The Rebbe Rayatz
tells us in Likkutei Dibburim [see Vol. 5 in Eng., chapter 40a and the
first part of chapter 40b] that despite the terrible suffering the Alter Rebbe
endured in his incarceration - likened to the suffering of death, r’l,
and the suffering of the Chassidim - it was not considered one of his "ten
yisurim" (afflictions), but one of his "ten merits." These yisurim
were not the type that lead to later benefit (like the other afflictions
listed), but the suffering itself was considered a merit.
Why should this be
so? It is true that these afflictions led to the wonderful results of spreading
the wellsprings outward in a completely new way, which is referred to as "after
Petersburg," but the yisurim seem to be just that - yisurim, not
merits.
Perhaps one could say
that the explanation for this can be found in Seifer HaSichos 5752 (Vol.
2, p. 485):
Just as mattan
Torah (of nigleh of Torah) occurred specifically after and through
the Egyptian exile, so too the mattan Torah of pnimiyus ha’Torah
(on 19 Kislev) came specifically after and through the concealment of the Alter
Rebbe’s imprisonment (which occurred because of the accusation Above about the
revelation of Chassidus) because [as brought in Likkutei Levi Yitzchok:]
"Whenever a new light in Torah is revealed, especially a lofty one such as this,
there first had to be a concealment of his sitting in jail, etc."
One of the reasons is
that in order to innovate something in Torah there must be an addition and
newness in man (the one learning and innovating Torah). As long as he is in his
usual condition and level, his activity in Torah study is measured according to
his usual capacities. Specifically through being imprisoned, the Alter Rebbe’s
inner and essential powers were revealed, and through his redemption, a change
was wrought in him (similar to the change in a freed slave, l’havdil, a
chiddush from servitude to freedom). And through this, the chiddush
(the "geula") of Toras Ha’Chassidus was revealed through him, which
brought Toras ha’Chassidus down into the understanding and grasp of
Chabad, through which the essence of pnimiyus ha’Torah was revealed.
(Actually, this order
is reversed, because Torah is the source of everything in Creation. Therefore,
you have to say that the reason for the chiddush brought about by the
imprisonment and redemption was the intention Above that the time had come for
the chiddush in Torah through the revelation of Toras Chassidus Chabad.
As a result, there was the imprisonment and redemption, which wrought a change
in the Baal HaMaasar and geula, through which the chiddush
in Torah came about.)
In other words, the
imprisonment was not only about suffering enabling the revelation that followed,
but it lifted (as it were) the Alter Rebbe from his prior limitations (as much
as we can say that about him), leading to the great revelation of the Chag
HaGeula of Yud-Tes Kislev.
This will be better
understood based on the explanation in Seifer HaMaamarim 5670 (p. 49 and
on, which Chassidim call Hemshech HaNesira), with a parable about
nesira (literally, sawing off) from a teacher and a student. It talks about
a teacher, who is incomparably greater than his student, and a student, who
doesn’t begin to understand his teacher. In order for the student to understand
any concept, the teacher must first draw back and completely hide what he
understands and how he looks at the entire topic. He can then reveal a tiny,
limited drop of his intellect that the student can grasp, after which, by means
of many constrictions, the student can finally grasp something of his teacher’s
wisdom.
This is the initial
process that occurs before the student can begin to understand anything. After
the student has learned and attained what he could attain on his own, the time
comes when the teacher wants to lift his student to a higher level the student
on his own could never even dream of attaining, a level in which "the student’s
senses become like the teacher’s senses." In order to accomplish this, the
teacher has to reveal concepts that are at first higher than the student’s
grasp. Only then can he begin to expand and reveal the matter as it is within
himself.
When the teacher
reveals concepts from his own perception of them, the student experiences only
darkness. There is a "nesira" between the student and the teacher. The
student suddenly feels his incredible lowliness and the awesome distance between
himself and his teacher. He feels that the teacher is much higher than himself
while he remains down below. But it is specifically this tremendous distance he
feels that begins his elevation; this is how he can begin to be elevated in
order to reach his teacher’s level.
The literal meaning
of nesira is sawing beams and arranging them for building. Nesira
does not refer to breaking followed by fixing, a yerida (descent) that is
followed by an aliya (ascent), but to breaking that is literally one with
the fixing. When material is cut in order to have a garment sewed, we don’t say
that we tear the material and then fix it. We see that cutting the material is
an intrinsic part of sewing the garment.
So with nesira
between a teacher and student: This is not a great descent whose ultimate goal
is ascent; the nesira is, rather, an essential part of the ascent and is
the beginning of that ascent. It is a process by which the student begins to
have a connection to his teacher’s level.
The previous level
mentioned, of revealing to the student concepts he can grasp and absorb, can be
referred to as "one wall for the two of them." The teacher and student both seem
to be on one level. You can’t see a difference between them, and therefore, it
isn’t possible for the student to raise himself to his teacher’s level. He
doesn’t even know there is anything higher for him to yearn for. It seems as if
this situation is good for everybody. The teacher explains and the student
understands, and everybody is content. There is a unity, a cleaving between
teacher and student. But this is only a cleaving "back to back," the student
receives merely from the "back" and externalities of his teacher, a level he is
capable of receiving. However, the teacher’s pnimiyus, essence, are
completely beyond the student.
Not only is the
student not able to relate to the teacher’s pnimiyus, he is not even
aware that there is a pnimiyus he is not getting! He feels great, for the
teacher constantly explains and reveals, and he constantly understands and
progresses. And since he doesn’t feel a lack, there is no chance he would ever
try to achieve anything far greater, incomparably greater.
However, when the
teacher wants to give his student from his pnimiyus, in what is referred
to as yichud panim b’panim, when the yichud, the cleaving of the
teacher and student is from the teacher’s pnimiyus to the student’s
pnimiyus, then a nesira is necessary to separate the teacher from the
student, to give the student the feeling that the teacher is incomparably
greater.
At first this will
"break" the student. The student feels terrible and powerless. Suddenly he feels
that after all he learned and knows, he understands and knows nothing. But it is
specifically this "breaking" and nesira that is the beginning of his rise
to an incomparably greater level. Only now does he begin to understand that
there is a pnimiyus he never knew existed and never felt he lacked. Now
that he arrives at the awareness of the great pnimiyus his teacher
contained, he begins to yearn for that pnimiyus. Then he begins to work
in an entirely different way, so that he will eventually attain the yichud
panim b’panim, so that he will receive in his pnimiyus, the
pnimiyus of his teacher, so that the "student’s senses are like the
teacher’s senses," and "he attains the knowledge of his teacher."
The nesira
between student and teacher that only exists to stimulate the student into
realizing there is something incomparably greater is also accomplished through
revelation. The teacher begins to reveal more to the student. The teacher
spreads a great light before the student which the latter cannot grasp. This
revelation is the teacher "sawing himself off" from the student. It gives the
student the feeling of how great the chasm between them is, and it creates a
desire to lift himself up to the teacher in his pnimiyus, which is the
beginning of yichud panim b’panim. The student will then rise and unite
with the teacher with his own pnimiyus and essence.
To reiterate, this is
not a descent for the purpose of an ascent. That idea is explained in a parable
of a teacher who focuses and lifts himself up higher and higher within himself
in order to receive a new, more wondrous intellect so that he can in turn relay
it to his student. All the concealment is for the student’s good, for in that
parable the teacher does in fact "leave" his student for some short period of
time, although it is only for the purpose of being able to give the student
more.
In the parable of
nesira, however, the student is not left at all. On the contrary, he is
given a tremendously lofty revelation, so high that the student is blinded by it
at first and thinks he received nothing, when in truth, at the very moment that
he doesn’t understand and is pained and feels the lack, he is receiving all the
lofty pnimiyus.
The parable of the
teacher who leaves the student momentarily and goes up above is explained in
Chassidus (Likkutei Sichos, Vol. 2, Dvarim) regarding the descent of
Galus on Tisha B’Av, etc. For a brief moment there is destruction, but the
end is a great ascent. The parable is employed in Chassidus to explain the
revelation of mattan Torah. At mattan Torah there was no descent
or destruction; the souls of the people departed because of the power of the
revelation. That is how it works with this wondrous revelation - at first it
breaks and shatters all previous assumptions: ("Their souls flew out"), but then
Hashem returned their souls to them with the dew of Torah with which the dead
will be resurrected in the Future to Come.
* * *
We were terribly
shaken on Gimmel Tammuz and we still haven’t recovered. No explanation will
suffice. There is no such thing as Chassidim without a Rebbe. There is no
Judaism without a Rebbe. No world without a Rebbe. Without a Rebbe, there is
nothing. That is what we learned, how we were taught. That’s how we live and
this is what our lives are all about.
We didn’t have to
have sources (like Likkutei Sichos, Vol. 26, p. 7, etc.) that there must
be a Nasi in a physical body in this physical world, for all of Judaism
and Chassidus is built on that. It was the essence of all the chinuch we
absorbed from all of Toras ha’Chassidus, Chassidus in general and Chabad
Chassidus in particular - especially the Rebbe’s teachings - that the Nasi
is everything, literally.
We felt great in the
period before that. There was hardly a need for emuna because the G-dly
truth of Lubavitch was understood, felt, visible. The most honored thing in the
world to be was a Lubavitcher Chassid, especially a Chassid of the Rebbe
shlita. We saw the Rebbe conquer the world and lead it towards Geula
with giant steps. We heard the Rebbe’s fiery words at farbrengens and
sichos every few days. We saw miracles every step of the way. We received
direction and guidance for every detail. "Going with the Rebbe" was the most
normal and honorable thing to do.
And another essential
point. At that time we all thought and understood things the same way. We were
united - with one view, one feeling and one action. That’s how we conquered the
world step by step. No one was able to stand in the way of such an amazing army,
for everybody knew it was all only with the Rebbe’s kochos.
Then suddenly there
was Chaf-Zayin Adar, then Chof-Zayin Adar again, and then Gimmel Tammuz. This
was a mighty nesira, a nesira that seemed to separate us from the
Rebbe. A nesira that showed us the Rebbe was way up there and we were way
down here. We don’t see the Rebbe, we don’t hear him at farbrengens.
There’s no "dollars," no kos shel bracha, no lekach, no
yechidus, no letters and telegrams, no notes and no verbal responses. We
were left like a ship at sea that seems to have no captain.
But we were taught: "Der
Rebbe hut doch altz bavorent" (The Rebbe set it all up in advance). This was
not a "breaking for the sake of breaking," and not even a "descent that is only
for an ascent." This is a test that is not a true reality, and this nisayon
(from the root "nes," a banner flown high) is for the purpose of
lifting us up from the state of yichud achor b’achor to a state of
yichud panim b’panim.
It is a test in which
the student is meant to understand what is happening and what is required from
him - that he believe and understand and know that all this is nothing but a
part of the aliya required of him so that he become elevated and reach
the complete hisgalus with the true and complete Redemption.
We are being asked to
"go out of ourselves," to leave whatever we had before in order to enter a
completely different state. For example, from a state of emuna and
hiskashrus to the Rebbe as it used to be; from a state of devotion and
dedication to the Rebbe and fulfilling his directives without considering what
the world would say, the same way we used to have this dedication; from a state
of emuna and expectation, learning and meditation, and "living with
Moshiach" in the old way; from the same level of ahavas Yisroel and unity
among Chassidim that we used to have; a state of achorayim and
chitzoniyus. Now we are asked to achieve a truer emuna, even at a
time when our eyes and minds tell us the opposite; to have hiskashrus
with the Rebbe in a more pnimiyusdik and real way, to be utterly devoted
to the Rebbe and to fulfill his directives taking nothing else into
consideration; to learn and meditate and live with Moshiach in a loftier manner;
and also, yes, in all seriousness, to have ahavas Yisroel and achdus
among Chassidim in a truer and more atzmiyusdike way.
Before Gimmel Tammuz
our emuna was limited. We had utter emuna because we saw, heard,
and understood. The fact that now we don’t see, don’t hear, and don’t understand
is in order to bring us to another type of emuna entirely - an essential
faith that is unconditional.
Before Gimmel Tammuz
our hiskashrus was limited. We could think that, ch’v, there were
times that the Rebbe didn’t look at us and didn’t know what was doing with us.
We knew it wasn’t so - that the Rebbe had no limitations - but since we saw and
heard, we looked at things from our perspective, as though, ch’v, at
those times we did not see and hear, maybe... We were put into this situation so
that we would rise to an entirely different state of emunas tzaddikim and
hiskashrus to the Rebbe MH"M.
Indeed, it is after
Gimmel Tammuz that the feeling that the Rebbe is not at all restricted and that
he sees each one of us all the time, has intensified. It is now that the belief
that the Rebbe is chai v’kayam even in a physical body, in the most
literal sense, is at its strongest, even when it looks the opposite. It is now
that people ask and consult with the Rebbe (through the Igros Kodesh and
the like) about every detail, and feel in a stronger way that the Rebbe leads us
all, and each one of us, in an entirely different way.
Earlier, we
anticipated Moshiach’s coming; we were involved in inyanei Moshiach and
Geula; we publicized Moshiach and lived with Moshiach, each in his own way.
We are being asked to do this an entirely different way now, with no
limitations, without taking the world’s opinion into consideration, to be - as
the Rebbe said - "crazy about Moshiach" in a way that fills our entire lives and
beings and affects our environment and, in turn, the entire world, with no
exception.
Another important
point: Before Gimmel Tammuz we had ahavas Yisroel and achdus,
etc., because we all had the same emuna, the same understanding, the same
feeling and the same actions. We are asked to love each other not because of all
this, but even when we have differences of opinion, different feelings, and even
when we do different things, we ought to love one another with true love, as the
Rebbe has taught us.
We are asked to
understand what is going on and what is required of us - that we rise above and
not be put off by all the concealments; that we know that the nesira is
only to take us out of our previous state, to lift us up to something else
entirely, which is happening right now and is about to be realized imminently,
the true and complete Redemption with the revelation of our King Moshiach, the
Rebbe shlita.
Yechi Adoneinu
Moreinu V’Rabbeinu Melech HaMoshiach l’olam va’ed!