11 NISAN: A CALLING

Those who hear the calling understand what is demanded from us from the Moses of our times. * Every person has a dimension within called “Moses” - it is daas, being engaged and present, connecting and feeling. 

By Rabbi Boruch Merkur   

There’s an alarm going off. On and off, off and on. You can hear it through windows – of synagogues, of courts of Jewish law, etc. - even as they close.^[1] 

Those who listen carefully hear a shofar cry, a broken wail, a crushed spirit reviving, a lost child finding his way, an awakening. 

Between each call is the call of silence, beckoning the next drop of inspiration to land. To attuned souls, it is a torturous, maddening rhythm, with no rhyme or reason to repeat for so long. 

* 

Every year we celebrate the birth of the true vision and leadership in our times – the Rebbe’s birthday on the eleventh day of the first month, Nisan: 

“Nisan-ניסן” begins with a hunched Nuhn and ends with a straight Nuhn, as explained in Sh’la^[2] regarding the 11 verses that begin with a hunched Nuhn and end with a straight Nuhn. A hunched Nuhn represents falling, nefila, whereas a straight Nuhn represents rising to stand up (“[G-d] supports those who fall”^[3]) through the Nuhn Shaarei Bina, the Fifty Gates of Understanding …  

The transition of the two Nuhns (from hunched to straight, as in “Nisan”), in the 11 verses, alludes to the Divine core, which transcends G-d’s 10 S’firos – “You are one but not by counting” – resulting in the transformation^[4] of the fall (of exile) to the erect stance (of redemption).^[5] 

Nisan, the month when the Jewish people were born as a nation, is a month of miracles. The name of the months we carry with us from exile, from ancient Babylon,^[6] where sense emerges from the babbling confusion of crumbling towers. Light shining out from the darkness of exile, of a world of broken dreams, is truly a miracle. 

Yet it is a miracle that is attainable - we just have to listen to the calling: 

“And He called to Moshe, and G-d spoke to him from Ohel Moed, the Tent of Testimony.” “The meaning of this calling is the light that shines upon and influences Moshe to enable him to arise and enter the Ohel Moed.”  

This applies to every single Jew (for the Torah is eternal and all aspects are relevant now as well”): “Every person has a dimension within called “Moshe” … it is daas, being engaged and present. This experience draws down the union of G-d’s Infinite Light into the physical world, that it should reside and be revealed in the soul of the person.  

Achieving daas, presence, is tantamount to entering the Ohel Moed, which means, “no’adti-testimony,” the same letters as “nodati-become known.” Knowing G-d means to appreciate how He is the life source of the living; there is nothing else except Him, as is written, “Now see that I, I am He.” Although this verse is said of the Future Era, nevertheless this power exists in the soul of every Jew, to connect his or her thoughts to G-d, with a powerfully strong bond, as … one sees with the physical eye,” a preview of the perfection of the Future Era.^[7]

* 

Those who hear the calling - those who know G-d has given us everything we need, every teaching, every treasure unveiled to inspire us to victory - understand the incredible development in the Rebbe’s leadership in his final year of public address to date.  

It begins with the miracle of daas – mystical knowledge and experience of G-d - and ends with the victory of reason, where the mindset of geula, a Moshiach-mentality, just makes sense to all. Peace and reason permeate the entire world and transform everything to good.^[8] 

NOTES:

^[1] See Ramchal Maamer HaGeula 

^[2] Maseches Taanis 206a-b 

^[3] To note that “neis-miracle” is two letters – Nuhn and Samach. Nuhn signifies “nefila-fall” and Samach signifies “smicha,” support and assistance from the fall. (Likkutei Levi Yitzchok) 

^[4] See Seifer HaSichos 5751, FN 72 

^[5] Ibid, pg. 388 FN 74.  

FN 75: As our Sages teach: “Five letters are doubled (among which is Nuhn, hunched and straight). All of them are terms of redemption.” (Yalkut Shimoni)  

^[6] Yerushalmi Rosh HaShana 1:2 

^[7] Seifer HaSichos 5751, pg. 385 

^[8] See Zach Shvat 5752, the purity of the eleventh month, the month of coronation, when the Rebbe spoke about Moshiach’s role to “beat swords into plowshares.”