TO “SEE” YOUR OWN TRUE ESSENCE

A point from the weekly D’var Malchus with a relevant message. * This week, you don’t need to “dig” in order to see the revelation of “Anochi.” Just look and you’ll see!

Chassidim relate that one time, the talmidim of the Maggid asked him to show them a hidden tzaddik.  The Maggid sent them to spend Shabbos with a certain person.  The talmidim expected a spiritually elevated Shabbos with the revelation of wondrous secrets and apparent miracles.

Upon arriving at the man’s house, they found it hard to believe that this was the right address and that this person was the man they were looking for. A huge man stood in the doorway.  Instead of “shalom aleichem” he roared, “What do you want?” After some discussion, he agreed to host them for Shabbos on condition that they do as he did and did not bother him with their practices.

As Shabbos approached, the man threw some clay onto the table and stuck a candle in it.  He lit the candle and began mumbling something.  The talmidim of the Maggid could barely make out that this was a candle for Shabbos when he thundered at them again, “Why are you looking at me like that? Move on – Kabbalas Shabbos.  Hurry up so I won’t have to wait for you to start the meal.”

As they ate and wanted to sing, he reminded them of their agreement not to annoy him.  In the morning, he woke them up early and ordered them to hurry up the davening.  When they asked him about a nearby river for them to immerse in before davening, he chortled and told them to stop with the nonsense.

The man raced through Shacharis, skipping words and making mistakes.  A coarse peasant song occasionally accompanied his recitation of the text.  The meal was like the one of the night before.  When the Chassidim tried to say divrei Torah quietly amongst themselves, he immediately ordered them to be quiet.  “Don’t bring new customs here.” 

After the meal, he lay down to sleep and told them to do likewise.  That is how they spent the Shabbos which seemed like an inordinately long day to them.

On Motzaei Shabbos, the talmidim breathed a sigh of relief over being able to leave the house of this “tzaddik.”  They packed their bags and went to the door nervously, hoping the man would let them leave.  The man just sat quietly.  A moment before they went out, he went over to them and said, “You sought to see something hidden, eh? R’ei – Anochi, don’t seek it elsewhere; it’s within you.  Look at yourself and ‘see’ the ‘Anochi’ [i.e. the Divine Essence] within you.  See that you yourself are ‘Anochi.’”

This story is a perfect introduction to this week’s D’var Malchus, but just an introduction.  The chiddush in the D’var Malchus and the manner of avoda demanded of us is altogether different.  Both the “R’ei” and the “Anochi” have Geula connotations.  In the past, Chassidim had to travel to the hidden tzaddik in order to internalize that the “Anochi” lay within them.  Today, it is an inseparable part of the life of every Jew, every day, every moment, in thought, speech and action.  In our generation there is no need to travel to a distant village and suffer throughout an entire Shabbos in order to “get” that the “Anochi” is within me.

The “R’ei” also gets a Geula connotation in this D’var Malchus.  Today it is easier to “see,” to see the “Anochi” in the world, to see the “Anochi” in me, and to see the “Anochi” within every Jew.  This is because today we are in a time when “we have already seen a number of wonders both regarding the Geula of the individual and regarding the Geula of the klal (os 9 of the sicha).  Today the “Anochi” is revealed, so we see.  Today, we don’t need to “dig” in order to see it.  If you look, you see it!

To put it in terms of Elul, “I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me” – not simply a two-sided relationship, mutuality, a yearning for unification between the “I” and the “my beloved” – but: I and my beloved are one and the same!

The best preparation a teacher can do before the school year begins is to look at the list of new students and review again and again: Levi – “R’ei Anochi!” Mendy – “R’ei Anochi!” Yisroel – “R’ei Anochi” … If he does this every morning during the year, he will see the Anochi in each talmid every day and throughout the day.  An entire class of Geula! 

A director of a Chabad house who looks at a mekurav needs to first look at the Anochi in him, and from there to begin approaching all of the other elements that make up the person.

Parents who want to teach the “Meshichoi” of the generation of Geula have to see (R’ei) the true reality (Anochi) in the child.  From this perspective, you can advance and help the child be truly redeemed.

It all begins by a person looking at himself.  If you live with the “Anochi” within yourself, you will also see it in everyone else.

Therefore, the result of the spiritual accounting as we approach Elul – and find ourselves in the time of “see I give before you today a blessing” – leads to the conclusion that there is already “all aspects of blessing and foremost, the main bracha of the true and complete Geula, that it is not enough that we hear (understand) that ‘hinei zeh (Melech HaMoshiach) ba,’ but we need to see with our physical eyes, and not merely ‘I will show them’ in the future tense but ‘R’ei,’ in the present, and as a command!”

May it be immediately.