THE REBBE; UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

 

 

 

THE REBBE; UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.

 

The Rebbe would teach Rashi on the Chumash, arguing that Rashi is teaching a 5-year-old child who learns Chumash for the first time, as the Mishna says that a 5-year-old learns Chumash. Everything in Rashi is on the level of a 5-year-old, every question should be simple and straightforward, the answer should be understood to the 5-year-old, and if Rashi does not ask a question which other commentators ask, this question doesn’t bother the 5-year-old, it may be a question to a scholar or an adult, but not to the child. Once the Rebbe taught a Rashi on Parshas Shlach (Bamidbar 14, 36), where it talks about the 10 spies who instigated the Jews against G-d and the land, they were punished by death in a plague. 

Rashi explains the meaning of the words “they returned and badmouthed him” for which they were punished, by saying that “when they returned from scouting the land they organized the people against him (Moshe) by badmouthing”. The Rebbe asks; what was missing in the verse “they returned and badmouthed him” that Rashi has to add Moshe in the context? This is pretty clear, they were punished for badmouthing G-d, Moses, the land; why is Rashi inserting a clarification that they instigated against Moshe? The Rebbe explained; the 5-year-old asks, G-d is angry, He wants to kill all the Jews and Moses will replace them with a new nation, Moses prays and pleads and begs for the Jews, and ultimately G-d says, I forgive like you asked. And the Jews are spared. Then we learn that the 10 scouts died, they were not spared. Asks the 5-year-old, if Moses can save 600,000 with his prayers couldn’t he save just another 10 people? To which Rashi responds; “they organized the people against him (Moshe)”, therefore Moshe could not save them. There is a known rule in life, “a prosecutor can’t become a defender”, in this case, because the sin of the spies was directed at Moshe, G-d said, you can’t defend them, their crime was against you, so you are like the prosecutor, therefore you can’t be their defender. Concluded the Rebbe; the lesson is that Jewish leaders work tirelessly to bring blessing to all the Jews, except for those who go against them. Rabbi Leibel Schapiro was editing this talk for the Rebbe to approve for publication, and when he got the final Sicha (booklet), he noticed that the last part which says that leaders cannot bring blessings for their opponents, was missing, the Sicha finished mid-sentence, with the message that Jewish leaders bring blessings for the entire Jewish people. Being that he lived in Florida, he called New York to ask, what did you do to butcher my editing? He was told, that when the Rebbe got this transcript, the Rebbe put a big X on that last paragraph. Puzzled, the Rebbe was asked what’s wrong, isn’t this exactly what the Rebbe said? The Rebbe responded; this is in total contrast to Chassidic thinking, burn this paper and you should never repeat this! Moses perhaps couldn’t save his opponents, but we who learned Chassidus, this goes against our grain, there’s no such thing that a Chassidic leader becomes a prosecutor against another Jew. This is the most powerful message that we can get from the Rebbe, Moses our greatest leader ever, he couldn’t do it, but now that we have Chassidus we can. Wow! (Perhaps in Torah conversation and study we can complete the sentence, but to publish this forever, this cannot be repeated, because it is not applicable in today’s real life.) Over the years the Rebbe imbued us with so much Ahavas Yisroel (absolute love of fellow Jew), and he kept reemphasizing that this is the precursor to the coming of Moshiach.

When Moshe took the Jews out of Egypt about 80% of the Jews didn’t make it out, because they went against Moshe and his prophecy that redemption is imminent. However, Moshiach will be collecting each and every Jew hand by hand from every corner of the world, no Jew will be left behind. That’s why Moshiach will come as a result of the spreading of the teachings of Chassidus, because this is necessary to condition us to be able to welcome Moshiach. And the Rebbe not only taught us Chassidus, but the Rebbe lived Chassidus, the Rebbe implemented in real life what Chassidus teaches to love a Jew unconditionally, no if buts and how’s. If there is one trait about the Rebbe that we can all connect to and learn to implement, this unconditional love is it. Learn from the Rebbe to love, to bring Moshiach, as we complete on Gimmel Tammuz the 40th cycle of studying Rambam with the laws of Moshiach to make them real and practical.

Have a Loving Inspiring Moshiach Shabbos, Gut Shabbos Yosef Katzman

 

Published at Journal Mitzvah. With authorization of Rabbi Yosef Katzman.

A GREAT INSPIRATION OF TORAH LIFE!

A GREAT INSPIRATION OF TORAH LIFE!

Editor's note (Journal Mitzvah’s Gil Sasson): BH, what a great inspiration and good news, HaShem provides rivers of blessings, my friend Yosef Katzman's statement about his daughter's wedding was very inspired and a lesson in wisdom and true love that I am very happy to present at the Journal Mitzvah, the sparks of light filled my heart with great love, hope, motivation to believe in the wonderful ways of Holy One, Blessed be He.

May the couple be very happy and continue receiving blessings from Heaven. Mazal Tov!

Read please:

It’s all about Union.

Thank G-d after long preparation and anticipation; I walked my daughter to the Chupa this past week, and what a Simcha it was, small and cozy and full of life, I am ecstatic.

All good things that you have to wait for, you enjoy a lot more when they come.

A wedding is a union.

Creation is a union.

Torah is a union.

Moshiach and redemption is a union.

It’s all about a union; it’s all about a wedding.

A man and a woman get married in a union of opposites to build a family which will continue in perpetuity.

The Creator and His creations unite to make union of spirituality with physicality.

Torah is G-d’s infinite wisdom dressed in human logic for the brain to grasp G-d’s ideas with our mortal minds, and G-d’s ideas envelope the human brain and the human mind wraps around G-d’s wisdom to make a perfect union.

Moshiach is the end product of all unions; unity of man and woman, unity of physical with spiritual, unity of G-d’s wisdom with human comprehension, together they produce the perfect union between G-d and the entire existence.

5780 years were one long preparation to the union and marriage between G-d and the Jewish people, we refined and elevated the creation, through Torah we connected our mind with G-d’s, and we introduce infinity into time and space through marriage of man and woman.

So this week my daughter got married, next week we are celebrating the receiving of the Torah, and the ultimate goal is to consummate the marriage between G-d and the Jewish people when Moshiach comes and ushers in the final redemption.

The personal wedding is the microcosm and preview to the macrocosm, the time of anticipation is coming to an end, and by celebrating the personal wedding we usher in the communal wedding of G-d with mankind.

Dress your best and get those dancing shoes on, I feel it in my bones, the joy is palpable.

Mazal Tov!

Gut Shabbos

By: Yosef Katzman (Brooklyn, New York).

Posted with authorization of Yosef Katzman to Journal Mitzvah.

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Hidden Blessings Hidden Kindness

Hidden Blessings Hidden Kindness

This week in the Parsha we read the blessings and the punishments.

There is a custom that for the Aliya of the punishments we do not call anyone to the Torah, so that it shouldn’t seem like this person is absorbing all the punishments.

The story is told about Rabbi Dovber of Lubavitch, the second Chabad Rebbe, that one year after the reading of the punishments he took it to heart and he became very ill.

When they asked him what made you so sick now, you have been hearing this every year?

The Rebbe responded, this year I heard the reading for the first time, and the punishments sound so harsh that it made me sick, last year my father did the reading and it didn’t sound like punishments!

“When a father reads you hear no punishments, they are all blessings”.

The same words can sound like punishments or like blessings; it just depends who says it.

Kabbala says that there is open kindness and there is hidden kindness, and the hidden kindness is much greater than open kindness, and it is hidden precisely because it is too strong for the beneficiaries to handle, so it comes in hidden form.

A case in point, ordinary rocks are available everywhere and anywhere, but precious gems and precious metals are buried deep deep down, and one of the hardest and most dangerous jobs is to mine those gold and diamond mines, but once you do the job you hit the jackpot.

Another example is two people climbing a mountain on a scorching hot day carrying heavy knapsacks, one is grouching and the other one is dancing.

When asked why are you so happy when the other guy is moaning? He says, how can you compare, he is carrying rocks and I’m carrying diamonds.

When we know that the heavy load contains great reward, nothing will bring us down.

G-d is our father and G-d is the source of all good, every child knows that his father has only the best interest of his children in mind.

Sometimes the father does things beyond the child’s capacity to comprehend, and the child cries and is upset, but when he grows up he looks back and says, wow, how brilliant was my father that he used force to stop me from running into traffic.

Talk about the infinity of goodness, it is beyond our scope of understanding, we are mortal and very limited in our accepting, but deep down we know that what G-d does is the ultimate good, and we really believe it, but sometimes it is just too difficult to bear, the goodness is just too tough to handle.

But when we remember that G-d is our father and that He is the one who gave us this difficult challenge, it becomes easier to carry the load, and we start marching happily, because we know that with every step we come closer to the final rewards that await us.

We already hear from people how much they will miss the good that came from this dreadful season of Corona; non-Jewish neighbors are begging their Jewish neighbors not to stop the outdoor prayer services.

Others are talking about these wonderful Zoom classes and Zoombrengens that were created in lockdown; let’s not go back to the old routine when we have no time for each other.

The volunteers that formed to help the lonely and the elderly, and what about the Hatzalah volunteers who gave their lives 24/7 just to keep millions alive.

And how can we forget the 15 million dollars raised for Hatzalah in just 24 hours.

And the list is long, many are already now starting to see the positive discovered during this time, and we know that if not this virus we would never realize these amazing qualities that we all contain within us.

When a father reads, we hear no punishments they are all blessings.

But father in heaven, we are all finite mortals, and the blessings are too forceful for us, please shorten the distance to the final destination, it has been long enough.

And we should grow up from childhood to be full-fledged adults who see the wisdom of the father’s hidden kindness and hidden blessings to become revealed blessings and revealed kindness.

“When a father reads you hear no punishments, they are all blessings”.

Like father like son, be blessed and be kind,

By: Yosef Katzman

Posted with authorization of Yosef Katzman to Journal Mitzvah.

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