What I learned about Elul
from the Rebbe’s Fabrengen that I didn’t Attend
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
The Chosid Rav Mordecai Perlow learned in Lubavitch and his teacher and mashpia was Rav Michoel der Alter. There was a story with a lesson that Rav Michoel would often tell over at his fabrengens with the bachurim. Rav Mordecai wrote the story and submitted to the Rebbe when he heard that the Rebbe asked that Chassidim should write stories and submit them. One year on a Yud Shevat the Rebbe told over the story.
At that time the many small villages often didn’t have enough children to support an entire cheder so sometimes several villages would combine and hire an experienced melamed. The melamed was literate while often the villagers were not. When villagers would receive mail that they could not read, they would bring it to the melamed to read out loud. One day the melamed read out loud a letter to a villager that said that his father had passed away. The villager, when hearing this immediately passed out. Rav Michoel would ask why the teacher didn’t faint, after all he was the one who read the letter and understood the words best. The common answer was that he didn’t faint because it wasn’t his father. Rav Michoel then explained the meaning of the story saying that this is the point of Chassidus and what it means to be a Chosid. If we don't recognize that when we speak about Hashem that it’s Avinu, that Hashem is our father, then we missed the entire point. When we learn Chassidus and then apply it to our personal life then we come to realize that Hashem is our Father.
This story is applicable to the Rebbe’s Sichos and Maamarim. Some feel that since they weren't there at the fabrengen, or since they never met the Rebbe because they were born after Gimmel Tammuz then it's not relevant to them. When we relate to these teachings as theoretical and they are not applied to our personal lives they don't have the proper effect.
Elul is when we look over the past year at what we have accomplished with our time and what we should do going forward. In the maamar “Lo t’hei mashakela” from 5712-1952 the Rebbe brings the Gemara from Brachos about Rebbe Yochanan ben Zakai. Rebbe Yochanan ben Zakai was crying at the end of his life because he said that there were two possible roads, one to Gan Eden and the other the opposite and he didn't know upon which he was going. Rebbe Yochanan ben Zakai learned the Torah for 40 years, taught the Torah for 40 years and was the leader of Klal Yisroel for 40 years (He lived 120 years). Why was he unsure on which road he was going and why did he cry? The Rebbe explains that throughout his entire life was so fully engrossed in his service of Hashem that he didn't stop long enough to look at himself and figure out if everything he was doing was exactly correct.
When we are born there is a timestamp placed in our passport. We are given a specific number of minutes to fulfill our specific purpose in bringing Hashem Echod into this world. Rebbe Yochanan ben Zakai had no time to reflect on himself because our entire lives should be filled with our specific purpose of bringing Hashem Echod into this world. If we will stop and divert the precious time we have to think about ourselves then we will use up the necessary time to accomplish our specific mission. At the end of his life however it was time to make an account and therefore he cried.
When the Rebbe said over this part of the Maamar he became emotional and cried. It was similar to the anguish of Rebbe Yochanan ben Zakai mentioned in the Gemara.
As Chassidim we try to take the Rebbe’s Sichos and Maamarin to heart and try to apply them to ourselves and our personal lives even though we were not at the fabrengen where the Sicha or the Maamar was delivered. When I relive in my mind the story Rebbe Yochanan ben Zakai, the way the Rebbe cried and what it means to me it shakes me up and I begin to think about how to better use my time and what to focus on. There's no time to waste and not one minute will come back to fulfill the purpose of our lives. The myriad of distractions from iPhones to iPads to social media need to brought under our control and redirected towards learning Sichos and Maamarim and taking them to heart and into our daily lives.
Elul reminds us to take our time seriously, take stock and improve and utilize our time in the service of Hashem, and greet Avinu Malkeinu, our Father and our King on Rosh Hashana with renewed vitality with the geula now.
To be continued.
A Good Shabbos