Musings Of A Shliach From Montana
I dedicate this article to the loving memory of my colleague, Reb Zvi Ben Alexandar HaKohen Kogan, Hy’d, who was murdered in the UAE by Islamic terrorists, may their names be erased.
I am writing this early Sunday morning.
It’s 4:30 a.m. and there is a full-on blizzard outside. I’m tired, but I can’t sleep. I was tossing and turning until I finally gave up, grabbed my laptop, and headed to my library to pen this article. A brother-in-arms has been murdered, my heart is shattered in a million pieces, and it feels like Mumbai all over again. I will leave it to the pontificators to discuss the details of the barbarism and their prognosis for the future of Jewry, but I want to spend my time focused on “truth” which is the sole reason why we will always overcome these tragedies.
In the “Reshimot,” three hand-written notebooks of the Rebbe, zt’l, that were found in a drawer after his passing, the Rebbe writes something super-powerful dated Motzaei Shabbos, Warsaw, Fall of 1934: “Avodah (intentional service) is not the striving that the Avodah itself be true; rather, truth itself is an Avodah, that the ‘fingernails’ be true. Why does that surprise you? ‘He saw the attribute of Truth,’ the Talmud declares. ‘And he prostrated himself.’”
It seems cryptic and vague, but this idea that the Rebbe heard from his father-in-law, Reb Yosef Yitzchak, has a very clear message: Being a healthy Jew isn’t only about serving G-d with authenticity and integrity, so that the integrity is a means to an end, supporting the Avodah of the Jew that it be done right, but rather becoming an authentic, truthful, person through and through, becoming a person of integrity is in itself a most powerful service to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. If we internalize and become more authentic, then everything else, including our service of G-d, will be truthful, and it should impact even our fingernails, the externalities of our existence.
The reason why Am Yisrael survives all the tsuris and agony is because we are “children of Hashem,” gifted with eternity and bound in emes, truth, in an “Alma Deshikra,” a world of falsehoods. It’s easy to succumb to the heartbreak, to surrender to the reality of darkness, to accept the falseness of the world as superior, and it could even make sense on a morning like this, but if we are agents of emes, there is no backing down, we wipe away our tears, we learn to live with a broken heart, and we get back out there to share truth with those around us.
In this week’s Torah portion, Toldos, we read about the twin boys born to Yitzchak and Rivkah. The verse says “The first one emerged red, like a hairy mantle all over; so, they named him Esau. Then his brother emerged, holding on to the heel of Esau; so, he named him Jacob.” Esau was named in the plural “Vayikr’eu” and Yaakov was named in the singular “Vayikra.” The “Degel Machaneh Ephraim,” authored by Moshe Chaim Ephraim of Sudilkov, son of Adel, a daughter of the Baal Shem Tov, writes that “the Esaus of the world attract the plural, the many as their followers, because falsehood and vanity is more attractive than holiness in this coarse, mundane world. Yet, the Yaakovs of the world are in the singular, because emes, truth and integrity, is hard to attain. It holds us way more accountable and to a higher standard, and therefore not too many cling to it.
On Friday, I welcomed Tim Sheehy, Senator-elect from the great state of Montana, to our Chabad Center. He came to the shul along with two of his children and we spent a full hour farbrenging about his upcoming trip to Israel with AIPAC, our families (we both have five kids about the same age), the subject of a moment of silence in the public schools (something the Rebbe endorsed in the 1980s), the importance of Hashem being a part of the American discourse, and so much more. He was knowledgeable, happy to learn new things, and a friend of the Jewish community. Yet, as an agent of truth, we must always remember who we are and what we offer, and we must do our part to help the politicians see truth in its glorious simplicity. So, I took out two Chumashim and together we learned the first verse and the first Rashi of the Torah, which is fundamental: “In the beginning of G-d’s creation of the Heavens and the earth.” Rashi tells us: “Said Rabbi Yitzchak: It was not necessary to begin the Torah except from ‘This month is to you,’ (Exod. 12:2), which is the first commandment that the Israelites received (since the main purpose of the Torah is its commandments, so it seemingly should’ve started with the mitzvos). Now, for what reason did He commence with ‘Bereishis – In the beginning?’ Because of the verse, ‘The strength of His works He related to His people, to give them the inheritance of the nations’ (Ps. 111:6). For if the nations of the world should say to Israel, ‘You are robbers, for you conquered by force the lands of the seven nations of Canaan,’ they will reply, ‘The entire earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it (this we learn from the story of the Creation) and gave it to whomever He deemed proper. When He wished, He gave it to them, and when He wished, He took it away from them and gave it to us.”
I explained to Tim that AIPAC is a great organization and I help them in any way possible with Israel-related matters, but Israel is not ours because of Zionism, Harry Truman, or the UN partition plan; it’s ours because the Creator gave it to us and Rashi’s words are prophetic for times like ours when the nations are screaming that the Jews are “robbers.” I shared it because as a Torah Jew, we must be agents of emes, not highfalutin, shoulder-rubbing activists, and we cannot waver on sharing the truth.
Are we perfect? Of course not! Which brings me to a second important aspect of truth and inner integrity, which is the importance of learning from the kind rebuke of friends and loved ones, allowing it to make us better. No one likes rebuke, no one likes any form of criticism, but as the Rebbe once wrote, “Cherish criticism, for it will place you on the true heights.” If we truly seek emes, even though it is hard, we must learn to accept loving rebuke and allow for the inner progress to come about and permit the emes to emanate from within.
As Shlomo Hamelech wrote in Mishlei (Proverbs): “Rebuke not a scorner lest he hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you.” The Chasam Sofer explains that if we waste our energy on rebuking a scorner, someone who will suck out all our energy while mocking us and not accepting the rebuke, we won’t have time to help rebuke the wise people who will accept it, we should therefore not get caught up with the scorners.
Wise people are grateful for loving criticism because it propels growth.
This past Shabbos, a dear community member who we have known for 17 years rebuked me about something and it turned into an hour-long conversation. It wasn’t easy to hear; it was an uncomfortable conversation, yet ten years ago it would have been so demoralizing to me. It would have eaten me up on the inside. Even now, it hurts, but with maturity, humility, and heavy doses of Tanya, I was able to look deeper, seek Chavie’s support and guidance, and really see the light and opportunity for growth embedded in those moments.
Reb Reuven Dunin, the Chassid from Haifa, once said that rebuke is like tzara’as, Divine leprosy, whose purpose is to help the person change their ways. When a friend comes to you in friendship and offers you a hard truth, living with integrity is all about accepting it and learning from it, even if it doesn’t feel good and may feel like tzara’as. So, don’t shoot the messenger, accept the message as a sign from Hashem to bring about good change for you, your surroundings, and ultimately the world.
On Motzaei Shabbos our community gathered to watch “Complicit – The untold story of why the Roosevelt administration denied safe haven for Jewish refugees.” It’s about the SS St. Louis and we were even able to chat via phone with Eva Weiner, a woman in her 80’s who was only ten months old while on board that fateful voyage. It’s hard to watch; the information is both fascinating and gut-wrenching and forces us to ask lots of questions about our government and especially the State Department, but we must know and live with the truth because denial and facades aren’t healthy. So, we learn, we internalize, and we march forward with truth and light, which are one and the same.
This Shabbos we will bless the month of Kislev, the month of redemption, when the Alter Rebbe was freed from a Czarist prison. In 1991, the last Kislev in which the Rebbe still spoke to us before his March 1992 stroke, he explained that as we approach the coming of Mashiach, the ultimate redemption, we are meant to live the Mashiach clarity through and through. Mashiach is the epitome of integrity and truth, and we must incorporate this worldview and experience in our world today, shining the light of emes and fighting the sheker all the time, because galus can’t and won’t win.
To my dear colleague, Zvi ben Alexandar HaKohen Kogan, Hy’d, I assure you, galus won’t win. n
Rabbi Chaim Bruk is co-CEO of Chabad Lubavitch of Montana and spiritual leader of The Shul of Bozeman. For comments or to partner in our holy work, e-mail rabbi@jewishmontana.com or visit JewishMontana.com/Donate.
