KINDLING OF SOULS

A point from the weekly D’var Malchus for B’Haalos’cha with a relevant message. * How to get our mekuravim to ignite the spark in others.

The following story happened a number of years ago at a Chabad house a short drive away from 770.  The local shliach asked one of the bachurim on K’vutza to give a shiur at the Chabad house on inyanei Moshiach and Geula. The bachur, who was used to giving shiurim, showed up at the designated time and was happy to see the place full of mekuravim.  His shiur would certainly contribute plenty to their kiruv, he thought.

The shiur began with the signs of Moshiach as the Rambam enumerates them.  The mekuravim sat politely and it looked as though they were following everything he said.  Since no questions were asked, the bachur went on to the next stage and began being “mekarev” them in earnest.  He even told his audience that there is a later stage in the Geula in which the redeemer is called a “Moshiach vadai” (definitely Moshiach).  After explaining this, he concluded that the Rebbe is Moshiach in accordance with all the halachic designations that appear in the Rambam about one who is “b’chezkas Moshiach” (legally assumed to be Moshiach), and expressing his anticipation for the “Moshiach vadai” stage.

A hand was waved in the air by one of the mekuravim to the Chabad house.  The hair down to his shoulders, his rough hands, his sturdy build and his overall appearance made one think he worked in unloading trucks or some such work.  The bachur figured the question might be something along the lines of who was the Rambam, but he responded politely, “Yes, what is your question?”

“Excuse me, for who am I to disagree with you, but I don’t see it as you do.  I understood from Rabbi Yehuda that the Rebbe already began the “Moshiach vadai” stage! The emigration from Russia was the start of the ingathering of the exiles and in Chayei Sarah the Rebbe said Moshiach had already been victorious in a number of areas and there was even the “building of the Mikdash in its place – in the place of Moshiach in exile …”

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“The flame going up of its own accord” means that the mekurav rises to the level of the mashpia and reaches a point where he no longer needs the mashpia.  True, as these lines are written, “Moshiach vadai” is still not complete as it will be in the true and complete Geula, but this incident expresses the idea of “rising up of its own accord.”  Fortunate is the shliach who has such mekuravim and fortunate is the king who has such shluchim!

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The secret of successful ignition begins by looking at the one being lit in the right way.  Our natural tendency is to relate to the body, to externals, and to all of reality around us as lowly things that we need to bend down to and pick up.  The Rebbe objected to the term “kiruv rechokim.”  In the Rebbe’s Geula perspective, everyone is close and no one is distant; we just need to reveal this.

The one “lighting the lights” has the privilege and responsibility of lighting properly.  When the approach to igniting is to go to the one who is in a low place and pick him up, he will never succeed in truly raising him up so that he is like the one who is elevated.

When the approach is “he is the mekurav” and I am the “mekarev,” that he is the “mushpa” and I am the “mashpia,” that he is the “student” and I am the “teacher,” i.e. that he is “low” and I am “elevated,” he will never manage to stand on his own feet.  He will always need the strength of the higher one to pull him up.

In the D’var Malchus for B’Haalos’cha, the greatest teacher of all guides us to look at the world as he does, and to discover the secret of ignition.  Everyone is elevated! The child, the student, the mekurav are not in a low place, G-d forbid.  Each one of them contains everything; it just needs to be revealed.

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A successful shliach is one who looks at his mekuravim as close from the outset (this also explains why the shliach reveals all the “inside secrets.”  It’s because he has no reason to keep anything to himself in order to remain “above”).  Good parents also do not consider themselves above and better than their children.

Only a shliach who views every Jew as someone who can receive all the “lights” and treats him as an equal, only a parent who believes that his child can rise above all hardships because “he has what it takes,” only a teacher who is confident that every child is really good – only they can successfully raise up their mushpaim, setting them on their feet in a way of “rising up of their own accord,” and enabling them to become (at least) like them.

Our generation, which is lower than all the previous generations, has the ability to bring the Geula for all generations.  May we view every Jew as the Aharon HaKohen of our generation looks at every Jew and may we succeed in illuminating ourselves and the world so that the entire world will be lit up with the light of the true and complete Geula in a way of “rising up of its own accord!”