MAKING THE MIRACULOUS PART OF EVERYDAY LIFE

A point from the weekly D’var Malchus with a relevant message. * Which is preferable – a weekly routine or living a life of novelty?

Yechi HaMelech HaMoshiach, hello to Mommy and to everyone, how are you?

Boruch Hashem, how are you Tatty? What do you have there in those bags?

I did some shopping. Bread, eggs, milk, a few other things.

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It could sound different than that:

Yechi HaMelech HaMoshiach, HELLO everyone! Hello to Mommy, hello to Mendy the Chassid and hello to Yossi the Chassid, and hello to my children, the sweetest in the world! Do you know what I bought for you? I was in the store and thought of what you needed and I bought you bread and I bought you eggs and milk too, and other good and tasty things. When you eat, with Hashem’s help you will grow and be Chassidim, yerei Shamayim, and lamdanim.

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Walking into the house from the store is just an example. These two ways can apply to all situations. Another example, after the children go to sleep: Good, time for a cup of coffee. What will we talk about today…

Or an improved version: I made you a cup of coffee, it’s so nice to sit together and talk.

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A week, a month. A week represents the world in its relatively complete state, the way Hashem created it. A month, chodesh in Hebrew, from the root chadash, something new, represents the newness that we add to the world through our avoda.

In this week’s D’var Malchus, the Rebbe brings numerous examples. Guf-neshama, Torah and mitzvos, levels of the neshama, action-intent, and more. This idea needs to permeate all aspects of life down to the smallest details.

Do we do things dryly, technically – “week-like,” or do we do them with freshness and passion?

Even something so routine like walking into the house, which you do every day and several times a day, can be an incomparable chiddush, as though this is the first time you came home from the store and brought surprises for the children. If we live with newness and discover it in everything, we don’t constantly need the chocolates and games to accomplish it. It can definitely be even when we only have bread and milk in our bag. It’s not the items in the grocery bags that create the newness; we create the newness with the right feeling.

A cup of coffee after the children go to sleep can be a “weekly” type of cup and then the only thing within the coffee that can wake us up is the caffeine. Or it can be a “monthly” type of cup of coffee which will really wake us up and take us back to when everything was new and fresh.

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How are we supposed to act, in a “weekly” or a “monthly” manner? As in every D’var Malchus, this time too, the answer is both. The chiddush (no pun intended) here is that the connection needs to be complete, i.e. that the week and month become integrated into one seamless whole. All of existence is in a manner of chiddush, the simplest and most ordinary things are constantly being renewed. That is how we will actually perceive reality in the Geula. And now is the time to get used to it. 

You call someone and he answers in a “weekly” sort of manner. “Hi, how are you, what’s new …” The voice on the other end sounds happy and asks how he can help you. Then there is the call with, “HI!” The tone gives you the feeling that his next line is going to be, you’ve won a million dollars … that’s a chiddush! 

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Nature and miracle are week and month. Nature is the usual while miracles create newness in nature. When you live a life of constant newness, even the miracles which occur around us become matter-of-fact (the point here is not to become indifferent to miracles, G-d forbid; a miracle should get us excited every time). The novelty becomes routine to us, our new normal. 

In Torah too there are week and month; Nigleh pertains more to week and p’nimius ha’Torah to month. In order to live all “week” with the atmosphere of “month,” we need to learn p’nimius ha’Torah. In every generation, the Rebbeim revealed to us in their teachings this power of renewal. In our generation we need to learn the teachings of the Nasi Ha’dor and these days, those teachings which were given most recently. That is how we are renewed!

When a Jew lives in such a manner, he grows accustomed to living a miraculous existence. When a “week” meets a “month” and asks, what was the last miracle you saw, the “month” does not understand the question. The last miracle? All of reality is full of miracles! A miracle is no longer a chiddush; what do you mean by “last?” May there be many more miracles!