The Simcha of Life and the Ultimate Simcha is found in the Details
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
I recently heard* about someone who asked a Rabbi why it is that the Jewish religion seems to obsess over insignificant details. For example - how much matza we have to eat or which spoon was used for milk and which fork for meat, or the correct way is to tie shoelaces. Is this nitpicking what we call holiness? It seemed to this person that this misses the bigger picture by focusing on minutiae and he really wanted an answer. He sent the Rabbi an email but did not receive a reply. After waiting a week he sent it again, then later again, but still no reply. He began to think perhaps he had finally asked the Rabbi a question that he couldn’t answer.
Sometime later he bumped into the Rabbi and complained that he hadn’t received an answer to what he considered to be a legitimate question. The Rabbi answered that I never claimed to have all the answers, but it happens to be that I did answer your question and sent a reply immediately. The fact that you didn't receive it is itself the answer to your question.
When I sent you my reply, I wrote your email address leaving out the "dot" after gmail before the "com". I figured that you should still receive the email, because after all, it’s just one little dot missing. I mean come on, it's not as if I wrote the wrong name or something extreme like that! Why should anyone make a fuss if you differentiate between "gmail" and "gmail.com"? Can it be possible that you didn't get my email just because of a little dot? Doesn't that sound a bit ridiculous?
Then the Rabbi continued, but I know that it really is not ridiculous. That’s because the dot is not just a dot. It has meaning far beyond the pixels on the screen that form it. To me it may seem insignificant, but that is simply due to my ignorance of technology. All I know is that with the dot, the message gets to the right place; without it, the message is lost to virtual oblivion.
It’s the same with the way we learn the Torah and do mitzvos. They have infinite depth. Every nuance and every detail is important, every dot counts.
The Gemara on the pasuk of this weeks parsha Kedoshim says; Hiskadishtem-Make yourselves holy, this refers to washing before bread, mayim rishonim and; V’hayisem kedoshim refers to washing after the meal, mayim achronim. Like the man who asked the Rabbi we learn from here a similar lesson. The Torah is speaking about being holy, what does such a lofty spiritual thing have to do with such a seemingly mundane activity as washing the hands? It’s to teach that kedusha can only be felt when it’s brought into the fine detail. By making sure that there is no chatzitza, to use a towel and wash 3 times completely covering the entire hand each time is how we bring kedusha into our lives.
For us in Chabad this extends to our observances of cholov Yisroel, pas Yisroel and shechita. Both we, and our children have the custom of placing negel vaser by our beds and wearing tzitzis at night. We need to treasure the opportunity we have to but “the ‘dot’ before the com”; Ashreinu, mah tov chelkeinu! When someone is taking care of the details of preparing for a simcha, IT DOESN’T EVEN ENTER HIS MIND to think that ‘nebech’ I have these details to take care of. He is thinking of the great simcha just ahead and all that is connected to it. This carries him along as he prepares. This is even truer and more so with mitzvos and our minhagim.
We don’t rely upon the heter of Rav Moshe for milk, which by the way has been taken out of context. It was never intended for places where you can get cholov Yisroel as Rav Moshe himself clearly stated. We need to ask ourselves what are we taking in from the world that weakens us to the point that we allow ourselves to think in such a way that we misapply a leniency to such an extent. It’s a sign that we need to get back on track.
The Previous Rebbe told the following story on Shevei Shel Pesach 1936. The chassidim of the Mittler Rebbe were asking each other about what it was that the Alter Rebbe wanted to accomplish with chassidus. They came to conclusion that he wanted that us to take all the things in life that are permitted-reshus, and to treat it as if it were required-chova (This means that if someone has an opportunity to use anything for kedusha then he should and must take responsibility to do so [chova] and if he cannot then he should avoid using it altogether, as it says “Kedoshim tehiu-You shall be sanctified” and “Sanctify yourself with that which is permitted”). Later on, the fabrengen reached a lofty level of simcha and the chassidim broke out into dance. In the midst of the simcha, the Rebbe the Tzemach Tzedek (who was not yet the Rebbe at that time) stopped the dancing and called out the following. “Turning that which is permissible into that which is required-chova” has already been accomplished by our teacher the Baal Shem Tov and the Rav HaMaggid. To get into debt, to take on new responsibilities does not require Chochma, Bina vDaas (Chabad). The Alter Rebbe has shown us the way to pay off the debt, how to use our Chabad to accomplish our avodah in a way that we are not indebted.”
Every one of us, every Chabad Chosid chooses which way to go. Are we influenced (even subtly) by the culture we find ourselves? Does it creep into our thinking to the point that we begin to look upon things similar to that man with his question for the Rabbi? Or do constantly upgrade our attitude of simcha as we follow in the ways of Chabad Chassidus, as we pay attention to the small details as we prepare for the true simcha, the Geula heamitis v’hashleima? It’s not a burden and we are not a ‘nebach’, we are the most fortunate of all. The choice is ours but we cannot fool ourselves into thinking that there’s some safe middle ground because it’s an illusion that does not exist.
Even though kedusha means removed, more like the love and fear of the angels and flying in the heavens. The reality is however that Hashem desires the small stuff, the details. That’s why every specific of life is covered in halacha, right down to cutting your nails, getting dressed with your right side before left and how you tie your shoes! And for Chabad Chassidim this includes all of our minhagim as well. That’s the dot before the com., then the person and his entire being is really connected and then, a spiritual vibration is emailed throughout the universe, all the way to Hashem’s inbox, from where he will send Moshiach and we will all celebrate together. Good Shabbos.
*(adapted from Rabbi Aaron Moss)