TAKING ON THE PERSPECTIVE OF TZADDIKIM

It is hard for us to leave our personal zone and give of ourselves to others, to fulfill the Rebbe’s ratzon and to carry out Hashem’s mission in the world. We stick to topics of interest to us as though they are the entire world, instead of freeing ourselves and moving forward. That is how it goes when we see only ourselves.

OY, THE PERSONAL GALUS

A man walking at night on a high mountain suddenly slipped and was heading toward the abyss. He panicked and only at the last second did he manage to grab on to a branch that stuck out of the mountainside. He held on with all his might but had no way of climbing up; yet he certainly could not go down. 

He turned to Hashem and pleaded for help. To his great surprise, a voice responded, “I am here for you. I am going to save you. Just let go of the branch and you will be saved.” 

This was a terrible dilemma. The branch was saving him. He was terribly frightened to let go of it. And yet, G-d said that He would save him. What should he do?

What would you do – believe and let go of the branch or continue to hold on because of your innate desire to survive?

From this anecdote we can learn a lesson in avodas Hashem on a number of levels. On the first level, we ask Hashem to save us, we ask Him to help us get out of our personal limitations. He says fine, just free yourselves of your animalistic soul, stop listening to it and I will take you out of your limitations.

On a deeper level, even a person who has already gone out of the constraints of his animal soul (Mitzrayim of klipa) can still be constrained by his G-dly soul (Mitzrayim of k’dusha). He learns Torah and does mitzvos, but he is still self-absorbed. He is occupied with his personal battle and does not see those around him. They tell him, “Go out of yourself, release your grip on your branch, stop seeing yourself as the center, there are other people in the world, don’t remove yourself from the group, you are part of the Jewish people and when you do mitzvos you should think about all the rest of the Jews.”

There is an even deeper explanation. Even a person who goes out of himself, who leaves his personal war and helps others, thus stopping to see himself as separate from the rest of the people, still has an ego which motivates him. He seeks to profit (it is just that the profit is through helping others). The deeper message is, stop serving Hashem for yourself. Start serving Hashem for Hashem! Don’t do mitzvos in order to slake your own thirst. Do them in order to give nachas to Hashem. Don’t seek to draw G-dliness down to yourself. Seek to make a dira for Hashem.

Enough already with holding on to galus and being afraid to jump to the next stage. We are on the threshold of Geula and we can move forward, start living Moshiach and start living as in the Geula. 

AND OUR NATION – ARE ALL TZADDIKIM!

In Yemos HaMoshiach we will attain the level of tzaddikim, be finally rid of the yetzer ha’ra, openly feel the G-dly soul, and merit the revelation of the yechida and live G-dliness. We will sense in a real way all the wondrous things we learn in Chassidus, how “there is nothing but Him,” how every Jew is a part of G-d above and beloved to Hashem like an only child born to parents in their old age.

One of the differences between the avoda of tzaddikim and the avoda of beinonim is that the beinoni works with himself, he wages a constant battle between his G-dly soul and his animal soul and he is busy with himself, in controlling his thoughts, speech and actions. The tzaddik, in contrast, no longer fights, although he does not rest for a moment either. He is busy with helping others. Tzaddikim guide those who still have not reached that level. From the perspective of the yechida, a person does not seek to satisfy his personal desires; he is completely devoted to the desires of Hashem.

In our generation, the generation of Geula, we can see how the Rebbe, the yechida klalis, reveals the yechida in the Chassidim and raises up all the Chassidim (and not just Chassidim) to the world of the tzaddikim. The entire conceptual world of Chassidim in the seventh generation is the conceptual world of tzaddikim, for the main avoda in our generation is the avoda of shlichus and the goal we all have is to bring the Geula.

In previous generations, the Rebbeim had few shluchim. Even then, they were unusual people, the greatest of the Chassidim. But in our generation, every Jew is a shliach and thousands of Chassidim have gone or are going on shlichus. Even those who are not 24/7 shluchim, participate in mivtzaim and live with the idea of shlichus.

Seemingly, going on shlichus pertains only to special people. An ordinary person is busy with his personal battles between his G-dly soul and animal soul and is not fit to go out and help others. The ordinary person worries about his personal Torah progress and he does mitzvos in order to build up his Olam Haba.

But the Rebbe changed the rules. Each of us can go on shlichus; each of us must go on shlichus. Daily conversation among Chassidim is about shlichus. To all of them it is obvious that they must go out and help other Jews, putting themselves aside on behalf of someone else. Thousands of Chassidim left fine communities for all corners of the globe and built beautiful communities. They are literally doing the work of tzaddikim in living for others and not for themselves.

To all of them it is also clear that shlichus is not for their own personal success or honor. They go on the Rebbe’s shlichus in order to give the Rebbe nachas. Shlichus is for the purpose of make a dwelling place here for Hashem and preparing the world for Moshiach. 

We are not the center; the focus is not our personal egos. The goal is doing Hashem’s will; the goal is to fulfill Hashem’s desire for a dira ba’tachtonim.

TO BRING TO YEMOS HA’MOSHIACH

The apex of this new avoda and our ability to jump ahead is the Rebbe’s instruction of “kol yemei chayecha” (all the days of your life) – to bring to Yemos HaMoshiach. One can, G-d forbid, hear this instruction and find it oppressive and think that it comes at the expense of other things one wanted to do, but of course it means just the opposite. 

This horaa is for us and for our good. In order to live Geula we need to stop thinking about ourselves. There has to be another goal. We need to be connected to truly doing Hashem’s will, not for self-serving reasons, but doing that which is true because it is true.

When a Jew sets himself aside and devotes himself to bringing Moshiach, he starts to live like tzaddikim who fulfill mitzvos in order to provide nachas to Hashem. He begins to feel what the Yemos HaMoshiach are, at which time we will all live as tzaddikim.

***

That Jew was still hanging there and grasping that branch sticking out of the mountain, deliberating whether to let go or not. In the meantime, dawn broke and he discovers, to his amazement, that there is no abyss beneath him at all! He is only centimeters above the ground. His fear of letting go was unnecessary and baseless.