גְּדוֹלֵי זִקְנֵי חֲסִידֵי רַבֵּנוּ הַזָּקֵן הָיוּ אוֹמְרִים, אֲשֶׁר “יְחִידוּת" פֵּרוּשׁוֹ: קְלאָר, אָפְּגעֶשְׁטעֶלט, פאַראֵיינְצִיגְט — מְקוֹר ג' פֵּרוּשִׁים אֵלוּ הוּא בְּדִבְרֵי רַבּוֹתֵינוּ זִכְרוֹנָם לִבְרָכָה שְׁקָלִים פֶּרֶק ו' מִשְׁנָה ב', יְבָמוֹת ס"ב. א, בְּרֵאשִׁית רַבָּה פֶּרֶק כ' — זֹאת אוֹמֶרֶת כִּי עִנְיַן הַיְחִידוּת הוּא לְבָרֵר אֶת מַצָּבוֹ, וְלִקְבּוֹעַ אוֹפֶן עֲבוֹדָתוֹ בְּסוּר מֵרָע וּלְקָרֵב אֶת הַמִּדּוֹת הַטּוֹבוֹת, וּלְהִתְקַשֵּׁר בְּהִתְאַחֲדוּת גְּמוּרָה וְלִמְסוֹר עַצְמוֹ, אִיבּעֶרגעֶבעֶן זִיך מִיט אַלעֶ רְצוֹנוֹת.

The vintage chassidim of the Alter Rebbe would offer [three] interpretations of the word yechidus: (a) clarifying; (b) designating [one’s principles]; and (c) bonding [with the Rebbe]. The sources for these three interpretations are found in three statements of the Sages — in Shekalim 6:2,1 Yevamos 62a,2 and Bereishis Rabbah 20[:7],3 respectively.

Implied is that yechidus clarifies one’s [spiritual] situation, designates the pattern of one’s Divine service in turning away from evil and fostering positive character traits,4 and bonds [a chassid to his Rebbe] in perfect union, enabling him to devote himself and all his personal desires to the Rebbe.

A Story with an Echo

Chassidim relate the word yechidus to the name of the innermost of the Divine soul’s five levels — the yechidah, intimating that a yechidus is an intimate spiritual encounter between the yechidah of the chassid with the yechidah of his Rebbe. Accordingly, though a yechidus is normally a flesh-and-blood meeting, it is not necessarily so.

In 1964, R. Mendel Futerfas finally joined his family in London after his long years in a remote Siberian hard-labor camp. He then related an incident that had taken place during a prison sentence in the late 1940s: “Throughout the period of the interrogations, my head wasn’t free to think about myself or about anyone else. My mind was focused exclusively on how to conduct myself at the next interrogation, what to say and what not to say. Not until the eve of Lag BaOmer, when I was sentenced to eight years’ exile in a gulag, did I begin to think a little about myself. It was then that I recalled the words of the Rebbe Rayatz, who had once said: ‘As to all those [who are still in Russia, and especially those who are imprisoned there], let them think intensely about me — and I will think intensely about them.’ And that’s what I did. As soon as I found myself in my cell, I stood in a corner with eyes closed, and in my mind’s eye I now stood facing the Rebbe Rayatz at yechidus, or at least was now writing him a letter, telling him about my present predicament.

“Not until many years later, when I finally left Russia for England, did I discover that on that very same day, the eve of Lag BaOmer, the Rebbe Rayatz had sent a telegram to my family [in their refugee camp in Austria], addressed to my name: ‘Your telegram was received.’

“When the Rebbe’s telegram first arrived, my family assumed that I had managed to fool my way to some place outside Russia, and from there had sent a telegram to the Rebbe Rayatz, to which he had now replied. But then they heard that I was in exile in Siberia. The telegram now became utterly inexplicable. Only when I arrived in London in 5724 (1964) did we all realize that it was the response of the Rebbe Rayatz to the ‘yechidus’ in my cell.”5

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When a chassid seeks out his Rebbe, the Rebbe will seek him out in return.