throughout the night I dovetailed these new reports with earlier ones.

My father devoted today to consultations regarding the students at the Zhebin branch which was headed by R. Shmuel Gronem Esterman, and also the students who were studying in Lubavitch under R. Chanoch Hendel, checking through their individual reports as recorded by those two elder chassidim. The first session, which involved my father and R. Chanoch Hendel and myself and lasted from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., focused on R. Shmuel Gronem’s written replies to my questionnaires during the seven months from MarCheshvan to Sivan.

Those replies, comprising 27 letters, reported what each student had studied in Gemara, in the poskim,223 and in Chassidus. They also detailed the number of times that R. Shmuel Gronem had farbrenged with them, the subjects on which he had spoken, and the oral traditions that he had relayed to them. Based on that correspondence, I had composed a summary of each of his students. My father perused it closely, praised its orderliness, concerned himself with each particular student, and instructed me to prepare whatever information was needed for a summary of that first session regarding the students at Zhebin. After reading what I had written about each student and after questioning R. Chanoch Hendel, my father advised which texts each of them should study in Chassidus, and which subjects his mashpia, R. Shmuel Gronem, should discuss with each of them.

In the interval before the second session that began at exactly 4:00 p.m., I prepared the financial report. It could not be drawn up before R. Chanoch Hendel returned from his visit, and was now to be presented at the end of the second session.

That four-hour session, which resembled the first, related to the students in Lubavitch, except that about an hour and a half was taken up by the financial report. It showed a deficit of 342 rubles, mainly from the cost of providing for the students. Most of it, 198 rubles, was owed to R. Yisrael Leib Kliansky and R. Leib Cheifetz, who accommodated the students at Zhebin.

R. Chanoch Hendel suggested that an emissary224 be dispatched to raise funds for both yeshivos. My father stated that he would not agree to this proposal until he personally observed the Zhebin students at the time that he had fixed for their visit to Lubavitch, in Tishrei – until he saw for himself what both groups of students had gained from their studies of Chassidus and from the mentorship of R. Chanoch Hendel and R. Shmuel Gronem.

At 8:15 p.m. my father went for a walk until the time set for the evening meal, about half an hour before sunset. On the way he continued to speak of today’s two sessions, noting his satisfaction at the reports of the students that he had read, and expressing his hope that they would succeed in attaining their goals.

My father then said: “A document needs to be prepared that will give appropriate guidance to R. Shmuel Gronem and R. Chanoch Hendel in their mentorship. I will give you some writings on that subject that I composed about ten years ago, in 5648 (1888). When you have copied them I will check them afresh and edit them to suit the current needs of the students, and the passages that you consider to be appropriate you will hand to the mashpi’im.”

I am so exhausted from today’s exertion that I even told Shneur Zalman and Shmuel, the sons of R. Yaakov Mordechai of Poltava, that my head feels so heavy that I will not be able to give them their regular early-morning class from 5:00 to 7:00 a.m.

Disregarding my headache I have now recorded all of today’s events, and hope that tomorrow my father will give me the promised documents.

* * *

5.10 Tammuz, 5658 (1898), Bolivka, 10:00 a.m.

My teacher, Rashbatz,225 set out for Lubavitch to visit his family, and will stay there until Sunday or Tuesday (one of his wife’s relatives is getting married on Sunday), so I’ll have time to update my diary. The last three days haven’t allowed me time to write in an orderly fashion, only to jot down brief reminders.

Yesterday I finished working on the first of the documents that my father gave me on Thursday, 19 Sivan, and entitled it, “An Essay on Conduct.” I doubt whether it is well edited, because it is a composite of a long article, and two private letters that my father had addressed to his brother-in-law – my uncle, R. Moshe Leib Ginsburg,226 in the years 5647-5648 (1887-1888).

Yesterday, when I handed this composition to my father and he glanced at it, he said, “The strings are missing,” meaning that its component parts needed to be more clearly connected. “Nevertheless,” he continued, “as it stands it is an essay that clarifies what guidance should be given to students and how it ought to be presented, and also the essential prerequisites of both the guide and the guided.”

I shall now resume my work of writing up my brief jottings in full, day by day.

* * *

5.23 Menachem Av, 5658 (1898), Bolivka, 6:00 p.m.

At 2:00 p.m., when I returned with my wife in the mail carriage from our visit with my uncle, R. Moshe HaKohen Horenstein, and my aunt, Rebbitzin Mushka,227 in their estate near Yelnia, in the region of Smolensk, my father gave me that essay, with a number of edits. He instructed me to give him a clean copy of it after I had studied it two or three times.

He then added: “The teaching that ‘[reworking] old things is more difficult than [fashioning] new ones’228 applies in all areas. Indeed, in the words of R. Naftali Chaim,” (he was a self-styled expert builder and architect in Lubavitch,) “it’s easier to build a new house than to renovate an old barn or cowshed. And the above teaching about old things and new things applies here, too. The documents I gave you are filled with worthwhile statements and ideas, and their combination is also quite successful, but it does not yet suit its purpose in the education and mentorship of the yeshivah students. Nevertheless, until with G‑d’s help I write it up with a specific focus on the students, what now needs to be done is to copy it out and to pass it on to the two mashpi’im for their perusal. They will then no doubt be motivated to initiate ways and means of tackling the task of education and mentorship – and that alone justifies all the trouble involved.”

* * *

3.28 Menachem Av, 5658 (1898), Bolivka, 10:00 a.m.

Just now I gave my father the clean copy, together with an outline of its history, and a brief explanation that this project had been entrusted to me in response to the report that I had given on 18 Sivan on the state of the students at Zhebin and Lubavitch. My father’s comment: “Externally it looks fine, but its content, as I have said, is not yet sufficiently geared to the specific needs of the students.”

* * *

The above date, 10:00 p.m.

During today’s two-hour stroll, from about 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., my father spoke not only about the composite essay, but also about its subject in broader terms. I’m now going to jot down major points of this talk, so that in due course I will be able to write them up in full – and may G‑d grant that we recall all of my father’s holy words in their correct sequence.

* * *

4.29 Menachem Av, 11:00 a.m.

I rose as usual at 5:00 a.m., and the two above-named students, who live in the resort town of Zacharye, arrived at 5:30 for their regular Chassidus session. At 9:30, after davenen, I went to the room of my teacher, Rashbatz, to study, but he was still in the middle of Shacharis, so I studied alone until 10:30. He’s fasting, because today is Yom Kippur Katan.229 After davenen he told me that he wanted to visit the ohalim of my great-grandfather, the Tzemach Tzedek, and my grandfather, the Rebbe Maharash. He was waiting for Shlomo, the wagon-driver, who at 11:00 a.m. was due to leave the Krasnaye railway station and would soon take him to Lubavitch. Rashbatz intended to stay there, at home, until Sunday.

* * *

6.1 Elul, 4:00 p.m.

After Rashbatz left last Wednesday, I began to write up what my father spoke of on Tuesday, 28 Menachem Av, as noted above. I worked on it for two hours before the midday meal, and took it up again from 3:00 p.m. until accompanying my father on his stroll, from about 6:00 to 7:00. During that time I clarified various points with my father, and then resumed my work from 9:00 until midnight. And then yesterday after Shacharis, from 8:30 a.m. until the midday meal, I continued writing, keeping in mind what I had heard on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I then had to interrupt that work, because from the midday meal until it was time for my father’s stroll, and later again until late at night, I was kept busy by public affairs, as I described in yesterday’s diary entry.

In the course of that stroll, from 5:30 to 6:30, my father spoke about matters of public concern, as I noted yesterday, with only a few comments on education and mentorship.

At midday today I completed that project, which I entitled Klalei Chinuch VeHadrachah (“Principles of Education and Mentorship”), Second Edition – and I offer praise and gratitude to G‑d for His loving-kindness in granting me the privilege of working on it.

* * *

1.17 Elul, 11:00 p.m.

From 5:30 to 7:30 a.m., as instructed by my father, I studied alone the maamar in Likkutei Torah that begins Sos Asis, and after davenen, from 9:00 a.m. until the midday meal, I studied with my teacher, Rashbatz. At the table, my father told Rashbatz that this week he should teach me only until the midday meal, and that for the rest of the day I should attend to my studies alone. As to next week – that is, from the beginning of the days of Selichos230 until after Sukkos – he should give our studies a break. My father added that this was the schedule that he himself had followed after his marriage, as determined by his father, the Rebbe Maharash.

From the time we left the table until our daily stroll, at 5:30, I again studied the above maamar.

As we were walking, my father said: “This stroll is lacking peace of mind. Wherever you cast your eye, you observe how deeply the whole of Creation is to be pitied – the bare fields, the bare trees, the crestfallen tips of the sporadic blades of grass. All of Creation is yearning for a new burst of vitality. Everything around us reminds a person that he should do teshuvah and prepare himself to ask for forgiveness and pardon for the past, and ready himself for the coronation [on Rosh HaShanah] of the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He.”

My father continued: “I heard from my grandfather”231 – and the earnest awe with which he uttered those five words made my whole body shudder – “that in the year 5558 (1798), the [Alter] Rebbe joined the whole congregation for the first Selichos, in the big beis midrash in the courtyard. My grandfather recalled: ‘As soon as he entered, after midnight, the dire expression on his face cast a fearful dread over every man there. As for me, my heart shook within me. He reached his accustomed place, and remained motionless for some time in a state of rapturous dveikus. Finally, turning to face the congregation, he said:

[Concerning Rosh HaShanah] it is written, כִּי חֹק לְיִשְׂרָאֵל הוּא, מִשְׁפָּט לֵאלֹקֵי יַעֲקֹב – “For this is a statute for Yisrael, a judgment of the G‑d of Yaakov.”232 On a mystical [and utterly non-literal] level, this verse implies that even though הוּא is a חֹק לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, it is nevertheless a מִשְׁפָּט לֵאלֹקֵי יַעֲקֹב. [Three key words here each have a significant subtext, as follows:] The numerical value of the word כִּי (meaning “because”) is 30, alluding to the 30 “vessels” of Zu”n deAtzilus;233 the word הוּא (meaning “He”) refers to G‑d’s absolute Essence;234 and the word חֹק (meaning “statute”) shares a root with the word meaning “to engrave.”

Hence, the collective message of these words is that when G‑d’s absolute Essence is filtered through the 30 “vessels” of Zu”n deAtzilus, it becomes deeply engraved in the soul of every individual Jew. That ultimate level of the soul is called the yechidah,235 which is bound with Yachid – with G‑d, Who is unique.

Nevertheless, [even though it is innate,] there is “a judgment of the G‑d of Yaakov.” This judgment determines the extent to which we should be privileged to draw down [that ultimate soul-level in a revealed manner]. And that extent is proportionate to the avodah that was undertaken in the course of the past year.

Today one can still correct the past!

All those present were left awestruck – until the lion’s voice of Yosef Moshe, my grandfather’s baal tefillah, began the Selichos with the words, Ashrei yoshvei veisecha, and heartfelt sobbing could be heard on all sides.

[Here ends the description of that night by the Rebbe Maharash, as relayed by the Rebbe Rashab to the Rebbe Rayatz, who now continues:]

With a silent sigh, my father concluded: “One should not forget for a moment that by virtue of the word כִּי, which (as above) alludes to the 30 ‘vessels’ of Zu”n deAtzilus,236 G‑d’s absolute Essence is engraved in the soul of every single Jew. At the same time, however, one must not forget the above ‘judgment of the G‑d of Yaakov,’ and that at this time one can still correct the year that has passed, and thereby certainly upgrade the coming year.”

* * *

When I followed my father into his study after the stroll, he said: “This Chai Elul is the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Baal Shem Tov,237 and the first night of Selichos will be the 100th anniversary of the date on which the maamar on the [above-quoted] verse, Ki chok leYisrael hu, mishpat l’Elokei Yaakov, was first delivered.238 [The Tzemach Tzedek] once said that [the Mitteler Rebbe] had stated at the time that from the intense tone of [the Alter Rebbe] and from the content of his maamar, it was clear that accusatory voices in the Heavenly Court were seriously threatening the dissemination of the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. Indeed, their very survival was at stake. And in fact, at the time of the Alter Rebbe’s incarceration, that spiritual war came to a peak. Now, however, [the Mitteler Rebbe had added,] all of those who were of misnagdic stock, and stood in awe of Heaven, respected the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and his approach to Divine service. Those teachings had proved themselves by overpowering their most virulent antagonists, the firstborn sons of Satan – the notorious disbelievers of the Haskalah, the ‘Enlightenment’ movement.

“Some of their disciples, even though they had drunk the nauseous waters of their heretical mentors, have since discovered through various circumstances over the last twenty years that it was false accusations and evil hatred that motivated their utterly impure mentors of the Haskalah to attack the tzaddikim, with despicably abusive and scornful language that were a disgrace to those who wrote them. In fact, many of those who are proud to identify as today’s maskilim are ashamed to even mention the names of their ideological forebears. Today, the moderate and spiritually sensitive members of the literary community are expressing an interest in the history of the chassidic movement and in the spiritual lifestyle of chassidim. Those who remain are merely the insolent dogs who seek only unbridled licentiousness.

“A person with a sensitive soul who is familiar with the life of souls in the Lower and Higher Gan Eden – as described in the Zohar and in the classic works of Kabbalah and at length in Reishis Chochmah and Maavar Yabok and elsewhere – can picture the joy that prevails today, [Chai Elul,] in the heavenly abode of the Baal Shem Tov! Gathered there today are the guiding souls of the House of Israel, the Holy Brotherhood of his disciples and of their disciples, the nesi’im of the Jewish People, together with the many tens of thousands of souls with whom they are bound.

“Now, as the time for Maariv draws near, an announcement is no doubt being made in Heaven about the birthday celebration of the Baal Shem Tov: ‘Tzaddikim! Wake up! Prepare yourselves for the holy celebration!’ This invitation is addressed to all the neshamos – not only of the tzaddikim who have undergone their respective punishments, but to all the neshamos that have been purified after their revealed stay in the World below – because all souls have a common root in the World of Atzilus, and ultimately they all have a common root in the infinite Essence of Elokus.239 They are graded only with regard to the level at which they are revealed Below, and in the style of their avodah. And it is according to this level and this style of avodah that those souls are privileged to participate in that holy celebration.

“It is written that ‘at midnight, the Holy One, blessed be He, comes and delights in the company of the tzaddikim in the Garden of Eden. This is described in the Zohar,240 in the course of a lengthy discussion of various verses. The subject of His interaction with the souls of the tzaddikim is the mystical secrets of the Torah.241 True, the souls in the Lower and Higher Garden of Eden live in a world that is solely good and holy, with no unholy element, for in each world, its level of Gan Eden is its level of Atzilus, which is solely good. Nevertheless, even in that context there a difference between weekdays, Shabbos, and festivals. And it is certain that the delight of the Holy One, blessed be He, in the company of the tzaddikim in Gan Eden on this night will equal His delight on the festivals.”

My father continued: “When I contemplate the life-story of the Baal Shem Tov and of the Alter Rebbe, the way they devoted their lives to self-sacrificing toil in sanctification of the Name of G‑d by battling against the Evil Prosecutor in the World Above, and against those down here below who opposed their ideology and their teachings, and through the grace of G‑d they overcame them, it is clear to me that the current celebration of their birthday in Heaven must resemble the celebration that greets warriors who return from the battlefield, bedecked with wreaths of victory!

“It is written that ‘the Kingdom of Heaven resembles an earthly kingdom.’242 In an earthly kingdom, when a triumphant commander-in-chief returns from the battlefield, the king goes out and greets him personally, followed by all his ministers of state and the governors of his provinces. They all sing the victor’s praises, and his name is immortalized in the chronicles of the nation’s heroes. Since in the Kingdom of Heaven he is doubly rewarded,243 no man can envisage the intense joy and the luminous splendor that are now radiating in the heavenly abode of the Baal Shem Tov.

“A conquering hero is not feted alone. In addition, all of his soldiers and officers are customarily honored with medals and gifts, each according to his rank and to his loyal dedication to the cause. Likewise in today’s holy celebration Above. All the members of the Holy Brotherhood, all the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov and their disciples, and the nesi’im of Israel of the various generations, together with all of those who are spiritually bonded with them, – the souls of all of the above, each in his own way, will no doubt be presented today with the gift of an ongoing ascent.

“We, too, mere dwellers in houses of clay244 in this material world below, are being recalled by the celebrant Above, [the Baal Shem Tov,] who is arousing Heaven’s mercies on those who are following in the footsteps of his disciples, immersing themselves in the teachings of our forebears, the Rebbeim, along their broad path in Divine service – the path that requires avodah in one’s heart, refinement of one’s character attributes, and ahavas Yisrael, a love of every fellow Jew.

“The Baal Shem Tov is the educator par excellence and the Alter Rebbe is the mentor par excellence.”245

[The speaker until this point was the Rebbe Rashab. The Rebbe Rayatz now recounts:]

For another hour my father proceeded to discuss these two roles. As always, I’m now summarizing his words briefly, so that I’ll be able to record them at length in due course.

At 9:00 p.m. I left his study in really high spirits. I’m looking forward, with G‑d’s help, to celebrating the holy birthday of Chai Elul more fully than in previous years. My only concern was that tomorrow is Monday, the day on which my father customarily visits Lubavitch, but just now I heard that this week he will make the trip on Tuesday. So I am doubly hopeful that this year’s celebration will be really great.

My teacher, Rashbatz, told me that with my father’s sanction he would visit Lubavitch next Tuesday, and the following day he would be occupied in a spiritual farewell, taking his leave of the forest trees and the furrowed fields in which he had strolled throughout the summer. Starting from 5656 (1896), this was the third year in which he had customarily spent the whole of the last day of his stay in Bolivka in solitude, in the forest and the fields.

I’m still in the midst of summarizing my father’s talk, together with two annotated accounts of the Alter Rebbe in his childhood, concerning (a) his encounter with his great-grandfather, the gaon R. Moshe, and (b) his encounter with his uncle, the gaon R. Yosef Yitzchak. I’ve also been considering how best to dovetail this evening’s talk in the essay on the principles of education and mentorship.246

And look: it’s already daybreak!

* * *

5.21 Elul, 10:00 p.m.

Today I finalized the third version of that essay. I feel unusually weak, because [in order to maximize the clarity of] any abstract subject that I study, I have to (a) divide it into chapters, and (b) summarize its contents. In my work on this essay, likewise, I feel challenged by that weakness.

I can now fully appreciate the truth of the classic adage that (a) a man derives pleasure from the work of his hands, and that (b) a man derives more pleasure from the petty work of his own hands than from the gigantic work of the hands of others…