Yud Beis Tammuz: A Time to Connect
and to Break Through the Boundaries of Nature!
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
While preparing for Yud Beis-Yud Gimmel Tammuz I came across a manuscript of a drasha given by ‘The Rav’, HaRav Dov Ber Soloveitchik about the nature of Chabad-Lubavitch. He delivered the drasha at the celebration of the Lubavitcher Yeshiva while standing in the presence of the Previous Rebbe. From the viewpoint of the Rav, not himself a Lubavitcher Chosid, it illuminates what we have and what we can accomplish as Chassidim of the Rebbe. It is therefore a good idea to provide a few excerpts in the following paragraphs as we approach Yud Beis and Yud Gimmel Tammuz, which offer a taste of the message he conveyed.
As a child I grew up in a small town in Russia where there lived both Chassidei Chabad and Misnagdim. My Melamed was specifically a Lubavitcher Chosid! During class it was not uncommon to have debates about who was greater, the “Gaon” (the Vilna Gaon) or the Alter Rebbe. As I traveled here today by train, in my thoughts I concluded that the best possible comparison there is, to the exclusion of any other that best describes the Lubavitcher Rebbe is; the Lubavitcher Rebbe is non other than the Rabi Chanina ben Dosa of our generation. Rabi Chanina ben Dosa took control over and governed the laws of nature!
The Gemara in Taanis (25a) tells how on a Friday night Rabi Chanina ben Dosa saw that his daughter was sad. She explained that she accidently poured vinegar into the lamp and lit the Shabbos candles. He consoled her saying she had nothing to be concerned about because; “The One Who commanded oil to ignite can command vinegar to ignite as well”. And so it was! So too it was when the Rebbe sent out His directives from Lubavitch to the Chassidim of the small town of my youth, even vinegar ignited; Lubavitch took control over nature!
The Gemara tells another story about a certain woman named Aiku, a neighbor of Rabi Chanina ben Dosa. She was building a house but the beams did not reach from wall to wall. She came before R. Chanina and asked him; “I built my house but my beams don’t reach (from wall to wall)”. He asked her for her name and then said; “Aiku (translation: “oh how, or may”) your beams reach (from wall to wall)”. The wall elongated the necessary length. The Chassidim of my town, man and woman would go to Lubavitch to visit the Rebbe. They left burdened with their many troubles. They would meet with the Rebbe and cry out that their homes were collapsing under the pain and suffering of their burden, which they did not have the wherewithal to bear. The Rebbe gave them His advice and His bracha. That man or woman returned home happy full of optimism and hope because the beams upon which their homes rested were now elongated and able to support their home.
Images of that cruel era in Tsarist Russia pass through my memory. On one side stood the evil decrees waged against the Jews by the government. On the other side were the pressures being mounted by the Enlightenment movement that tried with it’s well known cadre of inciters to use force and cunning in an attempt to assert it’s ideology into the minds and hearts of the Jewish community. With all of this tightening like a noose from all sides the Litvishe Yeshiva was threatened and then closed. Lubavitch however stood up with mesirus nefesh, opposed the onslaught and went ahead to trample the snake. Again this is reflected in the activities of Rabi Chanina ben Dosa. The Gemara in Brachos (33a) tells a story that occurred in a certain place where there was an arod (a wild donkey) that would harm people. They came and told Rabi Chanina ben Dosa. He said to them; “Show me its burrow”. He placed his heel over the mouth of the burrow. When the arod exited, he bit him and then died. He placed it on his shoulder and bought it to the Beis Medresh etc. At that time they said; “Woe to the man who meets an arod, but woe to the arod who is met by Rabi Chanina ben Dosa”. Also Lubavitch; it has trampled the wild donkeys and the snakes of inciters; those that seek to destroy Judaism.
In the Sichos we find that the Rebbe compares the Previous Rebbe to Rabi Chanina ben Dosa (24th Teves 5723-1963). We learn from this that the Rebbe gives us the strength to light up the neshamos of Klal Yisroel. Every Jew has pure olive and a wick. Some will say that you are mistaken. They will say that some are so far away that they no longer have any oil, and that what he has left in him is spoiled (hichmitz) turned to vinegar. Don’t be afraid; it will burn, even better, as the Gemara ended with the story of the Shabbos candles, that it burned the entire Shabbos until the end. So too our job is to light up neshamos until Moshiach and not be afraid.
Also we can learn that our homes are not falling apart. If we feel that the beams are weak, that it is difficult to uphold the warmth of Judaism in our turbulent times. Once we connect to the Rebbe, the Rabi Chanina ben Dosa of our generation then the beams become elongated, meaning that the connection and warmth of His Torah and His guidance gives us the strength and inspiration to fill our homes with the warmth and light of Judaism and Chassidus.
Even when Judaism is being attacked from all sides, from within and without, as we see happening with the Enlightenment movement of our times (the wild donkey which bites), with regard to marriage, education, decency, not to mention foreign affairs. Nevertheless we go forward uninterrupted, staying connected to the Rebbe and focused on guidance of the Rebbe in all aspects, including the 12th Ani Maamain, the belief in the coming of Moshiach and living with it. This gives us the ability to burn the vestiges, the walls of galus and bring the revelation of Moshiach Now.
A Good Shabbos