Dear Reader sh’yichyeh,
This week, the week of Parshas Lech Lecha, marks the beginning of our second journey through the HaYom Yom. We started the week of Parshas Lech Lecha last year and we intend to go through another year as well. Last year we focused on the HaYom Yom and the lessons to be learned in our Avoda to bring Moshiach. This year we will be adding something as well: a lesson from the sichos of 5738.
Chazal tell us that “Arba’in shni’n ka’i inish adatei derabei – It takes forty years to fully grasp the depth of the teachings of your teacher.” This year, 5778, marks forty years since 5738. Therefore there is no question that there should a special emphasis on the sichos and maamarim of that year. In addition to the general concept of focusing on the sichos of forty years ago, the sichos of 5738 hold special significance and lessons for our current times.
We all know that on Shmini Atzeres of 5738 the Rebbe suffered a heart-attack and the Chassidim feared for the life of the Rebbe. With tremendous nissim and full dedication to the words and instructions of the Rebbe, the Rebbe survived and thrived. In the months of the recovery, the Rebbe would not farbreng on Shabbos, rather on Motzaei Shabbos from his room. The sichos and maamarim of that time have a consistent theme: concealment is all part of the process of greater revelation. It is repeated over and over in different contexts throughout. The Rebbe felt that these messages are so important that he agreed to edit these sichos and maamarim, something the Rebbe did not do much at that time, so that it would have the official stamp of approval. They are printed in the back of Likkutei Sichos Volume 20 and in Seifer Maamarim Meluket Volume 1.
The connection to our current situation is obvious. We are living in a special time, right before the Geula. The prophecies of Geula are being fulfilled before our eyes. We see that “since we find ourselves in the highest time of the coming of our righteous Moshiach, ‘Behold he (the king Moshiach) comes,’ we already see (an example) and the beginning of the effect of the king Moshiach on the nations – ‘and he judges between the nations and reproves many peoples and they shall beat their swords to plowshares … (Mishpatim 5752).’”
At the same time, there is no question that we all feel a big void in our lives. While we know and experience the Rebbe leading us in our lives, we do not see or hear the Rebbe with our physical eyes and ears. There can be a deep feeling of loneliness and concealment. Thus, these Sichos and Maamarim of 5738 can be a true and timely inspiration for us. In our upcoming articles, we will always bring one point from the sicha or maamer. It obviously does not serve as a substitute for a more thorough learning, each person on their own and on their own level. However every opportunity to review these messages should be taken.
The Rebbe writes in the HaYom Yom (Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan): “The Rebbe my father told someone at yechidus: Ever since G-d told our father Avraham, ‘Go from your land etc.’ and it is then written ‘Avram kept travelling southward,’ we have the beginning of the mystery of birurim. By decree of Divine Providence man goes about his travels to the place where the sparks that he must purify await their redemption. Tzaddikim, who have vision, see where their birurim await them and go there deliberately.. As for ordinary folk, The Cause of all causes and the Prime Mover brings about various reasons and circumstances that bring these people to that place where lies their obligation to perform the avoda of birurim.”
In the sicha of Lech Lecha 5738 (ibid page 302), the Rebbe asks: Since the end of Simchas Torah, when it was announced “VeYaakov halach ledarko,” Klal Yisroel has been on a journey. What is added is this avoda with the new commandment of “Lech Lecha?”
The Rebbe explains (Ois 7 of that sicha): Regarding Avraham Avinu, it says that he was “generous in his soul, body and money.” In other words, his Avodas Hashem permeated his entire being. So, based on this idea, we see that the Avoda of “Lech lecha” of Avraham Avinu permeates his entire essence. Every part and aspect of Avraham fulfilled the commandment of Lech Lecha.
This is a tremendous lesson for us. Since Tishrei, we have been working on our avoda of V’Yaakov halach ledarko. On Shabbos B’Reishis, which was before we started our avoda, we took resolutions and received the necessary strength to be successful in this avoda. With Parshas Noach, we actually started the avoda. Yet it could have been limited to only a few of our kochos and did not permeate our entire being. That is not complete, as if there is one part which is excluded it shows that it is not the complete dedication.
The avoda of Yaakov, “Al Tirah Avdi Yaakov,” is the avoda of complete dedication, like that of a slave to his master. A slave does not have his own existence, like a Shliach does; rather he is completely is the jurisdiction of the master, to the extent that “whatever a slave acquires belongs to the master.”
This is the special ko’ach that we receive during Parshas Lech lecha. We are able to learn from Avraham Avinu, who received this special commandment, to bring the avoda into all aspects of our lives. We have the ability to connect with Hashem “B’chol me’odecha” in an unlimited way.
The Rebbe adds (in Maamer Lech Lecha 5738 ois 1): It is specifically through the journey that Avraham, representing the highest level of K’dusha, lowered himself to “Aretz,” the lowly worlds with all the concealments that come with it, and in this way received the highest elevation. This is hinted in the words “Lech Lecha – Go to you”: the deepest levels of “you” were revealed to him through this concealment and journey.
In the above-mentioned HaYom Yom the Rebbe speaks about the Avodas HaBirurim, refinement of the sparks. It is very important to know that Baruch Hashem, after all the work of the Rebbeim and Klal Yisroel, we have finished that special avoda. In the words of the Rebbe (VaYishlach 5752): “The deeds and Divine service of all the Jewish people throughout the generations has brought about the culmination and perfection of all aspects of refinement to the world, within the parameters of the world, as my sainted father-in-law was able to publicize that all aspects of the Divine service have been completed. This includes ‘polishing the buttons,’ and everything is ready for the coming of Moshiach.
“In particular, this process was affected by the revelation of the teachings of Chassidus on the 19th of Kislev, which was the principal beginning of ‘your wellsprings will spread farther outward.’ From that time onward, the dissemination has progressively increased through our Rebbeim and leaders from generation to generation until the leadership of my sainted father-in-law, through whom the wellsprings spread to the farthest corner of the world.
“It follows then that now, as long as our righteous Moshiach delays his coming (for utterly incomprehensible reasons), our Divine service is no longer one of refinement (since we have already concluded and perfected the service of refinement), but one unique to bringing the revelation into reality in the world.”
I will finish with a part of a fascinating interview with Rabbi Simon Jacobson (Beis Moshiach 266): The phrase “polishing the buttons” has been in the Lubavitcher lexicon for decades. The first time the expression was used was on Simchas Torah 5689 (1928), when the Rebbe Rayatz explained that almost all of the components of the Redemption are already in place. The Rebbe Rayatz declared that even the “garments” were ready; only the finishing touches, like “polishing the buttons,” remained to be done.
The first time the Rebbe MH”M used the expression that “the buttons have already been polished” was in the famous sicha of Beis Nissan 5748. But for almost two more years, until the summer of 5750, the Rebbe did not mention it again.
When I heard the expression from the Rebbe that summer I was surprised; I wasn’t even sure that I had heard correctly. In fact, my brother hadn’t heard the Rebbe say it, nor had the other chozrim at the farbrengen. The following Shabbos everyone was on the lookout. That time, we all heard the Rebbe say that “the buttons have already been polished…”
The truth is that we were shocked. One of the underlying principles of Chassidus is that as soon as the service of birurim is completed, the inner purpose of creation is supposed to materialize G-d’s “dwelling place in the lower worlds.” When the sparks of holiness will have been successfully separated, the world will be ready for Redemption and the revelation of the light of Moshiach. As the Alter Rebbe put it, “The reason the Galus has been so drawn out, more than 1700 years, is to refine the 288 sparks. Moshiach will arrive when the process is finished, may it happen speedily in our days, amen.”
We asked ourselves: If the service of birurim is over, where is the Redemption? According to the rule of cause and effect, if the cause of a certain phenomenon ceases to exist, the effect should disappear as well. If the reason for the Galus is to refine the 288 sparks of holiness that fell to the sitra achra, and that has already been accomplished, then there is no reason for the Geula to be delayed!
When the Rebbe made reference to these concepts several times over the next few weeks, we decided to ask him directly. The way it worked was that whenever we weren’t sure what the Rebbe meant, we would submit two different versions, and the Rebbe would choose the one that was correct.
So when we gave in the sicha for the Rebbe to edit, there were two possibilities: In the first version, the Rebbe was saying that he hoped and wished that we would reach the point at which the process of birurim and “polishing the buttons” was behind us. In the second version, we made it clear that the Rebbe was revealing the true reality, that the process had already been completed. In addition to the two versions, we included our question: if the service of birurim is over, why is the Geula being delayed?
When the Rebbe edited the sicha, he drew a line through our first version and indicated that the second was correct. As for our question, he noted briefly, “This is not the place to elaborate.”
Rabbi Avtzon is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Lubavitch Cincinnati and a well sought after speaker and lecturer. Recordings of his in-depth shiurim on Inyanei Geula u’Moshiach can be accessed at http://www.ylcrecording.com