LIVING WITH THE REBBE IN 770

Two brothers, R’ Akiva Wagner – rosh yeshiva in Toronto, and R’ Noam Wagner – rosh yeshiva in Johannesburg, meet once a year for a week at the Rebbe. * R’ Sholom Yaakov Chazan and Avrohom Rainitz interviewed them for Beis Moshiach’s Sukkos issue, in the course of which the roshei yeshiva provided an edifying view of what it means to be devoted to the Rebbe, the inner work needed in inyanei Moshiach, and about the hiskashrus of bachurim today.

Setting up a meeting with both Wagner brothers is difficult.Both of them serve as roshei yeshiva, but whereas R’ Akiva Wagner is a rosh yeshiva in Toronto, where he grew up, his brother R’ Noam lives far away in South Africa.  They meet once a year for a week, during the Aseres Yemei T’shuva, at the Rebbe.  They bring with them nearly all their talmidim so that their yeshivas essentially move to Crown Heights for ten days.

Although, generally speaking, roshei yeshiva set the tone for the learning of nigleh in yeshiva, while the Chassidic tone is in the hands of the mashpiim, with the Wagner brothers lomdus and Chassidishkait go together, supporting and strengthening one another.  Even during the interview with them, which dealt with Chassidic topics, they brought proofs from the Gemara along with quotes from maamarim, because to them it’s all one thing.

During our fascinating conversation, the brothers shared their memories of Tishrei with the Rebbe, and from there we moved on to Tishrei of today.  Although we do not see the Rebbe, we feel the Rebbe’s presence in 770, but more than ever we need deep avoda p’nimis (inner work) in order to absorb the great revelations.

TAKE WHATEVER YOU CAN TAKE

We would like to hear from you about when you were with the Rebbe for the first time and what memories you have of those days.

R’ Akiva: I first went to the Rebbe for Rosh HaShana 5743/1982.  I was not yet a bachur in a Chabad yeshiva, but the spiritual experience of a Rosh HaShana with the Rebbe was so powerful that I spent every Rosh HaShana since then with the Rebbe with the exception of one year when I was on shlichus in yeshiva in California.

Tishrei with the Rebbe is a unique combination of opposites.  On the one hand, it is a time where everything happens on a large scale.  A huge crowd comes and you don’t have the privilege of standing near the Rebbe without getting pushed, as was possible the rest of the year.  In the summer months, for example, the number of people was small and it was possible to get very close to the Rebbe.  In Tishrei it was all “b’rov am.”  On the other hand, during Tishrei there were many personal moments, starting with Erev Rosh HaShana when we passed by the Rebbe and gave the Rebbe a pidyon nefesh. That is a very personal, private moment.

There were other moments like that in Tishrei, but the most special moments were on Simchas Torah.  The crowd was huge, bigger than on Rosh HaShana, but during the Rebbe’s hakafa, as the Rebbe danced with the Torah, he looked at each person, that’s how we felt.

These two aspects that comprised the spiritual experience of Tishrei, after just one time, made it impossible for me to consider Tishrei anywhere else ever again.

R’ Noam: I went to the Rebbe a number of times during the year, but I went for Tishrei for the first time in 5751.  That year, each Yom Tov was three days of continuous holiness and it was a special spiritual elevation.  On the Sunday following Shabbos B’Reishis, the Rebbe gave out dollars for tz’daka and R’ Gershon Mendel Avtzon went past with a group of bachurim from non-Chabad yeshivos whom he had brought with him from Eretz Yisroel.

Since, the year before, I had learned in a non-Chabad yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel and had learned Chassidus with R’ Avtzon, he invited me to join his group.  I stood behind him as he pointed at the bachurim who came with him and told the Rebbe, these are bachurim from non-Chabad yeshivos who came to the Rebbe for Tishrei. 

The Rebbe’s response was: It should be with great success, and you should take along with you whatever you can take along. 

These words impacted me strongly.  It is a general instruction for every person and for every Tishrei.

The next year I went much earlier.  That year I started learning in Oholei Torah so I was in 770 starting from 15 Elul.  That year, the learning of Chassidus in the evening took place in 770.  Ostensibly this was because of the riots in Crown Heights and they were afraid to have the bachurim walking at night on Troy where the yeshiva was.  But the bachurim speculated that the real reason was that the Rebbe had been saying a sicha nearly every night and in order to prevent our having to run from Troy to 770 they arranged for us to learn in 770.

I can never forget the sicha of the third night of Slichos in which the Rebbe urged the farbrenging like the farbrengens in Lubavitch, when the Chassidim showed up for Slichos tipsy.  The Rebbe also urged learning one of the maamarim of the Rebbeim about Slichos.  After the sicha we went to Oholei Torah and despite the late hour, close to midnight, we all sat down to learn the maamarim and then we farbrenged all night.

My brother mentioned that within the vast crowding of Tishrei, each person has private moments with the Rebbe.  One of my special moments was the night of Yom Kippur 5752.  That day was unforgettable for anyone who was present.  It started with a sicha after Mincha which lasted nearly an hour, despite it being Erev Yom Kippur.  After the sicha, the Rebbe started the Hakafos niggun and gave out dollars.  I did not pass by to receive a dollar but from where I stood, you could see the Rebbe’s glowing face, just like the parable of the king in the field who displays a smiling countenance.

After the birkas ha’banim in the small zal, I hurried downstairs to the big zal for Maariv with the Rebbe.  Since all of Anash had taken places and the bachurim had just come down from birkas ha’banim, it was impossible to go to your usual spot and so we all stood wherever we could find a place.  I stood near the place the Rebbe passed on his way out after davening.  On Yom Kippur they did not sing when the Rebbe went out after davening.  A path was made for the Rebbe and there was an odd silence in the zal.  A little boy stood next to me and when the Rebbe passed by, he stopped for a moment and made a strong, encouraging motion with his hand.  I did not know what I was supposed to do but that motion remains etched in me forever.

NEEDED: AVODA P’NIMIS

Although over twenty years have passed in which we have not seen the Rebbe, you still come to 770 and even bring your talmidim.  When you come, you are certainly reminded of those days and feel longing and for the Rebbe, but what about the bachurim who never saw the Rebbe – why are they coming?

R’ Noam: Chassidim continue to come to the Rebbe not because of what was, but because of what there is now! The Rebbe is here and this is the reason that we urge the bachurim to come, so they will spend Tishrei with the Rebbe.

At the same time, since we have not yet merited to see the Rebbe, to our great sorrow, we need deeper, inner work to feel that we are with the Rebbe, and in order to receive the tremendous inner hashpaa that the Rebbe bestows upon us during Tishrei.

R’ Akiva: Even when we saw the Rebbe, inner work was needed in order to absorb the lights and revelations of Tishrei, just like they would announce before the shofar blowing that we need to think about where we are and before whom we stand.  For if we don’t think about it, then the effects are only in a way of makif and would be lacking the inner Chassidic sensitivity.

The Gemara in P’sachim relates, “There were three Kohanim – one said I received a portion the size of a bean, one said I received the size of an olive, and one said I received like the tail of a lizard.  They checked into his lineage and found a smattering of a defect in his lineage.”  These were three Kohanim who pushed to receive the lechem ha’panim, comparable in our generation to those Chassidim who push to be the closest to k’dusha.  And still, when they wanted to describe the part they managed to get, one of them compared it to a lizard’s tail.  This teaches us that you can stand the closest to the Rebbe and still look at everything in the coarsest way.

R’ Noam: True, when you don’t see it openly, the work is harder, but when you are successful, you can attain levels of hiskashrus that are much higher than in the past.  In a sicha that was published for Shabbos Chazon 5751, the Rebbe asks how a person can be inspired when the Beis HaMikdash is taken from him, when that was seemingly the source of inspiration. 

The Rebbe explains that when the Beis HaMikdash stood, each person saw it according to his spiritual level and so the seeing was limited and sometimes had no effect.  But since the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, and on Shabbos Chazon “the Mikdash is shown from a distance” – the vision is not limited by man’s abilities.  Furthermore, when you know that the vision is only from a distance, just knowing this arouses a person to make more of an effort in his inner work.

It is certainly possible that a bachur who was at the Rebbe back then, who openly saw the Rebbe but did not invest in his inner work, was not actually at the Rebbe.  A bachur who comes today and does not see the Rebbe but who does the inner work is with the Rebbe!

R’ Akiva: When talking about this, I cannot help but remember that refined young man who came every year for Simchas Torah by the Rebbe and even had a permanent place on our pyramid from where he could see the Rebbe during hakafos.  But he was unable to deal with the tremendous pushing and every year, before the hakafos began, he would go down.  He got to see the Rebbe when he entered and exited, but aside from that he saw nothing.  Every year we felt bad for him and tried to help him come back up to the pyramid but he couldn’t.  I would look at him and think, what a pity.  He is in 770 during the Rebbe’s hakafos, and he knows that the Rebbe is leading the hakafos right now, but his location makes him unable to see the Rebbe.

What is the avoda p’nimis needed in order to be able to feel the Rebbe and connect to him?

R’ Akiva: The very same inner work that the mashpiim demanded in earlier years, to increase in learning the Rebbe’s sichos and maamarim, and to be particular about fulfilling the Rebbe’s enactments and instructions.  The Rebbe says that when you learn his teachings and fulfill his instructions, you are mekushar to him.  When you are mekushar to him, you sense him.

Today, it is important to prepare properly to go to the Rebbe and to make the inner investment while at the Rebbe, more than ever before.  This is because when we saw the Rebbe it had a certain effect, even for someone who did not prepare.  Today though, when we don’t see the Rebbe, the main investment of energy has to be on the inner work of the soul.

THE TRIP – DEVOTION
TO THE REBBE

If the main thing is inner soul preparation by learning the sichos etc. why not just stay home, in Toronto or Kfar Chabad, and learn the sichos and maamarim and connect to the Rebbe? Why travel to 770?

R’ Akiva: In the maamer “V’chol adam lo yihiye b’ohel moed – 5723” – the Rebbe explains that on Yom Kippur an extremely lofty light shines, the essence of the day, and the job of a Jew is to bring down that point of “essence” into his personal life.  This is why Yom Kippur has five t’fillos, so we can draw that point of “essence” into all aspects of the soul: the nefesh, ruach, neshama, chaya, yechida.  Or as the liturgical hymn goes, “one above and seven below” – the lofty aspect of “one” needs to penetrate the person’s inner character which is made up of seven faculties, starting from the midda of chesed until the midda of malchus.

That means, we cannot suffice with the power of the day itself without drawing this light into our vessels; contrariwise, we cannot successfully do the work with our limited vessels without the “essential” light of Yom Kippur.

The same is true for traveling to the Rebbe.  When we are at the Rebbe, we receive a light of “essence” that the Rebbe bestows to whoever comes.  But after we receive this light, we need to draw it down, and this occurs through inner work.  Someone who wants to stay at home and do the inner work, loses out on the great and “essential” light that is to be found here, by the Rebbe.  We need to combine both things.

R’ Noam: A similar question is brought in Kuntres HaHishtatchus where it asks why do we need to go and prostrate at the grave of a tzaddik when you can accomplish everything at home without physically going to the tzaddik? It explains there that the point is that in order to receive the hashpaa from the tzaddik, we need to devote ourselves entirely to the Rebbe and set aside our own existence.  This is expressed when a person leaves his place of domicile and goes to the tzaddik.  He gives himself over to the tzaddik and this devotion enables him to receive hashpaos from the tzaddik. 

Similarly, we can say regarding traveling to the Rebbe, a Chassid needs to know the Rebbe is here, in Beis Chayeinu, and he needs to nullify all of his existence and leave his place and go to the Rebbe.

THE HISKASHRUS
OF THE T’MIMIM

After your talmidim spend Tishrei with the Rebbe, do you see any changes in them?

R’ Noam: I’ll answer you with a question (as a good Jew does).  Thirty years ago, when the bachurim saw the Rebbe, was a change apparent when they returned to yeshiva?

R’ Akiva: Since we are talking about an inner change, you don’t always see it immediately and it certainly is not always apparent externally, even though personally, every one certainly feels it.  I remember when I was a bachur, when I came back from the Rebbe there was a change in me.

Aside from that, generally speaking, you see the special chayus of bachurim at “Tishrei with the Rebbe,” and that itself shows a fundamental change.  I am talking about American bachurim who don’t like the whole commotion of Tishrei, bachurim to whom comfort, order, and privacy are important, and yet they come here.  That itself is quite amazing and indicates a fundamental change.

The wonder is all the greater in light of the fact that we don’t actually see the Rebbe.  I mentioned before the man who went down from the pyramid every year and I always thought, what brings him back to the Rebbe when last year he didn’t see anything, and over there he sees only a little, when the Rebbe comes in and goes out; that was a chiddush to me.  What should we say about all the bachurim who come year after year even though they see nothing?

It is a spiritual inspiration that the Rebbe himself bestows upon these bachurim and it is this which arouses in them the desire to come back again and again. 

Is it correct to say that the hiskashrus of bachurim today is greater, despite the absence of giluyim?

R’ Akiva: They say that once the elder Chassidim sat and spoke longingly about hiskashrus of Chassidim in days gone by.  R’ Avrohom Pariz was there and he said: In the stories, it was all wonderful once upon a time…

When the Rebbe Rashab instructed that people should learn safrus they did not all stand at the ready to do his bidding.  One learned, another had an excuse, a third had reasons… In the seventh generation, by contrast, the bachurim do the Rebbe’s bidding without excuses.

By the same token, we can say that with the bachurim of today we see a special devotion to the Rebbe, more than we had in our time.

R’ Noam: Take the Simchas Beis HaShoeiva as an example.  The Rebbe said to start the simcha on the nights of Yom Tov even though you can’t use musical instruments.  In the first years they did not dance all night, just for two or three hours.  Today, they fulfill the Rebbe’s horaa b’hiddur and even on the nights of Yom Tov they dance until dawn, hundreds of bachurim and Anash.  And those bachurim who danced all night go on Mivtza Dalet Minim during the day!

When I tell bachurim today that when the Rebbe came down for Shacharis on Simchas Torah there were only about 200 people in 770 because the rest were all exhausted after a week of Simchas Beis HaShoeiva, Tahalucha, and dancing hakafos the night of Simchas Torah, they look at me incredulously and cannot understand how it is possible that bachurim would sleep and not take the opportunity to see the Rebbe at hakafos on Simchas Torah by day! In later years, although there are no giluyim, bachurim come to t’fillos with the Rebbe and 770 is full at Shacharis on Simchas Torah.

R’ Akiva: The bachurim’s care in attending t’fillos in the Rebbe’s minyan and their special chayus in singing Yechi before and after davening, are amazing.  When we were bachurim and got to see all the giluyim, when the Rebbe encouraged singing with his hand motions, we sang with greater chayus, but the moment the Rebbe stopped encouraging us, all the chayus vanished. 

The bachurim of today who don’t see the Rebbe encouraging the singing, sing with enthusiasm.  This chayus does not come out of nowhere.  It comes from the fact that the light of the Rebbe shines forth in them in a revealed way.

AVODA P’NIMIS
IN INYANEI MOSHIACH

In the last sicha that we heard from the Rebbe at the Kinus HaShluchim, the Rebbe said that all aspects of shlichus need to be permeated with Moshiach and Geula.  As roshei yeshivos, how do you teach your talmidim to live with inyanei Moshiach and Geula?

R’ Akiva: The Rebbe said clearly that the way to live Moshiach and Geula is through learning about it.  This is the very same point we spoke about – Chabad demanding p’nimius.  It is true for the preparations for Tishrei by the Rebbe and for inyanei Moshiach and Geula.

When we delve into learning about the Geula, especially in Chassidus, we discover that the central point of everything is Moshiach.  Then, even when we speak about hiskashrus to the Rebbe it automatically connects to Moshiach, and when speaking about G-dly revelation, it too is part of the discussion about Moshiach.  It’s one central thread.

R’ Noam: Enthusiasm in inyanei Moshiach and Geula doesn’t come out of nowhere. You need to work on it, mainly by learning a lot.  As the Rebbe said, when the mind is full of inyanei Moshiach and Geula, it will reach the heart (for the mind controls the heart) and from there it will have practical effects.

There was once a Chassid who stood on the corner of Kingston and Eastern Parkway and asked bachurim: You came to the Rebbe?

They did not understand what he was asking. After all, he could see them near 770, so of course they came to the Rebbe. 

He explained: You can come here and still not have arrived.  As the Rebbe himself once said, “L’chaim for those who did not come yet and l’chaim for those who are here and still did not arrive.”  Or, in another version, “for those who think they are here but aren’t.”

The same is true for inyanei Moshiach and Geula.  If you don’t learn it in a p’nimius’dike way, it can seem that we are living Moshiach and Geula but we are really very far from it.

R’ Akiva: They tell of a Chabad Chassid who ended up at a tish of a Poilishe Rebbe on Shvii shel Pesach.  Their practice is to mimic the “splitting of the sea” in which they pour some water on the floor and Chassidim sing and their Rebbe goes through the middle.  When it came time for their Rebbe to walk through, he carefully lifted his bekeshe so it would not become wet.  The Lubavitcher watched this and thought: Hmm, he is standing there in great d’veikus as though at Krias Yam Suf but he is concerned that his clothing not get wet.

Sometimes we too can delude ourselves into thinking we are living with Moshiach and Geula while we are bothered by the most exile-like sort of things.  In order to truly live Geula and Moshiach, we need to learn a tremendous amount.

LEARNING THE FINAL SICHOS

R’ Noam: When speaking about learning inyanei Moshiach and Geula, the emphasis should be on learning the sichos of the later years which contain a wealth of inyanei Moshiach and Geula.  It is especially important to learn these sichos, as we know what the Rebbe said about the special fondness for the last sichos we heard from the Rebbe.

In the sicha of 6 Tishrei 5749, the Rebbe spoke about his mother who would copy maamarim of the Rebbe Rashab and the Rebbe described the whole system of reviewing and writing the maamarim.  He said that although there were earlier maamarim, to Chassidim there was always a special fondness for the last maamer that the Rebbe said.

R’ Akiva: Aside from the fondness for the sichos of 5751-5752, it is very important to learn them for that is where the Rebbe talks about the current reality.  It is not just an analytic discussion about what will happen when Moshiach comes but where exactly we are holding in the Geula process and about how close we are to Moshiach’s coming.

Whoever merely engages in analytic study of the topics pertaining to Geula and does not learn the sichos of 5751-5752, is like someone using a horse and wagon nowadays.  In 5751-5752 we moved on to completely different stages, which is why it is so important to learn these sichos, so we are aware of the great significance of the current era, the stage we are in now, and this itself inspires us with a chayus and great expectation for the hisgalus of the Rebbe immediately, now!