Yes We Can!
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
During Lag B’Omer, this last Sunday I was recalling various years of Lag B’Omer as they were by the Rebbe. One year stood out in particular, from 40 years ago, 5733. That year the Rebbe did not come out to the parade. He spoke at the Shabbos fabrengen before Lag B’Omer about what the children should be told about Rebbi Akiva and Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai at the parade.
Many times when we speak, I hear comments such as “You were there” or “What can you expect of me, I never saw the Rebbe” etc.. This is why the Sicha stuck me. The Rebbe asked; who is Rebbe Akiva? He was the biggest Rabbi. The Mishna goes according to his opinion. He had 24 thousand students etc.. We should say to the children that they too can be from those students who lived through the plague and through whom the Torah was restored. This occurred after Lag B’Omer, when the students went forward with Ahavas Yisroel, following in the way of the “klal Gadol” of their Rebbe, Rebbe Akiva of V’Ahavta L’Reecha Kamocha.
A child may ask; what do I have to do with such a great person as Rebbe Akiva. He is a person who reached such heights and accomplished so much, I’m not even on the same map! The Rebbe said to answer the child to begin to look into the life of Rebbe Akiva. What do we know about him? We know that until he was 40 years old, he didn’t even know how to read! He started with aleph-bais at 40.
Another question we may hear is; why do you ask me to change? I don’t come from a family of big Rabbis or Chassidim, my parents didn’t give me the proper education etc. , How can you have high expectations for me, I’m a simple person? Let’s look again to Rebbe Akiva. He was the son of gerim. He had no yichus at all! We know that he wasn’t allowed to be the Nasi because of his background. Nevertheless he persevered and became the great Rebbe Akiva.
Even after all of this, the child may persist. He will acknowledge the lessons that we can learn from the life of Rebbe Akiva in our own lives but he wants a guarantee of success, to be sure that it’s worth all the effort. We tell him, Rebbe Akiva saw no miracles nor did he receive any guarantees. What did he see? He saw water that had been continuously dripping on a rock. It had made a hole in the rock. He took a lesson. If the water can penetrate a rock, so too a head like a rock can be penetrated by the waters of the Torah.
So too we can learn a lesson today in 2013. We can be chassidim of the Rebbe and fulfill the Rebbe’s directives. We can do this; even if our father wasn’t a chosid, even if we didn’t see the Rebbe, even if we are not learners; and we are never too old!
This is also true for the Rebbe’s “klal gadol” to live inyanei geula and Moshiach. One may ask, if he didn’t come in previous generations what can we possibly accomplish? The answer is; just like Rebbe Akiva did not look backward only forward, so too us, we never look backward, we only look forward. Every day we can do a little more to materialize the Rebbe’s vision of the revelation of Moshiach Now!
A good Shabbos