“WHEN THE AMERICAN ICE WILL MELT...”

From the Sichos Kodesh of the Rebbe Rayatz at the Yud-Tes Kislev farbrengen of 5708

“BEGINNING WITH BLESSING” WITH A NIGGUN

There is an expression, “One opens with a bracha,” which means to sing a niggun. A niggun is higher than speech. A niggun expresses atzmius (the essence of the thing), and then you feel the p’nimius and atzmius of what is spoken.

THE NIGGUN BEFORE DAVENING

As was once said, this is the reason why Chassidim sing before davening. There is the niggun before davening and the niggun during davening. The niggun before davening is the preparation to take and throw out what is unnecessary during davening.

One needs to sing a niggun; not so that it affects and penetrates the other person, but to affect and permeate oneself.

IN CHABAD YOU ALSO NEED CHAGAS

There are those who err, who think that Chabad is (only) haskala (intellectual conceptualization) because Chabad is an acronym for chochma, bina, daas. If so, they maintain, how does it extend to the avodas ha’middos (the work of refining and elevating one’s emotional traits), i.e. Chagas?

We once said that there are Chagas Chassidim, Chagasnikes, and Chabad Chassidim, Chabadnikes. This doesn’t mean that Chagas Chassidim are solely Chagas (middos) without Chabad (mochin), and that Chabad Chassidim are solely Chabad without Chagas. The difference is only in the beginning, where they start from, but the main thing in Chassidus is avoda.

HINTED AT IN THE LETTER OF YUD-TES KISLEV

In my father the Rebbe Rashab’s letter that he sent me for Yud-Tes Kislev 5662, when he was not in Lubavitch, he writes, “… this day is the Rosh HaShana for Chassidus – which our saintly forebears, [the Rebbeim of their respective generations,] have bequeathed to us – i.e., the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, etc. [We read in the Machzor:] ‘This is the day which is the beginning of Your works.’” In this letter, this is alluded to.

(Apparently, the meaning of this is that this inyan, that we also need Chagas, is alluded to there, “… to awaken our hearts on this day, to an inward and elemental desire and yearning, within the very core of our hearts, that G-d illuminate our souls with the light of the innermost dimension of His Torah … to expel every bad and disgusting midda from us, of our natural middos.”)

FOR MYSELF, I WAS NOT AT ALL AFRAID

When the Alter Rebbe returned from Petersburg he said: For myself, I was not afraid at all (of arrest). I said (to myself), Boruch Hashem that the arrest was after 25 (or 30) years of inner work to reveal the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov in a way that the matter was already accomplished, so I wasn’t afraid for myself.

MESIRUS NEFESH FOR THREE THINGS

The Alter Rebbe was moser nefesh for three things: 1) for Hashem, 2) for Torah, 3) for Eretz Yisroel.

For Hashem: through mesirus nefesh for Kiddush Hashem.

For Torah: the mesirus nefesh for Torah and mitzvos. Torah without mitzvos is nothing. When you say “Torah” it doesn’t mean that he understands the Torah with his intellect. Rather, that with his intellect he understands what the Torah wants.

For Eretz Yisroel: it is known that the Alter Rebbe strengthened and supported our holy Rebbeim and their families and the families of Anash who settled in Eretz Yisroel.

This is what the Alter Rebbe meant when he said about himself that he was not at all afraid because by then he had already accomplished all (three) things, so he personally did not care about himself.

MESIRUS NEFESH FOR A SIMPLE JEW

The Alter Rebbe would be moser nefesh for a simple Jew for a material matter or a spiritual one. He saw the essence of simple Jews.

HE DID NOT GET INVOLVED

The Alter Rebbe did not mix in to when the galus would end. His avoda was to bring light to the Jewish people.

May Hashem help so there will soon be the revelation of Moshiach, without false interpretations, but people will sense the essential, inward revelation in Torah and avoda.

HE BEQUEATHED TO THE CHASSIDIM

This power of mesirus nefesh was bequeathed by the Alter Rebbe to the Chassidim but it is hidden. In order to reveal it, mesirus nefesh is also required. Every one of the Chassidic flock needs to have mesirus nefesh.

WHEN WILL I BE ABLE TO FULFILL IT?

This mesirus nefesh is in a manner of “when will the opportunity come to my hands and I will fulfill it (v’akaymena).” With mesirus nefesh the main point is not to give one’s life but (v’akaymena – I will sustain it) that it needs to be lasting.

By a goy, l’havdil elef alfei havdalos, it happens that he gets drunk and then he drops dead like a corpse, but this is from the vodka and for the vodka.

But by a Jew, the idea of mesirus nefesh is the “v’akaymena” – the sustaining of the matter. And what is mesirus nefesh? That what he wants is not necessary. And what he does not want is necessary!

MY BROTHER: YOU HAVE WITHIN YOU A LITTLE IMPURE CREATURE

There are those who say, how can we attain spiritual things? What sort of “mechutan” am I to that? I am not holding by that.

But the truth is that you need to tell him: My brother, you have within you a little sheretz (impure creature) that makes you its “mechutan” for its interests.

THE CLEVER IDEAS OF THE ANIMAL SOUL

You stuff the animal soul like the animal it is. You throw it a piece of meat or a piece of challa. You let your G-dly soul starve. The animal soul comes to you with its chochmos (clever ideas) and claims: Everything having to do with Shabbos is double, so you need to eat two types of fish on Shabbos, two types of meat, two types of p’tcha. Thus, the animal soul leads you into the hole. Then you daven Mincha and Maariv only once in a while, you say the bedtime Shma once in three weeks, you fulfill your obligation with tying straps around your arm. This is how you stuff the animal soul. And you let the G-dly soul starve.

TO FEEL THE TRUTH

Chassidim are clever wise men. They tell themselves the truth. By Chassidim not much is demanded; the main thing is to sense the truth.

You can be expert in Shas, speak Rambams, and innovate Torah thoughts, but these are not the main thing. The main thing is to sense the truth. You can learn a pasuk in Chumash and feel the truth.

Today, much can be accomplished.

SPIRITUALLY RICH

According to Torah, a father must support his little son. Even more so a servant whose master is responsible to feed him, so may Hashem give plentiful bounty materially and spiritually, so that the Jewish people have chayus to truly “live.”

The Jewish people are very rich. As far as the material, they need to be given what they need, but spiritually all the Jewish people are rich. However it is concealed and it needs to be taken out of concealment and brought out into the open.

HASKALA ALONE IS WORTHLESS

In Chassidus and the ways of Chassidim the main thing is avoda; haskala alone is nothing. Haskala itself is worthless. There is an order: mochin, middos, thought, speech, action, but the main thing is action in actual avoda.

THE PLEASURE UP ABOVE FROM A YISHUVNIK

A large measure of haskala does not come close to actual avoda. Up above, a good word of a yishuvnik (villager) is loftier than a large measure of haskala.

A yishuvnik meets a Jew on the road and says: Shalom Aleichem. He brings him into his house and tells his wife: throw another bundle of twigs into the oven so the house will warm up; we have a guest. And he gives him bread to eat with dairy delights and then tells his guest: Go up on the oven and warm up and rest there.

Then the yishuvnik says a chapter of T’hillim (for his guest) and says (sadly), why does he need to travel the roads in such snow to look for a calf in order to support his household?

This behavior of the yishuvnik is very precious up above, far more than the Chiddushei Torah of a gaon.

TO HARNESS THE BODY

A yishuvnik once said to my father [the Rebbe Rashab]: I don’t know anything. I just know how to harness the body by saying a chapter of T’hillim!

OUR REBBEIM KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON IN THIS WORLD

It is a certainty that the Rebbe (the Alter Rebbe) in the upper Gan Eden and the Chassidim who were moser nefesh for Chassidus and the ways of Chassidus have pleasure from the joyous celebration of their joyous occasion.

It is definitely the case that the Rebbe (the Alter Rebbe) and our Rebbeim know what is going on this world. The [departed] forebears of Chassidim have pleasure from this (celebration) and they receive blessings from the Alter Rebbe for their children and grandchildren.

THE THREE LOVES ARE INTERTWINED

The three things – love for G-d, love for Torah and love for Jews – need to be braided together by the Chassidim like a Havdala candle.

THE YOUNG MEN DID NOT SEE THE LIGHT

It is a great pity on the young men here. The elder Chassidim still remember from their home; they saw the grandfather, the father. As they call it here, der alte heim (the Old Country, i.e. Eastern Europe), but the young men did not see the light, especially in this country.

THE “HOO-HA OF AMERICA”

It is forbidden to say this; after all, I am a “batlan,” I don’t go out in the street. I just see that from the window enters such coldness that one begins to shiver. When you see the pandemonium and the hoo-ha here, the tzitzis that get hidden away, a beard that is not necessary, it is something disgusting, lowly. In der heim there was an expression, es iz chalushes. The truth is that all the Jews are precious; the fault lies within us.

WHEN THE AMERICAN ICE MELTS

There is just one consolation. When the ice melts into liquid, the liquid will spread over a greater area than when it was ice. If so, when the American ice melts, there will be so much water and mayim chaim and from that alone we ought to be joyful.

CHABAD DEMANDS P’NIMIUS

The Rebbe Rayatz said they should sing a niggun and then said: You need to sing a p’nimius’dike niggun. Chabad demands p’nimius in everything! A dance needs to be a rikud p’nimi and a niggun needs to be a niggun p’nimi.

TO FEEL ERETZ YISROEL P’NIMIUS

The Rebbe Rayatz said to his relative from Eretz Yisroel, R’ Schneersohn:

Travel in good health and return in good health and sense Eretz Yisroel in a p’nimius manner.

THE END OF THE FARBRENGEN

The Rebbe Rayatz said they should sing the niggun “Dalet Bavos” of the Alter Rebbe. When they sang it, the Rebbe sang it with tremendous d’veikus and much crying.

Afterward, he said they should sing “Nye zhuritze chloptzi” and said they should sing it with great joy. Everyone present sang and danced with tremendous joy.