How can we overcome jealousy, anxiety and other worldly distractions that threaten to derail us? There is a way to do it, and even an “express lane.” It pays to stop a moment and get in touch with the yechida that operates within us and the electronic circuits it creates, in order to develop a complete redemptive operating system.
A point from the weekly D’var Malchus for Parshas Shlach with a relevant message * What connection is there between Moshe’s spies and Yehoshua’s spies, division and unification?
In k’dusha, there isn’t and there can’t be something that is devoid of meaning. Every word has a purpose. And even if sometimes we don’t understand the deeper meaning hidden behind a certain word, every person needs to be careful to fulfill the words of the Sages with awe. • From a speech said at a Chaf-Ches Nissan gathering in Kfar Chabad
An internal dialogue which most of us will identify with.
When the wagon stopped for the third time that day, even the gentiles realized that everything that happened with the Nasi Ha’dor was with his consent. The axles broke, the horse died, and nature changed all because the Alter Rebbe wanted to spend Shabbos on the roadside.
Each time he looked at me with his holy eyes, I was seized by trembling and I lowered my gaze. I tried to prove to myself that this was no dream but I was really standing near the Rebbe. How did I deserve this?
A lecture from the Maggid of Yerushalayim, Rabbi Sholom Schwadron (1912-1997) a”h about the statement of Chazal which says, “Yaakov Avinu did not die” and the difficulty people have accepting this literally. * What did the Rambam tell people who had doubts in emuna and what connection is there to what Rav Yochanan said, in his proof to Vespasian? * Word for word from the book, “L’Haggid.” * Presented for Gimmel Tammuz
46 years ago, shortly before the Six Day War, the Rebbe announced Mivtza T’fillin. * T’fillin as the prototype for all mitzvos. * T’fillin in the head or on the head? * Mivtza T’fillin – an antidote to habit. * Another article prepared for Beis Moshiach that was discovered after R’ Ashkenazi’s untimely passing.
This attitude is what undermines Jewish continuity because Jewish people can only thrive when they have a cohesive existence under the guidance of competent leaders. To slander the leader threatens to unravel the chords that bind us together as a people and threatens our very existence.
Over the years, the Rebbe did what he had to do to bring the Sh’china down to this world. What is demanded of us is to bring out the Nachshon within us, the point of mesirus nefesh. How do we do that? We each need to consult with our mashpia and come up with a plan.
There is no point in measuring ourselves up to the Rebbe in his manner of avoda. The Rebbe asks that we do according to our abilities and strength. That means he doesn’t expect me to do as he does; he expects me to do as myself.
That child-like innocence that hasn’t yet been tainted by our intellectual nature may be lying dormant. We must do something drastic, unorthodox and unconventional to awaken it.
June 17, 2014