THE GAON AND THE DRUNK
Presented for Chaf-Dalet Teves, the hilula of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman
Presented for Chaf-Dalet Teves, the hilula of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman
You can have a ton of zeros, but it only matters if there is a different digit in front of all those zeros.
Why was the Alter Rebbe so opposed to Napoleon? At the core of the French Revolution lay a disregard for higher authority, a disregard which can spur undue self-concern. Such an attitude in turn leads to the pursuit of material pleasure and decadence.
The Alter Rebbe sighed. “Ribbono shel olam, these two incidents took place so close to one another. If You had only sent Yechezkel the Strong to help Pinye get his wagon out of the mud and sent the rich man to help Moshe and his wife, everyone would have benefited. But You didn’t do that … We cannot understand Your ways. ‘You know the secrets of the world.’ Only You know why the world runs the way it does.”
When the Rebbe announced in 1991-92 that the work has been completed, and now the only job that remains is to prepare oneself and the world to receive and embrace the reality of a G-dly world ushered in by Moshiach himself, once again the mission fell to a relatively small number of people, whether by design or by circumstance.
In honor of 24 Teives we present another chapter from the Sichos Kodesh of the Rebbe Rayatz. * From the sicha of Yud Kislev 5702 in which he spoke about the Mitteler Rebbe and the Alter Rebbe.