THE CENTRAL ROLE OF THE JEWISH WOMAN IN HAKHEL AND BRINGING MOSHIACH

Dear Reader sh’yichyeh,

This Shabbos, Parshas VaEira, is also 28 Teves, the birthday of Rebbetzin Chana a”h, the mother of the Rebbe MH”M. In her honor, I feel that it is appropriate to dedicate this article to the role that the righteous women of our generation play in the Hakhel campaign and in the Avoda of bringing Moshiach.

In a very literal sense, the mitzva of Hakhel was a mitzva that the entire family had to do; it was a family trip to the Beis HaMikdash.  The Torah (D’varim 31:10) tells us: Then, Moshe commanded them, saying, “At the end of [every] seven years, at an appointed time, in the Festival of Sukkos, [after] the year of Shmita, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord, your God, in the place He will choose, you shall read this Torah before all Israel, in their ears. Assemble the people: the men, the women, and the children, and your stranger in your cities, in order that they hear, and in order that they learn and fear the Lord, your God, and they will observe to do all the words of this Torah.”  It is no secret that any successful family trip is accomplished through the efforts of the mother.

Yet, as explained many times already, the Rebbe wants that this idea of Hakhel – that everyone should be inspired with Yiras Shamayim – should start in our own home. When a home is infused with Jewish warmth and Emuna, everyone in the home becomes sensitive to G-dliness. This gives them the ability to inspire others as well. Who creates this special environment? The Jewish woman, the “Akeres HaBayis – anchor of the home”. The home is inherently the domain of the Jewish woman and she sets the values and the direction of the home.

This is also evident in the special Mitzvos of the Jewish woman which are brought out in the acronym of the name Chana: 1) Challa (kashrus); 2) Nida (taharas ha’mishpacha); and 3) Hadlakas neiros (Shabbos and Yom tov). A woman creates the family (taharas mishpacha), nurtures the family (kashrus) and illuminates the family (neiros). These are not individual mitzvos (like T’fillin etc.), rather mitzvos that create an environment of Yiras Shamayim.

The Jewish woman also plays a major role in the bringing of the Geula. In the words of the Rebbe (Besuras HaGeula chapter 62):

The writings of the Arizal explain that the generation of the future Redemption is the reincarnation of the generation that went out of Egypt. Accordingly, the righteous women of our generation, in whose merit we will be redeemed, are the same righteous women in whose merit we left Egypt.

Our generation is the last generation of exile and the first generation of Redemption, for, in the words of my sainted father-in-law, all aspects of the Divine service have been completed and we stand ready to greet our righteous Moshiach. Since this is the case, my sainted father-in-law, the leader of our generation, endeavored to affect and influence the women, in order to hasten the Redemption in the merit of the righteous women of our generation

…Just as in the exodus from Egypt “the righteous women of the generation were confident that G-d would perform miracles for them, and they brought tambourines from Egypt,” so too in this final Redemption from exile, the righteous women of Israel must be confident, and certainly they are confident, that immediately and imminently the true and complete Redemption is actually coming. [So strong is their conviction that] “they begin immediately (in the last moments of exile) to sing with tambourines and with dances, for the coming of the true and complete Redemption!

Rabbi Avtzon is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Lubavitch Cincinnati and a well sought after speaker and lecturer. Recordings of his in-depth shiurim on Inyanei Geula u’Moshiach can be accessed at http://www.ylcrecording.com.