This volume sparkles with seemingly-simplistic but thought-provoking farbrengens. What generates their magnetic charm?
To be sure, they offer refreshing Kabbalistic insights on classic concepts in the teachings of Chassidus. In addition, they offer original spiritual perspectives that penetrate the familiar surface of seemingly two-dimensional Talmudic teachings. Moreover, more freely than in the talks and writings of any of his predecessors, the Rebbe Rayatz1 allows us a peek into the homes of the Rebbeim of their respective generations, and describes picturesque customs that were observed uniquely in those homes. He records conversations within the family that he recalled from his childhood, and not only conversations in This World. Beyond those, he shares with us whispers heard from another world – by pinpointing the effect of thinking about a departed tzaddik, or by describing critical moments in his life that illustrate the unique father-son bond between his father, the Rebbe Rashab,2 and himself.
These farbrengens are also spiced by multidimensional portraits of memorable chassidim that are so animated that they leave the reader with the sensation that he himself actually recalled them from somewhere. One picturesque example involves R. Yekusiel of Liepli, whom the Alter Rebbe3 once irradiated with a perception of Elokus that resembled physical sight. And from that time on, whenever R. Yekusiel walked down the street and this light flared up within him, the heartfelt Tohu within him overmastered his cerebral Tikkun, and he would break into a jolly dance. (On one such occasion, when he was standing in the local post office, the old light flared up within him, so his partner for that dance was – the local postmaster!)
The tone and savor of life in the township of Lubavitch and in the shul come to life in many contexts – including the traditionally scornful attitude of Chabad to virtuoso chazzanim, and to self-satisfied burghers who yearn to be seated at the mizrach, the prestigious front row. The Chabad attitude to the study of Tanach and of the grammatical rules of dikduk is also addressed.
However, to revert to our opening question: What is the ingredient that generates the magnetic charm of this volume’s seemingly-simplistic but thought-provoking farbrengens?
The answer: Over and beyond all of the above-mentioned subjects, these farbrengens collectively define the DNA of a true Chabad chassid.
This underlying goal surfaces in a variety of contexts. For example: Among his insights on avodah, the Rebbe Rayatz speaks highly of chassidim who spurned mofsim and who managed to live in their own spiritual space. In another context, he describes a chassid of the Rebbe Maharash4 who never ate “craved meat.” As an instance of the ideal spiritual lifestyle of chassidim, he records the ruthlessly candid soul-talk of two vintage chassidim, whom he once heard as a child, in the course of their bed-time Kerias Shema. As another manifestation of that spiritual lifestyle, he shows how mutual support within the chassidic brotherhood promotes joy and individual effort. To highlight the trap of pious self-delusion, he tells us that R. Aizik of Homil recalled in his later years that when he and his friends were early students of the Alter Rebbe, “we thought that the angels envied us! We lacked nothing – or so, at least, we thought…” And to pinpoint the diverse paths of Mussar and Chassidus, he tells how the overly-self-assured Torah genius known as R. Yosef Kol-Bo became humbly and sweetly attracted to the teachings of the Alter Rebbe.
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As a neshamah klalis, the possessor of a comprehensive soul that keenly felt the suffering of all the contemporary Jewish souls of which he was the vortex, the Rebbe Rayatz was intensely pained by the horrendous events in the European inferno of 1944. He was also pained by the fact that here, in the Free World, many of the American rabbis whom he encountered had despaired of any solution to the ravages of assimilation and of non-kosher Jewish education. In response to the widespread frigidity in the face of the dangers inherent in the ideologically-godless Jewish schools, the Rebbe Rayatz addressed his alert to those rabbis and also to the so-called communal leaders, “whose sleep is disturbed by the fact that five miles away, on Eastern Parkway, Jews go about with beard and peyos.”
Mustering momentous inner resources, he transmuted his own pain into a springboard that intensified his unrelenting campaign to rouse the rabbis from the paralyzing passivity that was born of their despair.
Citing the universal self-conscription of the American public to the war effort, he demanded of the rabbis and of all his listeners unstinting self-dedication to the task of educational outreach – inspiring and persuading innocently unthinking parents to enroll their children in schools that would instill within them the ideals of the Torah. At another time the Rebbe Rayatz assured us: “The words of tzaddikim are alive eternally.” And if his urgent cry from the heart was relevant in 1944, how much more do we need to respond to it today, by intensively dedicating all our efforts in the cause of outreach – and inreach, too.
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This volume was translated and annotated5 by Uri Kaploun, scrutinized by Rabbi Sholom B. Wineberg, Executive Director of Chabad-Lubavitch activities in the states of Kansas and Missouri, designed and typeset by Yosef Yitzchok Turner, and prepared for publication by Rabbi Shmuel Avtzon, Director of Sichos In English. Thanks are due to: Rabbi Sholom Dober Levin, editor of Toldos Chabad B’Artzos Ha’Bris, 5660-5710, for historical information; Rabbi Aharon Leib Raskin of Otzar HaChassidim, for his willing assistance in locating and interpreting sources; and to our many fellow chassidim who volunteered valuable background information.
This is the seventh volume to appear in a unique series that is giving thousands of eager readers the gift of direction and inspiration. The entire series owes its ongoing success above all to the far-sighted initiative of its sponsor, Yossi Malamud.
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These lines are being written at a challenging time for the Jewish People and for the world at large, a time that recalls the Gulf War of 1990-1991 in the wake of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. At that time, the Rebbe highlighted the prophetic words of Midrash Yalkut Shimoni6 that speak of a time at which “the entire world will panic and be stricken with consternation…. The Jewish People, too, will panic and be confounded.”
At that time, the Rebbe focused on two major messages.
Firstly: A person’s bitachon – his unwavering trust in G‑d to the point that, unworried, he casts his burden on Him7 – arouses a benevolent response from Above. In the Yiddish words of the classic chassidic teaching, Tracht gut – vet zain gut.8 In English, “Think positively – and the outcome will be positive.”
Secondly: Jews in particular are heartened by keeping in mind that every event, whether microscopic or global or cosmic, is programmed and monitored from Above by Hashgachah Peratis, Divine Providence. And in this spirit, the above passage assures us that G‑d tells His People, “My children, have no fear. Whatever I have done, I have done only for your sake.”
As was quoted above, “The words of tzaddikim are alive eternally.” As to the practical conclusions of these two messages, every one of us no doubt can work out how they can be applied in the practicalities of his or her life – until we will be privileged at long last to witness the time at which, in the words of Yalkut Shimoni, “Mashiach will stand on the roof of the Beis HaMikdash and proclaim, ‘Humble ones: The time for your redemption has arrived!’ ”
Sichos In English
11 Nissan, 5780 (2020)
