הַשּׁוֹאֵל בַּמֶּה הִיא הַהִתְקַשְׁרוּת שֶׁלּוֹ אֵלַי מֵאַחַר שֶׁאֵין אֲנִי מַכִּירוֹ פָּנִים...

..הַהִתְקַשְׁרוּת הָאֲמִתִּית הִיא עַל יְדֵי לִמּוּד הַתּוֹרָה, כְּשֶׁהוּא לוֹמֵד הַמַּאֲמָרֵי חֲסִידוּת שֶׁלִּי, קוֹרֵא אֶת הַשִּׂיחוֹת וּמִתְחַבֵּר עִם יְדִידַי אַנְשֵׁי שְלוֹמֵינוּ וְתַלְמִידֵי הַתְּמִימִים יִחְיוּ בְּלִמּוּדָם וּבְהִתְוַעֲדוּתָם, וּמְקַיֵּם בַּקָּשָׁתִי בַּאֲמִירַת תְּהִלִּים וּבִשְׁמִירַת זְמַנֵּי הַלִּמּוּדִים, הִנֵּה בָּזֶה הִיא הַהִתְקַשְׁרוּת.

You ask: What does your spiritual bond with me — your hiskashrus — consist of, since I do not know you by face…?1

True connection is attained by Torah study. When you study my maamarim of Chassidus, read the sichos, associate with my friends(the members of the chassidic brotherhood2 and the temimim3 )in their studies and in their farbrengens, and fulfill my request by reciting Tehillim4 and maintaining a regular study schedule, — this is what constitutes hiskashrus.5

Living as a Chassid

One of the chassidim who addressed the above-quoted question to the Rebbe Rayatz, and who received the above-quoted reply, was R. Moshe Zalman Feiglin, who for decades had been his only known chassid in Australia. Throughout that time he had maintained a loving and reverent correspondence with his Rebbe, but never saw him.

One Friday night he woke up suddenly and hurried anxiously into the dining-room to discover what had woken him: a framed photograph of the Rebbe Rayatz, which for years had occupied pride of place on a sideboard at the head of the room, had fallen to the floor. Pointing at the shattered glass he said quietly, “Something has happened!”

His young grandson, who kept him company because he had been recently widowed, did his best to reassure him that there must have been a draft, or perhaps a tremor; so, too, two neighbors who came by in the morning, but to no avail. The elder chassid, who had never been known to be shocked out of his tranquil faith and equanimity, could find no peace.

Finally, some time after Shabbos, the ominous telegram from Brooklyn arrived. The date of that Shabbos was Yud Shvat, 5710 (1950) — the date on which the Rebbe Rayatz, on the other side of the globe, passed away.6

*

Individuals who share similar thoughts and aspirations, who are “of one mind,” do not have to actually see each other to feel connected. How much more so with regard to the linkage of souls, the hiskashrus, between a chassid and his Rebbe.

In Stalinist Russia there were chassidim who never saw the Rebbe Rayatz, but were willing to give their lives for him. Some actually did. In our generation, too, there are chassidim who never saw the Rebbe, yet by studying his teachings and living their lives in the light of his directives, they are bound to him, heart and soul.