By Yochanan Gordon
The 19th day of Kislev, which coincides this year with December 12, is still a week away. However, because many people read the newspaper over Shabbos, which will be after the great Chassidic holiday, I felt it would be appropriate to move up our coverage of this great day to this week and perhaps continue it in next week’s issue.
There are two opinions in Chazal regarding the appropriate time to begin preparing for a yom tov. The Gemara in Pesachim cites the Tanna Kamma who is of the opinion that one should begin preparing for Pesach 30 days in advance and then subsequently cites the dissenting view of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel who maintains that 14 days of preparation would suffice. For the basis of this discussion, centered on the 19th day of Kislev, known in Chassidus as the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus, it is significant that the holiday the Gemara identifies with this teaching of preparing for yom tov a month or two weeks out is Pesach.
There is a famous dispute between Rebbi Eliezer and Rebbi Yehoshua as to whether the world was created in the month of Tishrei or the month of Nissan, which means that the energy of both Rosh Hashanah and Pesach are inter-included within each other. In case you’re wondering how the month of Kislev factors into Rosh Hashanah, many of the students of the Ba’al Shem Tov have taught that the culmination of the judgment that began on Rosh Hashanah is on the yom tov of Chanukah, which the 19th of Kislev precedes by just six days. This, too, is significant since Rosh Hashanah, at least according to Rebbi Eliezer, is observed on the first day of Tishrei which is six days after the creation of the world on the 25th day of Elul. Therefore, it would seem that on one level, the 19th day of Kislev aligns with the creation of the world and is a manifestation of the light that G-d created on the first day of creation, which He subsequently concealed for the righteous in the future, as Rashi explains.
The 19th day of Kislev is the day upon which the Alter Rebbe, Reb Schneur Zalman of Liadi, was freed from a 53-day incarceration in St. Petersburg on charges of counterrevolutionary activities after some opponents of the fledgling Chassidic movement ratted on him for sending money to Reb Mendel Vitebsk in Eretz Yisrael. These were trumped-up charges, which carried a probability of execution, given the Alter Rebbe’s great stature within the religious community. However, on a metaphysical plane, his incarceration, while on a lower level was precipitated due to his opponents’ implication of him, was really a result of the fact that he did too much in revealing this intense G-dly light prematurely.
The efforts to which the Alter Rebbe went in revealing the light of his Rebbe, the Maggid, and the Ba’al Shem Tov, to whom he referred as his zaide, aroused the enmity of some of his colleagues, particularly Rebbe Pinchas of Koretz.
The story is told that Rebbe Pinchas of Koretz became enraged when he saw torn pages of the greatest chassidic discourses turning in the wind in the most irreverent manner. As the Koritzer associated this reality with the efforts of the Alter Rebbe to spread Chassidus, and scared that the anger of the great tzaddik would lead to a catastrophic decree, the Alter Rebbe placated the Koritzer and defused the tension with the following allegory.
There was a king whose son, the heir apparent, had grown mortally ill, and despite the greatest medical care from the ends of the earth, his condition continued to deteriorate. With very little recourse, they turned to the final medical adviser, who recommended that the only cure to this extremely rare condition would be to blend the jewel atop the crown of the king into a special potion that they would have to pour over the lips of the comatose prince in the hopes that a drop or two would enter his lips and succeed in reviving him. The crown jewel is representative of the Torah of the Ba’al Shem Tov, which the Alter Rebbe deemed the only recourse in waking the Jewish people from their spiritual malaise in exile.
In the end the Alter Rebbe was imprisoned for fifty-three days, and while he was there he merited a posthumous visit by his Rebbe the Maggid and his zaide, the Ba’al Shem Tov, assuring him that he would be freed and that his liberation would signal the end of the decree as a result of which he should increase his promulgation of the light of Chassidus.
Interestingly, his son and successor, Rebbe DovBer Schneuri was freed from a period of imprisonment in Czarist Russia on the 10th of Kislev 1826, 28 years almost to the day of his father’s liberation from imprisonment on strikingly similar charges. Chazal already taught us that Yosef was freed from imprisonment on Rosh Hashanah, which succeeds in tying together Rosh Hashanah, Chanukah, and Pesach.
If the Ba’al Shem Tov and the Maggid already began to reveal this sensitive and potent light prior to the Alter Rebbe, why specifically was the Alter Rebbe subjected to this decree? Ultimately, the objective of Chassidus is to unite the infinitude of the essence of G-d with this finite world. The Ba’al Shem Tov introduced the philosophy that would ultimately achieve this goal of creation but in an all-encompassing and non-penetrative manner. In the verbiage of Kabbalah and Chassidus, the Ba’al Shem Tov generated a makif light whereas the goal was to have the light of Chassidus penetrate and redefine the nature of the world rather than overwhelm and disarm it. The name of the Alter Rebbe was Schneur, which the Lubavitcher Rebbe explained in a sichah means two lights, referring to the revealed light as well as the concealed light in Torah. It was specifically the Alter Rebbe, who was charged by his Rebbe, the Maggid, to author the Rav Shulchan Aruch in order to demonstrate that the chassidim had as much of a grasp of the revealed realm as the concealed realm.
The 19th of Kislev has grown into a universal holiday, which is marked all over the world and throughout all communities regardless of their chassidic affiliation. The Chofetz Chaim famously cites the Rav Shulchan Aruch thousands of times throughout his Mishnah Berurah and there is an unparalleled unifying force within the Alter Rebbe’s work fusing many of the disparate halachic authorities within each of his restatements of the laws. The light of the Alter Rebbe, through allowing the light and wisdom of the Ba’al Shem Tov to flow through our intellectual faculties and our emotions, allows the light of G-d to redefine the nature of both man and the world and will ultimately lead to the redemption of all of civilization.
The message is this: We all are affected in our lives by the unending nature of exile; people suffer emotionally and psychologically, and the list goes on and on. Certainly, wherever professional intervention is necessary, those avenues should be explored. However, help of this nature should be sought from G-d-fearing and Torah educated sources who know how to weave medical theory with the reality on the ground in Torah. If you are seeking to live a more wholesome and happy life and improve your relationships at home with your spouse and your kids and begin to see yourself and the world through redemptive lenses, it is time to begin studying the curative light to which we have full access thanks to the self-sacrifice of these great luminaries who were willing to risk everything for the sake of G-d, the Jewish people, and the Torah.
Yochanan Gordon can be reached at ygordon5t@gmail.com. Read more of Yochanan’s articles at 5TJT.com.
