In the HaYom Yom for 18 Av, the Rebbe writes, “The Mitteler Rebbe quoted the Alter Rebbe: Ahavas Yisroel must consume a person entirely.” There are a number of ways of understanding the phrase, ad mitzui ha’nefesh (lit. to the point of the wringing out of the soul). One way to interpret this statement is to look at the commentaries on Tanya (Igeres HaKodesh, Siman Alef) where it speaks about t’filla which ought to be performed with kavana “ad mitzui ha’nefesh.” Another way is by applying the explanations of the commentaries on Torah (VaYikra 1:15), where it speaks about mitzui ha’dam (squeezing out blood). A third way, which is most appropriate for this column of stories, is to look at the Rebbe Rayatz’s letters (volume 4, p. 173) and to see in what context and regarding which story it was said that Ahavas Yisroel ought to consume a person entirely.
This is the story: In the midst of the Holocaust a Vaad Hatzalah organization was founded that provided food for the survivors after the war. The organization, which was headed by Litvishe rabbanim, stated that no aid should be provided for Lubavitcher Chassidim. In a letter that the Rebbe Rayatz wrote to one of the askanim, he said that every time he encountered this shocking state of affairs, he was reminded of a story that he heard in his childhood from his teacher, Rabbi Shmuel Betzalel (Rashbatz).
Rashbatz described an unusual Shavuos in 5613/1853 with the Tzemach Tzedek. The Tzemach Tzedek said no fewer that five maamarim that Shavuos. In addition, at the meal on the second day of Yom Tov, he spoke with the rabbinic guests about the difficult and complex topic of beis din to’eh (a court that rules in error). On Isru Chag, there was a farbrengen attended by all the great Chassidic rabbanim, who spoke at length on topics they had heard from the Rebbe throughout Yom Tov.
R’ Isaac of Homil spoke and said how he pitied the g’dolim among the Misnagdim who made a cherem against the Chassidim and were now in the World of Truth and saw that they were a beis din to’eh. It was only based on false testimony that they issued all their excommunications and caused the Alter Rebbe to be arrested fifty-four years earlier. R’ Isaac knew the rabbanim who had issued the cherem. He described at length their greatness and genius in Torah and consequently how pitiful it was for them in the World of Truth now.
Suddenly, as R’ Isaac spoke, the sound of muffled sobbing could be heard from R’ Hillel of Paritch. They all looked at R’ Hillel and wondered why he was crying. R’ Isaac paused in his talk, but R’ Hillel could not say a word because of his crying. It was only after he had calmed down that he explained what had moved him so.
If it was such a pity on those rabbanim, what would the Misnagdim of our day (5613) say when by now everyone knows that there is no justification for opposition against Chassidus? How unfortunate they would be in the World of Truth and how much greater was the pity on them. Then R’ Hillel added the clincher, “I myself heard the Mitteler Rebbe quote the Alter Rebbe as saying, ‘Ahavas Yisroel must consume a person entirely.’”
The Rebbe Rayatz continued in that letter written during the Holocaust: Every time I come across this phenomenon of Misnagdim behaving this way against Chassidim, I recall this story and I take pleasure seeing the difference between Chassidim and Misnagdim. By Chassidim, we see love for another according to the guidance of all our Rebbeim.
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If we are to take a lesson from this story, the Rebbe is telling us in the HaYom Yom that even if you see a Jew who seems to you to be a “dangerous enemy” of Chabad, since he attacks Chassidim, behaving in corrupt fashion, especially when he has no reason to justify this, you are ordered to love him, to have pity on him, even if you have to exert yourself for this to the point that it consumes you entirely. The Rebbe’s shluchim know how to do this as the following stories will illustrate.
A LOT OF LOVE AND A LITTLE VODKA
Rabbi Avrohom Cohen, shliach in Beer Sheva, told me the following story:
“Over 20 years ago, some of us set up a t’fillin stand in the center of Beer Sheva. An older man came by, a Russian immigrant, who stood facing us and began shouting at anyone who came over to us, ‘Don’t put on t’fillin! Run away from here! This is simply nonsense!’
“Unfortunately, he did not grow tired of this. He stood there for a long time, shouting. The next day, our tireless acquaintance came back and he kept on doing this and disrupting Mivtza T’fillin. At first, we tried to ignore him, but he was really bothering us and caused quite a few people to stay away from us.
“One day, I heard the man shouting in Yiddish too. He had a rich Yiddish as only someone who grew up in a Chassidishe town would have. Aha, I thought. This will be the way I’ll approach him, through the Chassidic town.
“I went over to him, put a gentle hand on his shoulder and said, ‘I want to sit and drink something with you.’ He was taken aback – to drink?! But he agreed. We went to a nearby restaurant and I ordered a bottle of vodka. I began asking him about his past, his family, where he went to school, etc. Initially his stance was hostile, but when he saw that I was truly interested in his background he said to me, ‘Do you know who my grandfather was? Do you know from which town of rabbanim I am from?’ Then he told me that he came from Dvinsk. He remembered the Chassidic rav of the town, the Rogatchover, as well as the Litvishe rav, the Ohr Sameiach. He told me many stories about his town and his family and proudly emphasized that he had a superior Jewish background.
“I asked him, ‘If so, my friend, why do you oppose and interfere with mitzvos?’ He raised his voice and exclaimed, ‘Did you go through what I went through? Do you know what the communists did to us and to Jews in Russia?’ And he went on to tell me about the tzaros, the arrests, the fear and the estrangement from Judaism that he and all Jews experienced over decades of a hard life in Russia.
“I said, ‘So tell me now, who do you want to help – your grandfather or the communists?’
“He thought quietly for a while and then said, ‘You are right. I want to help my grandfather.’ After another few minutes (and more swallows of vodka) he promised that the next day he would go to the Kollel Tiferes Z’keinim and learn Torah.
“He did, in fact, go to the kollel and began to attend regularly. He also came for Shabbos meals at my house. I discovered that he knew a tremendous amount about Torah and Jewish practices, and within a few days he became the main helper and unofficial instructor of all the men in the kollel. He helped his grandfather as well as Chabad until his final day.”
LOVE IN THE TRENCHES
I attended the bar mitzva of the oldest son of the shliach in Kfar Yona, R’ Nechemia Schmerling. I’m not going to describe the Kiddush Hashem and the Kiddush Sheim Lubavitch that was performed before hundreds of mekuravim of the Chabad house (including the rav of the moshava who spoke admiringly about R’ Schmerling’s work). By their very presence, they demonstrated the success of the shlichus.
Likewise, this is not the place to wax enthusiastic over the participation of dozens of shluchim from all over the country who demonstrated the love prevalent among shluchim. Instead, I want to tell you about someone I met at the bar mitzva, a friend of R’ Nechemia from the Reserves. He’s a talmid chochom and a teacher at the yeshiva high school in Beit Shaan. Although I had known him previously, we had never spoken at length and it was only at the bar mitzva and on the long trip home that he told me some stories about R’ Schmerling. One of those stories pertains to the theme of this week’s column.
“We showed up at Reserves and found that they had combined a number of units and we had a new company commander. We soon discovered that the new commander wasn’t so wonderful. He was younger than we were by 5-15 years, but tried to harass and train us as though we were new baby recruits. There was no end to his criticisms and he wasn’t open to any discussion about generating a positive environment or working together. If you’ve ever been in the Reserves, you are familiar with the situation in which a member of the team or a commander tries to take control over all the others, thus creating an ugly atmosphere through the period of the Reserves.
“However, whenever R’ Nechemia shows up on the scene, things work differently, the rules change, albeit not in one day. At first, the company commander fought Schmerling and everything he represented. When R’ Nechemia spoke to him about lighting a menorah, he said the only thing he celebrated at this time of the year was “Sylvester” (a Roman Catholic holiday that falls on New Year’s Eve). When R’ Nechemia asked about going easy in the training because of the fast, he said it sounded to him like a rain dance done by African tribes. That was all in the beginning.
“Then R’ Schmerling told stories from the parsha. All the soldiers listened avidly, including the commander. The commander was willing to have R’ Schmerling send him a text every week, after the Reserves, with an idea from the parsha. If you think it was just a nice offer on R’ Nechemia’s part, you don’t know him. He sent the guy a text every Friday for an entire year until the Reserves call-up the following year.
“Think for a moment, about a soldier in the Reserves who gets a new commander, a first rate nudnik, who ruins the pleasant atmosphere. In addition, this commander hates religion. R’ Schmerling sends him Divrei Torah every week, without fail, without the fellow expressing his thanks. But R’ Schmerling knows what he’s doing. How do I know? Because when it came time for the Reserves the following year, the moment R’ Schmerling walked into the room, the company commander stood up in his honor and announced, ‘Welcome R’ Schmerling. You should all know that throughout this past year, I received a D’var Torah every week from him, and each week, when I traveled with my girlfriend to my parents’ house to hear Kiddush, I told her the D’var Torah.’
“The same company commander, who, the year before, had spoken about Christian holidays and African tribes, spoke about Kiddush and Divrei Torah. This was all thanks to Ahavas Yisroel. Of course, he invited R’ Schmerling to be the officiating rabbi at his wedding.
“Before the wedding, a road accident occurred and the kalla was injured. She attended the wedding in a wheelchair. The chuppa took place in the yard of a friend’s villa in Raanana with twenty people instead of the 700 people they had planned before the accident. But R’ Schmerling turned this somewhat sad chuppa into a happy event. He spoke with such love and friendliness as though 1000 people were present. I saw this as an incredible act of Ahavas Yisroel.”
LOVE FOR A DEPARTING SOUL
My mother was hospitalized in Hadassah Ein Kerem. Erev Tisha B’Av, my sister was sitting with her when they agreed that they would save the hard boiled egg she had been given for breakfast for the traditional Seuda HaMafsekes before the fast.
In the evening, a doctor called another sister of mine at home and asked her why our mother was alone in her room. She was wondering why nobody was with her. My sister was taken aback and said that her sister M. was there. “Let me speak with my mother please.” My mother told her that the sun was setting and she didn’t know where the egg was and M. had disappeared. My sister called M. to find out where she was.
Listen to what my sister M told her:
We have a brother-in-law, Yossi Reinitz, who volunteers for Zaka and always carries a beeper for urgent messages. On Erev Tisha B’Av, about half an hour before the fast, a message from the Zaka base was sent to all volunteers: In Hadassah Ein Kerem there is a Jew who is about to die who never put on t’fillin and now he wants to put on t’fillin. Who is near Hadassah Ein Kerem?
Yossi immediately responded that he would take care of it and called my sister M. and gave her instructions and the information she needed to know like his name, department etc.
M. ran over to that department, rushed from room to room and asked who had a pair of t’fillin (she completely forgot about the egg). She found someone with t’fillin who agreed to help the man with t’fillin. The sick man’s wife was standing next to him and crying. She asked what else could be done in his z’chus. A woman said, “Give tz’daka in his z’chus.” She immediately took out money from her purse and gave it to tz’daka.
In the meantime, the man finished putting on the t’fillin and the owner of the t’fillin helped him remove them. Those were the man’s final moments. Everyone loudly said the Shma and he closed his eyes.
My sister returned to our mother’s room but it was too late to eat the egg. Oh well. That was Ahavas Yisroel until mitzui ha’nefesh.
Please daven for a refua shleima for Yaakov Aryeh ben Rochel, the author of this column.