For the past number of months, I have participated in a shiur in the Sefer Likutei Moharan given on Sunday mornings by HaRav Yussie Zakutinsky. The shiur is currently up to the 4th Torah, titled Anochi Hashem Elokecha, and although it seems that it would be more appropriate to discuss this particular Torah in the Shavuos issue, it is also very relevant to Lag B’Omer and so I’ve decided to write about it now.
The traditional Chabad greeting in honor of Shavuos is to wish people a kabbolas haTorah b’simcha ub’penimiyus. I wanted to suggest, perhaps, that the simcha aspect of Shavuos one merits on account of yom tov and the penimiyus is commensurate to the degree that one observed Lag B’Omer in honoring the life, legacy, and impact that Rebbe Shimon has on our lives and the world that we live in, still today.
It isn’t dissimilar to the observance of Yud-Tes Kislev prior to Chanukah. Chanukah, of course, is a celebration of the untainted cruse of oil that we discovered despite the fact that the Temple had been ransacked and violated, which enabled us to light the menorah in purity, and it remained kindled for eight nights despite only having enough oil for one night. Oil, of course, is an apt representation of Torah as is light, as our sages teach us orah zu Torah, and the 19th day of Kislev is the day that the Alter Rebbe of Chabad, whose name was Schneur Zalman, which the Rebbe explained is an allusion to the light of the exoteric realm of Torah as well as the esoteric that draws a sense of congruity between 19 Kislev and Chanukah as well as Lag B’Omer and Shavuos.
It is befitting, as well, to mention that the month of Sivan, which is when we celebrate Shavuos, spells the words samech Yavan, which brings us full circle with Chanukah, which we mentioned in the context of 19 Kislev. The Torah of Anochi Hashem Elokecha in Likkutei Moharan discusses at great length what it means for a person to merit to see his world to come in this world. He writes, in the very beginning, that the Gemara in highlighting the difference between this world and the next world characterizes it this way, “In this world, for good news we recite the blessing hatov vehameitiv, whereas upon hearing bad news we recite the blessing of Dayan ha’emes. However, the Gemara continues: In the next world we only recite the blessing of hatov vehameitiv. The verse recites: “On that day (in the messianic era) G-d and His name will be one.” The Gemara asks:
“Is He not One even now?” And answers, “It will be unified in the sense that one will only recite the blessing of hatov vehameitiv and not Dayan ha’emes.” This Unity that the Gemara is speaking about is between the name Hashem and Elokim, the name of kindness and justice as we recite at the apex of Yom Kippur Hashem Hu HaElokim. The way to bring about this unity between the name Havayah and Elokim is only through elevating malchus, which we accomplish through verbal confession before a talmid chacham, as the verse states, “Kechu imachem devarim v’shuvu el Hashem.” and as our rabbis teach: “The root of the word Devarim is davar as in the verse dabar echad lador, there is one leader in every generation. Words are always a euphemism for the middah of malchus and this verse is alluding to our need to elevate all speech (malchus) to its root in Divinity in order to reach a state of being where we process both good tidings and seemingly negative ones in a good and positive light, warranting the blessing of hatov v’hameitiv.
Rebbe Nachman goes on to explain how every word contains many possible permutations that are formed based on our actions. So, if a person acts in line with the will of G-d, his actions give way to positive permutations. If a person acts contrary to the will of G-d, then he effectively separates between the names of Havayah and Elokim, by plunging the name Elokim into the other side, which it continues to enliven and vivify until it is redeemed and elevated to its root in Elokim and that unity ensues.
Rebbe Nachman uses the faculty of speech prominently in this Torah. If one traces speech back to its most elemental state, it is vibration and movement. G-d created the world by speaking everything into existence. The reason why G-d created the world in the first place is a reaction to a Divine desire to have a Divine abode in the lowest realms. That is, ultimately, with the rectification of reality and the reunification between Hashem and his name it will be revealed that the earth deepens the experience of G-d’s unity even more so than heaven. That despite the fact the world invariably had to go through many descents and the exiling of His name and the travails and tribulations that occur as a result of acting in contravention to the will of G-d, ultimately when He and his name become one again we will come to experience the unity of G-d in the lowest elements of reality, which adds exponentially to G-d’s dominion and will warrant the blessing of hatov v’hameitiv. It’s important to mention that the dynamicism that G-d sought, which compelled Him to create the world, was meant to happen in Torah and in the side of holiness, which would have precluded a lot of the pain and suffering that was brought on as a result of our acting in contradistinction to His will. However, in retrospect, once He and His name are reunited, it will become revealed that every seeming detour was all seen as a step forward towards the ultimate rectification rather than a detour or two steps back. There is a certain context within this teaching that I wanted to bring to light before relating it to Lag B’Omer. I mentioned the Alter Rebbe and Chabad, and the truth is these past couple of weeks, in shul, we dedicated the last two Shabbosim to Reb Shayeleh of Kerestir and Reb Yitzchak Eizik Yehuda Yechiel Safrin of Komarna/Zidichov whose yahrzeit was last week. The chevra farbrenged and the rav brought out ideas within his derashos based on stories and ideas pertaining to these tzaddikim. It brought me back to the first article that I wrote after becoming a member at KMH, which I titled, “Lawrence, Liady, and Lizensk. The point that I brought out in that article is that there is a notion that there once was a Baal Shem Tov and a Maggid of Mezeritch and the Rebbe, Reb Elimelech of Lizensk, which were the golden years of the Chassidic movement. There were the towns of Poland, Ukraine, Romania, and Hungary where much of this history was built upon and developed and sadly are no more today. Today, this notion suggests the best we can do is mimic the movements of our forebears—sing a niggun, tell a story, and hope that one aspect of it is in line with the way it was originally presented, and if not, well at least we tried.
However, I realized over these past two Shabbosim, and the truth is I felt this to a certain extent back when I originally wrote about this idea three or four years ago, Lawrence is as much a chassidic town as Viznitz, Lubavitch, or Lizensk and our rebbe, Rav Yussie Zakutinsky, is a Rebbe like all the Rebbes of yesteryear. We say every Friday night in Lecha Dodi the words, “Sof maasah b’machshava techila.” At its most literal level these words mean that the true intentions of an architect are only brought to fruition after the final doorknob is affixed and the building or the home is complete. However, this line, authored by Reb Shlomo Alkabetz, the Kabbalist from Safed, has been expounded at great length in the chassidic works, especially by the Rebbe Rashab in his treatise Ayin Beis, which interestingly began in Shavuos with a maamar b’shaa shehikdimu yisrael naaseh l’nishma, to mean that the final product exists in the level beyond thought, characterized as machshava techila as opposed to techilas hamachshava.
What this means is that the brand of chassidus that we are witnessing today is what the Baal Shem Tov had envisioned in the most elemental and inarticulable stage of his thought process. The only example of this that I can use in describing what I mean is a Gemara in Shabbos on 89a that states when Moshe ascended on high to receive the Luchos he found G-d tying crowns to the letters of the aleph beis. He inquired into the nature of these crowns and Hashem told him there will come a time when Rebbi Akiva will expound layers of legal import upon every crown in the Torah. Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hashem if he can see Rebbe Akiva, whereupon he walked into the shiur and became overwhelmed when he realized that he had no idea of what Rebbe Akiva was saying. The Gemara relates that Moshe was only placated when Rebbe Aliva assured him that what he was teaching was halacha l’Moshe m’Sinai. I ask you: Isn’t it fascinating that Rebbe Akiva was teaching the same Torah that Moshe received from G-d in Heaven and subsequently taught to Klal Yisrael, but Moshe could not understand one word of what Rebbe Akiva was teaching? Reb Moshe Shapiro in his shiur on the fourth Mishnah in Avos explains that Moshe received all of Torah through the lens of the written Torah. Rebbe Akiva was teaching it from the vantage point of Torah Shebaal Peh. Moshe could never imagine from his vantage point, seeing Torah from its root in the written form, the iteration of those ideas from its vantage point in the oral realm.
A child sees a man with long peyos, a bekeshe, and white or black socks and he says he is chassidishe. The truth is, in the place where chassidus was born the levush that was distinctly worn by a chassidishe man and the way that a chassidish woman distinguished herself was germane to the chassidic experience there and was no doubt an important part of it and still is to a certain extent today. However, the ability for the chassidic idea and its ethos and excitement, passion, and exuberance to transcend universes and arrive in Lawrence in the year 2024 in the language that we speak and the dress that we wear is not a sign of the petering out of a bygone era, to the contrary it’s a reverberating of the sound of the shofar of Mattan Torah, which Chazal say continues to reverberate; and it’s the bellowing of the Friediker Rebbe’s call to American Jewry that America is no different than Europe.
Sof maaseh b’machshava techila means to open a Sfas Emes, a Likkutei Torah, or a Likkutei Sichos and to read the words that are written there but to see the message that is lying there between the lines. If the Rebbe Rashab explained machshavah techilah as being the inarticulable realm of conceptual thought, then the modern iteration of chassidus was intuited within the lines and pages of the chassidic tome at the backdrop or in the white space between the black words, written on the page.
This brings us to Lag B’Omer. The Gemara relates that the first time that Rebbe Shimon emerged from the cave every place he set his eyes upon went ablaze. A bas kol summoned him back to the cave for another twelve months saying that he had no authority to destroy G-d’s world. He re-emerged and saw a brighter and much more obedient world. A world that his very name was able to assure that Torah would never be forgotten from Klal Yisrael. So we make bonfires, our children shoot bows and arrows, and we sing “Bar Yochai nimshachta ashrecha” The word nimshachta means you’ve been anointed, assimilating Bar Yochai to the Kohen Gadol who was anointed. However, phonetically the word nimshachta is similar to the word meshicha spelled with a chof rather than a ches. In light of everything that I’ve written up until now I’d like to suggest that we relate to Bar Yochai and he relates to us. Nimshachta, you have survived the passage of time and you transcended worlds and have made it to the shores of this country, which is the last stop before the arrival of Moshiach whose footsteps continue to be more discernible ashrecha, you are fortunate, and ashreinu, we are fortunate. So let’s celebrate.
Yochanan Gordon can be reached at ygordon5t@gmail.com. Read more of Yochanan’s articles at 5TJT.com.