When We Stay Connected, Not Even the Sky is the Limit!
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
Yud Tes Kislev is a time for fabrengens and stories. We tell the story of the imprisonment and release of the Alter Rebbe. On Yud Kislev we tell story of the arrest and redemption of the Mittler Rebbe. In addition to these stories we also need to tell stories about Chassidim. Why? Isn’t it sufficient to tell stories about Rabbeim? What is gained from telling stories of Chassidim?
When we look into our lives and see all the challenges we face, we often look around towards others for examples of strength and courage that will help us to fulfill our shlichus. We need that kind of strength and inspiration to be able to speak back to ourselves when we hear a voice of weakness and compromise telling us to back off and take it easy. At these moments when we realize that we need to forge ahead and accomplish we need to have a sharp reply to the weakness: “What do you mean you cannot move forward? What do you mean it’s not relevant to you today? Sure it is, and surely I can and will succeed!” Where do we get the strength to speak that way and then act with such resolve? We get it from the inspiration found in the stories of Chassidim. These messages of inspiration and hope are not some far or distant thing that remains the sole domain of the Chassidim of a bygone era! Their real life stories about how they succeeded over and beyond their own personal difficulties offer us much inspiration and guidance! Once, the Chosid Abba Pliskin said at a fabrengen that the Rebbe clearly told him to tell stories of the Chassidim in addition to stories of the Rabbeim so that people would feel that the message is relevant to them.
In this week’s parsha Yaakov sends malachim to Eisav. The Previous Rebbe tells the story of the Maggid, who on the last Shabbos of his life in this world quoted this pasuk as he laid on his bed in the presence of the Chevraya Kaddisha. He quoted Rashi who says; malachim mamash, real malachim, and then added; the mamash (the body) of the malachim he sent to Eisav but the spiritual part remained with Yaakov.
The Rebbe asked; how is it possible to divide and separate between the body and the spirit? Do they divide so that the body can go to Eisav while their spirit can remain by Yaakov? Rashi’s comment taken simply means real malachim, not physical messengers. After everything is said and done Yaakov sent real malachim. They went to Eisav; nevertheless their spirit stayed with Yaakov and remained connected.
This is similar to each one of us in our shlichus here in this world. We have a neshama and we have a body. The neshama cannot make a dwelling place for Hashem in this world without the body. Nevertheless the neshama needs to stay connected to Hashem; the shliach has to stay connected to the mishaleiach, the one who sends him. So too a Chosid is connected to the Rebbe and he needs to stay connected.
When I was at the Kinus HaShuchim last year someone asked if I could confirm what he heard, that my father said Tefillas HaDerech every day he was away from 770. I told him that my father never told me but that it made sense for a few reasons. First, he was the kind of chosid that always wanted to be near to the Rebbe. It was very hard for him to be away. Also, he travelled a lot.
Another reason is the letter we found that he had always carried with him in his pocket for over 40 years to read and re-read wherever he went. From the letter I understood that father had a tshuka, a desire to be together with the Rebbe (it wasn’t enough for him to be accomplishing things on his own). The basic content of the Rebbe’s letter was that he shouldn’t feel that he is so far away on shlichus. This feeling of distance creates a longing, and this longing causes him to always be waiting for later, to return to 770. Rather, he should be where he is now on his shlichus and be happy in his shlichus. With this kind of outlook it makes sense that he might have said Tefillas HaDerech every day. This was how all Chassidim felt about being on shlichus at that time. What kept them going, whether in Russia or in Shanghai was the feeling, the tshukah to be by the Rebbe. That we may be on shlichus in this or that place but our true home is by the Rebbe.
At a Chai Elul fabrengen in 5734-1974 the Rebbe told a story about HaRav HaChosid Reb Shmuel Levitan A”H after his shiva. It was very emotional. Once Reb Shmuel told the Rebbe that after the KGB caught him he was sent to prison in Siberia. He told the Rebbe all the details. One morning while he was saying Birkas Hashachar he forgot the pronunciation of one of the brachos. Since he didn’t have a Siddur he kept going back and forth between the words “hanosein l’ayeif” and “hanosein l’yaeif koach”. The Rebbe said how amazing it was that here was this Chosid, in Siberian prison suffering with all physical difficulties and deprivations and instead of thinking about his physical needs his mind was preoccupied the detail of a bracha! The Rebbe said that it was because of his connection to the Rebbeim that he reached the level where this was his focus. Even when he was looking back in his memory of the events in prison, what he remembered about his experience was how he was davening, not his suffering. Once he was connected, this is what he remembered, not the pain. The Rabbeim lift us up to a different way of thinking which is not normally possible. But that’s what hiskashrus does; it uplifts us above our pain or personal troubles to see higher vistas and issues of greater importance. We see more broadly than the confines of our personal concerns.
Just as Reb Shmuel, a great Chosid but also a real person like you and I with his own difficulties reached above and beyond, so too us through our connection today to the Rebbe now more than ever, are we able to see above and beyond our own difficulties. What will remain are memories about how we did a mitzvah and how we fulfilled our shlichus in this world. This gives us the strength to accomplish the main shlichus in this world (not withstanding all of today’s challanges), which is to do all that we can to bring the revelation of Moshiach Now. Yaakov said to Eisav that he would meet him later in Seir. When will that will that meeting occur? With the completion of our shlichus and the coming of Moshiach Now!
Gut Yom Tov, L’Chaim, and a Good Shabbos