This week is parshas Matos. The Tzemach Tzedek explains that the Yidden are called both “Matos” and “Shevatim”. The difference between the two is that a shevet is the branch of a tree that has vitality and a mateh is a disconnected stick that is hard. The shevet represents the Jew in time of the Bais HaMikdash whose neshama feels openly connected to Hashem, while the mateh represents the Jew in galus who feels dry and lifeless. His virtue however, is that he’s hard and stiff, and like Moshe’s mateh can break through stone. Living through the galus brings out the strength of the neshama and its ability to overcome obstacles and difficulties. Being that now we are so many years after Gimmel Tammuz we need extra strength to arouse our neshamos to break through the walls of galus in these final moments before Moshiach’s arrival.
This past week was a chassunah of my nephew Eli, the son of my brother Yossi obm in Argentina. The Kallah’s father is the Head Shliach, Rav Tzvi Grunblatt. She is also a great granddaughter on her mother’s side of the Chosid Shlomo Aharon Kazenovsky. Rabbi Kazenovsky was a yedid, a close friend of my father. We spoke at the Chassuna about how with this marriage a new link has been added in the golden chain. Rabbi Kazenovsky came here to California to work with my father in communal affairs throughout the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. They were very close. Once when were traveling together to Israel, the Rebbe told Rabbi Kazenovsky to see to it that Rabbi Raichik eat properly. The Rebbe added that it didn’t mean according to Rabbi Raichik’s standards, but actually making sure that he ate the proper amount.
Rabbi Kazenovsky was over 20 years older than my father. He arrived in America in 1926 long before the war; my father only arrived after the war. Also, they were not similar types of Chassidim. My father was known for his intellect and his focus on avodah, while Rabbi Kazenovsky was known for his great perseverance of Chassidishkeit in America. So what was their connection that made them have such a closely bonded friendship? It was the fact that each one of them was connected in their inner core to the Rebbe. Both of them were strong like a mateh, each able to break through their challenges and remain complete. Raising a frum chassidishe family in America in 1926 who knew that they were Lubavitchers, or to live in Shanghi through the war without food to keep the Lubavitcher Yeshiva open took the same resolve; to be a mateh! To remain strong and stiff and to break through and prevail was something they both shared.
Rabbi Kazenovsky’s dedication to a proper chinuch in America was so strong that the Freidiker Rebbe said of him when he arrived in America that he had done better with his children than the very best, the cream of the students in Lubavitch. All his children married bachurim that learned in Yeshiva and had full beards. To teach his children to want his in those times is to be on the level of a mateh. The same is true of my parents who after six weeks of marriage in 1949 came to California on Shlichus. Growing up we knew that we were Lubavitch. It was stern and there was no wavering. We knew that we were connected to the Rebbe, no if’s, ands or buts’. We knew this even though we did not go to New York every year, or even visit the Rebbe until we were 11 or 12 years old. In a word; the absolute resolve that I have a Rebbe and will not budge is what united them.
Today we can take an important lesson in how we relate to and educate our children. We can instill the resolve and that connection that Chassidim have that breaks through all boundaries and challenges. We can instill the connection we have as Chassidim of one Rebbe. We have the power not only to overcome any form of peer pressure, we have the ability to infuse our surroundings with the resolve to guard every holy word and every psak halacha for everyone without exception. It is with this emunah and bitachon we live, and we instill this resolve into the next generation. This generation hardly had an opportunity to see the Rebbe. They see the Rebbe and Chassidus through our eyes. When we live this and instill this in our children then its one mishpacha. Then, together as one community, young and old we walk hand in hand to greet Moshiach Now!
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