Merkaz Anash, Beis Hamedrash L’shluchim and COLlive.com present The Chassidic Perspective with Rabbi Yoel Kahn, a weekly short webcast on topics that are timely and relevant.
Rabbi Kahn, often referred to as “Reb Yoel,” is the most preeminent authority on Chabad-chassidic teachings and was the chief reviewer and transcriber of the discourses of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Rabbi Kahn is also the lead editor of Sefer Ha’erechim, a multi-volume encyclopedia of abstruse chassidic and mystical concepts and the head Mashpia at the Central Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, NY.
This webcast is delivered in Yiddish and a transcription in English, prepared by Rabbi Shraga Dovid Homnick, appears below or can be printed in a PDF format.
VIDEO:
In the letter which the Alter Rebbe wrote to one of his colleagues upon being released from prison, he notes that he was redeemed on the 19th of Kislev, the Mezritcher Magid’s yahrtzeit, that it was a Tuesday, and that it was just after he’d recited “pada b’shalom,” before he could proceed to the next verse.
Clearly these aren’t just reminiscences about the circumstances surrounding his liberation, but serve to illustrate the significance of his release. This is especially true in light of the fact that the Alter Rebbe wasn’t arrested and redeemed as a private individual, but rather in representation of chassidus. The relevance of the 19th of Kislev is rather apparent, considering that it’s connected to the Magid, but room remains for further elaboration on this and the other details.
The Hidden Characters
In one of the Rebbe’s reshimos, personal Torah notations written in brief, the Rebbe dwells on the meaning of the number 19. In kabala, Hashem’s name has the numerical value of 26, but when the letters themselves are spelled out (yud-vov-daled, hei-aleph, vov-aleph-vov, hei-aleph) the total is 45. This means that the ‘milui’ of Hashem’s name, the hidden characters completing the primary letters themselves, have the numerical value of 19.
There are two, seemingly contradictory explanations for the significance of the unspoken letters of ‘milui.’ One is that ‘aleph,’ for example, is sounded as ‘ah’ but referred to in conversation as ‘aleph,’ which seems to suggest that ‘ah’ is more essential, whereas the use of extra letters is a convention we resort to only for the sake of communication, and they are thus inferior. The other, conversely, is that a teacher only expresses so much in his statements, leaving deeper, more personal insights unsaid, perhaps to be gleaned at some later point.
In Its Entirety
The Baal Shem Tov introduced the concept that Hashem is one to the exclusion of all of existence, but the Alter Rebbe took this idea which had remained in the realm of emuna and explained it in a rational fashion, Chabad. This isn’t to say, however, that the ‘realness’ of emuna was watered down into a more distant, second-hand intellectual exercise; Chabad succeeded in transferring the original concept into sechel in its entirety.
It’s said that R. Levi Yitzchok of Berditchov’s reaction upon seeing the Tanya for the first time was: “Amazing, such a great G-d in such a small book!” His comment about ‘smallness’ wasn’t a reference to the number of pages though, but rather an observation about how limited the intellect of a created being, even an angel, is compared to the infiniteness of Hashem. The logical inference would therefore be that it’s impossible to capably convey G-d’s greatness within the confines of a “small book” – it’s either one or the other.
Big Elephant, Small Needle
There was someone who maintained that G-d’s powers were so limitless that he could run an elephant through the eye of a needle. But how? Either through stretching the elephant or through widening the hole. But the truth is that Hashem is fully capable of accomplishing this feat while the elephant and needle remain unchanged!
Similarly, there’s nothing impressive about explaining Hashem in rational terms where the ‘elephant’ ‘shrinks’ to the degree that it’s understandable, or where sechel is lifted to an impossibly refined level to the degree that it’s unrecognizable. Tanya remarkably succeeded in capturing the emuna in a “great G-d” and making it conveyable it to anyone in their current state through the means of a “small book.”
Likewise, 19, ‘milui,’ is sometimes described as a substitute used to express what something is to others, an act of ‘shrinkage,’ and sometimes depicted as lofty words left unspoken, which cannot be conveyed to another without being sacrificed in the process. But in truth they’re connected – because it’s possible to accurately describe the indescribable when one is in possession of the etzem which is beyond words. The etzem remains authentic no matter the form, and remains unaffected even when presented in a “small book.”
A Peaceful Redemption
The deeper meaning of “pada b’shalom” which the Rebbe discusses elsewhere is that the nefesh elokis is held captive by the nefesh ha’bahamis and needs to be redeemed. This can take place, however, in either a militant or peaceful fashion. A real-life captive can be redeemed from prison by overpowering the guards, in which case they remain an adversary in defeat, or the jailors themselves could somehow be persuaded to transform their own position into one advocating that the prisoner be redeemed. It’s possible to escape the ‘world,’ abandon sechel in favor of emuna, but then the nefesh ha’bahamis remains unchanged, which is “pada” but not “shalom.”
“Pada b’shalom” occurs through “b’rabim hayu imadi” – ‘the many were with me.’ ‘Yachid,’ singularity, represents G-dliness, while “rabim” indicates otherwise, like Hashem’s statement “let us make a man” which has misleading connotations. In the original context, “ki b’rabim hayu imadi” was about how even Dovid’s enemies prayed for his welfare, and likewise, in the case of every Jew, human intellect is ‘redeemed peacefully,’ and the ‘plural’ declares loyalty to ‘Oneness.’ This, in turn, signifies spreading the wellsprings outward (or, rather, transforming the ‘outward’ into ‘wellsprings’) in anticipation of Moshiach’s arrival, where, as explained last week, the world itself becomes a vessel to G-dliness.
For further learning see רשימות חוברת כ”ב.
