By: Rabbi Daniel Green
In last week’s the intriguing and staggering tale of Miriam bas Bilga was evoked, and the even more staggering sicha of Vov Tishrei 5735 (1974) was cited, to provide some insight into the intrigue. Amongst the overwhelming response from readers received over the past few days, one reader conveyed his indignation that instead of offering insight into the intrigue, the reference only added insult to injury, by equating the ancient horrific Hellenistic display of anti-Templism to some unassuming and well-meaning women who felt that sharing their innermost feelings to the world would be therapeutic. Other readers asked for more clarity as to the Rebbe’s seeming condonation of the notorious, sandal-slamming Altar offender, by finding merit in her otherwise deplorable actions.
In any case, please put your sandals back on, sit back, and brace yourself for - Girl who cried wolf! Part 2
In the final moments of this almost two thousand year long golus, pointing out fault in one’s fellow Jew is certainly not going to benefit anyone - not the pointer and not the pointee. Likewise, encouraging Jewish women to divulge unbecoming or negative information about themselves, to actually compete in their presenting of this information, and furthermore, to broadcast it in unprecedentedly global proportions, was clearly not beneficial to the broadcaster, nor to the broadcastee. But the intent of last week’s articles was not to point to anything negative or to find fault. On the contrary, as members of the worldwide family of Lubavitchers, we are trained to see the good in everyone, all the more so in our own brothers and sisters. The purpose of the article was to be melamed zechus on behalf of everyone involved in MicDrop; both those who competed therein, as well as the organizers. Their intentions were so pure, so righteous. This is precisely why the author related the Rebbe’s awesome yet heartbreaking siyum on Mesechta Sukah, to relate the power of limud zechus.
So just to recap, in case you forgot the backdrop or didn’t see last week’s issue of this magazine - Miriam bas Bilga, a young Jewish woman, a bas kohen, who left the Jewish faith by marrying a Greek officer and subscribing to paganism, entered the Beis Hamikdosh during the occupation and atrocities perpetrated by her own husband’s legions, and bombastically pounded her sandal on the mizbeach, crying, “Lucus lucus (wolf, a derogatory appellation for the Altar)! How long will you devour the sacrifices of the Jews, but are not there for them at their time of distress!?” As a result of this story, the sages penalized Miriam’s entire family, for generations to come, by taking away certain privileges in their Temple service.
In 5735, the height of the gender revolution and social emancipation of women, the Rebbe devoted a sicha to this infamous woman, on the very yahrtzeit of his beloved mother, Rebbetzin Chana, of blessed and righteous memory, crying emotionally over the fact that the sages chose to punish the entire Bilga family for their daughter’s seemingly minor offense, totally disregarding the fact that she had otherwise seriously “gone off the derech.” Furthermore, the Rebbe found merit in her vile actions, emphasizing that Miriam was expressing, notwithstanding her immodest and offensive presentation, a sincere commiseration with the suffering of her people!
Do you understand what happened here?!
After 2200 some odd years since Miriam bas Bilga lived her tragic life and left behind a legacy of negative behavior and disgrace, her words against the mizbeach, or, moreover, against what it represented, were so offensive (as far as Chazal were concerned) - the Rebbe, his tears flowing freely, cried out: Miriam was right! Where was the mizbeach while the Jews were suffering?!
It was not the theme of her words that rendered her a Talmudic villain. It was the way she presented them. On the contrary, the Rebbe cried, she is not a villain at all! Her story was recounted only to teach us the essential beauty of her soul, as discussed in last week’s article.
In fact, we don’t claim to know the answer to Miriam’s question, for we too ask the very same question daily, davening that the suffering end - ad mosai?! Why do we suffer, and why do our brothers, sisters, and neighbors suffer?! And we know all about the suffering, even without frequenting once popular Jewish community news websites (which rabbonim have cautioned against), or watching the internet broadcasting of people’s tragic lives. Daloy golus!
There is not need to, chas visholom, convert to Hellenism, marry a gentile, dress scantily, remove sandals, or refer to the mizbeach or to Judaism disrespectfully, in order pose Miriam bas Bilga’s question. We cling to Yiddishkeit with our very essence, even though we don’t understand why all the agony and why the golus lingers. In other words, we are not posing a theological question, chas visholom, which is k’fira - it’s a ta’ana, an emotional demand. We will not take our sheitel off if things don’t go our way, Heaven forfend. We shall stay with Hashem through thick and thin, with an unwavering commitment to His Torah, all the while continuing to demand “ad mosai,” respectfully, but powerfully and joyously, as the Rebbe instructs. We believe that the time has come, and implore yet rejoice for this to become manifest in the imminent future.
So if Miriam bas Bilga was right, then so were the MicDroppers. They are pure, and the heartfelt vociferation of their anguish and grievances is well founded. Let’s see the good in them, and in all of our beloved Chassidim and fellow Yidden. This, in fact, is the message of the very latest sicha that we meritted to hear from the Rebbe Shlita, Shabbos Parshas Vayakhel, 5752, two days before the terrible concealment of Chof Zayin Adar Rishon, that lasted for months, and even years. Twenty seven to be precise.
It was not the essence of Miriam’s “ad mosai” outcry that earned her family a scolding, it was the disrespectful way she did it - the hostile defiance of Jewish values, her non-tzniusdike performance, the slamming of her footgear (AKA the SandalDrop), and the drama, like her intro, the ”lucus lucus” part - that was repugnant, all of which reflected on a lack of respect for the Torah and its values. And even these minor misdemeanors were only communicated to illustrate and underscore how very important she is to us, and to עצמותו ומהותו יתברך.
Dealing with pain and suffering is vital, but the right way. Reach out to a mashpia, a close friend, a frum therapist (who has the right values and is the same gender as the mushpa), and even a professional and knowledgeable one who knows how to run a closed group therapy session properly, protecting the anonymity of the presenter and the spiritual susceptibility of the listeners; attend a farbrengen with your peers, singing Chassidishe nigunim, relating inspiring and meaningful thoughts, and possibly even speak out your heart, if it is a close-knit group and your challenges are relevant to the participants, and will not affect them in an unsavory manner. (i.e. a kollel yungeleit can discuss his newly-wed challenges with a peer in kollel, not with bochurim. וד”ל).
There is help out there, but it needs to be found. This is an important lesson that we must take from all of these public droppings, both mics and sandals. Don’t wait for your neighbor to share her suffering online for the whole world to see - reach out to her now, and to every fellow Jew and Jewess, in accordance with almost the last words we meritted to hear from the Rebbe (emphasis here is placed on “almost,” because the last word the author of this article heard from the Rebbe was a forceful and impassioned “amen,” in response to a child exclaiming, passionately, while walking by the Rebbe in gan eden hatachton, in 5753 - “יחי אדוננו מורנו ורבינו מלך המשיח לעולם ועד!”). These words must remain in our consciousness, perpetually, until we merit to hear our revered leader speaking once again, with the Geula ho’amitis v’hashleima, תיכף ומי”ד ממ”ש!
The Rebbe’s follow-up
In the weeks following Vov Tishrei in 5735, it seems that the Rebbe’s coming to the defense of this young women mentioned at the end of Mesechta Sukah created an uproar; and, as such, several weeks later, on Simchas Torah, the Rebbe took the opportunity to “defend” himself for his uncanny and inexplicable call for clemency for this distraught soul. He referenced a similar story with the Alter Rebbe, who, by means of his limud zechus for the intentions behind the murder of Zecharia, a novi killed in cold blood in the courtyard of first Beis Hamikdosh, was able to redeem the murderer’s suffering soul, and subsequently cure a possessed, mentally-challenged young man.
Many took this to mean that the Rebbe, then, by finding merit in her actions, had intended to redeem Miriam bas Bilga’s soul - thereby curing a troubled individual living in present times, perhaps her reincarnation, as it were, or something to that effect (If any reader has information to this effect, that can be corroborated, please share it by writing to the editor of this publication, and much thanks). This may be true; however, taken at face value, it is quite evident that the Rebbe intended to redeem much more than one soul. He was redeeming the souls of all Jewish woman and girls of an entire generation!
[Parenthetically, Rabbi Moshe Feller, the Rebbe’s shliach to the state of Minnesota, present at the famous “Bilga sicha,” as he describes it, had a different perspective on the implications of the Rebbe’s baffling exposition at that public gathering. Having travelled to New York for that Vov Tishrei, within a year since the Yom Kippur war, he recalls standing at the farbrengen with other thoughts going through his mind. At the time, he was planning to ask the Rebbe for permission to rename his successful women’s summer program of learning, which had been functioning for the the first few years of its existence without an official name, after Rebbetzin Chana, the בעלת ההילולא. Hearing the Rebbe’s emotional cries for the neshama of Miriam bas Bilga, so very removed from Judaism, expounding upon the essential goodness of her soul, Rabbi Feller thought to himself, is this not the calling of his Women’s Institute, to reach out to each and every Jewish woman, even one who might find herself in a similar situation to that of the woman mentioned in this Talmudic narrative? “If Beis Chana,” or what was about to be named Beis Chana, “had been there then,” revealed Rabbi Feller about his thoughts at the time, in his jovial and good-spirited manner, but actually in utmost sobriety, perhaps even indignation, and with bitter resolve, “the Bilga story would never have happened!”
In other words, Rabbi Feller, who merited the Rebbe’s response shortly after that Vov Tishrei farbrengen, understood the Rebbe’s passionate pleas for mercy upon this forlorn soul and the profound disclosure of her virtue in a much broader scale - not just for one particular young woman.]
The ancient public display of Miriam bas Bilga was the outcry of the neglect of the Jewish female! Where, the sages reacted, were her compatriots and tribal members who let her go astray? Her soul was so pure, the Rebbe cried, so beautiful - how could it have been allowed to become so distanced?
And alas, the Miriam bas Bilga of our times is also crying out. She wants to be heard. Why must she be bound to the home, languish in social neglect, segregated by the male leadership of the ultra-Orthodox society she was born into?! Why is she hindered by religiously delineated and self-imposed gender roles that squelch her ability to utilize her innate talents and abilities, obstructing her from shining forth!
This, then, perhaps was the Rebbe’s earth-shattering campaign to empower every Jewess of our generation. In this sicha, in direct relation with the Talmudic story of one Jewish girl’s public misdeed, the Rebbe laid down the guidelines to the empowerment of each and every Jewish woman in our times, his global call for mivtza neshek, and urged to support the cause of Torah study for girls and women. Intriguingly, the Rebbe construed his unprecedented campaign for every girl to light Shabbos candles as a tikun for Miriam bas Bilga’s actions! In fact, he emphasized in the sicha that just as this young woman daringly whacked her sandal upon the altar in Hashem’s house, so too, every single Jewish girl in our times is to proudly light her Shabbos candle upon the dining room table, which is compared to the mizbeach - illuminating her own home!
The focus of this mivtza was on each and every Jewish girl - that she matters! In fact, she is of utmost importance, the mainstay of her home, to the extent that even her father and brothers enjoy Shabbos only because of her light! In previous generations, it may have sufficed for a girl to hide in the shadow of her mother, in the spirit of her consummate subservience to the latter, and not light her own candle. But that will not work anymore, the Rebbe said — every girl’s own candle must shine forth!
And the place for her to shine is in the home. This is the venue of the most amazing display of the light of womanhood, and the most immense shlichus imaginable to mankind. This, then, is the redemption of the Jewish woman. Her role is so awesome and needs to be celebrated. Every Jewish girl, in lighting her own candle, aspires to, like her mother, light the “candle of G-d,” to merit to bring children into the world, and to be an עקרת הבית, and an אשת חיל, who is crown of her husband.
In a generation that is, rachmona litzlan, possessed with another type of dibuk, a false and dangerous notion that a woman needs to seek financial success, to run her own business, to obtain a college degree, and to present herself in front of an audience of males, compromising the profundity of Jewish womanhood - the Rebbe found virtue in this desire to shine, thereby redeeming all the women and girls of our times, by empowering them, channelling their energies to shining light in the world, not darkness.
Let us all gather together in unity, recognize the awesome role of the Jewish woman, and very soon, celebrate the joy of the true and complete Geula, about which the posuk prognosticates, נקבה תסובב גבר, and may it be תיכף ומיד ממש. ■