The famed Alter of Slabodka, Rav Nosson Tzvi Finkel, zt’l, was a revolutionary educator and builder of Torah. He reoriented the focus of avodas Hashem on gadlus ha-adam, the inherent greatness of the human being. The Alter’s son-in-law and successor, Rav Yitzchak Isaac Sher, zt’l, transmitted the derech of Slabodka to the post-War generation of bnei Torah in Eretz Yisrael. A role model in middos development and a gaon in Torah, “Reb Eizik” provided inspiration, instruction, and spiritual guidance to students throughout the land.
Among those drawn to Reb Eizik was a young student at Yeshivas Chevron who had the privilege of escorting Reb Eizik home from yeshiva after davening each day. One morning, as they reached the door of Reb Eizik’s apartment, the Rosh Yeshivah shook his head and declared, “Nisht azoi, not like that….” Reb Eizik then turned around and began to make his way back to the yeshivah. When they arrived, Reb Eizik nodded to the young man, saying, “Noch amohl, again”, and began to walk back home, following the very same route as they always took. The young man looked quizzically at the Rosh Yeshivah.
Rav Eizik then adjusted his frock, rolled back his shoulders, stood up straight and tall, and looked the bachur in the eye: “Azoi, like this…geyn vi a general geyt (go the way a general walks).” Standing proud and tall, the rebbi and his talmid walked home together.
“And the children of Israel went out (of Egypt) with an upraised arm (Sh’mos 14:8).” Targum Onkelos translates “b’yad rama” (an upraised arm) as b’raysh galay, literally with a head held high, implying that they left Mitzrayim with a sense of holy pride, empowerment, and confidence. This uplifted posture is later contrasted with the constricted, disempowered posture of the slaves in Egypt, bent under the heavy yoke of oppression: “I am Hashem, your G-d, Who took you out of the land of Egypt from being slaves to them; and I broke the pegs of your yoke and led you upright (Sh’mos 26:13).”
Indeed, Rashi quotes Midrash Toras Kohanim, saying that komemiyus, “upright,” means “upright in stature,” due to your relief from bondage. After generations of suffering and slavery, Hashem delivers us from exile, not just physically, but by restoring our posture, our true “stature.”
The Sfas Emes, Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter, unfolds this insight. Each of us is made up of two komos (levels), a kumah ruchanit and a kumah gashmit, a spiritual level and a physical level. Our physical body, whose height we can measure on the outside, is the “vessel.” Our soul, the light inside the vessel, has its own kind of stature or level. Although there is a tension between the priorities and needs of the physical and spiritual, by observing mitzvos and committing to living Yiddishkeit with passion, we can achieve a balance of these two komos and achieve the fullness of our potential by “standing tall.” We can assume our ultimate form and express our inherent spiritual level of greatness. This is the essence of our komemiyus: standing in the posture of our inner greatness, with uplift and pride in our identity and our observance.
This past week marked the day upon which the Lubavitcher Rebbe assumed the mantle of Jewish leadership in the shadow of the Holocaust and breathed new life, hope, and confidence into a broken nation emerging from darkness and the brink of decimation. Throughout more than half a century of leadership, the Rebbe launched campaigns toward restoring authentic Jewish pride based on a return to Jewish identity, practice, values, ritual, and tradition.
The Rebbe referred to this mission as Gaon Yaakov, manifesting it geopolitically as a national sense of self-respect, empowerment, and pride, and openly encouraging the most natural way for a Jew to express his identity: by “doing Jewish.” He called to his downtrodden, beaten nation to stand tall once again. He envisioned public expressions of Jewish life around the world, flourishing, and celebrating Yiddishkeit without compromise.
The Rebbe’s spiritually radical model of “mitzvah campaigns’’ still challenges members of our community to step out of their comfort zone and share their wealth of knowledge and blessings with others. From going out to the city streets and asking men to lay tefillin and women to light Shabbos candles, to holding massive Lag B’Omer parades and public Menorah lightings, the Rebbe made it his mission, and every Jew’s mission, to reach out and reveal the greatness, the treasure, of every Yiddishe neshama, to sing unabashedly the song of a Nation reborn.
“And they had faith in Hashem and in Moshe, His servant (Sh’mos, 14:31).”
At the Yam Suf, not only did we awaken to emunah in Hashem, but also to emunah in Moshe, His servant, meaning all future tzaddikim and true leaders of the Jewish nation in every generation. Such luminaries restore our faith in ourselves, and redeem us from our personal enslavements, allowing us to emerge from our particular “exiles” standing tall and confident. They guide us to live b’raysh galay, with our head held high, striding through life in our full komemiyus stature.
“Hasten and bring upon us blessing and peace quickly from the four corners of the earth, and speedily lead us upright to our homeland!” (Blessings of the Shema of Shacharis).
May we be blessed to see miracles as at the Yam Suf, and to emerge from all our personal and national challenges standing tall, unapologetically confident in our unfolding redemption. May all the exiles of Israel return home to our Land with heads held high in holy pride.
P.S. The young man who escorted Reb Eizik each day and learned the lesson in gadlus ha-adam, Rav Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi, zt’l, grew to become one of our generation’s great progenitors of the honor of Torah. Zechuso yagen aleinu! n
Rav Judah Mischel is executive director of Camp HASC, the Hebrew Academy for Special Children. He is the mashpia of OU-NCSY, founder of Tzama Nafshi, and the author of “Baderech: Along the Path of Teshuva.” Rav Judah lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh with his wife, Ora, and their family.