Farbrengens and stories of Chassidim from the notes of R’ Moshe Yehuda Reichmann a”h, mashpia in Yeshivas Toras Emes in Yerushalayim.* From a t’shura for the Rabinowitz-Yaroslavsky wedding.
R’ Moshe Yehuda Reichmann (right) and R’ Moshe Aryeh Leib Shapiro farbrenging in Toras Emes. Standing and giving out mashke is Menachem Fleischman.CHAI ELUL IS OUR SIMCHAS BEIS HASHOEIVA
A summary of what I said on Chai Elul 5721 at Yeshivas Toras Emes:
1) In a sicha for Chai Elul 5703, the Rebbe Rayatz relates that on Chai Elul 5653 (fifty years before the sicha was said) he went to his father, the Rebbe Rashab. His father said to him with great joy, “A gut yom tov to us! Today is the birthday of our two great luminaries. Monday, Chai Elul 5458, is the birth date of the Baal Shem Tov and Wednesday, Chai Elul 5505, is the birth date of the Alter Rebbe.
The Rebbe goes on to write, this was the first time he heard from his father such an emphatic “gut yom tov.”
From this we can see what Chai Elul meant to the Rebbe Rashab, and in what manner he sensed the yom tov of the birthday of the two great luminaries that he spoke in this way, and with this emphasis, and revealed this to his only son. We can only imagine what a Gan Eden-like atmosphere that was.
This feeling is also expressed in the continuation of what the Rebbe said in the sicha:
“Chai Elul is ‘our Simchas Beis HaShoeiva.’ Regarding the Simchas Beis HaShoeiva, the Yerushalmi says ‘from there they would draw ruach ha’kodesh.’ Yona ben Amitai received his spirit of prophecy from his rejoicing at the Simchas Beis HaShoeiva. So too, on the great day of Chai Elul, we need to draw a pure spirit from this day.”
Based on what it says in Likkutei Torah that the month of Elul is the time when the king is in the field, and we all have permission to welcome him – the idea of permission is the conferring of strength from above. With this strength we can draw a pure spirit and be aroused to repentance. This power is drawn into the month of Elul in general and on Chai Elul, our Simchas Beis HaShoeiva, in particular.
(In a humorous vein, I remember that my brother-in-law, R’ Alter Simchovitz, once walked into yeshiva during Elul and saw that the zal was empty; hardly any bachurim were there learning. He expressed his surprise to me, “In Elul they don’t learn?!” I told him that this is an explicit Likkutei Torah that in Elul there aren’t the usual s’darim in yeshiva. For in Likkutei Torah the question is asked, since the great quality of Shabbos and Yom Tov is derived from the revelation of G-dliness on these days, and since the 13 Attributes of Mercy shine during Elul, which are the loftiest of lights, shouldn’t these days of Elul be Yomim Tovim? And on Yom Tov there is no yeshiva.)
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MOSHKE AND BINYAMIN
2) The Alter Rebbe once asked: What is the difference between Moshke and Binyamin (referring to his Chassidim, R’ Moshe Vilenker and R’ Binyamin Kletzker)?
Said the Alter Rebbe: Binyamin is good for himself but is not fit for the world, while Moshe is good for the world but not fit for himself.
R’ Gronem the mashpia asked, when you ask “what is the difference between this and that,” they must perforce be similar. When saying that Binyamin is good for himself and Moshke is not good for himself, that shows they are completely different! So why ask what the difference is between them?
R’ Gronem said, since R’ Moshke was good for the world and it is known that he had tremendous oratorical abilities and he would review a lot of Chassidus (at first he would say the words of the Alter Rebbe, word for word and even with his niggun. Then he would say, “Now let’s put together our own package,” and he would start to explain things in his own way. Since he had such a positive impact on the world, this elevated him to the point that it was even possible to ask, “What is the difference between Moshke and Binyamin?”
THE CHIDDUSH OF MOSHIACH
A summary of what I said on Chai Elul 5722 in Yeshivas Toras Emes:
1) In the sicha of Chai Elul 5703, the Rebbe writes that Chai Elul is our additional Simchas Beis HaShoeiva. Seemingly, the month of Elul is a time of spiritual accounting and a time of merirus (bitterness). Although the Baal Shem Tov infused chayus into the avoda of “Ani L’Dodi,” and got rid of the sadness, still there is merirus instead, and merirus is the converse of the inyan of Simchas Beis HaShoeiva!
The way to resolve between these two – merirus and simcha – is based on what it says, “and be joyous in trembling,” and like the Zohar says, “joy fixed in the heart on this side and tears fixed in the heart on the other side.” Since the merirus and simcha are derived from two different things, it is possible to have two opposite things together.
The same is so for Chai Elul, since this is the birthday of the two great luminaries, the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe, through whom the revelation of p’nimius ha’Torah began to be revealed, which is the hisgalus of Moshiach.
The story is known that they once asked the Alter Rebbe – after he had revealed so much of p’nimius ha’Torah, what would Moshiach innovate? And he answered that the chiddush of Moshiach would be the “aha.” This would be like a person who learns something in all its details, but he never saw the actual thing. Later, when the thing he toiled over is shown to him, he says, aha! That part is that detail I learned about, and this part is the other thing I was learning, etc. Seeing the thing allows him to take pleasure in the thing itself.
So too with Chassidus. Now we learn it and Moshiach will show it to us (Moshiach is about seeing G-dliness)!
When it comes to the revelation of p’nimius ha’Torah, which was started by the great luminaries, Elul is our Simchas Torah. On the other hand, the learning of Chassidus gives us the awareness of what state we ought to be in, and what state we are actually in, hence the merirus.
Since the merirus and simcha are derived from two different issues, it is possible to have both of them together!
TAKING DOWN THE ASHES
2) In the section of trumas ha’deshen (separating the ashes) it says, “and he takes off his clothing and wears other clothing.” This section is said in Shacharis before the korbanos and before the ketores and before the Mishnayos of “Eizehu mekoman.” The trumas ha’deshen is the first thing, and therefore the foundation of the entire t’filla.
“Prayers were established in place of korbanos” – regarding a korban, Rabbeinu Bechaya says that it is “kiruv (drawing close) of the powers and the senses,” and this is the idea of prayer, to draw close the powers and the senses to G-dliness.
Every Jew has a G-dly spark, it’s just that it’s concealed and we need to blow on it in order to turn it into a fire. In the physical world, when you want to turn a spark into a flame, you take a bellows and use it forcefully on the spark and then it bursts into flame.
So too with prayer. The meditation during prayer is like the bellows with which we blow the G-dly spark that exists within each one of us until it becomes a flame of love for Hashem.
But before davening, before the blowing, we need to separate and pick up the ashes, i.e. when there is a pile of ashes on the spark, blowing won’t help. As much as you may blow, the spark won’t ignite. You first need to remove the ashes off the spark and then use the bellows.
This is the avoda that must happen before the start of t’filla. It starts with the bedtime Shma of the night before which is the idea of “and he takes off his clothing and wears other clothing,” thoughts of repentance that release the soul from its dirty garments and then he can approach prayer.
A DAILY SPIRITUAL ACCOUNTING
3) In the Zohar it says, “the truly meritorious, each day they look at their souls as if this day it is leaving the world,” i.e. when a person is ending his mission in this world and his “merchandise” is finished in the market of this world, then his spiritual accounting is more intense. This is what the daily spiritual accounting is supposed to be like, or at least once a week before Shabbos, as it says in Tanya, that’s when the worlds are elevated in their source – and the spiritual accounting of the month of Elul needs to be for the entire year!
I heard from my father-in-law, R’ Zalman Havlin, that R’ Zalman Zezmer, Chassid of the Alter Rebbe, said before he passed away that he could give a spiritual accounting for the previous seven years, on every thought, word and act that he did.
A SPLINTER IGNITED BY FERVOR
4) The “world” says that when the holy R’ Avrohom, son of the Maggid, would be up to “birchas ha’yotzer,” you could have put a splinter of wood next to him and it would have ignited from the fervor he had when he said this blessing.
The Tzemach Tzedek said regarding this, “Do you think this is an exaggeration? No! It is not an exaggeration at all!”
We find something like this told about the Baal Shem Tov that he once set out with a gentile and while they were in the forest it became bitter cold and the gentile suffered greatly. The Baal Shem Tov touched one of the logs of wood with his holy hand and it caught fire from the G-dly fire in his hand.
R’ Havlin told me that in 5662, when he ran the yeshiva in Horodoshitz, he traveled to Lubavitch to take care of yeshiva matters. When he finished taking care of things and set out to return to Horodoshitz, he met Rebbetzin Rivka, mother of the Rebbe Rashab. She said to him, “Zalman, don’t go. There will soon be a farbrengen.”
My father-in-law wondered why this was so, in the middle of the week. Afterward he found out that R’ Moshe Orenstein, the Rebbe Maharash’s son-in-law, had a serious court case and that day it was decided in his favor and the Rebbe Rashab said to set up a farbrengen but only for select individuals to participate.
At this farbrengen, the Rebbe told about his own life, how he worked on himself in every respect. When he spoke about his avodas ha’t’filla, he said that when he reaches the bracha of yotzer, he contemplates how the seraphim say Kadosh and how they recognize that the Infinite Light is holy and separate, and this causes them to have “brands of fire” as is explained in the Chassidic discourses on the verse, “seraphim standing above him, etc.”
Afterward, the Rebbe went on to say, he contemplates how the Ofanim say “boruch” and this arouses in him a jealousy of the divine service of the angels. However, when he reaches the Shma, the song of the souls, then the feeling is of “Where angels, what angels?”
As it’s explained in Chassidus regarding the difference between “mehalchim” (goers) and “omdim” (standers), that angels are called standing and neshamos are called goers as it says, “And I will place you as mehalchim among these omdim.” Angels, as lofty as they might be, are only omdim, but neshamos are goers and this is incomparable! It’s g’vul (limited) versus bli g’vul (infinite)! This is the inner “soul process” of a tzaddik!
A WARMING FARBRENGEN
It is known that a Chassidishe farbrengen is a mainstay of Chassidic life. Its role is to illuminate and warm up all of a person’s powers, to refine them, and to make them vessels for the Infinite Light that is within Chassidus. As the Rebbe writes (in a letter of 25 Iyar 5711, Igros Kodesh, volume 4, p. 302):
A farbrengen together in a warm, Chassidic environment … like the Rebbe, my father-in-law said, a Chassidishe farbrengen warms the head and heart down to the heel of the foot and when you return home from such a farbrengen you bring the light and warmth into the house, so the home becomes more illuminated and warmer than it was until then.
In 5699, after the passing of the mashpia, R’ Alter Simchovitz a”h, the Rebbe Rayatz chose his brother-in-law, R’ Moshe Yehuda Reichmann a”h, to succeed him as mashpia in Yeshivas Toras Emes (both were sons-in-law of R’ Zalman Havlin who was sent by the Rebbe Rashab to found Toras Emes).
R’ Moshe Yehuda Reichmann was known for his unique service of G-d and his farbrengens were full of much Chassidic content. After his passing he left a collection of notes in which he wrote explanations in Chassidus and pearls from its world. Included in this work, he also wrote what he said at a number of farbrengens that took place in Toras Emes in the 60’s.